By: Dan Coy  dcoy@IAR823.com

I was looking for a Yak-52 and drooling over the pages of the Yakity-Yak web site in 1999. While surfing the net I ran across a fellow named Steve Beaver that lived about fifteen minutes from me. I couldn't believe there was a Yak expert in Columbus, Ohio and I gave him a call. Steve had imported over one-hundred Yak-52s as well as numerous other aircraft. We talked for quite a while and he filled me in on all the differences between a Yak-52 and a CJ-6. He was very knowledgeable and covered an enormous amount of detail.

Steve mentioned a guy named George Coy (no relation) that lived in Swanton Vermont that was in the Yak business as well. George has a real interesting background "mining" aircraft from third world countries as well as the former Soviet Union. Buy him a beer and you will hear some really unbelievable  stories!  George just happened to have a brand new Yak-52W, which is the westernized version of the original Russian design. This Yak was unpainted and the first new Yak-52 fresh off the Aerostar S.A production line since manufacturing had been resumed. (Take a look at the Aerostar web site www.aerostar.ro/ )

Long story short, I bought the first Yak-52W from George and loved it. (See Yak-52 Story) What a great airplane! The big 360 hp M-14P radial really cranks. I think the Yak-52 is one of the best values for the money combining a great +7 -5 g aerobatic performer with real head turning, round engine style. If you have any desire to own one or just check one out take a look at the following site: www.yak-52.com/. They are available now with 400 hp engines and a tail wheel version. www.gesoco.com.

Enough of the Yaks. Some time later George called me and said he had a line on some aircraft from Romania and wondered if I would care to partner with him and bid on them as a package. He described the fleet of IAR-823s and that the total numbers were a little sketchy. Over the next several weeks we would learn more about the thirty-six aircraft and spares currently in Air Force inventory.

What's an IAR-823?

This was not the first time I had heard of IAR-823s. I was in Bacau, Romania visiting Aerostar with a group of potential P-51 investors. We were exploring the possibility of manufacturing new P-51 Mustangs to include the 1600 hp engine. A similar project was underway with a German company named Flug Werk www.flugwerk.com/ . They were working with Aerostar to construct FW-190s and had a completed airframe to include two inch thick bullet proof glass in the forward canopy. There is no mention of Aerostar on the Flug Werk web, just reference to a manufacturer, so I do not know if they continued the relationship but the project was very interesting.

One of our team members, Lewis Ihnen was working for Air USA / World Aero Space Museum and mentioned he just purchased an IAR-823 from Jim Wickersham of Shadetree Aviation. Jim located ten aircraft and had them shipped to the US. Lou didn't know much about the IARs other than they sounded like a good performer and wanted to try one. As it turned out four other members of the Mustang group ended up with IAR-823s including Woody Manear, Don Kirland, Frank Smith and myself. That was the extent of my IAR-823 knowledge at that time.

The ICA IAR-823 is a Romanian basic flying and armament trainer aircraft with secondary liaison capability in service since 1974. The IAR-823 is powered by a Textron Lycoming IO-540-G1D5 flat-six piston engine providing a top speed of 400 kmh and a range of 800 km typically. The IAR-823 carries a pupil and instructor side-by-side and up to three passengers or freight in the cabin. Two under-wing hard points enable disposable stores such as gun pods or free-fall bombs to be carried.

After doing some research on the net and checking around we decided to place a bid for the purchase the entire fleet of IAR-823s and all the spare parts in the Air Force inventory. There were thirty-six aircraft assigned to Escadrila 21 Aviatie Scoala. The 21st Basic Training Squadron task was to provide basic training for the students of the Air Force Academy. In addition to basic flight training these IARs could be equipped with light machine guns or rocket pods and a gun camera for aerial gunnery training. The squadron was relocated to Boboc in late 2003. Brasov-Ghimbav also houses the IAR-Eurocopter helicopter company.

You are the high bid Winner...now what!

What do you know, we won the bid and now had to figure how to get thirty-six aircraft and all the spares from a Black Sea port to the U.S. One aircraft per forty-foot shipping container was not an option so George told our contacts we had to get two IARs in a container. This created quite an engineering challenge but no problem for a bunch of Romanian engineers with time on their hands and a bottle of Vodka. The engineers set out to squeeze a bunch of aviation crap into a small package and succeeded. The 823s were placed in custom cradles on a 45 degree angle, the wings were cradled as well and anchored to the sides of the containers and the props and control surfaces were neatly tucked and secured on the floor. Twenty-five containers later the IARs and spares were all on their way to the US of A.

Some of the aircraft were sold in pairs "in the box". Others were unpacked, assembled and certified for buyers across the country while several became restoration projects that would take years to complete. A team of four Romanian aircraft mechanics, from the factory, were flown to the U.S. to assist in the assembly process for about a month. They could not speak English and we could certainly not speak Romanian. This made for quite an interesting exchange. The word "Da" was used a lot! We ate at restaurants like Bob Evans because the menus had pictures. I recall their first visit to a Sears tool store. They were like kids in a candy shop. I handed them a cart and motioned to "go to town". They purchased some tools and supplies but spent the better part of two hours looking around in amazement. They were all really hard workers and understood the 823s inside and out.

One evening I located an interpreter from Ohio State University. We enjoyed meaningful discussion for the first time over dinner. I asked them why the Air Force no longer flew the IARs and they said the requirement for 100 octane low lead fuel was the culprit. The economic climate in Romania was bad and since they had to import 100 LL they simply could no longer afford to fly the IAR-823s. I wondered about all the tooling and where it was stored. They said some "Dilbert", and they used that word, cut up and destroyed all the tooling. It no longer existed!

They all missed their families  and were quite homesick. They elected to save as much of their per diem expense money as they could to take home with them. They attempted several calls home but had a great degree of difficulty placing the calls. As it turned out, the long distance companies I used for calls in the U.S. did not permit calls to Romania. The phone at the airport blocked international calling and my credit card would not work either. We did eventually get out and the guys enjoyed talking to family members.

And that's how it happened. Today we have a fleet of IAR-823s flying around the country with varying paint schemes, some original and some quite elaborately overhauled inside and out. The IAR-823 is an authentic war bird that delivers great performance. For those of you lucky enough to own one, I think you will agree. Where else can you find a four-place mil-spec aircraft capable of hauling 1,200 lbs with 90 gallons of fuel at almost 150 kts. Oh, by the way, you can fly aerobatics as well!

Today, the IAR-823s are selling in the upper fifties to ninety thousand dollars. Check out the War Bird section of Trade-A-Plane if you are interested or contact me and I'll try to locate one for you. I have only two aircraft left for sale. Give me a call if you are interested. If you are trying to sell your 823 e-mail your information and some pictures and I will place it in the "For Sale" section of the web. If you are looking for parts contact Steve See sseeplane@gmail.com.

Fly Safe,

Dan Coy dcoy@IAR823.com