From the navigator's notebook
Is there truth in life?
I was already a navigator-instructor in all types of training, a little matured, I had the right to my own opinion and used it in full, sometimes with too much.
The command about me had an ambiguous opinion - "thinks, but nasty."
So it was.
They flew the night flight shift from 19:00 to 03:00.
But this does not mean at all that I started my work at 19:00, no, I started it at 16:00, and when I finish, no one knows, but certainly not at 03:00.
In general, everyday flight work on normal night flights in a standard winter.
We flew off all the flight tasks planned for our crew for this flight shift, taxied to the parking lot, rolled the plane up, got off the plane and sort of lined up to listen to the commander.
The commander did not express any comments on the work to anyone and gave the command to go home - the most pleasant team on night flights.
But things didn't go the way we wanted.
The car of the chief of staff of the regiment drove up to the plane, he got out and turned to the commander:
- How much fuel is left?
- 12 tons.
- Excellent, without refueling, I drive the “zone” with your crew, the regiment commander allowed it, then they will finish it in the planning table.
All plans to go home abruptly went “along the carving, along the furrow” and one more rhyme.
You can get excited and not fly, they say, they didn’t prepare, and no one will force you. But after all, I already understand something in flight work and understand that the chief of staff of the regiment, lieutenant colonel, does not get into the plane at two in the morning because he suddenly wants “romanticism”, but because he is running out of time for a break in night flights , and this flight will be carried out to "support the pants" in order to "reset" this period.
But I also understand something else.
We will sit down at 03:00, while we taxi, while the plane is rolled into the parking lot, by the time we get out, it will be already half past four, the chief of staff will rush off to debrief, the squadron car will already leave, and we will have to go home on foot, and this is about eight kilometers in the cold .
In general, the prospects were not encouraging.
I made such a "face" that the chief of staff understood everything:
- Well, what are you? I need the edge, the deadlines are running out ...
- I don’t have deadlines, we didn’t plan to fly with you, we didn’t prepare, it’s impossible ...
The chief of staff turned to our commander:
- Sergeich! What is he? Well tell him!
Sergeich understands everything perfectly, so he shrugs his shoulders indifferently.
The whole crew is looking at me with some hope.
But nothing can be done, this is such a job, and not a personal whim of a lieutenant colonel.
I make a decision not in our favor:
- Okay, let's go!
And we drove into the "air sky".
We flew into the zone and landed at the very end of the flight shift, as I expected. We got out of the plane, the chief of staff of the regiment thanked us:
- Thank you guys!
And then he got into his car and rushed to the debriefing.
I looked longingly at the receding lights of the car, raised the collar of my jacket higher, fastened it around my throat and said to my second navigator:
-Let's go slowly...
The second navigator with me was not a "combat" officer, but a "forester" - a graduate of the "forestry academy", there was a military department, and graduates of this department were called to our service for three years.
By virtue of his “civilian” view of our military reality, this officer sometimes spoke very aptly on various occasions, and sometimes without any reason.
And now Serega looked after the departed car, threw his headset on the concrete, and said loudly:
- There is no truth in life!
I did not argue with him, in some ways he was really right.
And then we saw that the car slowed down, turned around and drove up to us.
The chief of staff shouted:
- Sit down quickly! Something I really...
We quickly loaded up and were taken to the headquarters of the regiment.
As soon as we settled in the car, I asked Seryoga:
- Well, is there any truth in life?
I really liked his answer, and I used this wording more than once in my future service and life:
There is truth in life. But she's so small that you won't notice her right away!
This is it, this is the truth...
instrumental control
So two lieutenant colonels entered the classroom - Hussein Mamedovich (Mamedych, head of the division's security service) and Mansur Khabibulovich (Khalabudych, chief of staff of the regiment), and began to pester the captain named Senya. And Senya (actually Sanya), in his free time from the Tu-16s, flew the divisional An-2.
So Mamedych asks Senya why he started the 2st turn on the An-1 in the last flight at an altitude of less than 100 meters?
Senya sluggishly rebuffs, Mamedych insists that he saw everything from the command and control tower (KDP).
And who pulled my tongue?
I’m sitting nearby and saying “into the air”, that it’s impossible to determine the true height with the KDP, but if you tie a rope 2 meters long to the tail of the An-100, then by its separation from the ground it will immediately become clear that the height is more than 100 meters, this is can be considered instrumental control.
The people laugh, Mamedych hisses and jumps out of the classroom.
Khalabudych looks at me reproachfully.
"So what? Crude soldier humor! I parry this look.
“If not for your language, I would have been a squadron navigator long ago,” Khalabudych reveals the reason for my service “failure”.
“But career prospects remain,” I reassure myself out loud.
And it's not so boring for people to wipe their pants in the classroom.
Rabbits
Preliminary preparation for tomorrow's flights.
I am the navigator of the squadron, I am obliged to organize and control it.
Organized, now I control.
I look around the classroom, I see the navigator of the ship, of Ukrainian nationality, whose expression clearly shows that his thoughts are somewhere far from flying.
Suitable for visual and vocal contact:
"What were you thinking about, kid?"
- About rabbits, Mikhail Vladimirovich ...
- Why? Everything is about flying, and you are about rabbits?
- This nightmare in the style of "military" will end, I will go to the demobilization, I will go home, I will breed rabbits ...
- Why rabbits?
- Because "rabbits are not only valuable fur ..."
- You have good dreams, but not quite out of place. Come on, you think about how tomorrow, in flight to a radius, you will approach the line at a given time, otherwise you are not doing well with this.
- I understand, but flying is so mundane ...
- Down to earth - this is already for me, but for you - reaching the target at a given time is still a blue dream.
Hole
Arrived at pre-flight instructions before departure for "providing fleet».
As usual, the naval commanders failed to do something in time, the “greens” staged their “war”, and we received the conditions for departure with some changes and restrictions.
The senior (senior navigator of the regiment) sat down next to me and said:
- Get the map, we will immediately make changes to the route, I will check, then we will give instructions.
I took out the map that I had prepared yesterday, unfolded it on the table and saw in the middle of the route a neat through hole with a diameter of about 3 centimeters.
Both of us were dumbfounded - both I and the eldest ...
The elder reacted quickly:
- What's this?
- How do I know? I see this hole for the first time. You controlled me last night, there was no hole in the map...
- Okay, let's draw a new route, the hole is in the center, it doesn't bother us. But you would have figured out who is making holes for you on the map ...
I drew a modified route.
The elder checked, then we were given pre-flight instructions, and we went to the plane.
But I still couldn’t calm down because of this hole, and I perfectly understood that this hole had to be dealt with immediately, otherwise I would only think about this hole for the whole flight.
In the squadron house, I carefully examined my navigational briefcase and found that it was full of holes, and my map just fell into this through hole. I shook everything out of the briefcase, found the remains of the chocolate foil and realized what had happened.
Navigator's portfolio
Navigator's briefcase from the inside
Last night, having prepared for the flight, I put all the navigational equipment and the map in my briefcase and left the briefcase at Squadron Headquarters. And he also left a small chocolate bar in his briefcase, which was given to me at breakfast.
One of the mice that lived in the educational building smelled the smell of chocolate and, in order to get the chocolate, gnawed through my briefcase, and at the same time the card.
Realizing what had happened, I calmed down, put all my clothes in a briefcase and went to the plane.
The flight was successful, I replaced the briefcase and did not store anything else edible in it.
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