It was a Dream come true : meeting the An-225 Mriya

So I was plane-spotting again. This time, with one aircraft in mind: Antonov An-225. 

        I'm a new member of a  group called PPSG - Philippine Plane Spotters Group and I was a bit amazed that I found a herd of spotters who are so fascinated with planes, different kinds of aircraft, airports, and anything about aviation. Members are not just spotters but pilots, flight attendants, air traffic controllers, ground crews, aspiring students, even an airport general manager, and people like me who simply love anything that flies. Some spotters have been searching and patiently monitoring rare flights and aircraft in their respective areas. Some members especially the young ones are into flight simulators, some are building their own prototype airports, some are sharing aviation news that might be useful to the group and others are sharing their spotted planes elsewhere. 

        And when the group discussed the Mriya rumored to land first time ever on Philippine soil and dig this --- it was scheduled to land in Cebu,  I wasted no time. I had to capture her. 

        November 12,2013 was just an awesome day for me. Her ETA as earlier discussed was around 6:30 to 7:00 AM, I decided not to go to the office for 3 hours that morning. Asgard, the spot  Mark, Gerald (fellow spotter we met a few days ago spotting Emirates 4858, a B777 aircraft which also landed first time at RPVM), and I named, was my spot to wait. It was raining when I got there and I was lucky that the guys from the Fire Station, which was stationed near Asgard, facing the terminal, took me in for shelter. I waited along with the firemen who then got excited when I told them my purpose of being there. Worry washed over me when it started to rain again and the runway has gone into an incoming zero-visibility state. Then it cleared again; past aircrafts had landed and took-off, those were the longest hours in my life, but I waited. We waited until 9:02AM and she arrived. Boy, was my heart jumped for joy? 

Antonov An-225 Mriya

        She came in roaring. I could still remember how she sounded. With six turbofan engines running, she will never come in silence. With the runway soaked with water, it even made her entrance as grand as a queen being introduced first time in public.  Skidding on the runway with waters splashing against her huge wheels, it was like a scene from a movie. She was in all white with yellow and blue lines from nose to tail. Her whale-like tail was like a wagging tail after seeing a master after being away for too long. I could still feel the nostalgia, the excitement, and the hard beating of my heart. I hurriedly ran forward to take a closer look. Raindrops were making my camera wet, it even partially blocked my vision, my jacket was beginning to absorb rainwater but I stood there --- in total awe. 

I was just using kit lens, though I was closer to her than anyone else in the world, it was the time I told myself, damn, I wish my lens were better. 

        An-225 Mriya, according to Google, was designed by the Soviet Union's Antonov Design Bureau in 1980s with NATO reporting name, Cossack.  Mriya means "Dream" in Ukrainian and armed with six turbofan engines. She's the biggest and heaviest airplane in the world with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tons. It's civil registration is currently UR-82060  and it's main role is a "strategic airlift cargo aircraft" which means it is used to transport massive and heavy material, weaponry or personnel over long distances. She was actually developed from Antonov An-124. Numbers are saying that the An-225 airlifted a single item payload of a maximum of 189,980 to 247,000 kilograms. Wow, that was heavy.

I've never seen an aircraft with six turbofan engines before, I never thought I could see something like that .. until Mriya broke my expectations.

        So if the biggest aircraft in the world landed first time in the Philippines, particularly the first time in Cebu, what was she up to then? 

        An-225 came flew in from Zagreb Airport, Croatia carrying about a 150-ton transformer for a power plant in Batangas. It was so far the heaviest cargo ever transported by an aircraft in Philippine history. For more info, just click this link for an article, World's largest aircraft arrives in Cebu by the Philippine Flight Network (by the way, my photo was in it too). 

        It may sound so funny but I've always wanted to become a pilot, or anything working within an aircraft. I knew it won't ever come true yet the urge, the want, the dream of being one is still here. Time passed, I then wanted to become a teacher, then a nun, then a nurse and ended up a graduate in engineering. But seeing the biggest aircraft in the world in my lifetime, that Dream came true. The Antonov An-225 Mriya, meaning Dream, made it all come true. 

   

Everyone is holding thier breath when Mriya arrived 

 

You can see my photo grabbed by an aviation page on Facebook :)