MIAT, The Good and Very Good

By Charlie

Despite its shortcomings, MIAT is a strong Mongolian institution with loyal employees and a rich 50-year history. Many of the pilots have worked for MIAT since the 1970s and they talk wistfully about the glory days of Mongolian aviation. These conversations are aided by hundreds of pictures that decorate the gigantic room that we use for English classes.

The pilots like to point out the people they know in the pictures. Some of the older pilots are pictured as young men, sometimes in black and white photos.

A Boeing pilot showed me a picture of his father next to another picture of little boy. “That boy was the first baby ever born on a MIAT plane. My father was the captain!” A group of Boeing pilots gathered around. “They named the child Mungun Khulug,” said one of the Boeing pilots. “That means Silver Aircraft.”

Unlike a lot of older pictures that have survived from the Soviet period, most of these are candid. Yes, this country was a Soviet satellite. But life looked pretty good, especially for people who worked for MIAT.

This is a picture from the early 1980s. That’s a Soviet Tupelov 154 in the background. The plane is a knockoff of the Boeing 727. MIAT no longer flies the Tupelov, but we still see the occasional TU154 that does freight or charter work between UB and places in Russia.

In the 1970s and 80s, MIAT operated well more than 100 Antonov 2 biplanes. Every provincial capital had a fleet of AN2s that would take people to remote countryside destinations. Nearly all of MIAT’s current jet pilots trained on the AN2 and spent their youths bouncing around on countryside landing strips. The AN2 is still beloved in Mongolia, even though the entire fleet is now grounded.

The MIAT bone yard is a decaying memorial to the days of Soviet aviation. There are at least 30 Soviet made planes parked between the MIAT hangar and the UB air traffic control tower. These planes will never fly again. Some of them will never even roll again, since their wheels have been stripped for reasons unknown.

This AN24 has a glass nose where the navigator once sat.

Last Monday marked a milestone in Mongolian aviation history. The private airline Aero Mongolia has been test flying a Fokker 100 jet that they acquired recently out of the bankruptcy of a Canadian airline.

In this picture, you can see the Fokker 100 taking flight over the remains of MIAT’s Antonov fleet. That was the first time that the Fokker 100 had ever flown with an all Mongolian flight crew. The MIAT pilots I was with cheered as the plane took off. The clouds showed their approval by dropping snow on the airport as the plane flew out of sight.

MIAT’s evolution since Soviet times is seen in the contrast between the bone yard and the new hangar. This is perhaps the largest interior space in all of Mongolia. It is heated and maintained to satisfy stringent European regulations.

Inside this building during the month of February, MIAT maintenance staff are conducting annual inspections on their Boeing 737-800 and Airbus 310-300. This is the first time that these checks have been done in Mongolia, by entirely Mongolian maintenance crews.

The Mongolian engineers responsible for this massive effort take great pride in their work. Enkhtur is the man in charge and was eager to have me bring the Boeing pilots out to the hangar to see the project in motion.

As is the case in an any aviation business, Enkhtur explained that MIAT pilots and mechanics often blame each other for maintenance problems. The pilots think that problems with the planes are the result of poor maintenance. Mechanics think that problems are the result of poor operation. Enkhtur wants to get beyond the bad blood, so he took the pilots on an extensive tour of the hangar and he asked his mechanics to explain their work to the pilots. Here’s one mechanic showing the pilots one of the hangar’s many immaculate workshops.

I taught the Boeing chief pilot to say, “Enkhtur, good job!”

Just about everything is inspected during what’s called a C Check. Even the life jackets are taken out of their packaging and inflated.

Interior paneling is removed so that inspections can be done on the airframe. In this picture, a mechanic is checking the left rear door.

I was excited to see this emergency door opened over the left wing. I actually hopped through the emergency exit and am crouching on the wing.

For me, a big jet during a C Check is basically a wonderland. You can do all of those things that you never get to do when the plane is sitting on the ramp or flying.

That’s me in the cockpit, in the left engine and in the main gear wheel well.

And as if that’s not enough, I even got to wear a MIAT hardhat.

Here are some more entries about MIAT:

Alpha Bravo: Teaching aviation English to Antonov pilots.

Tsaagan Sar: Lunar New Year celebrations out at the airport.