The Romanian Air club celebrated its 90 years of existence
with a great show and as fascinated by airplanes, history and military as I am,
I couldn’t miss it.
The festivities were well organized and the issues with the
power company did nothing to spoil the fun of the spectators. The food,
Romanian mititei and tap beer, was good and the prices remained mostly
accessible. Even nature cooperated, the dark cumuli offering a superb
background for the twilight flights. Only the wind acted up at the end, posing some
troubles to the skydivers and the world gliding champion, Luca
Bertossio.
As for the participants, there’s no word strong enough to
convey their skill and talent. We were entertained by sky divers, gliders,
acrobatic planes, decommissioned fighting planes now restored to their former
glory. The Romanian Air Club, the Romanian Hawks, the Baltic Bees, Jurgis
Kairys, the Polish Eagles Foundation, the Flying Bulls, Luca Bertossio, the
Yakkers… The twilight show proved to be even more entertaining than the morning
one, the pilots coming up one after another in a reel of speed and adrenaline, culminating
with an amazing pyrotechnic demonstration from Jurgis Kairys and the Yakkers.
How I longed to be up there with them, dancing in the sky,
bursting from the clouds like an arrow…. Watching them made me regret, and not
for the first time in my adult life, that I choose finance over military
school. But perhaps one day I’ll get my pilot license and I’ll be one of the lucky fews writing history in
the sky.
