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Whatchamacallit 14: Flug Zertifikat Rosinenbomber

Flight Certificate for Rosinenbomber trip

I’m writing these Whatchamacallits in the afternoon before the day it gets posted, after I finish my Homeoffice duties.

Basically, my idea is that I wander to a different space within my apartment and find something worth talking about. I am trying to not feature the same space two days in a row: I have a hallway, a bathroom, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a living-/dining-room. I managed to do the bedroom two days in a row already; today is the second day in a row for my living-/dining-room.

At some point Friday, I looked my “Flug Zertifikat Rosinenbomber” and realized that it is dated April 4, 2008 – 12 years ago today – Saturday.

Thus, I can tell you that on Friday, April 4, 2008, I took my first and last flight to and from Templehof Airport onboard a DC 3 operated by Air Service Berlin. It was a sightseeing flight that flew across Berlin to Potsdam before turning around and returning to Templehof.

Looking back at a random note in my email, I wrote to a friend in advance of the trip that:

for 159€ you get a 20-30 minute flight above Berlin leaving and arriving at Tempelhof onboard a DC-3 (C47, to be precise). It comes with some other extras (champagne reception, light snacks, movie, certificate)

I do know that, at that time, it was the most expensive thing I’d ever done as a tourist. It almost didn’t quite happen: I was originally booked to fly in early March, but a Verdi strike made it impossible for me to accomplish the goals of that trip, as planned – at least according to my emails. I was able to reschedule the trip without any penalties.

The flight was fantastic – it was incredibly loud: we might think that modern aircraft are loud, but they hold no candle to a DC-3. I know we took off flying toward the west (and landed the same direction) – I could rewrite everything, but you can read about the trip in my THF = 75 blog post from that trip.

The Certificate is the tangible memento from that trip – it reminds me about the Cold War and the Berlin Airlift, plus so much more.

It’s impossible to take this flight today: Templehof Airport closed October 30, 2008 – less than five months after I took my flight. The plane I rode in crashed on June 19, 2010, while taking off for a similar touristic flight from Schönefeld Airport. Although Air Service Berlin claimed, at the time, the plane would be restored, as far as I know, it has not.


During the Covid-19 crisis, I am going to try and make a point of writing a blog post about an object in my home.

We’ll see how long this lasts.

2 comments to Whatchamacallit 14: Flug Zertifikat Rosinenbomber

  • Joanne

    Yikes… it crashed?! I hope no one was hurt! Still… what a cool thing to have done. I didn’t even know that was a thing! I would have been tempted to do it!
    My second boss when I worked for the US Army Berlin Brigade, the Asst Chief of Staff G-3 (Dept of Plans,Training & Mobilization) was himself a very interesting, chill and super nice guy from Oklahoma, two-time tour of Vietnam (first time enlisted, second time as an officer) among many other assignments. But what I wanted to say is, his dad was one of the Rosinenbomber pilots. And one of our good friends in Berlin , Klaus, lived up in area of Tegel that abuts the Airfield and as a child he and his little brother were the recipient’s off those little boxes of raisins and chocolate that were tossed from the V plane during those days of the Airlift.
    The world is a small place!

    • Apparently seven out of the 28 passengers and crew were injured — per Wikipedia. The flight from Templehof was awesome…