Pardubice's 30th Airshow
While Europe is still suffering from the measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and gathering of crowds is forbidden, aviation enthusiasts in the Czech Republic were in a rather unique position: they were able to witness a real airshow on Saturday 29 May 2021! Thanks to Petr Hunacek, we are able to share some of it with you. Petr, Děkuju!
The event took place at Pardubice air base, home of the Centrum Leteckého Výcviku (CLV, Flight Training Center) of the Vzdušných Sil (VS, Czech Air Force). It was the 30th edition of the Pardubice airshow. As the host of the airshow, CLV showed several of the types that are used in the training of future Czech Air Force pilots.
Three Zlin Z142C-AF primary trainers (0556, 0558 and 0557) were present and Aero L-39 0441 was flown during a display. For multi-engined aircraft training, CLV owns two Czech built LET L-410UVP/UVP-T, of which 0928 was flown.
Next to the fixed wing aircraft two helicopters out of the CLV inventory were flown. Very rare, is the sole Mil Mi-2 owned by CLV , 0711, which is almost a classic in itself. Modern helicopter training was represented by Enstrom 480B 0474, one of the six owned by the Flight Training Center.
Early aviation history was present in the shape of a Bleriot XI flown by Miroslav Bouda. The days of the Great War were represented by two Nieuports, a XI and a XII, a Fokker DVIII and a Pfalz fighter.
Two De Havilland Tiger Moths (G-ANFP, with RAF serial N-9503/39 and G-AMIV, with serial R-5246/40) were flown by pilots of the RAF Station Czechoslovakia Foundation. This foundation wants to commemorate the fact that a large contingent of Czechoslovak pilots flew in the British Royal Air Force during WW II. Many of them had their primary training on the well-known biplane.
LET built C.11 (licence of the Yakovlev Yak-11) OK-JZE (as PS-28) showed how flight training was done in the days when the people of Czechoslovakia was locked away behind the Iron Curtain.
Czech and Slovak pilots have always excelled in aerobatics and have gained fame all over the world. For this reason Red Bull has contracted two of them for the Flying Bulls: Stanislav Čejka and Jan Rudzinskyj. They displayed there XtremeAir XA-42s, OK-FBA and FBD. Other aerobatics were performed by Petr Kopfstein in Extra EA-330SC OK-KOP, and Miroslav Červenka in biplane D-EELE, a CASA 1.131 Jungmann.
Photos: Petr Hunacek