Making the best of MiG-21

[ryan1234]

Yeah the book mentioned that it was a funny initiation ritual to give the new guys getting checked out a taxi fam and watch them stumble all over the ramp/taxiway like drunks trying to figure it out......before the pneumatic charge in the reservior inevitably bleed off and they coasted off into the dirt without brakes

Yes, they are hand brakes...it takes getting used to! The L-39 is a lot more sensitive on the brakes. And yes, taxi excessively and the air will be drained (personal experience) -same with touch and goes for the CJ it takes about 5 atm for each pneumatic operation ( flaps, gear, etc)... But if you run out of air on the main tank, you can crack open the emergency.

On the taxi of those Russian birds, it's not really the brakes that are the tough part...it's the free-castoring nosewheel that tricky. I'm sure yak52driver could give some examples of students getting 'stuck' with the nose gear in the wrong direction.

 

[nittany03]

OK, I'm confused. I've been Googling the Yak/CJ out of curiousness and hope of maybe acquiring one someday. I thought the CJ/Yak had a pump to refill the pneumatic accumulator or tank in between actuations. I thought the setup was kind of like the T-39 where the hyds bleed down to a certain pressure, then get repressurized by a pump. No?

 

[yak52driver]

OK, I'm confused. I've been Googling the Yak/CJ out of curiousness and hope of maybe acquiring one someday. I thought the CJ/Yak had a pump to refill the pneumatic accumulator or tank in between actuations. I thought the setup was kind of like the T-39 where the hyds bleed down to a certain pressure, then get repressurized by a pump. No?

I can't speak to the CJ, but I the Yak I know pretty well since I've rebuilt just about the entire air system on it over the last two years. The engine does have an air compressor on it to recharge the normal side of the air system. There is also an emergency side, that is refilled (at least in my case) via a scuba tank connected to an external fill. If the normal side gets low, that will also fill the normal side, as well. I've checked a few folks out in Yaks and no one has run the system down to the point that the brakes quite working. I had one guy that wanted to keep doing bounces in the pattern and the air system couldn't recharge fast enough after a while so we just went and flew around a while until the normal side was up again. I did have the shear coupling on my air compressor go a couple of years ago and the pump quit making air pressure. Even then I had enough normal side air pressure to get gear down and get stopped without going to the emergency side.

Teaching folks to taxi has been the most entertaining from an instructor standpoint. Most everyone gets the nose wheel cranked over all the way and it just wants to go around in a tight circle until they use a lot of power and opposite brake to get it to straighten out. I had one checkout last summer that took at least six shots at taxiing up to the fuel pit ending up in a never ending turn each time. They finally got the feel for the brakes.

IMHO the Yak and CJ are a pretty great bang for the buck. Not only do I get to do a lot of form flying with a lot of current/former military aviators, but the Yak is a fun aerobatic plane. I've been flying mine at airshows for the last couple of years and the crowd feedback is positive, it's big and easy for them to see. They like the sound of the radial engine, too. If you're interested in one make sure it's got the 'heavy' spar AD's done, that puts the G rating at +7/-5 for the Yak. Most have had this, but there are still a few out there that never had it done and it limits the plane to +5/-3 (if memory serves).

 

[ryan1234]

The CJ is the same with the compressor and emergency air as far as I know (with the Yak). Although each CJ seems to have different "air system characteristics" .. holding more or less, leak patterns, etc.

The CJ doesn't charge really that fast at all - or at least the ones I flew.

Nittany,

It's a great, fun aircraft with a few - interesting things about it... particularly in the back cockpit - for example, there's a button that the back seat guy can disable the front guy's brakes - which can happen exactly when you don't want it to - but a few guys have disabled the system. There's some other things like that a back seater could do to really mess up your day. All in all, it's an amazingly simple, fun airplane to fly.

The great thing about the Yak-52 is that you can land gear up... taxi to the hangar... and hang a new prop on it... and you're good to go again

The best thing about those aircraft is probably the Red Star Pilot's Association. It's a group of really experienced dudes (mostly prior mil) that get together for formation, BFM, working on the planes, swapping parts/stories, general aircraft suppot. They do form clinics and hand out FAST cards... it's really a great group of people. Yak52driver can probably tell you a bit more about them...

 

[MIDNJAC]

The best thing about those aircraft is probably the Red Star Pilot's Association. It's a group of really experienced dudes (mostly prior mil) that get together for formation, BFM, working on the planes, swapping parts/stories, general aircraft suppot. They do form clinics and hand out FAST cards... it's really a great group of people. Yak52driver can probably tell you a bit more about them...

Is that like the WWI BFM experience?

 

[nittany03]

Yeah, I need a few deployments under my belt before I start thinking about plunking down any kind of $$$ for a flying machine. Trouble is, I'm spoiled; I need something with decent range that I can still bend around every now and then. Flying is fun, but I'm not old enough to settle for poking around at 90kts doing 30 degrees AOB. It seems either a Yak/CJ, RV/Rocket, or Glasair would be about as good as I could expect to do. I need to get current on the civilian side of the house first, and get a civilian cloud card, complex/high performance, and maybe a tailwheel rating. Which is gonna cost bucks, too. And OBTW not dork away my real job in the process.

@JAC - remember the Red Baron made his mark in airplanes that were roughly equivalent to a Piper Tomahawk, and that our modern SNAs are now starting out in something that could hold its own against an early WWII fighter (T-6B).

 

[ryan1234]

Is that like the WWI BFM experience?

Ha... just about...there is definitely a fun factor to doing lead/lag, rolling/flat scissors in a radial engine aircraft.... you can hear that engine chugging away and the prop fighting for air... smell of burnt oil and avgas.... I'm sure everything would seem in slow-mo for some of you guys.... but hey, at least the CJ is good for energy management... and the breaks are still +5g!

It's just awesome to be part of a group of guys that like doing all of that and don't mind letting me fly their airplanes. The guy who checked me out in the CJ was a former F/A-18 guy.... absolutely awesome guy and pilot - it's just nice to be around that sort of stuff, learn stuff and soak it all up.

Who knows.. maybe you'll be one of those retired guys having fun pretending to shoot down ze Germans... with your vintage radial engine commie bird.

 

[MIDNJAC]

Ha... just about...there is definitely a fun factor to doing lead/lag, rolling/flat scissors in a radial engine aircraft.... you can hear that engine chugging away and the prop fighting for air... smell of burnt oil and avgas.... I'm sure everything would seem in slow-mo for some of you guys.... but hey, at least the CJ is good for energy management... and the breaks are still +5g!

It's just awesome to be part of a group of guys that like doing all of that and don't mind letting me fly their airplanes. The guy who checked me out in the CJ was a former F/A-18 guy.... absolutely awesome guy and pilot - it's just nice to be around that sort of stuff, learn stuff and soak it all up.

Who knows.. maybe you'll be one of those retired guys having fun pretending to shoot down ze Germans... with your vintage radial engine commie bird.

Sounds like a good time to me!

 

[yak52driver]

Ha... just about...there is definitely a fun factor to doing lead/lag, rolling/flat scissors in a radial engine aircraft.... you can hear that engine chugging away and the prop fighting for air... smell of burnt oil and avgas.... I'm sure everything would seem in slow-mo for some of you guys.... but hey, at least the CJ is good for energy management... and the breaks are still +5g!

It's just awesome to be part of a group of guys that like doing all of that and don't mind letting me fly their airplanes. The guy who checked me out in the CJ was a former F/A-18 guy.... absolutely awesome guy and pilot - it's just nice to be around that sort of stuff, learn stuff and soak it all up.

Who knows.. maybe you'll be one of those retired guys having fun pretending to shoot down ze Germans... with your vintage radial engine commie bird.

Here's a little 1V1 Yak style...

 

[ryan1234]

Great pics - What a knife fight!

 

[MIDNJAC]

Like my favorite 3-plane ACM instructor always said, "it's a chess game with brass knuckles"

 

[yak52driver]

I do have to say it is a lot of fun doing it. I'm always learning! ;-)

 

[nittany03]

What do you guys use for training rules/decks?

 

[Ace_Austin]

I'm not sure how good on gas they are but I know there are a few "kits" out there to build a 4/5th Pony that zips around pretty well. If I ever had 100K to throw around I'd think about getting one of those. (In USN colors.)

 

[yak52driver]

What do you guys use for training rules/decks?

I had a couple of AF types train me, we use a 500' bubble and 3000' agl hard deck. Call if you lose sight, knock it off under certain conditions, I'm guessing along the lines that most ACM IP's teach. The pictures are from an air show I flew, so things were pretty tame, mainly became a vertical scissors.