The Black Sea: Are you serious… That thing flys?

Over the years I have flown quite a bit. In fact because my dad was a pilot all of my life I was introduced to it early on. My dad was a fighter pilot fighting the cold war in the late seventies and early eighties. He would dress me in a miniature flight suit – just the right size for a two year old – my mom had made me and would take on base to see all of the airplanes. When I was a little older than that he would take me along when he flew with his friends in small planes as well. Beyond that I flew on occasion across country or even trans-Atlantic when we would go on vacation or visit my family on the opposite coast than we lived. I remember flying gliders with dad, flying in single engine private planes, and I remember flying on my own to visit my grand parents when I was only 7. Later my dad became and airline pilot and I flew ½ dozen times a year after that. Now I travel for work, last year I flew 122 segments, this year I am already in the 80s. I talk about this because I feel I am pretty comfortable and used to flying, and have been doing it literally my whole life. However nothing really prepared me for domestic flights on a Russian airline.

First of all the airports around Moscow are not easy to get. For some reason they are not connected to the metro. There for you have two choices really, take a bus or spend a ton on the taxi cab. We took the first option. So we lugged our bags through them metro and the got onto a little mini-bus. It took a long time to get to the airport. For domestic flights we flew out of a different airport than I had flown into on the opposite side of Moscow. This airport was much more modern and was actually pretty nice. But that didn’t mean we didn’t have any challenges. The first is actually getting the tickets. If you purchase tickets over the internet you have to find a special counter to pick these up. Then you must check in a counter. This isn’t that strange, it was like this only 10 years ago in the states, though I thought it was weird that we had to pick up the tickets at a separate place than we checked in. Our bags were weighted and checked and we headed to security. Getting through security and to the gate was pretty standard and easy. Then when it was time to board we got on a bus and were driven to the plane. This isn’t very common in the states anymore but it hasn’t gone away altogether. My big surprise was when we pulled up to the plane.

For some reason I assumed wrongly that S7 airlines, a Russia airline, was so close to Europe they would be using mostly Airbus planes. What I was shocked to see was a TU-149; a plane that was designed in 1967 and was last updated in the early 80s. We had a similar plane in the United States in the Boeing 727. But it has been a decade since these have all been retired. Interestingly enough when I looked the plane up on Wikipedia it was said that the Russia version of the plane out performed its US counter part. However they burn a lot more fuel than newer jets and will not be noise compliant with in the EU in the next couple of years. The interior was at least 20 years old, the seats had fully metal back, much of the signage had actually been duck taped over, and the carpet was coming up in many places. We had to use a ladder truck to get into the plane, a little novel and out dated but no big deal. Looking out into the tarmac I saw much crazier looking planes – planes that are still being used – one looked like a WWII bomber complete with glass nose cone, another was huge and 4 engines attached to rear of the fuselage, many others looked like something out of the movie Air America.

The flight was not bad. It was relatively short. Thought the plane was loud, luckily I had brought a bunch of ear plugs to take care of this problem. In some ways the trip was nicer than flying on a US airline. They served us food, drinks, and then hot tea. The hot tea was amazing because they actually had larger silver tea sets to pour the hot water from. I also saw this on a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Moscow. I guess even some of the minor effects of the American Revolution and the Boston tea party are still apparent in US society. Also the staff seemed friendly and service was pretty good. When we landed at the Black Sea airport, and everyone was finished clapping because we landed safely, I noticed that the airfield was surrounded by farms. I mean they came up to within feet of the runway. Also there were dogs running around on the tarmac and our luggage was unloaded into dump trucks, no fancy cargo carriers here. I have to say it was a little nerve racking but really it was just a few years ago all of this could have been seen in America. Ok maybe 20 years ago but still.