Yak 52 ZK-XXS

Our latest Yak 52 was built by Intreprinderea De Avioane Bacau, Romania as c/n 8910001 in about 1989 and registered in the Russian Federation as RA-02149.

It was sold to the UK and became G-IMIC on 21-08-2002.  It had wheels up landing at Seething, Norfolk 01-12-2009.  It was cancelled from the UK civil register on 17-11-2011 and exported to New Zealand.  

Thanks to Adam Duffield for this photo of G-IMIC.

After arriving in New Zealand it was registered as ZK-XXS to Kaipara Aviation Trust of North Shore, Auckland on 18/9/12.  The Kaipara Aviation Trust owns an interesting collection of aircraft including Stearman ZK-BWR, Cessna Bird Dog ZK-DOG and Mooney Ovation ZK-VVB.

It was assembled at Ardmore by Huib Volker of  Hawk Aero Ltd, and some upgrading work was carried out including the installation of a 3 bladed propellor.  It doesn't have the shutters fitted at the front of the cowling as apparently they are not really needed in New Zealand conditions.

The 2 photos above show ZK-XXS during early test flights at Ardmore.  Huib told me that the aircraft has flown around 40 hours in New Zealand to date.  Huib also has some other very interesting aircraft projects on the go, of which I am sure we will hear more of in time.

Thanks to Huib Volker for the above 2 photos.