RA-85123 Fan Club. An Invitation to Don.
Flickr, Editorial, De-mythology, Times&Spaces, Clash, RA-85123 Fan Club Add commentsHi, Don,
It is my pleasure to offer you an invitation to join our Club, and I’m sure the other Club Members too would be delighted to have you as a fellow member, - especially when they know of your ‘great deal of involvement and expertise in handling the air traffic consisted mostly of the Soviet-built aircraft’, and the fact that it is you only who (except the Club’s Chairman 
had an opportunity to ride on a flight deck of the Tu-154 in the year of 2001.
Moreover, Don and his wife Sheila visited us in Krasnodar, Russia in 2001, and here you can read their brief account of that visit. Our long time acquaintance had recently experienced an interesting twist: as many years ago, we are now talking on the ATC radio frequencies again - Don has recently re-joined rank of the ATC officers at the Edmonton centre, and myself is flying WestJet planes that apparently go through the areas controlled by this centre. Isn’t that amazing?!
If you are interested in knowing more about Don’s and mine experiences of ‘talking on the radio in the UAE’, feel free to ask questions, and we’ll come up with our stories.
And here’s an image I asked Don to share with us: the Tu-154 (RA-85458) I used to fly on charters from Krasnodar is parked on the ramp of the Ras Al Khaimah airport, the UAE. Don took this picture from a control tower, apparently being on duty on that day.
The RA-85458 was one of an older, ‘B’ model, unlike our ‘baby’, RA-85123, which is the ‘M’. For your information, there was a period of time when ‘Kuban Airlines’ was leasing one unit of the Tu-154 type from other company, and almost all the time it was the RA-85456. At times, however, when 85456 was due to maintenance, they would give us another one instead, - in this case it was RA-85458 the ‘Blue Nose’
Don, welcome to the Club!
Clash, the Chairman, and the Co’.
July 12th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
I will join the fan club to the last built example of a stalwart liner that provided yeoman service to the Russian airline industry
July 15th, 2007 at 5:57 am
Clash, esteemed chairman;
I am honoured and it is with extreme pleasure that I accept your invitation to join the RA-85123 fan club. My opportunity to ride in the cockpit of a T154 from Krasnador to Ras Al Khaimah in 2001 was definitely the highlight of my many cockpit rides throughout my ATC career. I’ll keep listening for you on the freq!
July 15th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Don, the Honorable Member,
We are proud to have you in our rank. Feel please comfortable to explore the resources of the Club. On the other hand, all inputs in a from of ‘reminisce from the old good days’ are welcome.
I believe one day we’ll be able to arrange a ride on RA-85123. As a Chairman, I’ll be doing everything possible (bearing in mind the fact we are setting ourselves on for a sort of ‘mission impossible
in order to achieve this ultimate goal.
Let me introduce other Club Members:
- Kelly
- ‘OldDogNewTrick‘
- Eric,
- myself
As for talking on the radio:
It won’t probably happen until the beginning of August, - we are leaving town for a big travel across the country. Red Lake and Oshkosh are on the list.
I’ll try to keep posting on the site from the road too. We’ll be in touch.
Take care,
Clash