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RUSSIAN AIR FORCE'S CENTENARY IN MOSCOW THE 11th AND 12th AUGUST 2012
The Russian Air Force was born a hundred years ago. To commemorate this centenary, president
Wlavimir Poutine and the Russian Air Force's headquarters organised a huge air show on the air base of
Zhukovsky, about thirteen miles south-east of Moscow.
The Russian Air Force's Centenary air show was financed by the russian state under the joint responsability of the armed
aircraft headquarters and the flight test center of the Zhukovsky air base.
The responsibility of all historic and collection airplanes was issued to the flight test center.
Most of about twenty of these historic airplanes ciming from Europe were warbirds that served as fighters, bombers,
reconnaissance, attack and transport aircrafts.
The european delegation was invited by the russian government and magaged by the well kown historic airplanes collector
and restorer Boris Osiatinskiy.
The european guests
The first negociations concerning the european participation started in march 2012. They have been going a long an
complicated time till the signing of the final contract the 18th of july 2012.
Many problems had to be solved before the flight to Moscow as the flight authorisations over different countries and the
refueling with 100 LL avgas at the necessary stops.
Apart from the concerned ambassies, three persons have been called out to be responsible to gather the choosen airplanes:
Nothern Europe : Mikaël Carlson, Southern Europe : Alain Capel, Eastern Europe : Boris Osiatinskiy and Vyacheslav Bereshnoy.
In the end, the choosen participants were :
Austria : Red Bull whith Corsair OE-EAS and lB-25 N6123C.
Switzerland : Charlie's Heavy with Avenger HB-RDG and Paul Boshung's Yak 9 N82112.
France : Capel Aviation with Yak 11 F-AZFJ and Yak 3U F-AZIM, France' Flying Warbirds with P-40N F-AZKU
and P-51D F-AZSB
Great Britain : Historic Aircraft Collection with Hurricane Mk XIIa G-HURI and Plane Sailing Catalina G-PBY.
Sweden : a DC-3, a T-6, Mikaël Carlsson with Blériot XI (Thulin A) and Tummelisa biplane.
The russian collection
Lot of airplane wrecks found on the russian territory have been restored tto flying condition and then found their way to the
United States. Russian but particularly Boris Osiatinskiy aware of this historical heritage decided to preserve and restore to
flying conditions the aircrafts that fought to free Russia during the Great Patriotic War.
Participating the Russian Air Force Centenary : Polikarpov PO-2, I-15 and I-15bis, a Mig 3 and ultimately a Mig 15.
The airshow
Friday, 10th of August, just before the airshow : 6.45hr early in the morning, we leave our fivestars hotel in central
Moscow for the flight test center of Zhukovsky air base, in a bus escorted by the police. It is there we attend the first
pre-flight meeting and the certification of our flying demonstrations.
Saturday, 11th of August, president Poutine opens the air show : we leave our hotel for Shukovsky by the same
way as the day before to attend a 30 min briefing agremented by a coffee. Then, we join he flight line were our planes
are parked.
8.30hr, we assist a private stunning Sukhoi T-50 display (it will be the same on sunday morning)
In the morning : there are very few historic airlanes flying their display except for the sole France's Flying Warbirds
Curtiss P-40 N by Robert « Bob » Villanova.
It lasts a long time till the arrival of president Poutine aboard a helicopter escorted by three combat choppers. At that
time, evrything is « frozen » till 3 pm with the departure of president Poutin in an Illiouchin 96 and its escort.
In the afternoon : the presidential departure marks the real airshow opening with the flight of 5 Sukhoi 27,
8 Sukhoi 25 and 8 Mig 29 forming the number 100.
Then follows various jet displays of Su 37, Mig 29, Dassault Rafale (of the famous Normandy-Niemen squadron also
intended to visit diffent airfields where the original Normandy quadron was besed during WW II), a thrilling display
of a Su 35. A flight of squadrons of each Russia's air armed force including Su 27, Su 35, Mig 29, L-39 and a multitude of
bombers and transport aircrafts. We note the flying by of a restored Myiasichtchev M-55 high altitude reconnaissance
airplane.
Then the dispay of various countries aerobatic teams : Britain's Red arrows, Italy's Frecce Tricolori, the Fin, the Poland
and the Checoslovakia Republic teams.
Sunday, 12th of August, same program … without president poutine : sunday's program is almost the same as
saturday's. In all, about hundred airplanes of different types and times are displayed.
Ater their displays, european guest sare invited to leave Russia on the following monday morning.
So it is decided to refuel around 6 pm. Unfortunately 100 LL Avgas is no more obtainable after the british Catalina and the
swedish DC-3 complete their refueling. So it is about 7 pm that un truck carrying ten 200 liters can, arrives to allow other
airplanes to refuel. This was to be done with a hand pump !
By the side of the airshow
Most Russians are very friendly and we noted most of tem are youg people.
Organisation was above any criticism
Apart the jetlagg we note that time passing by has not the same value in Russia and in Europe. Two minutes means
rather more or less two hours…
Before and after the displays we are invited to stay in air-conditioned chalets.
The french team has been invited to celebrate the birthday of a russian test pilot the russian way with vodka and
white wine flowing…
Jack Krine, ancient leader of Patrouille de France at the time she flew Fouga Magisters did a Yak 11 dsplay. Bearing
white moustaches and wearing a red suit the speaker of the airshow named him “ the eighty years old french Santa Claus ”.
4 hr 30 saturday afternoon, an apocalyptic thunderstorm broke over the airfield. One hour later evrything was over
and the sun came by.
Saturday evening, the french team was invited for a Champagne dinner on the Red Place. In the end of it evrybody
visited the extraordinary Moscow underground tube.
The attending people of the airshow reached the number of 700 000, according to the organizers.
More pictures of french potograf Thierry PLAZER
MELUN-MOSCOW and BACK FLYING A CURTISS P-40N
AND NORTH AMERICAN P-51D MUSTANG
Flying to Moscow at the controls of France's Flying Warbirds P-40N and P-51D to attend the centenary of
russian military airpower's huge airshow is not an ordinary fate. “Captain” George Perez and
Robert “Bob”Villanova, the pilots, tell us what is all about :
The airplanes have been carefully serviced and prepared for the long steps of flight and short stops to Moscow.
Among other specific work done for that trip, a auxiliary gas tank has been fit into the P-40's fuselage as to obtain
three hours of flight autonomy.
Let's take off
Monday 06 august 2012 :
12 hr 35 local time, the two planes take off from Melun (LFM) for an uneventful 1 hr 20 mn flight to Siegerland (EDGS)
, Germany fot refuelling.15 hr 30 local time, fuelling is done and the planes take off for Eisenhüttenstadt (EDAE),
south of Berlin. Having crossed Germany transversely they land at 16 hr 55 local time achieving the last flight of that day.
The only mechanical problem of the whole trip to Moscow and back occurred during this flight with the breaking of an
exhaust stack of the P-40's V-1710 Allison. Not really a problem as another one has been taken as spare.
When the job and the refuelling are done, it's time to leave the airport for dinner… Ok but as the airport is now closed,
there is no more entry gate open for the way out.… no problem “Captain” George helps “Bob” Villanova to climb and c
ross the fence and free everybody from the place… And have a dinner and a good sleep in the hotel.
Tuesday 07 august :
12 hr 35 local time, the planes leave Eisenhüttenstadt, taking off for Lithuania. Since they have reached their
cruising height, they can see under their wings the “Wolf Schantze” Hitler's well known residence east of Berlin.
We know this place is seen by several hundred thousands of visitors each year… (It's a good thing that this number
of visitors is far less as the one of the Eiffel Tower in Paris !)After a 1 hr 55 flight and the two times crossing of the Poland
border (that is no more one since Poland is in Europe) the P-40 and P-51 land on S.Darius and S.Gironas (EYKS)
historic airport, near Kaunas in Lithuania. It's14 hr 30 local time.Its'now time to refuel before leaving the airport to find a hotel.
Stops a taxi to drive the crew to the hotel. As the driver is a sympathetic guy, they offer him a good tip as he stops
in front of the hotel. But he refuses saying “ Me no tip. Me the boss of this hotel”.
Wednesday 08 august :
9 hr 55 local time, take-off for à 15 mn jump flight to Kaunas (EYKA) stopping to fill all the documents to allow the flight
over Russia. This place is also the meeting of David Harvey's Hurricane with whom we'll fly to Moscow.
At 11 hr 20 everybody takes off from Kaunas to fly north and make a detour over Estonia before entering the russian
airspace without having to cross Belorussia. After a 1 hr 25 flight all together with David Harvey, it's the landing
in Pskov (ULOO) to begin to know some troubles…Of course and as we should imagine, the time scale to solve any
administrative question is far different in Russia than in Europe but that was not the problem.
The time spent to solve the custom formalities should have been much longer we shouldn't protest simply because of the
charming persons devoted to that task. The problem was we had to refuel by hand from 44 imp.gal. drums with a pump…
and from then on we'll discover there are no gas trucks on the airfields in Russia.In all, refuelling the Hurricane, the P-40
and the P-51 in Pskov took us four hours !Last but not least, the two Yaks from France scheduled to land in Pskov in
time so we fly all together to Moscow, arrived too late. Because of this mishap we had to spend an unexpected night
in evil-looking hotel rooms in Pskov (no window, no shower !).
Landing In Moscow Thursday 08 august :
We take off from Pskov early morning at 7 hr (happy to leave the hotel) an fly partially IMC, the hurricane, P-40, P-51
and the two Yaks through the clouds.At 9 a.m. The five planes land on Migalovo airbase (UUEM) that is a military
transports airpark. There we had to sacrifice to the russian refuelling habit, off course before the take off to Moscow at
13 hr 15.The arrival over Moscow is something unforgettable as we were driven to fly over the big city by the controller
before to land on Ramenskoye-Zhukovsky (UUBW) airbase one hour later, at 14 hr 15 precisely.
France's Fling Warbirds gains distincton Saturday 11 august :
The Russian Military Airforce's Centenary has already been related but a feat to note. The only aircraft allowed to
fly hid routine in the presence of president Vladimir Poutine was France's Flying Warbirds Curtiss P-40 N with
“Bob”Villanova at the controls. This occurred between 13 hr 40 and 13 hr 55.
Flash flight back home
The flight back to Melun was the sam as the flight to Moscow but the reverse way. The difference was it was uneventfull
and represented only two days of ferry flight. Let's go.
Monday 13 august :
The russian authorities said all the planes had to leave the russian territory on monday. Of course everybody was
Ok and left their hotel early monday morning. As we had now the habit since we slept in the hotel in Moscow, the
bus drove us full speed escorted by the police through the the overcrowded motorway to the airbase.
After refuelling its 11 a.m. when the Hurricane, the P-40 and the P-51 take off and 12 hr 10 when they land in Migalovo.
There, they refuel conforming to the russian habit and take off at 16 hr 30.Migalovo-Pskov takes a 1 hr 45 flight
and so its 18 hr 15 the three planes are landing on russian land. They leave Pskov at 20 hr 10 for Lithuania and
land in Kaunas at 21hr 30.The Yaks too land in Kaunas but they flew an other route than us.
Tuesday 14 august :
After a hotel night of rest we 're driven to the airport and refuel by the european way with satisfaction.
It's around 10 a.m. we take off from Kaunas and fly direct to Eisenhüttenstadt. Weather is bad and we fly along the
front of clouds till we reach Poland when the weather improves. We reach Eisenhüttestadt around 12 hr 10,
it's the right time for lunch and fuel. At 14 hr 45 the P-40 and P-51 take off from Eisenhüttenstadt for France and
land in Sedan for fuel to discover… there is no fuel in Sedan. Happily Guy Fressinges, the C in C of the aeroclub
(a good friend of us), came to help and make it possible to get fuel.After the take off from Sedan at 17 hr 15 we land at
our home base in Melun when it is 18 hr 30 and almost time to take a cup of Champaign to commemorate the whole air trip.
PILOT NOTES
— An uneventful ferry flight (except the P-40's exhaust stack) for France's Flying Warbirds , it was not as same for
some other european teams, among others for Red Bull's. Red Bull's flight path was over Belorussia and weather was
so bad they had to stay for days there till the weather improved.
— Russian documentation was without surprise : poor quality photocopies and everything written in cyrillic characters.
Gas supply for the P-40 during the Melun to Moscow ferry flight
Melun – Siegerland (Germany) : 52,35 imp. Gal.
Siegerland – Eisenhüttenstadt (Germany) : 59,39 imp.gal.
Eisenhüttenstadt – S.Gironas (Lithuania) : 81,38 imp. Gal.
S.Gironas – Pskov (Russia) : 57,8 imp. gal.
Pskov – Migalovo (Russia) : 66 imp. gal.
Migalovo – Ramenskoye/Zhukovsky and departure from Ramenskoye/Zhukovsky : 44 imp. gal
Why Ramenskoye is Zhukovsky and conversely ?
The huge Ramenskoye airbase is also named Zhukovsky airbase to honor the mathematician, aerodynamics
scientist and flight theoreticianan Nicolai Egorovitch Zhukovsky (1847 – 1921).Honored in Russia as a father
of aviation Zhukovsky ist mostly known to have created the Central Aerodynamics Institute in 1918.
Following his death, this institute was renamed in Nicolai Egorov Zhukovsky Military Aeronautical Engineering Academy in 1922.
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