A Danish flying winemaker in the Alentejo

In 1963 Hans left his home in Denmark to become asst. engineer at United Plantations, a Danish tropical plantation company in Malaysia. The oil palm and coconut plantation where he was to be stationed was surrounded by dense tropical jungle and only accessible by riverboat or by air, making flying a necessity, not a hobby. The company was founded in 1905 and the flying tradition dates back to pre-WW2, when many of the mostly Danish staff were pilots and had their own aircraft.

After a short time, Hans was offered by one of his superiors to ‘have a go’ with his own aircraft, an Auster. After a few runs up and down the grass airstrip, Hans got the nerve up to try to takeoff on his own without an instructor, and that was how he started his flying days! During the next 21 years in Malaysia he flew/ owned a Chipmunk, Super Cub, Beachcraft and a Piper Cherokee 235 and logged over 3000 flying hours over tropical jungle and Malaysian plantations.

When we left Malaysia in 1984, Hans changed his airplane out with a sailing boat which we used to travel around Europe looking for a new home.  After settling at Cortes de Cima and planting our vineyards, Hans got busy on bulldozing a runway and……you guessed it!…. he bought himself an aircraft! As the first runway (just 50m from our front door) was short, he settled for a FK9 ultralight. But as our family grew with 2 kids, he extended the runway and changed his plane out for his current Cessna 182.

Hans takes to the skies regularly to visit the other 2 vineyards we have, one 80km to the west at the seaside, and the other 50 km to the east towards the Spanish border, where he has of course also constructed dirt landing strips.  But more than just for transport, he uses his airplane as an observation post for his vineyards. Circling over Cortes de Cima he has a birds’eye view of the vines, and can monitor and map it’s vigour with the help of aerial photography. A true flying winemaker! (check out our Flying Winemaker video here on YouTube.)

Keeping to the tradition, we just learned that our 18 -year old son Thomas, who is presently taking his PPL (private pilot’s licence), has successfully competed his first solo! Congratulations!