THE SIGHT & THE SOUND 1/3 : Flight onboard Grixona IL-18 ER-ICB from Chisinau to Kiev-Zhuliany

Daniel’s Travel Vlog

This video has been remastered and substantially improved in vision and sound and replaced the initial posting in 2017 and newly includes spectacular footage from the Flight Deck, filmed by Flight Captain, Vladimir Rusu !

As long as Grixona was still operating this beautiful IL-18, my dear friend and soulmate, Steven Harry Kinder and I were absolutely determined to charter this Grand Lady once again.

The odds were clearly against us and the hammer about to drop upon us, the longer we wait.

The original option was to plan a Round-The-World-Tour on the long run or to focus and concentrate on more realistic options on the short run.

Keeping the odds in mind, we finally decided for the Latter, which proved to be the right decision, because ER-ICB was about to lose her license to carry passengers soon thereafter.

The decision was made to pay tribute to the old city-airport of Kiev - Zhuliany - .

Planning a maximum of 30 passengers for 100 seats to allow a maximum of freedom and choice of seats on board, we prepared an evening gathering to brief our illustrious audience about the Do's and Don'ts on ramp side and while on international transit grounds.

What nobody knew at that point, was that we were about to lose our permission to land at Kiev-Zhuliany for whatever reason, so we were quickly looking for a Plan B, which was not an option for our Moldovan counterparts.

So, poker we played until early next morning, when we decided to take the risk and take off and file our flight plan on short notice and see what happens.

Again luck was on our side and we made it into Kiev in rather misty weather conditions.

While the herd was heading for the National State Aviation Museum, the author decided to stay on ramp side together with the crew and to chill airside in, around, under, above and on board.

After a detailed insight of my favourite of all planes including the spectacular view from an elusive deicing vehicle, we moved onwards.

This video documentary takes us onboard the first of three flights onboard IL-18 from Chișinău to Kiev-Zhuliany.

This video has been taped 2010 on brand new HDV video tape equipment, opening a new world of high quality video viewing and audio pleasure.

History of Ilyushin 18D ER-ICB

Airframe 188010603 was manufactured March 6, 1968 at the Moscow Engineering Plant 30 “Znamya Truda / Banner of Labour” as a Troopship Military Transporter Prototype version of IL-18TD.

Airframe 188010603 was registered CCCP-74296, after being converted to Passenger / Cargo configuration on August 30, 1968.

After being registered in Russia, RA-74296 operated for the Zhukovsky Flight Institute AIS Skytriumph in Aeroflot livery after August 28, 1993.

RA-74296 was transferred to Tretyakovo Airlines on April 23, 1999.

Registration RA-74296 was cancelled after years of inactivity on July 21, 2003 and sold to Moldova to operate for Pecotox Air, registered ER-ICB.

ER-ICB operated as far as to Australia and was seen in Brisbane, April 3, 2004.

ER-ICB was sold to Grixona on February 18, 2005 and operated on numerous missions to South Sudan and other war-torn countries throughout Africa and Asia.

Grixona and a number of other Moldovan operators were revoked the Air Operator Certificate by the
Moldovan Civil Aviation Authorities due to failure to comply with EASA regulations.

In order to operate pleasure flights for an international enthusiast audience, initiated and organized
by the author of this video series, ER-ICB operated passenger flights under the Air Operator
Certificate of Tandem Aero on April 4, 2009 and September 18, 2010.

After losing her license to carry passengers, ER-ICB was sold back to Russia on December 21,
2011 to operate throughout Siberia and the Far East in Cargo configuration for NPP Mira, registered
74296.

74296 is reported stored since September 5, 2016 and eventually broken up in February, 2019 at a
respectable age of 51 years.

This video includes spectacular bonus material filmed by legendary Flight Catain Vladimir Rusu
from the Flight Deck.

Enjoy with me the Sights & Sounds of Classic Aviation.

Thank you for watching my channel.

Flight details

Flight : TDM 1410
Date : Saturday, September 18, 2010
Aircraft : IL-18D
Registration : ER-ICB
Former Registrations :
CCCP-74296 (Aeroflot)
RA-74296 (Tretyakovo Airlines)
ER-ICB (Pecotox Air, Moldova)
Later registration
74296 (NPP Mira)
Built : 1968
From : Chișinău (KIV)
To : Kiev (IEV)
Take off : 09.11 h (0611 UTC)
Touch down : 10.07 h (0707 UTC)
Flying time : 56 minutes
Flying distance : 273 nM / 506 km
Altitude : 7.344 / 7.414 m
Speed : 628 km/h
Flight Captain : Rusu, Vladimir
Flight Captain : Matenko, Vladimir
Flight Engineer : Sapojkov, Sergey
Navigator : Drebujan, Oleg
Cabin Crew : Ostapenko, Raisa
Cabin Crew : Eriomova, Valentina
Ground Engineer : Iurcu, Valerii
Ground Engineer : Gordeev, Alexandru