Building Shachak 59

Yoav Efrati Builds the Legendary IAF Mirage IIIC Shachak

- Yoav Efrati

A chance meeting with the legendary IsraeliAir Force fighter pilot Israel Baharav ledme to build Eduard's reissued kit of their Mirage IIIC reissued kit, ‘Shachak’. The chance meeting took place several months ago while shopping for furniture with my wife. We couldn't decide on what sofa to buy, but I came away with a once in a lifetime photo with 12 MiG-21 air-to-air kill ace, Israel Baharav. Baharav's most noteworthy mission was not one of his numerous twin-kill missions, but a life-threatening event that occurred on the second day of the October 1973 Yom Kippur War.

On the second day of the war, 101 ‘First Fighter squadron’ pilot Israel Baharav was scrambled for an extended CAP mission in the IAF's highest-scoring Shachak, tail number 259. Shachak 59 was heavily loaded with a pair of 1,300-litre wing tanks, an 880-litre centreline fuel tank, and a pair of wingtip mounted AIM-9G air-to-air missiles and a full load of rounds for the aircraft’s twin 30mm DEFA guns.