Originally Posted by
cactusbusdrvr
It astonishes me that the French government would be using sketchy Eastern European cargo operators for moving their military equipment and personnel around. I have friends that have flown extensively in Africa. The number of Antonovs littering the landscape is huge.
There's plenty of US military equipment and personnel gets lifted around Africa and the Middle East in E European /ex Sov aircraft and helicopters. Antonovs, Ilyushin and MIL make aircraft that are solid, easily maintained, cheap, robust, widely available and discreet. All useful qualities in both aid and military support ops.
As for this whole 'vodka swilling Russian pilot' trope that seems so popular here - (a) most of the Russian, Ukrainian, Moldovan, Georgian and other aircrew I've flown with over the years have been highly competent and professional. Audacious, yes, and sometimes prepared to fly in conditions that would make your average 'western' ATPL call in sick; and (b) dubiously sober aircrew is not a nationality issue - I've come across Saffer and US and Aussie aircrew who cane it in the bar all night then stagger across to the airfield, kick the tyres and wobble off into the sunrise. I've seen the old WW2 fighter pilot hangover cure - a long hard suck on the 02 just after wheels-up - more than once.