Originally Posted by
Cornish Jack
Not helpful, I'm afraid, but sort of on topic - which of the Mi versions had the reversed throttle movement - Mi 4, or all of them? Memories of a M E national QHI student ex Mi 4?, who went computer out on the Whirlwind with predictable results!! Muscle memory is a fact of life!
Hmm I'm not sure, ity may be the Mi-4 indeed, don't know this one ! But nice story
Originally Posted by
bront
Hi Hueyman, good for you. I've flown the MTV quite a bit back in the '90's and they are amazing helicopters. Far superior to Western helicopters in their class. Might look ugly but man, do they perform. They are the most reliable helicopter I've ever flown. I started a company in South Africa back then and we had 24 of them but it was impossible to work with the Russians, so that would be my take on why you don't see many in the West.
And Jim, they don't crash because of the machine, they crash because their Russian pilots do crazy stuff. It was a constant battle to stop them killing you all the time. It was like someone flicked a switch in the pilots head and then the craziness started. And all of the pilots that I knew had more than 15,000 hours but they still did crazy stuff when you least expected it.
Good luck Hueyman, it's going to be hard to get a gig but well worth it if you do.
Ahaha ! Thanks for your intervention man ! Cheers me up ! Ugly ?! Damn, I know I have singular tastes but I find the Mi-8 and it's myriads of cockpit windows so appealing ! But I love the PC-6 so it may be my weird tastes ahah !
Heard the same thing about Russian crew ahah, and people in general, quite stronghead minded - immortal - redneck attitude eheh.
I'm studying this bird for years, with all available documentation and a very good public simulation of it ( DCS : Mi-8 MTV2 ) and it definitely looks to be a complex and very interesting and amazing machine, whatever western addicts may say ( mainly cause they never saw or operated one ? )
What happened to your Company if I may ask ? Maybe you still have contacts in the business ? I'm really able to move anywhere, still young and without attach so that's now or never !
Originally Posted by
wrench1
Have you tried contacting operators in Central and South America? Back in the late 90s there were several civilian MI-8 ops in Peru plus a few more in a couple other countries. I believe they are still operating the MI series today. In some cases the national military operates(ed) as a commercial operation which keeps the pure civilian ops supplied with pilots and mechanics. I also believe they opened a factory maintenance facility in Lima to support various Russian models operating in the lower Americas.
Regardless what other people might think, it's a heck of a machine. They were used in support of our seismic ops and I flew in them often. The company I worked for bought a couple for an Asian contract and I almost had the chance to go as a mechanic, but it didn't work out. I always got a kick out of the 4 man crew to operate one. Good luck.
Thanks for input Wrench,
I did only find Vertical De Aviacion in Colombia, which also never replied so far. A couple of years ago found another operator maybe in Peru as you said but lost the website and name.
From the various pictures of crews it really seems to be only old crews, former militaries of warsaw pact Air Forces etc .. One of these above mentioned Company recruitement person told me once they approached students fresh out of CPL in America to be trained ab-initio to work for UTair branch of South Africa, fighting wildfires in the Mi-8 alongside Hueys.. what a blast it must be !