Open Day, Prešov, 2003
The 34th Helicopter Wing of the Slovakian Air Force opens its gates on Children's Day every year. The event is organised to enable the local community and family members and friends to get acquainted with the daily life of the unit. The show was nice in its own right; no one expected an international air show.
The children enjoyed that they were permitted to sit in the three different helicopters the unit put on the static line. An additional armed Mi-24 was on display in one of the hangars.
We watched the flight displays from the small hills built to protect the aircraft. We counted only thirteen helicopters, some of which were retired already like the Mi-8PPA electronic jamming helicopter, on the fifty available aprons. The specially equipped serial 0824 Mi-17 was parked farther away. We saw this chopper in the Bratislava Air Show for the first time in 2002; it probably fulfils ELINT tasks. The dynamic part of the open day was rather short. It included Mi-24 and Mi-17 helicopters and a Z-137 Turbo Čmelák crop dusting aircraft, which put on a spectacular show. The flight line was located far away from the crowd, right in the direction of the sun. This meant that the open day was not for the photo enthusiasts. The fire fighters' show and the ground combat display amazed the children later on. Overall we spent a nice morning at the Prešov Open Day, but we left with some empty rolls of films.
