History of the Club
Aerograd Kolomna is the successor to one of the best and oldest aero clubs in Russia — M.V. Vodopyanov DOSAAF.
The Kolomna-based M.V. Vodopyanov DOSAAF was founded back in 1934. It was originally financed by the Kolomna Locomotive Works. The club was named in honor of the prominent arctic pilot of the 1930s Mikhail Vodopyanov.
The main objective of the aero club was to train pilots for flying schools of the Red Army Air Force, as well as motorists, technicians, glider pilots and parachute jumpers.
In September 1941, a state of siege was declared, and the aero club was transferred to the town of Serov. The Korobcheevo Airfield of the Kolomna aero club was used to ferry aircraft during the war.
The students of the Kolomna aero club became staunch defenders of their Motherland throughout the Great Patriotic War. Ten aero club graduates were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title. In 1947, the aero club resumed its operation and continued its work to train pilots and technicians for the Air Force. One of the focus areas of the club was to train personnel for the airborne forces.
In the mid-1960s, the Soviet cosmonaut team candidates passed a flight training course at the club.
Some of them — including cosmonauts Grechko, Patsaev, Volkov — eventually made their space flights. In March 1971, a team that including Valeri Polyakov, the cosmonaut-researcher who set the record for the longest time continuously spent in space by an individual in human history (437 days, 17 hours and 58 minutes),and Yury Senkevich, a doctor, well-known traveler and a television host, trained at the Korobcheevo Airfield.
The Kolomna aero club is known for its sports records and feats. The club has trained more than a hundred masters of sport in piloting of airplanes, helicopters, and gliders, parachuting and aeromodeling, and several thousand advanced air sports professionals.
The history of the Aerograd Kolomna Aviation and Technical Sports Club began in 2000
In 1998, the aero club established a parachute unit entitled Aerograd, whose main objective was to train professional world-class skydivers. Aerograd Kolomna became an independent organization (ROSTO Aviation and Technical Sports Club); an individual sports parachute unit was organized on 29 December 2000, and the first seven skydivers were taken to the sky on board the Mi-8 helicopter for the first Aerograd jump, whereas in 2004, the Kolomna aero club merged with Aviation and Technical Sports Club ROSTO Aerograd Kolomna.
In the summer of 2000, Aerograd’s only building was a small shack comprising a warehouse, a video room, a locker room, a shop, packing tables and manifest office. Skydivers and the staff used the building to go over their jumps, take shelter in rainy weather, change and keep documents.
Since 2000, the Aviation and Technical Sports Club of DOSAAF Russia Aerograd Kolomna has gained popularity as a skydiving destination. The Club gave up on old training programs, acquired its own parachute systems, improved its aircraft fleet, and equipped the manifest office with computers, opened summer and winter packing rooms. Aerograd built its own hotel complex — Aerograd Hotel, a sauna and a restaurant, opened a winter hangar and a café, and created an artificial lake.
In January 2011, Aeromag, a certified civil aviation pilot training center, was established at the Aerograd Kolomna aviation and skydiving club.
The Aviation and Technical Sports Club of DOSAAF Russia Aerograd Kolomna also comprises the youth military and sports club Berkut, where young people receive training in skydiving, physical culture and military disciplines.
Aerograd Kolomna has a staff of 150 professionals, including experienced sportspeople and skydivers — honored masters of sports and international masters of sport. With around 100,000 jumps performed at the club annually, Aerograd Kolomna accounts for a quarter of all jumps performed in Russia. The aircraft fleet comprises four L-410 airplanes, one Mi-8 helicopter, and one CESSNA-172S airplane. It is planned that more aircraft will be added to Aerograd’s fleet from the Defense Ministry.
Aerograd Kolomna annually hosts national and international skydiving competitions. In 2010 and 2013, it played host to first level international swooping events, the world’s most spectator-friendly parachuting discipline — WPC 2010 in Canopy Piloting and World Canopy Piloting Cup 2013. Aerograd Kolomna serves as a training camp for leading skydiving teams, including national teams. The aero club also holds regular formation skydiving training sessions (sequential and fixed formation) from 100 to 200+people).
It was at the Aviation and Technical Sports Club of DOSAAF Russia Aerograd Kolomna that national and world big-way records have been set and broken for many years. In July 2013, a new female national world record Zhemchuzhiny Rossii 2013 101WAY was set, and in August 2012, the current national record for the largest formation was set at Aerograd Kolomna — a 207-way. It remains the national record to this day.
The achievement celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Russian Air Force. It was Aerograd Kolomna’s honor to open the air show in Zhukovsky with a skydiving program, which comprised synchronous landing of the members of the record-holding female skydiving team Zhemchuzhiny Rossii 2012, piloting and landing with giant flags of the Russian Federation (20 x 30 meters), the Air Force of Russia and the Defense Ministry (18 x 27 meters) by Aerograd Kolomna’s instructors.
The Aviation and Technical Sports Club of DOSAAF Russia Aerograd Kolomna places high emphasis on the promotion of skydiving and support for beginner skydivers — it hosts competitions for beginners while emphasizing safety and additional training, holds seminars and workshops in all parachuting disciplines, and operates the Aerograd Academy on a year-round basis. Further, the Club has the largest professional staff of AFF instructors, which is the most effective and safest course, making use of advanced training methods and equipment.