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Yak 52 missing near Sth Stradboke Island.


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That's the third plane I know of to go in the water in that area. Is this a Bermuda triangle for aviation? Also, all of the planes that went in there have been aerobatic types.

That's because its an aerobatic approved area.

 

 

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When I saw it fly past from the balcony of my hotel on last Sundays flight, it appeared to be flying at probably only around 5 or 600ft above sea level, which does not give much time if anything goes pear shaped. I was just fitting telephoto lens to my camera to get a shot of it, but ran out of time. Fortunately, the pax on this occasion is still around to tell the story of his experience, and is probably counting his lucky stars.

 

Very sad to loose another iconic old aircraft with loved one's on board.

 

R.I.P. and condolences to all family and friends.

 

Just had a call from a second cousin in the UK who only a week or so ago had a Spitfire flight for his 90th Birthday. News travels fast these days.

 

 

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My first thought when I heard of this was Barry Hempell. Sadly a similar type of accident, but I doubt that this pilot was as much a cowboy as Barry.

 

Just a problem with aerobatics putting extra strain on everything.

 

 

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I went up with a mate of mine in NZ in his Yak 52 & he did a heap of aeros right above Hamilton Airport which is controlled & also international. There were no flights due obviously and as I recall he began at 4000 feet. It was great & I lost my headset on the first manoeuvre, got it back though & always remembers all the smoke from that big lazy radial when stopping vertical. We probably got down to 1000 feet at times. ATC even congratulated John on his display.

 

Hemphill aside most aero pilots who take fare paying passengers are far from cowboys. Something went wrong and it was not necessarily aerobatics.

 

 

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kgwilson there is an excellent Yak formation team in NZ. This is from 2017, I believe the team has grown further since then:

 

 

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Yes there are now 9 in the lineup. My old friend John Parker who used to be CFI at the Waikato Aero Club is the leader of that team.

 

 

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The impression I got when I last looked into one of these Rusky planes was that they were built stronger than a reo-mesh concrete sh|thouse. Looked more like they were built like a farm tractor than a bird of flight. I can't see structural failure being a cause, unless it was the wing nut holding the control column.

 

 

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They are usually used for the life of a trainer (not a real high number of hours) and then fitted with a new or reconditioned engine and sold. This is the ones from Romania where I think a lot of them are made.. If you buy a NEW Sukhoi sp? it's much more costly and supplied with an uprated version of the "round"engine. Then you are more serious. Nev

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

There is another possibility here and of course this is just speculation.

 

It is whale season and maybe they were looking for or at whales and just got that little bit too close to the water. I say this, because it happened to me the other day up off the beach south of Double Island point. I let my attention wander for just a second while my wife was filming a whale and when I looked back to the front the plane was in a nose down attitude headed for the water. I won't say what height we were at, but it was a wake up call.

 

 

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