Yak Pack

"If we have to bail...well, don't ask me, I'll be gone. But, just pull this 3 seconds after leaving." - Popeye, a Yak 55 pilot.

I've always wanted to fly upside down in an airplane. I've flown in small airplanes a lot of times and have never gotten the chance to be inverted. That all changed a couple weeks ago. I fulfilled a dream and I didn't even get sick...but almost.

The Colorado Yak Pack is a group of pilots who fly Yakovlev Yak-52's and Nanchang CJ-6's, both Cold War era training planes from Eastern Bloc countries. Basically, they fly formations, go on mock bomb runs and dog fight one another, all for the sake of expensive amusement. Each year the Colorado Yak Pack, who are members of the Red Star Pilots Association, gather in the small southeast Colorado town of Lamar to train and basically just have fun. A number of the pilots in the pack are from the Denver area, with a few being from Longmont or surrounding communities. This provided us with a perfect excuse to drive down and see first hand what all the fun is about. They have also recently flown over some high school graduations and community festivals.

My first flight was pretty relaxing. A four plane formation with mellow turns. On a whim I asked a pilot - call sign "Popeye" - if I could occupy his back seat for a five-plane formation session.

"Will we be pulling any G's?" I asked excitedly. "I don't think so," Popeye replied.

Yeah right.

I didn't want to be the person to have to call mercy over the radio, but after seven rotations of the same maneuvers, i.e. hard banks, nose-dives and steep climbs, etc., I was flirting with the edge of well, you know... Not super ill, but it may have gotten out of hand. Yep, I was the wuss who called mercy.

As if my bruised and battered ego was not aching enough, I realized the g-meter in Popeye's co-pilot cockpit was only registering two the whole time. I can only pull two?, I kept asking myself. I felt better after learning we topped out at four, repeatedly. The dumb gauge was broken! Anyway, after wobbling out of the airplane like a drunken CU student at a cool frat party, another pilot told me not to be ashamed. "Oh, I'm not," I said. "I didn't yak in a Yak."