| When I established the Goldtimer Foundation in 1992, I thought that we, Hungarian people also had plenty of recollections of flying but earlier there had been almost nobody who had taken care of them and such planes had been destroyed that were irreperable. But the volunteers from the Goldtimer Foundation from an enthusiastic small team showed that with faith, enthusiasm, love of profession and lots of work it was possible to create and rebuild such beautiful aeroplanes as the Li-2 - the Russian version of the well known DC-3 - or the Cimbora glider, not to mention the legendary biplane the Po-2. |
| Only a few people believed in us but throughout the last years we managed to show everybody what it meant to do something with faith. Let this excellent job be an example for everybody. |
| It gives me great pleasure to share the happiness I feel with you whenever I can concern myself with one of the old timers and I know and hope there are still a lot people for whom it is also important to protect and preserve the relics of the past for the young generation. It is our philosophy, too that´s why we are doing what we have taken willingly. |
| Have a good journey, have a happy landing! |
| With love from a friend who loves aeroplanes: Károly 'Fedő' Hajdu |
| About the Goldtimer Foundation |
| When we had the opportunity to go to an airshow abroad and present balloons and oldtimer planes we could see it with our eyes, too how popular the oldtimers were among people, for instance the Ju-52 Tante and the DC-3 which were continuously taking those who longed for flying and nostalgia.
This gave the idea to us to make something similar, for example to repair the much-loved dream plane, the Li-2.
Due to this idea, in 1992 a new organisation was established called the Goldtimer Foundation which aims were to restore an Li-2, to maintain, run and enlarge the existing oldtimer plane park with more ones because at that time it became inevitable to establish an independent financial basis for maintaining oldtimer planes. The founder member, Károly Hajdu became the president and László Takács dr. became the secretary of the Foundation. In the corporation there are members who have already done a lot of things for the sake of protecting and restoring old planes. In 1994 it was already the Foundation that provided financial assistance for repairing the Po-2, it was followed by the accomplishement and the installation of the Hungarian biplane the Gerle in 1995 and later, step by step the Foundation undertook the costs of maintaining and operating the planes. As soon as the Foundation had had the opportunity, it bought the planes so the future of them became sure. According to the contract with the Museum of Transport it took over the duties of the Aerial Farming ensuring further operation and restoration of the other Hungarian plane the Kánya and the Po-2 planes. In 1997, we managed to come to an arrangement with the Museum of Aviation History Foundation about the restoration of its Li-2 plane, in the course of which it became possible to start the restoration of the Li-2. (Meanwhile, the new owner of the plane was the Institution and Museum of Military History.) The first takeoff of the entirely renovated plane was on 21st September, 2001 and since then its success has been undiminished. It has already appeared in Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Croatia, Poland, Germany and Slovakia as the only Lisunov in the world that is able to fly is the HA-LIX. Wherever the plane appears, everybody is astonished. In the summer term - from June to October - we organize pleasure flights at the airport of Budaörs on the first Saturday of every month so that those who want to experience what the air transport was like in the 1950´s can try the Li-2. In the autumn of 2001 we managed to dismantle the Li-2 and transport it from the Amusement Park of Pécs to Budaörs. This plane was also repaired to be shown in the excibition of statics of the Museum of Military Aeroplanes in Szolnok so that the Museum had a military painted Li-2. |
