By the end of the conflict the German pilot had logged complessively 195 h 18 min of flight sharing out as follow: 36 h 28 min on the Fw 61, 156 h 29 min on the “Drache” and 2 h 13 min on the Flettner Fl 282 “Kolibri”, another helicopter built in limited series by the Germans. At the end of WWII the Allies prohibited almost all the flying activities in Germany. Consequently Bode was forced to cease to fly and worked as a mechanic. He then took the decision to emigrate to Switzerland where he continued his flying career. In the Spring of 1952 he obtained the civil licence as sailplane pilot, followed on 3rd April 1952 by the private airplane pilot licence. On 3rd August 1952, trained by Sepp Bauer, he began the helicopter pilot school flying on the Hiller 360 of Air Import. After 7 h 36 min of flight as PIC, on 3rd March 1953 he obtained on the airport of Zürich the Swiss private helicopter pilot license no 7. On 14th September the Federal office for civil aviation (FOCA) issued him the commercial pilot licence.

At the same time he went in France where he was trained at the “Fenwick Aviation School” to fly with the Bell 47D-1 and G models. In that period Bode was a technical consultant and member of the “Deutsche Studiengemeinschaft Hubschrauber e. V.” of Stuttgart. By the the Spring of 1954 he was employed by Air Import as flying instructor and flew with the Hiller 360 and the UH-12B. In May 1955 Germany joined the NATO and the military and commercial flight activities restarted. Bode decided to return to his homeland where he found a job as an instructor and technical responsible of the “Hubschrauber Vertriebs G.m.b.H” (HVG). HVG based on the airfield of Hummerich near Kretz/Andernach has been the first commercial helicopter company founded in Germany. During 1958 he was trained by the Heeresflieger der Bundeswehr (German Army Aviation Corps) on the airfield of Niedermendig/Eifel. From 13th June 1958 until 24th July he completed the transition course on the Sikorsky S-58, and then from 30th July until 25th August he learned to fly with the Vertol H-21. As a test pilot on 7th June 1959 he did the first flight at the controls of the Merckle SM-67 prototype, the first turbine powered helicopter built in Germany. With this model he also had an accident in which he was seriously injured. However his flying activity continued. He became technical consultant for the German military services until 1971 and then chief quality officer of the “Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW)-Fokker” of Bremen until his retirement in 1973. During his long career he piloted over 100 different types of aircraft. The helicopter list comprends among the ones already mentioned: SNCASO SO 1221 “Djinn”, Sikorsky S-51, S-64, S-65, Brantly B-2, Alouette II and probably several others.

Bode was an excellent pilot, cautious and scrupulous, and as he self admitted probably always attended by a guardian angel. He passed away near München on 16th November 2002 at the age of 91 years.