ZLÍN Z-126
The aircraft with OK-DVG designation was produced as the thirty-eighth unit of the then produced Zlín Z-26 Trenér type under the serial number 525 and its airframe bears the date of production 30 August 1950. It was then mothballed on 28 November 1950 and shortly thereafter was handed over as Zlín C-5 with fuselage code UC-38 to the 1st Aviation Training Regiment in Olomouc. It was used by the Czechoslovak Air Force for elementary pilot training until 1954, when the C-5 was replaced by the newer C-105 Zlin and the original C-5s were retired from air force service. It was registered in the aviation register as OK-DVG on 22 April 1955 and flew with the Liberec Aero Club until 1966, when the aircraft was taken out of service because it was allegedly too old...
However, the decommissioned OK-DVG aircraft was noticed by Mr. František Altner, who managed to buy the incomplete aircraft into private ownership and carried out an overhaul at his own expense, during which the aircraft was modified into the Z-126 type and at the end of 1970 it was re-registered as OK-EKA. In 1976 it underwent another overhaul and then flew with the Příbram Aero Club until 1981, when it was again scrapped for the second time due to its age.
During the eighties it was unfortunately a source of spare parts and it seemed that its fate was already sealed for good, but thanks to the members of the Aero Club Příbram it was saved and in the mid-nineties it was delivered for overhaul at the company Zlin-Avion Service in Holešov. After this repair, the aircraft was brought back to the approximate condition in which it was flying in the Czechoslovak Air Force at the beginning of the 1950s, with the help of surviving clippings of the original plates and available photographs. In this form it was flown on 2 September 1997 and then it was handed over for use to the Příbram Aeroclub, where this aircraft is still flying today and thus became the oldest flying and preserved Trainer in the world.
Source: www.startovac.cz
