Moscow Days 4 & 5

We have been busy the last 2 days. Yesterday morning I arranged to Meet with Russian PPG pilot / instructor / dealer for a day of flying. Dave & We went by taxi to the destination, about 25 kilometers from our hotel. Moscow traffic is unbelievable. 20 million people with somewhere to go. There are a lot of cars and not too many rules. Everyone is jockeying for position and then go as fast as they can to the next back up of cars. Our taxi driver was good, but he drove like a madman. Sometimes to to 80 mph on surface streets, then slamming on the brakes, honking and going around cars and buses where there is no lane. Just about all traffic seems to work this way. The pedestrians just walk out, and sometimes are in the middle of a lane as traffic fly's past, acting like no big deal, just life in the big city.

We arrived at a McDonalds in the outskirts of the ciy, our meeting place, and it was packed with people. Their fries are just like in USA though, Micky D's has the best fries world wide it seems. Dmitry drove up shortly after and we headed to the LZ.

Moscow has a police traffic station at every entrance / exit to Moscow and they have several video cameras above the traffic before you reach the station. If they see you have an expired tag or the wrong information, or your plate shows up with any violation, they have policemen / molitia waiting with a pointer stick to pull you over. Usually they fine you on the spot, and Dmitry says it usually goes right in their pocket, not the government. Dmitry had an expired tag or something and told me after the fact, why he was behind a tall truck in the traffic and keeping his front bumper on the trucks back bumper. The camera couldn't see him that way. :-)

We made it through and then to a petrol station. Gas is sold by the litre, about 23 rubles per litre, somewhere around $4.00 US per gallon.

We made it to the LZ soon after and met up with a few other pilots. This was about noon or so. The winds were variable from about 7 mph to maybe 12 - 15 mph gusting. I got up with a bit of a struggle, high hang points (not use to them) and the wind shifting. Also a borrowed helmet that kept falling over my eyes. I lost the helmet and the got in the air. VERY Bumpy! I wouldn't normally fly in those type of conditions but this was the only chance in Russia.

While I was in the air, A two seat trike PPG was getting ready to take off. I had lost track of Dave on the ground. They get in the air and I find Dave in the front seat! With the other HD camera! I could see them getting bumped hard, rocking back and forth. His pilot was very experienced and we circled each other, sometimes close to get some good footage. There is much more to the story but I have to close for now.

Today we went to the Monino Military Air Force Museum. Another great story to come

Photo of me at Monino...

(Sorry for any mistakes, no time to proof and the interface is in Russian for spell check.)

CP & DG.