On September 29, 2018 the legendary Tupolev Tu-154M RA-85684 made its last flight on the route Mirny - Novosibirsk. In Novosibirsk the aircraft will be installed as a monument in the museum. In 2010 this plane landed at the abandoned airport Izhma in Komi republic after a complete loss of electrical systems. The pilot who managed to land the plane is Andrey Lamanov. In the photo you can see him performing a low-pass at Tolmachevo airport before the legendary plane will make its last ever landing.

So what happened here?

keesje wrote:

On September 29, 2018 the legendary Tupolev Tu-154M RA-85684 made its last flight on the route Mirny - Novosibirsk. In Novosibirsk the aircraft will be installed as a monument in the museum. In 2010 this plane landed at the abandoned airport Izhma in Komi republic after a complete loss of electrical systems. The pilot who managed to land the plane is Andrey Lamanov. In the photo you can see him performing a low-pass at Tolmachevo airport before the legendary plane will make its last ever landing.

So what happened here?

You mean, this story:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alrosa_Mi ... Flight_514
?
It was a celebrated story in Russian aviation circles. The crew were accepted as heroes, the plane was fixed and brought back in service, and flew with a nickname "Izhma" ever since.

Now "Izhma" will escape scrapping and will remain a monument.

Wow. A true monument.
Talk about a strong, resilient airframe!
Kudos for the project.

oldannyboy wrote:

Talk about a strong, resilient airframe!

I'd rather direct a lot of praise towards the airfield manager. He spent time and effort to do the work no resources were allocated for -- keeping the abandoned, officially closed and and uncharted airfield free of vegetation for years. All due to a hunch that someday, someone in a desperate situation might need it.
Talk about perseverance and foresight.

Location:
https://goo.gl/maps/is4evDiYdUP2

Recovery take off:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Si3UI0mIyQM

and people call russian planes dangerous, they're built like rocks, you'll die before the plane dies.

Any idea why both pilots have their hands on their respective yokes? Is that standard?

Phosphorus wrote:

oldannyboy wrote:

Talk about a strong, resilient airframe!

I'd rather direct a lot of praise towards the airfield manager. He spent time and effort to do the work no resources were allocated for -- keeping the abandoned, officially closed and and uncharted airfield free of vegetation for years. All due to a hunch that someday, someone in a desperate situation might need it.
Talk about perseverance and foresight.

Surely there is a phrase for Russian "street smarts" that kept certain Soviet people alive despite everything going wrong. Planning for the worst possible circumstances is just good sense in Russia.

They landed the plane with just engine power didnt they? So to turn left they powered up the right engine or something like that

Was this the last Tu-154 in scheduled airline service?

V/F

sturmovik wrote:

Any idea why both pilots have their hands on their respective yokes? Is that standard?

Flight engineer position controls the throttles on takeoff I believe.

Remember the TU-154 is mostly cables with not much in the way of booster pumps, so the controls are stiff.

sturmovik wrote:

Any idea why both pilots have their hands on their respective yokes? Is that standard?

I've seen few landing videos from the cockpit of the Tu-154 and it doesn't look to be standard procedure. Perhaps pilots were "posing" for this picture this way?

Maybe they are flying real row & want the option to pull up instantly.

This story reminds me of the “Gimli Glider”, the AC 767 which landed successfully on an abandoned Canadian airfield after both engines went out because of fuel starvation. Capt. Robert Pearson flew the plane in for a landing as a glider and had only the RAT for power. If I recall correctly, there were people all over the runway doing some amateur car racing (and had to scatter) when they noticed the plane coming in for a dead stick, noiseless landing.

I believe the plane is now retired at the PIMA Air Museum.

SuperGee wrote:

This story reminds me of the “Gimli Glider”, the AC 767 which landed successfully on an abandoned Canadian airfield after both engines went out because of fuel starvation. Capt. Robert Pearson flew the plane in for a landing as a glider and had only the RAT for power. If I recall correctly, there were people all over the runway doing some amateur car racing (and had to scatter) when they noticed the plane coming in for a dead stick, noiseless landing.

I believe the plane is now retired at the PIMA Air Museum.

According to Wiki, nope:

After almost 25 years of service, C-GAUN flew its last revenue flight on January 1, 2008. On January 24, 2008, the Gimli Glider took its final voyage, AC7067, from Montreal Trudeau to Tucson International Airport before flying to its retirement in the Mojave Desert in California.
[...]
In April 2013, the Gimli Glider was offered for sale at auction, by a company called Collectable Cars, with an estimated price of CA$2.75–3 million. However, bidding only reached CA$425,000 and the lot was unsold.
According to a website dedicated to saving the aircraft, the Gimli Glider was scrapped in early 2014. Parts of the metal fuselage were made into luggage tags and are offered for sale by a California company, Moto Art.

VirginFlyer wrote:

Was this the last Tu-154 in scheduled airline service?

V/F

There is one remaining Tu154 staying in service, also with Alrosa. Incidentally I taxied past the "Izhma" yesterday in Novosibirsk, where engineers were busy working on it.

SuperGee wrote:

This story reminds me of the “Gimli Glider”, the AC 767 which landed successfully on an abandoned Canadian airfield after both engines went out because of fuel starvation. Capt. Robert Pearson flew the plane in for a landing as a glider and had only the RAT for power. If I recall correctly, there were people all over the runway doing some amateur car racing (and had to scatter) when they noticed the plane coming in for a dead stick, noiseless landing.

I believe the plane is now retired at the PIMA Air Museum.

The Gimli Glider was scrapped by KMW Leasing in 2014.

As for this Tupolev, it should be painted back into the livery it was when it had its incident in 2010 for preservation.

SuperGee wrote:

This story reminds me of the “Gimli Glider”, the AC 767 which landed successfully on an abandoned Canadian airfield after both engines went out because of fuel starvation.
I believe the plane is now retired at the PIMA Air Museum.

No it is not at Pima. The airframe was not preserved. Retired in 2008 and scrapped, I believe at Victorville.

WayexTDI wrote:

According to Wiki, nope:

According to a website dedicated to saving the aircraft, the Gimli Glider was scrapped in early 2014. Parts of the metal fuselage were made into luggage tags and are offered for sale by a California company, Moto Art.

Yep, I have one on my desk!

Samrnpage wrote:

They landed the plane with just engine power didnt they? So to turn left they powered up the right engine or something like that

Nope, they had control. Just no instruments and only 30 minutes of fuel in the tail tank which is gravity fed since the pumps that feed fuel to it from the wings were also dead.

tu204 wrote:

Samrnpage wrote:

They landed the plane with just engine power didnt they? So to turn left they powered up the right engine or something like that

Nope, they had control. Just no instruments and only 30 minutes of fuel in the tail tank which is gravity fed since the pumps that feed fuel to it from the wings were also dead.

There is no tail tank on this type if aircraft. Collector tank which is a centre wing tank which located between spar 2 and 3 holds 3300kg of fuel. With complete power loss there is no gravity engine feed because all fuel system located below engines position on aircraft. Everage fuel consumption for 3 engines at cruse mode is approx 4500kg. I think it was a glider landing

torontofly wrote:

. I think it was a glider landing

It wasn't. The engines were turning, and apparently (cant's remember the exact source, but I definitely have read about it) the pilots had made a pass over the former runway to take a look, before committing to land. They had engine power, but not much else, after all electrics failed.
The no-flaps landing was at high speed, and it's understood the at least some tires were blown, before they overran into the mud and bushes.

I am not systems engineer for Tu-154, but it's understood that with electric power gone, the crew knew exactly that most of they fuel was out of reach, and knew the remaining accessible fuel quantity, and worked their landing options backwards from that.
And no, they didn't actually actively look for the runway, they were happy, once they broke below the clouds, to see any populated spot -- as a source of potential rescue. The uncharted airfield came as jackpot prize.

Flighty wrote:

Surely there is a phrase for Russian "street smarts" that kept certain Soviet people alive despite everything going wrong. Planning for the worst possible circumstances is just good sense in Russia.

Yep, that's why in 2013 the airfield manager was fired and the airfield cut from electricity and declared closed. Took a lot of public outcry to reverse these decisions, but apparently in 2018, this is it, and the whole thing will be shut down.

Phosphorus wrote:

torontofly wrote:

. I think it was a glider landing

It wasn't. The engines were turning, and apparently (cant's remember the exact source, but I definitely have read about it) the pilots had made a pass over the former runway to take a look, before committing to land. They had engine power, but not much else, after all electrics failed.
The no-flaps landing was at high speed, and it's understood the at least some tires were blown, before they overran into the mud and bushes.

According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alrosa_Mi ... Flight_514), you're correct, although no source is cited:

Two attempts to land were aborted. On the third attempt, a successful emergency landing was made at Izhma at 07:55 local time.