http://www.airliners.net/photo/Mil-Mi-10-UPL/1657207/M/
Soviet Russia's Airbus, a bus transported via the air.



Or you could say, this is where Airbuses come from. When an aircraft and a bus love each other very much...

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

awww it just wants to give the bus a big hug!

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

looks like a dragonfly carrying off a beetle

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1982 300CD Turbo (Otis, "ups & downs") parts for sale
2003 TJ with Hemi (to go anywhere, quickly) sold
2001 Excursion Powerstroke (to go dependably)
1970 Mustang 428SCJ (to go fast)
1962 Corvette LS1 (to go in style)
2001 Schwinn Grape Krate 10spd (if all else fails)

Those heavy lift choppers are so cool!

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Umm, looks like some more than a hug!

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83 SD

84 CD

That's an old pic, it still has the Soviet flag on the tail. Soviet aircraft were awesome in many ways though. I am always impressed they did so much with such limited tech, yet had we gone to war (minus nukes) it would have been a very close contest.

That’s just too big for me.

I was watching one of those “Heavy Metal” shows last night. They were up in BC moving some huge oil field storage tank (11K lbs, I think it was) with a Mil Mi-26.
That thing is huge.

But looking at the flex in the rotor disc, especially under load, I couldn’t help but wonder what things would be like if they had to drop that load or a cable failed. Certain death for the crew.

I’m sure the procedure calls for dropping the collective and counting to 5 (or so) before dropping the load. At which point I wonder if it would have the time and ability to recover itself.

I also noticed that for the left seat, the collective control is on the right. For the right seat, it’s on the left (like most every other helicopter out there).

In an external lifting configuration, that has the pilot pulling the power along the greatest open length of their body, regardless of which seat they are in. Picture the pilot leaning away from the power/collective control as they look out the window down towards the load. That’s a good thing. Leaning over that control while working it is not. Better to pull up than push down, if you will. Hats off to that idea. I wonder why all the other heavy lift helicopters didn’t go with this configuration. Besides the fact that it would drive a lot of pilots nuts if/when they had to switch seats. That would take some getting used to for sure.

I also noticed the hook jettison lever is on the cyclic control and not the collective as with all the others. That is odd, but I’m sure they have their reasons.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

And, the CCCP registration as well.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

We had a forest fire in the Mendocino Nationa Forest when I was about 13. I lived in Lakeport, CA near Clear Lake. I remember doing yard work for my dad and watching the heavy lift helecopters fly down to the lake with huge buckets and scoop up lake water and then fly over to the fire. I kind of upset my dad because i was watching the helecopters more then doing the yard work. later that evening my dad took me out to the air field. he had arranged all the kids from my Boy Scout troop to meet at the air field and the flight crews from the helecopters gave us the grand tour, let us climb all over the helecopters... there must have been about 15 helecopters.

Looking back, I had a really cool dad!

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Yes, you did.

From that, I’m surprised you aren’t a pilot.
That's usually the "bug bite" that gets you.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

For a while I wanted to be a pilot, my dad has a Cessna 172, and we use to fly all over the place back then. Suppose my dad had a larger inpact on me the I would like to admit because I fallowed him into Engineering

I'd like to get my license some day so I could share with my (future) kids what my dad shared with me.

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Russian "Flying Fortress"

Damn !!

Can you say: "fuel and oil burn" boys and girls ?

Besides that....cool.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

Always liked the Mi-26. One day I hope to see one up close.

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

I've actually flown Aeroflot. I'll try to find the old ticket stub somewhere. I made it there alive and managed to avoid the in flight pickled herring sandwich for lunch.