72 // September 2019 #378flying instructors (QFIs) – 50 maintenance
and logistics personnel, 17 PC-9Ms and
five Zlin 242Ls. There’s also a single PC-9M
simulator used for procedures and instrument
training – standard instrument departure (SID),
instrument landing system (ILS) and others –
but which lacks the scenic surround view.Intensive training programme
Aspirant pilots complete the academic part
of their education at the Faculty of Traffic
Sciences at Zagreb, but not before going to
the EA for an introductory flight on the Zlin
242L to see if the student has the aptitude
for flying. This is the screening phase and
consists of nine to ten flying hours during
39 short flights on the Zlin. Having passed
screening, the student returns to the
academy for two years and five semesters.
Back at Zadar-Zemunik, the fledgling aviator
will start basic training, also called Phase I.
It consists of 94 flights during the contact
segment (basic and aerobatic flying), 16 flights
during the visual flight rules (VFR) navigation
element, plus 18 formation flights. Each
segment concludes with an exam flight to
monitor the student’s progress. After 50 days,
the student will have flown for 56hrs 10mins
during Phase I and, together with screening,
they will have accumulated 66hrs flying the Zlin
242L. Phase I ends with an exam flight and a
decision is made as to whether the student
will pursue the rotary or fixed-wing syllabus.
If the decision is made to continue on fixed-
wing aircraft, the student commences Phase
II on the PC-9M at Zadar-Zemunik. During
this period, the emphasis is on navigation
and instrument flying and consists of the
following segments: contact (96 flights),
VFR navigation (20 flights), instrument flying
(35 flights), contact – night (54 flights),
navigation – night (14 flights) and formation
(21 flights). After 92 days and 123hrs 50mins
in the cockpit, Phase II comes to an end.
The student pilot now continues with
tactical training – Phase III. This is intended
to prepare for the transition to the MiG-21
(or its future fighter successor) and consists
of four segments: tactical formation (23
flights), tactical air-to-ground (18 flights),
tactical air-to-air (24 flights) and verification,
in which all lessons learned are combinedat that time one of only three female military display
pilots in the world. Today she’s still flying here in Zadar,
but now on the CL-415 in the Firefighting Squadron.”
Belancˇ ic ́ , meanwhile, has accumulated more than
1,900 flying hours on both the UTVA 75 and PC-9M. He
added: “Potential new pilots for our team must have
a minimum of 600 flying hours and good grades for
formation flying. We have good insight of cadets coming
to the squadron and we choose them at a very early
stage as we can see their potential. This is followed
by a basic aerobatic screening to see if the pilot is
actually fit to fly in the team and then we start with
training in the team. The PC-9 – although excellent for
tutoring the young students because it’s very reliable
and stable – is a very quiet airplane and it’s not as big
and fast as modern jets. The PC-9 is perhaps not as
attractive as other airplanes – we don’t have smoke;
we are not fast and we are not loud. People often don’t
pay attention to our technique. We very soon realised
that in order to be recognised in that kind of realm
we have to be more attractive, so we started adding
elements. We aren’t doing anything extraordinary.
Usually teams do a stall turn as a single-ship, but we do
it in a two-ship formation. They spin, we do a formation
spin. They tailslide, we do a three-ship tailslide!
“We definitely watch other teams who have similarKrila Oluje
The Croatian Air Force’s most famous ambassadors
are the Krila Oluje (Wings of Storm) aerobatic
team, flying the PC-9M, named after one of
the most famous and final battles during the
1991-95 Croatian War of Independence.
Team leader Darko Belancˇ ic ́ told AFM: “It began
with the idea of launching something special for a
celebration at the base in 2004. Before that, we never
flew in a pair or did aerobatics. We started with a four-
ship flown by three PC-9M pilots of the Fixed-Wing
Squadron, including the squadron commander and a
fourth pilot from the 93rd Air Base Headquarters. With
two aircraft flying behind each other, the third flying
on the left side and the fourth on the right, a very
basic formation became the foundation of the team in- The first unofficial public flight was during the
European sailing championships in Zadar the same
year. Four pilots from the squadron performed a brief
and straightforward display. The first official display
was in 2005 – we were basically the same team –
when we flew on Victory Day, on August 5, in Knin. By
that time the team was officially known as Krila Oluje.
By the end of 2005 a fifth plane was added. From 2005
to 2009, Krila Oluje was a five-ship formation and from
2009 a sixth aircraft was added. From 2005 to 2007,
we also had a female team pilot, Captain Diana Doboš,
Below: This year’s Krila Oluje team consists of: No 1, Captain Darko Belancˇ ic ́ ; No 2, Major Ivan Andicˇ ;
No 3, 1st Lieutenant Goran Grgic ́ ; No 4, Major Zvonimir Mravunac; No 5, 1st Lieutenant Denis Živaljic ́
and No 6, 1st Lieutenant Marko Novkovic ́. Right: Thirty-six-year-old Captain Darko Belancˇ ic ́ is an
instructor pilot on the PC-9M and leader of the Krila Oluje team. He has accumulated more than 1,900
fl ying hours on the UTVA 75 and PC-9M and is pictured after a fl ight in an MB-339,
of the Italian Air Force’s Frecce Tricolore, at Zadar-Zemunik on April 4.Croatian Air Force trainers
Above: One PC-9M is on constant alert duty
for search and reconnaissance on behalf of the
Croatian Coast Guard. Although the EA’s PC-9Ms
carry no weapons, their pilots regularly attend
NATO close air support exercises in the region.http://www.airforcesmonthly.com70-74 CroatianTraining AFM Sep2019.indd 72 02/08/2019 17:27:41