Sometimes you are in the right place, and at the right time. When we came to Plasy airfield on the 28th April, the second day of the airshow, we stopped by a Polikarpov (“Kukuruznik”) from the WWII on apron:
The pilots were showing the aircraft up to some guests. They opened up everything that could be opened and explained a lot, unfortunately in Czech. We didn’t understand a word, but were happy to see this aircraft and the stuff inside:
Then there was this cute Bücker 133 Jungmeister! In the air it did wonders of aerobatics:
Two gliders that later did breathtaking aerobatics accompanied by music:
There were lots of food stalls, and most of them did real food, i.e. they were preparing meat and fish, vegetables and potatoes on big pans; locally made sausages and fresh fruit. Coffee was first grounded before brewing a cup.
Two Gripen from the Czech Air Force opened the show:
They did some stunning manoeuvres flying in a very close formation. At some point they did a low pass – the sound was almost unbearable!
Beechcraft C-45:
Parachute jumpers:
We saw there were crêpes, and headed there. They did them with chocolate (not nutella or other cheap crap) and with fresh strawberries:
I carefully watched the process, and Vagn suggested I made such crepes for a fly-in at Kræmmersten. That was definitely a good idea! With Vojta, having crêpes and coffee:
SAR helicopter (PZL W-3A Sokol) did demonstrations of rescue operations, and showed off its remarkable capabilities:
Tiger Moth on takeoff:
The airshow was so good organised; there were car and track dealers, entertainment for kids, army, food and drink stalls, merchandise, live broadcasting, you name it. I’ve heard, 20,000 people visit this airshow annually, so popular it is.
Field camp with tents, bikes, cars, etc.:
The team of four Red Bull pilots, after doing their part of the show on the photo below. One of them – Martin Šonka – won the Red Bull Air Race last year. The leader of the team was a woman (she was gone by the time I was taking this photo). They showed world class performance, something I probably never seen before. It was really amazing, what they could do in those racers:
Czech transport aircraft overflew the airfield:
Iveta and Vojta came to say goodbye just before we were going to live. We thanked our hosts for a very nice stay in their house in Plasy:
We took off and had a round over Plasy that was a wonderful home for us during 4 days:
Our next destination was Oehna (EDBO) in Germany. During the day, we were monitoring the weather, and Oehna was what we could reach after the airshow, and where the TAF was better than in other places:
Beautiful fields of Czech Republic:
Crossing the border to Germany:
Oehna airfield on final:
When we landed, Jenz – with whom we communicated earlier this day, and who waited for our arrival – welcomed us to Oehne. There was a cat there, that was clearly annoyed by Vagn’s and mine presence. It was its dinner time, you know. The cat saw that Jenz had its meal in his hand – a can with something delicious for cats. But Jenz wouldn’t give anything to the cat before he was finished with us, and cat hated us for that.
There are several wooden huts for rent right by the side of the runway. We rented one of them – two bedroom, heating, small kitchen, etc. It was very nice. We shared the leftover sandwiches, and agreed to do planning of our next flight the morning after. We’ve learned how to do a short term planning on our three-week tour.