30 | Everythingstartedwithgreat-grandfatherMiloš, whowas apilot, anda militaryoneat that, andwhose love forplaneswaspassedtoSlobodan, his son, thentohisgrandson, Branislav, and en nally togreat-grandfather’s namesake – little Miloš, who already has his captain’s hat and is waiting to grow up just so he can sit in the cockpit like his forefathers. AndgranddadSlobodanspent as long as 37 years, from 1969 to 2002, at Air Serbia, or rather its predecessor companies. Everything started for him as early as primary school, whenhemademodel planes fromchipboard. He lied to his mother and went o to learn to y a glider, which was an experience he’d never forget... “The rst time I took ight was more than 50 years ago, at 6.04am. I was alone, the clouds were bathed in the rising sun, and I cried from happiness and the beauty. As circumstances would have it, I later trained to become a motor pilot, became themanager of theaeroclub, gainedexperience as a skydiver and quickly advanced, but I always dreamt of becomingamilitary aviationpilot. I lovedto y, but to leadabattle up there above the clouds, that was a dream,”we are told by Slobodan, who enrolled in the pilots school as one of the 30 accepted students; as many as 1,300 had applied. Hecompletedtheschoolandpaidhimself for all further training, enrichinghis pilot’s license. Hestarted yingapistonplane for52passengers, completedco-pilot training, and in less than two years became a captain. “We kept out of the way so the passengers wouldn’t see how young we are, so they wouldn’t by scared that they were being own by kids [laughs]. And for me it was fascinating to y from one end of the world to the other, to take o in the dark and land in the dark. I was only 35 when I sat at the controls of the largest aircraft in the world, the DC 10, and I did the job so well that I soon also became an instructor, and itwas fromthat position that I retired,” recalls Slobodan. Asked what ying means to him, he says with adoration that still lasts – happiness, beauty, satisfaction, sublimity, but also the feeling that you’re di erent from others, that you have to react faster and better, always in every situation, in every second that’s demanded of you. “When you y, you acquire some special senses that an ordinary man doesn’t have; you notice some things... a pilot’s license is only valid for six months and you are constantly being checked... If I were to bebornagain, Iwouldagainbeapilot, even if onlyona small plane that spraysmosquitoes, concludes granddad Slobodan, who enjoys his well-deserved retirement, but also the fact that his son Branislav has followed in his footsteps, and that his grandson is preparing to do likewise… It’s no wonder that Branislav started ying like his father given that he spent so much time in the cockpit as a boy and toured almost the whole world. Also like his father, he told his mother a little lie... “Everything started for me in 1991, at the Academy inVršac, when I’d just turned 16. I got my rst sports pilot license two years later and completed the academy in 1997.When Iwanted toenrol in the school, I didn’t have enoughmoney and I toldmy mum that wewould go on holiday, when I was in fact trying to sellmymotorbike and collect the3,000Deutschmarks that it cost at the time.Whenmy father, whowas then in Brazil, heard what was happening, he decided to give me the money that I was lacking. I remember the sentence he said tomy mum: “one becomes a pilot twice in life - when a man makes a decision to become a pilot, and when he becomes a pilot”.That’showIwent o to learn to y,”says Branislav,whohasbeen infectedwitha love for ying since he was little, having circled the entire globe with his father. However, it was a feeling that he had on one rather unpleasant ight that forti ed his conviction that he was born to be a pilot. “It was a Singapore-Sydney ight and I’ll never forget it. I was sitting in the cockpit, because that was then possible, and the copilot had the controls. We suddenly entered literal darkness, there was an incrediblestorm, everythingwas shakingand bangingaround, wehad to land, the lights lit up, dad took over the controls and landed the plane. I was then 12 years old and everyoneinmyplacewouldhavesaid‘thank God that we survived’, while I thought ‘I’d like toexperience this again’,”saysBranislav, who has been with the airline since 2002 anda captainonAirbus aircraft since2015. When you hear such stories and feel such passion, it’s no wonder that another descendant of the Jevđevićs wants to y. Pradeda Miloš (gore levo), deda Slobodan na krilu aviona 522 i mali Miloš Grandfather Miloš (above to the left), grandfather Slobodan on the wing of 522, and little Miloš
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzExMjc5