Hydroaviashow "Gelendzhik-2014": a view from the beach onlooker
It was the tenth seaplane show. It is held every two years. The place was not chosen by chance. In the Gelendzhik Bay on Tonky Cape there is a base of the "Berievites", slipways are arranged for lowering hydroplanes from the shore to the water. There is a large port nearby - Novorossiysk. The runway is capable of receiving both An-140 and Boeing-747. The strip is very flat, with a slope to the sea and, according to some reports, has an underground cooling system. In short, here they are ready to receive guests with any technique.
The salon attracts specialists and all kinds of business interested people, enthusiasts of seaplane aviation. In addition to amphibious aircraft, here you can also get acquainted with military aviation equipment, historical aircraft, civil aircraft. The current salon was held under the sign of small aircraft. These are primarily devices capable of landing on water. One craftsman even presented a hang-glider with a suspended boat. And it flies. So, you see, soon in the resorts it can compete with the famous parachutes towed behind boats.
All these small machines are easier for specialists to understand. And a simple beach onlooker sometimes does not know what an interesting airplane it is buzzing in the sky. So, if they had not said, no one would have understood that in the same ranks with the veteran Yak-52, the heavenly evolutions were carried out by two automated Bumblebee aircraft. They are called drones. But on closer inspection, as it turned out, there is still a pilot's seat.
- This is just in case during the tests, - the creators said calmly.
Early in the morning this entire mosquito squadron can be seen on the apron of the Gelendzhik airport under the wing of an old Beriev flying boat - a flying liner for the near routes Il-114 and the overseas bestseller of the middle of the last century “DC-3”. We produced his brother - Li-2. The last flying specimen crashed several years ago in the suburbs. And here is a pure American: not a single inscription in Russian. And these were also supplied to the USSR.
But very few people visit the airport. The main audience watches what is happening on the beach without leaving the sun lounger. Here, raising clouds of spray, a Be-200 takes off from the water. He makes a circle over the bay and drops the water painted in the colors of the Russian flag.
Aerobatics are performed by the Swifts on the MiG-29 and the Russian Knights on the Su-27. And there comes the turn of the helicopter pilots from the Berkuts to the Mi-28N. The rumble from the engines, amplified by reflections from the mountains of the Markoth Ridge and the surface of the water, hits your ears. Glass rattles, parked car alarms go off. And planes and helicopters get up in the sky such intricate figures that it already resembles science fiction, and not the laws of aerodynamics. Every Russian citizen should see such aerobatics with his own eyes at least once. Then all questions about the capabilities of our aviation disappear. There is pride in the country and the people who managed to create such a technique and who know how to apply this technique.
Unfortunately, Gelendzhik-2014 was overshadowed by the Mi-8 disaster, which crumpled the schedule of performances and events. And the fall on the same day of the MiG-31 near Armavir - by aviation standards, almost nearby - also did not add good emotions. But such salons should be held regularly. Of course, the salon in Gelendzhik is not MAKS or Farnborough. But it is here that a large number of ordinary lazy onlookers can see and feel the real power of their country.
