Paul Filmer reports from the final destination of his latest visit to Siberia, with a trip to Korobcheyevo Airfield in Kolomna, home to a number of interesting Russian civilian types.
Korobcheyevo is home to a major parachute club, and there are various jump-ships based at the airfield.
The backbone of the fleet is the LET L-410 turboprop. There were at least 10 examples here, in a mixture of civilian and military markings and serials, and some so old they still carried the four-digit serial and bort number. The latter were, of course, assumed to have been withdrawn from use, although we did see one flying, so who knows?
We were offered a ride in a L-410, but time did not permit this, as it would be almost an hour before we could fly, and our driver was nervous about getting us back to Moscow in the traffic in time for our flight back to London.
Other aircraft present were a single An-28 and of course, the ubiquitous An-2.
One other aircraft stood out for me, and one that I’d never seen before, a Technoavia SM-92T Finist, operated by the Russian Border Guards. It certainly looked to be a very serious STOL aircraft.
We then fought our way back via the maddening Moscow rush-hour traffic in time for our flight back to the UK.
All in all, another great trip to Siberia, with the usual ups and downs expected when undertaking something in the aviation sphere.