April 21, 1971 #2

 Dear Mom & Dad
Well here are 10 more pictures all taken in the Illishiem area.

Here are two views of my car that you haven't seen before.  The first one is the inside as you can see.  It takes a little acrobatics to get in but once you get the hang of it, it is no problem.  It has a surprising amount of leg room, and is very comfortable.  As you can see I don't have a radio yet, but plan to get one soon.

This is the front compartment, which has a small luggage space and spare tire.

Here is an interesting shot of a helicopter about to land at the air strip in Illishiem.

In the small town of Bad Windsheim, 3 KM's from Illishiem, I took this picture of this very large statue near the Rathaus (City-Hall)

In Germany there is a very popular sport which you seldom see in the states and that is glider flying.  People who are interested in this sport form clubs, and pool their money and buy two or three gliders for the use of all the members.  Every Sunday afternoon the local glider club would bring their planes to a field near Storck Barracks and practice their sport.  They take any one who wants to go up for rides gladly, for 10 Marks.  ($3.00)  I never got up enough nerve to go up, but they say it is a lot of fun.  It was fun enough for me, just to watch.  This picture is of a glider just as it is taking off.  The plane is attached to a cable which is connected to a wench way down at the other end of the field.  The wench starts up and pulls the glider toward it until the plane has enough speed to gain a high altitude.  It's kind of like running with a kite, until it begins to fly.  When the glider is high enough the cable is disconnected and the glider is then on its own with nothing but the wind to keep it up.

Here is one of them just as it is about to land.  I think this picture came out pretty well.

 Here some people are moving this one out of the way to make room for another glider about to land.

Here is a closer view of a couple of them.  Two people can fit in the cockpit.

Another shot of one about to land.

I think this last picture is my favorite so far.  This is really not too common of a sight any more in Germany.  Tractors do most of the farm work, but if you go far enough out in the country you can still see things like this every now and then.
That's all for now....