About us
The International Academy of Helicopter sport was established on the basis of the Federation of Helicopter sport of Russia. Our main tasks are: to perfect the skills of piloting by training the most important elements of the flight, to improve sports skills, to organize sport events.
In 2013 several pilots-members of the Russian national team bought the airfield Konakovo in Tver region (former airfield of agricultural aviation). We decided to adapt the airfield for training helicopter sport pilots from Russia and from other countries. Because we really want to have strong rivals from different countries. Because it’s just more interesting to compete when there’re many leaders who can win, when they speak different languages and can share their skills. And we are happy to share ours.
So, several years ago, the Austrian-German crew Stefan Seer/Christian Korb spent a week at Konakovo airfield, training with our famous pilot and coach Aleh Puojukas. After that training session the crew won the bronze medals at the European Championships in Belgium and it was their best result.
Today many foreign crews have already shown interest in the possibility of training and improving their sports skills in Russia, in the International Academy of Helicopter sport. We have already trained Polish, German, Belgian, Belarusian athletes. We hope that the number of pilots of the Academy will grow every year.
In 2015-2018 four Russian Open Championships and two stages of the World Cup in helicopter sport were held at Konakovo airfield. A lot of spectators come here not only from the nearest towns Konakovo and Dubna, but also from Moscow. We have several stands and a large parking place for them. In the days of competitions it is crowded and fun in the audience area, it smells deliciously with pastries and shish kebabs. There is a playground for kids. Scale aeromodellers come with demonstration performances, kites and scale model aircrafts are flying in the sky. In the pauses between the competitions our freestyle masters show helicopter aerobatics to the music, flags of participating countries are flown by helicopters over spectators. Athletes and judges from Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Germany, Canada, Norway, Poland, Ukraine, Switzerland have already visited Konakovo. The president of CIG FAI, Jacques Berlo, visited Konakovo and took part in the competitions himself. In his welcoming speech, he called our airfield the best place in the world, a real paradise for helicopter sport and flying athletes and appreciated highly the level of organization of the competitions.
At the airfield 10 training courses are constantly in use. No other airfield in no country has so much space for training. In our warm hangar we can store helicopters and hold briefings and theoretical classes. The airfield is situated in 100 km to the North from Moscow. The airspace around it is entirely in class “G”, so we can train Navigation with many different variants of real search zone. At the airfield we always have any kind of aviation fuel.
The first Director of IAHS was Master of Sport of USSR Sergey Druy from Belorussia, pilot of Vitebsk aeroclub. He laid the groundwork of modern methods of training and helped to train dozens of Masters of Sport and future winners of international competitions.
The Merited Masters of Sport Vasily Golovkin and Georgy Arbuzov have also greatly contributed to Academy's development. In 2006, together with Mikhail Kazachkov, they proposed a new competition format in two parallel courses. Later this format was developed by Irina Grushina, the President of Federation of Helicopter sport of Russia. On the basis of her proposals play-off Heliraces at two parallel courses were born. That’s now part of program of World Air games and main component of Helicopter World Cup.
The Academy is open all year round. The team of our trainers is brilliant: Mikhail Balandin, Nikolay Burov, Nikolay Rodionov, Vasily Golovrin, Mikhail Bibishev, Yury Petrenik. Our trainers are the most experienced and professional in helicopter sport. All of them are former athletes and champions, so they are ready to share their vast experience.
For the past three years we have been carrying out at Konakovo competitions «Air Rangers». Several times a year we invite all pilots who want to try their hand at sport to come to our airfield and to take part in “Air Rangers”. In September 2018 several pilots from Belarus came to participate and to take revenge for the WHC 2018. We’ve had a lot of fun. The competition has simplified rules and program; we help newcomers to feel the competitive spirit. The inspirer and the chief judge of «Air Rangers» is Irina Grushina, the president of Federation of Helicopter sport of Russia. Helicopter search and rescue team «Angel» and rescuers from «Lisa-alert» also take part in this competition. This allows pilots to acquire skills in participating in search and rescue operations. All Academy employees have completed a training course on rescue in natural and man-made disasters. The Academy pilots help the emergency services of Tver region to look out and to locate forest fires.
Since 2016, the school «Young Friends of Aviation» has been working at the airfield, so teenagers from Konakovo, mostly boys 12-15 years old, are trained at week-ends according to a special program. Famous pilots and instructors work with them: the classes are led by the author of the program and the main program enthusiast Gennady Efremov, who has many years of teaching experience at the Kachinsky Higher Military aviation School, and the most experienced An-12 pilot Vladimir Guskov, a former deputy commander of a regiment based in Klin. Now both of them are flight supervisors at the Konakovo airfield. Classes for children are free. The guys study classical aerodynamics, navigation, meteorology. We’ve organized for them trips to the Moninsky Aviation Museum, to Zvezdny town, to the Cosmonaut Training Center, to the Moscow Mil Helicopter enterprise. Boys and girls listen with interest in classroom, but they especially like the practical exercises - to draw up the route, to calculate navigation course taking into account the wind. The main thing is to get children interested in the sky, helicopters, airplanes, and for some of them aviation can become the profession. In 2018, two graduates of our group successfully gained admission to aviation schools.
Now we are finishing the construction of the Club House with a small hotel and a restaurant. It will be the next step in the development of the Academy's infrastructure. Here the pilots will be able to relax and to eat between training sessions. The flight control tower, a traditional pilot billiard room and the locker room for pilots have already been put into operation.
We are extending the runway up to 800 m, so any kind of light airplanes will be able to land here. We are going to reconstruct the West apron, to build one more hangar to store aircrafts and to finish up the recreation area near the pond. Someday we'll have an apple orchard and in May we’ll fly over blooming apple trees
Not only helicopter championships can be held at Konakovo airfield. We can host also competition in aircraft modeling and drone or quadcopters races. We are going to cooperate with other air sport federations.
Our trainers work constantly to improve training methods and programs, come up with new events and exercises. The doors of the Academy are open to everyone, who wants to try himself in helicopter sport or to raise the level of sports and flying skills.
YOU ARE WELCOME!
