Yak-52 Taildragger Photos

I’m planning on having a pole of the TD in the near future, and will be glad to post my experiences in the cockpit. Stay tuned !!

And to think an hour in a club PA28 cost me £132 on Saturday… :confused:

As the weeks go by, I’m becoming more and more convinced that group flying is the way forward. Just need to get that bit of paper back from the lovely folks at Gatwick, and then decide what I want to fly…. :rolleyes:

Moggy’s figures are still about right. Our group reckon it is about £100 per hour (based on 55 litres of fuel per hour average) plus monthly fees (insurance, hangarage etc..) We have a share for sale if anyone is interested.

The following is copied from the thread written after Aerofair last month:

Yak-52TD

EUR55,00 will convert your current nose-wheel one to a taildragger. Because you will be getting a fully retractable undercarriage, you get new wings. You also get new paint. Conversion takes 3-weeks.

If you do not already have one to convert, then EUR100,000 will get you a newly converted one. That’s currently about £67,000 for a 360hp military spec aircraft. Can you find something else in it’s league for that price?

Or there is the super model EUR120,000 will get you one with a 400hp enging, three-blade propeller, transponder with Mode C, strobes, rounded wing-tips, Hooker harness, extra baggage space and a smoke system!

We did some climb tests in the TD last night, pitching it against a nosewheel version. We were in the 400hp 2-blade demonstrator. It pulled away from the other very nicely!

Please note the at the -TD is different from the -TW.

I was fortunate to do some aeros in the Yak52TD just last week (after being jumped on by a Mk V Spitfire!). What a joy it was to do rolls an loops with either no dive or just a shallow dive to get the correct entry speed.

I even achieved a small miracle (for me) a slow-ish roll without any regrets! It took about six attempts to go from a very messy first attempt with it wallowing out at the bottom to a passable one. Sheer joy!

This particular model had the three-blade propeller on it, so the take-off roll was extremely short and rapid.

And another good point for us folk with little legs – it is just so much easier to get up on the wing.

I love it.

All the info required can be found at the Yakuk website.

Try http://www.yakuk.com/YAK52TD.asp for Yak-52TD specifics: http://www.yakuk.com/YAK52TD.asp

Looks a lovely Aircraft wonder how long it be before we see this type regularlly in the UK.

I NEEEEEED one of those!!

I was in a group back around 1997 so you’ll have to update the costs.

As a 10 man group spent about £40,000 on the aircraft which was partially westernised but retained the odd ‘upside down’ AI and other idiosyncracies.

With £50 per month each standing charge, fuel and engine fund would eat up about another £60 – £70 per hour depending on how hard you were flying it. This at a time when a Warrior was about £80 – £90 from a club.

Large groups aren’t an issue as this type of aircraft tends to do short, intense sorties, rather than long trips. Often three of us would share the aircraft over a day. One flying, one passengering & ‘critiqueing’ from the back, one in the caff recovering. Each maybe doing two PI flights.

I did use it for touring once but it’s short range tended to make this a little nail-biting.

A lovely aircraft. Very easy to fly at a basic level, my aeros never were particularly advanced, but an ‘experten’ can make it do things that will make your bowels stand on end 🙂

Biggest downside? Cleaning all the oil off the airframe at the end of the day.

Moggy

So as a complete numptie here, how much would one of these (Yak-52 taildragger) cost to buy? Running costs? The tricycle one is ok but the taildragger is so much cleaner. I’ve looked at the Yak UK website but it’s not that informative..

John C
Running before he can walk. Or crawl even.

I suggest the main benefits from the drivers seat, will be the extra performance available, along with the reduced fuel bill. Also, your grin upon greasing her in will be visible to others for miles around (assuming a CAVOK day)…

It looks tons better from that angle, and is much nicer on the ground.

Unfortunately all the visual benefit is lost from the drivers seat, you just can’t see the difference 🙁

Also won’t be quite as forgiving of a moment’s innattention to the tell-tales on finals 😮

I’d certainly love one, particularly if it came with the extra ‘wet’ wings.

Moggy

It looks much better with a ‘proper’ undercarriage, as opposed to that collection of bent metal and wheels roughly folded up underneath! Probably gives an extra few knots as well….. 😮