If there is a Czech connection, I think of Chip (chipka) and all his tales set in that fascinating country. So, bear with me for a moment to tell you about what the pilot in the photo above is doing in his Russian Yak-55 aerobatic plane at last Sunday's airshow. Oh, and this is the son from a father-son aerobatic team...more on them in a later post. A Lomcovak is an aerobatic maneuver that can be performed by an aeroplane. The word originates from the Czechoslovakian aerobatic pilot Ladislav Bezak's mechanic, who at a 1958 air show in Brno, Czechoslovakia jokingly called Bezak's tumble maneuvres "Lomcovaks" when asked by journalists what they were. According to Miroslav A. Liskutin, a Czechoslovak fighter pilot, veteran of the RAF, this maneuver was flown by himself and other pilots on Bucker Bu 131 Jungmann/Aero C-4 biplanes at early post-WWII period air shows around Czechoslovakia and it was called "talirek" (small saucer) due to the horizontal rotary movement of the aircraft. "Lomcovak" translated into English, roughly means "cause of a headache" or "hangover". The expression "Lomcovak" originated from the Moravia region, famous for its Jelinek slivovitz, a traditional Czechoslovakian alcohol, and is commonly used to describe the rotating motions of one who has had one too many. Bill:) P.S. I had to remove all the proper Czech markings over various letters because I could not get them to hold once uploaded...they simply caused all sorts of havoc and rendered my text above unreadable...and you'd have thought I had one too many slivovitz! "They Made Tanks Too"