Bangalore: As the nine Kiran aircraft of IAF’s Surya Kiran aerobatics team drew Tricolour streaks across the skies on the opening day of Aero India 2011 , a Czech team of veteran flyers became their admirers.
“They are very good,” quipped Miroslav Krejci, 55.
A member of the ‘Flying Bulls’ aerobatics team, Krejci was chilling out after an equally challenging feat. “The Bangalore airfield is challenging. You won’t get the same power as you would at the sea level – so you have to save energy. “The four ZLIN 50 LX aircraft of the ‘Flying Bulls’ had flown close by, looping like an inverted G and a ‘hammerhead’. The announcer turned poetic, talking about butterfly’s grace and a raging bull’s heart.
How do you fly so close? “That is because none of us can see so far away,” team leader Radka Machova, 62, said, leaving Krejci chuckling behind his walrus moustache. All the team members are above 50.
Why do you fly? “Why not?” Krejci quipped. His colleague, Jiri Veprek, 51, sees flying as a “big pleasure”. For Jiri Sallar, 58, who was born at an airport while his family was celebrating the Czech Aviation Day (September 17), flying comes naturally.
“When I married I had a flying licence, so my husband knows what I was up to. I worked on ground for a while and then took up aerobatics.” Her elder son is an air traffic controller and the younger runs an adventure sports shop.
The foundation of the ‘Flying Bulls’ was laid in 1960, when on a small airfield in Chrudim 100km east of Prague, four friends, Tlusty, Struz, Bezak and Klimenda, formed the aerobatics group ‘Box Trener’. Soon, they were winning hearts at air shows, receiving invitations from countries beyond the Czech Republic.
10/02/11 Max Martin/India Today
‘Flying Bulls’ dazzle on Day 1
Published February 10, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Aerobatics, Czech, Flying Bulls
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