Day 16: 1997-06-04
ATW Retro-blog: 1997-06-04 (Day#16)
Kemerovo (RU) – Krasnoyarsk (UNKM - RU) –
227nm; 2:55; Purchase (833) / Cowan (962)
An eventful day.
As the team all rode the hotel lift to collect their luggage, it came to a grinding halt. After 40 minutes in total darkness the lift was winched manually down to the preceding floor, enough to allow a 2 ft aperture to be opened through which they each crawled and jumped to the floor. Apparently the lift could only take four persons, but not a sign to that effect was in evidence! You just had to know (maybe they teach this sort of stuff in Russian schools?)
Next challenge: getting transport to the airport (taxis being non-existent). By now though, Yuri had this mastered: he simply commandeered passing vehicles and instructed the driver to “Take these guests of the Russian Air Force to the airport forthwith”. Drivers simply accepted his orders and were happy enough to be given various badges and other venture-related freebies as recompense.
After initial poor weather the leg to Krasnoyarsk went well, though the cold temperature on arrival matched the reception. Multiple ‘security’ spooks appeared and ran back and forth from a tinted-windowed Merc. Tony Severs was reprimanded for taking photos of the airport facilities and had his roll of film confiscated by ‘security’ and exposed on the spot. [Probably, 20 years later, it is now no threat to Tony’s well-being to reveal that he had hastily pocketed the offending film and replaced it with a blank cassette! Cool operator.��]
Airport admin took five hours, and on top of that, there was no Avgas and none to spare in the Islander, so the only choice was to back-track 70 nm to Achinsk and uplift some there … tomorrow.
A frustrating day in which it had taken 12 hours to cover 227 nm, with 70 yet to back-track. The good news? The hotel was of a surprisingly good standard.
Bill (in WP833) leads Ced, en-route UNEE – UNKM
An illicit and obviously very state-threatening photograph taken by Tony Severs at Krasnoyarsk, of the Chippies and Islander in front of an Ilyushin Il-86. Not good marketing in the choice of airline name, eh??
[This is a good photograph to use to point out that both the Chipmunks went around the world with their spinners fitted THE WRONG WAY! The ‘official’ spec clearly shows the spinner being fitted so that its colours match the blade emerging on each side. (Paul Green, take note ;-)) I think that it is intuitive, because of the alternating nature of the pattern, to fit spinners this way, and I bet more than half are today ‘incorrect’. WP833 has been restored so as to be authentically incorrect!]
Day 16: UNEE-UNKM 227 nm, 2.92 hrs, GS 78 kts. Cumulative 3728 nm, 39.35 hrs, Average GS 95 kts. 
Last edited by India Four Two; 20th Jun 2017 at 06:56.