Sunday, September 29, 2013

Richmond Fly-In

The green hills of KwaZulu-Natal Province, our home

Some Foxbats at the Richmond Fly-In - my NPL training aircraft

The coast and Durban in the distance beyond the rolling hills

Arriving back over the Bluff and city headed north for Virginia Airport along the bay

Passing Durban's Moses Mabhida 2010 World Cup Football Stadium just before our home airfield

In the air in our Sling ZDL

ZDL on the ground at Richmond - a 40 min flight west of Durban

Sling co-owners Dave (Left) and Llewellyn

The clouds and rain cleared this morning to make the Fly-In to the Richmond airfield west of Durban possible for and egg-and-bacon-roll breakfast.

Durban has been very hazy the past couple of weeks so the rain cleared the air and it was an awesome flight over the green green hills of our Province KwaZulu-Natal. About 18 planes made it.. a few Foxbats, a couple of Cessnas, a lone Jabiru and some lighter micro-lights. Then back to Virginia and the Head Ofice restaurant there for theie famous Sunday roast. Yummy.
 

Monday, September 23, 2013

Sortie away from the cabbage patch

Tomorrow is a public holiday in South Africa - Heritage Day - and everyone will be having a braai. Anyways, many took today (Monday) off to make it a long-weekend, and as it appears to be one of the few days this week that is going to be cloudless and dry I did a little sortie to Pietrmaritzburg and Light Flight and back, doing a few touch-and-gos and my first aileron roll solo. WooHoo!! Did it!
 
Stopping at my training school Light Flight to meet up with my mates Marc and Ian in Sling SAA

In the air shortly after take-off from Pmb


Monday, September 16, 2013

2 Years Strong

Two years ago today my then instructor Brad flew up commercial airline with me to Johannesburg to take delivery of the Sling ZU-ZDL that Llewellyn and I had built at The Airplane Factory. I was still doing my NPL licence which I was going to complete in ZDL and Brad did his conversion to the Sling before we headed back to Durban in a new aircraft that was quite bedazzeling to us both. We were certain that the fuel in the one tank we were allowed to connect (75l) would get us all the way... autopilot here we come whilst we figured out the new controls and handling of the plane.

So here we are 2 years later and it was fitting that Brad joined me in the cockpit for some windy manoeuvres south of Durban with 280 hours on the hobbs and my 260 hours personal time as a student, and NPL and PPL pilot. Thanks Noel, Brad, Kyle and the lads at Light Flight and Ayre Aviation for the instruction, guidance and friendships made over the 2 years.

I took a short video clip which you can see on YouTube here, as well as a few pics. And another video of Brad and I here.

Amazing at number of the rural homes close to the city

Dave is Pilot in Command (PIC)

The shores south of Durban in the Virginia General Flying area

Inland views
Also check out the pics when we took delivery of ZDL here.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Night adventure to Margate


Marc and Lee flew in from Light Flight Cato Ridge as the sun was about to set and Llewellyn and I in ZDL set off with them for Margate at sunset. It's only a 45 min flight away with a tailwind and we expected to arrive in the dark. I had organised a taxi for 6.45pm and a booking at the fabulous Burlesque restaurant in nearby Ramsgate for dinner. I said before we need to carry spare toothbrushes and a change of undies in the plane for emergencies, but I forgot.

Beautiful sunset with a bit of an inversion and haze as we head along the coastline

Unexpectedly about 15 minutes out of Margate the voltage of the battery dipped and the lights on the aircraft instruments dimmed with a warning message coming up - Low Voltage supply. The usual red glow of the cabin lights went out and the radio and the transponder went on the blink. I carry a back-up manual radio, but without a connection to the headsets it was almost impossible to make or receive a transmission, although there seemed to be enough power in the aircraft to hear Marc calling us, but not enough for us to transmit. I turned off all instruments that we could do without and switched off the light switch. And resorted to cellphone messaging. Marc needed to switch on the runway lights (7 clicks of the radio button) and land and vacate the runway and we would come in after him without lights.. all of which we performed ok.. except that we couldn't see the runway surface so had to feel our way down until the wheels bumped and we were down safely.
 
We contacted Jean from the Airplane Factory, disrupting his Saturday evening, and he, as usual was obliging and helpful. We really just needed assurance that we could fly safely back to Durban in tandem with Marc later. As long as the engine was running there should be no danger of the electrical fault affecting the operation of the engine.




Dinner at Burlesque was fantastic and well worth the flight. Superb presentation, lovely atmosphere and great tasting chicken dish, prawn curry (below) and sole, with yummy calamari starters and superb cheesecake for desert.




The Airplane Factory's incredible after-sales service saw Jean, Director of The Airplane Factory, fly down to Durban on Sunday and tackle the plane's electrical system to trouble-shoot the fault. We had managed at 10pm to find an B&B across the road from the Airport and stay over for the night while SAA flew back to Durban. It took most of the day after Jean had been battered by high winds and turbulence over the Berg getting there and he meticulously went through each power and earth cable checking for integrity. A few connections were tightened, the main battery and the regulator replaced, labelled and taken back for testing and by 4 pm we were ready to try a restart. The engine started immediately and despite worsening weather conditions we each thought we would be able to get hom for the night. The ATC at Virginia indicated the clouds had moved lower to 800 ft and the weather was closing in (with rain expected Monday) so we phoned Pietermaritzburg and they said the clouds were high there. A decision was taken that we would follow Jean to Pietermaritzburg and he would then continue to Johannesburg and we would either land in Pmb and be collected by my kids, or if clear we would fly through to Virginia.


As we got closer to Pmb the clouds were clearing and there was blue sky above although there was still a terrible haze. In the pic Jean is slightly ahead and then zoomed off to the north whilst we continued a north-easterly course for Pietermaritzburg. I was ain cell contact with a team of advisors (what great mates to have.. Marc, Brad, Louis and their connections in the different cities) and with advice that the coast was clearer we decided to head east to the coast short of Pietermaritburg as the clouds were settling on the mountains between Pmb and the coast and we would definitely have been stuck there. My daughter had in the meantime set off by car to collect is in Pmb. Despite some clouds low over the mountains we managed to break through to the coast at Amanzimtoti and from there the coastal clouds were high enough to make it home. Thanks guys for the team effort.


Flying out into the dark moonless night without instrument power

Pre-flight checks on the planes before we set off from Virginia

In the air routing from Virginia to Margate as the sun was setting

Port Shepstone lights by night
 

More flight training

ZDL looking good after an overall polish before a training flight this week

My previous instructor Brad goes through some routines with me on a Thursday afternoon in the general flying area including some amazing new techniques. wow!!! What a way to escape the office and spend some quality time in the air.
 
 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Virginia Wings Club Awards evening


Although a little bit after the fact, thanks to the Wings Club for their recognition of local aviators and for the award of my PPL and Night Rating Certificate on Wednesday night at a function at the Club.