Tedderfield rocks!

Home of The Airplane Factory and birthplace of our Sling aircraft, Tedderfield Aeropark is abuzz with Slings.. I have seen dozens of planes over the past two days, either in the process of being manufactured here.. from the sheet aluminium start to the finished product, as well as Slings in scheduled maintenance and Slings here for the new CAA mandatory tests. My own ZDL (Sling # 34) and FYA (Sling # 122) are being thoroughly checked, serviced and anto-corrosion treated in expert hands.

Daniel helping with the static pitot tests

Slings on the main apron

My ZDL being serviced

My FYA being serviced

ZDL looking naked without its cowling

The cabin heat pipes on FYA had to be replaced due to deterioration from a faulty exhaust. Left unchecked this would pull toxic carbon monoxide into the cabin if the cabin heat was in use. Fortunately in Durban this is never used, but I have turned it on before on a freezing trip to the Cape, so a good thing to ensure the pipes are in tip-top condition

To Johannesburg

The weather on Tuesday was just perfect for our flight to Johannesburg and for the first time I had negligible headwind taking less time and using less fuel getting there. It's also the first time that both of my planes have been there at the same time. While I flew ZDL, our flight school student followed me in our flight school Sling FYA as we headed for The Airplane Factory, birthplace of my Slings.

CAA grounds Slings

The Civil Aviation Authority caused mayhem this week as they grounded aircraft due to alleged deficiencies in the maintenance programme previously approved for The Airplane Factory, citing regulatory work that ought to have been covered in the last annual inspection of the Non-Type Certified Aircraft, which includes both of my Slings and dozens more.

Controlled airspace

The effect is that the planes need to be cleared for flight through controlled airspace to get them back to the factory in Johannesburg where the missed work can be done.. this includes static pitot test, instrument calibration/verification and a transponder check. Quite a heavy hand as these issues could be systematically checked as part of the ongoing maintenance.

So I will be flying up during the course of the week and will advance my planes next scheduled annual inspection and service to obviate another trip to Johannesburg in a few months.

Here Deon from Aerospace Technologies does confirms that our pitot tube is working correctly

The testing machine puts air pressure into the pitot tube to simulate winds at different airspeeds so the calibration and correctness of the aircraft readings can be ascertained.

Visiting Tedderfield, home of The Airplane Factory

My trip to The Airplane Factory in pics. Wow, the factory in Johannesburg is pumping with over 200 airplanes flying or in production and more on order. My planes 400 hour service was like the pitt-stop at a Grand Prix with parts and covers coming off, the leather seats being treated, fine-tuning and spark splugs being changed and a huge checklist of regulatory maintenance checks being done.

Mainenance guys Dan and Nic with Airplane Factory Director Jean giving ZDL its checks.

Me en route to Johannesburg, home of The Airplane Factory

Passing by the mountains half-way

My daughter is teaching English in South Korea and this is what her kids came up with

Nic at The Aiplane Factory working on ZDL

New Slings in production at The Aiplane Factory

One of the reasons I love my Slings - designed and made in South Africa by a great team of incredible guys!

Dan working an an IS motor upgrade from Rotax

Not sure these lines are straight but he was giving it a bash

Not enough room in the hangars for all the planes, so there's a parking lot. I think I counted over 15 planes at the Factory

ZDLs tail inspection cover comes off to check the cabling and connector rods

This is what my prop hub looks like under the nose cone

ZDLs wheel nuts get checked and the tyres pumped - about the only rime it's possible to get to the valves to inflate them

Tea-break and the grease-monkeys sit on the wall

Dan checking my software and audio warning signals for the CAA inspection

Piet, the CAA Inspector makes the trip to Tedderfield to look over my plane for its addition to the flight school register as a training plane

Stefan, another of the factory's handsome guys who are working in the aviation industry

The Airplane Factory Director, Jean, is hands-on and brilliant when it comes to trouble-shooting.. making an adjustment to my seat catch mechanism.

The flight home showed how brown the winter grass is looking. Due to a gathering storm and winds I had to divert and re-route my jounrey home via Newcastle, Eshowe and the coast back to Virginia

The haze nearer the coast was bad and several airports were declared IMC - instrument meteorological conditions and not suitable for landing due to the poor visibility

I cam across patches of cloud which I had to circumnavigate to get through to the coast

Darkness fell and after the 3 hour flight I had to dim the computer EFIS screens which became too bright and landed in the dark after 6pm, mission accomplished.

Awesome new beginning

I'm back in business with ZDL now home. Thanks to The Airplane Factory, Gareth, Andrew, Daniel and probably Lyle who all had a hand in re-wiring our plane, fixing the fuel-tank leak and respraying parts where corrosion was evident, as well as a host of other adjustments and upgrade of my dash and efis software. You guys did a great job and I'm very proud of you!

 

Louis and I took off this morning as early as we could get out of bed and up to Light Flight where Sling JAL is hangared so that we could leave JAL for it's 25 hour service and minor delivery adjustments in Johannesburg, and fetch ZDL flying back to Durban together in my plane. The sky was beautiful with a few patches where the morning mist had not yet lifted and the sky all the way to Johannesburg for the 2 1/2 hour flight was as smooth as a baby's bum. I've never had such a smooth flight to Jhb.

 

Camperdown from the air as we took off from Light Flight

 

The route to Johannesburg over the escarpment - some clouds to the right but clear ahead

The "koppies" just below around the Harrismith area

 

Once in Johannesburg Gareth went over a few of the adjustments and re-wiring done and I managed a look-around the factory - 2 of the new Sling 4-seaters were flown for the first time yesterday and a few other Slings were in production that I could see with more spread around the factory in various stages of assembly and painting.

 

Re-united with our Sling ZDL

Gareth, Production Manager at The Airplane Factory, chats to Louis about the 25 hour service due now on his new Sling JAL. We hope to return to Tedderfield next week to fetch it and then fly back in our respective planes.

Louis inspects the new Sling 4 as well as Sling 4 OMG below that took their maiden test flights yesterday. The Airplane Factory reports orders for the 4-seater of 20 at present, the first of which was delivered recently.

Got the Sling decals back on our plane ZDL, although Gareth forgot the dot on the i

 

 

The clouds were starting to gather on the route back to Durban - windguru said it would cloud over by 2pm, hence the need to fly there and back all in a morning, getting home by 12.

This cloud was awesome. With them gathering, and the temperature rising to 30 deg c, the air en-route back was a bit more turbulent, but nothing like the horrendous flight we had to Jhb not too long ago through the storm clouds.

en-route Louis (left) and I in the pilot seat getting the feel of the re-wired and sorted ZDL. We flew flight level FL085 to Jhb and FL075 back using the ENO rule.. even flight levels flying on a heading between 180 - 359 deg, and odd flight levels for headings between 0 and 179 deg. Flights are further separated by 500 feet for those flying VFR (Visual Flight Rules - in sight of the ground) and IFR flights (Instrument Flight Rules, for those rated to fly in clouds). In this way the risk of mid-air collisions between planes can be reduced by changing the levels at which planes fly depending on the type of flight and direction headed. We also had approved routings from the Johannesburg East (KZN) and Johannesburg South (Gauteng) Flight Information Sectors, so we were on their radars for most of the flight there and back. To do this they give you a squawk code (like 4507) which you dial into your aircraft transponder and this sends a unique signal back to the air taffic guys who are able to spot you on their radar like commercial airliners. Other general aviation flights use a squawk code of 2000 which enables them to be seen, but does not identify which plane it is. Useful little gadget. We were on the ground home by noon.