Mark Jefferies took up aerobatics flying immediately after he got his PPL in December 1980. His first contest was in 1984, in 1985 he entered 6 contests and which saw 5 wins including the nationals in the 1936 designed Bucker Jungmann he rebuilt from a pile of parts obtained from the Spanish Airforce. In a quest for
performance and the ability to enter at the higher levels he built a Laser 200 which enabled a win at the Unlimited nationals in 1994, the only person in UK aerobatics to have built and flown to the ultimate goal of aerobatics winning the national title at advanced and unlimited. He has now been national champion at all levels on 10 occasions.
Mark is managing director of YAK UK Ltd, surely one of the UK’s light aviation success stories. Flying his homebuilt Laser 200 he became the British Unlimited Champion in 1994, retiring and then coming back to aerobatics in 1998 has since won the Advanced crown for five straight years from 1998 to 2002. Mark won a bronze medal and a podium appearance for his 3rd place in the Advanced World Aerobatics Championships held in Slovenia in August 2002. Mark and his wife Cathy have two daughters Jasmine and Tara, the family home being the farm at the heart of Little Gransden airfield in Bedfordshire. He flies many types of aircraft, notably from the Russian YAK series. It was the YAK 11 rebuild that led to Mark becoming the major exporter from the FSU of various types of sporting aircraft. Generally speaking an aircraft is brought in from the FSU every month
(130 to date), on one occasion this leading to a rather close encounter with an SU-27 Jet fighter whilst in Russian airspace. The Polish, he says, are also quite "aggressive". Mark returned to Unlimited aerobatics in 2003 winning the national championships again in 2005, 2006 and 2007, also in 2007 Mark flew to 9th place in the World Aerobatic championships, Granada, Spain in the Extra 300s. Mark flies air shows most weekends throughout the summer in a selection of aircraft, Extra 330SC, YAK 11, L-29 jet & YAK 50 and has also flown with the Aerostars formation team of seven aircraft.
Extra 330SC
Wingspan: 7,39 m
Height: 2,62 m
Lenght: 8 m
MTOW: 920 kg –normal / 820 kg-acro
Empty Weight: 610 kg
Load factor: +10G/ -10G
Roll rate: 400 degrees/sec
Vne: 407 km/h /220 kts
Cruise speed: 260 km/h
Stall speed: 115 km/h
Max. V/S: 2300 f/m
Service ceiling: 3650 m
Range: 768 km/ 415 NM
Engine: Textron Lycoming AEIO-580 300HP |
