PATRICK KOCH

Yakstar1

Flight Position: Flight Leader

From Madrid, Spain, Patrick is a charismatic pilot and one of the most experienced on the team, with almost 20 years of aerobatic and formation flying experience on the Yak 52.

 

In 2022 he was selected to be the Flight Leader of the YAKSTARS and he is the first pilot with no previous military flying experience leading the team, which reveals his capacity and talent.

 

He loves everything related to the air. Since his childhood he wanted to be a pilot, making his dream come true in 1996 when he obtained his SE and ME private pilot license. Since then he has been accumulating as much experience as possible, flying all kinds of airplanes, including single-engines, multi-engines, tailwheels, radials, Citation Jets and highly aerobatic aircraft like the Extra 300 and 330.

He is a competent Yak 52 formation flying supervisor with lots of experience teaching formation flying to the other members of the Jacob 52 Association. He also participated in several CEVA competitions and has won the gold medal in the Sportsman and Intermediate categories. 

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In 2014 Patrick participated in the inaugural 2014 air race in Cascais, Portugal, competing with a Yak 52. Patrick was very enthusiastic about his participation in 2014 and competed again in 2016 and 2018.

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Patrick is also the team manager of Juan Velarde's professional racing team, a well known and respected Red Bull Air Racing Pilot.

NICO GOULET

Yakstar 2

Flight Positions: Right Wing & Solo

Nico was born in Mallorca, Spain, from an Irish/Canadian family. In his ground life, he is co-founder and Managing partner of a technology venture capital firm called Adara Ventures. 

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Nico started flying gliders at very young age in Boston while studying Aerospace Engineering at MIT and transitioned to powered flight in Paris when he began his professional career. Throughout his aeronautical life, Nico has continuously flown as a competition and display pilot. He has flown more than 20 different types of aircraft and is qualified in 15. 

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Nico is an experienced Yak 52 pilot, with over 1,000 flights at the controls of his characteristic “Blue Devil”. He has flown this aircraft in aerobatic competitions and displays, both solo and in formation, across the Iberian Peninsula. He also has significant competition experience flying the Extra 300S.  

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As a competitor for the last 23 years, Nico has won silver and gold medals in the Sportsman, Intermediate and Advanced levels at CEVA and Copa Triangular competitions in Spain and Portugal. Nico is also a pilot member of the “Infante de Orleans” foundation, dedicated to the preservation in flight condition of historical vintage aircraft. 

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Nico shares a passion for formation flying with the rest of the YAKSTARS team. Since 2022 he flies the “Blue Devil” as #2 (Right Wing).

TIAGO CORREIA

Yakstar 3

Flight Position: Left Wing

Tiago was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and he is a former student of "Pupilos do Exército", a prestigious military school. He dreamed of flying for most of his childhood and absorbed as much information as possible from books and films.  

 

Tiago is a Captain flying the Airbus A319/320/321 and has logged over 10,000 flying hours on all sorts of aircraft ranging from touring, fire-fighting, single and multi-engines, turbo-props, radials, tailwheels... you can almost name it all. He was qualified in 55 different aircraft types including the military version of Pilatus P-3.

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During his flying career, he was also able to be a challenging crop-dusting pilot and a freighter dog pilot flying the Boeing 737. 

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Tiago flew the Yak 52 for the first time during the initial steps of his flying career while he was still a Flight Instructor (FI) at a local flight school. Since then, he became completely addicted to this aircraft and for the last 15 years he has been doing aerobatics and training with the team to develop his formation flying skills.

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He flies as #3 (Left Wing).