Yakkes on TV

Hello,

We were on television yesterday on the local tv station RTV Utrecht.

Henk Westbroek, (almost) a legend in holland, came for an interview and went along for a trip.

Interview with Goof Bakker:



Meeting with 'THE' pilot:



Talkin' to the pilot:



Ready for the safety instruction:



The one and only:



During flight:



Wanna see the whole broadcast?? Just click on the link below:

Henk Westbroek vs. Yakkes

Regards!!

Pimp my helmet (updated Januari 26)

I’ve met Harrold Gunnink of Airbrush Studio Lijnden. He is a real master artist in the Airbrush technique. Harrold has become a true specialist in airbrushing helmets and he suggested PIMPING one of our HGU-55 helmets into the colours of the Red colored Yak. Yes, it frightens me to leave this pretty expansive helmet into the hands of Harrold, however, if you see his work, it must be good. His customers are mostly famous race drivers like Jos Verstappen, Jan Lammers and Tim Coronel. The next couple of weeks I will keep you updated via this BLOG.

Original helmet

Step one: carefully take out the equipment

Step two: discuss the disign with the Yak crew Step three: The helmet is securely taped and sandpapered. In a special prepared paint cabin, the helmet will be sprayed with primer and painted in a neutral soft white colour. Only non-static Acryl paint is to be used at Studio Lijnden, of course quite important for the equipment in the aircraft, also SAFETY FIRST at studio Lijnden. Damned you Harrold, you knew I wanted the helmet to be red :-) Aaah, sorry Harrold, here is the red paint... At the back of the helmet, the spot for the Yakkes logo is securely taped. Even the traditional artist can't work without a PCHey Harrold, if you are using printers... even I can do the job ! (NOT) Dude, this is a piece of precision work
The master himself ! Aaah, there is the Wodk.. euh red star !
The Yakkes Logo is carefully spraid, step by stepNow it's lightning time, same as the Red Yak sidesAnd it's all done by handNotice the numbers of crashed aircraft, thanks Harrold!Ready for the glossy paint desided to remove the name, it's too busy Even the leather cover can be airbrushed !
Tip of the day, never ever tell the artis: "well see what you do with the protection cover, it's all yours" Stay tuned for the latest images !

Yakkes goes F-16 ???

We're pretty proud to announce that a new pilot has joined our team, Ralph “Sheik” Aarts. Recently Ralph is checked out by Gennady Elfimov at our Yak’s. Sheik will fly the Yak-52 and the new Yak-50 in the future, for training purposes and demonstration flights. In his day time job he is the F-16 Demo Pilot of the Royal Dutch Airforce at 313sqn in Volkel AFB.

Linktip: F-16 Demo Team Nederland http://www.f16demoteam.nl/

Back to work !

After a short break it’s back to business. The open day was very well visited. Over 900 people went to Eindhoven airport to see our Yaks and talk to the crew members. Yakkes welcomed over 80 new members what makes a total of 240 members now, well done promo team and volunteers! The new Yak-50 is waiting for the FLA (Russian Aviation Authorities) to deregistrate the aircraft from F- (French) to RA- (Russian).

Since the weather is worthless anyway we decided to repaint the Red Yak. It was delivered with a lousy paint job 3 years ago and paint was falling off anywhere. We did find a company, Aviation Cosmetics in Eindhoven, the Netherlands http://www.aviation-cosmetics.com/ who is willing to help us out with our problem. This highly professional aviation paint company will repaint the Red colored Yak into the same colors whenever they have time. We expect it to be ready within a couple of weeks.

In the mean time it’s pity to see a bald aircraft in the corner, looking at a HUGE B757. It’s incredible to watch these guys work. A Boeing 757 is coming in, within 4 hours the complete aircraft is stripped of it’s paint, the next day it will be cleaned and sandpapered here and there, repainted and within 5 days the aircraft is leaving the hangar with fresh paint, unbelievable.

Well anyway, we are very proud that Aviation Cosmetics is taking care of the Red colored Yak, our baby is in good hands.

Keep ya posted…