Russian Air Force Open Day, Damgarten-Ribnitz, 26 July 1992

[Hans Rolink]

Another Russian Air Force Open Day was the one held at Damgarten on the Baltic coast. The hardship I had to endure, like camping on the beach the night before
The day was 26 July 1992. On we go!

Based MiG.29 from 733 Fighter Regiment


MiG.29UB two seater, from 733 as well


Like the other regiments, 733 IAP had a MiG23UB on strength


Visitors included this Mirow based MiG.27D from 19 Guards Aviation Regiment Fighter Bombers


Su.17M-4 from Gross Dolln's 20 Guards Aviation Regiment Fighter Bombers


Uniquely, a Su.24MR from Welzow's 11 Reconnaissance Regiment as well!


Then, the helicopters. First a Mi.8MT from Oranienburg's 239 Independent Helicopter regiment


From the 172 Independent Combat Helicopter Regiment at Parchim came this Hind:


An Mi.6A from 239 Indepent Helicopter Regiment


Hans.

[Ben H]

That Mi6 sure is an odd looking beast!

[st24]

Fabulous - the last ones got me hooked

[Mad Dan]

What a dreadful pun...

I was there - so where is the An-26 and the Su-25? And not including the An-22 is a real Cock-up if you ask me...

[st24]

What a dreadful pun...

And not including the An-22 is a real *-up if you ask me...

Perhaps the photo is at his Antei's house

[Hans Rolink]

What a dreadful pun...

I was there - so where is the An-26 and the Su-25? And not including the An-22 is a real *-up if you ask me...

Hi Mad Dan,
after so many years I can't tell why I don't even have that Su.25 in my collection The only thing I can think of is that I was not able to convince the Russkies to uncover the jet, not even for a few Deutschmarks more... The An.22 I think was so big that it couldn't be viewed decently without half of the local population in the image. At least that is what usually was the case with An.22's in the static at Russian Open Days. The An.26 was the same as from the Finow static, so I left it out for that reason.

Ah, well, one should be glad with what could be done, I suppose!

[Mad Dan]

Hello Hans,

Was good to see some images from those small Russian events, as it brought back some great memories of careering around what used to be East Germany in search of Soviet hardware...with the shows really being just a bit of icing on the cake...

Anyway, with perseverance, the An-22 'Cock' was shootable, although the sun emphatically refused to grace us with its presence at Damgarten in 1992. But, just to prove you could get it, here's CCCP-09329, which appears to be suffering from a bad case of algae growth on the upper fuselage surfaces...and in case you are wondering about the asterisk, this is meant to be the NATO code name for the An-22, which as everybody knows is the opposite of 'Hen', but for some reason one is not allowed to use the word 'Cock' here...



And, for the sake of completeness, here's Su-25 'Red 09' from Demmin-Tutow. I do have the An-26 somewhere, but as you so rightly point out, it was also at Finow...



Finally, some determined (and unauthorised) exploration of the base at Damgarten revealed this beauty, albeit sadly long after it had seen better days. Il-28 'Blue 22' on the dump, in company with bits of at least three more 'Beagles' and a substantially complete MiG-23M 'Flogger'.



The best of times, that was..........

As for you, ST24, you really ought to be ashamed of yourself. That has to be the worst pun I've seen in a long time - but I do wish I'd thought of it...

[Hans Rolink]

Nice!!
I guess I either left too early or arrived too late and not got the An.22 for that reason.
But now I know why I didn't bother with the Su.25. The same one as from Finow! What a nice trip down memory lane this is.
I did guess right with the male hen in your earlier post then!

Cheers,

Hans.