North coast visit

Llewellyn has started his PPL licence too in our Red Rocket and passed his first exam, Principles of Flight, on Friday. So this morning we went for a little flight up the north coast and to put in practice some of the things he has been learning.

Having fun with the conversion

For my PPL conversion I need 5 hours solo, so I set off on a flight to Pietermaritzburg filing my first flight plan for the trip. From Maritzburg, I then did my cross-country navigation exercise to Richmond, then Fredenheim, Margate and back to Virginia. I preceded the flight also with an hour and a half instrumentation lesson under the "foggles" notching up an impressive 4,6 hours flying time. This leaves me just short of 2 hours to complete my PPL time and then my flight test.

The Red Rocket has also notched up 97 hours so I need to get to Johannesburg for its 100 hour service... all coming up at me so fast.

Conversion on the Yellow Submarine

I did a dirty today and swopped with Marc (3rd photo) and did my conversion to type Z236 on his Savannah ETD, while he did a conversion on my Sling... it was pretty cool though as this is the first other plane I have flown since getting my NPL licence on the Sling.

Our NPL instructor Brad did the conversion (middle photo) and Marc and I each did 5 landings at Virginia. Marc's plane flew well although I was seriously missing the flood of information available on the MGL efis in the Sling as well as the comfortable speed of my Red Rocket. At least we have converted one more pilot to the Sling. Marc's ETD yellow submarine will be coming with us on our expedition to the Cape in April, so it's good that we are both rated to fly each other's planes.

PPL solo to Light Flight and Pietermaritzburg

Maritzburg Tower, ZDL coming for a visit!

Had some good airtime towards my PPL this weekend... 3hours including some time under the "foggles" and a solo flight to Pietermaritzburg.. just a pity the savages had closed the airport restaurant when I got there so was hungry and thirsty. Had to expedite my landing and backtracking as the Airlink was zooming in.

PPl Conversion

Back to Light Flight Cato Ridge to set Red Rocket's idling

On my way to my PPL with Ayre Aviation Centre at Virginia... I had to fly up to Light Flight today to advance the idling on the plane; then flew to Pietermaritzburg for breakfast and spend lunch-time looking for an airfield in the Hammarsdale area to build a hangar. Returning back to Virginia I was in time to refuel for Llewellyn's first PPL lesson with Warren from Ayre. This will get Llewellyn his student licence then we will do a heap of flying for our trip to Johanesburg next month and Cape Town in April. Much better way to spend a Tueday with blue skies!!

Red Rocket looking glorious at Virginia

Llewellyn has his first PPL lesson with Warren from Ayre

PPL on it's way

Had my 3rd PPL lesson today with Kyle from Ayre Aviation Centre in Durban. The conversion of my NPL licence to PPL requires me to do 10 hours dual training (5 of which instrument training) and 5 hours solo. I was planning my solo as a trip to Johannesburg for the planes 100 hour service, but the Chief Flying Instructor was having a heart attack that I would be out of his jurisdiction, so I will have to log those 5 locally.

The "foggles" were quite fun, flying blind with only the EFIS in sight, but I soon got used to it a apart from drifting to the left, and can see that I will be able to get the hang of it. I have already logged 3.9 of the 10 hours dual so am well on my way to my PPL flight test, having already passed the PPL exams when I did my NPL licence.

Welcome home to Durban

Great to be back in Durban and able to fly our plane again. January was hectic re-opening the office, then our January big bash party and last week of January driving to Cape Town then flying to Bulgaria for skiing. So good to be back and up in the skies again (in Red Rocket).

Today I started my first lesson converting my NPL licence to PPL at Virginia and then took our Danish Couchsurfing guests up in the air for a short flip. The weather was not lloking great and rain was predicted for the whole weekend, but it's been holding off, so I managed to get some air-time and took both Christoffer (who said he was afraid of heights) and Simon up for the first flip in a small plane. Exhilarating and they both did well, despite them having a considerable hang-over from the night before.

Sling Skydiving..

The Sling boys are trying some more adventurous stuff - here's a skydive out of Mike's Sling TAF. I would be frightened of bumping my head on the tail!!

Click on the YouTube link for the video clip.

Cape Town planning

Flying has had to take a back seat this month as we plunge headlong through a busy period... first off the office recovery after the few days Christmas break, then the office New Year Party which kicks off on Friday night and with our PRO Bobby off sick, we have had to put it together ourselves. Then my son Mark's car got stolen and with Lynn's car in for repairs we were down to sharing 2 cars between 4. This Saturday I am off with Mark to get his car back to Cape Town for the new Varsity term, and Wednesday Mark and I fly off to Bulgaria to snowboard for a few days. Emirates cancelled one of their flights so we also get stuck in Dubai for 1 day arriving at 2am!

So poor Red Rocket is waiting for it's pilot. In the meantime though we are planning a trip to Cape Town, up the west coast and to Sutherland for the stars in April. Here's what our EasyPlan route is looking like. And our friend Marc in his yellow submarine will be joining. Wow. Going to be exciting.

First flight of 2012



San Lameer, South Coast, from Red Rocket

The 2nd of January 2012 saw us take to the skies for a last-day-before-back-to-work flight from Virginia to Margate. Here Liesl picked us up from the airport to go to San Lameer where they were staying for the week... beautiful beach and pool.. for a morning bit of fun in the sun. The sky was stunning with a few puffy clouds. We picked up a bit of a headwind on the way there (20 knts) as well as a headwind on the way back (10 knts) as the wind tends to be from the south in the morning veering to a north-easter in the afternoon. Anyways, good flying for the first of 2012 and perfect landings :-)

Last Flight of 2011

Cheers to 2011

Umhlanga lighthouse and beachfront from the air

 It's the last day of 2011 and the last flight of ZDL before the New Year. And what a year it has been.. started flying lessons at the end of May, got my NPL licence during September and took delivery of our brand new Sling!!! I've clocked nearly 100 hours and 40 since getting my licence in the Red Rocket.

Today the clouds had settled over Alverstone so the passage through to join my mates at Light Flight diminished, so I decided to take a short last flight up the coast (which was clear), wave hello to the Control Tower at King Shaka International, and do a turn-about at Ballito returning for another perfect lading at Virginia. Goodbye 2011. 2012 is going to see us do a trip to Johannesburg for the Red Rocket's 100 hour service as well as a trip to Cape Town to visit my son Mark, stopping off probably at Plettenburg Bay, Stellenbosch and maybe Saldhana Bay.

Marc the "troll" Trollip tries out ZDL over Table Mountain, Cato Ridge, on a quick jaunt out of Light Flight on  Friday.

Christmas Sky

The wind was blowing... what's happening to our weather?.. some 20knts, but it was straight down the unmanned runway at Virginia (it being Boxing Day public holiday) so we decided to take-off, fly to Alverstone (the big radio and tv mast) and see what it was like before attempting a landing on the airstrip next to the tower.. the runway leads straight to my aunt's house across the road where we were scheduled to have a family lunch. The wind was calmer there so I decided we would make the landing. A bit scary with the approach being a cliff-face and the rough grass runway leading away from the cliff to the road. But the landing was perfect, as was the lunch, the take-off and the landing into a 25knt headwind at Virginia. On the last leg home the wind was up to a 30knt headwind and the groundspeed was only 55knts at some points.  Great outing and new experience at Alverstone. Llewellyn was chewing his nails in the seat next to me!!

Boxing Day lunch with the Galways and Andersons at Alverstone

Sling WRJ visits Durban

It's a Santa Sling/Sleigh!!

Flying back from Cato Ridge in our Christmas hats today, we were being tailed by Warren in his Sling WRJ flying in from Johannesburg for some days in Durban in the sun and then to Knysna. Welcome to Durban Warren.. always great to meet other Sling owners. Hope to do some flying with you.

Airborne - first photos

Thanks Marc.. these are the first photos we have of the Red Rocket airborne.. taken on our jaunt to Himeville (see story below). The pics were taken just as we had crossed over the Bulwer mountains on the way back to Light Flight via Richmond after breakfast.

Blue sky, will fly!

It was a lovely Saturday morning, there were patches of cloud and some wind, but had an awesome flight to Himeville where we met up with the pilots of two other Light Flight planes for breakfast at Moorcroft Manor. Superb, and thanks to Mario for fetching us and returning us to our planes. Attempted a hectic cross-wind landing at Light Flight on the way home but aborted it and preferred my perfect landings at Homeville and Richmond and lastly home at Virginia. Not sure how much longer Virginia will be "home" for the Red Rocket as we are considering putting up our own hanger possibly at Light Flight.

Getting what you pay for?

One wonders how well the fuel bowsers are calibrated. Here is a pic of my measured container showing 2 litres less fuel given by the petrol station when the bowser showed 25l and charged for 25 when giving 23 - that's a 10% loss. Going to phone the calibration company to complain.

Light Flighters take to the coast

My friend Marc in the Yellow Submarine and two other planes from Light Flight converged on Margate early this morning for breakfast and some great flying in convoy back down the coast.

Taking my kids in the Red Rocket

My daughter Kate-Lynn joins me in the cockpit 

Goodbye cruel world.. into the blue we go! - my son Mark

Crazy-Ace Dain can fly the Red Rocket

 I took turns this morning taking my budding pilot kids and mates up into the skies over Durban. The wind was picking up to 22 knots by the time I did the last flight, so a couple of the landings were a bit bumpy, but what a first experience for the brats.

Brad says he prefers playing guitar

Brunch in the Economy Lounge at Virginia with the brats



Durban from the air