In July 2016 4Aviation was given the opportunity to join a tour of journalists through the Ukraine with a group of 15 people. The original plan was to visit the country during the exercise Sea Breeze. Since obtaining permission to visit the bases is a difficult process that depends on a huge number of factors, the actual base visits differed from the original plan. We were allowed to visit the transport bases of the air force, an army helicopter base and Nikolaev (aka Mykolaiv). Unfortunately, the Su-25s from Nikolaev had been repositioned due to runway rework but the navy-element was still in place.
The tour started on Saturday 23 July 2016 with a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Kiev-Borispol airport. The major part of het 4Aviation group was on board, while several other participants flew to Kiev from Germany, Switzerland and Italy. The first night was spent near Kiev-Borispol airport. Since the flying schedule for the coming week was not final yet we needed to stay as flexible as possible until the very last moment. While in Kiev the schedule for next couple of days was finalised which meant we would be visiting The State Aviation Museum on Sunday.
