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eduard
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Info Eduard - November 2011
HISTORY
eduard
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Info Eduard - November 2011
earlier. An attractive rendition of the of the
313th’s Spitre successor of the 82nd sslt, itself
a successor of the 313th Sq, RAF, resulted. It’s
a shame that this fact was generally forgotten
at Caslav, into which the remnants of the 8th
slp were incorporated. This marking would look
pretty darn smart on the Gripen, in honor of
the famous history about which we can be very
proud of.
The nished work was followed by photogra-
phic documentation. At that moment, I reali-
zed that I had forgotten my camera at home.
Fortunately, my colleague had not. It was here
that the rst coincidence that led us, and me
in particular, to ‘my’ MiG, and would again in
the future. I shrugged off forgetting my came-
ra, under the rm assumption that there would
be countless opportunities to get the shots
I wanted, and my buddy hadn’t forgotten
his, in any case. He was from Brno, and this is
where he dropped off the lm to be develo-
ped.....and, according to his account, also where
it was lost. He simply hadn’t gotten the pictu-
res back. My attempt to take additional shots
were also cursed, until many years later when
they surfaced in the collection of two brothers,
Michael and Martin Janousek.
Immediately following that weekend, we had
what amounted to a meet involving the active
participation of personnel from the unit to which
we were subordinate. With that, the partici-
pants, including pilots in command positions,
would maintain their form and accumulate their
required ight hours. Since I personally didn’t
participate in the exercise, I can only relate
what I have heard, but I will be as precise as
memory allows in the following recounting of
what transpired.
It was a beautiful June day for ying. The pre-
parations for the exercise were in full swing. Indi-
vidual aircraft were being allocated to specic
pilots, and they in turn were familiarizing themsel-
ves with the maneuvers that they were expected
to carry out. This includes the possibility of choice
of aircraft. Each knight has his favorite hor-
se, and tries to y the aircraft that he is most
comfortable in. This time, this was a bit limi-
ted, our guests had the rst choice. Initial in-
spections included the aircraft on the apron.
There was a furious ballet of people, inclu-
ding technicians that were performing all
of the necessary safety checks of all equipment.
Individual specialists traded places down the
line, and log sheets were quickly lled out. Eve-
ryone knew what they were to do, and when.
And then came the drum signals warning of the
presence of the invited ofcers. No one likes
anyone looking over their shoulders, even
if it is from a seemingly safe distan-
ce. ‘4127‘ had caught the eye
of one of these nosey cha-
ps by the name of Lt.
Pavel Vesely. The
anticicpa-
tion level was high. What would happen next?
This could get very uncomfortable. Would he or-
der immediate removal of the artwork? At that
time, that would have been a normal develop-
ment. But, instead, he proclaimed that this was
the aircraft that he would y. It was difcult for
the technicians to hide their smiles at this deve-
lopment. The Eduard knight had the green light.
Flight preparations nally reached their nal
phase. The pilots and engineering reps met, and
consultations were held with the meteorological
service. This part of it was pretty simple. It truly
was a beautiful day, with no clouds and unlimi-
ted visibility. In short, conditions were absolute-
ly ideal. The nal checks were conducted, and
specialists ironed out any last minute details that
were deemed necessary. The nal go-ahead
came down the pipe, and it was time to get at
her.
All of the participating pilots gathered on the
apron, and got to their aircraft. Ing. Pavel Vesely
met up with ‘4127‘, where the technician’s report
was prepared as part of the mandatory pre-
-ight. Everything looked good to go. The pilot
signed the aircraft log, and with that, she was
his for fty minutes. He knew well that, in fact,
he was merely borrowing her for a while, and
he was naturally a bit nervous about bringing
her back home safe and sound. What the crew
chief really wanted to see after the ight was
a nice big smile, with a ‘thanks - no incidents’,
and the obligatory conrmation in the form of
the pilot’s signature in the log next to the letters
‘NI’. Then the pilot climbed into the cockpit, ai-
ded by the crew chief, who armed the seat, and
eyed key areas of the aircraft one last time.
On the order of the crew chief, the external po-
wer source, on the chasis of a Praga V3S truck,
belched out a cloud of black smoke, and turned
over. The pilot took his eyes off the instrument
panel, and made eye contact with the crew chief.
He noted the ‘thumbs up’ signal, and the aircraft
switched to internal power, with the instruments
now indicating the correct values and power
outputs, and the pilot received the go-ahead to
start the engine. The generator started to turn
the engine, and the V3S screamed good ‘n loud
as the engine RPMs rose. The engine then came
to life, and the switch was made to internal po-
No. 4127 as it looked during the take-off accident in June 1990. Below, on the canopy front shield were applied Eduard stickers (see detail below) and on its tail, close to
the national coat-of-arms, was from both sides painted the Eda knight (photo - archive of Michal and Martin Janoušek).