My very dear Grumman friends,

as you have surely seen in the news there is an ongoing military conflict here in Europe. Totally unfounded and totally unwanted but direct influence is out of our hands. Very many countries are united in the fight against the initiating aggressor and are working towards some form of peace.

The pressure within Russia is rising quite quickly. Thousands of  protesters are being jailed daily - numbers rising quickly. Being overly optimistic I am wishing for an end ASAP. Like most everybody else. 

However, it could turn into a year-long conflict costing even more lives. 

I surely don’t want to get into any politics but let me have one personal comment: Please bear in mind it is not ‚the Russians‘ who started it. It is one stubborn powerful person forcing it with his command line.

There is much grief and pain within the families of the fallen on both sides.

Sting once sang: ’I hope the Russians love their children too.’   Yes, they do. All the ordinary people want this to stop.

This is a brief message to let you know that our event hasn’t been cancelled - yet. It might not help the Ukraine or Poland if we do not show up. I’ll get into more details later.

Up to today Poland alone took on 1.2 million refugees from Ukraine. Other countries some as well but Poland bears 80% of the burden. It does cause them challenges - not only logistical ones.

Rafal our polish friend and myself are in constant contact with the airfield, hotel etc. I have relations and contacts to Ukranian people and some background info constantly being updated. 

So for the time being I’ll kindly ask you to be patient and stand by. Do not flood me nor Rafal with messages and requests.

We are evaluating the situation regularly and a final decision will be taken later when we see more clearly. 

We do appreciate your patience. Thank you very much.

There are rumours or initiatives of participants letting the hotel have the rooms without a refund and not showing up.

Please hold your breath for a while. This is a kind offer but is not the most effective solution to help the refugees.

We fully understand if you want to cancel from your side or if you’d like to donate your hotel or event fee.

Rest assured I will later beg you for money and donations anyhow. Whether you show up or not.

Meanwhile please consider donating plentiful. We as pilots are quite well off while others left their loved ones behind and only have their clothes, maybe one or two children and grandma in tow and are in dire need for help and shelter.

If the event will take place I have some preliminary plans how we could help the region and people while we’re there.

Giving charity flights to children to distract them briefly and put a smile on their face being one of them. There’s quite a bit of logistic, etc involved but we’re not there yet.

Once again - bear with us. We’ll keep you informed.

Thank you for your understanding,

Yogi, RD Europe