Stamps That Tell a Story
The Bitterwasser Lodge and Flying Center
The Philatelic Services in Namibia issued two postage stamps to honor the sport of gliding and soaring in their country. The N$1.60 shows a Zögling primary glider, while the N$1.80 depicts a Schleicher ASW-24 sailplane high above the Bitterwasser gliding field which is the subject of this month’s article. They were first issued on April 13, 1999 in Karibibi, Namibia. Bittenwasser is also depicted in the first day cover and gives a flavour of the site. All were designed by Dennis A. Bagnall of Cape Town, Republic of South Africa.
According to information supplied by Namibia Post, gliding was introduced in 1928 in what was then called German South West Africa. The first gliding club was formed in Swakopmund in May 1935. More clubs followed in the years to come, especially after Wolf Hirth’s visit and write-ups.
The Bitterwasser area is ideal for soaring due to the exceptional good weather conditions from November through to March. It has been one of the leading soaring centres on the African continent since the early 1960s.
Many world records have been set in the Namibian skies, and many more will follow during the coming years. Each year, pilots come to visit the area, to enjoy the almost perfect flying weather conditions, and to attempt new records.
The amazing flying conditions above Bitterwasser are shown by the row of palm trees which mark the taxyway between the ‘pan’ and the hangar. Each tree was planted to mark a record or a 1000km flight. This is the reason why the farm is also commonly called the Diamond Farm.
Hans Disma from Holland was one of the glider pilots who visited the farm regularly and flew his first 1000km flight in December 1992 in a Discus B. He too planted a palm tree which is is known as Disma’s Palm and shown above.
The original owner, Peter Kayssler, sold the property in 1994 to a group of European investors and glider pilots. Wanting to ensure that soaring could continue there, they established the Bitterwasser Lodge and Flying Centre (see Resources for link). The former farm with its huge circular dry lake, almost three kilometres in diameter, is now a private air field. Several gliders and a tow plane are available for hire.
Each year the current owners load containers in September to ship sailplanes south for the soaring season. Due to circumstances, one of the regular ASW-24s could not make the trip, so Gerhard Waibel, designer of the Schleicher ASW sailplane series, was asked if he would loan his personal ASW-24E VW sailplane for a soaring vacation in Namibia. He agreed, and the ship joined others in the container to go to ‘new’ territory.
Dr. Angelika Machinek, an aspiring pilot from Germany, was the lucky person to fly VW. Her report on her holiday makes fascinating reading. She described the take-off from the dry salt lake bed at Bitterwasser Airport which was always into the wind from where ever it blew. At 1000m, with great visibility and endless desert, it was difficult to know exactly where she was.
Maps were important and the GPS was even better. The terrain was hard to recognise. She followed dried river beds, dried lake beds, high sand dunes, some roads and hardly any trees or villages. It was a good feeling to have an engine in the sailplane, just in case.
Several feminine world records were flown by her in VW in the December 1996/January 1997 soaring season.
Namibia Post had contacted Heidi Snyman, a local glider pilot and promoter of the sport, for suggestions on a new postage stamp series. She submitted several photos of sailplanes, including one of the ASW-24E, with the request to honour the sport and let the rest of the world know about the gliding and soaring opportunities in Namibia. It was her hope that pilots from around the world would then come and visit her home country.
Her suggestion was accepted and photos and reference material were given to Dennis A. Bagnall, an artist (and a power plane pilot) from the Republic of South Africa. With the help of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, he designed the postage stamps and the First Day of Issue envelope.
Isn’t it time for you to go to Namibia to fly sailplanes the winter here in the north? One can rent one of their sailplanes, or you can ship your owe. For additional information contact the Bitterwasser Lodge and Flying Centre using their website.
Writing this article brought many challenges, mainly because I was not at all familiar with the gliding potential in the south-western part of Africa. Much explaining and educating was done by Christoph Sigwart, one of the co-owners of Bitterwasser Lodge; Hans Disma, who had flown from this field, supplied several photos; Heidi Snyman, who had suggested the subject to Namibia Post; and last but not least Dr. Angelika Machinek, who flew VW over Bitterwasser, and Gerhard Waibel who loaned it to her for an unforgettable vacation.
©2002, 2022 Simine Short
Resources
- Bitterwasser Lodge and Flying Center — “You will find exceptionally good conditions. The weather here is exceptionally good and it is not for nothing that Bitterwasser is considered the ‘best gliding site of the world’. However, flying in Namibia is very different from flying in Central Europe…”
- Stamps That Tell a Story: The Series — Catch up on your missing instalments of this excellent and informative series of articles presented previously in the New RCSD.
This article first appeared in the November, 2002 issue of Gliding magazine. Simine Short is an aviation researcher and historian. She has written more than 150 articles on the history of motorless flight and is published in several countries around the world as well as the United States. She is also the editor of the Bungee Cord, the quarterly publication of the Vintage Sailplane Association.
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