172driver wrote:
I can assure you, that was definitely NOT the standard procedure in Austria at the time.
Yes I know that. But he probably didn’t, certainly not for sure.
During 1946-1989 Czechs were not allowed to travel to Austria unless they were trusted Party members. Same with Yugoslavia. So I think Austria would not have sent them back (the way Finland sent back Russians).
That description of the CZ border is about right. Standard stuff, required to protect Socialism from the American Capitalist Imperialists. Funny that more border guards died than people escaping 
Not surprised he went to America.
Graham wrote:
For all he knew the standard procedure might have been to drive him back to the border and hand him over.
I can assure you, that was definitely NOT the standard procedure in Austria at the time.
His flight (as in fleeing) was no joke.
End in the death strip
At the Iron Curtain, which separated the then CSSR from Austria and West Germany for decades, more blood has flowed than is commonly assumed. The authorities in Prague have now determined that a total of 282 refugees and 648 border guards had to lose their lives in the years 1948 to 1990.
by Michael Schmölzer
The Iron Curtain, which separated Czechoslovakia from the West until 1989, stretched over 900 kilometers. The barriers made of barbed wire and watchtowers were moved a good deal inland. Before the actual fortifications, there was a restricted area of several kilometers before 1989, which could only be entered with a special state license. Refugees who had overcome the fortifications were therefore initially still on Czechoslovak soil and could be shot as “republic refugees.”
Death in the minefield
The Prague Authority for Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism (UDV) has now determined the exact number of victims after laborious detail work. (The “Wiener Zeitung” reported). According to this, 282 refugees died in the death strip of ex-Czech Slovakia in the years 1948 to 1990.
In the 1950s, the wire fences were even under high tension. In addition, there were minefields, trained dogs, and border guards who were instructed to shoot at fugitives. Known, for example, is the case of a soldier who shot a family man in front of his wife and children and received an order for it – because he had caught the culprit and “sforned his wife and children”. According to the UVD to Radio Prague, most fugitives were shot between February 1948 and the mid-1950s. There were also high numbers of victims in 1945 and 1948, even before the construction of the actual Iron Curtain. At that time, the border guards shot mainly at displaced Germans who – as locals – sneaked across the border to save belongings, as Alfred Bäcker from the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft in Austria confirms to the “Wiener Zeitung”. According to the UVD report, foreigners died at the border even after 1948, especially GDR citizens, Poland or Hungary. 14 Austrians were also killed. Remarkable is the number of border guards who persely on the border. According to the surveys of the UVD, 648 mostly young men paid their service with their lives. Only a few fell during firefights. The majority of these soldiers died in mine explosions, got into the high current themselves, suffered other accidents or committed suicide. Translated // wienerzeitung.at
aart wrote:
Quite a story indeed. But how exactly do you get into the cone of silence from below without being painted by the radar?
I don’t know much about radar and nothing about the particular capabilities of the units likely to be used in that area at that time, but I’m guessing you can avoid all but very brief detection through flying to the radar head ‘in the weeds’ and then climbing up into the cone. It might depend on whether the operator considered a brief return at very close range to be spurious, or whether they thought it was worth asking someone to open the door and look outside.
What’s wonderful about his optimism and desire to escape is that he had no way of knowing what would happen when he landed in Austria. For all he knew the standard procedure might have been to drive him back to the border and hand him over.
aart wrote:
So he probably created a massive signal on the radar which the operator must have interpreted as a spurious signal I suppose. maybe even just one blip if it was a slowly rotating long range one :)
Also, the operators may well have not thought much of a signal coming from inside the CSSR. I suppose, they were much more attentive to anything coming from the other – Austrian – side.
Silvaire wrote:
They are 40 nm apart. Here is a view of the Sectional, neglecting the Restricted Area in between it shows the route from Wendover (KENV) to Lucin in relation to Salt Lake City.
Ah right. I got confused as Google referred to a road going there by Wendover… but clearly it’s a different field.
That hangar of his looks really cool. A little bit like the fictional hangar of a certain Dirk Pitt in IAD, which Clive Cussler defined as the ultimate mancave. Or the “Hornbach” commercials with that guy making ridiculous things out of their stock… “he has time, he has space, he has ideas”.
Thanks Snoopy. So he probably created a massive signal on the radar which the operator must have interpreted as a spurious signal I suppose. maybe even just one blip if it was a slowly rotating long range one :)
If you go to Berlin and see Ivo’s trike on display, notice the nick in one of the (fiberglass?) prop blades. As he took off, he heard a rock hit one of the blades. Had he made the prop from wood, he says it probably would have broken. Instead, it held together as he flew above the trees toward a border radar station. Directly above the station, he pushed the engine to full power and climbed inside the radar’s cone-shaped blind-spot to a couple of thousand feet, then glided swiftly across the Danube River to safety in Austrian airspace. // Source https://ivoprop.com/about/
I wonder, is this possibly the former Wendover airbase? Looks small for it but who knows.
They are 40 nm apart. Here is a view of the Sectional, neglecting the Restricted Area in between it shows the route from Wendover (KENV) to Lucin in relation to Salt Lake City.
