More night

 

 

Llewellyn has picked up on his flight training in ZDL and is particularly keen to be able to take off and land the plane ahead of our trip to Mocambique this Friday. His time is limited so if his lesson is not at 6am he has been doing the last flight after work before the sun goes down. Unfortunately this means for either lesson the plane has to stand out in the open for the night, which is not really a good idea at the coast. Anyhow, we wrap the plane up and close up all the holes to keep the angry air out. It also means that I have been taking advantage of the plane being out to have a few more night flights.

 

Venturing out into the dark

The sun sets and the moon rises over ZDL at Pietermaritzburg

Pietermaritzburg airport under the setting sun and moonlight

Rounding Durban harbour the city comes into view

Now that I have my night rating and have done a few coastal flights it was time to venture inland. As the darkness can be very disorientating, I wanted to fly to Pietermaritzburg while it was still light, then make a night flight back to my home turf. I needed to file a flight plan for the journey back and, as Virginia airport was closed for the night, had to get my flight plan "search and rescue" contingency arrangements cancelled by King Shaka Airport when I landed.

I imagined that the route to Durban would be one big black hole but I was actually surprised at the carpet of lights all the way. It's incredible how development has taken place joining the two cities. I did notice though that mountains disappear in the darkness and we could not even see Alverston mast.. quite scary what you could be flying towards in the dark.

Seeing at night

I need reading glasses to see the cockpit instruments and this is more critical at night, whereas I see better outside without glasses. So Llewellyn has been trying out a few options and working out with masking tape where my line of vision and focus should be. It is different to sitting at your office desk as the computer screen and papers are gererally closer to your eyes than the cockpit instruments.

 

So a solution is in hand.

 

Into the blue with James

Into the blue.. that's all you can see over Durban.. what a great weekend of blue skies and sea. My daughter's boyfriend James had his first Sling experience today. The "angry" front view of our Sling ZDL and the sky/sea pics were taken by him.

Getting ready for Mozam

We're doing the flight planning for our trip to Inhambane, Mocambique at the end of this month., the first of our international flights in Sling ZDL and Marc's Sling SAA. We're busy with the flight permits needed to fly in Mocambique, have done some route and frequency planning and are getting the planes ready for the trip. As we intend to fly over water as well, we have also bought life jackets for the planes. A beach cottage in Tofo awaits!! The route we will be taking is up the north coast of KZN, having cleared customs at King Shaka, then crossing the border near Ponta d'Oro and continuing up the Mocambique coast to Machangulo and cutting across the bay to Maputo.  In Maputo we clear customs in and file a new flight plan to Inhambane, following the Mozam coastline up north to about one third of the way up to the northern border.




Sling SAA






Flying across the bay to Maputo

 

 

Queen Mary 2 sets sail from Durban

The Durban night sky was spectacularly clear tonight and I took off in ZDL from Virginia shortly after the sun had set.

Marc joined me for his first night flight and we were just in time to see the cruise liner the Queen Mary 2, Cunard Cruise lines’ flagship ocean liner, leave it’s berth to continue it’s around the word cruise. It is the world’s largest ocean liner.

We continued our flight down to Amanzimtoti climbing to 3000 ft to get a better perspective of the lights of the city and watched as the setting sun spread a cloak of darkness over the world as we could see it... the twinkling lights of thousands of homes grew brighter and the stars flicked into focus.

After doing a few turns down south we flew back to the harbour in time to catch the ship entering the ocean and we circled overhead amazed at our spectacular and private overhead viewpoint.

Returning to Virginia, the darkness had set in and again was surprised how the land rushes up at you when landing.... the night optical illusion makes the dark runway appear further away than it is in reality as you unexpectedly touch the tarmac.

Durban and Sahara Stadium by night, with the GPS reflection in the cockpit window

Getting ready for our night flight as the sun sets.

Here's an idea of the size of the ship compared to the world's largest passenger plane.

Flight 'n bite

 

 



Inanda Dam from the air

 Anyone recognise the airfield in the top photo? We did a quick flight to Pietermaritzburg last Saturday and for a bite at the airport which fills up when the Airlink plane makes its regular Johannesburg flight. Quite a neat little airport and they make a great cappuchino.