The new EASA Type-Certificate Data Sheet EASA.AS.002 for GEFA-FLUG airships – Issue 3 – is available on the EASA website now:

http://www.easa.europa.eu/ws_prod/c/doc/Design_Appro/Airships/TCDS%20EASA_AS_002.pdf

The Coppel Airship is flying in Mexico.

The  picture-section offers now some nice pictures of the Coppel Airship (Serial Number: H0051) flying in Mexico City (Estadio Azteca), on the International Hot Air Balloon Festival in Leon and over the archaeological site Teotihuacan.

The airship is operated by Javier Merino Amecuza and his company

VOLARE / Impacto Publicitario.

Coppel Airship flying over the archaeological site of Teotihuacan.

We updated the technical section with technical notes, the EASA type-certificate and the latest versions of the “Flight- and Maintenance Manual Hot-Air-Airship AS 105 GD” in english and german language.

Last month we did some test flights with an external load on the AS 105 GD in Northern Germany (in the near of Bremerhaven).

Our test programm was authorized by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA), we got a “Permit To Fly” to check the flight characteristics of the airship during take-off, flight and landing procedures.

Our client was the “Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources” (BGR) in Hannover.

The BGR works in this project together with:

University of Münster

Raumfahrt Systemtechnik GmbH (RST)

The purpose of the flights was to carry a Georadar antenna over a large agricultural area.

More Pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/boeltes/Zeppelin#

http://spotterblog.de/2009/07/16/aufbau-und-flug-eines-hot-air-airship/?nggpage=2

We added some more images to the “AS 105 GD Picture Section”:

http://www.hotair-airship.info/pictures/pictures-as-105-gd/

Thanks to Bennie Bos (www.hotair.nl) for submitting very nice photos.

Enjoy!

A couple of GEFA-FLUG AS 105 GD Hot Air Airships will take part at:

Airship Parade – Bad Homburg/Germany
15th August 2009

More information (in German language):

http://www.bad-homburger-luftschiffparade.de

One of K. L. Busemeyers dreams was to fly an airship over the Serengeti in the footprints of father and son Grzimek, two famous German zoologists who, in 1958, used a single-engined aeroplane to survey the huge herds of wildebeests and zebras in Tanzania. Alan Root, legendary pioneering balloonist out in Kenya for more than three decades (made famous in Anthony Smith’s book Throw out two hands) was the main cameraman. The outcome was an Oscar-winning film and the best-selling-book, Serengeti Shall Not Die. Mucky’s idea was to recreate the old Grzimek project, flying at Grzimek’s locations and meeting up with their old comrades, but using an airship instead of a light aeroplane. The result this time would be a TV documentary. Here, then, is his remarkable story.

We started a new category named “Stories“. In this section we would like to provide you with articles about hot air airships.

We start with an article composed by the owner of GEFA-FLUG, Karl-Ludwig Busemeyer. The text with the title Just another Airship „Made in Germany“? provides an insight into the development of the hotair-airship type AS 105 GD.

An overview of all produced airships by GEFA-FLUG is now available in the “Pictures” section. A PDF-download is available.

New videos from Italy are added to the video section. Thanks to Pietro Contegiacomo!

is available for download now in the “Technical” section.

Flight- and Maintenance Manual AS 105 GD

Welcome to our new hotair-airship-blog!

This is the place to provide you with all kind of informations about our hotair-airships.

If you want to leave a comment, please feel free to do so!

Best regards

Your GEFA-FLUG Team