SA Flyer Magazine March 2022 by Flyer & Aviation Publications

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Edition 313 March 2022 Cover: Grant Duncan-Smith

FLIGHT REPORT:

AIRBUS H130

- BIG & SMOOTH & QUIET!

GUY: ON BICYCLES AND PLANES PETER GARRISON: GEORGE CAYLEY’S BRILLIANCE SAAF MOZ OPS– NO AIR SUPPORT? JIM DAVIS – ON MUSIC IN THE COCKPIT! NEW KENYAN COLUMNIST – ON ‘CAPTAIN CUDDLES’ 1

March 2022 AVIATION SERVICES & PRODUCTS EDITION

A CLEAR EXAMPLE OF EXPERIENCE PAYING OFF. LITERALLY. Passing the milestone of eight million flight hours has firmly established the Pilatus PC-12 as the world’s greatest single. Refunding on this experience, the new PC-12 NGX now offers 600-hour scheduled maintenance intervals, reducing operating costs and providing owners with more up-time. This proves the theory that time really is money. pilatus-aircraft.com Contact Pilatus PC-12 Centre Southern Africa, your nearest Authorised Pilatus PC-12 NGX Sales Centre for further information on Tel: +27 11 383 0800, Cell +27 82 511 7312 or Email: aircraftsales@pilatuscentre.co.za

POSITION REPORT AS I WRITE, THE RUSSIAN INVASION of the Ukraine has plunged world markets into chaos. Gold is heading through US$2000 an ounce and the prices of commodities, which includes oil, are peaking. This is naturally bad news for the already battered general aviation industry in South Africa. Eight years ago, the price of Avgas breached R20 per litre and then mercifully dropped back. The pain of that spike prompted us to launch a page to bring our readers the best Avgas prices in the country. And we still publish the table of fuel prices each month, such is the sensitivity of the industry to fuel prices. For the past few years Avgas has been steadily climbing on the back of rising oil prices. There is a real chance the Ukraine war is likely to push it through R30 a litre. Will this hasten the demise of Avgas?

no cars at all. There was no difference in lead levels between the two groups. They nonetheless succeeded in removing lead from car fuel but it has persisted in aviation fuel, largely due to the primitive nature of our engines which still do not have electronic ignition with knock sensors to catch pre-ignition and detonation. But the pressure has continued. Lead was supposed to have been removed by 2017. On 23 February outgoing FAA head Steve Dickson unveiled an industry-government initiative to eliminate the use of leaded aviation fuel by piston-engined aircraft by 2030. Called Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE), the initiative requires industry to accomplish the replacement of Avgas with unleaded fuel.

LEAD WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN The reality is – if the The basic facts are well industry is forced to REMOVED BY fuel known: Avgas is the last fuel provide unleaded Avgas, to still contain Tetraethyl Lead it will not work for many 2017 (TEL) and there is an ongoing aircraft. A key challenge is campaign to ban TEL. As early as the 1960s there was a push to remove lead from mogas based on the theory that lead is bad, so ban it.

There were a number of studies done to prove the health hazard of leaded fuel, but none proved conclusive. They collected blood samples from New York taxi drivers who worked in exhaust fumes all day was compared the samples to blood from people living in parts of the world where there were

March 2022

exhaust valve recession. The by-products of lead combustion coat the exhaust valves and seats. This prevents the valve from grinding into the valve seat and recessing into the head. Without lead, exhaust valves recess into the head until valve burning occurs.

And Mogas is just not an option for low wing fuel injected planes which are vulnerable to fuel cavitation from vapour lock – often at the worst possible moment after takeoff. So the situation is in flux – but in the meanwhile we will just have to swallow the exorbitant fuel price and hope it comes down again.

Guy Leitch

March 2022

If you're waiting for a sign: here it is. The new Macan. Dare forward.

Porsche Centre Johannesburg Corner Witkoppen and Wroxham Road, Paulshof Telephone 011 540 5000 www.porschejohannesburg.com

Porsche Centre Cape Town Corner Century Avenue and Summer Greens Drive, Century City Telephone 021 555 6800 www.porschecapetown.com

Porsche Centre Umhlanga 49 Meridian Drive, Umhlanga Ridge Town Centre, Umhlanga Ridge Telephone 031 514 3000 www.porscheumhlanga.com

Porsche Centre Pretoria 452 Botterklapper Street, Off Lynnwood Road, The Willows Telephone 012 816 7600 www.porschepretoria.com

Macan: Combined fuel consumption: 8.8 l/100 km; Power: 195 kW (265 hp); Torque: 400 Nm; 0-100 km/h: 6.2 sec; Top speed: 232 km/h Priced from R1 050 000 including a 3 year/100,000 km Driveplan.

Edition 313

CONTENTS FLIGHTCOM

COLUMNISTS

06 26

Bush Pilot - HUGH PRYOR Pilots - LAURA MCDERMID

16 22 30 36 64 72

Guy Leitch - ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE George Tonking - HELI OPS Peter Garrison - TABULATING TAKEOFF Jim Davis - PLANE TALK Jim Davis - ACCIDENT REPORT Ray Watts - REGISTER REVIEW

FLIGHT REPORT: 8

AIRBUS H130 March 2022

FC 26

SA FLYER

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March 2022

Edition 313

CONTENTS FEATURES SA FLYER

46 FLIGHT REPORT: Airbus H130 59 CAPE TOWN HELICOPTERS: Report 77 BOOKS BY PETER GARRISON 80 NEWS 81 HELICOPTER REGISTRATIONS FLIGHTCOM

12 SAAF Funding - Part ONE 14 Meet the CEO: Valentine Duma: Aver 20 SAAF Funding - Part TWO 32 DEFENCE: Darren Olivier 36 COMPANY PROFILE: Aves Holdings

REGULARS 14 Opening Shot 76 AFS Register Review 88 SV Aviation Fuel Table 90 Aviation Direct Events Calender

FLIGHTCOM

11 AME Directory 40 Starlite Flight School Listing 41 Atlas Oils Charter Directory 42 AVES Technics AMO Listing 44 Aviation Directory 10

March 2022

Exhilaration at first sight. Bentayga S.

Discover seductive style and addictive performance at BentleyMotors.com/BentaygaS. Contact Bentley Johannesburg on 010 020 4000 or Bentley Cape Town on 021 000 2100.

March 2022

BENTLEY JOHANNESBURG • BENTLEY CAPE TOWN Power: 404 kW (550 hp); Torque: 770 Nm; 0-100 km/h: 4.5 seconds; Maximum speed: 290 km/h. Priced from R4 695 000 including a 3 year/100,000 km Driveplan Model shown: Bentayga S

March 2022

Tessa Roux

VFR ON TOP? This month’s opening shot was taken by Tessa Roux with her iPhone 8 when she was a passenger in a Cessna 210. It shows the unnamed pilot and his son flying along the Southern Cape coast at early dusk. The risk of cockpit photos is they can be scrutinised for small details – in case the question arises - should the pilot have been 100 ft higher at FL 65? And if so, then is this not VFR on top?

Send your submissions to guy@saflyermag.co.za 15 March 2022

ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE: GUY LEITCH

Planes

and Bikes Aeroplanes and bicycles have an unlikely affinity. It took bicycle builders to understand stability and build the first successful aeroplane. And now Sling Aircraft is using their plane building skills to make better bicycles. OVER A CUP OF COFFEE with the editor of Bicycling Magazine I hear that Sling Aircraft’s Tagatis can cost almost R100,000 apiece. I had naively thought bikes are supposed to be the simplest and most basic form of mechanical transport. So why would a modern plane builder want to make bicycles? The development history of bicycles is in itself interesting. Perhaps surprisingly, they are a modern invention and have been around less than 150 years – just a few years longer than cars.

The velocipede was a big hit and the staff in the Michaux factory swelled from two to over 300 in five years. The problem was the rider could not pedal fast enough as the pedals were attached directly the wheel. One way to improve the gearing was to increase the diameter of the front wheel. This led to the development of the now absurd ‘penny farthing’ with its enormous front wheel.

t h e Wr i g h t s understood the impor tance of balance

Bicycle museum curator Mike Bruton says that the first commercially successful bicycle, and the beginning of the evolution of the modern bike, was the French velocipede, invented in 1863 by Pierre and Ernest Michaux in Paris. This bike, also called the boneshaker because of the bumpy ride from metal-rimmed wooden wheels, had pedals fixed to the front wheel hub.

March 2022

Mike Bruton writes that the modern bicycle only emerged in 1885 when J K Starley invented the ‘Rover safety bicycle’, that had two equal-sized wheels with the rider seated on a saddle between them, which gave the bike a lower centre of gravity compared to the wobbly penny farthing. The key was the large front sprocket wheel connected to a smaller sprocket on the rear wheel by a chain and a free wheel hub.

Sling Aircraft's Thubalethu Shange rode a Tagati 1,500 km from Gauteng to Cape Town in 9 days.

Another key feature of the modern bicycle that informed aircraft design is the strong triangular frame which can easily carry more than ten times its own weight. In 1897 Donald Menzies, the Raleigh agent in Cape Town, made the first bicycle in South Africa, called the 'Springbuck', which was, according to Bruton, the first reference to a springbok in South African sport. Bruton writes that, “The success of the Rover kickstarted a boom in cycling in the late 1890s that was experienced throughout the world. The bicycle became firmly established as the everyday means of transport, initially for the rich in place of horses, but later also for poor folk who 'took to the wheel' when more affordable bikes became available through mass production. By 1895 the price of a good horse had reached an all-time low".

up and down to take steps. It’s estimated that cycling is five times more efficient than walking, and a person driving a medium-sized car is 55 times less efficient than a cyclist. Don’t ask about bizjet efficiency. The motorbike was the natural development of the bicycle, and it appeared in 1885. Just a year later the first successful car was developed by Karl Benz which was essentially a motorised tricycle. It had spoked bicycle wheels, sprockets and chain drive, and a tiller lever that acted as a steering wheel.

Titanium was the obvious first choice

One of the many reasons for the success of the bicycle is that it is the most efficient way for man to move. Compared to walking, the cyclist saves energy by sitting and does not move his body

The interesting bit for us though is that Bruton says, “The bicycle also played a role in the development of the first airplane.” This happened just 18 years after the advent of the first motorbike. In their shop, the Wright Cycle Exchange, Orville and Wilbur Wright produced beautifully engineered touring and commuting bikes. Then, building on this, they used their know-how to invent the aeroplane. March 2022

The Wrights key achievement was not the achievement of powered flight through the successful design, building and mounting of an engine with a useful power to-weight ratio, driving efficient propellers, on their box-kite gliders. Samuel Langley had already installed a far better engine in his massive Aerodrome aircraft that plunged into the Potomac. The Wrights primary achievement was solving the problem of how to control the aeroplane once airborne. A key advantage the Wrights had as cyclists, was that they understood the importance of leaning into turns. The Wrights were also keen observers of birds’ flight – which bank to turn using wing warping, which the Wrights adopted, patented and doggedly stuck to, even though ailerons had proven superior. Before the Wrights, it was believed that to turn an aircraft a rudder providing a lateral force was required, as in a boat. The Wrights understood that, like a bicycle (and a bird), an aeroplane needed to be banked to turn, so that the ailerons and then the elevators provide the change in heading. And bicycles were not just important for addressing the question of how to control the plane in flight. The Wrights tested their aerofoil designs by mounting them on a bicycle wheel attached to the handlebars of a bike. Furthermore, the Wrights also understood the importance of lightweight design features from bicycles.

Further, it was the demand for bicycles that drove the innovation by Jules Suriray, who invented the radial ball bearing, and James Starley, the inventor of the chain-drive differential. William Ford Robinson Stanley invented steel-wheel spider spokes and Eugene Meyer the tangential spoke wire bicycle wheel. A famous bicycle frame tubing brand, Reynolds, pioneered double-butted tubing in 1898. The transfer of technologies between bikes, cars and planes has worked in both directions. Mike Burrows’ Lotus 108 carbon fibre bicycle owed its design and construction to the development of carbon fibre composite materials by Royal Air Force engineers in 1963, and to Burrows’ familiarity with aerodynamics and drag coefficients. Carbon fibre has gone on to be the material of choice for many manufacturers of bicycle frames and components. Also, the successful Fulcrum hub brand is the product of three Italian aeronautical engineering students who designed a new type of hub and bearing for their university degree. Which brings this story full circle; Sling Aircraft is using their success in aeroplane building to design and build a better bicycle. Their story starts in the Covid lockdown when the employees of Sling Aircraft rode the 35km ‘Sling Trail’ around their Tedderfield Airport base 157 times. The trail incorporates 10 km of tar road and 25 km of dirt, split into several sections which include fast gravel, single track, loose rock and stone, mud, sand and downhill. Sling Aircraft Director James Pitman had been transitioning from being a super-fit runner (and extreme sportsman – including Base jumping) to being a competitive cyclist, having competed in a number of super tough races, including the infamous Cape Epic. He explains that during these lockdown rides, with different riders on different bikes, there was lots of banter about the merits of different bicycle styles, what was the ideal machine for the various surfaces and whether, overall, a road, gravel, cross country, trail or downhill design would be best.

The Wright brothers engineering skiils enabled them to develop innovative solutions to aerodynamic problems.

March 2022

They decided to explore the various bike options. James had accumulated sufficient experience in off-road cycle racing to recognise

The Sling Aircraft heritage is boldly stamped on the titanium frame. Note the beautiful welding.

that there was a gap in the market for a quality ‘gravel bike’, that is, a bicycle that fills a need between a cross country mountain bike and a road bike. He emphasises that while their final product, now called the Tagati, is not a downhill or extreme mountain bike, it is almost everything else. Sling Cycles marketing blurb claims, “Finally, in the spirit of Orville and Wilbur Wright, who came to aircraft design as bicycle makers, the team could resist the temptation no more. Consensus was reached and soon two spanking new, freshly manufactured Sling Cycles were standing in Hangar 8, Tedderfield Air Park.” James explains that almost all their aircraft manufacturing is done in-house. Having swelled to 300 staff, they employ many experienced metal workers, with a rigorous quality control system. So they had the skills, the talent and the drive, and the directors agreed that, providing it doesn’t interfere with aircraft manufacturing, Sling Aircraft would use its skills and equipment to build bicycles as well. As with their planes, quality is a non-negotiable market differentiator. As proof of this, high utilisation Sling 2s, hammered by flying school use, are now approaching 8,000 hours total time with minimal fatigue induced wear and tear. For cycling cognoscenti, the Tagati bikes are quality kit; built out of titanium and come

standard with Campagnola Ekar gearing and a Selle Royale seat. Sling had their bike design skills in-house, in Production Manager Branko Brkljac, who is now Chief Bicycle Designer. Branko explains, “What we were looking for is a high-performance bicycle which effortlessly crosses the divide between gravel, touring, commuting, and riding a trail. Titanium was the obvious first choice – strong, light, stiff, corrosion resistant and simple to manufacture and repair. Your bicycle will still be shiny and new, even after the apocalypse. Most importantly, though, titanium is the gold standard for ride comfort, regardless of geometry.” For pilots who want to load their bikes in the back of their planes, the Tagati can be bought with a ‘frame-break’ for folding. Although they say the Sling TSi and Sling High Wing can take two large frame Tagatis with the wheels off. The bottom line is that the aircraft design philosophy was a core value. This is reflected in the words “Built like a plane” stamped into the bike’s frame. They built the incredible success of Sling Aircraft on the basis of a quality product that is simple and strong and above all else – FUN. Sling Cycles shares the same values and ethos.

guy@saflyermag.co.za March 2022

A super sports car soul and the functionality typical for an SUV: this is Lamborghini Urus, the world’s first Super Sport Utility Vehicle. Identifiable as an authentic Lamborghini with its unmistakable DNA, Urus is groundbreaking: the extreme proportions, the pure Lamborghini design and the outstanding performance make it unique. Powered by a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine producing 650 hp and 850 Nm of torque, Urus accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.6 seconds and reaches a top speed of 305 km/h. The design, performance, driving dynamics and driving emotion flow effortlessly into this visionary approach to Lamborghini DNA.

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March 2022

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March 2022

HELICOPTER OPS: GEORGE TONKING

SEARCH AND RESCUE “Who will come to find me if I go down?” I often wonder while flying alone in the outer reaches of the bushveld. It’s not that I’m obsessive-compulsive. I’ve always just been fascinated with the idea of rescue; how you can exercise the full capabilities of the helicopter to help a person in need. AS YOU MAY HAVE PICKED UP in my previous articles, I love flying, but I also enjoy the people aspect of the work just as much. Years ago, when I first signed up to be a pilot at the Protea Coin Group, I worked under Waal de Waal, the COO at the time. Waal, or Delta Whiskey, as he’s affectionately known to his ex-101 Romeo Mike battalion compadres, is a man who learnt the importance of rescue first-hand. While in the army way back when, he accidentally triggered a POMZ anti-personnel mine somewhere beyond the northern border of South West Africa. After being carried on a makeshift stretcher for many miles, he was casevaced by Puma.

A few years ago, I was introduced to Greg Critchley, an interesting fellow who works as a radar controller for Air Traffic and Navigation Services at OR Tambo International Airport. He’s the guy who looks at your radar dot on his screen and tells you where to go on Joburg North frequency. His other job is as the ARCC (Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre) deputy chief.

sur vivors requiring ex traction from water

“We never leave a man behind,” became one of his mantras and something he was fond of repeating during security operations. I too took it to heart, which leads me to my topic this month: Rescue.

March 2022

Essentially, the ARCC exists to search for, assist, and effect rescue operations for the survivors of aircraft accidents and forced landings in the greater SADEC region. Search And Rescue (SAR) coordination is a skill that requires bringing multiple teams together to create a unified team that works efficiently with its diverse resources, in order to save lives. With this in mind, the ARCC works with public and private sector agencies amongst others, like ATNS, SACAA, SAPS, SANDF, various Metro Emergency Medical Services, as well as stakeholders like

The Mountain Club of SA, private HEMS, and security services. On 17 November last year, the ARCC hosted a joint air rescue simulation exercise at the Bon Accord Dam outside Pretoria. Greg asked me if Bidvest Protea Coin Airwing would be interested in participating. I’m always looking to learn from other professionals personally, as well as to find training opportunities for my fellow pilots, so I jumped at the offer. Last month, another of my colleagues took part in a follow-up exercise but as I wasn’t able to attend, I’ll share my experiences from the November SAR simulation.

of the dam (clandestinely the previous day, to create as authentic a scenario as possible for the rescue group.) The wreck was an old C172 fuselage, complete with lifelike dummies close by, including one caught in a tree after being “cockpit ejected” during the “crash”. To add to the fun, a few volunteers were tasked to hide in the dam’s reeds to mimic survivors requiring extraction from water.

to be able to rescue a person in distress using a helicopter

We had two aircraft available: a standard Robinson R44 Raven II and our specialised Robinson R44, equipped with a FLIR camera. To prepare for the exercise, a team of volunteers placed a simulated aircraft wreck on the shore

All the rescue members were notified of the simulation from the base, providing a good yardstick to evaluate their realtime response. At the time of the activation, I was busy with a routine air-support patrol in the Pretoria area. We reacted to the call from the ARCC member and immediately set course for Bon Accord Dam. Once overhead the dam, my crew and I set up a grid search looking for the wreck and signs of survivors. Once we had spotted the wreck and relayed its position, we continued to search the surrounding area. In minutes, we had located two of three A welcome rest after Search & Rescue practice.

March 2022

“passengers” in the water and guided rescuers to their positions. One member from the flight remained unaccounted for, which allowed us to call in Jaacie in the FLIR-camera equipped helicopter. In 20 minutes, the Black R44 was overhead the search area, with the FLIR operator scanning the water for a thermal trace of the “survivor”. Being the first helicopter on the scene, I continued to coordinate between the FLIR helicopter and the Joint Operations Centre and rescuers in the boats, using our operations radio on-board. Eventually, the last wreck passenger was deemed to have drowned, requiring divers from the SAPS water wing to extract the remains.

Found the wreck!

Once done, we were allocated a landing zone next to Halo’s Bell 206 L4 on the edge of the dam. Refreshments were served between much banter from all the members, recounting war stories. During the following week, a detailed debriefing was chaired by the ARCC via a media platform to assess the strengths and challenges brought to light by the multi-agency simulation. Many people nowadays don’t have much good to say about the SANDF and SAPS. But, after being part of several multi-disciplinary exercises, I can attest to the fact that although both services are facing huge challenges, they do boast quality personnel.

It was and remains a great privilege to be part of the wider ARCC family. And to be able to rescue a person in distress using a helicopter has to be one of the top things you could ever do as a pilot.

Mobile Joint Operations Centre.

March 2022

SA Flyer 2022|03

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Propeller and Whirl Wind. Dynamic Propellers cc is also appointed as the sole McCauley Authorised Service Centre for the African continent. We carry a large stock holding of fast moving propellers, hubs, parts, de-icing parts, overhaul kits etc. in our inventory to cater for Hartzell, McCauley, MT – Propeller, Hoffman, Dowty, Sensenich, Whirl Wind and Hamilton standard propellers. We do a huge amount of travelling to local, domestic and neighbouring countries as well as abroad to cater for customer’s propeller requirements.

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PETER GARRISON

HE OUGHT TO BE MORE FAMOUS A few years ago some Connecticut boosters recently dusted off the claim that Gustave Whitehead, of the township of Fairfield in that great state, was “first in flight”. I, and I suspect quite a few others, emitted a sigh of jaded déjà vu. THESE “WHO WAS FIRST” arguments have become pretty tedious. Predictably, the few who were stirred to action by the Whitehead claim trotted out their own candidates: Clément Ader, Richard Pearse, Karl Jatho, Alberto SantosDumont and so on.

documented, both photographically and in extensive journals, notebooks, and correspondence. Some of the others are doubtful for various reasons, including, in the case of Ader, his batlike Éole’s lack of any provision for either stability or control. Any large object can become airborne, provided it is light enough and the wind sufficiently strong, but a practical aeroplane must be either stable or controllable, or, preferably, a little of both. Ader’s late compatriot, Alphonse Pénaud, had already demonstrated, with rubber band-powered flying models, how stability, both longitudinal and lateral, was to be achieved, but Ader, though no fool, foolishly ignored the lesson.

Ca y l e y w a s bot h a gi fte d engineer and a pers picacious phys icist

That all the usual suspects cluster around the turn of the twentieth century is no accident. The basic principles of flight were already understood. Model aeroplanes and mancarrying gliders existed. Beginning around 1890, when small, powerful gasoline engines became available, there was such a surge in aeronautical experimentation that success was both imminent and inevitable. Being first was a distinction merely of degree. The Wrights’ claim to priority is the best

March 2022

Whitehead’s claim gains at least some plausibility from the fact that he had quite a bit more power at his disposal than the Wrights

did, and as we all know, power is a great aid to flight. The aeroplane of New Zealand’s Richard Pearse, on the other hand, looks to me as though it could not possibly have become airborne, unless in a tornado, with the 15 horsepower he had available. The nearly square wing, consisting of two flat panels of fractional aspect ratio with a big slot in the middle, was just too aerodynamically inefficient to get up and stay up. But it is pointless to speculate about rival attempts. The Wrights built up to their 1903 success incrementally and systematically, and then continued to develop their designs, with unabated energy, after they had demonstrated sustained and controlled flight. I have trouble taking seriously claims that others realised “man’s age-old dream of flight” before the Wrights and then just shrugged their shoulders and went back to farming or whatever. To drift

away from such a grand project seems to me evidence not of success but, quite clearly, of frustration. A century’s adulation has engendered around the Wright brothers such a blinding aura that we neglect some of the truly great intellects that had earlier pondered the problem of “aerial navigation”. The difficulty is complicated by the fact that popular treatments of “early attempts at flight” usually founder when the authors who lack much grasp of either physics or engineering fail to distinguish between the plausible ideas of penetrating minds and the hare-brained fantasies of nitwits. The great figure at the head of the chain that led eventually to the Wrights – its links included Francis Wenham, Alphonse Pénaud, Otto Lilienthal and Octave Chanute – was an English baronet, Sir George Cayley (1773-1857). Cayley was both a gifted engineer and a perspicacious

A replica of Cayley's glider at the Yorkshire Air Museum.

March 2022

George Caley's silver disk with what evolved into the modern aeroplane. On the other side of the disk is the first diagram of aerodynamic forces.

physicist. He invented, among other things, the tension-spoke wheel and the caterpillar tractor, and described, in principle, what we now know as the gasoline engine. How little Cayley’s work has been honoured, however, may be judged from the fact that my 1958 Encyclopaedia Britannica, joy and solace of my friendless youth and faithful companion of my dotage, contains no entry for him. On the theoretical side, Cayley was the first to formulate, in 1799 – the year George Washington died and Napoleon became the ruler of France – what we now call the four forces acting upon an aeroplane in flight. He properly differentiated lift and drag, which are measured in relation to the moving air, from weight and thrust, which are related to the earth and to the axis of the thruster, respectively. Observing “the perfect ease with which some birds are suspended in long horizontal flights”, he concluded that Newton’s pessimistic prediction of the relations of lift and drag to angle of attack was incorrect, and that the most favourable ratio would be found at quite small angles of attack. He reasoned that the soaring bird, to maintain height, must compensate for gradual loss of energy by imperceptibly increasing the angle of attack of its wing before being obliged to expend a few wingbeats to restore its speed.

March 2022

“I conceive the [generation of lift at small angles of attack] may be of a different nature from what takes place at larger angles,” he wrote – a fundamental insight at a time when the roles of flow separation and stalling were unknown and the mechanism of lift was assumed to be the same at all angles of attack up to 90 degrees. On the practical side, Cayley experimented with models on the end of a whirling arm – a primitive type of wind tunnel – and correctly concluded the forces generated by the air were proportional not to velocity, as was widely thought, but to velocity squared. He reported having had man-carrying gliders built and flown. Given his apparent grasp of the fundamentals, there is no reason to disbelieve that claim. It is troubling, however, that one basic principle that seems to have eluded Cayley, in spite of its being on display in the anatomy of soaring birds, is the importance of aspect ratio to the efficiency of a wing. Cayley’s successor Francis Wenham (1824-1908), a great observer of birds, grasped this element clearly. Nevertheless, the breadth and accuracy of Cayley's insights is astounding. It’s difficult to appreciate, today, when all these principles have become common knowledge, how difficult it was to arrive at them at a time when theories of flight ranged from superstition to outright denial, and

when to assert, as Cayley did, that, “we shall be able to transport ourselves and families, and their goods and chattels, more securely by air than by water,” was to invite ridicule as a crank or a simpleton. Equally remarkable is the fact that Cayley considered it worthwhile to speculate about manned flight at a time when no method existed for propelling an aeroplane. He must have perceived that suitable engines were theoretically possible, and therefore, being desirable, likely sooner or later to be invented and built. Merely to discern the dim outlines, in a fog-shrouded future, of powered flight required a mind of exceptional penetration – or else an improbable supply of good luck. Cayley must have had some sense of how far he stood above his contemporaries: He took pains to have inscribed upon a little silver disk, the size of a medium-sized coin, a correct geometrical diagram of the forces acting upon a wing, and, on the obverse, a picture of a man-carrying aeroplane. Charity obliges us to consider the tiny image schematic; the size and

shape of the wing, and the flippers, resembling the tails of fishes, provided for propulsion, are visibly unequal to their tasks. Cayley, who calculated with precision the motive force required for flight and the weight of a suitable steam engine – the only type of practical prime mover then known – certainly knew it. On the other hand, the general arrangement of his tiny aircraft, including vertical and horizontal stabilizers well behind the wing, is the one we use today. In creating that little medallion, Cayley, classically educated like all English noblemen of his day, must have recalled the boast of the Roman poet Horace that his work was “a monument more enduring than bronze.” The silver disk, now in the Science Museum in London, was likewise a bid – more diffident than the ancient Roman’s – for immortality. It is to us as Pioneer’s golden disk, engraved with the naked figures of Adam and Eve, will be to lobster-like aliens who may someday intercept it beside a distant star. j

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PLANE TALK - JIM DAVIS

NO MUSIC

FOR ME, THANKYOU Next time you are eating your favourite choccie while reading a good book, try see if you can enjoy both at exactly the same moment. It doesn’t really work, does it? IN FACT, I AM TOLD by people who seem to know, that one can’t fully enjoy good food and good music simultaneously. Only one can have your undivided attention at a time. The word undivided pretty much clinches it. What’s all this got to do with flying? Well, I was browsing through my favourite on-line aviation chat site the other day when I came across a discussion on what was the best way to listen to music while flying. That’s not a difficult question, you buy an airline ticket and use the best whiz-bang ear thingies you can afford.

drag myself into the current century, for which I failed to thank them. But I am still on a roll, and I will tell you why in a moment, because you – dear reader – as they used to say, have two advantages, you are more intelligent than the mob I was dealing with, and you can’t answer back.

I don’ t want to be ins ulate d f r om f l y ing

But no, that’s not the answer the punters were looking for. It seems they were keen to be PIC of a 50 year old 210, Bonnie, or Boere Boeing, with a wandering autopilot, while giving their full attention to Beethoven. Hmmm not for me. This feels so wrong, on so many levels, yet when I expressed this opinion on the forum I was shouted down by pretty much everyone. Most of my detractors thought it was an age thing, and rather rudely offered advice on how to

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So here are my thoughts on the matter, and once you have bought into my argument, I will tell you a story which I think pretty much clinches it.

Don’t get me wrong, a swarthy character with a black bow-tie and a violin can do much to ginger up a romantic dinner and a boom-box thumping out 60s music will enhance your Harley ride along route 66. It’s just that we are not wired to give our full attention to two things at once. Sampling a great wine doesn’t go with watching a lion and a buffalo settling a dispute, in the same way that savouring a Havana cigar doesn’t go with steeplechasing. Sure, if you are wallowing across the Karoo in

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The risk in flying a slow plane is that you may run out of fuel returning in an unexpected headwind.

your 420 Merc you can relieve the boredom by winding up the volume on the Beatles, but this is not really what I’m talking about. Actually Chalky Stobbart, of Henshaw Challenge fame, was the only one to have a valid point – he said when you are flying for hours, in a single engine aircraft over the sea, or the desert, or at night, music helps to take your mind off what will happen if the engine comes unglued and goes to visit it’s forefathers. But for those who find flying their own aircraft is so tedious that they need the Beatles or Beethoven to help them through the monotony, maybe they should not have lashed out millions on an aerie in the first place. On the other hand, perhaps it is just me. I enjoy flying. I like to have a colourful WAC on my lap with 20 mile markers dividing up my track. I like to mark little farm strips on it in case I need them one day. I like to see which way the cows are pointing and which way the dust blows behind

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a tractor, and what sort of patterns the wind makes on dams. I like to watch the way the cloud shadows move across the ground and see how that translates to changing ETAs and heading numbers. I like to listen to the sounds of the engine, and to play with manifold pressure, mixture and revs until I find the sweet spot. And I like to watch for the minutest variations in engine temps. I like to keep a close eye on how much fuel I have left, and plan diversions accordingly. I also like to listen to other traffic, both near and far – to hear what’s happening in the sky around me. I like to see how the OAT changes along the route, particularly during a climb, and l note how that effects the types of cloud I see, and what turbulence I will experience. I like to note the haze and the level at which fair-weather Cu’s have their bases. I like the feel of the controls in my hands so much that I can’t imagine switching on the autopilot except for a few minutes now and then so I can chow a sarmie of pour a mug of coffee. I just love flying.

I don’t want to be insulated from it. And I don’t want any distractions while I am having fun. So now let me tell you a story about not paying attention to what’s going on. Many years ago, sorry I mean last week – Dr Gleitch doesn’t seem to think that pre-2000 aviation is interesting enough – I was at Beaufort West, about to conduct an initial PPL crosscountry test in a magic little Piper Cub. Now, Beaufort West sits near the base of the Nuweveldberge range. It had three of the biggest and best gravel runways I have ever seen. They are 08/26, 16/34 and I don’t remember the name of the other one – perhaps 02/20 – making it pretty much true north/south if you get rid of the variation. The runways are flat as a salt pan, billiard table smooth and massively long and wide. They used to run a twice weekly passenger service there, using fourengined Skymasters (DC4s) and Daks.

air descends from above to replace it. Of course, the air that descends into the high pressure area is heated by compression – like a bicycle pump. Then, as this hot air flows out towards the coast, it gets heated more by passing over hot ground, and then heated some more by further compression as it descends from the inland plateau to the lower-lying areas. In Europe it is known as a Foehn or Föhn wind – the latter also means hairdryer in German and it is a very appropriate name for this hot, dry wind. It contains positive ions – whatever they are – that put everyone in a bad mood. I have heard that if you murder your wife, or your neighbour’s wife, during such a wind, the judge will let you off with a small fine and a warning to adopt a more Christian attitude.

t he w inds ock was as limp as a par s on’s pe ck e r

The weather is perfect for most of the year. Almost cloudless, but perhaps not quite perfect. You can get a layer of dust and haze which takes away the horizon and forces you to climb above it, to do the early stages of PPL training – which calls for a clear horizon. And, every now and then, you can get a fearsome Berg wind which howls off the mountains and gives you a tumble-drier flight. A number of aircraft have been reduced to scrap while trying to land in the gusts and swirls of that northerly wind. I know of a C172, a Bonanza and a Globe Swift. Before I go on, we need a quick met refresher course. A Berg wind is a hot, usually strong wind, which is caused by a high-pressure area inland. The air gets pushed away from the high, and more

The interesting thing about a Berg wind is that as it comes over escarpments and mountains it initially stays above the cool night air of the low-lying regions for a while This means that you can take off on a chilly 2°C morning and climb to 500ft in beautifully smooth, cold air. Then suddenly you are battered by a 40 kt, 40°C oven blast. Jets that encounter this inversion, as it’s known, coming out of Cape Town literally feel as if they have lost an engine as the temperature plays havoc with engine thrust. This inversion layer – the meeting of the hot and cold air – is very well defined and sudden. It normally descends slowly to ground level during the day. I have set the scene for how a fragile Cub might behave when it encounters this fire-eating monster. It was early in the morning, and I was squished March 2022

into the front seat of this dear little aeroplane. It smelt, as they all do, of avgas and dope. I had a clipboard with the test form, and a Zane Grey cowboy book to help while away the slow, boring, triangular cross-country flight over the semi-desert. The pupil had more room in the back, but he needed it to organise his maps, rule, flight-log and whirly-wheel. Our route was to take us on a south-westerly heading to Willowmore – 84 miles away – where we would stop and refuel. Then we were to fly 55 miles west to Klaarstroom, then turn north for the last 65 mile leg back to Beaufort West. The whole thing should take us a bit less than three hours in no wind. Therein lies the rub. As we taxied out the windsock was as limp as a parson’s pecker, so we backtracked to the threshold of runway 08, and – after completing the normal pretakeoff ritual, which in a Cub is almost nothing – we line up and set sail.

the oven of a Berg wind. Okay, so now I know what’s going on… but the full significance of it only penetrates my skull a little while later. I watch while the pupe steers towards Willowmore, using a wobbly little whisky compass. Once I am comfortable that we are going the right way, I settle into Zane Grey. I get to about page 2 when I see a tiny village almost flash past on our left. Something is very wrong. Nothing ever flashes past a Cub. This wonderful little aeroplane has many endearing characteristics, but speed is not one of them. I haul my battered, and now sweat stained, map out of my shirt front and soon realize that the surprise village is Rietbron. It should have put in an appearance exactly 40 minutes after takeoff. But there it is – a quarter-of-an-hour early. I swing round in my seat and grab the pupe’s whirly wheel out of his astonished hands. It doesn’t take much twiddling to let me see, with horror, what the big 60-minute pointer is screaming at me.

we ran out of f uel and lande d amongs t boulde r s

Now at just under 3000 ft, with two up and a full tank, a Cub is not a ball of fire. We trundle and rumble and slowly the tail comes up and then there is a lot more trundling. After perhaps half a kilometre of this I begin to take an interest in the proceedings.

The revs are fine but the airspeed is very lazy. Hell, we only need 45 mph to get into the air, but it’s certainly taking its time to reach that target today. I glance at the windsock and am appalled to see it is standing out, almost in the direction we are going. We have perhaps 15 kts on the tail. But we still have at least another kilometre of runway so I sit and watch the proceedings. We eventually wallow into the air. It takes a moment for me to realize what’s happened. We have left the world of a bracing Karoo morning, with ice in the windmill water-tanks, and entered

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We have a groundspeed of 113 mph and an airspeed of about 70 – giving us a tailwind of 43 mph. “I’ve got her,” I yell and stand the Cub on its ear for a 180 to head for home. “What’s going on?” My pupe is not only amazed – he is seriously dischuffed. Testing Officers are not meant to grab the controls unless death appears on a collision course. “Just hold her heading back to Beaufort West. It is going to take us an hour and three quarters to get there – if we don’t run out of fuel first.”

By now we can see almost nothing – it’s not a sand storm – but there is enough red dust to cut visibility down to about half a K. And it gets everywhere. It has that dry Karoo smell. It gets in your ears and nose and it makes your map feel all gritty. And as the sweat runs down your face and chest it makes little muddy rivers. I don’t want to bore my congregation with a detailed account of how we got hurled all over the sky in the turbulence, and how we were overtaken by a VW Combi, which was also battling the wind as it tailed a stream of red dust on the dirt road below us. I would also prefer not to mention the fact that it took a long time for us to overtake a gentleman on a bicycle. Our TAS of perhaps 75 mph gave us a groundspeed of just 27 mph.

Beaufort West

Beaufort Cub map.

Rietbron

Klaarstroom

We didn’t quite make it back to the airfield, we ran out of fuel on short final for the northerly runway and landed amongst boulders – but it didn’t really matter because we had no forward speed when we touched down. Fortunately, we were spotted by the other pupes who charged out in a bakkie, and together we all manhandled the little aeroplane back to a hangar. Out of interest, I heard at the time that the village of Rietbron was for sale, complete with church, pub, café and a few houses. It may still be, for all I know.

Willowmore

And now for a quick and shameful debrief. I was entirely to blame for this near catastrophe. I had not insisted on a met report for such a short flight – and particularly as I “knew” the weather was fine – there was not a cloud within 500 miles. But worse still I trusted the autopilot – ok, pupe – so much that I felt relaxed about burying myself in my iPod music – sorry, Zane Grey book – and forgot that, as Pilot In Command, my duty was to be wide awake. j

March 2022

NEWS

MAVERICK'S FLYBY SA FLYER’S HOMETOWN for the past few years is Hoedspruit in Limpopo, which has been abuzz with excitement. For three months Top Gun movie star Tom Cruise and his immediate entourage have taken over an exclusive boutique luxury lodge in the town’s Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate. Tom is an accomplished pilot, who owns and flies many aircraft, including his own P51 Mustang. For Mission Impossible 6 he learned to fly helicopters and he owns an Airbus A350 B3 Squirrel. He brought this helicopter with him to South Africa, along with two matching pairs of beautiful Stearman 450 biplanes for the movie shoot.

with a "MiG" (actually an F-5), Cruise’s character Maverick buzzes the tower in his F-14 Tomcat, ‘Ghost rider’ despite having been refused permission by the tower, telling him, “Negative Ghost rider. The pattern’s full.” One of the more remarkable parallels is that a founding member of the Top Gun fighter pilot school was South Africa’s Brigadier General Dick Lord. And Lord later went on to become the Officer Commanding 1 Squadron, based at Hoedspruit. Cruise’s flyby was noted as ‘one of those ‘full circle moments. Goosebumps stuff.’ j

Cruise uses his Squirrel to commute between the luxury lodge in Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate and the movie shoot. His landing pad is within the CTR of the Hoedspruit Air Force Base so he is in contact with Hoedspruit Tower for each flight. Lt Colonel Liezle Hendricks is an Air Traffic Controller at Hoedspruit AFB and she asked Cruise to give them a flyby. Ever obliging, he did – and it was captured on video – https://m. facebook.com/groups/238511740496120/ permalink/690021755345114/ This flyby drew a number of parallels to the original Top Gun movie where one of the most famous scenes is where, after a showdown

March 2022

Tom Cruising.

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March 2022

FLIGHT REPORT: AIRBUS H130

AIRBUS H130 – PROOF OF A GOOD PEDIGREE Text: Guy Leitch with Tami van Heerden and Howard Curran Air to Air Images – Grant Duncan-Smith

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The H130 is the ideal helicopter for flipping tourists around the picturesque Cape Peninsula.

Some helicopter designs are so good that not only are they a great success in their own right – but they spawn a series of variants. One such is the Airbus H130, which is a very successful outgrowth of the original AS350 Ecureuil ‘Squirrel’.

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THE EXCELLENT DNA of the basic AS350 Ecureuil allowed it to grow into purpose-specific designs which, thanks to the AS350 pedigree, are still the best of breed. Realising that there was a large demand for helicopters with a large cabin for sight-seeing, the H130 was introduced in 1999 (named the EC130) as a wide-body version of the AS350.

environmental control system and a host of other improvements. The big thing is the cabin. Compared to the AS350, the H130 provides a much wider and larger cabin volume. It has the largest cabin of any single engine helicopter in its class, with a claimed 54 per cent greater unobstructed space and 143 per cent more baggage space than its natural competitor – the Bell 407.

The Fr e nch mak e t he bes t helicopte r e ngines

The H130 was an immediate success and it continued with minimal changes until 2011 when in response to customer surveys, Eurocopter upgraded it as the H130 T2. The T2 featured active vibration control, a more powerful engine, upgraded gearbox, an improved

The larger cabin takes 13 knots from the AS350’s cruise speed, but this is a happy trade-off for sightseeing operations. In exchange for those 13 knots, the six passengers get an unsurpassed

H130 puts the pilot on the left hand side to reduce passengers bumping the collective.

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The B4 with 6+1 climbing at 1200fpm with engine parameters on the very user friendly VEMD display.

room with a view and it excels at creature comforts, thanks to its internal volume and a smooth and quiet ride. The H130 can be configured in a choice of three seating configurations: a standard layout with a pilot plus six passenger seats; a club-type arrangement with the two front passenger seats facing aft, and a higher-density installation that squeezes three front passenger seats beside the pilot. Large cockpit doors accommodate the crew and, in line with its sightseeing role, access for passengers could not be better. Left and right sliding doors and skid-mounted boarding steps provide easy access to the slimline seats. The absence of a door frame, with both cockpit and sliding doors open, means that the entire

side of the H130 cabin is unobstructed when open. This easy access and flat cabin floor are particularly attractive to emergency medical service operators. Attention to detail in the design is evident in things like the simple collective down-lock and the electrical interlock that prevents engine starting unless the rotor brake is stowed. The H130 is popular with Air Medical Services (AMS) operators due to its large cabin being capable of accommodating up to two stretchers and two medics, as well as two baggage compartments for storing equipment, the wide side doors for access, and its enclosed Fenestron tail for safety. However, in practice, one stretcher with attendants is the usual fit. For law enforcement, its ability to mount and March 2022

carry optional equipment is well developed. This includes: electro-optical systems, forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras and search lights.

Flexible seating configuration gives up to seven passengers a great view out.

In a cargo and sling role, it is common for it to be fitted with additional external mirrors and it benefits from a maximum all up weight increase of 1200lbs.

ON THE GROUND For this review we had the benefit of two H130s operated by Cape Town Helicopters: an H130-B4 which was the original design specification and a more recent H130-T2. Although very similar in appearance, Airbus Helicopters claims that 70 percent of the B4 structure was modified to make the T2. The T2 that is the subject of our review is ZT-RMS, based at Cape Town Helicopters’ V&A Waterfront operation. On the pad it is apparent that the H130 and its smaller sibling the H120, have a common lineage with the AS350 Squirrel in that they are based on the same fuselage, tail boom, Starflex rotor system and gearbox. An immediately evident difference to the Squirrel is that the H130 has a Fenestron tail rotor and the big, yet still sleek, glass-bubble cabin. Given the amount of glass, air conditioning is a popular option, particularly for Africa’s hot weather operations.

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The rotor head has no ball bearings requiring lubrication, which means low maintenance and fewer parts to go wrong. The three composite blades are attached to the head by spherical thrust bearings and, as the name suggests, the head flexes, allowing for improved damping and a smooth ride. The rotor head requires on-condition maintenance only. The H130 uses the well-proven dual hydraulic system from the AS355, a twin engine version of – yes, you guessed it – the AS350. The hydraulic systems power the cyclic, collective and yaw pedals.

The French make the best helicopter engines – as evidenced by Bell selecting the Safran Arrius 2R for their Jet Ranger 505. In the H130 the Arriel 2D has a maximum rated power of 950shp. The Arriel features dual-channel fullauthority digital engine controls (FADEC) with manual back-up. To make the H130 as passenger friendly as possible the smoothness of the ride quality is addressed by the Active Vibration Control System (AVCS), which consists of five accelerometers and four linear actuators that serve to generate “anti-vibration” to smooth the ride at the rotor’s “three per rev” frequency. The system was adapted from the much larger EC225 Super Puma and there is a significant weight and complexity penalty for it, but it shows the clear focus on passenger comfort in this helicopter.

for inspection and servicing. There’s no need to open any cowlings as almost all the essential checks can be done by just walking around the helicopter. The glass windows for the engine oil and hydraulic fluid levels are easily visible, and even the fire extinguisher pressure gauge can be checked from outside. The cowling latches and maintenance steps are simple, neat and user friendly. The baggage compartments on either side are however surprisingly small. ZS-HBO has the optional bulged baggage bays but even these would struggle to absorb weekend bags for all pax. In contrast, the smaller H120 has a huge baggage bay. ZT-RMS has an empty weight of 3480 pounds. This is heavy for a standard H130-T2 but it includes a floats kit which weighs 130 lb. Loading a pilot plus 6 x 180 lb people and 800 lb of fuel (2 hours) brings the gross weight to 5510 lb, which, very impressively, is under the 5,512 lb maximum all-up weight. (The max weight increases to 6,724 lb for external loads).

Atte nt ion to det ail in t he des ign is ev ide nt

Further to the passengerfocused design, a greatly reduced noise signature is the reason why the Fenestron was chosen over the conventional tail rotor on the AS350. The enclosed-fan Fenestron is typically quieter than a conventional tail rotor, although significantly heavier. Aerospatiale’s Eurocopter engineers reduced the noise signature further with asymmetric blade spacing. Another benefit is that it vastly reduces the risk of passengers walking into the tail rotor.

FLYING THE H130

SA Flyer’s Traffic Manager Tami van Heerden, has plenty of time on H130s, flying it for what it does best; flipping tourists in the hot and high environment that is Victoria Falls. She shares her insights and experiences: “As to be expected from the huge glass canopy, the view out is excellent from every seat. Unusually for helicopters, the pilot-in-command flies the H130 from the left seat. This allows passengers to get in and out without having to climb over the collective if dual controls are installed.”

For the flight review we sampled the earlier and lower powered H130-B4 model, ZS-HBO. The pre-flight inspection reveals impressive attention to detail in the accessibility of the components

A further benefit of having a left-seat PIC is noted by a pilot who uses the H130 for sling loads. He reports that the pilot-on-the-left facilitates vertical reference hovering while March 2022

Both sides of the cabin open wide for easy loading and unloading of pax.

Simple and low maintenance Starflex rotor head.

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leaning out over the collective, rather than away from it. Unlike its smaller sister, the H120, which is wellknown for its tricky start, the H130’s FADEC endows it with it a simple push-button start. This is particularly useful for AMS and law enforcement missions, where time is tight and simplicity of operation is crucial. Thanks to the full dual channel Fadec, starting the H130’s Arriel really is painless – and removes the risk of over-temping, especially on the quick ‘load and go’ turnarounds for tourist operations. Three overhead push-buttons simplify the systems’ check, which include the two Fadec channels, the caution panel and hydraulics. Pilots used to American helicopters need to remember that, thanks to its European rotor, right-pedal is needed when the collective is raised. To compensate, right pedal displacement signals the Fadec to increase rotor rpm, thereby increasing the Fenestron’s authority.

light, yet tight and responsive. The downside to responsive controls is that it keeps pilots busy in turbulent conditions. No stability augmentation system (SAS) is available on the H130, and none is required. With Cape Town Helicopters Chief Pilot Howard Curran flying the H130-B4, a typical departure from Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront on a 24 degree Cape day with 232kg of fuel being slightly more than tanks and six pax on board yields a comfortable 1200 fpm climb at 70 knots using just 80 percent torque and 95% NG. This generous power reserve over the lower powered B4 model is one of the H130s great strengths and is good news for engine life. The H130’s glass cockpit features the catchily named Meggitt Avionics Vehicle and Engine Management Display (VEMD), which features an LCD screen in the centre of the instrument binnacle. The major innovation of the VEMD is the big round first limit indicator (FLI) which synthesises the engine data: N1 speed, turbine outlet temperature and torque — and presents the percentage of available power being demanded with respect to whichever parameter is limiting under the current conditions. The big round analogue gauge makes interpretation effortless and is a great example of how sophisticated design can still be simple. The graphics are more reminiscent of a 1980s computer game than modern Garmin EFIS, but they do the job perfectly. The T2 brings the panel up to date with a glass cockpit Garmin G500H with synthetic vision system (SVS) and helicopter terrain avoidance and warning system (HTAWS); as well as safety enhancements such as energy-absorbing seats and a crash-resistant fuel system.

t he H130 is t hat rar it y – a s ucces s f ul hy br id

Similarly, rotor speed is governed in proportion to torque, increasing from 378 rpm at flight idle on the ground to 394 rpm at max continuous power, neatly providing the most anti-torque authority when you use the most torque. For helicopter operations this is a further advantage of Fadec, where, instead of governing the rotor at a fixed speed, the rotor can be governed at the optimal speed for the conditions. Despite its larger engine and cabin, the H130 is still a member of the Ecureuil family and its handling exemplifies its French moniker ‘Squirrel’. The hydraulically powered controls are

March 2022

Fenestron tail rotor has plenty of authority and is safer for passenger handling.

After lift-off the low vibration levels through translational lift and at cruise speed is a great feature. The interior noise level is pleasantly low and good news for neighbours is that the over-flight noise levels are best in class. Airbus Helicopters claims that the H130 meets the stringent noise requirements of the Grand Canyon National Park. This low noise signature is another benefit of the automatic variable rotor speed, which is gradually becoming standard on many Fadec-controlled helicopters. Recommended cruise speed is 120 KIAS burning around 340 lb/h fuel. Fast cruise is 132 KIAS burning 380 lb/h. VNE is a generous 155 KIAS. In ground effect hover at max weight at ISA + 20 is 7500 ft and, in the same conditions, out of ground effect hover is 5600 ft. In real life the B4’s cruise at 2500ft the speed

March 2022

was 115 KIAS at just 74% torque and fuel flow was around 150ks/h. Cape Town Helicopters’ Chief Pilot Howard Curran reports that in the hover there is sufficient power in the controls to make flying up to 30 knots sideways and backwards easy, which is appreciated in their V&A operations as the flight path for the approach to land is from the east with a turn to the south, all of which can be tricky in the blustery winds. The low airspeed flight envelope is impressively large, being limited by airspeed, power setting and load factor that illuminate the “LIMIT” light on the VEMD. It is beautifully simple and much appreciated in Cape Town’s blustery wind conditions. Howard Curran reports that the power required to hover out of ground effect is 75 percent

at typical near-full loads, decreasing to 60 percent in ground effect. The handling becomes noticeably more sensitive in ground effect. Aggressive pedal inputs induce no more than about a ten percent torque spike.

Shut down doesn’t take long: fuel flow to ground idle, Master and all other electronics off and the Turbomecca Arriel only needs a minute’s cooling before shut down with the rotor brake engaged as required.

Glide performance is typical of this class of helicopter. At a typical 70KIAS it descends at 1500 fpm, so an auto from 3000 ft should get you more than 2 nm – or nearly 4 km. This is reassuring for Cape Town Helicopter’s operation for flights around the Cape Peninsula which are usually flown at 3000 feet asl within comfortable reach of the shoreline.

CONCLUSION

Landing is straightforward except that again you have to remember the European rotor rotation and touch down right-side skid first. The Fenestron is powerful at all speeds so there is almost no chance of loss of tail-rotor effectiveness.

The H130 has been a deserved success for Airbus. As far back as 2008 it overtook Bell’s ubiquitous 206 as the best-selling single-engine helicopter. Aircraft reference Conklin & de Decker note that,“serious helicopter buyers are usually impressed with price, range, speed and cabin size. After consideration of the price, range, speed and cabin size, we can conclude that the Airbus H130 displays a high level of productivity.”

Baggage bay is small as suits a sightseeing helicopter. ZS-HMO has the bulged bay option.

March 2022

The bottom line is that the H130 is that rarity in aviation – a successful hybrid. It leverages the decades-old success of the utilitarian Ecureuil family while bringing new technology to bear upon a specific market focus – namely tourism and AMS. Aerial tourism companies demanded a helicopter with a spacious cabin and a

Plenty of power enables an increased useful load for sling ops.

March 2022

comfortable ride, and operators find those attributes beneficial for a diverse range of missions. The H130 is a winning combination; powerful, a good load hauler hot and high, yet simple to operate and pleasant to fly. j

Specifications and Performance AIRBUS H130 SPECIFICATIONS

Passengers:

1 + 6 passengers or 1 + 7 passengers

Casualty evacuation:

1 pilot + 1 stretcher + 2 medics + 1 seat

Cargo transportation:

1 pilot + 3.7 m3 (130.7 ft3) load in cabin

Maximum takeoff weight (MTOW):

2,500 kg 5,512 lb

Max takeoff weight with external load:

3,050 kg 6,724 lb

Empty weight, standard aircraft:

1,433 kg 3,159 lb

Useful load:

1,067 kg 2,352 lb

Maximum cargo-sling load:

1,500 kg 3,307 lb

Standard fuel capacity:

426 kg 939 lb

Engine:

1 Turbomeca Arriel 2D - 710 kW 952 shp PERFORMANCE

Maximum speed (Vne):

287 km/h 155 kts

Fast Cruise speed at MCP:

236 km/h 127 kts

Rate of climb:

8.0 m/s 1,600 ft/min

Hover ceiling OGE at takeoff power:

2,950 m 9,675 ft*

Range no reserve, at fast cruise:

606 km 327 NM

Endurance (without reserve):

4 hr 00 min

Maximum operating altitude:

7,010 m (PA) 23, 000 ft (PA)

Maximum temperature:

ISA + 35° C (limited to + 50° C)

March 2022

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OPERATOR REPORT By Grant Duncan-Smith

- CAPE TOWN HELICOPTERS ON THEIR AIRBUS H130

Versatility, safety and reliability are the stand-out comments from Cape Town Helicopters’ pilots as to why the H130 is one of their firm favourites. For a single-engine helicopter, the H130 punches above its’ weight compared to competing helicopters in its class such as the Bell 407 and 206 Long Ranger. CAPE TOWN HELICOPTERS operations vary from tourist-related charters from the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town at sea-level, to bushveld flying in Maun, Botswana with their sister company, Maun Delta Helicopters. In remote locations, the ability and flexibility of the H130-T2 to be able to operate in hot and highaltitude environments is invaluable. Capacity can be adjusted from high density tourist seating to casualty evacuation, with for example a pilot, 2 stretchers and 2 medical attendants.

The flat floor cabin and sliding doors allow easy loading and access. The pilot feels more in contact with the passengers as there isn’t a large bulkhead between the fore and aft cabin. Visibility in the cabin is excellent, which is an essential feature for tourists and for operational missions.

The pilot f e els mor e in cont ac t w it h t he pas s e nge r s

Cape Town Helicopters operates two Airbus H130s, an Airbus H120, and a Robinson R44 to service their Cape Town operations. The H130 with its capacity to accommodate six

March 2022

A Cape Town Helicopters H130 on the V&A helipads.

March 2022

Tourists after the unforgettable thrills of an 8-minute flip.

passengers all in forward-facing seats provides flexibility in a tourist charter market, where passenger number and routes change on a regular basis.

Engineers find maintenance on the H130 easier than similar helicopter types. The 10% Over Service Extension provides some operational breathing room in between inspections.

The most popular sightseeing ride is the very affordable City Express flight which last just 8 minutes but which nonetheless fits in memorable views of Table Mountain and the city bowl and then round the Peninsula to Lions Lead. Thanks to well-trained ground crew, passenger loading is smooth and efficient. Engine start-up and shutdown cycles are quick. The H130s ability to launch with minimal delay is essential for tourist operations, medical evacuation or other work where time is of the essence. Remarkably, for the City Express flight the H130 B4 burns just 15kg of fuel.

Helicopter noise levels in tourist areas such as Cape Town or a remote wildlife setting such as Maun are always contentious. The Fenestron tail rotor and automatic variable rotor speed significantly reduces these noise levels. Given its success in the specialised mission of helicopter sightseeing, the H130 should continue to outperform its competitors and grow in popularity worldwide. j

March 2022

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JIM DAVIS

Z S -OCH CE S S NA U2 0 6 G

S TAT I ONA I R •

•

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-OCH Date of Accident: 04 May 2012 Time of Accident: 1620Z Type of Aircraft: Cessna U206G Stationair Type of Operation: Private Pilot-in-command Licence Type: Private Age: 47 Licence Valid: Yes Pilot-in-command Flying Experience: Total Flying approx. 350. Hours on Type: approx. 50 Last point of departure: Piet Retief aerodrome (FAPF): Mpumalanga province. Next point of intended landing: Greytown aerodrome (FAGY): Kwa-Zulu Natal province. Location of the accident site: In the vicinity of Stanger (Kwa-Dukuza) area into the plantations at GPS South 29° 03.297’ East 030° 37.856’) at an elevation of 1144 feet AMSL. Meteorological Information: Low clouds (stratus and possibly fog) were observed in the vicinity of Greytown Number of people on board: 1 + 1 No. of people injured: 0 No. of people killed: 2

History of Flight: On Friday afternoon 04 May 2012 at approximately 1530Z, the pilot accompanied by his wife departed Piet Retief on a private flight bound for Greytown. No flight plan was filed and the weather at the departure aerodrome was reported to be acceptable for VFR flights.

March 2022

Some witnesses in the Stanger area (a farmer and his family) located at a distance of approximately 1.69 nautical miles north of Greytown stated that they saw a small single engine Cessna flying at approximately 200 feet AGL, with the navigation lights flashing, routing in a south westerly direction. The aircraft then executed a 180° turn just before the De Rust private aerodrome. They also recalled

The Cessna 206 accident aircraft.

observing the aircraft making a right hand turn in a south westerly direction alongside the R74 road. According to the witnesses there was an unusual spluttering noise from the engine. After about 1.35 nautical miles the aircraft disappeared from their sight and a loud explosion was heard. The farmer immediately requested his wife and son to drive to the site of the explosion to observe what had happened. After approximately 20 minutes, the farmer´s wife and son located the accident site just as the aircraft burst into flames. They reported that they couldn’t get closer to the accident site because of the fire blaze and confirmed that there was no movement (occupants having survived) around the area.

they will be leaving Piet Retief for Greytown at approximately 1530Z and that they will be performing a flight past at the school. The accident happened at night time in the plantations approximately 1.7 nautical miles before the destination aerodrome

The accide nt happe ne d at night , 1.7nm be f or e t he des t inat ion

The aircraft was destroyed by the impact and post impact fire and both occupants were pronounced dead at the scene. After the accident the daughter of the deceased, a student at Hermannsburg boarding School informed one of the witnesses that she received an SMS from her parents informing her that

Weather:

A low pressure system (coastal low) propagated north eastwards along the Kwa-Zulu Natal coast. This system causes an influx (south easterly to southwesterly flow) of cool and moist maritime air into the south eastern interior of Kwa-Zulu Natal. The report indicates moist conditions as the dry-bulb and dew-point temperatures were quite close to each other (18°C and 16°C) respectively. The recorded winds were southerly to south westerly and the QNH increased between 1600 and 1700Z indicating that the coastal low had already moved north-eastwards along the coast.

March 2022

It cut a swathe through the forest.

Aids to Navigation: The aircraft was fitted with a Panel-mounted Garmin GPS 530, a transponder, an ADF and DME.

Wreckage and Impact Information: The aircraft was routing in a south westerly direction when it collided with the plantations at an altitude of 1144 feet above mean sea level (AMSL) and came to rest approximately 94.3 metres from the initial point of contact with the plantations. The wreckage was contained within 120 feet from the first point of impact. The wreckage and the high degree of damage indicated that the aircraft had impacted the ground at a nose-

March 2022

low, wing level attitude at high speed. Due to the considerable amount of energy on impact with the plantations, both wings failed at their attachment points to the fuselage. The aircraft fuel cells ruptured during the accident sequence and post impact fire erupted and consumed the entire fuselage. This limited the detailed examination of the wreckage. The engine separated from the mountings and the propeller detached from the hub. Magnetos detached from the engine during the accident sequence and were found to have been damaged. Some engine components such as the alternator and the engine starter were not found at the accident site. The nose landing gear broke off after impact and the main undercarriage was

destroyed by post impact fire. Post impact fire destroyed the entire engine instruments, and the flying instruments provided no reliable information as to their readings at the time of impact.

under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) which requires it to be conducted under the following conditions: VFR flight shall be conducted so that the aircraft is flown with visual reference to the ground by day and to identifiable objects by night…

Medical and Pathological Information:

ANALYSIS:

The pilot held a current SA CAA medical certificate, had known eye-sight difficulties and was required to wear corrective lenses.

There is a possibility that en-route to Greytown the pilot entered IMC, required an emergency descent, and opted to fly alongside the R74 road as visual reference. With the Stanger area being so unpopulated with little lighting at night ("black hole" effect with minimum visual horizon) coupled with the pilot not being IFR rated, it is possible that he lost track of the attitude and position of the aircraft.

Tests and Research: The Investigation revealed that the aircraft had enough fuel for the planned flight. According to documentation no defects were recorded since the last maintenance. The engine, a Continental IO-520F, and the propeller were recovered from the accident site and sent to an engine overhaul facility. No pre accident defects were found that would have caused abnormal operation of the engine and propeller.

According to the AIP at Greytown, only instrument rated pilots may operate there at night. The pilot probably did not acquaint himself with the AIP. It is the responsibility of the pilots to consult with the AIPs, AICs, and NOTAMS.

Jim’s comments Weather and Minimum Altitude Regulations: The flight from FAPF to FAGY was conducted

There is something very worrying about this accident. It seems to be more than just another VFR flight into IMC. The fact that it happened at

Very little was left after the post-impact fire.

March 2022

night is probably significant. It doesn’t have the feel of a cowboy sticking his neck out, but rather of a fairly inexperienced pilot simply letting things gang up on him. In other words, it could happen to most of us. Before we look at some of the poor choices the pilot made, I must clear up a couple of things about the report: • Witnesses say they heard an unusual spluttering noise from the engine. I am not sure how seriously to take this. Witnesses are notoriously unreliable. Was the witness an aircraft engineer, or a farm worker? We don’t know. Photos of the wreck indicate it would be almost impossible to establish whether a fuel line was leaking of blocked, or a magneto was shorting. So we will never know whether the accident was caused by, or partially caused by engine problems. • This was not a classic graveyard spiral. The report says the aircraft was nose-low, wing level attitude at high speed when it crashed. • The report implies the fuel cells ruptured during the accident and a fire erupted immediately. However the farmer’s wife claims that the aircraft burst into flames as she arrived at the scene 20 minutes later. • The report says the pilot had ‘eyesight difficulties’ and was required to wear

corrective lenses. This opens a huge can of worms. It seems that, as with driving licences that require the wearing of corrective lenses, there is no stipulation whether the lenses are for near or far sight. It’s obviously ridiculous to wear reading glasses for driving or night flying. But the letter of the law seems to dictate you should. Food for thought. My glasses, for seeing distant things, make virtually no difference during the day, but give a massive improvement at night. This is a very common condition. It’s possible this pilot needed glasses for far sight and didn’t use them. We will never know. • The Regs say that night VFR must be conducted by reference to “identifiable objects”. This has been tested in the courts, and it was ruled that town lights alone are not considered to be identifiable objects. This is why you need good moonlight to help locating identifiable objects. • To me it sounds like it could have been a beautiful clear night with a decent moon, and the only weather was patches of fog around the Greytown area. The pilot could have misidentified his exact position, or could have been deceived by the slant, or oblique visibility illusion. This allows you to see clearly below you, but once on final approach, the runway disappears because The problerm of visibility through fog.

March 2022

The impact forces were severe enough to break off the magnetos.

you are looking diagonally through the fog. • Or it could have simply been a ‘black hole’ illusion where there are insufficient lights on the ground to give the pilot a picture of exactly where the ground is. • The false horizon illusion could have betrayed the pilot. This happens when ground lighting – possibly on a hillside, appears to mark the horizon. It causes serious disorientation.

What did the pilot actually do wrong? 1. He certainly let mission fixation cloud his judgement. It is a four and a half hour drive – nine hours for the return trip, and it would take less than two hours to fly there and back. 2. Why do the flight at night? Flying your family in a single at night, particularly in marginal weather, simply doesn’t make sense. 3. When the temp and dew-point are close

together they are likely to get closer and form fog as the ground cools after sunset. 4. Anyone who flies regularly in that part of Natal will know that the weather is notoriously changeable and treacherous – particularly in the Greytown area. Not a good choice – especially at night. 5. When he saw the cloud or fog moving in below – and he would have seen it because it was only two days before a full moon (I checked) – then he had the option of a half hour diversion to Pietermaritzburg or Durban. He didn’t use it. 6. He didn’t call Durban for an enroute weather update. 7. He either didn’t know about the AIC specifying Instrument Ratings only for night flights into Greytown – or chose to ignore it. 8. When he was within two miles of his destination, he decided he HAD to get there. This is a common scenario with weather accidents. March 2022

9. He allowed passive people pressures (PPP) to get him into a situation which he would probably have avoided had no one else been involved. In my opinion these are not the actions of a cowboy – most of us have done similar things. This accident was classified as Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT). The FAAs definition is: when an airworthy aircraft, under the control of a pilot, is flown into terrain (water or obstacles) with inadequate awareness of the impending disaster.

They go on to make some good points, which I have summarised below: • Many GA weather accidents are linked to social pressures, such as the pilot’s reluctance to appear “cowardly” or to disappoint passengers. They usually involve pressure to launch, and pressure to continue. (Jim’s note: this pressure disappears if you warn the pax, preferably the day before, that the flight may be cancelled or diverted due to weather). • If the forecast is not severe enough to cancel the trip, then in-flight updates are vital – particularly at night. • More than two-thirds of CFIT accidents are the result of an altitude error or lack of vertical situational awareness. They usually happen in reduced visibility, IMC or darkness. • Avoid areas of low ceilings and restricted visibility unless you are instrument rated and proficient and have an IFR equipped aeroplane. Then proceed with caution and plan for alternates. • Turn off strobe lights, or rotating beacons, when flying in fog, dense haze, dust, cloud or at night – they contribute to vertigo.

• Even if you are instrument rated, and planning to enter IMC, you need to ask yourself whether you are prepared and proficient to do so, and whether your aircraft is properly equipped for the conditions. Vertigo causes a loss of control, which if sustained will result in an excessive speed accident. • Excessive speed accidents occur in one of two manners, either as an in-flight airframe separation or as a high speed ground impact. They can happen in any aeroplane and they are always fatal. Take Home Tips

• VFR night cross-countries in single engine aircraft are not to be undertaken lightly. • Enroute weather updates are essential. • Good alternates are essential. • Glasses make a hell of a difference at night. • You must have a good horizon visible for the entire flight. • You must navigate by “identifiable objects” on the surface. • Avoid black hole situations. • Beware false horizons. • Beware oblique visibility – day and night. • Do not allow passive people pressures to influence your decisions. • Turn strobes and beacons off in cloud or haze. • Don’t let mission fixation influence your decisions, particularly when you are nearly there. • Keep up to date with AIPs, AICs, and NOTAMS. • Temp and dew-point will get closer after sunset. j

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March 2022

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Ex 1Time MD87 ZS-TRJ has returned to the register from Guernsey.

JANUARY 202 2 THE FIRST MONTH OF THIS YEAR has been very quiet on the aircraft registration scene with only three Type certified aircraft (TCA) having been registered: two fixed wing and one helicopter.

The CAA have for some reason deleted the AW109SP ZT-RAG and then re-instated it. This was added last month but for accuracy I have included it in the additions and deletions of this month’s spreadsheet.

The weather this summer s o far has been crazy and unpredictable

One of the fixed wing aircraft is an ex 1Time airline MD87 which has been operating outside South Africa on a Guernsey registration. (As an aside, this was the aircraft that I flew in to Cape Town in December 2008 to attend my eldest daughter’s wedding). The other aircraft is another ATR72 for Solenta Aviation. This started life in the Ukraine before going to Pakistan and the Cayman Islands.

March 2022

The NTCA register continues to grow with seven new registrations having been issued, one of which is a rebuilt Robinson 44. Another Alouette III has come in, this one from the USA.

For a change there aren’t any new Slings registered – I guess those very hard-working guys took a well-deserved Christmas break. There are two new RVs as well as a Bat Hawk amongst the others.

ABOVE: AP-BKY is an ATR 72 belonging to Solenta Aviation. This one is now ZS-XCO. BELOW MIDDLE: Hawker 800XP, ZS-BAL has been exported to Nigeria. Photo Omer Mees taken at Lanseria 19-11-2021. BELOW BOTTOM: ZS-JRK is a Boeing B737-400 which has now been scrapped. Photo Ray Watts.

March 2022

ABOVE: Exported to the USA - ZS-EZV is a Cessna 182. Taken at Grand Central by Ray Watts. BELOW: ZS-NBF is one of two former SA Express CL600s exported to the USA. Photo Ray Watts.

This month there are twenty-three drones added and eight deleted from the register. I have noticed, when using Flight Radar 24, that there is a drone doing a security patrol around a premises north of OR Tambo airport. This drone flies at about 30 feet (9 metres) above ground in a very precise pattern.

gone to the USA, as has a Cessna 182. One of the aircraft scrapped was FlySafair’s B737-400 ZS-JRK. She has been parked outside the Safair hangars, where aircraft get chopped up, without her doors, engines and wing fairings. Such a sad sight to see. The other aircraft scrapped was a Robinson R44.

We have lost another eleven aircraft this month, two of which have been scrapped and the rest exported. Two of SA Express’s CL-600s have

There was one NTCA aircraft deleted from the register as exported to Namibia.

March 2022

ABOVE: ZS-SBM a Robinson R44. has been scrapped. BELOW: Cessna 560 Citation ZS-NDX has been exported to Brazil. Photo Ray Watts.

Tail Piece The SAAF Museum at Swartkops have restarted their flying days, on the first Saturday of every month,. This is good news. You’ll still have to wear your mask though. I really hope the Air

Show season restarts this year. We need an Air Show fix after two years of no shows. The weather this summer so far has been crazy and unpredictable – be careful out there. j

March 2022

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JANUARY 2022 REG

MANUFACTURER

TYPE NAME

SERIAL NUMBER

PREVIOUS IDENTITY / EXPORT COUNTRY

New Registrations ZSZS-TRJ

MCDONNELL DOUGLAS CORPORATION

DC9-87

49829

2-HEVE, ZS-RTJ, EC-GRM, EC-EUC, EC-292

ZS-XCO

ATR-GIE AVIONS DE TRANSPORT REGIONAL

ATR 72-212A

994

VP-COX, AP-BKY, F-WNUC, UR-UTH, VQ-BME, F-WWEI

AW109SP

22371

G-FRRN

New Registrations ZTZT-RAG

LEONARDO S.P.A

New Registrations ZUZU-IVX

ZENITH AIRCRAFT

STOL CH 750

AA-750S-004

ZU-IVY

MICRO AVIATION SA

BAT HAWK R

0091

ZU-IVZ

KONRAD RICHARD KUPFER

VANS RV-8

82667

ZU-IWA

JOHANNES FREDERICK VERCUEIL

RV-14

140342

ZU-RAT

STEFANUS PETRUS VAN EMMENIS

SP44

SP 01

ZS-SBM

ZU-RPA

AEROSPATIALE

SA 319 B ALLOUETTE III

2025

N3194K, 2025 (Armee del Air)

ZU-WIL

JABIRU

J430

516

Aircraft Deleted ZSZS-BAL

RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY

HAWKER 800XP

258286

NIGERIA

ZS-EZV

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

182K

182-58378

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

ZS-GRN

ELEXANDER SCHEILCHERGMBH & CO

ASW 20BL

20683

GERMANY

ZS-JRK

THE BOEING COMPANY

737-800

25096

SCRAPPED

ZS-NBF

BOMBADIER INC

CL-600-2C10

10028

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

ZS-NBG

BOMBADIER INC

CL-600-2C10

10039

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

ZS-NDX

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

560

560-0152

BRAZIL

ZS-SBM

ROBINSON HELICOPTER COMPANY

R44 II

12099

SCRAPPED

ZS-SXT

BEECH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION

F33A

CE-769

URUGUAY

ZS-XZA

ATR-GIE AVIONS DE TRANSPORT REGIONAL

ATR 72-212A

0719

BAILLIWICK OF GUERNSEY

ZEN-1 RST

CAE163765

NAMIBIA

AW109SP

22371

DELETED

Aircraft Deleted ZUZU-RBI

AVIATION ARTUR TRENDAK

Aircraft Deleted ZTZT-RAG

LEONARDO S.P.A

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

March 2022

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

March 2022

SA CAA AMO 188

CEL

EBR AT

IN A VIAT

ION

ASSEMBLY OF FLIGHT CONTROL CABLES • SHEET METAL REPAIRS • APPROVED AIRCRAFT WELDING

VISIT THE SHOWROOM @ RAND AIRPORT, GERMISTON

011 827 2491

082 872 4117

FAX

THANK YOU TO OUR CUSTOMERS FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT

CONTACT: Chantal Du Plessis +27 61 508 3356

March 2022

ING

For all your SACAA approved

AEROSPACE ELECTROPLATING

Cadmium Plate in Gold, Silver or Clear Passivation

AMO 506

Cadmium Plate Clear Passivati

For all yourAMO SACAA506 approved Hard Chrome plating requirements We are For all your SACAA approved plating requirements situated at 30B, Buildin Hard Chrome

all your SACAA approved plating requirements

Hard Silver Plate

Electroless Nickel

Hard Copper Plate

Anodising in Grey, Red or Black

Hard Silver Pla Call Des on 011 827 7535 or 06 or Pineter n 081 775 2434 oNic r 08 Cadmium Plate Goldoor Electroless For all your Aircraft and Allied Silver Passivation Hard Copper P Hard Chrome Hard Silver Plate Anodising in G

Black Phosphating

Alodine

are situated at 30B, Building 98, Rand Airport. Next to Fields Airmotive. Des on 011 827 7535 or 063 150 1533 eter on 081 775 2434 or 083 208 7244 all your Aircraft and Allied Electroplating and queries.

Electroless Nickel Hard Copper Plate We are situated at 30B, Building 98, Rand Airport. Next to Fields Airmotive. Call Oliver on 011 827 7535 or Peter on 081 755 2534 or 083 208 7249 For all your Aircraft and Allied Electroplating requirements.

Black Phospha

Anodising in Grey, Red or Black Phosphating Black Phosphating

SA Flyer 2022|03

Phosphating

We are situated at 30B, Building 98, Rand Airport. Next to Fields Airm Call Des on 011 827 7535 or 063 150 1533 or Peter on 081 775 2434 or 083 208 7244 For all your Aircraft and Allied Electroplating and queries. admin@aerotric.com or richard@aerotric.com

ELT’s

ARTEX 345 ELT ELT INCLUDING INSTALLATION, MODS, SHEET METAL

ADS-B

Install Garmin GTX 335 ADS-B Out Transponder with GPS & GAE 12 Altitude Encoder SACAA Mod approval estimation +/- 3 months. CALL US FOR MORE INFORMATION ON 2020 AD.

SA Flyer 2022 | 03

AIRCRAFT INSTRUMENT PANEL REFURB & PRINTING IN HOUSE

March 2022

NEWS

TECNAM P2010 HYBRID FLIES

IN WHAT HAS BEEN CALLED A MILESTONE in Green Aviation Tecnam has flown a hybrid powered P2010. The Tecnam P2010 H3PS is cliamed to be “the first general aviation aircraft with a parallel hybrid configuration to fly, representing a major milestone on the aviation industry’s journey towards de-carbonization and R&D on alternative powertrains.” Tecnam collaborated with with Rolls-Royce and Rotax to develop the P2010 H3PS hybrid aircraft. It flew for the first time on 21 December, 2021. The Permit to Fly was issued by ENAC, the Italian Civil Aviation Authority. The flight was performed by Tecnam’s Chief Experimental Test Pilot Lorenzo De Stefano, with Tecnam, Rolls-Royce and Rotax Teams on the ground assisting in this historic moment. Tecnam P2010 H3PS is powered by a 104kW Rotax 915 IS engine coupled with a 30kW RollsRoyce electric motor, totaling 134kW (180hp) powertrain in a fully integrated parallel hybrid configuration. As such, this four-seat aircraft is first of its kind. According to Tecnam Aircraft’s R&D Director

Fabio Russo, says, “Though H3PS is not intended for market purposes, our successful flight tests demonstrate that hybrid powertrain, with combustion engine coupled with an electric motor, can bear the same useful load of the traditional 180hp combustion engine.” H3PS, which stands for “High Power High Scalability Aircraft Hybrid Powertrain,” is a project funded under the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Launched in 2018, the project has reached its objectives. With H3PS’ success, Tecnam Aircraft and project partners have validated the aircraft’s scalability potential, lower emissions, state of the art power management technology, building a viable launchpad for future green aircraft models. Commenting on the future developments, Tecnam’s Managing Director Giovanni Pascale Langer stated that the company will continue to focus on driving the green transition in aviation. “Tecnam’s approach to innovation is truly sustainable,” said Pascale Langer. “Our development focuses on three key pillars: environmentally friendly, technologically viable and marketable solutions. We do this by leveraging our multi-generational expertise, research and development, next-generation technology, and strategic partnerships.” j Tecnam's H3PS in flight.

March 2022

NEWS

GRANT BEATTIE’S RV-10 – THE 1,000TH FLOWN! DURBAN SERIAL RV BUILDER Grant Beattie has has the pleasure of officially having built the 10000th RV-10 to be flown. Grant reports: “Due to a very low cloud base, we couldn’t fly a long first flight, so decided to stay in circuit. This RV-10 flies just like all others

and brought out the “RV Grin. After building three RV-10s and two RV-7s you would think the feeling wears off, but I can tell you that it’s as good as the first-ever RV flight over and over again.” j

Grant Beattie of Durban has built the 1000th RV-10 to fly.

March 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 Marchneeds 2022 of global business travellers,tourists and adventurers. discerning

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

ADVANCED TOOLS

March 2022

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

NG FOR I K O O L E R WE A GINEERS N E D E C N E LIC

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. Gemair also holds electrical and SA Flyer 2022|03

instrumentation approvals.

IMAGINE IT AND WE’LL GET YOU THERE

OUT OF THE BLUE Air Safari’s

Charters • Cessna 210 • Cessna 402 • Cessna 206 King Air B200 • Hire & Fly • Cessna 150 • Cessna 206 CONTACT:

Andries Venter (082) 905 5760 | Stan Nel (082) 552-8155

011 659 2965 | charters@gemair.co.za | andries@gemair.o.za | ootbas@global.co.za

March 2022

SA Flyer 2022|03

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

A SA CAA APPROVED TRAINING PROVIDER

Aviation Training Courses * SA CAA ATO 1119 approved courses

• * Safety Management System (5 days) • * Safety Management System Refresher (2 days) • * Dangerous Goods (3 days or 1-day workshop) • * Crew Resource Management (2 days)

FROM PLANNING TO LANDING

• Aviation Lead Auditor (3 days) • Occurrence Investigation (5 days) • Emergency Response Planning (ERP) (1 or 3 days)

www.litson.co.za

• Quality Management System and Auditing (5 days)

info@litson.co.za

ALL COURSES AVAILABLE ON-LINE (excl SEPT) (live learning in a virtual classroom)

call us on: +27 (0) 21 851 7187

DO NOT MISS THIS VERY RARE OPPORTUNITY

SA Flyer 2022|03

• Co-ordinator Occupational Health & Safety (COHS) (3 days)

OSHKOSH 22 WILL BE CELEBRATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE USA AIRFORCE CLICK FOR > EAA-NEWS

For two years you have thought about what you are missing Covid Restrictions have been minimised - International Travel is back to (sort of) normal NOW YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE AT OSHKOSH IN LUXURY - AT REASONABLE COST All Tour Details can be accessed from this link > OSH22-THE-TOUR

MAIN FEATURES OF THE TOUR Luxurious Accommodation at the Radisson Country Inn > Country Inn & Suites Large, extremely comfortable rooms, hot breakfasts The excellent Machine Shed is across the road > Machine_Shed_Bar Restaurant Five minute stroll - Fox River Mall & many restaurants > Fox River Mall Luxury coach transport by Kobussen Coach Services > Kobussen Coach Service Monday to Saturday, hourly 0800h - 2000h, to the Oshkosh Main Gate 20mins via a privileged bus road with no traffic jams. Sunday 24 and 31 July - from and back to Chicago O’Hare Features to ease the journey (costs included in the fare) Sunday 24 – Meet the group over Dinner, beers & wine Loan of a lightweight folding camp chair for the week A Pilot’s Cap – embroidered “Oshkosh” and an SA mini-flag

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE TOUR The Detailed Tour Itinerary > Osh22-Itinerary References from previous years aviators > Oshkosh-References A Media Review by Dave Barker > Dave Barker Review of Our Tour Meeting in Chicago > Meeting-in-Chicago FOR THOSE OPTING TO INCLUDE WASHINGTON Dave’s Day – Stearman and T16 Flights > Oshkosh-Daves-day Washington > What to see and do ABOUT THE OSHKOSH AIRSHOW Oshkosh Statistics > Oshkosh-THE-Facts Oshkosh “the” Airshow > Oshkosh-THE-Airshow

March 2022

LETTERS

HELICOPTER

REGISTRATIONS

I AM AN AVIATION ENTHUSIAST from Switzerland and a frequent reader of the online issue of your magazine. Recently, a friend of mine mentioned to me that he is not able to find out the whereabout of some helicopters which are claimed to have been exported to South Africa. In your magazine, Ray Watts, looks after the changes in the South African Civil Aviation Registry and maybe he can be of help. I am looking for the current registration of the following helicopters: • Aerospatiale SA.330 J Puma c/n 1429 which is said to be operated by Starlite Africa Aviation. • Bell UH-1H Iroquois c/n 4346 • Bell UH-1H Iroquois c/n 10799 • Bell UH-1H Iroquois c/n 12604 • Enstrom 480B c/n 5221 • Enstrom 480B c/n 5254 • Robinson R.22 Beta II c/n 3149 I believe all these helicopters were exported to South Africa before 2021, but I am not sure whether they ever were registered in South Africa or whether they just came as spare parts or as exhibit / training aid. Could it be that these two Enstrom helicopters are destined for the Botswana Police and were prepared by Safomar Aviation? Finally, my friend has the same registration for two different helicopters - which is the current one and what happened to the other bird? • ZU-ALO Solo Wings Windlass c/n WL-416 or Sud Aviation SA.318C Lama c/n 1397? • ZU-RES AutoGyro Europe Calidus c/n ZA09C01 or Sud Aviation Alouette III c/n 1034? Thank you very much for your help. Christoph Kugler

Ray Watts replies: Dear Christoff This is the info I've got. "I am looking for the current registration of the following helicopters: Aerospatiale SA.330 J Puma c/n 1429 which is said to be operated by Starlite Africa Aviation. This was ZS-RVN which was exported to the USA as N761AC on 18/4/2013. I believe she was supposed to come back but as far as I can ascertain she never did. Starlight have a large operation in the Middle East and she may be being used there with a Qatari registration but I can't track it. Bell UH-1H Iroquois c/n 4346 - no trace of this one. Bell UH-1H Iroquois c/n 10799 - no trace of this one. Bell UH-1H Iroquois c/n 12604 - no trace of this one. Enstrom 480B c/n 5221 and Enstrom 480B c/n 5254; There were three prepared by Safomar for the Botswana Police, being BPS-11, BPS-12 & BPS14 but I can't tie up the con numbers I'm afraid as Safomar won't confirm which is which. Robinson R.22 Beta II c/n 3149 - no trace of this one. Re - the same registration for two different helicopters - which is the current one and what happened to the other bird? ZU-ALO Solo Wings Windlass c/n WL-416 (was written off 3/12/2004) or Sud Aviation SA.318C Lama c/n 1397 ? ZU-ALO is an Alouette II. This one lives at Brakpan airfield, close by to where I stay so I see her regularly. ZU-RES AutoGyro Europe Calidus c/n ZA09C01 (was exported to Namibia 16/10/2013) or Sud Aviation Alouette III c/n 1034 This is correct - she's now ZU-RES. Hope this helps and sorry I couldn't be of more assistance. Ray Watts

March 2022

LIVING YOUR DREAM

LIVE WITH YOUR AIRCRAFT BUILD YOUR DREAM HOUSE ONLY 6 PLOTS FOR SALE starting at R1 500 000.00 each. ALL Eagles Creek facilities with TAR RUNWAY, FUEL BAY and CLUBHOUSE.

Contact Armand on 082 490 1659 to reserve your property. March 2022

FUEL TABLE

SA Flyer 2022|03

www.sv1.co.za FuelasPrices as at 28/01/2022 Fuel Prices at 28/01/2022

FuelasPrices as at 25/02/2022 Fuel Prices at 25/02/2022

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 R26,44 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 NelspruitNelspruit 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 Ci vi l Pi etersburg 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 Vryburg Vryburg 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

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 R26,75 R26,75 R19,35 R19,35 Bethlehem Bethlehem R 24,96 R R24,96 15,64 R 15,64 Bloemfontei n Bloemfontei n R21,40 R21,40 R14,59 R14,59 BrakpanBrakpan R27,00 R27,00 Brits Brits R23,10 R23,10 Cape Town Cape Town R26,43 R26,43 R13,78 R13,78 Cape Winelands (Fisantekraal) Cape Winelands (Fisantekraal) R26,50 R26,50 Eagles Creek No Fuel Eagles Creek No Fuel East London East London R21,77 R21,77 R13,92 R13,92 Ermelo Ermelo R24,61 R24,61 No Fuel Fly-In Fly-In No Fuel Gari ep Dam Gari ep Dam R25,00 R25,00 R17,50 R17,50 George George R22,85 R22,85 R14,77 R14,77 Grand Central Grand Central R25,53 R25,53 R16,91 R16,91 Hei delberg Hei delberg R25,50 R25,50 Hoedspruit Hoedspruit R17,70 R17,70 Ki mberley Ki mberley R21,41 R21,41 R14,61 R14,61 Kitty Hawk Kitty Hawk R27,30 R27,30 Klerksdorp Klerksdorp R23,57 R23,57 R14,37 R14,37 Kroonstad Kroonstad R24,41 R24,41 R15,41 R15,41 Kruger Intl Nelspruit Kruger Intl Nelspruit R24,80 R24,80 R17,30 R17,30 Krugersdorp Krugersdorp R24,55 R24,55 Lanseri aLanseri a R25,53 R25,53 R17,08 R17,08 MargateMargate R24,90 R24,90 R15,20 R15,20 Middelburg Middelburg R25,86 R25,86 R17,83 R17,83 Morningstar Morningstar R26,95 R26,95 Mosselbay Mosselbay R26,70 R26,70 R14,40 R14,40 Nelspruit Nelspruit R24,73 R24,73 R16,39 R16,39 Oudtshoorn Oudtshoorn R22,97 R22,97 R16,29 R16,29 Parys Parys R25,19 R25,19 R16,45 R16,45 Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg R25,90 R25,90 R17,40 R17,40 Pi etersburg Pi etersburg Ci vi l Ci vi l R24,10 R24,10 R16,70 R16,70 Plettenberg Bay *** NEW*** Plettenberg Bay *** NEW*** R24,73 R24,73 R16,33 R16,33 Port Alfred Port Alfred R26,70 R26,70 Port Elizabeth Port Elizabeth R25,19 R25,19 R18,84 R18,84 Potchefstroom Potchefstroom R25,19 R25,19 R16,45 R16,45 Rand Rand R22,91 R22,91 R17,32 R17,32 Robertson Robertson R25,75 R25,75 Rustenberg Rustenberg R24,40 R24,40 R16,45 R16,45 SecundaSecunda R24,15 R24,15 R16,10 R16,10 Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect R22,95 R22,95 Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect R14,20 R14,20 Springbok Springbok R26,00 R26,00 R16,00 R16,00 Springs Springs R25,00 R25,00 Stellenbosch Stellenbosch R28,00 R28,00 Swellendam Swellendam R23,80 R23,80 R15,00 R15,00 Tempe Tempe R23,87 R23,87 R16,61 R16,61 Thabazimbe Thabazimbe R25,69 R25,69 R16,95 R16,95 Upington Upington R22,13 R22,13 R15,32 R15,32 gi ng No Fuel Vereeni giVereeni ng No Fuel Vi rgi ni a Vi rgi ni a R25,98 R25,98 R15,94 R15,94 VryburgVryburg R25,85 R25,85 R17,20 R17,20 Warmbaths ***NEW*** Warmbaths ***NEW*** R25,00 R25,00 WelkomWelkom R24,41 R24,41 R15,41 R15,41 Wi ngs Wi ngs Park EL Park EL R23,75 R23,75 WitbankWitbank R24,20 R24,20 Wonderboom R23,45 R23,45 R14,20 R14,20 Wonderboom Worcester Worcester R27,77 R27,77

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 90 GPS March 2022 Import/Export no. 21343829

SA Flyer 2016|11

• 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

March 2022

Events by SAPFA SPEED RALLY

SAUDI ARABIA’S WORLD DEFENCE SHOW

HAI HELI-EXPO DALLAS, USA

6-9 March

7 – 10 March

www.worlddefenseshow.com

www.heliexpo.com

EAA SILVERCREEK BREAKFAST FLY-IN

SAPFA PRECISION NATIONALS

SAPFA RALLY TRAINING WEEKEND

12 March EAA Silver Creek Camp Over Friday and Saturday Breakfast Fly-In! RSVP:contact.eaasa@gmail.org

18 March Brits Airﬁeld North West

18 – 20 March Brits Airﬁeld North West

Contact Frank Eckard Cell: 083 269 1516 Email:frank.eckard@mweb.co.za

Contact Iaan Myburgh Cell: 082 449 2531 Email: iaanmyburgh@gmail.com

MARONDERA FVMA BREAKFAST FLY-IN 20 March

FASH – STELLENBOSCH – FASHKOSH 2022 AIRSHOW

Ctc: Andre Tasker Tel. +263 78 210 0354 or Neil Garden + 263 78 689 8799

26 March Contact Anton Theart 079 873 4567 E-mail: gm@stelﬂy.co.za

5 March Witbank Airﬁeld Witbank Airport Contact David le Roux Cell: 073 338 5200 E-mail: david@pilotinsure.co.za

Flying in Africa – that’s what we love

March 2022

©Krissie Schreiber - Tsondab - a lush desert

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 • 072 340 994393 March 2022

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.

March 2022

SACAA 1147

info@skyhawk.co.za

www.skyhawk.co.za

SA Flyer 2022|03

1973 Baron B58

1980 Piper Saratoga TSP

6750 Hrs TT, 150 SMOH Both King if equipped

4350 Hrs TT, 775 SMOH Upgraded Garmin; Outstanding cosmetics. Please Enquire

1971 Cessna T210

1970 Cherokee 28-235

2900 Hrs TT, 730 SMOH King / Garmin IFR Very clean; R1,800,000.00 excl VAT

3230 Hrs TT, 825 SMOH King / Garmin IFR Good P & Int Please enquire

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March 2022 FlightCom Magazine

100

March 2022

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Edition 159 | March 2022

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SAAF – Serious

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FlightCom: March 2022

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CONTENTS

TABLE OF

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

MARCH 2022 EDITION 159

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 12 14 20 24 26 32 36 38 40 41 42 44

Bush Pilot - Hugh Pryor SAAF Funding - Part ONE Meet the CEO: Valentine Duma: Aves SAAF Funding - Part TWO News Pilots: Iris McCallum Defence: Darren Olivier Company Profile: Aves Holdings News 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: THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT is pushing ahead with its part privatisation of SAA to “a Strategic Equity Partner”. The Takatso Consortium will own 51% of the airline and the Department of Public Enterprises 49%. The intention is to list the airline on the stock market as, “one way of addressing future funding requirements and to enable all South Africans to take part in its success.” Implausibly, when Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan announced the proposed deal in June 2021, he said the idea was for government to retain a "golden share" in SAA to ensure it remains domiciled in the country and transformation goals are prioritised. How these developmental objectives will be reconciled with the need for a profitable bottom line have not been discussed.

That was, until the onset of the Omicron variant. It negatively impacted our estimates for December overall. Our domestic load factor was slightly behind forecast, but this was offset by stronger-than-forecast regional loads. Airline margins are always thin, but our revenue per available seat kilometre trended comfortably ahead of the forecast until November, turning negative in December as the network was hit with the dual impact of Omicron-induced cancellations and a marked slowdown in higher yield late bookings.” He went on to say that it was unlikely SAA would resume operating international routes this year but will be “in a year’s time or so.” The airline is still far from an optimal size and is operating a small fraction of its preCovid route network. Further, its fleet is mismatched for its current routes and still contains inefficient and aging Airbus A340s. It is therefore suspected that the airline is operating cash negative, and this was confirmed when in late February 2022 Minister Gordhan announced that the airline would receive an additional R3.5 billion from the state. However, he is insistent this does not constitute a new bailout, claiming that payment is the balance of R14bn the government had already agreed to in order to settle the airline’s debts and bankroll its restructuring costs before Takatso takes over and assumes operational responsibility.

it was unlikely SAA would resume Nonetheless the deal proceeds – operating albeit slowly.Adue diligence was performed and on 29 November international 2021 it was announced as being substantially complete and routes this year no material issues had been identified. Pravin Gordhan said that government expects to conclude the Takatso deal early in 2022, adding that there were "a few more regulatory hoops to jump through".

In the meanwhile, SAA restarted flying in April 2021 and in February 2022 announced that it had operated more than 1000 flights. The airline is not saying what its load factors and yields are, but an informal survey indicates that they are at or near breakeven and that these key parameters are being closely watched and where necessary unprofitable flights have been cancelled or combined. SAA Interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo assures us that the airline is “tracking against forecasts positively.

Only time will tell whether this is indeed the final bailout for SAA. 

BUSH PILOT HUGH PRYOR

FAT U M A S AYS

NEGATIVE I would like to take you away to a distant and mysterious land, which has come to prominence for all the wrong reasons recently.

WAS FLYING A PILATUS PORTER, the iconic Swiss short-field, single-engined, ten passenger bush aircraft, for a French seismic survey company. We were prospecting for oil in South Yemen, based in the rugged, barren desert around the historic canyons of the Hadramaut Sultanate. We had a camp on the floor of a one thousand foot deep canyon called Wadi Mankhar near an ancient little mud brick village called Al Qatn which sheltered under the rock-strewn buttresses of the main Wadi Hadhramaut.

have built their wealth from trading slaves, gold, ivory and cloves from Africa to Europe and the Far East, during the South East monsoon and back from the Far East with spices, tea, gem stones and silk during the North East Monsoon. It was during the North East Monsoon in 1986 that the Yemenis decided to change the President, a procedure which traditionally involves heavy bloodshed in that part of the world; twenty-two thousand dead in Aden alone in this particular instance. While the South Yemeni Military were occupied in trying to get the lid back on the situation, the Saudis decided to take advantage of the distraction to invade the contested border area to the north of the Wadi Hadhramaut. They dropped barrel bombs on Tarim, narrowly missing the tomb of Sultan Balthasar, the biblical 'Wise Man', who took the frankincense to present to baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

The Crew Chief was a bearded Frenchman called Henri.

We lived in trailers with the bunks arranged one up and one down in three tiny compartments in each trailer. The trailers were arranged in a square with two accommodation trailers on two of the sides and the office, the generator, the kitchen, the cold store and the 'Mess' occupying the other two sides.

The Crew Chief was a bearded Frenchman called Henri. His office trailer contained his office equipment, with his computer and the long-range HF radio whose dipole antenna was suspended between two thirty-foot masts across the diagonals of the square. Historically, South Yemen and neighbouring Oman 6

FlightCom: March 2022

As a result of this incursion, the South Yemeni Military declared all their airspace to be closed and would only issue overflight clearances to regular scheduled flights and applicants with a minimum of seventy-two hours notice in writing.

FlightCom: March 2022

We had regular flights to Aden twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, for crew changes, to re-supply our freezers and send seismic survey data back to France for analysis. These flights were all scheduled and sanctioned by The Military. The problems would come if we had to evacuate somebody in an emergency. So I made an appointment to see the Air Force Liaison Officer, a charming old boy called Sulaiman Said, who had been with the Royal Air Force when Aden had been a 'Protectorate', under the British. I explained our problem to him and how we would have to forget medical evacuation flights if we had to obtain clearances, giving seventytwo hours notice in writing. The chances were that badly injured patients would be beyond help if they had to wait for seventy-two hours.

"Well, Colonel, I was wondering if we could have some kind of code which we could give to the controllers over the HF radio, to identify us and to avoid confusing us with any hostiles". "Mmm," said the Colonel. "Let me see what I can do." And we shook hands as we rose to our feet. It was two weeks later, on a crew-change flight to Aden, that I received an envelope marked 'CONFIDENTIAL' from the Briefing Officer when I went to file the flight plan back to the camp. I opened it and pulled out a single piece of note paper. On it was written in neat Latin script,

FlightCom: March 2022

Your Code is 'Fatumah says Negative'. Please commit this to memory and destroy this paper by burning. Best Regards, SS." The flight back to the camp took half an hour longer than usual due to the howling winds of the powerful North East Monsoon.

The problems would come if we had to evacuate somebody in an emergency.

"So what do you suggest, Captain?" The Colonel leaned forward attentively.

"Dear Captain,

Even the landing was more challenging than usual, with the wind funnelled between the high walls of the canyon and the darkness crowding out the daylight, but it was after landing that the crew presented me with the true challenge.

Everybody seemed to be in a state of suspended animation. They were avoiding eye contact as though hiding some ghastly horror from the pilot. The tension was palpable, but nobody was letting me in on the secret until Werner, our Engineer, approached me and rather sheepishly said. "Henri has had an accident." I looked into Werner's face "What happened?" Werner's fingers were squirming together. "He was leaning out of the office door to call Frank to the radio and the wind caught the door and slammed it shut on his fingers." "Ooh! That must have been sore!" I said. Werner nodded, "He lost two of his fingers...they were wondering if you could fly him to Aden...we've got the fingers...they wrapped them up in ice...and they have dosed Henri up with Cognac to get him over his fear of flying...what do you reckon?"

"Will you come with me to escort him?"

back, "India Echo go ahead!"

Werner nodded enthusiastically and after we had re-fuelled the plane, we loaded the semi-comatose crew chief on a mattress on the floor in the cabin, with a blanket and pillow and a cool-box with his fingers in ice tied down beside him.

I took a big breath and in the clearest accent I said, "FATUMAH SAYS NEGATIVE!"

Now it was time to see if Aden Control had heard about our secret code. I tuned in to 7595 USB on the long range radio. Now our secret would be out because every aircraft between Nairobi and Cairo would hear our request. Better get it over and done with.

"FATUMAH SAYS NEGATIVE!" I repeated and now there was a prolonged silence broken by a very English voice, probably BA, with a jocular shout,

"Aden Aden Aden. This is Hotel Bravo Foxtrot India Echo."

We got Henri and his fingers to Aden and a visiting Vet at the French Embassy managed to re-attach them. The tendons had to wait for a month or two but then Henri and his fingers were back in action. 

"I say! Bad Luck Old Boy!"

SA Flyer 2022|103

There was a slight pause and then Aden Control came

There was a longer pause and then Aden Control said, "Say again India Echo."

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QUOTE OF THE MONTH

QOM

Discussing the possibility of a tie up between SAA and Ethiopian Airlines (ET) avcom poster ‘Jfairwell’ wrote –

Other countries

E-MAIL

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LOCATION

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FlightCom: March 2022

DEFENCE

PART 1

GUY LEITCH

SA Air Force claims less than 25% availability Less than a quarter of the South African Air Force’s (SAAF’s) inventory of aircraft is operable as budget cuts, COVID-19 and Denel's capabilities are being eroded. Only 46 of the SAAF's 217 aircraft are now operable, according to an Armscor presentation.

HIS WAS REVEALED DURING a briefing by the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans (PCDMV), which looked into the status of Denel and other service providers' maintenance of the SAAF fleet. On 15 February 2022 the breakdown of fleet availability provided to parliament was as follows: In the helicopter fleet, four out of 11 Rooivalk helicopters, 17 out of 39 Oryx helicopters, and three out of six BK 117 helicopters are operational. (One BK 117 is beyond economical repair). Only three of the 30 A109 Light Utility Helicopters are operational, while five are beyond financial repair. The four Lynx naval helicopters are all out of commission. In the VIP fleet, the presidential Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) is not serviceable as it is still undergoing a major C-check service and repaint. The sole Pilatus PC-12 and one of the three Falcon business aircraft 12 FlightCom: March 2022

are operational. One out of three King Air 200s is operational, with the single King Air 300 being in storage. Transport Aircraft: Only one of the six C-130BZ Hercules transports is operational, and one is beyond economic repair. Five of the eight Caravans are operational, while two are in long-term storage. Two out of three C212s and Three C-47TPs are repairable, five are not, four are in long-term storage, and seven are beyond financial fix. Fighters: None of the 26 Gripens are operational (two are beyond economical repair and 11 are in long-term storage). Only three of the 24 Hawk lead-in fightertrainers are operational, three are beyond economic repair, and 12 are in long-term storage. The majority of the trainer fleet is grounded or in storage – only two of the 35 PC-7 Mk IIs in the SAAF's

The SAAF's Gripens and Hawks are already being cannibalised for spares.

fleet are operable, with the remaining 16 in long-term storage. 14 are currently undergoing maintenance and are waiting for spare parts. The other three are no longer usable. The SAAF has admitted that its ab-initio cadets will be sent to Cuba for training. The SAAF's reduced budget has had a severe impact on aircraft availability. The SAAF's limited maintenance capacity, aging aircraft that require additional maintenance, and COVID-19-related disruptions are all contributing to the serviceability crisis. Armaments supply parastatal Armscor blamed the shortage of operational aircraft on a number of issues, including a liquidity crisis at Denel, the parastatal which is the Oryx and Rooivalk's original equipment manufacturer, which also maintains other SAAF types, notably the C-130 Hercules fleet.

that much unlawful activity is taking place in South African waters because "we don't have the ability to monitor. We cannot hope to patrol properly and create a deterrent if you have such a weak capability," he remarked, pointing out that the C-47TP Dakota fleet is more than 60 years old. According to Mbambo, the situation "is really dire" for the SAAF, with the decline of Denel being one of the main concerns. "Denel manufactures the original equipment for the majority of our aircraft systems, particularly the rotary capability... Denel is the Rooivalk's original equipment manufacturer, and they're also helping us with C-130 maintenance. What we are seeing on the horizon causes us considerable concern. If Denel truly goes out of business, we'll be left with few options or manoeuvring room to continue conducting business... This adds to the difficulties we're dealing with right now."

Only one of the six C-130BZs is operational

The situation within the SAAF "is not where it's meant to be in terms of combat readiness and required hours of flying," said Lieutenant General Wiseman Mbambo, Chief of the SAAF, to the PCDMV. Currently, roughly 5 000 hours are flown each year, which is significantly less than the required amount. Mbambo claims that the shortage of serviceable aircraft is impacting pilot training since there aren't enough airworthy trainers. He went on to say that the SAAF needs new patrol planes to help the Navy, and

Shadow defence minister for the Democratic Alliance (DA), Kobus Marais, said the low serviceability is a sad situation that "shows we are so exposed to any onslaught by anyone." Our capabilities appear to have vanished. That is exactly what we feared in the past, that our Air Force would be reduced to an Air Wing, and the Navy would be reduced to a Water Wing rather than a Navy. It demonstrates that we must act immediately." 

FlightCom: March 2022

MEET THE CEO:

VALENTINE

DUMA 14 FlightCom: March 2022

As a young man growing up in South Africa’s steel and coal mining town of Newcastle, Valentine Duma always had a keen interest in aviation.

Aves Technics CEO Valentine Duma has come a long way from his Newcastle KZN beginnings.

FlightCom: March 2022

NCE HE HAD MATRICULATED from Newcastle College, his passion for aviation still burned brightly. However financial limitations meant that he had to start work in an unrelated field as he began his adult life. But by the time he reached the age of 23, his passion for aviation compelled him to follow his dream. Valentine moved to Johannesburg with his young family and enrolled in an apprentice aircraft fitter programme at Denel Aviation. After completing the theory part of his training, he was accepted by Safair as an apprentice and the real on-the -job learning began.

line maintenance, which opened up a whole new world for the ambitious young man. He was exposed to flight operations and all that comes with it. Working on live aircraft was something he found very challenging and rewarding. Soon he was chasing down and solving snags, dealing with customers and flying with the aircraft.

his passion for aviation still burned brightly

Valntine’s passion and strong work ethic was soon noticed and within three years he had completed his trade test. Safair then moved Valentine from hangar to

Valentine enjoyed the flying so much that he decided to obtain a PPL. However, while he was training he realised that he was not destined to be a pilot as his heart was in maintaining, repairing and managing aircraft.

In 2006 Valentine received his aircraft maintenance engineer licence (AME). The first aircraft type on his licence was the Boeing 737-400 and this remains one of his favourite aircraft.

An Embraer 145 in the Aves hangar.

16 FlightCom: March 2022

Aves Technics is now sowing back into the industry through its training centre.

Armed with his AME licence, Valentine started broadening his horizons. He found himself working at SAA Technical, specifically looking after the two Boeing 737-300 freighters ZS-SBA and ZS-SBB. Again, Valentine excelled and was noticed by the Swiss company, Jet Aviation. They offered him a position where he would concentrate on doing VIP conversions on B737 classic, B737 NG, B747 Classic, 747-400 as well as the Airbus A320 and A330 ranges. Valentine’s love that he had developed at Safair for the Hercules C130 had never died and while he was at Jet Aviation he was offered a crew chief position in Saudi Arabia, taking care of the Saudi Military C130 fleet under contract from a local company, Alsalam Aerospace Industries. Safair’s management had been paying attention to their “appy’s” career so two years later they offered him the position to establish new outstations and handle aircraft deliveries for contracts. These included United Nations and DHL contracts.

From his success, the name Valentine Duma has become well known in aviation throughout Africa and other areas of the world. Aa a result he has been offered many positions within the aviation realm. In 2013 he accepted a position as technical project manager at the cargo aircraft charter company, FlyAirstream Aviation, based in Nigeria. While in Nigeria he was offered the role of Project and Compliance Manager at Nevergreen, doing “End of Life” inspections on aircraft that have reached their life limit or being parted out for spares. Valentine performed these operations worldwide – from Japan, for Asiana Airline on their ageing fleet of A320s, to Nigeria on Air Nigeria Embraers. Valentine has acquired a wealth of knowledge and experience on all aspects of aviation through the years and now feels confident to take on the very responsible task of being both the CEO and Accountable Manager of Aves Holdings. 

FlightCom: March 2022

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18 FlightCom: March 2022

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www.avesholding.com 2021

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How to make new Blue Angels. Table Mountain base jump.

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FlightCom: March 2022

DEFENCE

PART 2

DEAN WINGRIN

The current state of affairs that the SAAF finds itself in should not come as a surprise. As the SANDF's budget has been declining in real terms for the past two decades, so too has that for the SAAF.

HILST THE AIR DEFENCE budget for 2020/21 was R7 536.2 billion, the current budget for the 2021/22 has been decreased by more than R1,5 billion whilst still being required to maintain the same outputs and flying hours. The budget for the following two financial years in nominal terms have been forecast to be even less than the current budget.

consumables, maintenance, spares and other support items. Much of these are denominated in foreign currency and subject to adverse Forex changes. The SAAF has already had to raid the Capex kitty to fund operational costs as well as reduce the number of days vital Reserve Force personnel can serve per year. With an insufficient Capex budget, the SAAF is unable to fund all its mid-life update and new acquisition projects. Whilst we still talk of the "new" Strategic Defence Procurement Package, these aircraft have been in service for over 15 years, a time period whereby other air forces are seriously proposing replacements.

The manpower in the SAAF is by no means bloated

What this means is that the SAAF has had to constantly cut its cloth to fit the available budget. With 66% of the current budget allocated to Compensation of Employees, very little is left over for operational costs and capital expenditure. The manpower in the SAAF is by no means bloated and to a certain extent, the SAAF has very little control over the number of airmen employed (just over 9,400 posts) and the salaries paid.

With the little budget left over, the SAAF must fund its operational expenses such as fuel and other 20 FlightCom: March 2022

The SAAF cannot now afford to keep its Gripen fighters on the latest software standard, never mind being able to pay for the new support contract, leading to the grounding of the Gripen fleet until the financial

The air force has an essential role to perform in peacetime - here a SAAF A109 rescues cyclone victims in Mozambique.

terms of a new support contract can be agreed to with SAAB. Similar issues are affecting the maintenance of the rest of the fleet which consists of even older aircraft, some of which are in excess of 50 years old. Due to age, many of the aircraft in the SAAF fleet require replacement of obsolescent equipment and updated avionics and other safety items. Vital fleet renewal projects, such as new maritime patrol/ surveillance aircraft and light and medium transport aircraft remain unfunded.

many of the SAAF's aircraft. Critical skilled staff and engineers are leaving the Denel group as they are not being paid their monthly salaries, leading to a further reduction in the capabilities offered by Denel and assistance given to the SAAF. The Denel group provides essential services and support to the SAAF as the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the Rooivalk attack helicopter and the Oryx medium transport helicopter fleet, without which both fleets would be grounded. Denel also provides support for the maintenance of the C-130BZ Hercules transport fleet as well as support for various weapon systems. This includes the new A-Darter Air-Air Missile for the Gripen fleet. Production and delivery of operational missiles are currently at risk due to the financial and manpower difficulties being experienced by Denel.

Critical skilled staff and engineers are leaving Denel

The SAAF has already had to unofficially reduce or do away with previously held competencies and capabilities. With a constrained capital budget and an operating budget under extreme pressure, the SAAF is dictated to by Treasury, but still beholden to deliver on all mandates and missions given to it by Government. Allied to the issue of an insufficient SAAF budget is that of Denel and its subsidiaries. Denel is facing serious cashflow issues and is unable to purchase spares and sub-components to maintain and repair

Many SAAF helicopters are standing idle due to the inability of Denel to pay for spares and subcontractors and Armscor is paying many of these suppliers directly. Of concern is the apparent lack of training capacity for student pilots. This has negative repercussions through

FlightCom: March 2022

the pilot development systems, leaving a skill and experience gap for the next 20 years as it slows aircrew progression and command time.

the general public and taxpayer does not recognise the importance a fully-funded Defence Force plays in supporting civil society.

With fewer flying hours, aircrew gain less experience and are unable to replace senior aircraft commanders that are promoted, leading to a widening gap between older experienced aircrew and younger aircrew with too few hours and experience to be given command of an aircraft.

Whilst the obvious solution is more (much more!) funding, other causes by both the SAAF and Armscor include lax or inefficient project management and financial planning at senior level and a lack of multiyear funding for the various Product Support System contracts, only concluding maintenance and service contracts for three financial years in terms of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), (when the PFMA does allow for longer periods). Many spares and parts are long-lead items that can take up to 18 or more months to be delivered.

Given fewer flying hours, more pilots will also leave the SAAF for employment in the civilian aviation sector, where they will fly more and the pay is significantly better. Whilst I believe the negative aircraft availability rates provided in the Armscor presentation to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans yesterday was slightly exaggerated, it does show the sorry situation the SAAF finds itself in as a result of a reducing, non-sustainable budget. Whilst the lack of an adequate budget is certainly the major cause for the SAAF's woes, it is not the only cause. Senior officers and leadership must also bear some responsibility for not being forceful enough regarding the decline in mission availability and capability to the Dept of Defence, Treasury and Cabinet, as well as to the public. Not taking the public into its confidence regarding the funding pressures the SANDF is facing means that

There are also reports of Armscor requiring a minimum of 30% BBBEE for many (sole-source) military contracts (when the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) provides other alternatives). In summary, a reducing and non-sustainable Defence budget, together with insufficient support for Denel, will only lead to a further loss of capabilities. This will also be felt by civil society in the form of Search & Rescue, mountain rescue, fire fighting, border patrol and support to SAPS. Once a critical capability is lost due to insufficient funding, it is extremely expensive and time consuming to regain that capability and skill which means it could be lost forever. 

The SAAf's entire Gripen fleet has been ground. Image Trevor Cohen

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NEWS

DE HAVILLAND – ONE BRAND FOR

CANADIAN AERO ICONIC AIRCRAFT BRAND DE HAVILLAND will become the face of Canadian aircraft construction. De Havilland Aircraft of Canada is the most recognisable of the Canadian brand names and will therefore be the face of Viking Air, Longview Aviation, Pacific Sky Training and De Havilland Canada.

the DHC-1 to DHC-7. The production of the DHC-2 Beaver and DHC-6 Twin Otter will now join the Dash 8 under the same corporate roof. The new common brand will cover the existing fleet of more than 3,000 aircraft around the world while employing 1,000 jobs in Canada. 

The consolidation means that for the first time in years the majority of De Havilland’s most famous aircraft are under the same brand. Notably, Viking Air’s 2005 acquisition of De Havilland designs included

The SAAB 340B's hybrid engine.

FlightCom: March 2022

NEWS

TURBO SKYLANE

BACK IN PRODUCTION CESSNA HAS ANNOUNCED THE RETURN of the Cessna Turbo Skylane T182T to its piston line-up. The T182T features the latest avionics and interiors. Textron is taking orders for the Turbo Skylane with first deliveries to begin in early 2023. Originally introduced in 2001, production of the Turbo Skylane T182T was stopped in 2013 while the company focused on the addition of a wide range of product developments. The standard normally aspirated Skylane has been in production since 1956 with more than 23,000 delivered.

Cessna's burly T182T turbo Skylane is back in production.

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The 2023 Turbo Skylane features the latest Garmin G1000 NXi avionics, a heated propeller, and an in-cabin oxygen system. It is powered by the Lycoming TIO-540 engine and is equipped with a Hartzell Engine Technologies (HET) turbocharger, providing the aircraft with 235 horsepower at up to 20,000 feet. “The turbocharger adds another level of performance to an already exceptional aircraft,” said Ron Draper, president & CEO, Textron Aviation. “The Cessna Skylane is a remarkably instinctive aircraft to operate, and the turbocharged engine provides even greater performance that enhances the overall flying experience.” 

NEWS

ASTRAL

AVIATION

GETS FIRST A320P2F THE FIRST OF FIVE AIRBUS A320P2F converted freighters has been placed with Kenyan cargo operator Astral Aviation. There has been a huge upswing in demand for freighters following the shortage of belly space in passenger aircraft not flying due to Covid pandemic. The A320 Passenger-to-freighter is a product of ST Engineering and Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), the joint venture between ST and Airbus. The first A320P2F (MSN2737) made its maiden flight out of ST Aviation’s Singapore base on 8 December 2021, after an eight-month conversion. The aircraft is currently in flight testing for its Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) from EASA, which is expected to

take until the second quarter. The first A320P2F will then be leased to Astral The A320P2F offers a cargo capacity of ten ULD containers and one pallet on the main deck, plus seven ULD containers in the belly hold. The total payload capacity is 21 tonnes or 159 cubic meters of usable space, giving the aircraft a range of 1750nm. For Astral, the A320P2Fs are the first Airbus aircraft in the fleet, which consists of fourteen, mostly older aircraft such as the Fokker F27 Friendship, the McDonnell-Douglas DC-9, the Boeing 727, Bombardier CRJ-200F, Boeing 767-200F and Boeing 747-400F. 

The first A320P2F to fly.

FlightCom: March 2022

PILOTS LAURA MCDERMID

IRIS McCALLUM

DEALS WITH A

BURNING C402 The black curtain of night lifted to reveal hues of dark purple that gave way to streaks of blazing orange.

AIROBI’S WILSON AIRPORT was peaceful on this 11th day of February 1981 which made filling out the paperwork for my flight to Tana River County uncomplicated. Air Kenya had booked me to charter five passengers on a Cessna C401 to the Bura cotton fields; 366km north east of Kenya’s capital. It was still dry season in Kenya and with no thunderstorms predicted, I knew it would be a smooth flight provided we could depart before it became too turbulent.

Preflight done, I herded the smartly dressed businessmen up the short stairs. Once everyone was strapped in and comfortable I secured the clamshell door. I took my seat, buckled the harnesses and adjusted my headset, flattening my wild “bush pig” curls.

My knuckles were white

‘I better be really careful with this preflight check. N65175 had just come back from an MPI’ I thought. I ran my hands over the familiar curves of the big Cessna twins’ airframe with affection, examining all the bolts and screws and wiggling the hinges. I opened the inspection hatch to check the level of the clean new transparent oil. ‘Main tanks, tip tanks and the two auxiliary tanks

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are full with 100LL Avgas. Check. She’s ready to fly’

Master switch.....ON. Left engine fuel boost pump.... ON. Opening the mixture briefly to full rich...... press start. The engine coughed and spluttered, the propellor turned once lazily, halting briefly through its arc. The old Cessna gave an almighty shudder as the propellor swung into life. Left engine ..... good to go. I repeated the sequence for the right engine. I leaned the mixtures, made sure that the oil pressures had come up and waited for the temperatures to rise.

The wreck of the C402 lying in a ditch with the separated engine.

The Continental engines purring in unison, I taxied to the holding point of runway 25 to perform the run-ups. “Welcome on board, this is your captain Iris McCallum, but you can call me Captain Cuddles. May I please have five minutes of your time to brief you on the emergency protocols.” We were ready for departure, N65175 lifted smoothly off the asphalt and easily climbed 1000ft, levelling out at 6500ft which was the height restriction along the corridor. “Gentlemen, on our left is a hill shaped like a gigantic pimple called Ol Doinyo Sabuk”. The passengers laughed. “This popular landmark is where we are permitted to climb higher, however I will maintain our current height of 6500ft so that we are well clear of the incoming international traffic flying IFR to Jomo Kenyatta Airport”. Seeing their eager faces, gazes fixed on the shifting landscape, I reminded myself of what a privilege it is to fly. Well clear of the IFR traffic I gently pulled back on the yoke and powered up to climb to 11,000”. An aberration caught my eye. Why’s the manifold pressure on the right engine dropping, despite the power being set to climb?’ I wondered. The right gauge showed 24 inches of mercury while the left engine correctly showed 28 inches. I felt an unease grip my gut. ‘Something’s wrong’. Instincts took over, my attention now fully focused on the dials. RPM 2450....normal. FF 18 g/h ....normal.

“Gentleman I’ve picked up a slight problem. Unfortunately we need to return to Wilson Airfield”. I ignored their groans of protest as I banked the plane into a gentle turn. WHOOMPF! “FIRE!” A passenger screamed. “THERE IS FIRE COMING OUT OF THE WING!” I looked over my right shoulder to see flames shooting out of the engine. ‘SHIT!’ My knuckles were white from clenching the yoke.

FlightCom: March 2022

PILOTS

Iris McCallum, - you can call me "Captain Cuddles".

There was no time to think. I flicked the fuel supply off and cut the power to the right engine.

I must keep the left wing down. I must prevent her from rolling into the dead engine.

I knew that even though I had another working engine, 80% of the aeroplane’s performance would be lost; furthermore the plane could explode at any moment.

It was becoming harder to concentrate with the constant deafening blast of the flame.

“Brace yourselves for an emergency landing”. I scanned the landscape below, seeing only one place to put us down. One chance. “Mayday, Mayday, this is November-one-sevensix-five, my right engine’s on fire. I intend to land on a dirt road 15 miles south of Ol Doinyo Sapuk”. My parched voice echoed in my ears. My foot was already aching from the constant pressure that I needed to apply on the left rudder to prevent the plane from pulling towards the dead engine.

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Five passengers, five souls entrusted to my care. Their stricken faces strengthened my resolve. They were all someone’s son, some were husbands and fathers and it was my job to deliver them alive. “Once we’ve landed and have come to a complete stop, move to the back of the aircraft, open the door and run!” I needed the weight to be as far back as possible to assist with my short field landing. The flames are intense and I don’t know if we are going to make it to the ground in one piece. The wing may burn through. Even if we managed to arrive intact, the fuselage may crumple, trapping us all inside this burning coffin.

The newspapers love a hero.

‘I’m on short final..... I can see the road clearly now’. ‘Damn, there’s a tree! If I touch down before the tree it will take my good wing off. I’m going to have to land after the tree. I can’t take full flaps as I’ll reduce directional control. I take fifteen degrees of flap.....maintain the blue line approach speed of 120k......make sure the landing gear is down.... adjust the fuel flow to the left engine. Timing is critical. The tree is fast approaching. The landscape is rushing past in a blur. HOLD IT. HOLD IT. NOW! I yank the column towards the left, dipping the left wing just under the canopy of the tree. We made it. I level the plane. I’m ready to touch down and to my astonishment an African women balancing a metal basin laden with ears of corn, spinach and potatoes on her head fills my vision as she starts crossing the road. “Oh my God!” Up to that point I had the situation under as much control as I could, but this new threat was completely out of my hands. In that split second I knew what it was like to feel absolutely powerless. I was committed to my landing and could do absolutely nothing to avoid

hitting the woman. The world slowed down. I could see the whites of the woman’s eyes as they grew wide with terror. By some divine intervention she sprinted to the other side of the road unharmed, the karai still perfectly poised on her head. We came down hard, the impact sending shockwaves through my body. We were running out of road. ‘There’s a ditch’! No chance of surviving if we go down that bank. My right foot pushed down hard on the rudder pedal,

FlightCom: March 2022

PILOTS

The newspapers love a hero.

swinging us sharply to the right. We hit the camber on the side of the road ripping the undercarriage off and spinning the wreck 180 degrees. We skidded sideways into a thicket of bushes and came to a halt facing the direction we had come from.

left tip tank which was engulfed in orange flames and oily black smoke.

We are alive. Time to get the hell out! I feel the thud as the door hit the ground. The men were fighting their way through the door frame.

I felt a rush of relief; word of our predicament had reached the army. The Bulldog was shortly followed by one of Air Kenya’s C310’s who circled overhead twice.

“Nairobi tower, November-oneseven-six-five has landed, all on board are safe”. No one was more surprised than me that we were all still alive.

The flames are intense

Once out I scanned the carnage. N65175 had come to rest at an angle, channelling the leaking fuel into the ditch.

On impact the right tip tank had torn off and was flung back onto the road where it had exploded. The disembodied engine lay a considerable distance from the airframe, having been ripped from its fire weakened aluminium mountings and lay next to the

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I heard the drone of a Kenyan Air Force Bulldog long before it came into view.

“Thank God,” I murmured. Salvation is on the way.

It was found that the fuel line had come loose, pouring Avgas straight into the turbo charger. I was told that I had less than twenty seconds remaining before the main spar of the wing would have burnt through. This incident shaped me in a very profound and fundamental way which would see me through many challenging situations in years to come. 

NEWS

BOEING AND GE AVIATION’S ELECTRIC HYBRID TESTS GE AVIATION AND BOEING have partnered to test hybrid electric propulsion systems through ground and flight demonstrations using a Saab 340B aircraft and CT7-9B turboprop engines.

NASA has selected GE Aviation to support this project in 2021. GE Aviation has developed hybrid-electric propulsion systems, including motors, generators, power converters and power management systems.

In a press statement, Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences will provide GE with aircraft modification, system integration and flight-testing services. Hybrid electric propulsion system tests will be done at Aurora’s headquarters in Manassas, Virginia, the United States.

According to GE Aviation, hybrid electric propulsion technologies can optimise engine performance and help the aviation industry to reach its commitment of net-zero CO2 emissions from flight by 2050. The programme hopes to conduct ground and flight tests in the mid-2020s. 

These tests are a part of NASA’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) project, which envisions taking components and systems that can be improved and demonstrated in flight.

The SAAB 340B's hybrid engine.

FlightCom: March 2022

DEFENCE DARREN OLIVIER

Last month’s column outlined the ridiculously poor air support that the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) has been provided with, consisting most of the time just two South African Air Force (SAAF) Oryx helicopters, a single SAAF Caravan with an observation turret, and whatever helicopters the armed forces of Mozambique (FADM) are able to provide.

HIS IS FAR FROM SUFFICIENT considering the type of terrain in that part of Northern Mozambique, which is inhospitable to cross-country vehicle use, and the highly mobile nature of the insurgency. It’s a type of combat that is best suited to air assault forces, able to move rapidly around the huge operational area, and cut off insurgents from escape during raids with Fire Force-style tactics.

airlifting a single platoon requires two Oryx helicopters

This month is all about what level of air support, in particular from helicopters, should be expected for a deployment of this size according to both South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and

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global doctrine. This is especially important as from this month the SANDF contribution to SAMIM is expanding with the inclusion of an additional infantry battalion and other support units which will push the SANDF proportion to at least 1 000 soldiers and likely bring the overall SAMIM force to nearer the originally-planned brigade size. First, let’s look at the problem of moving ground forces using helicopters, which swiftly runs into the limitation that helicopters are relatively small and not able to carry that many soldiers or that much equipment.

A standard SANDF infantry platoon consists of at least 32 soldiers, with the following structure:

Supporting troops requires 2 Oryxes for transport, 2 Rooivalks for cover and a 109 for reconnaisance and casevac.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Headquarters (1 officer, 1-5 soldiers) Platoon Commander Platoon Sergeant Section (10 soldiers) (x3) Section Leader Machine Gun Group (3 soldiers) Section 2IC Machine Gunner 1 Machine Gunner 2 Rifle Group (6 soldiers) Rifleman 1 Rifleman 2 Rifleman 3 Rifleman 4 Rifleman 5 Rifleman 6

That 10-person section is the smallest assignable unit to a task, and is trained to fight as a cohesive unit. Each platoon has three sections, and each infantry battalion has around nine platoons organised in three rifle companies. Each rifle company also has a small HQ element and a 10-person mortar section, for a total of around 142 personnel. The fourth company of each battalion is a support

company which contains both non-combat support elements like catering, transport, and logistics, as well as combat support units like the machine gun, anti-tank, mortar, and assault pioneer platoons for approximately another 280 combat infantry soldiers. Altogether, a typical infantry battalion has around 810 soldiers, of which at least 700 are in direct combat roles and would need to be airlifted around a battlefield if the entire battalion was used in the air assault role. On top of that you need at least 4050 more for attached elements like signallers and medics. However, even if we assume that only a proportion of a battalion, such as a single company, would need to be airlifted, the numbers still rapidly approach daunting levels. An Oryx helicopter as used by the SAAF can under ideal conditions lift 20 fully equipped troops or carry either 3,000 kg internally or 4 500 kg externally. So airlifting a single platoon requires two Oryx helicopters, as each comes to around 36 personnel in total when adding signallers and medics. What that means in practice is that airlifting a single rifle company in one go requires at least 6 Oryx

FlightCom: March 2022

The SADC Heads of State may have agreed to supply boots on the ground, but are these troops properly supported?

helicopters. In practice you would need around 9, so as to have 2 in reserve in case any are shot down or go unserviceable and at least one for MEDEVAC and combat search and rescue duties. Of course, you don’t have to lift an entire platoon or company in one go, as there’s always the option of having fewer helicopters and requiring them to make multiple trips. But that’s tactically unsound and extremely risky: Unless your assembly point is very close, which puts it within the enemy’s reach, the time it takes for each round trip leaves either the advance team arriving first at a landing zone (LZ) or the remaining force defending one that is exceptionally vulnerable. Plus, the need to make two or three extra flights dramatically slows down your response time and flexibility, removing much of the benefit of having air assault forces in the first place. On top of that, it makes long-distance raids much more difficult and dangerous, requiring caterpillarlike staging movements from post-to-post that have a much higher chance of being detected and ruining the element of surprise. Transport helicopters alone are not sufficient, and should ideally always be accompanied by reconnaissance and attack helicopters to provide close air support, and especially to protect the trans-ports at

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their most vulnerable: When loading and unloading troops and cargo at ‘hot’ LZs. Under existing doctrine attack helicopters like the Rooivalk must be deployed in pairs, so that they can be mutually supporting. It’s never acceptable for a single Rooivalk to go on a mission, so if one of a pair is forced to return to base the other has to return with it. This is also why it’s standard practice, as in the DRC, to have at least three Rooivalks as the smallest deployment so as to have a spare in case one of the primary aircraft for a mission has a glitch and can’t take off. For company-sized air movements a pair of Rooivalks is okay, but not really sufficient, as there are a few too many Oryxes to watch over and likely too many hot LZs to protect. It should ideally be a 1-1 ratio, so a company lift of 6 Oryxes would be accompanied by 6 Rooivalks, plus whatever Rooivalks are in reserve for combat search and rescue support duties and other contingencies. And that’s before we even consider the need to use helicopters like the A109 for scouting, reconnaissance, or airborne command and control. That could easily account for another 4-6 helicopters to support a deployed company.

In fact, this is almost exactly how many helicopters an SANDF doctrine development exercise came up with a few years ago when trying to determine how many would be needed to support an air assault deployment for an entire battalion. Dubbed a Helicopter Assault Battalion, the war-gamed order of battle called for 8 Rooivalks (the max the SAAF could possibly support from a fleet of 11), 16 A109s, and 20 Oryxes. Scaled down, a Helicopter Assault Company would require at least 2 A109s (if as part of a brigade, 4-6 if independent), 6 Oryxes, and 2-6 Rooivalks, not including reserve aircraft. It should be obvious by now why so many military officers and planners are angry about SAMIM only being assigned a pair of Oryxes, and zero reconnaissance or attack helicopters, to support what was already a battalion-sized deployment but will now be nearly a full brigade’s worth of infantry. For a force required to operate over huge distances, in terrain unsuitable for quick traversal by vehicles, and in distributed groups, having just two transport helicopters is insultingly insufficient and will result in more soldiers dying unnecessary deaths.

standby forces to create a composite multinational Assault Helicopter Battalion permanently available for tasks like the insurgency in Mozambique. As things stand though, that goal is getting further and further away. For the SAAF, years of successive and punishing budget cuts coupled to Denel’s ongoing collapse have severely hampered aircraft availability to the point where as of midFebruary only 4 Rooivalks, 17 Oryxes, and 3 A109s were mission-ready, and of those, 2 Rooivalk and 5 Oryx are tied up in South Africa’s commitment to MONUSCO, the UN mission the DRC, with another 5-7 Oryxes dedicated to internal duties and standby. While that number will change from day to day as aircraft enter or leave maintenance, it’s unlikely to shift significantly over time.

no means of rapid extraction from a hot battlefield

And really, the numbers provided above are conservative, being the absolute bare minimum needed. At the other end of the scale the standard US Army helicopter support unit for deployments is a Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB), which has 48 AH-64 Apaches, 50 H-60 Blackhawks, and 12 CH47 Chinooks.

Now CABs are unrealistically large and expensive for the SANDF or any other SADC military to maintain, but arguably the Assault Helicopter Battalion concept created by SANDF war-gamers of 8 Rooivalk, 16 A109s, and 20 Oryxes, should be considered the minimum deployable capability for external operations and would be well within our financial means as a country. At the very least, even if the SANDF alone can’t sustain that as a constantly-available capability, SADC should between its member states be able to provide enough

It doesn’t appear the rest of SADC is in better shape, as none have been able (or willing) to contribute substantial helicopter assets of their own to the mission, other than a light helicopter or two. And we haven’t even considered fixed-wing transport and combat aircraft for close air support yet, where the situation is even more dire.

As a result, South Africa, and SADC, have sent in soldiers to fight a deadly and potent insurgency while effectively tying both hands behind their back by forcing them to operate without the benefit of either helicopters or fire support vehicles and heavy weapons. They thus lack the ability to move around quickly to gain the initiative, are forced to disperse into small teams all over the battlefield, and have no means of rapid extraction from a hot battlefield if under attack and outnumbered. While it’s always been true that ‘you go to war with the army you have’ and resources are finite, if you have the means to provide deployed soldiers with the support they need, but choose not to, it’s immoral and negligent to send them into harm’s way. 

FlightCom: March 2022

COMPANY PROFILE

Aves Holdings is the brainchild of CEO Valentine Duma who built the company from scratch, after many years of operating as Nhlanhleni Aviation on contract to third party Aircraft Maintenance Organisation (AMO)s.

N 2015 DUMA DECIDED to take the plunge and set up on his own. He founded Aves Holdings as an umbrella company for Aves Technics and then later, Aves Training Academy. AVES TECHNICS Aves Technics was established in 2018 and received its Aircraft Maintenance Organisation licence (AMO 1541) from the SACAA, shortly before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This meant that it launched without any immediate business due to Valentine Duma launched Aves Technics as the Covid pandemic broke.

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the lockdown restrictions. The breakthrough happened when Sahel Aviation Services (SAS), a large VIP and Humanitarian charter company based in Bamako, Mali, became their first official client with a line management contact for their fleet. On signing this contract, Aves Technics set up a branch in Mali and sent a team of South African engineers to Bamako. Aves Technics is continually developing specialist capabilities. It has joined forces with Fokker Techniek in the Netherlands and Aloft Aero

Architects in the USA, both of whom specialise in VIP aircraft interiors. Through these agreements, Aves have managed to secure aircraft interior work that would normally be undertaken abroad. As a result, the South African Air Force contracted Aves Technics to undertake the interior refurbishment of the South African presidential Boeing Businesses Jet Inkwazi, which is currently underway, while the aircraft undergoes C-Check maintenance. Aves Technics is currently restoring two Boeing 737 Classics for Equatorial Congo Airlines (ECAir) to full flying status. These two aircraft have been inactive for five years. Once the project is complete, Aves will be returning the airline’s Boeing 737-700 to full operational status. Aves Technics have heavy and line maintenance capabilities on Boeing 737 Classic and NGs, the Airbus A320 Family, Embraer 135/145/170/190, King Air 200 and 300 Series, Beechcraft 1900 Series, Cessna 172 and 208, DC9 and MD80 Series and Lockheed C130 Series of Aircraft. AVES TRAINING ACADEMY Aves have joined forces with Aviation Training for Africa (ATFA) to create Aves Training Academy.

The owner of ATFA, George Belsten and Valentine Duma realised that they shared a vision of young people who join the aviation industry needing to have more long term job security than they presently have. A young person that goes through training and an apprenticeship often finds it difficult to secure permanent employment once qualified, however contact work is generally readily available. Valentine Duma and George Belsten believe that Aves Training Academy will in time become a feeder for all Aves Technic’s staffing needs. This will be beneficial for both the company and the trainee as, on completion of their qualification, they will be employed by a company that has diverse capabilities and licences. This in time will entice young people into the aviation industry which will strengthen the South African Aviation sector. Aves Training Academy is an approved Aviation Training Organisation (ATO) by the SACAA. They will be offering courses in the near future in a diverse cross-section of aviation disciplines, all presented by highly qualified instructors. The long term goal of Aves Holdings is to promote the growth of aviation support services in South Africa, ensuring local engineers opportunities that will offer them sustainability in their careers, as well as luring a diverse range of aviation services back to South Africa. 

Aves Technics had Sahel Aviation Services as a launch customer. Image ACIA.

FlightCom: March 2022

NEWS

FAA HEAD

RESIGNS

STEVE DICKSON, WHO TOOK THE ROLE as FAA administrator in August 2019 after being nominated by President Donald Trump to the five-year term, says he will step down March 31.

In a statement, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he is grateful for Dickson’s “years of service to our country and his lifelong dedication to making sure our aviation system is the best and safest in the world.”

Dickson is about halfway through his term as the head of the agency, which has faced a number of challenges in recent years, including navigating the Covid-19 pandemic’s sharp blow to air travel and soaring numbers of unruly commercial passengers.

“While all of us at USDOT will miss Steve as a leader and as a colleague, we are very happy for him and his wife, Janice, as they embark upon this next chapter together,” Buttigieg said.

Dickson also oversaw the return of the Boeing 737 Max to service. A former Delta Air Lines pilot, in 2020 Dickson flew the Max himself on test flights before it was returned to passenger service. Dickson began his career in the military and later flew commercial aircraft, including the Boeing 727, 737, 757 and 767. In his post at Delta he was responsible for flight safety and pilot training.

FAA Head Steve Dickson has resigned.

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Dickson became the target of telecom companies for the FAA’s handling of the rollout of new 5G cell service, which threatened possible interference with critical safety systems on commercial airliners. He admitted to handling the 5G challenge poorly and his resignation must surely send a message to the heads of African aviation regulators who often outstay their welcome. 

NEWS

EMBRAER AND FAB COMPROMISE ON KC-390

THE BRAZILIAN AIR FORCE (FAB) dealt a blow to Embraer when it announced a drastic reduction in its order for KC-390 Millennium medium transports. The decision, which was revealed on May 26 2021, was driven by budgetary constraints that arose as a result of the effects of Covid-19. Brazil has been one of the hardest-hit nations by the health crisis, and the cost has caused “direct limitations on the strategic projects of the armed forces” according to the notification. The number of KC-390s on order—which stands at 28, “has proved to be superior to the budgetary reality of the Force, both for acquisition and for logistical support over time.” In a compromise, Embraer has announced that after working together on a deal that would work for both sides, the total order of aircraft will be reduced from 28 to 22.

Deliveries will be delayed – extending until 2034. The deal has pushed delivery dates further out than originally anticipated while slashing the order quantity of the biggest customer for the new aircraft. A press announcement says that the new production rates are compatible with the FAB’s budget while allowing Embraer long-term stability in its production line. The first five aircraft have entered FAB service. Under the original deal, three to four aircraft per year were to be delivered up to 2027. Extending delivery to 2034 likely means some aircraft will be diverted to other customers. While the reduced order and exendin delivery must be bad news for Embraer they said in the statement that they are confident that the Millennium will find its place in the market. 

Four on the five KC-390s delivered to date.

FlightCom: March 2022

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

Mossel Bay: +27 44 692 0006

Drones

Club Facilities

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Microlights & Ferry Flights

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Beginners/Advanced

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Hire and Fly

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CPL Practical

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Conversions

Simulator Training

Instructors Rating

IF Rating

Night Rating

FAX NO

Multi Engine

TEL NO

Single Engined

CODE

Ab-Initio Training

NAME OF School

Turbine - GS Training

train@starliteaviation.com

BEAUFORT WEST (044)

272 5547

info@aifa.co.za

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(058)

050 0493

info@flyparamount.co.za

(011)

914-5810

083-292-0978

Aviation Pilot Training

(021)

935 0719

Cape Town Flight Training Centre

(021)

976 7053

admin@cape-town-flying.co.za

Era Flug

(021)

934-7431

934-7435

Durban Aviation Centre

(031)

573-2995

Starlite Aviation Training Academy

(031)

571-6600

www.starliteaviation.com

(043)

736-6181

086-516-8475

AIFA

(044)

272 5547

info@aifa.co.za

Savannah Helicopter Training

(044)

876-0096

Flight Training Services

(011)

805-9015/6

805-9018

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Superior Pilot Services

(011)

805-0605

805-0604

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Alpi Flight Academy

(082)

556-3592

086-605-8948

Aviatech Flight Academy

(082)

303 1124

www.aviatech.co.za/

AIFA

BETHLEHEM Paramount Aviation

jjjjjjj j j

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BRAKPAN BENONI FABB Titanium Air

CAPE TOWN j j jjjjj

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DURBAN j j jjjjjjj j j

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EAST LONDON Border Aviation Club

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GEORGE AIRPORT j j jjjjjjj j j jjj

GRAND CENTRAL j

KRUGERSDORP j jjjjj j

jjj

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LANSERIA AIRPORT / RANDBURG Aeronav Academy Skyhawk Aviation Vulcan Aviation (Pty) Ltd

(011) (011) (087)

701-3862 701-2622 265-7150

701-3873 701-2623

j j jjjjjjj j j j j jjjjjjj j j j jjjjjjj j j

(044)

692-0006

www.starliteaviation.com

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(064)

756 6356

(041)

581-3274

086-461-7067

j jjjjjjj j j

Johannesburg School of Flying

(011)

827 9827

info@jsf.co.za

U Fly Training Academy

(011)

824-0680

390-1738

j jjjjjjj j j j j jjjjjjj j j

Richards Bay Air Carriers

(035)

786-0146/7

786-0145

Rustenburg Flying Club

(082)

821 1690

082 619 8633

j j j

MOSSEL BAY Starlite Aviation Training Academy

jjjj

PANORAMA Johannesburg Flying Academy

jjj

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PORT ELIZABETH Algoa Flying Club

RAND AIRPORT

RICHARDS BAY8 RUSTENBURG

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VEREENIGING AIRPORT Bird Aviation

(016)

556-1007

info@birdaviation.co.za

Desert Air (PTY) LTD

+264

61 228101

+264 61 254 345

j j jjjj

Blue Chip Flight School

(012)

543-3050

543-1826

Loutzavia

(012)

567-6775

543-1519

Legend Sky

(083)

860-5225

086-600-7285

Powered Flight Training

(078)

460-1231

086-666-2077

Vortx Aviation Training

(072)

480-0359

086-524-0949

j j jjjjjjj j jj j j j j j jjjjjjj j j jj j j j jjjjjjj jjj j j j j j jjjjj j jj jjj j j j jjj j jj jj

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WINDHOEK - EROS AIRPORT

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WONDERBOOM AIRPORT / AEROPARK / RHINO PARK - PRETORIA

Starlite Aviation Training Academy 40 FlightCom: March 2022

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www.starliteaviation.com

Dangerous Goods

Hangarage

Export Docs & Clearing

Lodge Transfers

(armed)

Line Inspections

Security Based

Aircraft Leasing

Aerial Photography

Maintenance

Surveys

Aircraft Sales

Contracts

Safari Charters

Special Events

Helicopter

Freight

FAX NO

V.I.P

TEL NO

Biz-Jets

CODE

> 20 pax

NAME OF CHARTER

< 20 pax

CHARTER DIRECTORY

Long-Range

+27 (0) 11 917 4220 www.atlasaviation.co.za

BRAKPAN FABB Titanium Air

(011)

914 5810

083 292 0978

jjj

ExecuJet South Africa

(021)

934 5764

934 2087

jjjjj

jjjj

Streamline Air Charter

(011)

395 1195/8

jjjjj

(031)

564 6215

564 6222

(011)

805-0652/82

805-0649

Batair Cargo

(011)

659 2000

701 2253

ExecuJet South Africa

(011)

516 2300

659 2520

Majestic Air Charters

(018)

632 6477

Out of the Blue Air Safaris

(011)

701 2653

CAPE TOWN jjj

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DURBAN KZN Aviation

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GRAND CENTRAL Pambele Aviation

LANSERIA AIRPORT j jjjjj j 082 905 5760

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OR TAMBO INTERNATIONAL Fair Aviation (Pty) Ltd

(011)

395 4552

395 4244

jjjj

Federal Airlines

(011)

395 9000

086 667 1789

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jjj

Streamline Air Charter

(011)

395 1195/8

jjjjj

(012)

566 3019

RAND AIRPORT FlyFofa Airways

www.flyfofa.co.za

WINDHOEK - SWAKOPMUND Scenic Air (Pty) Ltd

(+264)

6440 3575

info@scenic-air.com.na

WONDERBOOM AIRPORT - PRETORIA Alpha One Aviation

(082)

301 9977

Flyjetstream Aviation

(012)

543 0060

(083) 279 7853

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Maverick Air Charters

(012)

940 0320

086 648 2690

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Powered Flight Charters

(078)

460 1231

086 666 2077

jjjj

jjjjjj

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FlightCom: March 2022

AMO LISTING

FAX NO

Sheet Metal Rebuilds Overhauls Electrics NDT Testing Refurbishments Structural Repairs Inspections NTCA Aircraft Seat Belts Instruments

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.

Cape Aircraft Interiors

(021)

934 9499

934 2022

ExecuJet South Africa

(021)

934 5764

934 2087

Placo

(079)

674 8351

076 901 6780

j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j jj

BAC Aviation Greystones Aviation Components

(035) (031)

797 3610 569 2614

797 5341 569 2630

Astwood Aircraft Electrical

(011)

315 9605

315 0094

Superior Rotorworx

(076)

595 2120

(082)

346 0150

086 697 9096

ExecuJet South Africa

(011)

516 2300

011 659 1071

Gem Air

(082)

905 5760

011 701 2653

Integrated Avionic Solutions

(082)

831 5032

012 567 7320

Lanseria Aircraft Interiors

(011)

659 1962

Plane Maintenance Facility

(011)

659 2204

SkySource International SA

(011)

900 4300

The Propeller Shop

(011)

701 3114

086 543 7988

Tynay Aviation

(082)

088 6663

011 659 1157/8 j

Diepkloof Aircraft Maintenance

(083)

454 6366

j j

jjjj

Aircraft Maintenance International Leading Edge Helicopters cc

(013) (013)

741 8221 j082 787 0415 741 5582 741 8188

j j

jjj

jjjj

Ferreira Aviation Flightdeck Instrument Systems Westline Aircraft Maintenance

(051) (073) (051)

451 1682 513 3205 451 1717

Aves Technics Nevergreen Aircraft Industries Star Air Maintenance

(011) (010) (011)

568 7677 003 3747 395 2201

43 Air School

(046)

604 3686

(084) (011) (011) (011) (082)

710 0864 827 7535 827 2491 383 2024 445 4496

DURBAN

j j jj j

jjj j j j

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GRAND CENTRAL AIRPORT j jjjj

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KRUGERSDORP Skyworx Aviation

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jjjj

LANSERIA AIRPORT

MALMESBURY NELSPRUIT

NEW TEMPE BLOEMFONTEIN

OR TAMBO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

PORT ALFRED

RAND AIRPORT

jjj j j j

jjjj

451 1683

j j

jj pmf@myconnection.co.za

jjjjjj

jjj

jjjj

j j j jj

jjj

j j

451 1641

jjjj

j manager@nevergreen.co.za

973 4761

jj j j

jjjjjj

jjjjj

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

42 FlightCom: March 2022

827 9896

lyn@aviationrebuilders.com

086 689 5645 086 548 2651

j jjj

jj j

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Composite Manufacturing

Structural Repairs Inspections NTCA Aircraft Seat Belts Instruments

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 March 2022

Articles inside

WHAT AIR SUPPORT DOES SAMIM NEED?

AVES HOLDINGS: PROFILE

MEET THE CEO:VALENTINE DUMA

SAAF FUNDING: PART 1 of 2

FATUMA SAYS NEGATIVE

FLIGHT REPORT: AIRBUS H130

MAVERICK'S FLYBY

NO MUSIC FOR ME, THANK YOU

LET US NOW PRAISE GEORGE CAYLEY

SEARCH AND RESCUE

PLANES AND BIKES - A FULL CYCLE

POSITION REPORT March 2022