Avia.nn.ru was the website of a Nizhny Novgorod aviation club that operated from the turn of the 1990s–2000s to the mid-2000s. It belonged to the Nizhny Novgorod City Training Center for Aviation and Model Sport of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Defense Sports-Technical Organization, whose address was listed on the prices page: 603109, Nizhny Novgorod, Ilyinskaya Street, 41, telephone and fax (831-2) 33-45-69[2]. In April 2002 the Training Center was reorganized into the Aviation Technical Sports Club ATSK "SOYUZ", and the site became the club's page[5]. Flights took place at the airfield of the town of Bogorodsk in Nizhny Novgorod Region[2]. In the Counter.nn.ru rating the site was listed as "Aviaklub Nizhnego Novgoroda" ("Nizhny Novgorod Aviation Club") with the description "Aviation in Nizhny Novgorod"[13]. It was already recorded as active on July 19, 2000[15], and the last snapshot of the home page in the web archive is dated November 8, 2005[19].

"Want to Fly?": the first version

The earliest snapshot of the home page was captured by the web archive on January 24, 2001. The page title was "Want to Fly?", and the content was an invitation to fly: a photograph of a Yak-52 aircraft, described on the site as a two-seat monoplane with a 360-horsepower engine intended for training sport pilots, along with a first-person account of what a loop feels like — the altitude, the speed of 300 km/h, and the bank angle that has to be corrected in time. The account ended with the phrase "And there — the loop is done!"[1]. The navigation consisted of two links — "Get Acquainted" and "HOW TO FLY?"; in the snapshot from August 2, 2002 the home page text had not changed[3].

Behind the "HOW TO FLY?" link was the page price.htm with a price list dated September 1, 1999. The Training Center offered excursion, demonstration, familiarization, and training flights on the Yak-52 and Yak-18T with instructor pilots who, according to the page, included Masters of Sport in aerobatics, Russian champions, and first-class pilots. A circuit flight at an altitude of 300 meters cost 300 rubles on the Yak-52 and 350 rubles on the Yak-18T, a route flight at 100 meters — 600 and 700 rubles, a flight with basic aerobatics — 500 and 600 rubles, with advanced aerobatics — 600 rubles, and with expert-level aerobatics — 700 rubles. Separate lines listed a formation flight of two aircraft with video footage of the passenger filmed from on board for 1,100 rubles, and taxiing on the aircraft for children for 50 rubles. Familiarization flights were promised a "Commemorative Diploma," and the flight training course a "Private Pilot Certificate" of international format; orders were accepted for demonstration flights for celebrations, anniversaries, and weddings. Flights took place on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m.[2]. The same price list with 1999 prices remained on the site in the snapshot from February 13, 2003 as well[4].

ATSK "SOYUZ"

The second version of the site is dated in the footer to May 2002 and signed "Web design: Denis Lushin pilot_centr@mail.ru"[5]. The home page was now titled "Start" and opened with a short history of the organization: in May 1998 the Regional Council of ROSTO founded the Nizhny Novgorod City Training Center for Aviation and Model Sport, and in April 2002 the Training Center was reorganized into ATSK "SOYUZ." Club members could train on the Yak-52, Yak-55, and Yak-18T; the story about the loop from the first version was preserved in full, and a link "Fly On" led down the page[5].

An inner page of the club stated that ATSK "SOYUZ" conducted training and retraining of sport pilots on the Yak-52, Yak-55M, and Yak-18T, and that the club was headed by Alexander Medvedev, a Russian champion in aircraft sport, Master of Sport, and first-class pilot. Flights were held at the Bogorodsk airfield from Thursday to Sunday every week. Contact details had changed by then: the same address — Ilyinskaya Street, 41 — but the phone and fax was (831-2) 31-73-94, and the email was pilot_centr@mail.ru[6].

The training section described three mutually complementary programs: preparation for the first solo flight with 12–15 hours of flight training, preparation for aerobatic flights in a designated zone with 20–30 hours, and preparation for an internationally recognized private pilot certificate with 42–45 hours. The page did not state the cost — the site explained that it changed along with the price of gasoline and suggested calling to find out[7]. By May 1, 2003 familiarization flights were priced in dollars by time: Yak-52 — 150 dollars per hour ($2.50 per minute), Yak-18T — 180 dollars per hour ($3 per minute); the table gave the duration of each type of flight, from 5–10 minutes for a circuit at 300 meters to 20–25 minutes for advanced or expert-level aerobatics[8].

A separate page offered the club's advertising opportunities: placing advertising on the wings of the aerobatic Yak-55M, dropping a parachutist with a client's banner or pennant from a Yak-18T, and flights on weekends and holidays in Nizhny Novgorod, towns of Nizhny Novgorod Region, and other regions. Inquiries were taken on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. by phone at 31-73-94[9]. Several other pages were reference pages: technical descriptions of the Yak-18T[10], the Su-31[11], and the Yak-55M[12], noted as compiled from materials of a third-party aviation resource.

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site was listed in the regional rating Counter.nn.ru, in the "Projects" section. In the statistics snapshot from September 30, 2000, "Aviaklub Nizhnego Novgoroda" held position 109: counter reading — 154, rating — 0.47, hits per day — 0[13]. In the snapshot from November 9, 2000 it had dropped to 123rd place out of 134 in the section: the counter showed 165, the rating was 0.33, hits per day — 2[14]. Over the forty days between the two snapshots the counter gained eleven visits. The overall picture of the rating in these years is examined in the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

In the NN.RU catalog the card "Aviaklub Nizhnego Novgoroda" was placed in the section "Society and Nizhny Novgorod Residents: Clubs and Interest Societies." In the snapshot from November 17, 2000 this section contained 23 sites, and the aviation club was seventh with a rating of 0.52, status "Active," and a verification date of July 19, 2000[15]. By April 25, 2002 the section had grown to 44 sites, and the aviation club ranked sixteenth by rating with a score of 1.64 — between the "Page of Young Word Artists" and a site about the Society for Krishna Consciousness[16]. In the snapshot from September 19, 2003, out of 40 sites in the section only eight had a rating, and the aviation club, with a score of 3, came in fifth[17]. Two months later, on November 26, 2003, its card already read "Rating: none"[18]. There is no news feed, forum, or guestbook in the surviving snapshots: in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of the early 2000s this was the calling card of an organization living offline — eight static pages with a price list and aircraft descriptions.

Closure

After May 2002 the site's content, judging by the snapshots, barely changed: the signature "May 2002" and the webmaster's address appear both in the snapshot from December 23, 2003[5] and in the last snapshot of the home page, taken on November 8, 2005[19]. The web archive captured inner pages until February 2005[12]. There are no further snapshots after that: the site disappeared from the archive at the end of 2005, and the dollar-per-minute flight prices, the Bogorodsk airfield, and the phone number on Ilyinskaya remain only in these copies. A check of the address, carried out while preparing a census of Nizhny Novgorod websites, found no site at avia.nn.ru.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Training Center prices and services page, 2001 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Training Center prices and services page, 2003 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Page about ATSK "SOYUZ", 2004 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — "Flight Training Programs" page, 2004 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — "Familiarization Flights" page, 2004 (archive)
  9. web.archive.org — Page about advertising using the club's aircraft, 2004 (archive)
  10. web.archive.org — "Yak-18T" page, 2004 (archive)
  11. web.archive.org — "Su-31" page, 2004 (archive)
  12. web.archive.org — "Yak-55M" page, 2005 (archive)
  13. web.archive.org — Counter.nn.ru statistics, "Projects" section, September 2000 (archive)
  14. web.archive.org — Counter.nn.ru statistics, "Projects" section, November 2000 (archive)
  15. web.archive.org — NN.RU catalog, "Clubs and Interest Societies," November 2000 (archive)
  16. web.archive.org — NN.RU catalog, "Clubs and Interest Societies," April 2002 (archive)
  17. web.archive.org — NN.RU catalog, "Clubs and Interest Societies," September 2003 (archive)
  18. web.archive.org — NN.RU catalog, "Clubs and Interest Societies," November 2003 (archive)
  19. web.archive.org — Last snapshot of home page, 2005 (archive)