Black-tailed Flycatchers 2006

Schwarzbuben—where does this peculiar name actually come from? There’s been much speculation about it. To this day, no clear answer has been found as to the origin of this nickname for the residents of the two districts of Dorneck and Thierstein in northwestern Switzerland. Some believe it is a derogatory term, because in Basel, young men who got up to all sorts of mischief at night were called “black boys.” Others argue that the term stems from the black-dyed twill uniforms in which the young men used to report for military service. Be that as it may, the term “Schwarzbuben” is now neither a compliment nor an insult. Today, “Schwarzbuben” refers to people from the Basel-Landschaft and Fricktal regions.

The Schwarzbubenfliegen was held for the 30th time this year by the Brislach Model Aircraft Club, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a special exhibition.

On Sunday, September 10, model glider pilots gathered at the Brislach Model Flying Club’s airfield for the “Schwarzbubenfliegen,” a precision landing competition. Thirty participants took part, flying a wide variety of glider models—ranging from the “Zagi” to a faithful replica of the B4. After a wonderful day of flying and four flights each, the worst precision landing by each participant was discarded, and the penalty points were tallied to determine the final rankings.

Hans Sutter took first place, ahead of Marius Schmidlin and René Bürgi. Among the juniors, Alexander Graf won, ahead of Raphael Henz and Matthias Roth. For more information on the history of the Schwarzbuben, the Brislach Model Flying Club, and their anniversary exhibition on October 28–29, 2006, in the Brislach gymnasium, visit: www.vvsl.ch/geschichte08.php www.mfvbrislach.ch/

1. Hans Sutter; 2. Marius Schmidlin; 3. René Bürgi; 4. Daniel Lisser; 5. Alexander Graf; 6. Daniel Hochueli; 7. Adrian Jermann; 8. Michael Untermoser; 9. Raphael Henz; 10. René Meury (Total: 30 classifications).