Ride in a YAK
 

Sunday seems to be the day for first flights - for me it was a quick half hour in a YAK. Nothing too dramatic, lift off and parallel the runway, then a zoom climb to circuit height, with everyone on the diner's terrace going "oooooh look at that"! :ok:

Couldn't tell what I was looking at on the instrument panel, except the compass, as it was all in Russian. :confused:

We went out of the local area, up to 3000ft and did some simple stuff - no real aeros, because of the airspace limits and the owner is still building up experience. Steep turns, wing-overs (?) and pulled 4g a few times.

Tried opening the cockpit a notch but it threatened to blow my glasses with it - so I shut it again - but hey that's some wind at 120kts!

The approach was pretty steep - I was beginning to wonder when the flare was going to happen - but he put it down quite nicely, thank you.

Came out of the aeroplane with a huge silly grin on my face - that is one fun steed! :cool: :cool:

Strangely enough, Mrs GB, who is not a flier at all, was green with envy, and actually want's to go back so she can have a "go".

The owner is trying to get more people to fly it - but is having some trouble, presumably because of cost (the half hour used almost as much fuel as the 4 hours it took me to fly there and back in an Archer). If I lived locally, I'd be on his list for a conversion - that short flight showed me just how much fun flying can be - and I've now started to think of the Archer as a spam-can.

Great day - great fun, and a big thanks to Mike :) :ok:

Te he!!

Eyes opened to what flying can really be about, eh GB?

SSD

With fuel consumption like that, I think I would check if the caps are on the fuel tanks before the next flight :p

I have had 3 and they can be pretty economical, and not all that scary cost wise, even with some quite exhuberant throwing around.

20 to 21 gallons per hour at aeros power setting - 82 per cent RPM and full power. As my wallet can testify!

SSD

This sounds fun. Where is this guy based ?

Err....... somewhere not a million miles from Frankfurt :O :O

Gennedy Elfimov at 'Skytrace', Wolverhampton is 'Mr Yak'. I'd recommend anyone to have a session with him, whether you are after advanced aeros polishing, or just a blast through the sky.

SSD

I agree with SSD; Genna's the man if you want to fly in a YAK and be shown what a YAK can do. Does anyone know if he's displaying this year?? Last I heard, he was spending too much time with computers.

Genna is the man :ok:

How encouraging it is to hear of someone enjoying flying..........


As far as my limited info is Genna is doing a few displays this year but the best way to find out is of course to pick up the phone call and ask him..........;)