The =Flying BARANS= Squadron was founded in 1999, even before the Freehost project came to life. Back then it consisted from two people: Commander Dmitry “mit-x-“ and his wingman Andrew “bul---“. When Freehost project for Warbirds Flightsim became operational our squadron began to grow. Since late 1999 till early 2000 the following pilots had joined our squad: Storm (storm), Kgach (kgach), Marder (marder), Rgreat (rgreat) and Viks (vik-s). This greatly increased the strength of the squad. Moreover the strongest of =FB= pilots regularly flew at the same time late at night.
That period (year 2000) initiated our team flights, though at first we couldn’t compete with stronger squadrons. Unfortunately MitX (mit-x), the founder and leader of the Barans couldn’t spend much time with the squadron due to devotion to his family. So the =FB= squadron basically became self-organized. First attempts to give our flights some coordination were made back in the summer of 2000. By that time we’ve already gathered a lot of experience in dogfight and team tactics, our individual skill had also grown up. =FB= pilots (-storm and vik-s-) won several Freehost tournaments.
Some circumstances didn’t allow MitX (mit-x) to fly regularly and command the squad. So by 2001 he resigned from command and gave his duties to Kgach. Kgach became the actual commander of the squad, though on paper he was still Executive Officer.
On August 20th 2000 squad mail became operational, which gave a new impulse to squad development. There appeared a possibility to discuss and plan team missions. It became easier to rule the squad. Also that fall of 2000 gave start to the idea of squad ranks. In that fall team mission became a common sight. Squad effectiveness dramatically increased. During that period a lot of new pilots and several small squads had joined us. By the early 2001 our squad was already a formidable force in virtual sky.
In February 2001 squad ranks were finally introduced and Kgach officially became Executive Officer. Strong wing that flew mostly night-time was finally formed. Other =FB= regularly joined it in team missions. The Night Wing was very effective. It plus high individual skill of Barans were the foundation of future glory and popularity of =FB= Squad.
As time passed some pilots joined =FB=, some left. Our squad became stronger and stronger. From a tiny squad, created as a joke, =FB= grew into one of the leading squads. 2001 was a heyday for =FB=. By summer 2001 Barans had already won a series of consequently won Freehost tournaments:

November 2000 – 8th Freehost Warbirds Tournament. Winner: -storm.
June 2001 – 9th Freehost Warbirds Tournament. Winner: vik-s-.
July 2002 – 10th Freehost Warbirds Tournament. Winner: -storm.
October 2004 – 12th Freehost Warbirds Tournament. 1st place: vik-s-; 2ns place: -storm.

In summer 2001 new flightsim (Il2 Sturmovik) was presented and a tournament was held during MAKS airshow. This tournament was totally won by =FB=. All 4 first places were won by =FB= pilots (VikS, Marder, Kgach, Storm). Barans fame started to spread beyond the Warbirds community, but at the same time our WB positions began to weaken since most of our strong pilots turned to Il2 Sturmovik. The activity of the remaining pilots dropped, which couldn’t have no consequences. They flew disorganized and squad positions in Warnirds weakened.
By 2002 Mit-x still couldn’t arrange a regular online connection for him and as the squad situation demanded organization and discipline an officers meeting was held, where Mit-x officially delegated his duties to Kgach.
In the Il2 flightsim =FB= were naturally wreaking havoc on the enemy. Luftwaffe pilots refused to fly against the =FB= as they knew that it’ll most certainly mean being shot down.
The first online war project was the IOW. Generally such projects when properly organized are quite fascinating. No icons greatly influences tactics, to such extent, that even some very experienced WB pilots couldn’t cope with it.
In a glance Barans took leading stat positions. Top scorers were Kgach, Viks, Storm with such total number of victories that our squad was leading the stats with most kills. It was 1941 at that time in the IOW and German side had total numerical and qualitative superiority so our combat success was a result of high individual skill and great team work. At the same time =FB= began to share experience with other VVS squads, particularly to 7IAP, which soon also became a nail in the ass of our opponents.
IOW administration, which consisted of LW pilots only, couldn’t put up with this situation, when VVS pilots flying worse airplanes and usually outnumbered still managed to win most missions. Fair play couldn’t help bringing Barans down, so some tricks were implemented, such as customizing missions in favor of LW side. When this also didn’t help there were several scandals organized to eliminate several skillful =FB= and 7IAP pilots from the project. In sign of protest =FB=, 7IAP and 228ShAD had left the IOW project.
But life went on and =FB= had joined the new online project – VEF. The idea of VEF belongs to Vadim “Starshoy”. Watching all the events in IOW he created a new project from scratch with respect to all pilots. VEF became a balanced project giving equal chances to VVS and LW. But many LW pilots weren’t eager to fly in such conditions so in the first months of the project VVS pilots had to fly for LW under different call signs.
In the second war =FB= were flying more frequently. A number of new pilots who started flying Il2 joined the squad. We should note that because VEF (and IOW) is made of separate missions (unlike WarBirds, where war goes nonstop on a single arena) it’s more difficult to survive then in Warbirds on the Main Arena. Besides, mission objectives force pilots to act more organized. These factors helped us to develop better coordination and team work.
Right from the beginning of the War =FB= went to the top place in squad stats. =FB= isn’t the largest squad in VEF, but by effectiveness and number of kills 8-12 our pilots were equal to 40-50 pilots of giant squads like =FPS=. Mostly this was due to the lack of experience, since there weren’t so many pro pilots in Il2 those days. Gradually other squads became more competitive. Even in VEF the number of problems and disputes with LW pilots grew from day to day. Many LW pilots refused to fly against us motivating it by “the lack of fun”. There even were soma attempts to force pressure on VEF Administration to ban us. For this purpose various nonsense was rumored, for example that VikS is a cheater or that you can’t use flaps in dogfight and other crap). Fortunately VEF Administration was wise enough not to buy such provocations and =FB= participated in this project until its end.
After VEF there was VEF2, an improved version of the first project. Barans participated in VEF2, but all in all less actively then in previous projects.

Since we had now more time free from online wars we decided to organize a Virtual Flight School for the new generation of pilots. About 40 pilots were enlisted out of approximately 200 candidates. 10 of them successfully completed the education and are now member of =FB= Squadron.

Besides participating in online wars Barans also took part in various tournaments and competitions, including international ones.
Altogether =FB= have won about 10 major tournaments. =FB= won 1st place 42 times, 2nd place – 21 times, 3rd place – 6 times, 4th place – 9 times.

Our achievements are listed below: