Adventures of Canadians in Russia
If you have not yet seen or somehow missed this epic story, it’s high time to spend a night watching videos from two round the world travelers – Ruben Dias and Mischa Gelb. These two Canadians started from the town of Whistler on the 1st May 2018 in a Robinson R66 helicopter and in 97 days landed back at the same place. They saw 45 countries, crossed 5 continents and set 2 new world records.
Their round the world helicopter trip was the fastest – 97 days, while the distance covered was the longest – 60,165 kilometers.
MAK Aviation Services provided assistance to the crew of round the world travelers EPIC World Tour with their fights in Russia. We worked out the route, obtained permits, made arrangements with the airports, provided fuel uplifts and filed flight plans for each stage of the transit.
The spirited pilots made 9 stops in Russia, visiting Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk UHSS, Khabarovsk UHHH, Anadyr UHMA, Providence Haven UHMD and domestic airfields, not normally open to international flights – Nikolaevsk-na-Amure UHNN, Okhotsk UHOO, Magadan-13 UHMT, Severo-Evensk UHMW, Markovo UHMO.
Travelers tell about overflying Russia in 6 episodes of video series in their blog.
Day 58 – arrival to Russia, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk airport and sudden revocation of traffic permit for Russian airspace.
Day 59 – Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk – Khabarovsk sector, meeting Sergey Dolzhenko. Kalinka airport, short review of aircraft that Sergey bought in Los-Angeles and Israel. Naïve hope that Alaska will be next stop. Russia did not let pilots go that easily.
Day 60 – Khabarovsk – Nikolaevsk-na-Amure – Okhotsk. A small town without a hotel. Our conditions are Spartan – says the landlady of the apartment where travelers will spend the night.
Day 61 – due to poor weather failed to fly to Evensk, returned to Magadan. In this episode review of aircraft on the tarmac. A lot of surprises for Canadian pilots and an attempt to buy Mi-2.
Day 62 – saw bears from above and a lot of beautiful sights. Weather went sour again, pilots got stuck in Evensk. They inspected local supermarket and again had to stay in a private apartment – no hotel.
Day 63 – absurd situation with payment for fuel in a small airfield Markovo, a man in a beret and with a medal appears in this episode, clouds of mosquitoes and gnats in the cockpit, flying to Anadyr.
We are glad that Ruben and Mischa managed to make a world tour on a private helicopter and set new records. That was really epic!