He was born in Moscow in spring 1938. A unique photo is kept in the home archive — Valery CHKALOV is holding onto the propeller blade of his plane with eyes smiling. At the bottom of the photo, there is a caption "To my father's friend...".

The fact is that Gennady Vadimovich's grandfather was acquainted with Chkalov's father. They lived in the village of Vasilevo on the Volga river. In 1921, there was a severe famine in the Volga region. And Provalov's grandfather lent Chkalov's father a couple of bags of grain saying, "Return it when you can...". This saved the family of his fellow villager from imminent death.

Later, the father of an already famous pilot used to drop in to see the Provalovs and stay overnight while visiting the capital. Valery Chkalov himself visited them several times.

— My father told me a lot about these visits. Of course, he was proud of his acquaintance with the legendary pilot. Perhaps this influenced me to some extent in my career choice.

— Chkalov died in a plane crash in December 1938. You were only six months old. Maybe, during one of his visits, Chkalov took you in his arms and thus transferred his energy to you? That is, he could unintentionally program you to become a pilot, couldn’t he?

— I think it's just a nice journalistic version.

His father was a military builder. Thus, in the call of duty, his family moved from the capital to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Gennady finished school there. He was engaged in alpine skiing and became a champion of the region. Before entering a flight school, he made numerous parachute jumps.

This was taken into account by the medical commission. His future wife Galina parachuted with him. Gennady studied with her in the 10th grade.

— Why did she do that?

— Just along for the ride! She was audacious!

In 1957, Gennady entered the flight school named after V.P. Chkalov. After graduation, he obtained a rank of lieutenant and... was fired. In 1961-62, at the suggestion of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita KHRUSHCHEV, a great reduction in the country's armed forces took place. 1,200,000 people were sent to the reserve: professionals of all branches of military, young and mature. The majority were against such a decision in their hearts. But they were silent: in those days, you couldn't argue with the Communist Party.

Many officers who did not think of themselves outside the army were knocked out. It was easier for the young to adjust psychologically to civilian life. Gennady Provalov studied in the Moscow Aviation Institute for two years. When Leonid Brezhnev became the Secretary General of the Communist Party, graduates of this prestigious university of the country were given the opportunity to retrain and work in civil aviation.

Of course, he was not a plucky, however, the profession of a pilot has always been risky to a large extent. Gennady Vadimovich believes that mastering MI-2 and KA-26 helicopters was a big step forward for him. The first one was generally a phenomenon of technological progress: a two-engine and turbine-powered helicopter instead of an internal combustion engine. In 1968, Provalov was assigned to the State Research Institute of Civil Aviation to test helicopters. He did a couple of tests on his own. The first one sank into his mind — on the Pechora River in icing conditions, the management of the Institute tried to persuade him:

— Come on, join us, and you won't regret it! You will grow as a professional: you will master all types of helicopters that only exist!

— Did you give in to temptation?

— To be honest, I joined the Institute without much enthusiasm. But then I realized, that this quarter of a century was the best and most interesting part of my life!

— Gennady Vadimovich, you tested helicopters. Surely there happened abnormal situations that could lead to serious aftermath…

— The most serious aftermath is a crash.

Icing of propeller blades is a dangerous thing. A gradually increasing layer of ice changes the aerodynamics of the blades. As a result, the lifting force of a helicopter decreases, and the fuselage becomes heavier, which means worsening operating condition. Eventually, the helicopter begins to lose altitude. The ground is inevitably approaching. The outcome of this fall depends on the terrain. And, of course, on the pilot's experience. If the terrain is flat, it's still half the trouble. But what if there are mountains, the forest or the sea? There was an alcohol-wash system on the helicopter to combat icing.

— We called it an "alcohol carrier". We took off and searched for the upper edge of layer clouds. The intensity of icing of the blades was maximum there.

— What was the altitude?

— 1000-1200 meters. Moreover, we needed to investigate how the system worked at different temperatures: -5, -10, -20^OC. Minus twenty was a little hard to find. I had to go through clouds for a long time to build up a few millimeters of ice. Then the "alcohol carrier" system was turned on. After landing, we examined how effectively it worked: whether the ice was breaking off, and how evenly. If it was uneven, there was a strong vibration in the air. Sometimes the trickles of alcohol formed grooves on a blade surface. This also led to a violation of the flight mode. We recorded all this in the recommendations for pilots who then piloted these machines.

— Do you mean, you were the first to walk on an unknown track?

— It was my job...

— Has there been any inadvertency?

— We tested a PZL W-3 helicopter near Ukhta. This was Sokol [English: "Falcon"] — a helicopter produced in Poland. At the same time, I was asked to train the local crew on our Mi-8. It was a two-engined turbine helicopter. We trained landing with one working engine. I gave the command, and the mechanic turned off both engines instead of one by mistake. Actually, I think that this happened more because of the imperfection of the design. It was necessary to arrange the toggle switches of the left and right engines so that a pilot, even if he wanted, could not turn them off at the same time. But the toggle switches were located side by side, and the mechanic was in a hurry...

— Did you start falling?

— More precisely, we started to lose altitude. Shortly before that, I performed autorotation landing with both engines failure. However, it's quite easy to land on an asphalt spot, but there was a forest under us. I had to maneuver towards the highway. But it was clogged with vehicles. There was a clearing in a wooded area and a mounted gas pipeline nearby. In short, we touched the gas pipeline with the right wheel and the wires with the lifting propeller. A month later, the repaired MI-8 was already flying.

— Dilettante's question: couldn't you turn on both engines right away?

— It takes one minute to start. We were at a low altitude of 150 meters. In addition, the rate of descent was 10 meters per second. We would have crashed before the engines started.

— What if there was no clearing in a wooded area?

— We had a method of landing in difficult areas. In this case, the crew must take the upper edge of the forest for the ground surface, hover over it, and then descend to the crowns, waiting for support from tree trunks. In general, we carefully prepared for test flights on the ground, using simulators, special training films, and so on. At the same time, landing is one of the most difficult modes. A pilot has only one chance for autorotation landing. To do this, the helicopter must hover at a height of 3-5 meters. If below one meter, there will be a hard landing with serious aftermath. If higher, you lose the propeller speed, and the power is no longer enough for descending, so you will still hit the surface.

— Did you have parachutes?

— Yes, of course, as we were a testing organization. Usually, parachutes are not taken for flights at an altitude of 200-300 meters with the engine turned off: it is useless at a low altitude. It is necessary to decide promptly how to avoid a potential slaughter. When we tested helicopters at the altitude of 2-3 kilometers, of course, we had parachutes with us. But I have never had to use it.

— What about the other test pilots?

— The most experienced among us, Yuri GARNAEV, used to leave the helicopter with a parachute many times. Once in the Lyubertsy area, his crew was testing another helicopter. During the flight, the gearboxes that rotated the lifting and antitorque propellers were destroyed. The shafts transmitting the rotational motion damaged, and the helicopter began to fall into pieces. It was 800 meters to the ground.

Yuri ordered the crew to leave the helicopter and jumped out first, showing the crew that this should be done as soon as possible. The crew members hesitated slightly, but still managed to jump out. Alas, only three of the six people remained alive: one got into the propeller blades, another fell on the fence, and the third contacted the high-voltage line. The helicopter crashed on the railway...

There are three pages of yellowed typewritten text in the archive of Gennady PROVALOV. It is the list of the most important aircraft tests that the pilot has carried out. Here are just some of them: "Performing a safe landing on the MI-8 helicopter in case of a failure in the antitorque system", "Ice reconnaissance in the conditions of the polar night from the “Siberia” nuclear icebreaker", "Starting and shutting down the MI-6 engines at up to 6000 meters altitude in the mountains", "Landing on Pamir glaciers at an altitude of over 4000 meters", "Working out fire-fighting operations on high-rise buildings, and transporting emergency rescuers and people in a rescue cabin and on an external suspension day and night", "Fog dispersion by the flow from the lifting propeller at zero visibility", "Landing on mobile offshore drilling units", and "Construction and installation work on high-rise objects". By the way, in 1994 in Moscow, masts for microwave radio relay lines were installed on the roof of the CMEA [Council for Economic Mutual Assistance] building with the help of a KA-32 helicopter. Gennady PROVALOV no longer flew then. But he led this unique work...

— Sooner or later we all look back. We reflect on the fate and try to analyze it. But are we all happy with ourselves and the choice we have made?

— I think I made it in life. Because I was doing what I loved. There were no routine or senseless days. For 30 years in aviation, I have mastered many types of aircraft and almost all domestic helicopters. I was attracted by the constant novelty of testing the capabilities of aircraft equipment. I didn't need extra adrenaline. There were quite enough extreme situations in test flights and landings. Nothing is more exciting than this...

The title "Honored Test Pilot of the USSR" was awarded to him in 1991 by the last decree of the President of the Soviet Union Mikhail GORBACHEV. Next to him in the list of awardees was Alla PUGACHEVA [the most famous Russian singer]. She was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

— What feelings did you experience — joy, pride, or satisfaction?

— Frankly speaking, these awards, titles, orders, and medals are children's stuff! All these gives nothing but inner satisfaction from a well-spent life in aviation.

Valentin KURYACHY; photo from the archive of Gennady PROVALOV