"How didn't you know that?!"

"No, never heard of anything like that..."

"Oh, man... Come on in here, and you'll see her again!"

She's my date again!

  So ended one of my phone conversations I had some time last year with a man, an engineer of a local aeroclub, whom I have long known well.

  He told me about the Yak-18T plane, that had ( and I didn't even know! ) been standing for a long time behind the weedy outskirts of our aerodrome; on the remote ramp belonging to a neighboring aviation business. And what had made me most excited was the fact that the ramp was located a mere several hundred meters from our habitual Stand #22, occupied usually by our single Tupolev as it awaits another flight.

  At the very first convenience I went there to visit that heavens knows how and from where appeared Yak. Being the only aircraft of her own kind, and clearly distinctive from the other flying aluminum, chiefly represented here by Mil-2, Mil-8, Kamov-32 helos, she instantly attracted my attention.

  And it was also her look, that astoundingly stroked my sight.

  She presented herself a sorry spectacle of the discolored, faded in sun skin, greased cowling covers, heavily dusted in spots of oil leaking. Also there were her gear struts on flattened wheels, and their shock absorbing cylinders, once shining mirrors, now dull matt and already touched by rusting.

  The engineer, to whom I had recently talked by phone soon came, accompanied by another club's fellow, an A&P mechanic. They started to work on the airplane, taking off the plane's covering, uncowling the engine, opening all the doors, hatches, and holes.

  As I learned from our brief conversation, the plane was actually brand new. Despite its pretty young but distinct five-year age (built in 1994), it had accumulated to that date (June 1999) only... 10 (ten) hours of flight time!

  I was also stingily briefed on the vague and pretty complicated history of the aircraft's previous owners along with the aircraft's operational projects, that they had conceived ( every one of them were odd figures in aviation). That ranged from utilizing the plane as a small business air transport to operating it in the oil pipeline monitoring. None of these projects were ever realized.

 

The air-ambulance Yak - 18T.

 

 

 

 
+  The Yak-18T was intended for a multipurpose use, such as flying air-ambulance missions to/from rural areas that are many in our vastly sprawled homeland.

   In the past there were magazine articles, colorful posters, air show ad brochures, large anniversary albums that could often be found in proper places, that proclaimed the soon to come bloom of what would be known as General Aviation.

  For instance, our beloved Yak-18T was frequently cited and pictured in the media as one of the would-be leading drives of the upcoming GA revolution.

  Nothing like that has happened yet.

  However, tremendous changes in the political situation in contemporary Russia have eventually chain - reacted in all directions; resulting also in the great shifts within the legislation and practices that are now applied to the GA field.

  But nevertheless, today and tomorrow, small aviation businesses, as well as recreational flying enthusiasts in Russia, still have to override many hurdles on the way they've paved to the "genuine freedom of flight" since the dawn of aviation in this old country.

  To be continued...