The press club of BTA in Razgrad hosted the online presentation of the April issue of LIK magazine, dedicated to the “Bulgarian Footprint in Space”

The press club of BTA in Razgrad hosted the online presentation of the April issue of LIK magazine, dedicated to the “Bulgarian Footprint in Space”. The theme was inspired by the 45th anniversary of the flight into Earth orbit of the first Bulgarian cosmonaut, Georgi Ivanov, which took place on April 10. The event was held jointly via video link in all national BTA press clubs in the country and abroad. The presentation of the magazine at the press club of BTA in Razgrad was attended by Georgi Georgiev, pilot at Blagoevo Airport, engineer Mladen Dimitrov – head of the aircraft modeling club at the Center for Student Technical and Scientific Creativity in Razgrad and his graduates Denislav Ganchev and Arkan Osmanov, and engineer Kliment Nikolov, rocket modeler.
The pilot Georgi Georgiev said that he has been involved in aviation since he was a student. He started with non-motorized flying, then motorized and professional flying. “Since 1980, I started flying as a pilot in agricultural aviation, and in 2016 I decided to try to resume non-motorized aviation. In 2019, we started pilot training, which is conducted by an organization at the Blagoevo airport base,” said Georgiev. He added that he is a little far from cosmonautics, but in his words, aviation is a stepping stone to cosmonautics. Georgi Georgiev stated that on holidays they hold open days for children at Blagoevo Airport. During the familiarization tour, the children get to know the flight equipment and the airport complex up close. “My appeal to the children and their teachers and supervisors is to use our base, to become a professional, and it is not known whether they will not also go to cosmonautics,” added Georgi Georgiev.
Engineer Nikolov stated that rocket modeling is a very interesting discipline, it is a chance for children to learn new things while having fun – aerodynamics, building principles, modeling and making different models. “Our goal as club leaders is to prepare students for competitions, to win medals and to actively develop the activities of the club,” noted engineer Kliment Nikolov. According to him, scientific activity has now remained a bit in the background, expressing hope that things will change in a good direction. “One of the goals we set for ourselves in the aviation and rocketry club is to nurture the skills and creative development of children,” added engineer Nikolov.
The head of the aircraft and rocket modeling club at the Center for Student Technical and Scientific Creativity in Razgrad, Eng. Mladen Dimitrov, has also been involved in model aircraft since he was a child and his love for aviation has not stopped for a moment to this day. He said that about 30 children currently attend classes at the club, the material base is good, and its graduates are participants in a number of competitions and winners of many awards. Engineer Dimitrov shared that the first Bulgarian cosmonaut, General Georgi Ivanov, and Alexander Alexandrov’s backup, Krasimir Stoyanov, presented an award to his graduate, a participant in a competition for making space models and models. He pointed out that model airplanes are the shortest way to heaven, and according to him, every child who dreams of flying should go through the model airplane club.
Denislav Ganchev, a fourth-grader from “N.Y. Vaptsarov” Primary School in Razgrad, and Arkan Osman, a third-grade student at “Nikola Ikonomov” Primary School, talked about how long they have been members of the aviation and rocket modeling club. Both stated that their dream was to become astronauts. The leaders of the club and the children gave a gift – an airplane made by them, to the correspondent of BTA in Razgrad.