Exercising the Mil Mi-24D Hind

The weather was perfect last Saturday and it's been a while since the Cold War Air Museum has taken the Mi-24 helicopter out for a walk.

One of the many impressive things about the Hind is its AI-9 Safire starter, which often makes an impressive display during start. Its important to position the main rotor blades so that they don't get cooked by the starter.



Sean, sitting in the doorway, probably wishes he had an AK-47 to pose with for authenticity.


Bruce and Mike discuss the co-pilot's controls. The front seat of the Hind has a collective, cyclic and torque pedals in case the pilot is unable to control the aircraft. Interestingly, it's possible for the flight engineer (who sits in the gangway behind the pilot) to pull a pin and tilt the pilot's seat backwards, making it possible to remove the pilot by pulling him backwards. While the front cockpit doesn't have full controls (for example, there is no throttle control), there are enough for operational purposes.


After getting the helicopter started, Mike, Bruce and our mechanic Johnny (who also holds a rotor pilot's certificate) took Bord 118 out for a spin (so to speak).


The three pilots on board have considerable flight time in our Mi-2 and all three sets of hands, feet and eyeballs were closely monitoring and evaluating Bord 118 as we get her ready for U.S certification.

Party time for the Hornets

The resourcefulness of the American Aviator should never be underestimated. A case in point is the effort put forth by the men of the 116th. The base was a typical Viet Nam facility, but the needs of the service overcame the rustic facilities.

Soon after this picture was taken, an all hands effort was begun to improve "morale". A "deal" with an engineering company resulted in a big hole in the ground and after a lot of labor and scrounging, the company had the picture below.


With a MASH unit just "down the street", the pool was frequented by nurses in their off time. Pool parties were well attended.

With temperatures in excess of 100 degrees every day, the pool saw year-round use, even on Christmas, a "stand down" day.

MiGs, Pigs and Uncontrolled Flight

No insult is intended to Pigs (or MiGs for that matter), but the old saying "When Pig's Fly" is intended to invoke an image of absurdity. The German version, "Wenn Schweine fliegen könnten!"... is essentially identical, while the Russian version "когда рак на горе свистнет"... "when the crawfish whistles on the mountain" uses a different image for the same result.

Unfortunately, during the last year, two of our Cold War Air Museum adventurers had the misfortune of taking a fall (from a ladder and a wing) while working on the MiGs. Needless to say, such excursions from controlled airspace brought about a serious response from the Museum Safety Officer (in his case, after he recovered) as well as cautions from others at the Museum (not to mention those at home). Therein lies the MiG tie-in for this post.

The safety reviews, not surprisingly, concluded that it was not so much the fall, as the sudden stop at the end and things encountered along the way, that created the potential for significant damage or injury. To focus attention on maintenance safety, an image or award based on "Pigs (or people) Can't Fly" was explored. When this concept was checked by the engineering staff however, we got a surprising (but perhaps to be expected) response:

"Certainly pigs can fly, it is simply a matter of applying sufficient thrust. The problems lie with the lack of effective flight controls, landing systems and waste containment. For these reasons, pig flight over populated areas is not recommended.

Regardless of such musings, we do emphasize safety and we considered creating an emblem or badge for that purpose. The statue above is located at the Cincinnati airport. In the 1800's, Cincinnati was the hog processing center of the U.S., As pigs arrived in railroad cars for the slaughterhouse, it was said that they were packed so tightly they would "fly" out of the cars when the doors were opened. Cincinnati thus became know as the "City of Flying Pigs", perhaps a better moniker than its other nickname of the time, "Porkopolis".

F.A.S.T. Formation

With midnight, December 31st fast approaching it was time to double-check F.A.S.T. (Formation And Safety Training) credentials for everybody. It wasn't enough to have flown during the prior year, paperwork needed to be completed. Which, of course, it hadn't been. So it was necessary for Mustang, Crash, Duck, and Pig Pen to take to the sky to keep their F.A.S.T. cards from turning into pumpkins when the New Years ball drops in Times Square.

F.A.S.T. is a committee, recognized by the FAA to ensure that a certain level of training and proficiency is maintained by all pilots wishing to fly in formation in the waivered airspace at at an airshow. F.A.S.T. member organizations, such as the Red Star Pilot's Association (RPA) manage their own training programs to F.A.S.T. standards and maintain records on training and proficiency through the "Wingman", "Lead Pilot", "Instructor", and "Check Airman" levels.

At least once a year a Lead Pilot must sign off paperwork saying that another lead or wingman has flown in or conducted a four-ship formation.

Communication is accomplished in formation with minimum radio traffic; in fact, an entire flight can be flown — beginning to end — without a single radio call.


Shown here is what the "cross under" signal looks like from the lead pilot...


And what it looks like from the wingman's point of view.


The RPA manual's guidelines on accomplishing the cross-under.


An echelon turn, where all aircraft remain at the same altitude (vice "stacking up").


The beginning of a "B&R" — breakup and rendezvous.

What started off as an overcast day (ceilings less than 100 feet) turned into a great day for some of our Cold War Air Museum associates to go flying and take pictures. Thanks to the RPA for the formation graphics and thanks to Miguel for the pictures, more can be found on his page on Flikr.