Volga Dnepr Airlines

2010 flightplans are available from RATS

IATA CODE
ICAO CODE
CALLSIGN
VI VDA VOLGA DNEPR

Volga Dnepr was established in 1990 and started operations a year later, providing scheduled and charter cargo services from its main base at Ulyanovsk airport.

 

Operating a large fleet of Antonov An-124s and Ilyushin Il-76s, it specialized in outsize cargo and extended this operation worldwide through a joint venture with UK based Heavylift Cargo Airline. This agreement was terminated in 2006 but by then the VDA group had become a major cargo operator of international stature.

 

In 2004, VDA established Air Bridge Cargo as a separate airline to operate scheduled cargo services using Boeing 747 freighters, while retaining its own operations.

 

VDA also operated a small passenger scheduled service from Moscow to several regional destinations along the Volga river using Yakovlev Yak-40 equipment, but these were discontinued in 2009

Antonov An-124

Volga Dnepr An-124
Volga Dnepr An-124

Volga Dnepr operates a fleet of 10 Antonov An-124s

 

This package includes the complete fleet

 

To be used with the Global AI Antonov An-124 base model

Volga Dnepr An-124 20years
Volga Dnepr An-124 20years

In 2010, Volga Dnepr celebrated its 20th anniversary and applied a commemorative "20 years" logo to most of its fleet.

 

These have since been removed and all VDA aircraft are now back in standard livery.

 

To use these textures, simply overwrite the standard ones with the ones included in this package, for each reg.

 

To be used with the Global AI Antonov An-124 base model

Ilyushin Il-76 TD90

Volga Dnepr Il-76TD-90
Volga Dnepr Il-76TD-90

Volga Dnepr is one of the few airlines to operate the re-engined Il-76 with upgraded PS-90 powerplants.

 

This package includes three airframes. One additional aircraft has since joined he VDA fleet

 

To be used with the RATS Ilyushin Il-76 TD90 base model

Volga Dnepr Il-76 TD-90 20years
Volga Dnepr Il-76 TD-90 20years

In 2010, Volga Dnepr celebrated its 20th anniversary and applied a commemorative "20 years" logo to most of its fleet.

 

These have since been removed and all VDA aircraft are now back in standard livery.

 

To use these textures, simply overwrite the standard ones with the ones included in this package, for each reg.

 

To be used with the RATS Ilyushin Il-76 TD-90 base model

Ilyushin Il-76 TD

Volga Dnepr Ilyushin Il-76 fleet
Volga Dnepr Ilyushin Il-76 fleet

Volga Dnepr operated several Il-76TDs over the years. The airline has now standardized on the more efficient TD90 model and dropped the older aircraft.

 

This package includes the last four Il-76TD standard operated by VDA up to 2010

 

EW-76734 is now stored

 

RA-76483 was sold in 2010 to Abakan Avia and is now leased to Aviacon Zitotrans

 

RA-76484 was sold in 2010 to Abakan Avia for onward lease to Aero Rent. The aircraft is currently stored

 

RA-76822 was sold in 2010 to Silk Way and is still flying for that airline.

 

To be used with the RATS Ilyushin Il-76 TD base model

Yakovlev Yak-40

Volga Dnepr Yak-40 fleet
Volga Dnepr Yak-40 fleet

Volga Dnepr operated several Yak-40s on its passenger services, which were discontinued in 2010.

 

This package includes the last three aircraft used then.

 

RA-87357 is now stored in Ulyanovsk

 

RA-87400 was sold to Khabarovsk Avia and is currently flying with that airline

 

RA-87905 was sold to Vologda Aviation and is currently operational with them

 

To be used with the Simlandmark Yakovlev Yak-40 base model

 

Donate!

Each repaint means long hours of research and hard work to make it look as close as possible to the real world original.

 

Although it is all available here for free, I will appreciate any contribution to keep me going maintaining this website and bringing you more flightsimming goodies!

 

You can use Paypal from wherever you are to send me any amount you feel like giving -hint: the more the merrier! ;-)

 


About my repaints

These textures are intended for use as AI traffic in Microsoft's Flight Simulator versions 9 and 10.

 

They have been thoroughly researched and painted based on actual pictures of the real aircraft, so that each individual aircraft is an exact replica of the real thing at the time of painting, down to the precise windows configuration and the stencils colours and locations.

 

To view them in your simulator, you need first to download and install the base aircraft models/packages available  separately . Most of these models are available from the usual avsim and/or flightsim libraries, but I have provided a link to these base packages on this site for your easy reference. Check the links section.

 

You will also need adequate flightplans to take these birds into your virtual skies. Running a search on avsim and flightsim libraries will get you up to date flightplans for most of the world's airlines

About bitmap formats

Most of my repaints are provided in three textures formats: 32bits, dxt3 and dxt3 with mipmaps.


AI traffic can draw heavily on your computer resources and significantly reduce your sim's framerate. Using the right set of textures can improve your framerate and ensure  smooth  and lifelike movements.

Basically, 32bits texture are larger and therefore having more pixels, will have sharper details and will look better in your sim, particularly at close range. Downside is they take up more HD space and use more resources.

Mipped textures are supposed to be what fs is really looking for, and will ensure the best framerate and movement smoothness. However, if your graphic processor is an older or a lower end one, with less than 1GB dedicated memory, mipped textures will look awfully blurred.

To keep things simple, if you run your sim on a new, powerful, high end computer, go for the 32bits or mipped textures, or use the 32bits only for intricate liveries where the quality of finer details will make a difference.

On the other hand, if you are using an older less powerful machine, or if you are not sure or don't know what all this means, go for the non-mipped dxt3 format.