Leg 131, Syktyvkar, Russia via a bit of Kazakhstan to Orsk, Russia
DAY12_31.PLN (6.2 KB)
This will be the last flight at night for a long time, it’s time to switch my local flight schedule. I did see some of the sun today but it was long gone before the sun came up locally. I’m flying about 10 time zones away from where I live. Sunsetfor my destination today is 5:09 pm, GMT+5. I’m at GMT-5, thus in my time frame the sun sets at 7:09 am. The good news is, that the sun will be up at 11:10 PM my time, which will only get earlier since I’m still 51 degrees North. The days will get longer until June 21st and I’ll be heading further South as well.
12-31 Syktyvkar Southwest USYY 3:04 AM
12-31 Pobedilovo USKK 4:15 AM
12-31 Christopol UWKI 5:30 AM
12-31 Nurlat UNUU 5:51 AM
12-31 Novosyolki UNOM 6:10 AM
12-31 Podstepki UPOT 6:23 AM
12-31 Kurumoch UWWW 6:38 AM
12-31 Rozhdestveno Airfield UROZ 6:45 AM Runway?
12-31 Samara Kryazh Air Base USAB 6:50 AM
12-31 Uralsk UARR 7:35 AM
12-31 Orenburg AB UORE 8:26 AM Virtual vision landing
12-31 Orenburg UWOO 8:34 AM Runway lights
12-31 Airport URUA 9:12 AM Drone cam landing
12-31 Orsk UORS 9:28 AM
12-31 Gudron Airfield UORR 9:32 AM
12-31 Orsk UWOR 9:37 AM
Flight time 6:33 15 stops
Another cold start, with low hanging clouds. Only now and then offering a glimpse of the terrain below. Here while crossing Reka (River) Bystitsa
Much further along already between Pobedilovo and Christopol, Reka Vyatka
Christopol on the Kama river
I don’t know if it’s intentional that the river banks have no snow (water mask) but is realistic with the water level receding when it starts to freeze. A common site in my backyard, living on the Grand River (Southwestern Ontario) myself. (Although maybe not the scale as seen above)
Christopol is home to the Boris Pasternak museum
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960) was a Russian Empire and Soviet poet, novelist, and literary translator. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1958 and is the author of the well known Dr. Zhivago among other great literary works.
Dr.Zhivago 1965 movie by David Lean, starring Omar Sharif
One of the epic movies I need to watch again sometime, just like Lawrence of Arabia
Flying on towards Nurlat
The landscape below around Nurlat
I was quite into winter photography after I moved to Canada. Sunlight plus snow and ice creates magical scenes. I’ve damaged a couple expensive Canon lenses by taking them out in -20c weather.
How fast the climate changes. The river hardly freezes over anymore and no more local ice rink for the past couple years. It still gets cold, but only for a couple days until the weather swings around again, creating more of a mess instead of beautiful winter scenes. No more charcoal sounding snow chunks when kicked across the street. No more diamond like sparkling snow in the morning sun. Also no more crazy neighbor walking on the river (You never know where the weak spots are with flowing water underneath, do not ever walk on a frozen river)
Sorry, I’m rambling. Just looking at the boring brown mess outside, thinking back to 10 years ago
Filmed from my attic in Januari 2010. The eagles still come around at least 
Nurlat on the Kondurcha River, a bit less snow here
Icing seems to be getting less as well on the way to Novosyolki
Novosyolki is still covered under deep snow, the runway included
Nearby, Polygon Avtovaz Sosnovka just North-East of Tashelka
Several race tracks inside a huge banked loop for summer and winter fun
Sokskoye Kar’yeroupravleniye on the river Volga (Sokskoe Quarry)
Samara nearby, on the river Volga and river Samara
Stalin’s WWII bunker can be found here, now a subterranean museum
View of Samara with Ploshchad’ Slavy (Glory square) on the right
Also here, Iversky Womens monastery
On to Uralsk while the sun goes down (7 AM my time)
Crossing the Kazakhstan border
Approaching Uralsk. Sunsets last deliciously long up North
Uralsk, formerly known as Yaitsk, at the confluence of the Ural and Chagan rivers
As it is located on the western bank of the Ural river, it is considered geographically in Europe
On the way to Orenburg the sun disappears (Still dark locally)
Approaching Orenburg, waiting for the full moon to rise
Orenburg Airbase, max exposure
Moon rise over Orenburg
From 1938 to 1957, it bore the name Chkalov Oblast in honor of Valery Chkalov
Chkalov monument
Valery Pavlovich Chkalov (1904-1938) was a test pilot awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
In 1936 and 1937, he participated in several ultra long flights, including a 63-hour flight from Moscow, Soviet Union to Vancouver, Washington, United States via the North Pole in a Tupolev ANT-25 airplane (18–20 June 1937), a non-stop distance of 4,758 nautical miles. The flight pioneered the polar air route from Europe to the American Pacific Coast.
He was planning the world’s first non-stop flight around the planet before he died on 15 December 1938 while piloting a prototype of the Polikarpov I-180 fighter.
Flying on to Airport (ARUA), landing strip without a name
It’s between Burebay, Arkaim and Makan
Final stop today at Orsk on the Ural river
Which features a statue of Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) A Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, as well as folklorist and ethnographer whose literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature
A popular and successful last name. When I googled the name, Valentina Shevchenko (Kyrgyzstani-Peruvian professional mixed martial artist) and Andriy Shevchenko (Ukrainian former professional football player, former politician, and current football manager) popped up. It took a few tries to get a match to the statue.
Next time I’ll be flying in full sun again with the sunrise instead of sunsets.