March 2021

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Africa’s Biggest Aviation Magazine Edition 302 March 2021 Cover: Garth Calitz

FLIGHT TEST – THE AMAZING

GK-1!

ETHIOPIAN’S

TEWOLDE

GEBREMARIAM

GUY – HOW THE CAA WAS BULLIED BY DPE JIM – FUELISH ASSUMPTIONS! GEORGE – HELICOPTER COPS & ROBBERS SAA – A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

THE SLOW DEATH OF THE SAAF 1

March 2021

F O C U S: AV I AT I O N P R O D U C T S A N D S E R V I C E S

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POSITION REPORT A YEAR AGO, on 5 March, the first Covid-19 case was reported in South Africa. It was of mild interest that someone had picked up a nasty type of flu in Italy.

Alarmists were warning of a coming plague – but others pointed to underwhelming numbers, especially death rates – which seemed tame compared to the daily hazard of living (and flying) in South Africa.

Within a month our government had locked the country down. Everything just stopped while people grudgingly retreated into their homes and hoped the dreaded disease would pass them over. There was reluctant compliance. Social media was awash about government overreacting.

My hoped for three weeks turned into three months while the first wave broke and then receded. We tentatively got back to business – and were thrilled to see that our investment in the websites and digital marketing was paying off better than we had dared hope. Our readership increased 400% and became global. The smart advertisers and marketers (like Porsche, Lamborghini & Bentley) recognised that now we offered even better value for money.

And then the second wave arrived. People we knew and loved began to die. The three weeks became a year – and now 18 months. But I choose to believe IATA’s Alexandre de Junaic when he reminded us of the old cliché - that it’s always darkest before the dawn.

THRILLING FLYING

We went into a kind of suspended animation, but I for one hoped it would be over in a couple of weeks.

We were busting our piggy bank to build a guest lodge in Hoedspruit and the last thing we needed was for aviation and the tourism industries to implode because of some remote virus.

But implode they did. Millions of people were suddenly going to bed hungry. We stopped printing the magazines and hunkered down.

When we emerged shell-shocked, we realised that our advertisers were also traumatised and so gave them a break by publishing every second month. In the meanwhile, we made a silver lining from the cloud of gloom by massively pivoting the publications into the digital age. We built all-new websites and started on the treadwheel of feeding their voracious appetite.

The sky is finally lightening with the fist rays of hope. The vaccine is here. South Africa will soon be through the herd immunity level. The dark cloud of gloom and oppression we have laboured under will lift.

Businesses in South Africa are remarkably resilient.

No matter how badly the government screws up, we can still just get on with making a good honest day’s living – and it's great to be here in South Africa – a land of opportunity and growth – particularly from the low base of the Covid crisis.

In celebration of the many fresh opportunities we have focussed this issue on Aviation Services and Products. There are hundreds of small providers of services and specialist products that we are happy to be able to promote with our new and enlarged publishing platforms and readership.

And at the same time we bring you the best – and most original content. We are proud to be the first to flight test report the amazing little GK-1 racer – truly thrilling flying and fantastic speed – on a Post-Covid budget.

j

4

March 2021

Guy Leitch

Contact Klara Fouche: +27 (0) 83 324 8530 klaraf@starliteaviation.com

Starlite Aero Sales

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March 2021

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COLUMNISTS SA FLYER

16 Guy Leitch - ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE 22 George Tonking - HELI OPS 28 Peter Garrison - OVERFLIGHTS 34 Jim Davis - PLANE TALK 42 Johan Walden - A SLIM LOGBOOK 60 Jim Davis - ACCIDENT REPORT 72 Ray Watts - REGISTER REVIEW

ACCIDENT REPORT

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March 2021

FLIGHTCOM

14 18

Bush Pilot - Hugh Pryor Airlines - Mike Gough

FC 22

Edition 302

CONTENTS

Bose Proflight Series 2

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www.centuryavionics.co.za salesadmin@centuryavionics.co.za March 2021

Edition 302

CONTENTS FEATURES SA FLYER

48 Flight Test: GK 1 68 MINI FEATURE - Mark Holliday 78 Cirrus Relaunches in Southern Africa 82 An open letter:

From an SAA crew member

88

Quote of the month

REGULARS 14

FLIGHTCOM

06 News 20 Air Force - Des Barker 28 Face to Face - Ethiopian Airlines CEO 32 Defence - Darren Olivier 36 A Decade of Space Investments in RSA

Opening Shot

75 Bona Bona Register Review 86 SV Aviation Fuel Table 90 Aviation Direct Events Calender

FLIGHTCOM

15 AME Directory 26 Starlite Flight School Listing 39 Atlas Oils Charter Directory 40 AEP AMO Listing 42 Aviation Directory

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March 2021

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BENTLEY JOHANNESBURG BENTLEY CAPE TOWN

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QUOTE OF THE MONTH: Duncan Gillespie, a widely respected former SAAF and current Boeing corporate jet pilot, writing on the flyafrica Facebook page comments about the latest hard to believe, Alice in Wonderland, comments from Minister Pravin Gordhan about SAA;

“Pravin took a massive rip from a bong of his favourite Durban Poison before going on air with Bloomberg, to reveal there are 3 eager parties battling to be chosen for the equity partner for SAA V 2.0.”

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March 2021

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BENTLEY JOHANNESBURG BENTLEY CAPE TOWN

OPENING SHOT

T

his picture was chosen as our Opening Shot despite it breaking a number of our usual Opening Shot Conventions.

For starters, it’s not taken in landscape but is in portrait mode – and thus is better suited to display on a computer monitor. Secondly – we don’t know who took it – its just part of the publicity machine surrounding Elon Musk.

But we think it’s still special enough to be an opening shot as it graphically captures a suave and confident looking Musk in front of one of his greatest triumphs – the still mind blowing ability to fly a rocket into space and then return it to strand upright on a tiny landing pad. Now that’s achievement – and flying.

Although Elon seems to want to put his troubled South African background behind him – we celebrate this Pretoria High School Boykie’s incredible achievements.

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March 2021

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15

ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE: GUY LEITCH

SAA VS CAA VS DPE

The struggle over the remains of SAA has taken an appalling twist.

UP TO NOW I HAVE HELD A GRUDGING respect for the CAA’s commitment to uphold standards, whether ICAO SARPs, or its own regulations. I may have often disagreed with the methods and the lack of engagement with its subjects, yet the CAA has by and large maintained its integrity. Now however, the confidence that we can have in the regulator's integrity has been broken.

operating into Brussels with no ground support.

This is confirmed by the flight number which was preceded by a 4 which denotes a positioning flight, and not a 6, which is used for freight.

We are told the vaccines would fit in a bakkie and could easily be airfreighted – for a 100th of the cost. Emirates airfreighted ten times as many vaccines on a couple of pallets to Ghana in the belly of a scheduled B777. There was even an Ethiopian Airlines freighter operating from Brussels to Johannesburg that could have accommodated the pallet of vaccines. And they could have sent the Presidential Boeing Business jet – or even one of the Falcons.

SAA, with the collusion of the CAA, launched a flight far below safety standards

The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has, against all standards of sanity, persisted in using SAA for a grotesque flag waving exercise. Beyond a public relations stunt, there can be no justification for pulling an SAA A340600 out of mothballs and spending an estimated R5 million to fetch a pallet of vaccines.

In response to a torrent of criticism, the DPE has claimed that they were also carrying cargo northbound. Yet this is contradicted by the aircraft’s manifest, which shows just eight tons of spares for the plane were carried since they were

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March 2021

Apart from the waste of public resources, and SAA being beyond bankrupt, the government bent basic aviation rules to send an empty A340-600 to Brussels. This despite having not paid the vast majority of the pilots for 10 months and refusing to pay their death cover unless the pilots agree to a settlement agreement.

The DPE makes its 'Use SAA regardless of cost' aim clear

recency requirements. In addition, the SAA organisational structure has been eviscerated of key staff members and the postholders required by the CAA. Embarrassing for the DPE, the first attempt to launch the A340 to Brussels was stopped by an SAA manager, who no doubt politely pointed out that the basic requirements to operate the flight were not in place. SAA must have been so confident it would be able to secure CAA approval that it had fuelled the aircraft for the flight. But this made it too heavy to tow, so the A340 sat out in the rain while the bureaucrats wrangled.

For the aviation industry, the surprising victim in this mix is the CAA, and its hitherto largely unblemished efforts in maintaining aviation safety.

It is inescapable that, given the pressures from the DPE to show that SAA can operate (with only black pilots), rules were bent and perhaps broken to enable this obscenely expensive public relations stunt.

This farce began in the middle of February when a consignment of vaccines needed to be shipped to South Africa. Seeing an opportunity to show how the new SAA would be vital to the country, the DPE was desperate to use the flight as a public relations exercise. This meant sending an huge A340-600 from Johannesburg to Brussels empty – to bring back the single pallet.

It’s estimated that in fuel alone this would burn 200 tons, or approximately R2 million.

To its great credit the CAA stood its ground until eventually the flight was cancelled. As a critical observer of the CAA, I congratulated the regulator on winning a showdown against what must have been enormous political pressure.

Eventually a TUI Boeing 787 was chartered and when the vaccines arrived in we dared hope that this would be the end of this unfortunate skirmish.

However, as the dust began to settle, a worrying sign that all was not well behind the scenes emerged. The CAA published a letter saying that it had approved all the requirements for the first flight; just that it taken a little longer than hoped.

What safety compromises were made to fly an SAA A340-600 with all-black pilots to fetch a pallet of vaccines?

However, the airline has essentially been grounded since March 2020, which means that its pilots are far from able to meet March 2021

17

This was an obvious face-saving attempt to repair relations with the DPE and the airline.

in question belongs to a black SAA pilot, and was reportedly paid over R100,000 for the training.

It appears the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) was ignored.

However, if SAA could not fly, the government’s “save SAA at all costs” policy was at risk of being shown to be unworkable. Another small load of vaccines was ready for delivery, so undeterred, the DPE tried again to use SAA. Raising the airline from the dead is a tough task.

There were over 100 regulatory hurdles that had to be overcome before the flight could be signed off. These hurdles included the airline not having: A CEO, or a flight operations dispatch capability, no flight technical and safety department, operations control centre, recurrency training program or even up-to-date Jepp charts and Airbus FlySmart Apps.

Simply put, the remains of SAA no longer met the structure required by the CAA. Furthermore, many technical requirements were not addressed in the approval letter: specifically, whether SAA could have a valid AOC, or EASA approval if it was not operating.

The difficulties of meeting these requirements should have been a showstopper. But proving that the cost of justifying SAA is limitless, the CAA was given clear instructions that it had to make it happen. On 16 February a more detailed explanation was released by the CAA’s heads of legal compliance, confirming that no less than 13 exemptions to the safety requirements had been granted. The CAA tried to limit its exposure by granting the exemptions for one flight only.

Most other airlines around the world have invested in keeping their pilots current and proficient. However SAA decided to use an ATO that was not properly certified for the operations that SAA requires. The flying school

The real question that arises is about pilot currency and qualifications. One of the biggest hurdles was that there were no SAA examiners for the pilots’ proficiency tests as they are all SAAPA members and were locked-out, without pay.

It is believed that the flight was dispatched with the crew lacking critical currency requirements, particularly with regard to their ability to fly Category 3 instrument landings. What would happen if the Brussels’ winter weather required a Cat 3 ILS approach – or a GNSS PBN approach?

Because the pilots lacked full currency, it’s hard

Physical Address: Ikhaya Lokundiza Treur Close Waterfall Park Bekker Street Midrand

Postal Address: Private Bag X 73 Halfway House 1685

Telephone Number: +27 11 545 1000

E-mail Address: mail@caa.co.za

Fax Number: +27 11 545 1465

Website Address: www.caa.co.za

Southern Region Office: PO Box 174 Cape Town International Airport Tel. Number: +27 21 934 4744 Fax Number: +27 21 934 1326

Standard Letter No.: CA 13-L-003 / 220119

Our Reference: Enquiries: Division:

S553D

Telephone number:

Amina Moola Exemption and Regulatory Development

Fax number: 086 584 2341 Cellular phone number +27834616335 E-mail Moolaa@caa.co.za address:

BY EMAIL

011-545-1340

Mr Tebogo Tsimane Delegated Accountable Manager South African Airways Jones Road Airways Park ORTIA Dear Sir, DECISION AND REASONS FOR THE GRANTING OF THE EXEMPTION 1. The South African Civil Aviation Authority (“SACAA”) received an exemption application on 15 th February 2021 in which you requested an exemption.

2. The exemption application was considered and the Director has made her decision.

3. In line with the authorisation granted by the Director to the signatory of this letter, this letter serves to convey the decision of the Director on your exemption application.

4. Your exemption application from the following provisions has been granted by the Director: (a) SA CATs 121.03.2 2. (1)(a)(c) (d) and (g)- relating to approval of an external training facility. (b) SA CATS 121.03.1 point 3 (5) (v) to (viii) & (7) (ii) (cc) & (dd)- relating to external instructor qualification to conduct training for SAA pilots. (c) SA CATS 121.03.3 10.1- relating to pilots regaining recency. (d) The following pertaining to recurrent training: i) SA CATS 121.03.3 3- CRM; ii) SA CATS 121.03.3 10.1 (c)- Regency iii) SA CATS 121.03.3 14- Low Visibility Operations; iv) SA CATS 121.03.3 15(A) (7)(b)- UPRT; v) SA CATS 121.03.3 16(2)(b)- all weather operations; vi) SA CATS 121.03.3 16(2)(c)- RNAV vii) SA CATS 121.03.3 16(3)(c)- operations in ground icing conditions Board Members: ȋ ȌǢ Ǣ Ǧ Ǣ Ǣ Ǣ DCA: Ǣ Company Secretary:

The CAA's letter of 13 exemptions.

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March 2021

to believe that they could have been considered safe or even proficient in these extremely demanding skills, which require regular practice and professional checks. If Brussels and their Alternative was Cat 3, what would they have done – flown around until their fuel ran out?

The vaccines could easily have been loaded onto a scheduled cargo flight - for less than a 100th of the cost

When Jim Davis writes his accident reviews, he often asks the question; “Would I have been happy to be a passenger in that plane?” With 13 exemptions granted for the Brussels flight, the answer to this question is a resounding ‘NO’.

Having 13 exemptions makes a highway through James Reason’s Swiss cheese model.

This is a dangerous abuse of power by the DPE. It is also bodes ill for the future of aviation that the CAA allowed its hitherto inviolate standards to be so obviously compromised. To issue one exemption should be an exception. To issue 13 exemptions is an appalling dereliction of safety and sanity. I cannot imagine what EASA thought when they saw this A340-600 heading into their airspace with no less than 13 exemption flags pinned to its flight clearances.

To issue 13 exemptions is an appalling dereliction of safety and sanity And so, late on Wednesday night 24 February, SAA, with the collusion of the CAA, launched a flight that was far below any usual acceptable safety standards. For one brief moment there was hope that it may not fly after all when the plane sat on the ground, reportedly because its radar was unserviceable. But in the end the political imperative triumphed, and the 340 took off after midnight, as flight SAA4272.

What makes the travesty of the flight particularly egregious is that SAA does not have the money to pay just the risk premiums on its pilots’ Group Life insurance. I am told that four pilots have already died tragically in 2021, one of Covid-19, and without premiums, the insurer may well decline to pay the benefits.

From the regulator’s past history of run-ins with CemAir, I am confident that these exemptions would not have been the case for any other privately owned airline. We have seen all the other airlines grounded for smaller problems than the 13 exemptions required for this flight.

Thus does politics push us ever faster down the slippery slope towards failure – first the airline – then the aviation industry – then the whole state.

j

guy@saflyermag.co.za March 2021

19

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March 2021

21

HELICOPTER OPS: GEORGE TONKING

FINDING PURPOSE IN THE TEDIUM Almost simultaneously, both Gareth Pahl (one of my regular crewmen) and I received the message notification on our phones while flying a routine VISPOL (Visual Policing) sortie somewhere over Pretoria East: “Armed robbery in progress. Wonderboom area.”

LOOKING FROM THE OUTSIDE IN, BEING A helicopter pilot can seem like the ultimate profession.

You imagine yourself cruising through valleys like a ready-for-anything Airwolf-piloting hero. Or performing white-knuckle ship resupplies in the frigid South Atlantic, search and rescues in the Drakensberg mountains, or swooping from out of the sun to thwart criminals and save the day.

Sure, some pilots get to do that, but in reality, a lot of the time piloting a helicopter commercially can feel like driving a bus or a taxi. Pick up clients here; drop them off there. Repeat. You’re a commodity with a schedule.

March 2021

as I leaned over to try to see the jet shrieking over my house, around the hill from Waterkloof Air Force Base. The sign outside the base read something along the lines of, “Thundering jets! The sound of freedom!” I wanted that

Swooping from out of the sun to thwart criminals

Nothing like what I imagined when I was little, staring up at the clouds as an aircraft flew over: envy, enchantment and longing etched on my face. So

22

besotted was I that once I fell into the swimming pool

freedom.

In flight training school, they teach you both the basics and nuances of flying. Like, how to fly with your head, how to plan and to assess – basically to keep you not only flying but, more importantly, alive.

Interestingly enough, how well you internalised all these lessons, becomes evident not

only in the spur of the moment events (like the one mentioned above) but also in the more mundane, mind-numbing flying days. Because complacency can be a killer, both figuratively and literally.

Gareth and George Tonking on a sortie.

I mean, it’s true right? Life is not an adventure every

Like any other industry, security has its long,

day. But what you make of the prosaic days can

uneventful days too, the kind where you just

prepare you for the adventurous ones.

don’t know whether you are having any effect on

It took me a while to figure that out: to learn to keep myself motivated behind the piles of paperwork, and through the seasons as a taxi driver in the sky. To learn to look into the cockpit of my fellow working pilots, to peer in to see how they manage their skill and graft; what makes them the best in their craft.

I figured I could even learn from my passengers and crew, many of whom have become friends as a result.

seemingly soaring crime. But criminals, unlike you and I, don’t take holidays. They also have bills and bosses, rent to pay and mouths to feed. Except, when it comes to the holidays, I imagine that they probably also celebrate Christmas, with gifts and big dinners, like most of us. The money has to come from somewhere! (Like cash in transit vans, ATMs or Santa’s parcel-packed courier trucks.)

Typically, then, with much more cash floating about, March 2021

23

Some hospitals have landing pads that require a carefully planned approach.

The squadron ready for action at the Ultimate Heliport.

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March 2021

the festive season sees a spike in criminal activity, from a few weeks preceding it. Every year we plan to counter this by heightening our security presence, including in the air. Many more sorties are flown, from before dawn and well into the evening. Long days filled with many tedious hours of flying.

But without those hours we wouldn’t find ourselves in the right place at the right time, like on that Wednesday one December when Gareth and I received the text alerting us to the active armed robbery in our “hood”.

Gareth re-emerged with the perpetrator in a neck-lock Gareth, both a tactical operator and a paramedic, is a rare breed. “He can stop them and start them,” we always joke.

He’s also not the largest man around, which is particularly helpful when it comes to crewing in a Robbie 44, where lighter weight means better performance and, more importantly, improved fuel usage, allowing for a longer flight window. Gareth is also what we call a “networker”. And due to his welldeveloped network, he is able to work across many private security companies and law enforcement agencies, with trust built up over many years.

From our elevated position we watched as one of the gun-wielding robbers fled into the Montana Hospital on foot.

Thinking quickly, I made for the hospital landing pad, almost directly below me. “Gareth, I’m gonna put you down!” I shouted excitedly, while checking wind, Ts and Ps. Gareth, Glock in hand, was out of the door as we touched down. I lifted off immediately, as dumbstruck aunties, meds in hand, fresh from the pharmacy, watched in amazement as the cops and robbers movie played out around them.

I checked the perimeter from above as Gareth sprinted into the main entrance. Not two minutes later Gareth re-emerged, the perpetrator (who was protesting his innocence, and claiming to be a patient) in a neck-lock. After a search by the police, a gun, which was later matched to the robber, was found under the stairs in the foyer where he had tossed it.

For the rest of the day, it was hard to go back to simply patrolling the skies, to just being a visual policing presence, hopefully keeping potential criminals in check.

The reality in our line of work is that there are times of “high-fives” to celebrate victories. But not many.

It’s these “one Wednesday-in-December” moments that make the mundane hours so worthwhile. On these days I feel like a child again, when I get to excitedly tell everyone, “Guess what? My buddie Gareth and I caught a baddie!”

j

“Ba-bing,” chimed the message. No words were needed as we glanced at each other. I pulled in all 22 inches on the manifold with the collective, and leaned forward in the cockpit, straining forward to edge the Raven ever faster.

After what seemed an eternity, but which was in reality only five minutes, we arrived on the scene.

March 2021

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OVERFLIGHTS - PETER GARRISON

OVER

FLIGHTS My morning routine is to get up at six o’clock or so, make coffee – an elaborate ceremony that involves measuring out and grinding the beans, wetting the grounds in a French press so that they “bloom,” and all that stuff; I think I enjoy the ritual more than the coffee itself – and sit on the patio to drink it, amid the coolness, the morning chorus of the birds, the changing light on a few straggling clouds.

OFTEN, AS I SIT THERE, A CERTAIN Cessna 152 passes low overhead. I’m sure it’s always the same one, because the time and position and heading are the same. It glows with the goldenhour light beloved of photographers, and the soft growl of its engine and the humble andante of its progress remind me of the time a few decades back when this was what most of general aviation was: high-wing aeroplanes with 100 or 150 horsepower, put-putting along a couple of thousand feet up at 100 or 110 mph (because then we had not yet adopted the silly affectation of talking in knots).

I feel a certain warmth toward that fellow – I imagine him a man because I put myself into his place; it could just as easily be a woman, or a couple of people – and I envy him his regular early-morning flight over the barely-stirring city. He must drive out to the airport when it is still dark or half-light. I think of the fluid jingle and slither of tiedown chains when you drop them into a heap, the snap of the door latches, the smell of the shabby

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interior, the jarring way those little four-bangers have of shaking the entire aeroplane when they bark into life, and the moment when the rumble of the wheels on the runway ceases and you ride glass-smoothly on the morning air. I would like to be him now.

Late in August Nancy and I were in Boston, and as we usually do, we took a long walk in what is called the “Concord Unit” of the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. It is a large pond or wet meadow, ringed by forest, much taken-over at the moment by lotus plants, and frequented by geese, egrets, herons and dragonflies. Only a few lotus flowers remained, most having shed their petals and left behind a seedpod resembling the cylinder of a revolver. Bees hurried among the purple loosestrife, and crumbling cattails disgorged their cotton in vain expectation of a breeze. Warm, humid, silent, alive, the Concord Unit gives a strong feeling of place: All of your senses in unison tell you, “You are here!”

The Concord Unit happens to lie under a departure path for flights out of Hanscom Field, one of Boston’s major general-aviation airports. It was a Sunday afternoon, and takeoffs were infrequent; but from time to time the stillness of the meadow would be shoved aside by the hum of a turbine, and I would look up to see a jet, still low and heading westward on what I supposed must have been a noise-abatement departure.

immobilization, dim white noise, and removal from the world. It irritated them that I had the privilege of flying jets, and then failed to rave about how glorious it was. If I felt that way, they wrote, why didn’t I stay on the ground? They could fly the jet in my place, and by God, they would find it glorious.

I did not envy them.

But sitting at the front of a cruising jet on autopilot is not that different from sitting in the middle, and I never cease to marvel at the number of people on airliners who don’t look out the windows. Granted, there are hazy days when the ground below is as faded as old clothes, and days when you’re on top of a thousand-mile-wide blanket of level, featureless cloud; then, I agree, there’s not much point gazing out. But when you can watch the shadows of dusk grow longer, yellow day retreating westward before the armies of blue-black night; or the strange and gigantic signatures of ancient oceans upon a western badland; or the swirling sheen of sunglint on a wind-scoured lake; or the

There is an ambivalence in me about flying. I wonder whether other pilots feel it. The phrase about hours of boredom interrupted by moments of stark terror does not capture it, though it makes a good, and perennial, joke. It’s more a matter of the pilot’s relationship to the world around.

I angered some readers, many years ago, when I remarked that flying a jet at 41,000 feet – I happened to be talking about a flight above the Mojave desert between Van Nuys and Las Vegas, a particularly dull chunk of the earth’s surface, in a Lear 24 - was an alienating experience of

I have to admit, I’m not crazy about Las Vegas either. No accounting for tastes.

Don't forget to look out and enjoy the view.

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spider’s-web of towns and roads sketched out in points of light upon a nighttime land where a few generations ago you might have seen – had it been possible to fly above it then – only the flicker of campfires isolated in infinite black, or the baleful wink of a distant thunderstorm – when you can see those things that until our grandparents’ generation no human eye had ever seen, how on earth can you pull down the shade?

One gets used to flying; one forgets how miraculous it is. I used to refresh my sense of it, when from time to time an occasion presented, by flying over the rim of the Grand Canyon before it became illegal to do so, because low-flying planes were so annoying to hikers deep in the canyon. The drill was to hug the ground as you raced toward the rim. You wouldn’t really see the canyon coming, because you were so low. Then suddenly the ground dropped away and you were suspended in space, like the cartoon character who runs over the edge of a cliff and goes a few steps farther in the void before realizing that there is nothing under him. The effect was momentarily frightening, until the fact that an aeroplane was holding you aloft re-established itself in your consciousness.

see the cars, the people, the city coming to life beneath him as the sun ascends the sky. He has that sense of movement that you feel when flying low, or near clouds; and the air is smooth and still over the city at daybreak, so that his motion resembles an ice skater’s effortless, frictionless slide; and his departure and his arrival are closely enough linked in space and time that his flight becomes a physical gesture, a leap, up, then down. He and his aeroplane together – they are one, for the moment – are like those gods of the ancient Greeks who swooped down from Olympus and, spying a nymph bathing, alit to accost her. He is above the world, but not out of it.

ONE GETS USED TO FLYING; ONE FORGETS HOW MIRACULOUS IT IS

That was one way of recapturing the miracle.

Another was to fly low and slow over the landscape, so that you were part of it, as you are when walking or cycling or driving. Its details are visible to you, not indecipherable as they become from high above: people, vehicles, lawns, fields, seashores.

When I see the 150 pass over as I drink my morning coffee, I imagine its pilot immersed in that special way in his surroundings. He is low; he can

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But when I look up from the Concord wetland at the jet passing above, I suspect – perhaps unfairly – that the sense of the embracing world that is so strong here on the wild, watery and silent ground is all but extinguished in that luxurious and pressurized shell, whose passengers are at that moment opening their newspapers or laptops, and whose crew, acolytes of the despotic minor god Routine, are punching altitudes into a flight management system.

It is common to see airline pilots, near the end of their careers or having already retired, acquiring a Swift or a Luscombe or building a Pietenpol or something else diametrically opposed to the all-toofamiliar experience of guiding gigantic aeroplanes across continents and oceans. They crave an antidotal aeroplane, something leaky, smelly, slowclimbing. Something that shakes; something where you have to keep the ball centred. Something that never gets so far from the Earth that you forget what it is, who you are, and what a privilege it is to fly.

j

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PLANE TALK - JIM DAVIS

PASSENGERS!

NO 5

Let me tell YOU about the worst passenger in the world.

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE WORST passenger in the world. Any first-year trainee shrink would’ve warned me not to fly with this guy, based on the five shrinkery categories – where the spectrum of scores ranges from one on the left-hand side to ten on the right: •

Conscientiousness (efficient/organised vs extravagant/careless)

•

Agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs challenging/callous)

•

Neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs resilient/ confident)

•

Openness to experience (inventive/curious vs consistent/cautious)

•

Extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs solitary/reserved)

First, I’ll tell you what happened... and then we’ll look at his scores.

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March 2021

THE AWFUL ADVOCATE You know how you can hate someone the moment you meet them? Well, that’s how it was with this guy. He was big and loud and badmannered. He was like a bloody rottweiler who thinks you’re going to confiscate his bone.

Strangers were trying to kill us I’m tired and grumpy. It’s New Year’s Day and I’ve just popped into my tiny office on the old airfield at George to collect some papers. Suddenly the light is blocked off by this bully-boy filling the doorframe.

Before he speaks, I hate him. He’s 35-ish and has the demeanour of one who’s just bought out

March 2021

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Donald Trump. He’s the sort of guy who’d take the kids to school in a Hummer with extra spotlights on the roof.

He seems equally disappointed in my appearance. “Are you the only instructor around here?” He’s obviously hoping for a more wholesome specimen – someone with four gold stripes would be preferable to me in shorts and flops.

I confirm I am indeed the only one, and can see this information gives him no pleasure.

“I want to do a conversion on that aeroplane.”

He backs out of the door and points at a sadlooking 180 Comanche in a sagging, open-fronted hangar.

I’m now torn between my desire to keep my struggling little flying school afloat, and my wish to shoot this man in the head. I compromise. “Sorry, I can’t help. That’s not my aeroplane.”

“Well, whose is it, man? Just get hold of the owner and tell him I want to fly it.”

“It belongs to Dr Steyn, it’s not insured and he doesn’t hire it out. Anyway, he’s not around today.”

Jim, that flight changed my life “What do you mean, ‘Not around’? He has to be somewhere. Just get him on the phone – I want to talk to him.”

I hand him the phone book and push past to get into the fresh air outside. But I can hear him through the open door.

“Steyn, this is Advocate Flash Fourie,” he says his name as if we should recognise it – like Jack the Ripper. (I’m not using his real name, for reasons of cowardice.)

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March 2021

He’s shouting at the mild-mannered Dr Steyn.

“Well, I’ll get the bloody thing insured. Goodbye.”

He bashes the phone down. Picks it up again, dials some cowering broker and barks instructions at them.

I’ve no idea how he manages to get it all together on New Year’s Day, but he does.

We’re soon walking across the concrete towards the dejected ZS-CIZ, with her fading blue and white paint.

We pre-flight the aircraft inside the hangar because I suspect I’ll quickly find a reason not to fly it.

Although the Comanche is in a miserable state of neglect, and obviously hasn’t been flown for some time, I can find no serious fault with it. Even peering into the gloom of the engine compartment reveals nothing but a bit of rust, some cobwebs and a minor oil leak. It has hinge-open cowls like the older Cherokees.

I pull India Zulu out of the hangar without assistance while His Highness is busy with something more important. We climb aboard and strap ourselves into the leather seats. A Comanche feels like a sports car. The long bonnet and the gracefully tapered wings tell you that this is a thoroughbred. I normally love flying them, but today I’m hoping for a flat battery.

No such luck, the engine springs into life on the third compression and settles into a comfortable rumble while all the needles move into their proper places. My next hope is for a mag-drop at the threshold, but again the bleeding barrister has things his way.

I don’t like the man, and I don’t trust the aeroplane. I tell Flash that we’ll do the entire conversion within gliding distance of the field.

“What’s wrong with you, man? Are you scared?”

I start to tell him about the Live Cowards Club, but realise I’m wasting my breath.

Shortly after this, the wheels leave the grass, my discontent with the low-life lawyer evaporates

as we move into that other world. It’s a magic morning – silky smooth and not a cloud to be seen. We get the gear and flaps up and pull the power back to 25/25. At my bidding, we turn crosswind and then downwind, but we keep climbing.

You had confidence in my abilities A calm comes over me, as it always does when the troubles of the world recede below. I’m relaxed. I look out along the wing and admire its sleekness.

But wait a moment, something doesn’t seem right.

The engine hasn’t missed a beat, the gauges are all in the green, and yet I’m certain there’s trouble brewing. Is that a slight whiff of hot oil?

Or perhaps even of something burning? Mind you, when an aircraft hasn’t been flown for a long time they do sometimes smell hot – probably dust that’s settled on the engine and getting burned.

Everything inside seems okay, so I crane my neck to look at the engine cowl for signs of oil.

Then I see it – a thin puff of smoke streaks across the wing root.

Shit, we’re on fire.

“I’ve got her,” I yell, and grab the controls as I yank the throttle back and hurl the aircraft into a tight descending left turn towards the cross runway, chucking out the gear and flaps as we go.

As we touch down I dump the flaps and haul on the park brake below the panel. We slither to a halt and I hit the master and fuel off.

I’m out and off the back of the wing before the astonished attorney knows what’s happened.

his lap-strap and looking round the cockpit – he seems to have all the time in the world.

“What are you doing man?” he calls. In the heat of the moment, I’ve neglected to explain my actions to this plenary pustule.

“You’re on fire!” I shout.

I’m delighted at the effect of my words. You know how you can’t do anything right when you’re in a hurry? He struggles with the seat belt, shoots out, crashes his head on the door-frame, staggers onto the cat-walk, misses his step, falls off the back of the wing, trips and hits his head again on the tailplane.

I couldn’t be happier. But there’s no time for celebration. A good deal of black smoke billows from the engine. I sprint to the clubhouse, grab an extinguisher, open the cowl and squirt white powder onto the flames that flicker below.

The cause of the problem is soon evident. A huge rats’ nest has been set alight by the hot exhaust.

I didn’t see it during the pre-flight because it was too dark in the hangar. Nor, for that matter, did Flash Fourie.

I now use a Maglite for pre-flights – like those cool guys in CSI. The debris consisted of bits of rag and twigs that the rats had hauled in to make their home as congenial as possible for themselves and their children.

So, how do you suppose the shrinks would rate comrade Flash? Here are my much-biased guesses.

For Conscientiousness, I’d give him a fat zero.

Agreeableness, another zero. Under Neuroticism – we’re scoring sensitive/nervous vs resilient/ confident – he must get a solid ten for that.

Openness to experience gives him another ten.

And the last one – Extraversion, which looks at outgoing/energetic at the beginning of the scale, and solitary/reserved at the other end – he gets a duck.

Through the open door, I can see him unbuckling March 2021

37

DAAN DE LA REY

was his bank didn’t need a new sample of his

And now I think I’ve found the formula for the perfect passenger. As before, I’ll tell you the story first, and look at the shrink scores at the end.

signature – it was unchanged despite him having

I was relaxing in the SAAF pub at Rundu one evening during SA’s disagreement with Castro.

It had to be the best pub on the border. It was an outside affair with tables and chairs scattered amongst the trees. Bushbabies leaping from branch to branch entertain us every evening.

The wooden bar counter was long enough to water a herd of buffalo. Most of the activity was at one end, but I noticed a solitary figure sipping his beer at the other.

to use a completely different set of muscles to move the pen. Your handwriting comes from your head, not your hand, apparently.

We chatted long into the night. His name is Daan de la Rey, and he was a Captain with some special branch of the army that did secret and dangerous things, which I didn’t ask about.

We met several times after that and always got on Daan de la Rey - with grandson - and plastic hand.

Every now and then he’d have company, but it never lasted long – as if there was something vaguely uncomfortable about being in his presence. When my glass was due for a refill I wandered over and stood next to him. I saw the problem immediately – the guy had no hands.

His left arm was cut off short, and his right was fitted with an artificial hand that was able to open and close so he could hold his beer glass.

“Bloody hell, what happened to you?” I blurted before I could stop myself.

He greeted me warmly and explained that about two years earlier there was a landmine that didn’t go off when it was meant to, then exploded when they thought it wouldn’t.

We clicked immediately. I’m not sure why; perhaps strangers usually tiptoed around his injuries or pretended nothing was wrong.

Whatever the reason, he seemed to open up to me. I later learned that he was an extremely private person, so I was greatly honoured to have his confidence.

I’m fascinated by matters mechanical, so I soon had him explaining how his beer hand worked.

The action of flexing the remaining muscles of his forearm caused the hand to open and close.

He had learned to rethink which muscle did what. One of the extraordinary things he told me

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March 2021

well. War has a way of intensifying relationships.

A few weeks later, Ops gave me a mission to take a couple of pongos, or brown jobs, as we rudely called the army, to Ondangwa – some 300 miles to the east – and bring them back in the evening.

My outbound pax were Daan and someone important, to whom I wasn’t introduced. We

operated everything on a need-to-know basis.

They were preparing for a meeting and both sat in the back of the aircraft shuffling papers and making notes.

Navigation in that area called for detailed map reading. GPS didn’t exist and the few VORTAC stations in the area were weak and unreliable.

NDBs were also weak, with a range under ten miles; they were only switched on for instrument traffic doing letdowns. The countryside is flat and featureless. There are no hills and the difference in height between Rundu and Ondangwa is about 40 feet. The only things to nav by were the occasional shona or omuramba – a sort of cross between a pan and an ancient dry riverbed.

The flight should’ve taken just over two hours each way, but was a lot longer because strangers were trying to kill us. Before setting course, we had to circle up to 10,000 feet over the airfield while Alouette III gunships protected us. The baddies knew that if they took a pot shot at us, they’d give away their position and instantly be ventilated by 20 mm cannon shells.

And the same at the other end. We’d arrive at 10,000 feet over the centre of the airfield, then do a steep spiral descent while another Alo gunship gave us ‘top cover’.

The idea was that at 10,000 feet – roughly 6500 feet above the ground – we were out of range of small arms fire and, in theory, too insignificant to have SAM7s wasted on us.

However, theory and practice aren’t always compatible. A mate of mine, Hennie van Rensburg, once took a SAM7 through the front luggage compartment of his Cherokee Six. It didn’t detonate and it must’ve missed the engine mountings but it made big entry and exit holes.

It hit an oil pipe which covered the windscreen in oil, obliging Hennie to do his forced landing while looking out of the storm window.

Anyhow, on our return flight in the late afternoon, Daan was my only passenger, so he sat in the front with me. The meeting was over, he was

relaxed and had nothing to do for two-and-a-half hours. I asked him if he’d like to fly the aeroplane.

At first, he was hesitant. He only had a hook on his left arm, and no elbow, and the right was his beer-holding plastic hand. But after I showed him how to maintain heading and altitude, he cautiously took the controls. The first couple of minutes were exploratory and a bit wobbly, but he quickly got the hang of it. And soon, he had a look of utter concentration, determined to fly as accurately as possible.

I slid my seat right back, rested my head against the window and shut my eyes, just taking the occasional furtive peep to see that he was okay.

I’ve never seen a pupil concentrate so hard, not only on getting it right but keeping it right – for a very long time. The sweat was running down his face, and he didn’t have a hand to wipe it off.

A couple of times I asked if he’d like me to take over for a bit, but he wasn’t interested.

For some reason, Rundu didn’t feel like giving us an Alo for top-cover; I suspect the pilots had retired to the pub or were having their dinner. Anyhow, this meant we could do a normal descent from 40 miles out.

Again I asked Daan whether he’d like me to take over, and again he wasn’t interested. With huge concentration, he managed to richen the mixture by pushing it with his hook and then using it to reduce the power slightly to give us a gradual descent to the circuit.

I didn’t touch the controls until he had us on short final.

That was all in the early 80s. The Gleitch has forbidden me to tell stories about yesteryear, but toughies, I’ve done it now.

Anyhow, a couple of days ago I managed to track Daan down. I hadn’t seen or heard from him for 40 years. What a reunion that was. He’s now 71; he retired from the army as Deputy Director and he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel when demilitarised.

March 2021

39

He lives an active life on a smallholding near Pretoria with his lovely wife, Gretha. He’s a lucky man, his four children, and a bunch of grandchildren whom he adores, all live within 15 minute’s drive. His plastic fingers don’t work on touchscreens so he has to use his nose, and he types with a pencil in his mouth. Daan still enjoys horse riding at an age when many men are at the slippers-by-the-fireside stage of life.

reflecting a red glow far into Angola. Everything looked so perfect and peaceful in sharp contrast of what is happening on the ground."

When I phoned him I said, “Daan, you probably won’t remember me but I’m one of the guys who flew you around on the border, and I got you to fly the aeroplane from Ondangwa to Rundu.”

For Conscientiousness, he’d get a ten.

Agreeableness, another ten. Zero for Neuroticism.

Openness to experience gives him another ten.

And the last one – Extraversion, which looks at outgoing/energetic at one end of the scale, and solitary/reserved at the other end – well, I’d give him about seven for being more of a quiet, modest man.

There was an embarrassingly long silence to the point where I thought he hadn’t heard me. Then he said, his voice croaky with emotion, “Jim, that flight changed my life. The fact that you had confidence in my abilities, rather than suspicion of my disabilities, changed the way I looked at life.”

Daan has just written to me, he says, "I can recall the breathtaking scenery with the sun setting and

Daan de la Rey - on the far right - with all his arms.

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March 2021

If you asked me what my most memorable flight was, I’d say either my first solo... or that magical evening flight along the Kavango river with Daan.

He was the ideal passenger. So how would I rate him on the shrinks’ chart?

I am hugely privileged to call him my friend.

So if you’re looking for the perfect passenger, search for a Daan clone; there are not many around.

j

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+ ALL FLYING EXERCISES

special deal for flying schools phone Avril at 076 732 3392 or visit www.jimdavis.co.za March 2021

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A SLIM LOGBOOK - JOHAN WALDEN

THE HANGAR R AT VOYAGE (PART 1)

With less than 200 hours between us, one of us had the sparkling idea of flying a 1,600nm cross-country around South Africa, in a little Jabiru 430. Buckle up as we set off on a long nav in pursuit of experience and flying adventures!

AFTER HUFFING AND CHUFFING THROUGH

FINDING A PLANE

most of the CPL exams, my brain felt like a battered

Before I could do anything, or even find a buddy, I needed a plane. So on a bright Saturday morning I met David at the clubhouse for a Morningstar brekkie and a chat. I’d been building hours on his Jabiru 430 for a while now, and wanted to ask him if he minded me taking his baby a little further than Saldanha this time…

tomato at the bottom of a fruit bowl. I’d clawed my way up to about 140 hours but hadn’t flown much since finishing my Night Rating. And I was itching to do something other than sit at my desk all day and collect dust.

I had some hours left to play with, but I couldn’t just spend those flying around the patch: The regs called for a minimum of 50 hours cross-country time as Pilot In Command. I remembered a pearl Jim Davis passed in one of his articles somewhere in the pile; that “hour building” by flying up and down to the same places is a waste of time and avgas. Instead, students should be “experience building” and endeavour to make each flight a learning opportunity.

Does magic 200 and a CPL in hand automatically make you confident enough to fly paying passengers by yourself to any airport in the country – no matter how big? For me at least, the answer is “No”.

And so an idea was born.

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March 2021

I showed him my plan to fly up to Bloemfontein with a refuelling stop in Beaufort West, then battle through Joburg’s dreaded airspace pudding of doom and land at Wonderboom in Pretoria. Then back down to Kimberley, West to Upington and Springbok, and finally down the West Coast to Morningstar. Four days, six destinations – including two international airports.

After looking at the route, David’s response was, “I think you’re crazy. But do it.”

He must have been concerned about his plane going such a long distance from home base (and maintenance facilities), but then he told me the story of when he sailed from Florida all the way to Cape

Town single handed: There was a lot that could go wrong, but if he pondered on that all day, he’d never leave his front door.

I hoped our trip wasn’t quite as “out there” as his, but I got the message and was thrilled to have a thumbs up.

Aerie sorted.

Sean Douglass, my buddy for the trip, had completed his PPL a few months before. We’d attended ground school together and he was a sharp copilot and navigator, and would keep us out of trouble.

So about a month before “launch day” we set about planning this thing.

THE FIVE PS The hardest part of the whole trip was the planning. It never ended.

I spent every evening buried in the AIP’s reading up on each airport’s arrival and departure procedures. We threw together a package (“The Yellow File”) containing all the information we needed. Everything from airport procedures, frequencies, and NOTAMs, to fuel arrangements, parking, and emergency maintenance contacts. We must’ve made 30 phone calls before it was done.

Our instructors at the local flight school, Stick N Throttle Aviation, caught wind of our schemes and spent hours with us on the flight planning details – and crucially the local knowledge not contained in the AIP’s. The school even

1600nm of experience building.

donated some bucks for the trip.

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance = the 5 Ps. So we tried to get as much done before the flight as possible – it would give us an easier time in the air.

at 4000ft up till about Ceres, and clear thereafter.

We were going!

A last tip from our instructor that morning; “When in doubt, there is no doubt.” With a fist-bump we lit

PROPER PLANNING PREVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE THE BIG LET DOWN After postponing three times (with David relieved and able to sleep again) we finally spotted some flyable weather over most of our route. So ready to nab the window, we arrived at Morningstar ready for a 7am departure to Beaufort West and on to Bloemfontein. The weather man prophesied broken cloud bases

the fires in the Jabiru and taxied to the hold. After a thorough engine check we waved David goodbye, lined up, and took off on Runway 02. At near max weight the Jabiru still cleared the trees at the end of the runway without getting our blood pressure up too much. After a right turnout to the east, I set heading for Ceres – after which we’d steer for Beaufort West.

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We fired up the Jabiru 430 for take-off.

There were clouds everywhere – they weren’t causing problems yet, but they definitely weren’t at 4000ft.

We made it to about 2500ft and halfway to the first mountain range before the clouds started creeping down. Like a great ceiling angled slightly down, the clouds pushed us lower little by little. I hoped we could get around the first mountains with a slight detour to the Voelvlei Dam, and that it would clear

up a little once we were further east. But I wasn’t going to let hope fly us all the way into a ‘cumulus granitus’, so I kept my personal minimums at the front mind.

Twenty minutes later and the cute cotton balls had merged into a gloomy grey carpet and suddenly I didn’t need my sunglasses anymore. We could actually see the dam ahead, but it was right where the clouds finally met the ground – an obvious

"Cumulus Granitus".

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problem. Then a couple minutes later, and a couple hundred feet lower, rain started pelting the windshield and it suddenly got darker.

perfect weather. Yesterday’s excitement (not in a good way) had shaken out all the excess nerves, and we both felt a little more focused today.

When in doubt, there is no doubt.

By 7:45am we were passing Ceres at FL075 and set heading direct to Beaufort West with the engine purring. 170nm still lay ahead, and another 270 to Bloemfontein the same day. So far so good.

WHEN IN DOUBT, THERE IS NO DOUBT Before hitting any cloud I made a 180 and went straight back in the opposite direction. Then a horrible thought crept over us like a spider up one’s back: could we even get back? We were between the cloud hanging near the mountains and an inverted wedge rolling in from the sea… and possibly over Morningstar. The jaws were closing. So with the field still 20 minutes away I squeezed the throttle a bit more and made myself small so we could go faster.

I made a rather unimpressive landing, but we were both relieved to be back on the ground under that darkening sky. We gave it another 2 or 3 hours before calling the weather man again: 4000ft bases and clear to the east. I’d heard that one before.

A quick radio call to someone in the air confirmed 1000ft bases. It started drizzling. We were ‘good weather pilots’ in a ‘good weather plane’ – we’d leave the IF stuff to the professionals.

As we left the mountains behind, we entered the Karoo and a vast expanse of nothingness. I thought about Charles Lindbergh and his epic voyage from New York to Paris way back when. Somehow he managed to navigate the 3100nm journey (literally double our whole trip) with an airspeed indicator, compass, and a clock. Dead reckoning at its best.

WE WERE BOTH RELIEVED TO BE BACK ON THE GROUND We were on the half-hour so I did our fuel check and scanned the instrument panel. Our cockpit had a few more goodies than his: we had a map (lots and lots of maps) and compass, GPS, and the EasyCockpit app leaving a breadcrumb trail on my phone. The

Lindbergh flew New York to Paris with this sparse panel.

LIVE TO FLY ANOTHER DAY So with our pride a bit bashed up we put the aeroplane to bed. We’d missed our only opportunity of getting to Pretoria while the weather on that side of the country was good. Now we’d have to cut out Wonderboom and go from Bloemfontein to Kimberley instead, missing out on the main challenge of the trip.

At least David could sleep one more night.

Nonetheless, next morning we jumped back in for attempt number two, and departed in absolutely March 2021

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Our cockpit had a few more goodies.

autopilot slaved to the magenta line on the GPS kept us on track for Beaufort West, leaving my hands free for a quick snack.

Both of us felt we’d made the right call to scrub

yesterday’s attempt, even if it meant missing out.

Like Lindbergh (at least in our heads) we were off and away with the world on our spinner, waiting to see what new places we might be swept off to.

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March 2021

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FLIGHT TEST: GK 1

THE GK-1 – THRILLS AND SPEED - ON A BUDGET! The GK-1 is an amazing little plane that has been returned to its rightful place in the sky. It is like an affordable personal jet fighter, and is one of the very few homebuilts to successfully use a water-cooled car engine.

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March 2021

THE GK-1 WAS BUILT IN THE LATE-1980S

by Garth Kopke (hence the name GK) as a plane that would give him a wonderful thrill to fly – with speed, but at a cost his young pocket could afford.

Dr Russell Phillips – the creator of the Whisper range of aircraft, worked with Garth and writes: There’s a saying out there about the ‘talkers’ and the ‘doers’. This article is about a ‘doer’. In this case a young South African who quietly got on with the job of designing and developing a unique aircraft. The chap in question was Garth Kopke – who sadly is not with us anymore as he died in a fire-bombing crash as a result of structural failure.

Moving on from the ‘Wild Thing’, the new aircraft was to be a single seater with sufficient strength for aerobatics and very low drag. The issue of an engine became a problem as it is difficult to extract more than about 70 hp from the tried and tested VW’s used by so many homebuilders.

Garth had seen the Honda 1600 car engine in my Citabria. The actual engine used had flown some 200 hrs and had been dyno tested to 105 hp. It had been detuned from its car application and simplified with a change from fuel injection to a carburettor. Where possible, redundancy was built into the ignition system with dual electrics feeding the single plug per cylinder.

Garth started building a KR-2 when still at high school and some years later ZS-WJN took to the skies. This was a successful aircraft because he kept it simple and light. Garth had the usual itch for more speed and for aerobatic capabilities, so it was no surprise that sketches of a sleeker, faster machine started to appear.

Garth studied the Masters’ thesis I had done on

Russell writes, “In 1988 Garth and I each started building our own ‘Wild Things’ as we called them. These were hot little planes to be powered by 2-strokes and would be lightweight aerobats. Garth was working in Lesotho and when relocating back to Port Elizabeth he transported his fuselage on the roof of his Mazda 323. About 5 km from PE it fell off the roof and trashed itself. He left it next to the road in disgust and came and told me about it. I raced out and picked up the pieces. I still have some of it. He was really annoyed with himself and more than a tad disappointed. So I gave him my Wild Thing fuselage, which ended up becoming the GK1.

progressing. Due to his nomadic lifestyle as a

Garth ate, spoke, slept and talked aeroplanes.... all day, every day. He would arrive at your place at 10 pm on a Sunday night and sketch aircraft until 2 am the next morning....all on tea. His death was a great loss to aviation and homebuilding.

this engine and decided that was the way to go.

All the ingredients were now in place, so all he had to do was design and build an aircraft from scratch!

Every few months I would receive a call from Garth giving sketchy details of how he was cropsprayer/ firebombing pilot, these calls came from many different places. The aircraft project also moved around the countryside quite a bit.

The airspeed indicator was almost on the stop I finally got to see the aircraft in Plettenburg Bay when it was almost complete. There is yet another saying (this time an aviation saying) “If it looks right it will fly right”. My first impressions of the unpainted machine in a dusty Plett workshop were exactly that – it looked right!

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ABOVE: The GK-1 streaking along at 220 mph on 20 litres per hour.

LEFT TOP: Exhaust even looks like a mini Merlin.

LEFT MIDDLE: Long nose light weight and sleek lines built for speed.

LEFT BOTTOM: Coolant radiator is housed in a P-51 Mustang type duct.

OPPOSITE PAGE TOP: The neat and tightly-cowled Honda engine with the large belt drive on the right BOTTOM LEFT: Simple and clean instrument panel uses MGL EFIS. Fuel gauge is the clear pipe.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Propellor is ground adjustable. Small wheels like tarred runways.

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The Honda engine flew 200 hrs in Russell Phillips - Citabria.

The GK-1 is a machine that achieved and surpassed its design goals

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The neat and tightly-cowled Honda engine with the large belt drive on the right.

Garth was not a qualified aeronautical engineer, yet he produced a machine using common sense and gut feel that I believe would be hard to improve upon, even with an army of engineers.

(The sizing of the structural items such as spars etc were all verified by the appropriate experts).

The little speedster changed hands a few times after Garth was killed. One of the owners was Carlton Blandford – a KR-2 fan, who flew it out of Tedderfield where he kept, not one but two, KR-2s. But Carlton found Tedderfield a bit tight for the GK-1 so he put it on the market. In 2020 it was acquired by ace aerobatic pilot Neville Ferreira, who had recently sold his Slick 540 unlimited aerobatic plane and who had 700-800 hours on these high performance planes. Neville flew it for our camera shoot and is putting a new

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lease of life into the GK-1. He has ironed out little niggles with the carburettor and harmonic vibration and given it a snappy new paint scheme.

ON THE GROUND The overriding impression is one of diminutive size – and sleek lines – built for speed and without the wide high drag cross section of the horizontally opposed air-cooled aircraft engines.

The GK-1 looks a lot like Alex Henshaw’s Mew Gull, which he flew from London to Cape Town and back in an incredible four days and 10 hours, a record which stood for 70 years!

For those who know Ken Rands KR-1 and KR-2 designs, there is an immediate similarity as the rear fuselage and tail are almost entirely KR-1.

The construction methods are also largely KR derived, using wooden structural elements with a foam core covered with fibreglass. This gives a cost effective and simple to build yet clean composite finish.

The wings have two substantial single piece laminated wood spars. The one-piece wing fits into a cut-out in the underside of the fuselage.

The radiator is mounted in the rear fuselage and draws air in through an under-belly scoop, similar to a P-51 Mustang.

The engine cowl has no air inlets, thereby reducing cooling drag to the absolute minimum.

The Honda 1600 spins a 3 blade Warpdrive ground adjustable propellor. Often car engine installations into aircraft throw up a host of unanticipated problems that can take much time and effort to resolve. One of the more common is vibration from mismatched resonance frequencies, particularly considering the complexities of driving a three bladed propellor with a four-cylinder four-stroke engine through 2.2:1 reduction drive unit. ZU-BLJ was not immune to this problem and required significant experimentation – which required test flying, a return to base, adjustment and then more test flying. Possible culprits which were eliminated flight by flight were: ignition timing, carb icing and tension on the reduction drive belt. In the end the vibration was solved simply by rotating the prop through 60 degrees on the crankshaft hub. Fortunately, the large belt V-drive absorbs much of the engine pulses and the backlash from when the prop drives the engine in a low power dive.

and hence the cockpit is spartan and functional.

The ailerons have aerodynamic balance tabs which help reduce stick forces.

The wheels are small, so it is a tar runway aircraft. The mainwheels take 400x5 tyres which are used by RV nosewheels. The spats are a tight fit around the wheels and are blended carefully into the spring steel undercarriage legs.

Every attempt has been made to reduce drag, and even the tailwheel is tightly faired

An incredible 5:1 ratio between cruise and stall speeds FLYING THE GK-1 Russell Phillips writes, “My first flight in this machine was with the normal trepidation and nervousness one has at flying something new.

In this case, it was really new – this was the first GK1 in the world! It’s a single seater so there was no one to show me the ropes. I admit to butterflies in my belly as I started up and taxied out.

The nose is very long but fortunately, forward visibility is not too bad as the nose is also narrow.

It is immediately evident that much care and skill went into the design and refinement of the GK-1.

The workmanship on the aircraft is superb, with great attention to detail.

The first impression, as you open the throttle to taxi, is that you are flying a turbine due to the high-frequency whine and smoothness of the engine. The engine drives the prop through a toothed belt reduction drive which results in a lot less of the low rpm clatter one gets with other prop speed gear reduction systems.

The canopy uses a mould of a glider canopy and blends very neatly into the fuselage lines. Big emphasis has been placed on weight reduction

Takeoff is an exhilarating affair as the power to weight ratio is spectacular. The aircraft has reasonable taildragger manners with ample March 2021

53

rudder. Lift-off happens at about 70 mph, and initial climb rate is in excess of 1,200 ft/min.

Climbing out at around 90 mph she felt solid and responsive. Once at around 2,000 feet above the ground, 6,500 amsl she settled in the cruise at around 185 mph with the engine at an easy 5300 rpm.

At full throttle, she reminds me of a racing car, as the four cylinders reach 6000 rpm. This is something to get used to after flying 6-cylinder Lycomings with max rpm below 2900 rpm.

Cruising at 185 mph I took my hands and feet off the controls and she remained stable without the tendency to pitch or bank, even though she has a straight wing with zero dihedral.

The most striking recollection I have of the first flight is the control harmony achieved in

Garth Kopke with the GK-1.

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this design. I have read of the classic ratios between elevator, aileron and rudder forces which designers aspire to. Some aircraft which apparently have come close to these ideal ratios are the Chipmunk and Pitts S2A. I would liken the delightful control harmony of the GK-1 to the Pitts S2A. Roll rate is yet to be accurately measured, but is in the order of 180 degrees per second, making multiple aileron rolls and hesitation rolls a pleasure.

In straight and level flight the aircraft does what it was really designed for – speed. After levelling off, a quick glance at the airspeed indicator yields a pretty impressive speed, but patience is required as this machine seems to take about two minutes to really get going.

The radiator is built into the rear fuselage and has an adjustable cowl flap. Once you are established in level flight, the coolant temp is monitored and

A sketch by Garth Kopke shows the similar Mustang planform.

the cowl flap progressively closed. The first time I tried this I couldn’t believe the reading I was getting on the airspeed indicator, which was almost on the stop.

Neville Ferreira shares his experience of making friends with the GK-1: “My very first takeoff went without a glitch after keeping her on the ground until she wanted to get airborne. The engine turns the ‘wrong’ way, being anticlockwise from behind, so left rudder is needed to keep straight.

GK-1 settled at 194 mph ground speed straight and level. Catching up with the RV-14 that has just taken off from Kittyhawk, I throttled back in the descent, so as not to bust the 230 mph VNE. This produced a 236 mph ground speed. Back at the airfield after 19 minutes of flying, I had used only 5 litres of fuel.

I cruise at an easy 4000 rpm which gives me 160 mph air speed at a fuel burn of just 15 litres per hour. Useful load is 350 lbs so a 200 lb pilot leaves just 150 lbs for fuel. For a lightweight pilot

My next flight was with a GPS to confirm what the air speed indicator was reading – approximately 160 KIAS (184 mph indicated – at 6,000 ft) This is impressive in a machine burning just 17 litres per hour!

a full 50 litre fuel tank gives a more than ample

On a later flight with an RV-14 for company, flying at 7,500 feet routing from Rhino to Kitty Hawk, the

Normally a plane built for speed has a demanding

four-hour endurance with reserve. Although never intended for cross country cruising, there is a 15 kg baggage allowance, but minimal space for even an overnight bag and small toothbrush.

wing, but the GK-1’s stall speed is a low 45 mph March 2021

55

230 mph in level flight.

IAS, with very little wing drop. This is probably due to the use of the well-proven RAF 48 wing section, known for its docile stalling manners.

The circuit and landing can be interesting if you leave the going down and slowing down too late.

With no flaps, the only way to lose height is by sideslipping. This is also a useful way to see the runway over that long nose.

I calculated my own Vref approach speed by adding 30% to the stall speed of 43 mph and settled on 58 mph across the fence. After a bit of trial and error I find the best approach is to fly Downwind at 90 mph, base at 70 and then to go down and slow down by sideslipping to cross the threshold at 58 mph.

Flying the correct approach speed is vital. The trailing edge of the wing is just 40 cm from the ground, creating a cushion of air that you can just float along for the length of the runway if the speed across the threshold is too fast. A full three point landing must be done, as a wheeler may

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float you off the end of the runway.

The aircraft touches down gently on its spring steel undercarriage. With a few practice landings, a 400 m runway is quite feasible, even with the rather ineffective drum brakes fitted to ZU-BLJ. Disc brakes would improve stopping performance and thus shorten the runaway requirement even more.

Keeping it straight during the final stages of the landing roll requires a bit of footwork, but nothing that a competent taildragger flyer would have a problem with.

OWNING A GK-1 Neville Ferreira wants to share the tremendous fun and value proposition that is the GK-1. He says that in comparison to modern high price tag aerobatic aircraft, this offers a kick in the pants experience that you just do not associate

with an aircraft at this price point. “Where have you seen a 100 hp engine delivering 200-220 mph speeds with less than 20 lph fuel burn?” he asks. “This little aircraft with a 6-metre wingspan requires only the corner of your hangar, but once you have strapped her on, she flies as well as any $440,000 aircraft.”

Although the GK-1 is not marketed as aerobatic, Neville says it is 100% able to perform loops, rolls and any basic manoeuvres. But the fun lies in the flight itself. It is a Reno Racer on steroids with a price tag around the $100 000-$120 000 – depending on options – ready to fly. And the engine sounds just like an Italian sports car!

Neville says he is the final stages to start production of this amazing little plane. The 2 seat tandem seater with a tubular steel frame will be offered with the 180Hp Viking engine (also Honda derived), while the single-seater option will be powered by 100-130 Hp engine from the same company.

DESIGN GOALS: The GK-1 is a machine that surpassed its design goals. Anyone who has considered designing and building an aircraft singlehandedly from scratch will realise what a notable achievement a project like this represents.

KEY DESIGN FEATURES AND GOALS FOR THE GK-1 WERE: • Cockpit: The cockpit will accommodate any pilot with an average build and up to 6 feet tall with max weight of 125 kg or 275 lbs.

• A stall speed less than 45 mph yet a CRUISE speed of 200 mph @ 5000 rpm (Max rpm 6500). This is an incredible 5:1 ratio between cruise and stall speeds.

• VNE: 230 mph, yet an approach speed of just 50-55 mph making for much lower energy in the event of a forced landing.

• Fuel burn: 4.5GPH / 17 lph @ 185Mph Under the trading name Great Knots (for GK), Neville is taking orders for the aircraft sold in kit form or completely built, with or without firewall forward components – being engine, prop and all accessories.

The engine options are the Viking Aircraft water cooled inline 4-cylinder Honda derived engine range, or UL Power, or the Continental 0-200.

j

Specifications - GK-1 SPECIFICATIONS Length Wingspan Wing area Aspect ratio Empty weight Max takeoff weight Useful Load Fuel capacity Powerplant Power - hp PERFORMANCE Maximum speed Cruise speed Stall speed Range Service ceiling Rate of climb

5.2m (17 ft) 6.1m (20 ft) 6.8m2 (73.2 sqft) 5,6 290kg (640 lbs) 450kg (990 lbs) 160 kg (350 lbs) 50 litres Honda 1800 DOHC car engine 100 hp

220 mph 160 mph @ 55% power 43mph 640 mi @ 55% power 20 000 ft 1 200March ft/min 2021

57

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ACCIDENT REPORT: JIM DAVIS

PIPER MALIBU

EFATO

The pilot, who was also the owner of the aircraft, took off from runway 29 at Wonderboom on a private acceptance flight

Date of Accident 30 November 2010

following maintenance. The flight

Time of Accident 1330Z

was conducted under visual

Aircraft Registration ZS-LLA

meteorological conditions (VMC).

Type of Aircraft PA 46-310P (Piper Malibu)

Shortly after rotation, he experienced

Pilot licence Commercial Pilot

an engine failure and conducted

Licence Valid Yes

a forced landing on an open area

Age 46

of veld on the extended centre

Total Flying Hours 1 153

line of runway 29. After touching down at speed, he realised that he was heading for trees, a concrete structure and telephone wires at the far edge of the open area. Unable to stop in time, he pulled up the nose of the aircraft and managed to clear the obstacles. He then struck the ground heavily. The nose wheel collapsed and the aircraft swung 90° before coming

Hours on Type 560 Last point of departure: Wonderboom (FAWB) Next point of intended landing: Wonderboom Location of the accident site: Open area of veld on the extended centreline of runway 29 Meteorological Information Wind: westerly at 8 kt; Temperature: 26°C; Dew point: unknown; Visibility: > 10 km; Clouds: scattered at 8 000 ft.

to a standstill.

Number of people on board 1+0

Damage was caused to the propeller,

No. of people injured 0

nose wheel and wings. The pilot did

No. of people killed 0

not sustain any injuries.

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ACCIDENT REPORT:

March 2021

THIS REPORT WAS COMPILED IN THE INTEREST OF THE PROMOTION OF AVIATION SAFETY AND THE REDUCTION OF THE RISK OF AVIATION ACCIDENTS OR INCIDENTS AND NOT TO ESTABLISH LEGAL LIABILITY. HISTORY OF FLIGHT THE PILOT STATED THAT BEFORE TAKEOFF he had completed all his engine and pre-flight checks and had selected the right-hand fuel tank.

The engine had performed normally during the checks.

On rotation, the engine failed. The pilot changed the fuel tank selector to the left tank but this made no difference. He selected a 40° flap setting and carried out a forced landing on an open area of veld on the extended centreline of runway 29.

The pilot transmitted a mayday call to Wonderboom tower on frequency 120,6 MHz. The accident sequence occurred along the extended centre line of runway 29. The first contact point with the ground was 450m beyond the end of runway 29 and the final impact point was 740m beyond the end of the runway. The aircraft came to rest on its nose after the nose wheel collapsed.

At the time of impact, the landing gear had been lowered and the flaps selected at 40°.

Directly after the accident, while the aircraft was in a nose-down attitude, the fuel gauge indicated that the left tank held six gallons and the right was empty.

Once the aircraft was recovered and placed in a level attitude, the same gauge showed that the left tank held nine gallons and the right, eight.

The airframe and engine fuel systems were inspected. No components were damaged and no abnormalities were found. No parts were replaced before the next phase – the engine test runs.

The aircraft was secured in a level attitude. The engine was started and then operated at all power settings. No difficulties or abnormalities were recorded.

The aeroplane was again secured in the takeoff attitude and the engine tested once more. No abnormalities were recorded.

During both ground runs, the fuel tank selector was switched from the left to the right tank without the engine misfiring or quitting. Only when OFF was selected did the engine stop.

The Malibu touched down fast - became airborne again and then landed hard and broke its nosewheel.

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The fuel gauges are like almost all light aircraft fuel gauges - not to be relied upon - and change with attitude.

The pilot stated that he had taken off with the righthand fuel tank selected, and when the engine failure occurred, had selected the left-hand tank.

However, during the investigation immediately after the accident, the right-hand tank was found to be selected. The left-hand tank was selected for the engine test after the accident.

During the interview with the pilot on the day after the accident, the position of the fuel tank selector valve was discussed. The pilot then became unsure if the original selection had been the left or right tank.

He said that he had been trying to rectify the engine problem and fly the aircraft simultaneously and could not recall his actions precisely.

He added that he had had no time to switch the electrical fuel pump to HIGH. Fuel is stored in two main integral wing tanks, each holding 60 usable gallons and one unusable gallon.

The fuel is gravity-fed to a collector tank located at the root of each wing. Reverse fuel flow from the collector tank to the main tank is prevented by two flapper check valves in each collector tank.

Each collector tank has a submerged, electric centrifugal pump for vapour suppression at altitude.

It may be used during normal engine operation

Bad design - the fuel selector is easy to inadvertently switch off.

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both on the ground and in the air when selected in the LOW position. An engine-driven fuel pump caters for normal fuel supply. When failure of the engine or engine-driven fuel pump is expected, the electric pump is used in the HIGH position to supply adequate fuel pressure.

what happened – but I am almost certain the pilot switched the fuel off. Sounds silly, but that’s the only way the investigators could duplicate the engine stoppage.

And just to be clear, if the pilot caused it, it was an engine stoppage – not an engine failure.

PROBABLE CAUSE Although the cause of the engine failure could not be determined, fuel mismanagement (moving the fuel selector to the OFF position) at the moment the emergency occurred, could not be ruled out.

JIM’S COMMENTS Bear with me for a moment. I grew up on a farm in Kenya in the days when all machinery was unreliable. We had a D2 Caterpillar tractor that used a 600cc pilot engine to start the main diesel. There was also a WW2 Willys Jeep and a Studebaker Commander. The second tractor was a tall green 1935 John Deere with a 5,2 litre twin-cylinder paraffin engine. It had spiked iron wheels and an external flywheel. Finally, there was a little James motorcycle with a 125cc Villiers engine.

All these vehicles had something in common – they broke down from time to time, and the cause was always one of two things: • no fuel • or no spark Pretty much all engines are the same. If there is no sudden bang and broken bits, then the problem is either fuel or ignition.

Aeroplane engines make diagnosis a bit simpler by having the added safety of two magnetos. So this boils down to an almost infallible rule – if it suddenly stops – it’s a fuel problem.

With this insight we can use Ocham’s razor and cut away all the crap about which tank he thought he selected and which one he changed to. I don’t know

In the pilot’s defence, I have to say the Malibu fuel selector is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. If you are on the left tank, but mistakenly think you are on the right hand tank – which way will you move the lever? And what’s going to happen?

Let’s suppose this guy made a habit of never switching the fuel off – a habit which I think has a lot of merit. And let’s suppose the AMO did switch the fuel off.

Now, if the pilot was a conscientiousness type he may well have chosen to start up and taxi on the lowest right tank – the right hand one, and then moved the lever to the left for the runup and takeoff.

But, because he knew his aircraft well (he had 560 hours on type) he didn’t look down at the selector – he just moved it to the right or left until it stopped.

So from the initial Off position he moves it to the right – thinking he has the right tank, but actually he has selected the left tank. Then before takeoff he moves it to the left – thinking he has selected the left tank, but he has actually switched the fuel OFF. I can’t be sure this happened – but this is my best guess.

When the engine stops at very low level he suddenly has a handful and rather loses his cool. He seems to communicate (calls mayday) then aviate (maintains plenty of airspeed) and then navigate (points the nose at a field that’s far too close).

While this is happening he fiddles with the selector, but it’s too late. And, if he was well trained, he would have closed the throttle.

Some will ask why close the throttle if the engine March 2021

63

The crash site showing initial touchdown point.

has already stopped? The answer is that you really don’t want to get set up for your field, and then the power suddenly comes back for ten seconds and carries you somewhere you don’t want to be before stopping again. If you close the throttle you know where you stand – you are flying a glider.

It was understood that old equipment was likely to break down.

Finally, there is something strange going on.

The report says ‘… he had no time to switch the electrical fuel pump to HIGH.’ I don’t understand this comment. The Malibu has the same fuel injected Continental as most Bonanzas, Barons and Cessna 210s, all of which give dire warnings in their POHs about switching the pump to HIGH. Indeed I did an accident report a recently about two guys who lost their lives by doing exactly this in a Bonnie at Kimberley. So CAA’s comment makes no sense.

We will never know exactly what happened – but there is still much to be learned from this accident.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

64

This guy must have touched down at a hell a speed because he was able to pull her off again, fly over a ‘concrete structure’, some telephone wires and some trees and finally land nearly 1000 feet further on.

When you move a fuel selector you are playing with your life – so take the trouble to look at what you are doing. Note for Cherokee instructors. When a pupe changes tanks, always haul their leg away so you can see what they have done.

My guess is that after the dust settled he saw he had switched the fuel off, so he selected the right hand tank to make himself look better to the investigators.

Find out how long your engine will keep running with the selector OFF. Try it on the ground to get an idea how long you can idle and taxi with the fuel switched

March 2021

The complex Piper Malibu fuel system.

off. I would also try it in the air at takeoff power. Do it at a sensible altitude over the airfield. If you are uncomfortable inducing an engine stoppage in the air, then try it on the ground against the chocks. It’s part of knowing your aircraft.

we hear – even if we are the ones giving those instructions. If you are solo then it’s no problem, and if you have pax you simply tell them what you will do in the event of an EFATO, and brief them to unlatch the door on touchdown.

Always expect an EFATO and brief yourself for it – out loud. We react positively to instructions that

I like the Air Force checks: Speed, Field, Fuel, Flaps.

Speed – lower the nose to maintain flying speed March 2021

65

Mayday. Only if you have time. It will alert the rescue crew if no one has seen you crashing. This pilot was very compressed for time. I suggest he may have stuffed up the landing because he was concentrating on his call instead of flying the aircraft.

YOUR ONE STOP SHOP FOR ANYTHING NEEDED IN THE LIGHT AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY.

Close the throttle when you have an engine stoppage. This apples to both high altitude and an EFATO. At altitude you have time to look for the fault and then try the throttle, but near the ground you don’t have time for that, so just close the throttle.

SUMMARY • Be very careful when changing tanks.

• Learn all you can about your fuel system.

• Expect an engine failure on every takeoff, and brief for it.

• Aviate Navigate Communicate. (Speed, Field, Fuel, Flaps).

• Close the throttle if the engine stops.

• Mayday is your last priority.

j

m haWe ov v ede !

(that’s the Aviate bit). Field – select the best available (that’s the Navigate part). This business of 30 degrees either side is plain stupid. If you are ten feet up you won’t make a 30 degree turn, and if you are at 400 feet why limit yourself to a 30 degree turn?.

Next is Fuel – this is the most common problem, so change tanks and use the electric pump – but NOT in the HI position on those injected Continentals.

Flaps – use as necessary to get into your field at the slowest speed. Remember, if you touch down at 45kts you will do only ¼ of the damage that you would at 90kts.

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March 2021

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67

MINI FEATURE - MARK HOLLIDAY

LUNCH IN TULBAGH Flying in the Western Cape is always memorable. The valley and ridges northwest of Worcester provide some of the most exhilarating gliding experiences in South Africa.

TO BE GENTLY PUSHED UPWARDS WITHOUT circling as you glide to the head of the valley is a thrill that is only surpassed by diving down the gentle slope beyond the valley head with the ground 20 feet below you as you descend to the low lying Porterville Ridge that runs northwards for another 80 km.

The Porterville ridge descends in places to a mere 400 feet above the flatlands, but such is the power of the Westerly winds that you can roar along the ridge top at high speeds, confident that you have no need to stop and thermal.

And so it was that I was leading a recent Cape Championships on the last day, confident of my newly found ridge-running ability, when I

for the opposite side of the valley hoping to meet the air that had so generously lifted me up on the way out, but this was not to be. I was too low to connect the ridge lift and soon pulled out my wheel and airbrakes for an uneventful landing next to a forest.

The directions to the farm were too complicated to describe to my crew, so I hitched a lift into town on the back of a bakkie accompanied by a crew of labourers who were itching to spend their Friday pay-packet. I settled at a delightful restaurant on the Tulbagh pavement where I enjoyed a crisp Caesar Salad with an even crisper Chenin Blanc and was entertained by the colourful locals enjoying their weekly wages outside the bottle store.

found myself needing a climb necessary for the transition into the Tulbagh valley. I had already discarded several weak thermals and now came to the part where the ridge leaves Porterville and cuts back towards Tulbagh.

I had anticipated a convergence where the two air masses meet near the head of the valley, but was disappointed to find constant sink and barely scraped over the Pass below. I headed

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LESSONS: Ridge lift doesn’t work low down. There seems to be a compression of the wind against the lower reaches of the ridge before it starts rising. One weak thermal would not have cost a lot over the whole competition and my run had been good up to that point; so I effectively threw away the championship.

j

March 2021

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REGISTER REVIEW: RAY WATTS

FEBRUARY 2021 ZT-RRT Bell 430 written off near Colenso.

IT IS MOST UNUSUAL TO HAVE SUCH A small number of aircraft movements on the register as we have for the month of January 2021. I can only think this is an indication of the fact that it is the beginning of the year and these aircraft would have been brought in during December which is traditionally a very slow month.

There are only three fixed wing TCA aircraft registered this month. One is a rather old Cessna 175 which has come from Botswana. She is a 1956

model and has had the engine conversion from the old Continental 175hp geared engine to the Lycoming 180hp engine.

The other two aircraft are a Pilatus PC24 and a TBM-700, both exciting new additions to our register.

The NTCA register has also been just as slow, with only three aircraft being registered. There is one, a Sky Pacer SP19-20, which I have no idea what it looks like. The CAA not supplying names of the

ZS-CJB Lear 45 exported to the USA. Photo taken by Malcolm Reid.

ZU-TAC exported to Australia.

Photo by Omer Mees.

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ABOVE: ZS-CAZ Maule MXT-7-180A exported to Australia.

Photo taken by Francois Potgieter at Morningstar.

BELOW: ZU-TXJ RV10 exported to Estonia.

March 2021

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ZU-RAJ Alouette II written off near Brits.

Photo by Ray Watts.

owners is a real pity as it means I can’t trace the owner to find out what the aircraft is and maybe get a picture. The only reason I managed to get some detail on the Cessna 175 above was because it was advertised for sale on www.avcom.co.za and I was able to contact the owner.

We are continuing to lose aircraft to the export market and to accidents. January 2021 has been an horribly bad month for accidents. There have been at least eight, if not more, accidents of which one was particularly nasty as five people were killed, including two much loved and highly respected doctors and a paramedic on an AMS Bell 430 helicopter.

ZS-HUC Bell 206B written off at Ceres.

Photo by Dave Becker.

Have a look at the table and you’ll see some of them: we have lost a total of six TCA aircraft and two NTCA aircraft to the export market. They’ve been exported to a wide variety of countries ranging from the USA to Estonia.

TAIL PIECE With the lockdown, and some awful weather in the latter half of January, some of our pilots may be a bit rusty. My advice would be, if you’re not feeling up to scratch, rather get checked out by an instructor before venturing out on your own. There have been a couple of videos circulating of pilots doing crazy things – don’t fall into that trap – just stay safe please.

j

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March 2021

ZS-OWT Robinson R44II written off near Wonderboom. Photo by Ray Watts.

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339

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March 2021

e: info@jsf.co.za w: www.jsf.co.za

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ZS-LMP - Cessna 172N - 160HP

R1 000 000 ex VAT (ONCO acceptable to Seller) Contact : Mike 082 9078 896 Make & Model Year of Manufacture Total Time Airframe Engine Engine S.M.O.H Time to TBO Prop S.M.O.H MPI Due Next

CESSNA 172 N 1980 3440.3 0-320-H2AD Lycoming 160HP 685.7 1314 141.0 15 Sept.2021

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Cirrus Relaunches in Southern Africa

The Cirrus Kalahari special edition recognises the importance of the Southern African market.

Image Mark Mansfield.

With over 115 new Cirrus planes already delivered in Southern Africa, Cirrus has a had a good track record. But now the baton of Cirrus sales maintenance and training for Africa has been passed to an all-new business.

THE NEW BUSINESS IS NOW BRANDED SIMPLY: Cirrus South Africa. Under the leadership of well know Cirrus Vision Jet owner and pilot Tony Forbes, the new business takes over from the now liquidated CDC Aviation and is a fresh start for the Cirrus brand.

Cirrus South Africa launches with entirely new Air Training Organization (ATO) and Aircraft Maintenance Organisation (AMO) licenses. In addition, the new business has negotiated a fresh sales agreement with Cirrus USA. This new sales agency provides Cirrus South Africa with the rights

THE PRE SALES PROGRAMME The Cirrus Approved Pre-sales programme is a rigorous system that ensures that it is not just buyers of new Cirruses that are looked after by the parent company. The pre-sales programme provides peace of mind to the buyer of a used Cirrus by ensuring that all maintenance has been properly carried out, all Service Bulletins and Airworthiness Directives have been complied with, and that there is full after-sales service.

to sell Cirrus aircraft across Africa. It also includes used Cirrus aircraft in the Cirrus’ Approved Presales programme.

CIRRUS EMBARK A key objective for the new Cirrus South Africa is to restore and build the Cirrus brand. To this end

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March 2021

there has been a return to strict standards – using the Cirrus Embark training program, for buyers of both new and pre-owned Cirruses. This programme covers three days of instruction in the owner’s aircraft and programme fees. One of the prime objectives of the programme is to enable new Cirrus owners to overcome the primacy effect from having learned to fly on other aircraft types with different handling characteristics and without the security of the Cirrus CAPS parachute system.

Cirrus South Africa’s Training Director and CFI is Alex Smith, who comes across from the now defunct CDC Flight School. Alex says, “It’s all about brand safety. We will happily train anyone to be a safe Cirrus pilot.” He points out that the programme has been extraordinarily effective in that there have been no significant incidents or accidents in Southern Africa with Cirrus trained pilots.

Cirrus South Africa’s training and maintenance operations continue at the flight school’s hangar next to Hangar 27 at Lanseria Airport. The new ATO has taken over the custom made Cirrus SR22 Simuflight Alex Smith is the CFI for Cirrus South Africa and is responsible for brand building and the Cirrus Embark programme.

simulator – that was built using the cockpit of a Cirrus SR22 which had been written-off in Botswana when it had been dropped by a helicopter in a recovery operation. The school also has a standard Simuflight simulator for conventional single and multi-engine aircraft for conversions and IF renewals.

THE CIRRUS GENERAL AVIATION TEAM Alex Smith has exciting plans to promote the Cirrus brand. He is looking forward to having more Cirrus owners and pilots compete in air races and club flyaways.

Cirrus South Africa will continue to provide the highest quality maintenance through its own in-house Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO) led by the very experienced Travis Magee.

New and pre-owned aircraft sales will be handled

by Eugene Prenzler, who has extensive experience flying Cirrus aircraft, both in South African and in the USA. He was a former CFI of the CDC flight school and also has extensive experience on PC-12 operations.

Alex Smith concludes, “We are very excited to have the opportunity to take a great brand to new heights.

The injection of our brand commitment plus service excellence and a deeper involvement with general aviation by the new Cirrus South Africa team will be a much-needed shot in the arm for Cirrus across Africa.”

For more information contact Alex Smith at 079-0131999.

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March 2021

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AN OPEN LETTER: FROM AN SAA CREW

MEMBER

MR PRESIDENT, I WENT FROM RISKING MY life on SAA’s Wuhan flight to starving this Christmas.

I remember the prayer we made as we landed in Wuhan. I remember the songs we sang,

In February 2020 I received a text from SAA asking for volunteers to do a Wuhan repatriation flight. At the time South Africa had no cases of Covid-19.

Hoya Rona (e re magwala a cheche) magwala a cheche, a chechele morao hoya rona ba pelo tse thata ko pele Chorus (hoya rona) hoya rona (hoya rona) hoya rona (hoya rona) hoya rona ba pelo tse thata ko pele [x2] Verse (e re magwala a cheche) magwala a cheche, a chechele morao hoya rona ba pelo tse thata ko pele [x2] I was happy to be serving my country, I was willing to die for my country. I was willing to travel countries to even get the equipment our country needed so we could fight this pandemic.

When 14 of us (cabin crew members) and 4 pilots decided to do the flight, we were criticised by our own colleagues and South Africa itself. We were called names and I remember one province saying they don’t want us quarantined there.

I HAVE SEEN MANY OF MY COLLEAGUES DYING WHILE WAITING FOR THEIR MONEY Our lives were in danger but that was not our main focus. Our focus was to bring our people back home to be united with their families.

It was such a difficult decision for me, a decision which I’d expected to be easy, as I believed being human means caring for others and being patriotic.

But little did I know how my decision would be taken.

We had glitches from the day of takeoff to the day we landed back home. It was the bravest decision I’d ever taken.

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I remember on the last day of quarantine and when we were told none of us had tested positive for Covid-19, the joy that we had, we were celebrating, but more than anything we had proven ourselves to our families, our colleagues and South Africa.

That morning we received calls in our rooms and we were told to prepare ourselves because President Cyril Ramaphosa was on his way to see us. I was so excited but more than anything, I was protective of our safe space, our Green zone that the media was going to invade. We all were. Nonetheless, we were happy that we’d be meeting The President.

Tears rolled down as he spoke to us. I was so proud of myself and for serving the country the way that I had done. Come to think of it, I’d do it again if given a chance to do so. Just to save lives. The lives of our people.

that I didn’t have money to buy them presents.

I’m not sure of how I feel right now, Mr President.

I’ve been angry at you and got to a point of forgiving you and praying for you instead. I’m full of disappointment of how this whole thing has been handled, of how you haven’t done anything or intervened in our case.

The SAA crew are welcomed by President Ramaphosa after quarantine from their Wuhan repatriation flight.

Fast forward to today, life has been tough.

Very tough.

I decided to sign and take VSP (voluntary severance pay) after the airline told us they wanted to let some people go as it cannot afford to pay us anymore. I didn’t want the airline to liquidate as I had worked for this company since 2008.

I had so much faith that it would be pulled through and that someday I’ll find myself working for it again.

And I’m sure many of us who’ve left feel the same way.

To this day we are owed over 8 months’ salary and because of desperation we ended up settling for 3 months. And to my surprise, even that 3 months was way too little for 3 months’ salary. So many deductions that I don’t understand, and because I’ve been hurt so much by this company, I have no power left in me to fight.

The SAA crew who flew the Wuhan repatriation flight - now unable to feed their families.

My last day was on the 31 August 2020. 2020 was a very tough year for everyone. For me and my family. At one point I found myself baking and selling biscuits in the streets just so I can provide for my family. That business didn’t go far as people are scared of Covid-19. People are sceptical to buy from the streets so I ended up closing it.

I have received so much help and so much support from family members and friends.

South African Airways has taken us from pillar to post. They have made our lives a living hell. They took our medical aids from us even when we needed it the most. And at the time we were still working for them. Over the past months, I have seen many of my colleagues dying while waiting for their money, dying because of stress and many other issues, perhaps because they can’t provide for their families anymore. Some have lost their homes and had to go back to live in the back rooms of their homes.

We served this company with our all, we kept the flag up no matter what. We made sure those customers came back. This past December was the worst for us who left the airline. We spent Christmas with no food to feed our children. I had to tell my kids

Today marks the 3rd of February 2021 and I’ve received no communication from the airline regarding my VSP money, VSP money which was promised to us by the 31st January 2021 and so far, nothing has been said to us.

All I do is hear from the media and everywhere else but SAA. Right now I have no idea where I’ll get money to pay for my kids’ fees, my Unisa fees and my accommodation.

Mr President, I expect you to put yourself in my shoes or if I were your child going through what I’m going through. What would you do Your Excellency?

May you receive this well.

Regards Anonymous

j March 2021

83

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FUEL TABLE www.sv1.co.za Fuel Prices Fuel asPrices at 04/01/2021 as at 04/01/2021

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Pri ces i nclude Pri ces VAT i nclude but exclude VAT but any exclude serviany ce fees servi ce fees Ai rfi eld Ai rfi eld Avgas Avgas Jet A1 Jet A1 Baragwanath Baragwanath R 18,50 R 18,50 BeaufortBeaufort West West R 18,35 R 18,35R 14,35 R 14,35 Bethlehem Bethlehem R 21,97 R 21,97R 15,62 R 15,62 Bloemfontei Bloemfontei n n R 15,49 R 15,49 R 9,15 R 9,15 BrakpanBrakpan R 20,50 R 20,50 Brits Brits R 16,30 R 16,30 Cape Town Cape Town R 21,91 R 21,91 R 7,48 R 7,48 Eagles Creek Eagles Creek R 19,55 R 19,55 East London East London R 17,71 R 17,71 R 8,12 R 8,12 Ermelo Ermelo R 18,75 R 18,75 Fi santekraal Fi santekraal R 21,00 R 21,00 Fly-In Fly-In R 17,75 R 17,75 Gari ep Dam Gari ep Dam R 20,10 R 20,10R 13,40 R 13,40 George George R18,81 R18,81 R9,10 R9,10 Grand Central Grand Central R 18,92 R 18,92R 11,73 R 11,73 Hei delberg Hei delberg R 16,30 R 16,30 Ki mberley Ki mberley R 15,72 R 15,72 R 9,38 R 9,38 Kitty Hawk Kitty Hawk R 18,10 R 18,10 Klerksdorp Klerksdorp R21,64 R21,64 R14,80 R14,80 Kroonstad Kroonstad R 15,53 R 15,53 R 9,51 R 9,51 Kruger Intl Kruger Nelspruit Intl Nelspruit R 20,00 R 20,00R 13,90 R 13,90 Krugersdorp Krugersdorp R 18,50 R 18,50 Lanseri aLanseri a R 17,14 R 17,14R 11,76 R 11,76 MargateMargate R 20,20 R 20,20R 12,35 R 12,35 Morningstar Morningstar R 17,95 R 17,95 Mosselbay Mosselbay R 18,20 R 18,20R 11,25 R 11,25 NelspruitNelspruit R 18,86 R 18,86R 13,05 R 13,05 Oudtshoorn Oudtshoorn R 17,10 R 17,10R 10,94 R 10,94 Parys Parys R 16,75 R 16,75R 10,70 R 10,70 Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg R 18,30 R 18,30 Pi etersburg Pi etersburg Ci vi l Ci vi l R 16,10 R 16,10R 11,10 R 11,10 Port Alfred Port Alfred R 23,17 R 23,17 Port Elizabeth Port Elizabeth R 17,83 R 17,83R 12,98 R 12,98 Potchefstroom Potchefstroom R 16,75 R 16,75R 10,70 R 10,70 Rand Rand R 18,95 R 18,95R 11,50 R 11,50 Robertson Robertson R16,25 R16,25 Rustenberg Rustenberg R 16,20 R 16,20R 11,20 R 11,20 SecundaSecunda R 18,96 R 18,96R 12,19 R 12,19 Skeerpoort Skeerpoort *** Customer *** Customer to collect to collect R 14,50 R 14,50 R8,45 R8,45 Springbok Springbok R 16,70 R 16,70 R9,95 R9,95 Springs Springs R 18,60 R 18,60R 12,79 R 12,79 Stellenbosch Stellenbosch R 17,50 R 17,50 Swellendam Swellendam R 15,60 R 15,60 R 9,00 R 9,00 Tempe Tempe R 16,22 R 16,22R 11,16 R 11,16 Thabazimbe Thabazimbe R 17,25 R 17,25R 11,20 R 11,20 UltimateUltimate Heli (Midrand) Heli (Midrand) *** *** R 17,95 R 17,95R 11,90 R 11,90 Upington Upington R 16,41 R 16,41R 10,07 R 10,07 Vereeni giVereeni ng gi ng R 15,04 R 15,04R 13,02 R 13,02 Vi rgi ni a Vi rgi ni a R 18,18 R 18,18R 10,35 R 10,35 WelkomWelkom R 15,53 R 15,53 R 9,51 R 9,51 Wi ngs Park Wi ngs EL Park EL R 19,50 R 19,50 WitbankWitbank R 15,75 R 15,75 R 15,00 R 15,00 R 8,95 R 8,95 Wonderboom Wonderboom Worcester Worcester R 17,40 R 17,40 *** Heli copters *** Heli only copters only

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Fuel Prices Fuel asPrices at 01/02/2021 as at 01/02/2021 Pri ces i nclude Pri ces VAT i nclude but exclude VAT but any exclude serviany ce fees servi ce fees Ai rfi eld Ai rfi eld Avgas Avgas Jet A1 Jet A1 Baragwanath Baragwanath R 18,50 R 18,50 BeaufortBeaufort West West R 18,35 R 18,35R 14,37 R 14,37 Bethlehem Bethlehem R 21,97 R 21,97R 15,62 R 15,62 Bloemfontei Bloemfontei n n R 16,26 R 16,26 R 9,67 R 9,67 BrakpanBrakpan R 20,50 R 20,50 Brits Brits R 16,30 R 16,30 Cape Town Cape Town R 21,91 R 21,91 R 8,37 R 8,37 Eagles Creek Eagles Creek R 18,98 R 18,98 East London East London R 17,16 R 17,16 R 8,89 R 8,89 Ermelo Ermelo R 19,55 R 19,55 Fi santekraal Fi santekraal R 21,00 R 21,00 Fly-In Fly-In R 17,75 R 17,75 Gari ep Dam Gari ep Dam R 19,90 R 19,90R 13,50 R 13,50 George George R18,10 R18,10 R9,26 R9,26 Grand Central Grand Central R 17,31 R 17,31R 11,85 R 11,85 Hei delberg Hei delberg R 16,80 R 16,80 Ki mberley Ki mberley R 16,49 R 16,49 R 9,90 R 9,90 Kitty Hawk Kitty Hawk R 18,10 R 18,10 Klerksdorp Klerksdorp R19,01 R19,01 R14,80 R14,80 Kroonstad Kroonstad R 15,53 R 15,53 R 9,51 R 9,51 Kruger Intl Kruger Nelspruit Intl Nelspruit R 20,00 R 20,00R 13,90 R 13,90 Krugersdorp Krugersdorp R 18,50 R 18,50 Lanseri aLanseri a R 17,40 R 17,40R 12,42 R 12,42 MargateMargate R 20,89 R 20,89R 12,66 R 12,66 Morningstar Morningstar R 18,95 R 18,95 Mosselbay Mosselbay R 18,20 R 18,20R 11,65 R 11,65 NelspruitNelspruit R 18,86 R 18,86R 13,05 R 13,05 Oudtshoorn Oudtshoorn R 17,10 R 17,10R 10,94 R 10,94 Parys Parys R 17,60 R 17,60R 11,30 R 11,30 Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg R 19,20 R 19,20R 12,70 R 12,70 Pi etersburg Pi etersburg Ci vi l Ci vi l R 16,10 R 16,10R 11,80 R 11,80 Port Alfred Port Alfred R 23,17 R 23,17 Port Elizabeth Port Elizabeth R 18,90 R 18,90R 12,96 R 12,96 Potchefstroom Potchefstroom R 17,60 R 17,60R 11,30 R 11,30 Rand Rand R 18,40 R 18,40R 12,31 R 12,31 Robertson Robertson R16,15 R16,15 Rustenberg Rustenberg R 16,20 R 16,20R 11,20 R 11,20 SecundaSecunda R 18,63 R 18,63R 12,19 R 12,19 Skeerpoort Skeerpoort *** Customer *** Customer to collect to collect R 15,35 R 15,35 R9,00 R9,00 Springbok Springbok R 19,20 R 19,20R12,07 R12,07 Springs Springs R 18,60 R 18,60R 12,79 R 12,79 Stellenbosch Stellenbosch R 17,00 R 17,00 Swellendam Swellendam R 16,00 R 16,00 R 9,70 R 9,70 Tempe Tempe R 16,40 R 16,40R 11,39 R 11,39 Thabazimbe Thabazimbe R 18,09 R 18,09R 11,77 R 11,77 UltimateUltimate Heli (Midrand) Heli (Midrand) *** *** R 18,79 R 18,79R 12,47 R 12,47 Upington Upington R 17,18 R 17,18R 10,59 R 10,59 Vereeni giVereeni ng gi ng R 15,03 R 15,03R 10,32 R 10,32 Vi rgi ni a Vi rgi ni a R 18,90 R 18,90R 11,00 R 11,00 WelkomWelkom R 15,53 R 15,53 R 9,51 R 9,51 Wi ngs Park Wi ngs EL Park EL R 18,50 R 18,50 WitbankWitbank R 15,75 R 15,75 R 15,85 R 15,85 R 9,50 R 9,50 Wonderboom Wonderboom Worcester Worcester R 17,40 R 17,40 *** Heli copters *** Heli only copters only

Tel: +27 14 576 2522 Ina: +27 82 553 9611 Email: aviation@sv1.co.za Marina: +27 82 924 3015

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Pipistrel Progresses Miniliner PIPISTREL NOW BELIEVES IT HAS now confirmed the market viability of its proposed Miniliner small regional aircraft.

The company says its key objective is the nonnegotiable requirements of zero-emission, quiet and safe operations. Several engine options are being considered, including hydrogen-based propulsion systems.

Pipistrel claims that the Miniliner “is a new kind of zero-emission airplane in the 20-seat size class, capable of operating Pipistrel’s believes quietly from runways Pipistrel's electric Miniliner must be zero emission it can achieve a shorter than 1 km, Direct Operating including grass airstrips Cost reduction of at small aerodromes.

30 to 40% on a These aeroplanes per-seat metric have the potential to relative to current disrupt aerial mobility, aircraft. The connecting currently company is aiming unserved populations at for an entry into 200 to 1,000 km range, service of 2028but also catering for 2030. It says the microfeeder services proposed concepts are geared towards not requiring from small airports to large hubs.” large infrastructural investments. To overcome current challenges on the regulatory, operational and Pipistrel have achieved significant success with technological domains, Pipistrel is engaging with electric aircraft but this is a large step up for the Europe’s Clean Aviation, SESAR and EASA, as well Slovian company. It is partnering with universities as setting up multiple industry partnering initiatives. under the also EU-funded UNIFIER19 project.

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Oshkosh AirVenture is Go THE EAA SAYS THIS YEAR’S EAA’S AirVenture 2021 is going full speed ahead.

Oshkosh AirVenture is on this year - albeit with some Covid restrictions.

However, this year the show will be a bit different from previous AirVentures because the pandemic.

The EAA stresses that almost anything could change as the world continues to wrestle with the COVID-19 virus. Jack J. Pelton, EAA’s CEO and chairman says; “Some areas may look different at Oshkosh this year, but the feeling will be the same as we gather to celebrate the world of flight.”

While proof of vaccinations will not be required to enter the show, face masks will be highly encouraged for people unable to remain at least six feet away from others. The EAA has added many sanitising facilities. Specifically, the EAA says that there will be fewer exhibitors in each indoor exhibit, creating more walkways and separation between exhibitors. There will be increased ventilation within most buildings and additional venues on the grounds are being re-purposed to accommodate indoor exhibitors that are moved this year.

Calvin Fabig’s Designer Tours provides hotel accommodation in nearby Appleton Contact Calvin on 021-788-8440.

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“The EAA is incorporating innovative ideas for our presentations and even the air shows to keep you safe in 2021 while keeping the fun factor high,” Pelton said. “We appreciate your understanding that these plans will evolve in the coming months. We expect changes as we gear up for Opening Day, so our goal is to bring you any new information regularly as soon as we confirm it. We also understand that the ultimate decision to join us is always yours, based on your personal situation and comfort level.”

For South Africans wanting to make the pilgrimage, two well established options ae available: Neil Bowden’s Air Adventure Tours to Oshkosh are now in their twentieth year and the preferred accommodation is camping at Oshkosh Whitman airport. Contact Neil on 084-674-5674.

For those looking for more creature comforts,

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(7 Years Left) (11 Years Left)

CLICK HERE >

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation Edition 148 | March 2021

HUGH PRYOR ON LITTLE PLANES

The slow death of the SA AF

The end of fighter Aces

ETHIOPIAN’S TEWOLDE GEBREMARIAM 1

FlightCom Magazine

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CONTENTS

TABLE OF 06 12 14 17 18 22 28 30 34 39 40 42

Publisher Flyer and Aviation Publications cc Managing Editor Guy Leitch guy@flightcommag.com Advertising Sales Wayne Wilson wayne@saflyermag.co.za Layout & Design Emily-Jane Kinnear

MARCH 2021 EDITION 148

News

ADMIN: +27 (0)83 607 2335 TRAFFIC: +27 (0)81 039 0595 ACCOUNTS: +27 (0)15 793 0708

A Decade of Space Investments in RSA Bush Pilot - Hugh Pryor AME Directory Airline Ops - Mike Gough Air Force - Des Barker Starlite Directory Face to Face - Ethiopian Airlines CEO Defence - Darren Olivier Atlas Oil Charter Directory AEP AMO Listing Back Page Directory

© FlightCom 2021. 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:

A

S ANTICIPATED in this publication and elsewhere, the South African government’s claims that SAA could be bailed out for R10.3 billion have been shown to be yet more deceit and bluster.

Authoritative journal CH-Aviation states that the cost of rescuing SAA has increased to R19.3 billion rand, of which R5.3 billion will have to be sourced from strategic equity partnerships yet to be announced. At this stage I record my ongoing incredulity that a real strategic equity partner is also anything more than wishful thinking on the part of DPE. In his budget speech, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni confirmed that South African taxpayers would pay another R3.5 billion, taking the government’s immediate bailout of SAA up to R14 billion. Mboweni revealed that the business rescue plan approved by SAA creditors on July 14, 2020, had been unilaterally amended by the government in September. A caveat is that in a budget briefing, the minister said the allocation of the additional R3.5 billion still had to be “interrogated” before being approved.

“In September 2020, the business rescue plan was amended and the identified funding requirement was increased to R19.3 billion. Of this amount, R14 billion was envisaged to come from the government (including the R10.5 billion allocated in 2020/21), with the remainder sourced from strategic equity partnerships,” he said.

The government has also been slow in paying out the promised funds - by 12 February, SAA's business rescue practitioners had still only received R7.8 billion of the R10.5 billion allocation.

CH-Aviation notes that, “The fact that state spending to rescue SAA has gone off the approved business rescue plan has for months raised questions about whether the government is abusing the business rescue process. The biggest discrepancy has been an allocation of R2.7 billion for SAA's three subsidiaries, Mango Airlines, SAA Technical, and Air Chefs. Of this amount, Mango is to receive R1 billion, in stark contradiction to the desired level playing field with its competitors. As a useful reference, CH-Aviation provides the following breakdown of funding changes: • An additional R800 million over three years to PCF creditors; • R2 billion (down from R2.8 billion) for restart working capital; • R2.8 billion (up from R2.2 billion) for voluntary severance packages; • R2.2 billion (down from R3 billion) to refund un-flown tickets.

In the 2020 Budget Review, R16.4 billion was set aside for SAA to settle legacy state guaranteed debt and associated interest costs. Of this amount, R10.3 billion was allocated in 2020/21, with R4.3 billion and R1.8 billion to be allocated in 2021/22 and 2022/23 respectively. The 2020 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement upped the allocation to R10.5 billion for SAA in 2020/21, according to Mboweni's account.

Aviation economist Joachim Vermooten estimates that the real cost of the SAA rescue to be R49.4 billion by adding forecast losses in the first three years of R20.36 billion. In my opinion this R20.36 billion in losses is optimistic if you consider the extent to which the state is already abusing sound business practices in the running of SAA. 

NEWS

DAHER HAPPY WITH 2020

Daher's TBM 940 and Kodiak 100.

F

RENCH single-engine turboprop builder Daher said it delivered 53 aircraft from the Kodiak and TBM single-engine turboprop product lines, as well as orders for another 50 aircraft to be delivered in 2021.

2020 deliveries were led by the TBM 940 and TBM 910, with 42 provided primarily to pilot-owners.

The majority of TBMs were for North American customers (34), followed by Europe (with two in Germany, two in the U.K., and two in France), along with one aircraft in Brazil and the first TBM to be based in the United Arab Emirates at Dubai.

The other 11 deliveries in 2020 were Kodiak 100 Series II planes – nine of which were in the Americas, along with two provided in Europe for Germany. In

6

FlightCom Magazine

addition, there were 20 sales of the pre-owned Kodiak 100 aircraft remaining in the inventory of the sales network after the company acquisition by Daher.

Nicolas Chabbert, the Senior Vice President of Daher’s Aircraft Division, said, “The Kodiak sales activity that followed Daher’s acquisition of this multi-mission aircraft is a good indicator of the renewed market confidence in the airplane – particularly with the enhanced support provided by our worldwide services network,” said Chabbert. “For the TBM, these aircraft continue to benefit from our strategy of product enhancements, including last year’s introduction of the HomeSafe™ emergency autoland system on TBM 940s.” 

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NEWS

AIRLINK EXPANDS NAMIBIAN ROUTES

S

OUTH AFRICAN regional carrier Airlink has announced that it is launching a three times a week direct service between Cape Town and Walvis Bay, from 2 March 2021.

The new route is Airlink’s fourth between South Africa and Namibia, with other services linking Cape Town and Windhoek, in addition to flights from Johannesburg to Windhoek and Walvis Bay. Before scheduled flights between South Africa and St Helena were suspended due to COVID-19, Airlink had been using Walvis Bay as a technical stop on the Johannesburg OR Tambo - St Helena route.

However, Foster is hopeful that following a ruling by the South African International Air Services Licencing Council, he will obtain fifth freedom rights to upload St Helena passengers from Windhoek.

Fifth freedom rights at Windhoek would then mean

Walvis Bay may be small - but it has strategic importance to Airlink's St Helena operations.

8

FlightCom Magazine

that Airlink would no longer stop in Walvis Bay en-route to St Helena.

Foster explains “Windhoek is the preferred airport to pick up passengers because it has the stronger population and a greater air connectivity. Although Airlink has had third and fourth freedom traffic rights on both the Johannesburg – Walvis Bay and Cape Town – Walvis Bay routes, we elected not to apply for fifth freedom traffic rights between Walvis Bay and St Helena as we weren’t sure as to how long the Johannesburg – St Helena service would route via Walvis Bay before it could follow its originally intended routing via Windhoek, where it would pick up passengers from Namibia. This may happen when we were able to activate fifth freedom traffic rights for Windhoek - St Helena, which we are now able to do.

Airlink will operate the weekday flights between Cape Town and Walvis Bay on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. 

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Magazine 9 Contact: Nicola +27 83 449 5868 |FlightCom nicola@penguinpalace.co.za

NEWS

ROLLS-ROYCE TESTS 100% SUSTAINABLE JETA

R

olls-Royce has conducted the first tests of 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in a business jet engine. This part the British OEM’s ambition to play a leading role in enabling the sectors in which its operate to reach net zero carbon by 2050.

The tests were conducted on RR’s latest business aviation engine in development, the Pearl 700, in Dahlewitz, Germany. This follows just weeks after unblended SAF was successfully used for the first time in engine ground tests on a Trent 1000 engine in Derby, UK. Rolls says, “This test demonstrates once again that our current engines for large civil and business jet applications can operate with 100% SAF as a full “drop-in” option, laying the groundwork for moving this type of fuel towards

certification. At present, SAF is only certified for blends of up to 50% with conventional jet fuel and can be used on all current RollsRoyce engines.

“The SAF that was used in the tests was produced by low-carbon fuel specialist World Energy in Paramount, California, sourced by Shell Aviation and delivered by SkyNRG. This unblended fuel has the potential to reduce net CO2 lifecycle emissions by more than 75% compared to conventional jet fuel, with the possibility of further reductions in future”, Rolls says.

Dr Joerg Au, Chief Engineer – Business Aviation and Engineering Director Rolls-Royce Deutschland, said: “Sustainable aviation fuels have the potential to significantly reduce the carbon emissions of our engines and combining this potential with the extraordinary performance of our Pearl

engine family brings us another important step closer to enabling our customers to achieve net zero carbon emissions.”

The Pearl 700 combines the Advance2 engine core with a brandnew low-pressure system, resulting in an 8% increase in takeoff thrust at 18,250lb compared to the BR725 engine. The engine offers a 12% better thrust-to-weight ratio and 5% higher efficiency, while maintaining its class-leading low noise and emissions performance.

The engine features a 51.8” blisked fan, a high pressure compressor with a pressure ratio of 24:1 and six blisked stages, an ultralow emissions combustor, a two-stage shroudless high pressure turbine and an enhanced four-stage low pressure turbine that is one of the most efficient and compact in the industry. 

RR tested 100 drop-in Synthetic fuel on its new Pearl engine.

10

FlightCom Magazine

S O U T H A F R I C A N N AT I O N A L S PA C E A G E N C Y

Celebrating a decade of innovative space products and services for the good of humanity

FlightCom Magazine

11

A DECADE OF

SPACE INVESTMENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

D

EPENDING on their mission, satellites have different orbits. Weather and communication satellites are placed in Geostationary Orbits (GEO) at an altitude of 36,000 km above the equator, from which they have a constant gaze on the same region of the Earth. Other satellites are placed in Low Earth Orbits (LEO) between 400 and 600 km, which complete on average one orbit around the Earth every 100 minutes. Such orbits are used for remote sensing, navigation and positioning, and space weather applications.

SANSA promotes science to the youth through its Science Centre and public tours at SANSA's Hermanus facility.

Satellite communications is a key technology that enables us to participate in the global information infrastructure. Telecommunications networks are the most cost-effective way to ensure communications reach in areas where user density is lower than 200 subscribers per square kilometre.

Space weather refers to the conditions in space that can influence the performance and reliability of spaceborne and ground-based technological systems. Space weather is a consequence of the behaviour of the sun, the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere, and the Earth’s location in the solar system.

Earth observation/remote sensing satellites use modern instruments to gather information about the nature and 12

FlightCom Magazine

condition of Earth’s land, sea, and atmosphere. These satellites use sensors that can ‘see’ a broad area and report very fine details about our environment.

Satellite navigation uses satellites as reference points to calculate positions on Earth accurate to within a metre. With advanced techniques and augmentations, satellite navigation can provide measurements down to centimetre levels.

The above mentioned applications define our modern lifestyle and contribute immensely to our quality of life.

In addition, space-derived services are increasingly being used as a decision-making tool for policy choices relating to our political, social, economic and environmental challenges. In order to ensure that South Africa capitalised on these benefits, the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) Act was passed in 2008, which aimed to align South Africa’s space activities under one roof.

The SANSA Act mandated the formation of SANSA, and the agency was officially launched in 2010. On 1 April 2011, SANSA came into existence and united several of South Africa’s efforts in Space Science and Technology under one banner. This included the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory from the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Satellite Applications Centre from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The Hermanus Magnetic Observatory dates to 1841 and is now the SANSA Space Science Programme.

In 1960, the facility at Hartebeesthoek became one of NASA’s 14 Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN) stations established around the globe. In 1975, NASA withdrew its involvement due to political instability and in 1980 it became the Satellite Applications Centre. The facility is now the SANSA Space Operations Programme. Also located at Hartebeesthoek at the time, the Earth Observation team

had been receiving and processing satellite data since the first transmissions were received from LandSat1 in 1972, which is now the SANSA Earth Observation Programme. Two additional Programmes were introduced, namely the Administration Programme and the Space Engineering Programme, to take care of the administrative and engineering requirements, respectively.

Over the past decade, SANSA has delivered an impressive array of products and services to meet the evolving needs of government. To date, the SANSA satellite archives have more than 150 terabytes of remote sensing data over Southern Africa dating back to the 1970s, which allows us to understand how our landscape has transformed over time. SANSA currently tracks between 15 and 18 satellite passes every day and have consistently maintained over 98% success rate.

SANSA hosts the only internationally accredited regional space weather centre SANSA also hosts the only internationally accredited regional space weather centre and our magnetic field data is considered the most continuous in the world and have been used since the 1960s, as one of four global stations, as a proxy for understanding midlatitude space weather phenomena. Our Antarctic base provides a crucial window into space where over 80% of the scientific equipment is space physics related – given that the magnetic field lines converge over the poles and phenomena occurring in space are mapped along these field lines.

SANSA also provides launch support services to foreign clients over the African region, as many of these clients lose sight of their rockets when it passes over Africa, at which point SANSA assumes control and issues commands for the various rocket stages and the eventual ejection of satellite payloads into orbit.

In addition, we perform in orbit testing and orbital corrections for various satellite missions.

These achievements have laid the groundwork for SANSA’s future plans, which include the recent

SANSA provides state-of-the-art and globally competitive ground station facilities and services for global launch activities.

announcement of a national Space Infrastructure Hub (SIH) worth R4.47 billion. The SIH was chosen in 2020 as a Strategic Infrastructure Project (SIPS), indicating the importance by the South African Government to invest in space infrastructure as a national priority.

The Hub is based on the concept of the space value chain and will include satellite builds for Earth observation and science missions, an expanded data reception, analysis and archiving capacity and a new data visualisation centre, the development of products and services for government and industry role players, along with human capital development efforts.

The SIH includes a pipeline of projects, some of which have already commenced, such as SANSA’s 24-hour Regional Space Weather Centre, a Concurrent Engineering Design Facility, an Earth Observation Data Cube platform, and teleport services to track and receive data from hundreds of satellites. The investment in the SIH is intended to assist the Agency deliver on its full mandate to the citizens of this country and the region; whilst growing the local economy and creating much needed employment.

Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, expressed his excitement about the future of SANSA, and especially the plans for the Space Infrastructure Hub, when he recently commented “I am heartened to witness the incredible contribution by SANSA to our people and the global space industry through knowledge generation, service support excellence to our space partners around the world and contribution to the local industry and our economy despite the budget constraints the Agency had to endure for a period of years.” 

FlightCom Magazine

13

BUSH PILOT HUGH PRYOR

SIZE M AT T E R S

The idea that a vast aircraft can stay up supported on nothing but thin air fascinated me beyond my comprehension before I got into flying for a living. As far as I was concerned, there had to be some magic secret involved.

I

T was soon after I started the aviation game that I bumped into a neighbour of ours in the UK, called Mike Payne. As it happened, he was one of the ‘magicians’ who knew the secrets of how these giants defeat the laws of gravity. He was the Head of Maintenance for a company called Caledonian and he offered to take me on a visit to their Main Maintenance Base at Gatwick Airport.

I was initially at a loss for words that somebody of such lowly stature as myself could be given access to this Temple of Aviation Secrets and I mumbled, “Would that really be okay? I only have a Private Pilots’ Licence and less than five hundred hours.”

Mike just laughed and said, “Well I don’t have a Pilot’s Licence at all, and they let me in, so let’s just see how we get on!”

I nervously followed Mike into the security office, outside the forbidding walls of ‘The Temple’, where I was interviewed by a surprisingly friendly middleaged gentleman whose ‘SECURITY’ identification was written on the blue Bush Jacket which was hanging on the back of his chair as we came into his office.

He and Mike appeared to be old friends and so, after presenting my PPL, as evidence of my identity, I was

14

FlightCom Magazine

invited to sit in one of those ‘Photo Booths’ for them to take my picture, but the difference with this one was that you didn’t have to put coins in the slot to get a really smart plastic label, with my face, staring at the ceiling.

VISITOR No 56, printed in large letters below the photo, was spat out into the tray below the machine, with a convenient clip to attach it to my jacket.

I was impressed with the speed and efficacy of my reception, but was still suspicious of the ‘Magicians’.

How did they know that my school number at Prep School was 56?... and they now held my invaluable PPL! Anyway, there was no way out now without Mike, so I followed him in to ‘The Temple’.

I was totally unprepared for the experience as we entered the vast hangar.

It was rather like walking into a cathedral, as I had done many times, my father having been a vicar, before he lost his life during World War Two. For me, the construction of a medieval Cathedral is so far beyond my limits of knowledge that I simply have to sit down and wonder how it was even possible, all those centuries ago... maybe they had a magic potion, which they drank before venturing into the distant roof spaces to place their intricately-carved flutes and quoins

FlightCom Magazine

15

BUSH PILOT HUGH PRYOR to support the structure, using the laws of gravity, because the most sophisticated glue they had in those days was made by boiling up cows’ hooves in a pot.

As you sit there, in the ancient cathedral, a tiny magician climbs up into a little box, surrounded by vaulting columns of pipes and architecture. This little ant proceeds to fill the yawning voids of the cathedral with the toccata and fugue in ‘D’ Minor – with sounds so deep and majestically resonant that it is impossible to believe that they can be produced by a couple of teenagers working flat out on the air pumps.

And yes...I knew how that worked, because i had spent many hours pumping those bellows – and there was no ‘magic’ involved...just backbreaking hard work.

Well that was what it was like, when I walked into the Caledonian hangar in Gatwick Airport.

I could not believe that anything that big could possibly be moved without the use of explosives...and everything seemed to be organised be teams of tiny ants, much like a cathedral.

Years later, I had to do a CofA test flight on a Trislander, which had

FlightCom Magazine

the DC-10, but we had a rear-view

mirror installed, as part of our Pre-

Takeoff Check List to make sure

that we had remembered to start the middle engine before takeoff.

This high-tech installation was

actually fitted after a Trislander once attempted a two-engined take-

off in the mountains in Kenya. The take-off was unsuccessful,

but

everybody walked out because the ‘Islander’/‘Trislander’ are both built

Islander would probably fill the bill... thick, basically honest and noisy – as long as I am topped up with the right juice!

Now back to size...

Well it is all ‘relative’ isn’t it...I mean, if I was a ‘bumble-bee’ flying in the same air space as a Super Cub, then the Super Cub would appear as a monster, just before I got smeared across his windscreen.

Similarly, in 1978, I was flying an Islander beneath a big series of thunderstorm build-ups in the Inter-Tropical-ConvergenceZone near Malakal in the Sudan.

The countryside in that part of the world is completely flat, so I was just bimbliing along, quite comfortably, under a general cloud base of three thousand feet, dodging the odd heavy shower.

Meanwhile a Lufthansa Boeing 707 was having to divert tens of miles off course to get round an immense CuNim above us.

to make sure that we had remembered to start the middle engine

There were two DC10s there, in for, I think they said ‘C’ Checks but, as a Bush-Bum Pilot, when I walked in, on the ground floor, they just seemed to be part of the architecture.

16

the same engine configuration as

on the principles established by the Royal Navy, when they were building

battle ships for the First World War...

build it light, so that it can go a bit faster and if that doesn’t work, then

build it stronger, which they did with

the Islander – and kept me alive for many years in Africa. The Islander is a bit slow and noisy, but it will get

you and nine-and-a-half passengers

in to and out of anywhere where you want to go...and I have done that for years. In fact, if you wanted an

‘aeroplane caricature’ of me, then the

In those days the Lufthansa long haul 707s had navigators and as they passed overhead the Malakal VOR, the navigator took a star shot of the top of the towering central massif of the weather some miles to the south and when they flew past it, the Nav reckoned that they were less than half way up the storm, which made it more than 81 000 feet above me.

So the Captain kindly warned us on the radio, “I have never seen such a monster!” he said.

So even something as big as a Boeing 707 can be made to feel small. 

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FlightCom Magazine

17

AIRLINE OPS MIKE GOUGH

OF

LOSS CONTROL N I A G A -

On 9 January, a (mostly) serviceable Boeing 737-500 departed controlled flight from eleven thousand feet, and plunged vertically into the sea, killing all 62 people on board.

M

AINTENANCE records indicate a minor issue with the auto-throttle system on a few previous flights, although this appeared to be rectified and signed-off prior to this particular flight. This history should have been known to the crew of the accident flight, as that is what reviewing the technical log is meant to achieve.

Thus, the so-called ‘startle factor’ should have been anticipated to a certain extent. However, as the aircraft levelled off at this relatively low altitude, it steadily turned to the left and essentially rolled inverted and went vertically downwards, during which it lost around 8000 feet in eleven seconds. That is an almost impossible situation to recover from, given the altitude.

Of course, they should not have entered such an attitude in the first place.

According to the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), the left thrust lever retarded as it should have done to maintain the selected speed during the level off process, while the right thrust lever’s drive failed, leaving it in climb thrust during the level off process. This, to a certain

18

FlightCom Magazine

extent, would be very similar to a thrust asymmetry that would be encountered during an engine failure.

However, a glaringly obvious difference would have been the split in the two thrust lever positions – one would have been almost fully forward, while the left would be reducing to the idle position.

I recall my very first ‘real jet’ conversion around 21 years ago. This was after spending almost three years as a third pilot on Boeing 747 classics, which successfully dulled my flying skills due to limited ‘hands-on’ exposure to the critical phases of flight namely take-offs and landings.

The much smaller and immensely enthusiastic handling qualities of the 737-200 was most certainly a case of learning a whole new skill set of reactions to handle, in what appeared to me at the time to be little rocket.

Being a short coupled, swept wing aircraft, its reaction to a significant yaw movement was noticeably different to what I had encountered in my previous straightwing turbo-prop life.

Flightradar24 graphs show the fateful loss of control into an almost vertical dive

The introduction of wing sweep for the jet age was more than creating a good-looking aircraft that appeared fast while standing still on the apron. This design feature was aimed at resolving the

high-speed issue of airflow over portions of the wing becoming supersonic, as the air is accelerated over the curved upper surface of the aerofoil section.

If this happened at an actual airspeed less than the design ideal, it would result in a sudden increase in drag and loss of lift at that particular point of the wing. This is referred to as Mach Crit, or the Critical

FlightCom Magazine

19

The findings are from the FDR as the CVR is yet to be recovered.

Mach Number where sub-sonic airflow becomes momentarily supersonic with all the unwanted issues that it brings with it.

The sweep of the wing presents a ‘longer’ cord line to the relative airflow, which tricks the air that the actual curvature is more gradual than it really is. This results in less local acceleration, and thus a delayed onset of Mach Crit.

As with most design compromises, this creates a few unintended consequences as result. Specifically, if the aircraft is yawed significantly, the advancing wing, while having momentarily accelerated airflow over it, also presents a different profile to this accelerated flow, resulting in a sudden increase in lift, and a not-so-good decrease of Mach Crit.

As we all know from our Student Pilot days, the secondary effect of yaw is roll. The Boeing 737 family takes this to a new level as a result of the wing sweep.

20

FlightCom Magazine

Anyone who has done engine failure training in the 737 simulator is aware of the almost instantaneous rolling moment that is brought about by the asymmetric thrust-induced yaw. This is significant enough that the immediate reaction to this is to level the wings with aileron, and then feed in the same-direction rudder until the aileron input on the control column is almost neutralised.

Once the appropriate amount of rudder trim is used, the yawing moment is reduced, and the swept wing is almost back to normal in terms of how the relative airflow meets it.

Without a doubt, this played a role in the initial upset of this accident flight.

What I find absolutely staggering is that either a simple adjustment of the thrust levers or the application of an initial amount of aileron and rudder would have solved this problem before it actually became a real problem.

I perform a very simple demonstration for students who are new to twin engine flying. Just as the effect of thrust is demonstrated early on in basic flying, the effect of asymmetric thrust is a very significant illustration of how engine-induced yaw can upset the proverbial apple cart.

In one of my Piper Senecas, by simply retarding one throttle to idle with zero corrective flight control input, has us in a spiral dive in a few short seconds. A repeat of this exercise with the only input being rudder to stop the yaw, and very little happens, save for a gentle descent due to the added drag of the windmilling propeller. I sum it up by saying ‘you stop the yaw and you stop the problem.’

Going back to my speculation on this latest Loss of Control In Flight (LOC-I), the FDR indicates that the autopilot was engaged during the level off and asymmetric thrust reduction sequence. This elderly 737 (and even through to the latest version, the MAX), has a two-axis autopilot – just like a Seneca – supplemented with a yaw damper. This means that roll and pitch are controlled, and yaw is only damped.

The autopilot would have controlled the roll with aileron to the best of its ability, which is somewhat reduced compared to manual control. It cannot, however, automatically trim this axis, so when it reached its programmed maximum control force and abruptly disengaged (as it is designed to do), a smartish half-roll would have ensued if the crew were not on top of their game. As mentioned previously, they were, for whatever reason, not actively monitoring the automatics as per their lack of correcting the auto throttle issue.

Following this sudden and probably quite violent roll event, the aircraft nose would be well below the horizon, and the eleven second plummet had started.

The perfect storm for a LOC-I event.

For the unwary crew, I must add.

I would be most interested to see what Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT) program had been in place with this particular operator.

Let’s all keep the blue side up, folks. 

Sriwijaya Boeing 737-500 at Jakarta Airport.

FlightCom Magazine

21

AIR FORCE DES BARKER

HAVE WE SEEN THE LAST

FIGHTER ACE? The question often on many a fighter pilot’s minds is, “have we seen the last fighter ace?” even an issue?

Why is this

Well, becoming a fighter ace is one

of the aspirations of a fighter pilot – why else would you bother?

A

worldwide are finding

Secondly, nuclear weapons have made wars between

experienced pilots with ‘kills’ against their

of fighters, rare. The third reason, and often neglected,

IR

FORCES

themselves with a shortage of combat

names. Fighter pilots who have shot down an enemy aircraft are a rapidly shrinking community; the trend

has been there for decades; there are no more aces on active duty and the number of fighter pilot’s with any ‘kills’, are decreasing. In a few more years, there will be no more living aces at all.

There are four reasons for this.

Firstly, in the last half century,

only three USAF pilots became aces.

In nearly a century of

operations, only 816 American air

force fighter pilots became aces; approximately 87% of the aces

is the imbalanced air power picture that has prevailed over the past six decades, being the air dominance of Allied combat aviation. In the more recent past,

the only significant wars have been mainly between second- and third-rate proxies, versus the might of

In a few more years, there will be no more living aces at all

Allied air power, a bit like “going to a gunfight with a knife”.

Since World War II, Allied air power has dominated every aerial battlefield they have entered - the result being fewer air battles. The

enemy was either destroyed on the ground, or refused to fight.

originated during World War II, which ended nearly 75

So, the lack of adequate opportunity to ‘make a kill’

only three during the Vietnam war. In the last twenty

today’s air battles, the biggest threat to Allied pilots is

years ago. There were 39 aces in the Korean war, and

years, seven fighter pilots scored two victories each,

and three fighter pilots scored one each. None scored four or more victories. So, mathematically, it is clear that the fold has dwindled considerably.

22

major powers that can afford to maintain large numbers

FlightCom Magazine

prevents fighter pilots from building up a ‘score’. In anti-aircraft defences, mainly surfaced launched and

highly manoeuvrable and only then, fighters – so, where

are the targets to come from to enable fighter pilots to achieve that magic number of 5 kills?

Baron Manfred Von Richthofen, the top ace of WWI, would not necessarily be an ace in WWII

FlightCom Magazine

23

Another factor mitigating against

future fighter aces is the major shift

in air power doctrine. With the threat posed to fighter pilots by technology, the engineering response has been

to turn to unmanned aerial vehicles, including robotic fighters that no

human pilot could overcome. This

is because the unmanned aircraft can perform manoeuvres that the

human body cannot sustain. The human weakness of g-intolerance has for long placed a restriction on

maximising

‘killing tool’.

aircraft

as

a

WHO WAS ACTUALLY THE

THE CHANGING

BEST EVER?

BATTLESPACE

Is it even possible to answer this

Interestingly, throughout the ages,

role models of fighter pilots and

aces, and they have only one thing

question? Aces are the inspirational

most fighter pilots that have made a study of their trade have debated, but never settled the question: Who was the best fighter pilot ever?

Manfred von Richthoven, WWI’s Red

Baron, must be one such contender, while another is, Erich Hartmann,

who is the all-time kills leader with 352 in World War II. Could it have

Being a modern fighter pilot in a highly technological battlespace is a hazardous undertaking Robotic aircraft do not have this

problem. Moreover, a robotic aircraft

would be computer controlled through software and would possess

a significantly higher degree of situational awareness; much more than any human pilot could ever

possess. This isn’t science fiction,

The bad news is the ace is facing extinction!

said, “Not much else really matters.”

In the one-hundred and eight years of air combat (World War I to the

present), the aircraft have advanced from the Sopwith Camel to the

F-35. The skills needed to become

an ace have changed, and so has the

shot

In the days of Von Richthoven and

aircraft in a

with guns. This held through the

down

nine

single

sortie

on 24 October 1944?

Could

the

award for the

‘best’ be to the

highest number of aerial victories in a single day? This was claimed by

Emil Lang, who claimed 18 Soviet fighters on 3 November 1943, or

nature of air combat.

Hartmann, most of the kills were

Korean War, but increasing aircraft speeds through each war and the eventual introduction of air-to-air

missiles, all contributed to changing

air combat tactics and the skills required. Speeds ranging from 100 kts for the Sopwith Camel to 350 kts for the Bf-109 to 590 kts for

the F-86F that dominated the skies over Korea.

Erich Rudorffer who is credited with

In Vietnam, first generation air-to-

single sortie on 11 October 1943.

always successfully, but the missiles

the destruction of 13 aircraft in a

really determine who the best of

an evolution.

air combat; Baron Von Richthoven

who

McCampbell,

them, faster than a computer - it’s

is creating the robotic fighter, but

or more enemy aircraft in air-to-

David

A case could be made for each of

not a revolution in technology that

in common: shooting down five

been

the human simply cannot make inflight decisions, and execute

more than 5,400 pilots have become

them, but the fact is, one cannot all time was.

Nevertheless, the

ego of the fighter pilot, despite the

statistics, will ponder what their chances of becoming a fighter ace are or going down in history as one of the best fighter pilots?

air missiles entered the fray, not

allowed kills to be accomplished

from as far as 2,5 nm away with

the AIM-9B Sidewinder – still within visual range but significantly further out than the typical guns range of 0.5 nm maximum. Today, the AIM-120 AMRAAM and other missiles can kill you without you

even seeing the opposing aircraft

(from as far as 86 nm away in the case of the AIM-120D).

24

FlightCom Magazine

aces were different. Hartmann was in constant combat from 1942 onwards – most of it against Russian pilots. Allied pilots, on the other hand, were continuously rotated between tours in an effort to provide them with some respite from operations and allow them to plough back their experience in the training of aspirant fighter pilots.

USAF studies in the wake of the Vietnam War (Red Baron study) indicated that 80% of the pilots killed never knew that

they were a target until their killer opened fire. This was true then and will remain true in all future air combat. Hartmann estimated that a similar percentage of his victims never knew he was there until he opened fire.

Robin Olds was a USAF fighter pilot_ a ‘triple ace’, with a combined total of 16 victories in WWII and the Vietnam War.

Beyond visual range (BVR) combat has forever changed

the way in which air combat is conducted; the days of

pilots being selected as fighter pilots for their handling and energy management skills and situational awareness

have been replaced by technology in which the pilot

with the longest range missile and the ability for first detection, will in all likelihood be victorious. With closing speeds of supersonic proportions during a

head-on attack, classical ‘dogfighting’ will be left to

the survivors from the first missile engagement, only if opposing forces engage.

There is no doubt that

being a modern fighter pilot in a highly technological battlespace, is a hazardous undertaking.

Even during WWII, the circumstances faced by these

The results of the Red Baron study, which were in keeping with the observations of other American aces, led to the concept of maintaining situational awareness (knowing exactly where you are, and where everyone else is in the dogfight). Probably one of the most valuable tools for Allied Force pilots is JTIDS (Joint Tactical Information Data System), a datalink that provides each pilot with a virtual 3-D ‘mental picture’ of the combat geometry. A similar capability is available on all 4th and 5th generation fighters, including the Gripen.

The well-known example of the JTIDS testing on the F-15, reported drastic increases in their situational awareness; in an exercise, they took on F-15s and E-3s without JTIDS, and achieved a 4-to-1 kill ratio in their favour, mostly because the pilots with JTIDS knew where the ‘blue force aircraft, and the ‘red force’ bandits

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Erich Hartmann, the all-time ‘kills’ leader with 352 in World War II.

were, and could sort out who was going to target which bandit a lot quicker than the ones without.

Aerial combat has become less of a single hunter, but rather a team of hunters with the fighter pilot’s only

responsible for pushing the missile launch pushbutton.

The integrated support of several role players involved

claimed that an artificial algorithm had beaten a human fighter pilot in a virtual dogfight. The contest was the

finale of the U.S. military’s Alpha Dogfight Challenge,

an exercise to “demonstrate the feasibility of developing

THE FUTURE OF AIR COMBAT

Robot fighter pilots are a long way off

One thing is for certain though. The future for fighter

effective, intelligent autonomous agents capable of

in the ‘kill’ should all receive acknowledgement for their role, or not?

pilots will be determined through innovative engineering and the role and function of artificial intelligence. As recently as August 2020, an event in the USA turned fighter pilots’ concerns into reality.

The never-ending saga of machines outperforming humans has opened a new chapter as the USAs Defense

26

Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) engineers

FlightCom Magazine

defeating adversary aircraft in a dogfight” using noseaimed guns only.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) faced off against a human fighter pilot, callsign ‘Banger’, sitting in a simulator and wearing a virtual reality helmet, and the AI won five rounds to zero. What the reports did not

state, however, was that their robot had been through at least 4 billion simulations and had acquired at least 12 years of experience.

Be that as it may, canned and rigid exercises are not very useful without catering for the thinking, unpredictable, higher order tactically thinking, fighter pilot and doesn’t prove anything unless through machine learning and teaching an algorithm, it can counter the myriad of various options available to the tactically astute human pilot. Robot fighter pilots are a long way off and most fighter pilots, would relish engaging a robot fighter. Fortunately, we are

CONCLUSION The variables of technological progress through the various eras and the consequent requirements on piloting skills at the specific time in history make it impossible to definitively determine the best fighter pilot in history. One might be able to determine the best of an era or a war, but even then, it will be the subject of debate for years.

Considering the technological progress in aerial combat and the ever-changing strategies and tactics of modern warfare, it will most certainly take some special occurrence before a single fighter pilot is able to notch up 5 kills for ace status.

not there yet and not likely to get there within the foreseeable future.

Erich Hartmann.

The director of the Strategic Technology Office at DARPA described the trial as a victory for better human and machine teaming in combat, which was the real point.

The contest was part of a broader

DARPA effort called Air Combat Evolution (ACE) which didn’t necessarily seek to replace pilots with unmanned systems, but rather sought to automate a lot of fighter pilot tasks.

By the fifth and final round of the dogfight, ‘Banger’ was able to significantly shift his tactics and survive much longer. The standard tactics that he used weren’t working. It didn’t matter though as in the end he hadn’t learned fast enough and was defeated.

So, what we are witnessing is the beginning of a type of human-machine interdependence, a human sitting in the cockpit, being flown by one of these AI algorithms as truly being one weapon system, a system of systems, where the human is focusing on what the human does best such as higher order strategic thinking and the AI is doing what the AI does best.

References: Dunnigan James. The Age of the Fighter Ace Ends. 22 September 2004.

Hutchison, Harold C. Why You Can’t Tell Who Was the Best Fighter Pilot Ever. 30 June 2005. 

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NEWS

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IATA TRAVEL PASS wandAir will become the first African

airline to trial IATA Travel Pass. The airline will begin a three-week trial in April for customers travelling between Kigali and Nairobi in Kenya.

Yvonne Manzi Makolo, CEO of RwandAir, said, “IATA’s innovative solution simplifies and digitally transmits the information required by countries and governments around the world into our airline systems, in a secure and efficient manner. Travel Pass will make it easy for our customers to resume flying – and just as easy for RwandAir, and airlines around the world, to accept them," said Makolo.

RwandAir customers participating in the trial will create a ‘digital passport’ which verifies that their pre-travel Covid-19 test or vaccination meets the requirements of their travel destination.

IATA says that the main priority is to get people traveling again safely. In the immediate term that means establishing confidence in governments that systematic pre-departure COVID-19 testing can work as a replacement for quarantine requirements. And that will eventually develop into a vaccine program.

Rwandair's Yvonne Manzi Makolo is pioneering IATA's Travel Pass in Africa

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FlightCom Magazine

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FACE TO FACE

E C A F O T E C A F ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CEO

In an Interview with CAPA’s Peter Harbison (PH), Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam (TG) describes how he has survived the Covid-19 storm – and amazingly – managed to remain cash positive.

Tewolde Gebremariam talks about how Ethiopian survived Covid

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FlightCom Magazine

What’s the overall situation for airlines in Africa at the moment?

TG: The industry in Africa was not in a good shape even before COVID. This is an industry which has been losing money, for I would say six, seven years in a row. So airlines were not in their best position when they caught this global pandemic crisis. Thus COVID has affected the African airline industry much more and much worse than the rest of the airline industry and the rest of the world. This is for a few reasons: 1) Almost every African country has closed its borders, and they have stayed for too long – from March to September. So African airlines missed the summer peak – which cost lot in terms of not being able to support airline operations in the continent.

a better position to face this challenge. At least in a better position than the rest of our peers. And secondly, I think back to March when everybody was panicking about the pandemic, I think we have done very well.

The cargo business is booming, for two reasons: First the available belly cargo capacity was lost because passenger planes were grounded. But on the other hand, PPE and other medical supplies transport was a booming business to save lives. Realizing this, we made a quick decision to build as much capacity as possible on our cargo business. We already have 12 planes. But we have also switched passenger planes to cargo by removing the seats. We did about 25 airplanes, so that was a significant capacity increase on our cargo at the right time. So the yields were very good. Demand was very high. So we took advantage of that opportunity at the right time.

We’ve shown agility, speed of decision-making, resilience that has helped us.

The cargo business is booming for two reasons

2) The amount of Coronavirus in Africa is not that bad. But there is a fear of Africa’s substandard health services, so African countries were very concerned that their health services would be overwhelmed by the pandemic patients. Because of this fear, they took extreme measures of blocking and closing borders. So that’s the reason they did it for too long as compared to the rest of the world, especially Europe and America, which were more moderate.

3) African airlines did not get support from their government in terms of bailout money, because the African economies were badly hit by the pandemic.

So for almost all African countries, the airlines were very unfortunate. We lost SAA, Air Mauritius and so on. Others like Kenya Airlines has also downsized significantly. Also there is no capital market in Africa, so they cannot sell bonds. They cannot borrow money from banks or from financial institutions like Europe and America.

What’s been keeping you going and how do you see yourself being positioned when things do start to improve, as they inevitably will? And in the meantime, how are you keeping the cash flowing?

TG: Firstly, the last decade in our ‘Vision 2025’ has been very good for us, both in terms of profitability and expansion, not only for our fleet, but also for human resource development. So that has put us in

So to answer your question: we have a very strong cash flow.

We are managing our cash flow within our internal resources, without any bailout money or without any borrowing for liquidity purposes, and without any layoff or any salary reductions. It is an amazing performance, but this is because we have developed an internal capacity suitable for any kind of challenge in the past 10 years.

You’ve been in China for longer than almost anybody in Africa. How’s that market going?

TG: We have been in China since 1973, so close to half a century. We gained the right strategic position when China started to invest in Africa heavily, especially in infrastructure. That created very significant passenger air cargo traffic between China and Africa. We have the largest market share between China and Africa.

Unfortunately, COVID devastated the passenger business. We have lost almost the entire passenger demand between China and Africa. Right now we are operating once a week flight to Shanghai – with a lot of restrictions. But on the cargo side, we are still very big, and it is a very significant market for us.

We have daily dedicated freighters from Shanghai,

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Ethiopian Airlines has taken great advantage of its location in the middle of the map

and 10 dedicated freighter flights a week from Guangzhou, and more than daily from Hong Kong. Then Chengdu, and Wuhan now, and Shenzhen. So we are still a very, very large operator in China. With 50 frequencies per week linking China and Africa, China and South America, and China and Europe.

What are you carrying on the freighters and the converted 777?

TG: Mainly industrial goods and products, machinery, medical supplies, medical equipment, mobile phones, batteries for mobile phones, and electronic goods of course. And from Europe, exports to China, and from China to Europe also, Chinese exports. So it’s a triangular operation, Africa, Europe, China.

It is a remarkable success story in the middle of the gloom. Are the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and Free Trade

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Agreement (AFTA), helpful? Is it functional, or just a wall poster?

TG: We are one of the drivers of the AFTA. From 1 January we partnered with the African Union to start the first free trade goods moving from Eswatini (Swaziland) to the rest of Africa as a show of commencement. So it is a very significant milestone, and it has been ratified by most African countries. It has been officially launched, and we are very optimistic about it. So hopefully it will improve inter-Africa trade, because right now inter-Africa trade is at very low volume. Out of the total trade between Africa and the rest of the world, only 16% is within Africa, so 84% is with the rest of the world.

institutions – started late fifties, early sixties. The European Union has achieved a lot compared to the African Union. In Europe 60% of

we have about 23% market share within Africa

I like to compare the African Union with the European Union because they are the same aged

trade is within Europe. But here it’s only 16%. So you can see how much we are lagging behind.

Yet African countries have a lot to trade among themselves. Many of them are agricultural exporters.

Some have slightly better industrial exports like South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and so on. But inter-Africa trade is very low. So AfCFTA is going to change that, but there are daunting challenges, because

Yes. For two reasons. 1) Post COVID it’s a triangular TG: the African countries will be searching for of trade, not only with their operation, Africa, opportunities traditional trading partners in Europe and China, but also within themselves and Europe, China among their peers in Africa. That is a big the tax barriers are challenging. I hope African countries will face those challenges and make progress.

As Ethiopian Airlines, we are one of the drivers. We think that trade will generate traffic, both in cargo and passengers, within Africa. We are the largest network within Africa: right now we have about 23% market share within Africa. So we see quite a bright future, especially after the coronavirus recovery.

Do you think because of Covid, that AfFTA will be accelerated?

incentive. 2) The US administration has changed. Before, globalization was having a big setback, with a lot of barriers, nationalism, and protection. In the midst of that situation, maybe African countries will fall back to their continent.

Which is another incentive for the success of AfCFTA.

There is also the currency issue. African countries will have to find a means of exchanging trade between and among themselves in their own currencies, because pegging with the Dollar and the Euro, has been a challenge. 

Using its Addis Ababa hub, Ethiopian has become the primary carrier for Intra-African trade

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DEFENCE DARREN OLIVIER

While this Oryx may be ready for domestic missions , it has had its missile warning sensors removed and so cannot be used in the DRC

THE HOLLOWING OUT OF THE SAAF 34

FlightCom Magazine

Much has been written, including in this column, about the dire state that the South African Air Force (SAAF) finds itself in as a result of continuous and devastating budget cuts coupled to poor leadership choices.

I

n those analyses we usually quote various external statistics to illustrate the SAAF’s plight, such as the precipitous decline in flying hours; the number of aircraft available on the flight line and aircrew on base; and the rate of acquisitions.

However, there’s a more insidious and subtle trend that’s far more difficult to track, which is the gradual hollowing out of the SAAF’s capabilities from within, to the point where they end up being shells that look all right on paper but would not stand up to the stress of a conflict situation or major disaster.

set of equipment including all weapons interfaces, EW subsystems, and so on, for full-blown combat. In between those two extremes are the many variations for different mission types, for instance while an Oryx that’s on standby for search and rescue in the Western Cape needs to have a working hoist and IFR subsystems on top of its baseline MEL, it is not prevented from conducting those missions if its missile approach warning sensors and/or flare dispensers are unserviceable.

All air forces struggle to define, measure, and manage readiness across their fleets

None of this, it must be emphasised, is the fault of the average SAAF pilot, technician, logistician, quartermaster, instructor, or other specialists. Every indication is that the vast majority of those continue to pull magic rabbits out of hats daily, achieving levels of readiness and activity that should be impossible on the meagre budgets they’re given to work with.

The fault, instead, lies with the leadership of the SAAF, the Defence Force as a whole, the DoD Secretariat, and the Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans, who have all failed to provide the support needed by the rank and file, to implement metrics and policies that expose weaknesses and allow them to be corrected, and to treat the running of the Air Force as the solemn and crucial responsibility that it really is.

To begin, it’s important to define what readiness and availability actually mean. Surprisingly, this is more difficult than it might initially appear, to the point where even forces like the US Air Force struggle with getting it right. In the most basic terms, readiness refers to the percentage of your fleet of aircraft that are available for missions at any given time.

But readiness to perform missions is quite complicated.

First, it refers to a Minimum Equipment List (MEL) for each mission type, which could range from merely the basic equipment on an aircraft such as the engine, avionics necessary for flight, radio, etc which could be enough for local training flights, all the way up to the full

Yet were that same aircraft to be deployed to join the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then a working anti-missile system becomes mandatory and the aircraft will be grounded if that subsystem fails, even if every other component onboard is working correctly. It’s not even only components, but things like whether an aircraft is up to date with service directives or mods. Finally, depending on what mission types are defined, it may even take into account how long an aircraft’s components have before next requiring servicing. If an aircraft has a critical subsystem with 20 hours of flying time specified before it requires maintenance, and it’s being considered for a mission with 40+ hours of flying in a matter of days, is it really ready?

And this is without even speaking about aircrew, who also have differing mission capable rates depending on how recently they conducted qualification courses or refresher training in certain mission skills such as hoisting. It’s taken seriously, with an expiration triggering a mandatory re-qualification process that’s far more painful and long than refresher training. If an aircrew is not current on a skill required for a mission type, and they’re the only ones available, that aircraft is just as grounded as if it had broken down.

This complexity is why all air forces struggle to some extent to define, measure, and manage readiness across their fleets of aircraft. Each eventually muddles through to a set of compromises that they can live with, but it’s never a settled thing and is constantly being tweaked and refined.

For the USAF, the main indicator is called the Mission Capable rate, which is calculated by adding up the fully

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mission capable (FMC), partial mission capable for both maintenance and supply (PMCB), partial mission capable for maintenance (PMCM), and partial mission capable for supply (PMCS) hours that the fleet has amassed and dividing it by the total number of possessed hours.

Possessed hours refers to the total time. So, if a squadron had an aircraft for a month, that’s the full 730 hours in a month. If it was only mission ready for one week, or 168 hours, then the mission capable rate is 23%.

Notably this excludes aircraft that are at depot facilities or in depot status, and therefore temporarily not possessed by the squadron.

ever-larger number of aircrew losing currency Fully mission capable (FMC) is self-explanatory: It refers to aircraft that can fulfil all missions mandated for the type. All components and subsystems are operational, all maintenance directives and mods are up to date, and there’s enough time remaining before the next maintenance period for missions to be completed.

The others all represent readiness levels for only certain missions, but note how little information they actually provide as metrics. Sure, they tell us in extremely broad strokes why an aircraft is only partially available, such as being as a result of maintenance, but not which missions cannot be fulfilled. Is an aircraft in PMCM status combat ready? Maybe. Maybe not. Yet too often the Mission Capable rate is taken on its own as an indication of how many aircraft a squadron can deploy in combat, which is obviously impossible to rely on without further information. For that reason, the planning staff of the USAF and other air forces rely on many other indicators as well, such as mission abort rates, cannibalisation rates, timeto-deployment measurements, and the results of frequent combat exercises to achieve a broader view.

With all that in mind it is surprising, if not shocking, that the main performance indicators relied on by the SAAF’s senior staff, according to information relayed to me by multiple sources within Air Force HQ, are simply quarterly measurements of: 1. The number of serviceable aircraft available daily 2. Number of crews available daily 3. Number of flying hours These are wholly inadequate metrics by which to determine the health of an air force, especially as none measure whether aircraft are fully mission capable or merely

If all scheduled maintenance has not been done, full force readiness is not possible

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FlightCom Magazine

Aircraft not maintained and supported to operational readiness may soon become scrap

‘serviceable’ and able to conduct a subset of their full mission sets, and whether aircrews are current on all necessary mission skills.

Worse, as I described in the September 2020 edition of this publication, the SAAF has for years had the ability to collect much better data and have it available in real time through its operational support system OSIS, but it has neglected it so badly that it has to rely on quarterly reporting instead. OSIS, rather than driving the operational side of the SAAF, has become yet another system into which personnel grudgingly enter data too late for it to be truly useful and without much oversight or regard for accuracy.

As a result, the SAAF and SANDF’s senior leadership have reportedly been mostly unaware of the extent to which underfunding is hollowing out the SAAF’s aircraft and aircrew fleets. Every month, while aircraft appear to be serviceable and available on the flight line, they’re less mission capable, mostly because the lack of funding means unserviceable parts have to be replaced when they fail and few replacements are kept readily available in stocks to replace them.

A sharp decline in flying hours has also resulted in an everlarger number of aircrew losing currency in various skills.

All of this is largely hidden from senior staff and, most importantly, Parliament and the public because it’s not exposed in any metrics that those can see.

When metrics are inadequate, a good proxy for readiness is the holding of annual large-scale combat exercises that test all capabilities and skills, while including deployment elements to ensure that aircraft can operate away from home base. But the SAAF has not held a full combat exercise in years, with the most recent Winter Solstice field exercise having been in 2017 and even combined arms exercises like Exercise Ndlovu being severely downscaled in scope since, becoming more of a command post exercise than a field exercise. While those exercises are costly to hold, they are critical as both training aids and evaluations of readiness and capability. Every year that goes by without one being held is another opportunity for readiness levels to decline without anyone truly being aware of it.

There is no doubt that the SAAF is in serious trouble, as it has been ground down by so many years of successive budget cuts even as the requirements on it have remained constant or even in some cases grown. But we can’t begin to fix it unless both we as the public and the SAAF and SANDF’s senior leadership have access to a set of honest and useful metrics and performance indicators that truly measure what level of readiness exists. Only then can reforms and changes be attempted with confidence that we’ll be able to see whether or not they work.

Time is running out to get this right. After all, one of the hallmarks of a hollow force is that everything seems okay as long as the outer shell is not broken. The moment that happens, though, the entire thing comes falling down. 

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NEWS

FIRST PILATUS PC-24

COMMUTER DELIVERED The first PC-24 in commuter configuration has been delivered.

E

XPANDING onb the already market leading versality of its PC-24 jet, Pilatus now offers the PC-12 in a commuter configuration for up to ten passengers, delivering cost-effective corporate travel by jet to remote airfields.

Each seat is installed with a quick-release mechanism allowing easy cabin reconfiguration for all transportation requirements.

The PC-24’s payload capacity of 1,134 kilograms and standard large cargo door enable operators to load large, bulky items that no other business jet is capable of carrying with such flexibility. The cabin features a private lavatory which can be serviced from the exterior.

Unlike many other light and midsize jets in this category, the lavatory seat is not used as a passenger seat: the loss of comfort for the passenger is simply too great.

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FlightCom Magazine

The PC-24’s entirely flat floor also adds to comfort on long trips. Seat pitch in the commuter configuration varies from 34 (86) to 40 inches (102 centimetres).

Each seat features a side storage compartment and cup holder as well as one USB charging port. On top of that, four 115-volt power outlets in the cabin enhance in-flight productivity.

Ignaz Gretener, VP General Aviation of Pilatus commented: “The PC-24 is the only aircraft in its category to offer this level of high-capacity interior for ten passengers. All seats are forward-facing, and internal cargo space of more than 50 cubic feet (1.4 cubic metres) remains accessible in flight. We expect this configuration will prove very popular with both public and private operators requiring a cost-effective solution for frequent transportation of passengers as an alternative to sending them on the airlines.” 

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• 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 AMO No: 227

FLIGHT SAFETY THROUGH MAINTENANCE

FlightCom Magazine

41

BACKPAGE DIR DIRECT ECTORY ORY A1A Flight Examiner (Loutzavia) Jannie Loutzis 012 567 6775 / 082 416 4069 jannie@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za

Alpha One Aviation Opelo 082 301 9977 on@alphaoneaviation.co.za www.alphaoneaviation.co.za

Alpi Aviation SA Dale De Klerk 082 556 3592 dale@alpiaviation.co.za www.alpiaviation.co.za

Comporob Composite Repair & Manufacture Felix Robertson 072 940 4447 083 265 3602 comporob@lantic.net www.comporob.co.za Corporate-Aviators/Affordable Jet Sales Mike Helm 082 442 6239 corporate-aviators@iafrica.com www.corporate-aviators.com

Flying Frontiers Craig Lang 082 459 0760 CraigL@fairfield.co.za www.flyingfrontiers.com

Flying Unlimited Flight School (Pty) Ltd Riaan Struwig 082 653 7504 / 086 770 8376 riaan@ppg.co.za C. W. Price & Co www.ppg.co.za Apco (Ptyd) Ltd Kelvin L. Price Foster Aero International AES (Cape Town) Tony/Henk 011 805 4720 Dudley Foster Erwin Erasmus + 27 12 543 0775 cwp@cwprice.co.za 011 659 2533 082 494 3722 apcosupport@mweb.co.za www.cwprice.co.za info@fosteraero.co.za erwin@aeroelectrical.co.za www.apcosa.co.za

www.fosteraero.co.za www.aeroelectrical.co.za Dart Aeronautical Aref Avionics Jaco Kelly Gemair AES (Johannesburg) Hannes Roodt 011 827 8204 Andries Venter Danie van Wyk 082 462 2724 dartaero@mweb.co.za 011 701 2653 / 082 905 5760 011 701 3200 arefavionics@border.co.za andries@gemair.co.za office@aeroelectrical.co.za Dart Aircraft Electrical www.aeroelectrical.co.za Atlas Aviation Lubricants Mathew Joubert GIB Aviation Insurance Brokers Steve Cloete 011 827 0371 Richard Turner Aerocore 011 917 4220 Dartaircraftelectrical@gmail.com 011 483 1212 Jacques Podde Fax: 011 917 2100 www.dartaero.co.za aviation@gib.co.za 082 565 2330 Sales.aviation@atlasoil.co.za www.gib.co.za jacques@aerocore.co.za www.atlasoil.africa DJA Aviation Insurance www.aerocore.co.za 011 463 5550 Gryphon Flight Academy

ATNS 0800Flying Jeffrey Von Holdt Aero Engineering & PowerPlant Percy Morokane mail@dja-aviation.co.za 011 701 2600 Andre Labuschagne 011 607 1234 www.dja-aviation.co.za info@gryphonflight.co.za 012 543 0948 percymo@atns.co.za www.gryphonflight.co.za aeroeng@iafrica.com www.atns.com Dynamic Propellers

Andries Visser Guardian Air Aero Services (Pty) Ltd Aviation Direct 011 824 5057 011 701 3011 Chris Scott Andrea Antel 082 445 4496 082 521 2394 011 395 3587 011 465 2669 andries@dynamicpropeller.co.za ops@guardianair.co.za chris@aeroservices.co.za info@aviationdirect.co.za www.dynamicpropellers.co.za www.guardianair.co.za www.aeroservices.co.za www.aviationdirect.co.za

Eagle Aviation Helicopter Division Heli-Afrique cc Aeronav Academy BAC Aviation AMO 115 Tamryn van Staden Tino Conceicao Donald O’Connor Micky Joss 082 657 6414 083 458 2172 011 701 3862 035 797 3610 tamryn@eaglehelicopter.co.za tino.conceicao@heli-afrique.co.za info@aeronav.co.za monicad@bacmaintenance.co.za www.eaglehelicopter.co.za

www.aeronav.co.za

Henley Air Blackhawk Africa Eagle Flight Academy Andre Coetzee Aeronautical Aviation Cisca de Lange Mr D. J. Lubbe 011 827 5503 Clinton Carroll 083 514 8532 082 557 6429 andre@henleyair.co.za 011 659 1033 / 083 459 6279 cisca@blackhawk.aero training@eagleflight.co.za www.henleyair.co.za clinton@aeronautical.co.za www.blackhawk.aero www.eagleflight.co.za www.aeronautical.co.za Hover Dynamics Blue Chip Flight School Elite Aviation Academy Phillip Cope Aerotric (Pty) Ltd Henk Kraaij Jacques Podde 074 231 2964 Richard Small 012 543 3050 082 565 2330 info@hover.co.za 083 488 4535 bluechip@bluechip-avia.co.za info@eliteaa.co.za www.hover.co.za aerotric@aol.com www.bluechipflightschool.co.za www.eliteaa.co.za Adventure Air Lande Milne 012 543 3196 / Cell: 066 4727 848 l.milne@venture-sa.co.za www.ventureglobal.biz

Aircraft Assembly and Upholstery Centre Border Aviation Club & Flight School Emperor Aviation Tony/Siggi Bailes Liz Gous Paul Sankey 082 552 6467 043 736 6181 082 497 1701 / 011 824 5683 anthony@rvaircraft.co.za admin@borderaviation.co.za paul@emperoraviation.co.za www.rvaircraft.co.za www.borderaviation.co.za www.emperoraviation.co.za

Aircraft Finance Corporation Breytech Aviation cc Enstrom/MD Helicopters Jaco Pietersen 012 567 3139 Andrew Widdall +27 [0]82 672 2262 Willie Breytenbach 011 397 6260 jaco@airfincorp.co.za admin@breytech.co.za aerosa@safomar.co.za www.airfincorp.co.za www.safomar.co.za Bundu Aviation Aircraft General Spares Phillip Cronje Era Flug Flight Training Eric or Hayley 083 485 2427 Pierre Le Riche 084 587 6414 or 067 154 2147 info@bunduaviation.co.za 021 934 7431 eric@acgs.co.za or hayley@acgs.co.za www.bunduaviation.co.za info@era-flug.com www.acgs.co.za www.era-flug.com Celeste Sani Pak & Inflight Products Aircraft Maintenance @ Work Steve Harris Execujet Africa Opelo / Frik 011 452 2456 011 516 2300 012 567 3443 admin@chemline.co.za enquiries@execujet.co.za frik@aviationatwork.co.za_ www.chemline.co.za www.execujet.com opelonke@aviationatwork.co.za Cape Aircraft Interiors Federal Air Aircraft Maintenance International Sarel Schutte Nick Lloyd-Roberts Pine Pienaar 021 934 9499 011 395 9000 083 305 0605 michael@wcaeromarine.co.za shuttle@fedair.com gm@aminternational.co.za www.zscai.co.za www.fedair.com Aircraft Maintenance International Wonderboom Thomas Nel 082 444 7996 admin@aminternational.co.za Air Line Pilots’ Association Sonia Ferreira 011 394 5310 alpagm@iafrica.com www.alpa.co.za

Airshift Aircraft Sales Eugene du Plessis 082 800 3094 eugene@airshift.co.za www.airshift.co.za Airvan Africa Patrick Hanly 082 565 8864 airvan@border.co.za www.airvan.co.za Algoa Flying Club Sharon Mugridge 041 581 3274 info@algoafc.co.za www.algoafc.co.za

42

FlightCom Magazine

Cape Town Flying Club Ferry Flights int.inc.

Beverley Combrink Michael (Mick) Schittenhelm 021 934 0257 / 082 821 9013 082 442 6239 info@capetownflyingclub.co.za ferryflights@ferry-flights.com www.@capetownflyingclub.co.za www.ferry-flights.com

Capital Air Fireblade Aviation Micaella Vinagre 010 595 3920 011 827 0335 info@firebladeaviation.com micaella@capitalairsa.com www.firebladeaviation.com www.capitalairsa.com

Flight Training College Century Avionics cc Cornell Morton Carin van Zyl 044 876 9055 011 701 3244 ftc@flighttrainning.co.za sales@centuryavionics.co.za www.flighttraining.co.za www.centuryavionics.co.za

Flight Training Services Chemetall Amanda Pearce Wayne Claassens 011 805 9015/6 011 914 2500 amanda@fts.co.za wayne.claassens@basf.com www.fts.co.za www.chemetall.com

Fly Jetstream Aviation Chem-Line Aviation & Celeste Products Henk Kraaij Steve Harris 083 279 7853 011 452 2456 charter@flyjetstream.co.za sales@chemline.co.za www.flyjetstream.co.za www.chemline.co.za

Indigo Helicopters Gerhard Kleynhans 082 927 4031 / 086 528 4234 veroeschka@indigohelicopters.co.za www.indigohelicopters.co.za IndigoSat South Africa - Aircraft Tracking Gareth Willers 08600 22 121 sales@indigosat.co.za www.indigosat.co.za

Integrated Avionic Solutions Gert van Niekerk 082 831 5032 gert@iasafrica.co.za www.iasafrica.co.za International Flight Clearances Steve Wright 076 983 1089 (24 Hrs) flightops@flyifc.co.za www.flyifc.co.za Investment Aircraft Quinton Warne 082 806 5193 aviation@lantic.net www.investmentaircraft.com Jabiru Aircraft Len Alford 044 876 9991 / 044 876 9993 info@jabiru.co.za www.jabiru.co.za Jim Davis Books Jim Davis 072 188 6484 jim@border.co.za www.jimdavis.co.za

Joc Air T/A The Propeller Shop Aiden O’Mahony 011 701 3114 jocprop@iafrica.com Kishugu Aviation +27 13 741 6400 comms@kishugu.com www.kishugu.com/kishugu-aviation

Kit Planes for Africa Stefan Coetzee 013 793 7013 info@saplanes.co.za www.saplanes.co.za

MS Aviation Gary Templeton 082 563 9639 gary.templeton@msaviation.co.za www.msaviation.co.za

Kzn Aviation (Pty) Ltd Melanie Jordaan 031 564 6215 mel@kznaviation.co.za www.kznaviation.co.za

Skyhorse Aviation Ryan Louw 012 809 3571 info@skyhorse.co.za www.skyhorse.co.za

United Flight Support Clinton Moodley/Jonathan Wolpe 076 813 7754 / 011 788 0813 ops@unitedflightsupported.com www.unitedflightsupport.com

North East Avionics Keith Robertson +27 13 741 2986 keith@northeastavionics.co.za deborah@northeastavionics.co.za www.northeastavionics.co.za Landing Eyes Gavin Brown Orsmond Aviation 031 202 5703 058 303 5261 info@landingeyes.co.za info@orsmondaviation.co.za www.landingeyes.com www.orsmondaviation.co.za

Lanseria Aircraft Interiors Owenair (Pty) Ltd Francois Denton Clive Skinner 011 659 1962 / 076 810 9751 082 923 9580 francois@aircraftcompletions.co.za clive.skinner@owenair.co.za www.owenwair.co.za Lanseria International Airport Mike Christoph Pacair 011 367 0300 Wayne Bond mikec@lanseria.co.za 033 386 6027 www.lanseria.co.za pacair@telkomsa.net

Skyworx Aviation Kevin Hopper kevin@skyworx.co.za www.skyworxaviation.co.za

Legend Sky 083 860 5225 / 086 600 7285 info@legendssky.co.za www.legendsky.co.za

PFERD-South Africa (Pty) Ltd Hannes Nortman 011 230 4000 hannes.nortman@pferd.co.za www.pferd.com

Southern Energy Company (Pty) Ltd Elke Bertram +264 8114 29958 johnnym@sec.com.na www.sec.com.na

Litson & Associates (Pty) Ltd OGP, BARS, Resources Auditing & Aviation Training karen.litson@litson.co.za Phone: 27 (0) 21 8517187 www.litson.co.za

Pipistrel Kobus Nel 083 231 4296 kobus@pipistrelsa.co.za www.pipistrelsa.co.za

Southern Rotorcraft cc Mr Reg Denysschen Tel no: 0219350980 sasales@rotors-r-us.com www.rotors-r-us.com

Plane Maintenance Facility Johan 083 300 3619 pmf@myconnection.co.za

Sport Plane Builders Pierre Van Der Walt 083 361 3181 pmvdwalt@mweb.co.za

Precision Aviation Services Marnix Hulleman 012 543 0371 marnix@pasaviation.co.za www.pasaviation.co.za

PSG Aviation Reon Wiese 0861 284 284 reon.wiese@psg.co.za www.psg aviation.co.za

Starlite Aero Sales Klara Fouché +27 83 324 8530 / +27 31 571 6600 klaraf@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Rainbow SkyReach (Pty) Ltd Mike Gill 011 817 2298 Mike@fly-skyreach.com www.fly-skyreach.com

Rand Airport Stuart Coetzee 011 827 8884 stuart@randairport.co.za www.randairport.co.za

Robin Coss Aviation Robin Coss 021 934 7498 info@cossaviation.com www.cossaviation.co.za

Starlite Aviation Training Academy Durban: +27 31 571 6600 Mossel Bay: +27 44 692 0006 train@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Litson & Associates Risk Management Services (Pty) Ltd. eSMS-S/eTENDER/ eREPORT/Advisory Services karen.litson@litson.co.za Phone: 27 (0) 8517187 www.litson.co.za Loutzavia Aircraft Sales Henry Miles 082 966 0911 henry@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za

Loutzavia Flight Training Gerhardt Botha 012 567 6775 ops@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za Loutzavia-Pilots and Planes Maria Loutzis 012 567 6775 maria@loutzavia.co.za www.pilotsnplanes.co.za Loutzavia Rand Frans Pretorius 011 824 3804 rand@loutzavia.co.za www@loutzavia.co.za Lowveld Aero Club Pugs Steyn 013 741 3636 Flynow@lac.co.za Marshall Eagle Les Lebenon 011 958 1567 les@marshalleagle.co.za www.marshalleagle.co.za Maverick Air Charters Chad Clark 083 292 2270 Charters@maverickair.co.za www.maverickair.co.za MCC Aviation Pty Ltd Claude Oberholzer 011 701 2332 info@flymcc.co.za www.flymcc.co.za

MH Aviation Services (Pty) Ltd Marc Pienaar 011 609 0123 / 082 940 5437 customerrelations@mhaviation.co.za www.mhaviation.co.za M and N Acoustic Services cc Martin de Beer 012 689 2007/8 calservice@mweb.co.za

Metropolitan Aviation (Pty) Ltd Gert Mouton 082 458 3736 herenbus@gmail.com Money Aviation Angus Money 083 263 2934 angus@moneyaviation.co.za www.moneyaviation.co.za

SAA Technical (SOC) Ltd SAAT Marketing 011 978 9993 satmarketing@flysaa.com www.flysaa.com/technical SABRE Aircraft Richard Stubbs 083 655 0355 richardstubbs@mweb.co.za www.aircraftafrica.co.za SA Mooney Patrick Hanly 082 565 8864 samooney@border.co.za www.samooney.co.za Savannah Helicopters De Jager 082 444 1138 / 044 873 3288 dejager@savannahhelicopters.co.za www.savannahhelicopters.co.za Scenic Air Christa van Wyk +264 612 492 68 windhoek@scenic-air.com www.scenic-air.com Sheltam Aviation Durban Susan Ryan 083 505 4882 susanryan@sheltam.com www.sheltamaviation.com Sheltam Aviation PE Brendan Booker 082 497 6565 brendanb@sheltam.com www.sheltamaviation.com

Sky-Tech Heinz Van Staden 082 720 5210 sky-tech@telkomsa.net www.sky-tech.za.com Sling Aircraft Kim Bell-Cross 011 948 9898 sales@airplanefactory.co.za www.airplanefactory.co.za

Solenta Aviation (Pty Ltd) Paul Hurst 011 707 4000 info@solenta.com www.solenta.com

Unique Air Charter Nico Pienaar 082 444 7994 nico@uniqueair.co.za www.uniqueair.co.za

Unique Flight Academy Nico Pienaar 082 444 7994 nico@uniqueair.co.za www.uniqueair.co.za

Van Zyl Aviation Services Colette van Zyl 012 997 6714 admin@vanzylaviationco.za www.vanzylaviation.co.za

Vector Aerospace Jeff Poirier +902 888 1808 jeff.poirier@vectoraerospace.com www.vectoraerospace.com Velocity Aviation Collin Pearson 011 659 2306 / 011 659 2334 collin@velocityaviation.co.za www.velocityaviation.co.za Villa San Giovanni Luca Maiorana 012 111 8888 info@vsg.co.za www.vsg.co.za

Starlite Aviation Operations Trisha Andhee +27 82 660 3018/ +27 31 571 6600 trishaa@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Status Aviation (Pty) Ltd Richard Donian 074 587 5978 / 086 673 5266 info@statusaviation.co.za www.statusaviation.co.za Superior Pilot Services Liana Jansen van Rensburg 0118050605/2247 info@superiorair.co.za www.superiorair.co.za

The Copter Shop Bill Olmsted 082 454 8555 execheli@iafrica.com www.execheli.wixsite.com/the-coptershop-sa Titan Helicopter Group 044 878 0453 info@titanhelicopters.com www.titanhelicopters.com TPSC Dennis Byrne 011 701 3210 turboprop@wol.co.za Trio Helicopters & Aviation cc CR Botha or FJ Grobbelaar 011 659 1022

Vortx Aviation Bredell Roux 072 480 0359 info@vortx.co.za www.vortxaviation.com Wagtail Aviation Johan van Ludwig 082 452 8194 acrochem@mweb.co.za www.wagtail.co.za Wanafly Adrian Barry 082 493 9101 adrian@wanafly.net www.wanafly.co.za Windhoek Flight Training Centre Thinus Dreyer 0026 40 811284 180 pilots@flywftc.com www.flywftc.com Wings n Things Wendy Thatcher 011 701 3209 wendy@wingsnthings.co.za www.wingsnthings.co.za Witbank Flight School Andre De Villiers 083 604 1718 andredv@lantic.net www.waaflyingclub.co.za Wonderboom Airport Peet van Rensburg 012 567 1188/9 peet@wonderboomairport.co.za www.wonderboomairport.co.za

Zandspruit Bush & Aero Estate Martin Den Dunnen 082 449 8895 martin@zandspruit.co.za www.zandspruit.co.za Zebula Golf Estate & SPA Reservations 014 734 7700 reception@zebula.co.za www.zebula.co.za

stoffel@trioavi.co.za/frans@trioavi.co.za

www.trioavi.co.za

Tshukudu Trailers Pieter Visser 083 512 2342 deb@tshukudutrailers.co.za www.tshukudutrailers.co.za U Fly Training Academy Nikola Puhaca 011 824 0680 ufly@telkomsa.net www.uflyacademy.co.za

United Charter cc Jonathan Wolpe 083 270 8886 jonathan.wolpe@unitedcharter.co.za www.unitedcharter.co.za

FlightCom Magazine

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CARGO

Boeing 737-300 Cargo Aircraft available for wet (ACMI) lease.

SA Flyer 2019|08

Based at OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg South Africa.

Contact: yvonne@starcargo.co.za or peter@starcargo.co.za Tel: +27 11 234 7038 www.starair.co.za

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SA Flyer 2021| 03

N ond W EW e r e TE boo hav L: m e m +2 Air ov 7( por ed 83 t , to ) 4 Ha 42 nga 58 r 17 84

AviSys Aviation Systems is an established Maintenance Organization AMO 1089 with SA-CAA, and other African CAA accreditation to perform component maintenance and overhaul capabilities under its Category B rating. Currently, AviSys is equipped to cater for our Clients needs as per the SA-CAA Approved Capability List and Operational Specifications on the following: • Aircraft Braking Systems repair and full overhaul capability with SA-CAA Component Release to Service (Authorised Release Certificate) on the following OEM Makes; ABSC, Honeywell / Bendix, Goodrich and Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems.

• Aircraft main and nose wheel assemblies for the above makes, to repair and overhaul.

• Landing Gear Repair and Overhaul • Helicopter Servo Actuator Repair and Overhaul • Flexible Hose Build-up • Engine Fire Bottles HPT, Service, Fill and Re-charge AviSys Aviation Systems is committed to deliver Service Excellence and Quality Workmanship at market related prices, carried out with years of cumulative aviation experience in our field by means of dedicated hand-picked Staff Members.

AviSys looks forward to establish long and just relationships with our client base, in order to meet our high standards of customer satisfaction.

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Email: dewald@avisys.co.za Phone: +27 (0) 83 442 5884 Fax: +27 (0) 86 618 6996 Web: www.avisys.co.za

FlightCom Magazine

INCOME PRODUCING: Rated exceptional 9.6 on booking.com

TOP RATED GUEST HOUSE FOR SALE

R7,995,000

SIMONS TOWN LUXURY ACCOMMODATION.indd 1

8 Victory Way, Simon’s Kloof, Simon’s Town, Cape Town: A villa boasting sea views, situated 2 km from Boulders Penguin Colony in Simon’s Town, Penguin Palace is a top rated (9.6) villa on booking.com. This spectacular home has the option of buying the furniture as well as the guest house management systems - price to be negotiated when submitting an offer. There are audited turnover figures on request.

The perfect retirement opportunity!

FEATURES: • Chef’s Kitchen with gas hob • 3 expansive viewing decks • 5 rooms all with sea views and terraces • Separate Studio flat downstairs with own deck & sea views • Separate Scullery • Triple Garage • 3 off road parking bays • Inverters

www.penguinpalace.co.za 45

PENGUIN PALACE

Contact: Nicola +27 83 449 5868 | nicola@penguinpalace.co.za 8 Victory Way, Simons Kloof

FlightCom Magazine