THE SIGHT & THE SOUND 1/2 : Last flight of Air Via TU-154M LZ-MIL from Dusseldorf (DUS) to Varna

Daniel’s Travel Log
I had different plans.
The original plan was to fly onboard Belavia's AN-24 from Berlin to Minsk together with Henry Tenby from Vancouver on the last weekend of October, 2005 taping the flight on video and writing an article about Belavia.
Security was tight in Belarus and permissions were needed and not an enthusiast’s friendly spot back in 2005.
Working myself through a difficult process up to the Top of Belavia, obtaining the necessary permissions, it was finally “Mission achieved”, and Henry and I were ready to go.
However Belavia revoked the granted permission to make pictures on board their AN-24 in the last minute for no reason.
At the same time it came to my ears, that Air Via was replacing their Tupolevs with A320s at the end of October at an alarming speed and that the last flights on TU-154M were scheduled to be operated on the weekend ahead.
Changing plans in Germany on short notice is not easy, especially not on a Friday.
My passport was lying at the Belarus Embassy in Berlin with a no longer required visa and tickets on Air Via could not be purchased through the internet, only through travel agent channels at TUI in Hannover.
All seats on board of Air Via were sold and marketed through travel agents, Air Via provided plane and crew but did not sell seats.
Getting a last minute air ticket on a Friday in Germany on TUI through normal channels was simply impossible !
The weekend planning for charter flights was finished and TUI was not able nor willing to issue any tickets on their contingent through ordinary channels and time was running out.
It was a Friday in Germany and people stop working around noon.
It took a half a day of phone calls to the headquarter of Air Via in Sofia in order to connect to the top management of TUI in Hannover to help me getting on board of two empty flights !
Making a long story short, Air Via managed to get me on board through top management intervention for 50 Euros and I spent the next Saturday flying from Frankfurt to Berlin to pick up my passport from security personnel at the Belarus Embassy.
Sunday morning, October 30, 2005 rewarded me with perfect flying weather in Dusseldorf and unbelievable VIP treatment by the Chief Pilot of Air Via, Atanas Vitkov.
The plane was mine for the next two and a half hours !
The few passengers were reseated to the forward section and I had the rear section entirely for myself.
A spectacular flat-angle take off and a spectacular and very turbulent landing over the city center of Varna commemorated the final flight of a Air Via TU-154M from Dusseldorf.
I taped this and the return flight on the following morning with newest HD camera equipment available back in 2005.
It may well be possible, that these footages are the only footages of Air Via's Tupolev to be taped in detail and published in HD quality.
Unfortunately I did not realize that my new external microphone was bumping against the wall creating these terrible squeeking sounds during take off and landing.
I needed weeks to edit this video cutting it into hundreds of small puzzle pieces in order to remove the worst squeeking parts during the taxi and take off scenes and reassemble the remaining puzzle parts without disrupting the story. This is the remastered and improved result !
Welcome on board Air Via’s final flight onboard TU-154M LZ-MIL out of Dusseldorf on October 30, 2005.
History of Tupolev 154M LZ-MIL
Please see History at the end of this video.
Welcome to the Sights & Sounds of Classic Aviation.
Thank you for watching my channel.
Flight details
Flight : VIM 710
Date : Sunday, October 30, 2005
Aircraft : Tupolev 154M
Registration : LZ-MIL
Later Registration :
RA-85056 (Red Wings, Tyumen Avia Trans - UTair -)
From : Dusseldorf (DUS)
To : Varna (VAR)
Take Off : 12.59 h (1159 Z)
Touch down : 16.18 h (1418 Z)
Flying time : 2 hours 19 minutes
Distance : 1.031 nM / 1.910 km
Altitude : 39.000 ft
Speed : 476 knots
Flight Captain : Vitkov, Atanas
First Officer : Alexandrov, Sasho
Flight Engineer : Nikov, Nikolaj
Purserette : Vitkova, Rada
Cabin Crew : Mihov, Chavdar
Cabin Crew : Velkova, Arma
Cabin Crew : Ivanova, Ralitsa
Cabin Crew : Georgieva, Ivelina

Пікірлер: 36

  • @krassimirivanov7414
    @krassimirivanov74143 ай бұрын

    I used to fly on this aircraft, exactly that registration 35 years ago. Was amazing. Capt. Vitkov voice is on video.😅

  • @ThePegasus2890
    @ThePegasus2890Ай бұрын

    Magnificent engine sound 👍

  • @skypiratez
    @skypiratez8 ай бұрын

    The (very) short visual approach for LBWN rwy 27 was something to be seen... Clearly very experienced crew and captain.

  • @RASTISHKA022
    @RASTISHKA02210 ай бұрын

    Оуууу это чё за взлёт был😃😃😃автору канала спасибо ))) отличное видео)) ту 154 невероятно красив

  • @Marcel-us5tw
    @Marcel-us5tw11 ай бұрын

    The Sound of the tupolew and other russian Jets are Amazing! Miss this airplanes on the airports😢 The last flight of the via tu 154 on 2005😢😢. Thanks for video my friend 😊

  • @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    11 ай бұрын

    My pleasure and passion.

  • @Marcel-us5tw

    @Marcel-us5tw

    11 ай бұрын

    @@sightsandsoundsofaviation i saw the via & buc tu 154m often in Dresden, Nürnberg and Leipzig, loves when it comes, it was amazing to See and hear this wonderful russian Birds with smoke. Today, the buc comes also with md-82 and a 320, the md 82 looking nice with great sound, but the time of the md 82 is up, so i hope the buc md82 to See for a long time 😊

  • @Tengri30
    @Tengri302 жыл бұрын

    That floating over runway just a few meters over it... Magnificent. Guess, the captain had experience with the Air Forces. 😎

  • @billwalbek1911
    @billwalbek19119 ай бұрын

    What a wonderful video of a classic Russian airliner!. Thanks for sharing.

  • @hopsingh2539
    @hopsingh25392 жыл бұрын

    In 1996 when I was 4 years old, I took my first flight ever with my parents. On this day I flew with a Tupolev 154 Via Air from Dusseldorf to Burgas and back. While I watch this video, old childhood memories are coming back. Thanks for that 🤌

  • @scotty6346
    @scotty63468 ай бұрын

    Tu-134 and 154 are fantastic aircraft and the best of their era, The pinnacle of Soviet aircraft manufacturing IMO, Over engineered airframes to cope with un paved runways etc, Most accidents involving these were down to poor maintenance/ Pilot error, I would happily fly on a well maintained one today 👍

  • @lyub4o69
    @lyub4o693 жыл бұрын

    Awesome!

  • @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you !

  • @82ivaylo
    @82ivaylo7 күн бұрын

    Интересно видео! Притеснителното за този самолет е че има много инциденти. Не съм летял на ТУ 154.

  • @Warcrazyness
    @Warcrazyness3 жыл бұрын

    Great video

  • @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you !

  • @ianstewartorr8455
    @ianstewartorr84552 ай бұрын

    I liked flying with air VIA the best flew hemus air and Balkan holidays BH air too those where older aircraft not so good I think the air via TU 154 M where built in 1990 greetings from Scotland 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 we flew in 2005 to bourgas that was our last flight on a TU 154 M from Glasgow

  • @heatherstub
    @heatherstub7 ай бұрын

    Man! It's too bad that you couldn't have been able to save everything you recorded, but I realize those squeaks would have been a bit much. I just wish that someone else also recorded this or that you could have uploaded the whole video even with the squeaks, provided that they weren't too much for the ears. I feel bad for you, because I know you go out of your way to make the best videos you can make. Keep up the great work!

  • @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    7 ай бұрын

    Hi Heather, if you write me a private message to my account, I will be happy to send you the original clips without any editing in a cloud for you to download.

  • @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    7 ай бұрын

    PS. I have many more TU-154M videos on my channel WITHOUT squeaking and with brilliant sounds...

  • @heatherstub

    @heatherstub

    7 ай бұрын

    Would that be in the "community" section, and if not, how do I find that option? I used to be able to send an email through that section, but I haven't been able to do that in over 10 years. @@sightsandsoundsofaviation

  • @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    @sightsandsoundsofaviation

    7 ай бұрын

    @@heatherstub Just seen. There has been a change in layout. The new layout is as follow : Under my channel THE SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF AVIATION @sightsandsoundsofaviation ‧ 9190 Abonnenten ‧ 368 Videos there is an arrow mark. Click on that and a new window appears. Click on Channel details...

  • @aleksant9530
    @aleksant95303 жыл бұрын

    вот он прыгнул.вертикальная скорость как у f16

  • @azizbizid9084
    @azizbizid90845 ай бұрын

    C'est très bien comme appareil, mieux que les A320

  • @heatherstub
    @heatherstub7 ай бұрын

    Question: Is that a DC-8 or a Boeing 707 pulling in from around 8:00 or so until around 10:09?

  • @kickboxer2063
    @kickboxer2063 Жыл бұрын

    Hahaha I'm a bulgarian. 🇧🇬 The Pilots speaking in bulgarian.

  • @heatherstub
    @heatherstub7 ай бұрын

    Those squeaks aren't really that bad.

  • @gregorchitchian9131
    @gregorchitchian91312 жыл бұрын

    It looks like plane wanted to take off at 23:09 but it went down and took off only at 23:19, also at 26:00 it looks like it banked to the left too much.

  • @Luton-Mick

    @Luton-Mick

    4 ай бұрын

    He was making use of the ground effect, bet my last penny the pilot is ex fighter pilot.

  • @longsweep1
    @longsweep13 жыл бұрын

    Sad end at Surgut

  • @dantod4142

    @dantod4142

    8 ай бұрын

    not the same aircraft

  • @heatherstub
    @heatherstub7 ай бұрын

    I'm looking forward to hearing this one! There's just one thing I wish you could change about these videos. At the beginning and end of each is a good bit of non-audio material, and now that I'm aware of it, I know that you put the history and other material within the video that my text-to-speech software can't access unless it's in the subtitles. If I have access to the closed captions, I might be able to hear it read to me, provided they're not imbedded within the video as an image, because they need to be in text form. I'm using JAWS 2024 by Freedom Scientific, so if you or anybody else has any suggestions on how I may access that material, I'm all ears! If so, please just type instructions in the comments, so I may be able to follow along if possible. I don't have anybody who can read that information to me, so I really hope this can be accommodated. If not, could you please direct me to any videos or text journals where I may read the information or something similar to the information you include in these videos? It really would be so much appreciated. Thank you so very, very much, and happy holidays! Update: I've tried from the player settings to turn on the closed captions, and unless otherwise indicated, I can't turn on the closed captions at all. I have Focus Assist turned on, but it won't work for this either. I've even turned on the application to get image descriptions from Google and/or Ccleaner browser, and no such luck. I didn't think that one would work, but it was worth a try. Sorry about that.

  • @ArtemArt99
    @ArtemArt992 жыл бұрын

    50:30 это ж сколько градусов крен ?

  • @antonplaygames236

    @antonplaygames236

    2 жыл бұрын

    Примерно 40-45

  • @ruslankammisaroff4485
    @ruslankammisaroff44859 ай бұрын

    Вообще ахренели перегонять пустой самолет который ест 5-6000 кг/ч керосина, вообще в край опухли

  • @ruslankammisaroff4485
    @ruslankammisaroff44859 ай бұрын

    За границу с качественными двигателями летают, внутри россии двигатели похуже будут