On March 14, Vladimir Putin visited a helicopter plant in Ulan-Ude (Russia). About 15 minutes "flew" with an instructor in the Mil Mi-171A2 helicopter simulator at the aviation training center. He himself raised the helicopter into the air, flew over the city day and night, he landed the board himself. According to Kommersant (newspaper), before that, Putin already had experience of taking off and flying on a military flight simulator - he was able to take off on a combat aircraft from a virtual aircraft carrier, but could not cope with the landing - the plane crashed on the deck.