I’d been wanting to fly around Amberg, Sigi and Sonja’s birthplace and my home for 5 years in the late 80s, for a while and finally managed it in June 2018. There’s a gliding club with a field just outside town and they take guest passengers up for a very reasonable fee. I chose the Diamond Super Dimona motorised glider to ensure we had a good look around. My pilot was Joerg, who’d been flying there since 1984. It was a smooth ride at 500-1000ft above ground level and pretty good visibility despite some thunder clouds developing not too far away.

We took off from Amberg, and flew over Fichtenhof to Rosenberg, where the steelworks was where I worked from 1985 to 1990. It closed down about 20 years ago, no longer able to compete with imported steel.

From Rosenberg it was a short hop to Koetzersricht, Sigi’s village where she grew up, along with nearby Frohnberg and Hahnbach.

After an orbit over Koetzersricht we headed back to Amberg and flew over the city on our way back into the gliding field. It was a great way to get a bird’s eye view of the area at a comfortable speed.

Highly recommended to anyone who goes there. 30 Euros for 30 minutes.