YAK-11

Standfirst
Although it may look like ‘a Russian Harvard’, Dave Unwin soon discovered that the Yak-11 is a much more potent aircraft than its capitalist counterpart.

With a hiss and a roar, the Shevetsov radial burst into life and the VISh propeller dissolved into a shimmering blur. I cinched my shoulder harness tighter and began to look forward immensely to the forthcoming flight. With 700 Soviet horses champing eagerly at the bit, it promised to be quite a ride!
I met Yak UK’s Mark Jefferies at his Little Gransden base on a rather blustery day in early October, and was immediately taken with the brooding, almost brutish, look of the big Russian fighter trainer. One of the facets of the aircraft that immediately caught my attention was that the wing is quite small. Indeed, with a wing loading more than 50% higher than the Harvard’s and an extra 150 horsepower, it was fairly obvious that Aleksandr Yakovlev had designed a bit of a beast. I was also fascinated by the hardpoints under each wing, which enabled the aircraft to carry up to 100kg of ordnance either side. In military service the Yak-11 was also armed with a single 12.7mm belt-fed UBS machine-gun, located behind the engine and synchronised to fire through the propeller arc. Viewed from any angle, its World War Two fighter lineage is obvious.
Looking around the aircraft, I noticed that it appeared to be entirely conventional in both design and construction. The wings use the Clark-YH aerofoil section and are relatively thin. Essentially of all-metal construction, they are built around two spars covered with metal skins and fitted with fabric control surfaces, while the fuselage is a conventional welded steel tube structure. Except for the aft fuselage, which is fabric-covered, this is covered with metal panels. The rudder and elevators are also fabric-covered, and I was intrigued to note that although ground adjustable trim tabs were fitted to the rudder and ailerons, only the elevator trim could be adjusted in flight. I was rather surprised that an aircraft fitted with a 700hp radial did not have a rudder that could be trimmed from the cockpit, although Mark assured me that the rudder pedal loads were not excessive.
The mainwheels retract inwards, and consequently the Yak is blessed with quite a wide wheel-base. The lockable tailwheel does not retract. As delivered from the factory, and in common with many other Russian aircraft, nearly all the services are pneumatic. They are supplied with compressed air from a large main and a smaller emergency bottle, charged by an engine-driven piston compressor. However, like many Western operators, Mark has chosen to retrofit his aircraft with toe - actuated Cleveland hydraulic disc brakes.
Moving around the aircraft I noticed that it is covered by a plethora of quick release panels, which Mark delighted in quickly removing to show me how easy the aircraft is to work on. I was very impressed by this excellent feature, and I know some engineers who probably wish Cessnas and Pipers had been so thoughtfully designed. The rest of the walk-round contained no real surprises, with the possible exception of checking very closely around the spinner, as this area is prone to cracks. As with any radial engine, it is absolutely imperative that the engine is carefully pulled through by hand to preclude any possibility of the engine experiencing a hydraulic lock, something caused by oil pooling in the lower cylinders of the engine. The engine, a seven-cylinder Shvetsov ASh-21, is quite tightly cowled, with cooling controlled by the same type of cowling gills fitted to other Yaks powered by radial engines. Oil cooling is provided by a ram-air inlet fitted to the leading edge of the left wing root: this is fitted with a shutter controlled from the cockpit.
Having climbed up onto the wing root walk-way and slid the canopy back, I carefully slipped my foot into the spring-loaded step and climbed into the rear cockpit. Yes, that’s right, readers – it was the back seat for yours truly. In fact, I should make it clear from the start that, unlike a typical Today’s Pilot flight test, I did not do the take-off and landing. Mark has invested a considerable amount of time and money in restoring G-BTUB, and as the brakes and also a number of the services (such as the controls for the cooling gills, oil cooler shutter, magnetos, undercarriage and flaps) are only in the front cockpit, I would have done exactly the same if the aircraft had been mine. Furthermore, the day in question featured a boisterous, blustery crosswind which was blowing across a runway that was not exactly overlong for operating this kind of aircraft.
As soon as Mark had strapped himself into the front cockpit, he began to busy himself with bringing the big Shvetsov radial to life. As mentioned previously, it is turned over pneumatically and, I might add, quite energetically. Obviously, any pressurised air system can leak, so it is very important that the air system is only turned on just before start-up and is turned off immediately after shutdown. To ensure that there is no possibility of the engine kicking back, it is important to allow the propeller to revolve a couple of times before selecting the magnetos on. If the air supply has been severely depleted during start-up, it is imperative that the engine-driven compressor has recharged the air bottles before take-off. Failure to observe this very simple precaution could cause the undercarriage (which is also operated pneumatically) to malfunction.
On this occasion, the engine quickly burst into life with a healthy roar and we were soon making our way towards the runway, with the Shvetsov making the wonderfully liquid ‘bloop-bloop-bloop’ noise that only an idling radial can make. In common with most other large, single-engined taildraggers, the view forward from the rear seat is practically non-existent and I found myself thinking (and not for the last time) that those Russian instructors had really earned their roubles!
With such simple systems (even the flaps are left ‘up’ for take-off, although it is important to ensure the cooling gills are open) we were soon ready for take-off. Mark lined us up with the centre of the grass runway, rolled forward a couple of yards with the stick fully aft to ensure that the automatic tailwheel lock had engaged and then slowly and smoothly brought the engine up to full power. Acceleration was good without being outstanding, and as the speed increased through 50kts a positive push forward on the stick raised the tailwheel, which improved the forward visibility tremendously. As the needle of the ASI swept through 95kts the Yak rather reluctantly left the ground and we climbed away at what initially appeared to me to be quite a shallow angle. With a noise like a peevish python, the pneumatics hissed into life as Mark selected the undercarriage up, brought the power back to 75% and passed control to me.
I swung the Yak skyward in a graceful, sweeping curve and was almost immediately impressed both by the harmony of control and also the surprisingly light control forces. The elevators and ailerons were pleasantly light and, as Mark had mentioned during the pre-flight briefing, even the rudder pedal loads were quite low.
Aircraft like this just beg to be aerobatted and as soon as we had several thousand feet tucked safely under our belts Mark and I took turns in rolling and looping the Yak above the Cambridgeshire countryside. If I say so myself, even my very first attempt at rolling the Yak was perfectly satisfactory, although to be honest my first loop was perhaps not quite as tidy! The barrel roll was entered at about 200kts and worked out great. However, even using Mark’s recommended speed of 220kts for the loop, it did get a bit slow at the top. Although the speed builds rapidly as soon as the nose is below the horizon, it does rather bleed energy just as quickly in the climb. The Vne is a hearty 323kts and even Va is usefully high at 240kts. However, I did notice that the previously pleasantly light ailerons firmed up considerably above 200kts, although this was hardly surprising.
During the briefing, Mark had emphasised that negative G was to be avoided at all costs, and I was quite surprised to learn that although its positive G limit is a reasonable +4.25, it is not approved for even -1! However, these limitations are not structural, but exist because any negative 'G' would interrupt the oil supply. This would be less than satisfactory as the oil pressure is used as servo power for the boost controller. Consequently, an interruption in the oil supply could cause the engine to shut down!
An exploration of the stall regime was illuminating as, particularly with the undercarriage and flaps retracted, it was actually quite vicious and was accompanied by a pronounced wing drop and almost no pre-stall buffet. Although it mostly dropped the left wing (an effect caused, I believe, by the radial engine and large diameter prop) on one occasion it caught me out by dropping the other wing, despite the fact that I took extra care to ensure the slip ball was centralised. With the undercarriage and flaps extended the stall was noticeably less ferocious. More buffet could be felt though the stick and the actual G break occurred about ten knots slower than the clean stall, at just above 70. Mark then took control to demonstrate a two-turn spin, and I was suitably impressed, both at the rate of rotation and the speed of the recovery.
I would have loved to have flown the Yak for another couple of hours and really got comfortable with it, although its prodigious thirst (as high as 50 gph at full throttle and low level) means that the two wing tanks and small fuselage collector tank can be emptied of their combined 79 gallons quite quickly. However, to be fair, when flown at economy cruise settings and higher altitudes figures for both range and endurance improve dramatically. In fact endurance in excess of four hours or a range of around 700 miles can be achieved.
Roaring back towards Little Gransden at 75% power saw the ASI indicating just over 200kts, for a fuel flow of around 33 gph. With its relatively high wing loading, the ride is pleasantly firm and in no time at all we were racing in fast and low to put on a show for Today’s Pilot photographer Steve Fletcher. After a suitably satisfying beat-up it was time to think about landing, but, unlike its namesake, this particular ‘Moose’ is quite a slippery beast and showed no real inclination to slow down. Luckily, the undercarriage extension speed is a reasonably high 164kts, and as the ASI dipped below this, the now-familiar hiss indicated that Mark had selected the undercarriage ‘down’, soon confirmed by the red-and-white striped ‘barber poles’ protruding above the wing. As the airspeed continued to reduce to below 136kts another angry hiss from the seething serpent confirmed that the flaps were on their way down. The flaps are actually pretty unsophisticated, as they are of the simple split type and only offer two positions - ‘up’ and ‘landing’ (45 degrees).
By now I was nothing more than an interested spectator, and watched fascinated as Mark swept the Yak around in a classic curving ‘constant aspect’ approach. This method is the best way to fly an approach in aircraft of this type, as the view of the nose really is quite poor. With its relatively high wing-loading, the Yak really isn’t the kind of aircraft that you want to get slow on the approach, and I noted that Mark was careful to keep the air speed at about 105kts until we crossed the hedge. At this point the speed bled back to 100kts, with a planned threshold speed of 90-95kts. A smooth steady flare and the Yak sat down promptly and showed no inclination to try and fly again. At the end of the landing run, Mark retracted the flaps and unlocked the tailwheel before taxiing carefully back to the parking area. As the big propeller slowly wound down to a stop, I slid back my canopy and began unstrapping myself from the seat and parachute.
I enjoyed my flight in the Yak immensely, and would love to own one. It has good handling, a powerful engine, and charisma by the bucket-load. As a typical early 1950s piston-engined intermediate and advanced trainer, the type can be loosely compared to the ubiquitous North American T-6 ‘Harvard’ although, in my opinion it is a much better aircraft in practically every respect. Indeed, if anyone ever gets round to setting up an air combat school equipped with a Yak-11 and a T-6, let me give you one piece of advice – make sure you get to fly the Yak!

The Yakovlev Yak-11, NATO codename ‘Moose’, was developed from the Yak-3 fighter as a two-seat intermediate and advanced trainer. It first flew in 1945 and entered production the following year. That the type fulfilled its design criteria admirably is probably best indicated by the fact that by the time production ended, Yakovlev had built almost 4,000, and export sales had been made to 18 countries. Several hundred aircraft were also built under licence by LET of Poland and Czechoslovakia’s Strojviny Privni Petiletsky. Licence-built aircraft were designated C-11, although they retained their NATO code name. Mark’s aircraft, G-BTUB, is actually a C-11 and was built in 1956 at Czechoslovakia’s LET factory. After service with the Czech air force, it was sold to Egypt and served with the Egyptian air force before being struck off charge. It was recovered from the Egyptian desert in the mid-1980s by the French aircraft dealer Jean Salis, who sold the aircraft to Mark in 1991. Mark restored the airframe at Little Gransden, and Vintage Engine Technology, also based at Little Gransden, rebuilt the Shnetsov Ash-21 engine. After a huge amount of time and money, G-BTUB won the Concours d’Elegance prize at the 1994 PFA Rally.
Mark is really enthusiastic about the aircraft. He told me: "Although a Yak - 11 is a bit more money than a Harvard, it is a lot more aircraft. In fact, the only aircraft that sits between a Harvard and a Mustang is the Yak - 11".

YAK 11
Dimensions
Length 27ft 10in 8.2m
Height 10ft 5in 3.19m
Wingspan 30ft 10in 9.4m
Wing Area 166 sq ft 15.4m2

Weights and Loadings
Empty weight 4,037lb 1,833kg
Max AUW 5,468lb 2,482kg
Useful load 1,431lb 649kg
Wing loading 32.9lb/sq ft 161kg/m2
Power loading 7.8lb/hp 3.83kg/kW
Fuel capacity 79 Imp gal 360 lit
Design G Loading +4.25/ 0G

Performance
Vne 323kts 598km/h
Cruise 200kts 370km/h
Stall 73kts 135km/h
Climb rate 1,600ft/min 8.1m/s
Service ceiling 26,000ft 7,925m
Range 690nm 1,280km

Engine
Shvetsov Ash-21 air-cooled seven cylinder radial, producing 700hp (522kW) at 2,300rpm.
Propeller
VIS-111-V20 metal two-blade constant speed


An outstanding feature of the Yak-11 is the number of fuselage panels that can be removed within five minutes. This greatly facilitates maintenance.