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62
FRIDAY, OCT. 30, 1987
Students at the Israel Air Force pilots' school in Rome receive an informal lesson in aerodynamics. Seated fourth
from right is Zeev (Londner) Liron, one of three students to have survived the concentration camps and the only one
still alive today. .
tionately known in the Israel Air Force as
"The Flying Cowboys."
Chester Black suggested I fly with him.
"Much more convenient than going by car,"
he declared. I jumped at the opportunity
and soon found myself seated behind him
under the glass canopy as he jammed the
earphones over the Fedora hat which was
his flying trademark. (A Fedora is a dress
hat normally used for more formal
occasions.)
When we got over 'Ibl Nof, Chester an-
nounced over the earphones; "Tighten your
belt, Vic, we'll do some aerobatics before we
land."
He started off with a loop, but not the
kind they teach you in flying school where
you start it safe 1,000 feet or more above
the ground. Chester started his loop from
ground level, making it just tight enough
to avoid ploughing into the runway on the
down leg. As he pulled out of it, he went
into a barrel roll. Then he repeated the loop,
this time coming out of it with a snap roll.
As if this weren't enough, he did it again,
coming out of it with an Immelman
maneuver. A few more contortions fol-
lowed, by which time I was getting green
around the gills.
At that crucial point, Chester an-
nounced, "O.K., Vic, relax now We're go-
ing to land." But first he made a low pass
to buzz the runway. I noticed that it was
lined with hundreds of people, just about
all the base's personnel. They were ap-
plauding, but they weren't looking at us.
They were looking behind us. So I glanced
back and there was Irving Soltow flying
tight on our wing. It turned out that he
had been doing all those aerobatics in
tandem, locked on Chester's wing!
Thd Gibson, ordinarily no slouch, had
preferred to skip the demonstration and
had landed before us. 'No years later, Gib-
son, the son of a minister from Florida,
died in the crash of an Israeli transport
plane near Zurich. Chester Black reported-
ly met his death in an air race in the U.S.
The most unusual students,
and the most inspiring,
were four refugees from
Eastern Europe. Three of
them had been in
concentration camps.
By the end of March, we had managed
to organize the ground school for pilots
and I was put in charge. It lasted less than
two months. It took some six months more
to get the Air Force's first official flying
school going at Kfar Syrkin. By that time
I had finished my tour of duty and had left
the Air Force.
I did manage to attend the first gradua-
tion ceremony at Kfar Syrkin, however,
which took place around August, 1950.
There, among the graduates getting their
pilots' wings, were all three of my students
who had survived the concentration
Camps.
It was my proudest moment. ❑