New To GA Ownership in EU PZ04 "Wilga"

No, the Yak 18 T was produced from mid-70ies up to mid-90ies. They were sort of certified and are run like standard GA aircraft, just no commercial use. The type was built for Aeroflot pilot licence training, no military history with them. There were two flight academies running them, in Kasachstan and Ukraine and also certified for aerobatics 6.5 /-3.5 G . Problem for EASA was they did not quite know how to deal with them as Russian certification was not based on western paperworks but somehow they had to accept them. So in the end they accepted all 18 Ts up to October 2008 and definite serial numbers of aircraft in the west . Please look into the SAS-095 at the bottom, interesting wording around this matter . So we got a Restricted CoA – and some liberty with spares as mostly no form 1 is available. At least all people dealing with those aircraft like Yak 55, Sukhoi 26 and more like these which got SAS “certificates” for running them in the west , try to keep them flying by applying “common sense” in maintenance. Anyway, the 18 T is great and very capable in many things , just limited numbers in the west. Vic

SAS-095

Yak 55 and Yak 18 T aerobatics:
Yak 18 T aerobatics!

Unlike 52s and 50s, there aren’t a lot of Yak 18Ts in the US, I understand only about 15 of them. I’ve only seen two or three. Like all Yaks they aren’t in any way FAA certified and are operated in Experimental Exhibition. Being aerobatic makes them a relatively easy fit into that category and nowadays the category has few restrictions on operation for most aircraft types, as long as you don’t want to fly outside the US, with easy maintenance that outside of annual condition inspections can be done by anybody. Any mechanic (no IA required) can do the condition inspections.

Most Wilgas are likewise in Experimental Exhibition but some do have an FAA type certificate, A55EU, because the Polish tried to market them here way back when. Those would have normal FAA certified maintenance, which isn’t E-EX but also isn’t terribly complicated. It’s interesting to consider the practicality of an American maintaining a Wilga on FAA registry in Romania. Except for what I imagine is a lack of FAA A&P mechanics it might be a simple option.

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