Journey to southernmost Africa

The journey begins...

Catching the sunrise as we set off from Durban

Landing on the Port St Johns mountain for the views

We fell into a donga while taxing at Wings Park, East London

Lunch snack arriving at Hopefield PE ofr our first night

I went to catch mommy hen and as she got up chicks came running out

In the air again day 2

Over huge mountain peaks to cross to the coast

Crossing the coastline in rain at Knysna to divert to Plettenberg Bay

Each day on this incredible journey has been breathtaking. At first it didn't seem like our little aeroplanes could possibly climb up above cloud level to 7000 ft and then just scrape over the mountain tops. Possible landing places disappeared and then there were only rocky outcrops and peaks beyond rescue if we needed up. But up and on we chugged and have been discovering amazing little towns in the middle of nowhere.. Joubertina, high in the rockies, just before we plunged back down again through the clouds into mist and rain and had to make an emergency diversion to Plettenberg Bay.

The journey so far has taken us to Port St Johns, Wings Park (near East London where wee had a mishap with the front wheel spat), then Hitgeheim near PE for our first night stop, then over the rockies to Plettenberg Bay for night two. A drive by car to Knysna for night 3 as we waited the rain out. Then on to Mossel Bay for fuel and breakfast and trhough to Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa for night 4. Incredible viewsalong the coastline. Has a good laugh as most of the tourists stood at the sign that said "Southernmost tip of Africa", then I walked some more south clambering over the rocks and actually put my hand into the Indian/Atlantic Ocean a good 20m further south than them ha ha. The next morning in clear weather we set off for Stellenbosch and Table Mountain.. watch this space.

Checking those expiry dates

We're off on our epic trip to Cape Town and up the west coast this Friday. Wow, it's going to be quite hectic - 20 hours in the air at least.

Anyways, I realised as I made copies of my whole aircraft authorities and licences, that there are expiry dates that one needs to watch and renew timeously.

I have therefore created a handly expiry checklist to enable me to track the dates. I have loaded it to my public skydrive, so please feel free to download it and use it if you think it may also be useful. I have also loaded one in exel format so if you want to edit it, that is also possible.

Here is the Skydrive link for the download.

Doing it in the Red Rocket!

You gotta see this.. over we go. Great trick with James in ZDL at Tedderfield.

Tedderfield to Durban at FL095

We flew to Johannesburg today with Kulula to fetch our plane and bring ZDL back to Durban. 3 firsts - 1. I collected my PPL licence issued by the CAA and flew for the first time with my new licence 2. We requested a flight level from Johannesburg Information and flew Flight Level 095 under radar to Greytown - never been so hight in our plane, over 7000ft above the ground and 9500 altitude!! 3. Had a flip with James in the Sling 4, doing an aeleron roll with James and again in our Red Rocket. THE WAY TO GO!!

Full steam ahead for the Cape trip

Aerial view of Table Mountain

Maps, flight planning software, frequencies and airfield directory and route planning

It's been a mad Easter weekend doing some planning for our Cape Town trip with our friends in their Savannah. Our plane is a bit faster so we'll have to be on a go-slow so that we can keep up with each other. The plan has gelled into a trip on the first day (Fri 20 April) to Hitgeheim in the Addo Elephant Park area via Port St Johns and Wings Park, East London. The second day see us head towards Cape Agulhas where we will stay for the weekend, then Stellenbosch and some flying around Table Mountain; then it's off to Saldalha Bay and inland to Sutherland where South Africa's large telescope is sited (SALT). From there we head back to the coast for a return trip to Durban via Mossel Bay and Port Alfred... 10 days in all!!

Marc has been working on the Durban to Port Elizabeth leg and we have worked on the PE to Agulhas leg and next week will work on the remaining legs.

Already quite hectic is the Port Elizabeth Special Rules area, the George Special Rules area as well as the restricted areas around Overberg military area and the Overberg control zone (CTR) which we need to fly through to get to Agulhas.

Here are some of the places we will be visiting...

http://vimeo.com/4697586 Port St Johns


Hopefield Country House


Villa @ Cape Agulhas  http://www.villacapeagulhas.co.za/

Agulhas - the southernmost tip of Africa


Stellenbosch - Cape Winelands


Table Mountain - flying around the mother city


Saldanha Bay


Sutherland, home of SALT and stargazing


Port Alfred


Wild Coast

Landing at King Shaka International in Boeing 737-800

Cockpit view of the trip from OR Tambo to Durban in a Boeing 737-800.

Having just passed my PPL exams and only 100 flying hours, it was an incredible experience to join the Kulula crew in the Boeing 737 we flew in back to Durban on Thursday. We had just delivered our Sling back to The Airplane Factory for it's 100 hour service and some adjustments and had to fly the commercial route back to Durban. Thanks guys for making my day!! Almost incredible how this huge machine stays in the air.. everything seemed like in slow motion.

Follow the link here for the YouTube video clip of our landing at King Shaka International in Durban.

Over we go....

James takes Llewellyn for a flip (literally) - watch the short video clip of the aileron roll in ZDL. Click on the link.

Visit to The Airplane Factory

Llewellyn and Dave fly Red Rocket ZDL up to Johannesburg

ZDL's Dave with James Pitman of The Airplane Factory while maintenance guy Daniel looks agog at the list of repairs, maintenance and improvements we presented him with. Daniel promised us top service though and was more than happy to tackle the job.

James and Nicci arrived to pay a visit in IFR

James took Lllewellyn for 3 barrel rolls - wow, this plane really can do it!

Daniel takles some finishing work on the factory's newest Sling off the production line

The mountains around van Reenen's Pass on the way up from Durban

What a way to spend the public holiday on Wednesday. We were up early and off in the Red Rocket on our forst adventure together beyond the neighbouring airfields. We were soon feeling confident of the routing, the frequencies and able to take in the magnificent scenery as we winged our way from Virginia to Tedderfield. The guys at The Airplane Factory were hard at work on the holiday and it was great to see the machinery swining into place getting new Slings out to happy customers and keeping older customers equally enthralled. What incredible enthusiasm and passion from everyone we encountered at the factory. Keep this up guys. It is amazing to hear that Sling # 82 and possibly # 83 has been sold.!!!

And over we go...

Just a quick posting of the pic taken by Andrew from The Airplane Factory as James takes Llewellyn for a flip roll in our Red Rocket. You must see the video clip of the world spinning. Will post more pics of the crew and the video on YouTube when I get home tomorrow.

PPL Flight Test passed!!!



Final Flight Test today with Chief Flying Instructor Keith Charlesworth

Instrument flying under the "foggles" with Instructor Kyle

Beautiful clear day and view over KZN inland

I did my final lesson under "foggles" today completing my 15 hours of additional training to convert my NPL licence to PPL. This gives me the flexibility of flying a slightly heavier aeroplane, including the Sling with the additional fuel tank connected. The additional fuel tank pushes the Sling from a 600km to a 700kg mauw weight plane requiring the higher licence. The "foggles" were required for 5 hours of simulated cloud flying with reference to instruments only, a requirement for training PPL pilots.

The flight test with the Chief Flying Officer of Ayre Aviation Centre in Durban went smoothly and took a total of 2,8 hours. This included filing a flight plan and doing a dual cross country all of which too up my whole day from 8am to 4pm today.

Fuel Shortage

I am still puzzled (see Dec story) by the short-delivery of fuel from the petrol stations where I get my mogas (95 unleaded car petrol from the same stations you fill up your car) for my aeroplane. Not getting any consistent quantity of fuel in my container, I brought it inside to check my measurements with a measuring jug. This proved that my original lines on the petrol container were more or less correct and that I am being short-changed when I refill the container.

The exception was Saturday when my container was again fiulled up to the line... it almost seems that the measuring device the petrol stations use depends on the weather or air pressure, so that when the QNH is lower you get more fuel? Is this possible? How do the petrol station's bowser dispensers work and does air pressure affect the accuracy of these?

I have asked Wendy Knowler of East Coast Radio's Consumer Watch to investigate, as at R11 a litre, a 2l shortage on every 25l fuel sold means about R25 per car tankful of petrol consumers are being overcharged nationwide (when the weather is good?) Does the sunny-day filling up of your tank subsidise those who fill up on a rainy day?

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 :-)