You don't see this at International Airports very often

[India Four Two]

Yesterday, while waiting for my flight at Hanoi Noi Bai airport, I was entertained by at least six VNAF Mig 21s taking off and landing (using braking parachutes). I have often seen them in their open hangars on the far side, but this was the first time I had seen a Mig 21 flying.

Spectactularly noisy and one had a reheat problem during takeoff, causing a 5 m flame out of the tailpipe.

The sortie lengths were VERY short - it reminded me of watching Lightnings depart and return at Binbrook

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me.

[irishair2001]

Had a similar experience in Constanta , Romania in 1973 ,while waiting to board a Tarom AN-24 to Bucharest Baneasa,i counted 16 Mig 21s on the ground and taking off and landing and as you said the sorties did not seem to last very long

[stepwilk]

An acquaintance of mine (Dean Martin, KBTV) owned a MiG-21, and whenever he flew, he'd phone the tower first and say, "I will be flying in 45 minutes. I will return 30 minutes after takeoff, I will join downwind at 250 knots, I will turn base at 200 knots, and I will NOT accept a waveoff. I will be landing out of that approach."

He didn't have enough fuel to do anything else.

[India Four Two]

He didn't have enough fuel to do anything else.

Stephan, that's a great anecdote - declaring Bingo fuel before takeoff.

Clearly the Vietnamese pilots were in much the same situation. I saw an Airbus taxi past the terminal out of sight and then not depart until about thirty minutes later, after the Migs had landed.

I've just got home after a quick trip to Jakarta and Singapore and was able to look up a site that I remembered, showing the hangars at Hanoi and some great photos of Migs operating at Danang:

Vietnamese Air Force

[Proplinerman]

Mig 21s

There's a stack of Mig 21s preserved in Hungary. Here's one at the excellent museum at Szolnok.

JetPhotos.Net Photo » 3945 Hungary - Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Fishbed by Michael Blank

[Capot]

At Abu Dhabi in the '70's it didn't do to be approaching ahead of a Mirage on its way back home; they were usually on 3-4 minutes left, or less, by the time they got on to finals.

Or so an ADAF pilot told me once over a beer, to explain why I had been told to orbit well away from the approach for 10 minutes when returning VFR from Dubai, late one night, in a friend's Cherokee.

[KeMac]

spelling

That is interesting about the ADDF Mirages. I knew a number of the IAL ATCOs in the 70s and I recall a story about a complaint being made by BA after a VC 10 on approach was overtaken by a Mirage to land ahead of it. I remember they would regularly come out after the morning rush of commercial aircraft and take off in echelon one after the other lined up down the runway.

[ian16th]

At Ivato International, Antananarivo, Madagascar, there are a fair number of derelict looking Migs', 19's I think. Parked under a carport type shelter. They don't look as if they'll fly again.

I was a pax on a commercial flight JNB to RUN that staged through Ivato International and was surprised to see the Migs. On the return flight I organised myself a port side window seat and had my camera available. I have some poor quality analogue video, taken close to dusk, through a distorting B-737 window.

[18-Wheeler]

On the occasional trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh, I would often see Mig-21's flying around locally at the main airport.