Russia II (2015)

Russia II 2015

MAKS

Russia II 2015

The second 4Aviation tour to Russia in 2015 focussed on the 12th International Aviation and Space Salon, aka MAKS 2015, at Zhukovksy near Moscow. We visited the event, and surrounding areas, three times during the tour.

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25 August 2015

The fifth 4Aviation tour to Russia started on Tuesday 25 Augustus 2015. As with earlier tours the emphasis of the tour was on Moscow and its surrounding areas. The August 2015 was to visit MAKS 2015. An international group of 26 people had registered to participate in the end. Some of the group travelled to Russia on their own, a couple of them departed earlier, a couple of others wanted to stay longer. 4Aviation has been as accommodating as possible for this. Eventually a group of 20 was waiting at Schiphol to travel to Vnukovo as a group. After a stop in Frankfurt we arrived in Moscow at the end of the afternoon. The bus that would take us to the hotel kept us waiting for a short while (and so it needs to be in Russia). After its arrival we joined to rush hour traffic in good spirits. This rush hour, combined with road works (or better; metro works), resulted in arriving at our hotel only after 9 o’clock in the evening. Despite this a restaurant just across the street was willing to serve a group of hungry and thirsty people.

26 August 2015

On Wednesday morning (26 August) everybody was packed and ready after breakfast in time to start the day. The interpreter and bus were there pretty fast as well and we head for the museum in Monino. The air show at Zhukovsky/MAKS would not start until later in the afternoon today and the resulted in the perfect opportunity to visit the impressive museum in Monino. The sun was shining brightly and everybody enjoyed the dozens of aircraft that are preserved here for a couple of hours. Early in the afternoon the bus took us to Zhukovsky. Today we did not want to go on the base, but head for a spot south of the fence. That would mean that we would not be facing the sun. We were able to park our bus relatively close by and could walk to the desired spot, enjoying the sunshine. If was a little bit disappointing that not many things flew. But, whatever did fly (choppers, Yak-130, Navy Su-30SM, MiG-35, etc.) was very nice and could be captured perfectly. At the spot where we were you are close to the display land and the display are practically flown in a circle around you! At the end of the afternoon we drove back to the hotel (which went surprisingly fast).

27 August 2015

Thursday morning 27 August started without sitting down for breakfast. We wanted to leave the hotel in time (7 o’clock) to make sure that we would be at Zhukovsky on time. Therefore, everybody took the take-away breakfast bag from the hotel lobby. The road towards MAKS was still rather uncrowded and we were at the show will in time. During the public days of MAKS it is ridiculously busy at and around Zhukovsky, but during the tradeshow days (when we were there) it is a lot more pleasant to be hanging around. The static was positioned as it normally is. This means that photography is a somewhat troublesome. With some patience and some creativity though there are options for nice pictures. The static again was very interesting. It was an impressive line of Russian military hardware, varying from a Yak-130 to a Tu-95MS and from a Ka-226 to an Mi-26. The participation from other abroad was limited this time for obvious reasons. The plan was to stay ‘inside’ for the entire day, knowing that during the air show you are facing the sun. No problem, since we would have another day with ´sun from behind´. The sun was present all day again and this gave some interesting options for photography during the day. The show can be called very special since the aircraft types that are displayed here are mostly exclusive types for this event. What about a PAK FA/T-50 or a Su-35 (that performs a back-flip as if this is a normal thing). The return journey to the hotel was rather swift as well and during the evening is was a lot of fun again!

28 August 2015

The next (Friday 28 August) we started our day on time again. Four participants of the group had bought themselves an access ticket to the photo platform and therefore wanted to be on the base in time. We were able to let these four get off the bus at a very practical location after which the bus parked at the same spot as the Wednesday before. We were heading for the same spot on the south side of the premises to be able to photograph the air show with the sun in a favourable position. The show would last from 11 to 17 o’clock today. The air show was more extensive than the previous days. Unfortunately the Russian Knights did not show their abilities today, but this was made up for by an impressive demo of the Russian Falcons (Sokoli Rossiyi). This is a formation of four Flankers (two Su-30SMs and two older two-seaters) that fly very tight formations and simulate a dogfight. Feeling very happy at the end of the day the four ‘flatform-people’ joined the happy group again. During this last evening in Moscow part of the group headed for the city-centre.

29 August 2015

On Saturday (29 August) we would be flying home during the late afternoon. Therefore there was some time in the morning for a visit to the city-centre. The suggestion, on Friday, to organise a guide for this visit was not met with a lot of enthusiasm at first. Yet, on Saturday almost 20 people joined the guide to the city-centre. This made the visit, to the metro, the Red Square, Lenin’s mausoleum, etc. even more interesting. Around noon the bus was ready for us according to plan again to make sure that we got to Domodedovo in time for our return journey. This return journey was uneventful and during the evening everybody picked up the luggage from the baggage-belt at Schiphol. All looked back at a more than fine tour with many special aircraft types and a very nice experience!

Russia II 2015

Russia II 2015

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Russia II (2015)

Russia II 2015

Russia II 2015

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