KITS 10/2022

Z-326, No. 915, private owner, Chichester airfield, Great Britain, 2021

This Trener Master was originally exported to Portugal, where it flew with CS-ALU matriculation and

was reportedly tested by the Air Force for possible

pilot training usage. It was later grounded and stored

for several years before being purchased by Henry

Labouchere. The aircraft was said to have flown only

eight hours at that time! On the flight to the UK, the

new owner was arrested in Spain and spent the night in prison in Breganza. This reportedly happened

due to the fact that all the A/C documents, including

insurance ones, expired. In 1982 the aircraft was

bought by Roger Charles Poolman, and from 1988

until 2000 it was in possession of the Nimrod Group

of Cheltenham. The next owner was Peter Colman,

who undertook an extensive refurbishment of the

aircraft. Since 2017 the owner has been Tim Cooper,

who keeps flying it from Chichester airfield in the

southern England region.

Z-326M, No. 604, Aeroklub Josefa Františka Prostějov, Prostějov airfield, Czech Republic, 2010

This aircraft is serving with the Prostějov Aero Club,

which is proudly bearing the name of the most famous Czechoslovak WWII fighter pilot Josef František, a native of nearby Otaslavice. The aircraft

itself bears a proud name as well, as the aeroclub

members named it after its predominantly red coloring “the Red Baron”. The aircraft is mainly used for

sailplane towing, which is the task in which it replaced its predecessors Z-226 OK-MQB and OK-KMS.

However, it began its career much earlier as a mili-

tary C-305 with fuselage code 0604. It was entered

to the civil register on May 8, 1968, and was assigned

first to Prague, then to Vrchlabí Aero Club. Later it

was moved to the regional Aero Club Olomouc and

consequently to Prostějov.

C-306, No. 572, Czechoslovak People's Army, Czechoslovakia, 1970

This is the first ever C-305 produced. It was handed

over to the Czechoslovak Air Force on July 20, 1960

and differed from the other aircraft of this type by

the installation of a towing device, which was later

removed. Unlike the other C-305s, handed over to

October 2022

Svazarm organization after the end of their service

in the army, this aircraft was transferred to the Military Historical Institute in Prague-Kbely to be subsequently exchanged for an airworthy example of another Czechoslovak aircraft, Z-22 Junák from Belgium

as none of these aircraft survived in Czechoslovakia.

In Belgium this Trener Master received the OO-CSA

matriculation but did not fly for long. On March 20,

1971, it was destroyed in a crash in Schaffen. Both

crew members perished.

INFO Eduard

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