FRIENDSHIP FLIGHT: Tony Circles the Globe : Tony Arrives in Asia, Home of Eagle-Size Mosquitoes

When a chase plane for 11-year-old Tony Aliengena landed ahead of him in this Siberian military capital on Monday, a crowd of waiting Soviet citizens did not even notice that the boy aviator was not aboard.

They rushed to the twin-engine plane and began handing out pink roses, post cards and souvenir pins to the five Americans aboard, vigorously pumping their hands and practicing their English.

“These people have not ever seen Americans,” said Luba Popova, an English teacher in Omsk, which has been closed to foreigners since World War II because it is a weapons manufacturing center.

About 100 Siberians withstood sultry, 85-degree heat to see and touch the Americans.

The encounters were even more special because Tony, of San Juan Capistrano, is flying around the world on a friendship mission.

At a youth camp outside Tumen, where the Americans spent their first day in Soviet Siberia on Sunday, a young man watching three Americans in a shallow stream walked over and handed them three yellow flowers he had picked. With a handshake and a shy smile, he said, “ Mir ,” which means peace.

In both Tumen and Omsk, the residents showered Tony and his entourage with bouquets of flowers, presented them with food and gifts and collected autographs from every member of flight crew.

While Tony had received large receptions in other Soviet cities, the Siberian welcome far overshadowed the others.

In Tumen and Omsk, buses shuttling the entourage to and from airports received police escorts, with officers using flashing lights and loudspeakers to clear traffic from the road.

In Tumen, a crowd of more than 400 people, by far the largest of the trip, applauded when Tony’s Cessna 210 Centurion, and a Beechcraft King Air piloted by San Joaquin Valley surgeon Lance Allyn, taxied to a stop. Dozens of Young Pioneers--children enrolled in the Communist Party youth group--waved Soviet flags.

“I just think it is an event of an epoch,” teacher Popova said.

The 20,000-mile journey reached its midpoint Sunday when the entourage flew 700 miles from Kuibyshev to Tumen. The occasion was not lost on Tony, who radioed this message to Allyn after they crossed the halfway point just east of the 5,000-foot Ural Mountains: “We would like to congratulate everyone on the flight for making it halfway around the world.”

His father, Gary Aliengena, later added, “We’re on our way home.”

Two other milestones were marked Sunday: It was the group’s entry into the Asian continent, which is separated from Soviet Europe by the Urals. And it was the 11th birthday of Tony’s pen pal, Roman Tchermenykh, who is accompanying him on the trip.

Happy Birthday, Roman

Members of the entourage in the chase plane sang happy birthday to Roman, who also sang.

In crossing the Urals, the planes had to deal with a line of threatening thunderstorms. Tony did so by reducing his altitude from 11,000 to 5,000 feet. Allyn descended to 17,000 from 19,000. After they crossed the Urals, the weather cleared enough to allow a first glimpse at Soviet Asia, where forests of light pine sprawled across flatlands interlaced by swamps and lakes.

Earlier Sunday, Soviet members of the entourage familiar with Tumen warned of the legendary mosquitoes there.

“You know that Tumen is famous for its mosquitoes--big ones, as big as your finger,” said Jouri Vasiliev, a Soviet navigator aboard the chase plane.

Aleksie Grinevich, a Soviet correspondent with the flight, agreed: “The mosquitoes are as big as eagles.”

Sure enough, Tumen was crawling with mosquitoes. Even on the hot pavement of the Tumen airport, the Americans slapped at mosquitoes with one hand while shaking hands with the other. That night, while the Americans swam in a river, swarms attacked everything from the lips to the eyes.

The trip was also marred by evidence of fraying nerves. After an hour of confusion at the Tumen airport, Gary Aliengena implored his hosts in a strained voice: “We have not eaten all day. We’re tired and hungry.”

But Allyn had disappeared from the landing area, forcing a bus carrying everyone else to wait in the heat.

“Let’s go,” Aliengena said. “Let’s leave him.”

When Allyn, who had sought relief from the heat inside the airport, showed up, Tony’s father barked, “We’ve been cooking here for 25 minutes!”

“Well, in all fairness, Gary,” Allyn said, “we’ve had to wait for you a helluva lot of times.”

Finally, the bus took the entourage and Soviets, some of whom had traveled up to 200 miles to meet Tony, to a Young Pioneers camp, where about 300 children greeted them with banners and chants of “Hello, Tony! Hello, Tony!”

He and his family listened from a second-story balcony of a camp building, with Tony waving like a small emperor.

The group dined at the camp on telmeny, a Siberian dish made from boiled dough stuffed with meat, and drank kvass, a sweet drink made from yeast and water.

Camps Help Families

During the meal, Galina Korotayeva, an English teacher who was host for Tony’s group in Tumen, said such Young Pioneer camps are all over the Soviet Union and are designed to help working families during the summer. Children may enroll for three weeks for a small fee.

Later, when Tony and the other children had all gone to bed, his father, mother and sister were treated to a session at a Siberian steam bath made from 15th-Century cedar and scented with pepperment leaves. By adding extra logs, Victor Tchernovnikov, the camp director, made the bath so hot that some of the Americans ran out for relief.

The next day, on the two-hour flight to Omsk, the “friendship flight” encountered cloudless skies and ideal flying conditions. The skies were so clear that, for the first time since leaving Orange County on June 5, Tony spotted Allyn’s King Air flying 4,000 feet above him.

The route took the two planes over East Central Siberia’s dense forest and the Trans-Siberian Railway. In Omsk, an industrial river port city of 1.3 million, a young Soviet boy delivered a welcoming speech.

“Tony, we are happy that you are here,” the boy said. “If children of our two countries are friends, then peace will be stronger. We wish you soft landings and peace.”

FRIENDSHIP FLIGHT LOG

Tony Aliengena, an 11-year-old San Juan Capistrano boy, is piloting a single-engine plane, seeking to become the youngest person to ever circumnavigate the globe.

Latest Leg

From: Tumen, Soviet Union

To: Omsk, Soviet Union

360 miles

2 hours 15 minutes

Departure time: 11 a.m.

Arrival time: 2:15 p.m.

Next Leg

From: Omsk

To: Kemerovo

600 miles

3 hours (est.)

Departure time: 10 a.m.

Arrival time: 1 p.m.

Total air time:

59 hours

20 minutes

Total miles flown:

10,796