Yak Welcome
Coming in from the cold
Yaks and Nanchangs to join the LAA fleet. By Jeremy Diack…
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t the 2019 LAA Rally, Rachel Gardner-Poole, head of the UK CAA’s GA Unit, confirmed that the CAA and LAA had reached an agreement on the transfer of regulatory oversight of Russianbuilt Yak light aircraft, including the Yak-50, Yak-52 and Yak-18A (and also the Chinese-built Nanchang CJ-6A by virtue of its Yak-52 heritage). To mark the occasion, Yak-52 G-YAKX was confirmed as the first Yak to be approved for Permit transfer. Rob Rowe, part owner of G-YAKX and chief test pilot for this regulatory switchover, has recounted his experiences later in this article, but perhaps it’s best to start with some latter-day Yak aircraft history, picking up some 40 years after Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev first established his pioneering aircraft design and manufacturing company in the early 1930s.
The WAC and the Yak 50
The USSR swept the board at the 1976 World Aerobatic Championships (unlimited class) held in Kiev, Ukraine,
Above The Yakovlevs display team with a Super-52 in the foreground, its lighter weight and additional power enabling it to keep pace with the Yak 50s. Photo: Courtesy Yakovlevs
taking seven of the 10 top positions, including first, second and third places. The same aircraft type was used by all Soviet Bloc team members, the newly launched Yak-50, which had completed its maiden test flight just 13 months earlier in June 1975. Created as a rival for the American bi-plane pocket-rocket, the Pitts S-1S, the Soviets finally had their championship winner. Fast-forward two years to the 1978 World Championships held at Ceske Budejovice in the Czech Republic, and the picture had changed somewhat. Introducing more abrupt manoeuvres into the competition sequences for the first time, the Yak-50 struggled to keep pace with other types, such as the Zlin Z-50 L which, with its full-span ailerons could easily out roll the Yak-50. The highest placing the men’s Soviet team managed that year was fifth place, and not wishing to be outdone on the international stage, it looked like the Yak-50 was officially on notice. Impressively, the Soviet women’s team had still managed to take the top five female positions in their Yak-50s and so the aircraft was used again at the 1982 championships in Sptizerberg, Austria (the Soviets having passed,
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