Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/448712
INTERVIEW ŁP: How was your cooperation with the British and the Danish? KS: Very good. Everything started with unexpected kind gestures, when we took over the duty. It was the British general who mentioned at the beginning of his speech the joint British-Polish aviation history, our RAF squadrons stationing in the Great Britain during Second World War and the Polish contribution to the Battle of Britain. He men- tioned the names of well known pilots and said many kind words. After such a beginning things got even better. We worked together and we conducted joint training missions. This means a lot for the pilot. The same happened with the Danish contingent. In this case briefings looked differently. The British were on the spot while with the French and the Danish everything had to be done via telephone or email. In the air we met very often. Majority of PMC missions were conducted in large forma- tions with foreign airplanes. ŁP: Regarding the missions. How many training mission did the PMC Orlik V carry out? KS: We conducted 119 training missions. ŁP: How about the combat missions? KS: We completed 30 combat missions. Together with tra- ining missions we spent 300 hours in the air. ŁP: Due to the Ukrainian Crisis, situation, you operated in, was not so straightforward. KS: FCorrect, you could not miss that. There was an atmo- sphere of fear from our host side. If Russia "plays" like this with Ukraine, which is a large country, which has armed forces, so what will happened with those Three without an impressive military. None of these countries have any Air Force. The only assurance of the peace is the member- ship in the NATO and the allied presence on their territory. I believe that even if previously the society was divided and questioned whether airplanes are indispensible and have to make such an noise overhead, in this circumstances they will possibly consider this problem a little bit differently. The presence of large number of warplanes cooled all three countries citizen's attitude down.