Strana 35
CANADA 2002
the defensive. ‘Terminated, Terminated’ was the
signal to end the fight and move on to the next
setup. Then we spun around each other a few
times in a vertical scissors, nobody wanting to
lose. For a while, it looked like we had Boss
on the bucket list, when he executed such an
energetic maneuver that even my hands with
the camera outstretched fell into my lap. I then
tried like a proper GIB (Guy in Back) to report
the location of the bandit behind us. The view
from the cockpit in the Hornet is excellent,
just a little physically demanding. I was a little
worried that my head would freeze up in the
9 o‘clock position like so many people before
me. I felt beads of sweat running down my back.
Finally, it was over, we were flying home in
an open formation and Kraut let me ‘borrow’
the plane for a little while. I confirmed with
the familiar ‘I have control’ and I accepted
control of the bird. I‘m only used to type-based
approaches without maneuvering the target,
which we practiced in our Su-22s. You simply
tilt the aircraft towards the target from the
starting point, and at the right moment, you
switch to the opposite tilt on the approach
curve. Then you just monitor the approach
speed, reduce the tilt and try to get behind
the target, put it in your sights and fire at
a shooting distance of 300-600 meters, so that
you select at least 200 meters from the target.
Boss apparently wanted to make it a little
harder for me, so he started maneuvering.
I wanted to keep him a little more to the side,
mainly not to cover him, so I climbed and gained
some distance. Boss mumbled something into
the radio, which I didn’t understand, but Kraut
calmed me down: ‘Go ahead... he‘ll be behave
himself and fly straight.’ That calmed me
down. But the target was almost level, so now
I approached at full throttle from a wide angle.
Although I correctly assessed that I‘m close
and that after I‘ve attacked the target I‘d switch
to a run from the other side, I put the aircraft
on its ear and pulled up. Unfortunately, due to
the total difference in the flight characteristics
of the Su-22 and CF-188, I wasn’t 300 meters
behind the target on the left side, as would
happen if we were sitting in a Sukhoi, but the
Hornet, shaking and vibratiing, found itself in
formation on the right side about 50 meters
from the target!! It completely took my breath
away, Kraut being the first to recover and told
me that he would like to fly again for a while!
I was not surprised and obliged not surprised,
Boss sticking to us in a tight group with me all
sweaty looking for my camera. After a while
I hear Boss announce ‘RTB’ (Return to Base), an
unmistakable sign that today‘s circus was over.
He performed a rollout, Kraut told me that we
are the second to land using the ILS system and
that the lower ceiling was around 200 feet and
visibility at some 800 meters. I said to myself,
no big deal. At that time, my minimum was 500
feet and visibility was 1.5 km. Kraut hands me
the controls again, this time just a straight
flight above the clouds. I looked at the slightly
different, simplified ILS symbols from what
I was used to and after flying into the clouds,
Kraut took control and landed nicely in sailor‘s
style - no trimming, and we sat down without
bouncing. Apparently the landing gear is built
for that. We left the runway, just white ahead
of us, only wheel tracks that led to Boss‘s
Hornet. We stopped near the groundcrew,
folded the wings, inserted the locks into the
landing gear and rockets. The weather was
really bad, steel-gray clouds, snowing lightly
and I thought to myself that in such weather
we would definitely pack it up at home and
call it a day without flying. I didn’t even want
to get out again, I was full of impressions, but
the sharp wind brought me back to reality and
GiGi helped me out of my gear. We put away
our helmets, pressure pants and vests. We
went to the briefing, where the entire flight
was replayed, including comments from the
commander, pointing out mistakes and praise
during turns. It even occurred to me that I had
apologized for my almost ramming. Finally,
after a successful day of flying, it was time to
relax a bit with a bottle of beer and a bucket of
popcorn. The young people confess what they
managed to do today, and I saw that the pilot
community is probably the same all over the
world. We ended with a game of table football
and a chat about my next job. We talked about
their work in Europe and about tough missions
around the world.
On our way west, we stopped in Winnipeg,
home of the headquarters of 1 CAD – the First
Canadian Air Division. While GiGi went to HQ to
INFO Eduard
35
September 2026
The commander of 425 SQN, Boss, poses for me before the start of the dogfight.
A happy author after his first flight in a CF-188B with Kraut at CFB Bagotville.