SA Flyer Magazine February 2022 by Flyer & Aviation Publications

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Edition 312 February 2022 Cover: Garth Calitz

FLIGHT TEST:

FLYING THE RADIAL ROCKET! – IT’S A BLAST!

GUY – ON THE ZS-CAR CRASH JIM DAVIS – CRANFIELD’S BOGBRUSH! CESSNA’S LONGITUDE IN AFRICA SAAF – SERIOUS DANGERS IN MOZ! PETER GARRISON: WW1 SOPWITH CAMEL JIM - WHO IS PIC? 1

LANSERIA BASED AVIATION COMPANIES GUIDE

February 2022

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POSITION REPORT THE CRASH TWO YEARS AGO of ZS-CAR, the Civil Aviation Authority’s Cessna Citation, has in the inimitable way of inept governance, gone from tragedy to farce. But the now farcical accident investigation process must not cause us to lose sight that it is first and foremost a colossal tragedy.

that its Accident Investigation division doesn't report to its Director, but bypasses her and reports directly to the Ministry of Transport. That may technically be the case, but the CAA still pays the salaries and provides administration for the accident division, thus hardly making it independent.

Three people, who had succeeded against the odds, lost their lives on a cloudy mountain after 30 seconds of what must have been a terrifying plunge in an out of control jet. All three crew had families that were hugely proud of their accomplishment, and some leave behind children. The lawyers are baying for blood and money. But the human aspects of the tragedy must not be allowed to override the questions that this crash has raised.

Beyond going through a compliance box ticking exercise, the accident report is coy about the actual cause of the accident. The reality is that it was nothing more than the depressingly common failure of a pilot flying VFR into IMC. The failure of the regulator is that the safety management systems in its own flight department should have prevented this tragedy. Yet they failed and three people died.

GONE FROM TRAGEDY TO FARCE

The report of the Ethiopian Accident Investigation Board reveals a litany of failures by the South African regulator to apply its own regulations to its own operations. The SACAA commendably released the report with warts and all in full view. And then farcically decided to contradict the report. Thus we see the fruits of the failure to separate the accident investigation division from the CAA mothership. For the past 12 years the CAA has been doing its best to gloss over a finding by ICAO that South Africa does not have the required independent Accident Investigation authority. The CAA has for years argued

February 2022

There were plenty of red flags which were ignored. The flight’s Captain, ‘TC’ Tolo, was reportedly dismissed from the SAAF and then SAA for vertigo and freezing under pressure. Like other airline ‘washouts’ he ended up in the CAA. Fortunately, a senior pilot took him on as a project. After almost three years of training, by 2015 anyone who had to fly with him said they were happy to do so. And TC went to on to prove them right with five years of safe flying – until his skills were tested beyond his capability. Flying calibration flights demands top level piloting skills. The uncomfortable question must be asked: given his past history, should TC Tolo not have been weeded out by the CAA’s safety management system? The evidence of three fatalities shows a system, probably driven by political pressures, that pushed him far beyond his level of competence.

Guy Leitch

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Edition 312

CONTENTS FLIGHTCOM

COLUMNISTS

06 18

Bush Pilot - HUGH PRYOR Airlines Ops - MIKE GOUGH

16 22 26 32 56 62

Guy Leitch - ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE George Tonking - HELI OPS Peter Garrison - TABULATING TAKEOFF

FC 08

SA FLYER

Jim Davis - PLANE TALK Jim Davis - ACCIDENT REPORT Ray Watts - REGISTER REVIEW

FLIGHT TEST: 8

ALTITUDE RADIAL ROCKET February 2022

GLEN WARDEN 16 DECEMBER 1956 11 DECEMBER 2021

CESSNA’S LONGITUDE

AN OPEN DOOR TO HELP

A BOGBRUSH FOR CHRISTMAS

February 2022

Edition 312

CONTENTS FEATURES SA FLYER

42 FLIGHT TEST: Radial Rocket 71 BOOKS BY PETER GARRISON 72 OBITUARY: Glen Warden 78 NEWS 81 LANSERIA BASED AVIATION COMPANIES GUIDE

FLIGHTCOM

12 Aviation Employment in Africa 16 Defence - Darren Olivier 22 Cessna’s Longitude

REGULARS 14 Opening Shot 68 AFS Register Review 74 SV Aviation Fuel Table 76 Aviation Direct Events Calender

FLIGHTCOM

11 AME Directory 28 Starlite Flight School Listing 29 Atlas Oils Charter Directory 30 AVES Technics AMO Listing 32 Aviation Directory 10

February 2022

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February 2022

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IN DECEMBER South African aviation lost Captain Glen ‘Gringo’ Warden in a fatal accident at the ‘Ace of Base’ aerobatics competition. In tribute to Glen we bring you this striking image of him displaying the SAAF Museum’s Mirage CIII #800 the “Black Widow”. The image was taken by our star aviation photographer Justin de Reuck at the Virginia Airshow in 2009. Justin used his Canon 50D with a Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM lens. Exposure was 1/500 sec @ f/5.6 ISO 100 with +2/3 stop exposure compensation to allow for the bright sky. The image was processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. 14

February 2022

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February 2022

ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE: GUY LEITCH

ZS-CAR was

inexcusable

Two years to the day after the crash of SACAA’s own calibration aircraft, the CAA issued its final accident report on the fate of its Cessna Citation, ZS-CAR. Perhaps it hoped to get away with an low-key release of the report as it was done on a Sunday afternoon. But in aviation circles the response grew into a tidal wave of anger and opprobrium. IT APPEARS THE CAA was so surprised by the blow-back that it has now announced that it is going to contest the findings of its own report. This despite having sat on the report for two months. And so the ghastly saga of CAA’s fatal ineptitude becomes a protracted farce. How long can the Director, Ms Poppy Khoza, survive this steady stream of disasters? There is much noise about this crash, so I am going to reduce it to just two questions:

1. What caused the crash? It was pilot error. Plain and simple. The commander, Captain TC Tolo, was out of his depth. He was a classic example of the Peter Principle which states that a person who is competent at their job will get promoted until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent. TC Tolo had been promoted to the level that he was no longer competent to handle the demands of calibration flights. They are demanding to fly in good weather – and impossibly dangerous in bad weather, which is why they have to be flown in strict VFR.

the ghastly saga of CA A’ s f a t a l ineptitude

•

What caused the crash?

•

How did the CAA fail so badly?

There were plenty of red flags about Tolos limitations which the SACAA’s Flight Inspection Unit (FIU) safety management systems (SMS)

February 2022

ignored. Tolo had reportedly been washed out from the SAAF after 14 years. Nonetheless, he was accepted by SAA, where he lasted just three years until he was again washed out. I’m told the instructors noted that he suffered from vertigo, and ‘froze’ on the controls under pressure. Like other air force and airline washouts, he ended up in the CAA, where a number of experienced senior instructors took him on as a project. After almost three years’ training for flight calibration duties, he was signed out as competent. Tolo went to on to prove the sceptics wrong by managing five years of serious-incident free flying – until he reached that moment when highest level piloting skills were fully required and he was found wanting. He entered cloud and the flight data recorder makes it clear he lost control, the jet rolled past the vertical and hit the ground before he had time to recover.

The management failures in the crash of ZS-CAR require the resignation of Ms Poppy Khoza.

regulations to its own operations. While the SACAA commendably released the final report with warts and all, it’s no surprise that it has now decided to investigate its own report.

Which brings us to the CAA’s manifold failings

I like reminding people that when a passenger buys an airline ticket, she is placing her life in the hands of a system that must ensure her safety just as completely as if she were allowing herself to be rendered unconscious and cut open by a surgeon. Passengers need absolute confidence in the aviation regulator, and nothing breaks that confidence faster than the CAA’s failure to regulate its own operations.

2. How did the CAA fail so badly?

The key finding was that the Citation’s certificate of airworthiness was invalid at the time of the crash.

The final report of the Ethiopian Accident Investigation Bureau reveals nine failures by the South African regulator to apply its own

TV programmes claim that the jet was old and dangerous. Yes, it had experienced three incidents before the fatal accident during which

Crucially, he should have completed an upset recovery training course, but hadn’t. The CAA’s broken safety management system failed him and his crew. This was a clear breach of the SACAA’s own regulations. ‘Finish and klaar.’

February 2022

an oil smell and smoke were detected in the cockpit and the crew had aborted a takeoff two months before the fatal crash. One of the aircraft’s engines had been replaced. Reportedly this would have required a full inspection, which did not happen. The SACAA has grounded aircraft from South African Airways and other airline operators for similar contraventions. But in the case of ZS-CAR, these maintenance and compliance issues did not directly cause the crash. The primary failing of the CAA is that there were plenty of red flags warning of an impending disaster – but the SACAA ignored them. It has been claimed that the preliminary report led to the head of the Accident Division Peter Mashaba’s contract not being renewed. Mashaba had made public strong accusations against the SACAA and the inspection aircraft’s airworthiness, which were confirmed by the final report. However, using its typical Jacob Zuma ‘lawfare’ tactics, the SACAA has denied that Mashaba was fired because of his warnings and has obtained a court order preventing Mashaba from speaking out. Mashaba’s CCMA case is scheduled for 4 February, so we will hopefully know more soon.

•

It failed to meet its own compliance standards.

•

It failed to have a properly trained crew

•

It failed to have an airworthy aircraft.

Any one of these failures should have grounded the flight inspection unit, saving the three lives – and the CAA’s reputation. Of note is that these failures are more serious than the many trivial trumped-up charges the CAA used in its concerted effort to destroy an entire airline – Cemair. Furthermore, much has been made that the CAA repeatedly failed to establish an independent accident investigation bureau. The lack of an independent accident investigation bureau has been forced into sharp focus by this crash. Wisely the CAA announced that it was going to let the Ethiopian Accident Investigation Bureau do the actual investigation. To their credit the Ethiopians have not been shy to point out the glaring deficiencies in their sister African regulator. Why were the Ethiopians chosen? Perhaps because the SACAA had hoped for a bit more sympathy from them than say from the American NTSB.

there were plent y of re d f lags warning of an impending disaster – but t h e S A CA A ignored them

What this crash does teach us is how a lax safety culture kills people. If the safety culture had been up to standard the accident chain would have been stopped when they looked out the window and saw that cloud prevented VFR flight. The list of the CAA’s failures is long – here are three key ones:

February 2022

There were a multitude of other possibly contributory factors – two of note were firstly: a reported rush by the crew to get to Cape Town so they could spend four days there. Hurrying into bad weather is often fatal. Secondly - the Crew Resource Management cockpit gradient was steep. The co-pilot was

a woman nearly twenty years younger than her commander. Given the age and gender difference, was she empowered enough to take over from the captain when he became disoriented?

This crash is a classic example of the Peter Principle.

Every takeoff is optional. Had Tolo attended his unusual attitude training, considered the bad weather, and known of the gaps in the aircraft’s paperwork, a postponement would have been entirely justifiable. The accident chain did not start on that day, it started back in 2015 when there were clear warning signs that things were not right at the Flight Inspection Unit and problems were ignored. When warnings were first raised, the issues should have been corrected. Instead, the manager who complained was fired. In the end we can conclude that, while going through a compliance box ticking exercise, the accident report avoids discussing the actual cause of the accident. The reality, made clear from the final moments of the Flight Data Recorder is that it was nothing more than the depressingly common failure of a pilot flying VFR into IMC. The failure of the SACAA is that the safety management systems in its own flight department should have prevented this tragedy. The chain of events that caused this crash would have been broken. There is a direct parallel with the Hansie Cronje crash into the same mountain. Flying calibration flights demands top level piloting skills. The uncomfortable question must be asked: given his past history, should Tolo not have been weeded out by the CAA’s safety management system? The three fatalities reveal a system, probably driven by political pressures, that pushed him beyond his level of competence. As for the CAA – heads must roll. The aircraft

was being illegally flown. The accident report makes it clear that the CAA's own internal flight department's operator licence was not valid and neither was the aircraft's certificate of airworthiness. There's no appeal against that. Ms Poppy Khoza must resign. With pay of R8.6 million per year, she is by far the highest paid civil servant, which was tolerable as long as her division met demanding first-world standards. But she has failed to meet her own standards. This is an abject failure – without excuse. "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" – who guards the custodians?

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February 2022

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February 2022

HELICOPTER OPS: GEORGE TONKING

AN OPEN DOOR

TO HELP

As competitive as the aviation industry in South Africa may be at times, when your chips are down, you find that there is a community of like-minded people to support you. I thought it fit to share such a story to kick off the new year, to encourage us in the fact that we all potentially form part of that kinship. Here’s Jaacie Visagie’s story: THURSDAY MORNING. November. A quiet security shift around the south west of Johannesburg. Overcast and gloomy, with a couple of bright spots in the clouds. Typical Highveld summer weather. Me in a red Robinson Raven II. Plenty of fuel in the tank. And no one else in sight. Halfway through my sortie, there is a weather change: the cloud base is descending and the wind speed increasing. Time to head for home… no point playing chicken with a storm front and the Suikerbosrand ridges.

February 2022

“My door is open and I’m not sure of my position.”

the radio bur s t into life with a ner vous female voice

Normally I would have a babble of voices in my head, courtesy of southern sector radio frequency 125.6. But not that Thursday morning. Midway along my planned route light raindrops began cascading down the Robbie’s bubble.

And then the radio burst into life: a nervous, abrupt female voice.

With no one else on-air, I answered immediately, asking who she was, what she was flying and, more importantly, where she thought she was.

The voice belonged to Hanli Claasen, a private pilot flying a red and white Sling TSi, which she and her husband had owned since February 2021. Hanli comes from Petrus Steyn in the Free State and has been flying since 1993 – first open microlights, before moving on to a Storch in 2005 – a warmer option in the cold eastern Free State winters. Flying courses through her family’s veins – with

The Sling TSi with its open door on the ground at Vereeniging.

a helicopter-pilot husband and a brother who flies both fixed-wing and helicopters. On the morning of the incident, she had flown from Petrus Steyn to Hoopstad, where she picked up her brother. From there they made for Tedderfield Air Park, where his Sling TSi was being serviced. After an hour on the ground, the siblings took off and headed in different directions in their two Slings – Hanli almost directly south. After only a few minutes in the air, her door flew open. She immediately brought her speed down to 70 kts, felt if the door was still there and tried to close it, unsuccessfully – a buckled hinge probably the cause. By this point, she had lost height, knew she should probably land, but was unsure of her exact position. Added to her troubles was the ever-worsening weather moving across from the north-east. Recognising the stress in Hanli’s voice, I asked how I could help. “I’m trying to find Vereeniging airport, or anywhere to land,” she answered.

One quirk of VHF radio is that the volume of a broadcast is exponentially clearer and louder when the transmitter and receiver are close to each other. In this case, I could hear that Hanli was close to my position. I scanned the sky for her, my heart racing. “There you are!” I shouted to myself, as the little plane appeared at my 11 o’clock, 1.5 miles in front of and below me. I quickly fell in line astern. “I’ve got you, Ma’am, I’ll overtake you and lead you to Vereeniging Airfield, at your 2 o’clock,” I explained, as I punched in Victor Victor (FAVV) on the Garmin. We were only minutes out thankfully, as the weather had really turned against us, barely allowing VFR flight. After a minute or two, Hanli had made a perfect approach and landing at Vereeniging Airport. I followed around in the circuit and landed close to her aircraft. After shutting down, I went over to the visibly shaken pilot to introduce myself. It was great to see her face to face and to honestly say well done! February 2022

Haneli and Jaacie after a successful outcome.

Her brother, in the meantime, had also diverted to the airport. After some advice from the Sling maintenance staff, a temporary repair was made and Hanli took off back to Tedderfield to have her door repaired properly. And then, unfazed, and with the storm having moved on, she flew back home to Petrus Steyn.

angry weather, how did Hanli feel dealing with a once-in-a-lifetime situation? A reassuring voice may be just the catalyst to a safe outcome.

everwors ening weather

As is usual in these situations, I learned a few things. First, it’s easy to criticise a fellow pilot's mistakes or misfortunes, but it’s way harder to be that pilot in a tough situation, feeling alone and with few options. Reserve judgment and be gracious, because one day you may need the same. Second, always be prepared to lend a hand, where possible. Third, always keep good situational awareness, especially with radio work, when the weather turns bad unexpectedly. If I felt uneasy on that morning with approaching

February 2022

P.S. In a strange quirk of fate, on the same day that I put my security operations on hold briefly to assist Hanli, her husband, Johann helped prevent a cash in transit heist with his farm tractor. But that’s a story for another day.

Footnote: In a tragic accident Hanli and Johann Claasen’s daughter Marlé, 20, died in a helicopter accident in March 2020, when the helicopter she was a passenger in sank into soft sand and rolled over. At the time, she was training for her PPL.

SA Flyer 2022|01

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February 2022

PETER GARRISON

CALIBRATED

CAMEL

One of the legends clinging to the Sopwith Camel is that it was so reluctant to turn 90 degrees to the right that pilots preferred making a 270 to the left. Now, this is being said about the aeroplane that is widely regarded as the premier dogfighter of World War One. You have to wonder whether such roundabout tactics were practical when you had an angry Fokker on your tail. THE ALLEGED CAUSE of this alleged misbehaviour was the Camel's rotary engine. The rotary – not the Mazda or Wankel rotary, but the quite distinct type that was used on most of the fighters of World War One – reminds me of those light-bulb-changing jokes in which one person of the nationality to be denigrated climbs the ladder to insert the bulb and then several others turn the ladder.

As topsy-turvy as this arrangement may sound, rotaries were ingeniously engineered and fabricated in great numbers with a skill and sophistication at which modern machinists gasp in amazement. They had remarkably high power-toweight ratios for the time, cooled well during ground operations, and were simple and reliable. Furthermore, nearly all of the fighters or "scouts" of the war used them, and they can't all have been going the long way around to make a right turn.

t h e Ca m e l probably k illed more s tude nt pilot s than enemy ones

At rest the rotary looks like any air-cooled radial; in operation it becomes a blur, because the crankshaft stands still and the entire engine, crankcase, cylinders, pistons and all, spins around it.

February 2022

The rotary's most notorious vice was its gyroscopic couple. Like any spinning mass, the engine and its attached

Just how big is the gyro effect of the Camel's rotary engine and massive prop? Image Airwolfhound wiki.

propeller resisted efforts to change their orientation; when forced, they pulled at a right angle to the pressure applied. In a steeply banked turn to the right, for instance, a Camel wanted to drop its nose toward the ground; you had to use left rudder to hold it up. In a left turn, the nose wanted to slice upward; you corrected with left rudder. I had the good luck to be friends with Javier Arango, who had a couple of Camels, one a reproduction, one original. They form part of The Aeroplane Collection, based at Paso Robles, California. Their stablemates include Fokkers, Nieuports, Sopwiths, a SPAD, an SE5a, and the oldest flyable aeroplane in the world, a restored Bleriot originally built in the United States in 1911. Almost all are airworthy and use original engines. Javier, who had a Harvard degree in history of science, said the mission of his collection is to gain a deeper understanding of the very rapid evolution of aeronautical technology during the war. The builders of the aeroplanes, unfortunately for us, were too busy to document it.

A number of years ago Javier and I set out to collect some flight data in order to compare contemporary accounts with objective measurements. One goal was to assess the magnitude of the rotary's famous gyroscopic couple. Javier himself had not found the Camel's flight behaviour to be disturbingly asymmetrical; but he knew that he was probably unconsciously correcting for it. We progressed rather slowly. We first tested a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter, which is a comparatively big two-seater, and a Camel; a Fokker Triplane was to be next. Our equipment consisted of an Appareo GAU 1000, which stored a detailed history of flight attitudes and accelerations; a Futek stick-force sensor; and a data logger that stores stick forces, control-surface positions and airspeed. The Camel is a very small, light machine – 1,300 pounds as tested. It's roughly comparable in size and weight to a Cessna 150, but with half again more wing area and who knows how much more drag. On the other hand, with a 160-hp Gnôme engine swinging a 9-foot February 2022

Javier Arango flew the Camel for Peter's assessment.

propeller at 1,200 rpm, the Camel climbs well: We recorded nearly 1,700 fpm. The tests, Javier flying, consisted of a series of turns, climbs, dives and large, abrupt control movements. We investigated speeds down to 35 knots and up to 83, continuous bank angles over 70 degrees, and pitch and yaw rates of between 20 and 30 degrees a second. The Camel's agility as a fighter was due in part to its notoriously weak stability in all axes. Its centre of gravity was far aft, particularly with full fuel – the 30-gallon tank sat behind the pilot, in lieu of armour. Nevertheless, it must have possessed some longitudinal stability, because it had no trim and the pilot had to hold forward stick after takeoff. If it had been neutrally stable or unstable, it would not have sought a preferred pitch attitude and the pilot would not have felt any stick force in pitch. It had a vestigial fixed fin, an aerodynamically balanced rudder and a rather short aft fuselage. As a result, it didn’t much care which way it pointed. It had no inclinometer – the "ball" of a modern panel – and so the pilot relied on the seat of his pants to stay coordinated. Most of the time Camels were slipping or skidding; this was a good thing, one veteran wrote, because an enemy trying to get a bead on you could not quite tell which way you were going.

February 2022

The ailerons, though large, seem to have been rigged with reverse differential – more down travel than up – with the result that if you tried to turn with aileron alone, as you could in a modern aeroplane, you would see almost no bank but lots of yaw in the wrong direction. Our tests produced a slew of complicatedlooking graphs. Some of the most striking are the time histories of steep turns. The aeroplane would roll into a 60-degree bank to the left or right in about 2 1/2 seconds, but the maximum roll rate, reached only momentarily, was about 40 deg/sec in to the left and 30 deg/sec to the right. No surprise; left roll is torque-aided. That the steady turn rate was about the same left and right was not surprising either: All aeroplanes turn at the same rate, in coordinated flight, at a given speed and bank angle. The story about the Camel making a left 270 more quickly than a right 90 was evidently just a comical embellishment upon the fact that the Camel rolled into a left bank more easily than into a right one. When a Camel pilot wanted to invert the aeroplane really quickly, he would probably use a snap roll, not an aileron roll. It may in fact be true that the Camel snaps faster to the left than to the right; this is a manoeuvre that Javier did not test.

To assess the gyroscopic moment, we set up an apparatus to measure the polar moment of inertia of a 160 Gnôme and its propeller. Putting that number together with rpm and a yaw or pitch rate, it's easy to calculate the famous gyroscopic couple. For the turn rates we saw in our experiments – which were probably close to the greatest rate that a Camel could maintain continuously for a long time – the moment was about 300 pound-feet. The tail moment arm is around 11 feet, so a tail force of 27 pounds or so would be needed to balance it. That should be well within the capability of the tail at the 70-kt airspeed required to maintain, say, a 3G turn; but it might require significant control-surface deflections. It was interesting, by the way, that the moment of inertia of the engine was about equal to that of the big wooden propeller. This seems counterintuitive – the engine is steel, and propeller wood – but the mass of the engine is concentrated in the crankcase, very close to the axis of rotation, whereas the centre of mass of each propeller blade is halfway out along the blade.

It was said that a Camel could evade an attacker by maintaining a tight right turn until the opponent grew bored and went away, or both aeroplanes reached the ground. That makes some sense: Dogfights were typically fought while descending, and in a right turn the gyroscopic couple pulls downward; the controls don’t have to fight against it. One of the insights Javier gained into the notorious perils of the Camel – it probably killed more student pilots than enemy ones – was that novice pilots probably reacted with back stick to its slicing nose-down in a right turn. This could easily lead to a stall, especially right after takeoff. The correct antidote was left rudder – a counterintuitive control movement in a right turn. To my immense sorrow and that of many others, Javier died in the crash of his Nieuport 28 in 2017. Our planned air battle between the Camel and the Triplane, Brown versus Richthofen, Excel spreadsheet versus Excel spreadsheet, never took place. j

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PLANE TALK - JIM DAVIS

A BOGBRUSH FOR CHRISTMAS “Mr Davis, you will never fly an aeroplane. You’re deformed. You are a bloody cripple!” Flight Sergeant Holt’s red face and ginger moustache were inches from my nose. “You did your medical at Hornchurch, but they didn’t find in three days what a tailor from Burberry’s spotted in three minutes. When Hornchurch said you are fit to fly they made a terrible mistake, didn’t they Mr. Davis?” “Yes, Sir.” Then his voice went quiet, “Don’t ever insult me again by calling me Sir! You call me Flight Sergeant! What do you call me??” “Flight Sergeant, Sir!” “Mr Davis, you are even more stupid than you look!” I WAS A GAWKY 17 YEAR OLD – actually three months too young to get into the RAF – but they made an exception because I had come all the way from Kenya. They also made a huge mistake by selecting me as one of sixty, from three thousand applicants. We were the elite, at least the rest of them were.

Nairobi had shoved me in the back of a Handley Page Hastings that was going to London. We had to make two night-stops on the way. One was at a hellhole called Kano in the middle of the desert. Shiny tears of sweat dripped off us as we eyed the vultures roosting on the dining room roof.

I hate d eve r y t hing about t he RAF.

It was the bitter Lincolnshire Christmas of 1956. A month earlier the RAF in

February 2022

When we landed at Croydon they dumped me at Hornchurch medical centre for a three day

February 2022

Cranfield College - where RAF officer pilots were formed.

physical. And then I was sent to a selection facility near Lincoln, where we lived, two to a room, for a week. Selection was a serious business. A bunch of shrinks and experts in different fields studied us microscopically. They even bugged our rooms. And there were scary interviews. You would stand before half a dozen highranking humans with medals and moustaches. They would peer down at you from a stage like scientists studying something offensive from a swamp.

February 2022

Then we had one of these stupid team-work things where they give you a pile of wood and ropes and pipes, and you have to build a trolly in which the team will charge across a finishing line. What are you meant to do – listen to some self-appointed leader, just muck in, or try to get the guys to do it your way? None of these options appealed, so I mingled with the opposition team and stole the clips that should hold their wheels on. Our team naturally won. I later learned that this earned me long points and was probably responsible for the RAF’s bad decision to include me amongst the chosen few.

Dav is , you gr eat s omnole nt bas t ar d

A mild, slightly smiley inquisitor might ask, in a fatherly tone, why you want to join the RAF. You would tell him about your love of flying, and the time you held the stick in a Whitney Straight. Suddenly a red faced one would bellow, “What did your father do during the war!?”

This was designed to rattle you – and it did. Do you tell pumpkin face to wait until you have finished speaking to smiley, or do you abandon smiley and tell the other guy that your dad was on merchant ships in the North Atlantic?

A Vickers Valetta, or 'Pig', that had 6 or 8 G-sets for navigation training.

I hated everything about the RAF. The discipline, the poxy weather and my fellow chinless Flight Cadets. They all seemed to be sons, or grandsons, of Air Vice Marshall Sir Albert Fortescue DFC OBE, or Wing Commander Bunny ‘strafer’ Cunningham DFC. My dad was a farmer – and they seemed to know it. We were herded into a hall, while a bunch of tailors with clipboards, pins in their mouths and tape measures round their necks mingled amongst us and recorded our specs. They had come from London with reams of RAF blue material. One of these gentlemen discovered that my right arm is about 3mm longer than the left one. He reported this disfigurement to God’s representative in the form of Flight Lieutenant Johnson, who dispatched Flight Sergeant Holt to the epicentre of this outrage.

kindly streak of humanity, got us lined up in ranks of three, brought us to attention and then disappeared into the admin block. We stood on the ice splattered tarmac for ever, while a bitter wind howled off the Lincolnshire planes and tore through our civilian clothes, causing us to sway on our moorings. Eventually there was a clatter as one of our number fainted and crashed to the ground. Bogbrush shimmered out of the office, marched across to our stricken comrade, nudged him with his boot and bellowed, “Get up man. What are you doing – sleeping on parade?”

nav igat ion f light s in a Vick e r s Valett a, or Pig

This wasn’t my first encounter with Flight Sergeant Holt – known as Bogbrush, for his bristly, ginger moustache. We had a taste of him on day one. Sergeant Pullthrough, a

Everyone who has done military service thinks their drill-sergeant was the meanest in the world. Gentlemen, I must inform you that your candidates were as fluffy puppies compared to Bogbrush. Flight Sergeant Holt became a legend in the RAF and he left a tradition that lives on to this day. When he had finished with us, we were proud of our reputation for making the Guards look like amateurs. February 2022

Here’s what RAF historians say:

Jim as a gawky 17 year old Officer Cadet.

Jack Holt was a large imposing Yorkshireman, whose bearing and manner were such that in 1955, he was moved to Cranwell. Here cadet entries of up to 70 strong were introduced to military discipline and drill as the first steps in their three year officer training. This introduction was purposefully tough, and drill was unrelenting. Flight Sergeant Holt expected the highest standards; his commanding voice and his withering asides were unforgettable. He was both feared and respected and, as the months went by, increasingly admired. The pace-stick he carried and used for maximum effect became an emblem for the man. He retired at the age of 59 in 1982. During his nine years at Cranwell he was awarded both the British Empire Medal and the Member of the British Empire. In 2000, the RAF created the Jack Holt Memorial Award, and a plaque made of Yorkshire stone was installed under the window of his Orderly Room, it reads: Jack Holt MBE BEM Cadet Wing Flight Sergeant 1952-1961 Revered by Flight Cadets of that Era. An Award – an emblematic pace-stick - is presented each year to the Senior NCO engaged in Initial Officer training, considered to have done most to induce in the cadets the qualities needed in an officer in the Royal Air Force. The incorporation of the award into the College tradition arises from the energy and initiative shown by 76 Entry. That was my entry. If you think these accolades are a bit much – think again. Bogbrush knew all our names on the day we arrived – he had studied our photos and memorised the lot. A great man indeed, but he seemed to have it in for me in particular. We were issued with our uniforms and a diagram showing how our kit was to be stored in our

February 2022

A Young Jim Davis feeding the pigeons at Trafalgar Square.

or lighthouse. This meant that if I got anything wrong, which I frequently did, it was likely to bugger up the whole parade.

The oscilliscope from the Gee set - which challenged young Jim's arithmetic.

chests of drawers. Socks, black, each quantity 2, officers for the use of, to be folded to size 3¾ inches x 5¼ inches and be placed in the front right corner of the top left drawer with a ¼ inch gap all round. Storing our stuff correctly took one full day. We were not allowed any personal possessions – they all went into our kit-bags for storage.

When this happened Bogbrush would bellow at me from his podium in the middle distance. I was variously a mad Matabele, a wild Watutzi, a cockeyed Kikuyu or a sleepy Somali. He seemed to pick on me more than anyone else – partly because right marker is a critical reference, and partly because I was bloody useless.

The interesting thing about our accommodation was the fact that the floors, which were covered in dark brown linoleum, glistened like Christmas decorations because in 30 years they had never been walked on. We shuffled everywhere on sheepskin sliders. We were forbidden to put a foot on the floor.

get t he brak es to t he des t inat ion

That evening our huts and kit were to be inspected. When I say huts, we lived in brick cottages. Each consisted of a dormitory for five – four cadets and a mentor. Ours was a third year cadet named Hallows who gave us fatherly advice on how to keep out of trouble. The English language was his great joy. He loved to use interesting words, a habit which frequently had me running to the library. ‘Davis, you great somnolent bastard…’ I found it meant, sleepy, drowsy, dozy, half awake, torpid and comatose. He had my number pretty accurately On the parade ground Bogbrush also prepared his adjectives with equal care. I rather stood out because I was the tallest. That made me what’s known as the ‘right marker’ – the guy who everyone lined up on – a sort of beacon

On the night of our kit inspection we waited in terrified silence for someone to come and scrutinize our efforts. Eventually there was a stamping of boots outside and we all leaped to attention on our sheepskin sliders at the foot of our beds. To our horror, it was no corporal or underling who had come to examine us – it was Bogbrush himself. Without ado he came straight up to me and bellowed, “What have you got in your laundry basket?” I went cold – I had broken the rule about handing in all our personal belongings. The only thing I couldn’t bear to part with was a pair of takkies – so I hid them in the laundry basket under my bed. “Nothing, Flight Sergeant,” I lied.

February 2022

He kicked the basket out and tipped it upsidedown so the offending footwear bared itself for all to see.

Woodbines were the smokes of choice.

Without a word, he flung open the window, allowing an icy wind to enter the room. He then took my carefully packed draws, one at a time, and tipped everything out into the snow. Then he hove to in front of me and yelled, “I will inspect your kit again at 0530 hours in the morning.” Now his voice dropped to little more than a whisper, “Yours, Mr Davis, is a name and face I shall not forget.” I wanted my Mommy. Then there were the monthly dinner nights where we learned to behave like officers and gentlemen. We would get upholstered in our Mess Dress, complete with horizontal ties and stripes down the outside seams of our immaculate trousers. Our ceremonial boots gleamed like mirrors. We were seated around a long table with silver everything including candlesticks – like the Queen’s table when she entertains a flock of foreign dignitaries. Each of us had our own waiter who stood behind us. The evening started slowly – very slowly – in fact nothing at all happened for 45 minutes. We stood at attention, behind our chairs with our hands resting on the chair backs. We didn’t move a muscle. If we did, the waiter tending the guy opposite us, would spot this atrocity and report it to the Mess President. After three quarters of an hour, the Mess President would take his position at the head of the table and say grace. This consisted of the very appropriate words, “Thank God.” After we sat the pace quickened slightly while one tried to guess which pieces of silver was most appropriate for dealing with a salmon pate. Not difficult, but heaven help anyone who got it wrong.

February 2022

I made the unforgivable mistake of picking up a piece of cutlery that had caught on my sleeve and fallen to the floor. I didn’t realize the magnitude of this crime until later when the Mess President tapped on his glass to call for our attention. We all looked politely towards him. He got off to a brilliant start by giving us a message we had never heard before. “Gentlemen,” he said, “you will be pleased to hear…” Now he really had our attention, we were never pleased to hear anything. He continued. “…that Mr Davis has invited you all to drinks in the anteroom after dinner.” It took a while for the enormity of this statement to sink in. Our pay was such that, after paying our mess bills, our laundry bills and our batman, we each had enough money to either buy ten Woodbines, or have a beer – not both. In between drilling on Bogbrush’s parade ground, we had time to be shoved into rooms

The course survivors at a recent reunion.

full of teargas – an extremely unpleasant experience. As we staggered out, doubled up, gasping, and unable to see or breathe, Bogbrush would be there. “Stand up man! Get a grip on yourself! What are you crying about? Your mummy can’t hear you – she’s in Bongobongo land”. My chosen sport was an activity called modern pentathlon. It consisted of fencing, pistol shooting, freestyle swimming and equestrian show jumping. All wonderful stuff, but they ruined it by making us run 2 miles (3200m in today’s money) in between events. I detest running. God wouldn’t have given us horses and motorbikes if he wanted us to run. Fortunately I was soon let off this miserable activity – I got an ingrowing toenail. So they shoved me in hospital while they removed it. A painful business, but I was spared drill and running for a while.

Other activities included being shouted at by a sergeant in a brown leather apron. He wanted us to make lumps of steel into perfect 1-inch cubes – using a file, a T square and a micrometer. I quite enjoyed this and eventually produced an object which satisfied the shouter. I did, however, wonder how this would help me to fly aeroplanes. Then we learned to strip, clean and fire a watercooled Vickers machine gun. Perhaps not the most useful skill for a pilot – the gun needs an eight-man crew. To put this in perspective, the English Electric Lightning had been flying for two years at the time we were struggling to master this weapon. We also did navigation flights in a Vickers Valetta, or Pig, as it was known. The aircraft was crammed with Gee sets – big black steam driven things which were wonders of technical wizardry. We were expected to pinpoint our position by peering into flickering oscilloscope

February 2022

screens and studying blips which gave us values for a hyperbolic graticule of red, blue and green lines on a chart. I was not good at this because it required something more than my tenuous grip on schoolboy arithmetic. We occasionally had spare time but this was useless without transport. To rectify the problem I started a little business selling dentists’ appointment cards, which I stole from a tooth driller I had to visit in Lincoln. These entitled the bearer to an afternoon off and a bus ride into the city. From the proceeds of this enterprise I bought an ex-army 350cc Norton. And with this I was able to entice a fair maiden from the Teachers’ Training College to accompany me to the seaside at Skegness. We would sit in the wind, on the cold pebbles, eat an ice cream and then go back to Lincoln – what fun. Of course the bike was not licensed, as a result a kindly country copper made me spend afternoons digging turnips in his garden, to teach me a lesson. This, and my general ineptitude as a military person, eventually caused Her Majesty to lose it. She invited me to become a civilian. She didn’t actually do it herself, she got Flt Lt Johnson to do it. And we all breathed a sigh of relief. Bogbrush eventually put a fatherly hand on my

February 2022

shoulder and told me I had brightened up 76 entry Thanks to the values Bogbrush inculcated in me, I came away from Cranwell certain of two things: I would nonetheless become a pilot, and I would try to do things properly, the RAF way – in fact Bogbrush’s way.

OBITUARY, MR J HOLT MBE BEM No member of Cranwell staff, at any level, has been so vividly remembered. He was in a class of his own as a drill instructor. His uniform was immaculate, his aspect fierce, his prominent ginger moustache immortalised in his nickname “Bogbrush”. His orders were awe inspiring, his domination of a squad of 70 was total, his correction of the minutest error was unerring and his grasp of humorous metaphor was brilliant He decided and imposed standards of turnout and discipline. Indeed, he decided the minutiae of the Cadets’ lives. He made up and typed the daily orders, carried out the inspections and even decided when cricket matches were to be played between the Junior Entry and the Sergeants’ Mess. Perhaps the most important message he taught was that the highest standards are achieved by total effort. He always gave – and received – total effort. He will be greatly missed.

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FLIGHT TEST: ALTITUDE RADIAL ROCKET 42

BLAST-OFF IN THE

RADIAL ROCKET Text: Guy Leitch with Nigel Hopkins. Images Garth Calitz.

February 2022

The Radial Rocket takes flight after its rebuild following a landing accident.

Piston engine fighters with big round engines have an off-the-chart coolness rating. The snag is they are beyond expensive to operate and, truth be told, they don’t fly very nicely. Few even have enough rudder authority to keep it straight under full power on takeoff.

February 2022

MOST OF THE WORLD WAR 2 fighter replicas are 80% scale versions with automotive derived engines – that will often let you down. Notable in this regard is the Titan Mustang which became a ‘Beachcraft’ when its engine stopped due to an oil pipe failure.

ON THE GROUND

Other scale versions of WW2 fighters often have controls that are not up to modern standards and for the sake of trying to keep original proportions, have tiny cockpits. I am amazed by how slow the roll rates are of these fighters compared to modern day aircraft – especially those build for fun, such as RVs.

ZU-IJP was delivered in kit form to South Africa in 2011, so it is the product of a ten-year labour of love that has consumed countless thousands of hours of his time. Derek says he stopped counting after he had put in a thousand hours as he would have been discouraged. Fortunately, he was able to much of the work at his Krugersdorp factory with the freely given assistance of well-known Krugersdorp AMO Kevin Hopper and Pierre Dispan, who contributed enormously to the electrical work. Such is the spirit of homebuilding. Looking at the extraordinary build quality and the ambitious but functional innovations, it is hard to believe that this is Derek Frasca’s first homebuilt. He gives Kevin Hopper much credit for his invaluable guidance.

The Altitude Radial Rocket is a near perfect solution to these ‘challenges’. It’s not trying to copy a WW2 design and so is not compromised in aerodynamic design and scale. Radial engines sound sexy – and best of all, a perfectly sized and thoroughly proven engine is available in the form of the Vedeneyev M-14P nine cylinder, air-cooled, radial. It’s the aviation equivalent of the AK-47. This engine is good for 360 to 430hp – more than enough to give knuckle clenching performance in a purposebuilt light but strong modern composite airframe that handles well, has a proper full-sized cockpit, and modern avionics.

The subject of this pilot report is a Radial Rocket, ZU-IJP, built by former SAAF pilot Derek Frasca, who hankered after the Harvards with their big round engine he had trained on.

On the apron at Krugersdorp, the Radial Rocket looks imposing with the big round engine on its high gear, seemingly with as little fuselage and wing as possible for that size engine. The slender tightly spatted fixed gear appears

Nigel Hopkins getting airborne from a wet Krugersdorp runway.

February 2022

The cockpit is finished to Rolls Royce standards. Image - Andre Venter.

somewhat gangly compared to WW2 fighters with retractable wheels. I can’t work out if it resembles any specific WW2 fighters – but perhaps a cross between the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and the Grumman F8F Bearcat. Due to the long undercarriage legs and the high nose stance, the trailing edge of the wing is too high to easily climb onto, so Derek custom built a ladder that he keeps in the front baggage bay. You know you have a proper plane when you need a ladder to get in.

The use of composites with its compound curves and simpler and lighter construction gives the Radial Rocket a glass-smooth finish – unlike any WW2 mass produced riveted aluminium fighter. The beautiful finish is testimony to the painstaking perfection put into the build by Derek Frasca.

The ex t raor dinar y beaut y of t his build.

All structural components are made of carbon-fibre. The fuselage is of stressed-skin construction with reinforcing carbon-fibre longerons and carbon fibre honeycomb sandwich bulkheads. Non-structural parts, such as wingtips, interior panelling, wing root fairings and the radiator ducting are made of fibreglass.

Aerodynamically the wing profile is thin and built for laminar flow. With its small surface area, the wing loading is still a sporty 27 lbs/ft, but thanks to a gross weight of just 2550 lb, the stall speed is an undemanding 61 kt with flap. Although it has spectacular performance, this is not some hot ship pocket-rocket. Designer Jeff Ackland was not limited by the need to try maintain appearances with a shrunk WW2 fighter, so he was free to make the cockpit a comfortable size. Thanks to the diameter of February 2022

The Vedeneyev M14PF produces around 430hp in ZU-IJP.

Sturdy sliding bubble canopy gives great view and can be open for taxy and run-up.

February 2022

The oversized spinner and extended cowl gives ZU-IJP unique cooling.

the round engine there’s plenty of width to work with. The Radial Rocket’s cockpit is therefore a spacious 24 inches between the canopy rails, and has 34 inches wall-to-wall elbow room. Despite the taper of the composite fuselage, the rear seat is also roomy, being significantly larger than an RV-8. There is a full Garmin EFIS display and engine controls for the rear seater with rudder pedals and a control stick.

A rear baggage compartment is easily loaded from the ground and is complemented by an externally accessed baggage bay between the instrument panel and firewall. These two baggage areas make the Radial Rocket a viable touring aircraft.

you have a pr ope r plane w he n you ne e d a ladde r to get in

Up front, thanks to the long steel gear legs with spring strut legs, there is enough clearance for an impressive 2.5m three-blade MT propeller, which, with its fat custom made spinner, gives the Rocket an imposing ramp presence. The engine has a 0.66:1 reduction gearbox to turn the big prop which it does the ‘wrong way’ – that is, as a ‘left-hand tractor’.

IN THE COCKPIT

A glance into the cockpit reveals the extraordinary beauty of this build. The cockpit looks as if it was built by Rolls Royce, with beautiful burred walnut finishes and a carbon fibre mat instrument panel. You feel you must dust off your shoes and wash your hands before entering this work of art. You step over the cockpit sill and onto the seat squab so there is a thick rag to protect the beautiful leather seats. February 2022

The matt-black instrument panel is a thing of beauty. It is dominated by two Garmin 3GX portrait oriented EFIS displays with good old fashioned big round dials on either side. Along the lower sub-panel are smaller gauges for oil temp and pressure, fuel and voltage. The tall chrome control stick is the perfect length to rest your forearm on your leg and there’s plenty of space for stick movement of 16 cm side to side and 23 cm front to back. So your legs and gut do not obstruct full and free movement. A conical hat electric trim knob and PTT button are on the stick grip, adding to the HOTAS (hands on throttle and stick) fighter feel. There are also two buttons for elevator and aileron trim. The right-hand side of the cockpit houses a generously wide panel dominated by a large lever for the cowl flaps with the usual fuse gear around it. The throttle quadrant on the left sidewall

provides the classic fighter; power in left hand, stick in right hand, setup. The throttle lever is a repurposed M16 carbine rifle grip. Next to it is the blue propellor control and a red carb heat knob. There’s no mixture control lever because the M14PF’s carburettor handles that automatically. This supercharged engine is well known in South Africa with its many uses in Yak 18 and 52s, and it can take you to oxygen levels quite happily without a mixture control. Standard power output from the M14P is 360 hp, which is identical in weight and size to the 400 hp “F” version. The rise to 400hp hp is produced by increasing supercharger rpm and boost. Thanks to aftermarket electronic ignition and American pistons, ZU-IJP has a 430-hp. Starting the Vedeneyev M14P can a challenge, partly due to the Russians’ preference for a pneumatic air powered starter over an electric start. To avoid the voltage drop of cold Russian weather, most M-14P engines use a pneumatic start system in which 40 bar high pressure air

The exhaust features a novel shroud that helps entrain cooling air out the cowl.

February 2022

Non-engine cooling air has its own intakes - this is for the oil cooler.

is distributed to the engine cylinders to turn the engine over. An engine- mounted compressor refills the air bottle after startup. If the engine has stood for a while it is essential to turn the prop through by hand to check for hydraulic lock due to excess oil accumulating in the lower cylinders. With switches checked Off, you pull the prop through 18 blades, which is six revolutions of the prop shaft or nine revolutions of the crankshaft. As the prop is rotated it will become immediately apparent if one or more of the lower cylinders is filled with oil. An oil filled cylinder must be cleared before engine start by removal of a spark plug. A useful feature on ZU-IJP is an electric pre-oiler which helps with initial lubrication.

fart and belch smoke before it fires frequently enough to run smoothly. In the POH there is a large caution note for the run-up which reads – ‘do not exceed 2000 rpm during run up or the tail will rise during prop cycling, even with full aft stick and brakes applied.’ Before you go flying the intake manifold drain is closed and the air bottle valve is open.

The Radial Rock et is fas te r and climbs bette r t han my Ex t ra 330LS

Like any good radial, getting it going is like waking a hibernating bear. It will bang and

The canopy slides closed with gratifying heft. A simple but robust canopy latch with internal and external handles is all that is needed to secure the canopy in the closed position. The canopy slides on sturdy rails, allowing for high power runups with the canopy open, and if you need to look cool - your elbow on the cockpit sill. Thanks to it being a taildragger with a radial, the view forward is a challenge and weaving February 2022

Builder Derek Frasca paid special attention to the discharge air from the cowl through unique vents.

is required when taxying. Good brakes are essential as the 1200 rpm minimum required to prevent fouling the plugs leaves enough residual thrust to take you charging across a ramp. Minimum oil temperature for takeoff is 40 degrees C, and on a cool day it can take 5-10 minutes for the 3-5 gallons of oil in the tank to come up to temp. Once the oil temp is above 90 degrees, prop and mags can be checked. Mags are checked at 2000 RPM, prop is cycled at 1800 RPM, (with the stick held full back!). Check temps and pressures, carb heat, controls, instruments and avionics, fuel, flaps trims, canopy latched, belts and harnesses secure, and you are ready to go. Cylinder heads will be as warm as they are going to get on the ground by now. Derek Frasca spent much time and effort on engine cooling. His approach was to separate engine cooling air from induction and ancillary cooling (such as oil coolers). This enabled him to use the large spinner with just 30mm clearance with the cowl and large side

February 2022

scoops for the air not for cylinder head cooling. The trick is to get maximum outlet for the air and to this end he built a variety of cowl flaps and cooling boxes that discharge the air that enters from the side scoops. Cylinder head and oil temps can then be regulated by adjusting the large cowl flap above the cowl and the ancillaries by adjusting the lower cooling vents. On all flights to date the cowl flaps have been left open.

IN THE AIR ZU-IJP first flew in 2019 but after just three hours of flight it suffered significant damage in a runway excursion on landing. South Africa’s ‘uber-pilot’ Nigel Hopkins was entrusted with returning the Rocket to the air after an 18-month repair. Notable here is that GIB Insurance brokers arranged an ex-gratia payment. Nigel flew it from Krugersdorp on a rainy day in

December with a wet runway. He reports: “With its supercharged 430 hp engine you power up to 33 inches of manifold pressure with the prop at its redline of 3000 rpm. As the prop rotates anticlockwise, you need to anticipate the torque and precession with left rudder to keep it straight. Flaps are set to about 10 degrees for takeoff – which is a third of full flap. It’s worth eyeballing the flaps to check their position. Full travel of the electric flaps in either direction takes about ten seconds. Accelerating to the 65 knot rotation speed is brisk. The tail comes up quickly, and with just one up and a forward CofG rotation needs slight stick pressure to lift (blast?) off. Directional control is easy once rudder effectiveness arrives from about 30 knots. Rudder pedal forces are surprisingly low. The 430-horses galloping in the front pulled us to the 105 KIAS Vy best rate of climb and we were powering out of Krugersdorp at around 1500 fpm with the throttle pulled back to just 28 inches. Flying with Jason Beamish as chase plane in

my Extra 300LS, it was clear that the Radial Rocket was faster and climbed better than even the Extra. At Vy the pitch attitude had the nose blocking the view ahead, requiring periodic clearing turns. The manufacturer says that a full-power, Vy climb at maximum takeoff weight produces an average 1200 fpm through a 5000 feet density altitude. The company claims a sea level, standard day, climb rate better than 2000 feet per minute with the 360-hp engine. Like any fighter with a sliding bubble canopy and low sills, the view out is fantastic. A thick canopy frame separates the windscreen from the sliding canopy, but it doesn’t significantly impair the view. The windscreen and canopy are almost flawless, with minimum tint or distortion and with a small neck swivel you can see all the way around to the tail. With a nice and easy 23 squared manifold pressure and rpm setting the Rocket settled at 170 KIAS in level flight at a 6000 feet density altitude. Pitch trim requires short blips for finetuning at cruise speed. The electric trims work

After a tailwheel failure caused the accident in early testing, it was replaced with this seriously heavy-duty tailwheel assembly.

February 2022

a trailing-edge tab on the left elevator and left aileron. Rudder trim is a fixed tab. The POH provides economy cruise figures of 1730 rpm and 27 inches with a fuel burn of 14 gallons per hour. Roll response is great without being as sensitive as a full-blown aerobatic mount such as my Extra 330LX. In control response and performance, the Radial Rocket is in many ways directly comparable to an RV-8 – on steroids. With a small stick displacement, the Rocket will roll in and hold a turn without further stick input. The lateral stick force displacement and roll rate are appropriate for a fun recreational plane that may be used to go cross country. Put the stick back to neutral, and the roll rate stops quickly, but not head-bangingly so. It takes a proper push of the stick to start the roll, enough to prevent inadvertent stick inputs, yet still responsive enough to make you feel part of the plane.

Pitch stability is nicely positive. Any airspeed divergence from the trim speed settled out with a few oscillations until the Rocket arrived back at the speed it was trimmed for. Abrupt stick pulls and pushes moved the nose smartly, without any residual bobbing. An earlier flight tester commented that; “the plane punches through mild turbulence without much in the way of pitch and roll upset, but it does wiggle in yaw. Whereas the wing provides good roll damping (that’s why those bank angle captures were so crisp), the vertical tail is not as complementary. Pulsing the pedals, and then releasing them, excites the plane’s Dutch roll dynamic stability mode. In the Rocket, this mode is mostly yaw and lightly damped. That is flight-test speak meaning the nose swings left and right in decreasing excursions several times before settling back into the relative wind. Or you could always get back on the pedals and suppress the wiggles yourself.” Stall speed is as per the manufacturer’s book

Builder Derek Frasca with test pilot Nigel Hopkins.

February 2022

Smoke belches as the nine cylinders fire up.

figures – depending on weight: 70 knots clean and around 60 knots with a full 30 degrees of flap. There was minimal tendency to drop a wing. The Radial Rocket is rated for +9 and -6 Gs, which is more than enough for ‘gentleman aerobatics’. The manufacturer says that thanks to the power to weight ratio, loops, rolls, Cuban 8s and so on are performed from level cruise flight. Loops with a 4 G pullout result in arcs of a thousand feet. Returning to the Krugersdorp circuit, the Rocket was easy to slow down from 160 knots at the minimum recommended manifold pressure of 15 inches. Moving the prop into full fine makes it an effective airbrake. The approach is happy at 95 KIAS. The manufacturer writes: “Although speed can build quickly in a descent, increasing prop rpm and reducing manifold pressure will combine with that big prop disc to produce effective deceleration as you approach the circuit. Flaps can come out at 120 KIAS IAS. Full flaps on mid-downwind makes it comfortable at 87KIAS, with about 15 inches of MP. Speed

can be further reduced on final – you can hang the plane on the prop with all that power available – but I usually stay at 90 KIAS and let speed fall off during the round-out for a wheel landing. I prefer to wheel land the Radial Rocket, which gives great over the nose visibility.” The Rocket feels viceless through the flare, hold-off and touchdown, although like all laminar flow wings it does stop flying suddenly, so you need to be just a hands width above the tar to have a smooth touchdown. Mooney and Comanche flyers will be right at home. Easing the power and the stick back, the pitch response was exactly what was expected. Stick forces were still low, but a little practice will prevent the average pilot succumbing to pilot induced oscillations on the hold off. Not bad for a plane with the Rocket’s pitch responsiveness. The transition from rudder to differential braking was likewise easy. Despite its looks, it is not a particularly hot tail dragger to handle. Shut down is different to conventional American February 2022

The Radial Rocket also comes with a nosewheel option and a shorter 4-blade prop.

engines. Because the M-14PF carb is equipped with automatic mixture control, it does not have a mixture control lever. Therefore the engine is shut down after flight by switching off the mags instead of pulling the mixture control to idle cutoff – thus the engine fuel system is charged, which makes it more likely that, when the prop is moved, as it must be to check for hydraulic lock before start, the engine may fire and run with a hot mag. So, it is important to make sure that the throttle is Closed, the master Off, and firewall fuel shutoff is Off.

fighter. Starting with a clean sheet design meant that the Radial Rocket is not bound by the limitations of trying to be a scaled down version of a fighter. Jeff Ackland has succeeded in building a plane that makes his dreams come true.

CONCLUSION

Derek Frasca’s ZU-IJP takes these qualities as a starting point and has transformed them into an aviation artwork, a thing of true beauty, both on the ground and in the air. j

The Radial Rocket began with Jeff Ackland’s dream of a high performance, aerobatic, twoseat, radial engine powered fun machine that would also have excellent cross country speed, comfort, and utility. But most importantly, it had to have the look and feel of a radial engine

February 2022

It is because of this design philosophy that the Radial Rocket is unique. It handles and is equipped like a modern RV-8, yet is faster and bigger – and arguable much cooler. Yet it still has the character of the famous World War 2 fighters. It is a fantastic and unbeatable combination.

Specifications and Performance Altitude Radial Rocket Specifications Length: Wingspan: Empty weight Max Weight Useful Load Wing loading: G Loading Front Baggage capacity Aft Baggage capacity Fuel capacity: Powerplant: Horespower Propellers:

22.2 ft. (6.8 m) 26.8 ft. (8.2 m) 1775 lb (800 kg) 2,575 lb (1,168 kg). 800 lb (368 kg) 27.4 lb/sq. ft. (134 kg/m2) Max +9 -6 @2000 lbs 50 lbs. 80 lbs. 65 U.S. gallons (250l) 1 x Vedeneyev M-14PF 430 hp 3 blade MT constant speed

Performance Cruise, economy Cruise, high speed Stall speed: Climb Service ceiling Range, econ. cruise Take-off run, sea level Landing run, sea level

174 kt 200 kt 61 kt (110 km/h) 3500+ fpm solo 25000 ft 800 nm 750 ft 1000 ft

February 2022

JIM DAVIS

Z S -L HG P I P ER PA-2 0 •

•

This report is to promote aviation safety and not to establish legal liability. The CAA’s report contains padding, repetition, poor English and incompetence. So, in the interest of clarity and readability, I have had to correct and paraphrase extensively

Aircraft Registration: ZS-LHG Date and time of accident: 2 February 2012 0730Z Type of Operation: Private Flight Type of Aircraft: Piper PA-20 (Aeroplane) Pilot-in-command Licence Type: Commercial Pilot Age: 24 Licence Valid: Yes Total Flying: 293,2 Hours on Type: 6.3 Pilot non-flying License type: Private Pilot Age: 48 Total flight time: 2750 hours Time in past 90 days: 60 hours Total on type in past 90 days: 11.0 hours Total on type:125 hours Last point of departure: Angels’ Way aerodrome, (KwaZulu-Natal province) Next point of intended landing: Angels’ Way aerodrome Location of the accident site: Angels’ Way aerodrome Met: Surface wind; 045°/4-5kt; Temp: 23°C; Visibility: +10 km Number of people on board: 2 No. of people injured: 2 (1 serious & 1 minor) No. of people killed: 0

History of flight

following his conversion.

The pilot-in-command was the pilot flying (PF) when the accident occurred. This was his first flight on a Piper PA-20 after completing his conversion on the aircraft type 57 days previously. He was accompanied by a pilot with far more experience than himself on the type, as it was recommended that he should fly 10 hours as pilot-in-command under supervision (PICUS)

After conducting a detailed pre-flight inspection, the pilot took off from runway 04 at Angels’ Way aerodrome, flew one circuit and landed on runway 22. Runway 04 has a substantial downward slope and the recommended practice at the aerodrome is to takeoff from runway 04 and land on runway 22 the upward slope. The prevailing wind was reported to be from the

February 2022

The two pilots escaped with burns from the Piper Pacer.

north-east at about 5 kt. After landing, the PF taxied back to the threshold of runway 04 for his second takeoff. He completed his pre-takeoff checks and opened the throttle. At approximately 70 mph indicated airspeed, he lost directional control and, before the PNF could intervene, the aircraft veered to the right off the runway, rolled down the grassy verge for 112 m and collided with a heap of building rubble concealed in the vegetation. The aircraft nosed over, coming to rest upside down in a ditch.

Upon arrival at the accident scene later the same day, the investigator-in-charge noted that the prevailing wind was from the east at 10 to 15 kt. According to available information, the wind remained much the same during the course of the day. The aircraft had ample fuel on board. The pilot had flown a total of 6,2 hours dual on the Piper PA-20 as part of his conversion training, completing the conversion on 7 December 2011. However, the flight instructor entered a note on the pilot’s CA 61-13.7 familiarisation training form, recommending him to fly 10 hours PICUS (pilot-incommand under supervision) after completing the conversion at the aerodrome, in this case Angles’ Way, from which he was going to operate. It should be noted that the CAA endorsed the type rating on the pilot’s licence following the submission of form CA 61-13.7 with the 10hour PICUS as a recommendation.

In SA t he r e is no s uch t hing as PICUS in light air craft

The PF remained conscious throughout the impact sequence. He released his safety harness, then freed the PNF, who was unconscious, and pulled him through the left aft door, which was open. A fire had erupted near the auxiliary fuel tank in the rear of the fuselage and the tank exploded when the pilots were about 10 m away. The wreckage was consumed by fire. People from the farm arrived on the scene within minutes and assisted the pilots. They were followed by the farm manager, who took the pilots to hospital in Pietermaritzburg. Both pilots suffered from facial lacerations, which required stitches. The PNF underwent surgery to his face later the same evening. He also had a fractured finger on his right hand and a compressed vertebra.

The pilot who accompanied him was appropriately rated on the type and was highly experienced on tailwheel-type aircraft. Meteorological information: the pilot said 5kts, the met office said 4kts The windsock is visible on the right, indicating a crosswind. February 2022

ABOVE: The wind was from the north east and thus down the runway. BELOW: The downhill takeoff on Runway 04.

February 2022

JIM’S COMMENTS Okay there are two things we need to look at here: competence and legality. Briefly, if the pilot lost control he was not competent. More about this later. And when the instructor and the CAA signed out his conversion subject to ten hours of PICUS – neither of them knew what they were doing. So the conversion was not legal. Let’s start by looking at the players. An instructor, who didn’t know the law, and was perhaps trying to save the pupil time or money. A young, low-hour, inexperienced Commercial Pilot. A mature, relatively experienced and current tailwheel Private Pilot (supervising). A mean-spirited taildragger, known to be directionally twitchy, with no brakes on the right hand side. A narrow, tarred country strip with considerable slope and camber problems. A light crosswind from the right. PICUS – a confusing crew responsibility situation. Hmmmm, it doesn’t look like a risk insurance companies would be rushing to cover.

Then they list seven items. But that initial sentence is meaningless. It doesn’t say who is really in command when the chips are down. How many pilots in command do we have? Now although WE know PICUS could not apply to this flight, both pilots in the Pacer believed that it did. So what did they think their roles were? I can only imagine that they saw themselves as student and instructor, except that the student could log the time as PICUS to satisfy the conditions on the conversion form. There was also a very curious seniority gradient in the cockpit. In the left hand seat we have the owner of the aircraft. He is an inexperienced commercial pilot who knows little of taildraggers. And in the right hand seat we have an experienced PPL who has plenty of tailwheel time, and who is current on the PA-20. But the owner/commercial pilot must assume the role of a ‘student’ and the PPL becomes the unqualified ‘instructor’. With a normal instructor/student relationship, the instructor will feel no awkwardness in taking over the controls, without notice, and saying “I have control”. And the student will expect this to happen often and will usually be happy to hand over immediately. Those expectations did not exist in this cockpit.

a ve r y cur ious s e nior it y gradie nt in t he cock pit

First, let’s sort out the PICUS nonsense. Legally, it has no place in single crew application. It was designed for airline and other multicrew ops, and is subject to specific, CAA approved programmes. And even then, it seems to be the cause of much confusion, and at least one ongoing legal battle in SA. Here’s the official CAA explanation - which muddies the waters even further. “The functions that the pilot-in-commandunder-supervision (PICUS) is required to carry out without intervention by the supervising designated pilot-in-command include but are not limited to:”

Anyhow, when things started going wrong during the takeoff, the experienced guy in right hand seat was neither trained nor ready to suddenly take control. An experienced instructor would not have allowed the situation to become dangerous – but this guy was not an instructor, and he was taken by surprise. I am hammering this point as warning to new pilots who may have just bought an aeroplane, and who would like to an experienced friend along “just in case”. Who is responsible for the big decisions about fuel and weather and navigation and alternates? And who is going to rescue a crosswind landing that’s going wrong? February 2022

In the worst case, who is going to accept responsibility when people die in an accident? Can you imagine the legal tangle? Divided responsibility is never a good idea, and particularly not in a cockpit. My understanding of the South African ‘Regs’ is that in single crew aircraft, there’s nothing to stop the PIC from flying from the right hand seat provided he or she has access to dual controls. I also seem to think that the PIC must be nominated before the flight, and this status may not change during the flight. I have to admit I have not been able to find this in the regs, but imagine the legal battles if this were not the case. Okay, enough of the legality, now let’s look at the flying side – what went wrong and why?

Now let’s look at what could have made the pilot lose directional control during takeoff – this is the bit that makes taildraggers interesting. It’s very unusual to lose control during takeoff because the prop’s slipstream over the rudder gives you pretty positive directional control. However there are turning forces at work that try to take you into one ditch or the other. Here they are: Slipstream effect. The spiral slipstream from the prop pushes on the left hand side of the tail fin, rudder, and the rear fuselage. This tries to turn the aircraft to the left. Asymmetric blade effect. When the tail is down at the start of the takeoff run, the right hand blade of the prop (viewed from behind) is moving down at an angle that increases its angle of attack - so it develops more thrust. The February 2022

Gyroscopic effect. Raising or lowering the tail tilts the gyroscope formed by the prop. So, as you raise the tail it pushes the top of the prop forward. This force acts 90º round, in the direction of rotation, and pushes the right hand side of the prop forward – thus turning the aircraft left. Torque effect. The reaction to the clockwise turning prop is to put more weight on the left wheel. This causes more drag on that side which tends to turn the aircraft left.

You cannot be too quick or too f ir m on t he r udde r

First, the pilots stated that they lost directional control on the ground at 70 mph. But they shouldn’t have been on the ground. The Pacer will fly happily at that speed – in fact it has a stall speed, in the takeoff configuration, of less than 50 mph.

same condition decreases the angle of attack on the up-moving left blade, and therefore reduces its thrust. This means that with the tail low, the aircraft tries to turn left.

Now, as you raise the tail, the asymmetric blade effect disappears, and the gyroscopic effect tries to turn the aircraft to the left.

Then, as you lower the tail to leave the ground, the asymmetric blade effect comes into play again and tries to turn the aircraft left, but the gyroscopic effect tries to turn it right. If you try to think this through during takeoff you will be in a hopeless muddle. Don’t give it any thought, but do expect these forces to mess you around. You must plan to be firm and positive with the rudder during takeoff. Obviously this didn’t happen here. It’s remotely possible the PIC was so tense he had his toes on the brakes So that was the physical reason for this prang. But in the background we have this extraordinary relationship where the PPL in the right hand seat is meant to act as instructor to the Com pilot and aircraft owner in the left seat. That just didn’t work. To my mind that was the root cause of the crash. A competent tailwheel instructor would never have allowed that to happen.

The Pacer is known to be twitchy, with no brakes on the right hand side.

TAKE HOME TIPS • • • •

If you fly with another pilot make very sure you know your roles before takeoff. You cannot be too quick or too firm on the rudder when correcting taildragger wanderings. In SA there is no such thing as PICUS in light aircraft. Note to instructors – the more senior and the more qualified your pupe, the more likely he

• • •

is to frighten you. When it’s ready to fly, then fly it. During takeoff and landing in any aircraft, keep your heels on the floor so you don’t touch the brakes. If any part of a taildragger is moving it’s preparing to eat you.j

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February 2022

ZS-DLD was a Piper Apache Spirit of Pretoria - delivered by Bill Piper.

NOV EMB ER 2021 FIRST OFF I MUST SAY THANK YOU to all the folk who give me the information to compile and write this article for you every month. My thanks go to Sphiwe Malibe at the CAA for sending me the stats every month as well as Ian Burnett of Air Britain for supplying other information. Also, to all the photographers who allow me to use their photos – without you this column would be bland. Thanks everybody.

new two Air Tractors, which are becoming increasingly popular. These aircraft are ferried in from the USA and I take my hat off to those ferry pilots. I’ve watched a couple of these flights on Flight Radar 24 and they fly high, with long distances between stops. These are single engine, PT6 powered aircraft, and the reliability of these engines has been proved time and again.

It is not often that I get pictures of aircraft that have left our shores but this month I was delighted to get three.

A Cessna 208 Caravan was imported from the USA, and there is yet another Embraer E190 for Airlink, which brings their total to fourteen. The Caravan takes up the registration (ZS-DLD) of a Piper Apache which Mr Piper himself ferried to South Africa back in 1955. She was named “The Spirit of Pretoria” and the picture shows Mr Piper standing next to the aircraft at Wonderboom on arrival, I’m not sure who the man on the right is though. This aircraft went to Kenya in 1958 and then on to the UK and New Zealand.

ZS-MPI Beech 350 went to the Isle of Mann as M-TRYL in August 2021 ZS-JIK Cessna 510 went to San Marino as T7-BVR in October 2021 ZS-XXL Cessna Caravan went to Netherlands, but I don’t have a new registration for her as yet. November was a pretty good month with six Type certified aircraft being registered including

February 2022

Two aircraft were imported from Botswana.

ABOVE: ZS-TJS is a Lear 45 exported to Nigeria. Photo Dave Becker. BELOW MIDDLE: Air Tractor N1008G is now ZS-TKR. Taken on delivery flight to Lanseria 24-10-2021. ELOW BOTTOM: One of a number of exports to Brazil - ZS-TAK is a Beechcraft 200 King Air. Photo B Omer Mees.

February 2022

ABOVE: ZS-OHZ is a Cessna 560XL Citation XL, exported to the USA. Photo taken by Omer Mees. BELOW: ZS-LXJ is a Beech F33A - another export to Brazil. Photo Dave Becker.

The NTCA side is a bit quiet this month with only four new aircraft being registered or which three are the popular Sling aircraft and the other is a modified Cessna 172. Unfortunately I can’t get hold of the builder of the C172 to find out which aircraft (registration) was used in this rebuild. The Drone register just grows and grows with seventy-eight being added and fourteen being deleted. The number of aircraft being exported continues to be high, with another thirteen deleted this month. I see that there were three Beechcraft: a

February 2022

Baron 58, a King Air 200 and an F33A Bonanza, which all went to Brazil. A bit of a mystery deletion is Piper Aztec ZS-NTU which was simply cancelled off the register. The CAA will not tell me why though. As you can see the other aircraft that were deleted have been sent far and wide to countries all over the world. One of the fabulous Jonker Bros gliders has been exported and joins a growing number of these phenomenal aircraft in The Netherlands.

ABOVE: ZS-NTU is a Piper PA23-250 Aztec cancelled from the register - reason unknown. Photo Dave Becker. BELOW: Cessna C208 Caravan, ZS-XXL on arrival in Amsterdam Netherlands 11-2021. Photo via Andrew Spring.

There is one Auto Gyro deleted as ‘Accident’ but we don’t know where or when.

are at least three infections – luckily all three have recovered.

Tail Piece

Be safe and here’s wishing you and your friends and families a great New Year. j

This year 2021 has been a rough one regarding Covid 19 restrictions etc and in my family there

February 2022

ZS-SBA is a B737-300F ex Star Cargo now in the USA as N336CK. Photo Ray Watts

DE CEMB ER 2021 THESE ARE THE AMENDMENTS for December 2021 and I was surprised to receive them before Christmas. Looking back over 2021, even though we were constricted by Corona virus and the resulting weak economy, our aviation industry showed remarkable resilience and continued to function well.

East Africa, including an iconic Cessna 185, which is rather exciting, and a Cessna Caravan returning to SA from Tanzania. There is also a Cessna 206 back from Botswana and a Cessna 402C from Namibia. The Pilatus PC12 continues to be popular and another brand new one has been imported. At present there are fifty-three of these versatile aircraft registered in South Africa. There is an Agusta 109 registered this month as well, imported from the UK.

De c e m b e r i s traditionally quiet

December is traditionally quiet, yet six type certified (TCA) aircraft (five fixed wing and one helicopter), six new Non TCAs and twenty-seven drones were added to the register, while we exported four TCA and two NTCA aircraft. There was one Auto Gyro written off. Of the TCA aircraft imported, there are two from

February 2022

On the NTCA side we see another six aircraft registered and they are all different types. Deletions from the register have taken a bit of a break this month with only three TCA aircraft

ABOVE: ZS-XXI Beech Hawker 900XP is now in Sweden as SE-RLZ. Photo Omer Mees. BELOW MIDDLE: Comair's fleet continues to shrink - ZS-ZWX a B737-800 is now registered in Austria as OE-LCE but stored in the Czech Republic. Photo Ray Watts. ELOW BOTTOM: ZU-FDP a well known radial-engined Bushbaby is now in the USA. Photo B Ray Watts.

February 2022

African Fuel Services are the sponsors for our Register Review Page

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021 REG

MANUFACTURER

TYPE NAME

SERIAL NUMBER

PREVIOUS IDENTITY / EXPORT COUNTRY

New Registrations ZSZS-DLD

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

208

20800680

N2068C

ZS-TKR

AIR TRACTOR INC

AT-504

504-4041

N1008G

ZS-TKO

GIPPSLANDAERONAUTICS PTY LTD

GA8

GA8-02-020

A2-MOR

ZS-TKP

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

177RG

177RG-0797

A2-AFL, ZS-JND

ZS-XCX

AIR TRACTOR INC

AT-502A

502A-3324

N8521E

ZS-YAO

EMBRAER

ERJ 190-100 IGW

19000412

2-HZPQ, VH-ZPQ, PT-TBK

ZS-SKY

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

185D

185-0942

5Y-ACL, N1564F

ZS-TEM

PILATUS AIRCRAFT LTD

PC-12/47E

2135

HB-FRG

ZS-TJE

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

208B

208B-0552

5H-MFA, ZS-TJE, A2-AKI, 5Y-VIJ, 7T-VIJ

ZS-TKT

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

U206G

U206-06005

A2-FMD, ZS-KSM

ZS-TKU

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

402C

402C-0066

V5-MJM, N2610V

AW109SP

22371

G-FRRN

New Registrations ZTZT-RAG

LEONARDO S.P.A

New Registrations ZUZU-PDB

SLING AIRCRAFT (PTY) LTD

SLING 4 TSI

323s

ZU-IVN

KLEYHANS JOHANNES ADOLF

RAZZO 172D

R172D01

ZU-IVR

SLING AIRCRAFT (PTY) LTD

SLING 4 TSI

304s

ZU-SLI

SLING AIRCRAFT (PTY) LTD

SLING 4

029

ZU-IVS

KEVIN MARK HOPPER

ORION CUB

1401

ZU-IVT

ADVENTURE AIR (PTY) LTD

ZENAIR STOL CH 750 SUPER DUTY AA-750SD-002

ZU-IVU

G.H SCHUMAN

GUSTY A60

SA 9102

ZU-IVV

MICRO AVIATION S A

BAT HAWK R

0090

ZU-IVW

SAVANNAH AIRCRAFT AFRICA

SAVANNAH S

21-06-54-0792

ZU-REV

NOEL ROBERT PHAROAH

ROTORWAY EXEC 162F ACIS

7067

Aircraft Deleted ZSZS-EPZ

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

208B

208B1233

AUSTRALIA

ZS-HWO

THE ENSTROM HELICOPTER CORPORATION

280FX

2097

UNITED KINGDOM

ZS-LXJ

BEECH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION

F33A

CE-1214

BRAZIL

ZS-MAT

BEECH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION

TH-140

BRAZIL

ZS-NTU

PIPER AIRCRAFT CORPORATION

PA-23-250

27-7654099

CANCELLED

ZS-OHZ

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

560XL

560-5079

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA as N75XL

ZS-OSR

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

150M

15078459

NETHERLANDS

ZS-SYU

EMBRAER PHENOM 505

EMB-505

50500021

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA as N521EC

ZS-TAK

BEECH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION

200

BB-831

BRAZIL

ZS-TJS

LEARJET INC

083

NIGERIA

ZS-TRO

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

208B

208B5050

MOZAMBIQUE

ZS-XCK

ATR-GIE AVIONS DE TRANSPORT REGIONAL

ATR72-201

195

IRELAND

ZS-XPH

RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY

400A

RK-402

SWITZERLAND

ZS-SBA

THE BOEING COMPANY

737-3YO

26070

UNTED STATES OF AMERICA as N336CK

ZS-XXI

HAWKER BEECHCRAFT CORPORATION

HAWKER 900XP

HA-104

SWEDEN as SE-RLZ

ZS-ZWX

THE BOEING COMPANY

737-800

40727

CZECH REPUBLIC as OE-LCE

Aircraft Deleted ZT-G ZT-GML

M&D FLUGZEUGBAU GMBH & CO. KG

JS-MD 3

3.MD016

NETHERLANDS

ZT-GAB

JONKER SAILPLANES (PTY) LTD

JS1C-15/18

03-028

UNITED KINGDOM

Aircraft Deleted ZUZU-ETK

AUTOGYRO GMBH

MT 03

16 ZA 2007

ACCIDENT

ZU-ETK

AUTOGYRO GMBH

MT 03

16 ZA 2007

DESTROYED

ZU-FDP

KIT PLANES FOR AFRICA

BUSHBABY EXPLORER

113-12-05 EX

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

ZU-IMI

NORTH AMERICAN

T-28 TROJAN

140613

SWITZERLAND

African Fuel Services is based at Groutville Airﬁeld just North of Ballito. AFS has Avgas and Jet-A1 available as well as oﬀering a range of services.

For any February 2022

information please call Willie Erasmus on 084 623 4879 or email to willie@africanfuels.co.za / accounts@africanfuels.co.za

African Fuel Services AFS is based at Groutville Airfield just North of Ballito.

AFS has Avgas and Jet-A1 available as well as offering a range of services.

Services: • • • • •

Night Flying operations Radio Work Sling operations Hoist operations Berg flying operations and training • Fly in • Hot refueling

Deliveries areas: • Passenger handling and briefings for (hoisting, slinging, off shore and many more) • Cleaning of aircraft • Topping up lubricants and preflight’s on a number of aircraft • Any other assistance you need.

• • • • • • • • •

Margate Airport Ulundi Airport Hluhluwe Airport Vryheid Airport Ladysmith Airport Newcastle Airport Bergville Area Umtata Airport Port St Johns

BOOK S

by Pete r Gar r is on

For any information please call Willie Erasmus on 084 623 4879 or email to willie@africanfuels.co.za / accounts@africanfuels.co.za

February 2022

being exported. These include one of Star Cargo’s 737-300 aircraft which was leased to SAA Cargo and branded as such. She went to the USA. One of Comair’s B737-800 was returned to its lesor. This one, although stored in the Czech Republic, is now registered in Austria. There is also a Beech Hawker 900XP that has gone to Sweden. A deletion from the NTCA register this month is ZU-IMI a North American T28 Trojan. This one was based at Worcester in the Cape. I did hear of a T28 that was bought locally by Red Bull so it may well be this one seeing as she has gone to Switzerland.

Landline: 011 614 2471 Mr. Gomes: 082 412 6669 Carla: 083 602 5658

February 2022

A Dynamic team to meet all your requirements. Refurbish your aircraft and / or helicopter. Best prices guaranteed

ZU-ETK, a MT-03 auto gyro was removed from the register as destroyed but I have no idea where & when. A Bushbaby was exported to the USA. Tail piece I lost a friend when Glen Warden was killed at Syferfontein during an aerobatic competition. Folks, this was a great shock to me and a huge loss to aviation in this country as well. Please be careful out there and stay safe. Have a fabulous 2022.

Reaching new heights

OUR FLEET OF AIRCRAFT: Virginia Flight School currently has a wide range of aircraft that a person may choose to fly, these include: Cessna 152 (C152), Cessna 172 (C172), Cessna 172 Retractable (C72R), Piper Cherokee 140 (P28A), Simulator (FNPT11)

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February 2022

OBITUARY

16 December 1956 to 11 December 2021 GLEN WARDEN WAS the consummate aviation professional. He rose to the top of his field in the South African Air Force, then as an airline pilot, and also as an aerobatic pilot. It was as an aerobatic pilot that his life ended five days before his planned retirement on his 65th birthday in a crash at the Baragwanath ‘Ace of Base’ competition. As a jet fighter pilot, Lt Colonel Glen ‘Gringo’ Warden was extraordinarily accomplished. Best known for his displays in the SAAF "Black Widow’ Mirage IIICZ - he was gifted at displaying all types of aircraft from fast jets to flying whatever he was asked to display. He gained his callsign ‘Gringo’ from having been seconded to the Chilean Airforce. He ended his service to the SAAF with the rank of Lt Colonel, to take up a pilot position at Comair airline, where he became Flight Operations Director and then the CEO of the airline’s flight simulator business. Glen Warden was passionate about general aviation. He devoted his weekends to sharing his love of flying through airshows – despite the death of his wife Louise in the Albatross double air crash returning from the Tzaneen airshow in 2011. He was a team member of the Sasol

February 2022

Tigers jet team and regularly flew the air force museum aircraft. He was an extraordinarily accomplished aerobatics pilot competing for many years in the Advanced class – which he had won - and also being the contest director.

Glen Warden as the head of Flight Operations for Comair.

Glen Warden in this former Sasol Tigers L-29 Delfin.

Glen Warden was a private person who above all will be remembered as a true gentleman. Patient as an instructor and vastly knowledgeable, he was never boastful of his huge accomplishments. He was always quietly

competent and a great leader and team player. Glen Warden made a massive contribution to general aviation, the air force, and airline flying, and will be sorely missed. j

A water cannon salute in homage to Glen Warden.

February 2022

FUEL TABLE

SA Flyer 2022|01

www.sv1.co.za FuelasPrices as at 06/01/2022 Fuel Prices at 06/01/2022

FuelasPrices as at 28/01/2022 Fuel Prices at 28/01/2022

Pri ces VAT i nclude but exclude servi ce fees Pri ces i nclude but VAT exclude any serviany ce fees Ai rfi eld Ai rfi eld Avgas Avgas Jet A1 Jet A1 BeaufortBeaufort West West R25,75 R25,75 R16,60 R16,60 Bethlehem Bethlehem R 24,96 R R24,96 15,64 R 15,64 Bloemfontei n Bloemfontei n R20,52 R20,52 R13,31 R13,31 BrakpanBrakpan R25,00 R25,00 Brits Brits R22,55 R22,55 Cape Town Cape Town R26,43 R26,43 R12,31 R12,31 Cape Winelands (Fisantekraal) Cape Winelands (Fisantekraal) R24,50 R24,50 Eagles Creek Eagles Creek R20,90 R20,90 East London East London R18,53 R18,53 R11,25 R11,25 Ermelo Ermelo R24,38 R24,38 Fly-In Fly-In R22,50 R22,50 Gari ep Dam Gari ep Dam R24,00 R24,00 R16,50 R16,50 George George R22,21 R22,21 R13,63 R13,63 Grand Central Grand Central R22,83 R22,83 R16,39 R16,39 Hei delberg Hei delberg R24,00 R24,00 Hoedspruit Hoedspruit R16,29 R16,29 Ki mberley Ki mberley R20,53 R20,53 R13,31 R13,31 Kitty Hawk Kitty Hawk R24,40 R24,40 Klerksdorp Klerksdorp R23,57 R23,57 R14,37 R14,37 Kroonstad Kroonstad R21,56 R21,56 R14,27 R14,27 Kruger Intl Nelspruit Kruger Intl Nelspruit R22,90 R22,90 R16,15 R16,15 Krugersdorp Krugersdorp R23,00 R23,00 Lanseri aLanseri a R26,38 R26,38 R16,33 R16,33 MargateMargate R25,20 R25,20 R15,20 R15,20 Middelburg Middelburg R24,73 R24,73 R16,56 R16,56 Morningstar Morningstar R24,40 R24,40 Mosselbay Mosselbay R26,70 R26,70 R14,40 R14,40 NelspruitNelspruit R23,90 R23,90 R14,93 R14,93 Oudtshoorn Oudtshoorn R22,97 R22,97 R14,98 R14,98 Parys Parys R23,27 R23,27 R15,03 R15,03 Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg R24,80 R24,80 R15,90 R15,90 Pi etersburg Ci vi l Pi etersburg Ci vi l R23,90 R23,90 R16,25 R16,25 Plettenberg Bay *** NEW*** Plettenberg Bay *** NEW*** R24,73 R24,73 R16,33 R16,33 Port Alfred Port Alfred R25,12 R25,12 Port Elizabeth Port Elizabeth R25,19 R25,19 R16,85 R16,85 Potchefstroom Potchefstroom R23,27 R23,27 R15,03 R15,03 Rand Rand R22,79 R22,79 R16,61 R16,61 Robertson Robertson R23,60 R23,60 Rustenberg Rustenberg R23,20 R23,20 R15,80 R15,80 SecundaSecunda R23,00 R23,00 R15,53 R15,53 Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect R21,03 R21,03 Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect R12,79 R12,79 Springbok Springbok R24,56 R24,56 R15,28 R15,28 Springs Springs R23,50 R23,50 Stellenbosch Stellenbosch R26,50 R26,50 Swellendam Swellendam R23,80 R23,80 R15,00 R15,00 Tempe Tempe R23,02 R23,02 R15,40 R15,40 Thabazimbe Thabazimbe R23,77 R23,77 R15,53 R15,53 Upington Upington R21,22 R21,22 R14,00 R14,00 gi ng No Fuel Vereeni giVereeni ng No Fuel Vi rgi ni a Vi rgi ni a R25,51 R25,51 R15,19 R15,19 Vryburg Vryburg R24,09 R24,09 R15,79 R15,79 Warmbaths ***NEW*** Warmbaths ***NEW*** R23,27 R23,27 WelkomWelkom R21,56 R21,56 R14,27 R14,27 Wi ngs Wi ngs Park EL Park EL R22,50 R22,50 WitbankWitbank R22,80 R22,80 Wonderboom R21,03 R21,03 R12,99 R12,99 Wonderboom Worcester Worcester R26,39 R26,39

Pri ces iVAT nclude but exclude servi ce fees Pri ces i nclude but VAT exclude any serviany ce fees Ai rfi eld Ai rfi eld Avgas Avgas Jet A1 Jet A1 BeaufortBeaufort West West R25,75 R25,75 R16,60 R16,60 Bethlehem Bethlehem R 24,96 R R24,96 15,64 R 15,64 Bloemfontei n Bloemfontei n R20,52 R20,52 R13,31 R13,31 BrakpanBrakpan R25,00 R25,00 Brits Brits R22,55 R22,55 Cape Town Cape Town R26,44 R26,44 R12,82 R12,82 Cape Winelands (Fisantekraal) Cape Winelands (Fisantekraal) R24,50 R24,50 Eagles Creek Eagles Creek R24,05 R24,05 East London East London R21,10 R21,10 R12,74 R12,74 Ermelo Ermelo R23,46 R23,46 Fly-In Fly-In R23,50 R23,50 Gari ep Dam Gari ep Dam R24,00 R24,00 R16,50 R16,50 George George R22,20 R22,20 R13,63 R13,63 Grand Central Grand Central R22,83 R22,83 R16,39 R16,39 Hei delberg Hei delberg R24,00 R24,00 Hoedspruit Hoedspruit R16,29 R16,29 Ki mberley Ki mberley R20,53 R20,53 R13,31 R13,31 Kitty Hawk Kitty Hawk R24,40 R24,40 Klerksdorp Klerksdorp R23,57 R23,57 R14,37 R14,37 Kroonstad Kroonstad R22,66 R22,66 R14,27 R14,27 Kruger Intl Nelspruit Kruger Intl Nelspruit R22,90 R22,90 R16,15 R16,15 Krugersdorp Krugersdorp R23,00 R23,00 Lanseri aLanseri a R24,73 R24,73 R16,33 R16,33 MargateMargate R24,90 R24,90 R15,20 R15,20 Middelburg Middelburg R24,73 R24,73 R16,56 R16,56 Morningstar Morningstar R24,95 R24,95 Mosselbay Mosselbay R26,70 R26,70 R14,40 R14,40 Nelspruit Nelspruit R23,90 R23,90 R14,93 R14,93 Oudtshoorn Oudtshoorn R22,97 R22,97 R14,98 R14,98 Parys Parys R23,91 R23,91 R15,03 R15,03 Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg R24,80 R24,80 R15,90 R15,90 Pi etersburg Pi etersburg Ci vi l Ci vi l R24,10 R24,10 R16,25 R16,25 Plettenberg Bay *** NEW*** Plettenberg Bay *** NEW*** R24,73 R24,73 R16,33 R16,33 Port Alfred Port Alfred R25,12 R25,12 Port Elizabeth Port Elizabeth R25,19 R25,19 R18,32 R18,32 Potchefstroom Potchefstroom R23,91 R23,91 R15,03 R15,03 Rand Rand R22,25 R22,25 R16,17 R16,17 Robertson Robertson R23,60 R23,60 Rustenberg Rustenberg R23,70 R23,70 R15,80 R15,80 SecundaSecunda R23,00 R23,00 R15,53 R15,53 Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect R21,67 R21,67 Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect R12,79 R12,79 Springbok Springbok R24,50 R24,50 R16,97 R16,97 Springs Springs R23,50 R23,50 Stellenbosch Stellenbosch R26,50 R26,50 Swellendam Swellendam R23,80 R23,80 R15,00 R15,00 Tempe Tempe R22,84 R22,84 R15,58 R15,58 Thabazimbe Thabazimbe R24,41 R24,41 R15,73 R15,73 Upington Upington R21,22 R21,22 R14,00 R14,00 gi ng No Fuel Vereeni giVereeni ng No Fuel Vi rgi ni a Vi rgi ni a R25,92 R25,92 R15,71 R15,71 VryburgVryburg R24,73 R24,73 R15,79 R15,79 Warmbaths ***NEW*** Warmbaths ***NEW*** R23,91 R23,91 WelkomWelkom R22,66 R22,66 R14,27 R14,27 Wi ngs Wi ngs Park EL Park EL R23,00 R23,00 WitbankWitbank R22,80 R22,80 Wonderboom R22,17 R22,17 R12,94 R12,94 Wonderboom Worcester Worcester R26,39 R26,39

Tel: +27 10 446 9666 Danielle: +27 82 553 9611 Email: aviation@sv1.co.za Marina: +27 82 924 3015 Co-ordinates: S25°50’37 E27°41’28 74 GPS February 2022 Import/Export no. 21343829

SA Flyer 2016|11

• BELA-BELA • HOEDSPRUIT • PARYS AIRFIELD • POTCHEFSTROOM AIRPORT • SKEERPOORT • THABAZIMBI • WONDERBOOM

Tel: +27 10 446 9666 Danielle: +27 82 553 9611 Email: aviation@sv1.co.za Marina: +27 82 924 3015

WE ALSO HAVE AN ON-SITE HELI-PAD FOR CONVENIENT REFUELING. CALL US FOR A QUOTE OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

SEALED 200L AVGAS DRUMS • SEALED 200L JET A1 DRUMS • AVGAS 100LL • JET A1 • PETROL • ILLUMINATING PARAFFIN • DIESEL • LUBRICANTS

February 2022

Events by SINGAPORE AIRSHOW – SINGAPORE

FVCD CHIRUNDU ZIMBABWE – FLY-IN

15 – 20 February Changi Exhibition Centre, Singapore

WEEKEND RGM YOUTH DAY

Contact Tel: +65 6542 8660 julianagan@experiaevents.com

FAPG PLETTENBERG BAY FLY-IN AT PLETTENBERG BAY

18 February

25 - 27 February

Carl van der Riet Tel. +263 77 214 1618 or +263 77 225 0392 Debbie Tel. +263 77 248 0863

(To be conﬁrmed)

SAC NORTH-WEST REGIONALS 26 – 27 February Venue TBA Contact Annie Boon: E-mail: chunge@mweb.co.za

Email: plettﬂyin@gmail.com

FASH – STELLENBOSCH – FASHKOSH 2022 AIRSHOW 26 March Anton Theart 079 873 4567 E-mail: gm@stelﬂy.co.za

Flying in Africa – that’s what we love

February 2022

Flying in Africa - it’s what we love!

Comprehensive airfield information, up-to-date aeronautical data, friendly and efficient customer support, easy Flight Planning, electronic logbook, Inflight Navigation with EasyCockpit, real-time Weather overlays, Weather cams, Events notification, location link to Maps ... you have it all. www.aviationdirect.co.za • info@aviationdirect.co.za • +27 11 465 2669 •February 072 340 994377 2022

NEWS

The Thunder City collection of cold-war era British jets owned by the now deceased Mike Beachy Head has been sold out of his estate. MIKE BEACHY HEAD DIED aged 59 of a heart attack in May 2016 and as the driving force behind the maintenance and flying of this collection of jets, they died with him. The jets include three English Electric Lightnings, three Blackburn Buccaneers and three Hawker Hunters as well as a Jet Provost. After a while the Thunder City Hangar was sold and the irreplaceable jets were moved outside, where they stood exposed to the weather for five years.

S2B ZU-BCR (former RAF XW987) were started on 13 January 2022. Given how long they had been standing, this is a considerable achievement and testimony to the quality and skills of the engineers still available to work on the aircraft.

salvation arrived in the form of Jay Smit h

With each year that passed, the chances of any of the aircraft being returned to flying condition decreased. Especially the vastly complex and powerful English Electric Lightnings and Blackburn Buccaneers. The situation was grim.

Jay Smith says that he hopes to get as many of the aircraft flying as possible for use in an air to air combat school similar to Draken in the USA. Negotiations will hopefully be finalised to move the collection to a large hangar in Cape Town, where the staff at Hangar 51 will be able to work their magic on these iconic jets.j

Then, at the end of 2021, salvation arrived in the form of Jay Smith, an oil entrepreneur who had sold his business and has a passion for fast jets. Jay Smith says he and his Hangar 51 Aviation business are committed to getting the jets back in the air. A big step forward was made when the two Rolls Royce Spey engines of Buccaneer

February 2022

Hangar 51's Vincent Nagel with Gavin McKellar, a former SAAF Buccaneer pilot.

NEWS

ON 21 JANUARY 2022 Enstrom Helicopter closed down after nearly 64 years of production. Enstrom is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chongqing General Aviation Industry Group Co (CGAG), which has yet to make a statement. Founded in 1959, Enstrom designed and produced light single-engine helicopters for various missions including helicopter training, police and wildlife patrol, aerial photography and tours, ag spray and livestock management, and personal transportation. The company delivered its final helicopters, a pair of Enstrom 280FX for the Peru Air Force, in December 2021. Enstrom stopped taking orders for new parts on 7 January 2022. Technical support has also ended. “We’ve built more than 1300 helicopters and

operated in over 50 countries around the world,” said Enstrom’s Director of Sales & Marketing, Dennis Martin. “Millions of hours flown, tens of thousands of pilots trained, think of all the lives these aircraft have touched. It’s an incredible legacy, and the people of Northern Michigan and Wisconsin who helped start the company, and especially the hard working employees who kept it going all these years should be proud of what we accomplished.” Enstrom’s President, Matt Francour, said that multiple groups have already expressed interest in buying Enstrom’s assets out of bankruptcy and restarting the company. “I don’t know how, and I don’t know when, but I have a feeling we’ll be back,” he said. j

Enstrom Helicopter abruptly ceased operations pending the outcome of Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings. Image Chris Rose.

February 2022

SA Flyer 2022|01

ENGINE DIVISION

Complete overhaul facility with test bench

MACHINE SHOP

Machining, repair, modification o/h of cylinders and crankcases

TESTING

NDT, MPI, Dye Pen and Zyglo

COMPONENT DIVISION

Servicing, overhaul, repair

SUPPLIERS OF AIRCRAFT APPROVED ENGINE LUBRICANTS • SHELL • Phillips • AVBLEND and Camguard

PLATING SHOP

Cadmium Plating

Aircraft Powerplant Co. (Pty) Ltd

Tel: +27 12 543 0775 / 0181 • Fax: +27 12 567 3630 • Hangar 5A, Wonderboom Airport tonyrodrigues@mweb.co.za • Cell: +27 82 558 9388 henkjoubert@mweb.co.za • Cell: +27 83 258 5272 February 2022 www.apcosa.co.za

LANSERIA

BASED AVIATION COMPANIES GUIDE

February 2022

Introduction

Lanseria Airport

– Poised for Recovery

The Covid-19 pandemic is now ending its second year of impact on flight operations. It has hammered airlines and airports around the world, and Lanseria International Airport is no exception. LANSERIA AIRPORT FINDS it is fighting not only the Covid-19 pandemic, but also an obstructionist government and drastically reduced airline operations – while still completing its earlier bold growth programmes. CEO Mr Rampa Rammopo is proud that despite the pressures of on-and-off lockdowns, they have been able to complete key projects – most notably the baggage handling facility and the pier upgrade to the terminal building which almost doubles its capacity.

for those needing to go airside over a weekend or after hours. In the airport’s defence, Rammopo points out that it is extremely difficult to balance the demands for ease of access and convenience to airside businesses with the requirements of government regulations relating to national key points – of which Lanseria is one. In addition, Lanseria has customs and immigration facilities which requires rigorous monitoring of movement from airside to landside for all international arrivals.

aircraft and passenger numbers are still down 6 0 -7 0 %

Unfortunately, problems with electricity supply has once again delayed the completion of the longawaited air side gates. However, Rammopo is confident that these will now be operational from the end of March 2022. This will hopefully go a long way to allay the increasingly strident complaints from the airports users who still have to deal with elaborate security measures to get airside. The airport’s need to protect its staff meant that the much-reviled permit office was restricted to office working hours – which caused great frustration

February 2022

Asked how the airport is managing to survive financially, Rammopo says that aircraft and passenger numbers are still down 60-70% compared to pre-Covid levels, and this has had a heavy impact on revenue. Fortunately, the airport’s key shareholders have been prepared to inject additional equity to keep the balance sheet healthy. Rammopo is looking forward to a return to a ‘new normal’ in 2022. The airport has ambitious

expansion plans ready to go, specifically in terms of cargo handling, where it sees the airport becoming a key cargo hub for regional trade in southern Africa. Maintenance and Training A key strength of Lanseria is its being a centre of excellence as a maintenance and training centre. Even with low hours being flown, this has enabled the airport to remain busy with scheduled calendar work, with aircraft arriving from all over Africa for maintenance. Given the airport’s gradual shift to scheduled airline operations, there are now just three flight training schools left at Lanseria. Skyhawk CEO Mike Gough reports that, thanks to international contracts, his school has never experienced a higher demand, and he has been on a strong expansion drive. The availability of the airport’s ILS for VMC approaches and the proximity of the General Flying Area makes Lanseria ideal for advanced training.

Rammopo is also hopeful that the airport will be able to entice a large aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capability – up to the Boeing 767 in size – which will enable Lanseria to meet Africa’s growing MRO requirement. The huge loss of capacity by SAA Technical at OR Tambo is seen to present an excellent opportunity to develop Lanseria as an MRO base. The much hoped for improvement in road and rail connectivity to the Sandton and East Rand conurbations is unfortunately on hold. Rammopo says that the airport’s current master plan no longer considers the possibility of a Gautrain linkage happening in the short or medium term. Rammopo notes that in terms of VIP movements – for which the airport is well-suited with its high-quality Fixed Base Operators, there has been little discernible change in demand. He notes that international passenger movements were down due to South Africa’s being on and off the so-called red list. However, an increase in regional air movements has compensated for the decline in international movements.

Lanseria Airport CEO Rampa Rammopo. Image The Citizen - Nigel Sibanda

February 2022

Introduction

Lanseria hosts world class operations, such as Skyhawk Flight School which has partnered with the Sakhikamva Foundation to spread the love of flying.

Tenants Lanseria management has always prided itself on good relations with its tenants, and the often-vexed problem of security – particularly considering the requirements of an international airport.

forum covers everything from aircraft incidents to the airport’s recycling initiatives. Rammopo says that he believes that despite the pressures from Covid, these meetings are still held in a mutually respectful and constructive atmosphere.

The Lanseria Operator’s Safety and Security Forum is a dynamic meeting that has the enthusiastic participation of everyone on the airport, from the SA Police Security teams and even the customs and immigration officials. The

Rammopo is optimistic about future growth. The notes that the airport is planning to increase its numbers to six million passengers by 2027, and by 2050, it is eyeing an expansion to 18 million passengers a year. j

Lanseria is a catalyst for new Industrial Parks around it.

February 2022

– Vibrant GROWTH

Companies

Cirrus SA

by Guy Leitch

ALEX SMITH IS A PARTNER in Cirrus Aircraft Smith notes that internationally, light jet sales have shown a remarkable post Covid recovery, South Africa and, as a Cirrus Standardised and this has translated into increased sales for Instructor Pilot for the world recognised ‘Cirrus Cirrus’s unique SF-50 single engine jet. Approach’, is the Chief Flying Instructor. He reports that Cirrus Not only have new South Africa, as a Alex Smith receives Cirrus International Training Centre of the year award in Knoxville. sales been excellent, still relatively new but there is strong business since demand for preacquiring the agency owned Cirruses. in 2020, has very Smith describes sales successfully moved as having “gone beyond the legacy through the roof.” This of its previous agent confirms the flight and the Covid-19 to quality in general lockdowns. aviation business which has seen the Smith says that, in better operators thrive terms of both aircraft while the weaker sales and training, businesses have they had one of their struggled to recover. best years ever. The fruits of this will be realised this year when they expect to deliver no less than three SF-50 Vision Jets and six new SR22s. The recent upgrade to the SR22 G6 which has found an extra nine knots speed by cleaning up the aerodynamics associated with components such as aerials and de-icing boots, will no doubt be a further boost to sales.

Interestingly, Smith explains that around half the sales made are to buyers new to general aviation. The reputation Cirrus has for safe and technologically advanced aircraft clearly gives them an advantage in this market. Notable is that Cirrus SA chooses not to trade in non-Cirrus brands as they “do not have the necessary expertise in the market.” February 2022

Companies Handover of the second Cirrus Vision jet in Africa. Three more will be delivered in 2022.

Smith reckons that some of the reasons for the surprisingly strong recovery of demand for light jets, and Cirrus products in particular, is that the long drawn-out impact of Covid on airline flying has led to an increasing number of people deciding to rather fly themselves. This is particularly the case when airlines no longer serve the routes they need to fly, and also for those uncomfortable with the increased exposure to Covid from airline travel. As a Cirrus Platinum Training Centre, Cirrus South Africa has taken the brand to new levels in southern Africa. At the 2021 Cirrus Experience for dealers, Cirrus SA was awarded the International Cirrus Training Centre Award. This follows a lengthy audit process where Cirrus factory evaluators rated Cirrus SA on a number of factors – with particular emphasis on quality of training and safety, as well as being excellent brand ambassadors.

February 2022

The rigorous safety ethos maintained by the Cirrus brand is apparent in the excellent safety performance. Across general aviation, Cirrus now has three times less fatal accidents than the GA average. Of note to the critics of advanced avionics, it is clear that the latest Garmin Perspective avionics pays off in safety as Cirrus aircraft equipped with latest features such as auto stability control and the ‘level’ button are showing an accident rate four times lower than that of the older Avidyne equipped models, being 1.76 fatal accidents / 100,000 flight hours for the Avidyne aircraft and just 0.39 for the Cirrus Perspective equipped aircraft. It is evident that the relaunched Cirrus brand in South Africa is poised for growth. j

G E N E R A T I O N

THE NEXT EVOLUTION IS HERE CHARTER

ENHANCED PERFORMANCE

SMARTLIFT

SAFE RETURN™ EMERGENCY AUTOLAND

™

SPECIAL MISSION

INFLIGHT WIFI

FLEXIBLE CABIN CONFIGURATIONS

To learn more about G2+ Vision Jet, call 067-232-5395 or mail sales@cirrussa.co.za. CSA Aviation (Pty) Ltd Africa’s only Cirrus Platinum Partner

February 2022

Companies

AERONAUTICAL AVIATION AERONAUTICAL AVIATION, based at Lanseria International Airport was established in 2005. Our services cover a broad spectrum within the Aviation Industry from; Repairs, installations, Aircraft Instrumentation overhaul, Avionics, Electrical, Autopilots and other accessories. Our Valued Client base include Private Aircraft Owners, Charter Services, General, Commercial and Corporate Aviation, Medical Services, Helicopter Operations, as well as Government and Military Clients. We pride ourselves on the fact that our Company Values are built on integrity, honesty, and service excellence. We are committed to providing our customers with outstanding quality while Keeping costs reasonable without compromising on exceptional quality. Our relationships developed with our International Distributors and various Dealerships enables us to provide our Clients with a variety of options to suit their operational needs. We are proud to be Garmin’s largest Accredited Distributor in Africa. When Clinton started the company in 2005, he identified a gap in the market when it came to

February 2022

understanding the pilots need, versus, what was realistic and economically viable. As a Pilot and Aircraft Owner, Clinton understands the challenges in the cockpit, regulatory requirements and certification issues, together with the costs associated with the operation of an aircraft, and can offer informed advise, while taking into consideration the cockpit workload, customer requisites, legislative requirements, over capitalisation and down time. We also offer training on all new equipment, ensuring our clients are armed with the knowledge to operate the equipment. The Aeronautical Aviation Team look forward to assisting you. Your success and safety is our number one priority. Contact us: Hangar 202, Gate 7, Lanseria International Airport 011 659 – 1033 / 083 459 6279 Sales@aeronautical.co.za www.aeronautical.co.za j

WITH THE CORRECT AVIONICS AND EQUIPMENT

YOUR DESTINATIONS ARE LIMITLESS

AERONAUTICAL AVIATION Market leaders in the repair, overhaul, and installation of Aircraft Instrumentation, Avionics, Electrical and Pilot Accessories

aeronautical.co.za sales@aeronautical.co.za

+2711 659 1033

Platinum Award 2020 89 February 2022

Companies

AERONAV ACADEMY PILOT TRAINING Aeronav Academy is committed to providing top-level flight training utilising the most modern equipment available. This not only gives our clients an enjoyable training experience but also provides Aeronav the ability to conduct flight training in a manner that ensures that student pilots will be ready and well equipped to enter the aviation industry of the future. Aeronav Academy is proud to offer a dynamic fleet of aircraft, including Diamond DA20s, Cessna 182s and the Diamond DA42 Twinstar Multi-engine trainer. The Academy’s latest acquisition is the impressive Alsim ALX-65 flight simulator. The amazingly realistic graphics feel of the controls and response make training in this flight simulator a truly first class experience.

The school is based at Lanseria Airport. A controlled airspace provides students with an excellent grounding in procedures and gives them the experience needed to cope with operating in a busy airline orientated environment. Whether you choose to fly for pleasure or wish to make aviation your career, Aeronav can provide you with an approved course tailored to your needs.

Tel No: + 27 11 701 3862 Email: info@aeronav.co.za Website: www.aeronav.co.za

P P L T O AT P L T R A I N I N G A N D E V E RY T H I N G I N B E T W E E N SA Flyer 2022|01

T R A I N O N T H E M O ST M O D E R N F L I G HT S I M U L AT O R AVA I L A B L E I N S O UT H A F R I C A • Now certified for TCAS training . • R N AV a n d G N S S Certified on all flight models from single engine to turbine.

W IT H N E W V F R L E V E L

TERRAIN GRAPHICS

CONTACT US OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION: Tel: 011 701 3862 E-mail: info@aeronav.co.za Website: www.aeronav.co.za SACAA ATO No: SACAA/1110/ATO

February 2022

Companies

CENTURY AVIONICS CENTURY AVIONICS WAS ESTABLISHED in 1978 and is based at Lanseria International Airport. We specialise in general aviation avionics maintenance, supply, repair and installation for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft together with a various array of portable units, avionics and headsets. We take pride in small and big avionics upgrades and we are more than happy to quote you on any upgrade or advise you on the best suitable avionics for your aircraft. With technology changing so rapidly, we ensure our employees receive regular training so that our company stay ahead to the changes and improvements that happens regularly on all avionics, headsets etc. Century Avionics offer a wide range of general aviation avionic solutions from a vast majority of suppliers. We excel in Avionics Sales/Marketing, Installations, Repairs/Maintenance, Support and Certification ensuring we can do most of the work in-house to ensure the work quality is up to their standard. We are also the only repair/service centre in Southern-Africa for BendixKing, Bose Aviation, David Clark and Lightspeeds and safety is our number one priority.

Bose Proflight Series 2

includes a thinner, lighter and more flexible cable, updated tap control for talk-through communication and an easily adjustable mic. Engineered for pilots of moderately noisy, pressurized Turbine-powered aircraft.

Bose A20

around-ear configuration for higher noise environments, is designed for general civilian and military aircraft.

Tel: +27 11 701 3244 E-mail: salesadmin@centuryavionics.co.za Website: www.centuryavionics.co.za j

+27 11 701 3244

www.centuryavionics.co.za salesadmin@centuryavionics.co.za February 2022

Companies

D.M. AVIATION SPARES AIRCRAFT PARTS AND CONSUMABLES D.M. Aviation Spares is situated on the north side of Lanseria, Unit 2, next to Century Avionics, Gate 5. The company stocks aircraft parts, aircraft consumables and general consumables. D.M. Aviation Spares was started in 2011 by Daniella Mawson who has been in aviation since 1980 and in the aircraft parts industry since 1990. She therefore has extensive knowledge of parts and their sourcing.

m haWe ov v ede !

D.M. Aviation Spares’ aim is to make life easier for the smaller AMOs at the airport by holding fast moving stock.

“We Keep you Flying” 4 Source & Supply Aircraft parts & consumables for Fixed Wing / Beechcraft / King Air / Dornier 328 / Citation / Embraers / Learjet & Home Build Aircraft. All parts come with Approved Release Certificates. 4 Locate “Hard to Find” Aircraft Parts & consumables 4 Handle Component Repairs & Exchanges 4 Distributor for Professional Tooling 4 Agent for Aircraft Spruce 4 Based next to Century Avionics, Lanseria International Airport Contact: Daniella Mawson Mobile no: 082 576 8853 E-mail: daniellamawson@telkomsa.net / dmaviationspares@gmail.com

UNIT NO 2, GATE 5 LANSERIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

February 2022

Daniella goes out of her way to source parts that others say are not available. D.M. Aviation imports parts as well as sourcing hard to find aircraft components. They provide clients with the best prices and service possible. Furthermore, they are agents for Aircraft Spruce and others. For more information, contact Daniella Mawson on: Tel: 082 576 8853 Email: dmaviationspares@gmail.com

Companies

STANDARD AERO StandardAero is one of the world's largest independent providers of engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services, providing OEM-authorized support for leading aeroengines and APUs, including the AE 3007, APS 2300, CF34-3/-8, CFM567B, GTCP36, JT15D, PT6A, PW100, PW150A, RB211-535 and RE220. StandardAero’s facility at Lanseria International Airport near Johannesburg is a fully authorized Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) Designated Overhaul Facility (DOF) for the PT6A engine family, and the world’s only independent service provider authorized to overhaul the PT6A-140 variant. In addition, the facility provides full support – up to and including overhaul – for 41 other variants of the engine. The Lanseria facility also offers service center and mobile repair team (MRT) support for the PW100 turboprop and JT15D turbofan. With more than five decades of experience in repairing and overhauling P&WC engines, StandardAero has developed a reputation for quality workmanship, industry leading turnaround times, exceptional customer service and competitive pricing. Contact: Jason Gallant General Manager Office: +27 11 701 3035 jason.gallant@standardaero.com

PT6A FLAT RATE OVERHAUL (FRO)

No surprise pricing

No surprise pricing No compromise on quality No sweeping exclusions No sweeping exclusions

No compromise on quality

No wonder it’s so popular! No wonder it’s so popular! StandardAero Lanseria, a Pratt & Whitney PT6A designated overhaul facility (DOF) and the sole independent approved for&the PT6A-140, is StandardAero DOF Lanseria, a Pratt Whitney PT6A pleased to support operators across Africa with designated overhaul facility (DOF) and the sole P&W’s flat rate overhaul (FRO) which independent DOF approved forprogram, the PT6A-140, combines quality with is pleased OEM-level to support operators acrossguaranteed Africa with “not exceed” Meaningwhich that P&W’stoflat rate capped overhaulpricing. (FRO) program, combines OEM-level quality with guaranteed you can plan your maintenance expenses with “not to exceed” capped any pricing. Meaning that confidence, and without compromises. you can plan your maintenance expenses with

confidence, and without The FRO program doesany notcompromises. incur extra charges for typical corrosion, sulphidation or repairable The FROobject program does not incur extra foreign damage (FOD), and PMAcharges parts for typical corrosion, sulphidation or repairable are accepted. foreign object damage (FOD), and PMA parts are accepted.

As the industry’s leading independent aeroengine provider, StandardAero is trusted As the MRO industry’s leading independent aeroby airline, governmental and business aviation engine MRO provider, StandardAero is trusted by operators worldwide for airline, governmental and responsive, business tailored aviation support solutions. Contact us today to learn more. operators worldwide for responsive, tailored support solutions. Contact us today to learn more.

www.standardaero.com

BIGGER. BETTER. BOLDER. www.standardaero.com

February 2022

Companies

EXECUTIVE AIRCRAFT REFURBISHMENT “QUALITY IS OUR PASSION”, this is the mantra that we live by at Executive Aircraft Refurbishment. We are an Aircraft Interior and Exterior refurbishment facility, based at Lanseria International Airport, quality workmanship and service excellence, combined with knowledgeable staff has earned us the reputation of No.1 Aircraft Interior and Exterior refurbishment facility

and foam building in varying modern styles. We manufacture interior window sun-shields and aircraft exterior ground covers, EAR also re-web and re-certify aircraft safety belts.

Complete aircraft exterior paint strip and resprays are done all under one roof, designing paint scheme lines, logo’s to customer specifications. We also offer a mobile touchup service to our customers ensuring their aircraft stays in mint condition.

Entrust your fleet to Executive Aircraft Refurbishment for a new fresh look and we promise to have your aircraft ready and serviceable when you need it.

Our interior shop also specializes in complete interior refurbishments such as the refurbishment of overhead stowage bins and seating, Roof-liners, cockpit glare-shields, cabinets and galleys, wool carpets, textile and non-textile floor covering, refurbishment of seats

February 2022

Executive Aircraft Refurbishment are the right choice for interior and exterior refurbishments of your aircraft from interior refurbishment to exterior spray painting, we do it all.

Tel: +27 (0)10 900 4149 Mobile: +27 (0)82 547 8379 Info@earefurbishment.com Francois@earefurbishment.com Hangar 11 (interior shop) and 31(paint shop) Lanseria International Airport South Africa, Gate 5, North Side j

COMFORT & QUALITY AIRCRAFT REFURBISHMENT

Tel: +27 (0)10 900 4149 | Mobile: +27 (0)82 547 8379 Info@earefurbishment.com | Francois@earefurbishment.com February 2022 Hangar 10 (Interior Shop) and Hangar 31 (Paint Shop). Lanseria International Airport, South Africa, Gate 5 North Side.

Companies

SKYHAWK AVIATION SKYHAWK AVIATION WAS ESTABLISHED by Mike Gough (Airbus Training Captain and SA Flyer columnist) in 2008. Well established as the dominant operation in the flight training environment at Lanseria International Airport, Skyhawk Aviation offers all the resources required for the successful completion of all CAA licences and ratings. As a Designated Flight Examiner (DFE 1) as well as an Airbus Training Captain, Mike is able to assess student’s progress, and conduct final flight tests presenting realistic scenarios. We are also approved to conduct the full type rating for the Airbus 320, as well as proficiency checks and ATP revalidations. Aimed specifically at developing the professional pilot, we specialise in both the full turn-key contract clients as well as individuals starting out on the road to flying for a living. Part of our services include accommodation, transport and visa services.

Skyhawk is associated with the Sakhikamva Foundation, and offers programs to high school learners to expose the kids to aviation and spark interest in maths and science through this medium. Come and see our Boeing 737 nose section kitted out as a classroom! If you need a reality check about the sometimes hard truth about becoming a career pilot, then you can’t go far wrong by dropping in at Hanger 30, Gate 5 at Lanseria. Send an email to Mike beforehand to get welcomed to the demanding, j but infinitely rewarding world of Commercial Aviation. Contact Tracey Gough on: Tel: 011 701 2622 Cell: 072 484 7984 Email: mikegough@mweb.co.za Website: www.skyhawk.co.za j

Gemair AMO 1003

YOUR PEACE OF MIND IN AVIATION MAINTENANCE Gemair is an SACAA Approved Maintenance

Organisation,

AMO

1003 with 5 other African AMO Approvals and has a team of 9 full time engineers who together have a combined total of over 50 years aviation experience. Gemair are able to perform all aviation maintenance requirements on a variety of NonType certified aircraft, light singles and twins up to turbo propellers and light jets. instrumentation approvals.

TEL: 011 701 2653 or 082 905 5760 Hangar 110, Gate 13, Turn right (old Pical hangar), located behind Spectrum Air Surveyors, Lanseria South Side, 1748

February 2022

SA Flyer 2022|01

Gemair also holds electrical and

Skyhawk Aviation Launching Careers Find out if you have it in you to join the elite few that are entrusted with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of aircraft, along with a couple of hundred of precious lives. If you do, and are utterly determined to succeed, we will get you from zero to employability with airlines and commercial air operators. We cover every aspect of pilot training as well as that all-important career development that will deﬁne your future ﬂight path. Learn with an Airline Captain who’s done the hard yards. Your track record starts here.

SACAA 1147

info@skyhawk.co.za

www.skyhawk.co.za 97 February 2022

VULCAN AVIATION THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC created huge challenges for individuals and businesses with the outlook that the future looks uncertain once the pandemic is over. Rather than dwell on these frustrations, Johannesburg couple Kiron and Senola Hanuman focussed on the opportunities, pooled their hard-earned resources, and used their time in lockdown to realise a dream of creating Vulcan Aviation, a flight-school that is carving its place in the industry despite insurmountable odds. Vulcan was formally established in February 2021, with the aim of providing cost-effective yet world-class pilot training for cadets around

the world. Kiron and Vulcan’s Chief Flight Instructor, Sachin Meda are experienced and seasoned pilots themselves who understand the finer details of flight-training. Senola is a qualified advocate for over twelve years and an accredited mediator. With this dynamic team heading up Vulcan, it is poised to be a gamechanger in the pilot-training industry in South Africa. For further information email enquiries@flyvulcan.co.za j

Highly qualified flight instructors Exemplary pilot training facilities. Based at Lanseria International Airport in Johannesburg South Africa, we are proud to offer world-class pilot training ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦

Private Pilot Licence Night Rating Instrument Rating Commercial Pilots Licence DGCA Commercial Pilots Licence (Includes Accommodation) Multi-Engine Rating ATPL Instructor Rating MCC (Multi-crew Co-operation Course) ATR Rating (ATR 42/72)

All courses are SACAA approved. Ab-initio training to instrument rating. Cessna172 and Piper Cherokee aircraft. State-of-the-art Alsim FNPT simulator. Glass cockpit experience in the Diamond DA42 multi-engine aircraft.

CONTACT DETAILS: VULCAN AVIATION (PTY) LTD Phone: +27 87 265 7150

February 2022

ATO CAA1575 enquiries@flyvulcan.co.za www.flyvulcan.co.za

VELOCITY AVIATION VELOCITY AVIATION WAS CREATED in 2007 to deliver exceptional service with regards to Flight Clearances, Ground Handling, and Aircraft Parts. With the primary focus of creating a service unique to the African continent, the company’s accuracy, efficiency and professionalism are always combined to match and adapt to the client’s needs in order to exceed their expectations. Whether it’s providing passenger assistance, aircraft charter and management, flight planning or refuelling services or sourcing and delivering parts, Velocity Aviation handles every situation in a positive, professional and personalised manner. Several manufactures have appointed Velocity Aviation parts division as a direct distributor, agent, or franchisee. The organisation has extensive inventories, including Goodyear Aviation tires and tubes, BP aviation lubricants and turbine filters, new and overhauled avionics and components and general parts and accessories.

We have moved to Gate 9 B Lanseria International Airport Velocity Aviation Building

AIRCRAFT PARTS Contact us and get your quote today!

Velocity Aviation guarantees the fastest and most efficient response to their customers’ needs and requirements, and maintaining an exceptional level of service has allowed the company to evolve from a local company to global organisation. Contact Velocity Aviation on: Tel: +27 11 659 2306 Cell: + 27 78 051 6586 / + 27 082 872 3263 Website: www.velocityaviation.co.za

Tell no: +27(0) 11 659 2306/2334 – office Cell no: +27(0)82 872 3263 – C. Pearson E-mail: info@velocityaviation.co.za collin@velocityaviation.co.za Visit us on: www.velocityaviation.co.za

February 2022

Guardian Air is a trusted aircraft management, maintenance and VIP air charter company. Providing a suite of specialised services to meet the discerning needs of aircraft owners, global business travellers, tourists and adventurers. GUARDIAN AIR, operating from Lanseria International Airport in South Africa, offers Global VIP charter, comprehensive aircraft management and maintenance solutions to aircraft owners and organisations alike, as well as air ambulance services to two major, private emergency medical care companies. Guardian Air (PTY) Ltd started as an aviation asset management company in 2009. Today through their subsidiary, Guardian Air Asset Management, have international and domestic operating licences issued by the South African Department of Transport as well as a or aeromedical transfers. As aircraft owners themselves, they can identify with their customers’ needs. Guardian Air aircraft is serviced by their own in-house maintenance division, Guardian Air Maintenance (PTY) Ltd. Aircraft types endorsed on the operating licence: Beechcraft King Air 200 Hawker 700A/800A Dassault Falcon 20 Dassault Falcon 50EX Dassault Falcon 900EX Please contact our 24/7 operations team for VIP charter, air ambulance services or any other enquiries.

Guardian Air lives by this motto: “Throughout the company, there has been a big push in being transparent.”

Guardian Air is a trusted VIP air charter and aircraft management company, providing a suite of specialised services to meet the 100 discerning needs of global business travellers,tourists and adventurers. February 2022

loc Lanseria International Airport Tel +27 11 701 3011 24/7 +27 82 521 2394 Web www.guardianair.co.za lic CAA/I/N283, AMO1401

LOCATIONS

CLICK LOCATION TO LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP

AERONAUTICAL AVIATION

AERONAV ACADEMY

VULCAN AVIATION

CENTURY AVIONICS DM AVIATION SPARES

STANDARDAERO CIRRUS SA SKYHAWK

GUARDIAN AIR

EXECUTIVE AIRCRAFT REFURBISHMENT

GEMAIR

February 2022

101

BUMPPPFFF:

A field in Yorkshire on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

The new SAA ?

The aerodynamics of a cow.

Avionics upgrades.

F-35 Helmet.

102

February 2022

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Edition 158 | February 2022

Mike Gough:

Sanity returns.

SAAF – Serious dangers in Moz! 1

FlightCom: February 2022

Cessna’s Longitude in Africa

Africa’s

aviation recovery

AMO 227

FLIGHT SAFETY THROUGH MAINTENANCE

Overhaul / Shockload / Repair of Continental and Lycoming Aircraft engines

Hangar no 4, Wonderboom Airport, Pretoria PO Box 17699, Pretoria North, 0116 Tel: (012) 543 0948/51, Fax: (012) 543 9447, email: aeroeng@iafrica.com

SA Flyer 2022|01

Overhaul Engine Components Overhaul and supply of Hartzell / McCauley and Fix pitch Propellers

Tailored aviation solutions for your World MH Aviation Services, a World Fuel Services company, works closely with customers

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Operation Solutions

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departments across Africa.

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By providing full-service and integrated solutions from a single provider, our customers can purchase fuel, receive expert services and support, make and receive payments, and get reliable trip support from beginning to end. We are invested in your success and go the extra mile to fulfill our customer’s needs and exceed all expectations. Contact us to learn more about how we can support you on your journey to achieve your sustainability goals, reduce overall costs and optimize operations. Fuel | Trip Support | Card and Reward Programmes | Logistics | Planning

tsopsafrica@wfscorp.com mhaviation.co.za

CONTENTS

TABLE OF

Publisher Flyer and Aviation Publications cc Managing Editor Guy Leitch guy@flightcommag.com Advertising Sales Wayne Wilson wayne@saflyermag.co.za

FEBRUARY 2022 EDITION 158

Layout & Design Patrick Tillman: Imagenuity cc

ADMIN: +27 (0)83 607 2335 TRAFFIC: +27 (0)81 039 0595 ACCOUNTS: +27 (0)15 793 0708

06 08 11 12 16 22 28 29 30 32

Bush Pilot - Hugh Pryor Airline Ops - Mike Gough AME Directory Aviation Employment in Africa Defence - Darren Olivier Cessna’s Longitude Starlite Directory Atlas Oil Charter Directory AVES Technics AMO Listing Backpage Directory

© FlightCom 2021. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronically, mechanically, photocopied, recorded or otherwise without the express permission of the copyright holders.

A NOTE FROM

THE EDITOR: ONE OF THE FEW CONSOLATIONS that we have had under the onslaught of Covid is that the disease will gradually become less virulent, even if only because, in the big scheme of things, it does a virus no good if it kills its host. The good news is that we have solid reason to believe we are now in the end stages of the disease. As Covid-19 becomes less dangerous with the Omicron variant, so the world is taking faltering steps back to unrestricted airline travel. Unfortunately, the stopstart nature of the return to normal operations is immensely frustrating and very hard to plan for. So most airlines continue in survival mode. This is particularly the case for those African airlines that rely on tourism for a large part of their revenue. IATA research shows that for 2021, the airline industry globally was still operating at around 50% of pre-Covid levels. If the recovery in 2022 is as expected, we should see a ‘new normal’ of around 80% of 2019 levels.

traffic should be back to normal. However, the legacy of Covid-19 will linger in suppressed growth – perhaps as people have become used to webinars. By 2030, global passenger numbers are expected to have grown to 5.6 billion which is still 7% below the pre-Covid-19 forecast and an estimated loss of 2-3 years of growth due to Covid-19. Beyond 2030 air travel is expected to slow, due to weaker demographics and a baseline assumption of limited market liberalisation, giving average annual growth between 2019 and 2039 of 3.2%. IATA’s preCOVID-19 growth forecast for this period was 3.8%.

by the end of 2023 airline traffic should be at a new normal.

What can we expect in the post-Covid industry? IATA reckons people are still keen to travel, both in the short and long-term. The IATA projections are more optimistic than was hoped just a few months ago. 2022 global passenger numbers are expected to recover to around 70% of 2019 pre-Covid-19 levels. In 2023, global passenger numbers are expected to recover to 88% of preCovid-19 levels. And in 2024, global passenger numbers are expected to be an amazing 105% of preCovid-19 levels. So yes – by the end of 2023 airline

The recovery in passenger numbers is slightly stronger than the recovery in demand measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), which is expected to grow at an annual average of 3% between 2019 and 2039. This is due to the expected strength of domestic markets like China, with large passenger numbers and shorter distances. The damage of the Covid-19 pandemic will be felt for years to come, but all indications are that people still have their need and desire to travel. This is evident in that, whenever a border re-opens, there is a surge in airline bookings. It’s been a long and tough fight for airline survival, but the prognosis for a full recovery is good. 

BUSH PILOT HUGH PRYOR

Recently, a Belgian friend of mine, who will forgive me for guessing his age to be not far from mine, was expressing regret at never having flown the F104 Starfighter.

HE FASTEST MACHINE which I’ve flown is the Lear 25, which is a horrible little gremlin, and had a reputation for killing anybody it didn't like. It was based on a Swiss-designed fighter which never made it into production. The Lear 25 had a straight wing and a Mach limiter set for Mach 0.84. At that speed, power would be reduced and the control column would be eased back automatically to keep the aircraft below Mach 0.84. The Mach limiter could be disabled simply by pulling its circuit breaker.

An annoying, but less fatal feature of the aircraft was that its fuel tanks were on the wingtips and if they were empty and the refuelers filled only one, the aircraft would fall over onto the full wingtip. So the solution was to put enough fuel in the other tank, just to keep the thing upright. They could then fill one side before going back to top off the...err...where was I? And then there was its tiny cockpit. If you see a Lear 25 flight crew walking down the street, it’s easy to tell which one is the Captain. The Captain will be the one with his head leaning on his right shoulder and the Co-pilot will have his head leaning on his left shoulder, because that’s how they’re forced to sit in the confines of the mean little flight deck.

a noseover of such ferocity that occupants exit through the roof

The vicious nature of the Lear 25 was demonstrated dramatically at Mach 0.87, where it fell foul of the phenomenon known as 'Mach tuck'. At that speed the wave of compressibility moves the centre of lift aft across the chord of the wing, until the effectively stalled horizontal stabiliser no longer has the authority to keep the nose up and it stalls, thus pitching the aircraft into a nose-over of such ferocity that the wings fail downwards and the occupants exit through the roof.

That’s what happened to four Lear 25s during the year I flew the type as co-pilot. In each one the Mach limiter circuit breaker had been pulled, indicating that the pilots were involved in some kind of race, but sadly were unaware of the catastrophe to which their games would lead. 6

FlightCom: February 2022

The F104 is of a similar temperament, particularly for pilots in the Luftwaffe. It killed more than sixty of them, possibly because the German Air Force insisted on hanging an extra ton on those silly little wings. No, I prefer big honest slabs of lift to keep me off the ground. Give me a Twin Otter or a Pilatus Porter any day, so that I can last long enough to enjoy a good old age full of Happy Memories. 

FlightCom: February 2022

AIRLINE OPS MIKE GOUGH

SAN IT Y

SI LE NTLY

SLIPS BACK IN Without a doubt, the past two years have been off the clock and firmly past the redline of the crazy meter. Luckily, we cannot see into the future – we would not have believed what lay ahead for us – and would have probably jumped in front of a train (if we had any that might be functional).

ERE IN SOUTH AFRICA we had our unique brand of lunacy with the way our so-called government went about handling this pandemic. Which other countries have stripped parliament of its powers and oversight functions and introduced a Soviet styled ‘command’ council in an attempt to manage the situation?

My previous employer for the last twenty-four years of my airline career ceased scheduled operations, and carried out a handful of international repatriation flights. The Airbus A320 fleet where I was a Training Captain carried out a significant amount of charter flights for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), which was a wonderfully lucrative contract. True to form, the utterly inept and corrupt management at our national carrier could not keep things together, and the UN withdrew from the contract and started using another operator.

What happened in Benoni, stays in Benoni

We all have recollections of the hard lock down when we had a few hundred cases – which proves how ineffective those misplaced notions of control actually are. I remember locking up my fleet of light aircraft in my hangar and posting on social media ‘see you in three weeks’ time’. How naïve we all were… Banning roast chicken and hot pies, forbidding the sale of tee-shirts and open-toe shoes perfectly illustrated the absolute cluelessness with which our idiotic leaders approached this invisible threat that had invaded our space. 8

FlightCom: February 2022

As the instructor contingent was kept current after the initial lockdown, I was fortunate to have done several of these charters, which provided a few interesting flights compared to the scheduled operation. One particular route for the UN WFP was JohannesburgLilongwe (the WFP HQ)-Maputo-Johannesburg. I found myself conducting one of these pairings, which saw me and my full crew (two flight deck and four

cabin crew) departing JNB to LLW completely empty, save for a coffin containing human remains in the aft cargo hold. On the next sector to MPM we had three passengers, and the last sector back to Joburg we had thirty pax. Not exactly optimal use of an A320, but the UN paid handsomely for the exclusive use of the service, and had every intention of making it a permanent aspect of their Southern African operation, but that was not to be.

My second last flight in that airline was to Addis Ababa and back in the same day. Not something that would happen on a schedule in terms of flight and duty periods (FDP), as each sector was just short of six hours, plus a couple of hours on the ground there. The FDP issue was circumvented with an augmented crew (an additional First Officer), and as can be seen, I had one of the better looking crew compliments in a while – myself excluded.

The accompanying photograph of the two of us in the cockpit on arrival back from Maputo shows just how bizarrely we were expected to deal with the ‘exposure’ to the virus when venturing over border. Extreme, to say the least, specifically considering that we would only have left the flight deck for the walk-around at each destination, and had no contact with any other personnel.

We had also given up on wearing the Tele-Tubby outfits, as it was utterly impractical to sit for fourteen hours in that get-up for no sane reason at the end of the day.

that massive pilot shortage on the (close) horizon

This was then followed by 10 days quarantine at a hotel in Benoni. As we all had an inkling that the writing was on the wall for the airline, we made hearty use of the facilities, to put it mildly. What happened in Benoni, stays in Benoni…..

The subsequent quarantine was much fun, again. It was a year later, almost to the day of that flight, that I was retrenched and rehired as a First Officer at our national carrier. As I mentioned in a previous piece, I took great delight in declining that ridiculous offer. I have taken a firm decision that sanity is in short supply, and in situations that I can control, sanity has to prevail.

Full Hazmat suits in the early days of the Covid lockdown.

FlightCom: February 2022

So where are we all now, in this most battered of industries? My personal space has been occupied with my flight school at Lanseria. With me having been present full time for effectively the past 20 months, we have had exponential growth in terms of aircraft and students. During winter of last year, we hit our all-time record of over 1,200 flying hours and 300 simulator and briefing hours in a single month. I’ve also kept my Airbus brain semi-functional with several simulator sessions, assisting ex-colleagues with their licence revalidations. The latter has allowed me to stay very much in touch with the gradual return to something that we used to call normal. As I have been experiencing at Lanseria, there is zero slow-down in the ab initio aspect of the flying industry. There is more business out there globally than the entire training industry could ever handle. We are actually over-full in terms of active students. Nice problem to have, but it is a problem, none the less – and it is a problem of epic and far reaching proportions. The global pool of available (experienced) pilots is being rapidly depleted. I kid you not. A significant contingent of my ex-colleagues has a prospect in some form or another on the horizon. Even yours truly is faced with the prospect of an interview in a few days’ time. Oh, woe is me – whatever should I wear? In all honesty, I don’t own a complete suit. The one and only suit that I have is missing the trousers, as they were left in a hotel room in Miami many years ago (long story, but nothing like Benoni). Thus, the industry stirs. The forecast crew shortages by aircraft manufacturers

10 FlightCom: February 2022

and IATA are both heartening and scary at the same time. The free-thinking world is letting common sense back in. We simply cannot train the required numbers of new pilots with the quantity of flight schools / universities / cadet and airforce schemes that remain functional around the world. Despite the hours I do at Lanseria, my 15-aircraft strong flight school produced 33 Commercial Pilots and 52 Private pilots (working towards their CPLs) in the last calendar year. A hopelessly small drop in that massive ocean of pilot shortage that is on the (close) horizon. As one would say, fasten those seat belts. Things are going to get more than interesting. 

The last A320 flight for the UN World Food Progam.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

QOM

The very vexed issue of affirmative action forcing the older more experienced (white) pilots out of SAA in favour of less experienced pilots from the “Designated Group” has led many in the aviation community to call for a boycott of SAA. Posting on Internet Forum www. avcom.co.za , ‘Evanb’ contributes valuable perspective: “I think you'll find a lot of airlines playing with seniority lists, sometimes for political reasons, other times because of economic or even legacy reasons. [If you boycott those] You'll very quickly run out of airlines to fly."

Other countries

E-MAIL

EASA registered

TEL NO

FAA registered

LOCATION

Off-site Specialist tests

FIRST NAME

On site Specialist tests

SURNAME

Senior Class 1, 2, 3, 4

AME Doctors Listing

Regular Class 2, 3, 4

“You'll find Middle Eastern and Asian airlines jumping local crew for political purposes (ultimately affirmative action). In the US and sometimes Europe you'll find an excessive preference for older crew, sometimes not medically fit to standards that I'd like to see, or more practically supply squeezes that put excessive pressures on younger crews in terms of duty hours and conditions, as well as lowering of medical standards. Do these create systematic safety issues? I actually think the affirmative action probably generates fewer systematic safety issues than excessive pressures on younger crews. So pick your poison.”

✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

Britz

Rudi

Wonderboom Airport

083 422 9882

rudiavmed@gmail.com

Church

Belinda

Valhalla

079 636 9860

churchbs@live.com

Du Plessis

Alexander

Athlone Park

031 904 7460

dex.duplessis@intercare.co.za

Erasmus

Philip

Benoni

011 849 6512

pdceras-ass@mweb.co.za

Govender

Deena

Umhlanga Rocks

031 566 2066/7 deena@drdg.co.za

✗ ✗

Ingham

Kenneth

Midrand

011 315 5817

kaingham@hotmail.com

✗ ✗

Marais

Eugene

Mossel Bay

044 693 1470

eugene.marais@medicross.co.za

✗ ✗

Opperman

Chris

Pretoria Lynnwood

012 368 8800

chris.opperman@intercare.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗

Tenzer

Stan

Rand Airport & JHB CBD

083 679 0777

stant@global.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗

Toerien

Hendrik

White River, Nelspruit

013 751 3848

hctoerien@viamediswitch.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗

Van Der Merwe

Johann

Stellenbosch

021 887 0305

johann.vdmerwe@medicross.co.za

Van Niekerk

Willem

Benoni

011 421 9771

http://willemvanniekerk.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

✗ ✗

✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

FlightCom: February 2022

FEATURE

AVIATION E M PLOYM E NT I N AFR ICA

by Guy Leitch

Up until the arrival of Covid-19 it was argued that the African aviation market is globally the one that has the most potential for growth, due to it being a comparatively young industry and servicing a large and rapidly developing population. GROWTH POTENTIAL Pre-Covid, intercontinental air traffic to and from Africa had been growing at a world leading roughly 8% per annum from 2005-2015, with regional and domestic traffic growing even more. This was due to greater economic activity in the continent. Analysis from Oxford Economics shows that the African aviation sector as a whole was expected to grow by around 5.4% per annum, a higher pace than most regions of the world.

African aviation sector as a whole was expected to grow

Oxford Economics repeats the by now familiar refrain that the economic potential of the African aviation industry could be further realised if efforts to liberalise the continent’s airspace finally bear fruit. They point out that African skies are

12 FlightCom: February 2022

subject to some of the most economically restrictive regimes in the world, with a host of individual bilateral agreements between states defining the regulatory environment. This system has been recognised as being a barrier for decades, with African states agreeing the Yamoussoukro Declaration in 1988, which had the intention of opening African skies and working towards air services liberalisation. This Declaration was followed by the Yamoussoukro Decision in 1999, which worked towards the same principles. However, progress has stalled.

Industry associations, including IATA, AFCAC and AFRAA have long argued for the implementation of open African skies. However, the restrictive regulatory environment is further compounded by nonphysical barriers such as high

IATA is expecting strong employment growth in African aviation.

fees, visa requirements and inefficiencies in customs clearance procedures for goods. Industry costs in Africa, including passenger fees, are among the highest in the world. The continent has many monopoly service providers in areas such as ground handling, fuel supply and catering which make it uncompetitive in an increasingly liberalised global operating environment.

EMPLOYMENT In terms of employment, the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) calculated that air transport supports 6.7 million jobs and $67.8 billion in GDP in Africa. The industry generated an estimated direct 450,000 jobs in 2019. 180,000 of those people (35% of the total) were in jobs for airlines or handling agents (for example, flight crew, check-in staff, maintenance crew, reservations and head office staff).

The airline industry has a job for everyone.

FlightCom: February 2022

African aviation has one of the highest growth rates in the world.

Another 45,000 people (10% of the total) worked for airport operators (for example, in airport management, maintenance, security and operations). 170,300 jobs (45%) were on-site in airports, at retail outlets, restaurants, hotels, nd so on and a further 24,700 people (6%) were employed in the manufacture of civil aircraft (including systems, components, airframes and engines). Air navigation service providers employed an additional 15,300 people (4%).

In total, the industry supported 6.8 million jobs

As well as this direct employment in the operations of the air transport sector itself, the sector’s impact reaches further through African economies. Including direct impacts, as well as the effect of the

14 FlightCom: February 2022

sector’s procurement of goods and services through its supply chain, and the benefits that arise when employees in the industry and its supply chain spend their wages in the local consumer economy, the air transport sector supported one million jobs and contributed $26 billion to GDP in Africa in 2017. In addition, spending by foreign tourists — most of whom arrive by air — supported an estimated 5.8 million jobs and contributed $46 billion to GDP in Africa’s economies in 2019.

In total, the industry supported 6.8 million jobs and made a $72.5 billion contribution to GDP in Africa. This accounted for 11% of the jobs and 3% of the GDP supported by the air transport industry worldwide. 

NEWS

AIRBUS 2021

DELIVERIES

AIRBUS HAD A GOOD 2021. It doubled its gross order intake compared to 2020 with 771 new sales (507 net) across all programmes, signalling renewed market confidence.

Airbus announced that it met its targets and delivered 611 commercial aircraft to 88 customers in 2021. Notably, the A220 won 64 firm gross new orders and several high profile commitments from some of the world’s major carriers. The A320neo Family won 661 gross new orders. In the widebody segment, Airbus won 46 gross new orders, including 30 A330s, and 16 A350s, of which 11 were for the newly launched A350F, which also won an additional 11 commitments.

At the end of 2021, Airbus’ backlog stood at 7,082 aircraft. In number of aircraft units, Airbus recorded a gross book to bill ratio above one. “Our commercial aircraft achievements in 2021 reflect the focus and resilience of our Airbus teams, customers, suppliers and stakeholders across the globe who pulled together to deliver remarkable results. The year saw significant orders from airlines worldwide, signalling confidence in the sustainable growth of air travel post-COVID” said Guillaume Faury, Airbus Chief Executive Officer. “While uncertainties remain, we are on track to lift production through 2022 to meet our customers’ requirements. At the same time, we are preparing the future of aviation, transforming our industrial capabilities and implementing the roadmap for decarbonisation.” 

Airbus deliveries in 2021.

Airbus deliveries for 2021 A220 Family A320 Family A330 Family A350 Family A380

Total

2021

2020

611

566

50 483 18 55 5

38 446 19 59 4

FlightCom: February 2022

DEFENCE DARREN OLIVIER

It is a basic axiom of military strategy that, when you opt to deploy your militaries into harm’s way to achieve a mission objective or goal, you need to equip it as best as possible with the optimum force size and composition, supplies, and supporting assets. When lives are at stake and the consequences of mission failure are so stark, it’s dangerous and strategically inept to under-resource a mission as badly as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has done with its mission in Mozambique (SAMIM).

HE MISSION TO MOZAMBIQUE, which deployed there a few months to assist in the campaign against ISIS-linked Islamist insurgents, has received only a small fraction of the budget it needs for the tasks it has been set, and therefore it’s ridiculously undersized and under equipped. Of course, there are limits to what can reasonably be provided and spent, given limited national budgets, and you obviously can’t afford to throw endless resources at every mission or engagement without

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bankrupting yourself rather quickly. Moreover, as Donald Rumsfeld pointed out in one of his few wise moments, “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” Meaning that most of the time when war becomes a necessity, there’s no longer enough time to rectify the mistakes, neglect, and shortcuts of under preparing your military in peacetime. However, short of an existential war on home soil, there is almost always still some level of choice that countries have before embarking on military action.

Just two Orxyes have been made available to support the entire SANDF mission in Mozambique.

To put it in simple terms, while they have limited control over the when and the where, and there’s an upper limit on what can be deployed, they still have enough leeway to make a rational decision and avoid rushing headlong into disaster. Most importantly, they also still have to ask themselves why a military course of action is being chosen and whether an alternative approach can be used to achieve the desired objectives.

should be circumspect in their use of military power, preserving and carefully marshalling it into areas of greatest reward for least effort. This is not the approach that was followed with SAMIM, which is severely under-resourced in almost every way. It’s far too small for both its mandate and the size of the area it has to cover, as it still retains the numbers and force structure from the mission’s first phase, when the mission was primarily one of assistance to Mozambican forces and reconnaissance. Since then the mission has been extended at various SADC summits and its mandate expanded (typical mission creep!) to include assaults on insurgent bases, capture of high-value targets, and protection of civilians. They have also seen their area of operations grow massively, even expanding into Niassa to the west as insurgents relocate and try to

The exhaustion of the helicopter crews

In other words, when faced with overly restrictive financial and other constraints on a mission, the answer should almost never be to send in a smaller and less well-equipped force to do the same task envisaged for a larger one, but rather to look for ways to achieve the same goal with a reduced-in-scope mission or the avoidance of a military engagement entirely. Countries and regions with severely constrained defence budgets and financial resources in general

FlightCom: February 2022

re-establish themselves in new areas. All this while it remains tiny: Fewer than 500 soldiers are incountry, drawn from the special operations units of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, and Tanzania, with just under half of that number being drawn from the South African Special Forces regiments. In comparison, the Rwandan contingent in Mozambique is around 2,000-strong and deployed in only a relatively small segment of Cabo Delgado for a much denser soldier / km² ratio. It’s also worth comparing it to the original SAMIM operational plan that SADC approved last year, which envisaged a full brigade for this phase of operations including three full infantry battalions of just over 1,000 soldiers each and substantially more supporting equipment such as aircraft. Cabo Delgado is in furthest corner of Mozambique from South Africa.

Instead, in a surreal and absurd move, SAMIM has been allocated just two medium transport helicopters: A pair of South African Air Force Oryxes, which have to support SAMIM’s already-overstretched personnel across a massive area of operations that’s more than 200 000 square kilometres. The mission has no attack helicopters, not even utility types fitted with side-firing cannons.

The air and ground crews of those SAAF Oryxes have been working beyond the point of exhaustion for months trying to support the SAMIM troops who, by virtue of necessity, have had to split up into a number of small teams dispersed across

18 FlightCom: February 2022

a huge operational area while going against insurgent groups many times their size. Worse, the inhospitable terrain of northern Mozambique has meant that vehicles carrying heavy weaponry and other support gear usually cannot follow troops into the bush and provide assistance in any contact, leaving them outgunned and vulnerable. Ideally those systems should also be airlifted in, but there are too few helicopters to do the job. Given the circumstances, casualties that would otherwise have been preventable became unavoidable.

First, a Tanzanian soldier was killed in September during a raid on an insurgent hideout near Chitama. And in December a South African Special Forces operator, Cpl Radebe, was killed in action during raids against insurgents in the Chai area. At Radebe’s funeral his fellow Special Forces soldiers reportedly said that he would not have died if not for the low availability of helicopters for transport and casualty evacuation. In addition to those two, a number of soldiers have been wounded, some in the ever more frequent ambushes set up along the roads that SAMIM troops are forced to take.

if, when it’s time to rotate these troops out, the contributing countries are forced to send in less experienced soldiers from second tier units. The exhaustion of the helicopter crews and overuse of the two aircraft also increases the likelihood of a serious accident.

When you fight wars on the cheap, you end up paying for it in blood

When you try to fight wars on the cheap you end up paying for it in blood, and unless SADC agrees to provide SAMIM with the proper resources we should expect many more casualties. Especially

You can’t prevent all deaths and other casualties in war, obviously. Some are inevitable, and the more dangerous the enemy, the higher the number of unavoidable casualties becomes. But that does not excuse allowing casualties to happen that it was in your power to reasonably prevent, at a reasonable cost, and in a way that doesn’t harm the mission objectives.

Next month, I’ll look at what level of helicopter support a mission like SAMIM really requires, using SANDF doctrine as the guide. 

Corporal Tebogo Radebe was the first SANDF casualty in Mozambique.

FlightCom: February 2022

NEWS

COMAIR MOVES TO

GOOGLE CLOUD DESPITE RECENTLY EMERGING from business rescue, Comair airline is fast moving to adopt new cloub based IT technologies. Google Cloud and Comair airline are collaborating to accelerate the aviation group’s digital transformation plans in line with its mission to deliver seamless travel experiences for customers and help the travel industry regain momentum. The migration to the cloud of traditional information technology infrastructure enables the airline to run key workloads that include important financial data, secure customer records, aerocraft navigation information and more on the cloud, Comair said.

Comair says it has been able to benefit from the security, reliability and flexibility provided by Google Cloud, which has helped increase the airline’s efficiency during high-traffic seasons and peak travel times, as it needed to scale to meet consumer travel demand. It says it is now better positioned to build a data foundation using artificial intelligence and machine learning using Google Cloud tools. Mining big data is part of the plan. “In particular, Comair will be able to analyse customer data in a deeper manner, creating personalised products and services, opening up more opportunities and improving the customer experience,” the airline admitted.

Comair's two brands will be customer “Google Cloud is data mining using Google Cloud. supporting Comair in "The sooner you modernising its legacy digitally transform, the applications, such as its quicker you’re able to kulula.com booking application, using prominent tools respond to uncertain times. As a result, the digital like Firebase and Flutter to upgrade its functionalities maturity measures we’ve put in place have helped  and provide the scalability the airline requires. Comair drive a post-lockdown recovery,” said Comair chief customers now turn to the Kulula application as the information officer Avsharn Bachoo. main channel to interact with the airline, following upgrades that have enabled more seamless booking and flight payments,” the airline added.

20 FlightCom: February 2022

NEWS

IATA’S 2021

PASSENGER NUMBERS THE INTERNATIONAL Air Transport Association (IATA) reports that passenger demand recovery continued in 2021. However, the Omicron Covid variant had a significant impact. IATA announced full-year global passenger traffic results for 2021 showing that demand (revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) fell by 58.4% compared to the full year of 2019. This represented an improvement compared to 2020, when full year RPKs were down 65.8% versus 2019. Because comparisons between 2021 and 2020 results are distorted by the extraordinary impact of COVID-19, unless otherwise noted all comparisons are to the respective 2019 period, which followed a normal demand pattern. • International passenger demand in 2021 was 75.5% below 2019 levels. Capacity, (measured in available seat kilometres or ASKs) declined 65.3% and load factor fell 24.0 percentage points to 58.0%. • Domestic demand in 2021 was down 28.2% compared to 2019. Capacity contracted by 19.2% and load factor dropped 9.3 percentage points to 74.3%. • Total traffic for the month of December 2021 was 45.1% below the same month in 2019, improved from the 47.0% contraction in November, as monthly demand continued to recover despite concerns over Omicron. Capacity was down 37.6% and load factor fell 9.8 percentage points to 72.3%. IATA Passenger numbers.

Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General announced that; “Omicron travel restrictions slowed the recovery in international demand by about two weeks in December. International demand has been recovering at a pace of about four percentage points/month compared to 2019. Without Omicron, we would have expected international demand for the month of December to improve to around 56.5% below 2019 levels. Instead, volumes rose marginally to 58.4% below 2019 from -60.5% in November.” “Overall travel demand strengthened in 2021. That trend continued into December despite travel restrictions in the face of Omicron. That says a lot about the strength of passenger confidence and the desire to travel. The challenge for 2022 is to reinforce that confidence by normalizing travel. While international travel remains far from normal in many parts of the world, there is momentum in the right direction. Last week, France and Switzerland announced significant easing of measures. And yesterday the UK removed all testing requirements for vaccinated travellers. We hope others will follow their important lead, particularly in Asia where several key markets remain in virtual isolation,” Willie Walsh said. African airlines’ international traffic fell 65.2% last year compared to 2019, which was the best performance among regions. Capacity dropped 56.7%, and load factor sank 14.1 percentage points to 57.3%. Demand for the month of December was 60.5% below the yearago period, a deterioration from the 56.5% decline in November, owing to the impact of government travel restrictions in response to Omicron. 

FlightCom: February 2022

CESSNA’S

LONGITUDE – THE BIZJET FOR AFRICA

Guy Leitch

Textron Aviation’s largest jet, the Cessna Citation Longitude, is moving into the African supermidsize bizjet market. Johannesburg’s Lanseria based Textron agent, Absolute Aviation, has sold its first Longitude into southern Africa, with delivery expected in 2023.

22 FlightCom: February 2022

Cessna's Longitude is the ideal mid-size jet for African operators.

FlightCom: February 2022

TOP OF THE RANGE

THE LONGITUDE PROPOSITION

Textron has an almost complete general aviation solution: it builds single-engine piston aircraft that are used in flying schools across Africa. Through its Bell Helicopter subsidiary, it makes helicopters and through Beechcraft it builds business turboprops. And, through Cessna, it builds its market leading Citation business jets.

For the African corporate jet buyer, the top of the range Longitude has two key attributes – it has a large, quiet, stand-up cabin, and its range is a very useful 3,500nm. This makes almost any place in Africa a non-stop flight from any other place.

Citations have achieved excellent market penetration into Africa. The Citation range has an aircraft type and size that covers almost the entire bizjet market.

This long range capability is essential to many African business jet operators who need to avoid the security risks, costs and inconvenience associated with fuel or tech stops arising from shorter range jets.

the Longitude is a big step up from its sibling

One of the key factors behind the Citation range’s success is its worldwide service and support. Cessna has by far the largest network of both OEM and licensed service centres across the world – and is well represented across south, central and west Africa.

A key benefit for austere African operations is the Longitude’s low maintenance requirements. The Longitude claims the longest maintenance intervals in its class, being 800 hours or 18 months, making it the most cost-effective aircraft in its category.

Longitude Range circle with 6 passengers from Johannesburg. 24 FlightCom: February 2022

Full stand-up, flat floor cabin is quietest in its class.

To cope with Africa’s rougher runways, the Longitude has sturdy and impact absorbing trailing-link landing gear with the redundancy of a dual wheel nose landing gear. The emergency landing gear system is entirely mechanical, without the complexities of a nitrogen driven pneumatic backup system. Anti-skid carbon brakes are electronically controlled and powered by dual hydraulic sources, each of which can power the brakes by itself. The runway requirements are also excellent. With a full-fuel payload of 1,600 pounds and eight passenger seats occupied, the Longitude can fly more than 3000 nm with a balanced field length takeoff distance of 4,810 feet. After taking off at maximum weight, the Longitude can climb to FL430 in 20 minutes. A key African requirement is good hot and high performance. The Longitude’s FADEC controlled Honeywell HTF7000 series engines are particularly good in his department, with low flat ratings creating ample power reserves for high density altitude operations. Another key feature is single-point refuelling, providing complete control of the fuelling process from outside

the aircraft. This allows selection of the fuel load at the aircraft’s control panel and prevents having to rely on the fuel truck driver to accurately load and distribute the fuel. An auxiliary power unit makes the Longitude independent of ground power and keeps the cabin cool on the ground before engine start. Remote oil-level sensors for the engines shows engine and APU oil levels at the fuel panel, although pilots can also check oil levels with traditional sight glasses.

A BIG MID-SIZED JET Although it shares the flat-floor cabin width and height dimensions of the Latitude, the Longitude is a big step up from its sibling. With a maximum takeoff weight of 39,500 pounds, the Longitude is 3 feet, 5 inches longer in cabin length and 10 feet 11 inches longer overall. The Longitude’s extra 8,700 pounds maximum takeoff weight enables it to carry another 3,706 pounds of useful load. Most of that is allocated to fuel, being 14,500 pounds total, or an extra 3,106 pounds compared with the Latitude.

FlightCom: February 2022

The extra fuel translates into significantly added range, enabling the Longitude to carry a full-fuel payload of 1,600 pounds (1,000 more than the Latitude) and fly 3,500 nm, compared with the Latitude’s 2,700 nm (both with a typical load of four passengers plus bags). The Longitude is also fast. Powered by two 7,665-pound thrust Honeywell turbofans, the Longitude’s maximum cruise speed is 483 KTAS and maximum operating limit speed Mach 0.84, putting it far ahead of the Latitude’s 446 KTAS and Mach .80. Key to its market penetration into Africa, the Longitude is faster than its nearest competitor and has greater range (3,500 nm with four passengers, versus 3,200 nm.) Being the newest of the Citation family, the Longitude has the most modern avionics suite and options. Since a majority of African operations happen in and around the notoriously demanding inter tropical convergence zone, the Longitude features Garmin’s new solid-state GWX 8000 StormOptix weather radar with a large 14-inch antenna. Radar features include a high-definition 16-colour palette with "greater colour contouring," 3D volumetric scanning with automatic tilt adjustment to scan and depict hazardous weather, hail and lightning prediction, turbulence detection, advanced ground clutter suppression, and optional predictive wind-shear detection. Another popular feature is the autothrottles. The Longitude’s Garmin autothrottle system helps lower pilot workload and protect the engines. Autothrottles also add significantly to safety through functionalities such as the emergency descent mode, low- and high-speed envelope protection and coupled go-arounds after a missed approach. In summary, the Longitude is an ideal midsized jet for Africa in that it has best in class performance, a pilot-friendly flight deck, and a cabin that is optimised for passenger convenience and comfort. There is good reason why the Longitude is one of NetJets’ most popular fractional-share options. 

26 FlightCom: February 2022

CESSNA LONGITUDE Dimensions Length

73 ft 2 in (22.3 m)

Height

19 ft 5 in (5.9 m)

Wingspan

68 ft 11 in (21.00 m)

Wing Area

537 sq ft (49.91 sq m)

Wing Sweep

28.6 degrees

Wheelbase

31 ft 7 in (9.63 m)

Tread

9 ft 8 in (2.95 m)

Maximum Ramp Weight

39,700 lb (18,008 kg)

Maximum Takeoff Weight

39,500 lb (17,917 kg)

Maximum Landing Weight

33,500 lb (15,195 kg)

Maximum Zero Fuel Weight

26,000 lb (11,793 kg)

Usable Fuel Weight

14,500 lb (6,577 kg)

Usable Fuel Volume

2,200 gal (8,328 l)

Basic Operating Weight

23,600 lb (10,705 kg)

Useful Load

16,100 lb (7,303 kg)

Maximum Payload

2,400 lb (1,089 kg)

Full Fuel Payload

1,600 lb (726 kg)

Performance Maximum Cruise Speed

483 ktas (895 km/h)

4 Passenger Range

3,500 nm (6,482 km)

Takeoff Field Length

4,810 ft (1,466 m)

Landing Distance

3,170 ft (966 m)

Maximum Operating Altitude 45,000 ft (13,716 m) Maximum Limit Speed

0.84 Mach (0.84 Mach)

Manufacturer

Honeywell

Model

HTF7700L

Engine Thrust

7,665 lb (34.10 kN)

FlightCom: February 2022

HELICOPTER AND FIXED WING PILOT TRAINING Durban: +27 31 571 6600

Mossel Bay: +27 44 692 0006

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Turbine - GS Training

train@starliteaviation.com

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272 5547

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(058)

050 0493

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914-5810

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976 7053

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(031)

573-2995

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303 1124

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GEORGE AIRPORT j j jjjjjjj j j jjj

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KRUGERSDORP j jjjjj j

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(011) (011) (087)

701-3862 701-2622 265-7150

701-3873 701-2623

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(064)

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PORT ELIZABETH Algoa Flying Club

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(016)

556-1007

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+264

61 228101

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j j jjjj

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WINDHOEK - EROS AIRPORT

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Starlite Aviation Training Academy 28 FlightCom: February 2022

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www.starliteaviation.com

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> 20 pax

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< 20 pax

CHARTER DIRECTORY

Long-Range

+27 (0) 11 917 4220 www.atlasoil.africa

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395 1195/8

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(031)

564 6215

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701 2653

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(011)

395 4552

395 4244

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395 9000

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301 9977

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(078)

460 1231

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If it can’t stand the heat, get it out of the engine. Higher tempretures and faster degradation can cause unwanted carbon to accumulate, which blocks filters and oil tubes. Modern turbine engines require hard working oils that can withstand these temperatures and improve performance. Can your oil beat the heat? Contact us today and enquire about our range of AeroShell Turbine Engine products: www.atlasaviation.co.za sales@atlasaviation.co.za (011) 917 4220

FlightCom: February 2022

AMO LISTING

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CODE TEL NO

CAPE TOWN

Interior

NAME OF AMO

Fixed Wing Helicopter Avionics Piston Engines Turbine Engines Propellers Weight / Balance Paint

SPONSORED BY Aves Technics - Qualified in Aircraft Maintenance, Airworthiness Management, Project Management, Quality and Safety Management.

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(021)

934 9499

934 2022

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(021)

934 5764

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(079)

674 8351

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797 3610 569 2614

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315 9605

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831 5032

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659 2204

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900 4300

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088 6663

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454 6366

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jjjj

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741 8221 j082 787 0415 741 5582 741 8188

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604 3686

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710 0864 827 7535 827 2491 383 2024 445 4496

DURBAN

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GRAND CENTRAL AIRPORT j jjjj

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KRUGERSDORP Skyworx Aviation

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LANSERIA AIRPORT

MALMESBURY NELSPRUIT

NEW TEMPE BLOEMFONTEIN

OR TAMBO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

PORT ALFRED

RAND AIRPORT

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451 1641

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AMKA Aviation Pty (Ltd) Aerospace Electroplating Aviation Rebuilders CC Clifton Electronics Dynamic Propellers

30 FlightCom: February 2022

827 9896

lyn@aviationrebuilders.com

086 689 5645 086 548 2651

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Composite Manufacturing

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FAX NO

Sheet Metal Rebuilds Overhauls Electrics NDT Testing Refurbishments

CODE TEL NO

Interior

NAME OF AMO

Fixed Wing Helicopter Avionics Piston Engines Turbine Engines Propellers Weight / Balance Paint

SA Flyer Magazine February 2022

Articles inside

AIR SUPPORT MOZAMBIQUE

THE JOYS OF FAST

SANITY SILENTLY SLIPS BACK IN

THUNDER CITY FINDS A BUYER

Obituary: Glen Warden

FLIGHT TEST: ALTITUDE RADIAL ROCKET

A BOGBRUSH FOR CHRISTMAS

CALIBRATED CAMEL

AN OPEN DOOR TO HELP

ZS-CAR WAS INEXCUSABLE

POSITION REPORT FEBRUARY 2022