THE SIGHT & THE SOUND 3/14 : Balkan Bulgarian IL-18 LZ-BEU documentary from Tallinn to Shannon
This documentary features a flight onboard Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Ilyushin 18 from Tallinn to St. Johns in Newfoundland, Canada, almost two decades ago. The second leg takes us to Shannon for refuelling. This was one of the most awsome flight rotations I ever experienced in my life. I spent the next four days flying 24 hours onboard the Ilyushin, crossing the Atlantic in both directions. I learned to know one of the dearest friends, I had the priviledge to know, Racho Tossunov, who made all of this possible. Racho used to be Chief Pilot of the IL-18 department of Balkan. He was trying to keep the IL-18 alive for Balkan as long as possible. I tried to recruit some interest in the aviation enthusiast scene, published articles and more. However back 17 years ago, nobody was really seriously interested in chartering Eastern bloc aircraft for fun flights. A block hour on the IL-18 would have cost a mere US$, which is a joke, compared to prices today. LZ-BEU went into history the same year and was sto