Okay, I mentioned this a few times on other posts, but I finally got around to doing it … so it’s a trip report.
We had an OP that mentioned that the son liked aviation so I went looking for something here in town. I found some great sounding old planes to see up close and I found some flight simulators for Western and Soviet planes where even a kid can practice on them. And I found Goldtimers an antique plane group located at the WWII / Cold War era Budapest airport. http://www.goldtimer.hu/ Unfortunately the OP changed travel plans.
They have several planes to choose from including two biplanes, a c. 1949 monoplane, several gliders and a Li-2 which was a Soviet produced DC3. I chose the soviet PO 2 biplanen designed in the 1920’s and produced in Poland in 1954. So its barely more than 70 years old. From the history of the plane (You just can’t make this stuff up):
In 1986, [the pilot] died of a heart attack in the air after finishing
his demonstration at the Budaörs Air Show and [the plane] landed "by itself" next
to the airport with the dead pilot in the seat. Since 1987, the damage
has been repaired, and it has been the most frequently used and most
popular Hungarian old-timer aircraft.
Extremely reassuring.
We flew out over the Buda hills. Mostly within 50 feet of the treetops. When he banked the plane, the wings were 45 degrees from the ground below and at times I thought would scrape the tops of the trees. We followed the contours of the foot hills following the rise in the land then going down deep into the valleys. We didn’t keep much elevation over the farm houses we passed which as noisy as the plane is I am sure wasnt appreciated. We passed one communications tower with the wing tip even with and maybe only 100 feet from the antenna. We got to one beautiful long yellow field and he took the plane within feet of the ground and opened it up …… maybe we did 100mph in the old plane but it felt like twice that.
It was a great show and a great ride and something that will not be forgotten. The pilot could not have done better. The 30-minute ride was worth every cent and every second. The pilot and the staff were exceptional. https://1drv.ms/f/c/c9f4c533eb93d92e/Esm6cJ6dXxhOrLiAlzE_dsIBdNgDXCaXfmQLmJ915wOPUg?e=PnVXmt