“Outside we unpacked the hang-glider, we took it out and we folded it up. He spun my airscrew – he started the hang-glider, we said goodbye to each other and I began my journey. I flew and flew, stepping on the gas and I thought to myself: ‘It’s going to be a snag if it doesn’t take off.’ I went onto the road, it nicely accelerated and yet when I was too close to the poplars, I closed my eyes and the front wheel was already above the ditch. It was in the air and I said to myself: ‘Now, this is much better.’ I pushed down the pad a little and the glider suddenly did ‘shhhh’ and I nicely flew over the poplars… I saw the sun on the west, so I went that way. I flew around the watching station of the system of anti-aircraft defense of the state – PVOS, where at that time four men were having dinner. I nicely greeted them with my cap; I had to hold it so that the wind wouldn’t blow it away. I took it in my hand and waved to them. One of them jumped from the table and went to their caravan. Through the window I could see how he telephoned. I thought: ‘So now he makes a report, thus I have seven and half minutes until the jets take off from Žatec and come here.’ In seven and half minutes – that’s how I had it calculated – they could be there and by that time, theoretically, I was supposed to be behind the borders. I flew around them, but they didn’t shoot, so I was happy.
I flew on, but there was such a hill that I couldn’t get over, so I had to turn back to Bohemia and continue flying through valleys as I wasn’t able to fly high.
One valley, another valley, I made a few loops until I didn’t know where I was anymore. I could hear the jets fly over me, but they were too high, then they turned around and flew back. As they didn’t get down I was hundred percent sure I was on the German side of the borders. Well, now I had enough time, I thought. I wanted to land on the meadow, but when I was on the level of trees, I spotted camouflaged army tanks. They were Russian tanks as Russians guarded our border. ‘Then I have to be still in Bohemia!’ I grouched. I opened the throttle and left right away. The soldiers were waving to me, jumping, calling me to get down, but I dashed behind the hill. And now I hoped to fly over another town, not knowing what town that was. I let the glider go little lower and I tried to find out whether it was a town in Germany or still in Bohemia. But I could see there were German signs.”
“We arrived to a village (Unterlintach) and we entered a pub. He told a tapster that I wanted to use the phone. The tapster showed me the phone and I was allowed to make a call. So I took out the note with my friend’s number and I dialed it. I said to him: ‘Hi Mirek, it’s Vlado.’
‘Hello Vlado, how are you?’ He spoke Czech as he came from Brno.
‘Well, I am doing just fine,’ I said, ‘I am somewhere in Germany, not knowing where exactly I am, but I would need somebody to come and pick me up.’
And he continued: ‘Are you crazy? Where are you?’
‘Eh, I am in Germany. ’
‘And where in Germany are you?’
‘I don’t know where I am, somewhere in Germany. I landed here with hang-glider.’
‘How did you land?’
‘With the hang-glider.’
‘Don’t fool me, how did you get here?’
‘With the hang-glider, I am telling you.’
‘That is not possible, that’s incredible!’
‘You know what, I give you the German guy that brought me here and he’ll explain you everything. He’ll tell you all and you please come and pick me up.’
‘OK, then give me that guy.’
‘So I let him speak with the German, who talked more than 15 minutes. He couldn’t believe I flew in on the hang-glider. Mirek assured him of those facts and then he handed the phone to me.’
Mirek said: ‘Láďo, you are hero!’
“Policemen came; they saw me and smiled. They said I had to come with them. I had to sit in the back alone, the two of them sat in the front. I was sitting in the back, we were driving, it was dark and as I saw, they were driving towards borders. ‘They are taking me back!’ I was completely shocked by that. Now, Plzeň was distanced 86 km, then only 74 km. ‘We are approaching the borders!’ I became really nervous thinking of jumping out of the car as we got closer to the forest. I saw the car wasn’t fixed, so I would be able to open it. I would simply open and jump. But the driver noticed I was speculating about something. He said few words to another man who turned to me and started to communicate with me. I told him: ‘Grenzen?’ – meaning – Are we driving towards borders? – and he understood right away, so he tried to explain me not to be afraid, that they were not going to return me, but that since I crossed the borders in Furth im Wald, I had to be heard by policemen in Furth im Wald. So I became a little calmer. We arrived in Furth im Wald what was actually on the borders, and there was a police station, where they took me. We came there at about 11:30 p.m. and he told me I was going to sleep there, in an opened cell. ‘In the jail? No, I am not going to sleep in that cell. I am not going to jail! I don’t care if I will sleep outside on the bench, but I am not going to sleep in jail!’ And they laughed and explained me not to be so scared, that they wouldn’t close the door; they just wanted to offer me some bed to lie on. Well, that was really funny! Finally they convinced me and I lay down, but I couldn’t sleep anyway.”
“Many people became really interested in the hang-glider. The Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin wanted to buy it. When they came we agreed that I’d give them my hang-glider and they’d pay me 23 thousand German marks for it as for a start. It was a nice help for my new start. When journalists in ‘asylheime’ debated with me, the phone rang. Editors from a Stern magazine, a Munich magazine, called that they would like to buy my story. I didn’t object and one Czech lady interpreted for me.
So I said: ‘No problem.’
They asked: ‘How much would you like for that?’
Journalists, who were there with me, liked me and became my friends, such young guys they were, and they played the game with me. They suggested me to raise the price.
So I said to the phone: ‘Well, here the journalists offer me five thousand German marks.’
‘They want to give you five thousand? We will give you six then!’
I said to the journalists who were with me: ‘Stern gives me six.’
‘Then we give you eight.’
I continued: ‘The journalists raise to eight.’
The interpreter translated: ‘Stern will give you ten!’
Oh, that was such bidding that we came up to 23 thousand German marks. And those journalists assured me that this price was a nice sum, also the interpreter said: ‘Just take it, they are offering you nice money!’
And I thought to myself: ‘Well, here 23 thousand, there 23 thousand, it all gets together and I have a really nice amount of money. I agree and take it!’
‘So for those 23 thousand you will take off in your hang-glider and they will film you, ok?’
I remained quiet, no answer on the phone.
She said: ‘Hello, hello are you there?’
‘Yes, I am here.’
‘Why are you quiet then? Do you take our offer?’
‘Well, I do, but I won’t fly on the hang-glider anymore.’
‘Why? It is nothing for you!’
‘Nothing for me? I have never flown on hang-glider before and this was just a fortuity that I managed to land luckily. What if I take off now and I kill myself? Shall I kill myself now, when being finally free?!’
She laughed and said: ‘Well, wait a second. I will translate that for them.’
So she translated all and I just heard a burst of laughter. She told me: ‘Fine, then don’t talk with anyone anymore, they are coming directly to you.’”
Vladimír Príslupský was born on January 22, 1948 in Klokočov (Michalovce district) in eastern Slovakia. In 1968 during the so-called Dubček’s era he willingly joined the Communist Party. After his high school studies and participating in the compulsory military service he worked in different lower positions within sector of board and services. Gradually he managed to become a head of various boarding and lodging facilities. During one party with his friends he had a fight with some State Security members; however, he wasn’t convicted for this fight. As a consequence of this, the ŠtB members started to search for a way to complicate his life further in retaliation. One year later he had to face a fabricated accusation of larceny of the socialist property and he served nine months on remand. After the release and further problems with the State Security he decided to run away from the Republic. He chose an air glider (rogalo) for his escape - a small hang-glider with a Trabant car engine, even though he couldn’t pilot any plane. He bought the glider from his friend only few weeks before the runaway. The runaway took place on May 18, 1987 over the state border southward from the town of Domažlice. Despite of minimal experiences with flying, approximately at eight o’clock in the evening he took off near the village Mrakov and nearby the border crossing Folmava he flew over the state border with the Federal Republic of Germany. After about a 50-kilometer flight he managed to land on a meadow by the village Unterlintach, not far from a town of Roding, Cham district. Here the local citizens helped him to get to police, where he applied for asylum. After several weeks of stay in an asylum house he began to work as a waiter in a restaurant. Thanks to media coverage of his story and to selling of his hang-glider he earned some money. This way he was able to open his own restaurant yet after one year of living in Germany. However, since he longed for coming back to his homeland, in 1992 he returned to Czecho-Slovakia. At present he leads his own guest house called Rogalo.
