In the comments to one of the materials devoted to Aviadarts, there were very harsh remarks on the topic of the fact that all this is window dressing, all prizes are allocated in advance, and in general, this is a senseless and useless matter.
Let me disagree.
The finals of "AI-2017" are still ahead, as well as the forum "ARMY-2017", so we will not talk about them. The time has not come yet. And let's talk about the just ended Russian final of Aviadarts.
Thanks to the press services of the Aerospace Forces and the Western Military District, this year we managed to plunge into the competition as deeply as possible from the inside. Therefore, there are a lot of reports and stories ahead, since processing such a large amount of footage takes a lot of time.
But we can dump our opinion today.
It is simply impossible to say that Aviadarts is a huge show. Show-off is just demonstration performances in Aviamix, but that is why they are demonstrative. But even demonstration performances make sense.
Yes, at first glance, everything is exactly like that: planes and helicopters arrive, arrange bangs and aerobatics for a fair number of civilians who have gathered to watch all this. So it was before in Voronezh, so it was later in Ryazan and the Crimea. This year, the competition returned to Voronezh again.
Why?
Crimea is clear, you still have to get there, Ryazan is an excellent training ground, new, with excellent entrances and infrastructure. And yet. It's simple. The competition should work itself out, at least a little. Everyone knows that Ryazan is the patrimony of the Airborne Forces. And in Voronezh, the Zhukovsky and Gagarin Academy is based, more precisely, the academy plus an engineering and technical aviation school. Two, so to speak, in one.
And the main thing for the Aerospace Forces is certainly not amusement of the population and showing how cool our aviation is. After dozens of videos from Syria, few doubt it anyway.
The main thing is a campaign tent, where specialists conduct interviews with those wishing to enlist in the VKS. Because she is the source of shots, so to speak, taken on the hot. And, which is characteristic, it works.
More than 10 thousand people visited Aviamix. All ages understandable.
According to the press service, 988 people entered the personnel center. They formalized preliminary relations with the VKS (that is, they expressed a desire to sign a contract, but did not have documents) 328 people, received a referral to a medical examination, that is, they expressed a desire to serve now, and they formalized everything, 127 volunteers.
A trifle? Well, how to look. There is no superfluous technical staff. I don't know exactly how many people it takes to fly one pilot, but we are definitely not talking about one dozen. More planes means more technicians, gunsmiths, hydraulics, instrument operators, and more on the list.
In principle, in every city where there are military universities, something similar should be carried out. Not just an open day, which not all schools go straight to, let's be honest, but such large-scale actions that can ignite something in the minds and souls of those who will be able to take their place in 5-7 years, if not in the cockpit, then next to it.
So in this regard, Aviamix is a very useful business.
Now about the inner stuffing of Aviadarts. Considering how much time we spent at the airfields, how much we talked without a camera (mostly I, as a photographer), believe it or not, dear readers, we didn’t notice what our reader wrote about.
You can, of course, shake the air with angry words that everything is scheduled there, and those who will fly to China for the final stage are known, but we saw both the joy of a successful flight and the chagrin when everything went wrong. And the mothers heard. In assortment.
It's unrealistic to play it. You can only worry like that when you really feel deeply supported by the result. So - I do not believe in what they say about ostentation, I believe in what I saw. That all the pilots rushed to the sky for the result.
In general, "Army Games" is a very useful business, since representatives of the armies compete with each other, who, in principle, will not be able to clarify relations with each other anywhere else. Representatives of parts of the Far East and the European part of the country, for example.
And here the point is not even who is cooler, but in the exchange of experience, which is a useful moment in itself. It is clear that the Charter is the same for everyone, and the training manuals too, but different conditions, different approaches to training. And, accordingly, a different result.
Five years ago I shot Aviadarts for the first time. Over these five years, a lot has changed, the Army Games appeared (then, let me remind you, there was only tank biathlon and Aviadarts), and, importantly, an understanding of the essence of what was happening appeared.
When something needs to be put up for sale, there is no doubt the forum "ARMY- …". "Army Games" serve a different purpose, in fact - to attract new people to the army. Well, and a demonstration of all the capabilities of the technique. We just need to pay more attention to the coverage of these competitions, so that not only tank biathlon is on the first channel, but maybe less colorful, but no less important competitions. Engineers, marines, snipers, RChBZ fighters.
The idea is good, the main thing is not to spoil the performance.
