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Hi ! :)
My name is Sorin-Adrian Crâsmărelu, but trying to pronounce my family name might get you stuck on a monthful of trials ;).
I am 25 years old and I'm from Târgu-Mures, Transylvania.
Transylvania is one of the three major provences in Romania, the other two being Muntenia and Moldova. Romania is a country located in Central Europe. Other examples of countries would be Indonesia, Australia, Canada, etc.
When I don't serve my midnight snack with my cousin Dracula, I like to roam around the country in search of intriguing landscapes, nice people and airshows.
I am a huge fan of everything that flies, especially if it looks good, and I guess I'm just one of those dudes who really think that "everything that flies is eatable" as the proverb says ;). Although I'd have to admit I've sort of cured myself of that syndrome when I've tried to eat a MiG at the last airshow :P.
I am the founder and leader of the Sorin Air Group, an international air group present on the Internet currently composed of 14 members from 8 countries. I'm also an assistant programming analyst, a graduate of a 5-year long (gee, tough huh?) computer engineering course, as well as a former glider pilot here in Romania, where I used to fly on Romanian built and worldwide exported IAR IS-28B2 gliders. I also enjoy visiting other cities, trek through our beautiful mountains, and argue about geopolitics with my friends.
C-130 Hercules
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IAR IS28B2
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There was a time when I coudln't have even hoped to fly for real or to see one of the greatest aircraft ever made, the C-130 Hercules. Fortunately, in 1999, I had the opportunity to fly for the first time and also to see with my own two eyes the almighty Hercules. This is RoAF tail 6166, visiting Târgu-Mures International Airport on its 30th birthday. That day, the 20th of may 1999, also marked the transformation of the airport into an international one.
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This is me in one of the IAR IS-28B2's. This picture was taken before my first flight, sometime in mid-april 1999. On that day we pulled all the gliders out of the hangar and washed them, as well as the hangar. Although we've been in the hangar before, this was the first opportunity to fully explore the gliders and get inside the cockpit.
Everybody tells me I look 35 in here; well, to remind you all, I was still 17 in there...or at least that's what I say ;)
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The C-130 in the picture above is tail 6166 RoAF. It was built in 1962 and owned by the USAF until 1998. That same year, it was one of the 4 aircraft donated to the RoAF for 10 million dollars a piece. Tail 6166 visited Targu Mures airport on the 20th of may 1999, when the airport became an international one.
It might look somewhat strange to you that someone like me who likes aircraft, thinks aircraft and even sings aircraft (sometimes when I've drank too much) had never flown in his life until 1999. Then, you might obviously wonder, why do I love flight so much ? Well, I can't explain that in common words - just ask the fish why they love to swim, you just ask any pilot why he loves to fly and you just ask any astronaut why did he chose to train for years to spend just a few minutes out in a spacewalk. I guess we are a race of our own, no matter of age, sex, religion, skin colour and nationality, I think all us aviators have this feeling for the 3rd Dimension which we simply need to explore. In my opinion, which is also shared by so many others, humans are three-dimensional beings living in a two-dimensional world. That's why many of us feel the need to live as we are (3D), and that's why many of us turn torwars flight, scuba-diving, sky-diving and other stuff like that. And I just happen to be "one of those people" ;) ...
In the second photo, you can see the various analogical instruments inside the cockpit. Indeed, there aren't any digital instruments inside the IS28B2, not even a G-meter, so we had to ask our instructor "how much did we pull ??!! how much did we pull ??!!" like madmen after each spin we took.
When the IS-28 and IS-29 family were designed, in the late 70s and early 80s, they were some of the best gliders in the world. Western glider manufactures struggled to outperform us, but for years their products couldn't truly compete with the IS series of that time. Even in the early 21st century, IAR IS-28 and IS-29 series are still flown all over the world, and represent an affordable, fully acrobatic glider, which is also easy to maintain and operate.
Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Hungary, Canada, United States and Japan are just a handful of the countries which operate the IAR IS-28/29 series gliders even today.
I've flown my glider during rain, during beautiful sunny days, in foggy mornings and in red-sky sunsets (God, what a view !). One particular memory which I can share with you, is my first REAL acrobatical maneouvres... We can talk about that and about anything else, just as long as we don't have to talk about school :P ;)
For more stories, as well as some photo galleries, click the options in the menu above. They were especially made to bore you! ;)
Wanna go see the pictures ? ;)
Well then, check out my pictures ! :)
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