Just found this. Very sad. I made five flights on D-AQUI in 2014 & 2015 and was due to make a sixth in September 2015, which was cancelled when they grounded it to sort out the cracked stringers.
The issues with the Connie were clearly identified back in 2014. I flew D-AQUI from Mainz to Hamburg and talked with the Lufthansa air crew volunteers handling check in while we were waiting for it to be turned round and refueled. At that point they felt the money had run out and the whole project was going nowhere.
Anyway, I'm still left with great memories of -
One-hour night flight out of Hamburg;
Mainz-Hamburg with an overflight of Wunstorf and what the Captain described as 'orientation turns' over two small towns enroute. In my flying days we called them 'beat ups'. On that trip we flew VFR under a fairly low cloud base through shallow valleys and at one point round a row of wind turbines on a ridge. The most amusing part was being cut up by a Cessna 172 (I've got it on video) as we began to turn finals for Hamburg. He landed ahead of us on the grass left of runway 05, cut across and went down the taxiway;
Leipzig into Siegerland for an airshow. We flew in on Friday. I stayed in a local town and got a lift in next morning with some of the visiting pilots before flying Siegerland to Frankfurt-Egelsbach with an Me108/Nord 2002 flying on our port rear for the final 20 minutes or so;
And finally Cologne-Bremen.
The people involved in the Ju52 operation were 100% dedicated it. The crews took great pride in, and no payment for, their involvement with Tante Ju and it was an honour to fly with them.
Last edited by flightprep; 14th Mar 2019 at 23:33.
Reason: typo