The anticipation is also influenced by the stories about the mighty heroes-tankers of the Great Patriotic War, turning the T-34 with levers without hydraulics, and an episodic trip as a "passenger" on a lumbering BMP.
In principle, the reasoning is correct: the outside of the tank really cannot and should not be clean, and good athletic form comes in handy when you want to gently lower your body into a small hatch without getting your feet dirty on the seat. However, closer acquaintance with the T-72B3 did not leave a trace of condescending skepticism. The tank impressed me as an extremely complex and at the same time well thought out machine. I am sure that this is the most reliable technique that I have had to manage: it seems that a person cannot break or spoil something here. At the same time, it is also the most expensive car in my track record: the tank could be "swapped" for a whole Rolls-Royce garage.
The control of the tank is not very different from the car: the gas, brake and clutch are in their rightful places, except that instead of the steering wheel there are levers. The trick is that even before starting the movement, you need to remember the location of all controls and learn to find them by touch. In the stowed position, the driver pokes his head out of the hatch, the diameter of which barely exceeds the width of the shoulders, so he does not see any levers, pedals, or any handles or buttons. In a combat position with a closed hatch in the cockpit, it’s dark.
The most important lever to be able to find “with your eyes closed” controls the raising and lowering of the chair. It took me a lot of composure when, at full speed in the stowed position, I suddenly fell down and stopped seeing the road.
Nobody canceled the "combat" specificity of the car: here you need to press on the clutch pedals and especially the brakes with all your might, unbending the leg at the knee and resting the fifth point on the chair. But the 39-liter diesel does not care how smoothly you release the clutch, and the middle pedal is more often used as a so-called "mountain brake": if you push it almost to the floor, the lock is triggered. On flat terrain, the "mountain brake" serves as an excellent "handbrake".
We swing triceps
Don't trust journalists who complain that Lamborghini is difficult to get into. Anyone who has learned to carefully lower himself into the hatch of a tank will easily jump into a Formula 1 car.
The tank is started with two buttons: one starts the oil pump, and the second starts the starter. And then everything is as usual: I squeeze out the clutch, turn on the first gear, give it to the gas … Let's go!
On the move, the tank is … light. The headphones of an unexpectedly comfortable headset protect your ears from both noise and cold. According to the commander, even firing a cannon does not sound loud with such protection. Surely you have heard more than once that 2, 5-ton limousines, due to high inertia, practically do not notice potholes on the asphalt. Imagine how smoothly a 46-ton colossus floats on a dirt road. Of course, there is a big ditch for a big tank, but our test of passing serious obstacles did not provide for.
The control levers on the T-72B3 are hydraulic, so they are easy to operate. The tank has two identical gearboxes (seven speeds forward and one backward), each of which drives its own tracked track. By pulling the left or right lever towards you, you shift the corresponding box one step lower. For example, if you are driving at first speed and pulling the left lever, the left truck stops and the tank turns in place with a turning radius equal to the vehicle's width. If you are in third gear, then turning left on the left track will engage second. Pulling both levers at once will temporarily change to second speed.
The most interesting thing about driving a tank is that the turning radius of the vehicle is strictly dependent on the gear engaged. Therefore, in order to drive a tank fast, some skill and an eye are required. Note that the levers do not slow down the tracks, but change gears, so the turn turns on and off abruptly. For a motorist, this is very unusual.
Riding in a firing position resembles an old-fashioned computer game at all: the area from the left to the right "wing" is visible through the periscope, the drawn center line helps to "aim". You get used to the size pretty quickly, but not to the landing: you have to sit, leaning forward strongly. Straightening your back with a closed hatch for the driver is an unaffordable luxury.
What the fuck are you like a tanker?
The ease of control of the tank is apparent. It is one thing to ride along the range, it is quite another to drive a wide car along a narrow trail of a mine sweep or a pontoon bridge, to overcome a ford, not to bury the vehicle in a ditch that was not noticed in time. The off-road capabilities of the tank are not as great as it might seem: the tracks are tracks, and no one canceled 46 tons.
A modern tank is a complex combat vehicle with over 200 different controls. The rules require that the repair of the tank can be carried out by the crew, and this requirement applies not only to the design of the vehicle (the weight of the track links, for example), but also to the qualifications of the fighters. So it’s like a star to real tankers.
On the street there is snow and the roar of a gigantic diesel engine, and in the headset there is warmth, silence and the calm voice of the platoon commander, senior lieutenant Alexander Zaitsev.
