Pietermaritburg again

Yip, made it to Pietermaritzburg and back again today to fetch my Sling from it's service. We went there in our flight school taildragger and then I flew FYA back. It was a bit murky and there was a little rain in the air and the clouds came down a bit low on the way back, but got there and back and the plane is now good to go for another 100 hours.

Selfie of myself at the flight controls

Coming along the Bluff headed past the city for Virginia Airport

Earlier selfie flying in the taildragger to Pmb

Pietermaritzburg and back

It's crazy, we are turning over 50 hours a month in my flight school Sling, which means that we need our 100 hour service every two months. So it's back to PacAir in Pmb for the service.. it requires a ferry flight to Pmb, then a ride home in my other Sling, and a repeat journey the day after to fetch the serviced plane. So look out for my follow up pics.

Pietermaritzburg Airport where they serve a lovely breakfast

The onboard computer efis of the Sling

Without rain, high air pressure and a temperature inversion makes for hazy visibility

Broadcasting live from FYA somewhere over Camperdown

Back from Johannesburg

Brandon and I flew my 2 planes back to Durban on Friday and had some challenging weather and clouds to navigate under, maintaining visibility of the ground and clear of the clouds. Got some great photos of each other while we flew..

Dave flying ZDL in the Greytown area - photo by Brandon

ZDL - must be the Ladysmith area

ZDL off the starboard wing of FYA, my 2 Sling aircraft

Dave catches Brandon in FYA sneaking up on his left

I am on autopilot

My favourite koppie Johannesburg side of Ladysmith

The cloud formations around us were stunning, although the sky closed over as we got closer to Durban

FYA off Dave's port wing

FYA caught sandwiched between ground and cloud. It gets scary when the two begin to meet and you need to decide if it's clear enough to continue forward or turn back

We saw some beautiful Johannesburg sunsets

My new favourite aircraft colourscheme - the new Airplane Factory demo plane

A fleet of aircraft were arriving at The Airplane Factory  for the new CAA mandatory instrument tests

The first production Sling taildragger for a soon-to-be-happy customer

Dave en route back to Durban in ZDL

This was to show Brandon that while he was flying the identical plane at near full throttle, with the constant speed propeller fitted to my plane I can achieve the same speed with a lower throttle setting, saving considerable fuel. Of course I could have flown faster, but we were flying in formation back home together.

Glorious Johannesburg clouds and sky

The car's headlights light up the yellow grass alongside the farm road with the airfield in the background as the sun goes down

Durban harbour looking gloomy and grey as we return early evening Friday after the 3 hour flight home from Johannesburg

Airliners.net

I'm on Airliners.net - thanks Gary for this superb photo which is being broadcast worldwide..

Here's the link http://www.airliners.net/photo/Durban-Skyye-Flight/The-Airplane-Factory/2591773/L/

Preparation

I'm flying our Sling FYA to Johannesburg and back tomorrow to get the Authority to Fly issued by the CAA. The red-tape is quite hectic and I had to get a Special Flight Permit issued for the flight then have the annual inspection done by the Airplane Factory before I can get the Authority to Fly to use the plane in our Flight School. So it's going to be 6 hours in the air tomorrow and I will get off to an early start. I checked the plane out today, uploaded new map raster files for the EFIS (on board flight computer or Electronic Flight Information System) as well as my route files to Tedderfield and back.

It was a beautiful weekend for flying and our Flight School handled those wanting to fly - here's our Chief Flying Instructor Brad (front) with John who already has 30 hours flying experience but never finished his licence a few years ago and is thinking of completing it now. (Photo by Trevor Viljoen)

Have you joined Durban Skyye Flight School Facebook group? Click here.

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

My second Sling

 Whilst visiting The Airplane Factory USA in California this week we put together a deal and bought a second hand Sling which we will use for my new Flight School in Durban. The airplane appropriately registered as Foxtrot YANKEE Alpha and is presently based in Cape Town.

Large MGL EFIS with backup altimeter and airspeed indicator

The colour scheme of the plane is silver and red so I will have to convert our Flight School logo into a red and grey one for the plane which should look quite pretty. Looking forward to flying the plane back to Durban where I will be able to now do my instructor's rating in the plane and then train my own students for their NPL licence.