Kacha is the cradle of Russian aviation. Crimea

The village of Kacha is located 23 km from Sevastopol on the coast between Sevastopol and Nikolaevka.
Kacha (Crimean-Tat. - “dam”) is a river, 69 km long, originating at the foot of the Roman-Kosh mountain.
In 1910, the first military pilot school in Russia was opened in Sevastopol.
The airfield was located on the Kulikovo Field not far from the Panorama “Defense of Sevastopol”.
Then the aviation school was transferred to the area of ​​the river. Kacha.
Many famous pilots studied at the Kachin Aviation School.
Currently, the Kachin Village Council administratively includes settlements: Vishnevoe, Osipenko, Polyushko, Orlovka, the villages of Solnechny and Andreevka.
Kacha is a small village located on the Black Sea coast.
The coastline is steep. You can go down to the sea along stone stairs or along nature trails.
Water in Kutch from artesian wells is inferior in quality only to mountain water.
The beaches are excellent, unlimited in length and for all tastes: sand,
and pebbles, and for snorkeling, for children and adults.
The width of the Kachin beach is approximately 20-30 meters, and it is many kilometers long both to the left and to the right. In some places, streams of cold drinking water burst out right from their cliffs.
There are no problems with housing in Kutch. Boarding houses, mini-hotels, seaside cottages, private sector, housing is available for rent in almost every house.

On the territory of the village of Kacha there is a Cardinal supermarket, branches of Privatbank and Oschadbank with ATMs, three markets, shops, pharmacies, bars, cafes, a travel agency, slot machines, and billiard rooms.
Three kilometers from Kachi is the Star Coast, where a youth festival is held.
Kacha consists of two parts. One part is private houses, and the other is a Russian military garrison.
Kacha is the birthplace of Russian naval aviation. Nowadays it is a Russian military town. Entrance to the territory is free. It is easy to get to Sevastopol, Simferopol, Evpatoria and Saki. Near Bakhchisarai and cave cities Mountain Crimea, Grand Canyon, “bath of youth.”
You can easily get from Kachi to Sevastopol and back in twenty minutes by minibuses that run every 15 minutes

In 1910, Russia's first military pilot school was opened in Sevastopol. In 1912, it was transferred to the area of ​​the Kacha River, where an urban-type settlement grew up on the site of the farm. On November 8 (21), in the presence of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, the foundation stone and consecration of the permanent buildings of the aviation officer school were carried out. In one of the premises the house church of St. Archangel Michael. Hero studied at the Kachin Aviation School three times Soviet Union A. Pokryshkin, famous polar pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union G. Baidukov, Hero of the Soviet Union P. Osipenko, who committed the non-stop flight Sevastopol - Ochakov and Sevastopol - Arkhangelsk, son of I. Stalin - Vasily. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a fighter aviation regiment was formed from pilot instructors from the aviation school. The aviation school itself was relocated beyond the Volga.

November 7-9, 1910 by rail under the command of Lieutenant Colonel S.I. Odintsov (captain of the second rank Vogel did not want to go to Crimea) the entire appointed staff flight school and the planes arrived in Sevastopol. It is necessary to clarify that the state school was formed in Petrograd-Gatchina, and the flights began in Sevastopol. The school management did not have aviation training, which affected further work. A dirt site was chosen for the airfield 3 km north of Sevastopol on the territory of the camp of the 13th Infantry Division, on the so-called Kulikovo field, which was small in size, located in a narrow ravine crossed by the Balaklava highway, closed by houses and telegraph wires on high poles on one side , on the other, it rested on a large ridge of coastal hills. There were buildings approaching it from three sides, and a deep ravine from the fourth, which hindered the air approaches.
Later it was confirmed that the location of the airfield was chosen extremely poorly. This was the first airfield of the Black Sea Fleet, from which the only land airplane, “Antoinette,” took off, controlled by a certified pilot, the head of the fleet’s aeronautical fleet, Lieutenant S. F. Dorozhinsky. At the airfield, soldiers and sailors hastily built temporary buildings: hangars made of boards for 6 aircraft and frame-canvas, two masts for determining wind direction and signaling with pilots, a collapsible school meeting building, and one aircraft box was adapted into an officer's canteen.

At a meeting of the Air Fleet Department on November 18, 1910, Lieutenant Colonel Makutin reported on the readiness of the airfield base for flights. The grand opening of the school took place on November 24, 1910, after which regular flights began and the development of the airfield continued. Only temporary premises were built, made of wood, hoping to return to Gatchina. To provide personnel, maintenance, repair and storage of aircraft, separate wooden workshop buildings were built: carpentry, assembly, forging, engine, a car repair hangar, a storeroom, a concrete cellar for storing gasoline, etc. - a total of 19 structures, wooden fencing airfield. The flight officers were housed in the outbuilding of a local landowner, and the soldiers and sailors were housed in an adapted summer illusion cinema. Before the First World War, the training programs for Russian pilots expanded and became more complex, the number of training units and aircraft with improved combat and takeoff and landing qualities increased, requiring a better airfield. Weather- climatic conditions Crimea and an increase in the number of aircraft (more than 40) provided training for pilots under expanded programs. A special commission headed by Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and the participation of the Russian ace, chief pilot of the school M. Efimov, selected a flat plot of land suitable for an airfield, taking into account the development of flight work in the future, 20 versts north of Sevastopol, six versts from the small Crimean river Kacha , near the Tatar village of Mamasai, on the Black Sea coast. The Grand Duke approved and approved this choice. At the same time, the Chairman of the Third State Duma, industrialist A.P. Guchkov, visited the Sevastopol school. Having flown on the school's airplane, although with forced landing, gave a dinner in honor of military pilots of the Russian Air Fleet. He left for St. Petersburg, where he convinced his Duma colleagues and the Duma allocated 1,050,000 rubles for the construction of the first flight school.
With money allocated by the Duma. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich bought the above-mentioned plot of land with an area of ​​657 dessiatinas 550 sazhens with sides of an almost regular square of 1200 - 1500 sazhens, on which the Alexander Mikhailovsky camp was formed (named in honor of the chief of Russian aviation, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich). A rich neighbor, a landowner, donated twenty dessiatines to the school, after which the airfield was owned total area 677 dessiatines 550 fathoms. The new head of the school, Lieutenant Colonel Muruzi, without waiting for the construction of permanent buildings at the new airfield to begin, ordered to set up a camp, put up camp tents for people, frame-collapsible canvas hangars for aircraft, and from March 1, 1912, begin theoretical and flight training, according to the agreement, with a special course — 27 students for naval aviation.
To ensure flight safety, by his order, the airfield is marked: a white circle and straight start (take-off and landing) lines are drawn in the center, a wooden fence is built around the airfield, passage and passage are allowed only through a barrier. During the flights, medical support was provided by a paramedic in a ambulance gig, fire-fighting support was provided by firefighters with a hand pump and fire extinguishers mounted on an adapted carriage, and later, on special vehicles purchased abroad.
The flight participants were transported by two foreign-made trucks with a capacity of 11 people each. To restore the health of the students after intensive flights at the start of the airfield, school logistics workers equipped short-term rest areas between flights, provided with tables, wooden benches - sofas on cast beautiful metal legs, water for drinking, etc. The senior doctor of the school, military medic Soloviev, paid constant attention to the rest and preservation of the health of the students and all personnel participating in intense training flights immediately at the start. At the Kulikovo Pole airfield, temporary wooden buildings and frame-collapsible canvas hangars were dismantled, transported and installed in the camp without stopping flights. These works were supervised and performed well by the efficient, enterprising junior officer of the sapper battalion, Viktor Sokolov, a future graduate of the school in 1912.
In 1911, pilot instructors of the Sevastopol flight and Gatchina aeronautical schools, as part of a combined aviation squadron, participated in maneuvers of the Petrograd, Warsaw and Kyiv military districts, where they practiced in the field: the selection and preparation of field airfields (sites) and the placement of aircraft in those installed in the field in collapsible hangars and without them, provision of ammunition and repair material, repair and preparation for flights outside capital workshops, transportation of disassembled aircraft on special trailers - carts, cars and horses, and on railway platforms, methods of their safe fastening, placement and organization life and food of the pilots and all personnel of the combined detachment.
Participation in the maneuvers was assessed by the command as brilliant. On the day of the second anniversary of the school - November 21, 1912, the planned foundations of permanent capital buildings, approved by Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, were solemnly consecrated. By the fall of 1913, the company of Chamberlain Gordinsky built the building from brick and stone-shell blocks. There is no need to talk about quality; undamaged by the war, they still serve aviators today. In the collection “Russian Marine and air fleet", published in 1913, shows the buildings constructed. In the airfield area: 10 hangars for aircraft, two gasoline warehouses, a workshop, a biological station, signal masts. In the barracks-living area, on the seashore, there were built: a garage, a workshop, a fire train, a fuel shed, a bathhouse-laundry, two kitchens - dining rooms, three two-story barracks for soldiers, a room for variable personnel (accounts), a glacier, an office, an area, a power plant with two units, a pumping station, a water tower, a rest room for officers - a billiard room. There was a staircase leading down to the sea, on a steep seashore — beautiful gazebo. An ornamental fruit garden has been planted in this area, with alleys covered with hard shells and flower beds where flowers were grown. Inside the town there are roads and sidewalks with concrete-asphalt and tiled surfaces and electric lighting. Later, a major two-story main building with a tower and a medical unit was built.
To train pilots in accordance with the requirements of the World War in 1915. the school is expanding and being reorganized into three departments based on permanent unpaved airfields: - first - mixed fighters and bombers at the main airfield on the river. Kache; - the second - at the Belbek airfield (eight kilometers south of Kachi, halfway to Sevastopol) in the valley of the Crimean river Belbek.
The airfield, after the completion of preparatory work by the airfield team, had smooth, good soil, good air access, vegetation with a stable root system corresponded to the safety of flights on light Moran airplanes; - the third - five kilometers south of Simferopol on the left side at railway Simferopol-Sevastopol. The airfield was a long and wide strip, without any permanent structures on the left eastern side - obstacles or landmarks.
The preparation of unpaved runways was carried out by the school's airfield team, and the safety of flights on the Farman heavy airplane was ensured. At both airfields, personnel lived in camp tents. Temporary wooden buildings and prefabricated frame-canvas hangars were built for services and aircraft. The logistics department of the school at these airfields contained special teams for providing living conditions and airfield technical support for flights. At this time, the school had about 120 foreign aircraft of 16 different types and models, including new ones: Spud, Bleriot, Moran-Parasal, Sopwith, Farman-XX and others.
During the war, permanent buildings were built at the school at the Kachin airfield: a garage, a medical unit, and a house for apartments. From the day of development of the airfield near the Kacha River until the Great October Revolution in the residential and airfield zones, 19 temporary buildings and 48 permanent brick-and-stone objects were transported from the Kulikovo Field airfield and rebuilt.
In 1916 the school comprehensively ensured the graduation of 228 pilots who actively defended their homeland - Russia - from the enemy, using machine guns mounted on aircraft in air combat, engaged in bombing of enemy targets and began to use a new type of weapon against cavalry and infantry - steel arrows (metal rods, pointed on one side, on the other - dissected crosswise, 10 cm long, weighing 16 g). Such arrows were used by the French and British.
Our pilots used arrows (lead flying bullets and bullets for pneumatics) designed by engineer V. A. Slesarev, drop-shaped with a tin stabilizer, four times larger than a normal bullet (weight 30 g), capable of piercing a block of wood 150 mm thick, and hitting the rider's head, it could hit his horse right through, since it had better aerodynamic properties and greater penetrating ability. Bullet arrows were packed in cardboard and wooden boxes of 500-1000 pieces, loaded two onto the plane, and at the right moment the pilot poured them out in the air onto the column.
The further development of the school was hindered by the First World War. The condition of the school was negatively affected by its relocation by order of General Denikin to Ust-Labinsk, Kuban. The remaining capital and real estate base of the school, unattended, was again subjected to three months of plunder by Red partisans and marauders. In Ust-Labinsk, the school is organized into a rifle company and participates in repelling Red Army raids in Kuban. When Crimea was again occupied by the Volunteer Army troops, the school returned to Kacha.
General Wrangel, who took command of the White Army, and the leadership of White Aviation were unable to organize the training of pilots for their units. In the pre-revolutionary period, the school mastered flights, material and airfield technical support for flight work, repair and restoration of 10 main types (28 modifications) of foreign aircraft: Farman, Bleriot, Nieuport, Moran, Sapvich, Sommer, Antoinette, Spud, Avro -504. etc. A large number of wood-fabric types and modifications of foreign aircraft required supply authorities to promptly purchase and always have a supply of repair materials, and repair authorities to use them purposefully.
More than 15 varieties and names were used to repair airplanes in the workshops of the school of special wood: pine, ash, spruce, poplar, birch, beech, oak, walnut, American spruce, octopus tulip tree, etc. - without knots and all kinds of delaminations. Birch veneer and 3-5 ply plywood are used for sheathing. The propeller blades were made from boards no more than 30 mm thick without warping, knots, or delamination from walnut, maple, and American spruce. Low carbon steel was used; sheets, pipes, rods, regular and piano wire, heat-treated springs. Sheets, rods, tubes of non-ferrous metals were used: aluminum, copper, brass, bronze, duralumin for the manufacture of tanks and pipelines of the gasoline-oil system, and for coating ferrous metals - tin, zinc, nickel. Fabrics were widely used: cotton, linen, more percale, unbleached linen, canvas No. 1 - 8, silk, which when wet up to 30% lost strength due to which it was necessary to make coatings in 4 - 5 layers, increasing the weight of the aircraft; rubberized fabrics are very heavy, forming unevenness during flight (VOISIN aircraft) as well as parchment paper, coated with alcohol copal varnish (“BLERIO-VITI, IX”).
For gluing fabrics, glue was used: carpentry glue, casein glue, Kostovich glue-cement, which did not dissolve in hot and cold water and other liquids. To protect against dampness, the fabric surfaces glued to the airplane were covered with: starch (paste), varnishes - copal, cellon (a mixture of celluloid in acetone and amyl acetate salt), enamel. The following materials were used to repair airplane seats: felt, braid, silk tow, and leather. The restoration of protective visors was carried out using: mirror glass, celluloid, glass triplex and many other materials. The school's workshops have been replenished with new progressive equipment: lathe drilling machines, electric scissors, hand-held electric drills with a voltage of 220 V, spray guns | for painting wood, metal and fabrics, electric arc and | resistance (butt and spot), acetylene-oxygen welding, certain devices and templates. On November 15, 1920, the Bolsheviks took Crimea. Part of the school’s personnel left with Wrangel, the rest began to revive the school, on the basis of which a training school for the Southern Front was created. In May 1921, the Sevastopol flight school was reorganized into a department of flight school No. 1, which is based in the city of Zaraysk, Ryazan region.
In March 1922, Sevastopol (department of flight school No. 1) and Gatchina (school No. 1) merged into one school. Flight school No. 1 moved to Kacha in Crimea within three months using 15 railway trains and transports. The Sevastopol school had 57 different types of foreign aircraft and 74 records.
Later, in March 1932, the Kiev District Pilot School joined the Kachin Flight School with all its personnel and material resources. Small, but an addition to the expansion of Kachi.
The restoration of war-damaged buildings and systems began. The work was carried out especially intensively and extensively in 1923 - 1936, when 26 capital projects were built. In the barracks-residential area: 14 houses with stove heating for 28 apartments, three houses with central heating for 144 apartments, two dormitories (barracks) for ordinary personnel with 200 beds, two dormitories for cadets with 250 beds, the Red Army House with 825 beds , garage for 8 boxes (24 cars). In the airfield area: airfield control building with 36 rooms, hangars No. 8 and 9. Much attention was paid to landscaping and landscaping, maintaining buildings, growing flowers, and maintaining cleanliness and order all year round.
Continuing the training of pilots in Soviet times on new foreign aircraft Moran-Parasol, Avro - 504, De-Hovelant, Martinside - the school in 1926 began to receive wood-percale, wood-metal-percale, all-metal (light alloys) domestic ones aircraft: R-1sp, U-2, DN-9, and since 1941 R-5, I-1, I-2, I-4, I-5, I-15 twin, I-15 bis, I -16.I-153, M-2, M-5, U-1 Avro, MIG-1, UT-2. Also mastered were aircraft designed and built by the Kachin people: Dybovsky - the streamlined Dolphin monoplane, Pisarevsky - the single-engine PIS-1, Gribovsky - the G-9 glider. Preparation for airfield flights consisted of leveling the soil of the airfield, mowing and harvesting grass, eliminating mole and gopher holes, filling aircraft tanks with fuel and aviation oil from a bucket through a funnel with a suede filter, charging with compressed air from an airfield cylinder through a hose, laying a belt with cartridges ( shells) into the aircraft ammunition store. There were no mechanized means of refueling and charging aircraft yet.
In 1924, the school received domestic trucks: AMO-F-15, YA-3, YAG-4, later: AMO-3, GAZ-AA, ZIS-5, from 1933 - all-terrain vehicles: GAZ-AAA, ZIS-6. Since 1936, domestic wheeled tractors have been supplied: KhTZ, STZ, ChTZ; after 1937, crawler tractors: SKhTZ-NATI, S-65 with a 75 hp engine. Since 1930, the school has been receiving small water-oil warmers designed by engineer Goncharov - “goncharkas”, catalytic furnaces - motor heaters, water and oil fillers (VMZ) and petrol fillers (BZ) mounted on cars with a pump for pumping oil, water, fuel with a filter for separating mechanical impurities and water, an autostarter for starting aircraft engines, oxygen charging stations (AKZS-15), compressor stations (AKS-2), manual oxygen pumps, etc. The new staff provided for the school to have: command staff - 391 people, junior command staff - 357 people , fighters - 410 and 267 different aircraft.
New units are being introduced into the school's logistics department: searchlight operators, ZPU-4 anti-aircraft machine gun units, and airfield operations units.
Since January 1936, the report cards for the school staff determined to have cars: cars - 9, trucks - 45, special - 56, motorcycles - 4, tractors - 13, horses - 50, carts, paired and single - 20. The pace of pilot training, Especially during the approach of the Second World War, there was a demand for expansion of the school's airfield network. The school command, not far from the main airfield on Kutch (No. 1), selects unpaved sites on which flight support was carried out by teams specially allocated from the school's logistics department with material and airfield technical means, arriving in advance to prepare the airfield, deploy launch equipment, and square equipment. Such airfield sites were: No. 2 - in the Mamashayskaya Valley, 12 km from the main airfield, a site measuring 1500x900 m, where U-2, UT-2 flew, and performed parachute jumps. No. 3 - eastern from the main airfield measuring 800X800m, where in the summer they flew on U-2, UT-2 aircraft and performed parachute jumps. No. 4 - Alma-Tomak on the bank of the river with the same name, 22 km north of Kachi, size 1500x900m, calm soil, stable vegetation, but dust formed in hot and windy weather.
We flew U-2, I-16. No. 5 - Nikolaevka site, 23 km north of Kachi, where they flew U-2, I-16. The soil is dense, level, the vegetation cover is stable, the size of the site is 1000x1000m. All camp temporary airfield sites had good air access, roads that were passable in dry weather and difficult to pass in rain. At the camp airfields, signal towers and wooden shelter classrooms were equipped for conducting classes during breaks between shifts and flights. With the receipt of new domestic aircraft, the volume of work on preparing airfields increased. Based on the takeoff and landing characteristics of our aircraft, it was necessary to lengthen the runway and the adjacent territory so that if the aircraft rolled off the runway, the aircraft would not suffer damage on uneven ground. Areas for training in aircraft taxiing on the ground were expanded. Also, previously performed work remained: leveling and compacting the resulting unevenness from the driving of cars and carts after rain, removing foreign objects, mowing and removing grass, destroying mole and gopher holes, etc.
In the spring of 1941, test flights of the latest Soviet fighter MIG-1, carried out at the main airfield, under the leadership of aircraft designer A.I. Mikoyan. The personnel showed high level of training in the operation of the new equipment being tested and the implementation of airfield technical and material support for flights. In 1940, the results of the school’s work were summed up twice.
On August 17, on the occasion of the 8th anniversary of Aviation Day, there were 39 people on the presidium of the meeting, leaders, guests, excellent students in combat and political training, and among them the chef of the flight cadet canteen - Isaev Matvey Yakovlevich. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the school, the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko, by order No. 406 of November 11, 1940. rewarded the head of the logistics department, Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Petrovich Gorinov, with a gold watch, the quartermaster of the 2nd rank, Stepan Fedorovich Prikhodko, with a valuable gift, the head cook of the school, Matvey Yakovlevich Isaev, the head laundress, Nadezhda Mikhailovna Efanova, and the watchman of the aircraft workshops, Fedor Fedorovich Khalturin, with a monthly salary.
Over the 30 years of activity of the school in Crimea, it mastered during the training of pilots and comprehensive material and aerodrome technical support for aircraft and repair of 11 types (31 modifications) of foreign aircraft, 12 types (13 models) of domestic aircraft and two aircraft designed by Kachinites, manufactured in the school’s aircraft workshops , a total of 25 types (44 models) and one glider.
These aircraft provided training for 609 pilots (376 officers and 233 soldiers) between 1911 and 1916. Between 1921 and 1940, mainly 5,694 fighter pilots were trained on domestic aircraft with improved tactical flight and take-off and landing qualities, and a total of 6,303 pilots were trained in Crimea. During the period of two revolutions, foreign intervention and the White Army (1917-1920), essentially, the pilot training school did not operate.
Pilot training was carried out only at unpaved airfields, conditionally dividing them: four permanent (Kulikovo Field, Kachinsky No. 1, Simferopol, Belbek) and four temporary (camp) ones: No. 2 in the Mamashayskaya Valley, No. 3 - eastern site, No. 4 - Alma -Tomak, No. 5 - Nikolaevka. There were no airfields with an artificial runway, and Kulikovo Field, No. 3 and No. 5 were completely unpromising for expanding the future airfield network of the school. Preparation of runways, training areas for taxiing aircraft, parking areas, preparation of aircraft for flights and their repair, provision of pre-flight preparation and flights, household services, taking into account the specific location, were carried out by sufficiently trained specialists of the authorities during flights on foreign and domestic piston aircraft supply and repair of school equipment.
The number of specialists and specialties increased significantly after the transition to providing flights on domestic aircraft, which were more complex in design and operation, requiring complex and reliable ground-based servicing special vehicles. Calculations and practical activities have shown that for the competent use of special vehicles that ensure the preparation and flight of domestic aircraft, it was required that drivers knew and were able to use at least 16 types of special vehicles (AKZS, BZ, VMZ, autostarter, etc.), tractor drivers - more than three types of tractors .
To carry out repairs and routine maintenance, specialists are required: auto mechanic, tractor mechanic, auto and tractor electrician, turner, battery operator, vulcanizer operator, electric gas welder, etc., a total of 28 specialties. In the airfield service: specialists in trailed airfield equipment (rollers, smooth and spiked), smoothers, draggers, cones, plows, toothed harrows, haymowers and horse-drawn and tractor rakes, a framer, a carpenter, an electric and gas welder, etc. - a total of 25 specialists . Services providing direct flights: fuel and lubricants laboratory technician, firefighter, compressor operator, oxygen charging station mechanic, battery charging station mechanic, weather observer, searchlight operator, radio operator of the launch radio station, paramedic (medical nurse), in total at least 9 specialties.

The number of specialties in household services is also increasing; when a residential building is put into operation, service personnel and relevant specialists are immediately required. They constantly need to be prepared, trained and trained. On the Crimean soil, the Kachin aviation school was the leading one in the country in organizing flight training, everyday life, material and airfield technical support for flights, and military management. However, the Nazi invasion on June 22, 1941 negatively affected and slowed down the activities of the school on many issues, which was transferred to the harsh material and climatic conditions at the Krasnokutsk air hub in Saratov region.

It owes its appearance to the founding of the first aviation school in Tsarist Russia. The entire history of the village is connected with the history of the development of domestic aviation.

In 1910, on the initiative of Grand Duke Alexander Romanov, the first in Russian Empire military pilot school. On November 24, 1910, it was opened at the Kulikovo Pole airfield near the city of Sevastopol. At that time, the school consisted of 8 aircraft: 2 Farman-IV biplanes, 3 Blériot-XI monoplanes, 1 Sommer biplane and 2 Antoinette monoplanes. Engine power ranged from 40 to 50 horsepower, and speed barely reached 70 km/hour.

Soon the airfield on the Kulikovo Field became cramped, and new planes appeared. A suitable field for a flight school was found 12 versts from Sevastopol near the Kacha River valley near the village of Mamasai (Orlovka). On November 21, 1912, the aviation school was transferred from Kulikovo Field to the mouth of the Kacha River, and the village of Kacha began to grow near the school on the site of the Aleksandro-Mikhailovsky farm. This date is considered the day the village was founded.

The only school at that time had aircraft workshops, brick hangars for 100 aircraft, and a large field airfield. The aviation school trained 150–200 pilots per year.

Facts testify to success in training domestic pilots. For example, graduates of the Kachni Aviation School developed the world's first instructions on the combat use of aviation. They were the first to use airplanes for photographic reconnaissance, naval flights, and performed new aerobatic maneuvers - “corkscrew” and “loop.”

The flying school was located in the village until 1441. Many famous pilots emerged from its walls, including A. I. Pokryshkin, P. D. Osipenko, G. F. Baidukov, B. F. Safonov and many others. In June 1941, the Kachin school was evacuated to Krasny Kut, Saratov region. In 1945, it was renamed into a school with its location in the city of Stalingrad (Volgograd).

During the Great Patriotic War, the village was located in a zone of active hostilities. Black Sea aviators crushed the invaders in the skies of Crimea and Kuban, Romania and Czechoslovakia. Their names are among the Chelyuskin rescuers, defenders of Spain and Khalkhin Gol, conquerors of world records for flight range and altitude. From the first days of the war, the 8th Fighter Aviation Regiment was based on Kach, which since April 1942 has been called the 6th Guards. In 1944, this regiment was called the Guards Fighter Twice Red Banner Sevastopol Aviation Regiment.

After the Great Patriotic War, from 1947 to 1960, the 4th Fighter Aviation Division was based on Kutch. In May 1960, the 872nd Aviation Regiment was relocated to Kacha from the Khersones airfield. And since the fall of 1960, a separate transport regiment has been based here on Kach. These two main aviation units, as well as support units, are based at the Kacha airfield at the present time.

155 residents of Kachi fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, of which 115 were awarded orders and medals, 41 died a heroic death.

The instructors at the school were pilots M. Efimov, M. Komarov, E. Rudnev, M. Zelensky, G. Piotrovsky, well-known during the development of domestic aviation, the corkscrew conqueror K. Arneulov and others.

Kacha was visited in 1914 by the master of the “dead loop” Pyotr Nikolaevich Nesterov.

Among the graduates of the Kachin pilot school are air marshals and more than 170 generals. Heroes of the Soviet Union: three times - Alexander Pokryshkin, twice - 12 people and 284 - Heroes of the Soviet Union.

A residential town grew up next to the airfield. Headquarters, service dos (officers' houses), barracks and housing in the private sector appeared.

The names of the shady streets of the village contain a heroic chronicle of the birth and development of USSR aviation: the embankment named after Valeria Chkalov, the streets of Pyotr Nesterov, Nikolai Gastello, Marina Raskova. Valentina Grizodubova, Polina Osipenko, Ivan Kozhedub, Alexander Pokryshkin.

The names of aviators who dedicated themselves to the sky and gave their lives in the fight against enemies are immortalized in monuments and on the Alley of Heroes.

In Ukraine, in Crimea, not far from Sevastopol, in the village of Kacha (emphasis on the first A), Be-12 amphibious aircraft, AN-26 military transport aircraft, KA-27PS search and rescue helicopters and KA-27PL anti-submarine helicopters are in service. Despite the fact that many aircraft are almost 40 years old, they are ready to carry out combat missions in the Black Sea every day.

Thanks to my reader valkad , I was able to sit at the helm of these amazing machines, climb around the interior, look at the toggle switches and instruments, and visit the room of military glory. They also allowed me to take pictures of everything...

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First of all, we visited the Room of Military Glory - a small museum in the Officers' House, telling about the history of the creation of the base:

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It all started in Tsarist Russia. Pay attention to the uniform of the pilots of the first graduating class. Everyone has their own, since the flight uniform had not yet been invented and the first pilots were recruited from different branches of the military:

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In front of the House of Officers (DOF) there is a park with busts of the heroes of our country:

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We began our inspection of flight equipment with the Be-12 amphibious aircraft built in 1971:

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It is designed to detect submarines and carry out rescue operations on the sea. Previously, he carried nuclear charges for operational-tactical purposes.

The plane is controlled by 4 people: 2 pilots, a navigator and a radio operator. The navigator sits at the very nose of the plane. He has the most spacious place:

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To detect submarines, the navigator has a radar:

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There is an anchor fastened to the wall next to the navigator's chair. On an airplane it looks like a foreign body:

And this is a “look” at the navigator’s seat from the nose of the plane. The pilot's pedals are visible above the door. They seem to be sitting on the second floor:

It’s difficult to climb here, and I didn’t succeed the first time with two cameras in my hands:

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All seats are equipped with a parachute and catapult. The ceiling easily slides to the side, and you can lean out:

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Walking on an airplane in flight is almost impossible. It’s difficult to move along it and on the ground without constantly touching sharp corners:

23.

The feeling is as if you are not in an airplane, but in a submarine:

24.

The radio operator's position is at the rear of the aircraft:

25.

The Be-12 can not only find submarines, but also save people. For the “rescued” there is a hammock in one of the compartments:

26.

The fact that the Be-12 is an amphibian left its mark on the takeoff and landing characteristics. Usually they were carried out from a concrete runway, because the planes were based on the shore. Landing on water was carried out at least once a month. These flights were associated with a certain amount of danger. Pilots constantly working from land could, out of habit, lower the landing gear before landing on the water. If one were to imagine such a case, the results would be disastrous. The chassis would vomit upon impact with the water, with all the ensuing consequences. I don’t know if there was such a case in the Navy, but there was a lot of talk about this before the flights on the water. After prolonged landings on water (during runway repairs, for example), there was a danger of landing on concrete with the landing gear retracted. This is what happened in the 70s in this squadron. After touching down, the plane hit the first step and then stopped, tilting to the side. You can imagine what feelings the navigator experienced. The plane was then restored at the technical unit and continued to fly.

Next to the Be-12 are AN-26 military transport aircraft. They are used to transport cargo and troops:

27.

Naval aerial bombs OMAB-25 D and N (day and night, respectively) are suspended from the aircraft's pylons. There is paint inside them. If people are found, aircraft, ships in distress, the plane drops them into the water, and a green spot forms on the surface during the day, and at night a torch is used to guide aircraft and rescue ships:

28.

There is a ramp at the rear of the aircraft; even a UAZ can drive along it when loading into the cargo compartment:

29.

Navigation place:

34.

Kacha is not only airplanes, but also helicopters. True, I will tell you about them in the next post. Stay Tuned!

History of Crimean airfields

The first airfields in Crimea appeared before the First World War. And then these structures, mainly for military purposes, began to multiply like mushrooms. This was facilitated by favorable weather Crimea and its geographical position. To the Great Patriotic War There were already several dozen of them; Crimea was even called an “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” After the war, the development of aviation required long concrete runways. This forced the number of airfields to be reduced, but their size to be increased. Passenger air transportation has become massive. Among the passengers were leaders of the USSR, which had a beneficial effect on the development of the airfield. Moreover, a spare one was built in Crimea runway for the Buran reusable spacecraft. With the transition to the jurisdiction of Ukraine, the Crimean air space was largely deserted, and accordingly a number of “berths” were abandoned.

What is left now of its former splendor?

1. Belbek Airport.
2. Kacha airfield.
3. Yuzhny airfield on Chersonesus.
4. Nitka airfield.
5. Evpatoria airfield.
6. Donuzlav airfield.
7. Simferopol Airport.
8. Gvardeyskoye airfield.
9. Oktyabrskoye airfield.
10. Vesyoloye airfield.
11. Dzhankoy airfield.
12. Karagoz airfield.
13. Airfield “Severny” - Kirovskoye.
14. Bagerovo airfield.
15. Kerch Airport.
16. Aerodrome "Zavodskoye"
17. Heliports outside Primorsky.

There was also a large military airfield near Crimea in Genichesk. Now its runway has been dismantled into concrete slabs. In particular, the road from Genichesk to Strelkovoy on the territory geographically related to Crimea is made from them.

Note that the Russian Black Sea Fleet owns only two airfields, in Kach and Gvardeyskoye. A passenger transportation The main one is Simferopol and sometimes Belbek.

Once upon a time there was a small airfield even on Ai-Petri in the “balls” area, from the 50s to the mid-70s. But now there’s definitely nothing flying there.

By the way, in Soviet times in Crimea there were unpaved civilian airfields for local transportation and agricultural aviation in Nizhnegorsk, Kerch, Lenino, Zolotoy Pole, Kirov, Sovetsky, Razdolny, Mezhvodny and even in Sudak. They were loudly called “airports”. Most of them flew on the AN-2 with passengers to Simferopol at the Zavodskoye airfield. A ticket for AN-2 (capacity 12 passengers) from Nizhnegorsk to Simferopol cost 3 rubles in the 80s. And to the deserted beach on the Arabat Spit - 2 rubles. The same amount as 5 liters of AI-93 gasoline, lunch in a cheap canteen and less than a quarter of vodka... They say there was even an airfield on the Tuzla Spit, from where passenger flights operated to Kerch. For a short time in the 60s there was a “helicopter taxi” from Simferopol to Yalta on helipad. This site is clearly visible from the Yalta bypass and is still intact.

The name of the railway station is Elevatornaya; the airfield is 1st category, the runway and taxiway were overhauled in the late 70s, after which it became possible to accept aircraft of any type at this airfield without restrictions on the weight of the aircraft, up to the Buran.943 MRAP was part of the 2nd MRAD: the 3rd fraternal regiment of the division was based at the Gvardeyskoe ace - there was also the division's administration, a.s. Vesyoloye, a.s. Oktyabrskoe. 943 MRAP was the first in the USSR Navy Aviation to retrain and begin to operate the TU-22 M2.3. The last military pilot in the Soviet Union who was awarded the title “Honored Military Pilot of the USSR” was the commander of this regiment. The regiment was disbanded in 1996.

Gvardeyskoye airfield - Sarabuz

Sarabuz is a small railroad station- a fork 18 km from Simferopol. One branch of the road leads directly to the north, to Dzhankoy and further to Perekop, and the second - to Saki and Yevpatoria, the largest medical center in Crimea. Almost at the very fork, on a large hill, there were two villages - Spat and Shunuk. One was inhabited by German Mennonites who moved here under Catherine, and the other was inhabited mainly by Russians. On the outskirts, on the rocky slopes, Tatar houses cling. Very close by is a large airfield, where the roar of the engines of the then newest I-15, I-16 fighters and high-speed twin-engine SB bombers did not cease either day or night. They rushed over the houses with a deafening roar, as if they were trying to kill the nationalist passions seething in them. And they were serious......

By the end of 05/07/1942, Soviet aerial reconnaissance discovered up to one hundred enemy aircraft at the Sarabuz airfield. 103 Shap (15 UAG) was ordered to launch a bombing and assault strike on it. The task ahead was difficult: from your Bagerovo airfield you had to fly to the maximum radius of action of the “silts,” which did not allow any deviation from the course; most of the route passed over territory occupied by the enemy; half of the route was over the sea, and this made piloting and orientation very difficult. To catch everyone at the airport, you will have to take off in the dark.

Regiment commander P.I. Mironenko decided to lead this flight. Before dawn on May 8, 10 heavily loaded Il-2s took off. The deputy commander was A.P. Bukhanov, the second five was led by S. Popov. The commander went to the utmost throughout the entire route. low altitude. Approaching the target, Mironenko “slide” gained altitude. At the start, the pilots saw about 80 bombers standing wing to wing with their engines running, ready to take off. But not one managed to get up.

Lieutenant G.D. Ugolnikov did not return from the mission; he was shot down right above the airfield. But his comrades paid back in full for his death: the next day, partisan intelligence reported that 38 bombers and 41 German pilots had been destroyed.

Yuzhny airfield

The Yuzhny airfield is located on Cape Khersones. A military and apparently secret facility, there is practically no information about it

Belbek airfield

international Airport Belbek serves the city of Sevastopol and other cities of Crimea. Created on the basis of the military airfield of the same name. The airport was named after the Belbek River, which flows in the southwest of Crimea. Located on the seashore, on the northern side of Sevastopol.

The airfield was founded in June 1941, and after the start of the war it housed a military fighter aviation regiment. Initially unpaved, after the war it received a concrete runway, but remained exclusively a military fighter airfield. In the second half of the 1980s, after M. S. Gorbachev came to power, the runway was significantly enlarged and improved, since he used the airfield when flying to the presidential dacha in Foros. This is what subsequently allowed the airfield to be used for civilian purposes.

In December 2002, the airport received a license for international air transportation.

From 2002 to 2007, about 4 thousand flights were carried out, about 50 thousand passengers were transported. In 2007, civilian flights aircraft at the airfield were temporarily suspended due to the refusal of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to extend the agreement on the joint use of the airfield.

In the spring of 2010, the Sevastopol city administration announced the resumption of airport operations. On May 30, 2010, the grand opening of Belbek took place.

Military use The airfield continues to this day and is home to a fighter regiment. In the 1990s. Su-15TM aircraft have been replaced by Su-27, and currently MIG-29s are mainly used; it is also possible to rent a private plane.

Belbek Airport has a runway measuring 3007×48 m, class B, designed to receive aircraft of all types. The maximum take-off weight of an aircraft is unlimited. The classification number of the coating is 34/R/A/X/T. The magnetic landing course is 065/245. Lighting equipment - "Luch-2MU".

The airport is located 2.5 kilometers from the transport interchange "Simferopol - Sevastopol / Yalta - Belbek Airport", near the village of Fruktovoye, in the territorial community of the Nakhimovsky district. The distance to the southern part of Sevastopol is 25 kilometers, to Zakharov Square ( main square North side) - 9 kilometers, to Simferopol - 50 kilometers, to Yalta - 95 kilometers.