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Source: ria.ru
“There is nothing extraordinary for me about this flight. You are wondering if we ate anything in the air. Well, I had three apples”, said the pilot soon after landing at Zhukovsky port airfield in his interview to RIA Novosti.
ZHUKOVSKIY AIRFIELD (Moscow region), September 8th - RIA Novosti. The pilot Anatoly Kvochur only ate three apples during a nonstop record-setting SU-30 flight following the same flight path as the legendary pilot Valery Chkalov.
“There is nothing extraordinary for me about this flight. You are wondering if we ate anything in the air. Well, I had three apples”, said the pilot soon after landing at Zhukovsky port airfield in his interview to RIA Novosti.
According to Kvochur, a nonstop record-setting SU-30 flight altitude ranged from 8,100 to 16,700 metres.
“Refuelers approached us at slightly over 8,000 metres altitude while the maximum flight altitude reached over 16,000 metres”, the famous pilot said.
Answering the question whether getting on without sleep was hard, Kvochur honestly admitted: “Yes, it was hard without sleep. We had an autopilot turned on which helped”.
The SU-30 took off from Zhukovsky airfield in Moscow area last night.
“Anatoly Kvochur and Sergey Korostiev flew over 13 thousand kilometres non-stop, having burned over 40 tons of fuel, a record flight for a SU-30, the total time of the non-stop flight from take-off to landing was 14 hours and 12 minutes, while there also were the preparatory works”, said Vladimir Mikhailov, the Air Force Commander-in-Chief, earlier.
The Assistant to Air Force Commander-in-Chief colonel Aleksandr Drobyshevskiy earlier told RIA Novosti that IL-78 military flying tankers accompanied the SU-30 in its non-stop flight.
The non-stop flight route went right across Russian territory to Udd Island in Kamchatka where the legendary pilot Valery Chkalov landed his plane 70 years ago. According to the flight plan the SU-30 fighter took off from Zhukovsky airfield while a IL-78 flying tanker started from Vorkuta airfield. After the first in-flight refuelling over Igarka the planes continued the flight together. The second in-flight refuelling took place to the south of Yakutsk.
Further on the SU-30 passed Chkalov Island in the estuary of the Amur River with two orbits over Chkalov’s memorial. The next in-flight refuelling took place over the Neryungri area in Yakutiya. The flying tanker then landed at the military airfield in Irkutsk region while the SU-30 continued flying for Moscow. The second military flying tanker IL-78 flew towards it from the long-range aviation airfield in Diaghilevo, Ryazan region, refuelling the SU-30 near Tomsk and returning to Diaghilevo. The SU-30 continued the flight and landed in Zhukovsky, Moscow region, at Ramenskoe airfield.
The total distance of the SU-30’s non-stop flight was 12,417 kilometres, four in-flight refuellings were made, reported the Russian Air Force.
Source: ria.ru
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