Rodobolsky’s flight career includes more than 1,700 combat missions and five thousand hours on the Mi-8. He began flying this vehicle almost immediately after graduating from college and received the highest qualification – sniper pilot. He is assigned to units. Those with more than two thousand flight hours have almost perfect shooting accuracy. So, when firing at a shooting range with various weapons (a machine gun, rockets), a serviceman must hit eight targets out of ten “excellently.” And another requirement is the ability to fly day and night, with minimal visibility, for example. in thick fog.
“I remember that Igor, as part of the flight crew, had to land a helicopter in the most difficult conditions at the Gisel airfield. There were wounded on board who had to be taken to a hospital in Vladikavkaz; there was no alternative airfield. A minimum of radio equipment was used. Few would have been able to cope with such a task, and I remember a dozen cases. This is a pilot who performed missions in any conditions,” shares his memories of Rodobolsky’s friend, Hero of Russia Evgeny Fedotov, who served with him in the same regiment for nine years.
The main task of the Mi-8 during combat operations is the landing of troops, reconnaissance groups and the evacuation of soldiers who have completed the mission and the wounded.
Evgeny Fedotov recalls one of these landings:
“Together with Nikolai Maidanov, who was later awarded the title of Hero of Russia, Igor took part in the landing of the special forces. The situation was such that he was forced to cover the landing of the guys from two other Mi-8s with his own helicopter. Then, at the airfield, they counted more than 50 holes in Igor’s helicopter. At the same time, neither the pilot nor the special forces were injured.
The fame of the highly professional and successful pilot also spread among Chechen militants: a reward of one million dollars was offered for the heads of Rodobolsky and his colleague Nikolai Maidanov.
“Everyone who flew with Rodobolsky always knew that they would return!” says Colonel of the Russian Armed Forces, participant in the First and Second Chechen Wars, Hero of Russia Sergei Voronin: “Before my eyes, General Vladimir Shamanov hugged Igor: “Here is my guardian angel!”
During the First Chechen Campaign, Rodobolsky evacuated the crew and passengers from the command post of a Mi-8 that had crashed during landing. A group of ten generals were on board, including the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Vladimir Shamanov.
“The helicopter fell into a ditch on a small platform where it was landing, broke down, and people had to be evacuated. There was nowhere to land; the platform was the “navel of a hill,” the stuck helicopter blocked its entire length. “Igor had to put the helicopter at the wheel and pick up the generals,” says Evgeny Fedotov.
Rodobolsky flew in the mountains, where there are often no suitable places to land a helicopter. His ability to land a car literally on a piece of ground, keeping it practically on one wheel while an assault force lands or evacuates wounded soldiers is a skill and ability akin to talent. According to Sergei Voronin, Rodobolsky developed several new ways of using military aviation in the mountains, which still save the lives of military pilots and their passengers.
In retirement, Igor Rodobolsky devoted himself to the education of children and youth, headed the regional center of patriotic education in Yekaterinburg and took an active part in the activities of the public organization “Heroes of the Urals”.
“I don’t think there was a single case when he was invited to an event at school, university or in a municipality and he refused,” says Natalia Shmidko, executive director of Heroes of the Urals. “He was very empathetic. The children felt it, they were drawn to him, and he told them amazing things, important things that, probably, the younger generation will never learn from anyone else.”
