EpwaSpotters From passion to aviation

10th of April 2010 was one of the biggest tragedies of Polish history. In the crash plane died plane Lech Kaczyński - President of Republic of Poland, First Lady - Maria Kaczyńska, representatives of the highest state authorities, the Polish delegation and members of crew. Presidential Tupolev 154 crashed during approach to landing at the airport Smolensk. On board were 89 passengers and 7 crew members. Tupolev 154M had a total of 5,004 hours and made a landing in numbers of 1823 - said Alexei Gusev, director of aviation Awiakor factory in Samara.Russia's President appointed a special commission of inquiry which will examine causes of the disaster. Now, groups of researchers are working findings and recordings the black box. The weather in Smolensk was foggy and cloudy this morning. According ...

Yesterday morning from Okęcie airport took off a government Tupolev 154M reg 101. On board were 54 lifeguards where they will assist with other rescue groups in providing all necessary assistance in finding victims and extracting them from ruins. Additional they took 10 dogs specializing in finding people living in the rubble and 4 tons of specialized rescue equipment. Flight to Haiti lasted approximately 16 hours. During flight should be two technical stops (on Iceland and the United States) for tank aircraft.  TU154M's are not sufficient range to directly perform a route from Warsaw to Port-au-Prince, which is the capital of Haiti. ...

The Boeing Company and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence this week announced an agreement for the acquisition of a seventh C-17 Globemaster III for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Boeing is scheduled to deliver the aircraft in December 2010. "The RAF has an urgent need for additional airlift capability," said Robin Philip, Head of Commercial Air Support, UK Ministry of Defence. "We know firsthand the capabilities and reliability the C-17 brings to every mission, and that's why we're adding another one to our fleet." The current UK fleet of six C-17s has logged more than 50,000 flight hours to date. The newest C-17, like the others, will operate out of RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, England, and provide critical airlift capability. "The RAF's C-17s have serv ...

For the first time in Poland, the basic course of training pilots on multi-purpose F-16 began on 14 December 2009 in 31 Tactical Air base in Krzesiny.It would be first time for the experienced pilots of other aircraft types to begin theoretical and practical, during which they will practice under the watchful eyes of professionals (instructors) from Lockheed Martin flight simulator - practicing every option and every situation that may happen during the flight.This course is designed to train pilots for a modern version of the F-16 aircraft and pilots to acquire the basic skills of flight to attack ground targets and fight in the air.Acceded to the training of four pilots and two specialists training ground GSI (Ground School Instructor). Theoretical course will last till mid-February. Duri ...