(Text: Michael Wegerich, published in: DHS No. 6)
Landing on narrow strips (motorways) was one of the most demanding combat-oriented training elements, alongside landing on grass and snow runways, landing on shortened runways, night landing without ground floodlights, operations from chemically and radioactively contaminated airfields, and operations under radio jamming or radio silence.
To be admitted to training in this combat-oriented element – landing on narrow strips – at all, consistently high landing quality, completed training for proficiency class II and a specified number of "left-side landings" were required. "Left-side landings" means landing on the left between the runway centre line and the left edge of the runway. In other words, with a normal runway width of 37.5 m, as at Holzdorf, only a width of less than 19 m was used. That was good preparation for landings on the Forst motorway section, which was only 22 m wide. The most frequently used motorway section was the Forst section, a stretch of about 3.3 km of the motorway between Cottbus and the Polish border crossing near the town of Forst.
The dates for using the Forst section were agreed between the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of the Interior. The section was closed to public traffic for about 2 – 3 weeks. Certain flying days within this period were assigned to the wings concerned in the annual plan. The motorway was usually closed in spring or summer, when stable good flying weather could be expected. On the day of closure, the police put up the signs for the motorway closure and a diversion. The motorway signs could be rotated and had the new signs on the back. So the closure and diversion could be set up with little effort. Then double barriers were closed at each access point. With that, the motorway section was handed over to the NVA at the specified time.
The aviation engineering battalion (FTB) 3 from Preschen airfield now had the rest of the day and the night to prepare the section for flying. The section had to be cleaned, checked for damage, minor repairs carried out and the paint markings for flight operations renewed. The radio engineering battalion (FuTB) 3, with the support of FuTB 31, had to set up a mobile tower with telecommunications and air-ground radio links. Inner and outer locator beacons with marker beacons had to be set up at 1 and 4 km on the landing course. By the next morning after the closure, punctually for the weather flight of JG 3 (or another wing), all work had to be completed. Landing lights were set up, the recovery and fire-fighting team had taken up its standby position, and sentries at the motorway access points and to the left and right of the section over more than 3 km prevented curious mushroom pickers or other persons from entering or driving onto the motorway. At the western end of the section, behind the old bridge in a bend, the FTB parked fuel bowsers, compressed air and oxygen trucks and other support vehicles. Before the bridge at the western end, a parking area for 4 MiG-21s had been prepared with perforated steel plates in a clearing in the forest. Not far from it was the rest area for aircrew and technical personnel with kitchen and toilet trailers.
One and a half hours before the start of flying, the weather pilot made a landing approach with a touch-and-go (brief touchdown with immediate lift-off after a few metres of rolling) at the section and checked the weather conditions, communications, air traffic control and navigation aids. On the day of motorway training, instructors and trainees flew to the section in two MiG-21 trainers, and "old hands" in two MiG-21SPS combat aircraft, and landed there. Sometimes there were also reserve aircraft at the section, or aircraft came for an intermediate landing. Because of the limited parking space, the number of aircraft at the section was restricted to about 6, or only 4 aircraft could train in the circuit at the same time. Later, in the 1980s, the old bridge at the western end was removed and a generous parking area with a blast deflector was built for 8 MiG-21s or 4 MiG-29s and their support equipment. For civilian motorists it was a motorway parking and rest area.
Some of the pilots scheduled for the day were flown to the section in an An-2, so that the MiGs could remain at the section all day. Only the Preschen-based pilots of JG-3 or of the TAFS (tactical reconnaissance squadron) could taxi from Preschen airfield through the forest onto the motorway. When there was flying from Preschen airfield and the Forst section at the same time, all flights had to be coordinated, as the approach path to Preschen led through the circuit of the motorway section. The motorway was less than 4 km from Preschen airfield.
The first circuits and landings at the section were flown with instructors in the trainer. If everything went well and the landings were safe and of good quality, you were "admitted to independent take-offs and landings on narrow strips". This qualification was entered in the flight log and the pilot's licence.
After starting the engine, the aircraft taxied from the parking area at the western end onto the motorway. With a westerly take-off direction, the aircraft first had to taxi 2.5 km east to the take-off point and turn around. During this time the motorway was blocked by this one aircraft. After readiness for take-off had been established and take-off clearance given by "SEKTION START" (call sign of the flying control officer of the section at the mobile control point), the afterburner was engaged. To the side behind the aircraft stood a technician who checked the lighting of the afterburner and gave a sign to the technician standing in front of the aircraft. He in turn gave clearance to roll with a flag signal. The pilot's check of the engine on the instruments and the external check by the technicians were meant to rule out possible causes of an aborted take-off. An aborted take-off or a landing without brake chute or with defective brakes was not without danger. At the western end of the section was the old motorway bridge. On take-off you had to get safely over the bridge or under it. The bridge was only a few centimetres higher than 4 m, so that the fin of a MiG-21 just fitted under it. But with a MiG with the brakes applied, when the nose was lowered and the tail rose, the fin was higher than the crossbeam of the bridge. That is why we were prepared to roll through under the bridge on the left side with the brakes released. On the left because on the right, in the left-hand bend after the bridge, the fuel bowsers were parked. The take-off roll and take-off posed no particular problem. You had to react more quickly to changes in direction, and with the nose raised the left concrete edge right next to the aircraft was the only directional reference.
The circuit led around Forst and Tuplice in Poland across the motorway onto the landing course. There was no visible approach path; for example, neither a cutting through the forest nor a clear runway threshold could be seen. The motorway, which joined the section in a slight right-hand curve, was confusing. You could not simply follow the motorway but had to concentrate on the circuit and orient yourself by the imaginary extended line of the section. The fourth turn had to be made at the right height and distance, because it was difficult to recognise necessary glide path corrections quickly, as clear, easily visible fixed points such as the runway edge, arrester strips or the inner locator were missing. You saw only forest and the motorway approaching from the right, which merged with the motorway section. As you came closer to the flare point at 320 – 340 km/h, the struggle for the exact direction became ever greater. You reacted to every small deviation. After the flare, when the nose was raised, you could not see the motorway at all any more. That was a good sign. But if the motorway was still visible to the left or right of the nose, you were not exactly over the centre line but offset to the side, and that could become dangerous. After touchdown you lowered the nose briskly but in a controlled manner to recognise the direction more easily, deployed the brake chute and, after its opening jolt and a positive brake test, were relieved. Now you rolled out at over 200 km/h where Polish trucks and Trabants usually raced along. Now, somewhat more relaxed, you heard how the landing gear shock absorbers smoothed out the bumps of this typically East German motorway.
After this training, confidence in oneself, in the combat equipment and in those who maintain it had grown a little. Between 1978 and 1989 I made 34 take-offs and landings (24 of them with the MiG-21SPS) on motorway sections.