Yet again I met the master of Russian aviation in the form of Steve Kinder at Heathrow before we flew Swiss via Zurich to Saint Petersburg, and what a joy that was; real cutlery and food on every sector. After so much travel in the USA I had forgotten how the little things make commercial flying better - my United transatlantic flight into Heathrow for instance was still using useless plastic knifes and forks! After trouble free immigration formalities in Saint Petersburg our group met with our usual interpreter, Olga, and the rest of the group who had traveled here independently. Well, mostly trouble free, except Steve's suitcase was still apparently in Zurich.
We were due to have a Mi-8 flight that afternoon but that seemed to have fallen through the cracks, but instead we went and visited a general aviation airfield some 34 miles to the south west called Kasimovo. We were met there by George Nikolaev who has an intimate knowledge of the local airfields and would be with us for the next two days. This airfield used to be a hidden Soviet Air Force base in the Cold War days, and was a base for An-12, An-26, Il-14 and Mi-8 aircraft. The long concrete runway is now crumbling at the ends but is still in good enough condition for light aircraft to use, as of course they don't use the entire length.
Apart from the obligatory An-2s hanging around there were a pair of nice looking L-29s and surprisingly a fair number of Cessnas, both outside and in the hangars. One Yak-52 had an interesting modification to the twin exhaust stacks, a pair of tin cans, and the toilet had the invitation to learn to fly on it - you might have thought there would be a more apt place to nail that notice to!
A surprise on the field was a Technoavia SP-91 Slava designed by the Sergey Estoyan following his departure from Sukhoi after designing the Su-26/29/31 series of aircraft. Although the SP-91 is similar in appearance to the Su-29, it was built as a cheaper version, but sales never took off and only 20-25 were ever built.
After the visit we checked into a very smart hotel that would be our base for two nights… of drinking. The hotel had a very large war memorial on the roundabout outside called the Monument to the Defenders of Leningrad. It's a huge panoramic monument with an underground museum which documents the 900-day siege of Leningrad which took place between 8th September 1941 and 27th January 1944, when German troops surrounded the city. It's a very impressive memorial and you can find monuments to World War II like this everywhere you travel in Russia.
The next morning George met us at the hotel and we drove to the abandoned airport of Rzhevka. This has been closed since 2006 and the runway was now full of western cars awaiting sale and is also home to a go-kart track. The old terminal building is still there and is locked shut, but appearances can be deceptive. Locked inside the airfield is an immaculate Il-14 and George had arranged for the owner, Aleksandr Poddubnij, to come out and show us his pride and joy. Not only that, but Aleksandr had promised to run the engines on this beast, and this would be the first time the engines would be run for eight or nine years! We hung around the old entrance waiting for someone to arrive with the keys to let us in. In the mean time a local television crew pitched up and started filming us and general scenes around the old entrance. We were eventually led inside and walked to the old ramp where Il-14 RA-0543G was sitting, leaving the TV crew outside. We later learned that they had got wind of the engine run and the foreigners arriving, but were told that they wouldn't be allowed inside the airfield with us.
The Il-14 used to be the mainstay in the Soviet Air Force and Navy as a personnel carrier and transport aircraft and was built as a replacement for the Li-2, first flying in 1950 and entering service in 1954. Total production was 1112 including licensed production in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. As late as 1979 there were still an amazing 235 still in service in Russia, which serves as a testament to how good this aircraft was. The An-24/26 and Yak-40 eventually replaced all these as time slipped by. This Il-14 is ex RA-02117 and originally served with Tarom and the Romanian Air Force before returning to the Soviet Union. It made only two flights in its current guise before the crash of Li-2 RA-1300K in 2004 grounded all older aircraft from flying pending a new certification system that this aircraft has now complied with.
We hung out and took some exterior shots of the aircraft while Aleksandr and George checked things over in the aircraft. Unfortunately there was a whole line of old car tyres in front of the Il-14 that formed part of the kart track. Aleksandr said we were free to take some interior shots but only two at a time. A couple of the guys took up the offer and went aboard and almost as soon as they finished their photos the first engine was started while they were still aboard. A huge cloud of white smoke, as expected, billowed out before the exhaust was cleared, and outside next to the perimeter fence the TV crew got blasted with smoke and turbulence, as they had commandeered someone's back garden. After a couple of minutes the second engine was started and before long the gorgeous hum of a pair of classic radials filled the airfield with the noise it would have been used to in the old days. After the run I went onboard and George suggested I climb out the window onto the wing. Cool, that's exactly what the 10-22mm "rivet spotter" lens is built for.
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