 After graduating from the Orenburg Military Aviation School of Pilots in September 1932 he was assigned to the 3rd Squadron of the 5th Aviation Brigade.In December 1933 he was promoted to the flight commander of the 1st Red Banner Fighter Aviation Squadron named after V.I.Lenin; the squadron was originally based in Krasnogvardeysky, but was transferred to Bochkarevo in 1934.The next year in led a flight of six I-16's on the Bochkarevo - Khabarobsk - Spassk-Dalny route, and achieved a new time record for the route by flying it in three hours and ten minutes.