Oz And Beyond!

Interesting thing happened in the Pilot's Lounge at USTR. Ran into this Russian Navy Lieutenant who said he wanted to be a fighter pilot and was stuck down on the Black Sea in a bomber and there I was looking to get out of that Polikarpov. Didn't take long over a bottle or two of vodka, and I had him winging on west to the front in the I-16 and I had the papers on a Douglas A-20 Boston with a Navy paint job. Shucks, I like bombers better anyway.

We took off for Yekatrinburg (USSS) in a snowstorm complete with lightning. Almost a thunderblizzard. Good flight if a bit bouncy with high headwinds. Good thing I wasn't in that Polikarpov :d.
 
Ever-changing weather on the way to USSS. Noted a P-39D parked on the ramp as we rolled in...

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:wavey:Hey, goodmorning folks,

Well, another early morning takeoff, by the way has any of you tried to drink this stuff the locals call coffee? I do believe that after everyone has their morning, for the lack of a better word "coffee" it is taken out and used to patch the cracks in the runways and ramp area or used for tractor fuel!

While doing the pre-flight check on the A-20 at USTR, we seen this here Russian Naval pilot doing a fast walk over to Willy's plane with a smile on his face and singing a Russian tune. Now what the heck is Willy up to this time. After landing at USPP Dudley and I went into this here pub and there was Moses over in a corner table in deep discussion with some shady looking characters. "You know Dudley, I think there is going to be some major changes here with our flights."

Taco, with green :ichile:
 
We headed farther west to Perm (USPP). Nice flight and had a tag along in another P-39. Lend Lease is getting mighty popular over Russia.

Pics are a bit scrambled up...
 
:wiggle:Yep, we had some changes Moz flying a P-39. The two A-20s had some real fire power flying escort, three P-39s loaded for bear. Had some weather issue, but all in all a nice flight. Hehe, and we got a nice cup of coffee after landing at USPP, so things are looking up! Note the photo with the white arrow, that's Willy down there notice how his A-20 in Russian Naval colors blend into the ground cover.
 
Another early morning flight, this time through a large thunderstorm. My tail gunner Fred said he was feeling drunk from all the bouncing, but that might have just been the vodka talking. We lost MM in the storm early on. Hope he shows up ok. Anyway, it was a fun flight.
 
Boston Flying Club

We were joined by Falcon who was also in a Boston and decided to fly down the river low level to Volgagrad. Nice flight although part of it was low vis in the rain.
 
:wavey:Hi There!

Well, it has been awhile since we posted anything. Nice flight between URWA to URMO the air got a little rough for awhile, but not a bad as it was a few days ago. Our radio chatter is getting strange! Talking about popcorn which started the chatter ending up with Mayo. Boy, I sure wish MM would get his puter inorder and return to Flight 19 where we would get some learnen! All that food talk makes me wanting to eat more than I should. hehe
 
We flew across the mountains and ended on the Black Sea coast at URSS. Nice flight even if we did have to dodge some granite.
 
We flew on down the coast to URKA. The weather was kind of sucky to start out, but it soon cleared and we had a great flight.
 
We headed to UKFF via Yalta. Nice flight although my time setting had me at dusk. I think we have a plan for after Moscow....
 
No pics as it was dark, but we flew a night flight to UKHH. We'll be to Moscow pretty soon, then an aircraft change and off for warmer climes.
 
:wiggle: Just a few photos from the flight between UKFF and UKHH, before it got to dark inorder to take any pictures. Leaving UKFF we had fog up to 15,000+ ft, but after a few miles the weather cleared up, but again it got dark, so we missed seeing a lot of the country side. Fuel up, grab a nap, and some chow, and again off and running to UUOO and then Moscow (UUWW)
 
Took off just before noon and headed on to UUOO. Started out as real nice weather, but then the fog found us. Still, not a bad flight.

The US Naval Attache has our next rides waiting on us in Moscow...
 
We made our last leg in the A-20s to Moscow. A nice flight considering the weather was pretty rough. Not sure if I'll get my rental deposit back or not though. Darn Fred had to fire up a big cigar back there and I'm not sure the smell will ever come out of it.

We did pick up our Turkeys for the flight to the southwest though...
 
We made our flight in the Turkeys to UUBP. Nice flight but Russia sure has gotten foggy. I tested out the torpedo launching on the way. Scratch one pine tree!
 
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