SA Flyer Magazine April 2022 by Flyer & Aviation Publications

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Edition 314 April 2022 Cover: Robinson Helicopters

Robinson’s

R66: Now World

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GUY: On CAA vs Comair Caravan prop runaway!

Jim Davis – on Commando!

JOHN BASSI IS BACK! FLIGHT REPORT: ULTIMATE STINSON – A NEW CLASSIC! 1

April 2022

UKRAINIAN WAR – EFFECT ON AFRICA PETER GARRISON: UNDERSTANDING DRAG

HELICOPTER GUIDE

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POSITION REPORT ONCE AGAIN, THE CAA has revived its apparently inexplicable desire to register small airfields. This has aroused general aviation (GA) out of its usual, ‘This is Africa’ torpor and GA has submitted a thousand resounding rejections in response to the CAA’s request for comments. There are many reasons why the GA community fears an attempt to register airfields. One reason is that it is seen as the thin end of a wedge being driven into the industry to exercise yet more oppressive control by ultimately licencing all airfields and airstrips. Another possibility is that the CAA is chronically short of funds and is therefore using the ultimate goal of licensing airfields to generate revenue. They will require owners to pay fees and travelling and accommodation costs for the inspectors, once or more, a year. The inspections will be looking for, amongst other things: firefighting equipment, first aid responders on duty and fencing around the entire airfield. The CAA does however say that some (Category C) airfield owners may just sign a statement of compliance and be inspected every three to five years.

registering or licencing airfields in terms of the SSP. General and recreational aviation bodies argue that there are no benefits to registration. The CAA has thus refined its previous attempts by proposing three categories of registration: A, B and C, respectively for Charter, Training and “Proximity to another airport.” Morningstar Flying Club articulated the concerns of the objectors by stating that; “This proposal, if promulgated, will have the effect of damaging general and recreational aviation in South Africa, due to the additional costs that will be imposed on operators and aircraft owners. Furthermore, it is practically unenforceable. These proposals will raise the cost of flying, thus discouraging new pilots without achieving the end goal of enhancing and improving safety.”

‘THIS IS AFRICA’

Another possible reason is that the CAA is swaying to the beat of government securocrats – who want to control the possibility of small airfields being used for drug smuggling or gunrunning. The CAA is driven by the need for compliance with ICAO practices (SARPs). ICAO’s State Safety Program was established by ICAO Annex 19, which says: “States shall establish a State Safety Programme (SSP), in order to achieve an acceptable level of safety (ALoS) in civil aviation”. Yet oddly, the CAA has made little attempt to justify

April 2022

Not only training, but charter operators will be hard-hit – and it needs to be noted that for many tourists, flying in small planes to remote destinations is part of the safari experience – these passengers want the risk. This was tested in court by the seminal Berwick vs CAA case where, amongst other things, the court found that the tourist accepted risk as part of the experience. (Volenti non fit injuria). A senior CAA manager nonetheless emphasised that the CAA has a ‘duty of care’ and he says that this will all be tested if a billionaire tourist is killed in a plane crash at an unregulated airfield. The CAA was also at pains to tell me that their current proposal excludes aerial work such as crop spraying. I am told the CAA is surprised at the volume of the pushback. It will be a test of how committed they are to public participation in the regulation process if they continue pushing to register and or licence airfields.

Guy Leitch

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April 2022

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Edition 314

CONTENTS FLIGHTCOM

COLUMNISTS

06 24

Bush Pilot - HUGH PRYOR Pilots - LAURA MCDERMID

16 22 28 34 58 64

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

FC 30

SA FLYER

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

FLIGHT REPORT:

THE UTLIMATE STINSON 108 8

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Edition 313

CONTENTS FEATURES SA FLYER

26 GADGET OF THE MONTH: Garmin Watch 42 NEWS 44 FLIGHT REPORT: The Utlimate Stinson 69 BOOKS BY PETER GARRISON 70 NEWS: AMS Contract 72 LETTER: SAA Alpha Floor Incident 78 AIRSHOW: Stellenbosh 2022 84 THE STELLENBOSCH MIRAGE 87 HELICOPTER GUIDE FLIGHTCOM

10 Defence - Darren Olivier 14 Feature - Airbus VS Boeing 30 Ethiopian Airlines CEO Resigns

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

FLIGHTCOM

29 AME Directory 32 ALPI Flight School Listing 33 Atlas Oils Charter Directory 34 AVES Technics AMO Listing 44 Aviation Directory

April 2022

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April 2022

Justin de Reuck takes air to air photography to a new level with this shot. The subject aircraft is an L-29 Delfin which has had a groundup restoration by Jay Smith of Hangar 51. The L-29 was completed in time for the Stellenbosch Airshow featured in this issue. It was arranged for Justin to take air to air photos from a Yak 52 over False Bay. For this shot Justin used his trusty Canon DX-1 with a 1000th second exposure (as there was no propeller to try disc) at an ISO of 200. The formation was so tight that a wide angle 31mm focal length could be used at f5.6.

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

ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE: GUY LEITCH

It is an aphorism to say that aviation safety is a matter of life or death and thus safety must be nonnegotiable. Using this justification, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) gets away with being quick to ground airlines for breaches of safety requirements. GROUNDING AN AIRLINE is the ultimate sanction and causes immeasurable harm to, not just the target airline, but to the entire aviation industry. I have not been able to find any other airline regulator anywhere in the world that is remotely as heavy-handed as the current South African CAA regime. Before 2018 it was unheard of for the CAA to ground an airline and it is hard to find examples of it happening anywhere else in the world. Yet in the past four years, under the hand of Director Poppy Khoza, the CAA has grounded airlines at least an incredible 7 times.

and then an independent body adjudicates the complaint. The principle of ‘audi alteram partem’ – or letting the other side be heard, is thus observed. This is particularly necessary with the CAA, which was found to have wrongfully grounded Cemair fleet. There are many other problems with the CAA’s grounding of Comair. A ‘precautionary suspension’ implies that they do not in fact have evidence of possible ‘imminent danger’. Aviation Economist Dr Joachim Vermooten says this is unacceptable. Further, it is unheard of for a regulator to ground an entire airline – at the most a specific aircraft or even a type (eg the Boeing Max) may be grounded.

they do not have evidence of imminent danger

CAN THE CAA BE TRUSTED? It would seem that the CAA is once again on an unchecked rampage. In developed countries, if the aviation regulator has a problem with an airline, it makes a formal complaint or allegation

April 2022

The CAA’s heavy-handedness raises the question of whether its bureaucrats have any understanding of just how vulnerable the airline

The CAA is showing signs of having been "captured". If proven, DCA Ms Poppy Khoza, must resign.

industry is, especially immediately post-COVID. The CAA’s standard response is that, as safety is un-negotiable, the health of an airline’s balance sheet is of no concern when there are questions about safety. Yet things are never that simple: One of the most striking characteristics of the CAA having grounded Comair is yet again the extraordinary bad timing. Almost every time the CAA has grounded an airline, it has been timed to cause maximum damage to the airline and problems for the passengers. Thus, the CAA grounded Cemair shortly before the start of the December 2018 holidays. The Comair grounding happened over

the weekend of the huge Cape Cycle Race – one of the busiest weekends of the year for air travel. It’s hard not to conclude that the timing is intended to cause maximum disruption to paying passengers, deeply damage revenue, and undermine confidence in the airline. The problem with the timing of Comair’s and other airlines’ grounding, is it brings into question the integrity of the CAA. It exposes the regulator to accusations that it favours SAA, and now more recently, that of favouring SAA Technical (SAAT). At the end of March, the case against the CAA became unbelievably egregious when, after all but forcing Comair to move to SAAT from Lufthansa Technik, the regulator then ‘grounded’ SAAT, effectively grounding Comair April 2022

yet again. It is hard not to conclude that the SAAT suspension was lifted by an embarrassed CAA just four hours later when it was realised that it would prevent Cyril Ramaphosa taking off that morning in an SAA A340 to Dubai.

CAA DOUBLE STANDARDS When we buy an airline ticket, we entrust our lives to a system that we expect to be above corruption. Yet there is clear evidence that the CAA practices double standards, favouring state owned airlines. This possibility first arose from the persistent campaign the CAA waged against Cemair in 2018 – ostensibly in an attempt to save Cemair’s competitor; the moribund stateowned SA Express. Another criticism of the CAA is that of practising double standards for its own flight department and the airlines it regulates. This emerged from the damning findings of the Ethiopian Air Accident Investigation Board into the crash of the CAA's Cessna Citation nav aid calibration jet at George. The investigation found that the jet was not airworthy and the crew not properly licenced.

airline. The Airbus A340-600 came within a whisker of ending in a fireball off the end of OR Tambo's runway 24R, and it then went on to bust the speed and noise rules on takeoff from Brussels airport. One of the tricky questions in any discussion as to the actions of the CAA is whether it grounds airlines purely on the basis of paperwork boxes not having been ticked, or whether there are really, as the CAA has claimed, “immediate threats to safety” in terms of physical problems with the aircraft. The fact that Comair was able to return to flying after just four days’ grounding strongly indicates that there really was nothing more than a paperwork problem. It's worth noting that traditionally, the standard method for the regulator to deal with paperwork lapses by an airline operator was to summons the offending airline’s Chief Executive in for a meeting over the proverbial ‘cup of cold tea and no biscuit’. The head of the CAA would give the CEO of the airline an ultimatum which would be taken extremely seriously and this would avoid the airline having to be grounded.

Ms K h o z a should be quietly promoted

These findings should, at the very minimum, have made the CAA more aware of the impossibility of ensuring a fully compliant flight operations department. And thus, it should give the regulator pause before peremptorily shutting down Comair – or any other airline. Yet another accusation against the CAA is its evident favouritism for SAA. It granted 13 safety exemptions to SAA to operate the now infamously profligate COVID vaccine flight to Brussels. These flights, to fetch a pallet of vaccines which could have been airfreighted at a thousandth of the cost, were nothing more than a public relations’ stunt by a bankrupt

April 2022

CAN COMAIR SURVIVE? The 67-year old airline is a cornerstone of South African aviation. It carries around 40% of all domestic passengers and employs more than 1,200 highly skilled people. The damage incurred by the grounding is disastrous at two levels: the first and most obvious is the loss of revenue and the costs associated with the grounding over the Cape Town Cycle Tour long weekend. The second level of damage is the immeasurable reputational damage. Airline margins are notoriously thin, and if prospective passengers perceive a greater risk, they will book on a competitor. An interesting wrinkle for Comair is whether the

Comair CEO Glenn Orsmond is under pressure from a lynch mob. Image NUMSA.

reputational damage the grounding has done to the British Airways brand may induce British Airways head office to end its valuable licensing agreement with Comair. How long can Comair survive? Already it has admitted to needing further funding. The airline is still under business rescue and was delisted from the JSE, so it must rely for further capital and operational funding on the depth of the pockets of the current owners and their commitment to supporting the airline.

LUFTHANSA TECHNIK Another, perhaps more surprising casualty of this unfortunate saga, is maintenance organisation Lufthansa Technik. The South African branch of this world-renowned AMO has now also fallen foul of the CAA and had its operating licence suspended indefinitely, this despite having passed an inspection by CAA in February. Yet again it brings into question the CAA's impartiality in that the grounding of Lufthansa Technik favours SAA Technical, which, as a subsidiary of SAA, was on the ropes – with even less in the way of bailout funding than its parent received.

But in fairness, it must also be noted that in late 2019, SAA Technical was also hit by the withdrawal of its license by the CAA, which resulted in the grounding of SAA and Mango. It must be noted though, that given that the CAA has at various times also grounded SAA, Mango and SA Express, it makes it harder to claim without qualification that the CAA is protecting state owned airlines. A striking feature of the Comair grounding is that the DCA, Ms Poppy Khoza, has been notable by her absence, leaving facing the media mostly to her second level managers. This is not the leading from the front we would expect from the head of the organisation entrusted with airline safety. The CAA is looking very exposed by these failures of governance of its own flight department, double standards and accusations of ‘capture’. In a developed society with normal accountability standards, this would have been more than sufficient to force Ms Poppy Khoza’s resignation as Director of Civil Aviation (DCA). The industry desperately needs an ombudsman – and Ms Khoza should be quietly promoted to ICAO in Canada.

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April 2022

HELICOPTER OPS: GEORGE TONKING

MIRACLE OF THE HUDSON WARNING: this is not a regular column about helicopters and includes graphic scenes which may disturb some readers. Especially men. IT WAS JUST ONE OF THOSE FRIDAYS… I had been flying as much as possible in anticipation of downtime with my wife, Des, who was heavily pregnant with our fifth child. The kids were with me doing what kids do (although I’m a helicopter pilot, I’m not a helicopter parent) and I had just put my feet in the pool and cracked open my first cold one of the evening. Des, in the meantime, was in Joburg running a few errands before the birth.

I believe helicopters are the answer to every emergency or tactical situation where you need to get into or out of tight spots, and I was pretty sure we could airlift her off the highway if necessary. But nope, nothing doing with our Robbie 44s, which aren’t allowed to land just anywhere, especially not next to a gridlocked freeway. And so, I called my colleagues at HALO helicopter emergency medical service, based in Midrand. They said they would be on standby, ready to swoop in and airlift her from the emergency lane if need be and, in the meantime, would dispatch paramedics by road.

I’m a helicopter pilot , not a helicopter par e nt

But being in operations, this is exactly the time, when you are relaxed and anticipating the weekend, that you get a call about a “developing situation.” In this case, it was about a major snarl up on the N3 Highway, where a tanker had overturned, spilling its load, with vehicles backed up many a kilometre both ways. “Hi babes,” Des said calmly. “Not to alarm you, but I’m stuck in traffic and my contractions have started.”

April 2022

While I was hyperventilating at home, Des was calmly sitting still in the fast lane timing her contractions and chatting to her midwife, who suggested she find the closest medical facility, just in case the traffic got going again. With my eldest daughter as co-pilot, I jumped in my car and was quickly doing some seriously low flying towards where Des was counting contractions.

Desire Tonking with the baby that couldn't wait.

Miraculously, the M1 South towards central Joburg opened up and Des was able to edge along the emergency lane, aiming for Genesis Maternity Clinic in Saxonwold, “… a low-risk midwife-led birthing unit (with olde-worldly charm) specialising in active birthing where a mother’s birthing choices are respected.”

first started, her contractions were between five and seven minutes apart.

The only birthing choice she preferred was “not on the highway,” thank you very much!

She was chatting to the paramedics (who were tracking her location and trying to get to her) then to me, then the paramedics again, all while looking for the offramp and timing contractions.

By this stage, an hour and a half after they had

What does that mean? Apparently that she had plenty of time! Well, perhaps not plenty, but enough.

April 2022

George Tonking the family man - Wonderwoman took the pic with one still on the way.

Suddenly they were only two minutes apart. (The contractions, not the conversations). Google was taking her through a quiet suburb, around boomed-off middle class and upmarket estates. Bowling Avenue … Coleraine Drive … 14th Street toward Marie Avenue. Genesis was six minutes away, then eight-and-a-half and then six again … It was now after 7 pm and the paramedics were no closer to her, still trying to get around the traffic jam, and I was frustrated, fighting my way through traffic rather than being in control in my Robbie in the sky … Halo was

April 2022

hamstrung, with nowhere to land and she was so close to Genesis anyway. I diverted towards the hospital too and was just telling Des that I’d meet her there when a major contraction struck. The baby boy wanted out. Her phone ended up on the floor. “Babe,” she shouted towards the foot pedals, “I am … ahhhrggghghghhhh…. pulling over … Follow my live location on your phone and meet me here, not there!”

At that point, she was in a dark, quiet street, next to a school’s sports fields. No one in sight. A dearth of street lights. She screeched to a halt on a wide pavement or driveway and climbed out gingerly. Which is when her water broke. All she could think was how I would react to cleaning the carnage if she had the baby inside the car! And so, with no other options, she whipped off her pants and crouched in the lee of the car in a sumo squat, like so many posh women in their activewear were probably doing in gyms across Gauteng at that very moment, thinking of the benefits to their glutes, hip flexors, quads, hamstrings, calves and inner thighs.

And she did. Just not in the way she had anticipated. She found some kids’ blankets in the back of Des’s car to make mother and baby comfortable and helped find Des’s phone, which was vibrating stridently under the car seat. It was one of the paramedics to say they were still struggling to get to her location. She said not to worry and explained that the baby had been born and that his colour was probably fine (although it was so dark, she was just guessing). Short of sawing the umbilical cord off with the blunt edge of a credit card, it would have to wait until she could get to Genesis or any other clinic, she told them nonchalantly. The paramedic on the other end of the line was suitably impressed (and shocked).

air li ft he r f r om t h e h i g hw a y emergency lane

After one more contraction, she pushed out the baby and caught him before he hit the concrete. And then collapsed half squatting, half propped against the car, spent, to check his vitals. He was breathing. He wailed with no slapping needed. I’ve always been pretty calm in difficult situations but my wife was something else, delivering the baby all on her own on a street pavement. I couldn’t comprehend how that was even possible. Just then, a vehicle drove past, turned around up ahead and came back. Des didn’t know what she would use to fight off muggers or carjackers. She said later that she just hoped that they would be so shocked at the bloody scene that they would flee screaming. Fortunately, it was a middle-aged lady with a friendly voice who said she had heard a kitten miaowing and figured Des had stopped to pick it up. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t a kitten.) Being so dark, she thought she’d better help.

This is when I pulled up, thanked the lady profusely, loaded Des as cleanly as possible into my car and rushed her to Genesis. Those trained in such matters cut the cord, did all the checks and whatnots that men prefer not to hear about, and declared that Hudson (after the 1950s classic car company) “Pavement Special” Tonking was well: a good colour, breathing properly and weighing a perfectly average (but large for a sumo squat, self-delivery on a pavement) 3,8kg. I learnt a couple of things on that Friday afternoon almost a year ago. Firstly, helicopters are incredible tools in many situations, but not all. And secondly, if I ever need a multi-tasking crew member with a calm head, I need look no further than my superwoman of a wife.

April 2022

GADGET OF THE MONTH

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PETER GARRISON

Without drag, we would accelerate forever. IN 1752 AN INTERESTING FRENCHMAN named Jean le Rond d’Alembert published a work on fluid mechanics in which he demonstrated that a body moving in a frictionless, incompressible fluid must experience no drag. This was a consummation devoutly to be wished – we still wish for it today – but since it was quite obvious to anyone whose umbrella had been carried off by a gust of wind that drag really did exist, d’Alembert came to be popularly classified with those legendary scientists, beloved of ignoramuses, who supposedly assert that bumblebees cannot possibly fly since their wings are too small.

Drag is the thing that makes your aeroplane go no faster. A clean single-engine aeroplane of 300 horsepower, cruising at 175 knots, experiences a total resistance from the air of around 350 pounds. It cruises at that speed, and not some other speed, because that is the speed at which thrust, slowly declining as speed increases, and drag, rapidly increasing with speed, become identical. When thrust exceeds drag, the aeroplane speeds up; when drag exceeds thrust, it slows down.

the boundar y layer is exceedingly complex

Actually, the words “frictionless” and “incompressible” were critical to “d’Alembert’s paradox”. He would never have claimed otherwise. Computer programs today that ignore fluid friction, also known as viscosity, are on d’Alembert’s side: They reliably report drag coefficients of zero. Meanwhile, back in the real world, designers sweat bullets fighting their way toward that unattainable zero.

April 2022

Drag may be broken down into three types. First, there is the drag created by the mere act of a wing producing lift. This is called “induced drag”, and its existence is related to the fact that the wing has tips round which air spills, imparting a spinning motion behind the wingtips. Of our cruising aeroplane’s 350 pounds of drag, induced drag contributes only around 35 to 40. Induced drag increases as you slow down; at climb speed it would be closer to 100 pounds. A second kind of drag is due to skin friction. The mechanism is complicated: It’s not just a matter of a solid mass of air rubbing like an eraser against the skin. Within a transitional zone called the boundary layer, the speed of

air particles relative to the aeroplane becomes greater with increasing distance from the skin. The air in immediate contact with the skin sticks to it; extremely minute objects on the surface feel no wind at all. The “skin friction” consists of collisions among air particles moving at different speeds within the boundary layer.

even smooth butt joints and splattered bugs. The impeccable composite surface of a high performance sailplane's wing may sustain laminar flow more than halfway back to the trailing edge; flow on fuselages and engine nacelles, on the other hand, is almost entirely turbulent. The difference matters because a turbulent boundary layer produces several times more skin friction drag than a laminar one.

The behaviour of air within the boundary layer is exceedingly complex. One simple thing about it, however, is that at The reason for the the leading edge of difference is that The four forces on an aircraft in flight. In a body or wing the the tiny eddies in a cruise thrust = drag boundary layer is very turbulent boundary thin and the air in it is layer move in and orderly, moving along out with respect to in a series of thin films the surface. As they like a stack of sheets move inward they are of paper sliding over pulled forward by the one another. This layers of air closer is laminar – which to the surface; as means “layered” – they move outward flow. At some point they transfer some downstream, these of the momentum files of marching they have gained to soldiers – to shift the air molecules farther metaphor – break out. In other words, rank and disintegrate eddies behave into a disorderly mob. like little conveyor This is turbulent belts, exchanging flow. After transition, momentum between the boundary layer the aeroplane and immediately becomes several times thicker the surrounding air. The more momentum is than it was when it was laminar. As it moves imparted to the surrounding air, the greater the aft, it grows thicker still. By the time it reaches drag. the trailing edge of a single-engine aeroplane’s In a laminar boundary layer, on the other hand, wing it is an inch or two thick; at the aft end of a there is, in principle, no movement other than fuselage, 4 or 5 inches. movement parallel to the surface. There are no The thickness of the boundary layer matters eddies to facilitate the exchange of momentum because the boundary layer represents air between the aeroplane and the surrounding that the aeroplane is pulling along with it, like air. The only momentum exchange consists of a swimmer entangled in seaweed. The thicker the friction between neighbouring layers of air the boundary layer, the greater the mass of air moving at very slightly different speeds. the aeroplane has to move. And air, though When laminar-flow aerofoils were first transparent, is not massless. developed, around 1940, by Eastman Jacobs of The transition from laminar to turbulent flow is the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics easily triggered by small surface irregularities, (NACA), they generated great enthusiasm and April 2022

The trick with laminar flow wings is to get the transition point as far back as possible.

were eagerly (and in secrecy) adopted for the new P-51 Mustang. Some of the bloom went off the rose when it was found that practicalconstruction metal wings were not smooth enough to sustain much laminar flow. Only recently, with the increasing use of composites in all classes of aeroplanes, has it become reasonable to expect laminar drag values from manufactured wings. Of our aeroplane’s 350 pounds of drag, 200 to 250 are contributed by skin friction.

April 2022

Skin friction and form drag together constitute what is called the aeroplane's "parasite drag". Today we consider “streamlining” to be practically synonymous with aeronautical design, but it was only around 1930 that aeroplane designers began to take it seriously. Streamlining means reducing parasite drag. It takes two forms. One is the selection of the basic shape of an aeroplane, the placement and shaping of windshields, nacelles, wings and empennage components and intersections, the distribution of cross-sectional area from front to rear, all intended to provide air as smooth and direct a path as possible from nose to tail and to prevent the sudden changes of pressure and velocity

A f ine wire ante nna increas ed the total drag by almost 5 pe r ce nt

A third class of drag is called “form drag.” Form drag occurs when the boundary layer lifts off the aeroplane’s surface, allowing eddies of air – analogous to eddies of still water along the banks of a river – to slide beneath it from behind and be carried along with the aeroplane. The magnitude of form drag is difficult to predict, because it is hard to know what pressure is acting on the skin in separated zones. But since skin friction and

induced drag are relatively easy to calculate, form drag becomes the difference between them and the actual observed drag.

that can trigger flow separation. The other is the careful design of unavoidable details – the fairing of fixed landing gears, inlets and outlets for engine and cabin cooling air, and lots of small items like antennas, door handles, flap hinges, tank drains, and so on, to minimise the downstream disturbance they produce. Before and during World War 2, the NACA tested many full-scale aeroplanes in its 30x60-foot wind tunnel, first shaving off all excrescences, attaching streamlined noses to sealed engine nacelles, filling irregularities and sealing gaps to establish a minimum or “baseline” drag. The aeroplane was then returned little by little to its so-called service condition. It was through these tests that the collective impact of seemingly negligible items, like sanded paint on boarding steps, came to be recognised. A fine wire antenna running from the wingtips to the top of the fin of a Republic fighter prototype, for instance, increased the total drag by almost 5 percent. It was not uncommon for

the sum of insignificant blemishes to peel 30 knots from the top speed of a fighter. In addition to the aerodynamic drag related to shape and smoothness, there are "internal flow" losses. Some of these are due to imperfect sealing of cabin or landing gear doors or inspection plates. Some arise from cabin ventilation, which obviously requires accelerating some air to the speed of the aeroplane and then dumping it overboard in the way that creates the least possible downstream disturbance. For reciprocating-engine aeroplanes particularly, engine cooling is a major source of drag; however perfectly a cowling is designed, it cannot reduce cooling drag below some baseline value related to the heat rejection of the engine.. We will never realise d’Alembert’s chimera of a dragless body – but, unlike d'Alembert, we at least know the reasons why. j

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April 2022

PLANE TALK - JIM DAVIS

COMMANDO

CAPERS

Bertus van Ryswyk. That name just popped into my head from nowhere. Who the hell is Bertus van Ryswyk? Then I had an image of him in a SAAF flying overall. And then it all clicked into sharp focus the way emotional issues often do. THE ONLY CLEAR MEMORY I have of him is that of him rushing, with lunatic speed and energy, around an aeroplane – it was like one of those 1920 black and white films where everyone is an Energiser Bunny on steroids. Picture the scene. The place is a hot and dusty secret military location somewhere in southern Africa. Actually Verwoerd Dam (now Gariep Dam). We are a Commando Squadron on a training camp. Bertus has been given a mission number and a takeoff time, and now his Cherokee has a flat battery.

Unfortunately I am responsible for Bertus. Let me tell you why. One of my jobs, as the only instructor in the squadron, was to be the Flight Safety Officer. I had reached this lofty, and unenviable position, not through any special ability, or training in flight safety, but simply through the machinations of the Peter Principle. You will no doubt remember this states that, a person who is competent at their job will be promoted to a position that requires different skills. If the person lacks the new skills they will be incompetent at the new level, and will not be promoted again. If the person is competent in the new role, they will be promoted again, and will continue to be promoted until they reach a level at which they are not competent. They will then receive no further promotion and will have reached “Peter’s Plateau of incompetence.”

I didn’ t r eall y have my hear t in t he w hole milit ar y t hing

Can you guess why it was flat? That’s right – he left the Master switch on overnight. It happens to people who hurry around aircraft. They drive me potty with their belief that onlookers are impressed with the speed that your hands flash around the cockpit. Worse still, I was soon to discover that he forgot to put the park-brake on before his mad prop swinging.

April 2022

Put briefly, "Every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence."

April 2022

Bob Kershaw (L) with John Frost pose with a Hurricane.

This leads to Peter's Corollary: "In time, every post tends to be occupied by a person who is incompetent to carry out their duties."

failing in life was that he was inclined to take this whole military thing a bit too seriously. Saluting and foot stamping were music to his soul.

This principle worked so well for me that I not only reached my level of incompetence – I overshat it by a considerable margin. I rose from the rank of KO to Captain in an embarrassingly short time. Then my betters noticed that I didn’t really have my heart in the whole military thing. Oh, I greatly enjoyed it as a well-funded flying club – I just couldn’t take the foot stamping very seriously.

He, and Commandant Kershaw realized that one of my more impressive shortcomings was paperwork. They pointed this out on a number of occasions, and eventually threatened to demote me. I was delighted, if being a Lieutenant again meant that someone else did the paperwork – then bring it on.

I found the whole business of doing that, and saluting when addressing one’s betters; as well as having it done to you by your inferiors, rather silly. Most of these people were my day to day drinking mates. When I spotted Bertus at the height of his extraordinary behaviour, I was standing outside the ops tent with my immediate boss – Major Gordon Rivas – a hell of a nice guy whose one

April 2022

But I will come back to young Bertus and his prop-swinging shortly because I have just remembered that our boss had crashed his aeroplane for exactly the same reason – being too slick around the cockpit. I may have told you this story before but it’s worth repeating. When I say ‘our boss’, I refer to the famous Bob Kershaw who was the Commandant of our squadron – in fact the boss of all the commando squadrons.

And when I say famous, I mean really famous. Bob Kershaw DSO DFC was the first South African to be awarded the Distinguished Service Order during World War II. In 1942 his Hurricane Squadron was based in the north of Kenya. He, and Squadron Leader John Frost were detailed to attack the Italian forces in Abyssinia at Diredwa airfield. During the attack Frost’s Hurricane was hit by enemy ground fire and his glycol tank was ruptured. He landed at a nearby satellite field in the desert, and set the aircraft on fire to prevent it from being captured. Bob saw what was going on and landed next to Frost while under enemy fire. There wasn’t room in the cockpit for Frost to get in with his parachute, so he tossed it and

sat on Bob’s lap. Bob worked the rudder pedals while Frost used the throttle and the stick. Still under fire, they took off and returned safely to base. Bob was awarded an immediate DSO. His portrait was painted and it now hangs in the South African National War Museum. It’s not a good likeness, but it was used as a basis for a South African penny-ha’penny stamp which was issued in August 1942. Towards the end of the war he was flying a Spitfire when he was shot down. He parachat safely to the ground and was captured by Italian troops. When I first met Bob he was living in Knysna

Bob Kershaw became a national hero.

April 2022

and he had just bought a Twin Comanche, ZS-FAW, in partnership with Peter Anderson. And this is where the story gets a little sticky.

A short while later, they were admiring the isolated Caledon mountain on their left when both motors stopped. There was no coughing or warning of any sort. One moment they were smooth as silk, the next, dead silent.

Soon after they bought it, they were on their way to Cape Town with Bob in the left hand seat, and It was turning into a really bad day - but still not Peter, a 1000 hour Private Pilot, was handling the end of the world - Caledon’s 1500m, dirt the maps and radios. Their wives were in the runway was within easy gliding distance. And back and all were in high spirits. It was a gin Bob was a skilled pilot, well capable of getting clear spring day and this was their first fly-away into such a strip. trip in their new aircraft. The sparkling Indian Ocean was on their But fate had still not Kershaw's portrait was made into a left, while the Outiniqua finished dealing her postage stamp. mountain range appalling hand. paralleled their track on the right. They approached a little high - as one I had tested them both should on such in single engine aircraft occasions - and within the previous only selected gear 12 months and found and flaps at the them both to be above last minute, when average pilots. What certain of making the could go wrong? threshold. The first annoyance arose soon after takeoff when the No.1 VHF packed up. The Twin was well-equipped so they simply switched to VHF 2. A short while later this also began to disappoint - it was fading and not getting the range they expected at flight-level 65. Next, they noticed the ADF needle wandering. No problem - it was a coastwise, VMC flight - but having three dodgy radios on the first trip was starting to take the fun out of things. Just after half way, both fuel-gauges drifted to zero and stayed there no matter which of the six tanks were selected. This puzzled them because, although they knew the auxiliaries were empty, there was stacks of fuel in both mains. They also knew the tips-tanks were brimfull, so they selected the tips.

April 2022

The final crunch was just that - the crunch of alclad and rivets against gravel. They had done a wheelsup in their new aircraft. When I was a hangar-boy at Placo in the 60s, my boss, and extremely wise mentor, Zingi Harrison, said, “Davis, when the dust has settled, there are only two things to blame. It was either the aircraft or the pilot. Don’t blame the weather, the dirty fuel, the crosswind or the slippery runway - those are pilot problems - the aircraft didn’t choose them”. What Zingi said all those years ago is still true of light aircraft accidents today. So, who do we blame for Bob and Peter’s broken Twin Comanche on that dusty Caledon strip?

Bob Kershaw with museum memorabilia.

Here’s what really happened. That accident started two months before this flight. Bob had skimped on his multi-engine rating. His old buddy had given him a ‘quick conversion’. I go cold when I hear those words. The bottom line was that Bob didn’t really know the aircraft. Also, he was one of those pilots who are just a bit too slick around the cockpit. He was not used to generator switches. On most singles the generator is switched on with the master switch. Twins usually have separate switches - one for each generator, so you can test them individually. You’ve got it - Bob’s speedy hand never found those blue switches. From there on it was pretty predictable. The radios were the first to suffer from low voltage, then came the fuel gauges. Next, the solenoids that select the tip-tanks, kicked out – and fuel feed defaulted to the empty auxiliaries. Finally, there wasn’t any electricity left to extend the flaps and undercarriage. How could two experienced pilots could get it

all so wrong? First, until the engines stopped, there was no single item shouting out “Warning - look at me - red flag”. Radios do pack up occasionally. Twin Comanche fuel gauges are not technological wonders – they are vague wandery things. Besides, both pilots had visually inspected all the tanks. In any case, dickey fuel gauges are not an obvious indication of major electrical problems. That is the thing with electrical systems - they generally don’t wake you up with clanging alarms – they leave subtle clues, suggestions and innuendo. It’s your job to understand these whims. Bob and Peter didn’t. And now back to Bertus and his crazy propswinging. He would leap into his aeroplane and bounce straight out again. Then he would dash round the wing and start jumping up and down at the front while he swung the prop with unbelievable vigour. Then there would be a puff of dust from his sparkling boots as he shot round the wingtip, April 2022

dived into the cockpit and out again, to repeat this amazing procedure. I should explain that our squadron was not the sort of Commando setup which involved crawling out of muddy ditches with Arnie Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, a machine gun and one of those straps of bullets across our chests. No, we didn’t really go in for that sort of thing very much. We were a kind of weekend, Dad’s Army setup – more into drinking Bailies until we fell over. We liked to get up at a civilized hour and stumble around a bit until we could organise some coffee and follow it up with bacon and eggs. We would then find a quiet corner and do nothing until the FRAG arrived. This was always a big event. The FRAG was a couple of yards of paper with holes down the sides. It was sent from some God-like authority in Pretoria and it came out of a noisy teleprinter machine that clattered away in the ops tent. It detailed what everyone was to do with their lives that day.

So, you could say we were less front-line than Arnie and Bruce. We aimed for more comfortable surroundings while we messed around with aeroplanes and flew to places where people didn’t shoot at us. We might be detailed to take an important person to another secret location and bring back a sensitive message. Or perhaps to take a troopie with tummy-ache to a secret medical facility.

April 2022

A Candidate Officer (KO in Afrikaans) pronounced kah ooer, is about the most useless thing in uniform. It wears white stripes on its shoulders to warn others that it’s not to be trusted with any job more complex than toilet cleaning. Which is strikingly relevant to this story. On the day in question KO Jackobas Smit awoke after a riotous evening of drinking Baileys and wolfing down a large amount of a vaguely suspicious curry. The reason for his awakening was an ominous rumbling in his digestive tubes. He felt an urge to head for the bush in a bit of a hurry. As he dashed past the ops tent he saw a long stream of paper nailed to the central pillar. Realizing this could come in useful, he shot in, grabbed the communiqué and continued to a peaceful spot.

That accide nt s t ar te d t wo mont hs be f or e

Like a TAF or METAR, it was not easy for us ordinary people to understand as you had to have a sort of code book in your head before it made sense. It could also be quite annoying – it tended to interfere with one’s hopes that the B and E would be allowed to gently repair one’s tissues, while more coffee would wash away any contaminants that lingered in the bod.

Important stuff, but not muddy.

Before returning to Bertus I must tell you a short and sad story about a FRAG. Sometime before the Bertus incident, we were at a training camp in another secret location on the south coast when the whole enterprise was thrown into disarray. In order to protect military security I will call the leading protagonist Candidate Officer Jackobas Smit.

No one noticed anything untoward until a short while later when Major Rivas and Commandant Kershaw started kicking up an annoying racket and disturbing the hitherto tranquil morning by loudly demanding if anyone had seen the bloody FRAG. I will skip lightly over the distressing, and odious, spectacle of KO Smit, on his haunches, in the middle distance, using a stick to cleanse the document and then transcribing the bulletin, with a shaky hand, onto several bits of A4 on a brown clipboard. So back to Bertus van Ryswyk who was still kicking up a young dustdevil as he tore round his aircraft in ever more desperate attempts

to start it. I recognised that regardless of rank or job description, I had to act pretty smartly as someone was going to get maimed or killed. I zoomed across to the offending KO and did something that Arnie and Bruce would have applauded – I saved the life of a compatriot with a few well-chosen words. “Bertus, you bloody idiot, you are grounded.” “No, Sir, you don’t understand – I have to collect the general from…” “No, Bertus, you don’t understand – the general will have to wait until someone else collects him. Now stagger up to the ops tent and tell them I’ve spoilt their fun. When you have done that, come back here and put your aeroplane to bed. Next, tell Maintenance you have a flat battery. Then find two cups of coffee and meet me in the briefing tent.” “But…” “Do it Bertus. And three sugars for me.” The result was I spent the remaining few days of that camp teaching every one of our 18 pilots how to hand start their aircraft. We all felt better for it afterwards. The bit I remember clearly was Bob saying to me, “So what was the problem with van Ryswyk?” “Same as your problem Commandant.”

Welcome news for Bob Kershaw's wife after he was shot down.

“Too slick around the cockpit.” “You cheeky bastard Davis. Do you realise I could have you demoted again for that?” “Yes please sir.” Bob gave me a puzzled look before marching off. j

“What do you mean?” April 2022

NEWS

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Blackhawk says it will grow and expand Recoil’s safe, cost-effective solutions in the aerospace marketplace. Blackhawk brings decades of extensive experience in production design and certification, its government and defence division’s government program expertise, and its composite division’s capabilities to expand Recoil’s product line in the rotorcraft marketplace.

April 2022

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April 2022

FLIGHT REPORT: THE UTLIMATE STINSON 108 Guy Leitch with Keaton Perkins Photos Bruce Perkins

UPDATING A CLASSIC -

THE UTLIMATE STINSON 108 44

April 2022

Niels Andersen's "Ultimate Stinson" shows how a true classic can be a plane of beauty and joy.

Some classic designs are so good that after 75 years they are still practical aeroplanes. There is an increasing realisation that they deserve to be rejuvenated and enjoyed, long after the original manufacturer may have shut up shop.

April 2022

THE STINSON 108-3 IS ONE SUCH CLASSIC which takes its place amongst the North American T-6 Harvards, the Piper Cub and the Tiger Moth. Chris Briers, who founded the hugely successful Naturelink, had imported a brace of Stinsons and set about rejuvenating them. Unfortunately, Naturelink folded and the Stinsons became orphan projects. Niels Peter

afte r 75 year s t hey ar e s till prac tical ae r oplanes . Andersen is a man who saw the value of the classic Stinson and so acquired one of Briers’ 108-3 Voyagers that had been stripped down to bare metal. He set about project managing a ground-up restoration to better than new.

THE STINSON’S DEVELOPMENT Classics, like good wine, develop over time. The Stinson 108 series was a post WW2 design that put the company on the map in terms of good aircraft design and production quantity. The Stinson Aircraft Company was founded in Dayton, Ohio, in 1920 by Eddie Stinson. Wikipedia notes that after five years of business ventures, Eddie moved the factory to Detroit, Michigan while still flying as a stunt pilot and earning the huge sum of $100,000 a year. On the back of Detroit’s already massive car industry, Stinson found the city’s business community receptive to his plans to develop his own plane. He launched the Stinson Aircraft Syndicate in 1925 with $25,000 to design and build a prototype enclosed cockpit, 4-place biplane, powered by a Wright Whirlwind J-4 aircooled radial engine. The Stinson Detroiter SB-1 (for "Stinson Biplane

The instrument panel is up to date with the latest EFIS yet beautifully simple.

April 2022

Interior redone in tan leather and red accents.

model 1") made its maiden flight from Packard Field on 25 January, 1926. The plane not only had a rare (for the period) enclosed cabin, it also had a heater, upholstered seats and side panels, and even an electric cigarette lighter. The Detroiter became an overnight success, enabling Stinson to raise $150,000 in capital to go into production. On 4 May 1926 Eddie acquired the Stimson (no connection to Stinson and no typo) Scale Mfg. building in Northville, Michigan, and the first production model SB-1 rolled out just three months later in August 1926. Northwest (today Delta Airlines) sold its first passenger ticket in July 1927 on their first of several SB-1s (and later SM-1s). By the height of the Depression in 1930, Stinson offered six aircraft models, ranging from the four-seat Junior to the Stinson 6000 trimotor airliner. Eddie Stinson did not live to enjoy the success of his company. He died in an air crash in Chicago on 26 January, 1932. At the time of his

death at age 38, Stinson had more than 16,000 hours of flight time — more than any other pilot at the time. The Stinson 108 first flew in 1944 and became the company’s most successful model with a phenomenal 5,260 having been built. The first 108 had a 150- horsepower Franklin six-cylinder engine and a choice of propellers, including a fixed-pitch McCauley, a two-position Sensenich, and the variable-pitch Aeromatic. The 108 differed from other post-war planes in key details. Its tail was metal, as were the flaps, but the rest was familiar: constant-chord, fabric-covered wing and conventional gear with steerable tailwheel. For the 1947 models, dubbed the 108-1, Stinson boosted the plane's gross weight from 2,150 to 2,230 pounds, made modifications to the fuselage structure and added a baggage compartment with a right hand-side door. This higher maximum gross weight gives the 108-1 April 2022

Some old-style features remain - such as the roof mounted "coffee-grinder" pitch trim.

a useful load of about 930 pounds; most 108s weigh between 1,150 pounds and 1,300 pounds empty. Subtract the 40 gallons of fuel, and you can fill the seats and baggage compartments with 690 pounds of people and bags. Later in 1947, the 108-2 debuted the 165-hp version of the Franklin six and a host of other minor changes. With the -2 designation came the names, namely "Voyager" for the basic plane and "Station Wagon" for the cargo hauling model whose reinforced floor could handle up to 600 pounds of cargo. Beautiful wood side panels and flooring came with the Station Wagon package. The definitive 108-3, the basis for our test, was released in 1948. It retained the 165-hp engine which, with 50 USG tanks and another boost in maximum gross weight, to 2,400 pounds, was still barely heavier than the -2 empty, so almost all the increase went into useful load. A larger rudder and vertical stabiliser were part of the 108-3's improvements as was a revised rudder-

April 2022

trim system using a tab rather than the previous model's bungees. Piper purchased the Stinson company in 1948 and built the last 200 of some 5,200 108s produced; the line shut down as the post war boom fizzled. Stinson historians report that Piper took until 1950 to sell off the remaining 108 inventory. Notably, Piper transformed an original Stinson design (the "Twin Stinson") into the Piper Apache, the world's first general aviation all-metal twin-engined aircraft.

ON THE GROUND The Stinson 108 appears to be squat and short coupled, rather like a larger Piper PA-20 Pacer, which given Piper’s takeover of Stinson, bears a strong resemblance to the 108-3. The airframe appears to be typically draggy, with its oldfashioned double struts, dual cockpit steps and long un-faired undercarriage legs.

A distinguishing feature is the wing’s pronounced dihedral which is rare on a high wing aircraft. A notable design element which indicates the 108’s excellent short field capability are the slots on the outboard leading edges of the wings. The empennage is – like the rest of the airframe, fabric covered and the aircraft thus appreciates hangarage – particularly to avoid hailstorms. At the front, ZU-STN’s break with classic Stinson design is evident in the long composite cowl with relatively small cooling air intakes and, on the left side of the cowl, a large NACA duct for the engine air intake. Under the cowl ZU-STN is all new firewall forward, with a zero-timed Lycoming O-540 from a Cherokee-6 260. There is a shiny chrome spinner on the large three bladed propellor. The big engine has an approved Supplemental type certificate (STC) but Chris Briers used the opportunity to register the 1083s he had acquired as Non type certified aircraft with the designator CB-108-3. ZU-STN in number three of this series.

Looking at this plane’s details, it is evident this has been a restoration of love. The long pitot probe on the left wingtip has one of those clever self-closing vanes that keep the bugs out. Why modern aircraft do not have them I cannot imagine. The wheels now have powerful Cleveland disc brakes and large go-anywhere tyres. At the top of the wing struts there are simple tie down points mounted on chrome clamps. Where the front struts attach to the wing there are decidedly modern double LED landing lights. To accommodate the larger engine’s higher fuel burn, the wings now have STC approved carbon fuel tanks plus a fuel tank under the rear seat. These provide a total of 62 USG and give a comfortable 3.5 hours cruising at 120 KTAS. Actual endurance is 4.5 hrs, according to the MGL Avionics fuel flow system. The extra weight of the engine warranted a strengthening of the landing gear, which features oleos under the floor pan to absorb landing loads.

Very useful sized baggage bay has its own door on the right-hand side. April 2022

ZU-STN features un-spatted oversize tyres and no fairings on the gear legs.

Classic features such as this self-closing pitot cover - are missed on more modern airframes.

April 2022

Large dual LED landing lights.

Stoop under the wing and open the fabric covered door and in the original Stinson you could expect to see a post war automotive style mix of art-deco knobs. However, the subject of this review ZU-STN has enjoyed a huge makeover. The interior is now beautifully finished in tan leather with maroon piping inserts. The instrument panel now features state-ofthe-art Garmin G5 EFIS and a docking station for a removable GPS beneath a single Garmin nav/comm and transponder. Engine gauges are surprisingly small and clustered on the far right of the panel. The panel is now matt-grey metal and is attractive in its minimalist simplicity. Switches are simple but sturdy chromed toggles. On the door frame there are large chrome plated handles to pull yourself up and over the high sill into the front seats. The control wheels of ZU-STN are from a Piper, wrapped in carbon fibre. Only the left-seater gets toe brakes. In the roof there is a large coffee-grinder type pitch trim

control lever which is clearly marked with up and down, as it is non-intuitive. The cabin is more cramped than the high wing Cessnas. Front-seat room is adequate, but rearseat passengers had best be short. The small window area adds to the somewhat confining effect of the diagonal steel structural tubes inside the windscreen and the dual hefty lift-struts on the wing. For those contemplating an original Stinson, the standard Franklin engines in the 108 series have a history of cracking crankcases, and many have been retrofitted with heavier cases. Over the years several STCs for alternative engines have been offered. The Lycoming O-360 and Continental IO-360 are the most popular engine choices, primarily because of their higher power, light weight, and the ease of finding parts and service. A relatively rare option is the STC for the hefty Lycoming O-540 which is what ZU-STN has under its custom-made cowling. April 2022

Tail badge updates a classic.

The good-sized baggage bay is accessed from the generous sized door on the right-hand side and is not accessible from the cockpit. To deal with the extra weight on the nose from the Lycoming and three-bladed prop, the battery has been moved into the nether reaches of the tailcone.

FLYING THE 108-3 The O-540 Lycoming clatters into life with the typical high-pitched grinding from the starter on the large ring gear on the propellor flange. Once all cylinders are up and going, the light fabric covered airframe resonates to remind you that you are in an old plane. Keaton Perkins had the pleasure of flying ZU-STN with Jason Beamish in the right-hand seat flying formation for Keaton’s father, Bruce Perkins’ camera.

April 2022

Keaton reports that, as befits the classic it is, the 108-3 is well-mannered in all flight regimes. With its short and strong steerable tailwheel, the ground-handling is not particularly tricky. Visibility over the nose is fair. The 108-3s modern disc brakes make taxying even easier. But it is still a taildragger, so you must have the taildragger pilots dance on the pedals well practiced. Stinson owners complain of its tendency to weathervane in stiff winds due to the large tail. Takeoff is a non-event thanks to the abundance of power. Within a few metres, particularly if held against the brakes, the tail comes up. Visibility over the nose becomes excellent and at most weights you can be airborne within 200 metres with mild back pressure on the stick at 45 KIAS. Flaps are not needed for takeoff which is helpful as their limit speed is a low 78 KIAS. Climb out is happiest at 80 -90 knots with a heathy 1000 fpm, depending on weight.

Despite being 75-year-old vintages, Stinsons are more than competent cross-country transport, particularly with the big engine rumbling away in front, turning the prop at an easy 2300 rpm and yielding a 120 KTAS with a 13 gph fuel burn for a three and a half to four-hour endurance. The 108’s thick wing and slats make slow speed handling particularly rewarding. Stinson owners love their plane’s light, balanced handling and control harmony. Stalls are docile and amount to a mush with plenty of warning and no discernible break or wing drop. Unlike most comparable aircraft, the 108′s roll control remains effective into the stall, courtesy of the leading edge slots that enable airflow to cling to the outer wing and aileron surfaces even when the inboard wing sections are beginning to stall. Flaps are extended via a manual floor-mounted lever. In an attempt to make the plane spinproof, full up-elevator travel is only available when the flaps are down. When the flaps are up, a tab on the flap lever limits the maximum up-elevator to approximately 9 degrees less

than full up travel. Lead it into the turns with your feet, and keep your toes alive during manoeuvring, and you'll have no trouble keeping the ball in the centre. Niels Andersen now bases ZU-STN at What’s Landing outside East London, which, with its grass runways is an ideal home. He normally flies the approach at around 70 KIAS which, with full flaps gives a good view over the nose and plenty of control authority for the round-out and hold off. Three point fully stalled landings are preferred. Keep the approach speed down and the Stinson can be landed and stopped in 150 metres. Overly firm arrivals back onto terra firma are softened by the 108′s gear legs which pivot to the strengthened oleo shock absorbers. The Stinson is not nearly as prone to embarrassing kangaroo hops down the runway as say the Cessna 185. With its big tyres it makes it an excellent bush plane, yet with decent load hauling and cross-country ability.

Designing the new composite cowl.

April 2022

CONCLUSION I asked Niels Andersen the obvious question – why would anyone want to own this 75-yearold plane, when for the same amount he has invested in it, he could have a really nice Cessna 182? The answer is simply because it is a timeless classic. If you want a plane that handles honestly and predictably, but with the responsive fluidity missing from your everyday Wichita ‘spamcan’ Cessnas and Pipers, the Stinson gives you that and more. The Stinson's pedigreed handling and good utility is a winning combination. Unlike other post war models, of which the two- place taildragger is the most common, the Stinson 108, like its Cessna 170/180/185 contemporary, brings enough utility to be a more than competent transport.

Despite being a 80-year-old design, the 108 is still remarkably well-supported. Univair Aircraft holds the 108 Type Certificate and much of the original tooling used by Stinson. Virtually every part is either kept in stock or can be fabricated. Airworthiness directives are few and straightforward. Only about five apply to the airframe, and most involve one-time fixes. Its rugged construction and simple systems, coupled with parts availability better than many newer aircraft, make the 108 an easily manageable and non-bank breaking maintenance burden, with minimal downtime. There’s a lot to like – and the undeniable satisfaction that comes from owning a true classic. j

The airframe was stripped down to bare metal - note landing gear oleos.

April 2022

Specifications and Performance Stinson CB 108-3 #3

SPECIFICATIONS (APROXIMATE) Length: Wingspan: Height: Wing area: Aspect ratio: Airfoil: Empty weight: Gross weight: Wing loading: Power/mass: Fuel capacity: Engine: Propeller:

24 ft 6 in (7.46 m) 33 ft 11 in (10.33 m) 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 155 sq ft (14.4 m2) 7.14 NACA 4412 1,550 lb (547 kg) 2,500 lb (975 kg) 13.8 lb/sq ft 14.33 lb/hp (8.69 kg/kW) 62 US gallons (235 l) Lycoming 0-540 260hp 3-bladed Hartzell constant speed

PERFORMANCE Maximum speed: Cruise speed: Landing speed: Stall speed, flaps down: Never exceed speed: Range: Service ceiling: Rate of climb: Takeoff roll: Landing roll

140 mph (125 KTAS) 135 mph (120 KTAS) 75 mph (65 KTAS) 57 mph (50 KIAS) 164 mph (145 KIAS) 560 mi (480 nm) 15,000 ft 1100 ft/min 167 m 150m

April 2022

1974 Cessna Citation 500

1982 Hawker HS-125-700A 11098.4 Hours TTSN on Honeywell TFE-731-3DR-1H

10310 Hours TTSN on Pratt & Whitney JT15D-1A

Registration Number: ZS-SGT

1981 Hawker HS-125-700A

Registration Number: ZS-WJW

9074.4 Hours TTSN on Honeywell TFE-731-3R-1H

Registration Number: ZS-SOI

1985

Bell 206 L3 Long Ranger III Helicopter Registration Number: ZS-HXN

1977 Beechcraft Baron B58 5818.4 Hours TTSN on Continental IO520-CB

Registration Number: ZS-KCA

1978 Beechcraft Baron B58 9029.6 Hours TTSN on Continental IO520-CB

Registration Number: ZS-LXO

April 2022

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JIM DAVIS

Z S -ER F CE S S NA C1 8 2

Aircraft Registration: ZS-ERF Date and time of Accident: 28 August 2012. 09:25Z Aircraft type: Cessna C182 Operation: Private PIC Licence: CPL Age: 27 Flying Experience: Total: 346.4 Hours. On Type: 18.5 Hours

•

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

Point of departure: Nelspruit Aerodrome (FANS) Point of intended landing: Berlin private strip at GPS: S25 33’ 30” E030 43’ 43” Location of the accident: Berlin private strip Met: Surface wind: North Easterly, 6kts. Visibility: 10km. Temperature: 23 C POB: 2 Persons injured: 2 Persons killed: 0

SYNOPSIS

PROBABLE CAUSE

During the approach for landing at Berlin the pilot flared too high, and the stall warning horn sounded. He recovered by increasing power and lowering the nose. The aircraft impacted the ground, bounced, veered to the right and impacted the boundary fence before it came to rest inverted.

The pilot proceeded to land from an unstable approach.

April 2022

The pilot must always be ahead of the aircraft.

JIM’S COMMENTS: Folks this is such a common, ordinary, boring, stupid prang that it almost lulls me to sleep. But it’s this very commonness that makes it worth looking at. It’s one of a group of landing accidents that are totally avoidable because they all have the same basic cause. So they all need the same basic cure. The report says it was caused by an unstable approach. So first let’s see what that means. A stable approach is one where the aircraft is: • Correctly configured – flaps and undercarriage • At the correct airspeed for prevailing conditions • Is on the correct glideslope, and rate of descent • Is tracking along the centreline. So the report maintains that at least one of those parameters was not met, although it gives no evidence that this was the case. No matter –

bad landings and go-arounds are often caused by an unstable approach and there is much to learn from this. The problem is easy to identify, and to cure. Bear with me while I tell you a brief cricket story which will make the point perfectly Some while ago I was watching a test match in Durban, it was between England and South Africa. I love cricket but this was the most dreary, tedious thing I had ever seen. It was a stifling, windless day at Kingsmead. There had been no action for the last five overs and the crowd is getting restive. One of the Pommy batsmen, who had been in for about a fortnight without making a single run, just stood there and blocked every ball. I was about to doze off when an South African voice echoed round the field, “hit the f@kkin ball.” That seemed to be the spark needed to ignite April 2022

This is the sort of expensive damage that happens when the pilot is not always pro-actively flying the plane.

some action, and the game took off. This story has the same sentiment and almost the same wording as the secret for sorting out most landing accidents. “Fly the effing aircraft.” My last accident report was about a Seneca where the pilot also rounded out too high, got a stall warning, added some power and lowered the nose. The aircraft sailed into the ground and ripped the nosewheel off. The PIC was a seasoned instructor. In both accidents the pilots failed to take positive action. You have to stop being a passenger and fly the aircraft all the way down to the ground. I blame two things, nosewheel aircraft and poor instruction. In a taildragger you have to fly the aircraft firmly and positively all the way down

April 2022

the approach so the wheels meet the ground exactly right. It demands to be flown positively. As for poor instruction, I am afraid that many new instructors, and I am thinking of ones with less than a thousand hours of instructing, simply haven’t worked out ways of teaching their pupes to fly firmly and positively. There are a few ways of doing this. First, the pupil must learn the basics of aileron and rudder coordination, and then practice it until it becomes second nature. If you use right rudder the aircraft will roll to the right, and if you use right aileron it will roll to the right. And if you use them together the roll is crisp and positive; and the nose doesn’t wander through aileron drag. Once your pupe has the basics, insist on accurate flying all the time – but particularly in the circuit. They will only be able to land reliably when they can fly an accurate circuit.

And it must be accurate in every way – heading, airspeed, altitude, bank and balance. And all transitions, particularly from the climb to level flight, must be smooth and positive. So must the entry and exit of every turn. If you allow your pupe to be vague and wanderrie in the circuit, then he will never develop the skills he needs for consistently good landings. Some new instructors think they are helping their pupes by cutting corners in the circuit in order to get more landings per hour. It doesn’t work – it’s actually counterproductive. Even more counterproductive is “helping” the pupil by applying pressure to the controls. How can they learn what the controls feel like while you are interfering?

I don’t believe it helps to shout at a pupe – but hell it’s tempting! So you have to say with more patience, “Well if you need more power – do it - NOW.” This is very frustrating initially, but you will soon have the pupes talking their way down the approach. “I’m too high – so I am throttling back a bit. Now I am left of centreline – so I’m making a positive turn to the right.” And so on. And suddenly the magic happens. Once you get them to talk themselves down, you have won the battle.

“ Fl y t he e ff ing air craft .”

The pupe must know what’s expected of him and how to achieve it. An excellent way of forcing the pupe to be firm and positive on the approach is this. When you are on base you ask them to visualise a perfect approach. They must be able to “see” a path from the nose of the aircraft, along base, through the turn and all the way down the final approach to the touchdown point. When I say see the path I mean they must visualise something tangible – I like to use a yellow brick road, as in the Wizard of Oz. Then you keep asking them whether they are on this ideal path. Are you too high or too low? Are you at the correct airspeed? Are you left or right of the path. You do this all the way down to the fence. You will be amazed what happens – the pupe will say, “I’m too low” or “I’m not on the centreline” and then do nothing about it. So you have to patiently say, “and what are you going to do about it?” Then they will say, “I need more power.”

And when they stop talking it means they have stopped thinking and stopped flying the aircraft.

The next step is to take over on base and deliberately put the aircraft in a silly position at the end of the turn on to the final approach. You might leave him well off the centreline with not nearly enough power. You want to see an immediate, and positive response. None of this pussy-footing and hoping it will come right. As soon as they are used to reacting immediately and positively, this is the time to start booking their flights in the turbulent or windy times of day. Ever noticed how pilots from Port Elizabeth are not fazed by strong winds? If they are battling, then it’s almost always poor aileron/rudder coordination – time for a brief reminder, in the training area, and follow this up with a 500’ exercise – following a road or river. It works wonders. Finally, the pupe must get used to you suddenly shouting, at any stage of the approach or landing, “GO-AROUND, GO-AROUND, GO AROUND”. You obviously want them to act immediately and positively. When you have got that right, it’s time to pat April 2022

yourself on the back for being a damn good instructor. Now for three quick stories on the subject. Philip was one of those delightful youngsters who cycled out to the airfield whenever he could get a bit of time off school. He saved his pocket money and washed cars and mowed lawns to pay for his flying in my Colt at R8 an hour. He wore Harry Potter glasses and had the quiet, respectful demeanour of a choir-boy – pretty much the ideal pupe. I had been waiting for a good day to do crosswind landings with him and it never seemed to come. The wind was seldom more than 10kts and 20° off George’s main tar runway 11/29. And then suddenly we had it – actually more than I wanted, but it would have to do – 20 kts directly across the grass runway.

controls are pretty soggy at the best of times. The tension had been building up in this poor lady’s head for the past 40 minutes while we got tossed around doing upper air work. At 500’, on final approach, she suddenly burst into tears, put her hands over her head and shouted, “I can’t do this.” “Wrong. You have GOT to do it. Now fly the effing aircraft.” I dived behind her seat and pretended to be doing something important. Of course she landed beautifully – as one usually does in a strong wind.

v is ualis e a pe r f e c t appr oach

Philip handled it well. We bounced around the circuit, he laid off massive drift on downwind, and descended smartly on base to allow for the tailwind. The final approach was wild to the extent that this timid schoolboy yelled something that sounded like, “far King ah souls”. “Fly the effing aircraft, Philip.” And I used a favourite trick. I pretended there was something that interested me in the back of the aircraft and started rummaging behind his seat. This has two wonderful effects, it lets the pilot know that he is all on his own, it’s entirely up to him to land the aircraft, or do a go-around; and it tells him that you have absolute confidence in his ability. I had a similar thing converting a female ATP Citation captain, to a Seneca at Port Alfred. The wind was howling – 45 to 50 kts, but it was pretty much down the runway. The Seneca felt like it was in a tumble drier, particularly as the

April 2022

Afterwards she told me that was a turning point in her flying career. If you are the PIC then BE in command.

Not long ago I flew with a young lady in an Arrow. She had a bit over 100 hours and was working towards her Com. She was a lovely, gentle soul, and so was her instructor. And it showed. He had been coaxing her, and she had been coaxing the aircraft. It felt like she was controlling it through rubber bands, and was apologising to it every time she wanted it to do anything. I bullied the hell out of her timid, deeply religious, Christian soul, for an hour and a half, by barking at her to fly the effing aircraft. She phoned me a couple of days ago to say she had just passed her Com flight test, first time, and been given a job by one of the country’s top flying schools. TAKE HOME POINTS: • Fly the effing aircraft. • How can they learn what the controls feel like while you are interfering? j

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ZS-ZCA was Comair's sole delivered Boeing 737 Max 8 here being returned to an airpark in the USA as N862BC.

FEBRUARY 2022 FEBRUARY HAS BEEN MUCH BUSIER than the last few months. We see five Type Certified (TCA) aircraft, being four fixed wing and one helicopter, having been added. This includes a new De Havilland 8-400 for Cemair; this one is seventeen years old. There is also another Embraer 190 (fourteen years old) for Airlink. I have been watching Flight Radar 24 a lot of late and there is a substantial increase in scheduled airline flights within South Africa. It seems we are coming out of Covid 19 restrictions, and this can only be good for the airlines.

Yet another Air Tractor has joined the ranks of those operating here. There is also another Falke motor glider added. The Non-type certified (NTCA) register continues to grow with another seven aircraft

April 2022

There is an Air Tractor AT4 added, and I suspect that this one is not an Air Tractor crop sprayer, but a rebuilt Robinson R44 (ZS-HMG is a possible candidate – see the cancellations).

a s ubst antial increase in scheduled air line f lights

Judging by the limited number of movements, SAA does not seem at be a significant factor at the moment.

added. Interesting amongst these is an Alouette III that arrived from the USA.

It’s great to see an Evans VP2 again. These are great little Volksie powered aircraft.

The cancellations continue to grow at an alarming rate but with the weakness of the Rand, aircraft prices in ZA Rands must be quite attractive overseas. There are a total of fifteen cancelled from the register including ZS-HMG being cancelled as destroyed. I haven’t been able to track an accident for this aircraft so suspect that she has become ZU-ROZ. Four of the exported aircraft have been registered in the USA and I’m wondering if they’ve actually been flown to America or are they staying here simply to make

ABOVE: Another Comair loss - ZS-ZWZ, a Boeing 737-800 was returned to its lessor in Ireland. Photo Ray Watts. BELOW MIDDLE: The aero medical fleet continues to grow - this is N430UH a Bell 430 which is now ZT-RNA. ELOW BOTTOM: ZS-HMG was a Robinson R44 de-registered as Destroyed but possibly B rebuilt as ZU-ROZ.

April 2022

ABOVE: Yet another new Air Tractor is N2047V an AT-402B, now operating in South Africa as ZS-TKV. BELOW: South Africa is losing aircraft to Africa. ZS-KNS is a C152 exported to Morocco. Photo Dave Becker.

life easier for the owners. The rest have gone into Africa, South America and Australia. The drone register just keeps growing and growing with sixty-five new ones having been added and twelve deleted. I have noticed that apart from the one I mentioned last month, three more are showing up on Flight Radar 24 around the East Rand and these seem to be patrolling factories and warehouses. They don’t fly higher than about 60 to 100ft AGL so they’re not getting in anybody’s way.

April 2022

TAIL PIECE: I mentioned last month that the SAAF Museum was having their first flying day on the 5th of February. Great excitement for all us enthusiasts but the weather had the last word, and the display was cancelled. It was nice however to be able to get into the hangars again after all this time and see that the Museum staff have been busy keeping the displays neat and tidy. j

ABOVE: ZS-NSV is a Cessna C206 exported to Bolivia. Photo Dave Becker BELOW TOP: N748GC is unusually an ex USA Alouette III imported into South Africa as ZU-RPB. BELOW MIDDLE: Airllink's fleet continues to grow - VH-ZPH is an Embraer 190 now ZS-YAV. BELOW BOTTOM: Cemair is also growing well - C-GUDC a DHC-8 400 is now ZS-DHJ for Cemair.

April 2022

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NEWS

EASTERN CAPE CANCELS AMS CONTRACT

THE EASTERN CAPE AIR MEDICAL SERVICE was awarded almost two years ago. Since then, the new contractor has been unable to perform and now the contract has been cancelled.

rival bidders claimed that its director, Sibongile Gobile, had no experience in the aviation industry.

The EC Department of Health cancelled the contract with an air ambulance provider several months after an East London company controversially won the tender. The EC government claims the company failed to put a single helicopter in the air.

In 2020, Leli Investments partnered with Black Eagle Aviation on a multimillion-rand tender to provide air ambulances for 36 months to the Eastern Cape Department of Health. A legal wrangle followed when NAC challenged the award in court on 7 October 2020 and asked the court to issue an interdict to stop the department from awarding the contract.

Leli Investments won the tender in 2020 but after a legal tussle with one of the losing bidders only received the green light to go ahead with the service in July last year. In papers before court,

On 17 November 2020, an interdict was granted halting the implementation of the contract pending a review hearing. But this interdict was later lifted in July 2021 as the court ruled

NAC Aeromed contested the award of aeromedical services in the Eastern Cape. Image Timothy Brandt.

April 2022

NEWS that it was unacceptable to have a ‘stop-gap’ contractor render an essential emergency service like air ambulances and that Leli Investments in partnership with Black Eagle Aviation should be allowed to continue rendering the service while the review application was being finalised. Lawyers for the consortium had argued that it would suffer irreparable harm if it was not allowed to continue with the service. The consortium claims it had purchased specialised equipment and the customised fittings for all three of its helicopters, both those owned and those leased by the consortium. It had paid for the refurbishment and overhaul of equipment required by the contract. It had embarked on the requisite training and orientation of the department’s Control Centre team and the helicopter teams and paid for specialist training. It also argued that pilots had been contracted and employed specifically for this service and should the service not be required, lengthy employment relations procedures would have to be initiated. Recurrency training had also been conducted for the pilots to ensure

competency as per the requirements of the Civil Aviation Authority. Specific aircraft insurance relating to aeromedical operations had been secured and paid for. Purchase agreements had been concluded for two helicopters intended to replace the two leased helicopters. Motor vehicles had been purchased and lease agreements concluded for the accommodation of the pilots at the three operational bases (Mthatha, East London and Gqeberha). Yet, by January 2022, despite assurances by Dr Rolene Wagner, the superintendent-general of the Eastern Cape Department of Health that the service would start on 1 November 2021, the province still had no air ambulances. In march 2022, Wagner confirmed that the department had terminated the aeromedical service with the awarded provider for being in breach of the service level agreement. “The department is embarking on a new competitive process for aeromedical services,” she said. “The procurement plan and timelines will be communicated once the recent communication from Treasury regarding the Constitutional Court ruling on procurement is considered.” j

Dr Rolene Wagner is the head of the Eastern Cape Department of Health.

April 2022

LETTERS

SAA ALPHA FLOOR INCIDENT I HOPE YOU CAN PUBLISH an article relating to the SAA mentioned incident/ stuff up. I have asked a lady @News 24 to shed light on why SACAA not willing to release the findings of the incident? CAA response was that the Findings are not in the Publics interest ! As the national airline belonging to the people, it sure is! Furthermore, whyweare those SAA pilots not fired [for] knowingly flying without the proper Recurrent training done prior to the flight? Best regards, Allen (Retrenched SAA A330/A340 Senior Training Captain)

April 2022

Hi Allen The CAA's view is that this is an incident not an accident - and as such it was up to the SAA Flight department to investigate and take the necessary actions. Re responsibility - I understand that the captain involved (who was also the chief pilot?) had at the time of the incident already resigned from SAA. However the point is that the CAA had issued an infamous exemption on 13 items to allow the flight to proceed – for political showboating. For SAA V2 this incident is already history they are trying to forget. Guy

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April 2022

FUEL TABLE

SA Flyer 2022|04

www.sv1.co.za FuelasPrices as at 25/02/2022 Fuel Prices at 25/02/2022

FuelasPrices as at 25/03/2022 Fuel Prices at 25/03/2022

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 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 NelspruitNelspruit 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 Ci vi l Pi etersburg 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 Vryburg Vryburg 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

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 R27,60 R27,60 R19,35 R19,35 Bethlehem Bethlehem R 24,96 R R24,96 15,64 R 15,64 Bloemfontei n Bloemfontei n R24,67 R24,67 R15,90 R15,90 BrakpanBrakpan R27,00 R27,00 Brits Brits R26,45 R26,45 Cape Town Cape Town R27,46 R27,46 R17,25 R17,25 Cape Winelands (Fisantekraal) Cape Winelands (Fisantekraal) R26,50 R26,50 Eagles Creek Eagles Creek R33,50 R33,50 East London East London R22,82 R22,82 R18,42 R18,42 Ermelo Ermelo R27,49 R27,49 No Fuel Fly-In Fly-In No Fuel Gari ep Dam Gari ep Dam R25,00 R25,00 R17,50 R17,50 George George R23,87 R23,87 R19,14 R19,14 Grand Central Grand Central R30,53 R30,53 R18,46 R18,46 Hei delberg Hei delberg R27,20 R27,20 Hoedspruit Hoedspruit POA POA Ki mberley Ki mberley R24,68 R24,68 R15,92 R15,92 Kitty Hawk Kitty Hawk R28,60 R28,60 Klerksdorp Klerksdorp R26,95 R26,95 R14,50 R14,50 Kroonstad Kroonstad R28,23 R28,23 R16,91 R16,91 Kruger Intl Nelspruit Kruger Intl Nelspruit R26,54 R26,54 R18,45 R18,45 Krugersdorp Krugersdorp R27,55 R27,55 Lanseri aLanseri a R27,83 R27,83 R18,23 R18,23 No Fuel MargateMargate No Fuel Middelburg Middelburg R26,45 R26,45 R17,83 R17,83 Morningstar Morningstar R30,98 R30,98 Mosselbay Mosselbay R29,40 R29,40 R18,50 R18,50 Nelspruit Nelspruit R26,45 R26,45 R18,98 R18,98 Oudtshoorn Oudtshoorn R24,72 R24,72 R16,29 R16,29 Parys Parys POA POA POA POA Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg R25,90 R25,90 R17,40 R17,40 Pi etersburg Pi etersburg Ci vi l Ci vi l R26,10 R26,10 R16,70 R16,70 Plettenberg Bay *** NEW*** Plettenberg Bay *** NEW*** R27,50 R27,50 R17,50 R17,50 Port Alfred Port Alfred R33,55 R33,55 Port Elizabeth Port Elizabeth R26,60 R26,60 R19,16 R19,16 Potchefstroom Potchefstroom POA POA POA POA Rand Rand R27,52 R27,52 R19,92 R19,92 Robertson Robertson R25,75 R25,75 Rustenberg Rustenberg R25,50 R25,50 R17,85 R17,85 SecundaSecunda R27,29 R27,29 R17,60 R17,60 Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect POA POA Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect POA POA Springbok Springbok R28,60 R28,60 R19,55 R19,55 Springs Springs R29,00 R29,00 Stellenbosch Stellenbosch R28,00 R28,00 Swellendam Swellendam R27,30 R27,30 R16,90 R16,90 Tempe Tempe R23,71 R23,71 R17,22 R17,22 Thabazimbe Thabazimbe POA POA POA POA Upington Upington R25,39 R25,39 R16,63 R16,63 gi ng No Fuel Vereeni giVereeni ng No Fuel Vi rgi ni a Vi rgi ni a R28,16 R28,16 R19,62 R19,62 VryburgVryburg POA POA POA POA Warmbaths ***NEW*** Warmbaths ***NEW*** R28,00 R28,00 WelkomWelkom R28,23 R28,23 R16,91 R16,91 Wi ngs Wi ngs Park EL Park EL R24,50 R24,50 WitbankWitbank R24,20 R24,20 Wonderboom R27,69 R27,69 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 74 GPS April 2022 Import/Export no. 21343829

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April 2022

Events by UITENHAGE FAUH WINGS AND WHEELS FESTIVAL 2 April 2022

AERO FRIEDRICHSHAFEN

STEADY CLIMB FLY IN AND EAA YOUNG EAGLES

27 – 30 April Germany

9 April Rhino Park

www.AERO-EXPO.com

Contact Lourens Kruger Cell: 082 320 2615 email: lmk@telkomsa.net

Tamara Blaschke Email: tamara.blascke@messe-fn.de

David le Roux Tel. 073 338 5200 or email: marketing@steadyclimb.co.za OR Keaton Perkins E-mail: keatonperkins@ hotmail.com Cell: 082 320 2615

SAPFA BRAKPAN RALLY

ZUIKERKOP COUNTRY LODGE FLY-IN

ROBERTSON ANNUAL FLY IN BREAKFAST

9 April Brakpan Airfeld

9 April Clocolan, Free State

9 April Robertson

Contact Mary de Klerk E-mail: mary@sapfa.co.za Cell: 084 880 9000

Contact Eddie Cell: 082 388 7640

Contact Alwyn du Plessis. E-mail: boeredata@breede.co.za Cell: 083 270 58880

AERO CLUB OF SOUTH AFRICA AIRWEEK & EAA NATIONAL CONVENTION

RUSTENBURG AIRSHOW

SAGPA’S NORTH MEET SOUTH

22 – 24 April Middelburg Rob Jonkers E-mail: rob@aerosud.co.za Cell: 082 804 7032 or Neil Bowden, email: neil1@telkomsa.net Cell 084 674 5674

23 April Rustenburg Contact Lesego Serekwane E-mail: lesego@marakanelo.co.za Cell: 066 256 7302

29 April to 2 May Gariep Tommie Jordaan: 082 802 3221 E-Mail: tommie.jordaan@icloud.com or tommie@zipplink.co.za

QUEENSTOWN GATHERING OF THE MOTHS 30th April to 1 May 2022 Queenstown Airﬁeld Contact: Giel Tel. 082 555 4418 or Mark 082 921 2872

Flying in Africa – that’s what we love

April 2022

Airweek Middelburg

Flying in Africa - that’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 994377 April 2022

AIRSHOW Guy Leitch - Photos: Justin de Reuck

After a Covid driven two-year drought of airshows, the Stellenbosch Airshow has opened the 2022 airshow season with a bang. THE STELLENBOSCH AIRSHOW was held over two days: the Friday afternoon and the whole of Saturday on 26 and 27 March 2022. Due to the remaining Covid restrictions, the airshow was limited to just 2000 ticket sales – and these were snapped up long before the show opened.

With its mountain backdrop, Stellenbosch is one of the most beautiful airfields in the world, and the east facing crowd line is preferred by photographers. The Friday sundown flight by the Puma Flying Lions Harvards in the golden light of a perfect evening was unforgettable. The Saturday programme was chock-a-block full

The Hottentots Holland Mountains provide a magnificent backdrop for the Puma Flying Lions.

April 2022

The crowd was limited by the Covid restriction of 2000 presold tickets.

Pierre Gouws and Malcolm Warner provided precision aerobatics in their RV 7 and 8.

April 2022

Airlink provided a beautifully flown Embrear 190 for the airliner action.

and thankfully the fickle Cape weather provided a perfect autumn day. The show day opened with the skydiving of a huge SA flag and was supposed to move on to a Silver Falcons display. Unfortunately, defence spending cuts has grounded the SAAF

display team which was a disappointment to many – however SAAF precision flying was still provided by a 5-ship PC-7 Mark II SAAF team. It’s interesting to note that the private sector has ably stepped into the gap of formation aerobatics with the Puma Flying Lions and Marksman Team. The SAAF did however also

The Leading Edge Blackhawk provided an unfortunately limited display in favour of the Hueyies.

April 2022

Patrick Davidson puts his Gamebird through its paces.

fly in a C47 TP Dakota and the Chief of the Air Force in an Oryx. A highlight was the new Marksman Aerobatic team. Led by aerobatics supremo Mark Hensman, who has years of experience with Red Bull Air Races and air shows in China, the team includes Mark Sampson, Martin Schultz, and Eugene du Preez. The team flew more than

150 practice sessions to present a fantastically polished performance with their corkscrew (koeksister) spiral and then heart stopping crossovers. Another great display of precision formation aerobatics was provided by Pierre Gouws and Malcolm Warner in an RV 8 and 7.

Making a welcome return to the airshow scene is the Yak-55 owned and flown by Cape based Mark Hensman.

April 2022

The comedy routine was provided by Alewyn Burger flying an apparently out of control Piper Cub.

Two Air Tractor 802 fire-bombers in action.

April 2022

The new Marksman Team performs one of their intensively practiced crossovers.

In the absence of SAAF Gripens and Hawks, jet action was provided by Hangar-51’s freshly rebuilt cold-war trainer, the Aero Vodochody L-29 Delphin, flown by Grant Timms and Mike Weingartz. A highlight was the airliner display, this time put on by Airlink with an Embraer 190, which was beautifully flown in the tight space in front of the mountain backdrop. Classic interest was provided by the rare appearance of Alan Fergus’s Howard DGA 15P, a De Havilland Chipmunk and Boeing Stearman. Mark Jackson’s Leading Edge and the Working on Fire Hueys and two 802 Air Tractor water bombers thrilled with their firefighting capabilities. There was a huge variety of displays including a Rotax powered 80% scale Tucano replica, a

Gyrocopter and a buzz of radio control planes. Precision solo aerobatics was provided by Patrick Davidson of Red Bull fame who ably displayed his Game Bird, Andrew Blackwood Murray in his Extra and Mark Hensman’s rumbling Yak 55. The crowd loved the comedy routine put on by Alewyn Burger, as a supposed 90-year old former pilot, frolicking around in a Piper Cub. Brian Emmenis reminded us why he is a world class airshow commentator, with his huge knowledge, ability to seamlessly include music and massive investment in equipment. and his Capital Sounds team. The Stellenbosch Flying Club did a fantastic job organising and hosting the show and have set a high standard for what will hopefully be a return to a busy airshow calendar.

April 2022

THE

Guy Leitch

STELLENBOSCH

MIRAGE

One of the former SAAF Mirage F1CZs was donated to Stellenbosch Flying Club in 2019. Unfortunately, due to a shortage of funds to construct a building to house it – it stood exposed to the elements. THIS JET, SERIAL NUMBER 207, along with two other Mirages were donated by the SAAF to universities who offered Aeronautical Engineering qualifications. Mirage 207 found a home at Stellenbosch University and was used by the students until 2019 and then transferred to the Stellenbosch Flying Club. Leading Edge Aviation is based at Stellenbosch The Mirage F1 in June 2001 - Image Steve Crane.

BEFORE April 2022

for the summer season and provides an essential firefighting service to the Winelands. CEO Mark Jackson decided that something must be done to preserve the Mirage and in particular to make it pristine for the Stellenbosch Airshow. Mark decided to ask his team at Leading Edge to volunteer their time and talents to tackle the

project. The six pilots and six support crew all willingly piled in, working all hours and in allweather to complete the Mirage in time. Although the team was freely volunteering their work, the job had to be done to Mark Jackson’s high standards – and that required plenty of high-quality paint. Here club Chairman Dr Ulu Steyn and Paul Liebrecht came to the rescue and arranged a couple of key sponsors for paint and materials. In particular they wanted the very high quality and expensive Mankiewicz coatings that the Air Force used.

conditions and on into the nights. The original paint codes used in 1980 were sourced from the SAAF and the correct camouflage pattern was carefully marked out. The detailing work seemed to take forever, particularly the signwriting. But finally the job was done, just in time for the opening of the Stellenbosch Airshow – where the Mirage was admired by all.

work ing all hours and in a l l -w e a t h e r

Once Mark Jackson had initiated the project, the level of support was wonderful. Mankiewicz supplied some free coatings and others at a very discounted price. A compressor was loaned to the team, and work began. The first part of the large task was the gruelling job of sanding the aircraft down to remove rust and provide a good key for the new coating. The team sweated in 30-degree high humidity

As a special touch, Mark Jackson has secured the necessary approvals to dedicate this Mirage F1CZ to Arthur Piercy, who, in 1987, successfully flew his F1 back to base at Ondangwa after being hit in the tail by a missile. Unfortunately, his ejection seat fired on the ground, rendering him paraplegic. The Mirage is currently still on the temporary concrete pad that was built for Huey operations, but it is hoped that soon it will be moved to a new pad with a roof to protect the airframe and canopy – and of course the great new paint scheme – from the Cape weather.

Mirage F1CZ #207 after Leading Edge's labour of love.

AFTER

April 2022

HELICOPTER

GUIDE

April 2022

AIRSHOW

HAI 2022 – REVIEW

After the Covid motivated cancellation of the 2021 expo, Helicopter Association International’s (HAI) Heli-Expo bounced back this year drawing 13,083 attendees and 590 exhibitors. That brought the attendance to more than 90% of the 2020 Heli-Expo. THE FOUR-DAY EVENT, produced by Helicopter Association International, welcomed 13,083 helicopter professionals from 72 countries. Attendees thronged the floor that hosted exhibitors featuring the latest aircraft, engines, avionics, and other goods and services for

rotorcraft and uncrewed (formerly unmanned) aircraft businesses. More than 40 rotorcraft were spread across the show floor. From the largest manufacturers to the smaller businesses that are the backbone of the industry, each company had the opportunity to share their products and services with eager buyers.

HAI 2022 drew 590 exhibitors, including Robinson Helicopter that sold all four of the helicopters it brought to HAI. Image AIN.

April 2022

Bell featured their now well-established 505 Jetranger.

HAI by the numbers.

For HAI safety remained a central focus, including the Safety Symposium that kicked off Heli-Expo and a Rotor Safety Zone on the show floor housing the latest virtual-reality flight simulators, a helicopter configured for pre-flight test inspection, and safety experts from around the world. For expo visitors, safety, networking, and education remained a focus. More than 2,000 visitors took advantage of the Rotor Safety Challenge education sessions. HAI’s Rotor Safety Challenge education sessions drew more than 2,000 attendees. As is traditional, HAI Heli-Expo kicked off with the HAI Safety Symposium, featuring firstperson stories about pilots who survived accidents—and the lessons that others can use to avoid similar experiences.

April 2022

Bell's 429 displayed as an AMS rescue helicopter.

Directly inside the main entrance to the show floor was the HAI Rotor Safety Zone, which included virtual-reality training devices and, perhaps still in the aftermath of the Kobe Bryant crash, the 56 Seconds to Live IFR training program, as well as representatives of aviation safety programmes from around the world. “This was a dynamic event, thanks to the extremely positive response by the industry,” said HAI president and CEO James Viola. “I can see that our industry—and our people—could not wait to get together in person.” “Sharing safety information throughout our industry and around the world is critical to the ongoing health of

April 2022

rotorcraft operations,” Viola said. “The active interest in our safety programming shown by attendees is a sign of our strengthening safety culture.” Looking ahead, plans are under way for HAI’s 75th anniversary celebration at HAI Heli-Expo 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. Featuring a theme of “Celebrate!” HAI is holding the show at the Georgia World Congress Center, March 6–9, with exhibits open March 7–9 2023. j

COMPANIES

AT THE RECENT HELI-EXPO convention in Dallas, Robinson exhibited two R44s and two R66s, all of which were sold and delivered immediately following the show. Robinson President, Kurt Robinson announced during his press conference the company’s production numbers for 2021 easily surpassed those of 2020 and the upward trajectory is expected to continue. He also noted that for the first time the R66 Turbine out sold the company’s perennial top selling R44 Raven II. “The R66 has clearly found its niche… operators are realizing the vast potential of this aircraft”, said Robinson.

Powered by Rolls Royce’s RR300 turbine engine, the R66 is closing in on 1.5 million flight hours, demonstrating a level of reliability that exceeds EASA’s stringent requirements for single-engine helicopters. The RR300 features a simplified single-stage centrifugal compressor for high reliability and less maintenance. The R66 is available in police, electronic news gathering (ENG), and float configurations, and has gained favour among news and police agencies for its performance at hot and high altitudes. The turn-key R66 ENG copter provides an economical aerial platform with state-of-the-art broadcast equipment. SKY Helicopters, a Robinson dealer, operates five Robinson R66 helicopters providing news to major cities throughout the U.S.

T h e R6 6 i s the world’s top s elling helicopter

This is a fact confirmed by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s 2021 Year-End Report which showed the R66 Turbine is the helicopter industry’s best-selling light turbine helicopter as well as the world’s top selling helicopter.

Florida’s Polk County Sheriff’s Office recently placed orders for two more R66 Police helicopters bringing the department’s fleet to three R66s. “We are adding a second and

April 2022

The R66 is the world's best selling turbine helicopter and has taken top-selling helicopter position from Robinson R44.

CMY

third R66 because of our confidence in the helicopter’s ability and functionality. It’s a great aircraft that has reduced our operating costs by nearly fifty percent,” said Sheriff Grady Judd. Robinson continues to expand the utility of the R66 by adding new options including, but

April 2022

not limited to, an autopilot, auxiliary fuel tanks, and impact resistance windshields. With the continued enhancements, the R66 is well positioned to remain the world’s best-selling light turbine helicopter.

TURBINE

WORLD’S #1 SELLING TURBINE HELICOPTER*  

   

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2 + 3 Configuration Over 1400 lb Useful Load Derated Engine for Excellent Hot & High Perforomance Wide Range of Options

Under $1 Million US (Standard MSRP)

Learn More www.robinsonheli.com

*GAMA 2021 Year-End General Aviation Aircraft Shipment Report. R66 is a registered trademark of Robinson Helicopter Company. Price subject to change without notice. April 2022

Companies

BOSE Acclaimed performance. The difference is clear. Bose A20 Aviation Headset Around-ear configuration for higher noise environments like those found in turboprop and piston engine aircraft. No matter why you fly, the Bose A20 Aviation Headset is engineered to improve the experience. It provides 30% greater noise reduction than conventional aviation headsets, which helps you stay focused on your flying. It provides clear audio with active equalization. And its minimal clamping force makes even your longest flights more comfortable. In addition, the A20 headset offers a full range of features, including a Bluetooth® audio and communications interface,* customizable audio prioritization control with “mute” and “mix” settings, simple, intuitive operation for plug-andfly convenience, and an optional coil cord.* You can choose the left or right earcup to connect the mic. There’s also flexible power circuitry* with auto-on that switches to and from battery power and aircraft power. The A20 headset is certified to FAA TSO and EASA E/TSO-C139 standards. It’s among the lightest of all active noise cancelling headsets, with a weight of just 340 grams and (12 ounces). No other headset offers this unique combination of features and benefits.*Available in certain variants of the headset.

April 2022

About Bose Corporation Bose Corporation was founded in 1964 by Dr. Amar G. Bose, a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1978, Dr. Bose began research on what would become the world’s first active noise cancelling headset. Bose innovations have spanned decades and industries, creating and transforming categories in audio and beyond. Bose has a simple mission: think of better solutions, create better products, help people enjoy the things they truly love. Everything we do supports this mission and points us forward. Contact us: Bose Aviation Africa Gorslaan 60 1441 RG Purmerend The Netherlands E-mail: aviation_africa@bose.com Web: www.boseaviation-EMEA.aero Social media: @BoseAviation Tel.: +31 299 390 777

AV I AT I O N

B O S E A 2 0 AV I AT I O N H E A D S E T

Flying is your passion. Active noise cancellation is ours.

The Bose A20 Aviation Headset features 30% greater noise reduction than conventional aviation headsets, with technology developed through decades of research and development to help pilots focus on flying the aircraft. The A20’s noise cancelling microphone provides clear outgoing communication, and a comfortable fit improves your flying experience, no matter how many hours you fly.

Get yours at boseaviation-EMEA.aero/shops

April 2022

BY JOHN BASSI: PART 1

LOOKING BACK AT LOCKDOWN THE MOMENT OUR LIVES FOREVER CHANGED. 22 March 2020 – The Day Before

The Maluti mountains reach up to 9,000 feet. They sweep away southward from the massive 12,000 feet jagged cliffs of the Drakensberg, unfolding in softer grass-covered rolling valleys and hidden plateaus, broken by exquisite sandstone formations. THERE ARE MANY HUGE CAVES AND overhangs, all tinted in shades of red and eggshell that appear almost golden in the afternoon sunlight, many with waterfalls and forests, all of them places that must have been sacred to the early San hunters. Dappled sunlight broke through the banks of mist that hugged the eastern facing escarpment, highlighting a carpet of small yellow flowers, making the late summer grass appear to shine with an almost iridescent glow. I had to keep reminding myself to stop looking at all the magnificence around me, and focus on flying the contours.

We were finishing off the last few contours along the slope of a mountain, having completed a four day helicopter game census in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park including Qua Qua. There was an air of excitement in the helicopter, our programme was full and we had shared many beautiful moments flying together and seeing some of the most pristine and remote places left in South Africa. We still had a lot planned and our little crew of three were anxious to get on the road to Augrabies National Park as soon as possible. We were to meet up there the following day to commence a four day game census in the arid but magical desert.

I was deeply tired of all the k ak in aviation

“Grey reedbuck six, one ram, five ewes,” Cathy called out from the left open door of the helicopter, breaking the spell for a moment. The little brown grey animals effortlessly leapt and bounded up the hill, flashing their cotton wool white tails as they escaped our intrusion into their paradise.

April 2022

I banked left alongside the towering sandstone buttress of Golden Gate for my final approach, relieved to see Clinton at the Landcruiser with our fuel already waiting at the LZ, also packed to capacity with all our kit. The sky towards Bloemfontein was swollen with deep grey, almost black, storm clouds and I was very anxious to get going and avoid any hail.

Flying the Drakensberg on a game count at 8500 feet.

“Okay guys, dice you to Augrabies then, first one there gets the fire going” I said laughing, knowing that their drive half way across South Africa was a long one. For me it would be a 1-hour hop to New Tempe, our base, a relaxed night in my comfortable apartment, after stocking up on fresh rations at Woolworths and packing some clean clothes. I could leave the following morning at a leisurely pace since the ferry to Augrabies would only take two and a half hours compared to their 9-hour road trip.

I caught myself smiling, sighing with satisfaction, the year had barely begun and so far it was turning into the perfect year, with so many amazing flying/conservation projects lined up. 2020 had begun for me long before the hugs and kisses at midnight 2019. Lions had escaped from the Karoo on the morning of December 31 and I had received frantic calls to be in position in the Karoo as early as possible on the 1st January. I lifted off from Cape Town International before first light, floating away over a hungover and sleepy landscape below. The helicopter, Jenny the veterinarian and I completely detached from the world below, the air was cool and calm and we cruised effortlessly over the deep dark crevices and sun tinted peaks of the Cape mountains. Work had not stopped since then, and I had already seen most of South Africa, from the Cape to the Limpopo.

Fe r r y i ng between jobs is my sacred time

Ferrying between jobs is my sacred time. No one can get me. It’s the only time I am alone with peace in my heart, me, the sky, the soothing whine of the turbine, blurring blades flashing above, and complete harmony with freedom. The aircraft and I become one, controlling the helicopter requires no thought, it’s an extension of my hand, reacting perfectly to invisible pressures from my fingers. It is where I belong. My mind wanders off reflecting, my senses automatically operate the aircraft.

April 2022

My mind returned to the present as a blinding bolt of lightning flashed ahead, followed by rumbles of thunder. Twenty minutes out of Clarens the heavens opened up, deep purple grey masses of heavy wet sky obliterated the way ahead. Everywhere I looked was water. Rivers and streams, pools and glinting marshlands saturated from a cloud-burst.

The Jetranger buttoned down for the night at the Golden Gate.

It was not yet the end of March, and already I could feel the knots of stress and anxiety clawing at my shoulders. Headaches were again my familiar companion. No matter how I twisted and turned and stretched, there was no position in my seat that could dull the ache in my back. My temper was short and I was deeply tired of all the kak associated with being in the aviation business. Our annual CAA audit was due, office admin was behind, I had a plate overfull with logistics and planning and operational decisions, and deep down I dreamed of escaping to the aromas of freshly baked Italian pastries and coffee in some remote Alpine village. I had been denied my annual holiday and been blessed instead with heaps of flying. Alas, a break would just have to wait until Christmas. The thought of such a long slog made me feel like crying. Huge blobs of water exploded on the windscreen with loud smacks and made fantastic patterns as the droplets scurried off, blown by the airflow like little rivers in a symmetrical design that was almost mesmerising, had it not been for the reality of a big storm. Fortunately, the horizon to the north

was open and the helicopter was just getting a nice wash from stray raindrops away from the monster from which had created them. That storm was a harbinger of just how the fates would come to toss us around. j Interesting weather for the flight back to Bloem.

April 2022

Aircraft Powerplant Co. (Pty) Ltd

AIRCRAFT POWERPLANT COMPANY (APCO) was born in 2001 as a result of the management buyout of the PLACO Engines Division. Under the guidance Tony Rodrigues and Henk Joubert, both equipped with wealth of experience and knowledge, APCO has earned a reputation for excellence within the aviation community. APCO’s Team of highly qualified factory and locally trained technicians have developed full in-house capacity to perform all required maintenance and turn key repair services, including bench testing on both Lycoming and Continental Engines. In addition APCO

have an in-house component division, engine hose shop, machine shop, aluminium welding shop and also offer cadmium engine plating. The newly introduced NTC engine shop specialise in the repair and overhaul of many brands of NTC engines including Gypsy, NTC Lycoming and Superior Kit Engines to name but a few. As an optional extra they offer a balancing and porting service as well as many types of corrosion protective applications, ranging from polyurethane base paints to the more lavish and durable ceramic coatings.

Aircraft Powerplant Co. (Pty) Ltd Tel: +27 12 543 0775 / 0181 Fax: +27 12 567 3630 Hangar 5A, Wonderboom Airport

ENGINE DIVISION

Complete overhaul facility with test bench

MACHINE SHOP

tonyrodrigues@mweb.co.za Cell: +27 82 558 9388 henkjoubert@mweb.co.za Cell: +27 83 258 5272 www.apcosa.co.za

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

TESTING

NDT, MPI, Dye Pen and Zyglo

COMPONENT DIVISION

Servicing, overhaul, repair

SUPPLIERS OF AIRCRAFT APPROVED ENGINE LUBRICANTS

• SHELL • Phillips • AVBLEND and Camguard

PLATING SHOP

Cadmium Plating

April 2022

Companies

AIRBUS HELICOPTERS AIRBUS IS A GLOBAL LEADER in aeronautics, space and related services. It has maintained a presence in South Africa since 1994. Airbus Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd is a oneroof (shared services), incorporating Airbus Commercial, Helicopters and Defence & Space and has its headquarters at Grand Central Airport in Midrand, South Africa. As a world-leading aerospace company,

Airbus has an extensive South African industrial network engaged in the design, engineering and manufacture of components, sub-assemblies and equipment for aircraft and satellites.

Airbus designs, manufactures and supports a range of 100-600 seat commercial airliners, military transport and special missions aircraft, helicopters, rocket-launchers and satellites. It also provides a comprehensive array of aviation, space and geo-intelligence systems and solutions to government and civilian customers.

Similarly, since 2006 Airbus has worked closely with South African research institutes, including the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, the National Aerospace Centre of Excellence and several universities on a diverse range of projects.

Airbus Helicopters provides the most efficient civil and military helicopter solutions to Southern African and Indian Ocean customers who operate an in-service fleet of around 300 turbine helicopters, to serve, protect, save lives and safely transport passengers in highly demanding environments. This arm of the business also supports customers from its branch in Nairobi. Airbus Defence and Space is responsible for sales and support of military transport aircraft in

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service with the SA Air Force and other armed forces in the SADC region. It also supplies satellite images, geo-intelligence and space data solutions to government, research and commercial customers.

April 2022

Worldwide, including South Africa, Airbus employs a workforce of around 130,000 people.

airbus.com

THE DIFFERENCE IS H E A R T B E AT

Seconds count when lives are on the line. It’s why every feature of the Airbus H135 has been designed for safe, effective, and fast operations. With easy patient loading, state-of-the-art avionics to reduce pilot workload and a safer working area on the ground, the H135 ensures people get the medical care they need as fast as possible. All of this has made the H135 the emergency medical services market leader around the globe – helping people every single day and making sure the world remains a beautiful place. April 2022

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Companies

AERONAUTIC SOLUTIONS AERONAUTIC SOLUTIONS is a wellestablished family owned and managed helicopter charter company that has provided a safe and reliable service to South Africa and African markets for the past 19 years. Aeronautic Solutions is dedicated to bring the customer a SAFE and professional helicopter service in the aviation industry. We constantly strive to grow our business while being innovative in looking for new ways to operate more safely, more efficiently and more competitively. Our services include customized charter solutions, ranging from scenic flights to executive charters and corporate day trips. We also provide utility operations (assisting

contractors with infrastructure repair, erecting towers, moving large structures) across the length and breadth of the continent. Our focus is on precision and efficiency. We strive for minimum impact on the environment. Aeronautic Solutions is also a SACAA approved AMO. Our in-house maintenance provides the best care and OEM parts. We offer third party maintenance on various Airbus types. Our fleet includes the BK 117, AS350, MD 500E and the EC130. Contact: Tel: +27 83 225 9344 Email: info@aeronauticsolutions.com www.aeronautiscsolutions.com

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

AMO No: 227

SA Flyer 2022|04

We at AEP offer full engine maintenance on Robinson R44 & R22 helicopters

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This include but is no limited to: • PISTON ENGINE OVERHAUL • ENGINE BENCH TESTING • MAGS April 2022

Call us today, let us see what we can do for you.

Company Vision Aeronautic Solutions is dedicated to bring the customer a SAFE and Professional helicopter service in the aviation industry. We constantly strive to grow our business while being innovative in looking for new ways to operate more safely, more efficiently and more competitively.

SPECIALISED SERVICES: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Personal, Private & Executive Charter Airport Transfers Scenic Flights Photographic Flights Cargo and Precious Goods Transfer Event Promotion and Team Building Security and Surveillance Services External Cargo Operations FBO Services Conservation work Powerline inspection Agricultural Wildlife darting and capturing Aircraft Management and Storage Humanitarian Aid

FLEET:

• • • •

BK117 - 850D2 AS 350/ H125 MD 500E EC130

CONTACT:

info@aeronauticsolutions.com www.aeronauticsolutions.com : @aeronautic_solutions Tel: +27 (0)11 312 1443 Aeronautic Solutions (PTY) LTD Limeroc Business Park Knoppieslaagte 385, Centurion Eagles Creek Aerodrome South Africa

April 2022

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April 2022

AIRPORT SUPPORT EQUIPMENT C.W. Price and Company has been involved in aviation and meteorological instruments for over 71 years. They also import aircraft ground power units and aircraft towing and push-back equipment. Based in Midrand, C.W Price are the appointed agents for airport support equipment from aircraft ground power to man portable rugged Redbox power packs for aircraft starting. They are also agents for Eagle All Wheel Drive aircraft tow tugs for regional, corporate and military applications.

Companies

C.W. PRICE AND COMPANY They are also importers of Precision Airmotive fuel injector parts and overhaul kits along with some starter generator spares. Weather stations stand alone for regional airports or their well established online VitalWeather system for remote or sms monitoring of small airports is a specialty of theirs. Contact Kelvin on: Tel: 011-805-4720 Email: cwp@cwprice.co.za Website: www.cwprice.co.za

C W Price & Co Start Power Units

The Red Box range of jump start batteries and aircraft start units are the ideal solution for starting the majority of DC aircraft. They are designed to start aircraft from the very smallest up to the largest business jets.

Hybrid Start and Continuous Power 28V DC

This Red Box unit combines a petrol engine with a bank of batteries to offer the slickest combination unit in the world. The weight and size of this unit is unrivalled, making it the obvious choice of Business Jet owners and operators. It allows for starting and continuous power away from the normal hanger environment so that aircraft on the flightline can be serviced as an alternative to being moved via an aircraft tug into the hanger.

Tel: (011) 8054720 • Fax: (011) 315 6275 • Email: cwp@cwprice.co.za April 2022

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Companies

CENTURY AVIONICS EXCELLENCE IN AVIONICS Century Avionics specialises in Flightdeck- and Avionics upgrades for general aviation fixedand rotary-wing aircraft. Careful evaluation and planning of every project is essential – from the placing/positioning of glass displays and other avionics in the panel to enhance ergonomics and aesthetics to the final set-up and configuration of the installed equipment. We are proud and excited to have completed several extensive upgrades in the recent months with the Garmin G1000Nxi, Lumatechnologies Annunciator Panels, Bendix King Aerowave100 Connectivity and Flight Display Systems DO-Capsule into a King Air 350 being a highlight. Another highlight was the avionics upgrade of four Airbus EC-130 helicopters with a combination of Garmin G500HTxi MFD/ PFD, GTN-750HXi/650HXi NAV/COM/GPS, GTS-855 TCAS I, GTS-800 Traffic Advisory, Genesys Aerosystems HeliSAS Autopilot &Stability Augmentation system, Midcontinent MD302 Standby Attitude Module and various configurations of the very popular high-powered TA-360 USB’s. Century Avionics excel in Avionics Sales/ Marketing, Upgrades/Installations, Repairs/ Maintenance, Support and Certification making us a convenient, knowledge based avionic retrofit facility.

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April 2022

We are an in- and out of warranty service centre for Bose, David Clark and Lightspeed headsets as well as Garmin, McMurdo (Orolia/Kannad) ELT’s, and many other avionics manufacturers. We are approved dealers for a host of avionics manufacturers (Garmin, Honeywell, Bendix King, Avidyne, McMurdo ELT, Genesys Aerosystems and many others) and constantly aim to offer our valued customers the widest range of products and capabilities. Longstanding customers attest to our professional commitment, and fast and friendly service. Century Avionics is excited to welcome back more aviation events and airshows returning to the circuit in full swing and will be exhibiting at several events this year. Our AMO and Design Organisation is approved in South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Century NAVCOM, our Design Organisation, along with our qualified and experienced Certification Department and SACAA appointed DAR will assist with Avionics STC Application/Development and/or Modification Approvals. Please contact us for all your avionic requirements. Tel: +27 11 701 3244 E-mail: sales@centuryavionics.co.za or marketing@centuryavionics.co.za Website: www.centuryavionics.co.za

April 2022

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Companies

F. GOMES UPHOLSTERS AIRCRAFT UPHOLSTERY F. Gomes Upholsters is a family based upholstery company. Established in 1979, the company specialises in aircraft, as well as motor vehicle, boat and furniture upholstery. F. Gomes Upholsters will refurbish your aircraft interior to look like new, giving it the class it deserves. They use only the best quality materials, and their craftsmanship is outstanding. Mr Gomes, the founder of F. Gomes Upholsters, has been in the upholstery business for close on 40 years and as such brings many years of experience and professionalism to the company.

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

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April 2022

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

F. Gomes Upholsters provides an expert re-upholstery and upholstery service that caters to any upholstery need. No job is ever too small or too large. F. Gomes Upholsters is based in Johannesburg. For exceptional craftsmanship at the best prices, contact F. Gomes Upholsters on: Tel: (011) 614 2471 Fax: (011) 614 9806 Email: gomesuph@netactive.co.za

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Edition 160 | April 2022

Cessna’s Skycourier -certified Hugh Pryor – what is a real pilot?

Airbus & Boeing duopoly

New Kenyan Columnist: Caravan prop runaway FlightCom: April 2022

Ukrainian war – effect on Africa Op-ed – Social media and China eastern crash

AMO 227

FLIGHT SAFETY THROUGH MAINTENANCE

Overhaul / Shockload / Repair of Continental and Lycoming Aircraft engines

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

SA Flyer 2022|04

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

Tailored aviation solutions for your World MH Aviation Services, a World Fuel Services company, works closely with customers with a shared goal in mind, we want to see our customers succeed. As an industry leader for over 35 years, World Fuel fully understands the specific and evolving needs of flight departments across Africa. By providing full-service and integrated solutions from a single provider, our customers can purchase fuel, receive expert services and support, make and receive payments, and get reliable trip support from beginning to end. We are invested in your success and go the extra mile to fulfill our customer’s needs and exceed all expectations. Visit mhaviation.co.za to learn more about how we can support you on your journey to achieve your sustainability goals, reduce overall costs and optimize operations. Fuel | Trip Support | Payment Solutions | Technology | Logistics | Sustainability

Contact us, and meet the aviation solutions provider who understands your World. Discover our Flight Operation Solutions 24/7 Support: +27 82 940 5437 Office: +27 11 609 0123 tsopsafrica@wfscorp.com mhaviation.co.za

CONTENTS

TABLE OF

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

APRIL 2022 EDITION 160

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 10 14 24 29 32 33 34 36

Bush Pilot - Hugh Pryor Defence - Darren Olivier Feature - Airbus VS Boeing Pilots: Iris McCallum: Part 2 AME Directory Alpi Aviation SA: Flight School 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 CHINA EASTERN BOEING 737-800 crash has prompted a mass of disinformation from the internet. These range from duplicitous videos which only at the end say that it was not another Boeing Max crash, to outright deceit with fake videos from other crashes – most notably the Silk Air 737-300 crash that happened 25 years earlier, where the video shows the empennage having broken away. Many analysts are weary of having to point out that the crash is unrelated to the 737 Max. The requirement to do so shows that the Max, and Boeing’s reputation, are still very much in the public consciousness, even as hundreds of Max jets fly unremarked around the world. Unfortunately, the China Eastern crash might further extend the long wait for Max jets to fly again in China, on the grounds of its stained reputation.

The lack of ATC transmissions by the aircraft is puzzling. Despite the paucity of reliable data, the airline industry’s ability to connect the world depends on it doing everything possible to establish why catastrophic incidents have occurred, before acting on any recommendations. In this crash the first part of that process may take considerable time. Darren Edward O’Neil is our artist responsible for Hugh Pryor’s illustrations. He remarks that, in the light of the tidal wave of; “fake news following any world event, who are these people who create these fake stories and fake imagery, and what is their motivation? It is incredibly juvenile in that it achieves nothing - it's one thing to make fake news in a campaign during a conflict or war situation, but in a tragedy like this what possible gains can be had from publishing a fake story as fact when we all know the cause and truth will ultimately come to light?

click-bait lies which African airlines would do well to study

For China’s huge aviation industry, this crash is the first fatal one since 2010. And within the wider context of airline safety, the industry has a remarkable safety record, as was reflected in IATA’s data.

Those with an understanding of the industry quietly aver that more information must emerge before conclusions can be drawn. Yet they get drowned out by the worthless noise. Thankfully, at time of writing, both the China Eastern Cockpit voice recorder and Flight Data recorder have been recovered. Hopefully they will have survived enough to yield key information. The few fresh details released via official Chinese media channels show failed attempts by air traffic control to contact the aircraft as the incident occurred.

“[It is] just bizarre, my general thinking is that any theory released before the preliminary and final report is speculation and hearsay - particularly in a crash as puzzling and devastating as this with so much riding on the answers.” The tragedy of this crash shows the interweb at its worst. The web is spewing misinformation and clickbait lies which African airlines would do well to study as part of their own disaster management plans. 

BUSH PILOT HUGH PRYOR

Now listen, please, because I think that you should be sitting down when you read this, after all these years of me telling you stories about the fun which I have enjoyed while flying aeroplanes...So here we go.

AM NOT A ‘REAL’ PILOT! I was not born with Avgas or Avtur in my blood.

I never dreamed of dancing the skies on laughtersilvered wings, because I knew that I was just a simple 26-year-old soul, who had just enough of ‘The Right Stuff’ in me to build a dairy to milk forty seven Friesian cows on Kilimanjaro. Flying aeroplanes was simply not even on my horizon. Basically I was just too ‘thick’ even to think of becoming one of those Heroes who had so recently won the Second World War, which had incidentally cost me the loss of my Father and four of my Uncles, not to mention the fifty-two thousand unbelievably brave aviators who had launched into the flame-filled skies over Europe, night after night, never to return.

The farm belonged to some cousins of mine and the ‘Boss’ was Sue, the Mother of the Family and she ‘Ran the Show’, so I had to ‘Do exactly as I was told’, which included learning how to speak ‘Swahili’, which took about three months and then to organise my team, which started with the ‘Muster Roll’ at 07:00 each morning, to tell the guys what we were doing that day. This included getting Danielli to teach me how to weld galvanised piping together. Now I don’t know if you have ever done this, but it is much more cosmetic if you start with black skin because the galvanising spits red hot shards of molten metal on to your arms as you go and Danielli reckoned that I was ready to be allowed to weld on my own, when I stopped screeching and I still bear the scars to this day!

I was not born with Avgas or Avtur in my blood.

No...Flying was definitely NOT on my list of ‘Career Opportunities’...maybe I simply didn’t have the ‘Guts’ for that sort of thing. Little did I know.

FlightCom: April 2022

Then, one morning, before ‘Muster Roll’, Sue came to me and said, “I need to see you, in the Office, after Muster Roll to discuss your future on the Farm.” Well, I thought that, since the Dairy was now working and the milk was flowing very nicely, this was my invitation to go back to the UK and find a ‘proper’ job.

FlightCom: April 2022

So I approached my interview with Sue with some misgivings and I sat down by her desk and waited for my commitment to a life of ‘teaching in the UK.’ To my surprise, Sue then announced that ‘the Family’ had decided that, if I was going to stay on the farm, I would need to go to Nairobi, buy an aeroplane and learn to fly, so that I could get on with the ‘Shopping’, because it was costing The Company too much for me to drive up to Nairobi in my 4x4 every month, when I could do it much quicker and cheaper, by air. So I was not going to become a ‘Pilot’ to win World War Two and walk off into the sunset with the most beautiful Blonde in the World...I was simply going to learn to fly an airborne shopping trolley!

I would never have flown myself across the Atlantic. I would never have flown a single-engined aircraft, pre-GPS, from Zurich to Johannesburg. I would never have experienced dodging SAM 7 missiles for real in Angola. I would never have known what it feels like to be shot at and hit, not personally of course, but one 7.62 round came up through the floor of the Twin Otter and took out the radios, but luckily I had a personal hand-held transceiver which got us back to Beira...but that is another story! Basically, I am not a ‘REAL PILOT’, with ‘Gold Scrambled Egg’ on my cap and my shoulders. Yes, I was a fully-qualified ‘Airline Transport Pilot’ in Kenya, the USA, Norway, Switzerland, and South Africa, with appropriate IRTs and medicals for each, but I was still just a ‘Bush Bum’ pilot underneath.

Without my ‘Dragon’, which is how Annie describes herself, I would never have LIVED

Now this sounds like a recipe for ‘Disaster’ but it actually leads on to me buying a 1947 Piper PA 12 Tail-wheel Super Cruiser and marrying the tiny girl who sold it to me. And that lead me on to the forty-four years of FUN which I am still enjoying from aeroplanes and forty-four years of marriage to a person without whom I would now be an extremely boring retired teacher, living out my remaining years boring myself and anybody who is not deaf, to a slow and boring death

For me, aeroplanes are animals, built by humans... every stitch of the fabric and every rivet and weld were put there by people, who in their heart of hearts, knew that if they got it wrong, then the folk who were trusting them to keep air and ground in survivable parameters would probably not survive their miscalculations.

Without my ‘Dragon’, which is how Annie describes herself, I would never have LIVED (and by LIVED, I mean years, rather than ‘visits’,) in Kenya or Sudan or Ethiopia or Yemen or Libya or Angola or Mozambique or Algeria or Oman or Tanzania or South Africa or Mali.

And that is why I have so enjoyed talking to you guys during these delightful years. You have the same fascination that I have for the immense privilege of being able to leave the Earth and explore the boundless halls of air which was denied to our forebears for so many millennia before we came along.

I would never have learned how to do a ‘Wheels-up’ landing in a Buffalo, in front of a cheering crowd and then perform an IRT in the same aircraft, twelve days later.

We really are the luckiest people ever to have inhabited this tiny jewel in the vast cosmos which we are now only beginning to explore and long may we appreciate that privilege and treasure our priceless little jewel. 

FlightCom: April 2022

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WE OFFER THE INDUSTRY INTEGRITY, RELIABILITY, EXPERIENCE AND A DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE

Safair North Perimeter Road, OR Tambo International Airport, Bonaero Park, 1619 Tel: 081 755 2534 Fax: 011 395 1291

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FlightCom: April 2022

DEFENCE DARREN OLIVIER

THE UNEXPECTED IMPACT ON

AFRICAN DEFENCE FORCES OF RUSSIA’S

INVASION OF UKRAINE Russia’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent Ukrainian civilians, the destruction of entire cities, and the justified imposition of extraordinary sanctions against Russia.

N TOP OF THIS, it’s causing severe and dangerous wider global impacts, ranging from wheat shortages, to inflation and economic losses. For many African air forces, however, there is another major problem as highlighted by Ekene Lionel writing for Military Africa: All three of the countries that provide the vast majority of spare parts for ex-Soviet/Russian aircraft and can service and upgrade them, namely Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, will be unable to provide support to anyone for the foreseeable future because of either sanctions or the war itself.

even aircraft parts production for long. Belarus may be in the same position soon, being under a similar level of sanctions as Russia. Moreover, even if Russian facilities are able to maintain a high enough level of production, it’s likely most or all will first be reserved for Russian needs, given the losses they have sustained in Ukraine. While there are other companies in other countries that could pick up some of the slack in terms of maintenance support, they’re still reliant on Russia and Ukraine for parts and components which aren’t made elsewhere. In fact, even Ukraine, which had an enviable domestic industry before the war, and vast experience with former-Eastern Bloc aircraft, was unable to reverse engineer many key parts for its fighter aircraft after it was cut off from Russian purchases in 2014. Instead, it had to covertly

we will all be affected by the knockon economic effects

Russian forces have been systematically destroying the Ukrainian defence industry, hitting aircraft construction, maintenance, and parts production facilities. Russia, in turn, is now under such severe sanctions that it’s unlikely it will be able to maintain a significant level of aircraft or

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A Ukrainian Mi-24 Hind before its withdrawal from MONUSCO.

acquire the necessary parts via other countries, while cannibalising large numbers of aircraft. For perhaps a few months the demand could be met by existing parts in supply and a similar type of cannibalisation. But if, as expected, this crisis continues for some time, then African forces operating ex-Soviet, Ukrainian, or Russian aircraft in key roles need to begin making alternative plans now – or face wholesale fleet groundings. These African forces need to be identifying alternative suppliers, locking in as many guarantees as possible, and looking for reverse engineering opportunities, both domestically, and from companies trying to fill the gap. Even if there ends up being no support and supply crisis, perhaps because Russia withdraws and sanctions are lifted, or other countries somehow make up the slack, this will still have been a useful exercise.

South Africa will escape the most severe impact, as the South African Air Force does not operate any significant Russian systems, but the future of its students studying in Russian military academies is less certain. However, we will all be affected by the knock-on economic effects of this war which may in turn have serious political, social, and security implications. Rising food prices driven by a wheat shortage, a high oil price, and the general supply problems of the past two years are already causing discontent in a number of countries. Especially the Middle East and North Africa. It was similar food price hikes and the resulting mass protests that kicked off the Arab Spring a few years ago.

entirely dependent on Russianmade aircraft

This may also affect countries operating Chinese aircraft, as China has yet to replace Russian systems in all areas of its designs, in particular when it comes to modern turbofan fighter aircraft engines. For instance, both the JF-17 and L-15 use Russianmade engines, an RD-93 and a pair of AI-222K25Fs respectively, though older Chinese fighters like the F-7 use Chinese-made licence-built variants of older Soviet-era turbojets and should be minimally affected.

It’s too early to predict whether we will see similar mass protests leading to governments falling and strategic realignments on the continent, but we definitely can’t rule it out. Those may in turn result in shifts in governments, or in government policy, that upend decades-long assumptions regarding the stability of many regions on the continent. Somewhat related, the invasion of Ukraine has had another major impact: Ukraine needing to urgently withdraw its aviation unit from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic

FlightCom: April 2022

of the Congo (MONUSCO). The eight Mi-8s and Mi-24s deployed there until the war began represented a full third of MONUSCO’s aviation capability and the most crucial part of its offensive and reconnaissance capabilities as MONUSCO’s dwindling budget meant it could not rely too heavily on the more costly South African Rooivalks deployed. The UN has already begun casting around for replacement aircraft for the mission, but any replacements are going to take months to arrive in the best case scenario and it’s unlikely that any other country could provide as many aircraft for the same low cost as the Ukrainians could. South Africa certainly cannot provide more Oryx and Rooivalk helicopters to the mission. What impact that has on MONUSCO’s ability to continue keeping overall levels of violence low while combating persistent insurgent groups like the ADF is still unknown, but it will undoubtedly make the task much more difficult. In terms of countries most dependent on Russian aircraft for their main air defence and combat needs, Algeria is far and away the most vulnerable in North Africa with a combat fleet entirely made up of Russian fighter aircraft, centred around a fleet of nearly 60 Su-30MKAs and three dozen MiG-29M/ M2s. Unlike similar Su-30MK variants acquired by India and Malaysia, which have substantial nonRussian systems, the Algerian aircraft are almost entirely dependent on Russian components.

Further south, Angola, the DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Uganda are all entirely dependent on Russian-made aircraft for all combat roles, putting them in all in a difficult position if support becomes more difficult. Using Angola as an example, it operates a varied fleet including MiG-21s, Su-27s, Su-25s, MiG-23s, Su-22s, Mi-24s, Mi-8s, and others, but it is primarily reliant on a fleet of 12 Su-30Ks recently upgraded and overhauled by the 558th Aviation Repair Plant in Belarus and 8 Mi-171s, both of which are very dependent on modern Russian components that might soon be in short supply. Counter-intuitively, it will be easier to maintain the Angolan Air Force’s older aircraft, as they rely on more commonlyavailable parts than either the Su-30K or Mi-171. Looking beyond the immediate crisis, this provides a useful lesson for why you ideally don’t want to source all of your combat aircraft from the same country, but should rather spread the risk around multiple countries. It also validates the practice of operating at least two separate fighter aircraft types from different countries, though that’s beyond the reach of most countries. This will also provide new opportunities for Chinese, Turkish, and other countries to further supplant Russian and Ukrainian exports to Africa, as it’s likely most buyers will be hesitant about buying from either of those two for some time to come. 

The Angolan Air Force will have no support for its Su-30 fighters.

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NEWS

ETHIOPIAN ORDERS B77-8F ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES HAS SIGNED a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Boeing to purchase five 777-8 freighters, becoming the second airline to launch the recently launched freighter. Given the worldwide post-Covid shortage of cargo space due to the reduction in passenger flights with associated belly cargo capacity, the order is aimed to enable Ethiopian Airlines to meet expanding global air cargo demand from its hub in Addis Ababa and position the carrier for long-term growth. Ethiopian Airlines currently operates nine 777 freighters. The carrier’s fleet also includes three 737800 Boeing Converted Freighters and a combined commercial fleet of more than 80 Boeings, including 737s, 767s, 787s and 777s. Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group, said: “In our vision 2035, we are planning to

expand our Cargo and Logistics business to be one of the largest global multimodal logistics providers in all continents. To this effect, we are increasing our dedicated freighter fleet with the latest technology, fuel-efficient and environment-friendly airplanes of the 21st century. We have also started the construction of the largest E-commerce Hub Terminal in Africa. “The new 777-8 Freighters will be instrumental in this long journey of growth agenda. Today, our air cargo services cover more than 120 international destinations around the world with both belly hold capacity and dedicated Freighter services.” Boeing said the 777-8 features advanced technology from the new 777X family. With payload capacity nearly identical to the 747-400 freighter and a 25-30% improvement in fuel efficiency, emissions and operating costs, the 777-8 freighter is expected to enable a more sustainable and profitable business for operators. 

Ethiopian have ordered the 777-8-freighter.

FlightCom: April 2022

FEATURE

AI R BUSVS BOE I NG

by Guy Leitch

– TH E E N D O F TH E D UO P O LY? Three years ago Boeing was doing just fine. The long running market-defying airliner duopoly was healthy, with both sides scoring almost equally on orders won and planes delivered. Airline buyers for new planes knew that healthy competition kept both sides mostly honest. And then Boeing spectacularly crashed and burned. The duopoly may be over.

AN BOEING BOUNCE BACK? – and if Airbus continues as the dominant supplier – will it abuse its position? Can the airlines expect a massive increase in airliner prices? Aviation Week hosted a fascinating webinar that covered these, any many other, questions about the changed relationship. What follows is my synthesis of the discussion.

Airbus does not need to win very many new orders

Post Covid-19 the balance of power has shifted massively in Airbus’s favour. The key metric is the backlog of planes still to be built and delivered. Airbus now has a huge lead over Boeing and the Americans have still not announced an answer to the A321neo, which has 14 FlightCom: April 2022

given Airbus a commanding lead in the narrowbody market that used to be split 50/50 between the 737 and A320. Demand is so strong that, despite the worldwide supply chains crisis, Airbus is talking about raising aircraft production to unprecedented levels. At the end of 2021, the Airbus claimed backlog was more than 7,000 aircraft while Boeing’s was 4,100. While there is debate about who overstates which backlog, if the Airbus backlog is calculated the same way as Boeing’s by excluding dubious orders, the Airbus backlog is still just over 6,000. This gives Airbus the ability to do one of two things: Either they can produce at a 50% faster rate than Boeing until both companies’ backlogs run

FEATURE A big question is whether Boeing can compete with its MAX 10.

out, or they can make buyers wait by just keep on going at their current rate. Airbus can rest on its laurels as it does not need to win many new orders. They can produce at the same rate as Boeing and carry on for several years. But the bottom line is that Airbus is still going to be producing 60% more aircraft over the next few years than Boeing. And that provides a huge competitive advantage. Because of its huge backlog, Airbus does not have many production line positions available to sell for now. If a customer needs an aircraft quickly, they are going to go to Boeing or the lessors.

To provide historical context to the balance of power in the duopoly, Aviation Week columnist Sash Tusa said, “John Leahy achieved miracles at Airbus. He was helped by a very, very good product line, but he was the man who brought Airbus from being a European consortium with a market share down in the 25-30% up to a 50% share over the better part of three decades. That was an astonishing achievement. Once Leahy had got Airbus to a position where it was selling as many aircraft as Boeing, he realised that long term stability, in terms of market share, was actually much more attractive than trying to push the Airbus market share a bit higher. The reason being is that as you get above a

China is a big unknown. The backlog in orders from China for both manufacturers is coming down fast. It is not known what Chinese airlines will order next and it’s not clear what the impact of the Comac C919 will be. Another key advantage Airbus has is that it can put further pressure on its component suppliers to provide discounts that Boeing with its smaller volumes will be unable to negotiate. This could make Airbus uncatchable – and this is bad for the industry long term.

The Airbus A321neo accounts for 25% of all delivery backlogs.

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FEATURE

Airbus's John Leahy believed that a 50-50 market split was better than having one market dominant manufacturer.

45/55 split, then the other guy has got to catch up again. Otherwise, you get that advantage in terms of supplier costs and so forth. What’s remarkable now is that, due to a combination of the Covid pandemic and Boeing’s unforced errors with the 737 MAX and 787, Boeing has shed half of its market share in a period of two years.” To get that back, they’re going to have to do what Airbus did over 25 years, from the late 1990s through to the mid-2015s, which is to trade price for volume. From 2002 to 2018, Airbus’s margins were less than half Boeing’s. Airbus was prepared to accept lower pricing to get to a competitive market share. If Boeing wants to get back to a stable market share, they’re going to have to trade price to get there. And that’s not something that Boeing’s management, suppliers, or shareholders will be happy with.” Columnist Jens Flottau reckons that if Airbus tries to ramp up production to deal with its huge backlog, “It’s not a given that it’s going to go smoothly. We all remember too well what happened in 2018 and 2019 when everyone was complaining about Airbus not delivering a single aircraft on time. There were 16 FlightCom: April 2022

multiple delays and delivery dates were shifted several times within a few months. “The suppliers have to cope with this. They have to finance it. They have to probably deal with worker shortages and possibly raw material shortages. These challenges are of bigger concern for Airbus, given the production rates they’re looking at. Compounding this is that they’re about to sell six of their factories. They’re realigning the aerostructures business internally, with a relatively new management team in charge of that. I see the rationale why they’re doing it, but I’m sure there’s risks there too.” Flottau says, “Something that drives Airbus CEO Christian Scherer up the wall is the claim that Airbus has become arrogant, that their attitude towards customers has changed. There’s been many complaints that Airbus hasn’t been forthcoming in accepting deferrals or cancellations from struggling airlines and that they’re not flexible in terms of pricing. This led to the Qatar Airways cancellation of orders, so, if customers perceive Airbus as arrogant, then that’s a risk. And there may be cases where airline buyers are moving Boeing’s way just

FEATURE to balance it out a little bit more. That’s if the MAX 10 works for them, or the MAX 8 works for them as well as the Airbus A320neo would.” Also discussing perceptions of Airbus arrogance, Aviation Week’s correspondent Dan Williams says; “It’s a criticism that has been made by a number of airlines. Put it another way though, airlines have had an incredibly good time in the last 25-30 years. They have been able to place orders with very, very little in the way of upfront payments. They get feted and wined and dined by the OEMs. And they’ve been able to defer at very, very low costs, and with very, very little pressure. I think what we saw during the pandemic was that – and this was partly a reflection of the fact of Airbus’ stronger economic position – they just started holding airlines to the contracts that they’d signed in the first place. “As far as the Qatar is concerned, I think Airbus is playing tough with them because Qatar has, in the past, played very, very tough with it. And I think Airbus is making a call about whether, when they have the backlogs that they’ve got, and given how the Gulf carriers might develop over the next 10 years or so, do they need to have Qatar in their backlog in the way that they did in the past? It’s remarkable that they think that they don’t, but it’s very hard to escape that conclusion.”

to the Airbus A321neo. Dan Williams says, “The MAX 10 can do, give or take a few percent, 90% of what an A321neo can do. U.S. legacy carriers who already have a 737 fleet will benefit from the MAX 10 however ….if you are not a U.S. legacy carrier, then the A321neo is the aircraft that you are going to need. Our 10-year Aviation Week fleet forecast says that almost a quarter of all new aircraft deliveries will be the A321neo. Not just a quarter of narrowbodies – but of all airliners.” Can Boeing afford to just launch an evolutionary “me too” aircraft to compete with the A321neo? Or should they endure the loss of market share to the A321neo for however long it takes until a revolutionary new technology is ready? If Boeing continues to delay its decision to compete against the A321neo it will further strengthen Airbus’s advantage in terms of its supply base. “This is the ultimate dilemma for both Airbus and Boeing. Airbus also doesn’t want to launch an interim aircraft such as the much hoped for A320500. The risk is that research and development costs go up and production runs get shorter. Technology is evolving so fast that they cannot rely on being able to produce the same aircraft with broadly the same engines for 20, 30, in some cases, 40 years or more. The Airbus A320ceo lasted 36 years, but the next aircraft is not going to have a production life that long. And the engines won’t either. Which is going to be a big challenge.

the biggest risk is hydrogen aircraft being delayed

The big question about future trajectories of these two giant companies is Boeing’s plan for its much delayed New Midsize Airplane (NMA). If “Boeing, in spite of everything, decides to launch something new against the A321neo it would force Airbus to make that interim step between the current line and the hydrogen plans for 2035. And the biggest risk is hydrogen aircraft being delayed well beyond what Airbus currently thinks. If 2035 is not realistic, then what? Will they have to do something in between again? Another key question is whether Boeing’s MAX 10 will be able to recover some of the market share lost

“If Boeing launch a NSA, NMA 757 MAX, call it what you will, the 5,000 nm, 220-250 seat aircraft that is an A321neo competitor, then that will change what Airbus needs to do. But right now, Airbus don’t really need to do anything. They can afford to wait for that step change in technology, if Boeing does nothing. “At the moment Airbus has got something that is very unusual in business, which is second mover

FlightCom: April 2022

FEATURE Even before Covid Airbus was beating Boeing on the all-important narrowbody market.

advantage. They don’t have to do anything. They can afford to, particularly in terms of narrowbodies, wait and see what Boeing does. And particularly in terms of very, very new technology, they can afford to do that. That’s quite a rare thing to have. And all the while, they’re delivering A321neos. In particular, 60% of their backlog is now comprised of those, and that should be a very profitable business model.” “Airbus have been incredibly lucky. They had an aircraft in the A320 that could be re-engined with Boeing (blue line) was hit far harder than Airbus by Covid.

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relatively minimal fuss. They have an aircraft programme in the C Series forced on them by Boeing applying pressure, who they then ran into the arms of Airbus". The production backlogs give Airbus much room to manoeuvre. Airbus are at the point now where, as long as they don’t get complacent, they can afford to wait before making difficult high level strategic decisions such as whether to make the next generation hydrogen powered. 

NEWS

DELTA AIR LINES PARTNERS WITH AIRBUS ON

HYDROGEN

DELTA AIR LINES HAS AGREED to become the first U.S. carrier to collaborate with Airbus on research and development of hydrogen-powered aircraft. Delta says it plans to work with Airbus to “accelerate the development of a hydrogen-powered aircraft and the ecosystem it requires.” The Atlanta-based airline aims to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and towards this goal Airbus plans to use an Airbus A380 to test a hydrogen-engine demonstrator.

Delta’s memorandum of understanding with Airbus also includes studying requirements for a hydrogen ecosystem that the industry would need to make the transition from jet-A to hydrogen fuel. “To pull the future of sustainable aviation forward, we need to accelerate the development and commercialisation of potentially disruptive technologies,” said a statement from Pam Fletcher, Delta’s chief sustainability officer. “Hydrogen fuel is an exciting concept that has the potential to redefine the status quo. These tangible steps lay the groundwork for the next generation of aviation.” 

A380 flight test platform for the ZEROe demonstrator.

FlightCom: April 2022

NEWS

QATAR LAUNCH CUSTOMER FOR 777-8F

QATAR AIRWAYS has underlined its increasingly antagonistic relationship with Airbus by ordering up to 50 Boeing 777-8 freighters.

family, offers a maximum structural payload of 118 tonnes and a range of 8,167 km. The first delivery is expected in 2027.

In the largest freighter commitment in Boeing’s history by value, Qatar has now ordered 34 777-8 freighters with options for a further 16 in a deal that is valued at more than $20bn based on list prices.

“With payload capacity nearly identical to the B747-400 Freighter and a 25% improvement in fuel efficiency, emissions and operating costs, the B777-8 Freighter will enable a more sustainable and profitable business for operators,” Boeing said.

The order comes shortly after Airbus launched its A350F which will compete with the B777-8F. Last year, there had been speculation that Qatar Airways could be the launch customer for the A350 freighter aircraft.

Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker said: “Boeing has a long history of building market-leading freighter aircraft and Qatar Airways is honoured to have the opportunity to be the launch customer for the 7778 Freighter, an aircraft which will not only allow us to further enhance our product offering for our customers, but also help us meet our objectives to deliver a sustainable future for our business.”

Qatar has now ordered 34 777-8 freighters

In a June interview with Reuters, Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said that the company was considering an order for 30 or more freighters from Airbus or Boeing as part of a fleet renewal programme. However, a bitter dispute between Airbus and Qatar over the A350 passenger aircraft makes an order for the freighter version from Qatar unlikely for now. News broke in 2021 that Qatar grounded its A350s due to what it described as quality shortcomings involving the jets’ paint – allegations Airbus has called inaccurate. Qatar sued Airbus in a London court last December, and in January Airbus disclosed it had cancelled orders by Qatar for 50 A321neos.

Boeing said the B777-8F, which is part of the B777X

20 FlightCom: April 2022



The widebody B777X family features a new carbon-fibre composite wing and new fuel-efficient engines. The aircraft will be built at the Boeing’s Everett, Washington site. Of Qatar’s 34 777-8F orders, 20 are conversions of Qatar’s existing orders for passenger 777X, Boeing says. The 7778 is smaller than the baseline 777-9. The company previously intended for the 777-8 to be a passenger aircraft, but shelved that programme in 2019. Boeing’s first 777X – the 777-9, a passenger jet

– remains in the certification process, with the airframer aiming to deliver the first by late 2023. All 777X have GE Aviation GE9X powerplants. The deal was officially signed at the White House with commerce secretary Gina Raimondo, ambassador Mishaal bin Hamad Al Thani, director of the White House national economic

council Brian Deese, and Boeing president and chief Dave Calhoun in attendance. The agreement was signed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive Stan Deal and Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar Al Baker.

B777-8F BY THE NUMBERS:

Maximum structural payload: 118.3 tonnes (260,600 lb) Maximum revenue payload: 112.3 tonnes (247,500 lb) Range: 4,410 nautical miles (8,167 km) Wingspan: 235 feet, 5 inches (71.8 m) On ground: 212 feet, 8 inches (64.8 m) Length: 232 feet, 6 inches (70.86 m) Maximum takeoff weight: 805,000 lb (365,160 kg) Engine: General Electric GE9X Total cargo volume: 27,056 ft3 (766 m3) Maindeck capacity: 31 pallets Lower hold capacity: 13 pallets + bulk cargo, or 5,995 cu ft (169.8 cu m) Launch: January 2022 First delivery: 2027

Qatar launch customer for 777.

FlightCom: April 2022

NEWS

CESSNA’S SKYCOURIER

CERTIFIED

IN MID-MARCH 2022 Cessna announced that it had received FAA certification for its Cessna 408 SkyCourier. The new model made its first flight in 2020 with the first production model appearing in early February 2022.

• • • • •

The SkyCourier is a utility twin engine turboprop aimed at the freight and package service operators, as well as the market served by the Viking Twin Otter and the Let 410. It is powered by two Pratt & Whitney PT6A-65SC engines driving McCauley four-blade propellers.

•

The SkyCourier comes in both cargo and passenger configurations. Key features include:

Cargo pallets are loaded through the airplane’s large 87- by 69-inch cabin door and can roll forward and aft

Large fuselage cargo door Garmin G1000 NXi integrated flight deck Flat floor Fixed undercarriage Up to 6,000 pounds payload capacity; enough for three LD3 shipping containers Single-point pressure refuelling

The passenger variant can hold up to 19 people plus pilot—with a separate crew door for flexibility in boarding.



Cessna's C408 SkyCourier has recieved FAA certifcation - less than two years after its first flight.

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NEWS

The huge cargo door is desgned to appeal to military buyers as well - this one in mocked-up Mexican Navy colours

on floor-mounted rails fitted with rollers. In a passenger variant, the a 19-seater has a stand-up cabin, overhead baggage bins, and a large aft baggage area. A combination floor plan alternative gives room for nine passenger seats and a generous aft cargo area. Single-point pressure refuelling, Garmin G1000 NXi avionics, manual flight controls, fixed landing gear with conventional manual brakes and nosewheel steering are also included. Two cockpit entry doors are also standard. With a 72-foot wingspan, 55-foot length, and 21-foot height, the SkyCourier is far larger than just a twin Cessna C208 Caravan, and it features a 19,000-pound max takeoff weight. Max payload is 5,000 pounds, and full-fuel payload is 1,719 pounds. Maximum range is 920 nautical miles.

expect the SkyCourier to be a workhorse of the fleet for FedEx and many other customers around the globe for decades to come.” “Achieving FAA certification for the Cessna SkyCourier demonstrates the expertise and hard work of our employees, as well as Textron Aviation’s continued investment in providing solutions for our customers,” said Ron Draper, president and CEO, Textron Aviation. “Our clean-sheet design brings to this segment what customers said they need: the ability to load, fly, unload and repeat with low operating costs and maximum cabin flexibility and efficiency. We expect the SkyCourier to be a workhorse of the fleet for FedEx and many other customers around the globe for decades to come.”  It is designed at accomodate three LD3 cargo containers.

Cessna expects to deliver the first units to launch customer, FedEx Express which has 50 on its initial fleet order, and options for 50 more. “Our clean-sheet design brings to this segment what customers said they need: the ability to load, fly, unload and repeat with low operating costs and maximum cabin flexibility, and efficiency,” said Textron Aviation president and CEO Ron Draper. “We

FlightCom: April 2022

PILOTS LAURA MCDERMID

Laura McDermid continues to share the fascinating stories of Kenyan bush pilot Iris McCallum.

I breathed deeply, the ozone-rich air wet and thick as it slid into my lungs. The familiar smell of the rain-soaked African bush an intoxicating perfume that always left me feeling slightly giddy. I affectionately patted the grand old dame as I completed my final checks this Valentine’s Day in 2002.

HE CESSNA GRAND CARAVAN 208B was one of five planes that comprised my fleet at Regional Air. a branch of Kenya Air, which I was commissioned to set up in Arusha, Tanzania, the country of my birth. Having a Tanzanian ATPL as well as a Kenyan ATPL stood me in good stead as I tackled this exciting yet complex project. Within five years we had a complement of 26 staff members.

ankle-deep in sludge. It took considerable effort to extract them, my legs straining to escape their muddy captors. With a wet sucking sound my feet finally came free. ‘With all this mud I need to keep my takeoff roll as short as possible.’ I thought to myself as I squinted down the Klein’s Camp runway that I had helped build six years earlier.

An uneasy feeling began to spread through me

Being Managing Director meant overseeing the operation which involved countless hours behind a desk keeping the TCAA happy. Paperwork was the least favourite aspect of my job so I relished any opportunity to get behind the controls of an aeroplane. ‘Crap!’ I wasn’t looking where I was going and had stepped into a boggy patch, my sturdy RM boots 24 FlightCom: April 2022

The pewter clouds parted long enough to show hints of blue sky and I felt a breeze ruffling the unruly curls on the back of my neck. “Mind your step, it’s very slippery,” I warned the nine passengers as they embarked the grand dame.

I guided them to their seats and made sure that their harnesses were on correctly as they tended to be tricky to fasten.

5H-MUA at kili International Airport after the emergency landing.

“Ladies and gentlemen – welcome aboard Five Hotel-Mike Uniform Alpha. My name is Captain Iris McCallum and I’ll have the pleasure of flying you to Arusha this morning. The flight will take approximately one hour and ten minutes. Please make yourselves comfortable and help yourself to refreshments.” I pointed to the small blue cooler box. I delivered the emergency briefing, pointing out the exits and showed them how the upper and lower halves of the airstair doors worked. “I will let you know when to look out for Lake Natron; one of the biggest breeding grounds of the lesser flamingo. To the south of the lake you will see the Empakaai Crater and Ol Doinyo Lengai, the only active volcano in East Africa. If you are lucky the ‘Mountain of God’ will put on a pyrotechnic show for us.” I went into the cockpit and pulled the curtain to separate me from the passengers. I eased myself into the big solid seat on the left.

5H-MUA was very pilot -friendly. I had approximately 3,000 hours on type and 1,200 on the grand dame. The visibility was the best by far of any of our aircraft, making it easy to spot the Land Rover returning from having chased the animals off the runway. I began my pre-flight, making doubly sure that I had enough fuel for Kilimanjaro, the alternative airport. I flicked the fuel boost and starter switches to ‘ON’. I scanned the instruments, making sure that the oil PSI and Ng were normal and watched the temperatures climb steadily, making sure not to overtax the battery; 30 seconds ON – 60 seconds OFF. I repeated this sequence 3 times. I selected the fuel condition lever to ‘Low Idle’ and listened. Tick…tick…tick… tick …...WHOOSH. The turbine comes alive as the fuel ignites. The sound it spooling up sent a shiver of anticipation down my spine.

FlightCom: April 2022

PILOTS

Lake Natron is one of the biggest breeding grounds of the lesser flamingo. - Photo Andrew Belcher.

I made my radio call on 118.20 and lined up. Run-ups are only done at the start of the day, so I was ready to takeoff. I took 20 degrees of flaps which should cut my takeoff roll by 30% for this short-field take-off. I set the power lever for takeoff, holding the brakes until she was quivering with eagerness to go. I released the brakes and the grand dame surged forward; I rotated at 70 KIAS and she eased into the air. On the climb out I gradually removed the flaps, did a cursory glance of the instruments and peered through the curtain to make sure that the passengers were all fine. I turned the inertial separator control to “Normal” and then noticed that the torque was 1950, a good 100 ft-lbs higher than it should have been. I knew I could only fly for 2 minutes at this setting.

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‘I didn’t tighten the damned friction nut!’ I reached over only to find that it was tight. I reduced the power to ‘idle’ and the fuel condition lever to ‘low idle’ but the torque didn’t change. The ITT, Ng and Fuel Flow readings were 30% higher than normal. I pulled the T-handle of the inertial separator out again into the BYPASS position which immediately dropped the torque back into the green arc. “She’s operating on maximum power, and I have no control”. An uneasy feeling began to spread through my body. I was about 400” above the ground and still climbing. “I can’t land back on that soggy bush strip”. I parted the curtain again to see if the passengers had noticed anything, but they all seemed relaxed; some reading whilst others had their eyes closed. “Telling

The Empakaai Crater. - Photo Andrew Belcher.

them now is just going to freak them out,” I reasoned. I climbed to 11,000” and levelled off. Then the power lever went completely limp in my hand. ‘I’m going to have to divert to Kilimanjaro Airport, it has double the runway length of Arusha, plus they have proper ground support,’ I decided. My airspeed indicator was showing, 210 KIAS, 25k faster than the VMO red line speed. I switched to our company frequency and made a call. The radio crackled into life as Air Kenya’s Geoff Price acknowledged my call. “Jambo Geoff. I am having problems controlling the power in 5H-MUA”. I filled him in and asked him to contact the office and to let everyone know of the change in plans. I was hoping that there was a pilot out there who had encountered a similar problem in the past who could advise me. While I waited for Geoff to get back to me, I called KIA tower and told them that I would

be executing an emergency procedure and that I may require ground assistance. I was rapidly advancing on Lake Natron which was the reporting point for both airports. The luminous pinkness of this natural wonder briefly averted my mind from my predicament. Geoff got back to me letting me know that he’d arranged for our company bus to divert to KIA to collect the passengers. He also let me know that he was unable to find anyone who could offer any advice on my situation. “If anyone can pull this off, you can Iris”, Geoff said, his faith in me strengthened my resolve. I could no longer put off telling my passengers of the diversion. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very sorry to inconvenience you, but we will not be landing in Arusha. I have a runaway engine and cannot control the speed. For safety reasons we will be diverting to Kilimanjaro International Airport where you will be

FlightCom: April 2022

PILOTS

5H-MUA taking off from Klein’s Camp in the Serengeti.

collected and your trip will resume from there. Please remain seated and strapped in at all times”. You could hear a pin drop. A sure sign that they were petrified. I had 80 NM to run, approximately 20 minutes at this speed. I was in constant contact with the tower advising them of my position and ETA. I began my long descent. I had 7000” to lose and at my current speed I had obvious challenges. I factored in that Kili is at the end of a very long valley and is generally as hot as hell at this time of the day. When I had the threshold of runway 09 in sight, I gently raised the nose until I got to 140KIAS and selected 10 degree flap. My mind was abuzz with calculations. At this speed I would get to the threshold in three minutes. I selected the fuel condition lever to the ‘OFF’ position,

28 FlightCom: April 2022

expecting the engines to die. Nothing happened. ‘Shit!! I am not going to be able to put her down safely’. I was 1/3 of the way down the runway and decided to fly a tear drop onto left base for runway 27. I managed to reduce the speed to 130k. I selected 20’ of flaps and turned both the fuel selectors to the ‘off’ position knowing that there is adequate fuel in the fuel reservoir tank for three minutes at max continuous power. The warning horn’s wail echoed my internal scream. I pulled the START CONT circuit breaker to kill the noise. Memories of my emergency landing in the C402 following an engine fire came rushing back. ‘You’ve got this Iris’. On final approach I pulled the firewall fuel shut-off levers. We were a third of the way down runway 27 before the engine finally shut down.

I briefed my passengers to unlatch the doors prior to touchdown. I didn’t bother feathering the prop, I needed as much drag as possible. I took additional flap and trimmed for my dead-stick landing. The grand dame gently kissed the tarmac with enough speed to exit the runway onto the taxiway.

The engine was sent to Pratt & Whitney for diagnostics. The cause turned out to be a failure of the governor lever thrust bearing which in turn damaged the bearing cap. The bearing would not allow bleed off of Py air (the air pressure that controls the fuel to the nozzles) and as a result the fuel flow was uncontrollable.

I needed as much drag as possible

We almost made it to the parking bay. The passengers had opened the door as instructed but fortunately didn’t have to bail out and run. “Thank you all so much. You guys were so brave! Sorry I was a bit quiet; I was a tad preoccupied.” This comment elicited raucous laughter.

Weeks later I received an email from one of the passengers who was In Tanzania from the U.K. on honeymoon. She expressed her gratitude for landing them safely and for remaining so calm. It’s feedback like this that made me believe that the terror and stress were worth it. Very few can say that they do what they love for a living, I happen to be one of those fortunate few. 

Other countries

E-MAIL

EASA registered

TEL NO

FAA registered

LOCATION

Off-site Specialist tests

FIRST NAME

On site Specialist tests

SURNAME

Regular Class 2, 3, 4

AME Doctors Listing

Senior Class 1, 2, 3, 4

“Who’s ready to push the aircraft into the parking bay?” They all clamoured to help as I made light of a potentially dangerous situation.

✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

Britz

Rudi

Wonderboom Airport

083 422 9882

rudiavmed@gmail.com

Church

Belinda

Valhalla

079 636 9860

churchbs@live.com

Du Plessis

Alexander

Athlone Park

031 904 7460

dex.duplessis@intercare.co.za

Erasmus

Philip

Benoni

011 849 6512

pdceras-ass@mweb.co.za

Govender

Deena

Umhlanga Rocks

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

✗ ✗

Ingham

Kenneth

Midrand

011 315 5817

kaingham@hotmail.com

✗ ✗

Marais

Eugene

Mossel Bay

044 693 1470

eugene.marais@medicross.co.za

✗ ✗

Opperman

Chris

Pretoria Lynnwood

012 368 8800

chris.opperman@intercare.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗

Tenzer

Stan

Rand Airport & JHB CBD

083 679 0777

stant@global.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗

Toerien

Hendrik

White River, Nelspruit

013 751 3848

hctoerien@viamediswitch.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗

Van Der Merwe

Johann

Stellenbosch

021 887 0305

johann.vdmerwe@medicross.co.za

Van Niekerk

Willem

Benoni

011 421 9771

http://willemvanniekerk.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

✗ ✗

✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

FlightCom: April 2022

NEWS

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CEO

RESIGNS

TEWOLDE GEBREMARIAM, the Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, has resigned from his role, citing health issues.

Mesfin Tasew has 38 years of experience in airline management and operations in the areas of aircraft maintenance and engineering, procurement, information technology, flight operations, capability development, capacity building, development of corporate strategies, airline operation management, and corporate leadership.

Tewolde led Ethiopian Airlines for over a decade with remarkable success reflected in its exceptional performance in all parameters including, but not limited to, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, exponential growth from $1 Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam, has resigned. Billion annual turn-over to $4.5 Billion, from 33 planes to 130, and from 3 million passengers to 12 million passengers. Under his leadership, the airline group has grown by four-fold in all measurements, building more than $700 million worth of vital infrastructure like Ethiopian Skylight Hotel, Cargo terminal, MRO hangars and shops, the Aviation Academy and Full Flight Simulators. GebreMariam will be replaced by Mesfin Tasew effective March 23, 2022 as New CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group

30 FlightCom: April 2022

He has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Open University in the UK, MSc degree in Electrical Engineering specializing in Communications Engineering from Addis Ababa University, and BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from Addis Ababa University.

The Chairman of the airline, Mr. Girma Wake said, “I would like to congratulate Mr Mesfin on his new appointment and I am fully confident about his capabilities. We believe that Mr Mesfin will lead the airline to an even greater success, keeping it on the right track that will see it grow through many

NEWS

generations to come. I urge the 17,000 employees of Ethiopian and the board members to stand with the new Group CEO to keep the airline fly high. We are also thankful for the remarkable contributions of the former Group CEO.” In the different capacities he served during his 38 years of service, Mr Mesfin has been a key player responsible for planning and execution of strategies that led the airline to shine in the African skies and beyond. He assumed responsibilities including but not limited to overall maintenance of Ethiopian fleet, capability and capacity development, leading the automation project of the Maintenance and Engineering Division and managing projects related to aircraft acquisition. Mr Mesfin Tassew on his part said, “I am honoured and humbled to be appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Airlines Group which I have been serving for nearly four decades in various positions. My new role gives me the opportunity to carry on with the fast and profitable growth of our beloved airline and take it to the next level. I call on all my colleagues at Ethiopian to join hands and forge ahead for further success.” Mr. Mesfin has been serving as a Chief Executive Officer of ASKY Airlines since 2021 and has led the airline with a profitable growth strategy. He served as a Chief Operating Officer of Ethiopian Airlines from 2010 –2021 and successfully led the operation of the airline in an efficient and cost effective way by optimizing processes and developing internal resources to cope up with the airlines growth strategy.

He was Vice President of Maintenance and Engineering from 2006 –2010; Chief Information Officer from 1998 – 2006; Manager of Planning and Automation, Maintenance and Engineering Division from 1995 – 1997; and Avionics Engineer and Supervisor Avionics Engineering Group from 1984 – 1994. He took part in numerous local and international seminars in the aviation industry and general leadership. He received training in leadership and airlines operations management, aviation regulations and aircraft maintenance among others. In 1984, Mr Mesfin was a gold medal award winner of Addis Ababa University Faculty of Technology as an Outstanding Graduate of the Year. 

Mr Mesfin Tassew is the new CEO of Ethiopian Airlines.

FlightCom: April 2022

Dale de Klerk Cell: +27825563592 Fax: 0866058948 Skype: dale_de_klerk Email: dale@alpiaviation.co.za

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32 FlightCom: April 2022

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FlightCom: April 2022

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

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34 FlightCom: April 2022

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SA Flyer Magazine April 2022

Articles inside

RUNAWAY ENGINE

AIRBUS VS BOEING

THE UNEXPECTED IMPACT ON AFRICAN DEFENCE FORCES OF RUSSIA’S INVASION OF UKRAINE

REAL PILOTS

HAI 2022 – REVIEW

THE STELLENBOSCH MIRAGE

STELLENBOSCH AIRSHOW 2022

UPDATING A CLASSIC - THE UTLIMATE STINSON 108

COMMANDO CAPERS

MIRACLE OF THE HUDSON

HAS THE CAA BEEN CAPTURED?

POSITION REPORT April 2022