30 years ago, for the first time in the history of aviation, Soviet helicopter pilots Galina Rastorguyeva, Lyudmila Polyanskaya and Galina Koshkina on a Mi-24 transport and combat helicopter performed an ultra-long flight Moscow - Anadyr - Canada - Miami with a length of 25,000 km. Their path ran along the Lend-Lease route, along which aircraft were delivered to the USSR from the USA since 1942.

Do you know that Galina Koshkina is a graduate of our aviation industry?

Galina's path to heaven was very difficult. Do not count how many times she had to knock on closed doors, so that military officials were allowed to master the male profession and let them rise into the sky. To overcome all this, she was helped by perseverance, perseverance and faith that the dream would come true.

“I confess, it was difficult, but my soul is winged. It is this, and not gender that must be taken into account by those who recruit children to flight schools, the pilot is sure. - It is good that girls are now admitted to military educational institutions, because our women are fighting and stubborn.

Back in the sixth grade, a girl from the distant Bashkir village of Maksyutovo in the Kugarchinsky district read a book by the legendary pilot Marina Popovich and lit up with a dream of heaven. Marina Lavrentievna became her idol. After graduating from high school, Galina is trying to enter the Orenburg Helicopter School; she even sent a letter to Defense Minister Ustinov asking for enrollment. However, the girl got rejected; women were not taken to the flight school.

Great hard work, dedication, perseverance in achieving the intended goal, multiplied by natural quick wit, allowed Galina to overcome difficulties. Convinced that it was impossible for her to enter the flight school, Galina decided to enter the Ufa Aviation Institute, to study aircraft engines - she wanted to understand how the "heart" of a winged machine works. However, at the entrance exams to the UAI, Galya did not get 1.5 points. Difficulties only provoked the girl; the dean of the evening department had never seen such applicant in his life. Working at the institute as a cloakroom attendant, a laboratory assistant, she followed him with a “tail” - and in the end, he could not withstand the onslaught and enrolled the stubborn one in the ranks of students, despite the lack of an Ufa residence permit.

At the same time, Galya turned to the Ufa DOSAAF aviation club, dreaming of learning how to fly an airplane. Nevertheless, the difficulties were just beginning.

Firstly, there were only two branches in the aviation club: helicopter and parachute. Secondly, one had to have eighteen years of age behind them. Thirdly, Galya, with her 159 centimeters tall, did not fit into the rigid framework of aviation requirements - height was from 165 to 185 centimeters.

For a year on the uneven bars and the crossbar, she stretched herself three centimeters and she was enrolled in a newly formed group of future pilots. Galya passed the exams in all helicopter disciplines with excellence and became a pilot cadet, making independent flights.

Combining work, now as a cleaner at the Aeroflot agency, studying at the institute and studying at a sports club, the girl did not leave the idea of ​​​​finding her idol - Marina Popovich. She went to Moscow and for a day and a half walked with fantastic persistence near the checkpoint of Star City, until the officer on duty agreed to call Marina Lavrentievna. Issued a pass. Marina Lavrentievna struck Galya with her beauty and ease of communication, unexpected for the “star”.

In 1982, Galina Koshkina obtained permission to study at the military department of the Ufa Aviation Institute. She fought for this right for four years, reached the deputy head of the Main Political Directorate, Major General Boris Utkin. In addition, the persistent student was met halfway - as an exception, for the first time in the history of our institute, a woman was opened the way to the rank of lieutenant. Before Galina realized her luck, a new joy came. Marina Popovich sent a telegram, which Galya, now an aviation colonel, still keeps:

"Dear girl, I'm proud of your success. I hope you continue to storm the sky and reach great heights ..."

September 12, 1985 Galina Koshkina took the oath at the military department. While studying at the institute, Galina continued to fly. On the Ka-26 helicopter, she fulfilled the standard of a candidate for master of sports and flew 168 hours. In 1986, she graduated from the Faculty of Aviation Engines of the UAI with a specialty of engineer-mechanic.

After graduating from high school, Galina Petrovna was drafted into the army, but not to a flying position. She had to enter the Volchansk flight school, where cadets were recruited through the DOSAAF line, a special set of girls-helicopter pilots. At first, she was refused admission there, she was older than the age required for applicants and already wore the shoulder straps of a lieutenant. But the heroine was no stranger to breaking stereotypes. She went to the head of the school, Major General Gennady Krutilin, and, laying her institute engineering diploma on the table in front of him, firmly said: "Give me the opportunity to work as a helicopter technician." And the general relented, she received a flying education. After that, again, again with great difficulty, she was drafted into the army for a flying position.

In 1989, she was appointed as a teacher at the Ufa Higher Aviation School of Pilots as a flying instructor, where she taught aerodynamics and flight dynamics, practical helicopter aerodynamics. The news that a senior lieutenant with a scythe and clear eyes appeared in the “male patrimony”, and was also going to teach, excited the entire team. The school buzzed like a disturbed beehive. Galya realized that she would have to fight for a place in the sun. She gets a job at the school as a mechanical assembly technician at the department of helicopter navigation, then, she seeks the position of a "flying" teacher. The senior lieutenant possessed considerable talents. She was not just loved: she was respected as a competent specialist, a demanding mentor.

Then she, as a talented teacher of the school, was sent to the Academy named after Y.A. Gagarin, where Koshkina went with her six-month-old son! After graduating from the academy in 1995, Galina completed her postgraduate studies at the GAFA named after. Y.A. Gagarin. The theme of her dissertation is purely flight: "Training of pilots of military aviation." Then Koshkina served near Moscow in the Army Aviation Department of the Air Force Academy. Y. A. Gagarin, even flew a Ka-50 Black Shark helicopter.

Now Galina Skrobova-Koshkina teaches at the training center of the Russian Helicopters holding, train takeoff and engineering personnel. When visiting Bashkiria, she certainly visits her native university and meets with participants of the International Aerospace School.

Timur Kilmetov, finalist of the Olympiad in the history of aviation and aeronautics named after A.F. Mozhaisky

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