Maiden Voyage

FLYER magazine, September 1993.

Open any flying magazine and the chances are that you will find tempting advertisements for what on the face of it appears very cheap flying in the former Eastern bloc, in particular Russia.

Not only do the prices look exceptionally attractive, but the variety and quality of hardware on offer is exotic to say the least. In fact it is now easier to fly Russian Military aircraft than it is to walk around your nearest RAF base. I have been watching developments for some time and I jumped at the opportunity to visit Russia when Barbel Abela and her instructor Len Perry (a Russian speaker) invited me to join them on what turned out to be a buying expedition as well as a flying adventure.

Barbel Abela is already well known for her growing collection of military aeroplanes. She is no stranger to Russia, having flown there and landed at Moscow in her aptly named Barbelle Bomber a Douglas A26 Invader, when partisipating in last year's Round the World Air Race.

Since then she has acquired a Yak 52 and this current trip was to secure the purchase of a Yak 50 and Yak 55M as well as to achieve her ambition to become the first Western woman to solo a Russian military jet in Russia.

We arrived at Kaluga Airport, which on first acquaintance is almost unbelievable. The airfield has a large hard surface runway about 6000 feet long. One side boasts a military presence. The other side, where the main terminal stands, has the appearance of a once thriving provincial airfield. Now the flight line consisted of 60 mainly un-airworthy (by Western standards) Antonov 2's, twin engine helicopters and various other aircraft, including the two Yak 52's we were to fly, a new Yak 55M old Ilyushin 8 still sporting what looked like 30mm cannon shell holes and light machine gun damage to the fuselage.
 
In Russia, foreigners wishing to fly cross country flights are required to have a Russian navigator on board. To fly solo you must submit to a daily medical, which at Kaluga meant presenting yourself to a very stern Russian Lady wearing a white coat and what looked like a chef's hat, surrounded by a multitude of medical instruments, only to be requested to hold out your hand to determine that your pulse is under 80 BPM. With this important observation out of the way you are given a certificate to fly for the day. Although we had a ratio of 1 pilot to 1 instructor, there was no program. I felt that we were motivating the instructors to fly rather than the other way around.

We were soon happy at the controls and doing fairly advanced aerobatics. All the instructor pilots were graduates of the Dosaaf system and are therefor fully trained aerobatic pilots. For those more used to sedate Western style aerobatics the Russian's aggressive and precise style comes as something of a shock. I still have bruises on either side of my head that attest to the very precise and extremely rapid control movements that seem to be second nature to the Russian's.

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Zero-G Cosmonaut Training carried out in the modest interior of an Antonov 2

 

Our number one priority was to get our hands on a L29B jet trainer for Barbel to solo. Len had already made arrangements at a military base about 20 km away at Vortinsk. We flew there in one of the sevicable Antonov 2's which proved to be an adventure in itself with us joking at the cabin class quality of the interior. The flight deck looked like something from another planet and the low grumble of the fuel hungry radial engine which seemed to produce as much oil as power was something to behold.

Vortinsk houses an airforce base squadron recovered from East Germany. There were no fewer than 100 Hind attack helicopters in various stages of storage on the field along with a variety of other helicopters and about 50 L29 jets. There were plenty to choose from as Barbel found out on the second day when one of her flights resulted in a problem and another L29 was immediately pulled from the flight line.

We were all beginning to worry about the task of getting Barbel to solo as Boris, the local L29 base commander and instructor spoke absolutely no English. All instruction which is quite complex on even a basic jet aircraft had to be given through an interpreter. As both Barbel and I found during the initial flights it was difficult to know whether we were cleared to taxi let alone take off. Instructions were given through nudges on the controls or in Russian we could not understand. The L29 is an Eastern Bloc equivalent to a slightly more advanced Jet Provost. It has a single jet engine producing 1950lbs of thrust, pressurized tandem cockpit, VNE of 850 km ph and is capable of full range positive-negative aerobatics including spins. Both Barbel and I found the L29 very capable and easy to fly including spins and spin recovery which I could not even contemplate in the UK in a jet aircraft
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Barbel, after her initial trepidation, progressed well and after three and a half hours and seven flights she soloed at Kaluga under the watchful eye of Nicolai to become the first Westerner, let alone woman to solo a Russian military jet. Her instructors were impressed indicating that she had soloed in less time than any of their previous Russian students.

Geoffrey Boot. FLYER magazine.




The L29 cockpit complete with operational ejection seat