SA Flyer Magazine February 2024 by Flyer & Aviation Publications

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Edition 335 February 2024 Cover: Joe Dreyer

FLIGHT TEST:

AIR TR ACTOR

AT802F FIRE-BOMBER

Slings 1000 plus deliveries! T h e E A A’ s n e w Yo u n g Av i a t o r s

Cirr us – The new G7 reviewed

J i m : Tr a i n i n g : Fu e l i s h Mi s t a k e s

Pe t e r G a r r i s o n – what work s

S A A F ’ s n e w DR C resource crisis

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February 2024

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POSITION REPORT ONE OF THE BASIC REQUIREMENTS of the (largely unasked for) role I have been given as a general aviation mouthpiece is to become an instant expert on whatever subject is the topic of the moment. For my November 2023 Attitude for Altitude column, I presumed to expound on MOSAIC, the FAAs excellent attempt to reshape the whole of general aviation to get to better and cheaper private flying. The FAA’s enlightened new approach seemed, at least to me, like a winner that would get widespread support. I consulted Peter Garrison and locally, James Pitman, and they both thought it a good thing.

of MOSAIC but, “there are areas of the proposal which go beyond what was expected and require additional clarification and justification from the FAA.” GAMA claims that it still supports Sport Pilots being able to fly four-place aircraft and that it supports “the increase in the size, performance and scope” of aircraft included in the new regime. So exactly what their problem is, we will only find out when they file their comments. AvWeb’s Russ Niles says that “groups like GAMA do have to reflect the desires of their members, and airframers are going to have a different point of view than the members of EAA and AOPA, which yield the same level of clout, at least, as GAMA.” So this time GAMA seems to be rowing its own boat – presumably without the support of groups like the EAA and AOPA.

a new generation of aircraft

For those who missed that column, the idea is to create a better and more accessible Light Sport category using the proposed Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) rules.

The final deadline for commenting on the 300-plus-page document was 22 January. It all seemed to be going well, until the Wichita dinosaurs (Cessna, Beech, Piper) woke up. Deciding that MOSAIC is a threat to their paltry 100 planes a year sales in that market – it appears that they are trying to water it down into just another Washinton swamp. Banding together as the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) they say they support the overall direction

February 2024

The EAA has now published the essence of its position, and it endorses the need for a more liberal approach, so MOSAIC includes the most numerous existing light aircraft, including the Cessna 172 and Piper Cherokee. The key benefit to pilots is that it opens the door to new plane builders to create a new generation of modern, efficient, safe and desirable aircraft that can be used to feed the pilot pipeline. And it is probably safe to assume that it is this market that the GAMAS airframers are trying to protect.

Guy Leitch

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Edition 335

CONTENTS FLIGHTCOM

SA FLYER

14 18 26 46 50

Guy Leitch - HOW NOT TO CRASH

Hugh Pryor - STOP CARDS Laura McDermid - IRIS JOINS SUNBIRD

FC 16

COLUMNISTS

04 08

Peter Garrison - MELMOTH Jim Davis - RIGHT SEAT RULES 14 Jim Davis - ACCIDENT REPORT Morne Booij-Liewes- REGISTER REVIEW

FLIGHT TEST: THE AIR TR ACTOR AT802F 6

February 2024

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Edition 335

CONTENTS

FEATURES SA FLYER

16 NEWS: VAN’S RESTARTS SHIPPING KITS 21 QUOTE OF THE MONTH 32 FLIGHT TEST: THE AIR TRACTOR AT802F 43 NEWS: MADISON MARSH USAF MISS AMERICA 56 AOPA: CHRIS MARTINUS 62 NEWS: RETIRED PILOT BECOMES A LAWYER 64 FACE TO FACE: JAMES PITMAN, SLING 72 NEWS: CIRRUS UNVEILS G7 EDITIONS 76 EAA CREATES YOUNG AVIATORS 82 THE MIG DIARIES

REGULARS 10 Opening Shot 54 M & N Acoustic Register Review 69 Executive Aircraft Refurbishment Events Calender

FLIGHTCOM

08 News - Wonderboom to be Leased to Private 15 News - King Air gets Autothrottles & Autoland 16 Darren Olivier Defence - Back to the DRC 22 Jeffery Kempson - Ferrying a Cherokee 6 26 Mark Liprini - MAF Tanzania 31 News - Phillips 66 Fuel Suspends Unleaded

February 2024

70 Aero Engineering and Powerplant Aviation Fuel Table

FLIGHTCOM

21 AME Directory 32 ALPI / BILL Flight School Listing 33 Merchant West Charter Directory 34 Skysource AMO Listing 36 Aviation Directory

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LEADING EDGE HUEY FIREFIGHTING IN THE CAPE. Rayno Snyman has been fortunate enough to get himself in as the onboard photographer for the Leading Edge Aviation fire-fighting Hueys and Black Hawk in the January Cape fires. He has produced this beautifully framed and composed study of a Huey at work fighting fires. Ryno writes: “I shot this image of the Huey with my Canon 90D. Exposure was f/13, 1/200, ISO-400. The reason I had to use a higher than desired shutter speed was because I was shooting from the Black Hawk, which is unfortunately not the most stable platform while busy working on fires.”

February 2024

February 2024 Send your submissions to guy@saflyermag.co.za

ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE: GUY LEITCH

How NOT to crash

Pilots seem to be finding new ways to kill themselves. In the bad old days, the Christmas holidays always featured a couple of fatal accidents where pilots, usually flying from the Highveld, pushed their luck with the weather over the escarpment and ended up smeared across implacable rocks. These are the so called cumulogranite crashes. THIS PAST FESTIVE SEASON has fortunately been without the unfestive nightmare of stupid crashes and long selfless searches by SASAR for pilots who persisted in flying into unforgiving rocks. I suspect the key reason for this dramatic decline in cumulogranite accidents is that fewer pilots are using their planes to go on holiday to the seaside.

‘stupid pilot’ mistakes. Hopefully they will save your life:

1. VFR into IMC Too much of the time, weather related accidents are no more complex than a VFR pilot flying a perfectly functional plane into the ground. It starts off with the pilot sticking his nose into the cloud and sometimes there is a mountain in the cloud. Hence Cumulogranite.

Impact loads increase as the square of speed

Done responsibly, flying need not be particularly dangerous. There is a great little analogy that holds that, when we start flying, we are issued with two metaphorical buckets. One is full of luck. The other is empty, but will over time be filled by experience. The bucket of luck gets used up by all the stupid things we do, so the trick is to fill your bucket of experience before your luck runs out. Plane and Pilot magazine’s Rod Machado is both a psychiatrist and a CFI. He is thus well qualified to consider what motivates pilots fly stupidly. Machado has devised a list of ten

February 2024

These crashes are called CFIT (controlled flight into terrain). According to Machado, pilots too often become missionfocused. They become determined to complete the flight, even if the weather is beyond their skill. They lose the ability to properly assess conditions that might make a more reasonable pilot turn back. It’s always possible to fly into

VFR into IMC crashes have been thankfully few this year.

weather you don’t expect - forecasting isn’t an exact science - but too often, pilots ignore the warning signs and press on - all the way to the pearly gates. This is probably due to the macho bravado people who learn to fly seem to have in over-abundance.

2. Low-level flying There is a fun poster which advises novice pilots to, amongst other things, not to fly too close to the ‘edge of the sky.’ The likelihood of an accident increases in direct proportion to an aeroplane’s proximity to the ground. For non-display pilots these are usually stall/spin accidents, the most common result of an approach that’s too slow or too tight. Ignoring wind shear (an uncommon hazard), low-level manoeuvring accidents most often occur because a pilot approaches at too low an airspeed or turns too tight, too close to the ground, with no room for recovery. Tight slow turns with poorly coordinated controls can be bad news for light aircraft. Student glider pilots are taught to speed up when they enter the circuit.

3. Beat-ups

increases the closer we are to the ground and that’s probably what encourages pilots to do beat-ups. Low flying is demanding even for experienced crop sprayers. So it’s a trap to try the same trick over your girlfriend’s house and then pull the aircraft up into a steep climbing turn. Myriad YouTube videos show that this is a favourite South American stunt. Many end badly.

4. Takeoffs One takeoff and one landing are mandatory for every flight, but pilots find novel ways to mess up both of them. Takeoff accidents can be especially risky since the plane is accelerating away from the airport, whereas landing accidents typically occur during approach, while the plane is decelerating and (most of the time) pointed toward the airport. Impact loads increase as the square of speed, so for every two knots of acceleration, impact loads quadruple. In some respects, takeoff accidents should be less likely, as it’s not that difficult to merely clean up the plane and maintain climb speed. Unfortunately, these accidents, although technically less difficult, are more likely to be fatal.

Speed is exhilarating. It’s the reason many of us fly. Unfortunately, the perception of speed February 2024

Cessna's small fuel gauges can be hard to believe.

5. Landing Accidents are common in this phase because control and power response is diminishing, rather than increasing. Modern aeroplanes fly best when they’re in their mid-speed range. They become progressively less responsive and controllable as they fly slower. The key factor that contributes to landing accidents is the great South African killer of a high-density altitude. Add to this: short runways, too-fast approaches and just plain poor depth perception. Landing accidents often devolve to poor low-speed control, ineffective crosswind technique, misjudging the flare height, landing long on a short runway or overcompensating by landing short. The only good news is that the lower speeds generate lower impact loads and fewer fatalities than some other accident modes.

6. Fuel Mismanagement There are no excuses for running out of fuel - but it still happens with uncanny regularity. Machado says, “Pilots develop the equivalent of civilian target fixation and will overfly a dozen or more possible airports and keep stretching their range, only to land 200 yards short of the runway with nothing but high-octane air in the tanks.” Such an episode led to another high profile C210 accident that killed four and a dog in a bus depot below base leg at Rand Airport some years ago.

February 2024

I confess to pushing on to Lanseria with a loaded C206 through the Pinedene route with the tank gauges reading all but zero and electing to push on to Lanseria instead of stopping at Grand Central. The “get-there-itis” mentality that encourages overlooking a lowfuel situation is as pervasive as it is illogical. It frequently ignores the fact that an early fuel stop may have little or no effect on total trip time.

7. Preflight-related Mechanical Problems Too many accidents occur because the pilot fails to perform an adequate preflight. This can be a special problem on rental aeroplanes, where the condition of vital components can change dramatically from one flight to the next. Ownerflown aeroplanes tend to be more meticulously maintained. Then there are those things that pilots simply forget, which shouldn’t generate an accident, but pilots allow themselves to be psyched into overreacting. One of the most common of these is having a door pop open on takeoff. The usual consequence is little worse than a loud noise and embarrassment, but some pilots hit the panic button and wind up crashing because of the distraction of a seatbelt strap banging against the side of the fusel; age.

8. Getting Lost It’s hard to imagine how anyone could become lost these days with the proliferation of amazingly talented and economical portable GPS units. Even without GPS, navigation is among the easiest tasks in aviation. Back in 1927, Lindbergh proved that a combination of dead reckoning and pilotage can work well, even over a 3,610-mile, 33 1⁄2-hour flight. Yet pilots somehow manage to lose their bearings time and again on 100-mile trips.

9. Pilot-Induced Emergency Landings Another category of stupid pilot tricks is related to pilot-induced engine failures. Aircraft owners and pilots who rent aeroplanes “dry” may try to duplicate book power settings and fuel flows and wind up running engines too lean, sometimes to the point of failure. A tragic Sling 4 accident in Tanzania comes to mind. Others misread or fail to check the oil level and run the engine out of lubricant, with the same result. Some engines use an electric fuel pump for takeoff and landing; others will flood if the pump

is left on the High setting. There are a myriad of mistakes possible, and if it’s possible, someone will do it.

10. Miscellaneous Stupidities This covers a multitude of sins, most of them non-life-threatening, but all too common: forgetting the keys, leaving the master on, failing to untie or unchock the aeroplane, etc. Many of these problems don’t generate accidents, but they come from poor planning and a bad mental attitude. For the vast majority of us who haven’t burnt out from flying to earn a crust, or had one too many emergencies, flying is fun, but it’s also a demanding mistress. Treated with respect, aviation is more than worth the minimal risks. We may not always agree with every Civil Aviation Regulation, but it is worth remembering the old aphorism that rules are for the guidance of the wise and the obedience of fools. And we are all likely to do something stupid sooner or later. I know I have.

guy@saflyermag.co.za

Deliberately crashing your plane for YouTube clicks is a new stupid - so it's not on the list. February 2024

NEWS

VAN’S RESTARTS

SHIPPING KITS VAN’S AIRCRAFT SAYS 65% of customers have agreed to pay more for their kits and more than 100 of those kits have now been shipped. The company, which went into bankruptcy in November 2023, says it is ramping up kit deliveries. “Our shipping throughput will increase over the coming weeks and we will post progress updates,” the company said in an update in late January. Van’s also said it is tackling the parts order backlog that resulted from supply chain issues over the last couple of years. The company says it has also started contacting 1,800 customers who have major structural parts that have laser-punched rivet holes that will be replaced by the company. “All affected customers will be sent an email containing an individualized list of affected parts for each kit they have received,” the update said.

Vans is resuming kit production under bankruptcy protection.

The company says it is also working with thirdparty suppliers regarding orders for kits that included engines, avionics and propellers. “The planning that is currently underway includes

February 2024

a look at scheduling, lead times, payments, pricing, customer deposits and more,” the update said. “We are working to have our plans shared by the end of next week with those customers who have open orders for engines, propellers and avionics kits.”

airbus.com

THE DIFFERENCE IS H E A R T B E AT

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PETER GARRISON

MELMOT H - WHAT WORK ED

AND WHAT DI DN’ T After 20 years of flying my second homebuilt, preceded by 9 years in my first, I wish I could say that most things that can go wrong already have; but the gods might think me insolent. At this point, however, I can at least say what has worked and what has not. MY FIRST PROJECT, MELMOTH, which was destroyed in 1982, on the ground, as I sat in it, by an errant Cessna, had several features that were unusual at the time. Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft described it rather grandly, in 1976, as a “lightplane research prototype”. It had a single air intake below the spinner, wing-mounted airbrakes, automatic fuel-tank switching, a double-slotted Fowler flap, a T tail with a stabilator, and ailerons whose incidence could be adjusted in flight.

many things about O rings, dissimilar-metal bearings, heat treating, centreless grinding, heliarc welding, and the effect of foaming on the damping properties of hydraulic oil. I added to my mental thesaurus phrases like “hydrogen embrittlement” and “hard chrome plate and bake,” that I could toss off in later years to bolster my otherwise very slight engineering cred.

The performance advantage lik e the of retractable over wellfixed gear is now a i r b r a k e s o f faired thought not to justify the d i v e b o m b e r s added cost of manufacturing,

The landing gear was retractable. The association of speed with retractable gear was automatic then; today’s new breed of fast fixed-gear aeroplanes with powerful turbocharged engines was still undreamed-of. But there was also a considerable satisfaction in designing and handfabricating a successful retractable landing gear. The official raison d’être of the “Experimental Amateur Built” category is “education and recreation.” In the course of making retractable oleopneumatic gear from scratch, I learned

February 2024

maintaining and insuring it. As a homebuilder, however, I carried no hull insurance, donated my labour, and found the gratification of a smoothlyfunctioning retractable gear – which it was, most of the time – well worth the trouble of building and caring for it. I had a few mishaps – most notably an untimely genuflection of the right main on the ground at, of all places, the Bede factory in Newton, Kansas – but I never repented the choice.

Peter Garrison's Melmoth 1 with its short wing and tip tanks.

The adjustable-incidence ailerons, on the other hand, proved to be a pretty useless feature. Their practical effects on landing and cruising speeds were imperceptible. They did have one virtue, however. Because of an unintended asymmetry in their actuation geometry, they could be used for roll trim. Melmoth’s airbrakes consisted of a rectangular slab of aluminium honeycomb that rotated out of a vertical slot in each wing. Driven by the same ex-T-33 hydraulic pump as the gear and flaps – once you have a hydraulic pump, you might as well use it for everything – these popped out quite abruptly, killing some lift in the process and giving passengers an unexpected, and undesired, thrill. They were good for getting down fast, but not much else. On my second design, the fourseater that I imaginatively named Melmoth 2, I tried a different approach: a flat surface of about three square feet that swings down out of the belly, like the airbrakes of World War II dive bombers. The brake is very effective, but it is located too far forward; air pressure piling up ahead of it lifts the nose. At approach speed it helps trim out the nosedown moment from the flap and presumably even adds a little lift, but a complete lack of trim

change with airbrake actuation would be more of a thing to be proud of. That would have required putting the brake farther aft, but the location of the wheel wells would not allow it. Melmoth had a double-slotted Fowler flap that deflected 45 degrees; Melmoth 2 has a singleslotted one that deflects 30 degrees. Both increase wing area by sliding aft all the way to the trailing edge for takeoff before tilting down to their full deflection. My homemade hydraulic cylinders, however, have been a constant source of minor leaks, however, and of an occasional crimson tide. At times I think that perhaps I should have used electric actuators; but then I remind myself that all untried systems are trouble-free.

I no longer do rolls at random

Melmoth’s control stick was between the pilot’s knees. Melmoth 2 has a sidestick, which provides much less leverage, and so control forces are more of a problem. After flying for several years with rather high roll forces, I made a second set of ailerons with more aerodynamic balance. They are better, though still not so light as I would like. I also initially had the elevator trim tabs doubling as servo tabs to lighten pitch forces. This proved unnecessary, and left me with limited trim authority besides; February 2024

I eventually ditched the servo component, and never missed it. Very long range was a design goal of both Melmoths. The first carried 155 gallons of fuel; the second holds 140, but, because its wings have more than twice the aspect ratio of the first, has about the same 3,000-mile range. Keeping track of fuel quantity is hard when the fillers are at the wingtips and you almost never fill your tanks; you can’t just look inside to inspect the fuel level. My float-type senders, rescued from the first airplane and now into their fifth decade, are not infallible. I have always had a totalizer, but a totalizer needs to be reset from time to time, and to reset it you need to know exactly how much fuel is in the tanks at that moment. In Melmoth 2, whose wings are 16 feet long and entirely wet from root to tip, I added small fueltight ports at the wing roots to allow dipsticking the fuel. Despite being bigger, Melmoth 2, which has the same 200-hp Continental 360 engine as its predecessor, is slightly faster, cruising at 170

knots at 12,000 feet on a 60-percent-power fuel flow of 8.5 gallons an hour. It also climbs better. The principal reason for both improvements is wingspan. Melmoth started life with a 23-foot span and a wing area of 92 square feet. After adding a turbocharger in 1980 – a change that many people said would be troublesome, but wasn’t – I increased the span to 28 feet and the area to 112, regretfully discarding the cambered-and-beavertailed tip tanks that gave the plane much of its character. Melmoth 2 has a 106-square-foot wing of 37-foot span. When it comes to range and climb rate, span is magic. For roll rate, not so much; Melmoth 2 rolls in such a stately way that I no longer do rolls at random moments just for fun. On Melmoth 2 I kept the T tail, which I liked, but replaced the stabilator with a fixed stabilizer because of some memorably unpleasant minutes when ice accumulation on the leading edge of the all-flying tail made it bob up and down ominously. Both Melmoths are roofless, with canopies Evoloution - Melmoth 1 gets a T-tail.

February 2024

Melmoth 2 is a composite and with almost double the wing span.

completely transparent except for a narrow spine in the middle to which the gull-wing doors are hinged. Entry and exit has been a disaster in both, Melmoth 2 particularly, because it is even more difficult to get into the rear seats, which face aft, than into the front ones. Most passengers, however, are too polite, or too apprehensive, or too busy figuring out where

to put the next foot, to complain. I, on the other hand, have perfected my technique, and slide into my own seat with athletic grace. Or so I like to think.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH ‘Joker11’

QOM

The loss of skilled airline people caused by Covid is far larger than just the current pilot shortage. ‘Joker11’, posting on www.avcom.co.za wrote:

“I went into aviation when I left high school. I used to work for a big airline in their ground operations department and was made redundant in 2020 (just before COVID hit the aviation industry). Through 2020 I tried to get a job in aviation to no avail. In 2021 I found a job in logistics. I now work regular hours, get my weekends and days off, pay is pretty good, and I also get other benefits. Why would I want to go back into aviation now? And everyone I have spoken to that left aviation during COVID tells me the same. They moved on. Found better jobs and are now out of the game. Do I miss aviation? Hell yeah. Do I want back currently? Hell no!”

February 2024

PLANE TALK - JIM DAVIS

RI GHT SEAT RULES NO. 14

FUELI SH MI STAK ES

If the carburettor is the heart of your aircraft – the fuel is its lifeblood. When an engine stops without warning or unusual noises, the problem is that it’s not getting a steady supply of nice clean fuel. THIS IS MAINLY FOR INSTRUCTORS – but fuel and its management are so poorly understood I would be foolish to assume my congregation has a firm grasp on the subject. I’m going to tell you some true stories shortly that illustrate this. The challenge in each story is to see if you can spot the problems before I tell you. But before we do that, let me detour for a moment. To discuss the word assume because it lies at the heart of each story. In fact it’s at the heart of most fuel problems.

Everyone hated and feared Swannie – he was the worst type of bullying instructor. He did my initial Com night flying test at Wonderboom in a Cherokee. It went well right up to the end of the last landing on runway 11.

February 2024

During this long taxi Swannie looked at his watch and said, “Hurry it up man – I haven’t got all night.” So I added a touch of power. It brought an immediate response from this gumboil, “Do you normally taxi at this speed?” He makes a note on the test form. Bastard.

t he r ight w ingt ip t r ies to bur y it s e l f

The DCA/CAA employed two people who got up my nose. We will call the skinny one Swannie – because that was his name, and the other, more rotund version, I will call Mike – because that was his name.

We turned round to backtrack to the threshold, and thence to the Pretoria Flying Club.

I shut down on the tarmac with the lights of the club shining on the apron. The gyros are spinning out the last of their inertia and the Lycoming is ticking out the last of its heat. Swannie just sits there in silence fiddling with his papers. Every now and then he smooths down his Hitler-style seven-a-side moustache. He fancies himself with the ladies, but he smells like some sort of condemned food product. I want to get out and breathe the cool night air, but he’s deliberately blocking my way and building tension. Because we are in a Cherokee I can’t get past him and escape this oppressive atmosphere.

February 2024

The dapper Zingi Harrison.

To break the tension, I have the impudence to ask whether I have passed. He gives no sign that he has heard me. He continues chewing the end of his ballpoint. Finally he says, “I’ll think about that and let you know in the morning.” He climbs out of the aeroplane and disappears into the night. I could cheerfully have shot him in the head. A good instructor will shake you by the hand, even before the prop has wobbled to a stop,

and say, “Congratulations man – you are now a commercial pilot.” The other inspector, Mike, was a more portly model who also loved the power of his position. His greatest joy was to surround himself with the people he was going to test that day, and then sound off to this captive audience on his latest piece of wisdom. It was from him that I first heard the old gem, if you ASSUME you make an ASS out of U and ME.

The Aztec has 4 small fuel gauges.

February 2024

The Aztec's fuel drains are in the cowling, which means they have pipes to the tanks.

I shudder every time I hear this bit of chichi insight. Much as the little man got up my nose, he was absolutely right – and this particularly applies to fuel. Never assume anything about fuel – check and check again. That’s the theme for this month’s sermon, but just saying it is not going to make a damn of difference. You may remember the words of that famous instructor, Hymorl Wright Jack, ‘Tell me and I will forget.’ Then he went on to say, ‘Show me, and I’ll remember.’ But his most famous saying was, ‘Involve me, and I will understand.’ I’ll involve you by telling you some stories about pilots assuming the fuel situation was okay. And you, dear instructor, will then involve your pupes by showing them around different aircraft

and pointing out their fuel drains, selectors and idiosyncrasies. So let’s cast off and get under way by telling you that I am the red-faced, and almost dead, hero of the first story. I made an assumption about an Aztec’s fuel system, and it nearly cost me my life. See if you can spot the trouble in each story before I tell you what went wrong – it won’t be easy. Aztec plumbing. It’s a SAAF Commando flight, which means I have to don my lowly, second lieutenant’s flying overall and shiny shoes. I am to fly a red, longnosed, Aztec from George to PE. I must refuel at the SAAF base and then head off to collect a General from some secret location and fly him to another secret L. Everything’s a secret to the military mind.

February 2024

The EGT gauges are an early indicator of fuel starvation.

After refuelling I do a proper preflight, including sampling all four tanks and the fuel strainers for water. There’s a strong easterly so I take off on 08 and head out across the bay. All goes according to plan until I’m climbing through 5 000ft when I notice the EGTs on the left engine are way too high. This is extremely odd – it is a cool day, I am using reduced power – 25/25, the mixtures are slightly rich and the other engine is fine. I keep a beady eye on the gauge. Then I notice that the CHTs are also rising, and soon the oil temp starts to imitate its companions. I do indeed have a hot engine – not dodgy gauges. I am about to reduce power when the aircraft swings violently to the left. The motor splutters, wakes up, quits and splutters some more. This is not a heart-stopping event. I have plenty of height and the airfield is only 30 miles behind

February 2024

me. I throttle back, feather the prop and turn for home. While tidying up the cockpit and shutting down the systems on the failed engine I am dismayed to see that the right engine seems to have been infected by its brother’s fever – it’s temps are also increasing. What moments ago had seemed to be a mischievous gremlin, has suddenly become a fire-breathing monster who is threatening to hurl us into the sea. My fears are justified. Both engines are indeed suffering from the same malady so I re-start the left. I can only hope that between their alternate banging and wheezing they might have sufficient urge to get us home. I put both props into fine pitch, both fuel pumps on, both mixtures fully rich and both throttles fully forward. I want to cling to whatever altitude we can

manage until we are much closer to home. Fuel pressures and flows seem to be behaving normally and the possibility that four magnetos would all decide to play silly-buggers in unison is beyond reasonable. We struggle towards the airfield at 100 mph. Sometimes when both engines synchronise their silent periods I know we will splash down in the ocean. And occasionally, when they pull together, we gain a few hundred feet and my hopes soar. They seem to have conspired to supply only the minimum impetus necessary to keep us in the air. ‘Come on Clive, put your back into it.’

‘You put your bloody back into it mate, I have got a fever – I’m hot as hell.’ ‘I have a cough like you can’t believe so don’t expect me to do all the heavy lifting.’ ‘FFS do you want to drown us all in the sea? We are nearly there – just pull you idiot.’ The fact that I am here, pecking at my keyboard, tells you that we did indeed survive the spluttering and swinging to the threshold. PE lets us land downwind on 29 because that’s exactly how far these invalids are prepared to go. If we had lost another 50’ the site of our demise would have ironically have been the hangars of SAAF base that had so recently refuelled us.

In this pic the low oil temp on the right is a red herring. February 2024

The beautiful Myrtle van der Woude with the Comanche.

The problem? All four tanks contain huge quantities of water. I am much puzzled. After refuelling I had allowed a few minutes for everything to settle, and then drained in the normal way. Why had I not found the water? Simple – I didn’t understand the system. Actually there’s not much to understand. The Aztec has three fuel drains in a cluster under each engine. One drain is for that wing’s outboard tank, one for the inboard tank and one directly on the filter bowl. A little thought would have told me that there must be a longish pipe from each tank to its respective drain. That’s right – you need to drain all the fuel out of the pipe before you have a sample of what’s in the tank. This taught me that when flying an Aztec, or any aircraft where the drains are not directly on the bottom of the tanks, you need a big Coke bottle to do the draining. I ASSUMED I was sampling the tanks – I didn’t think it through. Later I learned that PE had had serious floods overnight and that the fuel guys at the military base hadn’t got round to dipping the underground tanks.

February 2024

First thing every day they should put some green gunge called Kolor Kut’s Water Finding Paste on the end of a dipstick. If the paste contacts water it immediately turns red. Again I assumed this had been done – and I was wrong.

235 Crossfeed It is 1964, the ink is still wet on my commercial licence and I am about to crash a 235 Cherokee that’s as new as my qualification, in perfectly clear weather. We are at Hotazel, a manganese mining town in the shimmering desert of the Northern Cape. As the wheels leave the ground the right wingtip tries to bury itself into the sand. Full left aileron and plenty of rudder barely keep the tip-tank off the boulders. We have swung to the right of the runway so I don’t have the option of landing again. Easing back tightens the turn and kills the speed, robbing the ailerons of the airflow they need. Easing forward is not an option. I prod the last bit of left rudder and gradually – very gradually – sanity returns. The wing slowly rises, the airspeed creeps up and the aerodynamics arrange themselves such that we can inch away from that blistering surface.

Hotazel Airport - where Jim discovered the 235's tanks had crossfed.

I am at first alarmed, then much puzzled. What is this force that tries to invert us? It was fine when we landed a couple of hours ago. Since then I have been parked in the shade of a baobab tree and have not left the aircraft. There have been no people, animals or vehicles near us. We did not hit anything on takeoff in Kimberley, nor while landing here. The flaps have not gone asymmetric. The aircraft has done less than 100 hours in total, so I doubt there is any structural or mechanical failure. I can see nothing unusual on the wings or that part of the tailplane that is visible from the cockpit. I search inside. I either have to cure this disease or land back at Kimberley with a touch-down speed of more than 100mph. Suddenly I see the problem. There is a row of four little rectangular fuel gauges, the two right

hand ones are brim full while the left tip is stone empty and the left main has about 5 gallons. I select the right tip and gradually over the next hour the aircraft becomes more flyable. There were three reasons for this atrocity. First, a faulty selector allowed the fuel to crossfeed and overflow on to the ground while we were parked on a slope. Second, if my pretakeoff checks had been less casual I would have noticed the warnings of those four little gauges. Finally, because I knew nothing could go wrong on the ground, I skipped the pre-flight inspection – something I have never done since. I ASSUMED nothing could go wrong while we were parked. Beware – this is an unusual problem on Cherokees – but a daily hazard on 100 series Cessnas. I will explain later. February 2024

Dangerous bugs My very first aviation job was as hangar-rat for Placo, the Piper agents, at Wonderboom airport, just north of Pretoria. My status was extremely humble and my immediate boss, Zingi Harrison, was the best and most knowledgeable pilot in the world. He wore a bowtie at all times and loved to tell a story. When Zingi spoke, it was always worth listening. On this particular day, the big boss, Mr Piet van der Woude, had sent Zingi in a single Comanche ZS-CWG, to Virginia Airport, in Durban. The object was to collect Mr Piet’s 80 year old mother, his stunningly beautiful wife Myrtle, and two infants. Zingi left Wonderboom with minimal fuel. He filled the tanks in Durban before loading his precious cargo. He was on his way back at flight-level 105 and half way across that nasty bit that is all mountains and clouds.

Zingi was baffled. He hit the fuel pump and changed tanks, even though the right main, that he was using, showed almost full and had given good service for the last twenty minutes. The way Zingi explained it, the telling took longer than the flight. Here’s what happened. When he refuelled at Virginia, he didn’t notice how much fuel went into each of the six tanks. If he had he February 2024

There was good reason for this. A bug, in Pretoria, had made its muddy home in the breather for that tank. This meant that while Zingi was using it on the outbound flight, the bladder fuel-cell was being scrunched into a little ball as the fuel was sucked out of it. Obviously at the pumps it took very little fuel to fill this now prunelike container. When Zingi peered into it during the preflight inspection the tank looked full, and the gauge showed full because the float had been carried to the top with the scrunching. This is not just a story about a guy with a funny name and a bowtie. Mud-bugs are still around and so are bladdertanks – it can happen to you tomorrow.

you may not be as luck y as Zingi

You know that cold feeling in your stomach when you look at the scenery below and think, no one likes an engine failure – but I really wouldn’t like one now? Well that’s when the engine abruptly stopped, without apology – no warning, no splutter or cough – just silence. The kind of silence which instantly wakes sleeping grannies, beautiful wives and sticky infants who have all been put to sleep by the thin air and the drone of the Lycoming.

would have seen that the right main, although nearly empty, accepted only three gallons before it was full.

The lessons are plain. Make sure that what goes into the tank seems sensible, when you check for bugs – really check, and make sure you understand the system. Many Cessnas have only one breather for all the tanks – so you may not be as lucky as Zingi. If Zingi, in addition to looking into the tanks, had checked the receipt from Mr Mobil, he would have seen that something was wrong. No. He ASSUMED the tanks were all full after he looked into them. This fuel thing is so important that next month I have more stories about people making assumptions and getting it wrong. j

February 2024

FLIGHT TEST: THE AIR TRACTOR AT802F

THE AIR

TRACTOR AT802F Report and images: Guy Leitch

February 2024

An Air Tractor 802 is capable of dropping 3000 litres of fire retardent over 150 metres (Pic Air Tractor).

February 2024

With the Cape fire season having a particularly bad year, many property owners owe a large debt of gratitude to the huge Air Tractor 802F firebombers. They have become an invaluable weapon in the armoury against the fires that sweep through the Cape nature reserves and threatened farms and houses. THE AIR TRACTOR’S UNIQUE proposition is its ability to respond quickly and fly fast to a fire and quench it with 3000 litres of water – thereby often preventing a fire getting out of control. This is particularly important in the crucial early minutes of a wildfire, before ground forces can mobilise and get to the fire.

Development

Close-up the huge size of the 802 becomes evident.

February 2024

The Air Tractor firebomber role was a natural outgrowth for the already successful Air Tractor 400 and 500 series crop sprayer.

automat ic adjus t me nt of t he f ir e door s

In 1989 Air Tractor founder Leland Snow wanted to insulate his aircraft sales from farm economy downturns, which had harmed ag-plane sales. He consulted forestry and firefighting professionals and decided to upscale the AT503 into a two-seat 3000 litre

AT-802F specifically for the initial attack of aerial firefighting.

Snow worked with a young engineer named Victor Trotter to develop and patent the world’s most advanced computerised, rotary, water bomb doors.

The 802F was a victory for Snow’s vision as it proved capable of working fires from remote strips, carrying an 800-gallon load, with the reliability of a PT6A turbo-prop and easy maintenance of a new airframe.

Firefighting In Africa, Kishugu Aviation is the biggest operator of the AT-802s. It owns four AT-802Fs which they operate on behalf of the South African government’s Working on Fire (WOF) Expanded Public Works Programme. Kishugu also provides services to other clients such as local municipalities, large landowners and Fire Protection Associations across South Africa.

Koos explains that a key to the Air Tractor’s effectiveness is its hydraulically-driven rotary fire-gate doors on its hopper. The computercontrolled doors provide an even flow rate and allow the pilot to select gallons to drop, coverage level, and ground speed adjustment. In addition, there is an accelerometer for automatic adjustment of the fire doors.

t he CG r uns back war ds s o Koos explains, “There are five for the width of the it pitches up settings bomb gate opening we can if the spotter wants a long lik e a bitch use: water drop, he will say give me

As all the Air Tractor 802Fs in South Africa are single-seaters, we asked Koos Kieck, a retired SAAF Mirage pilot and now an Air Tractor 802 fire-bomber instructor, to share his in-depth experience with his massive weapon for the fight against wildfires.

coverage Level 1. Normally we use between a full load and Level 3.5. Thanks to the bomb gate computer, we have great control over the load drop rate. If we drop the whole load at once it covers about 150 metres, but we can extend that to 700-800 metres by reducing the flow rate.

The instrument panel is dominated by the open section to view the hopper and the dump control panel bottom left.

February 2024

Ground crew prepare the 802 for flight - it can be airborne within 3 minutes of a scramble.

On the Ground I had seen the Air Tractors parked at Stellenbosch Airfield, but it was not until I got close that I realised that it’s a huge beast of an aeroplane. The propeller is an awe-inspiring 10 ft diameter.

To power a firebomber designed to haul a large load fast, the 802 uses a Pratt & Whitney PT667AG, flat rated at 1,350 shp. It also has an overpower setting to 1600 shp which can be used for 20 seconds, as the limitation is the inter-stage turbine temperature (ITT), for really demanding airstrips.

3, 000 lit r es of f ir e r et ar dant in t he f us e lage

Koos invited me to climb up to the cockpit, but I tried and then sheepishly gave up, as I had forgotten my mountaineering skills and was just not nimble enough to scale the slab sided fuselage and climb into the high cockpit.

With this much flat rated power, they are happy to operate even at a density altitude of 8000 ft out of Warburton and Ermelo in Mpumalanga. Working on Fire also have an 802F whose engine is rated at 1600 shp with an overpower of 1800 shp (Bomber 23 ZS-TFH).

With a maximum weight of 7,500 kg (16,000 lbs) the 802 is equivalent to seven Cessna 172s. Its empty weight is typically 3,200 kg so it is one of the few aircraft that can comfortably lift its own weight.

The 802F burns around 300 litres of fuel and hour in the cruise and can carry 1,400 litres of fuel in the wings, in addition to 3,000 litres of fire retardant in the fuselage. Koos says that they

February 2024

Takeoff from Stellenbosch is downhill on 01, with up to a 10 knot tailwind component.

normally only operate with 1,000 litres of fuel, so they can fill the hopper tank.

Flying the Air Tractor 802F Koos describes what is like to fly this big machine onto a raging fire on a mountainside. “Once you have climbed into the cockpit, it is large and well laid out. The high cabin is incredibly strongly built and is air conditioned. The instrument panel is however unusual in that it is built around a large window into the hopper tank, with a prominent sub-panel directly in front of the pilot for switches.

The controls are conventional. There is a large control stick and three axis trim, so it can be trimmed for all phases of flight. It has a manual rudder and elevator trim, but surprisingly, the aileron trim is electric. Pitch trim is important as, when we dump the load, the CG runs backwards so it pitches up like a bitch. You have to push the stick into the instrument panel to stop the pitch, but quite often we are happy to just let it pitch up.

The ae r oplane wait s loade d, pr e -f lighte d can get airborne real fast and r eady to go We when we are scrambled. The

quickest we have done it is in three minutes. The aeroplane waits loaded, pre-flighted and ready to go. We use ground power for the first start of the day – thereafter the aircraft’s batteries. We do the pretakeoff checks during the taxy out and being a turbine, it doesn’t need a run up. February 2024

Well trained ground crew connect the refilling hose.

The wind is particularly important for gross weight take-offs out of Stellenbosch. The 802F can cope with operating out of the relatively short and uphill runway 19 with a full load only if I have a 20 knot headwind. Otherwise even in a 10 knot tailwind, I takeoff downhill, but I first let out 200 of the 800 gallons of water. During the takeoff roll we keep our hands on the dump leaver and are prepared to dump the load if we are not getting airborne soon enough. We have had to do it if the wind changes unexpectedly. At max weight we rotate at about 90 knots and it normally unsticks at about 95 – 100 knots. We use about 10 degrees of flap. We climb at Vx which is 120 knots and then Vy of 130 knots. Once airborne there’s no stress – loaded we get about 1000-1500 fpm climb. The plane is that powerful. We get given a rough heading and some landmarks for the fire vicinity and we can see the smoke from far. Depending on the load, we cruise to the fire at 160 – 180 knots using 3400 ft/lb torque and just 1550 rpm on the prop. It hums along nicely using about 280 litres per hour.

February 2024

We approach a fire at 120 knots with 10 degrees of flap. But sometimes rising terrain means we have to come in a bit hot. You don’t want to get slow with this big heavy plane as the speed bleeds off very quickly – especially uphill. For the actual firebombing, we aim by just eyeballing it and using our experience and judgement. The spotter pilot tells us how we have done so we can quickly learn what works for any particular fire. The Incident Commander on the ground decides whether to use planes or choppers. He usually goes in first with a helitac team. Then he and the spotter decide what aircraft to use. Knowing what the wind is doing is important. We drop the load downwind so we release it before we get to the fire. We normally aim to drop between 40 -50 ft above ground level. But when we have a crosswind it can get seriously difficult as the wind makes the water swirl anywhere so we then normally drop a bit lower. Even at 30 ft over the fire we don’t feel much heat as we are in it for less than four seconds and gone before it can get to us – and the Air Tractor is air conditioned.

It takes less than 3 minutes to refill the 3000 litre hopper.

Many of the Fire Bomber pilots are ex- SAAF 'vlamgat' fighter pilots. Trompie Nel flew Mirage 111s and ground-attack Mirage F1s.

February 2024

A practice load is dumped to check the computerised fire gate.

Non-militray pilots come to the big Air Tractors via smallar aircraft such as this Piper Pawnee.

February 2024

In a narrow kloof you don’t want to get near 60 degrees of bank – because it wants to roll onto its back. And you can’t pull the stick back because it’s heavy. In tight spots we put the nose down to 190 knots (Vne is 225 knots) and we fly up the slope without flaps. When we dump the load we leave it to pitch up into the valley. The speed comes down to 75-80 knots and you fly it out. So we dump our load, pitch up, take our rivets while they’re still in formation, and go. Once we have bombed, we head back to base the quickest way. The ATC at Cape Town International is always very accommodating, at times letting me cross the runways directly over the tower. But paradropping can be a real problem – their radio work is terrible, we can’t see the meatbombs and so we often do not know whether they are there or not. At Stellenbosch we have a gentleman’s agreement with the flying school students to extend their downwind to accommodate us. We have never had a problem.

We use 120 knots in the circuit as it slows down very quickly. Full flap limitation speed is 138 knots. We aim to cross the fence at 85 knots as it can really fall out the sky if you get slow, especially the one bomber we have which doesn’t have vortex generators. We normally keep the engine in high flight idle, which reduces the spool-up from seven seconds to five. If we have to go around, that 7 seconds from ground idle to full power can feel like forever. The landing is always interesting. It has a spring undercarriage so it’s like a Cessna 185 in that you can go bouncing down the runway, and it doesn’t stop. The stick doesn’t have to be all the way back, otherwise we hit the tailwheel first. So we hold-off until the long nose is parallel to the ground. Then we just hold the stick until it settles – which it does in a three pointer. If you do an unintentional wheeler you just relax back pressure on the stick and let the tail come down naturally. Don’t try and force it down because

The 802 can also be configured as a crop sprayer.

February 2024

The 802F is also available as a two-seater for training.

you want to apply the brakes. Full reverse thrust stops you as effectively as running into a wall. We prefer to use reverse thrust on the prop to slow as it saves on tyres. But it has excellent short field performance – landing on 19 at Stellenbosch, we can easily make the first turnoff. Depending on the distance to the airfield, we aim to do four to eight loads in an hour. Returning to base to reload is surprisingly quick. We don’t shut down the engine and the ground crew are really well trained, so it only takes around 2-3 minutes to refill. The fire retardant is already onboard so we just hit a button and it injects 1 litre per 1000 litres of water. We don’t work a fire for more than three hours. We need a mental rest and body break. The aircraft and engines have held up to South African conditions very well. You really can trust in Pratt and Whitney. I cannot think of any incident we have had engine-wise. We have had the odd wing scrape and runway excursion though. The 802 has teeth because of the tailwheel. It has a locking tailwheel – you lock it

February 2024

when you start the takeoff roll and unlock it when you get off the runway. You can land it without the tailwheel locked without too much trouble.

Conclusion The Air Tractor 802F is a great first response weapon, but it works best when used in conjunction with the helicopters, and as part of a team of up to four Air Tractor firebombers. Fires don’t normally burn in a straight line, but we can only bomb in a straight stripe, so we need the choppers for the bits that get missed. The spotter pilot is the key member of the team – he does all the work – but we get the glory. Whether we dump the full or a partial load is determined by the spotter. It really is an incredibly effective fire fighting machine and is particularly vital for first response, as it can get to the fire fast and dump a load three times larger than a Huey,” Koos concludes. j

NEWS

MADISON MARSH USAF MISS AMERICA IN AN EVENT THAT MAY DO even more than Top Gun to bolster USAF glamour, an Air Force pilot has been crowned Miss America 2024 Madison Marsh is the first active-duty Air Force officer to compete in the Miss America pageant. The 22-year-old is a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force and the first active-duty Air Force officer to be a Miss America titleholder. Marsh is also the first active-duty officer to compete for the Miss America crown, an Air Force Academy spokesman told Stars and Stripes, a daily American military newspaper.

Miss America Madison Marsh (left!) is a USAF pilot.

Marsh, who grew up in Fort Smith, Arkansas, graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in El Paso County, Colorado, with a degree in physics, focusing on astronomy, per The Harvard Crimson. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Marsh got her pilot’s license at 17 years old. She is now a US Air Force 2nd lieutenant and has a coveted place to train as a fighter pilot.

Madison Marsh as a beauty queen.

February 2024

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February 2024

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JIM DAVIS

S L A CK COCK P I T

DI S CI P LI NE Aircraft registration: ZS-JGU

Date and time of accident: 30 January 2014. 1000Z Type of aircraft: Piper PA28-180 Type of operation: Private PIC license type: PPL License valid: Yes PIC age: 20 PIC total hours: 109.1

•

This discussion is to promote safety and not to establish liability. CAA’s report contains padding and repetition, so in the interest of clarity, I have paraphrased extensively.

PIC hours on type: 86.6 Last point of departure: Volksrust Airfield Intended landing: Richards Bay (FARB) Location of accident site: 0,2 nm west of Volksrust Aerodrome Meteorological: 050/6; Viz: 9999; 30 °C; BKN020 POB: 2+0 People injured: 0 People killed: 0

History of Flight: The pilot had hired the aircraft from a flying school in order to accumulate hours towards her commercial licence. She reported that a pre-flight inspection had been conducted which was satisfactory and that the aircraft had 25 gallons of fuel. She taxied to runway 28. Following rotation the pilot put a substantial amount of back pressure on the control column, resulting in a higher

February 2024

than normal nose attitude for the climb. The airspeed decayed and the aircraft stalled. As the pilot attempted to recover from the stall, she froze on the controls and the instructor pilot took over. He tried to gain control of the aircraft and attempted to recover from the stall. During the recovery, the instructor noticed some trees in their flight path and he turned to the left of the extended centreline and then crash landed in an open grassy field.

The Cherokee 180 after being stalled into a field after takeoff.

Pilot experience.

Weight and Balance (lb.)

Total Hours

109,1

Total Past 90 Days

Total on Type Past 90 Days

9,7

Total on Type

86,6

Instructor information: Nationality

South African Gender

Licence Number Licence valid

0272351644 Licence Type Yes Type Yes Endorsed Instructor Grade 3, night, multi-engine piston and IR

Ratings

Male Age 30 Commercial

1294

Pilot and Pax

390,2

Fuel

208,6

Baggage

44,9

Take-off weight

1937,7

The maximum takeoff weight is 2400 lbs Aerodrome Location

Volksrust Aerodrome (FAVU)

Aerodrome Elevation

5620 ft

Runway Used

Runway Surface

Grass

The aircraft crashed in an open grassy field, slid for approximately 60 m and came to rest in a westerly direction. During impact the propeller struck the ground, the right-hand gear detached from the airframe and the right wing failed at the wing root.

Medical 31 May 2014 Expiry Date Restrictions None Previous Accidents

Basic Empty Weight

None

Instructor’s Experience: Total Hours

624,0

Total Past 90 Days

Unknown

Total on Type Past 90 Days

Unknown

Total on Type

Unknown

The right-hand gear was found approximately 11 m from the wreckage, in the two o’clock position, and the right flap was damaged. The witness marks on the engine and propeller were consistent with a high engine power setting.

February 2024

effect. They also did what all low hour pilots do – they failed to use enough right rudder. The aircraft moved to the left of the runway and they tried to steer back with the ailerons – thus belting the right wing into the ground.

JIM’S COMMENTS The first thing to do when you bend an aeroplane is to make sure you are okay, then you check on your pax, and then you try to figure out why it’s not your fault. So that’s what you will tell the investigators.

I know this sounds ridiculous, so next time you watch a low hour pilot take off, I can guarantee they will wander to the left of centreline and the right wing will be low as they try to ‘steer’ back with the ailerons. It’s standard procedure until someone bullies them into using enough rudder – which can take a hundred hours or more.

Then, as the investigators are not pilots, they don’t recognise the story as BS, so what they publish often has little to do with what actually happened. Here’s what the crew told the investigator – and it makes no sense: They got airborne and climbed to such a height that when the aircraft stalled the instructor took over and tried to recover. During the recovery he turned left to avoid trees and stuck the right wing into the ground. If the investigators were pilots they would have queried this. They would have known that when you stall an aircraft – even a gentle Cherokee – with full power, things happen quickly, and a wing drop is on the cards. During recovery you are not in a position to turn left or right to avoid obstacles – particularly when a wing drops. And if you somehow managed this left turn you would not stuff the right into the veld as they did. The whole thing is a stupid fabrication. It’s much more likely that they pulled it off the ground too early and it was mushing in ground

It’s the sure sign of an amateur. If you find yourself doing it just be more positive on the right rudder. It’s amazing how much right rudder you need to keep a Cherokee straight during a full power stall. It will be very close to FULL rudder. When I write about an accident I first go through the agonizing official document and try to make it coherent and relevant. I have to strip away the garbage and repetition that constitute roughly 80% of it, and then try to correct the English and the grammar. Finally I go through what’s left and highlight any significant, or questionable bits in yellow, and try to get a picture of what was really going on. Because the reports are so bad I may not be able to separate fact from BS, but perhaps strangely, this often doesn’t matter. We are not trying to allocate blame – we are simply using

The threshold of 10 with its railway and powerlines.

February 2024

it as an example of what might have happened under similar circumstances.

The weight of the pilot and pax was just short of 400 lbs. Hmmmmm – possible but unlikely.

Let’s look at some of the highlighted bits.

Perhaps 45 lbs of baggage suggests they were off to the coast for the weekend. And perhaps this might indicate they were friends. That’s great. But it often leads to slack cockpit discipline and crew briefings.

Following rotation the pilot put a substantial amount of back pressure on the control column. Really? I don’t believe that for a moment, 100 hour pilots just don’t do that. I suspect, in order of probability: 1. The trim was not reset after the previous landing.

The runway is 1100m long, and they were 462 lbs below max gross weight. This is well within the capability of a 180 Cherokee but they stacked the odds against themselves by:

2. The pilot’s seat was too low and she couldn’t see the nose. This is a very common problem that instructors often fail to notice or correct.

•

Taking off uphill. The runway rises 7 metres. This is the difference between still being on the ground at the far end, and being 23 feet up.

3. The pilot’s seat was too far back and she couldn’t use enough rudder input.

•

Taking off with a quartering tailwind.

4. The pilot’s seat slipped back (very uncommon in a Cherokee). …she froze on the controls…

• Having to clear a railway line with overhead cables immediately after takeoff.

jus t laz y inves t igat ing • Having a density altitude

Again I don’t believe it – a pilot simply does not freeze on the controls during a routine flight – it only happens when something frightening and out of the ordinary occurs. And even then it won’t happen if the pilot has confidence in the instructor. …the instructor pilot took over.

Really, what the hell had the 600 hour instructor been doing while the aircraft climbs to X? height and then stalls? This doesn’t all happen so quickly that the instructor has no time to intervene. It actually takes plenty of time, and it’s his job to be on the ball near the ground. If things happen too quickly to be corrected, there would be bent aircraft littering every airfield in the country. Believe me – he had plenty of time to prevent a stall if he was paying attention.

of over 8000’.

A slight gradient and a light wind actually make a massive difference. In this case the difference between flying off for a holiday at the coast, and crashing. Their tailwind was only 6 knots, but that means a difference of 12 knots (22 km/hr) between a downwind and an into-wind takeoff. Take home stuff: Some would say this is about the holes in the cheese lining up – but they don’t do it by themselves, and they are not influenced by the stars. The crew knowingly combined a bunch of little negatives until the takeoff was doomed before they opened the throttle. 1. Slack discipline

The investigators were unable to ascertain the instructor’s total time, and time on type, and time in the last 90 days. This is absolute nonsense and it appears frequently in our CAA’s accident reports.

2. Poor, or no crew briefing

Every minute of a commercial pilot’s working life is recorded in his logbook, and in the aircraft’s logbooks and in the school’s autho sheets. This is just lazy investigating.

6. Temperature

3. Poor handling 4. Gradient 5. Wind 7. Obstacles

j February 2024

ZS-TNF is a Hawker 800XPi now exported to Malta, possibly to avoid the SACAA.

DECEMBER 2023 December was, not unexpectedly, a somewhat quiet month for aircraft registrations as the country wound down to celebrate the Christmas holidays. Seven aircraft were added to the South African civil aircraft register while eight were cancelled. ON THE CORPORATE JET FRONT, Hawker 800XPi, ZS-TNF, has taken up registry in the Isle of Man as M-NACK but it is unclear if it will remain in the region as it was noted on several flights around the country during December and early January. This 2005-model jet has been based in the region since its delivery in early 2006 as ZS-AFG, operated initially by Air Affaires Gabon before being sold in South Africa in 2012 and reregistered ZS-TNF. The Hawker 800XPi featured several upgrades distinguishing it from the earlier 800XP model including a Rockwell Collins’ Pro Line 21 avionics suite with Integrated Flight Information System, and a new interior and cabin management system. These upgrades added more reliable communication and navigation capabilities with less instrument weight and volume.

February 2024

A recent import is a 1980-model Citation IISP, N551EA (551-0360) that was delivered to Wonderboom in the latter part of 2023 and will reportedly soon be added to the ZS register, but more on that in a future issue of this Register Review. Airlink continues its strong growth with yet another Embraer 190 being registered this month. This jet was last in service with Aero Mexico and it is one of three E190s delivered to Airlink by Falco Regional Aircraft Limited. Falko is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chorus Aviation Inc., a company that was formed in July 2011 through the purchase of BAE Systems Asset Management and its associated aircraft portfolio. The plane used the ferry registration 2-JGAF (2being the registration prefix for Guernsey) and arrived on delivery to OR Tambo International Airport on 3 December.

ABOVE ZK-DML as a Cessna 172 glider tow plane in New Zealand is now ZS-DML. BELOW: Embraer E190, here as 2-JGAF has been delivered to Airlink as ZS-YCB.

February 2024

ABOVE: Bell 505 ZS-RPR has been exported to Kenya. Pic Jarryd Sinovich. BELOW: Cessna C172RG ZS-MVR has been exported to Somalia.

February 2024

Four Cessna 172s have been registered this month and of these, ZS-TMC’s serial number seems problematic as I cannot trace this so it may be due to a misplaced digit in the serial number supplied? Two of these Cessnas, ZS-TJZ and TJW, have been imported from Slovenia and Montenegro respectively. Cessna 172M, ZS-DML was cancelled from the New Zealand Civil Register in 2016 where it was registered ZK-DML. It was noted at Wonderboom in 2020 already but without a registration applied, so it seems it has finally been added on the local register. A single new Cessna Caravan ZS-JCA is a new import of this popular type. On the rotorwing front, a single Bell 505 departed our borders on export to Kenya while an Airbus Helicopters H125 (formerly the As350B3e) joins the large local fleet of these popular workhorses. Interestingly it is registered in the former rotorwing registration

series ZS-H** instead of the new RT- series now allocated to helicopter an RPAS craft. Departing our shores is a Cessna 172RG that was exported to Somalia – a most unusual location given the continued insurgency war in this strife-torn country. A Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, ZS-ORK has been exported to the USA while Cessna 402C, ZS-LMY has winged its way to it new home in the Bahamas. The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX, ZS-LEC has been sold to Malawi while a Cessna 210N has moved across the border into Zimbabwe. On the NTC front, the sole deletion was a Savanna S exported on sale to Zambia. I look forward to see what the new year holds for the local aircraft marketplace. We are sure to see a continued influx of new airliners for the local carriers while the corporate jet sales will hopefully continue showing the stronger growth shown in 2023. j

BOOK S

by Pete r Gar r is on

February 2024

c i t s u co y) Ltd A N M & ices (Pt Serv

REVIEW

DECEMBER 2023

REG

New Registrations ZS-

MANUFACTURER

TYPE NAME

SERIAL NUMBER PREVIOUS IDENTITY / EXPORT COUNTRY

ZS-TJZ

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMAPY

172N

172-73723

ZS-TJW

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMAPY

172N

172-69173

ZS-TMC

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMAPY

172N

172-01819

ZS-DML

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMAPY

172M

172-61245

ZS-HWO

AIRBUS HELICOPTERS

AS 350 B3e

8148

ZS-JCA

TEXTRON AVIATION INC

208

20800701

ZS-YZB

EMBRAER

ERJ 190-100 LR

19000666

Aircraft deleted ZSZS-MVR

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

172RG

172RG1077

SOMALIA

ZS-ORK

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

208B

208B-0336

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

ZS-TNF

RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY

HAWKER 800XP

258724

ISLE OF MAN

ZS-SMN

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

210N

210-63369

ZIMBABWE

ZS-LEC

TEXTRON AVIATION INC

208B

208B5519

MALAWI

ZS-LMY

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

402C

402C-0635

BAHAMAS

Aircraft deleted ZSZT-YHY

DJI

AGRAS T30

3U5BJ6G00100CR

WITHDRAWN FROM USE

ZT-RPR

BELL HELICOPTER

BELL 505

65254

KENYA

ZT-XUG

DJI

MAVIC 2 ENTERPRISE ADVANCED

4GCCJ61R0A0D8B

CANCELLED

ZT-YRW

DJI

MATRICE 300 RTK

1ZNBK7G00C00D9

DESTROYED

SAVANNAH S

18-11-54-0645

ZAMBIA

Aircraft deleted ZSZU-IPC

SAVANNAH AIRCRAFT AFRICA

SANAS Ac credite 1302 & 1d4Laboratory 8 We perform SANAS certiﬁcations on all your: Acoustics ( eg. CEL 350 ) Vibration ( eg. Rion VA -11) Human Vibration ( eg. Quest Hav Pro) Electrical DC/LF Equipment – inhouse or on site (eg. Fluke Multimeters, Insulation Testers)

February 2024

Contact: Marianka Naude Tel: 012 689 2008 I Cell: 076 920 3070 Email: admin@mnacoustics.co.za

c i t s u o c d A t L N ) M & ices (Pty Serv SANAS Accredited La boratory 1302 & 148 We perform SANAS certifications on all your: Acoustics ( eg. CEL 350 ) Vibration ( eg. Rion VA -11) Human Vibration ( eg. Quest Hav Pro) Electrical DC/LF Equipment – inhouse or on site (eg. Fluke Multimeters, Insulation Testers)

S Q U OTATI O N T ON REQUES Contact: Marianka Naude Tel: 012 689 2008 I Cell: 076 920 3070 Email: admin@mnacoustics.co.za

February 2024

AOPA - CHRIS MARTINUS

PRESIDENT: AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION – SOUTH AFRICA

PICKING SIDES

AOPA BRIEFING

As aviators, we never evolved basic instincts useful for flight, such as those which are natural for birds and insects. We have to rely on learned responses to circumstances, and that learning relies largely on humans’ rather unique ability to employ logic and reason. South Africa is playing the victim.

February 2024

IN OUR CIVILISED WORLD, we have developed procedures and regulations through logic and reason to make flight comfortable and safe, thus satisfying our primal need for comfort and safety. It’s a natural human tendency to identify with a particular group. We are herd animals who seek the comfort and safety of our own tribe, culture, religion, race or other identity. It is a fundamental instinct that has served us well in becoming the most dominant species on our planet. However, while instinct is useful, as cognitive beings it is necessary to explore where instinctive behaviour should end and where we should be guided by logic and reason. There is no place in aviation for group identity. Regardless of what religion you may follow, what race group you belong to, what gender you identify as, you hit the ground just as hard if those procedures and regulations are not adhered to.

the anchor that holds society together. We have even higher bodies which administer agreements and disputes among nations themselves, such as the United Nations and its affiliated bodies, such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The purpose of these bodies is to provide consistency in laws between nations and resolution of international disputes. But something has gone very wrong. And it has been going wrong for decades. Domestic and international courts and bodies have been weaponised, primarily by politicians who have abused those functions, functions which were intended to promote peaceful cooperation and peaceful resolution of disputes. They have largely achieved this abuse by tapping into that innate human instinct to pick sides and blindly fight for their side, regardless of the factual or moral issues which may be wrong.

s omet hing has gone ve r y wr ong

History has shown that civilisations rise, become sophisticated – and then suddenly collapse. The ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks achieved sophisticated laws, philosophies and cultures and reached astonishing levels of comfort and sophistication, but then reverted back to primal instinct and ultimate collapse. They are no more. Our current civilisation nevertheless draws from the wisdom of the ancients and we have built superior social, political and legal systems that have been working fairly well. The bastion of modern society’s dispute resolution through reason and logic, the courts, have been

Proceedings in courts and progressive organisations have become akin to a soccer match, where the supporters of opposing sides mindlessly cheer on their sides irrespective of their competence or rightness or wrongness. Winning the game has become the sole objective, at any cost, regardless of the damage that this ultimately brings to these peaceoriented forums themselves. The upper courts in South Africa have been inundated for decades as a battleground for political ends. Dispute resolution has taken a back seat to political expediency as the justice February 2024

system has been co-opted as bludgeon against political opponents and perceived threats to political hegemony. With the courts being used as a political playground, they are threatened with becoming less relevant and less accessible to ordinary people who need these structures as a rational and peaceful organ of a successful society. The problem is global. Courts in the United States are being horribly abused as a primary instrument in fighting the presidential elections that take place later this year. The winner/ loser appeal of the court system is due to our primitive instincts to fight and kill our perceived opponents, rather than making use of the much more civilised democratic process where peaceful compromise between parties and candidates achieves a fair and functional government through elections.

Let’s look at some components which form the background for both Hamas’ attack and the ANC’s urge to involve South Africa in the conflict. The first component is the trend of aspiring to characterise oneself as a victim, rather than pursuing achievement and excellence. This trend is one that is indicative of a declining civilisation, as happened to the moribund ancient empires of the past. “Victim-blaming”, “playing the race card”, “projecting” one’s own wrongdoing or failures onto the “other side” are typical strategies for the aspirant victim. In today’s peculiar environment, victimhood is regarded as a virtue, while success and achievement is seen as oppressive. The ANC’s rhetoric and policies have relied on portraying themselves as victims for the last 112 years.

cour t s have be e n weaponis e d

The Middle East Conflict On an international level, the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians is an apposite example. The conflict, which is fundamentally between Islam and Judaism, has been ongoing for millennia. Frequent attempts at peaceful resolution have failed again and again. However, the ANC, also facing an election year, saw fit to bring an application to the ICJ in South Africa’s name to declare Israel’s retaliation against Hamas’ as genocidal, despite the intentionally provocative massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023.

February 2024

Hamas and the Palestinians also place great reliance on the victimhood strategy. Hamas prepared for and attacked peaceful Israeli civilians knowing full well that Israel has long had a policy of powerful retaliation against attacks on its sovereignty. The ideal formula for playing the victim when Israel began to pound much of Gaza into rubble, while screaming loudly that civilians were being killed, injured and displaced. Of course, all wars result in collateral civilian deaths, including women and children, which are now portrayed as deliberately targeted innocent victims. The second component is the “picking sides” strategy, where it is hoped by Hamas that international humanitarian sentiment can be rallied against the militarily far more powerful and now deliberately provoked and angered foe, Israel.

The media - ENCA in this case - get it wrong.

The third component is to weaponise the international dispute resolution body, the ICJ, through abuse of its procedures as a bludgeon against Israel. In an amazingly cynical display of virtue signalling, the ANC co-opted South Africa into being one of the teams playing a dangerous game in the fields of the ICJ. It is also false virtue signalling. South Africa has no dog in this hunt. It is not our war. 2022 census figures show that a mere 1.6% of South Africans are Moslem, and a minute 0.1% are Jewish. The ANC’s virtue signalling is all the more laughable when one takes into account that, under ANC rule, we are the most unequal society in the world and that our official statistics show that the number of murders annually in South Africa are nearly the same as the casualties in a hot war in Gaza.

Of course, the more weak-minded among us South Africans yield to our primitive instinct to pick sides and see the conflict as being South Africa versus the “genocidal” Israelis. Harnessing that sentiment has terrible consequences. Overnight, by picking sides in a conflict that has little or nothing to do with us, we have turned our friends, the most powerful nations on Earth, into enemies. And to what purpose? The ANC’s purpose is to get us to keep picking sides by identifying with their now very tired strategy of portraying themselves and their diminishing followers as eternal victims. South Africa is a nation with huge natural and human resources, and great goodwill and cooperation between its diverse people. We have massive potential to be a great and powerful nation, both domestically and February 2024

internationally, but our future is blighted by corruption and the divisive political strategies of victimhood. Our politicians are obsessed with finding others to blame for their own faults and failures. We would do much better to follow the Swiss example of neutrality. We have no international enemies. However, political strategies of falsely identifying as victims creates enemies – for absolutely no good reason. To wrap up the South Africa/Israel/ICJ example, South Africa did manage to obtain a “nothing” interim order from the ICJ which merely admonishes Israel to abide by the provisions of the Genocide Convention, which as a signatory thereto, Israel has already acceded to. The ICJ certainly has no jurisdiction to order a cessation of hostilities in Gaza, nor did the 17 judges hearing the matter bother to even consider such an order. Judges of this calibre are certainly not fools, and they are certainly not going to allow themselves to be used as political puppets in a war that is spreading rapidly.

In the meantime, the ANC and its dubious victim-allies will continue to put lipstick on their pig, the current order having been obtained through a technical interim procedure. What is shocking is that the interim order is touted as a “victory”, that Israel has committed genocide and the false assertion by some media that a “ceasefire” has been ordered in Gaza. Sadly, with all the suffering of innocents in Gaza, there is no doubt that the conflict will continue unabated.

Back to Aviation So what has all this got to do with aviation? As I have discussed before, ICAO is the UN body that is the custodian of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. The purpose is to facilitate civil aviation internationally through agreed-upon standards which are then implemented by basically every country in the world.

mak e ge ne ral av iat ion impos s ible

The judges nevertheless inserted a little order of their own, a “get out of jail free card”, if you will. Ordering Israel to report back to the ICJ in one month and preserve evidence indicates that the court intends to review their order if and when Israel furnishes its report-back. It seems highly likely that in the next few weeks, the ICJs order that merely embarrasses Israel will be lifted. Providing, of course, that Israel plays by the rules and restrains their own politicians from making hateful speeches that could incite genocidal actions.

February 2024

AOPA South Africa through IAOPA has representation at ICAO, and I personally have been for quite some time the Regional Vice President of IAOPA for the Africa/Middle East Region. This region is substantially the weakest of the regions and is continually riven by conflicts, wars and despotic states that make general aviation impossible, or at least very difficult. General aviation in South Africa is represented by AOPA locally – and SA has long been the strongest country for private aviation in the entire region.

Other media report the opposite result.

IAOPA and its members in 83 states have a great diplomatic record of fostering general aviation worldwide, without allowing national politics to intrude, even if some of those states are at war with each other. Unlike the UN itself, ICAO does not and certainly should not be influenced in any way by corrosive international disputes. Civil aviation in SA has nevertheless seen a great deal of decline in recent years, primarily as a consequence of politics and corruption. In the hilarious 1980s British TV sitcom “Yes, Prime Minister”, while discussing their vote in the UN over the Arab/Israel conflict, the British Cabinet Secretary explains to the Prime Minister: “The UN is the accepted forum for the expression of international hatred.” The recent allegations that several United Nations Relief and Works Agency employees personally engaged in the October 7 atrocities

has seriously further damaged the UN’s reputation and resulted in most of UNWRA’s biggest donor countries withdrawing their contributions for humanitarian aid in Gaza. ICAO does not suffer that reputation. However, some concerns in ICAO circles have been raised that South Africa is jockeying to use its influence to effectively act as a proxy for some pariah nations whose own influence is seriously tarnished. We certainly hope that that does not happen. South Africa has recently and unnecessarily created enough new enemies already.

Chris Martinus President Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association – South Africa j

February 2024

NEWS

RETIRED PILOT BECOMES A LAWYER What happens to retired pilots? Well, one has late in life, decided to become a lawyer. IN NOVEMBER, CLIVE BARTMANN started working in as a candidate attorney at the age of 79. Clive was born in Krugersdorp and for the most of his working life he was a pilot. He spent five years flying helicopters in the SAAF before flying for private companies worldwide and as a flight instructor.

He’s loving the challenging work of being a lawyer. The law is not so different from flying helicopters, he says. “In law, you have to understand situations and be able to create order, and it’s the same when you’re sitting in a helicopter.”

Balance is t he k ey to eve r y t hing

At the age of 65, when his flying ended, he wasn’t ready for retirement. He was bored, so 3 years later he enrolled at UNISA for a BA degree.

A chat with another senior student led to Clive changing to a law degree. It took 6 years of toil, sweat and swot but he graduated in 2020 with an LLB. And then the Covid pandemic happened, so he focused on renovating his home in Hout Bay.

February 2024

He’s at his desk at 06:45 to start a day that often ends 9 to 11 hours later.

Clive and his wife, Lecia (77 and a former nurse) have been married for 46 years. They met when he was based at AFB Ysterplaat. They have 3 children - Luke (45), Mari (43) and John (41) and 3 grandchildren. His family supported him when he decided to venture into law beyond his actual retirement. “Without Lecia I wouldn’t have been able to do it. She makes sure everything at home goes smoothly so that I can do what I have to at work.”

He believes that everything that happened in his life, from his childhood on the West Rand to his time in the SAAF and later as a private pilot, prepared him for the path he is walking now. “There are going to be days when you fall flat, but the lesson is that you have to get back up. Balance is the key to everything.”

What is his advice for older people like him who still want to study? “Do you know what the three things people say about getting old are? They say your memory leaves you first, and I can’t remember the other two.”

I get excite d w he n I s e e challe nges

He hopes to be able to inspire others. “I want younger people to look at me and realise that you don’t have to give up. I made many mistakes in life, and even in my studies I failed subjects. But I get excited when I see challenges; it’s just another way to learn for me.”

But then he says that the most important thing that helped him in his studies was to be prepared to read something and repeat it until he understood it.

Clive Bartmann (on the right) with a SAAF Alouette III.

February 2024

FACE TO FACE:

JAMES PITMAN Sling’s 1000 and Onwards

Guy Leitch chats to Sling Aircraft Executive Chairman, James Pitman, about the company’s rapid growth. GL: Congratulations on over 1000 Sling deliveries. Many of these were sold as kits – do you have any idea how many are flying? JP: We’ve taken orders for 1,250 Slings: 550 Sling 4s, 450 Sling 2s and 250 Sling High Wings. They are sold as either ready to fly, as quick-build kits, and as standard kits, so we cannot be certain exactly how many are now flying. The number, though, is more than 750.

You’ve come a long way in 17 years. What were your major milestones?

Having developed an aircraft, of course the February 2024

In mid-2010 we moved to Tedderfield Air Park and commenced real production. Our production capacity, skills, quality and efficiency continues to improve.

mor e t han 4, 000 hour s pe r mont h.

Our first challenge was to design a practical, high performing, safe and beautiful aircraft. Our first major milestone was flying the development prototype in 2008. In 2009 we built a ‘production prototype’, which we flew to Oshkosh and on around the world.

next challenge was to sell some. And then to effectively produce them. I agree with Elon Musk’s assessment that, in general, development of products is not the real challenge – that comes with production.

In 2011 we developed a prototype 4-seater and flew that around the world. The SACAA delayed our entering production with the 4-seater for some years, so production of that really only started 2013. In 2018 we were able to develop the upgraded Sling 4 TSI, using the new Rotax 915 engine, changing the Sling 4 airfoil, increasing horizontal stabiliser size and making other tweaks and improvements. The aircraft represents a sublime marriage of airframe and engine, and this gave rise in turn to the Sling 4 High Wing during 2020.

Executive Chairman of Sling Aircraft James Pitman.

Both the TSI and Sling 4 High Wing are high performing light 4-seat aircraft with outstanding utility, lovely handling qualities and efficient operating characteristics. Paradoxically, Covid improved aircraft sales. In 2023 we acquired large new premises in Alberton, investing significantly in increased production.

The quality of your ready-to-fly aircraft in terms of fit and finish rivals expensive sportscars. Do you pursue quality rather than price in your market positioning? We have indeed made a conscious decision to focus on high-quality products, rather than seeking to compete primarily on price. Insofar as the finish is concerned, in 2011 we built a Sling 2 from scratch to completion in a 7-day period, using 5 men from the factory, and 5 women with no aircraft assembly experience. Mike and I then flew the aircraft to Aero Friedrichshafen over a further 7-day period, where we proudly showed her to the European market. Where Americans, Australians and others from the “new world” had always wanted to understand performance, economy and capacity, many Europeans appeared to us more interested in the origin of the leather, who performed the stitching and suchlike. It brought home how much the purchase of an airplane is an act of love and bonding. Beauty and quality are essential.

Our long-distance flights have definitely NOT been first and foremost about marketing – they’ve been about fun and adventure. But the flights, together with the wonderful story telling and film-making of our friend Lloyd Ross, have definitely helped to get the Sling story out to the world.

ex por t pe r ce nt age is 85% at pr es e nt

Do you think your many daring round the world flights made a big difference in differentiating Slings from other light sport aircraft?

It’s always difficult to really understand the exact role and contribution of brand and marketing – but I think that in our various trips our aircraft have proven themselves even to us. I think the position is more that the aircraft are so easily able to perform those trips because they are so convenient, effective, reliable and easy to operate. They’d have proven themselves so even in the absence of those journeys. Mostly the journeys were an excuse for the company owners to have a good time!

February 2024

Celebrating the return from a round the world flight.

You are doing great things with export sales. What percentage of your sales are now outside of South Africa? The export percentage has risen steadily, from zero in 2010 to approximately 85% at present. But each time we develop a new model, there’s an early rush of South African orders that somewhat skews that for a period.

the reception of our products by the American public. Sling Pilot Academy, based in Los Angeles uses Sling LSAs for flight training, is proving incredibly successful. Its fleet of Slings currently flies more than 4,000 hours per month. It has just opened a second campus in San Diego, and all indications are that it will continue to grow in years to come.

Sling is well pos it ione d f or MOSAIC.

The American market is traditionally hard to break into – how are you doing there? It took us several years to break into the US market, but today the US represents approximately 60% of all sales. The business distributes Sling products across the USA, with numerous established dealers, and has developed a fine reputation. We’re delighted by

February 2024

How is your relationship with the SACAA? Have they been a help or a hinderance? A difficult question to answer! The regulatory framework in South Africa is permissive and well-conceived. However, the regulator sometimes has its own views on just how and on what terms it should be applied. We’ve

had real frustrations dealing with the SACAA, but we have also developed strong relationships with individuals within the organisation, and overall, there is a fair deal of goodwill and support. The wheels turn slowly, sometimes maddeningly so, but we’ve been able to get what we need pretty much every time we’re legally entitled to it.

Sling is making great strides into the huge Amercan market.

The FAA is moving towards finalisation of its MOSAIC proposals - will that have a big positive impact on your American market – and perhaps the rest of the world? MOSAIC will have an almost unimaginably positive impact on Sling’s business. Most pilots would not choose to build their own aircraft. And Sling, by the nature of our products, and because we have the South African regulatory framework, is perfectly positioned to supply MOSAIC compliant products. The time is ripe, the development is entirely appropriate and desirable, and Sling is fortunately well positioned to benefit.

The Sling High Wing has been a long time coming, and market demand seems strong. Is it outselling the low wing? We always enjoy a rush of sales when we develop a new product. Over the past two years High Wing orders have outstripped low wing orders, but more recently the balance has pretty much re-established itself. We do now have quite a backlog of High Wing kits and ready-tofly aircraft to deliver – some 250 of them – but 2024 will see us make a very serious dent on that.

We are now receiving roughly equal numbers of orders for Sling 4 high and low wing aircraft, and Sling 2 / LSA orders are at an all-time high – particularly because of US flying school demand.

With the Rotax 916 now being installed, you have come a long way from the original D6 2-seater. What is your next new plane going to be? The Rotax 916 seems to represent a real maturation of the line of engines of which it is the most recent exemplar. We’ve tested it in the TSI and High Wing and it substantially improves the performance of both.

February 2024

The round the world flights were primarily about the fun.

We are constantly discussing, debating, imagining and conceptualising new products. The position of our business right now means that there’s a necessary focus on High Wing production. Then we’re focussing on upgrading the Sling “NGT” LSA trainer to ensure that it really offers the finest training platform available. Further improvements will be announced over the next two years. MOSAIC will need small but important changes and indeed improvements in the TSI and High Wing.

What about electric propulsion. I understand the Swiss are building an electric Sling?

February 2024

It’s still an emerging technology, so we will continue to monitor electric drive train improvements and will be ready to enter the fray when the moment is opportune.

Vans Aircraft has just entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection – are there lessons for Sling in that? The Vans bankruptcy is a reminder of how important it is to remain vigilant. We hope it won’t prove damaging to the industry despite their 35% price increase. Fortunately Sling is in a stronger financial position than it has ever been. I was for a number of years an insolvency lawyer – so managing cash is always front of mind! j

EVENTS

CALENDAR AFRICAN AIR EXPO CTICC

HAI HELI-EXPO ANAHEIM

AERO CLUB AIRWEEK

12 to 14 February

26 to 29 February

8 to 10 March

Cape Town

California, USA

Middleburg

Website: www.airexpo.co.za

Website: www.heliexpo.com

Sandra Strydom E-mail: sandra@aeroclub.org.za

FASHKOSH AIRSHOW

AERO FRIEDRICHSHAFEN

LOWVELD AIRSHOW

22 & 23 March

17 to 20 April

11 May

Stellenbosch

Friedrichshafen, Germany,

Nelspruit

Anton Theart E-mail gm@stelfly.co.za

Contact: info@fairnamic.com

Contact: willemein.hodgkinson@kishugu.com

AASA CONVENTION 12 to 15 May

PRESIDENT’S TROPHY AIR RACE 23 to 25 May

Addis Ababa

Louis Trichardt

Contact: events@afraa.org

Iaan Myburgh (Race Director) E-mail: race@sapfa.co.za

Tel: +27 (0)10 900 4149 | Mobile: +27 (0)82 547 8379 Info@earefurbishment.com | Francois@earefurbishment.com February 2024 Hangar 24 (Interior Shop) and Hangar 31 (Paint Shop). Lanseria International Airport, South Africa, Gate 5 North Side.

F L I G HT S A F E T Y T H R O U G H M A I NT E N A NC E Fuel Prices as at 17/11/2023 Fuel Prices as at 13/12/2023 Aero Engineering and Powerplant FUEL TABLE Prices include VAT but exclude any service fees Prices include VAT but exclude any service fees Airfield Avgas Jet A1 Airfield Avgas Jet A1 Fuel Prices as at 17/11/2023 Fuel Prices as at 20/01/2024 Fuel Prices as at 17/11/2023 Fuel Prices as at 20/01/2024 Baragwanath R32,50 Baragwanath - FASY R33,00 Beaufort West FABW R32,25 R 26,70 Beaufort West but - FABW R32,25 R 25,85 Prices include VAT Prices but exclude any service fees any exclude any service fees include VAT but exclude service fees Prices include VAT Prices include VAT but exclude any service fees Bloemfontein R33,53 R20,86 Bloemfontein FABL R32,00 Airfield Jet A1 Avgas Airfield Jet A1 AvgasR20,30 AirfieldAvgas Jet A1 AirfieldAvgas Jet A1 Brakpan Brakpan - FABB R34,00 Baragwanath R32,50R35,00 Baragwanath R32,50 Baragwanath - FASYBaragwanath - FASY R33,00 R33,00 Brits West FABW Brits Beaufort R 26,70R32,25 Beaufort West -- FABS FABW R32,25 RR29,20 25,85R32,25 Beaufort West FABWR32,25R30,45 R 26,70 Beaufort West - FABW R 25,85 Cape Town Bloemfontein R21,39Bloemfontein Cape-Town - FACT R33,35 Bloemfontein R33,53R34,04 R20,86R33,53 FABL R20,30 R20,86 Bloemfontein - FABLR32,00 R32,00R19,50 R20,30 Cape Winelands FAWN R34,00 Brakpan R35,00R33,00 FABBWinelands R34,00 Brakpan R35,00 Brakpan -Cape Brakpan -- FAWN FABB R34,00 Brits R30,45R33,00 R29,57 Eagles Creek Brits Eagle's Creek R30,50 R30,45 Brits - FABS Brits - FABS R29,57 Cape Town R34,04R32,41 R21,39R34,04 Town - FACT R19,41 R21,39 Cape- Town R32,41R20,37 R19,41 East London Cape Town R21,37Cape East London FAEL - FACT R32,41 R35,84 Cape Winelands FAWN R33,00R31,51 R33,00 Cape Winelands FAWN R33,00 Cape Winelands - FAWN R33,00R24,73 Ermelo R25,18Cape Winelands Ermelo--FAWN FAEO R30,94 Eagles CreekDam Eagles Creek R33,00R33,50 R29,75 R33,00 Eagle's Creek R29,75R23,00 Gariep R23,00Eagle's Creek Gariep Dam - FAHV R35,50 East London R32,41 R21,37R32,41 EastR21,37 London - FAEL East London - FAEL R35,84 R20,37R35,84 East London R20,37 George R33,08 R20,69 George - FAGG R36,31 R19,49 Ermelo R31,51 R25,18R31,51 Ermelo - FAEO R30,93 R24,73R30,93 Ermelo R25,18 Ermelo - FAEO R24,73 Grand Central R33,98 R21,78 Grand Central - FAGC R33,98 R24,67 Gariep Dam R33,50 R23,00R33,50 Gariep Dam - FAHVGariep Dam - FAHV R35,00 R23,00R35,00 Gariep Dam R23,00 R23,00 Heidelberg R34,50 Heidelberg FAHG R31,00 R21,50 George R33,08 R20,69R33,08 George - FAGG R36,51 R19,48R36,51 George R20,69 George - FAGG R19,48 Hoedspruit R23,44Grand Hoedspruit Civil - FAHT R31,66 R27,90 Grand Central R33,98R33,04 R21,78R33,98 Central - FAGC R24,67 Grand Central R21,78 Grand Central - FAGCR33,98 R33,98 R24,67 Kimberley R15,65Heidelberg Kimberley - FAKM - FAHG R30,00 R31,95 Heidelberg R34,50R33,40 - FAHG Heidelberg R21,50 Heidelberg R34,50 R30,00R19,22 R21,50 Kitty Hawk Hoedspruit Kitty Hawk - FAKT Civil - FAHT R34,80 Hoedspruit R33,04R37,70 R23,44R33,04 Hoedspruit Civil - FAHT R30,56 R27,90 R23,44 Hoedspruit R30,56 R27,90 Klerksdorp Kimberley R24,22Kimberley Klerksdorp - FAKD - FAKM R30,59 R31,65 Kimberley R33,40R32,86 R15,65R33,40 - FAKM Kimberley R19,51 R15,65 R30,59R28,09 R19,51 Kitty Hawk R37,70R34,04 - FAKT Kitty Kroonstad Kroonstad - FAKS R32,32 Kitty Hawk R37,70 Kitty Hawk Hawk - FAKT R34,80 R34,80 Klerksdorp R32,86R33,95 R24,22R32,86 - FAKDMpumalanga R34,33 R27,53 Klerksdorp R24,22 Klerksdorp - FAKD R34,33R28,37 R27,53 Kruger Intl Nelspruit R25,15Klerksdorp Kruger Intl -FAKN R33,95 Kroonstad R34,04R32,50 - FAKS Kroonstad R34,04 Kroonstad R32,32 Krugersdorp Kroonstad Krugersdorp - FAKR- FAKS R32,32 R30,00 Kruger Intl Nelspruit R25,15R33,95 Mpumalanga Intl -FAKN Kruger Intl NelspruitR33,95R34,04 R25,15 MpumalangaR33,95 Intl -FAKN R28,47 R33,95R24,84 R28,47 Lanseria R23,00Kruger Lanseria -Kruger FALA R34,73 Krugersdorp R32,50 Krugersdorp - FAKRKrugersdorp - FAKR R30,00 Krugersdorp R32,50 R30,00 Margate R34,04 R23,06 Margate - FAMG NO FUEL NO FUEL Lanseria R34,04 R23,00R34,04 Lanseria - FALA R34,73 R24,84R34,73 Lanseria - FALA R24,84 Middelburg Lanseria R37,95 R23,00 R23,00 Middelburg - FAMB R33,00 R25,99 Margate R34,04 R23,06R34,04 Margate - FAMG Margate - FAMG NO FUEL NO FUEL Margate R23,06 NO FUEL NO FUEL Morningstar R34,56 Morningstar R32,25 Middelburg R37,95 R23,00R37,95 Middelburg R25,99R33,00 Middelburg R23,00 - FAMBMiddelburg - FAMB R33,00 R25,99 Mosselbay R20,50 Mosselbay - FAMO R37,50 R23,00 Morningstar R34,56R37,50 R31,25 Morningstar R34,56 Morningstar Morningstar R31,25 Nelspruit R28,44Mosselbay Nelspruit - FANS - FAMO R37,50 R33,41 Mosselbay R37,50R32,32 R20,50R37,50 - FAMO Mosselbay R24,50 Mosselbay R20,50 R37,50R26,14 R24,50 Oudtshoorn FAOH R23,10Nelspruit Oudtshoorn - FAOH R35,19 Nelspruit R32,32R35,19 R28,44R32,32 - FANS Nelspruit R33,41 R26,14 Nelspruit R28,44 - FANS R33,41R23,10 R26,14 Parys FAOH Oudtshoorn FAOH R35,19 POA POA Oudtshoorn Parys - FAPY R28,99 Oudtshoorn R23,10R35,19 - FAOH R23,10 R23,10 Oudtshoorn - FAOH R35,19 R35,19R22,23 R23,10 Parys POA R37,70 POA R24,32 - FAPY R20,94 Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg - FAPM R28,99 R34,00 Parys POA ParysPOA Parys - FAPY R28,99R28,10 R20,94 Pietermaritzburg R24,32R37,70 - Pietermaritzburg FAPM R31,70 R26,30 Pietermaritzburg R37,70R31,80 R24,32 R31,70R24,45 R26,30 Pietersburg Civil R23,70Pietermaritzburg Pietersburg Civil - FAPI - FAPM R29,95 Pietersburg CivilBay R23,70R31,80 Civil - FAPI R29,85 R23,75 Pietersburg Civil R31,80R34,60 R23,70 Pietersburg Civil - FAPI R29,85R25,00 R23,75 Plettenberg R25,00Pietersburg Plettenberg Bay - FAPG NO FUEL Plettenberg Bay Plettenberg Bay R34,60R33,50 R25,00R34,60 Plettenberg Bay - FAPG R34.60 R25,00 R25,00 Plettenberg R34.60 R25,00 Port Alfred Port Alfred - FAPA Bay - FAPG R33,50 Port Alfred R33,50 - FAPA Port Alfred - FAPA R33,50 R33,50 R33,50R23,46 Port Elizabeth Port Alfred R35,19 R24,84Port Alfred Port Elizabeth - FAPE R33,47 Port Elizabeth R35,19 R24,84R35,19 PortR24,84 Elizabeth - FAPE R23,12R33,47 Port Elizabeth - FAPER33,47 R23,12 PotchefstroomPort Elizabeth POA POA Potchefstroom - FAPS R28,99 R22,23 Potchefstroom Potchefstroom POA POA POA Potchefstroom - FAPS R28,99 R20,94R28,99 POA Potchefstroom - FAPS R20,94 Rand R34,10 R23,98 Rand FAGM R35,75 R27,50 Rand R34,10 R23,98R34,10 Rand - FAGM R35,75 R27,50R35,75 Rand R23,98 Rand - FAGM R27,50 Robertson Robertson - FARS R32,00 Robertson FARSFARS R33,00R33,00 Robertson FARS R33,00 Robertson - FARS Robertson - FARS R32,00 R32,00 Rustenberg R23,65Rustenburg Rustenburg - FARG - FARG R31,00 R31,00 Rustenberg FARGFARG R23,65R31,30 - FARGRustenburg R23,65 Rustenberg FARG R31,30R31,30 R23,65 R31,00R23,65 R23,65 Secunda R33,00 R25,88 Secunda FASC R33,07 Secunda R33,00 R25,88 Secunda FASC R31,05 R23,58 Secunda R33,00 R25,88 Secunda - FASC R31,05R25,88 R23,58 Skeerpoort *Customer to*Customer collect POA POAPOA POA POA Skeerpoort *Customer to collect R26,75 Skeerpoort *Customer to collect *Customer to collect R26,75 R18,70 Skeerpoort to collect POASkeerpoort Skeerpoort *Customer to collect R26,75R19,99 R18,70 Springbok POA POAPOA POA - FASB Springbok R25,88 Springbok POA Springbok - FASB - FASB R33,93 R33,93 Springbok POASpringbok R33,93R27,03 R25,88 Springs R33,70R33,70 R29,50 Springs R33,70 Springs - FASI R29,50 Springs Springs - Springs FASI - FASI R28,00 Stellenbosch R33,20R33,20 - FASHStellenbosch R33,20 Stellenbosch R34,00 Stellenbosch Stellenbosch Stellenbosch - FASH - FASH R34,00 R35,00 Swellendam FASXFASX R22,50R33,80 - FASXSwellendam R22,50 Swellendam FASX R33,80R33,80 R22,50 R32,70R22,50 R22,50 Swellendam R22,50Swellendam Swellendam - FASX - FASX R32,70 R32,70 Tempe R34,04 R25,33R34,04 Tempe - FATP R31,88 R23,26R31,88 Tempe R25,33 Tempe FATP R23,26 Tempe R34,04 R25,33 Tempe - FATP R31,88 R23,69 Thabazimbe POA POA POA Thabazimbi R21,44R29,49 POA - FATI Thabazimbi - FATI R29,49 R21,44 Thabazimbe Thabazimbe POA POA Thabazimbi - FATI R29,49 R22,73 Upington R34,00 R24,00R34,00 Upington R25,88R35,19 Upington R24,00- FAUP Upington - FAUP R35,19 R25,88 Upington R34,00 R24,00 Upington - FAUP R35,19 R25,99 Virginia R35,19 R23,12R35,19 Virginia - FAVG R33,24 R23,48R33,24 Virginia R23,12 Virginia - FAVG R23,48 Virginia R35,19 R23,12 Virginia FAVG R33,24 R23,58 Vryburg POA POA POA Vryburg R30,15 R22,99R30,15 Vryburg POA- FAVB Vryburg - FAVB R22,99 Vryburg FAWA Warmbaths FAWA R30,30 POA POA Warmbaths Vryburg -Warmbaths FAVB R30,15 Warmbaths - FAWA R30,30 - FAWA R29,00 R29,00R22,99 Warmbaths FAWA - FAWA R29,00 Welkom R34,04R30,30 R25,33R34,04 Welkom -Warmbaths FAWM Welkom R23,26 Welkom R25,33 - FAWM R31,88 R31,88 R23,26 Welkom R25,33Wings Welkom - FAWM R32,09 Wings Park EL R33,50R34,04 R23,50R33,50 Park EL R33,50 R23,50 Wings Park EL R23,50 Wings Park EL R33,50R23,69 R23,50 Witbank R33,00R33,50 R25,33R33,00 - FAWI Park R33,00 WingsFAWI Park EL Witbank FAWI R23,50Witbank Wings EL R33,50 R25,33 Witbank - FAWI R33,00R23,50 POA R33,00 POA R25,33 R27,25 R19,20 Wonderboom - FAWB POA Wonderboom POAWitbank R27,25 R19,20 Witbank FAWIWonderboom - FAWI R33,00 Wonderboom - FAWB Worcester R34,31 POA - FAWC Worcester R34,31 - FAWC R29,50 R29,50R20,49 POA Worcester R27,25 WonderboomWorcester Wonderboom - FAWB Worcester R34,31 Worcester - FAWC R29,50 Fuel prices may change with every new delivery. Fuel prices updated courtesy of AviationDirect – Andrea & Kelly. Fuel prices and contact details can also be found in their products: EasyPlan and EasyCockpit – https://aviationdirect.co.za/

AMO No: 227

70HangarFebruary 2024 no 4, Wonderboom Airport, Pretoria

aeroeng@iafrica.com (012) 543 0948/51

AMO 227

FLIGHT SAFETY THROUGH MAINTENANCE

Overhaul / Shockload / Repair of Continental and Lycoming Aircraft engines Overhaul Engine Components Overhaul and supply of Hartzell / McCauley and Fix pitch Propellers Hangar no 4, Wonderboom Airport, Pretoria PO Box 17699, Pretoria North, 0116 Tel: (012) 543 0948/51, Fax: (012) 543 9447, email: aeroeng@iafrica.com

February 2024

NEWS

CIRRUS

UNVEILS G7 EDITIONS Cirrus has given its piston single range a big makeover in flight control, avionic interface and interiors. CIRRUS SAYS the new G7 series – being the SR20, SR22, and SR22T – takes its cues from the Vision Jet to simplify operation while adding safety and luxury features. The big updates are the Perspective Touch+ integrated flight deck with 12- or 14-inch highresolution displays, and twin GTC touchscreen

controllers. These follow the functionality and redundancy available in the Vision Jet SF50 – and the ease of using a smartphone or tablet. Engine start has been transformed into a pushbutton interface, preserving the ability to check mags and set mixture while making the process feel similar to that of the SF50 jet.

Cirrus has made many enhancements to create the G7 series.

February 2024

The SR G7 series covers the SR22 and SR22T, plus the SR20 and TRAC20. Image Cirrus.

Garmin's Perspective Touch+ integrated flight deck is a key enhancement.

February 2024

NEWS Perspective Touch+ technology improves situational awareness.

The updated automated flight control system (AFCS) (i.e. the autopilot) incorporates smart servos and includes an optional yaw damper. Updated synoptic pages and streamlined checklists aid the pilot in monitoring both systems and procedures through all phases of flight.

As part of its simplification drive, Cirrus has introduced a new shallower menu structure in the touchscreen controllers, along with a scroll wheel for turning through the CAS-linked, on-screen checklists smoothly. On the ground, Taxiway Routing and a contextualized 3D Safe Taxi guide the pilot around complex airports, decluttering and slewing the PFD imagery to match the plane’s speed and position on the airport.

Cir r us Air craft is r e ducing complex it y

The Cirrus IQ app gives the pilot remote viewing and control of certain aircraft functions. Cirrus Global Connect delivers worldwide text messaging, telephone service, and global weather.

The key philosophy is that Cirrus Aircraft is reducing complexity, particularly for engine management. The objective was to find ways to make the piston SRs as straightforward to fly as the jet.

February 2024

In the air, the automatic fuel selection system automatically switches between fuel tanks every 5 gallons. In the air, pilots will find an improved flight control, incorporating a stick shaker function to piggyback on the other envelope protection features in the Perspective+ series, for enhanced low-speed situational awareness. Both the left and right controls vibrate to warn of an approaching stall condition.

Another new addition to envelope protection is flap airspeed protection. The system monitors airspeed to protect the pilot from accidentally deploying or retracting flaps when the aircraft is traveling too fast or too slow for the given flap configuration change.

The fuel selector changes automatically every 5 gallons used.

In addition to the much improved avionics accessibility and flight control management, Cirrus has also rethought the interior, taking a page from current luxury vehicles to incorporate a host of new features, including redesigned interior panels, dimmable lights, and ambient accent lighting. Stronger cup holders, more pockets, and two centre console compartments store your smartphone and other key things for better cockpit organisation and accessibility. Powered headset jacks and lighted high-power USB-C outlets come positioned within easy reach of each seat. All three 2024 models have completed the FAA type certification process and are ready for delivery.

the OEM’s recently released Private Pilot Program—taking a prospective pilot from first flight to certification in their new airplane. “Our mission is to increase participation in aviation, so more people can benefit from the freedom, productivity, and joy it provides,” said Zean Nielsen, CEO of Cirrus Aircraft.

r e des igne d inte r ior pane ls , dimmable light s , and ambie nt acce nt light ing

The first SR20 G7 customer is Western Michigan University College of Aviation in Battle Creek. This school is a longtime Cirrus flight training operator and will incorporate the new models into their aviation degree programs. The school will take delivery in the first quarter for integration into the flightline. Pilots across the board can opt into several training options for the new Cirrus line, including

“We have also developed a comprehensive ecosystem, providing global sales, flight training, maintenance, and support to ensure our owners have a seamless ownership experience. Our aircraft are designed with people in mind, and the new SR Series G7 is a testament to that philosophy. Our team and our aircraft provide a clear path to enter and advance within the personal aviation community by learning to fly and eventually transition to the Vision Jet with ease” says Zean Nielsen.

February 2024

STORY & IMAGES - LAURA MCDERMID

EAA CREATES

YOUNG AVIATORS

On Saturday, 27 January, EAA Chapter 322 etched its name in history by hosting the inaugural Young Aviators initiative. THIS INCREDIBLY worthwhile initiative differs from the wellknown EAA Young Eagles program, which is dedicated to introducing and inspiring children to aviation through free introductory flights, courtesy of EAA members. The Young Aviators is the brainchild of 21-year-old Tyla Puzey from Johannesburg. Tyla is no stranger to aviation as her dad Mike has been flying recreational aircraft for many years. Mike, a successful entrepreneur, built his own plane – a KR1, which is on proud display hanging from the roof of his huge shop – The Biker’s Warehouse. Mike’s latest passion is restoring abandoned Cessnas to their former glory. In Tyla’s case, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Throughout her childhood, Mike’s free

February 2024

Tyla Puzey shares her passion.

thinking wife and mom, Kerry’s phenomenal business skills instilled a set of values in her that produced a very confident and capable young lady who knows what she wants. Having matriculated from Northcliff High in 2020, she utilized the downtime during the global shutdown to contemplate her future. She started her PPL in January 2022 and completed it within six months. Encouraged by her parents, Tyla diversified her skills by undertaking a variety of other courses including advanced driving skills, an open water scuba course, and welding, to name but a few. The aviation bug firmly embedded itself in Tyla, leading her to pursue her Commercial License (CPL) in January 2023, with aspirations of joining an airline or flying for a private charter company. Tyla is adamant she will keep flying small planes to ‘keep the passion for flying alive’. This commitment sparked the idea of forming a group with peers of a similar age group. In Tyla’s aviation community the median age of pilots was north of 50, bringing a wealth of experience but lacking interaction with people of her own age. At the EAA Chapter 322 meeting in December 2023, the Puzey family pitched the idea of the Young Aviators, and it has been full throttle ever since. The EAA committee undertook various tasks,

Mike Puzey (left) with hangar neighbour Richard.

with Kerry reaching out to potential sponsors, and Tyla establishing social media pages to attract young aviators aged 16 to 30. The event was held at Eagle’s Creek Aviation Estate, where Mike has his hangars. The EAA, Pilot Insure, Sling Aircraft, Flightsure, Red Bull and Instru-Technique donated generously towards food and refreshments. Hopefully the Eagle’s Creek committee will see value in subsidising the next event. As the first event of its kind, the turnout exceeded expectations, with over 100 enthusiastic youngsters queuing up outside the gazebo to register. February 2024

YOUNG AVIATORS

ABOVE: Some of the aircraft at Eagles Creek. BELOW: Derek Hopkins initiates a keen young aviator.

February 2024

ABOVE: Sue Schwaab and Andrea Antel from Easycockpit. BELOW: The aviation quiz in full swing.

Despite the initially forecast rain and the assumption that few planes would fly in, the event saw a considerable influx of cars, posing a parking challenge. While Derek Hopkins treated a few of the younger crowd to a quick flip in his RV-8, Johan and Marinda served a delicious meal to the hungry masses. Tyla gave the welcoming address which was followed by a motivational talk by guest speaker Sue Schwaab, an ex-airline pilot from Madison USA. Neil Bowden, chairman of EAA Chapter 322, and the indomitable Karl Jensen were next, regaling the eager young crowd with captivating stories. Kerry and Tyla then conducted an aviationFebruary 2024

YOUNG AVIATORS

Keen young aviators.

February 2024

Karl Jensen had the audience enthralled.

themed quiz, concluding the day at 17h00, with an exhausted Tyla bidding farewell to her newfound friends. In an era where recreational flying faces uncertain prospects, witnessing youngsters from diverse backgrounds unite was uplifting. From aviation novices to fully qualified commercial pilots, these youngsters connected, exchanging contact details and planning future events.

As the future of aviation, the optimism expressed by these budding pilots about South Africa is encouraging. With plans already in motion for future events and collaborations, I can’t wait to see what lies ahead. I commented about the sky being the limit to one of the attendees. He responded; ‘I disagree, the sky is home.’ I couldn’t have said it better myself. j February 2024

BOOK REVIEW

THE MiG DIARIES

BY EDUARDO GONZÁLEZ SARRÍA AND LIONEL REID Published by Mercury. Available in all good bookstores and online: R385.

EXTRACT: MIG DOWN A tough day on a MiG squadron.

Luena, August 1985 “Wakey wakey, my pigeons, you’ve got a lot of flying today.” The voice was accompanied by a banging on the bunk bed structure on which Eduardo lay.

Lt. Col Eduardo Gonzalez Sarria with a Mirage F1.

February 2024

“GOD DAMN YOU, JANUARIA!” Mauricio said. The dormitory came to life, slowly filling with the muttering and cursing of men emerging from sleep. They were soon joined by the sound of running bathroom taps and the smell of freshly filtered coffee. Eduardo sat up on his bed and got ready for the day. Some men were dressing, others were already in the kitchen. Colás emerged with dishevelled hair and half-closed eyes, a towel around his neck, soap in one hand and his toothbrush in the other. He enjoyed a long stretch and yawn. “What the hell, Colás, spare us your morning breath, dude!” There was a burst of laughter in response to the unimpressed cook. Eduardo smiled discreetly and listened to the men getting involved in a pointless discussion about which Cubans spoke better Spanish. The habaneros from Havana, always proud of their heritage, argued that their dialect was superior to anything from the eastern provinces. The eastern orientales responded to this criticism by intensifying their unique cantaíto, a song-like, even melodic, way of speaking. Both sides had breakfast without taking a break or conceding defeat. When Chirino, the pinareño, tried to intervene, he was interrupted with a reminder of how in his birthplace of Pinar, renowned for the lack of forethought among its residents, a large concrete mixer had been left stuck inside a theatre after construction had been completed.

systems, following a detailed lesson from Eduardo the previous day. Instead of being vectored by the RIO or relying on their own dead reckoning, pilots could now be directed to the target by the equipment; it was just a matter of attending the pre-flight briefing and obtaining mission authorisation. For this mission, attacking two UNITA bases to the south, Eduardo was the strike co-ordinator; he would be managing things from the control tower. He had selected Chirino and Carlos The Fatso to carry it out. The three of them completed the pre-flight planning and ran through their calculations together as a team to avoid any errors. Both pilots were relatively inexperienced with bombing missions on this aircraft type, and it had been decided to make use of the MiG’s radar to improve the accuracy of the strike. The task was complex, and they had completed as many practice drills as possible to achieve the required level of automatism. Only then did they consider themselves ready.

“ Bot h hydraulic s y s te ms . . won’ t . .”

The trip to the aerodrome ended the discussion, and they arrived stiff with cold, as usual. Each MiG-23 had attached to its fuselage two grey fish-like FAB 500-kilogram bombs, the co-ordinates of their intended targets already pre-programmed into the aircraft navigation

The briefing was short: timetables, codes and the identification table. Apart from the Cuban team, an Angolan flight of four aircraft would join them in the attack. Once again, the Angolan flight leader was Cassiano. The Angolan MiG-21s took off first, using the entire length of the runway to get airborne. Cassiano’s aircraft, with a less powerful engine, lifted off beyond the end of the runway, surrounded by a cloud of dust from his jet blast. They shouldn’t have configured such a heavy bomb load on that aircraft, Eduardo thought as he watched it gain altitude. Then it was the MiG-23s’ turn. The two aircraft took off effortlessly, using far less runway, before disappearing over the horizon. A new feeling came over Eduardo as the minutes went by: two

February 2024

BOOK REVIEW

An Angolan Mi-8 Hip similar to the Mi-17 used for the search and rescue.

pilots of his squadron were heading their aircraft into a high-risk situation, and he was anxious. His nerves heightened as the moment for action neared. Monitoring the radio frequency, he could hear the voices of the Angolan squadron as they prepared to attack. Their transmissions were loud and clear, despite some background interference. Then a shouted transmission in Portuguese:

It was one of the Angolans, Mingo, reporting an emergency.

February 2024

“There they are, Captain.”

a cloud of dus t f r om his jet blas t

“Tenho uma avería no aparelho!”

Eduardo leapt up. “Where is the search-andrescue crew?”

“Go tell them to start their engines and take off, southbound, quickly!” Further transmissions came over the radio.

“¿Qué avería vocé tenh?” said Cassiano, querying the type of emergency. “Dois hidrosistemas… que nâo…” (“Both hydraulic systems… won’t…”)

Former adversaries Glen Warden and Lt Col Sarria.

“Volta a casa. ¿Cuál é a vossa posiçâo?” (“Return to base. What’s your position?”)

“Okay. I’ll hold the helicopter on standby until you give me the go-ahead.”

This time there was no answer. The silence sent a chill down Eduardo’s spine. Before long, Major Ernesto Escarrá hurried into the operations room. “I’m taking the MiG-21UM with Damhas to search the area before the helicopter,” he told Eduardo. “I’ll call Mingo on the emergency frequency to find out if he ejected.”

The search-and-rescue helicopter was an Mi-17 Hip, with an armed squad consisting of an extraction specialist, two machine gunners and a doctor. The crew were on board and ready to lift off. By now, the strike aircraft were returning; first the MiG-23s, then the three remaining MiG-21s

The heavily armed MiG-21 needed more tar runway than was available. February 2024

BOOK REVIEW of Cassiano’s flight. For the first time in Angola, Eduardo saw an empty space on the ramp where the technician waited in vain for his aircraft to return.

A Cuban pilot standing next to an Mi-8 in Angola while on S&R standby.

Escarrá and Dahmas spent 30 minutes circling the area where Mingo had gone down, returning without making radio contact. They met with the senior officers in the briefing room to perform a preliminary analysis of events. The Angolan pilots explained how they attacked taking into account the position of the sun. Mingo had been hit by a surface-to-air missile while recovering from the dive of his bombing run. There were a variety of hypotheses on what exactly happened, none of them conclusive. Later they would listen to the recorded radio conversation without identifying anything new. They did all agree on one thing, however: the importance of performing escape manoeuvres against anti-aircraft defence when exiting an attack.

on their minds. Eduardo realised that anti-aircraft fire was an issue he would have to learn to deal with, and that taut nerves and tensed stomach muscles would be a way of life on this tour.

Thirty-four years after the loss of Mingo’s MiG-21 in eastern Angola, Eduardo contacted Cassiano, the Angolan flight leader, now a corporate pilot based in Portugal. He still vividly recalled the day in question, writing in response:

w it h a w hite s mok e t rail f ollow ing it

A few hours later, a Fokker F-27 landed at Luena, bringing a commission of Angolan officials to investigate the missing MiG. One of them embraced Eduardo in a hug. It was the Chief of the Angolan People’s Air Force, Francisco Lópes Alfonso, known to Eduardo as Hanga. They hadn’t seen each other since 1976, during the Cuban’s first tour. They chatted for a long time, enquiring about common acquaintances and talking about old times. As the sunset dressed the sky in purple, they went into town to get some rest after a hard day. No-one was happy that night. The men all took time to fall asleep, the events of the day playing

February 2024

“Junior Lieutenant Domingo Antonio ‘Mingo’ was shot down and killed in action nearby Lucusse on the 12th of August 1985 while flying C-329, a MiG-21bis. We were attacking the UNITA base ‘Haiti’. I saw the missile launch from the ground just outside the base in a cloud of dust, with a white smoke trail following it. At that stage Mingo was ahead of me as I attacked the launch site. I never saw the missile hit him, probably because by then our relative angles had changed and he was behind me in my 6 o’clock as I executed my attack. Some things we just never forget.” j

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Edition 181 | February 2024 Cover: Wikipedia – Boon Dock (John Dovey)

SA AF’s new DRC

resource crisis

Hugh Pr yor: Health & Safet y stupids Angolan MiG shoot Down! 1

FlightCom: February 2024

Ferr ying a Cherokee 6 across Africa Mission Flying in a Cessna 206

CONTENTS

TABLE OF

Publisher Flyer and Aviation Publications cc Managing Editor Guy Leitch guy@flightcommag.com Advertising Sales Howard Long sales@saflyermag.co.za 076 499 6358

FEBRUARY 2024 EDITION 181

Layout & Design Patrick Tillman: Imagenuity cc Contributors

John Bassi Laura McDermid Darren Olivier Jeffery Kempson

ADMIN: +27 (0)83 607 2335

04 08 10 15 16 21 22 26 31 32 33 34 36

TRAFFIC: +27 (0)81 039 0595

Hugh Pryor - Stop Cards

ACCOUNTS: +27 (0)15 793 0708

News - Wonderboom to be Leased to Private Sector Laura McDermid - Iris Joins Sunbird Aviation Pt1 News - King Air 200 gets Autothrottles and Autoland Darren Olivier Defence - Back to the DRC AME Directory Jeffery Kempson - Ferrying a Cherokee 6 Mark Liprini - MAF Tanzania News - Phillips 66 Fuel Suspends Unleaded Avgas Alpi Aviation SA: Flight School Directory Merchant West Charter Directory Skysource AMO Listing Backpage Directory

© FlightCom 2023. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronically, mechanically, photocopied, recorded or otherwise without the express permission of the copyright holders.

A NOTE FROM

THE EDITOR:

Boeing is being accused of having sacrificed its once much vaunted safety standards to the great god of capitalism and good quarterly shareholder returns. BUT IT IS NOT JUST BOEING that is being destroyed by greed and an unhealthy bottom-line fixation. It is also the supply of pilots and airline ground staff.

“This model is dead. The legacy carriers have watered down employment benefits to match the low cost carriers and thus there are very few airlines with good working conditions.

Being a pilot used to be something special. An airline pilot was akin to a surgeon in the deity pantheon. The job was so glamorous and attractive that the airlines could pick and choose from a long line of hopefuls.

Pilots are being burned out by unsustainable conditions. There is no point in jumping from job to job, because it’s much of a muchness.

Now we have a pilot shortage. The job just does not have the appeal it once had. A case in point is our former columnist (and TUKS Rag Queen) Dassie Persaud van der Westhuizen. After graduating as an architect, she learned to fly and completed the Easy Jet cadetship to qualify onto the A320 – just as Covid hit. But now Covid is over, she has had second thoughts about becoming a pilot and so is letting all her horribly expensive training lapse, and is going into airport environmental analysis.

Pilots are leaving the industry midway through their careers, and other pilots are sitting tight with the knowledge that the grass is no greener on the other side. There is no point in job hopping.

pi l o t s w ho r e d t he ms e l v e s out

Much of the problem is that pilots are just another liability on the airline bean counters’ balance sheet. And so airlines treat pilots badly. A poster on the forum www.avcom.co.za writes, “Pilots used to join airlines and stay there for 30 plus years. They were paid properly and treated well. Then low cost airlines emerged with a ‘treat employees like shit’ business model and it worked because pilots whored themselves out and joined them to get the experience to join legacy carriers where they would be treated like Gods.

Some airlines have adopted the ‘pay to fly model’ where the cost of training is passed on to the new pilots. But young pilots are fast learning that crippling debt and terrible working conditions don’t beat an office career. The avcom poster points out that the loss of experienced pilots is evidenced by the high rate of incidents and exceedances. He reckons that unless there is a serious revamp across the board in how pilots, and indeed all airline employees, are rewarded and treated, there will continue to be a shortage of experienced pilots with the associated consequences. Some of these consequences are reduced safety and increased cancelled flights. 

BUSH PILOT HUGH PRYOR

PART 1

STOP CARDS

The Stop Card System was, I believe, invented by the Dupont Company of the United States of America and it has saved countless lives and countless thousands of injuries. T HAS BEEN ADOPTED by a wide range of companies world-wide as the benchmark of the Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) movement which has become the new religion of the industrial world. It is essentially a concept which came to the Health and Safety boys at Dupont, as a reaction to a string of painful, pricey and preventable accidents.

Similarly, even a person with my fairly extensive knowledge of things that hurt if they fall on me, can be surprised. On one occasion seven stitches were necessary to staunch the flow of blood from my head. A heavy steel wrench slipped out the hand of Alex, our engineer, who was working, up on the aircraft wing, under which I should not have been standing.

It involves a change in the popular cultural approach to HSE issues. Instead of nervously giggling if you get away with something which should have killed you, it now behoves you to frown upon and condemn such practices as, not only dangerous, but also misguided, possibly stupid, definitely unproductive and sometimes frighteningly costly.

A system of rewards was set up in order to encourage the yous and mes of this world to play the Stop Card Game. When this failed to trigger what was considered to be the appropriate response, a corollary quota system was introduced to expose recidivists to public scrutiny and sometimes ridicule. This quota system, while coercing the less robust members of the community into compliance, had the adverse effect upon the more entrepreneurial, who simply saw it as another example of suffocating Nanny Management.

raised a stop card against our cockpit roof fans

The philosophy of intensive ‘Risk Assessment’ before each task is performed can reveal a high potential (HIPO) for disaster, but unless you know the risks, you cannot assess them. A four-year-old doesn’t necessarily realise that the fascinating shiny silver handle, jutting out from the top of the stove is not something to swing on. The four-year-old does not understand that the silver handle is actually attached to a pan full of scalding water and that to swing on it could be a life-threatening or at best a life-changing experience.

FlightCom: February 2024

If any industry could be considered to be a shining example of HSE in action, it must surely be the aviation industry. When you work in an environment as unforgiving as ours, any mistake can start a chain reaction which could lead to a smoking hole in the ground...surely.

FlightCom: February 2024

Well...yes...to a certain extent I agree. But suppose, for a moment, that you are a commercial pilot, with years of experience and you get somebody telling you that they are ‘Raising a Stop Card’ against you for unprofessional behaviour. Your professional ability is being called into question. Your hackles erect themselves like the quills of a porcupine and you tend to take more than polite interest. You discover that “...you flew all the way from Kabul, in Afghanistan, to Peshawar, in Pakistan, at eight thousand five hundred feet. This is the incorrect altitude, because you were supposed to be following Instrument Flight Rules and your flight level should have been odd thousands of feet, not evens, plus five hundred.”. Okay...you want to find out who the little prick is who thinks he knows so much about aviation, so that you can ‘enlighten him’! Then you discover that he is Swiss and bases his altitude information on a Casio (Japanese) Altimeter Watch. He is ignorant of the fact that the cabin pressurisation affects its readings ...and presumably he is also unaware of the size of the tunnel which they would have to construct, in order to allow a Beech 1900 to fly through the mountains of the Hindu Kush at eight thousand five hundred feet (they go up over 20,000 feet,).....In fact you could possibly feel like opening the door and inviting the gentleman to step outside and experience what that will do to his watch readings...at twenty-five thousand feet. Or am I being unreasonable?

been harbouring for HSE occurred the other day when I was called aside by the head of our client’s HSE Department. He just wanted “...a quick word”. Just to put you in the picture, we were on contract, once again, flying the ubiquitous De Havilland DHC6 Twin Otter for a large multinational oil company which was developing a sizable series of gas fields in the middle of the Sahara desert. We had been involved right from the start of the project and so our advice had been sought, on frequent occasions on matters concerned with aviation. This included such details as the sighting of runways and ground equipment and safety requirements for operations in remote areas of the concession. “Quick words” in these circumstances are seldom quick and are almost invariably harbingers of bad news. So I was expecting the worst.

The more humble and supplicant the report

Well, we had another one the other day, in the Twin Otter. This guy raised a stop card against our cockpit roof fans. “They present a very significant hazard to the Flight Crew and therefore to the safety of the aircraft and its passengers.” He must have been down on his quotas for that week. I reduced him to a stuttering wreck under a withering broadside of cockpit fan certification data, which I managed to glean from De Havilland/Bombardier. His e-mail inbox must have been clogged for days. Another classic antidote to any sympathies I may have

FlightCom: February 2024

“How can I help you, Richard?” I smiled ingratiatingly, hoping to confuse his aim with charm. “Well sorry, Hugh, but one of your passengers is raising a Stop Card against you and your co-pilot.”

“Who is that, then, Richard. Do you want me to have ‘a quick word’ with him?” “Oh no!” replied the Head of HSE, a look of genuine horror flitting across his features. “We don’t want a confrontation. This would be strictly against the philosophy of the Stop Card Programme. I am not here to apportion blame, simply to find a solution to a potentially dangerous situation.” “Well, okay, Richard. Are you allowed to reveal the crime which we are committing? Or would that be an infringement of our accuser’s rights, under the new canon of HSE?” I was smiling much better now. ”Well, firstly, let me tell you what is worrying this gentleman and then we’ll see if there is anything you would like to say in response.”

Stop Cards.

The response to a Stop Card is known as a ‘Backaway’ in HSE-speak. It usually involves paperwork, in the shape of a report, detailing your pathetic excuse for committing the alleged crime and any possible solutions you may be able to cook up as mitigation, before the HSE judge dons his black cap and passes sentence. The more humble and supplicant the report, the more lenient the sentence will be...generally speaking. It might, if the Back-away is sufficiently grovelling, even be reduced to a public humiliation with appropriate gentle character assassination of the culprit, all delivered in the nicest possible way, you understand, because we are not trying to apportion blame here, are we?

“Um...Well okay, Hugh...Now this may sound a little pedantic to you, but this person is a new company employee and he has not flown in the desert before. He has, however, been flying with the airlines for over a year now and he therefore feels qualified to bring the problem to our attention, as I’m sure you agree.” I wasn’t sure, as yet, but I could sense that Richard was expecting an ‘inappropriate’ reaction from me and was ladling oil onto the waters before the white horses started to race in his direction.

white horses started to race in his “Safety First, as you well know, direction

“So, go on Richard. What is our man’s problem?”

has always been our motto,” I replied, trying to capture Richard’s evasive glances....and any little detail which might help us to achieve that goal is very welcome. Where safety is concerned, our office door is always open! So how can we help you.”

FlightCom: February 2024

Richard gave me a furtive look as if trying to assess whether to continue in a conciliatory vein or maybe just to open the flood gates, get it over with and let everything hang out. The latter solution appeared to win. He folded his hands in his lap and leaned forward decisively. “Right, Hugh...well this gentleman has now travelled with you to Camp Kilo on more than two occasions and he noticed that you always land on the right main wheel first. He feels that this dangerous procedure puts undue stress on the right main undercarriage and will lead to its failure, which could have potentially fatal results for both the crew and passengers. He recommends that you adopt the procedure which the airlines employ, (and he stressed that he had witnessed this on many occasions,) where they bring all the landing gears into contact with the runway at the same time, thus spreading the landing loads equally among all the wheels.”

with whom I was dealing, which fortuitously limited my reaction to laptop and paper. “Okay, Richard. I will explain why we have to land with our right main wheel first, and provide you with a solution. I don’t think Senior Management are necessarily going to like it much, but a Stop Card has been raised and obviously we need to address its issues before carrying on with the more mundane business of satisfying Europe’s gas requirements.” “By tomorrow morning, then? First thing?” “I’ll see what I can do.”

get it over with and let everything hang out

Richard looked up, hoping for my acquiescence. “Would you like just to pop your thoughts down on paper for me about this? Then I’m sure we can come up with some solution to the problem...Say by tomorrow morning? We have the Site Managers’ meeting at nine and we like to get outstanding Stop Cards out of the way before we start, in case there are any serious breaches of Safety Regulations which need our immediate attention.” My first reaction was to wonder, secretly, which benighted airlines our nervous passenger had been flying with. Certainly not the ones with any nosewheels left on their aircraft. That’s for sure! Then I had to try and figure out a way of explaining the theory of ‘Cross-wind-landings’ to him without revealing my fervent wish to rip his head off and replace it with the upgraded version which comes with a brain. The problem with that was that I didn’t know

FlightCom: February 2024

wouldn’t it.”

“No rush, of course, Hugh, but it would be nice to clear this up before the meeting tomorrow, because the new air transport contracts will be coming up for discussion and it would be a pity if you guys came out in a bad light because of these little snags,

I suddenly realised that the cockpit fans were still on the agenda, in spite of my robust defence. Maybe our ‘Nervous Passenger’ was none other than the Fan Man and he was smarting from my churlish reaction to his previous Stop Card. My Back-away came in the form of a report, which I will quote to you in full in next month’s continuation of this saga. 

NEWS

WONDERBOOM TO BE LEASED TO PRIVATE SECTOR The Tshwane (Pretoria) Town Council has approved a new operating model for Wonderboom National Airport. ON 10 JANUARY, TSHWANE agreed to a proposal to lease Wonderboom National Airport to the private operator to allow it to “become a catalyst for regional economic growth.” The MMC for Roads and Transport Katlego Mathebe said the airport is an important and strategic asset of the city. “However for decades it has not been able to operate and develop to its full potential in line with sound business practice.” Mathebe said having explored multiple possible solutions, it was found that the best role the government can play is to provide an environment where private sector involvement can enable the airport to operate optimally and realise its full potential. She said the continuous financial investment into and municipal-driven attempts by different past political administrations at the airport have proved unsustainable. “Having looked at different models and sustainable solutions for the airport, Tshwane found the best option is to keep the airport, lease it to an operator and allow the private sector to develop it and the vicinity for the benefit of Tshwane residents.” According to Mathebe, the mayoral committee approved a plan and has tasked city manager Johan

Tshwane Mayor Cillier Brink has agreed to let tthe private sector run Wonderboom.

Mettler to constitute a technical team to oversee the process and secure the services of a transactional advisor to guide it. “The adoption of the new model heralds the potential for the city to attract investment, create opportunities and drive economic growth,” she said. 

FlightCom: February 2024

LAURA MCDERMID

PART 10

IRIS - HER EARLY YEARS.

Iris Joins Sunbird Aviation – Part 1 Laura McDermid continues her stories about Iris McCallum in East Africa. I resigned from my role as a commercial pilot at Air Kenya at the close of 1979 and in April the following year joined a company called Sunbird Aviation based out of Wilson Airport in Nairobi.

HE FLEDGLING AIRLINE WAS started by the 7th Earl of Enniskillen. Andrew Cole, who was born in England in 1942 while his father, who was born and lived in Kenya, was serving in the British army during WWII. After education in England and six years serving in the Irish Guards, Andrew returned to Kenya where in 1972 he became a citizen.

On his return to Kenya, Cole joined Kenya Airways. Andrew and a partner started a charter firm at Mau Narok, a sub county in Njoro, called Sunbird Charters which grew to become Sunbird Aviation. He became a Kenyan citizen and was the company’s managing director between 1979 and 1981.”

moved from the coast up c l o uds b e ga n “Icountry to broaden my horizons to gain more cross border t o c o al e s c e and experience with the added benefit i nt o bi g w hi t e of flying a variety of different Andrew John Gilbraith Cole, 7th aircraft. Earl of Enniskillen was a British f i s t s peer and landowner in Kenya. He was styled Viscount Cole from 1963 to 1989, after which he was a member of the House of Lords until 1999, although he rarely attended. He is a former managing director of Kenya Airways. He was educated at Eton College, and then on 6 May 1961 was commissioned into the Irish Guards, in which he spent five years, rising to the rank of Captain.

10 FlightCom: February 2024

This vibrant company was a magnet for eccentric people, and I met some wonderful characters the likes of WWII veteran Captain Douglas Bird aka Dicky Bird, Captain Paul Pearson an ex Spitfire pilot, and Captain Brian Nicholson, who was the former chief game warden of the Selous National Park.

Brian checked me out on the company’s C402, the Piper PA-23 Aztec and the Italian Partenavia P68B Victor, a high wing twin piston plane powered by two 200 hp Lycoming IO-360 engines which we fondly called ‘the boiled egg’ because, when observed from the front, the aeroplane resembled an egg with wings.

Andrew, Lord Enniskillen, featured as the cover story of East African Aviation.

Many years prior, when Brian was a game warden of the Selous Game Reserve, he had taken me flying in the Tanzania National Park’s C172. We flew up the Rufiji, the largest river in Tanzania, formed by the confluence of the Kilombero and the Luwegu rivers. It flows for about 281km northeast and east to enter the Indian Ocean opposite Mafia Island. On this day we were scouring for the remains of the SMS Königsberg, a light cruiser of the imperial German Navy, most notable for her activities in and around German East Africa (modern Tanzania) during WWI. During the war, from October 1914 to July 1915, the river delta was the scene of a protracted naval operation and the SMS Königsberg was eventually sunk in the delta of the Rufiji by a group of British warships.

was e v e nt ua l l y s unk i n t he de l t a o f t he Ruf i j i This fascinating story is the basis for one of Wilbur Smith's early novels – Shout at the Devil. The story is well covered here -https://www. westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/ running-the-rufiji-gauntlet-the-destruction-of-smskoenigsberg/ which writes; “Unable to reach the German warship, the British decided to employ aircraft to either bomb, or at the very least, observe the Königsberg. This was fraught with problems as there was neither aircraft nor pilots

The cover of Andrew Enniskillen's book features the 402 and the 'pointy rocks'. FlightCom: February 2024

PILOTS

The Partenavia P68B looks like a boiled egg from the front.

within hundreds of miles. A pilot and aircraft were located in South Africa and sent north.

w o unde d buff a l o w e r e t he mo s t l e t ha l Quickly commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve, Dennis Cutler undertook the first aerial reconnaissance in East Africa. The initial flight did not go well, with his aircraft breaking down. The only way of effecting repairs was to send a warship 200 miles to Mombasa to collect a radiator from a Model T Ford. Nevertheless repairs were made, and the Königsberg was spotted from the air on 21 November. However, because the aircraft being used was grossly underpowered, and could barely get airborne, let alone carry bombs no attack was made on the German warship. Other aircraft were sent, including some Sopwith ‘Folder’ type seaplanes. These were despatched from Bombay in early February 1915. These ‘Folder’ aircraft were equally unsuccessful as the tropical heat warped the wood and melted the

12 FlightCom: February 2024

glue that held the airframes together. Eventually two new Henri Farman and two Caudron landplanes were delivered in June 1915 and a base set up on Mafia Island.” Brian was a visionary, who never shied away from hard work. His tenure as a game warden exposed him to many dangers, of which wounded buffalo were the most lethal amongst the four-legged animals, and poachers the biggest threat on two legs. Having survived close encounters with claws, teeth, horns,

SMS Königsberg was sunk in the Zambezi Delta.

The Rufiji Delta where the Konigsberg was cornered and sunk.

Sopwith Folder No.920 on the beach at Niororo with the engine running.

FlightCom: February 2024

PILOTS Brian Nicholson as chief warden of the Selous Game Park with some Maasai.

spears and bullets, Brian was no girl guide. We flew low above the river, following its twists and turns into the valley which gave life to mimosa trees with crowns as broad as clouds and long creepers and liana that strangled the sunlight and left the riverbank soothing and dark. The earth on the bank was damp and pitted with footprints of game that followed a web-work of the trails to drink at dusk and dawn, leaving their gamey smell in the air. As the sun heated the earth, clouds began to coalesce into big white fists which blossomed into towering columns, the bottoms of which turning slate grey. The once-smooth flight suddenly transformed into a series of bumps and jolts, the soothing hum of the engine replaced by the sounds of pelting rain and the rattle of the airframe. ‘Tighten your belt Iris, we’re in for a rough ride.’ In all the time I’d known him, Brian always appeared calm and composed, never showing any outward signs of distress. Now as I sat behind him, I noticed a nerve on the back of his neck begin to throb in tandem with the rapid rise and fall of the altimeter needle. When we

14 FlightCom: February 2024

eventually emerged through the other end of the storm, the nerve settled down again. I took comfort from the knowledge that a brave man like Brian could still be scared shitless by the elements.  * Extract from Wikipedia

NEWS

KING AIR 200 GETS AUTOTHROTTLES AND AUTOLAND Aftermarket specialist Blackhawk (BAT) has completed Garmin’s first installed Autothrottle/Autolandequipped G1000 NXi Upgrade for a King Air 200. This new technology integrates seamlessly with the G1000 NXi to reduce crew workload, improve safety, and add peace of mind. BLACKHAWK AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGIES says; “BAT is proud to be the first to deliver this exciting new technology to the market,” said Conrad Theisen, VP of Sales & Marketing at BAT. “While King Airs are known for their versatility, they can sometimes be demanding for the crew. Autothrottle and Autoland increase the pilot’s bandwidth for added operational safety.” Garmin’s Autothrottle technology manages power levels in each phase of flight based on manufacturer or

user-customisable settings, including ITT limits. If the system detects an over temp, over torque, or flap over speed situation, it automatically reduces engine power. If the system detects under speed conditions, it will automatically increase engine power. If the crew is unable to land the aircraft, Garmin’s Autoland technology will do so at the touch of a button, delivering added safety in what could otherwise be a catastrophic incident. 

Blackhawk's King Air 200 with G1000 with Autothrottle and Autoland. FlightCom: February 2024

DEFENCE DARREN OLIVIER

BACK TO THE DRC The upcoming deployment of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), designated SAMIDRC, is yet another attempt to address the persistent conflict and instability within the region.

At R122m a year for three, the Rooivalk is expensive to operate.

16 FlightCom: February 2024

T FOLLOWS ON FROM THE United Nations peacekeeping mission that ran for more than twenty years, MONUSCO, and from an earlier failed intervention by the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF). Both were asked to depart by the Congolese government, which has been unsatisfied with external involvement, but also unwilling to follow all the recommendations of those partners, especially when it came to the plan of action for targeting and then neutralising some of the more persistent armed groups, such as the FDLR, ADF, and M23. The latter group, in particular, is resurgent and poses a potent new threat. Long claimed to be backed by elements of the Rwandan security forces, M23 is well-trained and well-equipped, just as it was when it temporarily captured the regional capital of Goma in 2012, before being ejected by a combined MONUSCO Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) and DRC armed forces (FARDC) task force the following year.

However, even though very little information has yet been released on the mission, it’s clear from what has been released, as well as the similar issues that have severely hampered the SADC mission in Mozambique (SAMIM), that funding constraints will cause a significant shortfall in the mission’s preparedness, particularly in terms of air support capabilities. This not only raises concerns about the mission’s potential operational effectiveness, but also underscores a potentially critical vulnerability in its strategic framework and likelihood for success. Air support, consisting of surveillance, rapid mobility, and direct support elements, is not merely an optional element of modern military operations but a fundamental pillar of them, especially in complex and varied terrain such as that of the DRC. The region’s dense forests, vast landscapes, and the highly mobile nature of insurgent groups mean that robust air capabilities for effective area surveillance, quick force deployment, and logistical supporter are crucial in order to have any realistic hope of tracking, containing, and neutralising

Tanzania's H225s are not armed and not available.

FlightCom: February 2024

DEFENCE them. The likely allocation of air assets to SAMIDRC, by contrast, is almost certainly insufficient when benchmarked against these operational requirements, and even the limited assets deployed by MONUSCO, itself often struggling under insufficient budgets. Some support can be provided by the air assets of the Congolese Air Force, which has a handful of Su-25s, Mi-24s, and Mi-8s amongst other types, but serviceability is limited, despite some recent acquisitions. Doctrines are dissimilar from those of most SADC countries, and there has been almost no standardisation and cross-training to allow for unrestricted joint operations. The operational experiences of MONUSCO and SAMIM clearly highlight the critical role of air support in enhancing mission effectiveness and flexibility, and how forces are hampered with their absence. The shortfall in SAMIDRC’s air support capabilities will not only limit its operational scope, but also increase the risk to both mission personnel and civilian populations.

leading to the death of an SANDF Special Forces soldier. SADC appears to be repeating that mistake in the DRC, with what may be much more severe consequences, given the much greater level of insecurity and number of sophisticated armed groups in the region. Unfortunately even if there was enough budget for proper air support, it’s unlikely that any of the contingent countries providing forces for SAMIDRC, being South Africa (which is the lead nation), Malawi, or Tanzania, can provide sufficient aircraft to match. The South African Air Force, for example, which on paper should easily be able to equip this mission from its own fleet alone, is suffering from a severe availability crisis caused by years of underfunding, mismanagement, and the collapse of state-owned Denel.

operating Rooivalks is not cheap

MONUSCO, for instance, could draw on a relatively substantial aerial force in 2013 during the height of its operations against M23: Approximately four Mi-24Ps & four Mi-8s from Ukraine, three Rooivalks & five Oryxes from South Africa, one Mi-26, and a small fleet of Falco UAVs for surveillance. That was over and above what could be provided by the Congolese Air Force. In contrast, when SADC launched the SAMIM mission, an insufficient budget meant it could equip it with far fewer air assets than the mission actually required, amounting to, at most, two Oryx helicopters and one or two light utility helicopters, but often even less. This has had a direct impact on the mission’s operational effectiveness, reducing mobility, preventing effective interdiction and follow-ups, leaving troops with insufficient aerial surveillance support, and arguably

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Of its 39 Oryx helicopters, on average just between one to four have been operational at any given time with availability numbers worsening. Rooivalk numbers are even more dire, with just a single aircraft available at the last count. Two Rooivalks are still deployed at Goma in the DRC for MONUSCO, but have not flown in over a year and there are reportedly no combat-qualified Rooivalk crews to fly them. Moreover, operating Rooivalks is not cheap: According to the last reported costs released by the South African government, for 2017/2018, the United Nations paid R122 million (+- US$6.4 million) a year to operate the three Rooivalks allocated to the mission. It’s unlikely that SADC could afford that alone, especially as the total initial first year budget for SAMIM was just US$12 million. While there’s no announced budget for SAMIDRC yet it’s unlikely to be any higher. Tanzania for its part has a solid fleet of around seven Airbus Helicopters H215M and H225M helicopters, which would be exceptionally useful if they can be deployed. However it has no attack helicopters.

Malawi's SA341B Gazelles are not armed.

Malawi though has only two operational but unarmed SA341B Gazelles, and is unlikely to be able to deploy them. Hope is not a strategy, and when dealing with tight financial and logistical restrictions on a mission, the appropriate response is not to scale down the supporting equipment of the force. The focus should instead shift towards finding strategies to achieve the intended goals with a mission of reduced scope, or to consider foregoing a military approach altogether.

Countries and regions facing significant defence budget constraints, like South Africa, must necessarily adopt a cautious stance towards the deployment of military forces, ensuring that they are allocated efficiently to only the most strategic missions, that risks are managed as well as possible, and that it does not overstretch already overburdened forces. Given all this, it’s worth asking whether launching SAMIDRC is really a wise move at this stage. 

FlightCom: February 2024

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FlightCom: February 2024

AFRICA FLYING JEFFERY KEMPSON

PART 2

FERRYING A CHEROKEE 6

THROUGH AFRICA In Part 1 Jeffery recounted how he managed to ‘liberate’ a Cherokee 6 and escape from a crooked AMO in Douala.

NTERING GABON AIRSPACE my friend contacted Libreville, using our real registration, and much friendly French chit chat ensued about not having received our flight plan. But apparently that was nothing new there. After giving our altitude and ETA, we informed ATC that no search and rescue option had been requested, so the flight plan issue disappeared. Then there was further good natured, incomprehensible French banter between them. I landed in refreshingly good visibility, taxied to the ramp, and shut down. It was nice to see the sun clearly after several days of constant grey gloom. We underwent customs formalities without problems.

A little later we crossed the road back to the airport. I paid the landing fees then taxied the Cherokee to a nearby AMO, who hangared the aircraft, and awaited my instructions about trying to reconstitute the ferry system, so I could complete the much delayed delivery flight.

no o ne It was almost Christmas; I had hoped w o r k e d to be home before this and I was in a parlous financial state. dur i ng french friend phoned my hotel a ft e r no o ns My later that evening to announce that

His passport was not stamped as he was in transit, and would shortly be boarding a north bound Boeing 737 back home. Things were very lax at the airport, and though in transit, being a pilot, he was allowed to join me for a celebratory coffee and croissant across the road at the modest Le Gamba beach hotel, where I booked myself in. Then I joined him on the veranda and handed over several more one hundred dollar American Express travellers’ cheques, as well as his one way airline ticket

22 FlightCom: February 2024

home. My adventurous friend told me he was delighted to have exacted vengeance on his employer for all the resentment he’d caused for past transgressions.

he had landed safely back, and driven home without anyone yet associating him with the disappearance of the new Cherokee Six. But he did expect howls of fury the next morning, though he doubted that he could be implicated in the Cherokee’s disappearance. I had a few celebratory drinks that night but was concerned that my phone calls to the aircraft owner in Salisbury were not being answered. I needed substantial funds to replace the money I’d unexpectedly had to spend liberating the aeroplane.

The next morning I walked over to the airport, arriving just as an Affretair DC-8 sanctions busting Rhodesian freighter thundered past on take-off. Looking towards the parking area I saw several tons of fresh, chilled sides of export quality Rhodesian beef being loaded from trolleys into refrigerated trucks. The DC-8 was on its way to Amsterdam. I walked up to the tower and checked on their schedule. Apparently another DC-8 should arrive on Christmas Eve, in two days’ time. I went down to the AMO and asked if they had a price on fixing the ferry fuel system. They told me key staff were about to go on holiday, and a spare ferry tank had to be sourced, but that I should come back a few days after Christmas. Disappointed I went back to the hotel where the manager told me no one worked during afternoons in the capital, as they took a siesta, until early evening, then put in another couple of hours work. I still had no phone contact with the aircraft owner. Then the hotel phone line was damaged by fierce winds.

A couple of days later I met the inbound Afrettair DC-8 freighter, and handed the Captain a hand written note. I asked him to please contact the Cherokee Six owner on his return to Salisbury. The note advised him that I had extracted his plane from the country it was stranded in and the circumstances attached to the liberation thereof. Also, that I was now marooned in Libreville, with diminishing funds, and to please ask if an obliging Afrettair pilot could bring me some cash US funds on a future freight flight, so that I could complete my mission. The next evening a chap at the hotel bar beckoned me over. He unfolded a high/low Jeppesen radio navigation chart of the West African region. On it were pencil lines drawn between Libreville, Point Noir, Luanda, Brazzaville, and other more southerly airports, on what could be construed as my prospective onward routing. More chilling, the American registration of the Cherokee Six was written in ballpoint pen onto a small piece of paper folded into the chart. The man said to me, ‘Be careful my friend, the man who wanted to take your Cherokee Six knows the plane is in Libreville and is paying for information about its movements.’

Harmattan wind dust storm.

FlightCom: February 2024

JEFFERY KEMPSON This was very concerning. I had thought I was now free and clear of his scurrilous ambit. I asked him who the chart belonged to. He replied, ‘I’m not sure. I found it in a drawer in an office in the hangar, where I shall put it back.’ ‘Which hangar?’ I asked. He shrugged, ‘I cannot say.’ He finished his drink, put the chart in his pocket, and left. I spent a miserable Christmas at the beach hotel and drank too much. A few days later I went to the airport again, to meet an incoming DC-8. Happily, I knew the co-pilot well. We had been on the same Commercial Pilot course and flown light aircraft in Botswana. Sadly, he had not brought me any funds. Hearing my predicament, he said, ‘Come with us to Amsterdam and we can sort this out when we get back.’ ‘I’d love to, but I’m expecting funds any day, so I had better stay here.’

I barely managed to pay the hotel bill and went to the airport. The CL44 taxied to the apron, off-loaded and refuelled. I knew the Captain, a taciturn fellow. We had flown general aviation aircraft together on charter flights between Johannesburg and the Okavango Delta. I also knew first hand that he had an aversion to bad weather. So, I hoped we didn’t encounter anything too taxing on the trip to Salisbury. As the autopilot was unserviceable we each took turns flying the big aircraft straight and level in the cruise.

he had an av e r s i o n t o bad w e at he r.

The hotel phone line was repaired, and I managed to speak to my concerned girlfriend in Johannesburg. She was then able to contact the aircraft owner and apprise him of the situation.

He was told that I was demoralised and nefarious people were still intent on getting hold of his Cherokee Six. That I’d now had enough and did not want to wait several more days for the ferry tank system to be replaced. I respectfully suggested he get someone else to complete this delivery. A couple of days after my bleak Christmas, I received a message to present myself later that morning to board Afrettair’s large four turbine engine, swing tail CL44 freighter for carriage to Salisbury. I was almost broke, and overjoyed to hear this.

24 FlightCom: February 2024

Harmattan wind flow.

Several hours later I was pleased to see the Salisbury runway lights gleaming in the clear night air. As the co-pilot, turned onto final approach the Captain berated him for not having the ILS Morse code signal volume turned up for audible identification. The co-pilot did an excellent approach and landing and I clapped my hands loudly in the hope of softening the Captain’s criticism. The Captain turned in his seat and gave me a scowl. I shrugged and looked away, lest I said something rude, after him having given me a free lift. Long after we had been through customs, the Captain continued his abuse of his first officer to all who would listen. I rolled my eyes but managed to thank him for the lift.

A rare photo of Affretair CL-44 TR-LVO with its tail swung open.

This Captain later became a flying inspector with the South African CAA. I made a point of not flying with him.

led to my spending a bleak, almost impoverished Christmas incommunicado in a foreign land, totally unnecessarily.

A friend of the still absent Cherokee Six owner collected me and drove me to a hotel. I recounted all that had happened. I told him that I had sent a note with an Affretair Captain with a request to phone the aircraft owner so that he should send me fresh funds using an Affritair pilot travelling to Libreville, but to no avail.

As a professional pilot, living with hazard as we do, I considered myself to be a higher life form than nonaviation ground staff.

The aircraft owner’s friend shook his head, and said, ‘A Rhodesian security officer was on that DC-8. He took the note from the Captain and said he’d deal with it.’ Yet he hadn’t contacted the owner. I felt a rage, which even now prevents me from reconsidering this presumably deliberate disservice rationally. I know Affretair were not obliged to act as an intermediary. Yet, some white security officer in an embattled country had caused me several days of traumatic aggravation, causing me to think that my message had been delivered, as I waited helplessly for a reply, which

I told the aircraft owner’s friend that I regretted being unable to complete the delivery of the aircraft, but under the sinister circumstances, I was glad to have at least liberated it. I graciously waived my ferry fee. The next day he put me on a Boeing to Johannesburg. I have never been more delighted to return home. A couple of months later Affretair gave me a free ride to Amsterdam on a DC-8. In my suitcase was a King Nav-Comm radio and a roll of duct tape. But that’s a three beer story, for another day.



FlightCom: February 2024

MAF TANZANIA MARK LIPRINI

MAF TANZANIA: HIGH ALTITUDES, HIGHER PURPOSE

MAF SA’s missionary pilot, Mark Liprini, shares a day from his logbook. It was the usual quiet morning in the office. I was in the process of demolishing a delightful hot chapati, to accompany the fresh coffee.

Y LOGBOOKS HAD JUST been written up from the flying earlier in the week, and I was busy working through emails while planning the next few days. Across the way from me, I heard our Ops Manager Emanual (Emma) taking a call. He takes lots of them each day, but something in his tone of voice alerted me. Slowly he pushed back his chair. “This was a call for a medevac from Haydom Hospital. Two mothers with new-born babies with severe birth defects need to get to the paediatric surgeon in Moshi as soon as possible.”

intestines protruding through their stomach wall; well, that is how the nurse has just described it to me,” Emma replied. “I’m busy gathering more information on their weights, who needs to accompany them, and how we get them to Moshi from Kilimanjaro airport,” he continued.

a C20 6 w i t h ni ne pe r s o ns on board

“How new-born are they, and what sort of defects?” I asked, mentally calculating flight times, distances, refuelling, and drop-off times, thinking about the weather and the payloads, and glancing at the office clock to see if we could still pull it off that day. “Both were born yesterday, and they have part of their

26 FlightCom: February 2024

“Wait, is Moshi still closed? The Notams say that the repair work has been completed.” “No, I have just called them, and they are still definitely closed to flights until next month.”

“Ok Emma, you continue running those numbers, and I will work out a last take off time; confirm our routing is Arusha-Haydom-Kili and back home to Arusha? “Sawa sawa”. He grinned and grabbed the phone, while I clicked

Jill Megson.

Mark Liprini takes off in the MAF Cessna 206.

open our flight planner on my laptop and furiously started crunching numbers. I looked up. “Hey Emma, we have to do Peter’s route check this week; see if you can get enough available payload so he can join this flight as his route check, please?” Peter Griffin had heard the conversation from the adjoining office and stuck his head around the door. “Are we going flying, boss?”

By 13:50, we were in Cessna 206, 5H-PTL, heading for Haydom Hospital. We sent Emmanual our ETAs and asked that the patients be ready at the airstrip when we landed, and that they ensured that the airstrip was clear of livestock and people when we arrived. He confirmed that all the above had been done and had already been confirmed by the hospital authorities. In MAF parlance, a route check is an annual flight test where the pilot being checked has to demonstrate their ability to conduct a normal operational flight to a MAF check pilot. Their entire performance is observed, from gathering information before the flight, to putting the aircraft to bed at the end of the day.

no t hav e s ur v i v e d “Emma, our last take off time is 13:50 local time, which means Peter t he j o ur ne y During the flight they would also be “Affirmative. Are you ready for your route check, buddy?”

and I need to be at the airport by 12:50 latest, leaving the office by 12:00 latest so we can swing by our homes to get changed, and down to the airfield in time. On a scale of one to ten, how certain is this medevac?”

He glanced up from his screen, “It’s a definite nine. All they are worried about is how to get the babies from Kili to Moshi.” “Ok, I will print the paperwork and Peter and I will leave right away. Rather, we get to the aircraft, and it’s called off, than we run late. We have to have the aircraft back in Arusha by tonight for tomorrow’s early flight.”

presented with various hypothetical emergency scenarios to discuss as they are flying. Today’s emergency scenarios were going to be for real. Peter had to consider how he would handle the nature of the medical emergency – fly high or low?

We were going to be potentially over our landing weight at Kilimanjaro; how would he deal with that? How was he going to strap in the moms with their delicate newborn babies? How was he going to deal with the forecast low clouds and potential afternoon rain? Timewise, how was he going to make our last landing time at Arusha?

FlightCom: February 2024

MAF TANZANIA Mark Liprini and Peter Griffin in the fully loaded MAF Cessna 206.

We landed at Haydom, but had to wait on the runway while an errant flock of goats and sheep were chased off the runway so we could taxi in and shut down. The ambulance driver was there in his shiny new ambulance. “Where are the patients?” asked the two pilots, trying hard to keep their smiles. “Oh, do you want me to fetch them now?” he asked, with a cheerful grin on his face. While we waited, two young doctor interns arrived at the airfield, so Peter grabbed the opportunity to ask their advice about flying the babies. High and smooth, or low and bumpy? Ten minutes later, the ambulance came careering back along the rough dirt roads with four adults. Three mothers with babies and an accompanying nurse. It turned out that another baby with similar birth defects had just been born while we were en-route, so they elected to put her on the flight as well. We looked at each other. “You know I am going to

28 FlightCom: February 2024

be about 20 kg over landing weight at Kilimanjaro, right?” Peter said. “Yep. So what are you going to do to manage that?” We briefly discussed some options, then carefully strapped the moms and babies in and got airborne for Kilimanjaro airport. The C206 that we fly has only six seats, but air law allows for newborn infants to be carried on laps. Today, we made a memorable call to base: “Fox Fox, PTL airborne Haydom with nine persons on board”. As we flew to Kili, navigating the terrain, dodging some mild weather and easing through some turbulence, Peter was hard at work managing the fuel consumption and using other tricks up his sleeve to get ourselves down to landing weight by our ETA at Kilimanjaro Airport. The anticipated strong headwind had died away, so he had to get creative. Looking back, we could see that the moms seemed to be okay, with the nurse in the back seat giving us a huge smile and a thumbs up. As we got close to Kili,

still a few kilograms above landing weight, with Peter working hard to reduce the fuel load, we heard from the tower.

A MAF Cessna Caravan at a remote Tanzanian airstrip.

“Kili tower to PTL.” “Go ahead, Kili.” “Can you expedite your approach, or will you take #2 position to faster traffic?” “We will take #2, thank you.” “Copied that; plan to do two orbits on the downwind of runway 09.” As Peter expertly eased the aircraft onto the runway, conscious of the fragile babies and moms in the back and the fact that we were at or very close to the max landing weight, we realised that we had landed exactly at our maximum landing weight, or maybe one kilogram under. The marshaller understood our need to get back in the air ASAP, and he personally escorted the moms, babies and nurse through the terminal buildings to the waiting transport outside, while we scrambled to get ourselves back in the air to avoid spending the night in Kilimanjaro. We squeaked into Arusha about 15 minutes before our last landing time! An amazing day, being able to save those moms and babies a horrid seven or eight-hour journey in a Landcruiser over really bumpy roads. The doctors were pretty certain that at least one of those babies might not have survived the journey. Instead, they had a 1.3-hour flight, mostly smooth, followed by a one-hour drive over fairly good roads to get to Moshi. It’s these things that we really enjoy — playing a small part in saving lives and just being part of the Kingdom for these moms, the babies – and the nurse.

FlightCom: February 2024

MAF TANZANIA

For those readers who wondered how a C206 could have a max landing weight lower than its max takeoff weight.

FAA Aircraft Certification Service

SPECIAL AIRWORTHINESS INFORMATION BULLETIN

SUBJ: Leveling and Weighing: Maximum landing gross weight limitation for SAIB: Cessna U206F, U206G, TU206F, TU206G series airplanes equipped with Flint Date: Aero STC SA4366WE

CE-09-39 July 7, 2009

This is information only. Recommendations aren’t mandatory.

Introduction This Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) provides safety information to owners and operators of Cessna U206F, U206G, TU206F, and TU206G series airplanes equipped with Flint Aero wing tip tanks installed in accordance with Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) SA4366WE as it relates to a maximum landing gross weight limitation. At this time, this airworthiness concern is not considered an unsafe condition that would warrant an airworthiness directive (AD) action under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR part 39). Background Cessna 206 series airplanes equipped with STC SA4366WE have a higher approved gross takeoff weight. The maximum landing weight remains unchanged. The Flint Aero Airplane Flight Manual Supplement (AFMS) Revision A for Cessna U206F, U206G, TU206F, and TU206G series airplanes lacks clarity in defining the maximum landing gross weight limitation. FAA approved the Flint Aero AFMS Revision B dated November 12, 2008 for the affected Cessna 206 series airplanes. It documents the maximum landing gross weight limitation. Recommendation The FAA recommends that owners and operators of the Cessna U206F, U206G, TU206F, and TU206G series airplanes equipped with Flint Aero STC SA4366WE comply with the maximum landing weight limitation as defined in the Flint Aero AFMS Revision B or later FAA approved revisions. For Further Information Contact Dara Albouyeh, Aerospace Engineer, FAA Los Angeles ACO, 3960 Paramount Blvd., Suite 100, Lakewood, CA 90712, telephone: (562) 627-5222, fax: (562) 627-5210, Email: dara.albouyeh@faa.gov. 

30 FlightCom: February 2024

NEWS

PHILLIPS 66 FUEL SUSPENDS UNLEADED AVGAS In a potentially major setback for general aviation, Avgas supplier Phillips 66 has “paused” evaluation of its unleaded avgas alternative after a major test failure. HOWEVER PHILLIPS SAID, “Phillips 66 is committed to its vision of developing an unleaded aviation fuel offering and is currently evaluating this product’s development and all viable alternative options.” The Phillips/Afton fuel was powering a Lycoming engine in a test cell on a 150-hour endurance test and the engine failed due to a buildup of manganese deposits that fouled the spark plugs and/or caused preignition.

Although the Phillips/Afton entry has quit, there are still three contenders in the unleaded avgas evaluation. LyondellBasell/VP Racing Fuels is also going through the a process which involves the evaluation of the fuel by the FAA with the goal of earning “fleet authorization” as a universally acceptable fuel for spark ignition piston engines. Swift Fuels is seeking STC approval for its 100R fuel and General Aviation Modifications Inc. has already received STC approval for its G100UL fuel for virtually all gasoline engines currently in use by aircraft in the U.S. 

Phillips 66 has quit testing its unleaded Avgas. FlightCom: February 2024

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