Seaplane Pilot

My complimentary membership of the Seaplane Pilots Association arrived in the mail today. Thanks guys - am enjoying the read of your magazine and hope to train many more seaplane pilots in South Africa through our Flight School here which is preparing documents for seaplane training through our SA Civil Aviation Authority.

ZDL back

Finally, ZDL is back.. it's been since 25th Feb since the student pilot's nose-wheel collapse on the runway at Pietermaritzburg.. in between the weeks dragged by as the propellor hub was sent to new Zealand for repair.

Jean from The Airplane Factory flew ZDL back to Durban where Jean did some work on FYA (Our flight school plane) for me. I then dropped Jean up in Hilton at Eva's Field where he was flying another Sling back to Johannesberg for some work on the Sling fuel injection system.

Back in the pilot seat of ZDL, feeling slightly different after flying FYA all the way from Cape Town last, but it soon felt just like home again and is flying superbly.

Transiting through Pietermaritzburg airspace on the way home

I can fly and take pics at the same time

Our new plane "Yankee"

The branding for our flight school plane was ready on Friday so Brad and I spent this afternoon applying the decals... looking good!!

Where the sky's no limit!

I bought the plane the day I was standing in The Airplane Factory USA's hangar, so it is fitting that the call sign and registration of our plane is Foxtrot Yankee Alpha (FYA) so I had to call the plane "Yankee" and put a USA flag alongside our own South African flag on the fusilage. I was also in the States to obtain my USA Seaplane rating.

Fellow Director of the flight school Brad peels off the backing to our USA decal

Check out Durban Skyye website for microlight and NPL flight training

Airspaces explained

Our cross-country flights from Cape Town to Durban took us through a variety of controlled airspaces from the Cape Town TMA to the Military area around Saldanha and Langebaan, past the George TMA and into Oudtshoorn controlled space, under the PE TMA, through the East London TMA and into the Durban TMA. Here is an explanation of the various airspaces using Durban as the example.. click on the link..

DURBAN TMA - AIRSPACES EXPLAINED

Our KZN Province on the east coast of Soith Africa showing the Drakensberg mountain range to the west and the Durban TMA and sea to the east.

The map showing a portion of our cross-country trip this weekend flying from Cape Town eastwards through various TMA and controlled airspaces.

Flight Port Elizabeth to Durban day 2

We set off on our second day of flying after the mist hanging over the plateau and river had burned off around 9.30am only. I phoned the PE Met office and they re-assured me that the mist was inland only and the coast was clear. When we arrived after a hearty breakfast we couldn't even see half way down the runway and while we waited for it to clear we walked the length of the runway to check for animals - wildebees and buck roam freely there.

Taking off there was a bit of mist swirling around but by 100ft off the ground the air was clear and crisp and we were on our way to Durban heading for the coast.

Unlike my home Sling ZDL which has an autopilot, the Flight School plane is not equipped with one so on a long journey with mapwork and multiple airspace and frequency changes to deal with, a co-pilot is almost mandatory.. thanks Louis for flying to Cape Town to join me on the trip and help fly our "Yankee" home.

Above the mist/clouds hanging over the rivers, the sky was relatively free of cloud, the temperature nice and fresh as 14c deg and the mountains behind us as we took off from Hitgeheim, near Addo in the Port Elizabeth area. We were keeping a lookout for elephants, but did see some giraffe and buck.

We reached the coastline at Port Alfred

Westbank Cemetrary East London shares the spotlight of the lighthouse.. I have been there at night where the eerie beam from the lighthouse sweeps over the gravestones casting shadows under the full moon which rises up over the Indian Ocean. One of my "haunts" with a gravesite of a special guy.

East London Harbour as we bypased the Airport in the East London TMA airspace, reporting at several points along the coast to the airtraffic controller at the airport.

The "hole-in-the-wall" along the Wild Coast - we came down low over the waves to get a peep through the hole

The coastline of the Wild Coast on the east coast of South Africa - famous for shipwrecks and giving mariners a tough time

One of my favourite landing spots - Port St Johns runway which sits on top of the mountain to the left. This time we bypassed the runway as we hurried along the coast, the photo taken from the river mouth as clouds swirled over the mountain-tops to our left.

Port St Johns, showing the fall from the airfield to the river and the town below.

As quickly as the clouds positioned themselves over the mountains they were gone again

The Wild Coast Sun to the left with the bridge that took you over to the Transkei, once an independent country, and famous for it's casino

A welcome sight as we round the Bluff and see Durban Harbour with our new home for FYA "Yankee" at Virginia Airport alongside the shore stretching out in the photo

Safe on the ground at Virginia Airport (Louis left, Dave right) after logging 11 hours of flying to get Yankee to Durban Skyye Flight School, my NPL and microlight Flight School in the city

Flight to Port Elizabeth day 1

The flights from Cape Town to Durban fetching our Flight School plane Sling FYA were broken down to 2 legs of 4 1/2 hours each - the first from Cape Town (Langebaan where we flew in the seaplane) to Hitgeheim inland of Port Elizabeth where we spent the first night.. these pics follow. Tomorrow I will post the second leg. Durban Skyye Flight School

Follow the blue line from the Cape in the West to the East coast following a route over the Ceres mountains, Oudtshoorn, the Klein Karoo and Hitgeheim, our first stop-over. then onwards on day 2 to the coast at Port Alfred and then through East London and continuing along the Wild Coast to Durban.

Leaving Langebaan our first set of mountains were the Paarl mountains climbing to 7500ft  and once over them we reached the valley of Ceres with more mountains to climb to get along our route.

The vertical navigation plan shows peaks ranging up to 7500 ft with the top peak along my chosen path at 6000 ft, with our proposed altitude selected at 7500 ft to clear them and avoid down and updrafts that are often found around the mountains. In the middle is Oudtshoorn we had to descend to for refuelling en route so that we could make the second day without stopping. The range of the 2 x 75 l fuel tanks is 7 hours.

Louis (left) and myself on day 1 on route to Oudshoorn. The weather was fresh at 12 - 15c deg and a bit of cold air was coming in through the closed vents.

There were a number of small dams quite high in the mountains

The Ceres valley, famed for citrus growing in the Cape, viewed from 7500ft  surrounded by high mountain peaks we were flying over.

At times the clouds were gathering but there were plenty of gaps so that we could maintain visual contact with the ground at all times according to the VFR (Visual Flight Rules) we were following

More mountains and clouds - a lot of the time the route I picked followed between mountain ranges so that the peaks on either side of the valley we were following were higher than our plane. You can see the winding river below in this photo.

FYA on the ground in Oudtshoorn where I put in R1800 AVGAS to refill the tanks and take a full 25l container with to our next stop. Avgas is able to be used instead of car petrol (Mogas) where there is none available but at R17 a litre is more expensive. Usually I fill the tanks using a 25 l container at the local petrol station.

Feeling good after our fuel and piss-stop in Oudtshoorn

The mountain ridge seen here was one of a number of long ridges running parallel to each other and don't look so high seen from the right side of the plane as we were flying quite close to the slopes, but to our left they drop away down to the valley 5500ft below. If you look over this ridge in the Klein Karoo you also can see another valley and ridge in the distance.

After Oudtshoorn I followed the ridges of the Klein Karoo which line the route through to the coast leading down after Port Elizabeth to Port Alfred. 

There is a bit of reflection in the windscreen here, but the clouds were gathering and we were needing to drop below the cloud base and fly under the clouds and had to check our vertical navigation carefully to ensure no mountain peaks would be ahead so we wouldn't get trapped with a cloud covering over and mountains in our path. It is critical to check the weather en route ahead of each flight and to continually assess the weather en route to ensure we remain VFR and able to reach your destination safely. Only last year 3 planes got caught up in cloud in this vicinity and only two made it home, the other plane getting lost in the clouds and ended up crashing into the terrain.

We experienced a strong headwind along the whole journey with winds up to 50 kts (90 kmh) which slowed us down and increased our fuel consumption. This took my landing at Hitgeheim to 5.30pm which was sunset and with only 15 minutes to spare to a legal landing time. This is due to our planned airfield not having landing lights, as I am rated to fly at night, and had it been later we might have had to divert to Port Elizabeth... one of the reasons why fuel management is important to ensure one has adequate fuel for a possible diversion such as that.

We landed safely at 5.30pm on a private airstrip called Hitgeheim on a platteaux and which serves the Addo Elephant Park lodges in the area. We overnighted at a fabulous little guesthouse called Fish Eagles Lodge along the banks of the Sundays River which runs through this area.

Wonderful little guesthouse right on the banks of the Sundays River in an area called Sunland, close to the Addo Elephant Park where we could hear the eagles cry along the river. Thanks Sue for an exquisite Kudu steak dinner followed by the best malva pudding and custard.. a real treat and by far the best meal I had that week. Highly recommended stop-over or base to explore the Addo region. Great hospitality from both of our hosts.

Video clip landing the seaplane

Here's a short YouTube video clip I took of the Seagle amphibian landing in Langebaan lagoon and taking off again.

Landing the Seagle on Langebaan lagoon

As an extension of the flight home in our Flight School's new Sling "Yankee" ZU-FYA we flew to Langebaan lagoon at Saldanha up the west coast a short flight north of Cape Town. Here we met up with Rainer of Wings 'n Tracks who flies the only amphibian plane presently flying in South Africa - the Seagle, ZU-SEA appropriately named NELSON - the Seagle's name is Nelson ha ha.

Louis goes for a ride in "Nelson"

The Langebaan lagoon is vast with sheltered areas suitable for landing as well as a large are where they are harvesting mussels

Final Approach Langebaan Lagoon

The Seagle touches down and the fusillage becomes a boat partially submerged in the water

Myself and pilot Rainer, two of only a handful of seaplane-rated pilots in South Africa

The wingtips become stabilising floats which just touch the water and give directional stability. The plane also has a water rudder which helps steer once you have landed in the water

The Seagle's top-mounted Rotax 914 turbo keeps water away from the propellors and one is able to adjust the blades once landed to provide reverse thrust for sailing the plane backwards if needed to manoeuvre in difficult places or mooring.