Boeing 777 commander: not a single plane has crashed due to turbulence
“Absolutely awesome!” we said admiringly after this interview. His hero was the pilot of one of the largest aircraft in the world. Stanislav Vinokurov, a former Far Easterner, commander of a Boeing 777, found time between flights to land with us on a lawn in the center of Blagoveshchensk and talk about his love for the sky, passengers and our city. Do switched-on phones interfere with the flight, is it worth applauding the pilots, and why is turbulence scary - about this and more in the material Amur.life.
The hero of our material comes from Yakutia, where he began his career as a pilot. Now Stanislav Vinokurov works for Nord Wind airline, which operates flights from Blagoveshchensk to Moscow. From time to time, residents of the Amur region are lucky - they are delivered to the capital of the country and back by the largest and long-haul twin-engine aircraft in the world - the Boeing 777. And often at the helm of this colossus is the hero of our material, Stanislav - perhaps one of the most sociable pilots in the country. He actively communicates with passengers during the flight, with subscribers on his Instagram and with journalists!
– Stas, you agree to an interview so easily, you actively talk about the life of a pilot on your Instagram. Doesn't the airline scold you for this?
– I am a fairly open person and I believe that this is my mission. Our profession used to be very closed, and now I’m just telling you who a civil aviation pilot is, how he lives, what he breathes, and what thoughts overcome him. All this is devoid of any negativity; I talk about everything in a positive way. And next year I plan to publish a book on this topic.
I have been flying as a captain for a year now on a Boeing 777 - the plane of my dreams. In 2006, when I was retraining in Miami to fly a Boeing 767, I saw this plane for the first time and then I thought: if the opportunity ever presents itself, fate will show mercy, I will fly this plane. The dream came true one hundred percent.
– How do you feel at the controls of such an aircraft?
– When I found out that I would be retraining on the Boeing 777, I felt a state of some kind of euphoria, I didn’t believe it at first. I thought: “Is this really happening to me?” I immediately called my family and said that my dream had begun to come true. First, I was shown a training cabin, which is located in the training center in Skolkovo. You know, the cabin of the 777 is so cozy, you get the feeling that it is literally hugging you.
From the outside it seems that the plane is huge, it really is huge, but inside the cabin it is very comfortable.
– There is an opinion that now airplane pilots are just operators; the computer does everything for them. This is true?
– Now, yes, indeed, the designers of the Boieng and Airbus holdings have begun to pay more attention to flight automation, as this increases the level of safety - with increasing speeds, with increasing passenger traffic, time is now very expensive. If earlier we piloted manually, now an automatic pilot does it faster and safer, let’s say, to tell the truth. But Boieng found a middle ground: he left the yoke for the pilots, because if you hold the yoke (this is my opinion, which I am not imposing), there is a natural horizon - a connection with the aircraft. In general, every Boeing and Airbus pilot praises his plane, this is normal (smiles).
“We flew to Blagoveshchensk for tomatoes”
– Is it difficult to land a Boeing 777 in Blagoveshchensk?
– The runway in Blagoveshchensk has dimensions of 2,800 x 45. That is, 2,800 meters, which is quite enough for a Boeing 777. But it has limitations for the long 300 model. There are no restrictions for the 200th model. Blagoveshchensk airport cannot be called particularly complex. Unless the border is nearby, and you have to take this into account so as not to violate it. Otherwise, an excellent airport with very well thought out and logical takeoff and landing patterns.
I flew to Blagoveshchensk for the first time on an An-24, it was back in 1999. Then they showed me Heihe, which is now unrecognizable. This was my first flight outside of my native Yakutia, so, of course, I remembered it well. There was an Airbus store near your airport, and it still exists. I remember with such warmth how my commander and flight mechanic and I went to this store to buy cucumbers and tomatoes for home. They were also sold in Yakutsk, but it was important to bring home vegetables from Blagoveshchensk. This made some sense. Little did I know that 19 years later I would be landing a Boeing 777 on the runway of this airport. Energy in Blagoveshchensk is very good. Here I definitely do morning and evening jogging.
– How did you become a pilot?
– I decided to become a pilot as a child. Once I flew with my parents on an An-2 - a “corn farmer”. I was very seasick at the time, but when I got out, I firmly decided that I would become a pilot. He studied at the Ulyanovsk Higher Aviation School. I started on the An-24, An-26 in Yakutsk, then on the Tu-154, Boeing 757,767, and now I have grown to the Boeing 777. Moved to Moscow. Now, and then too, there is a big competition for admission to aviation universities. Just as there were strict health requirements in the 60s, when man flew into space, they remain the same. The commission that accepts applicants is very strict. Active pilots undergo a medical examination every six months.
– What is the work schedule for pilots?
– Crew working time is divided depending on how many employees are on the flight. In our company, the maximum time if you fly alone with a co-pilot is 9 hours. If there are four of us flying, then the maximum working time is 16 hours. These are flights across the ocean - Jamaica, Cuba, Dominican Republic. Flight time is 12-13 hours. Such flights are carried out only by four people. At the pre-flight briefing, we usually agree on who is flying across the ocean and who is flying back. We are practically the only company in Russia operating the Boeing 777 that has cabins for pilots to rest. On the upper deck behind the cabin there are two berths and two chairs, where we rest.
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✈️Through the eyes of a pilot. MMUN✈️UUEE.✈️ ——————————— ✈️It’s always a pleasure to be in the cockpit of a Boeing 777!
