anyway today's ride sitting outside it
is an antenna and 26 it was delivered as
a bomber originally the only idea how
hard it is filming on the flight where
i've been watched constantly
it's noisy as hell it's unbearably hot
and i absolutely love it well hello from
the beautiful town of kostroma in russia
it's about 200 miles northeast of moscow
here on the banks of the river volga
isn't it just absolutely stunning
[Music]
now aside from being an absolutely
beautiful little town kostroma is also
home to some incredibly rare soviet
airliners the local airline costroma air
enterprise operate the antonov
an26 in the passenger configuration one
of the only airlines in the world that
does that and today we're going to be
trying to get a ride on one
[Music]
the airport at kostroma only sees a
handful of flights a week all operated
by kostroma air enterprise
aside from the m26 they operate the
antonov an2 as well as some mill
helicopters
[Music]
especially
[Music]
once inside the airport is a great
example of a classic soviet airport i
got the feeling that the local painters
and decorators only stock a single shade
of green paint though
[Music]
so then here at the airport
drummer
beautiful little old soviet style
aircraft and the airport rather
very green
about
two hours until the plane goes and so
far i'm the only one here because it's
quite normal here but i wanted to make
sure
i got here so um yeah i'm ready to take
the antenna off to san petersburg
like many russian airports the timetable
was displayed in the departure lounge of
the airport
[Music]
eventually the pilots turned up giving
me some hope that i'd at least be going
somewhere today
it was soon time to head through and
check in in true soviet style
[Music]
possibly
[Music]
like my previous flights in russia you
have to take your baggage through the
security point yourself before you drop
it off to be taken out to the plane
[Music]
i was soon through to the departure
lounge which did at least offer a good
view of the aircraft on the ramp
so i'll check see now and through to the
departure lounge here
at
kostroma airport
quite a basic simple affair
i had to pay a bit more for my back
um as a search because it was like 20
kilos and you only get like 10 and it
cost me 15 quid so never mind needs
checking in anyway today's ride sitting
outside it is an antonov a.m 26 it was
delivered as a bomber originally to the
peruvian air force um how cool is that
and it's been serving as a transport and
freighter aircraft here in russia for
some time now um and converted into a
passenger
configuration at the moment and the
aircraft's name is marshall novikov
and that's going to take us up to st
petersburg today
the bags were soon collected and taken
out to the waiting aircraft
[Music]
fairly soon these guys headed out to the
plane and started tinkering with the
engine something that's never an
entirely welcome sight just before you
climb on board while we were waiting for
our ride this beautiful ant 26 arriving
from another flight rattling every
window in the terminal
[Music]
fairly soon it was time to walk out to
our ride for today the marshall novikov
this one was delivered new to the
peruvian air force in 1976 serving as a
bomber in the ecuadorian conflict before
moving to russia as a cargo aircraft
until recently when it was converted
into a passenger configuration for
gostromer
[Music]
the m26 is incredibly cool though with
net curtains and tapestry at the front
of the cabin it's like taking a trip
back in time
[Music]
pretty soon the engine started spinning
up and it was time to take our ride on
the antenna 26.
[Music]
it wasn't long though until rather
predictably things started to head south
around about now i got a tap on my
shoulder from the flight attendant who
told me in no uncertain terms that i
wouldn't be allowed to film anything on
this flight before taking a seat right
next to me to make sure i was complying
was this video dead before it even got
off the ground
of course it wasn't i mean whose video
do you think you're watching and how
else would i feel the rest of the 15
minute video
with olga the ass kicker now firmly
hiding in the flight deck doing who
knows what with the pilots it was time
to do what i do best pick myself up and
blindly carry on regardless oblivious to
everything going on around me
a route today then took us northwest to
saint petersburg with a flight time of
two hours and six minutes at a cruising
altitude of 5500 meters or around
eighteen thousand feet
there's an airborne frog
on the amazing antonov am 26
latest in stove designs on board this
aircraft we've got the lovely suede
seats we've got beautiful
latest styles of neck curtains we've got
a little tapestry
over on the other side of the plane
a tapestry over on the other side of the
plane
it's noisy as hell it's unbearably hot
and i absolutely love it
olga was soon back doing what she did
best patrolling the cabin for any rogue
cameras taking photos of the top secret
neck curtains
[Music]
the more i filmed the more i worried
about being met at st petersburg by a
green truck filled with kgb agents but
somehow i carried on regardless after
all i'd already rubbed olga up the wrong
way what more did i have to lose
[Music]
all right then uh i will get the ass
kickers just been around they've thrown
us on rush of hot water and instant
coffee
at least we get something i suppose
i mean who am i kidding it's not exactly
going to be starbucks on here is it
[Music]
so on the toilet onboard the antenna 26
the soviet toyota is so proud
i don't know how much of this you can
actually see
any idea how hard it is filming on a
flight where i've been watched
constantly by olga
but never mind about an hour left to run
until petersburg i'm going to try and
head out and try not to get sold off
[Music]
so the thing you have to remember is
that the antonov am 26 is essentially a
cargo plane it's the cargo variant of
the an24
and it's basically
slightly longer than the n24 and it also
has to be covered at the back
effectively all they've done with this
it's just a few seats in it so it is
quite utilitarian on board but despite
that it's just still really cool
and to give you an indication of this
aircraft's life so far it was delivered
in the 1970s to the peruvian air force
and they used it as a bomber during the
war they've stepped down literally this
aircraft was loaded full of bombs and
they were shoving them out of the back
and now we're flying on
incredible
[Music]
pretty soon we were starting our descent
down into some petersburg
and with i'll go back at the side of me
it was time to commence our descent into
saint petersburg
at this point i had to pull out all of
my discreet filming skills at the same
time to at least try to get some usable
footage of the landing without getting a
slap around the face from our
resident-on-board kgb informant
and success relatively speaking anyway
and my flight decent petersburg cost me
43 pounds or about 60 us dollars working
out at a price of 11 pence per mile
honestly even with the risk of being
sent off to siberia this had been a
really fun flight and a great chance to
ride on one of the only antonov 26s in
passenger configuration anywhere in the
world
as always i'd like to say a big thanks
to my patrons you can join them at the
link on the screen now for access to my
whatsapp group live weekly zoom calls
with me and much more
[Music]
the 40 a couple of days ago with a
[Music]
purposefully in the first two rows yes
exactly
[Music]
and they were definitely smoking in the
cockpit oh yeah
okay let's have a cigarette
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
he's the target so i can do whatever i
want
i'm looking
at you yeah
[Music]
thank you very much
thank you you too see you later
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
so then back here in st petersburg after
my ride on the really cool antonov am
26. i mean let's be honest it was
excruciatingly hot ridiculously noisy
really uncomfortable smells of cigarette
smoke the cabin crew was surly and rude
the service was well terrible would i do
it all again
absolutely in a heartbeat it was
fantastic fun let me know what you
thought to it down in the comments below
and in the meantime thanks for watching
take care and i'll see you on the next
one bye for now