Flying the Mighty Antonov AN-225 Mriya
I took the plunge last night and took part in a group flight with MyAir using the Antonov AN--225 Mriya, or “Dream”.
The flight took us from Chrisinau, Moldova to Kirk Island, Croatia - with air traffic controllers leap-frogging en-route to provide ground, tower and departures at the origin airpoint, then sector, approach, and tower at the destination.
Given that I still don’t trust LNAV in the AN-225, I navigated by vector, using the GPS as a cross-reference for position. Along the way I also tuned VOR beacons and backed up position through bearing and distance measurement along the way. Jumping between the various stations around the cockpit en-route was pretty entertaining (if stressful at times).
The AN-225 performed really well. Climb out was routine - using auto-throttle and vertical hold mode to reach cruise altitude as per controller instruction. Converting between imperial and metric altitudes and airspeeds kept me remarkably busy during both departure and arrival - I ended up writing out a page filled with hand-written conversion tables.
Approach into Kirk Island was made interesting by some rather severe weather, allied with a fairly short runway. Thankfully the AN-225 is better than many think at operating from short runways. The landing was heavy, but well within limits.
I’m now wondering where next with this goliath of an aeroplane.