Yakovlevs

Our Pilots & Crew

Jez Hopkinson MRAeS,  is the owner of the Yakovlevs Display Team and has lead the team for over 12 years.  He  bought his first Yak 52 in 1995 and with a couple of  friends  founded the European Yak Club, which quickly grew to include hundreds of members from all over Europe. He first set up the Yakovlevs display team  in 1998, after buying a Yak 50. He says the Yakovlevs was a natural next step to take. Jez is also an CAA/JAR Examiner and has  his own aerobatic flying school since 1995; now he is very involved with the Air Display world on a formal basis, checking show pilots competency as part of his role as a Display Authorisation Evaluator.

When he is not busy examining or running the team, he likes to spend his free time skydiving, snow skiing and scuba diving, but his real passion is actually cooking, with a glass of good wine in his hand.  He has been known to dabble in Russian  wine making. In April 2010,  Jez was elected as a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Peter Scandrett MA (Hons) Cantab, is a partner in a top London law firm and is based at their Cheltenham office where he specialises in commercial litigation, arbitration and mediation. Peter has always been involved in aviation as he was taken from airbase to airbase with his father who was a RAF Mosquito and Meteor night-fighter pilot.  Inspired by his father, Peter started gliding in 1968 in the CCF and soloed in a glider on his first day. He was awarded the Pilot flying scholarship in 1982 and obtained his PPL in the same year at Staverton. He now has Russian and American pilot licences and has held a Display Authorisation allowing him to carry out display flying since 1994. When not airborne in his Bucker Jungmann 131E that he bought and flew back from Spain in 1989 he is flying his Yak 52 that he has had since 1994. Peter has been flying with the Yakovlevs since 2001 and normally flies in position Yak 3. He has recently moved to position Yak 2 and has flown in more than 50 team displays.

Peter splits his time between the UK and New Zealand, where he has a house (on an airfield with his hanger downstairs..) at Pouanui on the Coromandel peninsular. Peter enjoys sailing and riding his BMW motor bike which he takes touring in France, but his real passion is Russian flower arranging.

Nick Barnard MA (Hons) Cantab, is a publisher and director of a company that produces organic muesli. Born into a “total aviation” family, Nick has been enjoying flying since the age of five. His father was a test pilot with Rolls-Royce, so he was involved with all aspects of flying at an early age. Nick started flying gliders at Lasham at the age of 13, and at the age of 17 he was lucky enough to be awarded a flying scholarship from the RAF, where he gained his Private Pilots Licence. After three years with the University Air Squadron he was selected to represent Cambridge in the annual flying competition against other universities, and won the de coveted DeHavilland Trophy for his squadron. After leaving university he turned to writing and publishing, before the happy re-introduction to flying Yaks was made by his team mate Jez . Nick has written and published a great number of extremely successful non-fiction books on very diverse subjects, including Tribal Arts, India, Africa and Practical DIY. He has just completed a book on how to fly a plane. He juggles his flying with running his very successful organic food company Rude Health which is going from strength to strength and is of course the official good food provider to the team. Nick is also having great fun as a roving reporter for Flyer magazine, and is doing as he’s told, such as flying and reviewing aeroplanes to order, and writing features in double quick time. He also owns one of the most versatile aerobatic aircraft available today, the world renowned two-seater Russian Sukhoi SU29, which he displays at unlimited level. Nick is married to the wonderful Camilla (of course the team displayed at the wedding, which was the first four-ship display ever that Nick had not flown in a display).

At home it’s a quiet life, as Nick and Camilla have two young children: a daughter Emily, aged nine, and Max, who is almost seven years old and arrived in August 2005. Nick also has a beautiful daughter called Margaret, who is 20 and loves looping and swooping with Nick whenever she can. Nick has been flying with the team since the very beginning in 1999.While he normally flies in position Yak 2, he has now moved to Yak 4, and has flown in more than 400 team displays.

Nick enjoys reading and writing, good wine, whining about the poor coffee at the team base, flying his SU29, as well as Russian coffee making.

Den Harkin, BA Hons, is a long-haul Captain on the Boeing 777 with British Airways. He started his flying career in 1971 when he joined the RAF and began flying Chipmunks, before moving on to Jet Provost, Gnat and the Hunter. After completing the Jaguar Operational Conversion Unit (OCU), he joined his squadron at RAF Lossimouth, where he flew the aircraft in strike and attack roles before becoming a weapons instructor on the OCU. He met his wife Gill, who was a WRAF officer Air Traffic Controller in the RAF. He married Gill in 1983. Den was chosen as the NATO Exchange Officer to fly F16 Fighting Falcons with the Royal Netherlands Air Force in air defence and attack roles, at the RNAF base Leeuwarden in the north of the Netherlands. After leaving the RAF in 1990, Den joined British Airways flying Tri-Star’s, Boeing 747 and 777, before becoming a captain on the Airbus 319/320 in 2003. He returned to flying the 777 as captain in 2006. He has been flying with the Yakovlevs since 2002, where he flies in position Yak 3, having now flown in more than 60 team displays.

Den and Gill have two grown-up children – James, who  has followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the RAF as a pilot, is  flying Hawk aircraft on 100 Squadron at RAF Leeming. Their daughter Lucy is at University. During his time in the RAF, Den was captain and manager of the RAF Cresta Run team, competing for many years on the run in St Moritz, Switzerland, where he also developed his love of skiing.

His hobbies nowadays include skiing, jogging, rugby, reading and Russian Folk Dancing.

Willy Hackett BSc MBE (real name Peter – he picked up his nick name during his RAF fighter pilot training days ), has just moved back to the UK after spending two years at a USAF base in Texas, USA to take up his new role as test pilot on the revolutionary Joint Strike Fighter JSF, the F 35 Lightning II. Willy took up his exciting new post after spending almost four years flying the Eurofighter Typhoon as a test pilot from FJTS at MOD Boscombe Down. He flew Tornado F3s in the Gulf war and Bosnian conflict, and was the RAF’s F3 display pilot in 1997 and 1998. Willy also spent three years flying the Harrier Jump Jet at RNAS Yeovilton before being selected to go to the Empire Test Pilot School ( ETPS) at MOD Boscombe Down. Willy met his wife Debb in December 1998 and married her in 2004 – the team performed a special display at their wedding.  They became parents for the first time after having a beautiful baby girl named Grace Jennifer Hackett. She was born in Texas  on November 24 in 2006. Since then, her little sister Olivia   joined the family on October 6 in  2008, and is now  busy with keeping her parents very busy. Willy has been flying in the Yakovlevs since 2000 flying in all positions, and has flown in more than 260 team displays. When not flying with the team, he flies with the Shuttleworth collection at Old Warden airfield. He and Debb are keen SCUBA divers and are both avid glider pilots.

Apart from spending his free time with Debb, Grace and Olivia, he also enjoys singing Russian Folk songs. In 1999, Willy was awarded a well-deserved MBE for his services to aviation.

Azat Zaydullin (nicknamed Az) is a Captain on the Boeing 737-400/500 with Ukraine International Airlines. Az had always wanted to be a pilot, so in 1981 he joined the Soviet Air Force in the USSR. After his innitial officer training he was posted to the Ukraine as a pilot to fly the L-39 “Albatross” Jet Trainer Light Attack Aircraft, and later was posted on to the famous Mig 21 “Fishbed”. He left the Soviet military in 1987 and became a civilian aerobatics instructor at Kiev in the Ukraine. Az flew competition aerobatics at all levels, and was the unlimited-level Aerobatics Champion of the Ukraine in 1994, 2001 and 2002, flying Sukhoi SU26 and 31.

He was a member of Ukraine Aerobatic Team from 1994 to 2002. The team came third in the World Air Games held in Turkey, in 1997. He joined Ukraine International Airlines as a first officer in 2003, flying the Boeing 737-200 and moved on to the 737-400/500, where he was promoted to Captain in 2006. He married his wife Ludmilla in 1997. She works in Kiev, where they live with their 21-year-old son Timur, who is studying Computer Studies at the university in Kiev. Azat started flying with the Yakovlevs in 2001, where he has now flown in more than 200 shows, and has also made more than 600 public appearances around the world. He normally flies at position Yak 4, but also covers the Yak 2 position.

Az has recently started to snow ski, and loves to perform Morris Dancing when he finds a spare moment at the team base in Dorset.

Jon Herod MBE, is a Captain on the Boeing 747-400 with Cathay Pacific Airways. He developed his interest in aircraft courtesy of Airfix models and frequent visits to the viewing area at East Midlands Airport. After joining the Air Cadets he was chosen to receive a flying scholarship and  obtained his Private Pilots License at  age 18. Jon joined the RAF in 1983, he began pilot training on the Jet Provost Mk3 and Mk5a. At the end of the course Jon was “creamed off” and posted to the RAF Central Flying School to become an instructor. He returned to RAF Church Fenton teaching new students to fly the Jet Provost. After three years he was posted to fly the Hawk T1 and in 1989 he joined the Operational Conversion Unit OCU at RAF Wittering flying the Harrier Jump Jet. On completion of the course he was posted to 4 Squadron at RAF Gutersloh in Germany. In 1992 he spent 15 months with 1417 Flt, based at RAF Belize in Central America. He returned to RAF Wittering in 1994 as an instructor on the OCU, during this time he  flew Harrier reconnaissance missions over the north of Bosnia during the Bosnian conflict. In 1997, Jon was chosen as the NATO Exchange Officer to fly F-16 Fighting Falcons with the Royal Danish Air Force based at No 730 Squadron at RDAF Skrydstrup in the South of Denmark.  He flew more than 30 combat missions over Kosovo during his posting on the F-16. In 2000 he was posted to MOD Boscombe Down to work on software for the Harrier GR7 & GR9. He left the RAF in 2001 and joined Cathay Pacific Airways flying the Boeing 747-400. Jon married the wonderful Alison in 1991. They have two children, a football-mad son Jack, aged 16, and an aerobatic-obsessed daughter Emily, aged 14.

He has been flying with the Yakovlevs since 2003, where he flies at position Yak 3, and has flown in more than 60 team shows. Jon also has a passion for vintage motor-cycles, and can be seen riding his 1960s BSA when the weather is good.

He is a very keen snow skier, enjoys sailing, ironing and Russian embroidery & needlework. He was awarded the MBE in 2000 for services to aviation during his posting in Denmark on the F-16.

David Morgan DSC, nick named MOG , is a long-haul Captain on Boeing 747-400s with Virgin Atlantic Airlines. He first got the bug for flying when his father sat him in a Spitfire when he was about seven years old, and he has been hooked ever since. He joined the Royal Navy in 1966, where he trained as a helicopter pilot before moving to the Royal Air Force in 1969 flying Wessex and later converted to the Harrier GR3 Jump Jet. In 1982 he returned to the Royal Navy as an exchange pilot on the Sea Harrier FRA2 - two months later he found himself fighting in the Falklands Conflict down in the South Atlantic. Between May and June of 1982 he flew more than 50 combat SHAR missions, both ground attack and Combat Air Patrol. He was credited with the shooting down of two Argentine helicopters and two A-4 Sky hawk fighters. David was lucky to enough to have displayed the Sea Harrier for 8 years from 1983 through to 1992, when he left the Navy to join Virgin Atlantic. He has been flying with the team since its conception in 1999  but spends most of his time doing the solo displays for the team.He now spends most of his free time honing his DIY skills, and he recently published a book on his experience during the Falklands Conflict.

He now lives in Dorset, is married to Caro and has two grown-up children and two grandchildren. He is always looking for interesting aircraft to fly and has recently flown Stearman and Tiger Moth bi-planes as well as a Mustang. His ambition is to fly a Spitfire!

David also regularly tries his hand at poetry, and even dabbles in Russian doll making when he has time left. David was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross DSC for his combat operations in the South Atlantic during the Falklands Conflict.

Jim Schofield is the UK’s military F-35 test pilot and works at NAS Patuxent River in the USA. He grew up on the airshow circuit and was lucky enough to fly in the back of several warbirds with his father at airshows before legislation precluded such activities – highlights included flying in the back seat of a P-40 Kittyhawk flying to Italy. Jim learned to fly on Super Cubs before he could drive and spent his meagre earnings touring in a Citabria from his father’s farm strip. After several happy years on the University of Wales Air Squadron, Jim joined the Royal Air Force where he flew the Tucano and Hawk before being posted to the Harrier Operational Conversion Unit. His first posting was to No 3 (Fighter) Squadron at RAF Cottesmore and during this tour he operated the Harrier from a wide variety of environments including woodland, aircraft carriers, sheet ice runways and deserts. Jim flew more than 70 hours of combat missions over Iraq during the 2003 Gulf War in support of allied Special Forces, and was selected to attend the Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS) in 2004 where he won the prestigious McKenna trophy for best all-round pilot. On completion of the course he was posted to the Fast Jet Test Squadron at MOD Boscombe Down, where he was the project pilot for Harrier GR9 during its introduction to service. He also survived 100 hours in the Jaguar more by luck than judgement, and doesn’t miss it. Jim was selected to return to ETPS, teaching top multi-national pilots and flight test engineers on Gripen, Hawk, Alpha Jet, BAC 1-11 and Basset and running the fixed wing course as Principal Tutor. At Patuxent River Jim is one of a handful of test pilots flying F-35B and F-35C, and he advises the UK on the programme’s progress and also flies F-18 chase aircraft.

Jim has nearly 3000 hours on over 75 types but couldn’t have done any of it without the amazing Lucy, who he married in 2001 after a whirlwind eight-year romance. They have two fantastic children and are busy beating the American accent out of them. Jim has been flying with the Yakovlevs since 2005, and has performed in more than 100 shows. Jim is also a keen guitar player although sadly lacking in talent, and enjoys performing and playing Russian hard-core rock music.