Running out of airtime

My Authority to Fly expires at 268 hours and with today's flight to Pietermaritzburg we're on 256.. so I did a few calculations: we want to do a night flight to Margate on Friday for dinner (and back), plus fly with James (Kate's boyfriend) to Howick on Saturday to do the midlands meander with them; I need to get the plane to Tedderfield in Johannesburg for the service and to re-earth the nav lights and perhaps do my first Commerical Pilot's Licence exam, so that leaves like 1 hour left which co-owner Llewellyn is claiming for a lesson tomorrow. And then time's up!

With the service, the fresh Authority to Fly will be issued and we will be good to go again.

Wow, the weather in Durban has been stunning... got to take advantage before the wind and rain hits us in Aug/Sept. It was a bit hazy today en route to Pietermaritzburg for lunch but that was due to the number of grass veld fires around with the dry weather.

Had some text-book landings today, and great flying

 

Back in the air

Back in the air again after our regulator failure, and having missed the fly-in to Himeville of 65 planes last Sunday, we did our own jaunt with our mate Louis in his Savannah to Himeville this Saturday. Himeville is an hour flight from Durban to the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountain range that divides South Africa from Lesotho. Even though it's at the foothills, check the vertical navigation map below.. it's still 6 500ft and without scaping our wheels on the top we flew to 7 000ft to get over the ridge then sink down 1 000ft to land on the grass runway. The weather was absolutely beautiful and warm, and nothing like the frosty freezing weather they had last week.

On the ground at Himeville airfield next to the village where we walked to for breakfast.

Of course we didn't fly in zigg-zaggs up but this is the printout I use from EasyPlan to gauge what heights you need to fly at to clear the terrain ahead. The route we followed was Virginia to Eston, Richmond then Himeville and we followed the same route back.



Llewellyn and I in the air

There was plenty of smoke from dry-grass winter fires and it seemed like an inversion with the smoke being trapped in a belt which thickened by the time we flew home with high temperatures of 32 deg c.

Armand, Louis and Llewellyn walk back to LPL and ZDL

It's quite breathtaking as you fly over the ridge and the ground suddenly drops away - we could descend comfortably from 7 000ft to 4 500ft for the route back to Richmond.

 

Electrical problems

It's always disheartening to see your plane in pieces.. much nicer seeing them come together. But we are trying to sort out an electrical fault that has us grounded for the moment. There are a few opinions but as it unfolds it would appear to be to do with a possible overload of circuits with the generator of the plane struggling to keep the batteries topped up with an adequate supply and also possibly blowing the regulator. There may also be battery failure and failure of some of the elctrical devices. The problem appear to be not uncommon and while we were working on the plane, the Sling next to us from Ayre Aviation was also in for a failed regulator and they were becoming scarce. The regulator on that plane blew at 700 hours with the second one blowing within the next 80 hours.

Jean and James from The Airplane Factory are marvelous however and determined to see their babies back in the air. Long term solutions are not clear, but it seems for those Slings where the Regulator was initially installed inside the engine compartment where excessive heat can cause failure, the recommendation is to move it to the cabin side of the fire wall. It also seems like the addition of an alternator to deliver a better power supply will obviate future overload problems. We also changed all of the batteries as they were underperforming or faulty. So thanks guys for all the help and advice.. we will be in the air shortly. Just also a note from an insurance point of view, be aware that your aircraft insurance does not cover electrical faults, so replacing any blown equipment could be expensive. 

Getting in behind the cockpit dash to replace the twin Efis backup batteries.

Dave gets a "crash" course in electrical systems

Kevin from AeroNatal gets a hand to the backup batteries, whilst the regulator in it's new position above the pilot's pedals can be seen.

Sling world adventure

The just completed Sling 4 (the 2nd after the proto-type was built) is ready for a cross Africa and cross Atlantic adventure to Oshkosh, America, and possibly the world's biggest aviation showcase.

The journey to be undertaken by The Airplane Factory's Mike Blythe and his son Greg is due to start this afternoon and will be able to be tracked live by logging in at the website here, using the login email sling4@airplanefactory.co.za and password indigosat. The show starts on the 29th July barely a week from now and the challenge is to get there in time for the opening. You can follow more of the news on The Airplane Factory's news-site here.

 

Sunday escape

With the Durban Airshow on Saturday our plane was stuck in the hangar with tents and stands outside, but fortunately the clean-up was quick. By this morning most was clear again and we hoped to take the plane to pump up the tyres and go for a quick flight. The tyres part turned out to be more daunting than imagined and I really can't see how you can unscrew the cap off the valve without taking the wheelspats right off. So instead we did a quick touch-and-go at King Shaka International slipping in behind an SAA airbus. That satisfied the need for some air for the day.

 

Durban coastline on the way home from King Shaka Airport

Virginia Airshow tops

The absolutely stunning weather in Durban today was the perfect setting for the Durban Airshow at Virginia. The aerobatics were breathtaking and the crowds were enthralled. Definitely a highlight on the KZN Winter Airshow tour. Thanks guys.

Michel Leusch in Ayre Aviation's plane - photo by Jarryd Sinovich

 

King Shaka by night

I took Louis for a touch-and-go at King Shaka International, a 5-minute flight from our home base at Virginia in Durban, last night. The sky was clear and the Virginia Tower was closed but King Shaka had no problem allowing us a quick visit.  The wind was almost negligible but they routed us to runway 24 from the north and thereafter we did some landings at take-offs at Virginia from both sides - both 05 and 23. We also flew along the coast past the city and refinery and climbed up to 2 500 feet almost touching the clouds which looked dark and mysterious by night. Awesome!

Louis gets the feel of Durban by night

 

The sparkling lights of suburbia below

The red light glow keeping your night vision intact and the dashboard lit

Durban beachfront with illuminated piers - no pics of King Shaka as it was full-on concentration landing by night