Director of Operations Ken Gray believes the original intent of the ACSF audit was “worthy” because his company, Executive Fliteways of Ronkonkoma, N.Y., was undergoing a minimum of three safety audits a year. So when ACSF management approached him to become a charter member and help develop the new audit standard, Gray jumped at the chance.

Another new requirement is that crewmembers must now have visas, as has been required of passengers. “On arrival the immigration officer will check for visas, and anyone not holding one will be required to leave the country immediately,” Pahl warned. That is, the authorities won’t necessarily require the aircraft to depart, just the offending passenger. However, if it’s a crewmember without a visa, then the aircraft may be required to reposition out of the country.

The most popular destination in Russia for business aviation is, of course, the capital, Moscow, with St. Petersburg the second most popular. At Moscow, most business aviation traffic uses Vnukovo Airport (UUWW), the least congested of the city’s three fields, due to its lack of commercial operations. Accordingly, Vnukovo has evolved to support business aviation with several executive-level FBOs; it also offers relatively easy access to the city (“relatively,” because Moscow’s surface traffic is very congested).