This year, 4Aviation travelled to the ARMY forum at the usual three locations south of Moscow for the fourth time again. This year we started a day later so that we could stay a day longer for the departing aircraft. This year’s tour counted no fewer than 38 participants, the majority of whom gathered at Schiphol at the end of the morning of Thursday 27 June 2019. Other participants joined the group at the gate, some at Shermetyevo airport and the last ones at the hotel in Moscow.
The arrival at Shermetyevo did not go without a hitch, because of the bad weather in Moscow it was a rather chaotic at the airport and we left the airport building 1.5 hours later than planned. Fortunately, the ride to our trusted hotel in Moscow, certainly by Russian standards, was fairly smooth and there was even still the opportunity to order a meal.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast for the first two days of the tour didn’t look too good, so it was decided not to go to Kubinka on Friday (June 28) but to the exhibition at Patriot Park where everyone could follow their own plan. Options included visiting the museum or visiting the shooting range in Alabino. Despite the bad weather, everyone made the best of it. The clouds were so low on this day that the demonstrations at Alabino were limited to the rolling stock, which was also very impressive.
Because of the always busy rush hours on the Moscow ring road, we again spent a couple of nights in a hotel outside the city from Friday. This saved quite some time on the road on a number of days. Checking in at the hotel was somewhat problematic, “only in Russia”, but after a while everyone could enjoy the excellent rooms and restaurant of the hotel.
