User:Mladen.komac/Božidar Komac

, Божидар Комац , Божидар Комац

Božidar Komac (March 7, 1926 - July 14, 2013) was the owner of two state records of the SFRY that have not been broken to this day [1]. Sailing Košava - flight Vršac Skopje (355 km) and free flight to Bitola (460 km). He flew on fifty-three different types of gliders. He sailed 1,600 hours in the air. A flight instructor, a test pilot, a flight inspector, with 4,500 hours of flight on thirty types of motor planes and three hundred cadets he instructed in the secrets of sailing.

Having achieved everything that was possible in sport sailing, Komac, in 1959, as an undefeated record holder, got a job as a pilot in commercial aviation. That is how he reached as far as Tunisia, where he remembers the honorary flight at the wedding of President Habib Bourguiba. Then he sprinkled jasmine leaves along the path for the newlyweds.

A routine flight in Tunisia was interrupted by a sudden gust of crosswind, which threw Bozidar Komac's plane straight at the high-voltage transmission line. Today, the only visible sign of the accident, which looked like a terrible, immobile right knee. The decision of the medical commission - the end of the flight ... However, in 1970, he sailed once again for almost three hours, in Germany, at the "Frechen" airport ...

In 1971, the Yugoslav Air Force appointed him coach and captain of the SFRY national sailing team at the 13th World Sailing Championships held in Vršac in 1972.

After stopping active flying, he returned to his first love - aircraft modeling. He spends most of his time in his aviation workshop behind a small lathe, because, as he says, his main occupation is metal lathe. A couple of years ago, he made a miraculous model of the sailboat "Košava 2". He wanted, he says, to be a symbol of world fame, an eternal memory of the Yugoslav sailboat "Košava", a world record and a memory of Vršac.

Prizes and awards
In the selection of the daily Politika, Božidar Komac was elected Athlete of the Year in 1957. Holder of ten state and one world record [source sought], owner of the Golden "C" badge with three diamonds, winner (together with Zvonimir Rajn) of one world and three state championships in aviation sailing.