November 2018 FLYPAST 75aircraft were built under licence in Romania after the war
Spotlight on
a Storch rescuethen returned to Switzerland where
it was given its current registration
HB-EHJ. The Storch was repainted
in its former markings, becoming
A-97 once more, and the Swiss civil
aviation authority (Bundesamt für
Zivilluftfahrt) issued the Fieseler’s
6464
certificate of airworthiness in
July 2017.
Nicknamed ‘Hero of Gauli’ by
those involved in the incident,
HB-EHJ remains on loan to the
society from the Swiss state. A
second Storch, registered HB-EIJ, is
owned by the group and is painted
to represent A-98. The original
A-98 – confiscated with A-97 in
1943 – crashed in July 1948 near
the mountain pass at Albula. India-
Juliet was built in 1946 as a Morane-
Saulnier MS.500 Criquet, powered
by a Salmson-Argus engine.
The society’s third Storch is
another French-built example,
originally an MS.505, and now
fitted with a Lycoming O-540
powerplant. It carries the code A-99
on the fuselage and is on the civil
register as HB-EJJ. This Storch is
used mostly to help pilots attain
their ‘mountain flying’ rating –
landing and taking off from different
glaciers in Switzerland.
Storch A-99 was temporarily
out of action last year following acrash-landing on the grass runway
at Greifensee. Thankfully, nobody
was hurt in the accident and the
aircraft has been repaired and made
airworthy again. A further three
Fieselers are currently being restored
on behalf of the society by Royal-
Star Aero, the successor to Aero-
Kros, in Krosno.
Attention is now turning to
recreating A-97’s historic flight
to and from the Gauli Glacier,
a feat the team hopes to achieve
next spring. The aim is to land as
close as possible to the scene of the
1946 rescue, but safety remains
paramount and the flight won’t be
attempted unless weather and snow
conditions on the glacier are perfect.
It should be noted that it’s normally
forbidden to land any aircraft on
Gauli, but the Bundesamt für
Zivilluftfahrt has made an exception
on this occasion. All parties are
united in hoping the 76-year-old
‘Hero of Gauli’ can commemorate
the beginning of Alpine air rescue.
http://www.storchenfreunde.chAbove left
Storch A-97 on approach
to Meiringen.Above right
Engineers at Aero-Kros in
Krosno, Poland, working
on A-97 in 2016.Left
Cedric Gitchenko checks
the Storch’s oil levels
at Meiringen.Below
The combined tyre and ski
landing gear on A-99 is
clearly visible in this view.