Antonov AN-124-100?
 

Afternoon All

With recently watching a you tube video on the Antonov AN-124-100, with far as I know there is the standard flight deck crew of five. How many extra crew do they normally carry? in the video it looked like an extra eight plus one of them was sitting what looked like a radio operatives position, but this was not on the flight deck but way back down the aircraft?

Was it a Russian Air Force machine ? As far as the civilian workhorses go it would just be the loadmasters and any odds and sods outside of the main crew.

An124-100 Crew.
 

Hi,
When I started working with Antonov Design Bureau (ADB) on the 124-100, we would trundle around with a total crew of.......22. at the pointy end, there were: 2 pilots, 1 Navigator, 2 Flight Engineers and 1 Radio Operator. Therefore,a basic operating flight deck crew of 6. To this we had an extra pilot and an extra navigator for "long days." In addition, up front we had 1 Western Flight Manager (Air Foyle's rep.,) and 1 Ukrainian Flight Manager (ADB.) So, pointy end = 10. In the rear compartment, there was 1 Loadmaster and 11 Technicians/Loading crew. which puts us up to the 22. Over a period of a few years, we AF Flight Managers put it across that if some of the Techies were cross trained it would save the company roundabout $4 million per year. The crew was then reduced to 18, knocking off 4 techies. It does seem a lot of people, but remember, the techies were also the loaders, and with the type of aeroplane, the aircraft equipment and systems plus the type of loads we carried, western ways of doing things etc., would not have worked. On quite a few ocaisions we have taken over 24 hours to load, (we didn't have unions), and that was not due to the loaders being slack, but due to the complexity of the load. We started the load and did not stop until it was all on. Meals taken in shifts.
I was proud of the time I worked with ADB and the work we all did. A very strong, dependable aeroplane as is the 225.
Cheers the noo,:ok:
alt

aloominumtoob

Thanks for the information much appreciated, i was looking on you tube and was watching a video about Antonov Design Bureau An 124 it was a very interesting documentary about the aircraft. Have seen a number of these aircraft in the UK and never fail to impress me.

No there is not any UK based AN-124 to my knowledge, they come to the UK quite frequently the first one I saw was in the 90's.

We had 3 in at Farnborough once to transport Land Rovers to Siberia for some motoring competion.
They all flew in from Ukraine, loaded the Land Rovers, and departed direct to Siberia without re-fuelling. That's some fuel load!
Air Foyle operated them under contract but none were based in the UK. When they were asked to transport freight into Farnborough for the airshow one year, Air Foyle refused saying the runway wasn't long enough.
When the Antonov design bureau heard this, they said 'no problem' and their Chief Test Pilot flew the freight into Farnborough, Air Foyle having tried to take out an injunction to stop them.
I saw the letter the CTP sent to the high court to refute Air Foyle's objections.

There are some great stories about the Antonov's capabilities in Matt Potters book "Outlaws Inc."

Was working in SIN in the early 90s and got to see the mighty AN-124 in action. This was a time of change for the Soviet Union and for the most part its people were still treated like back in the good old days of the Iron Curtain (eg risk of them claiming asylum was not accepted by Russia as well as the visiting country!). Their crew would stay with the aircraft and even perform maintenance tasks like removing and servicing components until it was time to depart, I would imagine these would have been the techies/loadies and the crew would be safe in their bunks getting some rest. We would go to the aircraft and there would be some trading .. our fine Casio watches for a mechanical Russian watch for instance. There usually had a goodish supply of Russian aluminium badges/medals with military designs and for the very brave...liquor! They would ask for USD but would eventually setlle for SGD.

The loadies were required to operate the interior cranes and to sequence the load according to the load-masters instructions, it was good to watch how well they worked together.. not much uneccessary shouting and drama.. just whistles and a few calls. Very proffessional The loadmaster worked from a wooden table and chair that they carried along with them.

Anilv

AirBridge Cargo is part of Volga-Dnepr - does that mean they are not allowed in European airspace as well, and if yes, how come?
My exposure to AirBridge was pretty favorable (they bought several 747-8F).

Slight thread drift - I recall a plan to build some new AN-124s using western engines - specifically CF6-80C2 engines. Did that all fall apart?
I used to see the occasional AN-124 flying in and out of Boeing Field, usually to deliver Trent 800 engines for new build 777s when Rolls got a bit behind. The takeoff performance when they departed definitely left a bit to be desired, so I figured a re-engine would result in a much better aircraft.

I think you're mistaken, unless it's a very recent restriction (EDDK, last month):

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a5266e84a5.jpg

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Volg...Ruslan/5561005

They could almost be considered regular visitors to East Midlands Airport - certainly not head turners, though as an enthusiast they attract my attention.

Nice post. Flew in one...once, Got the opportunity after stripping down the last "Nimrod " due to be converted....but wasn't as we know, from Waddington to Woodford. The front crew were as you stated, the rear crew slightly fewer as I recall,

As engineers, we were fascinated by the interior and systems on display, plus the high tech broom !. One of the more interesting flights I've been on.......also notable was the, ahem, demarcation between front and rear crews. Have to say those guys worked hard though, laying out the ramps isn't a light task and we noticed they opened the cowls on the T/R at Woodford.

Here's one, of several, clips showing our arrival at Woodford and emptying the contents of the hold......it has to be said the landing was "firm ".....

Explored it when it visited Farnborough; in my recollection only 3 permanent seats on the flight deck (accessed by a vertical ladder) plus a couple of armchairs.
In the hold was a large dining table covered in empty bottles (mostly vodka/white rum etc)
And it was supposed to be flying in the display 2 hours later! Not surprisingly it was a 'no show', even though BAe said they would pay the fuel bill.

You must have missed the bowser Chevvron, The Volga-Dnepr Group quotes range at max payload as 4,500km. Wiki gives it a maximum range (payload not noted) of 5,200km.

Two VDA An-124s due at Leipzig tomorrow (and one in Paris a couple of days ago), so definitely no ban on them operating in European airspace.

Doesn't work I'm afraid.
This was in the days before TAG. Farnborough Business Aviation (FBA) operated the FBO from a small enclave south side with DERA/MOD operating north side.
FBA had a single 5000l bowser and limited underground tankage, about 12,000l I think, just sufficient to service their normal bizjets. This wouldn't be sufficient to supply 3 aircraft like AN124s.
DERA wouldn't have been able to help; they were only keeping minimum amount of AVTUR for their own needs as they were about to move to Boscombe Down.
Even a couple of years later when FBA had got a bigger bowser and DERA flying had gone, they were asked to re-fuel a visting C5 Galaxy (transporting POTUS helicopters) and after emptying their bowser twice said that was all they could do.