"...And do you already have the editorial?" Kamil, my closest editorial colleague, asked me while completing the previews of the issue for proofreading before printing. I was a bit stumped because I couldn't think of a sensible topic right away and page #3 was blank.
And in that came a message, which I would like to - to get to her sooner - put in short messages. But I'm happy to share it like this. This is good news for several reasons that are good to be aware of. Vašek, a young pilot from southern Bohemia, to whom I sold my little Straton, which had been disassembled in the process of overhaul, about two years ago, called me to inform me that the Stratonek is flying again. I was happy about the news for several reasons. Originally, I didn't want to sell the plane at all. I intended to fix it up and make it a bit more personal, but the process turned out to be more time-consuming than I had anticipated. And so I preferred to "shoot" him for a symbolic price, which I put in order to go quickly. I made my good friend a bit sad at the time, who was fond of wings, which are very nicely built. But I wanted the plane to keep flying and serve someone else as well as me, and such "cannibalization" didn't fit into that. The buyer was found almost immediately, and in addition, it seemed that he knew what he was doing, which was confirmed already at the time of acceptance, when his practical experience with repairs and working on such a structure showed. After two years of his work, Stratonek's chassis has been converted to a two-wheeled one and a reducer has been added to the engine. Now I am happy that I made the right decision - the plane flies and someone benefits from it as a whole. And in addition, someone like Vašek - a heartthrob who (yet) does not earn enough to buy a metal or composite "grinding machine", but is of the same "blood group" as the people on whom the Aviation Amateur Association stood from the beginning - skilled and keen on aircraft handiwork and settles for one he can fit himself into and is far from traveling fast.
The decision to free your hands and at the same time not to let your beloved decay somewhere incomplete was therefore the right one. And another thing that I am happy about is that these things are simply still possible in our country - we have a category of aircraft that are affordable, technologically undemanding and allow amateur work. I'm also glad that there are young people here who enjoy it (while the old ones are leaving, as you can read in the issue...). And if I have to take a detour to return to a more editorial topic, then you just have to read the short news, where you can find, for example, good news about what can happen to someone for good sports performances, when the weather is good, and you will surely have good motivation for the started season. I think you will also find some good tips in the issue, both for free flying (for example from Peter Polácha), and for flying with a propeller (Michal Orlita answers a frequently discussed question about flying circles).
I wish you good reading, beautiful flying weather and many take-offs, so many landings!
Vojta Shaman