The Grumpy Gang

The Grumman Aircraft Pilots Association European Branch

Home > Meetings >  1995 Namur Belgium

03/06 - 04/06 1995 NAMUR Belgium organised by Evert Schraverus

Europe

by James Allan Anstruther, Scotland

The weekend of June 2-4 saw another successful European event. Twenty-two Grummans, AAls, AA5s, AG5Bs, and one GA7 arrived at the grass airfield of Namur in southern Belgium to participate in a crowded program.

Real aviation enthusiasts stayed in the little Petit Prince aerodrome hotel while true tourists overnighted in the city-centre Beauregard Hotel (conveniently adjacent to the Casino de Namur!)

We were delighted to have several AYA members from the States with us at this event: Stew and Karen Wilson for the first time, and repeat visits to AYA Europe from Bill and Marti Marvel, Neal and Cathy Rice, and Stu Morse. "Local" members came from Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Guernsey C.I., Ireland, and Scotland. Unfortunately Tony Steidi from Neuwied, Germany, was ill and unable to attend this event. We wish him a speedy recovery.

Those remaining at Namur tried, mainly unsuccessfully, to identify a dozen obscure Grumman parts (specially selected by lan Matterface to confuse) and made the customary struggles to manoeuvre an AA1 backwards without the aid of a towbar.

We then had proved to us that, despite rumours to the contrary, Belgium is not entirely a flat sea-level country. Some of us flew, others went by car to visit St. Hubert, 1847 feet above sea level. The only glitch in Evert and Reina Schraverus's otherwise excellent organisation of the Fly-In occurred when a coach went missing,

On Saturday many participants flew the short hop to Charleroi Airport and toured the SABCA aircraft plant there, seeing assembly and modification work being carried out on Belgian Air Force F-16s and other aircraft.

but those who travelled by road to St. Hubert had the pleasure of lunch and a fascinating visit to the Euro Space Center, with its taste of astronaut training, space exhibits and audiovisual shows.

The European Annual Dinner that night was followed by a minute's silence in memory of Norman Whisler, a regular attender at European Fly-Ins, who died after his AA1 crashed at Galway Airport in Ireland last winter. Contest prizes were presented (we are grateful to FletchAir for several of these) with the "distance flown" champions coming 540 nm from St. Angelo in Northern Ireland, followed by 453 nm from Dundee in Scotland, and 435 nm from Aalborg in Denmark.

The new post of Area Coordinator for the Nordic Countries has been taken over by AA5 owner Jens Neergaard of Hjallerup, Denmark.

The American Star September-October 1995