THE SIGHT & THE SOUND : Engine Run-up onboard Grixona IL-18 ER-ICS in Chisinau - NO FLIGHT -

Daniel’s Travel Vlog This video has been remastered and substantially improved in vision and sound and replaces the initial posting in 2017. In case you are expecting an inflight video, please do not watch. This video is a taping of a complete engine-run up of the 44 year old IL-18D ER-ICS. My dear friend and soulmate, Steven Harry Kinder and I were invited to Moldova in September, 2011 in order to join once again another flight onboard Ilyushin 18, either ER-ICB or ER-ICS. However, maintenance trouble, authority stupidity and the “way of doing things“ in other parts of the world extended our intended stay in Moldova from planned two to seven days for nothing. After all maintenance issues and paper work were solved for ER-ICS, the Civil Aviation Authorities of Moldova discovered after one week, that there were two “unauthorized” foreigners on air side of Chișinău Airport… End of a long sad story. However thanks to the great efforts of Flight Captain Vladimir Rusu and Alexandr Marcenco, we were able to whitness the impressive engine runup of ER-ICS, with sounds beyond description. Steve off and myself on board. This hour long experience of engine acceleration and the unfiltered vibration onboard are beyond explanation. No seat, only kneeling down at the only two “clean“ windows, holding on to heavy camera equipment, was so painful that the “ICS-syndrome“ became the word for the price I am willing to pay for taping an IL-18 in action. Believe me, others would have quit ! I was unable to walk properly for days… Being towed back to her stand next to ER-ICB in perfect sunlight, Steve and I were exposed to the sad sight of two aging IL-18 which lost their license to carry passengers. The shape of ER-ICB was beyond description and comparison to her appearance a year before. History of Ilyushin 18D ER-ICS Airframe 187009903 was manufactured May 4, 1967 at the Moscow Engineering Plant 30 “Znamya Truda / Banner of Labour” and delivered to Tarom, Romania on May 22, 1967, registered YR-IML. The Fall of the Iron Curtain beginning of the Nineties brought dramatic changes to the State Airlines of Central and Eastern Europe. After servicing the network of Tarom for a quarter of a century, YR-IML shared the fate of hundreds of abandoned Aircraft and started her second life as a “Nomad of the Skies”, changing identity, her home base and owner frequently and operating throughout many zones of crisis. Timeline YR-IML was leased to Alfa Airlines, Sudan on July 22, 1997 and sold to Renan Air, Moldova July 2, 1998, registered ER-ICL. ER-ICL was sold to the Ukraine in February 14, 2001, registered UR-TMD and operated for Tavria-MAK, Simferopol. After March, 2002, UR-TMD operated for Sevastopol Avia and was registered UR-CEO on May 30, 2005. UR-CEO was stored at Chișinău in 2007 and registered ER-ICS on December 27, 2008, after being acquired by Grixona. ER-ICS is reported to operate cargo flights for Moldovan operator Sky Prim Air after the shut down of Grixona. ER-ICS was reported last in May, 2019 flying ammunition from Benina International Airport (BEN) in Benghazi, Libya to Gharyan, Libya. No further activity confirmed and the where about of ER-ICS is unknown. Enjoy with me the Sights & Sounds of Classic Aviation. Thank you for watching my channel. Details Aircraft : IL-18D Registration : ER-ICS Former registrations - YR-IML (Tarom) - ER-ICL (Renan Air, Moldova) - UR-TMD (Tavria-Mak, Ukraine) - UR-CEO (Sevastopol Avia, Ukraine) Later registration - ER-ICS (Sky Prim Air, Moldova) Date : Friday, September 9, 2011 and Tuesday, September 13, 2011