AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2017 - 73

hundred feet and flies almost straight up
at 1,700 fpm (he loves to demonstrate this).
Since it's equipped with variable-pitch propellers, it can cruise at 100 knots on 5.5
gallons per hour. He only built four-they
weren't cost-efficient, he says.
Before we leave to return to Kyiv,
Yakovlyev gives me a thrilling low-level
ride through the Carpathians. In the 20
minutes we spend soaring through the
valleys and sailing over the verdant peaks
of western Ukraine, it becomes clear why
he kept the last A36 for himself.
Everyone must get home before dark,
which in mid-July at this latitude doesn't
come until well after 9 p.m.

We arrive at Aeroprakt at sunset, tuck the aircraft
away, and drive into town, working hard to ignore
the pockmarked roads producing the kind of jarring
turbulence that in the air would terrify all but the
hardiest passenger.
I flew again with Yakovlyev the weekend after
the fly-in. I wanted to get more comfortable making
landings in the airplane, and he wanted to show me
what his A32 can do. At 1,000 meters msl I learned to
hold it at 25 knots indicated airspeed, did some steep
turns, and then pointed the nose up and dropped off
a wing a couple of times. "Cross control that stall,"
Yakovlyev insisted.
"Nah, I need some more airwork before I do that,"
I nervously replied. So the master took the controls,
pulled into a climbing turn, jammed a foot hard into
a rudder pedal-and bam! Suddenly I was staring
at a sunflower field spinning round and round the
prop in yellow-green circles. After a few turns, he
pulled out gracefully and grinned. So did I.
Next time I'll do it.
AOPA
BEN MOSES is a TV and film producer and a pilot

with more than 3,000 hours.

Runway lights?
Sure, at the international airports,
but don't expect them on the fields
where private pilots fly. Short hardsurface runways, some grass strips,
a windsock, and a small ops building-that's about it, forcing mostly
day-VFR flying.
On the flight home some of us
make a stop for tea and conversation with the club members at
Zhytomyr airport, another nontowered
field. Someone overhead is training in
a lazy gyrocopter; most everyone else is
hanging out on the deck of the ops building, complaining about politics and bad
pilots, and watching the sun drift toward
the horizon.

UKRAINE'S WAR NOT
A HINDRANCE

You might think that a war
in a country inhibits private
aviation, creates onerous
flight restrictions, and slows
or diverts general aviation
manufacturing, but that
doesn't seem to be the case
in Ukraine. The country's war
with Russia-backed separatists is confined to the far
eastern portion of the map,
which is the only area where
flight restrictions are in place.
In 90 percent of Ukraine, a
country the size of France,
general aviation is flourishing,
and AOPA-linked organizations have been successful
in getting rid of many of the
old-and patently absurd-
Soviet rules and regulations.
Aeroprakt's Yuriy Yakovlyev says he's selling every
airplane he can make and
there's a waiting list; he could
sell more if he had a larger
factory. He also will tell you
that getting rid of ancient
and oppressive regulations

isn't easy-but
reasonable people can be
found in the Ministry of Infrastructure, which regulates
all things aviation in Ukraine.
They've adopted ICAO standards and, after 25 years of
independence, gradually are
removing the more illogical
regs.
-BM

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2017
