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Reply To: Beryl Markham: fast-living, high-flying aviatrix

Home Forums Historic Aviation Beryl Markham: fast-living, high-flying aviatrix Reply To: Beryl Markham: fast-living, high-flying aviatrix

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Hanna Reitsch!!!!

Seconded! Though she has been a Nazi till her end, she was indeed a very able pilot and testpilot as well. By chance I was lucky enough to meet her first glider instructor when I was a boy. He, Pit van Husen, was a very straight and very strict man. He grounded Hanna when she did not perform as he expected her to do, and he allowed me, a ten year old, ages later to ride his bike (the only one allowed at Aigen airport) where he needed it, after parking the towplane, lol.
I never ever met Hanna Reitsch, but I do have a letter asking my father to donate for a caravan for van Husen. She might not have been a nice lady, but she was a tough pilot for sure.

Michael

P.S.: She wrote a book, German title: Ich flog für Kwame Nkrumah (don´t know if it was translated? meaning: I flew for Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana))