Nihon_Ni
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 2, 2010
- Messages
- 1,314
When I was in second grade Santa brought me a blue Timex wrist watch. I've had a fetish for timepieces ever since. It's hard to admit, but I wore a Swatch when I was in college. Don't judge, that was my artsy phase. And it was the '80s! I've worn a variety of watches since then, until I finally bought a nice chronograph about 10 years ago, and aside from my last tour in Iraq, I've worn it daily since then.
Shortly after we moved back from Japan in 2011 I joined the local Commemorative Air Force unit, where I made friends with Andrey. Andrey and I are the same age, and he immigrated from Russia a few years before I met him. At the time, his girlfriend, Oxana, still lived in Moscow and would visit him every few months. (Oxana immigrated last summer and they were married shortly thereafter.)
A few years ago for my birthday, Andrey and Oxana gave me a replica wall clock of an АЧС-1 Soviet military aircraft clock. Oxana hand carried it from Moscow on a trip to visit Andrey. It's been hanging in my workshop ever since. The АЧС-1 was the standard timepiece in every Soviet airplane and helo since the 50s.
If you've browsed my gallery, you know I'm building an airplane. Even though I haven't posted a recent picture in a long time, I'm still working on it, and it's getting closer to flying everyday. We named the airplane The Time Machine before we drove the first rivet and the name has stuck. When a fellow pilot asked me how a propeller-driven airplane could be considered a time machine, I asked him is he ever tried driving to Ohio on a holiday weekend. Point taken!
Last summer I attended the annual Experimental Aviation Association convention in Oshkosh, WI (a usual summer routine), and while I was there I picked out an avionics package for my plane. The manufacturer gave me full-size templates of the products, and I brought them home to begin planning my instrument panel.
Since we've named the airplane The Time Machine, I decided it needed a cool clock to go in it. The АЧС-1 wall clock prompted an idea to find a genuine artifact and mount it in the airplane. I made a full-scale paper template, and test fit it in the panel. Although the clock is bigger and heavier than modern day alternatives, I realized I had room for it on my panel and I loved the idea of adding a piece of history to a brand-new airplane.
Andrey's Dad used to work at the MiG factory, and he has one of these clocks at home. Andrey used to take his clock along when he went on driving trips with his Dad. I am now teaching Andrey to fly in his own airplane.
Inspired by Andrey's clock, I started searching eBay for a clock of my own, but Andrey scared me off that idea because he said most of them came from abandoned aircraft near Chernobyl, Ukraine and were probably radioactive. Little did I know, although there was some truth to that warning, it was mostly a ploy to allow Oxana time to go to Moscow and bring a clock back for an early birthday present.
This clock is what vintage airplane guys call "new old stock," meaning that it's vintage, but has never been used. In Dec 1990, when Andrey and I were lieutenants in opposing forces in the closing days of the Cold War, it was manufactured and put in a warehouse in Moscow. There it patiently waited for the next 26 years to be adopted; for someone to build an airplane around it. Oxana bought it in Moscow and hand carried it back to Virginia on a trip home a few weeks ago.
What would have seemed like an impossible friendship in 1990, when I was in flight school learning to fight against the Soviet Union, and Andrey was in the Soviet Army learning to fight against America, will now be commemorated by a Soviet clock in a hand-made American airplane. Former enemies, now friends, brought together by our mutual love of aviation.
Shortly after we moved back from Japan in 2011 I joined the local Commemorative Air Force unit, where I made friends with Andrey. Andrey and I are the same age, and he immigrated from Russia a few years before I met him. At the time, his girlfriend, Oxana, still lived in Moscow and would visit him every few months. (Oxana immigrated last summer and they were married shortly thereafter.)
A few years ago for my birthday, Andrey and Oxana gave me a replica wall clock of an АЧС-1 Soviet military aircraft clock. Oxana hand carried it from Moscow on a trip to visit Andrey. It's been hanging in my workshop ever since. The АЧС-1 was the standard timepiece in every Soviet airplane and helo since the 50s.
If you've browsed my gallery, you know I'm building an airplane. Even though I haven't posted a recent picture in a long time, I'm still working on it, and it's getting closer to flying everyday. We named the airplane The Time Machine before we drove the first rivet and the name has stuck. When a fellow pilot asked me how a propeller-driven airplane could be considered a time machine, I asked him is he ever tried driving to Ohio on a holiday weekend. Point taken!
Last summer I attended the annual Experimental Aviation Association convention in Oshkosh, WI (a usual summer routine), and while I was there I picked out an avionics package for my plane. The manufacturer gave me full-size templates of the products, and I brought them home to begin planning my instrument panel.
Since we've named the airplane The Time Machine, I decided it needed a cool clock to go in it. The АЧС-1 wall clock prompted an idea to find a genuine artifact and mount it in the airplane. I made a full-scale paper template, and test fit it in the panel. Although the clock is bigger and heavier than modern day alternatives, I realized I had room for it on my panel and I loved the idea of adding a piece of history to a brand-new airplane.
Andrey's Dad used to work at the MiG factory, and he has one of these clocks at home. Andrey used to take his clock along when he went on driving trips with his Dad. I am now teaching Andrey to fly in his own airplane.
Inspired by Andrey's clock, I started searching eBay for a clock of my own, but Andrey scared me off that idea because he said most of them came from abandoned aircraft near Chernobyl, Ukraine and were probably radioactive. Little did I know, although there was some truth to that warning, it was mostly a ploy to allow Oxana time to go to Moscow and bring a clock back for an early birthday present.
This clock is what vintage airplane guys call "new old stock," meaning that it's vintage, but has never been used. In Dec 1990, when Andrey and I were lieutenants in opposing forces in the closing days of the Cold War, it was manufactured and put in a warehouse in Moscow. There it patiently waited for the next 26 years to be adopted; for someone to build an airplane around it. Oxana bought it in Moscow and hand carried it back to Virginia on a trip home a few weeks ago.
What would have seemed like an impossible friendship in 1990, when I was in flight school learning to fight against the Soviet Union, and Andrey was in the Soviet Army learning to fight against America, will now be commemorated by a Soviet clock in a hand-made American airplane. Former enemies, now friends, brought together by our mutual love of aviation.
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