MGL radio change

Thanks Michel with the help and The Airplane Factory for looking after me when my MGL radio went on the blink.. see last post. So after a new one arrived by courier, Michel fromAyre Aviation fitted it for me this morning while I helped with taking out a few screws and learning what goes on behind the dashboard. So I'm ready to fly again. Yay!!

Battlefields

Handsome Sling ZDL red rocket lines up at the Battlefields Fly-in

Brad and I flying flight level FL085 on the way home

The Yaks are popular machines

See the shadow of Red Rocket as we fly over the Treverton airfield

Did the Battlefields Fly-In with my previous instructor Brad today. Good flying although it was very hazy like an inversion and our mates Marc and Lee in ETD joined us after initially diverting to Dundee until the clouds lifted. The day actually turned out pretty hot and we enjoyed breakfast at the lodge and a quick flight around the battlefields before returning home. The battlefields were the scenes of the Anglo/Zulu wars, prior to the English declaring the Natal area a colony of Britain. We stayed a British colony until the Union of South Africa in 1910 when the British Colony, the Orange Free State, the Cape Colony and the Transvaal Republic came together as one.

On the way back we experienced a partial radio failure - it seems our broadcasts were being heard, but we could not hear the responses, so we have to talk our way back by telephone to Virginia whilst they monitored us on the radar.

We were flying a bit faster and the fuel seemed to be disappearing muck quicker... so we ended on only 10 litres with a 33kts headwind some of the way back.

100 posts

My last post was my 100th on this blog can you believe - my mate Marc calls me a blogwhore... so be it! It was the advent of the digital camera and of course the internet that changed everything. In the old days I used to take photos and keep albums and I also went through a stage long ago of taking slides and had a slide projector.  Unlike Facebook or other digital album websites, blogs enable you to capture the story that goes with the pictures, label them and group them into categories, as well as maintaining a chronological order to the posts. So what better way to keep track of your life's efforts? I run 13 blogs at the moment for business, flying, pleasure and home life... check out this one too Durban View I started that blog for the world cup and after the football was over kept the blog going as my family blog.

This Saturday we have a houseload of guests for the Indaba tourism conference in Durban and tomorrow morning I am flying to the Battlefields Fly-In, so more pics on that after the weekend.

Air Crash Lessons

Thankfully not ZDL. This is the tragic scene of last weekend's aircrash at Margate in which fellow aviator Rob Mirtle and Hazel Nash were killed. I landed many times at Rob Mirtle's airfield in Camperdown during my intial NPL training at Light Flight.

Since the crash, the aviation forum Avcom has been alive with news and information about the probable causes of the engine failure after take-off (EFATO) and I have also done some research as well as attended a safety lecture last night at Ayre Aviation where I completed my PPL course.

I thought I learned a lot during our 25-hour adventure south to the Cape in our Red Rocket, but I have learnt a heap since then with these recent aircrashes.

One of the most frequent causes of an engine failure is fuel starvation for various reasons and the following is my layman's contribution to an understanding in preventing an engine failure due to lack of fuel...

FUEL CHECKLIST

1. Switch on the fuel pump before you start the engine to hear it whirr and know it is working.

2. Ensure that for take-offs and landings the fuel pump is switched on as it will help ensure positive pressure driving the fuel to the carbs and will help eliminate vapour lock (evaporated fuel fumes blocking the flow of fuel).

3. Be cautious of re-starting a hot engine or a plane that has been baking in the sun as this is the type of situation that can cause fuel to vaporise and block the fuel lines.

4. Ensure that your fuel tanks have sufficient fuel for the intended journey. This seems trite, but has been the cause of many an accident.

5. Physically check the level of fuel in the tanks visually and don't rely on instruments, or your knowledge of what was in the tank the night before. Fuel can easily leak out of the pressure release valves, some fuel evaporates, and fuel theft is not uncommon.

6. Always do a magnetos check before take-off to test your engine running at high revs, so that on take-off they should not suddenly falter, and register that the outcome of the tests falls within the parameters for your engine as set out in the Pilot's Operating Handbook (POH). Sling (Rotax 912 ULS) mag drop should not exceed 300 rpm @ 4000 rpm, and differential between left and right mag should not exceed 120 rpm.

7. After doing these checks do not tamper with the fuel system eg changing tank - as the use of the fuel in the changed tank will not have been tested. If you are landing and intending to change fuel tanks for the next leg of the flight, change fuel tank after landing so that the new tank is in use already while you are taxing to stop. This will give you some assurance that that fuel tank is delivering correctly before your next take-off.

8. Always check the fuel before each flight for water or other contamination by taking a sample of the fuel from the lowest-point testing valve. Only refill the tanks using a black (conductive) approved fuel-filter to remove contaminants and water and avoid static built-up that could ignite the vapours.

9. Ensure that your fueltank caps are securely locked or fitted.

10. For Sling-type onboard EFIS systems, input the fuel levels so that the EFIS reflects the actual fuel onboard. It uses this information to calculate remaining range and levels.

11. Continuously check your fuel levels during flight. The valve could be leaking and result in fuel loss as you fly.

SAFE FLYING

The Highlights - trip to southernmost Africa.. best meal, sushi...

We've had some awesome moments, over hill and dale, mountains and skimmed treetops, through and around clouds, mist and rain, around Table Mountain and the furthest and highest from home I have been in our Sling since getting my PPL licence only a week before we left. We've used R4200 fuel, at an average of 14 litres of 95 unleaded mogas (car petrol) per hour, 25 hours of flight time, covering 3600 kms at approximately 9,7 litres per 100 kms.

Our Airplane

Our locally made top-rated airplane Sling registration ZU - ZDL (Zulu Delta Lima, short for KZN boys Dave and Llewellyn)

Here are some photos of the highlights:

Most scary moments - coming over the Baviaans Mountains and finding a blanket of clouds on our route forward... dived through a gap in the clouds and found rain and mist under, dropping to 200ft above the treetops of a huge forest and finding the sky was fast falling on us. Managed to make a dash towards the sea and a diverted landing at Plettenberg Bay which was fortunately still approachable.

Over the mountains and diving below the clouds

Best meal - Huge seafood platter for 4 for R300 at Angelo's, Cape Agulhas. Best quality and best value and great staff.

Best flight - Flight around Table Mountain and across the Cape Peninsular. Spectacular views at close proximity including Chapman's Peak Drive, Robben Island, Hout Bay, Sandy Bay (:-)) and Fishhoek.

Click on the link here for the video clip rounding Table Mountain to Camps Bay

Best accommodation - Self-catering apartments at the Knysna Waterfront, followed by the Villa @ Cape Agulhas where we had the light from the Agulhas Lighhouse just below sweeping through the room every few seconds. Kept the curtains open and absorbed the experience. Did you know that every lighthouse has it's own secret code (light pattern - Agulhas: one long, followed by two short bleeps of light) and it's own unique paint job... either thick red strips, thick white strips, red/white/red, white/red/whilte, all white etc - so that sailors can distinguish each from the other?

Highest Peaks - Baviaans mountains at Joubertina and Stellenbosch Mountains - climbing to 7500ft is not the higest our airplane can go, but the highest I have been in ZDL, scraping over the peaks and wondering where we could go and who could reach us if there was any problem!!! Not much chance!

Biggest mountains - yes, this big and thousands of feet to the bottom below us

Furthest over the sea - never been more than 500m out to sea, so flying out towards Robben Island in Table Bay and then False Bay to get to Somerset West under Cape Town International Airport Approach instructions at 500 ft above the waves, was the furthest out I have been. Can't imagine the guys from The Airplane Factory, who built our machine, flying for 29 hours across the remotest ocean and islands of Tristan da Counha (the world's most remote) from Rio to Cape Town - brave souls!!!

Best Sushi - definitely 34 South at the Knysna Waterfront. Amazing sushi crumbed and deep fried. Where has this been all my life!

Best Hospitality - Jaco de Vos (local dentist and son) in Port Alfred. This is what makes the aviation community so special. Close knit, friendly, helpful and hospitable. Thank you Dirk and Jaco for looking after us. And Tracey and Justine from Mossel Bay were incredible. All 6 of us squashed in the car and carted fuel to and fro and enjoyed 2 bottles of tequila over a braai, then rolled into bed there. Love you lots girls.. we will return!!!

Tracey knows how to cook, braai, drink and laugh

Best Beer - Kowie Gold, Pilsener (locally brewed in Port Alfred on the Kowie River) and Mitchell's Forrester (brewed in Knysna)

Best Attraction - Cango Caves, Oudtshoorn. You have to do the adventure trail!

Biggest cloud - leaving Oudtshoorn for Mossel Bay we were not sure if we would get over the mountains. Chatting to Marc in ETD behind us I said I think I can go around this giant cloud in the sky. So we sort of swerved right, missed the looming mountain top, swerved left again heading straight for another mountain then climbed around and up and we were past. Sjoe!!

Stongest winds - usually a 30 kts (55 kmh) wind is hectic, but this one reached 70 kts (130 kmh) en route from Port Alfred in the eastern Cape back to KwaZulu-Natal... but our little plane handled it. For some parts of the journey we put on the auto-pilot as it handles turbulance better than holding the stick yourself. Pilots tend to over-react whereas the auto-pilot makes smaller micro-adjustments which give you a smoother flight.

Best landing strip - must be Port St John's where you have this huge mountain with a tar runway on top, and on take-off Lee had to first chase the cows off.

Port St Johns

Best Airfield - Stellenbosch. Beautiful green grass and tarred runway in front of breathtaking mountains. Good ablutions and nice clubhouse and pub.

Best Mates - our good buddies Marc and Lee in their Yellow Submarine. It's not always easy to travel with other folk, but we had 10 amazing days of riotous fun, many drinks and good chatting around the dinner table and in the sky.. especially when I wasn't sure if we should plunge on through the clouds or turn back!!

Marc, Dave, Llewellyn, Lee at Stellenbosch

For the full story and all the photos, click on this link here, or carry on scrolling down the blog from the end to day 1. Thanks for reading. It's amazing that over 1000 people have read the blog this past month!!

East, West, home....

I have always loved the Cape, for the mountains and the scenery, but we have the climate, the warm ocean and beaches and it's our home. Our journey to the southernmost tip of Africa was largely an east/west trip with a little south thrown in. Flying west was best and coming home to the east we had the sun in our eyes most of the way. And the last stretch home from Port Alfred to Margate we had the highest winds I have ever flown in. Up to 70 kts (130 km/h) - mostly crosswind, with a 25 knots headwind component, which means we were flying sideways like a crab (if a crab could fly) just to be flying in the right direction. Also, a bit disappointing was the cloud of smog we were flying in as we reached KwaZulu-Natal. There were at least 10 fires I could see at any one time, huge billows of smoke that covered the eatth and went out to sea and there appeared to be a temperature inversion... a hot layer of air above a colder layer. This traps the smog down under and makes visibility poor. We encounntered this on one other day on our drive from Cape Town to Tulbagh and at one stage the car came over a hill and we drove straight down into this brownish layer of ugly smog.

The incredible Sling, our Red Rocket, had taken us on a journey and a half and had brought us back home safe and sound. Thank you guys for such a magnificent flying machine.

East London and the eastern Cape coastline

East London Westbank Cemetary and Lighthouse - family grave I clear every couple of years

East London West bank

The Port St John's runway on top of the mountain

KwaZulu-Natal South Coast

Landing at Margate for lunch - the scene of an ugly aircrash the day before.. RIP Rob and Hazel

Flying coastwise of the Bluff with Durban harbour in the background and haze

Durban harbour entrance as we round the Point

Durban's Moses Mahbida Stadium means landing at Virginia is minutes away

My daughter Kate-Lynn on hand to meet and greet as we arrive home in Durban on the 30th April

Port Alfred on the way home

Our adventure almost complete when the show ended in Steytlerville, we were now homeward bound. Our next stop was Port Alfred where 43 Airschool is based. We had soon passed through PE airspace and left the Karoo and found our way to the little town on the coast. Aviation website Avcom's Dirk, the local dentist in Port Alfred kindly offered us hangar space and accomoodation for the night and his son lent us his car so we could get out and find something to eat. What incredible hospitality in this town!! We were up early to see the sunrise and get up into the sky for our last push home.

Our friends Marc and Lee put in fuel and decided to take advantage of a tailwind and carry on home withour stopping over

Beautiful view of Port Alfred from Dirk's home

The local brew Kowie Pilsener was excellent

Sunrise and the last day of the incredible journey

Homeward bound

Mossel Bay to Steytlerville

The flight back from Mossel Bay over the mountains to Oudtshoorn and then along the valley to Steytlerville was largely uneventful.. except for the ticking off I got from the George ATC for an alleged infringement of his airspace.

The airfield at Steytlerville was unserviceable and a kindly farmer and fellow aviator allowed us to land on his bush-strip at Rooikrans, about 25kms from the little town in the middle of nowhere. It is sort of equidistant in a triangle inland of Plettenberg bay and Jefferies Bay.. the Baviaans nature area. Both the hotel sent out transport for us, and the local farmer was also quite willing to transport us too and even pulled out his million $ Beechcroft Bonannza aeroplane to let us park in his hangar for the night.

What attracted us to the spot was a delightful olde worlde hotel.. the Karroo Theatrical Hotel in Steytlerville whose claim to fame is careful restoration by the present owners Mark and Jacques and a Saturday concert and drag show which was highly entertaining. The town was otherwise very much a one-horse dorpie, or one-kerk dorpie in the middle of nowhere. I really take my hat off to the hotel owners for the exceptional multi-tasking. 2 guys and 2 maids running the 14-bedroom hotel having to do the cooking, cleaning, plumbing, maintenance, restoration, decor and show !! Excellent stop-over.

The Karroo Theatrical Hotel

Walking to town from the hotel

Piano Concert and Drag Show supper theatre