FIRST FLIGHT
We jump into the car - and in ten minutes we are at the airport. Cars from all over the Great Bow are already pulled together with pilots, observers, staff and just curious. Full of significance, cars with balloons arrive, because everything is spinning here for them and their owners … Moreover, the cars are very different - from popular "loaves" and "gazelles" to smart Japanese and American off-road vehicles.
While technicians prepare balloons and pilots are instructed and receive tasks, potential passengers are trying to beg for a flight. The competition director Valera Latypov is kind today (finally the flight weather has settled!) And he distributes all the lucky people who managed to be on the field, without exception, to the baskets. Verily, "he who rises early, that … he shall fly", lo!
Today, pilots have three tasks: to fly the minimum distance in the allotted time, then make a sharp turn 90 degrees in the air, and then “rush off” (average speed of 5–7 km / h) a few more kilometers to the chosen target. It is not easy to do this, because a thermal balloon is formally an uncontrolled aircraft; the pilot can only raise it or sink lower in search of a tailwind …
But this is all a theory. In practice, I with great difficulty climb into a wicker open basket the size of a meter per meter; in addition to the pilot Anatoly Schugorev, his son Kolya, a pilot trainee, and four rather large gas cylinders somehow fit in it. Take off and pretty quickly rise up. Nearby, some device crackles with digits: wow, and the height, it turns out, is already more than 500 meters! Downstairs, houses float slowly, the fast river Lovat winds, and three dozen colorful balloons hang nearby!
I want to sing something about the Russian expanse or just shout at the whole Ivanovskaya, but you will interfere with the pilot - he should mark the completion of each task with a marker (throw a colored tape with a weight in a designated place). After landing, all tapes will have to be collected in order to be presented to the observing judge. For the crew of the Tatneft balloon, I was not too happy a talisman - the first marker hit the swamp, the second into the river, and the third hovered on the top of a tall pine …
Two hours of controlled flight - and the balloon lands smoothly at the appointed place. The emerald green field, when viewed from a height, is lined with strange patterns, circles and lines. But near it turns out that after several days of continuous rain it turned into a real swamp! But we courageously jump into tall wet grass and drag a basket hanging in the air to the edge of the field - where our Gazelle can go. Those who have four-wheel drive cars are lighter, but this season they also happen to sit on their belly; in order to pull them out, at the airport under a pair is a caterpillar tractor …
Then the shell is laid on its side - it sways for a long time, resembling a huge breathing whale, suddenly planning to climb out to land. Another half hour - the ball is complicated by all the rules of science and, together with a basket and other equipment, took its place in the back of the Gazelle. And we, together with the observer, go to collect markers. The first one had to be knocked down with sticks for half an hour, the second - to dive into a cold, muddy river (alas, they could not be found), and the third was searched in a swamp, jumping from hummock to hummock. But still, the team met the allotted time (it takes five hours to search for markers), and even left for lunch and a short sleep. Indeed, at seven in the evening you have to be at the airport again - everyone is gathered for a briefing before the evening flights. There is very little sleep left - two or three hours, and again into the air … And so all ten days, while in Velikiye Luki the annual international meeting of aeronauts takes place (it is also the open Russian championship).
DEAR PLEASURE
By the way, aeronautics today is one of the most fashionable sports in all developed countries. And at the same time - massive! In the USA, for example, about 100 thousand balloons are registered, up to 2 thousand participants are going to competitions simultaneously! (One can only imagine how beautiful it is - the simultaneous start of so many balloons!) We have 50 balloons and about 100 licensed pilots in the whole vast country. Why so little - no need to explain. An aerostat with all the necessary equipment (a basket, a gas burner with cylinders, a navigation system, etc.) costs about $ 20 thousand. To transport it, you must naturally have a suitable vehicle. Many companies, given the fashion for aeronautics, offer special modifications of cars - with a cargo compartment, a double cab and all-wheel drive. After all, a ball can land anywhere (in our conditions, it certainly strives in a swamp). The dream of any domestic balloonist is his pickup. Alas, this pleasure is not cheap: for 30 participants in Velikiye Luki there was one such - “Dodge Dakota” with the Moscow team “Yarilo”. The rest fit everything that is rich - from "just jeeps" to the "Gazelle" with a double passenger cabin. But in extreme cases, the one who managed to get to Velikiye Luki could rent a specially equipped UAZ-loaf for competitions at the local airport.
For financial reasons, most of the balls in Russia belong to large companies that contain teams for advertising purposes. No less difficult to obtain permission to fly. For example, in the same Velikiye Luki, morning flights should have ended by nine o’clock - then, maybe a helicopter will start working on the pipeline … Or maybe it won’t, but it’s better to ban balloons. And it’s not easy to get a pilot’s license - in Russia this is possible only from the age of 18. And in many countries the age limit is much milder, you can fly there already at 14. Distrust of various bodies is reflected in the number of foreigners: in Luke, for example, there were only three of them - American, Dutch and Hungarian.
But despite all the problems and obstacles, balls are already flying in Moscow and Syktyvkar, Perm and Pskov, Tatarstan …
AERONAUTES ARE NOT BORN
Former military pilot, and now an energy engineer from Almetyevsk Anatoly Schugorev first tried to fly on sports aircraft, then switched to a balloon. Fortunately, a sponsor was found - Tatneft. True, she does not cover all the costs of participating in competitions (thanks, at least she pays for some!), She has to cut out of her own funds, but the sky is worth it …
And Victor Gorobets from Moscow, despite his age (he is a little over 50), is the youngest pilot in terms of experience: less than a hundred flight hours. Once I saw a flight of balloons, he himself flew up to the sky on a balloon - and that’s all. He already managed to earn the benefit of money, so he decided it was time to spend it. I ordered a balloon, went through seven circles of hell in its design, graduated from training courses - and now know yourself “protrudes fully” (expression of the pilot himself). Apparently, Don Donner, a 20-year-old American, didn’t have such problems - he had already flown under a thousand hours, won the champion title in his homeland and was traveling around the competition! In Russia? Cool!..
Foreigners in Velikiye Luki are rare birds. But if they fly here, then they stick to the soul. The former pilot of the Lufthansa, and now one of the most famous aeronauts in the world, the Dutchman Matais de Bruin first came here ten years ago. The wise Dutchman really likes Russian people, their simplicity and modesty, women dressed in skirts, not jeans …
