During World War II, ordinary collective farmers gave heroes personalized tanks and planes.

Victory in the Great Patriotic War was forged not only at the front, but also in the rear. “Day and night at the open-hearth furnaces our Motherland did not close its eyes,” these words from the song reflect the true picture of those days. But there was another source of resources for the front - personal contributions from citizens to the Defense Fund for the purchase military equipment for the Red Army.

The newspaper Pravda dated December 18, 1942 published a message from F. P. Golovaty to I. V. Stalin:

Quote:
Moscow, Kremlin, Comrade Stalin
Dear Joseph Vissarionovich!
Accompanying my two sons to the front, I gave them my father’s order to mercilessly beat the German invaders, and for my part, I promised my children to help them with selfless labor in the rear.
Having learned about your welcoming telegram to the Saratov collective farmers and collective farm women and wanting to help the heroic Red Army quickly destroy the Nazi gangs, I decided to give all my savings to the construction of combat aircraft.
The Soviet regime made me a prosperous collective farmer, and now, when the Motherland is in danger, I decided to help it with everything I could. Everything that I earned with my honest labor on the collective farm, I give it to the Red Army Fund. On December 15, I deposited 100 thousand rubles into the State Bank and ordered a combat aircraft as a gift to the defenders of the Motherland. Let my fighting machine smash the German invaders, let it bring death to those who mock our brothers, the innocent Soviet people. Hundreds of squadrons of combat aircraft, built with the personal savings of collective farmers, will help our Red Army quickly clear our sacred land of German invaders.
Collective farmer of the Stakhanovets collective farm, Novo-Pokrovsky district, Saratov region, Ferapont Golovaty

Pravda newspaper, December 18, 1942:
Quote:
Collective farm "Stakhanovets" Novo-Pokrovsky district, Saratov region
Ferapont Petrovich GOLOVATY
Thank you, Ferapont Petrovich, for your concern for the Red Army and its air force. The Red Army will not forget that you gave all your savings to build a combat aircraft.
Please accept my regards.
I. STALIN

“Gift to Son” - a step towards immortality
Ilya Andreevich and Maria Filippovna Shirmanov from the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic donated all their savings to the construction of a tank for their only son Andrei, who served in the 162nd Tank Brigade.

The tank with the inscription “Gift to my son,” built at the Ural plant, was handed over to the crew at the beginning of June 1943. The fighter’s parents were present at the rally to mark the handover of the car. They took a photo together on the armor. The photograph shows the worn-out hands of Ilya Andreevich.
Unfortunately, parental love did not save Andrey. Senior sergeant, gunner, Andrei Shirmanov bravely fought on a named tank for almost a year, and heroically died along with the crew in the battle near Chernivtsi.

Everything is for Victory
During the war years, the Defense Fund received from citizens of the USSR over 16 billion rubles, 13 kg of platinum, 131 kg of gold, 9519 kg of silver, 1.8 billion rubles worth of jewelry, over 0.5 billion rubles of deposits in savings banks (in prices in 1941), amounting to over 4.5 billion rubles of government loan bonds. These funds were used to build 2.5 thousand combat aircraft, more than 30 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, 8 submarines, 16 military boats and many other military equipment.
The Yak-7 "For Victory" fought for their homeland! Wolf Messing, tank “Russian Song” of the Voronezh Russian Folk Choir, heavy tank IS-2 “Vladimir Mayakovsky”, acquired by the artist Yakhontov, KV “Merciless”, built for the Stalin Prize of the famous Kukryniksy, T-34 “Grozny”, built for the State Prize of Alexei Tolstoy... The enemy was smashed by the tanks “Baikal Fisherman” and “Yeisk Collective Farmer”, “Verkhovsky Railwayman” and “Verkhoyansk Hunter”, “Makeevsky Schoolboy” and “Komsomolets Nordvika”, “Malyutka” and “Tanya”. The enemy was beaten by the crews of combat vehicles “Amur Avenger”, “For the Radian Ukraine”, “Mariupol - Revenge”, “Kramarev Erast Fedorovich”, “Andreev’s Personal Tank”, “Kolyma”, “Collective Farmer”, “Mothers to their Sons”..

"From Lenochka for dad"
At the beginning of 1943, a new Il-2 aircraft arrived at the 237th Attack Aviation Regiment. It was distinguished from other attack aircraft by the unusual inscription on board “From Lenochka for Dad.” This car already had a history, which began with a letter to Stalin. “Dear Joseph Vissarionovich. My dad, Anatoly Vasilyevich Azarenkov, commander of an attack aircraft squadron, died at the front, defending our Motherland, which I love very much. My mother died in Kyiv, I live with my grandmother. She is a pensioner, disabled group 2. When she receives her pension, she gives me toys. I saved money for a Christmas tree and saved up 110 rubles, which I ask you to accept to build an attack aircraft, and transfer it to the 237 regiment, in which my dad served, so that my dad’s comrades will take revenge on the nasty Germans for the death of my dad, for my grandmother, she cries so much and for me."

The author of the appeal was Lena Azarenkova, a student of grade 1-B at Moscow school No. 612. The letter was published in Ogonyok magazine No. 4 for 1943, and children all over the country began to donate their “Christmas tree” and “candy” money for the construction of the aircraft. Together, their small contributions added up to significant sums. From schoolchildren of the Ivanovo region - a million rubles, from students of the Stavropol Territory - 100 thousand. Lena’s wish came true. Having received the plane purchased with the children’s money, the pilots of the 237th attack air regiment wrote to the girl: “Dear Lenochka! We received the aircraft built with the money raised at your initiative into service. We assure you that we, your dad’s fighting friends, will take revenge on the German bandits for his death. We wrote your name on a combat attack aircraft and gave it to your dad’s best friend.”

“I am Ada Zanegina. I am 6 years old. I am writing in print. Hitler kicked me out of the city of Sychevka, Smolensk region. I want to go home. I collected 122 rubles 25 kopecks for the doll. And now I’m giving them to the tank. Dear Uncle Editor! Write to all the children so that they also give their money to the tank. And let's call him “Baby”. When our tank defeats Hitler, we will go home."

And the children responded.

Adik Solodov, 6 years old: “I want to return to Kyiv. I’m contributing the money I collected for the boots - 135 rubles 56 kopecks - to the construction of the Malyutka tank.”

Tamara Loskutova: “Mom wanted to buy me a new coat and saved up 150 rubles. I’m wearing an old coat.”

Tanya Chistyakova: “Dear unknown girl Ada! I’m only five years old, but I’ve already lived without my mother for a year. I really want to go home, and therefore I happily give money to build our tank. Our tank would sooner defeat the enemy.”

Shura Khomenko from Ishim: “They told me about Ada Zanegina’s letter and I contributed all my savings - 100 rubles and handed over 400 rubles worth of bonds for the construction of the Malyutka tank.” My friend Vitya Tynyanov contributes 20 rubles. Let our dads defeat the Nazis with tanks built with our savings.”

And the children, who had no savings, tried to earn money, as they would say now, through charity events. For example, the children of the kindergarten of the Novo-Uralsky state farm prepared a concert and transferred 20 rubles to a special account in the Omsk branch of the State Bank.

Thus, the entire children's world collected far from a child's sum, which the Omsk authorities transferred to the Defense Fund.

Quote:
I ask you to convey to the preschool children of the city of Omsk, who collected 160,886 rubles for the construction of the Malyutka tank, my warm greetings and gratitude to the Red Army.

Supreme Commander-in-Chief Marshal of the Soviet Union I. Stalin.

“Baby” looked exactly like this

Its driver-mechanic was one of the 19 Soviet women tankers, Ekaterina Petlyuk. She herself was short, which served as a source of constant jokes in the unit. However, she fought heroically, which was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War.

The Malyutka tank fought at Stalingrad and witnessed the surrender of Field Marshal Paulus. Before the Kursk Bulge, its combat service ended, and, like all other used armored vehicles, it was sent to be melted down. Ekaterina kept the tank watch as a souvenir (it is now on display in the Museum of the Defense of Stalingrad) and switched to a more advanced, although still small, T-70 vehicle.

Mechanic-driver st. St. Ekaterina Petlyuk

On the Kursk Bulge, as it turned out later, Catherine fought somewhere next to Ada’s father. But, alas, for tanker Alexander Zanegin, the battles near Kursk turned out to be the last.

Ada Zanegina before the war

The history of the “children’s” tank was unearthed by the Omsk “Red Pathfinders” in 1975, and on May 9, 1975, in Omsk, an employee of one of the Odessa registry offices, Ekaterina Alekseevna Petlyuk, first met Ada Zanegina - by that time an ophthalmologist from Elektrostal near Moscow, Adela Aleksandrovna Voronets.

By the way, the search engines of the Volgograd region celebrated May Day of this year with a rare success: they recovered the T-60 tank - after restoration it will become the sixth preserved in the world and the third in Russia (this is out of six thousand vehicles produced).
_________________
And there is only one warrior in the field, if he is tailored in Russian!

Due to the imperfection of the salary system, the Russian Air Force began to lose young personnel. As a source in the Air Force told Izvestia, of the 80 young pilots who entered combat units of the Air Force last year, almost 60 have already begun the dismissal procedure without serving even a year in the army. If the situation does not change, by 2015 the army will lose almost 70% of its combat pilots.

The pilots themselves explain that they were deceived with money and deprived of the opportunity to fly.

Last year, when we graduated, we were promised that from January 1, 2012 we would receive 100 thousand rubles. In reality they received about 60 thousand rubles. And now they’ve also changed the flying hours: now, if we don’t fly 100 hours, we’ll get 37 thousand. I’d rather go to Aeroflot,” a Su-25 pilot, who is now undergoing an air flight commission before dismissal.

He explained that 70% of a combat pilot’s salary is an allowance “for special conditions of service” and a bonus “for conscientious and effective performance of official duties.” They are awarded only to those who have fulfilled the established norm of flying hours per year. And from January 1, 2012, this norm was 100 hours per year for front-line aviation pilots. This is exactly how much time in the air needs to be spent by everyone who flies combat Sukhoi and MiGs - Su-27, MiG-29, MiG-31, etc.

At the same time, while it is not difficult for pilots of transport aircraft, who spend 2–3 hours per flight to meet the norm (for Il-76, Tu-154 and other transport aircraft, the norm is 140–150 hours, this is 50–60 flights), then for pilots -fighters that spend only 20–30 minutes in the air per flight need to make 200 sorties to fly 100 hours.

The commander of one of the long-range bomber squadrons explained to Izvestia that the Air Force has had a tradition of not allowing young people at the controls since the difficult 1990s, when there was a shortage of fuel and serviceable aircraft (often there were no more than 2-3 serviceable aircraft in an air regiment). Nowadays, aces make money by under-shooting young people.

Using the freed-up hours, senior pilots receive additional flight time and pass the qualification requirements for “pilot-sniper”, “pilot-instructor”, etc. and accordingly their monetary allowance is growing significantly,” explained Izvestia’s interlocutor.

According to him, in February 2012, on the only Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, the flight hours allocated for young ship pilots were transferred to the commanders of the 279th separate air regiment. Because of this, the young people did not receive permission to fly independently and upon returning to the port they were transferred from naval aviation.

And this happens everywhere,” Izvestia’s interlocutor emphasized.

Not only were free travel to our vacation destinations canceled (with the exception of remote regions) and medical care for family members was reduced, but since the end of last year they stopped issuing flight uniforms - overalls, jackets, boots. You have to buy it with your own money. All this can be tolerated only if the salary is high,” explained the squadron commander.

At the same time, in civil airlines, pilots receive 240 thousand rubles per month (for the assistant commander of a ship who has just started flying), free medical care, free flights to any destination, including abroad, preferential mortgage lending and other bonuses.

The only way for young pilots to leave the army is to become medically unfit. In this case, they must be transferred to ground work, and the pilot has the right to refuse it. Now in only one of the branches of the Third Central Military Clinical Hospital named after Vishnevsky, 28 young lieutenants did not pass the air flight commissions (VLC).

In total, since the beginning of the year, about 300 military pilots, navigators and other members of aircraft crews have not completed the military flight across the country. Of these, about 60 military personnel are pilots from 2010–2011. For comparison: last year 75 people did not pass the VLK, of which only seven were young lieutenants.

In addition, due to age and health, approximately 15 experienced pilots are retired each year. In 2015, about 350 pilots will have to leave the controls after reaching the 25-year service life limit.

At the same time, until 2003, flight schools graduated only 100 pilots, but since 2003, an average of about 270 specialists have graduated, of whom only 80 sit at the controls. The rest are appointed to the positions of navigators, on-board operators, etc. Teaching them to fly a plane on their own will require about two years of additional training.

Civilian and military pilots take to the skies almost every day, and in some cases, their flights can be carried out several times a day. Obviously, it is worth emphasizing that the profession of a pilot, regardless of whether the pilot is the commander of a civilian or military aircraft, is dangerous, and, therefore, the pilot’s salary will probably be high.

Indeed, today qualified pilots are highly valued, because thanks to the actions of experienced aviators, even an out-of-control plane can be landed without unnecessary casualties. And, here, it should be emphasized that the more experience the pilot has, the higher the pilot’s salary will be.

Specific figures for a pilot's salary can vary from minimum to maximum depending on which airline the pilot-in-command works for, as well as on what tasks are assigned to him. If we take the UK, the minimum salary for a pilot here is about 32 thousand dollars per year, while the maximum can exceed 120 thousand dollars. As for the highest salary for a pilot, it is recorded in China, where the pilot of a Boeing 747-400 cargo aircraft receives over 250 thousand dollars per year, which naturally makes such a profession very promising.

Quite often, a pilot's salary depends on what type of aircraft he flies. If it is a small light aircraft, then most likely the pilot will have to count on a relatively small salary, but if it is a giant like the Airbus A380, then the pilot’s salary will probably be close to the maximum, since operating this complex aircraft requires maximum qualifications.

As for the pilot’s salary in Russia, here it is not as high as we would like, which often leads to a leakage of flight personnel. For example, civil aviation pilots working for Aeroflot airlines receive about 72 thousand dollars per year. However, qualified specialists are really needed by domestic aviation, and therefore a number of air carriers specifically stimulate the work of experienced pilots, offering them wages of 100-120 thousand dollars per year.

As for military pilots (pilots), on average they earn 110 thousand rubles per month. L a lieutenant who has served 1 year earns on average 40 thousand rubles per month. Officers who have served for at least 5 years can be content with a salary 70-90 thousand rubles per month. But let’s not forget that the State obliged all military pilots provide housing.

Be that as it may, the main thing for the pilot of any aircraft is not money, but the unique opportunity to rise into the sky again and again, towards the endless horizon.

Hello!
I am interested in data on the financial affairs of military personnel of the SA Air Force of the USSR.
Additionally, I am interested in approximate data on the following positions (for cars):

Chief and deputy, pilots, navigator, cadet, communications,
combat units, medical service, beginning PDS, flight director,
in power engineering, technology, etc. , allowances...

Deputy chief of staff, beginning reconnaissance in eska and regiment,
assistant chief of staff, reconnaissance, navigator, assistant navigator in the regiment
the beginning of communications in the eska and the regiment, the beginning of the chemical service, the beginning of the food service
service, head of financial service, head of personnel/troop units, head of medical service. service,
Secretary of the Komsomol 110 in eska, in regiment 120?
secretary of the party organization 115 in eska, in regiment 130?,
propagandist, chief of the Zas, chief of the PDS, chief of the rear,
technician, mechanic, tech, iap
in esca and shelf:
head of the command post, combat control officer,
landing system manager, weather forecaster officer 115,
head of weather service 130

Eternal gratitude

Is it a lot or is it a little?
Well, the technician received a maximum of 750 rubles, and I received 1,300 - that’s a lot. This was before the currency reform. Then the senior pilot, then for the position... If an ordinary pilot had a salary of 1,300 rubles, a senior pilot had a salary of 1,400 rubles, a flight commander had a salary of 1,700 rubles, a deputy. squadron commander 1,900 rubles, squadron commander 2,100 rubles, deputy. regiment commander 2,200 rubles, regiment commander 2,400 rubles. These were the salaries when I arrived in the regiment.
What year is our reform? In sixty-first... Then things changed there...

Interview with A.I. Zuev

Home >> History >> Interview with A.I. Zuev Interview of Oleg Korytov and Konstantin Chirkin with Anatoly Ivanovich Zuev Lit processing by Igor Zhidov Typesetting Svetlana Spiridonova Reserve Lieutenant Colonel A.I. Zuev, holder of the Order of the Red Banner and Badge of Honor I, Zuev, Anatoly Ivanovich, retired colonel. Formerly a fighter pilot, born on November 17, 1933, in my favorite city of Leningrad. Father is from a peasant background. He left the village and worked at the Red Triangle plant. There he rose to the rank of master. // Further -

Aviation technician specialist in ground maintenance of aviation equipment airplanes, helicopters, etc., having a valid aviation technician certificate.

Aircraft technicians are a whole structure in aviation, with their own educational institutions, a complex system, and not very rewarding work. On average, an hour of aircraft flight requires 30-50 man-hours of ground personnel. On passenger planes labor costs are significantly less than in military aviation.

Classification

When servicing domestic aircraft in Russia, aircraft technicians are divided into LA&D and A&E specialists. When servicing foreign equipment, division is based on tolerances. In the military aviation of the Russian Federation, aircraft technicians are divided into aircraft and engine specialists, aviation weapons specialists, aviation equipment specialists, and radio-electronic equipment specialists.

To become an aircraft technician, it is enough to have a specialized secondary education received at any aviation school. Higher aviation technical education allows you to become an engineer in this field.

Until recently, in the RF Armed Forces, aircraft technicians were trained in secondary and higher military educational institutions, with the rank of "lieutenant", and in technical schools, with the rank of "warrant officer". As a rule, all young specialists initially work as aviation technicians, in direct service aircraft. In the future, engineering education allows you to occupy leadership positions in the structure of the aviation engineering service.

To obtain permission to service Western-made aircraft, you must know the working methods when servicing Western equipment, the requirements for personnel, the division of personnel with the assignment of appropriate powers.

Personnel categories and responsibilities

• Mechanic responsible for certification to perform operational maintenance.
• Category B technician responsible for operational maintenance certification:
  • B1 mechanic,
  • B2 aviation electronics specialist;
• Category C engineer responsible for basic maintenance certification;
• Category BS1 B1 and B2 support staff basic maintenance support staff;
• Category D technician responsible for certification of specialists in the non-destructive testing department.

Rights

The following preferential rights are established for the personnel responsible for certification:

• Category A mechanic responsible for operational maintenance certification has the right to:
  • Perform routine operational maintenance and sign related documents;
  • certify the work performed. Including W-check or similar actions and simple troubleshooting only when carried out in-house
  • perform routine tasks authorized after appropriate targeted training is performed by the mechanic responsible for the operational maintenance certification for the purpose of issuing an Aircraft Maintenance Certificate in accordance with EASA-145.A.50 as part of a less significant scheduled operational maintenance, including the weekly inspection required in the maintenance program approved by the operators, as well as simple correction of deficiencies, which includes the following:
    • tire replacement
    • replacement of brake systems.
    • replacement of emergency equipment.
    • replacement of ovens, boilers and appliances for preparing drinks.
    • replacement of internal and external lighting systems, incandescent and fluorescent lamps.
    • replacing windshield wiper blades.
    • replacement of seats for passengers and service personnel, as well as seat belts.
    • closing fairings and repairing quick access inspection panels.
    • replacement of toilet system components, except valves.
    • simple repair and replacement of interior compartment doors and cabinets, except for doors that form part of the pressure structure.
    • simple repair and replacement of the doors of the upper compartments for storage and interior equipment.
    • replacing static wicks.
    • replacement of main, emergency batteries and batteries of auxiliary power units of aircraft.
    • replacement of components of the flight radio music system, except for the public address system.
    • daily lubrication and replenishment of all system fluids and gases.
    • deactivation of only subsystems and aircraft components according to the operator's minimum equipment list, when such deactivation is agreed with EASA as a simple task.

Permitted specific tasks are provided for in the Document granting the right to certification.

• Category B technician responsible for operational maintenance certification has the right to:
  • issue a Certificate for operational maintenance of aircraft structures, power supplies, mechanical and electrical systems, or avionics and electrical systems;
  • certify work performed by others;

• Category BS1, BS2 Support Personnel BS1 and BS2 Basic Maintenance Support Personnel are responsible for performing all relevant tasks and or checks and certifications to the specified standard before the Category C Certification Personnel issues a certificate for maintenance.

• Category C The engineer responsible for basic maintenance certification has the right to:
  • issue a Maintenance Certificate after basic aircraft maintenance has been completed.

• Category D1 technician responsible for non-destructive testing certification has the right to:
  • Perform non-destructive testing of aircraft/components
  • certify the work performed by a non-destructive testing technician
  • issue EASA Form 1 following maintenance of aircraft/components using non-destructive testing.

In military aviation

Chassis overhaul by S&D specialists

The engineering and technical staff of the aviation of the RF Armed Forces is divided into two main categories. The first category is the maintenance personnel of aviation squadrons, performing forms and types of aircraft preparation for flights and combat use. As a rule, there are: preliminary preparation, pre-flight preparation, preparation for re-flight, post-flight preparation. ITS AE also carries out periodic and control inspections, storage work and park days. The second category of ITS performs heavy forms of maintenance in the technical and operational part of the aircraft - routine maintenance that is carried out according to calendar dates or according to the aircraft's flight hours, as well as the replacement of aircraft engines and operational repairs of on-board equipment. TECH specialists have permission to perform all types of preparations and work on vehicles; AE specialists do not have permission to perform periodic maintenance and repair work on vehicles. Units involved in the maintenance and preparation of aviation weapons are also staffed with aviation specialists.

Maintenance of the Mi-8 helicopter tail gearbox

In military aviation, a group ITS staffing structure has been adopted, with narrow specialization. For example, specialists in electronic equipment in a long-range bomber regiment can be divided into groups for the operation of radio equipment, communications and radio navigation equipment, guidance equipment, and electronic warfare equipment. In TECh, as a rule, group specialists have an even narrower specialization.

All work without exception aircraft are carried out according to developed and approved route and technological maps, in accordance with the Regulations for the technical operation of this type of aircraft. All technical personnel have access to the list of maintenance points, in accordance with their position. Each performer of work is necessarily supervised by a senior technician of the group, a senior crew chief, a group leader or an engineer by specialty. The most complex work is carried out personally by team leaders and engineers. Appropriate entries are made in the documentation about all work performed and the signatures of the performer and the supervisor are affixed.

Each aircraft is assigned a technical crew headed by a senior aircraft technician. This official is actually responsible for the technical condition of the entrusted aircraft, personally performs a large amount of work and supervises all technical personnel working on the aircraft, maintaining operational documentation of this aircraft. The senior aircraft technician releases and welcomes his aircraft out of flight. This is probably the most responsible and troublesome position in military aviation. In the process of reform of the RF Armed Forces, better known as the “new look of the army,” the position of senior aircraft technician was renamed “aviation complex engineer,” but the essence and scope of the work did not change from the name change.

Work in AE and TECH differs in terms of volume. In nuclear power plants, the peak load on technical personnel occurs during flight operations. ITS AE can go to the airfield five hours before the weather reconnaissance aircraft takes off, and with an eight-hour flight shift, the technicians’ working day usually lasts 16-18 hours without a break, often more. In the absence of flights, the load on the AE ITS decreases sharply.

In TECH, as a rule, there is an eight-hour working day, but the personnel work in accordance with the schedule of routine maintenance, almost every day on aircraft. TECH specialists are also involved in assisting AE technical staff during flight operations, in eliminating complex failures on aircraft and in servicing special BATO automotive equipment.

It should be noted that the nature and volume of work, and especially labor costs, vary greatly by specialty. The most difficult, dirty, responsible work is for aircraft and engine specialists, and to a lesser extent for electricians. All other aviation specialists can be considered aviation intelligentsia.

Features of the work of a military aircraft technician

Unlike civilian aviation specialists, military IAS specialists have irregular working hours and, in addition to daily work with the entrusted aircraft, “serve the Motherland”, that is, they are in formation several times a day, take tests in physical education, general training, special, technical, and command training ; carry the load of garrison and guard services, internal and economic garrison work. In particular, the typical and most common outfit of a military aircraft technician is standing duty for a unit, that is, a squadron. Almost every two or three days, each “technician” of the airbase takes up a daily duty of the airfield for the protection and defense of the airfield, aviation facilities and support equipment, arms himself with a pistol and carries out round-the-clock security for the materiel assigned to the unit and the designated sector of the airfield.

Well, according to established tradition, on Saturdays the entire personnel of the air base is involved in park maintenance days, cleaning airfield parking lots, assigned territory, courtyards, streets and garbage dumps in a military town.

So, when choosing the profession of a military aircraft technician, a person must be prepared to spend 20 years of his life at the airfield, almost around the clock, without weekends and holidays, and his family will be the squadron.

Unfortunately, in the Air Forces of the USSR and the Russian Federation, the number of technical personnel has always been clearly insufficient, and this is despite the chronic actual understaffing of the IAS. Subsequently, several campaigns were carried out to reduce the Armed Forces; in aviation this mainly affected technical personnel. As a result of this mess, according to some data, aircraft maintenance in the Russian aviation today is about 5% of what is required, and aircraft fly solely due to the design multiple margin of reliability, “on my word of honor and on one wing.”

Traditions

Traditionally, aircraft and engine specialists are jokingly referred to as “elephants” or “oil tanks.” JSC and REO specialists are called “monkeys”. In the Air Force, all weapons specialists, regardless of specialization, are affectionately called “aggressors”, “gunsmiths”, “bomb heads”, “barrels”. Everyone knows that “the plane is attached to the gun with two bolts!”, and the “guns” are half-trained electricians. S&D specialists - “Social Democrats”, “Esdeshniks” or “butter-bellies”. REO specialists are “radio operators”. JSC specialists - “soldering irons”, “electricians”, “aoshniks”, “instrument specialists”.

TECH specialists are called “miners”, respectively TECH - “mine” or “depot”. In particularly advanced cases, they may be called “Collective Farm - Wasted Labor” or “One Hundred Years Without a Harvest”, due to the planned execution of work on obviously destroyed equipment , which cannot be restored - planes fly “on paper”.

Relations in the technical environment are very peculiar. Suffice it to say that “aviation rests on rivets and lifts.” In some regiments, the traditional Saturday drinking ends with the traditional Saturday massacre.

Air traffic controller