Yuri graduated the Krasni Kut college in the early 70s, and then there was a bit of twist in the beginning of his career.
The Krasni Kut flying college was known as a solid school to train pilots for flying the Antonov-2s, the versatile bi-plane type that was used in many applications all across the vast country. The main chunk of graduates would normally begin their careers as agricultural pilots on the An-2s.
But as an option (which was not a common thing at the time) , he was offered to join a short-term military service to fly the Tupolev-16 (’Badger’) bomber in the ‘Morskaya Aviatsiya’ (Naval Air Force). So, he easily traded off the ‘would-be’ career of the crop-duster for way more serious stuff, and went to serve ‘defending Rodina’ (’Homeland’).
This one is not a picture from other round of our correspondence, but it conveys the idea of environment he was in very well.
I should ask him for pictures of his own.
May 3rd, 2007 at 6:25 pm
[…] (Story is continued here…) « My Dad and I. Part II | Fly over the Discovery Ridge (G’Morning, world. Part II) » […]
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:44 pm
I didn’t know you had a blog. Very neat. I’m on my way to Golden this weekend so I hope to read it when I get home. Cheers
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Shawn,
you are welcome to visit,
Yes, I’ve just started. So, let me know what you are interested in, I’ll try to fulfill your interest about this ‘charmingly’, or, rather, ‘frighteningly’ enigmatic country. I know a lot about it:))
Cheers,
Sergey