Leg 128, Levokumskoye, Russia, via Ukraine to Tiraspol, Moldova
DAY12_28.PLN (10.6 KB)
Today I rectified something that was bugging me for a long time. I missed Moldova (by a hair) on my tour through Europe, too focused on reaching Dracula’s castle in Romania. Thus I made an exception and crossed my old path today in the Ukraine to get to Tiraspol, Moldova.
It looked like today’s flight was going to be rather uneventful, down to a rather boring progression of not very detailed flat terrain with cloud shaped patches for entertainment. However after a couple hours it turned into the most demanding and challenging flight yet. Low cloud cover started to appear and as soon as I make my first landing through it, the plane was completely iced up.
The ice lasted until halfway through the Ukraine while 38 knots winds picked up to make landing even more difficult. Add in the fact that nearly all runways were very short and quite narrow, I have to admit there were a couple pretty rough touch downs, missed approaches and once running off the end of the runway not able to stop in time. (So excited I made a perfectly smooth landing in virtual vision with icing and heavy wind, I initially forgot to brake haha. Couple plane lengths into the field :/)
In the end the ice was replaced with rain, completely blocking out the moonlight with clouds hanging down to the ground. Zero visibility, drone cam no use. I had to skip two stops since they did not have runway data in the G1000. Not runway lights at the rest either, not that it would have mattered much. Exhausting flight but tons of fun. Tomorrow I’ll see what Moldova looks like. I’m there but have not seen a pixel of the terrain yet!
12-28 Levokumskoye ULEK 3:45 AM
12-28 Astrakhan URWA 4:42 AM
12-28 Privolzhskiy Air Base USTK 4:47 AM
12-28 Ashuluk Airfield UTAB 5:10 AM
12-28 Akhtubinsk Air Base UAKI 5:41 AM
12-28 Kapustin Yar Airfield UZNN 5:58 AM
12-28 Srednyaya Akhtuba Airfield USRE 6:13 AM Faded runway
12-28 Gumrak URWW 6:24 AM
12-28 Kletskaya ULLD 6:46 AM Faded runway
12-28 Serafimovich URWS Skip, can’t locate, faded airstrip
12-28 Veshenskaya URRW 7:15 AM
12-28 Buturlinovka Air Base UBUU 7:42 AM
12-28 Bobrov UBOB 8:01 AM 3 attempts to land, short runway
12-28 Podkletnoye UUOQ 8:19 AM 2 attempts faded runway, landed in field next to marker
12-28 51°36’23.46"N 39°25’58.64"E 8:25 AM CTD on approach
12-28 Podkletnoye UUOQ 8:32 AM
12-28 Pridacha UUOD 8:39 AM
12-28 Chertovitskoye UUOO 8:46 AM
12-28 Stary Oskol UUOS 9:10 AM
12-28 Belgorod UUOB 9:36 AM
12-28 Krasnokuts’k UKNB 10:06 AM Virtual vision landing, go around, short runway, icing, high winds
12-28 Kotel’va UKMT 10:16 AM Virtual vision landing, short runway, icing, high cross winds, not pretty
12-28 Velyka Bahachka UKVK 10:35 AM Drone cam landing, short ‘runway’, poor textures
12-28 Chyhyryn UPKL 10:54 AM Virtual vision landing, short runway
12-28 Chervonaya Sloboda UPHU 11:04 AM Virtual vision landing, short runway
12-28 Smila UKSM 11:14 AM Virtual vision landing, drone cam approach
12-28 Yurkivka UKYU 11:26 AM Virtual vision landing, rough touchdown
12-28 Holovanivs’k UKHV Skip, overcast too dark, no runway data
12-28 Anan’iv Airstrip UKAV Skip, raining too dark, no runway data
12-28 Frunzivka Airstrip UKFR 12:16 PM Virtual vision landing
12-28 Tiraspol LUTR 12:33 PM Virtual vision landing
Flight time 8:41 28 stops
First hour, nothing to see, until just before Astrakhan
Pretty wet there
Astrakhan on the Volga river in Southern Russia
Known for the Astrakhan Kremlin, an expansive fortress built in the 16th century
With the Ascencion cathedral next to it on the right
On the way to Kapustin Yar you can visit some of the rocket launch sites
Burya launch site above
There’s very little information to be found, only some very old pictures
Close to Kapustin Yar (East), maybe another launch site or a base of some kind
Kapustin Yar Air field, slightly North of town
The launch site was established in 1946 initially using tech from defeated Germany
Volgograd International Airport (called Gumrak in game)
Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, was the site of WWII’s Battle of Stalingrad
“To Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad” at Mamayev Kurgan, memorial park with giant statues
You probably saw the low hanging clouds at Volgograd, this is what it did to my plane
At Kletskaya, hard to spot runway made worse by the ice fog
I really need a working window defroster, at least the prop de-ice system works
Can’t see much of the ground below, but pretty nonetheless
Approaching Vashenskaya, some snow on the ground
Vashenskaya, runway spotted
Pretty cold outside
Venskaya is home to a statue of Grigory and Aksinya
Grigory and Aksinya are principal characters of the epic novel And Quiet Flows the Don by Russian writer Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov. It consists of 4 volumes written from 1925 to 1940. It depicts the lives and struggles of Don Cossacks during the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and Russian Civil War.
It was turned into a movie which came out in 1957 / 1958
Back in the air on the way to Buturlinovka Air Base
Nearly full moon, almost at the opposite side of the sun
I don’t know how the game decides which fields get snow cover but it looks good
At Leschanoe, green grassy fields take longest to accumulate snow
To Bobrov, the ice might be getting a bit less heavy
Yep, looking a bit better
Except I’m going through the clouds again to land in Bobrov
This was the toughest ‘airport’ today, missed approach number two, so little visibility
Made it, right before the sunset
Higher up the sun is still visible while on approach to Podkletnoye
Last glimpse of the sun while climbing back out of Podkletnoye
Voronezh on the Voronezh River
Under the same icy fog I’ve been dealing with half the flight
Pamyatnik Voinskoy Slavy, Monument to Military Glory
Pamyatnik Belomu Bimu, monument to the setter called White Bim Black Ear
It’s from a story about a white dog with a black ear, by Gavriil Troepolsky
Belyy Bim Chernoe ukho, 1977, directed by Stanislav Rostotskiy
Chertovitskoye, dark, ice, runway lights!!!
Approaching Stary Oskol
Stary Oskol on the Oskol River
Next to the city is Stoilensky Iron ore open pit mine
There is a second pit to the right
Belgorod, landing in luxury again, last time though. The rest was challenging to say the least.
Belgorod is home to the Muzey-Diorama, depicting the battle of Kursk, July and August 1943
Numerous WWII tanks and artillery can be viewed outside
Approaching Krasnokuts’k. The ice is starting to let up, however a 38 knot wind picked up
Ominous skies ahead at Yares’ky
Chyhyryn Airport, one of the short runways around the Ukraine
Castle mountain Chyhyryn (also spelled Chigirin)
One of the monuments of Ukrainian culture, at the site where warden Vishnevetsky build a castle in 1598 to protect the city from Tatar raiding parties. The monument is about the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks.
Approaching Yurkivka between a layer of clouds and fog
Then it started raining and visibility reduced to this, at Frunzivka
Flying out of Frunzivka
This is all I saw of Moldova so far, the runway at Tiraspol
Tiraspol is the capital of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Pridnestrovie)
Tiraspol is home to many monuments and statues, including Victory park and a memorial to Aviators
Monument to Alexander Suvorov on the left, founder of the city and considered one of the greatest military commanders in Russian history. Tank monument next to St George the Victorious Chapel in the middle. All three along 25th October street which houses many more monuments.
Monument to the liberators of the city on the right, honoring those that defended the city in 1941 and those that liberated the city in 1944.
Tomorrow to the capital of Moldova, Chișinău