The Brave Kazakhs Pilots from DOSAAF Club

      Do you know that the distance from Almaty, Kazakhstan to San Diego is 20,000 kilometers?  I was suprised when I heard that Kazakhs pilots from the DOSAAF aviation club traveled this distance in 1992.  I think it was possible to reach this distance thanks to brave pilots who are members of this aviation club.  This club has prepared many excellent pilots and Kazakh astronauts.  First, the pilots began the flight from Almaty on August 28, 19992 and landed in San Diego in October 22, 1992.  I cannot imagine how they traveled so long distance in such a light airplane as an Antonov An-2.  I have seen this airplane many times and once flew in this airplane but for a very shot distance.  It was the first time in history that pilots flew this distance in such a light airplane.  The crew of an Antonov An-2 consisted of a captain, a co-pilot, and a flight engineer.  In addition, it was a very long flight through Siberia, Kamchatka, the Bering Sea, and Alaska to the Western coast of Canada and America and to the Mexican border. Second, the crew met a lot of difficulties during the flight: the autumn fogs, the storm of Primorskij, a Japanese typhon, and cold weather in Alaska.  Furthemore, the crew had 47 landings.  But an even more unusual event in the history of the Almaty aviation club happened later, in October-November 2000.  The crew of a Mi-2 helicopter with the same captain flew from Almaty to Oakland, California.   It was an international crew since the navigator of this flight was a 69-year-old  pilot and a citizen of America, Thierry Nicolas Tis.  In this way the pilots demonstrated that all is possible if a person is brave.  It would be great to have a flight from America to Kazakhstan in the Northeast directon.  I hope that some day I will fly to my home country in this direction  but on a big airplane.