Tell me the story of fläming Air please ...

The Fläming Air story is a living dream that started about 50-60 years back, at that time in the German Democratic Republic. Flying was restricted but gliding was a kind of sport with a lot of governmental support. Right after the German reunification, that dream took of into real life with more up's than down's and with a happy end that could be the story book for a nive movie.

It all began with chances. Berlin, right after the re-unification, was the assigned German capital with a metropol area of roughly 5 Mio people. Agricultural flying had been very popular in the GDR so there were a lot of adandoned airfields at that time. Starting the FTO and finding the right spot to start was a challenging task. Even better, finding the right aircraft for training, getting all the licences and building the network of flight instructors, clients and maintenance facilities. Challenging but exiting days at that time! All the positive mood in the people, thirsty for new experiences and eager to look ahead for the thinmgs to come.

The property question was still a major obstacle as a lot of land had to be reassigned to old and new owners. Infrastructure of old adminstration had to be carried over to the new administration, validation of old licences, ald maintenance standards and while facing all that trouble, we opended our new company and found a spot to start Fläming Air.

Fläming, that's the name for an area south of Berlin. It's flat land with some particular geological specialities dating back to ice age and ever since called "Fläming" for about 900 years after some early settlements of the Flame tribes. In the early 90th, we had our first airfield and our fuel station. 40,000 flights from that field shows the importance of Fläming Air for the south Berlin flying community. By 95 we had our first hard runway which was extended to 850 m in 98. Another gras runway for gliders and tail dragger had been added in 98 as well as illumination for night VFR. 20-30 students filed their PPL in our facilities every year.

Our repair and maintenance facility according to JAR 145 was achieved at the same time, a little later the JAR 21G Production certification for Rotax conversions of Cessna C150. Back in 99 we started the first licence production of an ultralight aircraft made from GFR/CFR. In 2003 we launched our own microlight/ultralight/experimental - the Smaragd, which had it's maiden flight on March 22nd, 2003 and was licensed on December 29th, 2003.

Since 1995, Klaus Schrodt, Uli Pade, Dr. Ludwig Hofmann and other first class aerobatic pilots selected Oehna as their home base and preferred training facility.

If you look at Fläming Air today, you can see the airfield, the training facility, the repair and maintenance shop as well as the yard, the restaurant and the hostels - a very comprehensive definition of the aviation dream that started 50-60 years back staring at aircrafts around the corner. It is a dream come true story and that fact that it came true depends on a lot of people working hand in hand in order to achieve a common goal. For pilots, for the airfield, for the area and the aviation community.
  

Since the beginning in 1990, we are counting about over half a million movements on aur airfield. Roughly 600 students got their licence in our place and our training organisation can look back at abt. 180,000 starts and landings without any major accident.

Our dream came true and we are very thankfull for having the chance to do it and had the good friend to help us doing it.