Goerlitz airfield

Görlitz airfield
Characteristics
ICAO code	EDBX
Coordinates	51 ° 9 '32 " N , 14 ° 57' 1" E Coordinates: 51 ° 9 '32 " N , 14 ° 57' 1" E
Height above MSL	237 m (778 ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	3 km west of Görlitz
Street	B 6
Local transport	Bus route
Basic data
opening	1925
operator	Flugplatz Rothenburg / Görlitz GmbH, seat: 02929 Rothenburg (OL)
surface	no information on the area in ha
Flight ; movements	6000 ( 2004 ), estimated 7000-8000 ( 2007 )
Start-and runway
06/24	750 m × 40 m grass

The airfield Goerlitz is located in the northwest of the city of Görlitz three kilometers away from the center. The airfield is located near the Polish border (less than six kilometers away), which can be seen from the course of the Neisse River .

history

Once planned as a civil airfield and commissioned in 1925 , the airfield was not only approached by airplanes between 1930 and 1945, but also visited by airships .

Military use

From 1935 until the end of the Second World War , the Görlitz airfield was used for military purposes. Initially, only training associations such as the Görlitz Aviation School and the Aircraft Piloting School (FFS) A / B 1 were located here, later renamed to FFS A 1. Only in the last year of the war were there also active flying units here. The following table shows a list of selected active flying units (excluding school and supplementary associations) that were stationed here between 1939 and 1945.

From	To	unit	equipment
February 1945	February 1945	III./SG 2 ( III.Group of the battle squadron 2)	Junkers Ju 87D-5
March 1945	May 1945	II./JG 6 (II. Group of Jagdgeschwader 6)	Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-8 , Focke-Wulf Fw 190D
April 1945	May 1945	10. (Pz.) / SG 77 (10th (Panzerjagd-) squadron of Schlachtgeschwader 77)	Junkers Ju 87D-5 , Junkers Ju 87G-2

Even after the war, the airport was used for military purposes, namely by the East German NVA as a helicopter landing pad and from 1953 for military sports by the Society for Sport and Technology (GST) until it was closed in 1979. Up to this point, it was also used for civilian purposes by aviation enthusiasts. The closure of the Görlitz airfield ended shortly after the fall of the Wall in 1990, but required new permits.

Civil use

From July 1, 1925, regular flight operations took place for nine years. Even before the opening, however, the Görlitzer Flugtage was held on August 9 and 10, 1924 . Scheduled air traffic with small planes, which began in 1925, led to the airfields to Breslau in the east, to Dresden in the west and northwest to Leipzig .

On October 5, 1930, an airship, the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, landed in Görlitz for the first time. The LZ 127 was manufactured in Friedrichshafen at the end of 1928 with a considerable length of 236 m by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH airship yard (the construction of the airships there goes back to the inventor Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin ). This zeppelin was decommissioned after a few trips around the world and completed 1,690,000 km of flight performance in 1937 (initially as a museum). The last large airship Graf Zeppelin II, the LZ 130, also visited Görlitz Airport on one of the 30 trips of this airship, on July 16, 1939. There are various photos of the Zeppelin trips to Görlitz on old postcards. This Zeppelin LZ 130, which was put into service on September 14, 1938, was not destroyed by an accident, but decommissioned in 1940 and scrapped. Thus the great era of the successful airships in the period from 1900 to 1940 did not pass the Görlitz airfield.

During the GDR era, glider flying and glider training were practiced from 1955 to 1979 until the Görlitz airfield was closed for political reasons (possibility to escape from the GDR ).

Airfield operations since 1990

The business and private aviation in Görlitz at the airfield

Admission

Since the reopening in 1990, the Görlitz airfield has been used for general aviation. The Görlitzer Flugsportclub e. V., who stood up against some resistance to enable the resumption of flight operations. In the meantime, the Görlitz airfield can be used by aircraft with a takeoff weight of up to 5.7 t , rotary wing aircraft with no weight limit, motor gliders , gliders in aircraft towing and winch launching , microlight aircraft , paragliders and model aircraft.

Business aviation and club aviation

Today this place (airfield in 02828 Görlitz, Girbigsdorfer Str. 85) is not used for scheduled and charter flights, but is often approached by business and private planes as well as used by glider and motor flying clubs, such as B. the Görlitzer Flugsportclub e. V. (Görlitzer FSC), the Fliegerclub Eibau-Oberlausitz e. V. and the Zittauer Flugsportverein "Lusatia" e. V.

Since 2015, the airfield has also been the flying home of the paragliding and hang-gliding association Leichtflieger-Oberlausitz eV, which starts here on non-motorized flights using a winch.

Sightseeing flights

Sightseeing flights with motorized and glider planes can be requested locally and under visual flight conditions possible over the city of Görlitz, the Landeskrone (elevation 429 m above sea level ), the Berzdorfer See (new lake from the former lignite opencast mine Berzdorf) and beyond that over the Upper Lusatia , Lower Silesia and the Zittau region .

Flight movements

The number of flight movements , i.e. take-offs and landings, shows a continuous increase. The number of flight movements rose from 5000 in 2001 to 6000 flight movements in 2004. New figures from 2007 have not yet been published. It can be assumed that the flight operations at Görlitz airfield in 2007 were based on around 7500 to 8000 flight movements. The conveniently located airport is thus a necessary addition to the commercial and tourist infrastructure of the city of Görlitz, in which companies that operate nationwide are also based.

Airfield area

Aerial view of the airfield

The airfield area located on federal highway 6 has mostly a grass system; the roads for cars are essentially paved. A workshop for the club's own gliders and motor gliders, certified by the Federal Aviation Office, is available. The helipad and parking areas for motorized aircraft are located on the apron; part of the apron areas in the hall area is paved.

education

Training to acquire certain motor and glider license is possible at the airfield in Görlitz or at the airfield Rothenburg / Görlitz in Rothenburg / Oberlausitz .

Since the 2004/2005 school year, there has been a special school feature for students at the Vocational School Center for Technology in Görlitz: Here, students have the opportunity to complete an aerospace engineering training course - also together with pilot training - in parallel to their Abitur .

Directions

The airfield can be reached via the Bundesautobahn 4 Dresden – Görlitz or the B 6, B 115, B 99. It is located immediately to the west of the B 6 and northwest of the bypass (B 115) from Görlitz (5 km to the city center).

operator

This airfield is operated by Flugplatz Rothenburg / Görlitz GmbH, based in 02929 Rothenburg (Oberlausitz), founded on January 1, 2000.

literature

Regional plan Lower Silesia-Upper Lusatia
Jürgen Zapf: Luftwaffe airfields 1934–1945 ... and what was left of them. Volume 2: Saxony , Verlag Druck Medienvertrieb H. Nickel

Web links

Commons : Flugplatz Görlitz - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

General information on Görlitz Airport (PDF; 6 kB)
Pilot information on Görlitz airfield (PDF; 19 kB)
see also literature and web links

^ Jürgen Zapf: Luftwaffe airfields 1934–1945 - and what was left of them. Volume 2: Saxony. VDM, Zweibrücken 2001, ISBN 3-925480-62-5 , pp. 85-87.
↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-1945 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp 227-228 , accessed on September 15, 2014

[1] Jürgen Zapf: Luftwaffe airfields 1934–1945 - and what was left of them. Volume 2: Saxony. VDM, Zweibrücken 2001, ISBN 3-925480-62-5 , pp. 85-87.

[2] Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-1945 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp 227-228 , accessed on September 15, 2014