Strana 13
In the morning, all that was left was to quickly pack up,
have breakfast and wait at the hotel reception for the bus to
the airport. Quite by chance, we met the commander of the
Hungarian fighters, also flying JAS-39 Gripen aircraft from
Kecskemét Base, Brigadier General Czab Ugrik. Just a year
earlier, during the Lion Effort 2015 exercise held at our airport in
Čáslav, he and his colleague had to be ejected from the Gripen's
cockpit during a failed landing on May 19th. Fortunately, both
survived the crash without serious injuries. A brief introduction,
a wish that such similar experiences in the future would be
avoided and a joint photo as a souvenir came out of that.
At the airport, all three helicopters still had to undergo
pre-flight checks, but they did not return to their home base
in Namest, flying instead directly to the French Pyrenees for
a fourteen day mountain flying exercise dubbed ‘Mountain
Flight 2016’ in Sainte Léocadie near Saillagos. Judging by the
message left by our French friends on our container wall, we
also left beautiful memories there…
Then all that was left was to return home on board our
A-319CJ. Looking back, even after almost a decade, I have only
wonderful memories of this exercise, a tiger scarf, a photo
book and several dozen framed patches on my wall at work,
many of them connected with personal memories of specific
participants in this unique air event. And of course, there is our
Tiger…
REPORT
INFO Eduard
13
February 2026