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MAINTENANCE
Maintenance is done on base at Skopje-Petrovec as well, but the budget is tight. Colonel Malezanski explains that there are three stages of maintenance: “On these types of helicopters, the first level of maintenance is done at the squadron, the second level is done at the maintenance squadron, and the third level of maintenance is the overhaul, generally in the overhaul factory.” During APJ's visit, the Mi-24s were in overhaul in the AVIAKON Aviation Repair Facility located in the town of Konotop in Ukraine.
FLYING THE MI-8/17
So what is it like to fly the Mi-8/17? Bogdanoski clarifies: “I have experienced flying the Gazelle helicopter, while I was already flying the Mi-8. When I was flying the Gazelle, the first few hours I was thinking: I don’t know how to fly a helicopter anymore, because the difference between the Gazelle and the Mi-8 was very big.”
Nevertheless, Bogdanoski loves the Mi-8/17: ”This type of helicopter is very robust, but it’s very useful and you have a lot of power, and can carry a lot of cargo. You are able to land on high mountains. Because I started my career flying fixed-wing aircraft, before I continued on helicopters, I can say that flying helicopters may be two or three times harder than flying fixed wing.”
Every flight in a Mi-8 or Mi-17 is a special experience. You can find something interesting in every flight. We have a lot of flights, we have a lot of missions.” The most interesting flights are international flights for Bogdanoski though. “When we have a mission in Bosnia, we fly from Macedonia to Bosnia over Albania and Croatia. Flying over the sea is special, as [North] Macedonia is a landlocked country. The views are spectacular.”
The Mi-8/17 is the transport backbone of the Air Force. As Bogdanoski notes: “In the basic version, we have 24 seats in the cargo compartment. But there is a possibility to mount a fuel tank inside to extend the range, limiting the capacity to 15 fully-armed personnel. Inside we can carry four tonnes of cargo. Without the extra fuel tank, the range is about 500 kilometers, with the additional fuel tank inside its 750 kilometers.”
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Opposite Page: At the controls of the Mi-17...no digital displays here!
APJ/ROELOF-JAN GORT