Sivrihisar Aviation Center (SHM) Necati Artan Facilities
On June 3, 2022, at Sivrihisar Aviation Center Necati Artan Facilities, I flew a sortie flight with Captain Pilot Oğuzhan Yararcan with a T-28 training plane and the next day I flew a sortie flight with Semin Öztürk Şener and a Pitts Special aerobatic plane was one of the most beautiful and unforgettable flight moments of my life.
After graduating from the Air Force Academy on August 30, 1956, we went to the United States as four student pilots selected for flight training, and in 1957, we completed our initial training in propeller T-34 and evolution training in T-28 aircraft. Following this, we trained in T-33 jet trainers and earned our pilot badge; After completing our firing training in F-86 fighters, we joined our flight fleets in Turkey. As a pilot who believed that those young aviators would learn lessons for them by writing about the interesting events and painful experiences I had in flight school and in the combat flight fleets I served, and transferring them to the generations after us, I wrote an incident I had on a T-28 aircraft in flight school in America and included his story in my book MEMORIES OF A JET PILOT.
Some time ago, news appeared on social media that Ali İsmet Öztürk, the founder of Sivrihisar Aviation Center Necati Artan Facilities and M.S.Ö. Aviation Museum and also Turkey's well-known aerobatic pilot, purchased a T-28 training aircraft and brought it to SHM facilities. Tolga Özbek, an aviation expert journalist who read about my flight with the T-28 in my memoirs, wrote to Ali İsmet Öztürk on the page of our WhatsApp group that it would be a nice event for me to fly with the same type of plane 65 years after I flew with the T-28, and Ali İsmet Öztürk invited me to the flight with a great gesture. On June 3, my son Oğuz and I went to the Sivrihisar facilities. Captain Pilot and T-28 flight instructor Oğuzhan Yararcan and I and my son made a sortie flight. An aviator friend of mine whom I told about my flight with Oğuzhan Yararcan on the T-28 told me that he was not an ordinary pilot, but an aviator who longed for acrobatics. There we also met Oğuzhan's revered wife, who was also a captain pilot.
In the photo below, Oğuzhan Hoca is seen in the front, I in the rear cockpit on the way to take-off and after our plane is grounded.
After we got off the flight, the photographer of the SHM facility came up to me and took a picture of me at a point in front of the right wing of the plane. This photographer friend saw my photo in my memoir book and wanted to take my photo at the same point. It was a very pleasant surprise for me that he gave me the photos taken exactly 65 years apart.
A souvenir photo taken after our T-28 flight. From left: Captain Pilot Oğuzhan Yararcan, machinist technician Hakan Tahşi, machinist technician Kâmil Tahsin Karpuz, İrfan Sarp, Oğuz Sarp, Machinist technician Nevzer Kılıç, Ali İsmet Öztürk (cute mascot Fuli in front).
The next day, we made a sortie flight with Ali İsmet Öztürk's daughter, aerobatic pilot Semin Öztürk Şener in a Pitts Special type aircraft. Semin, who has been interested in aviation since childhood, received his first flight training from his father at a young age. He also studied acrobatics in the United States. When Semin and I went to the Pitts Special plane on the apron, her little son and her cute daughter in the stroller were walking around the other side of the apron. Since the center of gravity of the Pitts aircraft is in the rear, solo flights are made from the rear cockpit. The other person is flying in the front cockpit. The bow in the front cockpit is also removed. So the person flying in the front cockpit does not have the chance to use the plane. When I was flying with Semin, I admired his ability to fly in his acrobatic movements. I was proud of him. I said, "Happily for us, Turkey has a talented aviator woman who has grown up like Semin." I was also curious about the meaning of Semin's name and looked in the dictionary. Semin means "Very Precious". Indeed, just like the dictionary meaning, our daughter Semin is really a very valuable aviator. After the Pitts Special flight, we took the following souvenir photo. Semin Öztürk Şener, İrfan Sarp, Oğuz Sarp, Ali İsmet Öztürk (SHM's mascot Fuli in front).
I had followed the news about the Sivrihisar Aviation Center in the press and heard about its active aviation activities and the good organizations they made, but I did not have the opportunity to go and see this facility on site. Necati Artan, after whom the facility is named, was our beloved Fleet Commander in the 191st F-84F Fleet of Balıkesir in 1967-68. During the Cyprus events that broke out in December 1967, our fleet was transferred to Yenişehir Square with 22 F-84F planes with Major Necati Artan at our head. In those years, there was no guesthouse in the square. All of us, including our ascending commander, had stayed for a month in a small dormitory with bunk beds. While we were in Yenişehir, we learned that the mother of our Artan Commander, who lived in Bursa, had passed away after we returned to Balıkesir. Necati Artan did not attend his mother's funeral in Bursa, half an hour away. Can there be a better example of love of country and love of duty than this? Artan Major led the 9-part aerobatic arm of F-86 aircraft in 1965 when he was the Fleet Commander at Merzifon Base. Ali İsmet Öztürk showed great loyalty and omnipotence by naming the Sivrihisar facility after Necati Artan, who was also an aerobatic pilot.
After seeing this distinguished facility where I made my T-28 and Pitts Special flights, I thought it was useful and necessary for me to introduce the facility to you and share my views.
I have to start with the location of the Sivrihisar Aviation Center (SHM). Many people think that this is where the Sivrihisar Military Airport is located on the Eskişehir Ankara road. However, SHM is located in the eastern part of the village road, which is entered from the 15th kilometer of the Afyon road from the Eskişehir-Sivrihisar turnoff. The facility has two runways, one of which is asphalt and the other is covered with grass, in the direction of 05/23. The asphalt runway measures 6,000 feet (1810 meters) X 105 feet (32 meters). The Square Supervisor is responsible for the management of the square. The Security Supervisor and the Garage Supervisor, the Fire Departments, are subordinate to the Square Supervisor. There are three modern fire trucks in the square that can respond to fire incidents. Flight activities are managed from a flight tower close to the runway. There is a 24-bed guesthouse and a restaurant called Sky Cafe inside. Managed by the Sivrihisar Sportive Aviation Club Association, SHM operates aviation and flight operations by Mach Air. The audio and video recording of a flight for a certain fee is recorded on a mini-camera placed at eye level at the top of the flight panel and the USB of the flight recording is given to you after the flight.
Another institution located in the facilities is the Private M.S.Ö. Aviation Museum under the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Ali İsmet Öztürk, the visionary and founder of all these facilities, named the museum after his father Mehmet Sadullah Öztürk. The M.S.Ö. museum took its place in SHM Necati Artan Facilities in 2018. The most important feature that distinguishes this museum from other aviation museums is that it is a "Flying Museum". Most of the aircraft in the museum's inventory are flying. The maintenance and flight activities of the planes and helicopter in the museum are carried out by museum employees. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association is Tayfun Uslu, whom we see as very dominant in his subjects during our flights. Senan, the eldest daughter of Ali İsmet hoca, chairs the annual event and organization committee at SHM. I observed that the three technicians who maintained the planes and gave them to the flight were doing their jobs with great competence. I learned that all three of these technicians were very talented young people who graduated from the aviation and engine departments of universities.
All of the historical aircraft in the Sivrihisar Aviation Center are in the inventory of the M.S.Ö. Aviation Museum. The manufacturing years and types of these flying aircraft are as follows:
1940 DC-3 (civilian version of the C-47) "Turkish Delight"
1940 Boeing Stearman A75N1/PT17
1942 De Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth
1943 Boeing Stearman A75N1/PT17
1944 North American P-51D Mustang "Ferocious Frankie"
1950 Cessna 195A Businessliner
1953 North American T-6G Texan "Happy Hour"
1955 North American T-28B Trojan
1957 Antonov AN-2 "Annie/Annushka"
1967 Bell UH-1H "Huey"
Types of aircraft on display that are in a non-flying condition:
1940 Supermarine MK-1 (Mock-up)
1966 Fouga CM-170 Magister
Various flight events and organizations are organized by the Sivrihisar Aviation Club Association throughout the year. The schedule of a typical pre-pandemic event is as follows:
8 March – Women and World Aviation Symposium
April 23 – Paper Airplane Competition
June – No Village That Doesn't Fly
July – SHY (Sivrihisar Air Races) Air Race & Fly-inn
August – Model Airplane / Sky Diving Fest
August 30 – Victory Flight
September – SHG (Sivrihisar Air Shows) Airshow – 56,000 people visited in 2019. Then, due to the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, it reached the world from satellite without an audience but with Live Broadcast. This year, the Airshow is being held on September 17-18 with an audience.
29 October – Traditional Republic Photo
10 November – A Flight of Respect to Atatürk
More than 3000 people have flown in these events and organizations so far. As an example, 178 children were flown in the event of April 23, 2020. With the Fly No Village Left event, our citizens in the villages around SHM (Yeşilköy, İstiklalbağı, Ballıhisar, Tekören, Dutlu, Ertuğrul, Kepen, Gülçayır, Çaykoz) were blown away.
Sivrihisar Air Show (SHG) AIRSHOW 2022, which was suspended for two years due to the pandemic, was held on 17-18 September 2022 this year. When we went for the flight, we saw that the staff at the facility were planning to make the SHG 2022 event the most perfect. I recommend that everyone who is interested in aviation save the Saturday, Sunday weekend of September 17-18 in their calendars and do not miss this show.
After going to Sivrihisar Aviation Center Necati Artan Facilities and seeing them on site, I sincerely hope that everyone who has set their hearts on aviation in Turkey will go and see this distinguished facility and provide all the support it can for the survival of this organization.
Irfan Sarp
June 9, 2022
