Return to Buenos Aires and home

After the various protocols were drawn up and other matters connected with the tragic accident of the Z-226 Trainer plane, which was driven into a pit outside the city, were closed, the delegation went to the capital of Uruguay on the 21st of May. There the last few days of aircraft presentations awaited them. This time, the riverbeds had calmed down after the huge flood and the expedition was able to present Czechoslovak aircraft in all their splendour.

Everything went according to plan, and so already on the 30th of May, the expedition landed in Baires at the base of Don Torcuato. Before the final return to the Czech Republic, however, it was still necessary to hand over the L-40 and L-60 aircraft to their new owners. "We sold them during the tour," recalls Luděk Skočdopole, the leader of the expedition and an employee of the OMNIPOL company.

L-60 at a new customer in Mendoza

The L-60 Brigadyr ended up with a new owner in Mendoza, Argentina, the machine was handed over in mid-June. Miroslav Křemen covered a thousand kilometres with a Czechoslovak machine in less than eight hours.

"During the flight, in the back of the plane were seated two prominent passengers who probably wanted to get to Mendoza cheaply. The only layover was in Rufino, where I landed at a deserted airfield and taxied to the side of a locked gas station. A native emerged from somewhere and "fired" at me ruthlessly in Catalan, from which I only understood that the lady from the petrol station was at home," he says in his book "Travels of the Aviation Life".

And he adds: "The two passengers who probably long ago regretted going on this adventure with me got involved. With an increased cadence of Catalan, they somehow forced the native to go to the end for the "petrol lady". I made the last few handover flights in Mendoza and returned to Baires via the Argentinian line," concludes Miroslav Křemen.

They came back as heroes

In a few days, the members of the expedition returned to Czechoslovakia, where they landed as heroes. During their six-month trip, several celebratory articles were published highlighting their successes in South America. They mentioned, for example, the successful crossing of the Kordiller or the crowds of fans who came to watch the individual performances.

"You can see from the newspaper clippings that there was interest in us in Latin America," confirms Luděk Skočdopole, head of the expedition and an employee of the OMNIPOL company.

All that was left was to start preparing for the next presentation of Czechoslovak aircraft in the world. "Even at that time, the emphasis was on promoting airplanes abroad. We were not only in Latin America, but we also flew to Cape Town, for example, or various places around the world. And it wasn't just individual promotional events, we also participated in trade fairs," 94-year-old former CEO of OMNIPOL Luděk Skočdopole concludes his story about Latin America today.

This is the end of our series about the unique six-month trip organized by OMNIPOL in the late 1950’s. We therefore thank Mr. Skočdopole for the valuable memories, photographs and contemporary texts, without which this story could not have been created.