In summer time we flew very much. - 87 hours per month. 87 hours per month we could fly 3 times per year only. The airmen, of course, did not go to the vacations. The season started from May 15 to September 15. The most heavy flight was "contraceptive" Arkhangelsk - Sverdlovsk - Novosibirsk and back. The flight started at 21.00-the sun was shining. As we flew the 60th parallel, night became. And an hour later we landed in Sverdlovsk, where there was total darkness and night.
Sverdlovsk was, from my point of view, the most of disorder airport in the Soviet Union. I do not remember that we flew away on schedule. But when we were flying out of "Koltsovo" the morning came and the sun was shining directly into the eyes. That's where biorhythms and began taking its toll and very sleepy. The wind blew always passing from the West to the East and we flew to Novosibirsk a little less than two hours.
Upload, download, and flew back in a strong headwind. The sun could shine again directly in the eyes and no any changes in the government could not influence on it ...
In general, the flying time of this flight after returning was under 8.5 hours , 1 hour preflight , 3:00 parked at the airports and one hour post-flight . At work from 20:00 to 10:00 the next morning and at 11 o'clock next morning you can go to bed , unless of course , you have not gone in addition to alternative. But in a flight list was written that working hours extended before 13 hours with the consent of the crew , and post-flight analysis had moved to another day. But since 1986 , our management realizing that we could not work such way, had made replacement for us in Sverdlovsk , where we slept . For the biological night we began to be paid at the end of 80- th.
We did not have practically the days off. On weekends, we were sent to "Sochi on three nights." Generally, in the summer we spent up 5 days per month on the sea , because we were flying in Sochi, Baku and Sukhumi and rested there. At the end of 80's the change in Tashkent was added. There was also reservoir. But wanted to sleep constantly since the end of June.
When summer came my wife left me with little Olya first in Ulyanovsk and then to my parents in Leningrad. In the winter, to give me a night's sleep she held Olga in her arms and spent with her all the night. Naturally, she very tired. My friend Igor M., with whom we flew on the An-24, once invited us to his place, and it should have been our first meeting with the children and wives. Luda so tired that we decided that Luda better to sleep , and I went with Olga and the fear that she would miss mom .
To Nina, Igor's wife, came a friend. She was stewardess too. They found with my Olya common language, and we spent time with Igor useful and easy.
I begged to give me 10 days holiday at the end of May to take Luda and Olya to the sea in the year 88 .We arrived in Sochi and realized that better than our hotel for flying away crews were nothing. And we stopped there. We went to the beach on the same place where the crew rested opposite the hotel "Horizon". We were lying sunbathing. Olya suddenly jumped up and let's screamed at the beach "Daddy, Daddy, look your friend stewardess!"