Anybody spot me $4m? I wanna buy a Mig-29

start a series of fraudulent kickstarter campaigns?

 

You could rent yourself out for Red Flags with that.

 

Crash course in Russian to read the manuals?

I had read somewhere that pilots using a foreign language can be susceptible to revert to native language under stress.. can't be great if what you need to read is on the screen only in the foreign language!

 

What about spare the parts supply? Keeping that thing airworthy for longer than a month has to be nearly impossible and outrageously expensive, assuming you can even get access to what you need.

Buying the thing may turn out to be the least expensive part of ownership. Although, $4MM goes a LONG way in parts and maintenance. Assuming you don't have to pay someone to learn at your expense.

CW

 

It has been a few years now but a friend who was a retired Navy pilot was seriously considering buying a MIG. At that time the Russians were happy to give you all the dual time you wanted for the price of fuel. They were having such a difficult time keeping their guys current, having one get flying time for free was a bonus. Also there are a number of A+P's around the country at this point with quite a bit of MIG experience and by our standards parts are very reasonably priced. For earlier versions complete engines were priced such it made no sense repairing or rebuilding them.

In his case the barrier was importing the aircraft. The various hoop jumping was as expensive as the airplane.

 

It costed the Russians 10 times that easily.

 

With 4.6m and an ego, it would be nice to have just the single seat . An owner claimed you will need to bring buckets of money for spare parts and fuel. At times, the entry price for the jet is the least of your worries. FAA paperwork, insurance, minimum jet time, finding scarce parts, and machining impossible to find items are the main issues. You can purchase a good MIG-15 for less than the price for a one owner 360 Modena 6spd.

It would probably be more practical to park the item outside of the U.S. and simply take a trip when you want to fly it.

 

Would be a nightmare to own. I think you'd need permission from your local FSDO every time you want to fly it too.

 

Ah, yes. The two happiest days of MiG ownership...



Matt

 

The Libyans will pay you to go fly one of those. Or a Mirage. Of course, you want to pick the proper faction.

 

Beautiful plane. Would look great in a civilian paint scheme. Only problem is the cost to fly it. I wonder if you could mount a luggage pod on a hard point, then you'd have a supersonic biz jet

Regards,

Art S.

 

29 is a fascinating MiG. With the upgraded engines, it can take off straight up like the F-15 Eagle. Has a tighter turn radius than an F-16. Russia currently hosts edge-of-space flights in a 29.
All the cons aside, would be the ultimate sky toy!

 

That same guy has an early Fishbed for sale for $185K. In those the turbojet engines were pretty much used up and tossed. Not so much the afterburning turbofans of the Mig-29. The early Fishbed is pretty simple and probably a lot easier to maintain. The Ukraine is a good source for parts and overhaul services, since they did quite a bit of maintenance for the Soviets and, later, the Russians. Doubt if they are doing much for them now. The Germans inherited some Mig-29s, but not sure who maintained them. Most (22 of 24) were sold to the Polish AF in 2003 for about a buck each.

 

There are some very good maintenance shops that specialize in this sort of thing. As stated, definitely not cheap, but they have contacts overseas to source parts.



Mark

 

A local guy I know did some importing, refurbishing, maint, etc, including MIG-29's. Told some great stories about going to the Ukraine looking for stuff, mtg with some generals and negotiating, the latter usually involving copious amounts of Vodka.

 

One of the guys I know told me all sorts of great stories about going over there.


Mark

 

Girls are pretty, too.

 

In all seriousness, I've heard that the early MiGs are pretty easy to operate. They were designed to be fixed with vice grips and duct tape in the jungle by someone who had no clue what they were doing, so very straightforward.

 

Don- Affirmative, and operate from rough airfields, too. There was a case in the 70s, though, where the Soviets broke the backs on several Mig-21s trying to do that. You would think they would have quit after one broke its back (dug into mud, apparently), but no.

 

With all that Russian talk that has been going on lately, it would be a nice plane to commute from NY to DC.

 

Andrew- No, not good at that at all. The Germans got rid of them mainly because of their miserably short range and lack of aerial refueling capability. Later Fulcrums had increased fuel tankage, more powerful engines, better avionics, and aerial refueling capability. With this one, it would take a large number of hops to cross CONUS. The Spitfire of the Russian AF. The Thunderbirds grumped about crossing the US in their T-38s, and this one would be even worse.

 

Draken International has the contract for being the adversary at Red Flag. I'm sure that they would be interested in anyone with a Mig-29.

 

WANTED

HaHa Pride advertising for Russo/Ukrainian mechanics for L39... same issues I guess.

Although an Albatross might only be ~50% of the Mig29 experience, it'd be 1% of the cost...

 

What are the basic performance stats ?
Max speed
Max rate of climb
Minimum runway requirements
Etc