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https://twitter.com/Danny_elMayor/statu ... 8850821557
and
https://twitter.com/Danny_elMayor/statu ... 1176802379
for the photos...
Several more pictures thru
https://trebicsky.denik.cz/galerie/louc ... 40&photo=1
https://trebicsky-denik-cz.translate.go ... r_pto=wappThe ultimately last goodbye.
Today 22nd Airbase of Czech Air Force
is saying last goodbye to its Mi-24/35 that were in use of 221st helicopter squadron.
Old aviators that were flying with "Ingots" (slang name for Mi-24), were invited fo the ceremony.
Oct 15, 2023
/PHOTO/ Almost three hundred guests came to the helicopter air force base in Náměšt nad Oslavou
to say goodbye to the Mi - 24V/35 combat helicopters,
which the army is gradually decommissioning.
They will be replaced by the American machines Viper and Venom.
The farewell party, which also included a twenty-minute Mi-24 flight demonstration,
was attended by witnesses who had flown on Russian machines throughout their military careers.
Almost three hundred guests came to the base to say goodbye to the Mi-24 combat helicopters.
17 photos in the gallery ›
Almost three hundred guests came to the base to say goodbye to the Mi-24 combat helicopters.
Eighty-three-year-old Jiří Macura was one of the first five pilots that the army had retrained for a new type of helicopter in 1978.
"We spent two months in Kyrgyzstan then.
The first month we devoted ourselves to theoretical preparation, the second month we already started flying.
The biggest change for us from the previous machine was that the pilots sit behind each other and not next to each other as before.
The cabin was more like an airplane cabin," Macura told ČTK.
From 1974 to 1994, he served in the regiment in Prostějov, in recent years as its commander.
He particularly appreciated the Mi-24's better maneuverability compared to previously used helicopters.
The 67-year-old Ivan Pospíchal also did not miss the farewell to the Mi-24.
"In Prostějov in 1984, after joining the regiment, I started flying Mi-4s,
but the army decided to replace them with Mi-24s.
Everything about them was different.
The fact that the pilots sit behind each other in the cockpit meant that the communication between them completely changed.
You suddenly had to talk more to explain what you wanted to the other person,"
remarked the man, who has also completed two missions in Afghanistan.
It was there that he became familiar with the Venom helicopter as a passenger.
"The equipment is super modern,
it's no longer about analog devices like in the Mi-24,
it's a completely different job," stated Pospíchal.
On the machines that the army will gradually decommission, he appreciates their durability.
"They can stand outside from minus thirty to plus forty degrees.
Modern technology is much more sensitive to temperature and humidity,
it needs more care," he noted.
The Czech Republic is acquiring eight UH-1Y Venom multirole aircraft and four AH-1Z Viper fighters .
They should all be at the vicar's base by March of next year 2024.
So far, there are six American helicopters in the Czech Republic,
which are supposed to gradually replace Russian equipment.
The base has had the first two Viper helicopters since the end of July,
and received the other Venom and Viper in mid-August.
Bell helicopters will replace the Russian Mi-24V/35 in service.
In addition to 12 new helicopters, the U.S. military will give eight modernized machines for free as an award for helping Ukraine.
The Czech army will thus have 20 American machines, ten of the Venom type and the same number of the Viper type.
