Monday, April 30, 2012

Son studying in Stellenbosch

The main reason for favouring Cape Town as a destination is that I get to see my son Mark who is in 3rd year studying Mechanical Engineering at Stellenbosch University.

The time this time was brief though, barely enough to have dinner out and make sure he ate a good meal. Mark is in digs in Stellenbosch, does his own cooking and washing while he tackles a gruelling degree. Thanks for the use of the car boy, as we took a drive to Tulbach before continuing our journey in the planes.



Mark has only been for one flight in the Red Rocket.. I am still too scared to take my kids in a little aeroplane.

Cheers Mark Mark.. great to see you boy

From Stellenbosch to Tulbach

Flying in to Stellenbosch my son left us his car to wander off to Tulbach north-east of Cape Town where we stayed for a night at a beautiful guesthouse, owned by an architect who turned a barn into a delightful place to stay. In the afternoon we took a drive to the nearby Ceres valley and mountains.







This little Billy Goat went trip, trap over the bridge ..




Winetasting in Tulbach
Sunset at the guesthouse
View from the top of the Ceres mountains to the orchard valley of Ceres below

Video clip rounding Table Mountain



Click on the link here for the short YouTube video clip of us rounding Table Mountain on a flight in our Sling ZDL heading towards Hout Bay.


Robben Island


Cape Town Stadium


Lion's Head
The view of Table Mountain from Table Bay
Seapoint with Lion's Head and Table Mountain backdrop
Hout Bay is around the "corner"


We landed in Stellenbosch from Agulhas before lunch and the weather was great so we decided to do a flight around Table Mountain. Thanks to Rainier from MGL Avionics (another Sling owner and manuufacturer of the MGL onboard computers in our plane) we had a full telephonic briefing on the permitted routing and frequencies for the different sectors of the flight, including skirting around the Cape Town Control Zone and after Muizemberg, routing through the Cape Town CTZ talking to Cape Town International airport for the requisite transit permissions and guidance.

The Cape Town TMA (Terminal Control area) also has certain height restrictions and we saw why when a huge commercial airliner did a turn around and above us for landing at Cape Town International Airport. Again on the Muizemberg side we were on the Cape Town take-off and landing approach so we had to fly at only 500 ft above the waves out to sea to avoid the big planes around us. What an incredible experience. The mountains looming around us were breathtaking. A first time view from this side and altitude.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Rounding the Cape



The southernmost tip of Africa is where the cars are parked




Cape Agulhas Lighthouse - the 2nd oldest in South Africa






The best meal of the trip was the huge seafood platter at Angelo's in Agulhas



The onboard computer and GPS plots the route through controlled airspace

From Agulhas over the Stellenbosch mountains to Stellenbosch


My son Mark met us and handed over his car for a road trip to Cape Town city for the night

Approaching Table Mountain from Bloubergstrand

Cutting the coast off Robben Island

Magnificent Table Mountain and Seapoint

Seeing both sides of the Cape Peninsular and Sandy Bay



Fishoek where my gran used to live


Thursday, April 26, 2012

Runways in the sky

The Journey to southernmost Africa continues... here are some of the awesome pics that Lee took on the journey of Llewellyn and I in ZDL and the VIEW..



Incredible Port St John's runway on a mountain-top

The Eagle has landed




The Heads at Knysna



Sunrise at Cape Agulhas


The coast en route to Stellenbosch

The Table Mountain trip was breathtaking.. watch this space for more incredible pics as we flew to Robben Island, around Table Mountain and to Hout Bay