RuAviation

In early April 2023, after 100 hours of flight time with an instructor pilot, Khabarovsk Airlines’ co-pilot Angelika Parfyonova was commissioned. The girl joined the squadron of L-410 aircraft, which today has 24 pilots. This was reported by the press service of Habavia.

Angelika Parfyonova is a native of Sterlitamak, she is a graduate of the Aerospace Department of the Moscow Aviation Institute. She did her internship at Roscosmos and dared to take part in a space experiment – she spent five days in a bath of dry immersion. During these days, doctors in real time to study the processes in the human body in conditions of weightlessness and the recovery period.

After enrolling at the Sasov flight school, she mastered the L-410, and in the fall of 2022 she joined the flight service of a Far-Eastern airline. There is no gender preference in KhabAvia, the requirements to all applicants for flight work are the same. When Parfyonova was hired she was evaluated according to her professional skills. Today Angelika spent almost 100 hours in the airline and has 150 more hours of flight time during her studying at the flying school on L-410 and Cessna 172S aircraft.

“Given the weather conditions, it’s not easy for pilots to work in the Far East, but it’s interesting,” Angelica says. – I’ve flown to Komsomolsk, Nikolaevsk, Bogorodskoye, Chegdomyn, as well as to remote villages – Chumikan, Ayan, Nelkan. In such remote places people are engaged in their farming and fishing. Probably, I like such hard-to-reach regions the most. They have the most beautiful nature, uninhabited by man, and interesting open people. Yes, some places are not the easiest to fly in, like Ayana. The airstrip is on the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk and is surrounded by mountains – you have to be extremely careful in poor visibility”.

Like many pilots, Angelica keeps fit and does not abandon her dream of space. She says people become astronauts, either engineers or aviators. Parfyonova is a space engineer and a pilot, combining these two professions may increase her chances of being selected for the cosmonaut corps. For now, she plans to gain experience and practice flying.