VORONEZH. Dec 4 (Interfax-AVN) - The Voronezh flying club of the Russian Defense Sports and Technical Society (ROSTO) has trained over 200 paratroopers this year.
"The club is about to meet target figures of 2002 that provide for training over 200 parachute jumpers and five sports pilots," the club's president and distinguished pilot of Russia Vladimir Chastukhin told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
He said the club needs much more money than the RUB400,000 (USD12,558) it gets annually. "That is why help from the Voronezh region administration means a lot to us. At a request of the president of the Parachute Sports Federation, Leonty Sukovatsin, the region's governor Vladimir Kulakov helped us with fuel, allocating RUB70,000 (USD2,197) for the purpose," Chastukhin said.
He stressed that air and ground classes are held in the club five days a week.
The club has been training pilots, glider-pilots and parachute jumpers since 1993. It has trained a total of 7,200 pilots, 9,000 sports pilots, 7,500 aeromodellers and over 70,000 draftees for the Airborne Troops.
"It is symbolic because Voronezh is not only the cradle of the Russian Navy but also the birthplace of the Airborne Troops. A landing party was dropped here for the first time in Russia on August 2, 1930," Chastukhin stressed.
He noted that 20 graduates of the club became heroes of the Soviet Union. Among them is Yekaterina Zelenko, the only woman in the world that made a ram attack.