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Aeroplane meets…
Elly Sallingboe
TSR2
50 YEARS ON
Inside stories of the
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Saab J 21 DATABASE
MAY 2015
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9 770143 724095
05
SPITFIRE OV ER PRAGUE
SALUTE TO THE
WINGED LION
The owner-pilot of Spitfire LFXVIe TE184
looks back at his part in some memorable
Second World War commemorations
WORDS: STEPHEN STEAD
102 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
AEROPLANE MAY 2015
R
ewind to the winter
of 2013. I had been
contacted by Her
Majesty’s defence
attaché to the Czech Republic and
Slovakia, Col Andrew Shepherd,
who asked if I could provide my
Spitfire for sunset flypasts over the
specially-commissioned Winged
Lion memorial, funded by the
British community to honour the
2,500 Czechoslovak servicemen
and women who served in the
RAF during World War Two. Coordinated and facilitated with the
British embassy, the flypasts were
to be held in Prague and Bratislava
on consecutive days in June 2014.
Plenty of daylight to play with, then.
I was just faced with the logistical
challenges of getting the ‘Spit’ to
the Czech Republic, serviceable and
with all the necessary paperwork in
place to enter the prohibited airspace
around the historic Prague castle.
Yes, the paperwork. So the
saying goes, nothing can be done
until the weight of the paperwork
equals that of the aircraft. This
is where Jiri Horak came to the
fore. Jiri is a professional airline
captain flying Airbus A320s, but
more importantly he runs Classic
Trainers based at Plzeň-Líně in the
Czech Republic with an immaculate
collection comprising a Harvard,
Stearman and Pilatus P2. Anyway,
Jiri knows all the powers-that-be,
and in addition his ever-helpful
wife Olga is a senior manager at
the Prague air traffic control centre.
Suffice to say, after several months
of discussion and applications to
the Czech Civil Aviation Authority,
the Prague city authorities and even
the President’s office, with detailed
contingency plans, approved flight
paths and emergency landing sites in
case of engine failure, the necessary
approvals are obtained. We are on!
One job remains after the annual
maintenance by the team at the
Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar, and that
is to put TE184 into the markings of
Czechoslovak ace Otto Smik, coded
DU-N. Superb job, guys! Smik was
the fifth highest-scoring Czechoslovak
pilot, shooting down nine Luftwaffe
fighters and three V1s.
And so to the flying. Flight plan
filed, I find myself coasting out
over Dover from Biggin on a sunny
Sunday, en route to Bremgarten,
Germany, with an interim fuel stop
in Amiens — total time, two hours
20 minutes. I am at Bremgarten
by 16.00hrs. TE184 is left in the
commodious Max Alpha Aviation
hangar surrounded by Mustangs,
BELOW: Resplendent
in No 312 Squadron
markings, Spitfire
LFXVIe TE184 is
flown by its owner
Stephen Stead
during its trip last
summer to the
Czech Republic.
JAKUB VANEK
ð
AEROPLANE MAY 2015
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 103
SPITFIRE OV ER PRAGUE
ABOVE: World War
Two veterans Petr
Arton, Emil Bocek,
Tomas Gibian and
Alois Dubec pose by
the Spitfire during
its stop at Kbely.
VIT SIMANEK/
CZECH NEWS AGENCY/
PRESS ASSOCIATION IMAGES
RIGHT: Stephen
flies TE184 over
some of the crowds
assembled on
Charles Bridge.
DAN MATERNA
Yaks, another ‘Spit’ and further
assorted classics.
Together with Dan Griffith, I pick
up TE184 and my Yak-3 a week later
and head off to the Czech Republic.
We manage a short photo flight over
the scenic Black Forest as we depart
Bremgarten, expertly organised by
Christian Bramkamp and with ace
photographer Richard Paver. An hour
and 25 minutes later we are in Plzeň
for a short stop to refuel, fix a snag
on the Yak and complete the short
30-minute sector across to Pardubice to
participate in the annual airshow there.
A superb show completed with
the Czech-coded TE184 as its star,
we return to Plzeň on Sunday. The
Spitfire is safely in the Czech Republic,
close to Prague and fully serviceable.
An air-to-air session managed by
Michal Krechowski provided the
photographic evidence.
❖
Two weeks later, we are fast
approaching the Winged Lion
ceremonies. These are to take place
on 17 June, but before then I have
two more events to manage. On
Saturday 14th it’s an airshow in
show has some fine participants
including the P-40 from France,
Plane Sailing’s Catalina, and a local
Mustang and T-28, as well as the
Czech Air Force with its Gripens
from 211 Tactical Squadron. The call
comes: could I do a formation fly-by
with the Gripens? You bet I could!
It was a brief hop across to the
Czech Air Force base at Kbely in
Prague, my chosen operational
base for the Winged Lion event.
To further highlight the Spitfire,
it’s open night at the world-famous
Letecké Muzeum Kbely (Kbely
Aviation Museum) and TE184 will
be on display. I park the ‘Spit’, shut
her down and secure her. Then I
have to run, as I have a flight back
‘Crowds line the riverbank and castle
walls, while the bridges over the River
Vltava teem with spectators’
Mladá Boleslav, so on an auspicious
Friday 13th I am back to pick up
the Spitfire and make the short
transit from Plzeň. In fact, air traffic
suggests I route directly overhead
Prague’s Václav Havel Airport, with
a couple of orbits of the tower for
good measure. Mlada Boleslav is
celebrating the opening of a superb
new air museum, and the one-day
104 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
to the UK in order to celebrate my
daughter’s 18th the next day. That’s
another big event, but I’m back in
Prague on Monday 16th to check
over TE184 ready for the show.
The day of the flypast dawns
bright and sunny. I transfer to Kbely
by bus from my hotel with the
assembled group of veterans. While
I go to pre-flight the Spitfire, they
attend a VIP reception with Andrew
Shepherd and Nicholas Soames
MP, Winston Churchill’s grandson,
who will unveil the statue. We push
the fuelled and checked Spitfire in
front of the VIP terminal so that
the assembled veterans and media
can inspect her. She is joined by a
squadron of Zlins and an Aero 145
which will also be flying over the
city to mark the occasion, led by my
friends Radim, Jan and Ales.
After many emotive speeches and
a press briefing, I am ready for a
practice trip over the site of the statue
and then over the British Embassy.
I take off at 11.00hrs for the flight
along the glistening Vltava River, into
the restricted and prohibited zones
— the first Spitfire to fly over central
Prague since 1945. I turn around the
Petřín tower and head back down the
river route to Kbely. I’m just about
to join downwind when a cheery
“Good luck, Stephen” comes across
the radio. My Polish Spitfire pilot
friend Jacek Mainka is in his Airbus,
monitoring the Kbely frequency from
FL380, and can’t resist participating.
Landing uneventfully, I taxi back to
the deserted terminal and get ready
to wait in the 35-degree heat until
18.00, the time of the real flypast.
To break the monotony I am
offered and accept a flight over Prague
in a superb Let L-200 Morava twin.
The purpose of this is that the city
authorities want air-to-air pictures of
AEROPLANE MAY 2015
this once-in-a-lifetime event, with the
golden city of Prague as a backdrop.
I will fly my routing and they will
photograph me from above.
18.00 duly arrives, and I am alone
to start the ‘Spit’ and take off. It
bursts into life without hesitation —
this is the most reliable combination
of aircraft and engine I have come
across. I taxi out and am cleared
for an immediate take-off, with a
right-hand 180 turn to bring me
on track to my rendezvous with the
lion monument. I am asked to keep
lower on this run, always, of course,
within gliding distance of the river or
emergency landing zones. Crowds line
the riverbank and castle walls, while
the bridges teem with spectators.
More by luck than judgement the
photo-ship captures images of me
over Charles Bridge, the Winged Lion
itself and the British Embassy.
❖
Back along the river, Merlin in
full song, I head home to Kbely for a
lovely landing. I put the ‘Spit’ to bed
in the hangar, and then am driven
to the party to celebrate the Queen’s
birthday at the British Embassy.
There I meet the British ambassador,
the President of the Czech Republic,
and ACM Sir Stuart Peach who is
representing the RAF at the two
events. What a day — amazingly, it
all worked. All the planning had paid
AEROPLANE MAY 2015
off. As I said, without Jiri we could
not have done it.
Wednesday 18th again saw fine
weather. I drive back to Kbely,
prepare the ‘Spit’ and depart for the
50-minute flight to the Slovak capital
Bratislava, where the performance
would be repeated with a sortie
over the city and the River Danube.
En route I make a special tribute
flypast over Otto Smik’s final resting
place, a cemetery on the outskirts of
Bratislava. He was lost to anti-aircraft
fire over Holland in November 1944.
Again a fixer was needed for this
occasion, for securing the aeroplane
and getting the permissions; this time
my old friend Jan Jendrol put in place
all the necessary paperwork. Another
flypast, another Queen’s birthday
party, and a night in Bratislava before
the flight the next day back to PlzeňLíně. There the friendly faces of Jiri
and Radim greet me, with the Czech
squadron and RAF flags flying.
I wait in Plzeň for the arrival a
couple of days later of Jacek Mainka.
He is tasked to take TE184 on the
next leg of her journey, into Poland
where we will be honouring the Polish
RAF aircrew. Jacek is the first Polishborn pilot to fly a Spitfire in 70 years,
and the first ever to land a Spitfire in
Poland, but that’s a whole different
story — as told in the February 2015
Aeroplane. Meanwhile, celebrated
aviation artist Vladimir Urbanek
sketches the commemorative picture
that’s to be printed in aid of the
surviving veterans.
Once again, my sincere thanks to
all the supporters and helpers
who made this event possible.
ABOVE: The
towers of Prague’s
14th-century
Church of Our Lady
provide part of the
backdrop to this
shot of TE184.
JAKUB VANEK
LEFT: The Winged
Lion statue, by
British sculptor
Colin Spofforth,
stands on a
concrete plinth. The
2m-high bronze
sculpture was
donated by the
British community
in the Czech
Republic.
VIT SIMANEK/
CZECH NEWS AGENCY/
PRESS ASSOCIATION IMAGES
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