Istomino Airfield is a private

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

airfield located 5 km northwest of

Balakhna Balakhna (russian: Балахна́) is a town and the administrative center of Balakhninsky District in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Volga River, north of Nizhny Novgorod, the administrative center of the obl ...

and 38 km northwest of

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (russian: link=no, Нижегородская область, ''Nizhegorodskaya oblast''), is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Nizhny Novgorod. It has a population of 3,310,5 ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. The airfield is formerly Pravdinsk Air Base, a military airbase of the Russian Air Force and was named after the nearby town of

Pravdinsk Pravdinsk (, prior to 1946 known by its German name, ', pl, Frydląd, lt, Romuva), is a town and the administrative center of Pravdinsky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. It is on the Lava River and is east of Bagrationovsk and sou ...

. It was a small air base with a few taxiways and tarmac. Units that were stationed at Pravdinsk include 786th Interceptor Aviation Regiment (786 IAP) which had 5 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (ASCC: Foxbat) aircraft in the 1970s and upgraded to 31

Mikoyan MiG-31 The Mikoyan MiG-31 (russian: link=no, Микоян МиГ-31; NATO reporting name: Foxhound) is a supersonic interceptor aircraft that was developed for use by the Soviet Air Forces. The aircraft was designed by the Mikoyan design bureau as a ...

(ASCC: Foxhound) aircraft in the 1980s. In 2004, after five year of disuse, Pravdinsk Airfield (now more often referred to as Istomino Airfield (Аэродром Истомино), after the nearby village) saw an aircraft again. Now the airfield is used by Nizhny Novgorod parachute sports enthusiasts, who praise it as an excellent

drop zone A drop zone (DZ) is a place where parachutists or parachuted supplies land. It can be an area targeted for landing by paratroopers, or a base from which recreational parachutists and skydivers take off in aircraft and land under parachutes. In ...

.(The Drop Zone: How to get to Istomino Airfield)
(Nizhny Novgorod Parachute Sports Centre, 2004-Nov-23) ; directions, photo

References

Soviet Air Force bases Soviet Air Defence Force bases Russian Air Force bases Buildings and structures in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast {{Russia-mil-stub