It was old... It was noisy... It shook a LOT (almost 24 hours later and I'm sure I just now stopped shaking)... But, it got us there and back in one piece.
It was a pretty awesome ride, and an incredible way to see the country. No going over top of the mountains with them. You go through, or you go around. We went around...
Our aircraft takes about 40 minutes to get to Faizabad. The helicopter... 2 HOURS AND 15 MINUTES of SHAKE RATTLE and ROLL.
The crew was awesome! They barely spoke English, especially the Flight Engineer. No english at all from him. HAHA
We had to take the Helicopter because the runway is closed due to a "crack" as we were told. Turns out when we arrived, it was a little more than a crack. About 100 meters of pavement has been completely torn up to "fix" some cracks that had formed.
The Airport Manager didn't inform anyone that the work was taking place until the morning of... Now with Ramadan, the work has stopped, and will probably not resume until Ramadan ends on the 28th.
Now it's a huge battle... The Airport is blaming the Governor of the Province. The Governor is blaming MOTCA (Ministry of Transportation and Civil Aviation). MOTCA is blaming the airport, and the customers like the WFP are stuck waiting to see what will happen.
Here are some photos from the trip to Faizabad on board the Abakan Avia MiL Mi-8MTV-1
Yup. We were LOW!
I think I'll stick with the Dash. Pretty cool though!
Panorama of the Cockpit
It's LOUD!!!!
English is DEFINITELY their Second Language
Our Copter with an Mi-24 in Front
(Had to be sneaky with the Army Around)
And here are some photos of "The Crack"
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