Very impressive!
I would if the pilots and the loadmaster would pass the JAA ATPL exams? 
More likely they would have “something” to say, and Russian is a great language for that kind of thing.
Interesting to see the navigator running Jeppesen FliteDeck on a laptop. The program still comes with Jeppview 4, I think, but I haven’t seen anybody using it for years. I last used it in 2006 but stopped because it kept crashing.
Yes, that is a really impressive machine. Reading between the lines, I understand that it is very expensive to operate, so that it is only used when really nothing else will serve. That is sad, imagine there were a handful or even a few handfuls of them around, operating cost would be considerably lower.
On a side note, “the Russian way” might not be a description to everybody’s liking; “the USSR way” would be hard to argue though. Today, I feel sure some would like to claim this masterpiece of engineering for the glory of independent Ukraine. Delicate, delicate…
Where Peter observed the software on one PC, I couldn’t help noticing the “low-end market” headphones – surely these must be D_v_d C___k? Even more striking, the ventilators, likely with leather vanes, these might come straight from an Il-18 or so…
Talking about the ventilators, they seem to be truly multifunctional in that they can either cool down the pilots or the avionics..
When is the rest of the world going to follow the former soviet states by going metric?
Great pics – bring back fond memories. I had the pleasure of being on the flight deck of the 225 during her first civilian flight after restoration from Borispol (Kiev) to Gostomel. Amazing machine !
@Aart: changing to metric would rather be following 1930’s Germany – which was, admittedly, staunchly followed by the late USSR. In this respect, at least.
But in my modest observation things are rather moving the other way around: the Baltic states, for one example, changed from metric to Imperial as soon as they found time/budget.
My own plane, built in Hungary, has the altimeter in metres and the vario in m/sec – keeps the mind young and supple, the perpetual conversions!
@ Jan – you are right. The title should be changed to " the USSR and now Ukrainian way of flying …" Well, Antonov was Russian but Balabujew who designed the AN-225 was Ukrainian and also the OEM moved from Novosibirsk to Kiev, where Balabujew was chief designer till he died in 2007. So today the Ukrainians can be proud of having designed and operated the largest cargo aircraft.
I would if the pilots and the loadmaster would pass the JAA ATPL exams?
In all likeliness yes.
Pilots who fly this machine are top shots of the Antonov corps and that means there won’t be any crew member without at least an university engineering degree in aviation.
I meant it in the reverse sense
They probably know far more than the mostly irrelevant ATPL exam material.
The caption under the first photo says: “This is the only aircraft in the world”
I’m sure this is not true, as I own two planes myself, and I’ve flown in Peter’s and seen a couple of thousand other aircraft too! 
The little brother to this aircraft frequents a Canadian airport, which I occasion. I was doing business at the Canadian Warplane Heritage museum, and through the open hangar doors, we could hear something taxiing in. My host says “maybe it’s that giant Russian transport”. As he says this, I ask (as we’re at the end of a dead end taxiway) “where does he turn that around?”. As my host replies “right out front”, he says, you’d better run fast, and grab hold of your 150. I’d chocked my plane, but is was a calm day, so tying it for a two hour visit had not been on my mind. I managed to grab the prop just as he power pivoted right in front of me. I was jet blasted from behind, and it was all I could do to hold the 150 against the gale, but I did. He also filled the CWH hangars with debris, as their doors were open for the nice summer day – guests and warbirds alike were jetblasted. I think that airmanship was the last thing on this pilot’s mind.
