Clashmaker.com

  This story goes back to one particular occasion of ‘improvised spotting’, - a kind of thing that could happen to me once in a while whenever I’m on my way to work

“Gee!”, I thought of pictures acquired during that ’shooting session’, “that will make a strong basis for continuing the ‘Bombardier in Russia’ series on my blog!”.

Yes, of all products the Canadian ‘Bombardier’ develops and manufactures, now it is not only the recreational ‘See-Doos’ that have found their ‘niche’ in Russia. Not too long ago (to be precise - in 2003) a first Russian operator of the Bombardier manufactured aircraft emerged in the country.

‘Сахалинские Авиатрассы’, ‘Sakhasinskie Aviatrassy’, or, ‘SAT Sakhalin Airlines’ took three DHC-8-100 from Canada. And I am assuming, it was a Calgary-based aviation company, a member of  ‘AvMax Group Inc.’, that provided SAT with the second-hand Dash-8s under a lease contract.

I said ‘assuming’, only because I didn’t see it ‘in written’, however, it was exactly what I was said by the nice people of AvMax on that day, when they allowed me in on their property to take those pictures.  As for reasons ‘why I do want to see the plane, and take close pictures of it’, I’m reckoning, they just found them (reasons) ’satisfactory enough’. I said, “I’m so excited to see the plane bearing insignia that reveals its relation to a company located in “Motherland’, and I’m so interested to know how come such a plane has appeared here”

It was exactly how it was shot - simple and frank. Appreciate that people cared.

So, as I learned on that day, the plane came straight from Russia, the lease term for it was finished, and the Russian company also sought an option of getting the bigger, -200, or -300 series planes.

While it was flying for SAT, the plane bore the country’s of residence registration ‘RA-67253′, and, along with its two other Canadian-born ’sister sheep’ in the SAT fleet, was actively involved into ‘exclusive charter work’ on the behalf of a few energy sector companies, such as Exxon and ‘Sakhalin Energy’.

(to be continued..)