Radka Máchová (born January 14, 1949) is a Czech aerobatic pilot.

Life and career

Máchová was interested in flight since childhood. At the age of 15, she did her first parachute

skydive Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

. She was interested in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

but was also interested in aircraft construction. She graduated from the

University of Žilina The University of Žilina was established on 1 October 1953 as the College of Railways in Praha, Slovakia, Prague. In 1959, the institution changed its name to the University of Transport and moved to Žilina. As a result of the increasing role ...

, specializing in aeronautics and air transport, and in 1971 she received a

pilot's license Pilot licensing or certification refers to permits for operating aircraft. Flight crew licences are regulated by ICAO Annex 1 and issued by the civil aviation authority of each country. CAA’s have to establish that the holder has met a specifi ...

. After graduation, she returned to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and received a commercial pilot license (CPL) from the Prague Aero Club. She was a member of the Czechoslovak National Aerobatic Team. She worked as a manager of air traffic.

Flying Bulls

In 2001 she joined the Flying Bulls Aerobatics Team. The group was originally based in

Chrudim Chrudim () is a town in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. It is the second largest town of the region. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. Admin ...

, East Bohemia, but later it moved to another part of this region, Jaroměř-Josefov

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

. In 2002 she became the leading officer of this team. The shows of The Flying Bulls were specialized in precise

aerobatics Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...

flying in box formation of four

Zlín Z-50 The Zlin Z-50 is an aerobatic sports airplane built by the Czechoslovakian company Zlin Aircraft. History In the autumn of 1973 Zlín Aircraft decided to develop a new single seat aerobatic airplane. The design team was headed by Jan Mikula, ...

planes including ''Apache Roll'' figure, when Radka Máchová and Miroslav Krejší flew in the mirror position, while Jiří Saller rolled close around them. In 2015 she was removed from this job during the team reconstruction. This decision was controversial. Radka’s teammate Jiří Saller gave his resignation for his team membership in the result of this affair (the second reason of this controversy was the plane changing, when Zlín Z-50 type was replaced with generally different XtremeAir XA42). Flying Bulls Aerobatics Team 05

Bangalore accident

19th Feb 2015 Radka Máchová and Jiří Saller collided during AERO India show in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. Although Máchová’s plane lost its propeller and Saller’s plane had heavily damaged wing and blocked control elements, both pilots landed without any injury. It was no reason for Máchová’s end in leader position because of older decision about Flying Bulls reconstruction.

Historical flying

Radka Máchová is a part of historical flying formation named ''Pterodactyl Flight'' since 2015. She pilots

Fokker E.III The Fokker E.III was the main variant of the ''Eindecker'' (literally meaning "one deck") fighter aircraft of World War I. It entered service on the Western Front in December 1915 and was also supplied to Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Design and ...

replica.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Máchová, Radka Living people 1949 births Czech aviators Commercial aviators Women aviators University of Žilina alumni