Preserving what little’s left
While aviation history has always figured in my work here in one form or another, ever since late 2013 I’ve started devoting much of my Achtung, Skyhawk! time to covering – in some depth – a range of aeronautical topics from the recent histories of both Croatia and ex-Yugoslavia. All of these works include a fair amount of my own original research, often in the form of “picking the brains” of the people directly involved – as well as collecting, collating and sorting through information obtained from various official sources (CAA’s, operators, manufacturers, …) scattered throughout the region. Aiming to provide an accurate as possible account of the machines involved while steering clear of politics, these works have so far shown themselves to be popular with my readers, prompting me to pool them in one place for ease of access. Covering topics from the 50s all the way into the 90s, they will hopefully add their tiny bit to preserving the region’s rich, interesting – and often undervalued – aviation heritage…
Civil aircraft:
- Calm Dog: MD-82 S5-ACC at Maribor – review of a stored former Air Adriatic MD-82
- Cold Case: The Last Flight of Dakota YU-ABC – partial review of YU-ABC’s fatal CFIT accident in 1950
- Smoke & No Mirrors: MD-82 9A-CBG at Rijeka – review of an Air Adriatic MD-turned-fire-trainer
- The Yugoslav Czech: Let L-200 Morava at LDZA – review of preserved Yugoslav-assembled L-200D
Military and government aircraft:
- Domesticated Dornier: The Croatian AF’s Do-28 9A-ISC – review of Croatia’s wartime Do-28D
- The Wizard of Kranj: YuAF Aircraft Restored – review of Slovenian S.106, IF-86D, F-84G and Gazelle restorations
Airlines and airports:
- Props are Turning: Croatia Airlines’ GA beginnings – in-depth review of Croatia Airlines’ initial fleet
- Ye Olde ZAG: 80s LDZA Airport Charts – collection of early 80s Jeppesen charts for Zagreb Airport
The Utva U-75 series:
- 2+2: The Four Seat UTVA 75 – review of the world’s sole surviving UTVA U-75A
- A Tale Of Three (and a bit) Utvas – photo file w/ details of all the U-75s I’ve flown and photographed
- That 70s Plane: Flying The UTVA 75 Trainer – an amateur flight report from my first flight on the U-75
Cropdusting Airstrips series:
- Croatia’s Abandoned Cropdusting Airstrips – a large review of several abandoned cropdusting airfields in central Croatia, the start point of the whole series
- Update 1 – a short piece covering my landing at Čazma (ex. LDZC)
- The Not So Abandoned Ones – photo & video file of landing at formerly abandoned Korija and Čađavica
- Nova Rača – photo & video file of landing at the newly reopened Nova Rača
Achtung, Skyhawk! 