"Chemical" flights

I started my career flying as a First Officer on Antonov-2. Could you believe, that this biplane which first flight was about 70 years ago is still flying?

Moreover, for dozens of years most of Russian student pilots used An-2 to learn how to fly. It wasn't the simpliest and cheapiest way to do it, but nobody in the USSR took prices into account. The education was free of charge also!


Free wikipedia - Antonov-2

I got only about 300 hrs on that old-fashioned bird, and only ~100 of delt with agricultural works but really it was one of my best periods!

In year 2000 Altai region faced with locust invasion from Kazakhstan. 

Federals decided to spend some budget money in attempt to save the harvests. My company, Altai Avia, was one of the members of that campaign - we used specially equipped An-2s to irrigate fields with the chemicals.

And I still remember these flights with nostalgy. Yes, it was very hot in the cockpit, it was so noisy, that you could speak to your Cap only using the interphone. No white shirts and stewardesses who could offer you a cup of coffee with nice smile.

But it was a very interesting job. These flights totally differ from routine airline flights on big jets where you are totally borderd with restrictions and regulations. These flights make you feel the freedom and great romance.

I remember my first takeoff on big Tupolev-154... The airplane took off and roze her noze... and quickly dived into the clouds. Thats all. No sun, no trees, no lakes below. My first feeling was: "Oops! Seems I was deceived... Where is the romance? In that gauges which I must look at during another four hours of flight?"

Of course, later I learned how to find romance in flying the big jet - new airports, new problems, new solutions. Nice decisions and nice approaches. But it was later, and at first I missed the freedom and interest that was felt doing agricultural works.

--==(o)==--

...In June, 2000 I arrived at a distant village on a bumpy bus. My colleagues had almost finished their flights there and I was planned to change the First Officer. On the next day we had to move to another village and continue our struggle with locusts there.

But first of all I had to spent a night there - in a old house on the outskirts of the village. Oh, it was a memorable night - my own "romance" started from it. Crickets didn't stop their songs for a minute, our technician was snooring like a super hero. Ghosts were creaking and scratching the floor.

I was trying to fall asleep, but achieved a little success. Once I opened my eyes and saw a veeeery big grasshopper who was sleeping 10 cm away of my nose.

Romantique...

In the morning I was put into the cockpit and we moved to Rubtzovsk - a town close to the wester border with Kazakhstan. I didn't remember what was the reason of making a stop there, but for me it was a significant event. My farther was born there, started his own pilot career here, and my grannys lived there until the end... I spent a lot of time with them during my childhood, moreover, grandfother and granny worked in the airport and always took me there, so this place is very iconic to me.

But this airport was closed in early 90's as USSR collapsed and crisis started. 

As soon as we'd landed, lots of children ran from nowhere. It was a great event in their life - most of them had never seen the airplane so close before!

In half an hour we continued our journey. Next time I was in Rubtzovsk only 10 years later - to visit the graves of my dear people...

--==(o)==--

And then we arrived at Tabuny - it was our place of work for another several days. We built the airfield by ourselves (there are the rules how do do it), and started flying.

Remember, I was a very young and unexperienced pilot then so everything was new for me, but I did my best.

We used to get up at 4 o'clock, because the air irrigation has strict restrictions for the air temperature and winds. So, we flew untill appx 10 am and then stopped untill 5pm and then continued up to 10-11pm. Next morning everything was repeated. 

My Captain and Technician used to snore during day stops, but I had to fill lots of papers - you really don't have time for them when you are flying.

Sometimes the weather wasn't good and we tried to kill the time. As I was very young it wasn't a problem to me - you could imagine how the village girls were curious about "the young cute pilot". 

Romantique.

But really girls were not so interesting for me as flying was. There is a very old Russian song: "Aiplane first.. And what about girls? Girls - later!". Just about me :)

The flight cycle consisted of the following:
1. Fuelling. Rules dictated that you had to carry no more than 600kg of gaz, but it wasn't a problem to the heroes. My Cap filled all the tanks - it saved the time in his opinion.
2. Filling the chemical tank. I didn't remember exactly, but somewhere about 1200 litres.
3. Quickly closing everything, starting the engine, taking off and flying. The flight usually lasted not more than 15 minutes, and then every step was repeated.

From the ground these flights look like this (photoes found in the Internet):





Yes, these trees were a great challenge to the crew. Some crews weren't lucky...



Lets look back from the cockpit



Pilots have the schemes of the fields, and before the flight they discuss the order in which they had to be irrigated.

It is very important to locate the airfield as close to all the fields as practical, it would give you the best performance and save a lot of gaz and money.

Really, we saved much more than could show in the documents. It was a usual practice when crews saved some gaz and did small "own business". Everybody knew it but closed their eyes on it and let their workers to earn more money - the real salaries were very small.

But some crews dumped the prices so that they had problems with local "authorities" (I mean the criminals).

It was a very "romantique" period.

Me

Again

As we were far from our base (Barnaul), it was very difficult to communicate from VHF stations. HF rarely helped either. We tried to find a jet in the sky, and asked colleagues to transmitt our information (we had to do it hourly).

In the photo below I'm trying to tell Bashenka (call-sign) that we are starting another duty period.



Having a rest.



These flights also helped me to become very familiar with the aircraft. When you are doing agricultural works, you fly very low and have to maneuever very deep and very often, so, your skills grow rapidly.

During the Soviet times these type of works was widely spread all over the country - hundreds of An-2s flew in the sky, raining and sanding the fields by chemicals (liquide or bulk materials).

Nowadays it remains only in southern regions - using An2 isn't cheap, and no farmer could afford to buy a foreign special airplane, which would be cheaper. 

So, I'm very proud that I've had such an experience in the beginning. May be I could have it again after finishing my airline career - who knows.

Thank you for your attention!

PS Remember? I'm trying to improve my English. So, please feel free to show my mistakes!

FLY SAFE!