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Antonov An-124-100 Ruslan UR-82073 • Calgary Airport, Alberta, Canada
April 29, 2009 • By Joe

The day before yesterday (April 28), in the afternoon... Both Joe and I were sitting at our computers, and the news announcer was talking about the Antonov (one of the biggest airplane in the world), that was leaving Calgary's airport at 4 AM the next morning.

"We should get up and drive over there and watch it fly" I said to Joe. "We can also try and take some photos. And besides... it might be our only chance to see this monster".

"Ha... get up in the middle of the night?" came the answer.

"No?" I tried again...

"No!", was his final answer.

We went to bed after midnight. I turned to Joe and tried again: "Are you sure you don't want to go see this monster airplane?"

"Not really, and besides, I have to get up on time tomorrow for my physio... won't have enough time to sleep".

"You know", I said, "We used to do fun stuff like this before. I think we're getting old!"

"Yes?", Joe jumped in bed. "Give me the alarm clock!"

I did. He set the alarm for 3:15 AM. When it woke us up, we made some coffee and rushed to the airport. It was -2C out

there, and pitch dark. Besides us, there were only 2 other vehicles in the parking lot, and they both left after awhile.

4 Am came and went, and we were sitting there... waiting... waiting... and waiting some more. At one point we thought to give up and go back home, but said: "Let's wait few more minutes"...

Finally, around 4:40 AM, Joe noticed some movement on the tarmac, in front of the terminal building. He noticed something that looked like a huge tail. He run outside with the tripod and the camera, and I grabbed the binoculars.

Yeap, something big was coming towards us... and when it got to its starting point on the tarmac, we saw it with all its glory, and man... it was gigantic!!! It had 2 engines hanging from each wing, 2 sets of 2 wheels in the front, and 2 sets of 10 wheels under its enormous body. At that point we realized it wasn't the biggest Antonov out there, but it sure was bigger than any other plane we've ever seen before.

The photo above? One out of three Joe managed to take before the Antonov An-124-100 Ruslan UR-82073 airplane took off. The camera's settings were manually set. Joe twicked the photo a bit, but all in all, did most of the work successfully in the camera. He was a very happy camper with this photo, and I couldn't be happier for him. Our efforts and nightly adventure were not for nothing. I guess, we still have some mischievous youthful juices in us after all ;-)).

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