For his birthday, Josh Cahill did not book a business class suite or chase a rare airline. He chartered two Soviet-era aircraft in the Czech Republic — an Antonov An-2 and a Yakovlev Yak-18T — and documented the experience in a video he published today titled "I chartered 2 SOVIET Airplanes for my Birthday!".
The Aircraft: Two Soviet Legends
Cahill introduces the Antonov An-2 (tail number D-FWJG) early in the video (1:05), framing it as a machine with almost mythological flight characteristics. "The Antonov 2 is impossible to stall and can take off anywhere at any time," he states — a claim rooted in the aircraft's design, which gives it an exceptionally low stall speed due to its biplane configuration and large wing area. The Antonov 2 has been in continuous production longer than any other aircraft in history, a fact that makes Cahill's birthday charter feel less like a novelty and more like a deliberate act of aviation archaeology.
The second aircraft, the Yakovlev Yak-18T with tail number D-EYMC, gets its introduction at the 1:32 mark. Cahill notes that "The Yakovlev Yak-18T was introduced in 1967 and is a famous Soviet trainer plane," situating it within a lineage of aircraft that trained generations of Soviet military and civilian pilots. The Yak-18T is a four-seat variant of the Yak-18 series, with a cabin layout that makes it unusually spacious for a trainer. Both the An-2 and the Yak-18T represent Cahill's first coverage of either type — no other major aviation creator has reviewed either aircraft within the past two years.
The Flights: Emotion and Ceremony
The An-2 leg runs from Southport to Prague Václav Havel Airport (PRG), with the Yak-18T covering a subsequent segment within the Czech Republic. The itinerary is unconventional by any measure — a biplane and a Soviet trainer threading through Czech airspace rather than a commercial jet.
The An-2 takeoff lands as the video's most charged moment. Cahill, reflecting on it at the 3:50 mark, connects the experience to a much harder period in his life.
“That takeoff had me all emotional. I remember 20 years ago, I wasn't able to afford more than one meal a day.”
The remark is unprompted and brief, but it reframes the entire video. What reads on the surface as a birthday stunt carries a different weight once Cahill places it against that backdrop.
The Yak-18T flight produces its own highlight. Before departure (16:14), the airport staff set up a water cannon salute — a gesture Cahill describes as unexpected. "I was amazed that the boys from the airport set up a water cannon salute for me before departing," he notes. The salute, typically reserved for inaugural commercial flights or retiring aircraft, is an unusual honor for a private charter, and Cahill's surprise at receiving it reads as genuine.
Once airborne in the Yak-18T, Cahill's assessment is straightforward:
“Flying the Yakovlev 18T was such a smooth ride and views from up here were once again very impressive.”
The emphasis on views is consistent with the Czech Republic's landscape — rolling terrain and historic towns that read very differently from a low-altitude trainer than from a commercial jet at cruise altitude.
Context: A Different Kind of Review
Cahill's channel, gotravelyourway, has covered commercial aviation across dozens of airlines and cabin classes over nearly a decade — from Lufthansa First Class to Afghanistan's aging Ariana Afghan Airlines A310. The Soviet charter video sits outside that commercial framework entirely. There is no seat review, no catering assessment, no lounge comparison. The product being evaluated is the aircraft itself — its history, its handling, and what it means to fly something designed in the Soviet era.
This video is quite unique. Those are the first An-2 or the Yak-18T to apear in Cahill's channel. The closest parallel in his recent output is his flight on Cubana's rare Soviet Tupolev Tu-204 in January 2026, where the appeal was similarly the aircraft's Soviet origins and scarcity rather than any service quality.
The Czech Republic has a deep connection to Soviet aviation history — it was a Warsaw Pact member state and operated Soviet aircraft extensively through its military and civilian fleets. Flying an An-2 and a Yak-18T there carries a geographic logic that Cahill does not spell out but that the choice implies. Whether the water cannon salute was arranged by the charter operator or the airport staff independently is left open in the video.
