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Proudly Omaka owned and based is Steadfast, a Yak 3U-R2000 that originally made its New Zealand debut as the headlining guest aircraft at Classic Fighters 2017.
Built in Romania during the 2000s, but based on the original prototype, this high-performance speed machine first started its racing career at the Reno Air Races in 2006 and holds nine world records. These include the under 3000kg World Speed Record at 416 MPH (669 KPH) along with several ‘time to climb’ records.
In 2013 the aircraft moved to Australia, before being purchased by a local partnership in September 2019. Since then the aircraft has been displayed throughout the country by co-owner, Mark O'Sullivan. The distinctive roar of the radial engines never gets old, and for lovers of smoke trails, Steadfast sports Sanders smoke generators!
Image: The Omaka-based Yak-3U 'Steadfast'- Photo by Gavin Conroy / Classic Aircraft Photography.
What's better than a Yak-3 running up its large gas-guzzling engine at full noise? Well obviously TWO Yak-3s doing precisely that, one with a V-12 up front, the other with an 14 cylinder double row radial at the noisy end. In the video below, you'll see we got to enjoy this great spectacle of the two Yaks with their mismatched power-plants, both running up to temps albeit for different reasons. For Graeme Frew and the familiar Yak-3 ZK-VVS, the task came under the heading of routine maintenance. For the Radial engined Yak-3UPW, this was in fact the first engine run under New Zealand ownership since the aircraft arrived from its previous home at Archerfield Airport in Brisbane. Then co-owners Ronan Harvey and Mark O'Sullivan were both on board the Yak familiarising themselves with the aircraft's engine running behaviour as Mark got used to taxiing the big beast around the grass.
Steadfast is scheduled to fly at Marlborough Lines Classic Fighters Omaka for the 2025 airshow. It is worth noting that of the FIVE Yak fighter trainers of the WW-II design series presently residing in the Southern Hemisphere, four of them are to be found at Omaka Airfield, with these two to be joined by another pair, both V-12 powered, presently under restoration with JEM Aviation Ltd here at Omaka.
Image: The Omaka-based Yak-3U 'Steadfast'- Photo by Gavin Conroy / Classic Aircraft Photography.
About Marlborough Lines Classic Fighters Omaka: The airshow is the main fundraising event for the Omaka Aviation Heritage Museum, located in Blenheim, Marlborough NZ.
