MAVERICK'S FLYBY

SA FLYER’S HOMETOWN for the past few years is Hoedspruit in Limpopo, which has been abuzz with excitement. For three months Top Gun movie star Tom Cruise and his immediate entourage have taken over an exclusive boutique luxury lodge in the town’s Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate.

Tom is an accomplished pilot, who owns and flies many aircraft, including his own P51 Mustang. For Mission Impossible 6 he learned to fly helicopters and he owns an Airbus A350 B3 Squirrel. He brought this helicopter with him to South Africa, along with two matching pairs of beautiful Stearman 450 biplanes for the movie shoot.

Cruise uses his Squirrel to commute between the luxury lodge in Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate and the movie shoot. His landing pad is within the CTR of the Hoedspruit Air Force Base so he is in contact with Hoedspruit Tower for each flight.

Lt Colonel Liezle Hendricks is an Air Traffic Controller at Hoedspruit AFB and she asked Cruise to give them a flyby. Ever obliging, he did – and it was captured on video – https://m. facebook.com/groups/238511740496120/ permalink/690021755345114/

Read more in this months edition..