Yak-52 Operating costs

[Marlboro_2002]

I am wondering if any of you own or fly a Yak 52. I am considering to buy one but I am still uncertain about the costs.

If anyone could please help!




Best regards!

[SATCO Biggin]

We operate a Yak52 in a group of 4 people. Currently we are charging ourselves £100 per month each and £35 per flying hour dry.

This gives us enough in the bank to cover the basics such as insurance, parking fees and routine maintenance, but NOT anything towards an engine fund (it would be another £25 per hour for that). Obviously we get 'hit' for the unexpected such as the need to put the animal on a UK Permit and have to dig into our own resources to top up the account to pay for that. Generally the cost of parts is a lot less than for a 'western' aircraft.

We took the decision not to start an engine fund as it would make the hourly rate look quite nasty. It appeared best that we invested the money ourselves in private savings accounts to mount up over time. As we are currently flying a total of approx. 100 hours per year this would mean we have around 5 years to save up the cash.

The cost of consumables depends on how you fly it. In the cruise we get around 60 litres/per hour from the Avgas, if you do lots of aero's you could easily double that consumption. Also oil is coming out at around 0.75 litres per hour in the cruise and about 1.1 lph during aero's (mostly dumped through the breather down the side of the fuselage).

An exact pounds per hour figure will depend on how much flying you do per annum. In summary, I think the aeroplane is worth evey penny. As someone else once said 'the best bangs for the bucks'

[Lowtimer]

Our group has eight members, and uses similar monthly / dry hour numbers to those suggested by Mad Controller, though since there are twice as many of us in the group we are raising a bit more fixed income. Obviously fixed expenditure may also vary, our aeroplane is hangared, for example, which may mean we are spending more than MC's group.

In general I agree with MC. We use about the same amount of oil but I am slightly surprised at MC's fuel consumption. We normally achieve 45 litres per hour - call it ten gallons - for going places (60% rpm, 600 mm hg manifold, 200kph). An hour's circuit bashing also seems to use about 45 or 50 litres. Presumably MC's lot like to cruise at a higher setting, nothing wrong with that if you can afford it. My habitual pattern of having 10 mins of gentle looping and rolling around towards the end of a flight has only a very modest effect on fuel consumption, but if you are into serious aerobatics, then as MC says you will guzzle a lot more.

My rule of thumb is that if you have a well set up group with enough members to keep utilisation up, and a decent Yak to start with, you will end up paying roughly about as much to fly your 50 hours a year as it would have cost you to rent a nice Archer II or similar commercially. And if you like military-style aeroplanes you do get a phenomenal amount of aeroplane and experience for your money - it would cost a lot more to fly something like a T-6, which is probably the nearest thing in terms of character and performance. Another point of reference is that it probably costs only a little more to fly a Yak than do the same number of hours in a Chipmunk syndicate, and much as I love Chippies, the Yak is in a different game altogether.

[SATCO Biggin]

Low Timer.....

Yep we tend to cruise at 70% and 700mm which gives us 250 kph indicated, but quite often I will juggle the figures up and down a bit to get a 'more comfortable rumble' from under the cowling.

With 8 in the group you must through a lot of hours per year. Have you had an engine change yet as we are getting close to ours and wonder if you have any views on the market for engine buying?

Also there is some concern surfacing on another forum about the legality of flying a UK Permit Yak over France as 'permits' are only good for the country of registration and do not infer overflight rights of other countries. I think the PFA had a similar problem a couple of years ago and managed to find a way around it.

[Marlboro_2002]

Thanks Mad Controller for the valuable info. Lowtimer thank you also.


I am thinking of setting up a small syndicate operating a Yak-52... thus for the reason of my question.

I still don´t know where to buy the aircraft from. I was wondering if you could help me with that as well, since you are more experienced than me. i know of all the company´s that sell them, but I am also aware there are a few being sold personnaly by there owners.


I recently spoke with an experienced Yak-52 pilot, that told me that here could be an increase on the overhaul time is american oil was to be used instead of Russian oil. This would boost up the available hours on the engine from 500 to 2000. It seems to me a little bit strange but he has owned a Yak for 6 years now, has logged more than 1000 hrs in it and still hasn´t overhauled the engine.


Best regards!

[SATCO Biggin]

Where yo buy a Yak is really up to you. Personally I would go to a well known dealer.

As well as the normal things to check when buying any aircraft you should make sure it has had the main spar mod done and the control surfaces re-covered in a 'western' fabric. Also radial engines need a bit more attention to pre-flight checks, operating temperatures etc so if buying from a private seller try and check that he has operated the engine in a professional manner.

The engine TBO question keeps arising and I am not aware of any extensions being given in the UK. It is question that should really be put to the Aviation Authority in the country you wish to register/operate the aircraft.

Our group are very close to needing a new engine and if the CAA were to change the rules just after we had paid out good money on a new one we would be most dis-pleased !!

Regards

[Lowtimer]

MC,

re: "the legality of flying a UK Permit Yak over France as 'permits' are only good for the country of registration and do not infer overflight rights of other countries"....

Took a UK registered one across France and Spain a couple of weeks ago but we did have a previously-obtained overflight permission. I wasn't involved in obtaining the thing, but if you want to know how it's done I'll ask the man who did it.

We probably have a year or so's usage left before we hit 500 hours on the current engine.