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In 42 days, Claus Cordes flew 14 000 kilometres and travelled to twelve countries. And he did so in the small Junkers A50 Junior - a replica of the aircraft that made its maiden flight in 1929. On 19 July, Cordes finished his European tour at the Flugwerft Schleißheim. Together with three Junkers F13 replicas, he landed at the airfield in Schleißheim - and was enthusiastically celebrated by the audience.
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Cordes was an airline pilot for 40 years - most recently he flew the huge Airbus A380 (empty weight 275 tonnes, wingspan 79.80 metres, length 72.70 metres). On his last trip for the time being, he flew a somewhat more delicate aircraft: the Junkers A50 Junior (empty weight 375 kilograms, wingspan 9.84 metres, length 7.41 metres). Claus Cordes has just completed a major tour across Europe in the replica of the small A50, spending 150 hours in the air. 14 000 kilometres in an open-cockpit plane is quite an achievement, especially as the flying conditions were not always ideal. To put it mildly.
But Cordes really likes this aircraft - despite all the adversities that a flight in an open-cockpit aircraft entails. "I've often seen Europe from the air. But from a height of ten or eleven kilometres. Of course, you can't see the subtleties that I've seen now. Flying in a closed cockpit is also something completely different: you turn a knob when it's too cold and it gets warmer. I would have liked to have had a knob like that in some places on my big tour. You experience the weather very directly when flying close to the ground," he explains.
Claus Cordes started his grand tour in Dessau - where the first Junkers aeroplanes were built. His journey has taken him as far as Sicily, but also to the North Cape. Cordes explains: "I arrived in Hammerfest after a three-hour flight from Kirkenes to the North Cape. The flight began in glorious sunshine, but at the North Cape it was cloudy and the temperature was slightly above freezing. The water below me was six degrees. After landing, the ladies and gentlemen of the airport staff realised how cold I was and sent me to the airport's own sauna." During the flight, he wore a survival suit - just in case he fell into the water.
Cordes has seen a lot on his journey: In England, he was a guest at an airshow in Old Warden. In Portugal, he was at the most south-westerly corner of Europe. In Venice, he landed at the Lido aerodrome. And now he landed in Schleißheim, the oldest airport in Germany that is still in operation.
Cordes has certainly learnt to love his Junkers A50 Junior during the trip. Apart from a brief GPS failure, the aircraft worked fabulously: "I just poured in a bit of oil and washed off the mosquitoes." He praises the small aircraft: "No jockey can win a horse race if the horse he is sitting on is no good." Corde's closing words on the stage in Schleißheim: "I would like to end with a word from Hugo Junkers: Aviation is there to bring people together. This journey has also shown me that. We can all count ourselves lucky to live in this beautiful Europe."
