Z-226T, OK-MUA, No. 370, Ladislav Bezák,
Kladno airfield, 1971
Bezak‘s Z 226 T, which was most probably based on the „cancelled“ Z 226 B OK-JFA (serial no. 830), supplemented by a number of parts. The picture shows it in the
form when it did not yet carry on the fuselage the advertisement of Becker Avionics,
a manufacturer of aeronautical radionavigation equipment. It remained for a long
time with the G-BEZA registration in the UK, last seen sometime in 2019 dismantled,
stored in wooden crates and in deplorable condition somewhere in Germany.
stay and continue flying. After the December 19, 1971 incident
there was a whole series of investigations and testimonies of all
participants which did not help captain Fiedler’s shaky position.
“Every single political officer was all over him, but he held his
own and they let him fly,” recalls Jaroslav Krýda and adds that
none of his colleagues ever asked him what had happened in
the air at that time. “He did not speak about it, and we did not
ask him. Above all we were compassionate with him. We were
all scared to death by the thought that during the alert system
service we would have to fire at an unarmed airplane with civilians on board. It was our nightmare, every time we were scheduled for readiness.”
Karel Fiedler ultimately converted to Mig-21 and was even
promoted to Major rank. Finally, it was not his “failure” regarding the Bezák incident, but quite different reason, which
ended his career of military pilot. His daughter was in contact
with dissent and later signed anti-communist anti-establishment
Charter 77. Two years later, in 1979, forty-six years old Major
Fiedler was discharged from the Air Force. He got a civilian job
selling pumps in Bezruc street in Pilsen (the store is still there
today). On December 13, 1986 he went to play tennis and during
the break on the bench he suddenly collapsed and passed away.
Diagnosis was a heart attack… Bezak’s comment on Fiedler’s
lack of skill and particularly about pilots’ low annual flight time
was one out of a series of nonsense he supplied the media with.
In reality, especially at 5th Fighter Regiment, pilots flew quite
a lot for “socialistic” army. “Decidedly more in comparison to
my service at Bechyně. The plan was 80 hours per year, but
some pilots logged as much as 120 hours” recalls Miroslav Lanči
and points out that this quota was fully used for intense training
including aerobatics and dogfighting.
Aerobatic pilot Ladislav Bezák
Ladislav Bezák was born in 1932 in Prague. During the war he
lived with his family in Slovakia (his father was Slovak), later he
was trained as a tool-maker and through skydiving and gliding
got to powered flying. He became an instructor and fell in love
with aerobatics… He flew with Kladno Aero Club, later joined
the “Chrudim Box” flying team. In 1959 he participated in the
aerobatic competition for the first time. He placed fourth in the
domestic championship, a year later the second (after Jiří Bláha) and the same year in Bratislava he became the first official
World Champion in aerobatics. Many sources state that it was on
this occasion he performed his invention, so-called “lomcovák”
maneuver but veterans recall he had tried it for the first time
in Kladno in 1957. By the way Bezák became the world champion two months after graduating from the College of Agriculture
(major agricultural mechanization). In 1963 he was nominated
to participate in the Lockheed Aerobatic Trophy in England
(Z 226 T OK-MFJ) for the first time, in 1964 he was third in the
same competition with the converted Zlin Z 226 AS (OK-MFJ) and
in 1965 he presented the new type Z 526 (OK-SND) and was third
again. He continued with aerobatic flying and at the same time
he trained foreign customers who bought Zlin airplane. Thanks
to it he was building his network of connections abroad inc-
INFO Eduard - December 2021
luding the “West”. He possessed an entrepreneurial spirit and
decided to build his own Trener. He started to hunt for the parts
he could build it from. After many ups and downs he succeeded.
He completed the aircraft and obtained all necessary permits in
an uneasy period shortly after the invasion of the “friendly” troop into Czechoslovakia at the end of October 1968 (read more
about private Treners in inserted article).
In 1970 the situation was getting tougher and political “normalization” brought back various political evaluations for all pilots, including the hobby ones. Bezák did not like it and did not
keep his opinions for himself. He was a ČSA (Czechoslovak Airlines) pilot, used to fly to the “West”, maintained contacts with
fellow western acrobats and aviators in general. All that was
a thorn in the heel for the “apparatchiks”. “I realized that my
chances to survive were slim. I flew my airplane in an airshow in
Germany but left it behind. My mechanic drove me back home in
a car. The authorities could not nationalize the airplane in that
case, of course, but they did not let me travel abroad either.
My instructor’s and inspector’s certifications were recalled I was employed by the State Aviation Administration - and they
let me fly domestic flights only, and only from the right seat,”
said Bezák later in Canada. As per his account he had learnt
from his friends about a list of 25 politically unreliable ČSA pilots who would be “grounded” and then fired. According to his
own words he feared that communists would ultimately put him
in jail. “Then my superiors told me that they would leave me
alone but to demonstrate my goodwill I was to bring the airplane
back. So I performed in an airshow in West Germany and flew
it back home. It was Friday midnight. A message reached me
that all those unreliable pilots were withdrawn from the flight
schedules and on Monday were to report to the director. Some
of my friends indicated that instead of interviewing with the director I would be arrested. The communists learnt I knew about
it and changed the arrest timing to Sunday midday. At that time,
we lived in Hostouň, midway between Prague and Kladno. The
airplane was parked at Kladno airport, the only private aircraft
in the whole communist block (which was not true, author’s
note). Based on this information I realized that the circle around
me is being tightened. The dice were cast, and I decided to flee
the country.
Moments before escape
As per Bezáks own account on Saturday morning he found out
that someone had damaged his navigational instruments which
could not stop him despite the inclement weather. He was
confident, he had flown a lot. “I filed a local flight permission
request but was told from the control that local flights were
canceled due to the military exercise.” On Sunday morning then
he drove his family to a field and set for the airport and took
off for, this time approved, local flight. He landed on the field,
boarded the family and a few pieces of luggage and attempted
to take off. He failed due to overloaded Trener and wet and soft
surface, so he sent his wife and children to wait at the Kladno
airport runway end. “There were already a lot of people mingling around me. But some guys went for a snack, and I sent some
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