New To GA Ownership in EU PZ04 "Wilga"

https://www.planecheck.com/?ent=da&id=55446

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.

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!

vic wrote:

the Yak 18 T multipurpose is import limited by EASA . Some guys there tried to prevent more imports from the East so you´d have to find one here – not often.

How does that work? Isn’t the Yak an Annex I aircraft?

There are a few Wilgas flying in my country, mainly in the eastern part. But in your country is the Motorstar company which produces and overhauls M 14 P engines. These are quite close to the Wilga engine type and maybe they can do engine work as well. At least you could have a talk to someone who may direct you to a company for any maintenance you´d need later. Try finding people in the Yak or Sukhoi community , they are familiar with radials. Basically maintenance on these radials is not difficult, just a few hours more. But owning aircraft with radials will require people accepting oily fingers and knowing it is not just hop into the aircraft and turn the key. You will do some preparation before , like checking for any oil in lower cylinders to prevent bent conrods from hydraulic locks. There are devices for oil shut-off and a lot more a nd no, these engines do not waste extreme fuel just because they are radials. In fact , American types are hardly better when looking at power settings in engines of 200 to 300 hp and more. Also remember , there are no mixers for leaning on these radials as far as I know about Wilgas. Instead there are automatic altitude fuel correction devices so no BS with all that leaning business. Even so, in reasonable cruise settings expect fuel flow 50 – 60 l max. It is no point wanting to race some aircraft which were not designed for high speeds, you just pay for fuel – auto fuel at 95 – 98 octane certainly ! Yes, they like oil and were designed to use oil, max. 1 l per hour is allright. But you don´t have to change filters in 25 or 50 hours intervals as no filters there. Instead the oil tank is for settling any debris and you just top up cheap monograde oil at € 6.- or so. Don´t know why these radials are talked into very poor lifetime use, cylinders are not worse than American types, same steel kind – but they do not blow heads by cracked cylinders. No talks about spalled cam lobes and followers as all roller followers in radials. We run our Yak since 2006 which sits half a year in winter in the hangar , no rust problem here. So in reality operating it is dead cheap when reading all that trouble in this forum or else. Seems the Wilga engine has about 1000 hours for “overhaul” as a low stressed engine. The M 14 P got 750 hours for first “overhaul” , then in 500 hours intervals – all communist maintenance schedule. I wonder what they do for “overhaul” on these engines. A job protection exercise I guess. When searching the internet I came across a lifetime limit of 2600 hours for the aircraft before checks at the company. But there are corrosion checks in tail joints and front steel structures on the Wilga to keep in mind. The TC holder for Wilga is Airbus Poland so they should tell you details. Not a lot of aircraft with radials at low prices to find today, the Yak 18 T multipurpose is import limited by EASA . Some guys there tried to prevent more imports from the East so you´d have to find one here – not often. Vic

http://motorstar.ro/Products.html

flippiefloppies wrote:

I like to think of myself as just slightly quixotic (PZL-104), not “full retard” (AN-2).

This is great

I read a very good article on GA in Romania approx 2009. From memory there was zero rental or aeroclubs; the only activity was outright owners or selective-entry state ‘clubs’ for competing internationally. This might mean there’s a massive untapped market, or equally that it’s nonexistant. Ideally you want one person you can trust where they get subsidised flying in return for looking after it for you.

To anyone who has mentioned air-frame life limits, do you happen to know the source for that? There’s no published AD with a life limit that I can find.Quote

PDF

I tried to upload the 17 page pdf document I have from PZL, but I don’t think it worked. (Peter, can I upload a 17 page pdf here?).

Here is the cover page, and the relevant page (9 of 17) converted to jpeg. I don’t know if the values stated here are actually regulated life limits, and the TCDS does not seem to mention them, (though maybe they are stated in a referenced document). In any case, a client who wanted me to do a float approval on his Wilga seemed sensitive to the life limits on the airframe, and this is the data which substantiated that sensitivity. I’m sure that anyone who knows the Wilga will know much more about this than I do….

Wilga uses 60L per hour and parts are available from Termikas in lithuania. Our airclub has 3 of them, 2 have got 0-timed engines in the last 5 years.
the AI-14 does not seem to be sensitive to standing withut use- at least nobody seems worried about it the way people are about lycomings etc..