YAK 52 AEROBATICS

59 & 60 - Solo Practice - Flicks, loops, ROTT, 1/2 reverse cuban, Canadian break, Wingovers, A Rolls, split S

First Sortie to the West of Blackburn. Went through the repotire paricularly focussing on loops 1/2 reverse and flicks, some wingovers and aileron rolls thrown in for good measure. STraight back up again for much of the same over chorley lakes. Controller said I was close to airspace, the transponder. reads high in FA so I dropped my height to 3300 ft as low as I'd dare to start. No real learings just fun.

Flicking

58 - Dual Experience Flight with Nic - Wingovers, A Rolls

Over to Bolton area lowish cloud so the flat show. Wingovers andf aileron rolls. NIc enjoyed himself and so did I

57 - Solo - Wingovers, Aileron Rolls, Slow rolls, 4 point rolls

After a charge up she behaved impeccably. Zoom climb to start the day off.  Over to Chorley lakes and Warton Radar. Inverted check for flotsam. The usual grass up the nose routine. Aileron rolls, wingovers and a slow roll to get my sea legs. Then a series of inverted sections and right and left knife edges. Not too difficult and easier than I imagined. Just used 70% 600mm and 250 kph. Now for all four corners. 90, and 180 easy peasy but my nose was well down on the 3rd quarter. And I scooped out to erect flight at the end. Figured I needed more speed and a higher nose entry. That that sorted the first 3 stops but still out low to erect.. speed was the key; I stepped up the entry to 280kph and had a reasonably high nose attitude. Must remember the fuselage should be a wing. Worked and I was happy with the results. Back to Barton. 40 psi so a few T&Gs. Surprised to see 40 after a circuit. Afterwards it was 20 on shutdown it’s the sticky front ap gauge. Still 3 landing and my currency back. Great sortie

56 - Dual with Martin - Wingovers, A Rolls, revise flicks, lear roll off the top and 1/2 reverse cuban

Air started on 25.. At the pumps on shutdown I noticed some smoke (more than usual). A small fire had atsrted where the carb heat cowling was. One of the firemen extinguished it immediately, Looks like we’d lit the oil on the inside of the cowlings. It was a hot day and FA was fully hot. Strip down, removed and inspected I could no no damage no damage at all; thorough clean of the inside of the cowlings and removed the XS oil from the engine; ground run with Martin holding the top cover was fine. Reassembled, fuelled and took off, With the low air shook the U carriage up - warmed up with w/over, aileron rolls and loops; revised flicks several each side. Great fun. Then ROTT, 320 – 300 down 1/3 of a loop centralise then just aileron roll left and left rudder and drive away simples. Actually felt easy; Next the reverse ½ Cuban, 320 kph, 45 degrees up roll inverted then pull through… Martin was teaching the straight pull though - in comps need an up line at 45 degress first, all good; somewhere we pulled 6G… then 3 slow rolls in succession called Warton then slipped down to the reebok. Nice tight circuit. Good landing.
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55 - Dual Experience Flight with Shaun - Wingovers, A Rolls

Long time coming it was the perfect day for an experience flight. Overhead Shauns farm with FL35 to TMA we did some gentle wingovers and also a couple of aileron rolls. Shaun did extremely well, not the first time in a plane with me as he'd been in the Cessna a few times with me. Capable co-pilot. What a privilige it is to take people up up enjoy it as much as I.

54 - Solo Aeros - Loops, Rolls, Wingovers, 1/2 Cubans, Slow rolls, Split S.

This was just a fun session doing whatever seemed appropriate for the height at the time. I expleined to Warton about the Transponder they understood and were happy with my 7000 set.

53 - Dual Aeros with Mike- Loops, A+B Rolls, Wingovers, 1/2 Cubans, Slow rolls

Over Chorley Lakes with Mike in the back. There had been an issue with the engine stopping on closing the throtlle. Mike had tested it on a previous sortie with Martin all appeared fine. I invited Mike for a jump seat ride. Went through my repotoire. Was eather exuberant. Managed to pull 6G on one of the pull ups. Good session and a refresher for me

52 - Dual Aeros with Louis- Loops, Rolls, Wingovers, 1/2 Cubans, Slow rolls

A full on session - Headed straight to Blackburn. Changed over to Warton who gave me 3641. Just managed to set it on the partially hidden transponder.

Finally had a chance re take my examiner (PPL) up fro a freebie. Treated him to the repotoire over Chorley lakes. Great fun. He said it was rather more enthusiastic than he remembered. Could be that I've been focussing on comp areas!!

51 - Solo Aeros - Loops, Rolls, Wingovers, 1/2 Cubans, Double loop, Double Rolls and Multiple Slow rolls; Basic minus stall turn

A full on session - Headed straight to Blackburn. Changed over to Warton who gave me 3641. Just managed to set it on the partially hidden transponder.

Went through the full repotoire; Started with inverted to check for loose objects. Loops still abit off in the Yak; spoit with the rudderless Slingsby. I was using 80%800mm. Double loop as well which went well with a short pause between - no ill effects I was up for it.. Properly inverted wingovers were a delight to do.. Experimented with double rolls and rolling with slight forward stick. my half Cubans need work to be crisper, good use of opposite recovery rudder.

Slow rolls. Just love doing these in the yak, effortless. I managed to bolt three together and felt that I could have done them all day. Maybe time to look at rolling circles.

I ran through the sequence a couple of times minus the stall turn. All seems to be coming along nicely apart from my inconsistent Yak loop

49 & 50 - Yak 52 - Experience Flights- Wingovers, Aileron rolls, Loop,

The first flight with Jane a non pilot, a wingover and a roll. After that I noted that the fuel cap was loose. so I descended and went back to land.

Refuelled an rerfitted the fuel cap. Basically the Yak screwdriver is so worn it struggles screw the cap on. Something I'll have to be more attentive too.

Next flight with Chris - He's been before so was treated to loops rolls and wingovers.

Both landings were very good. All systems go.

48- Yak 52 - Solo Aeros - Wingovers, Aileron rolls , Loop, Split S

The second sortie the same day - Straight to Chorley lakes and upto 3500 ft where I started to put my back into it. Loops, 1/2 Cubans, Wingovers of the new variety and rolls. Plus I basically just enjoyed myself with thorwing in a couple of Split S's as well. Great sortie. Much better circuit and landing all went tickerdy boo.

47- Yak 52 - Solo Aeros - Wingovers, Aileron rolls , Loop, Split S

After 6 months away from the Yak this was a voyage of re-discovery. Had all day to play with and took my time preparing her for flight. Same old stress on the ground getting her sorted ready for action although the air side is solid.

Off on 27R, U-carriage abit slow to come up... I put this down to new seals and lack of use. Headed towards the Tod direction whilst I got comfortable again. Did some basic aeros to get rid of the rust in the Bacup area. Found a nice valley with no built up areas and had just enough room to safely loop. The loop wasn't right. I eventually figured out that I had far too much trim on (nose up)

I headed over to my old practice ground just to the West of Blackburn. Looping manuevres - I felt that using two hands to pull with was much more stable. A split S or two put the smile back on my face and 5.5 G did as well

Landing was a greaser although I realised that I hadn't got prop to max RPM for a go around. Lack of practice but good to note and rectify.

46- Yak 52 - Dual Aeros - Wingovers, Aileron rolls , Loop, Barrel Slow roll - Inverted flight.

With Paul today; Basic aeros practice. two lots of inverted flight. A nice slow roll. FA holding her air again. All went perfect.

45- Yak 52 - Dual Aeros - Wingovers, Aileron, Barrel Slow rolls - Inverted flight, loops and 1/2 cubans, stall turns.

After starting with 40 bar of air I used almost all of it starting but start she did. Martin pumping the throttle whilst I was pumping the cylinder fuel plunger. She really wanted to stay in bed. However, big grins as she finally gave up the fight and rumbled into life. Spent quite some time warming her up. It was carb heat all the way in the low temps. I had Martin check the CH cowl just to make sure that the lever was working.

Warmed up with a steep turn, aileron roll and a barrel roll. Then wingovers once we were nearly at the M65 for a good look out. Inverted flight. First attempt Martin said my inverted angle of incidence wasn't enough. Recovery from is ugly when you don't lead with opposite rudder to the stick. My second attempt was spot on and I remained inverted until I realised that my shoulder straps were taking some load. Recovered using the right amount of opposite clog then completing the last bit with a reversal to rudder in the direction of turn. Straight into loops. After looping the robin the Yak is incredibly easy to loop. Lots more looking now and at the right places. Lots of correction. Not bad and now I am in charge of the yak loop!!! They seemed quite quick and although we pulled 5G+ I really didn't notice it. Martin pegged a used height of 700 ft. Next 1/2 Cubans did 3/4 of these. Comments were 60 degrees on the first one and pushing too hard on the down line. Martin wanted me to roll straight away but I was flying competition in my head and wanted the invisible judges to see my down line. Some were ugly recoveries to erect when not using opposite rudder first. A new motor skill to learn. Next stall turns - I did at least three. entry a little scrappy. I manhandled the controls a little more. One went all pancake on me and I sensed I was about to spin inverted so I closed the power and centralised the controls and she fell out into a dive 90 degrees off my downline. The others weren't bad. I was getting happier to sense with seat of pants more and more. For some reason the rudder seemed less effective and she struggled to come around. Back to Barton. Circuit was sloppy. Really need to handle height control in the circuit. The changes in plane configuration have a reasonable impact of speed and trim management and I don't seem to be too accurate with this. Short field landing at 150 kph all went well. Great sortie

44- Yak 52 - Dual Aeros - New Cloth Helmet - Wingovers, Wingover rolls, 45 degree up lines and down lines, Slow Rolls

With Martin in the back for critique. Took off with only 15 bar; deliberately held off raising the undercarriage; Eventually shook it up a little negative G. Over to Warton; still not great vis of the Transponder even with the cloth helmet on.

Straight into wingovers - starting each group one with a 90 degree bank dive - just enjoyed throwing her around. Then I briefed Martin that I was going to do wingover rolls. Something that Jim Wiggle had done during our aeros course and quite a nice graceful move. Went really well. After the apex of the wingover with the wings at 90 degrees as the nose falls below the horizon just add aileron and roll in the same direction so that as the wings come level you are ready for the next wingover. Lovely.

I investigated the 45 degree line; First set 82% and 800 mm - dived for 300 kph then smartly up to 45 degrees adding full power - compensating with left rudder as she slowed down. The slow down came quickly and I found myself pushing over the top into a dive quite hard being careful with the ball as I was quite slow. This applied approximately minus 2 G which after a few attempts really made me feel unwell. Decided to knock that on the head - Martins comments were that he thought my 45 up lines were more than 45 degrees. Might explain the rapid slow down. It was a good exercise to put a pin on the map for further practice. Next exercise will to rolling on the up lines then letting the nose drop and rolling erect... basically the safety get out incase i spot traffic whilst inverted.

I decided I was well enough for slow rolls and did quite a few mainly to the left all came off beautifully. I was at 3 K near the boundary ready to go home so I stuffed the nose down and prepared for home. 09L base was over the pylons and she came down on the money on rails.

Nice refresher

43 - Yak 52 - Solo Aeros - New Cloth Helmet - Rudder Neutral Position - Wingovers, A+B Rolls, Slow Rolls

Over the moor behind Greenmount and next to Blackburn. Tried to establish the Rudder Neutral speed. Diving down - must say that the balance ball didn't appear to be that reactive. If anything RH rudder below 300 kph. Next time I'll try 45 degree lines to see if I can get the speed right up there to see a change over point. Ultimately, aeros entries are generally 320 kph max anyway. Did my usual warm up routine with wingovers an A+B rolls. Concentrated on slow rolls to the left. Tried entries at 260 kph. the first 3 quadrants relatively easy and the push required not Herculean; all the loose grass and bits floated around the cockpit. Good to note no clunking or unusual noises indication anything more sinister knocking around. The toughest part of the slow roll is the last quarter. Not sure how much rudder to apply. For the first three I nailed my aiming point; according to the books its supposed to draw an ellipse. The Yaks controls are so powerful that I could hold a point for 3 quadrants. More to do and RH also.

42 - Yak 52 - Aeros with Martin - Wingovers, A+B Rolls, Slow Rolls

Usual messing around to get enough air for what I needed... I didn't recognize that the rear mags were not on. The tell tell sign is that once started it runs fine then as soon as you take your finger off the starter it stops!!!. Bugger. Still with 20 in the main she started OK. Some bottle close time. After re-fueling I could see 4 aircraft doing power checks so I elected to go back to parking!! the only long grass ion the airfield now (under our Yak LOL) and built up pressure. Got the oil temp up to 50 (first time ever) and the engine was cooling nicely in equilibrium with 60%. Made sure that there was mn 1" from the top so we wouldn't be overflowing the fuel. Infact, it read 100 liters to start so 1/2 an inch is 120 liters (full) 2 Quartz of W100 (Summer oil was used). Vis was crap. One objective of the mission was to have the rear undercarriage selector operated. We did do it 3 times!! and it worked a treat. I did do some charging with the bottle closed just in case to keep the air at safe levels. There was a small clearish bubble between Bolton and Bury so Lazy 8's, aileron rolls and even threw in a barrel roll. I also did two slow rolls. No demonstration I had to learn on the job for these and after the ugliness in a chippy cockpit how back could it be in a yak!! First on ok but I omitted top rudder on the last quadrant.. didn't seem to ruin much. I suggested I should start them at 260 kph and Martin affirmed that's a good speed to use. The second one I concentrated on one cloud and did what it took to keep that cloud in my sights. Perfect worked out great. At this point I was aware of lowish fuel so started to head back. Busy circuit - all worked out fine 160 approach down to 155 at the threshold, nice landing and enough air not to worry about taxiing. Nice sortie in very marginal conditions and the serviceability wise I am happy that the Yak is safe to fly.

40 & 41 - Yak 52 - Solo Areobatics - Lazy 8's - A+B Rolls - Loops over the Bolton Lakes

Two sessions. Completely scrapped by the sluggish undercarriage and all the shenanigins trying to resolve it. On the last circuit the leak was obviously worse and I landed with 20 bar, taxied with 15 bar cleared the plugs with 10 Bar and shutdown as the brakes were ceasing to hold. Disappointing. I did however manage to snap some of the action on my HD minicam.

Yak 52 Aeros

39 - Yak 52 - Solo Areobatics - Parachute Trial - Lazy 8's - A+B Rolls - Loops and Split S's over Chorley Lake

After a frustrating time after losing the rubber charging grommet. The fire team came through with a nice couple of grommets that fitted together perfectly. The main purpose for today's flight was to test using the parachute. First of all I realised the when I'm starting solo with the dog and pony show I can't wear the parachute so I'll have to put it in situ.... I figured that sitting down putting on the parachute starting with the shoulder strap to get the seating position right should be first.Then  start the engine; then complete the straps during the warm up. Worked out ok. Adds a little more pressure to the warm out routine checking and checklist. Plus being in a que at the pumps puts more in the mix. 

09L nice take off; LH undercarriage retraction slow again but up 1/2 way to the reebok. Cloud base about 25 to 30 but over the lake was 35 just perfect. Then I started to enjoy this airplane, Lazy 8s aileron and barrel rolls...slow down the barrels for the last 1/2 turn. I threw in a couple of loops keeping the g at about 4. Split S's each way, again keeping half an eye on the g. Tried setting 82/800 and dived. I found that I could make 320 kph but couldn't get the speed higher without considering snuffing the nose down move. Strangely I could feel a LH skid that could also have been caused by the wind. 

Reasonably tight circuit. 18-25 gusting down the runway. Opted to keep the speed up to 170 on final but struggled a wee bit and she was down to 155 at one point. Ground speed was low. Landing came off great. Taxi to the new parking was easy as its almost a straight run in. Nice sortie making the most of the a doable day amongst crap weather week. 

I almost forgot I had the parachute on - no negative feed back only the start up routine is affected. Big success and step forward in safety for my solo flights..

38 - Yak 52 - Check out with Martin- Lazy 8's - A Rolls - Steep Turns and rolls on a point - Touch and goes

Been a long time - probably about 7 months - More than ready for the check ride with Martin. Not a particularly;arly nice day but just doe able to get the cobwebs off. Needed a charge as my first attempt to start failed. With some air she fired just fine. We primed 6 cylinders and Martin sucked in two. Great rush on take off from 09L.love this machine. Fairly early on in the climb the LH undercarriage didn't come up. Headed for the Reebok and attempted to use some gentle negative G persuasion. I recycled and the gear went down ok albeit a little slowly. Cycled up again and she came.

Looked slightly brighter on the East side of Winter Hill. Did lots of Lazy 8's without loosing too much height (I'm getting better at these). Practiced steep turns at 45.... Totally solid perfect speed, angle nailed down altitude LAI..I was nailing 2 G... (By calculation that's slightly more than required but I was enjoying pulling a constant G force. Then 60 turns to the left. A little more power but not full and although a little less accurate I put on a good steady show of control and being in charge of this aeroplane...Brilliant. Then some aileron rolls which I completely nailed and I must say my chippy experience really kicked in and I was fine tuning now. ONly comments was that I could get the nose a little higher. I was also rolling at 240 kph instead of 250 kph on Martins request - again I had the drag under control and there's so much control authority I could probably roll with less. Then rolling on a point. Martin suggest 45 degrees each way - I decided I could push it further and pushed it to 70-80 degrees with quick succession rolls working the rudder hard to cope with the inherent skewing that such abuse brings with it. Loving it. Martin was happy.

Headed back to an empty circuit. Joined overhead. Undercarriage went down fine on crosswind. First T&G dragged her in a little. Made sure that I maintained 170 kph until I was lined up on final (especially with flap already deployed) then let the speed come of to 150 kph over the hedge; had to drag her in with power to make the runway. A little flat. Second one was alot better although I still dragged her in we were closer. Got the nose up properly for the right arrival. She leaps back into the air on full power. Takes your breath away. On the last one I came in closer and Martin wanted 150 kph on the final leg. I completely nailed it and was treated to a landing on rails. Perfect. Quite a tight taxi in and I left her with 22 on the main air.

Logbook signed - fresher completed

PIc of one of the Touch and Goes

37 - Yak 52 - Refresher Flight with Paul - Lazy 8's A Rolls, Loop and a Split S

Appears our air system problems are back!! Had to bugger about on the way to Chorley to get. Undercarriage up and the air was charging. Over South Blackburn, started with some wingovers, then went straight for the loop. Think the G took Paul abit by surprise. After some air I did some aileron rolls then climbed up and demonstrated a split S - 5G not bad. Paul was about cooked so I ended the detail and we had a leisurely jaunt back with Paul doing most of the flying.

Absolutely greased the landing - probably the lightest touchdown I've ever done!! Air was low so I did some re-charging on my after land checks to ensure I had enough air for braking later on.

36 - Yak 52 - Solo Practice flight - Lazy 8's A+B Rolls, Loops and Split S's

Moving on from my sequence work I had one area as a target for my aeros. A friend's farm - he was out in his field today so I decided to center my aeros on his field at a legal height of course.

Started off with a 90 degree turn into a series of Lazy 8's, climbed then did aileron rolls both ways then climbed again and basically did barrels rolls each way. Then I did a loop (this wasn't so good as I thing my exit was not lined up with entry). Tell tail was the fact that I didn't exceed 4 G when normally I reach 5G on loops. I climbed again and repeated this with much better results... Pulling harder on entry is the key. On exiting this I used the speed to do two aileron rolls in quick succession. Then I climbed for a safe height to execute Split S's - Both of these went well. I then did a dive towards the field with a zoom climb that I turned into two aileron rolls Lost some height with some Lazy 8's down to 2000 ft then waggled my wings and set cruise power for home.

Height is king. Using excess energy from vertical to rolling figures is a good use of energy. All in all it was just fun!!

35 - Yak 52 - Experience flight and gentle Aeros with Phil - Lazy 8's and Aileron Rolls

Lovely day again - vis not great but good enough for an experience flight for a retired friend who really wanted a ride in the Yak. He had hands on and enjoyed himself I think. Lazy 8's and aileron rolls were the only aeros but this flight was more about taking in the world and just sheer enjoyment of flying a warbird.

Bit of a crosswind on landing that I didn't do a great job on but 09R is full of bumps so its always a special arrival

34 - Yak 52 - Aerobatics Sortie with Martin - Stall Turns to the right; Loops and Split Ss

The objective of today's sortie was to get Stall turns back under control amongst other things. We did about 4 of these and they went really well. The first one I don't think I was vertical for. Plus Martin asked me to put rudder in at 100 kph... For the subsequent figures I was using about 75 kph.. the faded ASI was not so easy to see but it was easy just to dissect the 50-100 kph lines. They worked out better with more forward stick. Martin reminded me that power didn't need to come off until you were vertical.

Next I switched to loops - Did really well with these. Just did a couple. 5Gs in and out; The second one I looked at the wing instead of up because there were not many clouds about so I entered a little askew which was easy to correct over the top.

Finally I wanted to reduce the G on my Split S so I had Martin critique and advise. 210 or 200 kph for entry was good remembering that 195 and below was flicking country. I got the nose up so that I could still see some sky between the nose and the horizon before centralizing and inverting. Still a hefty pull through but I was getting a more sensible 4G. It was apparent that I can pull quick up front and be careful about pulling too hard on the latter part. I experimented and pulled harder on one and was rewarded with the onset of a dynamic stall that was easy to feel and sort out. Knowing and being comfortable with these limits is the key.

Great refresher

33 - Yak 52 - Aeros with Dan - Wingovers, A+B Rolls, Loop Split S and Sequences

Nice sortie. All my aeros went well and my previous hour of practice worked out well. Dan was an easy passenger and not a stranger to aeros in other aircraft. Had to go around after catching up an aircraft on finals.

Top day out.

32 - Yak 52 - Solo Aeros - Wingovers, A+B Rolls, Loops and Split S - Contour Cam Ram Mount Trial

The purpose of this sortie was to remove some rust from my aeros and try out my new Ram Mount for my HD Contour Camera.

Went through the repertoire of aeros. Only comments were being more aggressive with the stick on aileron rolls considerably speeded them up. Trying to see sky when inverted is primary on all rolling figures, Started putting together sequences to use the energy from one to head into another. My loops were both abit cock eyed. Getting the right amount of pull on the stick is important. The ailerons on the Yak are friese in design so the pull is not linear. Trying not to flick on the way up or on top when I'm most vunerable. My Split S was quite ballistic and possibly pulled 5G in although that could have been the loops which does require 5G.

Approach and landing uneventful and bumpy. With little wind brakes were required to stop before the end of the runway.

Here are some of the highlights

Aeros on a sunny day

31 - Yak 52 - Solo Consolidation and Aeros - - Wingovers, A+B Rolls

Off by myself to improve my Barrel Rolls and Aileron Rolls. Some Wingovers as well. Ultimately this was a consolidation fly to get Yak time and regain motor skills. I did a touch and go for good measure to cycle the gear and to get the picture right.

All good and finished with 35 in the air system.

30 - Yak 52 - Currency check with Aerobatics Sortie with Martin - Wingovers A+B Rolls then sequences

Having not flown the Yak since March because of the damaged rudder and the annual it was time to get current again. With Martin in the back seat. I was abit rusty. This was the first usage of the helmet in the Yak. All good - great comms however I couldn't get to the transponder. I have difficulty anyway but it was virtually impossible and I had to open the canopy to set it. At the end of the day I have no choice but to keep it off. The helmet is a safety device for me plus improved comms. I'll just say negative squawk because its rather unsafe having eyes in whilst buggering about with it. I have some ideas on how I can solve the problem.

Take off was exhilarating and having enough air the undercarriage packed away nicely. In our play area I did aileron rolls and barrel rolls to try and get my fet and hands working. Forgot how fast the Yak rolls and how little rudder and aileron you actually need. Varying degrees of success. Definitely need to get the nose up higher for the barrel roll; possibly due to the big heavy beast. Also not seeing enough sky when inverted. I was pleased with my control harmony. I then did Wingover, Aileron Roll and Barrel Roll sequences to try and get the energy management thing sorted. Not too bad

Back to Barton for some circuits at my request. I descended too low on base and overshot the centerline and did a go-around for my first. Second was pretty spot on. Martin wanted 150 kph all the way down (based on the fact that there was no wind - good call). The next go around was good and I opted to land after that. I re-fueled for another session straight away and parked the plane whilst I had a coffee.

Martin tried the rear undercarriage lever down - but it was restricted - I'll check with Yak UK what the set-up is because he seemed to think the front has to be in neutral (I thought that that would vent the whole system) Need to check

29 - Yak 52 - Aerobatics Sortie with Chris - Wingovers, A+B Rolls

Promised my mate Chris I'd take him in the yak. A whole day out as usual. Noticeable that the air leak in the rear selector was more leaking air at a faster rate. I checked it at the power checks and we were gaining. Happy to take off with that. Held off putting the undercarriage up. Pressures looked ok and stowed the U/carriage at the Reebok; Whilst keeping an eye on the pressures I did some wingovers aileron rolls and barrel rolls for Chris's benefit and my own :-) great to be back. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with the pressure. It was 18-17 and not rising any more. So undercarriage down OK and limped back to Barton with enough air for the brakes. Nice landing. Only a 30 minute session but put a smile on my face. Chris enjoyed himself although he did feel the effects and felt a little sick. Completely normal for someone who is not used to it.

28 - Yak 52 - Solo Aerobatics Sortie - Further HD mini-cam Trial - Wingovers, A+B Rolls, Split S and Canadian Break

Bit of a dodgy day but it wasn't forecast to rain until the next day so worth a bash. Up in short order - Again I used the very quick throttle pumping technique and she started on the second attempt!! Again took a while for the undercarriage to come up so I stayed at 70%/500mm. Warton was very quiet. I was their only traffic. No-one else was daft enough to be up on a day like that. Soon established that the could base was less than 3000 ft in places. Sometimes down to 2800 ft. No bother still some fun to be had :-) Wingovers, aileron rolls and barrel rolls. Couple of Split S's and a Canadian break. The HD cam was absolutely solid. The HI has definitely stopped working. Need to check out that switch behind the rear seat to see if that has any effect. Nice tight circuit to finish off with and another greaser. Landing is a dream in this aircraft. Nice session and more yak time. Love this aircraft.

Here's the video from that sortie

More Yak Fun

27 - Yak 52 - Further Aerobatics Training - Wingovers, A+B Rolls, Double Rolls, Split S and Canadian Breaks

After two attempts and an empty air bottle conditions were better today. A full air bottle (only £3 from the local dive shop in Whitefield) re-fresher session. She started first time with extremely vigorous throttle movements, thus moving the carburetor advance to squirt in small squirts of fuel as the air was turning the prop. It worked. I suspect then that my inability to start FA on the previous two occasions were because of poor technique.

There was some low cloud. I had us over to Warton in short order and we circled to try and get the right hand undercarriage up. It was taking its time because of low air so Martin suggested that I try a short burst of negative G and that worked a treat as it clunked into place. I went straight into wingovers on the M61 as a target, then we did a few double rolls. These were a little sloppy. Martin suggested getting the nose up before starting the second roll. After a few attempts it was getting better. Next a roll to the left followed by a roll to the right. Think my initial nose up should be a little higher. I elected to try some barrel rolls each way; I need to think more about releasing the back pressure and increasing the aileron and rudder movements as the figure progresses. More work to do on this.

At this point we were passing low clouds so I told Martin that we were going to cloud bash so I threw her around flying just around the thin low clouds for fun. It what the Yak was made for. Fuel state was getting down so it was time to think about heading home. I did a Split S to lose some height. Martin then demonstrated a Canadian Break. This was an Aileron Roll to the left, coming all the way around until 4/5th or 3/4 of the turn and then taking a steep turn off to the right rather than complete the roll. I can imagine it being used as a figure to shake off a pursuer. After this economy cruise, floated her down then back over to Barton. Slight overshoot on the approach but nice and steep, 165 all the way down and greased her on letting her run till the end of the runway to save the grass surface from braking damage. Top session. Great confidence builder.

26 - Yak 52 - Further Aerobatics Training - Wingovers, A+B Rolls, Loops, Split-S's and Double Roll

Refresher session. Took quiet a while and a few air charges to start Foxtrot Alpha, this was after at least half an hour removing ice from the wings. I think at least 9 primes is required in these temperatures

Martin suggested that we do not retract the undercarriage until any snow and ice is allowed to spin off. In case the undercarriage freezes up!! Excellent point. Probably more appropriate to proper fully fold away retractable's but still good practice in the Yak. Another thing was the constant use of carb heat throughout the sortie, even for take off!!! This must be done for all sub zero temperatures. I read about it but never had the conditions necessary for its use on the ground.

Take off was nice. Nose wheel up and at the right speed she lifted off "likes it says on the can" without any further input from me. It was great to be back in the saddle again. Over to Warton and I discovered the short comings of my sunglasses, 1) I couldn't see the faded ASI in direct sunlight and 2) my earphone reception was reduced because the seal was being broken by the glasses. I persevered.

Whilst Martin was talking to Warton I started to warm up with a Wingover. Concentrated on soft handling as I usually find after being away for a month I'm too rough with the stick. All worked out great. Next Martin wanted to see my Barrel Rolls, I did quite a few. No problems in getting my nose up now. The tidiness of the exit was next to show up as not being perfect. Fishtailing as Martin called it. Not got the foggiest on how to solve that but just be smoother on the rudder. Aileron Rolls fine. Next Loops. I did 3 of these in succession. No clouds. Learning point look at the wing when there are no clouds. Another difference was that Martin was advocating power changes... The Russian handbook doesn't seem to push this. Anyway its of no consequence other than the introduction of precession forces into the mix. 82% 600mm dive for 300km/hr, pull to the vertical apply slight left rudder to correct when adding power. What I didn't do on one of them was remove this rudder correction and one of my loop exits I was all cock-eyed. Something I really do want to practice by myself.

Next was a series of Split-S's. My main learning from this was that Martin was suggesting a slight nose up attitude to start the figure. The argument being by the time I'm inverted I'm already going down. The risk as I see it is if I hesitate with a nose up attitude I could pull through too hard with too low a speed and flick or worse spin. This didn't actually happen and all in all it will look like a better figure. I did feel some control flutter on on of the pull through's. Which means I'm becoming attuned to pre-stall buffet...a good thing. I momentarily relaxed and it went away. Rather pleased with myself that I caught that in good time and that I'm feeling the aircraft more.

I realized at this point I was actually feeling sick. One more figure I wanted to do was the double roll.. It wasn't brilliant and I need to practice and use the conservation of energy better to make it a smoother figure. We headed back. A slingshot circuit to let a couple of microlights in. 150 over the hedge and a nice touch down.

All in all a great refresher. The view was to die for. The whole of the Lake District and Peak District was clearly in view. Nice to be back in the air.

25 - Yak 52 - Solo Aerobatics Sortie - New HD mini-cam Trial

The objective of the flight apart from transfixing the cheshire cat grin onto my face was to trial the new HD mini-cam. Neil had flown FA that afternoon. The CHT however was at +- 60 degs C so I had to treat it like a cold start. I was careful in case she fired whilst pulling through and the subsequent priming blades in case she wanted to fire but it was apparent that she didn't want to.

At take off the air was only about 20 kg/cm3. Still the undercarriage tucked away nicely. I did a mini zoom climb and realized that I'd not switched the camera on!!! Anyway after changing over to Blackpool radar (Warton don't work weekends) I switched on the camera for various aeros to see how easy to manipulate it was. I did lazy 8's, aileron and barrel rolls. It became apparent that the cloud was lower than I'd anticipated and sat above my practice line feature at 3000ft was cloud so loops were out. Anyway a couple of Split-S's put the smile back on my face.

A fun sortie. The HD results were OK. One thing I found was that I had to cruise at 70%/500mm rather than 60%/600mm because the vibration had the mini cam vibrating. I was more concerned about any oscillatory load this was putting on the two rather flimsy perspex side windows.

Here are the results

Phil's Aeros

24 - Yak 52 - Further Aerobatics Training- Flick Revision and Dead Mans Final Turn

The weather looked ropey. We'd discussed finding a safe area possibly to the west to re-investigate flick rolls and then look at the base to final turn and what happens in the stall.

Not long after getting airborne I was not convinced that we would find a safe area. It was black all around and I was at 1700 ft licking the clouds... Martins spidey senses told him that there may be a hole West of Wigan.. He was right. There was and as I climbed up through it the clouds spread out and there was a perfect play area allowing me to climb to 3400 ft.

Flick rolls - I asked Martin to demonstrate one and I followed through. Then I preceded to do various left and right rolls with varying degrees of success. It appeared that I was using too much rudder deflection (full) when less would suffice. 190kph nose slightly up, take a straight pull and deflect the rudder to the side you want to flick on. Once in the flick don't deflect anymore. The stick does fall to the side that you are flicking on naturally then sometime after the inverted position centralize the aileron and a slight push forward and you are flying again. I'm planning on more practice myself to gain confidence that I can produce this to order and get some precision for 360 degree flicks. Flicks to the right are faster because of the left hand tractor.

Next Martin had control and wanted to demonstrate what could happen if the aircraft is stalled on the base to final turn. We did this in clean configuration, RPM to max power at idle. First to the right 30 degrees of bank power back and I pulled the stick back - pre stall buffet then she flicked quite sedately to a level attitude. Very nice and quite a safe outcome to an over pulled right turn at the stall. On the left something completely different happened. Martin said it would also flick left and to have spin recovery in mind if she goes over. We already had 30 degrees of bank on and she flicked left not quite inverted but not far off and we dropping down in a stalled condition. I initiated standard stall recovery full power relax the back pressure...still stalled and she didn't recover, I re-applied the stick forward and I think Martin assisted and she came out but it was a very sobering and excellent demonstration. Sobering because Martin confirmed that at 30 degrees of bank she gave way with 140 km/hr (30 km/hr above the level attitude clean stall) That is also the short field landing speed!! The learning from this is that you must keep your speed up on base to avoid this situation especially LH turns. Now we normally start the descent RPM max, 1/3 throttle and pushing the stick forward as or slightly before putting flaps down because speed comes off very quickly unless you get that nose down quick. Descend at 170 kph which is also the flap limiting speed then only on final allow the speed to decay. I do know that you can do 45 degree turns at 160 kph gliding but the left hand variety it may be safer with another 5 kph.

Great lesson great learning and fun flicking the aircraft at will. One thing to remember is that flicks put strain on the prop because that is used to cause the flick so inspecting it after flight is a good idea,

23 - Yak 52 - Solo Aerobatics Sortie - Loop practice for confidence building and general aeros

I picked FA up hot today after Neil's sortie. Beautiful day with clouds to aim at. Runway 02 to boot which I like using as it makes life more exciting and means you have to hit the spot on landing. I had her up in quick fashion. Again the sticky undercarriage gate lost me 20 sec's so I couldn't zoom like I wanted to. Never mind it came free and I buggered off to my play ground, After changing to Blackpool Radar getting a service and having a good look around I started warming up with lazy 8's going straight into my sequence with a barrel roll and a aileron roll. Climbed away towards Blackburn doing various Barrel rolls and Aileron Rolls now that I had clouds to aim at. At 4300ft I started my Loops. I did 4 in total. Not particularly difficult and I seemed to float quite abit more than with Martin. I also noticed that my nose tucked under more quickly when coming down the backside, probably due to the more forward C of G. I suspected that I wasn't pulling hard enough in the second quadrant and maybe misshaping the loops. The front G meter does not appear to work but I could feel a decent amount of G coming on. I'm pretty shy on the rudder during loops from previous flicking experiences and did notice on one down slope gaining G that I was in balance without having to account for P factor.

After this I explored the double rolls again, firstly to the left I didn't have sufficient starting up nose and came out -20 degrees and picking up speed fast. Tried both sides and got myself to a comfortable place, 260 kph entry with +-15-20 degree nose up and try not to use up all your authority in one roll. May try 70% 600 rather than 500mm, a little extra power could assist in reducing the nose drop but also aware that in the LH direction it fights the roll. I am not good enough yet to notice such a big difference between the left and right but I understand the forces on the aeroplane and know how left and right should differ.

I plucked up the courage to try some flick rolls. First to the left failed and it became a tight Aileron Roll sort of corkscrew but it didn't flick.. Second time it flicked left just and I inadvertently stopped the flick too early and finished off rolling it straight. More practice for this required methinks.

I'd managed to achieve a point where I'd made myself feel abit googly. It was getting on and I'd had far too much fun. I was over 4000 ft and approaching the TMA boundary (3500ft)..... what could I do? A Split S put a smile on my face... so much so that I did another not long after the other way and hey presto perfectly positioned at 3400ft heading down the lakes. 60% 600mm and I took in what a gorgeous day it was and how privileged I'd been to throw myself around the sky in this awesome machine.

Back over to Chorley Lakes. Nothing like some Lazy 8's along the motorway to get me down to 2000 ft.. Changed back to Barton, 7 planes in the circuit was a sobering thought. This was going to be fun. I joined overhead to tuck in behind and wide of a microlight. I ended up passing him without seeing him!! After that a clear run in, somewhat powered but today was not the day to do the mega drop from 1000ft with a risk of arriving at the threshold with too much energy and slightly long on a shortish runway with bumps from the middle onwards and so many in the circuit. Crossed the hedge at 155 kph and she floated a little before settling beautifully on the ground. A few bumps from the middle as expected then I was off the runway thinking of my after landing checks.

22 - Yak 52 - Further Aerobatics Training - Sequences - More Stall turns

Today Martin wanted me to put a sequence together. Full Lazy 8 followed by a barrel roll then an aileron roll. We did this about 4 times. I was losing some height and was aware that I was starting my barrel at about 2500ft. Not as easy as it first seemed. Martin through a few changes in. Felt like I was wearing clogs today. Not my best footwork. I can do better.

Then over to North of the TMA climbing to 4000 ft. Started with a Loop to warm up. Not too bad. Then straight into Stall Turns. We did about 4 in succession. It appeared that I wasn't using full rudder to kick around and I wasn't using opposite full rudder the stop the pendulum effect. I think I was pretty vertical on most and getting chance for two looks either side before looking for my 70kph kick around. Not really nailed them yet. More work to do on it to convince Martin I am in control before we attempt the Left Hand Stall Turn.

I did a couple of Double Aileron Rolls by using 260 kph as an entry speed. You come out gaining speed nose down as one would expect. I was trying not to use up all my stick and rudder authority on the first and save some for the second roll. Not bad attempts. I finished off with a couple of Split S's to loose height for heading back over to Chorley which cheered Martin up no end. Nailed the landing :-) after an olympic circuit following a microlight. Which I am in no way derogatory about since to me all flying is fantastic and hats off to 3 axis, flex wings and gyrocopters with their arses hanging out at 3000 ft.. They are all braver than me and having them in front will have to sharpen my airmanship since I've got to do all the avoiding coming in so hot.

21 - Yak 52 - Further Aerobatics Training - Stall Turns and Loops

Back with Martin after a month away. Again low pressure on take-off and keeping higher rpm and boost to charge the system and raise the undercarriage (just both wings). After going over to Warton and being given a squawk I did a couple of Aileron Rolls. From the purring from the back seat I did well. Again there were no clouds and my Barrel Rolls were a little too hasty. Vis was better than yesterday and the inversion layer gave a nice horizon.

A few Loops. Not pulling hard enough and I was relaxing on the stick whilst floating over the top. A competition loop as Martin called it. Making the Loop more rounded for the judges. Whilst I'd read about this it wasn't intentional just felt right at the time. On my last two Loops my headset was falling off which didn't phase me I just wobbled the stick to indicate to Martin that he has control whilst I fixed it back on. An unfortunate consequence of hot having much in the way of hair to keep the headset in place. Never happened before but then this is the first time I used this particular headset for Loops. Back to the DCs next sortie. (and better still get a cloth helmet to make sure any headset isn't floating around the cockpit)

Stall turns - we did about 4 of them. My mistakes, inadvertently pulling the stick when applying rudder, I managed somehow to flick one of the turns so that we came out 90 degrees from my normal outward line. More practice required. I was doing them myself without Martins assistance which was good although a few clouds around may have helped a tad.

Not a bad sortie. Lots of learnings and apparent rustiness .

20 - Yak 52 - Aerobatics Sortie - Refresher with Paul

Just back from Saudi. I got a call from my friend Paul just before I was going to start up. A first time aeros passenger. After re-fueling pushed her to the grass. After the briefing we set off. Started with low pressure and on the climb out it took a little while for the wing undercarriage to pump up. So no zoom as I suspected as much and made a gentle climb and stayed on 70% to assist the charging of the air system.

On the way to the pumps to pick up Paul

Over to Chorley lakes and started some wingovers to get my feet and brain working together. I did a Aileron Rolls; one each way then straight into Barrel Rolls, A couple left and a couple right. There was no clouds to fix on so probably not my best. I was lining up for a Loop when it was time for my first time passenger to get some air. He'd done well as I'd probably not flown in balance as I'd liked to have done. Canopies open we just took in the view and ambled back from Blackburn towards Chorley Lakes. Once at Chorley lakes I proceeded to do some nice easy slow Lazy 8's keeping the G as low as possible and in balance as much as possible for my passengers sake. He was loving it.

Back to to follow a microlight in so a longer approach than the Yak likes with higher power. Rounded out a little high, slight push on the stick and a second round out made the lightest of touchdowns. Very happy with that. Not a bad refresher and my passenger enjoyed himself. Nice to be back in the Yak.

19 - Yak 52 - Solo Aerobatics Sortie

After take off it became apparent how bad the vis was. Maybe 5km. I was relying on GPS as my usual ground features were hidden. I was hoping that the vis may be better higher up. To make things worse there were no bloody clouds. Normally not a problem but with aeros its good to have something to aim at and to keep your bearings on when your cockpit gets full of sky!! Warmed up with Lazy 8's along the M61 whilst making my way along Chorley Lake. I did quite a few Aileron Rolls and Barrel Rolls. Certainly getting the nose up to 45 degrees makes for a much more believable figure with a Barrel Roll. I was slowing down the rolls and definitely coming out lower as you would expect. I tried multiple figures by letting the excess energy start a new figure.

Once over the M65 I tried a loop. Not too bad but the no cloud issue was a problem; there was no visual references for a few seconds whilst going over the top. On the second one it was definitely shaky. I exited with 20 degrees of bank that I didn't know I had. Because of this I decided no more. I switched to Split S's. On one I had a momentary hesitation in the pull through and it significantly increased the G and the amount of height I'd lost. I was careful to centralize the controls before pulling and barely touched the predictive P factor left rudder to not induce a flick. Quite an exciting ballistic figure. (possibly more so for my lack of precision)

Headed back to tail two microlights in. Landing went well. Job done. Happy with my Barrel Rolls and more confidently explored the Split S. More Loop practice required on the right days. Probably do more Stall Turns under Martins watchful eye and we have to discuss the issues related to solo Stall Turns which may require something slightly different (after a conversation with Nigel Rhind another Yak Instructor). (plus a parachute)

18 - Yak 52 - Further Aerobatics Training - Stall Turn Practice

Earlier in the day I'd test run Foxtrot Alpha for 20 minutes. The compressor gasket had been changed and the two nuts that Martin and I had found had been from the compressor flange itself. The engineers admitted that they maybe should have re-tightened after a run in period. I learning point for me to check. The good news was that the main air pressure was re-charging so we were in business.

Later in the day Martin and I discussed the next sortie will just be RH Stall Turn practice to get it spot on. What a wonderful figure. We did 6 in total. This time I was more aware; rather than predictive P factor rudder I applied rudder when I applied power on the 45 degree point on the pull up. It was really hazy and I reckon on a clear day I will be able to judge it better, I'd been using too much rudder so next only the rudder I needed to dissect the wing in two with the horizon. This time we let the speed decay to 70kph before putting in right rudder. I was rewarded with some very nice turns over the top. I'd judged my 80 degree up slopes well. The last two Martin thought were perfectly straight up at 90 degrees. I wasn't aiming to do so I maybe didn't have the forward stick I needed.

The rudder reversal became easy to judge to kill the cartwheel. The left forward stick over the top was alot more motor reaction like and Martin was very pleased with the way I'd unstall the wings before pulling out of the dive. To be honest I'd flick the stick forward momentarily then pull and at no time did I ever feel the onset of flicking. He seemed very happy with this. There was however a large difference in height loss between the figures and I couldn't figure out why. As much as 300ft -700ft.

I'd promised Martin to allow one of the young LAC future airline pilots Rob a chance to feel the stick and rudder. So Martin hopped out and I took Rob for a quick local flight. I did a couple of Aileron Rolls and let him have a feel.

The day was rounded off by a rather agricultural landing but it didn't spoil the fact that I'd performed Stall Turns to Martin's satisfaction and he said I'd flown really well. That's worth more than words. Looking forward to practicing what I've learned next time back. Martin wants to do Stall Turns to the left which will be a lot harder than Stall Turns to the right as the prop is trying to stop the plane rotating from vertical up to vertical down. That sounds suitably interesting and requiring the purchase of new underwear.

17 - Yak 52 - Further Aerobatics Training - Stall Turns - Aborted

The idea was to get to Blackburn and do what the title says. It because apparent that the main air was not recharging when one of the legs wouldn't retract so well. We agreed after a period of time that it was not charging properly and so headed back to Barton.

On the ground the noseleg was covered in oil with more coming out. (dripping). After removing the bottom cowling we could find no compromised rocker covers. Oil was all over the back of the engine centered around the compressor the main culprit. Back again tomorrow to perform a test run after it has been left overnight (and cleaned) to see where the oil is coming from. Bugger..... turned out to be the main air compressor seal after two retaining nuts had fallen off into the lower cowling.

16 - Yak 52 - Further Aerobatics Training - Revision and the Stall Turn

Had trouble starting and eventually figured out that we were short of fuel because I was not following the prescribed procedure for 1 squirt in the cylinder side per 10 degrees less than 110 deg C. I'd used up alot of air in trying so we re-charged.

After we got going over to our play area. Some warm up exercises.. Aileron Rolls - great. Barrel Rolls right good left iffy. Not picking the nose up high enough is the problem, corrected this by picking up to at least 45 degrees on the up line and was rewarded with an nice Barrel Roll. I then did two Loops. No flicks on top as I made the conscious effort to relax whist inverted and resist the urge to pull through because the friese elevator will allow me to flick whilst having less control feel. Two good attempts and Martin seemed satisfied.

Martin then demonstrated two Stall Turns to the right. The right is the easiest was given the anticlockwise prop rotation. Sequence as described was set 82%, dive a steep dive to get 300 kph, pull up sharply, left rudder compensating when power is added passing 45 degrees, pitch up to about 80 degrees looking right and left at, about 3 times each side looking for the horizon to dissect the wing using RUDDER to make any corrections; slight push forward to stop it going over on its back, at 100kph maximum, right rudder (not full but positive with increasing movement, slight left aileron to compensate and slight forward stick). As the plane yaws to 90 degrees reduce the throttle gradually by 50%. Just before the vertical reversal and opposite rudder to hold the vertical line. Keep forward stick. At this point the nose is pointing straight down. As soon as it builds up speed pull up and trade speed for height meeting the speed decrease with power. (Note later were were using 70 kph as the kick around speed)

What surprised me about the figure was the lack of G or feeling and it was so gracefully slow. The tendency to be balanced on the earth looking straight down and want to pull back instinctively is the danger since you have large rudder movements and flicks can occur. Its so unnatural pushing the stick forward at this point because it feels like you are pushing inverted. I had two attempts which were heavily helped by Martin. The second one mainly my own work. I need a session just doing this for half an hour to crack it.

Fantastic session. Nailed my Loops and am confident and ready to push them myself now.

15 - Yak 52 - Solo Aerobatic Refresher

My Lazy 8's were great; figured that with 45 degree of bank I don't loose so much speed and nor height either. I practiced Aileron and Barrels. Ailerons good but Barrels still not good enough.

Made myself smile with three Split S's one to the right and two to the left. Only losing 300-400 ft with these.

Greased the landing. Rather pleased with my sortie. Enjoyed it immensely.

One very important learning point was that a plastic oil can dropped by my right elbow before start up and the right rudder was restricted to 50% of its movement... Shows the importance of checking the full and free before start up as per the checklist.

14 - Yak 52 - Agricultural Aerobatics sortie - First guinea pig passenger and GPS trial

Well I planned a route to Clitheroe today with the option of returning via M65 Blackburn then Chorley lakes giving the option of different aeros with the right cloud base. Another objective was to see if my new GPS mount worked. Box ticked it survived 5G without any bother. Another first was my first passenger. Jason had done aeros before and we'd flown alot together many times so that made it very easy.

The Emergency was down to 12 kg/cm2 so we charged the air system up ready for action.

Getting down and dirty and covered in shite with the fuel drain

Pre-flight preps - Yaks in the Russian Military have a ground crew - in Manchester you are looking at him

30mm Canon disguised as a pitot tube...seagulls and microlights beware

Runway 20 was active - We had quite a wait. As it turned out 50% throttle plus the prop wash of the plane in front kept the CHT at 180 deg C. After Bolton we climbed upto 3000ft. Started with some Lazy 8's, then on the way to Clitheroe we did some Aileron Rolls followed by Barrel Rolls. Jason still had his sea legs so after turning around at Clitheroe I demonstrated a Flick Roll each way. First to the left I'd forgotten about using two hands to recover with more precision because of the position of the right arm across the body. To the right I must have had a high momentary wing loading because it very quickly rolled right. Took me by surprise :-) After this Jason wanted some fresh air. He'd done extremely well as I'd felt queasier with much less when I started with Martin; Canopies back to get cold air and I handed control to Jason who got a feel for the stick and rudder.

.......................................

My landing was a greaser after a small balloon. We crossed the threshold at 160kph and were quite slow once the grass friction kicked in and didn't need much brake. Job done. Jason had a nice intro to aeros and enjoyed himself. The GPS holder passed the test - withstood 5G. The HI did not. There was a discrepancy between front and back and I'm not convinced the front is particularly accurate at all. Must remember to compare both compasses against the HI's. Certainly the front is reading 20 degrees less. Means mandatory GPS for all journeys in my book for a double check. The final G count was +5/-2. I must have pulled too hard at some stage as I wasn't doing aeros needing 5G. Rather agricultural. I saw from the vid 4G on the barrels - should realistically be 2G. Something to improve on.

Here's a nice vid that Jason produced. Thanks mate

Phil and Jasons Yak Sortie

13 - Yak 52 - First Solo - Aerobatics sortie

After a quick coffee I decided its now or never so I refueled and off I went back up to Chorley Lakes by myself. The cloud base had lowered by now and was at only 2200ft. I practiced a few Aileron Rolls and Barrel Rolls with a few Lazy 8's or Wingovers thrown in as well. Absolutely fab. Greased the landing. More than ready for this.

12 - Yak 52 - Further Aerobatics Training - Revision and the Split-S

Back after a spell at work. Over to Warton approaching Chorley Lakes. Clouds were about 2800 ft. Started with some Wingovers. Went very well. Aileron Rolls both ways. Good left and a little wobble on recovery from the RH version. Barrel Rolls each way. These went really well and I did em like a pro. Or at least it seemed that way. Martin then demonstrated a Split-S. Normal cruise speed 210 kph (addendum; later pitched up more with less speed), 1/2 Aileron Roll inverted, Centre the controls then pull through; Martin's attempts didn't pull more than 2G. I had a go; Bit slow on pulling through and the plane gathered speed rapidly with earth filling the windscreen. I pulled 4 G on recovery and just zoomed to trade speed for height just like a loop. I did a few of these. Loved 'em. After 45 mins we headed back and I joined overhead and pulled off a very nice landing. Overshot the centre line again but no dramas and was treated to the lightest of touchdowns. The wind in the face was high and grass friction alone slowed us down nicely. A nice refresher and the Split S added to the practice library.

11 - Yak 52 - Conversion and Aerobatics Training - Spinning - Aerobatics Sign Off and Differences Sign Off

I'd long anticipated this aspect of aeros. Not really with dread but excitement as dropping out of the sky out of control has gotta be exciting and a bit scary. Still Alan Cassidy's book did a good job of going into some of the finer points and Martin went through some of the theory and we discussed the forthcoming sortie in detail. I decided the use the RAF two handed method of elevator adjustment on the premise that whilst I have unintentionally dragged my knuckles on the ground from time to time, my arms are roughly the same length and the critical centralised elevator moved forward in the middle will not have the Yak play silly buggers when I'm counting "Winter Hills per second"!! We'll be using standard spin recovery technique. After reading Alan's book it he threw a few things in the mix that I'd never even thought about. Fascinating stuff. Martin described spinning as pitching, rolling and yawing at the same time. Its not hard to picture that whilst the airplane is yawing the inboard wing has a higher angle of attack (Alpha), therefore generating more drag and less lift, up going wing, less alpha, less drag more lift. Whilst both wings are stalled they can still generate lift because if you look at the graphs there is a backslide slope where lift is available!!

What I really have to understand is the precession forces that act because, the aircraft is pitching, the wings (fuselage) are rolling, The propeller is still turning and that has a mass effect even though we will have closed throttle in our basic spins, At slow speeds the helical wind effect on the fin may still have an impact. Very interesting is the impact or complications of ailerons in the process and their effect in changing the relative chord of the wing and hence alpha. We also discussed the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum and the impact on the rotational spin speeds because of the distance of the mass's from the centerline. Maybe more noticeable with other aircraft than the big heavy Yak but easy to draw comparisons if you think of how a ballet dancer increases rotational speed by moving her arms and legs closer to the centerline or the balancing force in a mass type governor. Its the same with spinning planes as I understand it.

The first part of the sortie was to check out the charging system after the new compressor shear coupling and other air system tweaks. Started just over 20 on the main air and by the time I'd filled her up and put 3 jugs of W100 in it was only 15 on the main air. I mentioned this to Martin. We both agreed to continue as this really was the minimum but I know that Nigel the engineer did charge up to 30kg/cm2 on the last ground run..

Take off went really well...For once I lifted her off gently before the bumps and the usual rodeo show. After retraction it became obvious that the red light of the nose wheel indicator was still on... Not enough air pressure left to retract it. Now we know what the 'screw up' Air Pressure figure is for retraction. I mentioned this to Martin and we agreed to trawl around the local area to see if it charges; I informed Barton what we were doing; After all the plane wasn't about to drop out of the sky. I re-cycled the gear down, all good. We flew around for a little while with gear down at 180 kph. Once the pressure started coming up and it was slow I raised the gear and felt a nice surge forward as the drag was removed...Yeeesssss I love this plane. Martin asked me if I was happy to continue the sortie... I don't like getting dressed up for the party and go home early so I advised Barton that we were going over to Warton Radar and I climbed away 70% 800mm towards our playground. The pressure started coming up more. Must say that cruising around at 70% prop seemed to work OK in charging even though I was using valuable fun juice.

I started to chuck her about abit now the gear was up and I was finding my rudder feet. I'd elected to keep the baby booster seat that I found in her!! Thanks Ian. My seating position was more acceptable and alot higher. This really helped my view. Whilst I am not exactly a short arse at slow speeds the Yak cowling is higher with the attitude and with tightened straps my forward view is obstructed. That's possibly the reason for my recent spate of unsatisfactory landings (by my standards and I'm sure Martins although he may just have been glad to have survived the sortie!!).

After Warton seemed to have a little moan about our planned spinning fun they gave us a squawk and I climbed upto 4500ft which was licking the absolute bottom of the clouds. There was a gap we could work in. Martin did the first spin to the left. Wow. Throttle back, right rudder to compensate, start pulling back carefully, then nose was reasonably high at 120kph, he wellied the left rudder and as soon as we yawed and started to roll he had the stick held centrally against the back stop. Over she flipped an after the first exhilarating drop; sure enough she was spinning left. I didn't find it too disorienting as I thought I would. Infact the spin was relatively sedate; great the way you can see little pitch oscillations in the spin. I keep my full concentration on the view ahead and the feel of the controls as I was following Martin through; I had no idea what the altimeter or airspeed were doing; It was pretty obvious that we were spinning; After approx 2 full turns full right rudder (opposite to the spin direction) and he started to move the stick centrally forward. In no time at all the spin abruptly stopped and you can feel the rush as the plane starts flying into a dive; It had a very nose down attitude so the airspeed rapidly increases Martin pulled us out with relatively low G. Couldn't have been more than 3 G. I had two attempts to the left...Just spot on; Really isn't too difficult on a basic level; I'm sure there is alot of small nuances and things going on but the main overall picture was but I could get myself into and out of a spin to the left without too much drama. I checked the altimeter and we were losing about 1000 ft for a two spin turn!! That's Hasta Luego if its in the circuit. A sobering thought. Next Martin demonstrated to the right. Now the prop rotates to the left so the Yak prefers spinning to the left. He mentioned that sometimes the Yak doesn't want to spin. Entry was the same, did seem abit more ballistic than to the left and the spin was not as stable. I think it was pitching a wee bit more. He did two of them and I noticed that the second one he just recovered with centralising the controls as opposed to standard spin recovery!! That's a nice to have!! I did one to the right and with standard spin recovery it did hesitate... Martin said that I did get it properly in a spin... I really enjoyed all this tremendously. I tried another to the left which recovered fine although I did push the stick forward a little too quick and risk going inverted.

BTW all the spins were done with 70% prop, eventually to idle. We also used Salmesbury as a ground feature.

Fuel was 35 and 40 litres. GIven that the group like to leave some for the next chap and its good practice to have fuel in the tanks to minimise condensation (too much temp change in the Yak and it expands and comes out the vent!) We headed back over to Bolton because Warton had circuit traffic. I did a nice long descent in cruise and used the cowl flap to juggle the CHT to stop super cooling. I do like Overhead joins in the Yak to get myself mentally set up, spot the traffic. All went well. My descent point was a tad too early again and I dragged it in with power at 160kph. With my higher view position I drove her down to the runway and rounded out abit lower and held what seemed like an ok ish to flatish attitude. Martin said it was spot on and we were treated to a nice touch down. I'd greased it

:-)

A very special sortie. Just seems to get better and better. Martin said he'd sign me off for spin proficiency (a requirement to be able to do aeros). I asked him about the conversion and was very happy to sign me off for that also. Fantastic more tuition and practice to get some finesse and make more mistakes then I'll be doing some exploring myself.

10 - Yak 52 - Conversion and Aerobatics Training - Revision - Wingovers / Aileron Rolls / Barrel Rolls / Flick Rolls / Loops / Circuits

Today Martin managed to slot me in after one of his lessons. I roped a mate, Pete in to act as ground crew and man the brakes in the rear cockpit in case mine failed. Of course I failed to start it on the first two attempts bloody typical. It had been pulled through 8 blades.. quite a bit of oil seemed to come out as the last time. Given the temperature I opted for 6 blades and 6 primes.. After two attempts with only 20 kg/m2 left to play with I had Pete pull through 3 more blades with prime. She was just letting me know who the boss was!!!!Then she started. Met Martin at the pumps.

Aeros Revision. Started with 3 wingovers along the M6. Love doing these. Started to concentrate on matching wings level with 250 kph. Then Aileron Rolls, two to the left and one to the right. Not too bad. Then Barrel Rolls, a little sloppy but improving. Need to exit these going down. Think I am pulling a little too hard. Think I did two each side. Then Flick Rolls. My first one just didn't work at all.. in the Aresti notation it would have been called 'flatulence'. I just sort of climbed and got too nose high before the flick kicked it so I abandoned it and just stuffed the nose back to the horizon. I tried again, better, on the one after that I recovered a little too early so it ended up as a 270 degree flick, I recovered that easily with aileron. After this it got better and I found the recovery stick forces really high, using two hands really helped. Once Martin expressed his satisfaction that they were now good we started climbing and set a course to be lined up with the M65.

My first Loop again went pear shaped at the top as I had a little too much elevator on it flicked to 30 degrees (he was measuring in degrees- martin told me afterwards... I was measuring in Oh Shit units which are of course dimensionless but not without odour!!) I instinctively relaxed the back pressure and corrected easily enough with aileron. I did two more. The next one alot better and the last one appeared to press all Martins buttons as he was happy with it and said so. Looking at the fuel state time to head back. I joined overhead and wanted to get this descent point and touch and go point sorted. To the right of the motorway...all too hurried, I overshot a little and had to trawl back through the centre line being very light on the controls as I know how easy it is to flick the Yak now!! As a touch and go it was ok, rounded out a little high, bit flat. The next one was better although still a slight overshot and still a little flat. Martin wanted to land however I goofed my approach it and just didn't loose height quick enough or be lined up correctly. I threw the landing away and went around. The next one I chose a different turn point a little further out. This really helped along with an earlier turn. Hold off and landing were OK, I dropped the stick a little too soon, forgetting Barton 'o' the bumps runways. Must be more vigilant with keeping it fixed to lighten the nose wheel untill we have slowed considerably. A bloody good detail. I have achieved the G tolerance i need now. No more feeling sick. If there was more juice in the tanks I'd do more.

9 - Yak 52 - Currency and Aerobatics Training - Barrel Rolls / Flick Rolls / Loops / Circuits

After yesterdays refresher I was raring to go again. Wasn't too hot today. No issues starting her up. The ambient Oil temp meant no waiting to taxi (more air time :-)). Just have to be sharpish about ground running time...nothing to do with draining the wallet just making sure that the MP14P isn't used on crap daytime telly; Scrap heap Challenge as a dragster weight.

Take off went as well as can be expected given the bumps. I am more speed aware and taking off straight in a castoring nose wheel aircraft becomes interesting even with 360 supercharged horses as the rudder doesn't help too much on the run up to 90kph. I like to run it straight a little when lining up as you don't get too much say in the matter for the first part of the take-off run.

Straight over to our training area. Martin talked to Warton and told them about our aerobatics shenanigins. They gave us a squawk. Started with Barrel Rolls as a refresher. Much better than yesterday. Not perfect. Did them both ways and this time came out with a slight nose down attitude as you should do. I wasn't pulling too hard today. (I left Mungo at home!!!)

Flick Rolls...OM%G... The striking thing about these was the ease with which one wing stalls. Flying at 180 kph with 70%/500mm yank back on the stick and as you just start to feel the G boot it. The effect was amazing, you could tell the plane adopted a higher nose up attitude from the pull up. Martin told me to keep the controls displaced; until you are ready to stop the flick then centralise together. Not only was the restoration force high but after centralising the plane behavior was something I've never expected. It lolls and behaves like its balancing on a pin. The nose wonders around. Almost like the plane is in no relative airflow suspended on an elastic band. Bizarre. I felt that my beginner attempts went well and Martins reactions were positive to my attempts. Not once did I overshoot by too much nor by too little and never ended up screaming for my mam once!! Again a wake up call to elevator abuse. This could so easily happen in the circuit because it was actually at circuit speed!!!! The elevator deflection was not too far... I can imagine a scenario where during collision avoidance it would be so easy to flick. However, not once did I feel that I lost directional control or even any height; I did notice that the speed had dropped from 180kph to 150kph in the 2 seconds or so it took to recover the plane back to onto its normal level flight attitude. Gotta say it felt like the plane was trying to right itself. I'd like to experiment with these when I get my sign off at a much higher height to see what the possibilities are.

Next came Loops. Well I'd done these before in a Bulldog...3.5G a nice and easy figure with very little rudder pressures.......wrong.. The Yak is alot heavier. The Bulldog Loops at around 120 knots the Yak at 160 knots. Martin warned me to keep my head up and draw a line in the clouds. The keeping my head up was very relevant because we pulled 5G on his demonstration... Felt like Geoff Capes had me in a Half Nelson!! It took alot of effort to not drop my head. You actually need to look up so you can get your visual cues as to wings level earlier. We were using the M65 over Blackburn as a line feature. After Martin demonstrated one I had my first attempt. I pulled a little hard and felt the plane wobble when I was fully inverted coming over the top!!! I almost flicked it the right was around. Anyway down the steep side and G came on harder finished off with a zoom climb to trade speed for height again. I had another attempt and I do believe it was quite respectable. Martin asked the fuel state translated to Student talk "time's up".

I wanted to do a few more circuits so I proceeded to do two touch and goes, The second of which was a belter. This time I had a nice nose attitude. Still a little high for my liking... the bumps midway down 27L turned each one into a rodeo affair as usual. I got a better idea of the base descent point today. We were heading to the right of the motorway bridge and when it was almost under the cowling 1/3 power, prop fine, start to pitch, flaps more pitch down and start to curve onto final, greens blues and reds final call. I tended to drag them all in a little as i am fully aware of the time lag between moving the throttle and realistic useful power being available at these low power settings. The last one I did a short field at 150 kph. In reality I thought I was low so I had a little extra power on and actually made 160 kph upto the hedge. Reasonable landing... still going fast heading to the end of the runway and needed some serious braking to make the last turn off.

Pretty much one of my best aviation adventure days.

8 - Yak 52 - Currency and Aerobatics Training - Wingovers, Aileron Rolls and Barrel Rolls / Circuits

Eagerly anticipated. After being away for a month I was keen to get my hands on Foxtrot Alpha again. Veered abit to the right on take off but nothing too dramatic once I got some airflow over the rudder I was in charge. Take off went well and then we went straight towards our play area.

Climbed to 3000ft. For the first figure for warming up I flew two 360 degree 45 degree turns - basically a figure of 8. I got after it. Basically the AI is slow and can't be trusted but I am happy judging angles in this aircraft. I turned abit too tight on the second one and for a moment I felt it start to flick. I instinctively caught it....wow... no warning it just gave way when I pulled too tight!!! A rude awakening. Next I went into a series of Wingovers. Don't know why but I was quite hamfisted and was pulling too much G. Martin said I was entering with 4G supposed to be 2. Ultimately, I think I was rushing it. The Wingovers themselves seemed OK and I was aiming to level the wings and apply a bit of back pressure. The aim being hitting 250kph when the wings are just level so you can launch yourself into another!! I then did some Aileron Rolls. The first one was abit barrelled cos I had a touch of back pressure still left on. After I'd located the brain on switch it came together. I was pitching up a little high, 15 degrees is enough in a Yak 52. Roll rate is quite crisp.

My Barrel Rolls were not so great...last time out i did really well on these. I was pulling too hard not getting the nose high enough before applying aileron. Its just practice. I think focusing on your chosen focal point may help.

We headed back to Barton. I elected to do an overhead join to give me time to assess the traffic. My first approach was a tad delayed because of traffic. A bit scrappy.. my safety checks were fine...Greens Blues and Reds and my final call included 3 greens. I found that a positive check on the downwind leg once down and then again in the Downwind checks helped. My first approach I rounded out a little high. Rather than repeat the bad landing on the last lesson I was quick to throw this one away, full power... brain was engaged and we climbed away safely after the flaps were retracted. I like to see positive climb before I stow them. The boot in the hoop as the aircraft surges forward is exhilarating. Martin said it was actually ok and would have got down safely but just didn't want another large sink. My second approach much more respectable still a little high but we made a nice touch and go from it. Happy with it. The third and final one I chose the descent point. Still doing this too early and I had to drag this in with power. Landing was ok. I think I hit a bump as we did take off again but it was under control and I am fully aware of the right attitude to ensure I protect the nose wheel and also not drop in with too high a nose angle. The rudder is very powerful and this has to be watched. It felt like we landed long. Ultimately its the landing speed eats up the runway quickly.

I realised how tired I was as taxi-ing was a real effort. I was enjoyed the session and was quite tired. For me the workload was high.

7 - Yak 52 - Aerobatics Training - Wingovers, Aileron Rolls and Barrel Rolls

On 27L today. Didn't unstick as well as I'd hoped but still a reasonable take off. Took me a while to get the gear away as the lock bar was sticking closed.

Over to Chorley Lakes. I climbed to 3000ft. Set 7004 on the Transponder had a good look around. Set 70% 500mm at 210kph. I then started Wingovers using the M61 as my line feature. Didn't do too bad at all. I am getting comfortable with the 90 degree bank angle over the top. Still not leading enough with rudder. More practice required. I also tend to lose a lot of height. The hard part for me was judging the amount of back pressure after the apex of the turn...you should be able to zoom straight into another Wingover as the wings come level.

Next Martin demonstrated Aileron Rolls. Pick an aiming point. There were plenty of clouds just above the horizon to choose from. Dive to get 250 km/hr, pitch up by 20 degrees over the horizon then leading with rudder progressively move the aileron and apply more rudder with a constant movement until complete then centre the controls. I think I did well. Did it both sides. Didn't feel a great deal of difference between either side which was strange considering that the prop assists in one direction and not the other. You need strong arms to keep increasing the force gradually but smoothly then a positive stop to cease the roll on the level. I instinctively released and pushed the stick forward when passing the inverted point so counter the nose dropping. Not too bad at all. Really enjoyed these and found them easy. It was not difficult but I can see that getting it perfectly precise and balanced is going to take some practice.

Next Martin demonstrated Barrel Rolls. Again to left first. Picked an aiming point (we used Pendle Hill and a cloud in the Warton direct throughout with intermediate climbs to get back to a safe height of +-3400ft. Dived, passing 240km/h apply 20 degrees bank right, at 260 kph pull up through the horizon, above the horizon (addendum: by as much as 45 degrees), hard to say exactly where, then apply a gentle left aileron, with some back elevator pressure but not too much, increasing left rudder. At the inverted you should see sky and all mine worked out with varying degrees of success. Some neater than others. Awesome stuff. I was grinning like a Cheshire cat and just kept doing them until I felt a bit hot and needing some fresh air so I asked for a breather, opened the canopy and let the cold air blast cool me down whilst I kicked back and appreciated the sound, smell and eagerness of that lump of Russian fun under the cowling. Canopy closed back for more Barrel Rolls a few more then time to head in. 40-45 minutes is about right, cost wise and stomach wise for me. I'll probably develop better G tolerance but right now no need to push it. Once I'm let loose myself I can really focus on the small things. So much stil to do. I set economy cruise and headed back to Barton. Called in over the Reebok. Developing the habit in the Yak of not writing things down just relying on memory and so far its working. No traffic so I opted for a right base join to save ££££. My approach was a little high the ground came at me fast and I flared too high. Our arrival was none too pretty as I stalled it onto the ground. Luckily enough its a Yak and not a Cessna with an undercarriage off a Josef Stalin III Tank.. Need to do better.

All in all a great session, airmanship (apart from landing) getting there and I'm getting my aeros legs. Barrel Rolls were something that I was not sure about on pre-reading as the control movements in principle are not straight forward. When you are there head out of the cockpit with your arse upside down it does make more sense.

This has got to be the most fun I've ever had in a plane. Looking forward to more

6 - Yak 52 - Aerobatics Training - Wingovers and rolling on a point

First had some ground school with Martin on our Aeros training. He went through Wingovers, Aileron Rolls and Barrel Rolls. As it transpired we were to have our training cut short and I would only have time for the Wingovers.

Interesting session - The air seemed low when I started Foxtrot Alpha. After filling up at the pumps there was not enough air to start the engine. We were pushed onto the grass. Re-charging was a relatively simple process which requires two people. One to look at the gauge one with the cylinder on the ground doing the filling. At 50 kg/m2 we stopped and put the air fill up gear away. 

All the pre-start and run up went well. Still a large discrepancy between  the front and back CHT temps readings (later to be placarded at 40 degrees difference between the front and rear gauges). Take off on Runway 20 was bumpy. Not a smooth runway but once the undercarriage was away things calmed down. Off to Chorley Lakes. There we lines up on a motorway and practiced Wingovers. On the apex I let Foxtrot Alpha come to 90 degrees angle of bank - there was no load factor so no G. It was a weird feeling. From whey I could see I didn't any great need for big rudder inputs apart from the 30 degree bank after the 45 degree up slope. We were using 260kph as the entry speed. Didn't look at the G meter but it felt like 2 G only. We broke off and Martin demonstrated rolling around a point and the severity of the rudder input required. Side to side at +-70 degrees of bank. I got this right and it demonstrated that the more severe the control input the more severe the rudder input. Definitely leading with the rudder was key. We then went back to Wingovers and figures of eight and my pre-emptive rudder skills were working well. All this was done at 70% 500mm with climbs in between at 750-800mm at 210kph. It was clear that as you gained altitude so the boost decreased and I could no longer get 800mm with full throttle. This was due to the decreasing air density. Head back at most economical 60% and 650mm. Called in and Martin wanted to get straight in so I joined right base after descending in stages. We appeared to be close to a microlight on final but as it worked out he was down and off the runway in quick fashion. I came in at 170kph and let it come back to 150kph over the hedge. I made the most beautiful of light touchdowns only to have my bones shaken not long after by the crappy bumpy runway. Needed some brakes as Foxtrot Alpha does not want to slow down. Parked on the apron as Martin wanted the engineers to listen to an air leak. For sure there was one. It was small however . A good session. Never got to do Aileron Rolls or Barrel Rolls as we ran out of time. More to come.

Managed to get some cockpit pics

5 - Yak 52 Conversion - Refresher Handling and Circuits

Back after a month away I discussed what I wanted to do with Martin. Refresher on handling and circuits. I got things going in quick order. Off to the pumps. No oil required this time. I asked Martin about the changeover point for SAE 80 to SAE 100 oil and he stated +- April. None required this time as we were not doing aeros. After filling her up (1" from the bottom of the lip is full) we pushed her into the grass to make room for the Pitts which had taxied in behind us.

Again Runway bloody 20. Every time I go near the Yak the shorter runway becomes active. Means I have even less time for the abbreviated checks. Take off was extremely exciting as usual. With Barton's bumps it rocks around and is hard to get a nice smooth departure from Mother Earth.. Its more of a rodeo followed by the shooting star. My training kicked in and I must say i felt on top and was ahead of the aircraft right from the start. Remembering to squeeze the brake is good practice once unstuck.

We headed out to the play area. Martin asked for various power speed settings and I obliged. One thing that came out of the discussion is not climbing on 64% and 800mm in case we overboost. I made level turns and 45 degree steep turns and flew them perfectly and precisely... it really came together and my feet are really starting to do the business now. I was very happy with this. I set 82% for some stalls clean and with flaps and U carriage down. Both gave a large RH wing drop which I pick up easily with aileron once the wings were flying again and I felt that my recoveries passed the test. Next we went into glide mode at 160 kph and we were exploring the glide stretch experience with making the pitch coarser at the last moment. Not much difference but may have an impact when a forced landing gets critical. 

We then headed back to the airfield. I joined overhead and went straight into circuit mode. I made normal touch and go followed by short field approaches at 170>150>140 kph on the runway. Rounding out a little high but they all went well. I was fully in control of the Go-arounds this time and felt confident that I could protect the flap on the climbout. Runway 20 we were using the chill factor as the aiming point which was ridiculously close to the threshold. Still my picture was slightly out. There was microlight traffic getting in the way so on a couple of occasions I had to extend downwind then line up for a long final. We purposely sat at circuit height until late on then initiated the fast draggy descent. Foxtrot Alpha was just on rails and I even had time to weave the nose a little as short field approaches you tend to lose the runway completely with the high nose attitude. Maintaining a little power was important to keep the engine in the fast reaction range. Good job really as when I came to do the Greens Blues Reds on one approach I noted the gear lever down and locked but no greens just reds. Forgot to look at the soldiers. The FISO (Lynsey) also commented at that time that the gear looked partially down. I just went straight for a go around, pitched level and even pitched up to not exceed the flap limit, stowed the flaps and stowed the u /carriage in quick order. Climbed straight to 1000ft to allow me to evaluate what went on. I don't think that I positively pushed the lever all the way down. Although the sliding lock bar was down it still seems possible to not have the gear down and locked. One learning point is checking for the soldiers will help in this respect.

My last landing was a little bounced but good all the same and I needed brakes to stop before the end. After some nifty taxi-ing I managed to find Foxtrot Alpha's new home (Apparently moved because of the oil damage to the grass.. what do they expect from a Radial engine!!!) I also left the "fire cock" on after checking it for the first time during the pre-start up checks.

Great sortie. Martin offered to sign me off on it but I still feel that I'd like him sat behind me for a little bit longer. However, we are starting aeros from now on so he'll be able to throw in a few skills test goodies to check my reactions and currency. What an adventure!!! .

4 - Yak 52 Conversion - Circuits - Wingovers over Chorley Lake and a short field landing

I am quite confident with the start and the checks now. Had her down to the pumps and re-fuelled in short order. Learning point was pushing the stick forward on down wind whilst taxi-ing to put some weight on the nose wheel to give it less chance to wander around. It worked well.

Take off on 27L seemed to go well. I did eye up my speed this time and the ASI was alive fairly quickly. I did however lose a we bit of directional control that Martin told me later about. Next time I'll try looking outside more at some directional cues. One of the problems being that the run way start areas are not level and at slow speeds the nosewheel does its own thing.

I was very pleased with my circuit routine. I spotted all the rest of the traffic and took the right corrective action. Martin was prompting the downwind check but I just talked over him to demonstrate that I had my shit together. We'd sorted the radio out before we took off so no probs there. I still need to leave the descent till a little longer. I felt like I kept up with the aircraft. Bumpy runway and full power it really doesn't want to stay on the ground. The flap sink is disconcerting but at least the wheels are still down and locked if she settled down again. I was pitching up well and keeping the speed down and the pitch angle correct for the climb out. I was logging and managing the CHT although I must remember to take special care when going slow and descending as she cools quickly.

After 3 circuits I was covered in sweat and suggested to Martin we depart the circuit for some general handling. Again I just loved throwing this aircraft around the sky trying to synchronise my rudder movements more than before. Still a little lag. Its coming. My attempts at Wingovers were alot better today. I did lose quite abit of height. Back to the circuit when we did a very close in circuit and Martin advised the points for getting throttle back, full fine, flap deployed. I found more of a curved base helped because of the amazing decent rate. For the short field the picture was just crazy. It was like being 700ft above the threshold then dropping down to touch on the middle of the runway. The landing was a greaser. Its a rabid tiger to take-off but an absolute pussycat to land. I did need brake with the hedge coming fast but grass friction gives you a nice reduction in speed.

A great detail and my rote learning paid off. I was almost up with the aircraft today.

3 - Yak 52 Conversion - Circuits - general handling and a descent landing

Quite a decent Xwind on runway 27 so runway 02 was on. Typical as I was going to do circuits in a hot ship on a very short runway. I was alot more confident taxi-ing this time. My checks were much faster. I'd annotated Martins checklist. There are some parts I just don't agree with or are just irrelevant. Other areas specifically the power checks where it missed certain things that i was taught by Martin to do. I'll definitely forget them if I don't correct the checklist. It finally sank in that the oil cooler flap was mainly for show and stays cold and the carb heat was so ineffective that I shouldn't even bother with it on downwind (The notes says carb heat on when the temp is below zero!!). That meant that the main focus was the in-flight entertainment gauge being the Cylinder Head Temperature. General usage is open for start, closed for warm up to 120 deg C then open for cooling. We did run it half way a couple of time with cooling during the flight. It should be open for the landing run incase of go around and high engine temps.

Take off was the usual bull in a china shop event that leaves me wondering if I had any control over what was happening. However the circuit was short and absolutely frantic. Still far behind with rudder compensation. There was traffic in the circuit, height keeping was poor and for some reason I thought I should go to prop fine on the downwind checks - wrong 70%; its prop fine before the flaps go down on base or short base I should call it cos that's what it is. I did 4 touch and goes. The first wasn't too bad the rest were bloody awful. One was flapless and although I came in OK i was generally too low and rounding out too high leaving large sinks and bouncing. I've read that you really have to try hard to bounce a Yak given the excellent damping but I somehow achieved it!! With go around power the tendency was to have too high a pitch angle. Its so powerful it wants to lift off as soon as power is applied. I think the nose attitude was too high this led to bouncing. Again the radio seemed to become more distant and I'm sure I was just talking over other traffic. TBH there wasn't time to piss about. Hardly time for the Downwind call. I was trying to get the pre-landing checks in but before I knew it the base turn was upon me. My radial scan failed. The compressor charging appeared to be pretty good so we could do T&Gs without too many worries about re-charging the system.

We headed away from the circuit; I then managed to settle down and we did some power changes. Economical cruise 650mm then 60%; general handling 500mm then 70%. Max rate climb 80% and 800mm. Cruise climb with 70% and 800mm. We did some power movements and I practiced on the rudder. Some medium level turns and again rudder practice including reversals. Then 60 degree steep turns both ways which were not bad. My station keeping still a little ropey for an IMC rated pilot still I was getting the hang of eyes out and cockpit and on the horizon. Martin then demonstrated Wingovers and how to use a ground feature. Love em. I then did a few which were very sloppy indeed but I was still getting a good feel for slow flight with high bank angles in the Yak. Practice will get it. We headed back. I was determined to do better this time. Dropped the gear on crosswind. The 70% 450-500mm was set at the edge of the ATZ. Downwind was much better without Martin interrupting. He was happy with my base turning point (which was verging on the ridiculous for a Cessna) but now knowing how FA drops like a stone once the split flap (equivalent to the air brake on a stuka) is deployed!!! I did the whole landing and it was a greaser... a nice end to a frustrating lesson. Martin and I went through all the learnings and the exact details of the circuit he'd like to see.

Here's the routine;

1) Take Off - full fine max power watch out for the gyro forces

2) In the air pitch up - Dab brakes - Undercarriage retract - Pitch up more for 170km/hr

3) Throttle 800mm/ Prop 82% asap to save the engine.(It melts after 5 mins)

4) Choose an aiming point by 450ft and turn at 500ft, no problem at 30 degs (the Yak loves it :-))

5) Crosswind - level at 1000ft - set 450mm / 70% and trim for 200km/hr - watch wind drift - compensate

6) Turn downwind - keep it tight

7) <200 km/hr - U carriage down - 180km/hr

8) Downwind call abeam nos

9) Pre Landing checks B - brakes press/park off, U - U/C - down 3 greens 3 soldiers, M - Mixture on auto, P - Prop set to 70%, F - Fuel Contents and Pressure, F - Flaps UP / Cowling / Oil Cooler, HH - Hatches and Harnesses

10) Turn base early (short base)

11) 1/3 throttle - Prop fine - check speed - 170 kph flaps down

12) Pitch down alot for 170km/hr as speed drops off rapidly with flaps deployed - Curved approach for a better view

13) Turn finals - Call " G-FA Final 3 Greens" 170km normal app - 140km/hr short field

14) Before the threshold - Check Greens Lights/soldiers / Check Blues - Prop fine and Reds - Mixture Auto

15) Back to 150km/hr over the threshold

It was really hard going and I was drained after 1 hr 10 mins. Alot more circuits and infact lesson before I manage to master this beast.

2 - Yak 52 Conversion - All the ground work - Take-off - General handling, Wingovers to a figure of eight, Circuit away from the aerodrome and circuit at Barton.

Today I was better on the ground preps. I did all the taxi-ing. This is going to improve with practice I'm sure, still under pressure with increasing CHT whilst doing the power checks. Take off was manic and the gyroscopic forces were large. I put in too much left clog and we veered slightly left we seemed to life off early and drift slightly right. Again the speed got ahead of me. The unnatural pitch attitude really catches you out if you are not used to space shuttle launches. It sped up so quick you really have to anticipate with pitch. If I was in the cessna at this pitch angles I'd have spun in and burned on the first take off!!! Squeeze brakes to kill the wheel movement, Undercarriage away, again got to pitch up quickly to stop the speed from racing away, throttle back to 800mm, prop back to 80%. By the time I'd sorted myself out heading for the Reebok we were at the motorway at 2000 ft. All turns at 30 degrees which you'd never do in a normal light aircraft at low speeds. This is no normal light aircraft. I was lagging again with rudder corrections mainly cos my motor skill is trained for American engines. Over to our play area. Started to get the speed / % RPM and MP together. Best economical; Throttle back to 650, prop back to 60% 210 km/h. Must admit it rumbles vibrates and appears to complain at this low setting, in a Cessna I'd be making a mayday call!!!! In this wonderful radial engine where each of the 9 cylinder strokes and associated parts are individual its not surprising that it shakes like a bag of monkeys on 'E' at low RPMs. What a privilege. General handling set 70%, 500mm, 210 km/hr. We climbed using max throttle 950 or 800mm and 80% prop. Descending pull the throttle, nose down, set 60% on the prop. You can use 30 degree angles of bank in the climb out and at any time. Weaving the nose is mandatory and I've noticed brings on comments of glee from the instructor so I have carte blanche to throw it around given the slightest excuse.

More S turns to get used to some rudder turn harmony practice. I did alot better this time. Still wandering around the sky altitude and heading wise. I'm not precise enough. TBH I am happy just to not drop out of the sky at the moment. I think the Military AI is confusing me slightly. Its black for sky and a light colour for earth. Completely opposite from any convention I've seen before. Maybe this aircraft just prefers flying upside down!!!! The RAF use black on black which is easier in some ways. You do need back stick in all turns. Martin demonstrated a gentle Wingover. Nose down 250 km/hr, pull back 2G upto to 45 degrees pitch up, bank 30 degrees, centralise the controls and wait and let it float around its own turn; by this time the speed was still 150 kph and the plane just drops away into another 250 km/hr dive ready for the other side... what a lovely figure!!! I did a few figure of 8 and could have just done it all day!!

After that we started doing theoretical circuits on Chorley lakes.

Throttle 450mm, prop 70% trim for 200 km/hr - Brakes - parking off - main air pressure; Undercarriage ASI<200 put down 3 greens and 3 soldiers. Mixture auto. Flaps UP (retracted); Prop 70%, Fuel CO on - Contents OK, Speed aim for 180 km/hr. QFE set. Temps and pressures - Cowl and oil flaps - This has to get alot quicker. Martin suggested not bothering with Carb heat.

Turn base - Throttle back slowly 1/3 - Prop Fine - pitch down to maintain <170kph - Flaps - Pitch down further to get speed at 170 kph. Turn final - Greens Blues and Reds - Call " Final - 3 greens" - Final check prop fine - CHT - Cowl open. Hell of a pitch down.

The go around - Full throttle - Climb away - positive rate of climb below 170kph get flaps up before exceeding the max speed and damaging them. Pitch up 170 kph, Undercarriage away, pitch up further 170 kph. Throttle back to 800mm. Prop 80% speed 170kph.

We headed to Barton. The first circuit we were thrown out long because of a Microlight. We waited until on final to lower flap. Remember the split type is drag only almost like an airbrake.and should only be put down when required. The only approach I've ever seen that steep is the space shuttle. We lost a lot of height quickly and we ended up in a high nose attitude having to add a boastful of power to maintain height. In hindsight it may have been better to drop the flaps later. I think I lined her up well and held off nicely to a good touch and go. I compensated for full throttle nicely and we were up. (better than the take off which was performed by a drunken vagrant plankton like being who had temporarily taken over control of my body and mind) Had to work fast to get flaps away and U / carriage up. Another circuit with 3 contacts ahead. We came in on a short base again cutting up a micro light (he'd only bounce off us anyway) before I'd finished stumbling through my downwind checks. Final came in fast and I did the landing holding the nose up high. I think it was my landing but you never quite know in tandem seating with an instructor following through. Not too bad. Rounded out a little high.

After landing checks completed I taxied her back and just about made it into the right position. Made sure I had the rudder bar in neutral this time for the plug clearing high power setting!!(Addendum - also done to scavenge the oil to minimize the chances of hydraulic lock with oil getting into the cylinders after shut down) I ran 70% for 20 seconds then mags off switches off. Martin did the pitot cover and I closed the main air valve; I also did the air valve drain to get rid of the sludge. By this time Martin had put the tie downs on. I made sure both mags were off for when Martin leveled the blade to stop water getting in at the blade root if it rained.

I was a little more aware of CHT this lesson; Most of the time the cowl was open; we half close it now and again to get the temp up.It does move around and can be classed as in flight entertainment. Spent more time with it open than anything else. Only did the Carb heat on the down wind. (Martin basically suggested not to bother. Its not the same set up as the normal carb heat function).

Discussion - Failing fuel pressure - emergency action is using 11 o clock primer, PLF and land as soon as possible.

Carb Icing - Carb Heat hot - work the throttle so the ice can't jam the butterfly valve - Martins suggestion - 1 o clock primer PLF and land as soon as possible. Makes sense because if your fuel is starved by feeding separately allowed the engine more fuel to run hotter and give you prolonged engine and more chance of keeping the temp up to clear the carb icing - clever bugger.

Great lesson - Still feel way behind the plane - Better motor skills and faster drills required.

1 - Yak 52 Conversion - General handling, steep turns, stall in clean and final config

After I asked some questions in the club house - the upshot was things like TAS 210km/hr. The 1246 sequence of switches omitted the DC / AC inverters because they would drain the battery before the engine started. Power settings for warm up - 50%. The Yak has its own fuel cup and screwdriver in a special fitting (basically I wanted to minimise the small items we take to the plane because they can jam the controls in flight). I confirmed that the brake levers are completely independent. I will probably need to find my leatherman. There is no stall warner or pitot heat in Foxtrot Alpha.

My new home. Unfortunately its all in Russian!!!! Apart from the Altimeter which has been required to read millibars. However you could figure the instruments out from there shape and rough markings. Very military in style as you'd expect. No ergonomics apart from the Air Speed Indicator and the Manifold Pressure gauge being in the same solar system. There are stickers in English most useful on the P's and Ts otherwise I'd have been completely lost. With no instructor sat next to you to point things out this was a quick rude awakening and a boot up the hoop.

Pre-flight - We basically went around the plane. Controls locking strap, Pitot cover and tie-downs removed. Detailed discussion on the cockpit controls. Air showed 25 kg/cm2 - enough for a few start attempts. We completed the outside check. The fuel was not drained and the cowlings did not come off. With all mags checked off Martin pulled through to check for hydraulic lock. No oil from the exhaust which is a good sign. Problem with radial engines is engine oil and upside down cylinders!!!!. After internal the pre-starting checks the prop was pulled through and one squirt of fuel each pull on the cylinder side. Starting the Yak is a 3 handed job. With most of the electrics on except the mags, throttle 1/3 cracked, fingers on the mags and thumb on the air starter; your right hand across your body is holding and working the throttle over a large range. You get a pop.. bang... 3 blades flip the mags on and hold the starter abit longer (the ignition coil gives a shower of parks) and you PLF with the throttle between 1/3 and 1/2 setting and she's away. What's nice is waiting for the CHT to get above 120 degs. OilT min 20 deg C before taxi according to Martin. Allows you to get organised in other ways in the cockpit. We taxied to the pumps. This was interesting. I'm not bad once on the move but this tesco trolley wanted to go off at weird tangents when turning tightly. I did most of the taxiing Martin brought it into the pumps. Shutdown was very quick and easy. I went to get some SAE80 oil whilst Martin supervised the re-fueling. Then off for the power checks. The skill with tight turns is getting the nosewheel straight with anticipation so you do not overshoot. Its all still quite alien and will take some getting used to. Power checks abit disjointed and the CHT rose to 200 degC putting abit of pressure on me to get my arse in gear. (In hindsight the checklist I am using is flawed and I've come up with a better version - (basically checks the mags, volts, the operation of the CS pitch prop, throttle response and the governor coupling) Pre-take off checks good.

I lined up on the runway and tried to get it straight but it swerved right last minute. A little straightening then we were sort of lined up. I elected to do the take off. After all how hard can it be with 360 horses getting tired of waiting!! Take off was amazing. Full fine pitch, when I though I'd reached max throttle the lever just kept on going and gave me even more power. OMG... Scotty warp factor 5....felt like I was just managing to hold on.. I held the nose up, maybe not enough as Martin wanted more. Next time I'm focus on rudder more as well. She lifted off by herself...no surprise there and I pushed the stick forward instinctively to fly level and get some speed. Not sure what happened but I retracted the undercarriage and they didn't go. Maybe I didn't lock the bar. Anywhere I figured the climb rate was crap and Martin pointed it out also it surged forward when I got full retraction. Somewhere in the exchange I pressed the wrong PTT button and announced to all the world how crap FA was climbing - Must have raised a laugh in the clubhouse. I must have sounded like a right spoilt bastard in my new toy :-). For the rest of the lesson I managed to press the right button. Braking the wheel before retraction is important as the tyres expand when running at speed in the air and can contact the internal part of the wheel well causing damage / fires etc gulp. We climbed away. I used various MP / RPM settings. The RPM was reduced with the prop after the undercarriage was raised.

I had alot of eyes down time taking in all the changing parameters. I called departing the circuit. We flew to Chorley lakes then the fun started. Basic medium level turns at 30 degs. Quite easy but my foot had lag and I was always chasing the ball instead of looking outside. Then 45 level degree turns with an 100-150mm increase in manifold pressure. HASELL Check. Then 60 deg turns at max power, I pulled on the stick and got 2G out of her although keeping level was considerably harder!!! Then we made some S turns so I could practice aileron/rudder co-ordination. It was harder than you'd imaging but just great throwing this plane around the sky - controls were beautifully harmonised. This is no lumbering Cessna. This is a fighter and you could easily tell.

Next stalls, Martin demonstrated a clean stall and recovery. Then I did one, initially it climbed as I pulled back (bloody fighter!!) but then after I'd let the speed wash off more it was easier to move the stick back without gaining height. The VSI was the best indicator, the nose attitude was very high, the left wing dropped by 30-40 degrees at +- 100 kph- full power - more left clog needed on recovery was the comment!!!) and I regained speed and pitched up to climb away at 170 kph. Next a stall in the final config, pulled the MP (throttle back) When the speed was below 200 kph I lowered the undercarriage then when speed was at 170 kph I lowered the flaps, speed came off very quickly and I had to get the nose up quick to meet the stall; very benign nod and no appreciable wing drop, full power, again not enough clog, speed increasing lose flaps, speed increasing, gotta get the U/carriage stowed before 200 and it all went tickerdy boo then pitch up to 170 kph to climb away. After this Martin announced my time was up. I could feel my bottom lip going as I wanted to play out longer but there's always another day. and at 14 gallons an hour FA wanted to go home too. The reason for the small tanks was apparently so that the Russian pilots couldn't defect........

I had problems making it descend. Basically I needed to get these fixed manifold pressures out of my mind and realise that al I needed was to reduce the MP (throttle) more and point the nose down. Eventually she came down reluctantly. Approaching the circuit Martin mentions rolling back and forth to look in the blind spots. No problems there and any excuse to throw FA around was welcome. Martin flew the circuit; I just worked the U carriage and flaps. He flew a very tight circuit. We lowered the U carriage on the crosswind leg. I called downwind to land. Very early we turned base, I dropped flap and with a very nose low attitude we dropped like a stone. It must've been about 1000-1500ft a minute. He overshot slightly and the hold off was certainly longer than my last flight. Nice touch down and Martin let it run on to dissipate energy in friction before trying to steer. Off the runway he stopped and I performed the after landing checks. I then taxied her back all the way home. Thought I'd done a sterling job but during the shutdown check a higher power is set to clear the plugs and I must have had the rudder bar slightly to the left and she turned left by about 15 degrees. After shudown we easily corrected the drift. Air valve off, Martin recommended wrapping the harness around it to remind people to open the bottle. The bay air drain valve was a two handed job; should only be done once after each flight and never before a flight. A spay of oily sludge under pressure bled to nothing then I closed it again. The air system is lubricated with oil and inevitable sludge forms in the system; As long as this is expelled after each flight thats fine. I tied up the rudder and control stick - Rudder movement can drain the air system so restraining it helps to retain the air in the system as well as protect the controls from violent gusts of wind.

What an experience. My head was buzzing. Workload tremendous. I've a long way to go before I'll be confident with this aircraft. Just time in seat and familiarity with some fun along the way :-)

Ground school - Yak 52

Martin went through some ground school. The workings of the Magnasin inductance slaved compass used in the HI with de-coupling and station keeping using a gyroscopic mechanism when the aircraft enters a turn because of the inherent turning errors. There are no accel and decel errors. Crankshaft prop ratio of 0.658 and the constant supercharging mechanism running at 8X crankshaft speed. Epicyclic gearing used between the services and the crankshaft and the inertia dampening design using springs encased within the small wheels. He covered the air system and its fluid / grunge trap that we have to bleed off after flight.

The electric spark distribution system that uses a shower of sparks individually pre-primed cylinders when the ignition function is on and the starter button pressed. The two pronged rotor are for spark distribution (one prong to retard the spark which is used when the starter is pressed and one for normal operation once the starter is released).

The prop length related to the crankshaft speed and the speed of sound ie designed to remain below 1100 ft/sec at the tips. How the Rotational vector and the transitional vector intersect gives the relative angle of airflow and the pitch positions (chord angle) relative to this. It was a good explanation of why we have variable pitch propellers. Yak prop system is single acting hydraulic with a returning spring backed by 75psi gas reservoir (air I think), The governor is part of the assembly and this gives it its constant speed element because it compensates in pitch angle to keep the rpm the same. He described the actual actuating mechanism for the propeller pitch angle using a slotted tube and bevel gearing to turn each blade in synch with the other..

Yak 52 Roller Coaster

I got the bad news from Martin that the chippy at Blackpool was U/S and had been since last September so the tailwheel conversion that we were planning was out for the time being - very disappointed. That's when I decided to take a test flight in the Yak 52 based at Barton. I'd been eyeing up the share and reading up on the Yak the month before. 1985 Russian Warbird Aerobatic Trainer with a 360 HP supercharged engine.

Neil one of the group members took me up. He demonstrated the basic preps. It normally has a ground crew so I was straight into action assisting with the checks. 9 squirts to the engine side and then pumping up the fuel pressure. In no time at all the engine was started and what a roar. Noise .. vibration .. fumes ... I was being sucked in. After a considerable warm up period for the Oil T and CHT. We were off to the pumps. I sat in the back and was doing the taxi-ing. Had to weave because I couldn't see ahead. Nosewheel is fully castoring and short squirts on the brake handle with differential braking worked well although I found I lost abit of directional control when I went too slow. It wasn't easy. Handed back to Neil for the tricky bits. Take off went by in a roar... and a shudder.... and a blur and we were up in no time at all. On the climb out after gathering speed he did a small zoom which took my breath away. I realised then that I should have a space suit on not a old flying suit!!! This bullet wants to accelerate upwards. We went to the backside of Winter Hill. I had control and started to get a feel for it. Co-ordinating rudder was not so easy. I was impressed with how stable it was once trimmed and could be flown hands off. Then how little stick movement was required to put on considerable bank ... Neil demonstrated some Wingovers. My AI wasn't working so it was hard to see exactly what was going on. Nice to experience G again. The he did a couple of Barrel Rolls that left me dis-oriented - again all too fast for me to decipher the control movements. Headed out to Fleetwood then along the coast to Southport. Over Southport Neil demonstrated some more aeros; we did a a reverse cuban (I think) Nothing to do with ball room dancing apparently. Pulled 5G in the dive to set up at 320 km/hr then rolled onto our back on the 45 degree upslope. Then floated over the top with engine backed off back into a dive to come out of the figure lower and in the opposite direction. Fantastic. I didn't scream once and wasn't sick although I felt that fragged feeling which would lead to air sickness should we continue indefinately. Back to Barton, steep approach and a thumping landing with no bounce. What a machine........Sold.