Story ID: 523 Russian
Heli-Expo Gets Glimpse of Bulgarian Mi-24
By: Mark Huber
Caption: The Hind is one of three owned by the Cold War Air Museum in Lancaster, Texas.
Word Count: 405
After the Cold War ended you could buy some interesting things on the open market. One of them is on the show floor here at Heli-Expo. It's a flying example of a 1981 Russian Mi-24D "Hind" helicopter gunship that flew for the Bulgarian Air Force from 1981 to 2005 and is now one of three owned by the Cold War Air Museum in Lancaster, Texas.

The museum bought the trio from Bulgaria, had them crated and shipped, restored, repainted and reassembled. Pilots fly them 30 to 50 hours per year, mainly to half a dozen air shows around Central Texas every year. They are cared for by a volunteer crew of pilots and mechanics.

John Totty flew the Hind into Dallas. He learned his craft flying Apaches for the Army and MH-53 Pave Lows for the Air Force before retiring in 2008. Later, as a contractor, he flew Russian-issue Mi-17s and Mi-24s in adversarial exercises, "playing the bad guy role. When the opportunity came to fly for the Cold War Air Museum, I was already qualified in the aircraft, I just needed to get recurrent, so here I am."

Totty says the tractor-like Hind differs markedly from the high-tech and agile Apache. The Mi-24 is built to be serviced in "austere environments by unskilled labor" with a minimum of special tools. "It's reliable and doesn't break."

Weighing in at an mtow of 26,000 pounds, the Hind is a big beast, and a thirsty one, gulping down 235 gph, giving it an endurance of just over two hours. However, Totty said the Hind is "pretty light on the controls," thanks to its low-pressure hydraulic system, about one-third the pressure on an Apache. "With the Apache you can make inputs and get an immediate response out of it. With the Hind you have to be much easier on the flight controls to prevent it from cavitating," Totty said.

Visibility out the back of the Hind is limited, hence the rear-view mirrors hung on the fuselage. However, Totty praises the aircraft's robust air-conditioning and heating. He also notes that the cabin is over-pressurized, making it resistant to nuclear, biological or chemical attack.

Aside from its faults, there is this: It's fast. With a dash speed of 170 knots and a typical cruise speed of 135 knots, "I had no problem" running down Black Hawks and Apaches, during training exercises, he said.