Weekend away to the eastern Free State

Amazing flights past the northern Drakensberg mountains as we winged our way around Lesotho and the Maluti Mountains to the eastern Free State province and the vibrant little town of Clarens for a weekend jol. Here's a short You Tube video clip.

4 Slings met up at the Ficksburg airport - ZDL, FRP, SAA and Jal where we bedded them down for 2 nights, being picked up by the lodge owner to stay at Shumba Farm

The town of Clarens from the air, encircled by mountains

Sunset over the koppies as we head back to the farm after a day of eating and drinking in Clarens

Lush green veld surrounded by little mountains and rocky outcrops

On our way home the clouds were hanging over the mountains as we skirted them

Clouds to the right were a but hectic so we kept left then dived below to get the gap between the clouds and the land which was now falling from 8500 ft to below 5 000 ft.

In the cockpit of ZDL - Llewellyn (left) and myself Dave (right)

This was a painting we saw in Clarens which looks like home

A view of home - Durban's Bluff, harbour and the northern beaches

Back to Clarens.. photos got mixed here.. Dave posing on a tractor

We did some beer-tasting at the Clarens micro Brewery

Windmills, farmhouses and yummy food and drinks.

In the back-seat of the handy 7-seater that Bob, the farm-owner took us back and forth in

A scary storm we passed on the way to Clarens - 8500 ft up and the staorm system sucked the planes up another 1000ft in a few seconds.

Well organised airfield at Ficksburg where we landed - privately owned, beautifully kept and with an enclosure of lions alongside the asphalt runway.

Horses and animals living happily together on Shumba farm where we stayed for the weekend.



A welcome dip in the reservoir to escape the afternoon heat.

Trav comes flying

It's always great to introduce a new experience to someone for the first time and this was Trav's first time in the air in a light aircraft. I am always conscious that first-timers are likely to be nervous and I like to put them at ease letting them participate in the pre-flight inspection, checking the engine and showing them that flying a plane is not like jumping in a car and dashing off somewhere. Similarly I like to talk them through all of the procedures with taking off, flying the plane and landing and I don't do any drastic turns or manoeuvres. Trav appreciated his first experience and we did a short 20 min flight to Toti and back. 

 

 

Back in the air

Back in the air again after our regulator failure, and having missed the fly-in to Himeville of 65 planes last Sunday, we did our own jaunt with our mate Louis in his Savannah to Himeville this Saturday. Himeville is an hour flight from Durban to the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountain range that divides South Africa from Lesotho. Even though it's at the foothills, check the vertical navigation map below.. it's still 6 500ft and without scaping our wheels on the top we flew to 7 000ft to get over the ridge then sink down 1 000ft to land on the grass runway. The weather was absolutely beautiful and warm, and nothing like the frosty freezing weather they had last week.

On the ground at Himeville airfield next to the village where we walked to for breakfast.

Of course we didn't fly in zigg-zaggs up but this is the printout I use from EasyPlan to gauge what heights you need to fly at to clear the terrain ahead. The route we followed was Virginia to Eston, Richmond then Himeville and we followed the same route back.



Llewellyn and I in the air

There was plenty of smoke from dry-grass winter fires and it seemed like an inversion with the smoke being trapped in a belt which thickened by the time we flew home with high temperatures of 32 deg c.

Armand, Louis and Llewellyn walk back to LPL and ZDL

It's quite breathtaking as you fly over the ridge and the ground suddenly drops away - we could descend comfortably from 7 000ft to 4 500ft for the route back to Richmond.

 

Friends re-united

It is great to find an old number, give it a ring and reconnect with friends from the past. Rich and Rosanne were friends before I got married ie more than 25 years ago.. Richard I had met in the army on a border camp to the Angola border somewhere inbetween my years at Varsity.

 

He then went on to farm sugarcane down the south coast and once I had qualified I did a number of his farm title deed registrations. Their daughter Jenna is now married to the son of an airfield owner at Fredenheim near Margate. So we took a flight down to Fredenheim where Rich and Rosanne met us and we enjoyed a breakfast at the nearby Leopards Rock Cafe.

 

Wonderful re-connection!!

 

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.

Not much weather-wise

Was pretty shitty weather in Durban this past week so I didn't get much more to do that sit in the red rocket, although I did go for a short flight down the coast before the gathering clouds drove me back. In anticipation of a weekend away next week perhaps flying to Fredenheim, we drove to Ballito and met up with my old friend Paul Lintott who runs Air Magic and makes a range of microlight headsets and helmets at his factory here as well as chocks and tie-downs for aircraft, so I'm now equipped and ready for the weekend away.

Some fun time

I was supposed to do my final flight test today, but the weather was acting up. Instead I did a solo circuit at Virginia, spent some time polishing the plane, and was joined by my friends Shawn, Mark and Michelle who cheered me up. :-)