Clashmaker.com

One of the motives that inspired me to begin posting a series covering the topic of “Bush Flying in Russia” was simply the fact that I’m being often asked “whether there’s any kind of ‘bush flying‘ existing nowadays in Russia”. Although in almost any instances I positively affirm the mere ‘fact of existence’, - strictly speaking, and, depending on definitions that would be fixed upon some ‘essential elements of subject matter’ -  the answer could be ‘Yes’, and/or ‘No’

Regarding its territory, this country is the far largest one in the world. Note that we are talking about the ‘today’s Russia’, not the ‘Soviet Union’, which was even larger. Reference sources could easily give you a proof - 17 075 400 sq. km. Canada comes as the second ‘champion’, enjoying its 9 970 610 square kilometers of beauty.

In many aspects  of nature and geography, such as climate, landscape, flora and fauna, these two nations are remarkably similar. It could be as true as it may be said with respect to the environment laying on the ‘opposite shores of the same pond’. In this case, we refer to the Arctic Ocean, as to the ‘pond in concern’

Of course, across the greatest parts of Russia’s territory located anywhere above 55-60 parallels, there can be found the same vast regions of ‘Boreal forest’, ‘Tundra’, ‘Barren land’, as they are in place in the respective regions across Canada’s territory.

Bearing in mind this fact, and knowing also, that Russians have been known to be flying in these regions for decades, it is pretty hard to deny their aviators’ familiarity with a ‘concept of bush flying’.

Problem is, they have never used the terminology of this kind (‘Bush Flying’, ‘Bush Pilot”, etc.) while referring to the operations in the remote regions, which the North American aviators call by the generalized name ‘Bush’.

(to be continued..)

P.S.

Photographs are provided by a Russian pilot who was involved in ‘genuine bush flying’ for a few years across the region of Siberia shown on the map.