SA Flyer Magazine May 2022 by Flyer & Aviation Publications

T R E O P N ID IR O U A TI S G D A E N VI I A A AN P M

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Edition 315 May 2022 Cover: Blackhawk

FLIGHT REPORT:

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 Jim Davis – on his crazy pupes!  DCA Poppy Khoza opens up  Guy: can airline pilots have fun?  Durban floods & the lack of choppers  Peter Garrison: Skydiving without a chute  We go ballooning! May 2022

F LY WITH THE LEADER – WE’LL WELCOME YOU INTO THE FAMILY When it comes to service, Pilatus’ reputation is unique. Being voted number 1 in customer support for 19 consecutive years is an award we never take for granted. The global network of Authorized Pilatus Service Centres have deep understanding of our customer’s needs and strive every day to exceed them. Come fly with Pilatus – we’d love to take you under our wings. pilatus-aircraft.com Contact Pilatus PC-12 Centre Southern Africa, your nearest Authorised Pilatus PC-12 NGX Sales Centre for further information on Tel: +27 11 383 0800, Cell +27 82 511 7312 or Email: aircraftsales@pilatuscentre.co.za

POSITION REPORT There are welcome indications that general aviation in South Africa is bouncing back strongly to pre-Covid levels. However, the pandemic has weeded out the weaker players in the industry – letting only the fittest survive. ONE OF THE MOST WELCOME SURVIVORS of the pandemic has been regional airline CemAir. Compared to the protracted fight for its continued existence with the CAA in 2018, it has made comparatively light work of not just surviving, but actually thriving, on the back of the Covid lockdown and the blight on air travel. In our interview with CemAir CFO Dr Laura van der Molen, in FlightCom page 12, she describes how the airline is expanding its fleet and forging new interline and codeshare agreements (even with SAA). It is growing to become a true network airline, and for good measure is expanding into a new head office. In general aviation (GA) a most encouraging sign of the strength of the GA’s recovery is the strong rebound experienced by Rand Airport. General Manager Stuart Coetzee says that in March 2022 the airport’s operations levels were almost back to pre-Covid levels. Rand is an excellent indicator of the resilience of the GA sector as it hosts most of the components of GA. It hosts air charter operators, flying schools and a number of aircraft maintenance organisations, as well as pilot shops, car hire and other enterprises. In an interview on page 88 of SA Flyer, Rand General Manager Stuart Coetzee says that the Covid

May 2022

pandemic impacted general aviation hard, and Rand had its fair share of the economic damage. A number of long-established businesses such as car rental companies closed shop and many tenants struggled to pay their rent. Even though the threat of further Covid lockdowns may be receding, there is concern that a fifth wave may push back the recovery. Fortunately, the airport’s finances are healthy, due to the prescient development of an industrial park on the airport’s land. Demand for the airport’s facilities by the GA industry is strong. Coetzee says that there are currently no vacant hangars and all office space is fully let, with a waiting list. This is not only due to the recovery of aviation businesses on the airport, but the movement of large operators from other airports around Gauteng to the more friendly and central environment that Rand provides. However, the GA recovery in 2022 has not been plain sailing. Notable problems have been the BP fuel contamination saga which limited flying. Compounding this is the large increase in the cost of fuel, to near 33 % over just the past three months. Other challenges faced by GA in its recovery relate to the weather, which in Gauteng has been particularly wet and windy. Yet, despite these setbacks, the price of used GA aircraft is shooting up and the industry looks set to recover fully. There really is a new dawn on the horizon.

Guy Leitch

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Edition 315

CONTENTS FLIGHTCOM

SA FLYER

16 22 28 54 62 68

Guy Leitch - ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE George Tonking - HELI OPS

Bush Pilot - HUGH PRYOR Pilots - LAURA MCDERMID

FC 24

COLUMNISTS

06 18

Peter Garrison - DROP TEST Jim Davis - PLANE TALK Jim Davis - ACCIDENT REPORT Ray Watts - REGISTER REVIEW

FLIGHT TEST:

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FC 28

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

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Edition 315

CONTENTS FEATURES SA FLYER

26 CEMAIR - BOUNCING BACK STRONGLY 32 OBITUARY - TIRO VORSTER 36 ROB RUSSELL - FIRE BOMBERS 42 GARTH CALITZ - BALLOONING 73 BOOKS BY PETER GARRISON 70 RAND AIRPORT COMPANIES GUIDE FLIGHTCOM

14 Defence - Darren Olivier 44 John Bassi - Lockdown Part 2 28 Flight Test - Blackhawk 350s 38 Face to Face - Ms Poppy Khoza

REGULARS 14 Opening Shot 72 AFS Register Review 78 SV Aviation Fuel Table 80 Aviation Direct Events Calender

FLIGHTCOM

23 AME Directory 44 ALPI Flight School Listing 45 Atlas Oils Charter Directory 46 AVES Technics AMO Listing 48 Aviation Directory 10

May 2022

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Although this picture is nothing special photographically, we have selected it as an Opening Shot to record the demise of the only example of the world’s largest aircraft – by a number of metrics. This image was elected as it contains people and thus gives some indication of the huge size of the Antonov AN225 Mriya. The picture was taken by Kārlis Dambrāns in Latvia in June 2014. He used a Panasonic DMC GX1 at 1/2500th second at f3.2 and 20mm with a -0.3 stop underexposure.

May 2022

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

ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE: GUY LEITCH

Recreational pilots may be forgiven for sometimes thinking that airline pilots have a boring job, flying the same routes, day in and day out, to strict procedures, while maximising fuel efficiency to keep the bean-counters happy. HOWEVER, EVEN WITH AIRLINE FLYING, there are opportunities for pilots to have a bit of fun and excitement. One such opportunity is the straight-in approach to Hoedspruit’s Runway 09.

The day we flew straight into Hoedspruit’s 09 from Cape Town, I was amazed to see the windsock showing about a 15-knot tailwind – blowing from 270, directly down the runway.

The descent and landing into Hoedspruit 09 is interesting because of the short distance from the Drakensberg Escarpment to the threshold. It reminds me of a Presidents’ Trophy Air Race where the organisers placed a checkpoint just 5 nm beyond the escarpment. I know of a number of pilots who admitted to exceeding Vne getting down to the checkpoint.

As a ‘Pappa Charlie’ pilot who regularly descends into Hoedspruit in a piston single, on clear VFR days it’s always fun because I want to stay high over the escarpment, even if only to keep my wife/hostie in the back happy by minimising turbulence. I typically remain at FL095 until past the escarpment at Mariepskop and then put the nose down and descend at about 1500 fpm or more, keeping the power on to keep the engine warm, but also with a wary eye on VNE.

terrain separation w i t h t h e ‘ Ma r k 1’ eyeball

Despite having been a front-line military airfield for Mirage operations, the 09/27 runway at Hoedspruit is decidedly secondary as it is only 2000 m long and 27 m wide. As an interested amateur pilot, it seemed to me to be something of a challenge for a jet the size of an Embraer 190. In asking Airlink about how they fly the approach and landing, I learned much about airline operations, procedures and limitations.

May 2022

For a jet airliner to descend from FL370 straight in-to Hoedspruit, top of the descent has to be far before the escarpment. For our descent in Airlink’s Embraer 190 there was a layer of alto stratus at around FL150. So the descent would have been at least partially IMC.

To learn more about this, I asked Tammy King, Airlink’s Executive Manager Flight Operations and Head of Training, to tell me how these approaches are flown.

modern technology would have been a life saver for the number of VFR flights that started down too early and impacted the western slopes of the mountains. One of these famously took out teenage pop star Gwynneth Ashley Robin and her band in a C210 that crashed into the escarpment near Penge.

For the descent in CAVOK conditions, with the air crystal clear and visibility all the way to the Indian Ocean, it may be tempting to do terrain separation with the ‘Mark 1’ eyeball. Yet regardless of conditions, the flights remain IFR, as it gives the crew the option to resume IFR in case of diversion, or if the visual approach criteria cannot be maintained.

FAHS

AERODROME

Tower 119.6

Approach 126.4

Radar 119.6 123.3

AD-01 EFF 08 July 04

HSV 114.0 MN

18 C A

1659

NDB ‘HA’

INS positions:

x 46

HSV 114.0 E

phalt

Tower

East Gate Ramp: S24°23’01.75” E031°02’43.49”

Radar 100’ agl

200’ agl

VAR 15°W

Movements: S24°22’34.21” E031°02’28.52”

m As

A G 18 H

CAA South Africa

RWY 09 (078°T) 27 (258°T) 18 (164°T) 36 (344°T)

PAPI

27m 5x 175 sphalt A

APPROACH

09/27 - 5757ft 18/36 - 12161ft

AV.DIRECT 240104

H 36 85 Ground School J

4 173

Movements

1743

BASS

For recreational pilots used to aircraft with basic VFR instruments, it’s interesting to know that the airline pilots on IFR do not have to be able to see the escarpment as the aircraft displays terrain as part of its EGPWS. This relatively

HOEDSPRUIT AFB

S24°21.3’

A/D

171

If conditions are VMC and the runway can be kept in sight, once the aircraft is within 25nm of the airport, a visual approach can be requested. For the instrument rated pilots reading this, it is necessary that the cloud base be above the MSA or there has to be "a reasonable assurance that a visual approach and landing can be completed."

Elev

1738 REF PT E031°03.0’

3706

Tammy explained that the approaches into Hoedspruit are always planned as standard instrument approaches to Runway 18/36. However, the pilots also have the option of a straight-in visual approach to Runway 09. So even for airline pilots, there is clearly a lot of scope left for the crew to decide how they want to get their aircraft onto the ground at Hoedspruit.

The way the Hoedspruit approach works in practice is that, from top of descent, the crew continues to descend under IFR to the Minimum Sector Altitude (MSA). Then they can put the

East Gate Terminal THR

RUNWAY

P3°

Nil

HRL

P2.8°

SALS Nil

HRL

OTHER LIGHTING: Obstruction, TWY 18/36 CIRCUITS Piston: 2700ft Turbine: 2700ft Jet: 3200ft (East of AD) STOPWAYS RWY 09 - 81m (266ft) RWY 27 - 93m (305ft) RWY 18 - 338m (1109ft) RWY 36 - 300m (984ft)

L. DIST Full Full Full Full

SLOPE 0.57U 0.57D 0.59U 0.59D

1. UNLICENCED MILITARY AERODROME. To be used in emergency only. 2. Power lines east of aerodrome. 3. Wildlife on AD.

LCN RWY 18/36 - 74 RWY 09/27 - 74 TWY 18/36 - 50 Rev: Chart #.

WGS-84

Hoedspruit's (FAHS) layout - showing how much time is saved by using 09 straight-in. May 2022

nose down in a steeper descent once they have passed the Mariepskop radar station on a straight-in visual approach to 09.

Airlink Chief Pilot Tammy King.

The increased rate of descent once past Mariepskop raises the question of how you get an aerodynamically slippery airliner to both go down and slow down simultaneously. Tammy King explains that the challenge of both going down and slowing down all depends on the energy of the aircraft in terms of the speed limits for flaps and landing gear. She points out that a considerate pilot will leave a healthy margin to not put them under strain. Tammy says that if on the approach, the crew find themselves high after having cleared the terrain, they just slow the aircraft down by powering back and holding the nose up. She explains that the crew then have the option to select flaps while at the lower air speed and thus increase the drag and rate of descent. However, on some approaches with a heavy aircraft, speed brakes are needed. This then gives them the option of putting the nose down to convert the excess height into speed to intercept the visual glide path, even if from above. I asked Tammy about the effect of the 15-knot tailwind we had experienced and she told me that the E190 is certified to land with a 15 knot tailwind component. (The ERJ135 has a 10-knot limit). Tammy explained that the landing figures are calculated before descent to ensure that all the performance limitations are complied with before accepting a tailwind landing. These limitations are determined by factors such as the landing weight of the aircraft and the friction rating of the runaway. Airlink has, as standard procedure, landed at

May 2022

airports such as St Helena which have shorter runways than Hoedspruit, and with more challenging conditions, so landing straight-in on Hoedspruit 09 is a comfortably standard procedure. The E190 can easily operate in and out of 2000m at maximum weight. Interestingly, Airlink has had both aircraft types certified to operate on narrow runways, down to a minimum runway width of 20 m, compared to the standard minimum 30m for commercial jet aircraft.

HOEDSPRUIT AFB

Elev

FAHS

1738

RADAR TERRAIN CLEARANCE

HOEDSPRUIT Approach 126.4 MN

Radar 119.6 123.3

RAD-01 EFF 03 Aug 06

HSV 114.0

Tower 119.6

30nm

R-010

VAR 15°W

3700

R-295

AV.DIRECT / 250506

7700

HSV 114.0

3000

5nm

0 -26

3100

10nm R-1

R-200

8500

Given a tailwind and shortish runway, the important thing when landing is to nail the speed and not float. On my flight the Airlink pilots made a commendably firm arrival and the braking was not particularly severe. Although the E190 has reverse thrust, it was not necessary, and it is not part of the aircraft’s landing performance calcs. Tammy explains that reverse is basically a nice to have when required. The E190 has carbon brakes that operate best at high brake temperatures. She says that the E190 is a very capable aircraft, and is built for short field performance, so only moderate braking is required for landing in 2000m.

10nm

Airlink’s narrow runway approval is important for Hoedspruit as it is also an Air Force Base and there’s ongoing discussion about the proximity to the runway of the runway lights and the above ground cables that feed them. As the runway lights are not frangible (at least not to civilian standards), the effective runway width is thus reduced from 30m to 20m, even though the actual width is still 30m.

4700

30nm

CAA South Africa

Radar terrain clearance altitudes only valid when under positive radar control and vectoring. Alternatively MSA applies.

UNLICENCED MILITARY AERODROME To be used in emergency only

Rev: Chart #.

WGS-84

Hoedspruit's (FAHS) radar terrain clearance chart.

I asked Tammy what the downwind limitations to use 09 straight-in are and when they would choose to go all the way round to 27, increasing track miles, flying time and fuel used. She said that they normally use 09 for landing and 27 for departure to save operational costs. The crew will therefore rather use runway 18/36 if 09 is beyond limits for landing. She pointed out that the straight-in approach also reduces taxi distances after landing because 09/27 is significantly closer to the terminal.

Jets have plenty of power and can easily outclimb the Drakensberg escarpment, so 27 is the natural choice for takeoff. Tammy concluded by saying that it is indeed fun to fly the straight-in approach to Hoedspruit. There are always options available for the crew for cost savings with straight in approaches or shorter routings, but she dutifully pointed out that cost savings will never take precedence over safety.

guy@saflyermag.co.za May 2022

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May 2022

HELICOPTER OPS: GEORGE TONKING

PREPARING PILOTS FOR

REAL LIFE American fighter pilot Col. Robin Olds stood by the mantra “preparedness wins the battle.” He should have known, becoming a triple ace in the Vietnam sky while flying 152 missions in Southeast Asia in an F-4 Phantom jet, a pig of a dog-fighter. IN THE GUN-TOTING MIG-INFESTED North, he sharpened his previously demoralised men into formidable fighter pilots, embedding his experience and cunning into their young hands. Robin Olds taught that the key to air superiority was not only regular battle-ground training, but last-minute flexibility, the very ability to change and adapt to any environment and deal with unpredictable enemy tactics.

develop from a merely competent pilot into a flexible operator pilot requires an immeasurable amount of input from many spheres. As you may have read before in this column, throughout my helicopter flying career I’ve had the advantage of great mentors and teachers. It’s a crucial enough topic to mention again. So this month I’d like to take you into the operational training environment.

It was also said that Olds valued all of his people – from the base’s support staff to his airmen. This remains true in our context – the business and human resources side of things keeping the flying work coming in, while creating the opportunities for further training and development.

Unlike basic flight training, or ab-initio as it’s known, operational training, also known as line training in airline circles, is never complete. For as long as you remain a pilot, ab-initio should be an ongoing calendar item to keep your skills sharp. Of course, this type of training is invaluable to any pilot, whether commercial or a private license holder. We can and should all learn continuously.

operational training is never complete

But what does half-century-old fighter pilot lore have to do with the modern helicopter pilot? To

May 2022

American fighter pilot Col. Robin Olds stood by the mantra “preparedness wins the battle.” He should have known, becoming a triple ace in the Vietnam sky while flying 152 missions in Southeast Asia in an F-4 Phantom jet, a pig of a dog-fighter.

Again, Olds is an excellent role model, who kept reinventing himself throughout his career. Despite his experience as an active pilot during World War II and beyond, he chose to fly as the “new” guy when he first arrived in Vietnam, while learning from those who had been in-country longer than he. A pilot fresh out of flight school or with a fresh commercial license is often thrown into the deep end when put into the flying environment on his

or her own. Various tasks learned in the safety of a flight school won’t necessarily translate in real-life situations. This could be as simple as a flight to an unknown airspace, with complex navigation procedures new to the pilot, or, for the professional pilot, it could mean flying for a new client with unknown expectations and sensitive operational requirements. All of this adds up to complicate an already busy and challenging task environment, potentially leading to unforced errors.

May 2022

The aim of line training, then, is to develop the pilot into a safer and more efficient operator, able to respond to situations on the fly. When training is needed in our context, I always lean heavily on my more experienced pilots, allowing them to fly with the new pilot for a few initial missions from the left seat of the helicopter. I also try to match personalities in the cockpit, to enable the healthiest learning environment possible. Mostly, the trick is facilitating effective communication among the crew, which includes forums like guided safety and operations briefings where lively banter is encouraged between all crew; where everyone is allowed an opinion and contribution.

Once we have paired up the line-check pilots, the next part is to start with the basics of real-life helicopter flying. It’s important to understand the difference between an Operational Proficiency Check (OPC) and a Line Check. First off, the OPC is primarily a flight safety check, which requires a nominated, qualified flight instructor with dual controls fitted in the helicopter and performed in a training area. A Line Check, on the other hand, does not require dual controls or incorporate emergency training manoeuvres. Rather, the line check pilot or captain’s role is to train the student pilot through thought-provoking patter and encouragement. These flights often are to the benefit of not only the student pilot but also the

helicopters d o n’ t “ r u n out of power ”

An informal learning atmosphere is best for line training.

May 2022

check captain in establishing and developing better and safer flight techniques for the future.

Martinette, one of our great successes developed into an operational pilot.

Techniques like confined or off-airport landings (which I covered in previous articles) are taught in-situ. Due to the high altitudes above sea level flown on the Reef, where most of our operations take place, helicopter performance planning is frequently briefed and exercised to maintain a healthy performance margin. For example, helicopters don’t typically “run out of power” as many accident reports state, but generally suffer from bad planning on the part of the pilot when a landing or takeoff zone is not carefully considered before a flight. Pattering a pilot on handling technique also comes into play when the demands of the flight profile exceed the helicopter’s documented operating performance. A higher-thandocumented take-off zone or heavier than documented Out Of Ground Effect hover, for instance, may be achieved by using available wind over the LZ to achieve landing or take-off. After the initial line-check flights, many of my newer pilots have commented on feeling more confident in their ability to command the ship. Even as experienced crew we often fly linechecks to keep our minds fresh and our hands in as we are also susceptible to complacency.

Col. Robin Olds was outspoken throughout his career – calling for a renewed focus on training, especially from seasoned pilots, accurately foreseeing that it would save pilots’ lives. The greatest responsibility we have as flight crew is that of care of duty to ourselves, our passengers and those with whom we share the same airspace. May we always be open to correction and learning and also be ready to help anyone involved in the incredible adventure that is flight!

May 2022

AIRLINES by Guy Leitch

CEMAIR

- BOUNCING BACK STRONGLY As the airline industry slowly returns to a ‘new normal’, Johannesburg based carrier CemAir is thriving. The airline is pushing ahead, into the gaps in the market left by the departure of competitors such as SA Express and Mango, and the slow restart of SAA. CemAir CFO Dr Laura van der Molen says that the airline is focussed on optimising the use of smaller gauge aircraft. One of CemAir’s strengths is that it provides essential air connectivity to the smaller towns on the coastal routes, particularly from Johannesburg to destinations such as Margate, Plettenberg Bay and George. She notes that there has been a steady move of people away from the cities to the coastal towns and that this helped underpin the CemAir route network.

Using regional aircraft has however not prevented them from taking on the low cost carriers who operate 186 seat Boeing 737-800s. CemAir has entered the intensely competitive Johannesburg - Cape Town and Durban ‘golden triangle’ market. However, she says that the bulk of their capacity is at peak times, such as Friday and Sunday afternoons and Monday mornings. She notes that the Bombardier CRJ900 is a particularly popular option with its 31-inch seat pitch and thus better leg room than some of its competitors.

require a fleet upgrade to longer range aircraft

As primarily a regional operator, the CemAir fleet currently consists of: A pure jet fleet of eight CRJ 100/200 LRs, plus two -900s, with another on the way. The turboprop fleet consists of three Dash-8 Q400s with another scheduled to arrive in May, two Dash-8 Q300s, a Q100 plus seven Beech 1900Ds.

26 FlightCom: May 2022

As both a regional and an increasingly networked carrier, CemAir has become an essential component in the outgrowth of air transportation across southern Africa. A key to the growth trajectory is its increasing use of codeshares and interlining agreements. The airline has interline agreements with key network carriers including Emirates, Qatar, Egypt Air,

Ethiopian and SAA, and at a regional level with Mozambique’s LAM and Zambia’s Proflight. Reassuringly, Laura van der Molen says that they are seeing positive signs in their passenger numbers, especially in tourists from the UK and Europe. She says that they are looking to expand their regional route network. The airline has a number of applications submitted to the South African International Air Services Licencing Council. They have applied for: Brazzaville, Gabon, Libreville, Nairobi, Freetown and Entebbe. She reports that CemAir has already been awarded the Johannesburg - Luanda route, and JHB – Lagos, as well as JHB-Maputo, JHB-Lusaka and JHB -Ndola.

to start flying can take up to four years. A case in point is the Cape Town – Gaborone, JHB-Gaborone, JHB-Maun and JHB-Kasane routes as the Botswana government has been particularly determined to protect its local airline. She points out that it would help the long desired goal of liberalising the African air traffic market if bilaterals were more transparent, so that it was possible to see who had been awarded which routes, even though they may not be operating them. It is also important that the ‘use it or lose it’ principle be applied to route allocations as there are many instances where moribund South African carriers, such as SA Express, Mango, Comair and SAA hold route allocations which they are not using.

more transparent bilaterals

Even though the bilateral air service agreements are already in place, she notes that actually getting the approvals from other countries

Should CemAir be awarded west African routes, the length of the sectors may require a fleet upgrade to longer range aircraft. In the interim it is planned to operate these routes as direct

Cemair's fleet continues to grow. Here is the latest de Havilland Dash 8-400 (ZS-DHJ).

FlightCom: May 2022

AIRLINES

As it emerges from the Covid-19 crisis, the small CemAir team is agressively growing the airline's route network.

CemAir specialises in providing essential air connectivity to smaller towns such as Plettenberg Bay. 28 FlightCom: May 2022

These interline partners give CemAir network conectivity.

CemAir has become a key regional airline.

flights, but with a technical stop for fuel. Van der Molen confirms that they have been looking at either Airbus A320s or Boeing 737-800s. However, this will entail a significant gearingup by the airline. She points out that one of the core values of the airline is that it does its own maintenance and a move to Boeing or Airbus products would require an upgrade to its AMO in terms of skills and tooling. Van der Molen makes the interesting observation that, due to the decline in SAA Technical with its associated loss of skills, there has been a steady need for CemAir and other SAAT customers to build their own MRO capability for key components and services.

Just a few years ago CemAir was engaged in a bruising battle with the South African CAA. Van der Molen says that the airline’s relationship with the regulator has now stabilised. She notes that one of the key challenges faced by the CAA is that it has lost many of its key skills and expertise. She describes the current relationship as one of professional courtesy and says there is now a clear understanding between the Regulator and the airline that they are both committed to providing essential air connectivity that will grow the South African economy. On the back of the airline's rapid bounce back they have moved into a new head office at 20 Jones Road, Jet Park, Boksburg.

FlightCom: May 2022

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OBITUARY

OBITUARY TIRO VORSTER

7 DECEMBER 1943 - 24 APRIL 2022 Tiro Vorster was a world-renowned aviation artist. He was a Fellow of the American Society of Aviation Artists (ASAA) and this information comes from ASAA and from a profile in World Airnews by Pieter Cronjé. TIRO VORSTER GREW UP IN MIDDELBURG Transvaal as the son of a watchmaker and gunsmith father and a bookkeeper mother. Tiro’s early childhood fascination with drawing machines on soap wrappers took flight when he saw his first large aircraft at age sixteen. Like so many youngsters passionate about aviation he built and flew model aircraft. His home library is filled with his lifelong passion – from his childhood books, to memorabilia, autographs, gifts and personal messages from famous pilots, commanders, generals and captains of industry.

He was a flight engineer in an era when flight engineers without computer help, had to calculate: takeoff weight, fuel supply, speed and many other figures to ensure safe takeoff, mission and landing. He flew many search, rescue and patrol missions over the oceans, the desert and in guerrilla wars in Namibia, Angola and former Rhodesia – nine tours of duty of ten weeks each. He lost comrades and had close shaves: doing emergency repairs to a helicopter under enemy fire and insisting on being on board for the flight back to base.

He b e c a m e a s ile nt ambassador for South Af r i c a a n d t h e S A A i r Fo r c e

Tiro joined the South African Air Force (SAAF) and became a flight engineer on the Alouette III helicopter and the Shackleton maritime reconnaissance aircraft. He was decorated in nine combat tours.

May 2022

Among his many awards was the Pro Merito medal for “exceptionally meritorious service and particular devotion to duty”, and the Military Merit Medal for editing SAAF’s Nyala magazine.

Tiro Vorster’s aviation art opened doors to many in high office. He became a silent ambassador for South Africa and the SA Air Force, behind iron curtains and despite military sanctions. Pieter Cronjé reports Tiro saying, “Art gave me wonderful opportunities. In 1984 I sent the Chief of Staff of the US Air Force a print of a Mustang P51, without permission from my superiors and against military protocol. I still have the handwritten thank you letter from General Charles A. Gabriel. AASA writes that “Tiro was self-taught, he sketched and painted the aircraft all around him. An invitation to exhibit eight of his works at the United States “Centennial Celebration of Aviation Art” at the Dayton, Ohio Air Force Museum in 2003, was a career highlight. Cronjé writes, “Aviation art demands all the “regular” elements such as perspective, colour, scale, contrast, texture, lighting, brush

technique. Aviation artists have to master still life (aircraft in a hangar on the runway), landscape (aircraft over mountains, oceans, desert, in clouds), battle positions, light, reflection, camouflage and precise historical, military and technical detail. One mistake detracts from the merit of the work.” On his walls, in collectors’ homes and military bases hang his paintings of Shackleton, Spitfire, Mustang P51, Bristol Beaufighter, Cheetah, English Electric Lightning, Lockheed Constellation, Junkers, Rooivalk, Wasp, Albatross, Kittyhawk, Focke Wulf and more. Tiro and his wife, Hannatjie, a former teacher have a daughter, Tihanna, a former South African 400 metres athletics champion, musician, now physiotherapist in Mossel Bay. They are just as proud of her as she is of her parents and her artist father.” j

Aviation artist Tiro Vorster with one of his internationally acclaimed works - this of a Tupolev Tu-95.

May 2022

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May 2022

STORY & PICS - ROB RUSSELL

Ag Aviation Africa (AAA), the Sub-Saharan and the Middle East agent for Air Tractor, hosted an open day and launch party before the Stellenbosch airshow to introduce their newly approved Aircraft Training Organisation (ATO), Ag Aviation Flight Academy (AAFA). THE AVIATION COMMUNITY, customers, potential clients and the financial world attended the two day event to see the beautiful new facility at their Stellenbosch Head Office. Demand worldwide for agricultural aircraft is growing. In 2021 Air Tractor delivered 163 aircraft throughout the world. It is intended to deliver over 200 various variants in 2022, of which 20 are due to be delivered in the AG Aviation Africa’s territory.

ongoing fight against locust swarms and play a huge part in the prevention of damage to food crops in that area. With farming becoming very scientific and moving towards the most efficient and effective use of land and equipment, there is a growing need for equipment such as crop spraying aircraft. Gone are the days of aircraft with just a stick, rudder and basic aircraft instrumentation and a few workers on the ground waving flags, showing the pilot where to go. Today’s aircraft are equipped with state of the art equipment, including precision GPS and the ability to communicate via data links with the farmer, enabling the most efficient and cost-effective use

a vast inve ntor y of es s e nt ial spares

Air Tractors are predominantly used for agricultural purposes in South Africa, there is however a growing market for these aircraft to be used in firefighting support. In East Africa, particularly Ethiopia and Djibouti, they are utilised in the

May 2022

CFI Charlie Marais pointing out features to well known local pilot, Francois Marais.

of the aircraft. All these factors are vital, both for the farmer and the aircraft operator. Graham Wells, COO of Ag Aviation Africa and Director of Ag Aviation Flight Academy, spoke at length about financing. Two main options are available when purchasing an aircraft: The first sees the prospective client making use of the American Exim bank. Whilst offering very favourable low-interest rates, the deal is subject to rand/dollar exchange rate volatility, which could result in significant price fluctuations.

to negotiate favourable financing deals, often using the client's own bank. The latter option is encouraged by AAA and seems to be the more favoured option for many of their Air Tractor buyers. Reliable maintenance support for aircraft paying their way in the remote places is vital. The need for quality CAA approved Aircraft Maintenance Organisations (AMOs) is given a high priority by AAA. Whilst not doing any maintenance of the aircraft they sell, Ag Aviation Africa works closely with company approved AMOs, to ensure an efficient, reliable and cost-effective service is provided to their clients. Allied to this, and as part of the technical support, AAA has two spare depots in the country, one being at

a complete a b -i n i t i o course on agricultural f lying

The second option is to source local financing. AAA has good working relations with all the big financial institutions in South Africa and by working with them and the client, is able

May 2022

Parys, and they have recently opened another in Stellenbosch. These two depots hold a vast inventory of essential spares, both for the airframes and their PT-6 engines. They are developing a sophisticated courier service, to ensure all orders are handled with minimum downtime to the client.

They are developing a s ophisticated courier ser vice The newly established Ag Aviation Flight Academy is based at their Head Office at Stellenbosch Agri Business Park. The

Head Office is situated between Cape Town International Airport and Stellenbosch and is five minutes from Stellenbosch Airfield, It is surrounded by rural agricultural land, wine farms with plenty of accommodation of all types and costs is available for prospective students. And of course there is the magnificent views of the winelands. Charlie Marais, the Chief Flight Instructor (CFI) shared his vision and where he wants to take AAFA. There is no doubt that he is very committed to its success and growth and there are exciting plans in the pipeline. The training is divided into three key areas: • Agricultural Recurrency Training on the Air Tractor Flight Simulator for ag and firefighting pilots • Air Tractor Engineers Courses • Air Tractor type ratings and Ag ratings (available in 2023)

Stellenbosch Flying club committee member, Derek Lord, trying his hand at the sim.

May 2022

The Academy was recently awarded its Part 141 – Aviation Training Organisation (ATO) approval from the CAA, which will enable it to train pilots, as well as offer re-currency and refresher training. Working with clients, they will be able to custom-design courses to their customer’s individual requirements. AAFA is operated as a stand-alone company but falls within the AG Aviation Group. AAFA’s first student, Christiaan Pieterse, from Proman Lugbespuiting, just completed his recurrency course successfully.

Club. The intention is to offer a complete ab-initio course to students with the focus on agricultural flying, which will see club students doing their ground school at the academy’s premises. Their initial flying will be on aircraft from the Stellenbosch Flying Club and once they have gained the necessary experience, move on to taildraggers, probably in the form of an RV7. Once the student is taildragger qualified, they will move on to the simulator for training on the Air Tractor at AAFA.

AAA has made a large investment in an FSTD (Flight Simulator Training Device) based on the Air Tractor 802. The first of its kind in Africa, this modern simulator was built by Geosim Technologies, a well-known Australian Company with years of experience in building such simulators. It is a fixed base simulator, with state of the art 270 degrees surround graphics and sound, giving the student a realistic flying experience, albeit without movement.

As part of the student’s training, they must obtain a chemical applicators course and P-rating as these are the CAA requirements to be a crop-spraying pilot. The student can obtain these licences while completing his/her CPL training course. All students will also spend time working in support of crop spraying operations, to ensure they have a complete understanding of all aspects of commercial crop spraying. It is a unique package that will ensure the student once qualified will be licensed and operate the various Air Tractor aircraft, as well as have a complete understanding of all aspects of the job.

there is no doubt that a simulator is a vital tool

Ag Aviation Flight Academy, together with Honiball Aviation is currently working with the CAA to ensure compliance in that it is correctly licensed and certified to ensure the necessary simulator training and re-currencies can be done on the simulator. The process is should be certified soon. It will be unique in being the first company to offer simulator training on aircraft used exclusively in the agriculture and fire fighting fields. The ground school will be predominantly modular in design, enabling the student to work at their pace, under instructor supervision and ensuring structured disciplined training. Ag Aviation Flight Academy have concluded an agreement with nearby Stellenbosch Flying

The simulator is based on the AT-802 aircraft, there is no doubt that a simulator is a vital tool in the training of the modern pilot. The safety of simulator training and the economics of operating a simulator are compelling reasons to use as simulator for crop-spraying. The long term plan for AAA is to acquire an two seat Air Tractor 504. This model is unique in that it comes with a dual side by side cockpit, which is ideal for training new students, in all aspects of agricultural and actual aerial fire fighting.

May 2022

BALLOONING - GARTH CALITZ: STORY & PICS

– THE PURIST FORM OF FLIGHT Hot air ballooning has always been a bucket list item for me and finally I was given the chance to experience the oldest form of flight known to man. Dale de Klerk, the CEO of Bill Harrop's “Original” Balloon Safaris, invited SA Flyer for a flight, and I jumped at the offer.

Up, up and away - in the dawn light.

May 2022

Awakening a sleepy giant.

HUMAN BEINGS HAVE FOREVER longed to join the birds in the vast open skies. French scientist, Pilatre De Rozier, could no longer resist the calling of the sky and so began work on the first hot air balloon. On 19 September 1783 De Rozier launched his 'Aerostat Reveillon'. However, he did not attempt the flight himself. Instead, he decided to test his balloon with some unwilling passengers: a sheep, a duck and a rooster made history as the first hot air balloon flight occupants. They stayed aloft for 15 minutes before crashing back to the ground.

Hot air ballooning has a very limited daily flight window. Generally, in warmer areas, such as South Africa, the balloons are limited to around an hour’s flight at dawn, which means a very early start to the day.

the oldest form of f light k nown to man

The first manned attempt came just two months later on 21 November, with a balloon built by French brothers, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. The balloon was launched from the centre of Paris and flew for 20 minutes.

My morning started at 4:30 am when I left home to make my way to the Hartbeespoort valley in the Skeerpoort area of the North West province. Despite the terrible condition of the roads, it was relatively easy to find Bill Harrops’ as it is clearly sign-posted from all the major routes in the area.

On arrival, everyone was warmly welcomed by the pilots and crew and offered a steaming cup of coffee or hot chocolate, accompanied by freshly baked muffins. In a large floodlit field we could see the crews busy preparing the four balloons that would be used for the day.

May 2022

Floating silently over a sleeping countryside.

Having 3 balloons provides great photo opportunities.

May 2022

The gentlest of touchdowns - but it's not always like that.

At 05:30 Chief Pilot Tracy Robb gave the order to begin the cold inflation of the envelopes. This is accomplished by blowing cool morning air into the balloons with two large fans placed on either side of the upturned basket. Once the balloon is partially inflated the huge gas burner mounted on the basket is lit and the balloon envelope then slowly starts to inflate enough to rise into the cool air.

Felicity Clegg, our pilot, coaxed the basket into the air with a few long bursts of the burners above her head. The balloon gracefully started to climb into the crisp morning air, moving with the light breeze towards Hartbeespoort Dam. Climbing a bit further we found a stream of air moving in the opposite direction and the balloon slowly changed direction and drifted down the valley in an easterly direction. The other three balloons remained relatively close to us; the perfect photo opportunity. Crossing the many rivers in the area was especially entertaining as the reflection of the balloon was visible in the calm water below.

a rainbow formed around the bask et.

Soon, all four balloons were fully inflated and ready to go. The passengers were boarded according to the strictly controlled manifest to ensure even weight distribution in the basket. Once the passengers were all aboard, the pilot gave a short briefing on the landing procedures. Landing can be quite a rough and tumble affair if the wind picks up. On our flight, however, there was barely a breath of wind.

We climbed to the 6500ft cloud base in search of wind blowing in the direction needed to take us to the landing site. The shadow of the balloon on the cloud below was interesting as a rainbow formed around the basket.

May 2022

Walking the huge balloon to the trailer.

The traditional "bucks-fizz" celebration after the flight.

May 2022

The intrepid balloonists even get a certificate.

The landing was as gentle as the rest of the flight with the basket slowly touching down and then lifting off for a few seconds before finally coming to rest. Once we were back on the ground, some of the passengers were requested to disembark as the huge mass of the still inflated huge balloon and basket, (with a mass of around 1000 kg but with almost no weight), were manhandled onto a waiting trailer. The rest of the passengers climbed out of the basket once it was safely tied to the trailer. I had to check my watch as I could not believe it had been an hour since we left the ground. The crew started to pack the balloons up for the short drive back to base, but not before setting up the traditional champers and orange juice for the passengers. The passengers then boarded a minibus for a short ferry back to the restaurant for a scrumptious breakfast and the issuing of certificates of bravery for displaying ‘Courage and Fortitude in ascending where few other mortals would dare’. Experiencing the purest form of flight was a great honour and experiencing it with the professional team of Bill Harrops’ ‘Original

Balloon Safaris’ made it even more of a pleasure. The founder, Bill Harrop and his lovely wife Mary sadly succumbed to Covid-19 last year, but their legacy will no doubt continue to thrive under the direction of new owner and CEO, Dale de Klerk, and Chief Pilot, Tracy Robb.

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PETER GARRISON

Safety in aviation means coming down softly. I once wrote that it would be impossible for a skydiver in a wingsuit to flare and land without a parachute. THE AERODYNAMIC EFFICIENCY of a wingsuit is so low, and its area so small, that even with all the stored energy of a 100-mph fall it could not simultaneously support a human body and slow to a safe landing speed. Shortly after I delivered this pronouncement, a 42-year old British stuntman named Gary Connery did it.

May 2022

It was he, by the way, who, as part of the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics, parachuted over the stadium disguised as the Queen of England. His wig was white, his dress salmon.

hur l s tude nt , ins t r uctor and aeroplane back into t he air Fast forward to July of 2016.

Not quite the way I imagined, however. Connery, accepting that he would not be able to land, like a duck, at a fast walk, and certainly not at a standstill, like a pigeon, decided instead to fly at full tilt into a runway-cum-shock absorber consisting of 18,000 large cardboard boxes. The You Tube videos of his arrival – there are several – are impressive. He disappears into the pile – it’s very long, of course, but not that deep – in a cloud of flying debris, like a three-year-old trying to whip cream.

After a considerable lapse of time, during which associates poke around the outside of the stack like archaeologists searching for the entrance to an ancient tomb, a grinning Connery strides out unscathed.

Luke Aikins, a professional skydiver, jumped from an aeroplane at 25,000 feet without a parachute. He landed safely, though off centre, in a 30-meter-square net suspended 60 metres above the ground by four cranes. That stunt seems to have been a dramatic application of the fact, familiar to all pilots, that the aim point is the one from which all the

surrounding points appear to spread outward. Reportedly Aikins made a number of practice jumps, opening his chute at 1,000 feet rather than the customary 2,200, in order to test whether he could aim for the net and position himself directly above it. Evidently he developed quite a lot of confidence that he could. What Aikins’ and Connery’s stunts have in common is the need to dissipate a good deal of energy in a short distance. Suppose Connery is going 40 metres per second when he hits the boxes. The acceleration of gravity is 9.8 metres per second per second; that means that the speed of an object falling in the Earth’s gravitational field tends to increase by 9.8 metres per second, or about 59 kph, every second. Horizontal deceleration is measured the same way: A deceleration of one G occurs when speed diminishes by 9.8 metres per second every second. So if Connery slows to a halt in two seconds or so, he experiences about 2 Gs. If in one second, 4 Gs; and so on. Of course, Connery was not decelerating smoothly, but by a series of shocks as he collided with one crushable wall after another. He probably carried an increasing amount of cardboard ahead of him as he moved through the pile of boxes, and that would, I suppose, tend to increase the rate of deceleration. As a lover of knowledge, I certainly hope that he was instrumented with an accelerometer, preferably a recording one. I wonder whether he used some sort of neck brace. Usually people running into something prefer not to lead with their heads. The terminal velocity of a skydiver is usually reported to be around 56 m/s, although it varies with the jumper’s weight and size. Leaving the parachute behind reduced Aikins’ weight

Gary Connery heads for the landing zone of 18000 boxes.

and therefore his freefall velocity a bit. Unlike Connery, and quite understandably, Aikins did not lead with his head: He rolled over onto his back just before reaching the net and struck it in curved supine posture and, I assume, with a sigh of relief. Aikins’ situation was more similar to that of a bungee jumper. He probably experienced the greatest deceleration near the end of the process, when the net reached its greatest extension. To judge from the video, this must have been about 50 metres below the point at which he entered it. Bungee jumpers are said to experience around 3 Gs peak deceleration, but of course they are not at terminal velocity when the cord becomes tight. I would guess that Aikins may have momentarily felt 5 or 6 Gs. Like Connery’s boxes and Aikins’ net, the landing gear of an aeroplane must smoothly and comfortably dissipate the vertical velocity with which the aeroplane reaches the ground. The same relationships of speed, distance and rate of deceleration apply. The aeroplane does not arrive at 65 m/s straight downward, fortunately, and so it does not require a shock absorber 50 May 2022

Luke Aikins jumped from 25,000 feet without a parachute.

metres long. Daniel Raymer’s encyclopaedic Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, states that for oleo struts, a stroke of about 20 cm is considered a minimum; that is, for instance, the stroke of a Cherokee’s main gear. It may seem curious, though it is actually quite logical, that gear strokes for large aeroplanes are similar to those for small ones. It is the diameter of the strut that grows with the aeroplane, not its stroke length, because the assumed descent rate onto the runway remains the same.

carrying part of the aeroplane’s weight on the way down.

General aviation landing gears are designed for a 3 G arrival, which most passengers would find memorable and pilots deeply mortifying. Carrier aeroplanes are tougher: 5 to 6 Gs. Landing gears are tested by dropping the aeroplane onto the floor from a certain height. Part 23 requires that the drop height be not less than 9, nor more than 18 inches. The drop test reflects both the design G load and the fact that even when an aeroplane is stalled two feet in the air and dropped in by a novice pilot, the wing is still

Most aeroplanes, however, have some sort of spring built into their gear. The spring spreads out the force of deceleration over time and distance by compressing air, rubber or metal or by stretching a bungee cord. The greater the distance the wheel can travel while arresting the descent of the aeroplane, the gentler the deceleration will be.

May 2022

A few aeroplanes, notably the Thorp T-18, have been designed with rigid landing gear struts, on the assumption that tires act as springs and that angled legs, such as the T-18 has, provide a little bit of flex even if they are made of quite stiff steel tubing. At any rate, the T-18's A-frame gear is strong enough to handle more than the customary 3G arrival.

A perfect spring returns all the energy put into it in the form of an equal and opposite reaction. This would not be very practical for

an aeroplane, since it would mean that after a hard landing the plane would bounce back to the same height as it was dropped from in the first place. (A car with worn-out shock absorbers wallows uncomfortably because its springs rebound without damping.) No real spring is perfect, but landing gears still need some method of dissipating or "damping" all, or at least part, of the energy they absorb.

tires on the runway as the flexing gear spreads outward. Gary Connery’s cardboard-box shock absorber consisted entirely of damping; there was no spring, and no tendency for him to bounce back. Aikins’ net, like a trampoline, had some springback, but, unlike a trampoline, it seems to have been heavily damped by the mutual friction of its woven fibres.

most pas s engers would f ind memorable and Damping dissipates, pilots deeply through friction, some of the energy that would otherwise mor tif ying be stored and subsequently released. In an oleo strut, the spring action is supplied by compressed air, the damping by oil being driven through a small hole. A Mooney's rubber donuts are damped by the internal friction of the rubber. Springsteel gear legs are damped by the scrubbing of

Ideally, a landing gear would be well damped and have little springback. As flight instructors know, however, the spring steel gears on many trainers have plenty of bounce, and are quite ready, after a hard landing, to hurl student, instructor and aeroplane back into the air. j

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May 2022

PLANE TALK - JIM DAVIS

PUPES – PLEASURES OR PAINS What makes some people memorable and others not? Why can I picture Monkey May, my maths master, and Miss McDonald who taught us art, but not the catering lady? Apparently, it’s to do with emotions. Monkey May frightened the hell out of me, and I was deeply in love with the gorgeous Sally McDonald who glided amongst us budding artists, offering gentle words of encouragement. The catering lady? Nah – no idea who she was. AND IT’S THE SAME WITH PUPES – you remember the ones who had some sort of emotional impact on you – the bland goodygoodies drift out of the turnip, while the interesting, or frightening, or fascinating ones are easy to recall.

ANDRIES AND WILLIE I have told you about these two before, but here they are again. Dries was constructed with spares left over from a stick-insect. He was a skinny farmer who always looked immaculate, but tended to smell slightly of goat.

an ar oma t hat was mor e milk ing s he d t han goat

On page one of a logbook which starts in October 1977 (for those who share the Gleitch’s preference for up to date stories make that October 2017) more than half a dozen names jump out at me. All characters in one way or another. Each one taught me something about instructing, and I hope I taught them something about flying. Here they are:

May 2022

This was at my little flying school at the old George Airport, next to the famous Fancourt golf course. The sun was setting behind the mountains and I was putting my 140 Cherokee ZS-EKE to bed, when Dries and ‘Big’ Willie Steyn, an Obelix lookalike, approached with some caution. Willie, also a farmer, was grubbier than his companion, and carried an aroma that was more milking shed than goat.

May 2022

A somewhat younger Jim Davis with his Tiger at George Flying School.

I was about to lose two potential customers, I came up with a brilliant solution, ‘I’ll tell you what, guys, why don’t I charge you ten Rand an hour for English lessons, and you can have your flying for free?’ After a brief consultation they both developed huge smiles and told me they were overjoyed with this elegant resolution. We retired to the clubhouse where we used Castle to break down language barriers and finalise the details. The farmers turned out to be delightful and enthusiastic pupes, with a wonderful sense of humour. They attended lectures, did their homework, learned their checks and both had that inherent feel for machinery. Apart from their tendency to pull the throttle back for more power – like a tractor – I couldn’t ask for better pupils.

I was seriously in need of customers so I addressed them with a cheery smile, ‘Hi, guys, can I help you?’ They looked at each other dubiously as if trying to decide whether I seemed like the sort of person who could help them. Eventually Big Willie spoke – in Afrikaans – and it was my turn to look dubious – I had no idea what he was saying. I tried again, ‘sorry, man, I can’t speak Afrikaans.’ ‘O gate’, they replied in unison, from which I gathered their dubiousness had escalated. After some halting discussion during which I sensed

May 2022

I felt so bad about my lack of Afrikaans, that I went out of my way to learn some of the more common aviation terms such as roer (rudder); rolroer (aileron – roll rudder); windafsy (downwind leg); indraaisy (base leg); eintnaadering (final approach – end-nearing). And my favourite, kekkeldoos (transponder). So we all gained – they learned to fly, and improved their English; and I learned some Afrikaans and made a couple of really good mates.

BRIAN CROWTHER. The Crowthers were an old and distinguished family in George – they had horses, drove a Bentley and played bridge. Brian himself was an old and distinguished person who had held a PPL many years ago and then stopped flying for whatever reason. I guess Brian was nearing 70 when he became bored with his horses, the Bentley and bridge, and decided he would like to renew his PPL. I tried to warn him that this was not going to be easy. A Cherokee has a lot more switches and clocks than an Aeronca and there were plenty of new regulations, more traffic, and changed radio procedures.

This gave Ray Waitley, in the tower, such a fright that he must have also dropped his mike because there were plenty of clicking and scratching noises before he came through with, ‘Hello, who’s that? What are you doing in my circuit?’ I fished our mike out from under Brian’s seat, ‘George, this is Echo Kilo Echo on left hand downwind for two-zero, full stop.’ ‘Well why didn’t you say so? I can’t have aircraft blundering all over my circuit. I’ve got the Air Cape Dakota arriving from Cape Town in 40 minutes.’

I w is h eve r y pupil had t he gumpt ion to do t his

‘That’s quite all right, old boy – I’m sure I can handle all that stuff.’ Unfortunately Brian, although a hell of a nice guy, can never have been much of a pilot in the first place. His airmanship and handling were pretty much bottom of the barrel, and his confidence was way over the top of the barrel. I had to watch him like a cat watching a molehill. Anything could happen at any second. He would suddenly grab a handful of flap for no apparent reason, or enter a steep turn without even glancing round to look for other traffic. The final blow came as I nursed him back onto the downwind leg. ‘Don’t worry about the radio, Brian – I’ll look after that,’ I said. ‘It’s okay, I can do it.’ Before I could move, he grabbed the mike. ‘Hello George, hello George, I am coming on a downwind leg for the runway, over and out,’ he declared before dropping the mike down in between his seat and the flap lever.

‘Thanks, we will call again on final for two-zero.’ ‘Very well, call again on final

for two-zero.’ This kind of exchange can knock twenty years off the life of a young instructor. Once on the ground I did my best to let Brian know that perhaps flying wasn’t really the thing for him. He seemed to get the message for he never booked another lesson. However he did let me drive his Bentley to Oudtshoorn a month or two later, so that partially restored my will to live. I learned that, sadly, it almost never works for someone to return to flying after a thirty year absence – too many things have changed.

TREVOR JONES Trevor was one of the nicest people I have ever met. He was youngish and extremely bright. He viewed the world somewhat earnestly through glasses with thick, black rims. Unexpectedly, he was able to burst into fits of infectious laughter. May 2022

In fact he was one of my fearless Tiger Moth wing-walkers.

how to fly accurately in my little Grumman I was delighted, but sceptical.

Trevor was a perfectionist and highly intelligent. He worked as an agri-scientist for Table Top. One of his projects was to conduct experiments dealing with the theory that it’s best to plant above ground vegetables, such as maize, cabbage, peas and so on, during a waxing moon; and below ground vegetables, like carrots, beetroot and potatoes, during a waning moon. He had yards of meticulous, hand-written, spread-sheet data on the subject – and this was before the days of Microsoft Excel – or even Lotus 1-2-3.

He took a couple of minutes to settle down and then did exactly what he had promised. His heading never varied more than one degree and his height stayed within ten feet of the target. Very soon he had me doing it. It makes no difference whether you are under the hood or not. You only watch two instruments: the altimeter and the DI. If you have those two nailed then a normal scan is not necessary. The wings must stay level, the VSI can’t move, the turn needle will show no turn, and the ASI will be pegged. The ball could be out of the middle, but you sort that out with the rudder trim in the normal way.

What ar e you doing in my cir cuit ?

I’m telling you this because Trevor carried his perfectionism into the cockpit. He set himself extremely high targets and standards – and worked until he achieved them. This taught me to set higher standards. We are all capable of flying more accurately if we simply tell ourselves to do so. If we are happy to hold a flight-level or altitude within 200 ft that’s what we will do, and if we make our personal target to hold it within 50 ft we will do exactly that. Sometime later I was practicing for my instrument rating renewal in my little Grumman Trainer ZS-JAB. I had asked Dennis Raubenheimer to come as safety pilot, as I would be under the hood. During the flight he kept nagging at me to fly more accurately. When he said I should aim to hold heading within one degree and height within 10 ft (that’s half of one of the smallest graduations) I thought he was joking. Now, Dennis was one of SAA’s original ‘Royal Family’, a small group of the company’s senior pilots who were held in awe by their colleagues. He retired as a Jumbo captain and had not flown since. So when he offered to show me

May 2022

You use very quick and minute movements of the elevator to hold altitude, and the same with the rudder to hold heading. The trick is to have those two controls moving all the time, but tiny amounts. It works – try it. So Trevor and Dennis both taught me that we can achieve whatever standards we set our minds to.

DANIE DELPORT This is quite a common name, so don’t jump to conclusions about which DD this is. I am talking about one who lived in Springbok and was into mining, I think. Danie phoned to tell me that he has about 100 hours of training in his T-tail Lance, but hadn’t gone solo yet, he wanted to know if this was normal. I told him no – it was not normal – there was either something wrong with him, or with his instructor. He asked me to fly with him and give

him an idea of where the problem lay. It turned out poor old Danie had been taken for a ride. Some smart aircraft salesman had sold him the aircraft and promised to teach him to fly. Not really a beginner’s aeroplane but doable. However the salesman/instructor had made no real effort to teach Danie even the basics – they had simply flown 100 hours of cross-country on business trips for both of them. Danie was no youngster – probably about 55, and he was a terrible driver. We once drove from Springbok to Port Nolloth and back, over 300km with the engine revving its guts out because he never got into top gear. A hopeless task? – well actually not. Danie put heart and soul into his flying lessons, and his homework, and his checks, and eventually got his PPL. I think the discipline in an aeroplane actually made him a better driver.

drove the 300 k return trip to my little flying school in George for his one hour of flying. He didn’t want to do a second hour as he felt he couldn’t absorb more than an hour a day. Clever man. I must break off here to tell you about a Dr Kruger who told me that because he was a doctor he had a superior brain, and would therefore like his lessons to be three hours each. Much as I explained and pleaded and reasoned, he insisted on a three hour first lesson. Eventually I lost patience with the learned doctor and took him for an extremely painful three hour flight. The first hour went as expected but his eyes started to glaze over after that, and predictably, he was unable to perform the simplest tasks, or answer rudimentary questions.

Danie put hear t and s oul into his f l y ing les s ons

I bumped into him at Swellendam some five years later, and watched him do a brilliant landing. When he taxied in and he got out of the aircraft he was followed by four big farmers. I could see by the way he put the aeroplane to bed for the night, that he was still doing things exactly as I had taught him. Do you know how rewarding that is for an instructor? What did I learn? I learned never to give up on anyone who is prepared to give it a full go.

JAMES BALDIE James was a middle aged, rosy cheeked, aristocratic English farmer who always wore a tie. He grew apples on a massive scale at Miscund in the Langkloof. Once a week he

I kept asking him if he would like to cut it short, but it had now become a matter of principle – he, being a doctor, was accustomed to studying and was well up to the mental challenges of learning new stuff. Naturally, after that first marathon lesson I never saw him again – which was probably just as well – with his attitude he stood no chance of ever becoming a safe pilot. Now back to James, the apple farmer, he was another perfectionist, and it showed in his attitude to flying. I didn’t realize how much of a stickler he was until I visited his farm. The tractors were washed and polished every day, the whitewashed and thatched labourers’ cottages were immaculate – each with its own little garden. Every one of his apple trees was labelled, and there were thousands of them, and each had an individually metered drip feed of water to its roots.

May 2022

James had to know everything about the aeroplane, even down to the tyre pressures. He would take the POH and sit quietly in the aircraft for an hour before each flight, going through his checks and finding out all there is to know about each knob and switch and instrument. This is such a good idea, I wish every pupil had the gumption to do this. When he was a bit more than half way to his PPL he bought a brand new Cherokee 161 – with the ‘new’ tapered wing, as it was then. And of course, I collected a nice commission on the sale. And then his son, David, also started flying with the same dedication that his father had. Those two were a flying instructor’s dream.

JANE LYON

The first was when she was under the hood joining the pattern overhead the GG NDB at 8000 feet. It was late afternoon. It was a lefthand pattern tracking 110 outbound and 290 inbound. Jane was very busy – I had given her an expected approach time (EAT) so she had to calculate how many 6 minute patterns she needed and what to do with the remaining time. She had to configure the aircraft for a 500 fpm descent. Plus she had to time the descent and

May 2022

As we started the inbound turn Jane leaned across and flipped my sun visor down in preparation for having the sun in my eyes when we rolled out of the turn. That, ladies and gentlemen is what I call situational awareness. I knew nothing about the other event until it was all over. It was near the start of Jane’s training. We were doing circuits and bumps, and I have to admit that perhaps I was so engrossed with the job in hand that I missed the good part. It was only after we taxied in and shut down that Jane doubled up in fits of uncontrollable laughter.

That , ladies and ge nt le me n is w hat I call s it uat ional awar e nes s .

Could it get any better? Well, almost. Jane was pretty much the perfect pupe as well. She was young, willowy, bright and vivacious. She also put everything into her flying, and later bought her own 180 Cherokee. I have two stories about Jane.

work out how much to allow for drift, and tell Rassie in the tower what we were doing.

It seems that on final approach for one of the landings, when she bent forward to pull on the last notch of flap her boobtube lost traction and slipped down to her waist. With one hand on the control column and the other on the throttle she was unable to rectify the problem, She could only get both hands on the elasticated material to pull it up after we turned crosswind. Unfortunately I hadn’t noticed a thing. From Jane I learned to keep an eye on the pupe – not just the aeroplane. It’s easy to miss all the fun when you are instructing. j

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special deal for flying schools phone Avril at 076 732 3392 or visit www.jimdavis.co.za 61 May 2022

JIM DAVIS

R V-7

P I LOT

LOS E S E Y E S I GHT •

•

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

Aircraft Registration: ZU-YJK Date of Accident Time of Accident: 20 November 2011 0920Z Type of Aircraft: Vans RV-7 A Type of Operation: Private Licence Type: Private Age: 70 Licence Valid: Yes Flying Experience: Total Flying Hours 111.0 Hours on Type 63.6 Restrictions Corrective lenses and hypertension protocol Last point of departure: Brits Aerodrome (FABS), North West Province Next point of intended landing: Brits Aerodrome (FABS), North West Province Location of the accident site: 3 Berge Caravan Park, Brits area (GPS co-ordinates: S25°34’59” E022°45’40”) at an elevation of 3 900 ft Meteorological Information: Wind speed 6 kt, wind direction 040°M, visibility 10 km, temperature 23°C, cloud cover scattered at 3 000 ft No. of people on board: 1+0 No. of people injured: 0 No. of people killed: 1

SYNOPSIS History of Flight The pilot/owner took off from Brits on a private flight with the intention to land back at Brits. The flight was being conducted under VMC.

May 2022

At about 1035 local the pilot returned to Brits and communicated to traffic in the vicinity that he was experiencing difficulty seeing the runway due to blurred vision. He flew approximately five approaches in an attempt to land on Runway 02. According to several other pilots who were assisting him via radio, his speed was too high for landing and

The RV hit the hills west of Brits left wing-down.

he only went down to approximately 50–60 ft above the runway before he applied power to go around each time. During the last two approaches the pilot reported that he had a blurred vision and could not see his instruments. He also reported that the runway appeared as two stripes. During each approach the pilot performed a go-around, and turned out right to fly a righthand downwind for Runway 02. On his last go-around, the pilot opted to turn out left and fly a left-hand circuit for Runway 02. The turn left was towards high ground to the west of Runway 02.

During the left-hand circuit radio communication was lost with the aircraft. Traffic in the Brits area started to search and the wreckage was located where it impacted high ground to the west of the aerodrome. Several people at the Drie Berge Caravan Park witnessed the accident. According to them the aircraft flew overhead the caravan park after which it entered into a left turn and impacted the high ground. This was a new aircraft, but the owner did an annual inspection on 25 August 2010. May 2022

ZU-YJK flying at Brits. Pic - Bruce Perkins.

The final impact path was in the direction of 148°M on the downwind leg for Runway 02. According to eyewitnesses, the aircraft impacted the ground in a left wing low attitude while turning to the left.

Medical The preliminary post-mortem report indicated there was not enough tissue/specimen/organs to conclude the cause or mechanism of death. The remaining aorta, however, showed some lumen wall hardening (arteriosclerosis), which could have indicated a pre-existing cardiovascular disease. The pilot was on hypertension protocol – Dilatrend 25 mg was prescribed to him for this condition.

Management The aircraft’s Authority to Fly had expired on 25 August 2011 (3 months before the accident). The owner of the aircraft certified maintenance done while he was not an Approved Person or Maintenance Engineer.

Witnesses Witness 1 was conducting training in the circuit at Brits. He stated that ZU-YJK was approaching Runway 02 but he could see his speed was too high for landing. He then asked the pilot if he was doing a flypast. The pilot said no, he was attempting to land but was experiencing difficulty seeing. The pilot said he was flying from Zebula Lodge to Thabazimbi when his vision became blurred. He had managed to find his way back to Brits. He said when he was high up, he could see well. The witness then told the pilot that he was too

May 2022

high and too fast. The pilot decided to perform a go-around. He said he would do a couple of orbits and then come back for the landing. He said he could identify the runway during his previous report but as soon as he came closer to the runway, his vision became blurred. The witness suggested to the pilot that he would assist him in flying to Lanseria Aerodrome for the landing, but the pilot said no, he would land at Brits. The witness in the meantime landed and got into his own aircraft to take off and assist the pilot of ZU-YJK. While the witness was waiting at the holding point for takeoff, ZU-YJK was approaching for landing on Runway 02. This time he was lower but again way too fast. The witness then asked the pilot about his fuel state, upon which he answered “I am heavy”.

50–60 ft above the runway before he applied power and performed a go-around. According to the witness, after the last landing attempt, the pilot turned to the left and not to the right as circuit procedures for Runway 02 required. There was no further radio communication from the pilot. Witness 3 was at the Drie Berge Caravan Park at the time of the accident. He was at the swimming pool when he saw a white and red aircraft flying low and fast. The witness stated that the aircraft was approaching some high ground to the west of the park. It looked as if the aircraft was going to pass to the right of the high ground, when suddenly the aircraft turned to the left and impacted with the high ground.

get your r e gular co -pilot / par t ne r to lear n t he bas ics of how to land an air craft

The pilot then reported that he could only see two lines and then pulled his aircraft up and said he was going around. The witness then got airborne again but could not establish communication with ZU-YJK. He then made a Pan-Pan call to Lanseria and informed them of the situation at Brits.

The witness then searched the area and found the wreckage on the slope of high ground to the west of Brits Aerodrome. Witness 2 was on the ground and was listening out on 124.2 MHz. He stated the pilot told other pilots that he was experiencing difficulty in seeing the runway. At one stage, the pilot said that his condition had improved and he could see again, but shortly thereafter said he could not see anymore. The witness stated that other pilots in the air tried to assist the pilot of ZU-YJK to land but his approach speed was too high for landing. He descended twice to a height of

During the investigation, evidence indicated that the pilot slept in his motor vehicle which was parked inside his hangar at Brits, the night before the accident. However, no evidence could be found that he had had a proper meal the evening before or on the morning of 20 November 2012, prior to the flight. Evidence in the pilot’s logbook and from friends indicates that the pilot was doing aerobatic flying regularly from 14 October up until 20 November, the day before the accident. No evidence could be found that the pilot did aerobatic flying on the morning of the flight. When looking at the causes of blurred vision, the following was taken into account: Age. Blurred vision can be a normal sign of ageing in a condition called presbyopia. The pilot was 70 years old with hypertension and was May 2022

therefore considered to be a high-risk candidate. Medical condition. Complications of hypertension can include stroke, dizziness, hypertensive retinopathy and vision abnormalities, including retinal detachment, which can contribute to or cause blurred vision. Medication. Some of the side effects associated

with Dilatrend are that it can cause dizziness, faintness and vision abnormalities including blurred vision. Miscellaneous. An incorrect diet, or lack of proper dietary needs, prior to the flight can cause hypoglycaemia, which can cause blurred vision. Lack of sleep and fatigue can also cause blurred vision.

Double vision may happen for many different reasons.

JIM’S COMMENTS What an unbelievably terrifying thing to happen. In an effort to find out if there may be any warning signs before such an event, or things to do should it happen, I contacted my optician and flying instructor mate Roger Brink in Mossel Bay. Here’s what he had to say:

vascular type of problem at the same time. There is a possibility that he may have experienced a micro vascular accident in the small area of the brain which controls the eye muscles, this results in quite a sudden squint and hence double vision.

There are two “questions” here, namely whether we are dealing with an eye or ocular situation or with a visual cortex (visual brain) situation.

I note in the report mention is made that he saw two white lines of the runway. Depending on the severity, the double vision may have been intermittent in nature and given the experience of blurred vision.

In the report there is mention that the pilot reported that he was seeing everything blurred, which of course could be an ocular cause, it is however rare for both eyes to experience a

On the other hand, he could have experienced a micro stroke in his visual cortex, which may indeed result in blurred or even total black out of vision.

May 2022

No mention is made of whether he had a cholesterol problem, however the hypertension and possible the G forces from the recent aerobatics may have resulted in a small piece of something breaking loose within the vascular system which then lodged somewhere and caused the problem My gut feeling is that he may have experienced the micro vascular accident in the midbrain where the extra ocular muscle nuclei are and hence resulted in the possible diplopia (double vision). If this was indeed the case, simply closing one eye would resolve the problem. Almost like when one magneto loses its timing and the engine won’t run on ‘both’ but runs fine when the offending mag is switched off. Three more thoughts on what may have happened:

In most light aircraft you will have a rate of descent less than a parachute and a forward speed of between 40 and 50 kts. If you hit the ground like that it’s unlikely to be fatal. And if you have a base of 100’ or so you can probably fly happily away - remembering to put carb heat off. It would also be an option for an engine failure at night.

The r e’s an old t r ick f or getting your s e l f down t hr ough cloud

1. Amourosis Fugax which is a temporary or transient loss of vision in one or both eyes. 2. Haemorrhage or stroke in the area of the visual cortex which is responsible for central macula vision. 3. A micro vascular accident in the extra ocular muscles’ nuclei area. Back to Jim. There’s an old trick for getting yourself down through cloud in extreme circumstances. You richen the mixture, apply carb-heat, throttle right back, apply full flap and trim for minimum speed - stall warning starting to beep. Now SIT ON YOUR HANDS - do not touch the stick, no matter how bad it feels. You can either take your feet off the rudder pedals - or better still, use your feet to maintain a steady heading on the DI.

If this guy had done that he had a reasonable chance of living through his terrible ordeal.

TAKE HOME STUFF: •

Low blood sugar can cause, or contribute to the problem. In the RAF it was a court-marshal offence to fly on an empty stomach. At least have an apple or some sweets with you.

•

Extreme dehydration may cause visual problems. It’s always good to carry water when flying.

•

Any of the medical conditions Roger mentioned could be a warning sign.

•

In specific circumstances, double vision may be resolved by closing one eye.

•

Aerobatics, particularly in older people can cause vision problems.

•

If you have health concerns, get your regular co-pilot / partner to learn the basics of how to land an aircraft, and how to use the radio.

•

Remember the ‘sit on your hands’ trick - it might save your bacon one day. j

May 2022

MARCH 2022 THE MONTH OF MARCH has been quite active with five new TCA aircraft added. A Reims Cessna FR406 Caravan II re-joins our register from Namibia and is painted up in DHL colours. There are two Cessna single engine aircraft – a Reims F172 Rocket and a Cessna 182 that have come onto the register but I haven’t been able to trace where they come from.

Airlink have added another Embraer E190 to their fleet and I am told there are more coming. May 2022

The drone numbers grow daily and there are another seventy-five added this month with only twelve taken off the register.

more than 1000 de li ve r y f lights acros s t h e At l a n t i c

The Cirrus SR22 on the register has already been in this country for a few months. It was almost certainly delivered by the extraordinary Denny Craig who had more than 1000 delivery flights across the Atlantic to his credit but who died in March in a Cirrus, ZS-CDA, that flew into a snow covered peak in the Alps, and which took a few days to find embedded in the snow.

The NTCA register continues to grow with another seven aircraft added, including an Alouette III which has come in from the USA. There’s also a Piper Colt or TriPacer added but I can’t track its history.

The seven deletions from the TCA register this month include a Cessna 170 and a Pitts Special that have been exported to Germany. The others have been exported to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Australia and Mozambique The Cessna 170 was one of the aircraft that was badly damaged at Grand Central in September 2000 when a tornado tore through the airport and caused a number of hangars to collapse. She was rebuilt and is now in Hamburg being assembled and will end up in Finland eventually.

ABOVE: Some come back - Reims Cessna FR406 Caravan II, V5-DHL is now registered in South Africa as ZS-DHL. BELOW MIDDLE: The well known to SA Flyer readers Cessna C170, ZS-EUO has been sold in Finland. Photo Ray Watts. BELOW BOTTOM: Pitts Special ZS-PEG has been exported to Germany. Photo Dave Becker.

May 2022

ABOVE: Rotorway Executive ZU-LIZ is cancelled as destroyed. Photo Dave Becker. BELOW: This smart Alouette III, ZU-RFH has been exported to Zambia.

On the NTCA side we see another one of our Trojans being exported – this one has gone to the UK. An Alouette III was exported to Zambia. A Rotorway Executive has been cancelled as destroyed but I have no details as to why. We also lost a Kitplanes Safari on the 12 March 2022 when it suffered an engine failure on takeoff from Tolwe in the Limpopo Province. The aircraft was destroyed by fire and the crew sustained burns.

May 2022

TAIL PIECE With the relaxing of certain Covid-19 restrictions Air Shows will become more popular again. I certainly hope so. Winter is one its way folks – this generally means good flying weather but even so, be careful out there. j

ABOVE: Another new Cirrus, N22UM has been imported as ZS-TKX. Photo Omer Mees. BELOW: Kitplanes for Africa Safari ZU-ING was written off at Tolwe.

May 2022

African Fuel Services are the sponsors for our Register Review Page

MARCH 2022 REG

MANUFACTURER

TYPE NAME

SERIAL NUMBER

PREVIOUS IDENTITY / EXPORT COUNTRY

New Registrations ZSZS-DHL

REIMS AVIATION

F406

F406-0062

ZS-SOL

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

FR172G

FR172-0191

V5-DHL, ZS-DHL, N744C, YS-15C, N3125G

ZS-TKW

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

182

182-33297

ZS-TKX

CIRRUS DESIGN CORPORATION

SR22

5006

N22UM

ZS-YAW

EMBRAER-EMPRESA BRASILEIRA DE AERONAUTICA ERJ 190-100 IGW

190.00265

9H-AIG, HB-JVS, VP-BZK, N983TA, PT-TLF N7UH, French Army 2096

New Registrations ZUZU-IWJ

AEROSPATIALLE

SA 319B ALOUETTE II

2096

ZU-IWF

MICRO AVIATION SA

BATHAWK R

0096

ZU-IWG

G R GLASSON

DR 107

03-0491

ZU-IWH

EMURAAN FELDMAN

PA22

22-007

ZU-IWI

JOHANNES MATTHEUS DE BEER

KFA SAFARI

066-05-21 SAF3

ZU-IWK

SEAN MICHAEL CRONIN

BEARHAWK

L226

ZU-RPC

JOHN EDWARD COWLEY

TOLLA AIR TA7

0001

Aircraft Deleted ZSZS-CDA

Cirrus SR22

SR22

2914

Crashed in the Alps 11/3/2022

ZS-EUO

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

170B

26632

FINLAND

ZS-LVH

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

208B

208B5363

NAMIBIA

ZS-PEG

PITTS AVIATION ENTERPRISES

S-2A

2019

GERMANY

ZS-SON

BEECH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION

B200C

BL-136

ZIMBABWE

ZS-TJR

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

208B

208B2125

AUSTRALIA

ZS-ZAB

AIRCRAFT INDUSTRIES A.S

L 410 UVP-E20

2920

MOZAMBIQUE

R44 II

13259

BOTSWANA

Aircraft Deleted ZT-R ZT-RAA

ROBINSON HELICOPTER COMPANY

Aircraft Deleted ZUZU-FWH

NORTH AMERICAN

T28A

8594-9

UNITED KINGDOM

ZU-ING

KITPLANES FOR AFRICA

KITPLANES SAFARI

4-09-17 SAF 3

Written off at Tolwe, Limpopo Province 12/3/2022

ZU-LIZ

ROTORWAY INTERNATIONAL

EXECUTIVE 162F

7039

DESTROYED

ZU-RFH

AEROSPATIALE INDUSTRIES

SE 3160-ALOUTTE III

1384

ZAMBIA

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

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

May 2022

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

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

Services: • • • • •

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

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

• • • • • • • • •

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

BOOK S

by Pete r Gar r is on

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

May 2022

NEWS

ZIPLINE DELIVERS 1 MILLION COVID-19 VACCINES IN GHANA

Zipline, the global leader in drone deliveries to remote locations, and the Ghana Ministry of Health announced they have delivered one million COVID-19 vaccine doses via Zipline’s automated, on-demand delivery system. ZIPLINE HAS RELEASED findings from a new third-party report, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which shows the impact of Zipline’s instant logistics system on Ghana’s health system. The data demonstrates significant increases in the availability, reliability and range of inventory at health facilities by addressing supply chain challenges like lack of visibility, uncertain demand forecasting and shipment delays. After pioneering drone deliveries Rwanda, Zipline and the Government of Ghana began working together in 2019. Today, Zipline operates at national scale, serving over 15 million people from six distribution centres, with two more expected to launch later this year.

The service has expanded rapidly in Ghana to meet demand, scaling from serving 160 facilities in 2019 to nearly 2,300 today. In that time, Zipline Ghana has flown 13 million miles and delivered more than five million doses of vaccines, in addition to blood products and other essential medicines. The independent study of Zipline’s impact was conducted by IDinsight and analysed health facilities served by three of Zipline’s distribution centres in Ghana. The results indicate that Zipline meaningfully contributes to the Ghanaian government’s work to expand healthcare across the country, with a statistically significant impact on inventory availability and supply chain performance. j

Zipline has delivered over 1 million Covid vaccines - just in Ghana.

May 2022

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

May 2022

NEWS

TEXTRON PISTON UPGRADES TEXTRON AVIATION has been on an upgrade spree of its jets and is now turning the spotlight to its line-up of piston aircraft. The Beechcraft Baron, Bonanza, and Cessna high-wing aircraft will all receive major upgrades. New models are expected to begin rolling out as early as mid2022. The new Bonanza G36 will now offer a much needed 155-pound increase to its maximum takeoff weight, giving the aircraft a maximum useful load of 1,213 pounds in its standard configuration. On the avionics side, Bonanza and Baron users will see a new cockpit layout with a standalone autopilot controller. Additionally, the aircraft will include a Garmin GI 275 electronic standby, a carbon monoxide detector integrated into

the avionics system, USB ports at every seat, powered headset plugs, and updated LED exterior lighting for better visibility. The Cessna 172 Skyhawk and 182 Skylane will also get a Garmin GI 275 electronic standby. The standby will modernise the cockpit by eliminating the three analogue standby instruments while also providing more flight data. The interiors will see a refresh with the addition of Alcantara inserts in the seats and a backlit USB A/C port in the cockpit. Often used in race car interiors, Alcantara is a synthetic leather that doesn’t absorb heat like traditional leather, nor liquid like a cloth material. j

Cessna's 172 SkyHawk, 182 Skylane, and 206 Turbo Stationair HD get upgrades.

May 2022

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

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

Here’s to moms... They’ve been taking you places for a lot longer than 13 years. +27 (0) 11 948 9898 | www.slingaircraft.com | sales@slingaircraft.com | AMO 1264 | Manufacturing Organisation M677

May 2022

FUEL TABLE

SA Flyer 2022|05

www.sv1.co.za FuelasPrices as at 25/03/2022 Fuel Prices at 25/03/2022

FuelasPrices as at 26/04/2022 Fuel Prices at 26/04/2022

Pri ces iVAT nclude but exclude servi ce fees Pri ces i nclude butVAT 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 24,96R 24,96 R 15,64R 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 Fly-In Fly-In No Fuel 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 MargateMargate No Fuel 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 *** NEW*** Plettenberg Bay *** 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 Vereeni No Vereeni gi ng gi ng No Fuel Fuel Vi rgi ni aVi 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 R27,69 R27,69 Wonderboom Wonderboom Worcester Worcester R27,77 R27,77

Pri ces iVAT nclude but exclude servi ce fees Pri ces i nclude butVAT exclude any serviany ce fees Ai rfi eld Ai rfi eld Avgas Avgas Jet A1 Jet A1 BeaufortBeaufort West West R30,10 R30,10 R19,35 R19,35 Bethlehem Bethlehem R 29,98R 29,98 R 14,99R 14,99 Bloemfontei n Bloemfontei n R26,45 R26,45 R18,86 R18,86 BrakpanBrakpan R27,00 R27,00 Brits Brits R26,45 R26,45 Cape Town Cape Town R30,02 R30,02 R16,62 R16,62 Cape Winelands (Fisantekraal) Cape Winelands (Fisantekraal) R29,50 R29,50 Eagles Creek Eagles Creek R29,50 R29,50 East London East London R24,91 R24,91 R18,12 R18,12 Ermelo Ermelo R28,63 R28,63 No Fuel Fuel Fly-In Fly-In No Gari ep Dam Gari ep Dam R30,50 R30,50 R19,00 R19,00 George George R25,90 R25,90 R19,18 R19,18 Grand Central Grand Central R30,53 R30,53 R20,76 R20,76 Hei delberg Hei delberg R28,50 R28,50 Hoedspruit Hoedspruit POA POA Ki mberley Ki mberley R27,20 R27,20 R19,09 R19,09 Kitty Hawk Kitty Hawk R31,70 R31,70 Klerksdorp NoContactContact Klerksdorp No Kroonstad No Jet Avbl Kroonstad R28,23 R28,23 No Jet Avbl Kruger Intl Nelspruit Kruger Intl Nelspruit R29,42 R29,42 R21,81 R21,81 Krugersdorp Krugersdorp R27,55 R27,55 Lanseri aLanseri a R27,83 R27,83 R20,93 R20,93 No Fuel Fuel MargateMargate No Middelburg Middelburg R30,59 R30,59 R22,65 R22,65 Morningstar Morningstar R28,50 R28,50 Mosselbay Mosselbay R29,75 R29,75 R22,00 R22,00 Nelspruit Nelspruit R26,45 R26,45 R18,98 R18,98 Oudtshoorn Oudtshoorn R28,52 R28,52 R19,00 R19,00 Parys Parys POA POA POA POA Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg R30,20 R30,20 R21,60 R21,60 Pi etersburg Pi etersburg Ci vi l Ci vi l R28,80 R28,80 R18,45 R18,45 Plettenberg *** NEW*** Plettenberg Bay *** Bay NEW*** R27,50 R27,50 R19,50 R19,50 Port Alfred Port Alfred R33,15 R33,15 Port Elizabeth Port Elizabeth R33,35 R33,35 R23,26 R23,26 Potchefstroom Potchefstroom POA POA POA POA Rand Rand R26,19 R26,19 R21,60 R21,60 Robertson Robertson R27,25 R27,25 Rustenberg Rustenberg R27,98 R27,98 R20,65 R20,65 SecundaSecunda R27,88 R27,88 R21,05 R21,05 Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect POA POA POA POA Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect Springbok Springbok R30,00 R30,00 R20,64 R20,64 Springs Springs R29,10 R29,10 Stellenbosch Stellenbosch R30,50 R30,50 Swellendam Swellendam R27,30 R27,30 R16,90 R16,90 No Fuel Fuel Tempe Tempe No Thabazimbe Thabazimbe POA POA POA POA Upington Upington R27,91 R27,91 R19,80 R19,80 Vi rgi ni aVi rgi ni a R30,59 R30,59 R21,46 R21,46 VryburgVryburg POA POA POA POA Warmbaths ***NEW*** Warmbaths ***NEW*** R30,00 R30,00 No Jet Avbl WelkomWelkom R28,23 R28,23 No Jet Avbl Wi ngs Wi ngs Park EL Park EL R27,60 R27,60 WitbankWitbank R30,00 R30,00 POA POA POA POA Wonderboom Wonderboom Worcester Worcester R32,84 R32,84

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 78 GPS May 2022 Import/Export no. 21343829

SA Flyer 2016|11

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

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

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

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

May 2022

Events by PRO PATRIA MILITARY FAIR 2 May Amphitheatre, Voortrekker Monument

VRYHEID VINTAGE CAR CLUB AND FLY-IN AT VRYHEID AIRFIELD FAVY 6-8 May

Contact Marc Quesnel e-mail: queslrm@gmail.com

Contact Morne Strauss E-mail: morne@imsbrokers.co.za Cell: 073 7029870

ZANDSPRUIT BUSH AND AERO ESTATE FLY-IN (HOEDSPRUIT) FAZANDSP

AFRAA AVIATION STAKEHOLDERS CONVENTION – NAIROBI, KENYA

7 May

8 – 10 May

6-8 May Contact Di Ellis dianne@weskusﬁlters.co.za Cell: 083 277 3368

BATTLEFIELDS FLY IN WEEKEND. 13 – 15 May Accommodation Specials at Battleﬁelds Country Lodge & Sports Resort. Ctc Dave O’Halloran Phone: 079 496 5286

Contact Gary Whitecross E-mail: gary@airplay.co.za Cell: 082 553 2204

Maureen Kahonge E-mail: mkahonge@afraa.org Cell: +254 725500470

NAMPO HARVEST DAY 2022

PRESIDENT’S TROPHY AIR RACE 2022

1ST ANNUAL FLY-IN AT BONA BONA GAME LODGE

16 - 20 May - FANampo

18 - 20 May Bloemfontein Tempe FATP

27 - 29 May - FABonaB

Ctc Wim Venter Tel: 086 004 7246

Enter & Register now! www.sapfa.co.za

Reserve your place now: www.bonabona.co.za/ﬂy-in

BRINGING AEROBATIC THEATRE TO THE SKIES OF PARYS - PARYS AIRSHOW 2022 28 May Tickets available at Webtickets and Pick ‘n Pay store

SPRINGBOK FLY-IN - FASB

Flying in Africa – that’s what we love May 2022

BonaBona 2020

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 • 072May 340 994381 2022

1 ger E n a H rt: ADD Airpo s d NEW n la Wine e p a C t us a

Visi RESS:

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE Approved SACAA AMO 1398

We offer General Aircraft Maintenance on all single Piper, Beech & Cessna series Aircraft. All Air Tractor, Thrush, Dromader, Ag Cat, Piper Brave & Piper Pawnee crop spraying aircraft. All NTCA Aircraft [Homebuilts, Ultralights etc.] All Lycoming, Telydyne Continental, Pratt & Whitney Turbine & Radial engines, Pezetel Radial engines. All Hartzell & Mc Cauley Propellers. We also are licenced to do rebuilds, sheetmetal work, Fabric recovering, Weighing of aircraft. All Engineers are SACAA Licenced Aircraft Maintenance Engineers as well as AP approved [NTCA Aircraft] [Combined experience of 70 years]. Please contact: Nick 083 454 6366 or Pieter 082 784 7133 or e-mail: diepkloofamo@gmail.com

P P L T O AT P L T R A I N I N G A N D E V E RY T H I N G I N B E T W E E N SA Flyer 2022|05

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

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

TERRAIN GRAPHICS

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

May 2022

RAND AIRPORT

AVIATION COMPANIES GUIDE

May 2022

INTRODUCTION

RAND

AIRPORT

– BOUNCING BACK AFTER COVID Rand Airport in capitalising on its excellent location and facilities to lead the post-Covid recovery in general aviation. RAND AIRPORT’S MANAGER, Stuart Coetzee, says that in March 2022, the airport’s operations levels were almost back to pre-Covid levels. Rand is a busy airport, it hosts air charter operators, flying schools and a number of aircraft maintenance organisations, technical training organisations as well as pilot shops and other enterprises.

demanded payment, otherwise electricity would be suspended The Covid pandemic impacted general aviation hard – and Rand had its fair share of the economic damage. A number of longestablished businesses such as car rental companies closed shop and many tenants struggled to pay their rent. Sympathetic to their plight, the airport management provided a rent holiday and is helping tenants bring their accounts up to date. Large companies moved out and refused to pay the last month’s rent nor the notice period penalties.

no vacant hangars and all office space is fully let

Under the Covid lockdown, all income generating activities such as landing fees, fuel sales and to a lesser extent parking fees, dried up overnight. In addition the following month tenants stopped paying rent and a number of owners stopped paying their utility accounts. To make matters worse once the restrictions were relaxed and general flying picked up, the fuel supplier reversed the payment agreement of 30 days and demanded payment before accepting an order. Ekurhuleni did not provide any relief, instead it increased the rates and taxes and electricity tariffs and

May 2022

Even though the threat of further Covid lockdowns may be receding, there is at time of writing, concern that a fifth wave may push back the recovery. Fortunately, the airport’s finances are healthy, due to the development of an industrial park to the south of the threshold of Runway 29 which has provided some much needed income. Development is proceeding swiftly with large warehousing being erected

Rand Airport's iconic Art Deco terminal building.

shortly. Stuart Coetzee notes that stand 167 Airport Park Extension four, that was never sold in 2008, but was allocated to the SAA museum, and which was never occupied by them, has now been subdivided into eight stands and all eight have been sold and are awaiting transfer

scale roof mount solar system to reduce the airport’s dependence on Eskom and vulnerability to load shedding. A key challenge with an airport solar system is to ensure that the glint and glare from the solar panels will not affect pilots landing and taking off from the airport.

Demand for the airport facilities remains strong. There are currently no vacant hangars and all office space is fully let, with a waiting list. This is not only due to the strong recovery of the aviation businesses on the airport, but the move of large operators from other airports around Gauteng to the more friendly, affordable and central environment that Rand provides.

However, the recovery in 2022 has not been all plain sailing. Notable problems have been the BP fuel being below specification saga which limited airport operations. Many operators suffered losses including charter companies as a result of this fiasco. Puma Energy came to the rescue with a load of fuel to replace the BP fuel. Stuart Coetzee says that their fuel demand is large enough for the airport to be seeking a second fuel supplier. The large increase in the cost of fuel, to near 20 % over just the past three months, is also impacting flying.

the recover y in 2022 has not been plain s ailing

A notable new development is that the airport is in the final stages of moving ahead with a large-

May 2022

Rand Airport on Google Earth in October 2021 showing the new industrial park emerging south of Runway 29 threshold.

Other challenges relate to the weather, which has been particularly wet and with strong winds. The airport features a top-class air traffic management capability which makes it a safe and popular choice for flight training schools. So far, the air traffic management has not been impacted by staff shortages at ATNS. The airport is proud of its safety record with no fatal accidents having happened over the past seven years – despite the large number of movements, which average between nine and eleven thousand per month and are back to pre-Covid numbers. The airport hosts the large annual Rand air show which plays a vital role in introducing aviation to the masses, particularly the underprivileged. It is hoped that this key airshow will be restored this year and hopefully the fifth wave will not impact the show planned for Sunday 4th September this year.

May 2022

General Manager Stuart Coetzee - a steady hand on the wheel.

Held on a Sunday, the Rand Airshow is a great outing for the whole family to enjoy flying.

The ownership consortium has embarked on a revamp campaign, emphasising; “It has the potential to become the complete integrated Airport Park,” which will include hotels, shops and an industrial park. This will be on the site across the road known as the Golf Course site which will be done without impacting the main purpose of Rand Airport, being an airport providing access and facilities to the aviation community. The infrastructure done at Extension 7 is a prime example of the ongoing development and the new roads and street lighting is a showpiece and a sign of what is to come. The airport has proven to be a tremendous investment for its owners with some suggesting the initial R18 million purchase price might today have been transformed into a value of well over R500 million. There were originally

23 private shareholders in 2000 and there has been very little change. Over the past 22 years the ownership of the airport has been remarkably stable, a testimony to how well the original ownership structure was conceived and assembled. The ownership of the airport is unique in that all the hangars are owned with full freehold title. When the airport was bought in 2000, some of the hangar tenants elected not to buy their hangars, as a result these are owned by the Airport Holding Company and are let to tenants, providing essential long-term income for the management and to finance the up-keep of the facilities. The demand for space at Rand Airport has increased dramatically over the last 18 months with large organisations taking up occupation. j

May 2022

Rand Airport Road, Terminal Building, Germiston, Gauteng Tel. No. 011 827-8884/5/6

Who to Contact:

Stuart Coetzee - Airport Manager Tel. No: 011 827-8884 Ext. 202 Email: manager@randairport.co.za

May 2022

SAF 2022|05 Image: Frans Dely

Contact Details:

LOCATIONS CLICK LOCATION TO LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP

MATA

Mega Aero Training Academy

AMKA AVIATION

DYNAMIC PROPELLERS HENLEY AIR SAO

WAM

Wingman Aviation Maintenance

AVIATION REBUILDERS

DART AIRCRAFT GENERAL SPARES

Safomar Aviation Operations

PILOTS 'N PLANES

AVGEEK

SAM

Safomar Aviation Maintenance

TYNAY AVIATION

AEROSPACE ELECTROPLATING

RAND AIRPORT

May 2022

Companies

AEROSPACE ELECTROPLATING AEROSPACE ELECTROPLATING, SACAA AMO 506, has been operating at Rand Airport, Germiston since 1965 and has served the aircraft industry with distinction and produce high quality surface finished products. The company is owned by Mistral Aviation Services and run by Oliver Trollope and a highly professional and qualified team of electroplaters. Our highly qualified team are available to advise you on the perfect solution to all your electroplating plating needs and solutions to perfectly re-finish your aircraft components to the manufacturer’s specifications.

Our processes are approved by SACAA, Denel, Airbus Europe, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney and Allison Doil. We offer a wide range of services for aircraft owners and general industry, and through our partnership with Mistral Aviation Services, we can offer engineering and NTD services. We look forward to the future with a range of innovative services to continue servicing the aircraft industry.

AEROSPACE ELEC

Tel: 011 827 7535 Email: petasus@mweb.co.za

AMO 5

For all your SACAA approved

AEROSPACE ELECTROPLATING

Cadmium Plate in Gold, Silver or Clear Passivation

AMO 506

Cadmium Plat Clear Passiva

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

or all your SACAA approved plating requirements

Hard Silver Plate

Electroless Nickel

Hard Copper Plate

Black Phosphating

Phosphating

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

Hard Silver Pla Call Des on 011 827 7535 or 0 or Pineter n 081 775 2434 oNic r 0 Cadmium Plate Goldoor Electroless For all your Aircraft and Allied Silver Passivation Hard Copper P Hard Chrome Hard Silver Plate Anodising in G Alodine

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

Black Phospha

Anodising in Grey, Red or Black Phosphating Black Phosphating Phosphating

SA Flyer 2022|05

Anodising in Grey, Red or Black

We are situated at 30B, Building 98, Rand Airport. Next to Fields Airm 90 DMay Call es 2022 on 011 827 7535 or 063 150 1533

ERIC ERASMUS, THE OWNER and founder of Aircraft General Spares, gained his extensive experience in the industry as a parts store manager at PLACO. When the company closed in 2017 Eric bought the entire inventory and Aircraft General Spares (AGS) was born. AGS are conveniently situated at the main entrance to Rand Airport. In addition to stocking a large variety of off the shelf items, AGS also specialises in assisting clients with hard to find items which will be sourced and imported according to the client’s requirements. With their large variety of spares, AGS have a

BUMPPPFFF:

Companies

AIRCRAFT GENERAL SPARES well-earned reputation for being the one stop for anything needed in the light aircraft industry. Their range of spares includes Alclad, tyres, tubes, hoses, 4130 tubing, rivets, O-rings, seals, engine parts, gaskets, bearings, glue, sealants, sick bags, funnels, ducting, air filters, oil filters, spark plugs, aircraft logbooks and a vast range of fasteners. AGS are also an official distributor of the full range of Aeroshell oil and grease products. AGS may be found at: Building B7: Rand Airport, Germiston. Call Eric on Tel: 067 154 2147. Email: eric@acgs.co.za or visit: www.acgs.co.za j YOUR ONE STOP SHOP FOR ANYTHING NEEDED IN THE LIGHT AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY.

We are able to help customers with an array of “hard to find” items which we import according to their requirements.

SA Flyer 2022|05

We are distributors of Aeroshell and stock a wide selection of oil and grease. We also carry alclad, tires, tubes, hose, 4130 tubing, aircraft sheet metal, bolts, nuts, rivets, air filters, oil filters, spark plugs, aircraft logbooks etc.

www.acgs.co.za Cadet schemes will be crucial in the face of the pending pilot shortage.

Contact Eric or Hayley - 084 587 6414 or 067 154 2147 eric@acgs.co.za - hayley@acgs.co.za Situated in Building B7, Rand Airport. Next to Aviation Rebuilders.

May 2022

Companies

AMKA AVIATION HANGAR 13 AT RAND AIRPORT has housed AMKA Aviation, an Avionics AMO for many years and have just completed a makeover as part of our proud association with Nicholson Helicopters who share the facility. The facility houses Sales, Admin, Tech Records, Engineering offices as well as Radio, Instrument, Autopilot, Gyro, Installation and Battery workshops. AMKA represents many dealer principals including Collins Aerospace, Garmin, Avidyne, Trig, Genesys Aerosystems, Freeflight, Latitude, Flight Display systems, JP Instruments and others.

Repair and overhaul capabilities range from Gyroscopic Instruments, Electrical Instruments, Flight Instruments, Engine Instruments, Ni-Cad Batteries, Lead Acid Batteries, Comm Transceivers, Nav Receivers, HF Transceivers, GPS, ADF, DME, Transponders, Rad Alt, Audio Systems, ELT’s. Flightline Maintenance capabilities include both Helicopters and fixed wing. Installation experience includes everything from Engine Monitors, Autopilots to full glass flightdecks, from Cessna 172’s to Corporate jets. Visit our website to see our installations and talk to our happy customers. j

LANSERIA AIRPORT FACILITY Hangar 109 B & C, Lanseria International Airport +27 (0) 11 701 2000

RAND AIRPORT FACILITY Hangar 13, Rand AirportRand: +27 (0) 11 824 5486

We have your maintenance needs covered

Specialists Avionics Engineers

May 2022

– THE PILOT SHOP

LOCATED INSIDE THE RAND AIRPORT terminal building. AvGeek – The Pilot Shop stockists of pilot accessories, aviation supplies and products, clothing, gifts, and souvenirs. Fly in and visit our store! We are proud agents of:

• • • • •

David Clark Alpha Industries MyGoFlight Ray-Ban Garmin

Companies

AVGEEK

Contact AvGeek for more information Contact No. +27 (0) 11 805 0640 Rand Airport Terminal Building Website: www.avgeek.co.za Email: info@avgeek.co.za

Our commitment to you is great service! Be sure to fly around our website and have what you need delivered to your doorstep!

Contact AvGeek for more information: Contact No. +27 (0) 11 805 0640 Rand Airport Terminal Building Website: www.avgeek.co.za Email: info@avgeek.co.za

May 2022

Companies

AVIATION REBUILDERS AVIATION REBUILDERS SACAA approved Category B and X5, AMO 188, based in the Showroom, Rand Airport, Germiston. Established in 1997, we are celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. We hope to continue to support and service the general aviation industry for many more years to come. Our team is a family that have worked together to build and establish the reputation of our AMO over many years, each one invaluable for their contribution to the organisation.

We look forward to welcoming you and your beloved aircraft to our family. Contact Aviation Rebuilders on: Tel: +27 (0)11 827-2491 Cell: +27 (0)82 872-4117 Email: lyn@aviationrebuilders.com

We are proud to offer the services of our well established and equipped sheet metal workshop, approved aircraft welding facility, as well as our flight control cable assembly section.

SA CAA AMO 188

CEL

EBR AT

IN A VIAT

ION

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

VISIT THE SHOWROOM @ RAND AIRPORT, GERMISTON

011 827 2491

082 872 4117

FAX

THANK YOU TO OUR CUSTOMERS FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT

May 2022

ING

DART AERONAUTICAL Pieter Viljoen +27 83 652 4421 pieterviljoen@mweb.co.za Jaco Kelly +27 84 498 4916 jacokelly@mweb.co.za

GI 275

Attitude Indicator (AI/ADI)DART AERO

Pieter Viljoen +27 83 652 4421 Jaco Kelly +27 84 498 4916

GFC 600 New Garmin Autopilot Options

GFC 600 GFC 500

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N G A O

® E NC A FIN IONS T E OP ABL E AIL AV QUIR ! EN OW 95 May N 2022

Companies

DART AERONAUTICAL DART AERONAUTICAL was established in 2006 and is situated at Rand Airport. We are committed to providing excellent service with the highest technical standard, not only locally, but to surrounding airfields as well. This division is headed up by Jaco Kelly and Pieter Viljoen. The team of 15 specialises in all aircraft types ranging from homebuilt to DC9 aircraft. We are market leaders in instrument and instrument panel refurbishments, which include the use of aircraft approved paint, router cutting and laser engraving. Dart Aeronautical is an agent for all major equipment suppliers such as Garmin, Mid

Continent, Bendix-King, Sigma Tek, JP Instruments, Airtex, S-Tec etc. Our ability to purchase directly ensures our completeness and that our customers receive value for money without any reduction in quality and safety. We carry a wide variety of serviceable units in store that can be used as loaners while working on a customer’s unit or that can be purchased or exchanged. Contact Pieter Viljoen on: Tel: +27 11-827-8204 Cell: +27 83-652-4421 Email: pieterviljoen@mweb.co.za Website: www.dartaero.co.za j

CONTACT: Chantal Du Plessis +27 61 508 3356

May 2022

AIRCRAFT ELECTRICAL

BUILDING ON THE SUCCESS of Dart Aeronautical and M&D Aircraft Electrical, Dart Aircraft Electrical has now established itself as a leading aircraft electrical shop in the Gauteng Area situated at Rand Airport.

Sharing the premises with Dart Aeronautical, DAE is located on the ground floor of Aeronautical House at Rand Airport.

Dart Aircraft Electrical (DAE) took over from M&D and has acquired all M&Ds test and bench equipment, thereby maintaining M&Ds capabilities.

• • • • • •

DAE has also retained the services of M&Ds Matthew Joubert, and is therefore well equipped to cater to all aircraft electrical requirements. Matthew has over 17 years’ experience and brings a high degree of professionalism to the aircraft electrics trade. He specialises in fuel pumps, magnetos, alternators and starters.

Companies

DART

DAE will be able to sell, overhaul, service and repair the following:

•

Starters Alternators Fuel Pumps Magnetos Strobe Boxes Aircraft electrical wiring installation and repairs Electronic components

Contact DAE on: Tel: +27 827 0371 Cell: +27 82 414 1641 Email: dartaircraftelectrical@gmail.com

Building on the success of Dart Aeronautical and M&D Aircraft Electrical, Dart Aircraft Electrical opened its doors in January 2015.

Dart Aircraft Electrical (DAE) took over from M&D and has acquired all M&Ds test and bench equipment, thereby maintaining M&Ds capabilities. DAE has also retained the services of M&Ds Matthew Joubert, and is therefore well-equipped to cater to all aircraft electrical requirements. Matthew has over 17 years’ experience and brings a high degree of professionalism to the aircraft electrics trade. He specialises in fuel pumps, magnetos, alternators and starters.

Sharing the premises with Dart Aeronautical, DAE is located on the ground floor of Aeronautical House at Rand Airport.

DAE is able to sell, overhaul, service and repair the following: •

Starters

•

Alternators

•

Fuel Pumps

•

Magnetos

•

Strobe Boxes

•

Aircraft electrical wiring installation and repairs

•

Electronic components

May 2022

Companies

DYNAMIC PROPELLERS PROPELLER SPECIALISTS Established in 2008, Dynamic Propellers specialises in the overhauling, repair and maintenance of propellers for commercial and privately owned aircraft. With a staff compliment with a total of around 130 years propeller overhaul experience, Dynamic Propellers overhaul and maintain all Hartzell, McCauley, MT, Hoffmann, Sensenich and Hamilton propellers and is the only enterprise in South Africa that provides comprehensive repair and maintenance services on Dowty and Whirlwind propellers. All of which is done to the highest standards as stipulated by the various propeller manufacturers.

Dynamic Propellers’ repair services are performed both in-house in a state of the art aviation engineering workshop, or in the field. Highly skilled engineers will travel domestically or to neighbouring countries and abroad to cater for customers’ propeller requirements. Dynamic Propellers is an SACAA Authorised Service Centre, AMO 1150, and is the sole McCauley Authorised Service Centre for the African continent. Contact Details: Andries Visser Tel: +27 82 445 4496 Email: andries@dynamicpropeller.co.za

At Dynamic Propellers cc we overhaul and maintain all Hartzell, McCauley, MTPropeller, Hoffmann, Dowty, Sensenich, Whirl Wind and Hamilton standard propellers to include metal and composite blades. We do all maintenance procedures related to aircraft propeller overhauls as called for by the various propeller manufacturers including cadmium plating.

100 95 75

Everything is performed in-house, including cold compression rolling on Hartzell propeller blades, as well as dynamic balancing of propellers in the field. Dynamic Propellers cc is an Authorised Service Centre for MT-Propeller and Whirl Wind. Dynamic Propellers cc is also appointed as the sole McCauley Authorised Service Centre for the African continent.

www.dynamicpropellers.co.za • Tel: +27 11 824 5057 • Fax2mail: 086 548 2651 E-mail: andries@dynamicpropeller.co.za • Andries: 082 445 4496

May 2022

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SA Flyer 2022|05

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

Companies

PILOTS AND PLANES Pilots ‘n Planes is one of the larger retail outlets of its kind in South Africa and has its main branch at Wonderboom Airport in Pretoria, and a second branch at Rand Airport in Germiston. Merchandise on offer includes:

• Pilot uniforms and apparel • Aviation headsets (BOSE, DAVID CLARK, AVCOMM) • Sunglasses (RAYBAN, RANDOLPH, BONDIBLU, WAVES, OAKLEY) • Study material and equipment • A wide range of Aviation related gifts and collectables

Both our Wonderboom and Rand stores trade Monday-Friday from 8am to 5pm. On Saturdays, Wonderboom trades from 8am-2pm and Rand is open every first and last Saturday of every month from 8am-2pm. Contact Wonderboom Airport on 012 567-6775 Email: pilotshop@pilotsnplanes.co.za Or contact Rand Airport on 011 824-3339 Email: rand@pilotsnplanes.co.za j

Pilotsn Planes

SA Flyer 2022|05

Pilots ‘n Planes is an aviation related retail outlet specialising in Pilot and Aircraft Owner requirements.

PLACE YOUR ORDERS ONLINE NOW AT www.pilotsnplanes.co.za

A20 AVIATION HEADSET

Acclaimed noise reduction for pilots – 30% greater active noise reduction than conventional headsets.

EMAIL ORDERS TO

orders@pilotsnplanes.co.za

May 2022

Companies

HENLEY AIR HENLEY AIR – 25 YEARS OF HELICOPTER SOLUTIONS HENLEY AIR HAS BECOME SYNONYMOUS with excellence in helicopter operations. Henley has six key divisions: helicopter charter, emergency medical services, a flight school, institute of learning and maintenance organisation, as well as a certified drone operation.

Henley Air Charter Henley Air Charter has a well-equipped and diverse fleet offering for corporate and general aviation services.

Rocket HEMS Henley Air identified a need for an independent and unaffiliated helicopter emergency medical service, and so Rocket HEMS was born. Rocket’s fleet of Bell 222 and 230 helicopters, manned by highly experienced pilots and advanced life support paramedics have earned the respect of the entire industry.

Henley Air Flight School Henley Air Flight School offers from ab initio to advanced training and testing.

Henley Air Hangar 6 Rand Airport www.henleyair.co.za 100

May 2022

Henley Aeronautical Institute of Learning Henley Air has a strong culture of continuous learning and has established the Henley Aeronautical Institute of Learning (HAIL). HAIL has partnered with STADIO to provide uniquely combined academic and flight qualifications.

Henley Air Technical Henley Air Technical holds SACAA aircraft maintenance organisation (AMO) certification, ensuring that their diverse fleet is always at the ready no matter what the task.

Henley Air Drone Services Henley Air is a SACAA licensed drone operator with BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) approval that is expanding into drone surveillance using a DJI M300 coupled with a FLIR camera with optical zoom.

Henley air operates a diverse fleet including Bell 206B and 222s for HEMS.

May 2022

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Companies

MEGA AERO TRAINING ACADEMY - MATA “MATA HAS ONCE AGAIN WELCOMED students, both civilian and military, from all corners of the globe to take part in the variety of Aviation training offered at our stunning new location. In celebration of our 10-year anniversary of operation, we relocated to Rand Airport, Hangar 16, beginning a new chapter in our quest to take aviation training in South Africa to new heights. We started off by improving the practical experience in our bigger hangar, and have continued our expansion by applying for EASA 147 approval, opening a new satellite facility in Durban, adding Aircraft Structures trade testing

to our approval, upgrading the user experience on our website to include online ATTC bookings and topped it all off by reaching a record high with our apprentice training this year. There are still plenty of new and exciting announcement coming through the year! We look forward to sharing another decade of advancements with the industry. “ Contact MATA for more information Contact No. +27 (0) 11 395 4144 Hangar 16, Rand Airport Website: www.matasa.co.za Email: info@matasa.co.za j

Contact MATA for more information:

Contact No. +27 (0)11 395 4144 Hangar 16, Rand Airport Website: www.matasa.co.za Email: info@matasa.co.za

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May 2022

SAFOMAR AVIATION OPERATIONS is a SACAA certified Aviation Training Organization, offering exceptional flight training & aviation services through a team of highly motivated and experienced instructors and staff.   Our core business has always been the provision of aviation services which includes pilot training (fixed-wing and helicopter) from PPL through to ATPL, specific Ratings, and Conversions.   Safomar Aviation Operations is committed to providing the highest quality flight training. All of the SAO instructors are hand-picked for their extensive flight and aviation backgrounds. SAO only employs the services of Grade II, ATPL, and DFE Instructors.

Companies

SAFOMAR AVIATION OPERATIONS Specialized courses to client specifications | Charter Flights (Game Lodge Transfers or Scenic Flights for family & friends) | VIP Charters | Aerial Photography | Security/ Surveillance Flights | Game Counting & Herding | Crop Spraying | Valuable Goods Transportation | Border & Perimeter Surveillance Flights Contact Safomar Aviation Operations for more information: Contact No. +27 (0) 11 805 0640 The White House, Rand Airport Website: www.saosa.co.za Email: saosa@safomar.co.za j

May 2022

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TYNAY AVIATION TYNAY AVIATION has been in operation since 2009 and prides itself on specializing in the Aircraft Maintenance of Pratt & Whitney PT6A powered Turbine Aircraft. Services provided range from Defect Rectification through to Heavy Maintenance. Tynay Aviation currently occupies a 1440sqm facility located at Rand Airport which in itself allows adequate space to facilitate the servicing of multiple Aircraft at any given time. We currently maintain a fleet of over 30 odd Turbine Aircraft ranging from the King Air 90, 200,300 series to the Beechcraft 1900 Series and not forgetting the Cessna 208 Caravan range. Tynay’s services provided include: • South Africa Civil Aviation approvals for Category A, B, C and W • Zambia • Zimbabwe 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Beechcraft 90 Series Beechcraft 200 Series Beechcraft 300 Series Beechcraft 1900 Series Cessna 208 Series Pratt and Whiney Engines for the relevant Aircraft Types

•

Spares sourcing and procurement from local and foreign approved suppliers. Interior and exterior refurbishment carried out via a highly recommended facility Maintenance planning/tracking carried out on mentioned aircraft types using an Internationally recognised tracking and planning system.

• •

104

May 2022

• • • • • •

Landing gear overhauls or inspections on Beechcraft 90, 200, 300 and 1900 series. Managing complete aircraft refurbishment from start to finish. Complete corrosion and structural inspections. PT6A hot section inspections Pre-purchase inspections anywhere in the world Managing complete aircraft refurbishment from start to finish.

Our licensed engineers have a total over 100 years experience on turbine aircraft, ranging from the ATR42 down to the Cessna Caravan 208B. Most of our experience, however, has been built up over the years on the Beechcraft turbine products, enabling us to support the product in a professional and efficient manner. Supporting the engineering staff is a group of assistants who have a vast knowledge of the products we support. Hangar 55, 6 Viking Way, Rand Airport Phone: +27 11 659 1157/8 Mobile: +27 82 886 6005 E-mail: trevor@tynay-aviation.co.za www.tynay.com j

SA CAA A, B & C Zambia & Zimbabwe Approved

Hangar 55, 6 Viking Way Airport Park, Germiston Tel : 011 659 1157 Cell: 082 886 6005 Email: trevor@tynay-aviation.co.za

Tynay Aviation AMO 1161 Established November 2009 Specialising in Beechcraft 1900 Series Kingair Series Cessna 208B Caravan PT6A Series

www.tynay.com

Based at Rand Airport, Tynay takes pride in the Beechcraft, Cessna Aircraft & Pratt & Whitney PT6A Series Engines we maintain. Offering complete maintenance solutions which include the following services: · · · · · ·

Scheduled Inspections Line Maintenance Aircraft Refurbishment Landing Gear 5 & 6 year Inspections Hot Section Inspections Fuel Nozzle Cleaning & Flow Check

rport

SA Flyer 2022|05

We hav

nd Ai a R o t d e v e mo

May 2022

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Companies

WINGMAN AVIATION MAINTENANCE: FIXED-WING WINGMAN FIXED WING AIRCRAFT Maintenance is a world-class maintenance and hangarage facility, situated at Rand Airport. Staffed by highly experienced fixed-wing maintenance staff, offering centrally located fixed-wing maintenance and cross border line maintenance with space available for hangarage of small to medium-sized aircraft. WAM is a SACAA certified Aviation Maintenance organization (AMO 1223) and currently, amongst others, holds licenses to maintain Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft aircraft. WAM’s service and work ethics are based on underpinning the values that

ensure the best customer service with excellent quality and competitive pricing.  WAM’s service and work ethics are founded on values that ensure superior customer service levels coupled with excellent quality, cost-effective pricing, and a commitment to minimal turnaround times. Contact Wingman Aviation Maintenance for more information: Contact No. +27 (0) 11 805 0640 Hangar 18, Rand Airport Website: www.wingmansa.co.za Email: wingman@safomar.co.za j

Contact Wingman Aviation Maintenance for more information: Contact No. +27 (0) 11 805 0640 Hangar 18, Rand Airport Website: www.wingmansa.co.za Email: wingman@safomar.co.za

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May 2022

MAINTENANCE: ROTOR-WING SAFOMAR AVIATION MAINTENANCE (SAM) is a world-class helicopter maintenance facility, staffed by highly experienced factory-trained helicopter maintenance engineers. SAM is a SACAA certified Aviation Maintenance Organization and currently holds licenses to maintain Enstrom, Robinson, Bell, Airbus, and MBB- BK117 helicopters. In addition, the facility offers helicopter balancing and tracking services, using the latest stateof-the-art advanced Helitune Systems, away from base maintenance support and helicopter hangar parking and thereby ensuring complete customer service.

Companies

SAFOMAR AVIATION SAM’s service and work ethics are founded on values that ensure superior customer service levels coupled with excellent quality, costeffective pricing, and a commitment to minimal turnaround times. Contact Safomar Aviation Maintenance for more information: Contact No. +27 (0) 11 805 0640 Hangar 18, Rand Airport Website: www.safomarmaintenance.co.za Email: saosa@safomar.co.za j

> Fixed Wing & Rotorcraft Flight Training > Charters, Hire and Fly > VIP Transport > Crop Spraying > Ground School > Security & Aerial Photography Flights

Contact Safomar Aviation Maintenance for more information: Contact No. +27 (0) 11 805 0640 Hangar 18, Rand Airport Website: www.safomarmaintenance.co.za Email: saosa@safomar.co.za

May 2022

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Where romance meets nature

Located in South Africa’s Safari hub of Hoedspruit, Safari Moon is a boutique base from which to discover the wonders of South Africa’s Lowveld region. Explore a range of nearby attractions from the famed Kruger National park to the scenic Panorama Route, or simply chose to relax and unwind in nature, making the most of 108 May 2022 your private piece of Wildlife Estate wilderness.

CONTACT: bookings@safarimoon.co.za 083 449 5868

FlightCom Magazine

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Edition 161 | May 2022

John Bassi – last flight

before

lockdown

Durban floods and the lack of choppers 1

FlightCom: May 2022

Op-ed: Airport monopolies and shareholders

Getting shot-up in Sudan

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|05

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 06 14 18 23 24 28 38 44 45 46 48

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

MAY 2022 EDITION 161

Layout & Design Patrick Tillman: Imagenuity cc

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

Bush Pilot - Hugh Pryor Defence - Darren Olivier Pilots - Laura McDermid AME Directory John Bassi - Lockdown Part 2 Flight Test - Blackhawk 350 Face to Face - Ms Poppy Khoza 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: Airports are a necessary evil for aviation, and airlines in particular. PAST IATA DIRECTOR GENERAL, Alexandre de Juniac, loves to hate airports – particularly those which have a monopoly on their services – which is almost every one – and is certainly the case in Africa. The fact that airports are monopoly businesses makes the financial failure of African airports all the more inexcusable. Most charge extortionate amounts for their services – both airside and landside, and there is little or nothing anyone could do about it. For fifteen years one of the few exceptions to this was the Airports Company of SA (ACSA). Its desire for pricing excesses was rigidly reined in by an accord with the airlines. With its initial quality management, ACSA was a success, making solid, but not excessive, profits. It was an attractive proposition to be a shareholder in such a business and many institutions bought into the then well-managed company.

ACSA owns and manages nine South African airports. It is also involved in equity investment abroad and provides technical advisory and consultancy services to other airports globally. The government currently owns 74.6% of ACSA. Minority shareholders including Old Mutual-controlled Futuregrowth and other investors purchased shares which they expected to trade once ACSA was listed on the JSE. But ACSA was never listed. The shareholders have been engaged in litigation against ACSA and the government over the issue since July 2015. As the tussle over a fair share price continues, the parties are currently awaiting judgment from the Supreme Court of Appeal.

“A debtridden carcass”.

But now – thanks to the culture of malfeasance and cadre deployment which permeates almost all state owned enterprises, ACSA has become; “A debt-ridden carcass”. The net result is that ACSA shareholders want out, but are trapped. These shareholders have been in a two-decade fight to sell the shares they purchased in 1998 for what they regard as fair value. The shareholders claim they were expecting to be able to sell their shares once the company was listed on the JSE - but it never was. In 1998, ACSA was still 100% state-owned. Then government and ACSA held an initial limited public offering to sell 20% to a strategic equity partner and, in a subsequent phase, see the remaining 80% stake listed on the JSE.

If government wanted to build investor confidence it must "show that investors can trust the government", says Alun Frost, a director of Griffin Advisors, who advises an entity invested in ACSA, called Oppressed ACSA Minority. The failure of government to manage ACSA well enough to properly privatise it, as originally promised, does not bode well for the still pending sale of an SAA majority shareholding to the Takatso Consortium as the much-promised strategic equity partner. SAA has, like ACSA, not been freed from the destructive control of the state – and minister Gordhan has said the government will maintain control. I fail to see the attraction SAA has for Takatso. 

BUSH PILOT HUGH PRYOR

IAN , TH E SU DAN AND MINISTER

C H R I S PAT T E N

One of the nicest couples my wife, Annie, and I met while I was working in Sudan in 1978 were Ian and Joyce. Ian was the First Secretary at the British Embassy, responsible for the Overseas Development Administration, otherwise known as the ODA, which was rather like a filter funnel through which British Aid Funds were poured into the bottomless pit of Sudan.

AN WAS THE FILTER and my job was to fly him around the country, which, incidentally, has an area the size of Western Europe, to assess the various projects which were begging for British sponsorship. Ian had started his adult life as a naval diver at the end of the Second World War. In my Book of the World's Heroes, right at the Bottom of the list of Heroic Professions come the terrorists who plant bombs which kill innocent people. These terrorists are nothing more than cowards who do not even have the courage to look into their victims' eyes before killing them, and believe themselves to be heroes when they never even place themselves in the line of fire.

Ian was one of those. What made him particularly special in my book was the fact that he continued to practice his craft even after being blown up. It happened in Antwerp Harbour after the war. The harbour, being a gateway to central Europe, had been a major target for Allied bombers throughout the war and much of the ordinance dropped had failed to explode.

the uncivilised crash of automatic gunfire.

Right at the top of my list of Heroes are the people who try to defuse those bombs and make them safe.

FlightCom: May 2022

The clearing-up operation was, to say the least, daunting. Some sceptics even said that there was such a mass of unexploded munitions in the waters of the port and its surrounding docklands that no-one could ever guarantee the safety of the shipping in the future. Ian was part of a Royal Navy team which set out to prove the sceptics wrong and it very nearly cost him his life.

The bomb filled wreck of the Umbria scuttled off Port Sudan.

They had spotted a large mine under about thirty feet of water near one of the quays and Ian went down to have a look at it. The mine was a standard American land mine, weighed around half a ton. It presented little problem for a man of Ian's experience to defuse. And so, after discussing the procedure with his colleagues, he went down and removed the fuse from the mine, making it safe to be lifted from the harbour. He handed the detonator to the next man up the submerged ladder who, in turn handed it on up the chain of divers until it reached the surface. The threads of the detonator were well greased to prevent corrosion and by the time it reached the barge the grease had been spread over almost every part of it. So it was not surprising that the rating who took the fuse from the diver at the top of the ladder had a problem holding onto it. In fact, in

order not to drop it, he threw it up into the air, rather as a cricket fielder will throw a cricket ball into the air after making a particularly dramatic catch, in order to give the ball the regulation three seconds without touching the ground. Unfortunately for Ian the rating failed to re-catch the detonator and the timing started just after it hit the side of the barge and bounced back into the water right over where Ian was beginning his climb back up the ladder.

grinding around in an old twin engined Britten Norman Islander.

Detonators make quite an impressive bang on the surface, but seldom do they do any damage. In the uncompressible world under water, however, they can kill even quite large fish. And so when the fuse ran out close to where Ian was climbing to the surface, the results were very nearly catastrophic.

FlightCom: May 2022

When they got him to the surface, Ian was unconscious and remained so for some hours. When he regained consciousness, both his eardrums were ruptured and he was completely paralysed down his right-hand side for months after the incident. He recovered, but the explosion probably caused the severe shake which made his writing so difficult to read. It also added an enormous bonus to our visits to him and Joyce while we were in Khartoum. He was a passionate admirer of the Scottish and this admiration extended to their drinking habits. The whiskies served by that shaking right hand were some of the largest in the known world. Joyce had a reputation all her own. On Thursday evenings we used to be invited round to Ian and Joyce's house for badminton and drinks. As I remember it, the badminton used to last for about fifteen minutes and the drinks, so necessary to restore fluid levels after such violent exercise in that parched climate, used to carry on late into the night.

side of the garden wall. Ian immediately stood up and extinguished the lights, asking us all to stay calm. We continued nervously to sip at our drinks in order to ensure that nothing would be wasted if we had to make a sudden dash for cover. As our eyes became accustomed to the ensuing gloom, two darkened figures appeared over the top of the garden wall, carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles and draped with bandoleers of ammunition. Just as I was about to spill my dram, Joyce, either with enormous courage or armed with some beverage which had certainly not passed my lips, stood up and in stentorian tones demanded of the intruders what the hell they thought they were doing in her garden!

the explosives on board had become so unstable

Our Sudanese friends used to organise a coup d'etat normally every month or two and they would invariably warn us that "it might be better to stay at home on Tuesday evening," for example. Sure enough, on Tuesday evening there would be the usually fairly distant and muted sound of gunfire. This would be followed on the morrow by reports that the enemies of President Jafaar Numeiri had once again been foiled in their attempts to destabilise the government.

Ian and I shared many an extraordinary experience together grinding around in an old twin engined Britten Norman Islander.

There appeared to be no element of surprise whatsoever. Even we knew what was going to happen several days in advance.....until one Thursday evening when we were relaxing over massive drams of delicious Duty-Free British Embassy Scotch after an exhausting fifteen minutes on the Badminton court.

The oldest recorded harbour in the world is the port of Suakin on the coast of Sudan, more or less opposite Jeddah on the other side of the Red Sea. Suakin sits on a tiny island in a coral lagoon and is attached to the mainland by a low bridge about fifty yards long. The lagoon is deep enough to accommodate ocean-going ships and is connected to the open sea by a deep channel which is kept free of silt by an underground river.

Suddenly the civilised burble of polite conversation was torn apart by the uncivilised crash of automatic gunfire. It was coming from the street just the other

"Oh, very sorry, Memsahib," came the muffled reply. "Wrong garden!" And the two figures climbed stealthily back over the wall into the street from where they had come, leaving us to continue the evening in hilarious mood.

FlightCom: May 2022

We visited some of the remoter regions of what had once been one of the proudest jewels in the British Colonial Crown, even though it was not actually a British Colony. In fact the 'Gypoes had hired the Brits to run it for them and this led to one of the most memorable trips which Ian and I took together.

What interested Ian was the fact that the port was in

The Gezira Scheme in Sudan was a proud British colonial investment.

ruins and that was why he brought the then British Minister for Overseas Development, who later, incidentally, became a very famous Governor of Hong Kong, along with him for the ride. The demise of Suakin happened in the following way: One of the first things the British did after defeating and killing the Mad Mahdi and his

scheming Khaliffa, in revenge for the death of Gordon in the eighteen-seventies, was to set up the Gezirah Scheme. This was, and still is, the biggest gravity-fed irrigation scheme in the world. It was started for two reasons, firstly to give the Sudan an economy and secondly, to supply long strand cotton to the textile mills in the north of England. The only problem was getting it there.

FlightCom: May 2022

The Sudan and Eritrea have an incredibly rich post colonial history.

Since Sudan actually belonged to Egypt, the 'Gypoes held a very tight rein on the economy and anything produced in the Sudan had to be exported by 'Gypo companies who made sure that they charged at least as much as the market could stand for their services. There were only two trade routes out of Northern Sudan, one to the north by the river Nile and the other to the east by Suakin. Railways followed both routes, but access to world markets was always blocked by the crippling charges imposed by the 'Gypoes. Every time a Brit company tried to set up an office at Suakin, they were apologetically advised that there just simply wasn't room for any more companies on the island. If they tried to buy plots on the mainland the Fasi-Wasi tribe who owned the area were heavily financially persuaded by the 'Gypoes not to sell. Eventually, of course, something had to break because the Brit investments in the country were 10 FlightCom: May 2022

massive. So finally the Brits told the Gypoes that if Brit companies were refused access to Suakin then they would have to take the railway away. "Oh really," was the 'Gypo response. "And where, pray, are you going to put it? Over the mountains into Ethiopia perhaps? Or maybe Uganda was what you had in mind?" Some weeks later the Brits revealed their reply when work started on the construction of the new Port Sudan, some sixty miles to the north of Suakin, and one of the first items on the agenda was the rerouting of the railway line. Every time the 'Gypoes demanded land in the new port they were politely advised that all available plots had already been allocated to British companies. Before work was completed on the construction of Port Sudan, Suakin, the oldest recorded port in the world, was in ruins.

The 'Gypoes were so incensed with the British attitude that one of them apparently put a curse on the new port and by an extraordinary quirk of history this curse may still be fulfilled, because of an event which occurred right at the start of the Second World War. The last Italian munitions ship to transit through the Suez Canal at the beginning of the war was the Umbria. She was carrying artillery shells, bombs and all kinds of other munitions for the Italian army who were trying, under the leadership of the greatlyrespected Duce d'Aosta, to prevent the British from taking Eritrea. As the Umbria sailed down the Red Sea, the British commander of the garrison at Port Sudan received instructions to arrest and detain the ship and intern her crew pending further orders. So he sent out a gun boat to bring her in, which they duly did without so much as a shot being fired. They moored the ship near the mouth of the harbour since they anticipated that her visit might be prolonged and they did not want to block any of the berths on a long-term basis.

for the day, he retired to the Orfficers' Mess for a swift pre-prandial snorterino or twain. The glass had hardly reached his lips when he heard a cry from the verandah. "I say Sir! I do believe that Eyeteye ship's gorn down!" He arrived on the veranda just as the Umbria settled onto her port side, on the edge of the coral reef, leaving only her life-boat-davits above the water as evidence of her position. He downed his drink in one gulp, trying to take stock of the scene. He'd always heard you couldn't trust those damned Eyeteyes! Give 'em the shirt orf your back and the little blighters would steal your underpants too! "Believe me, those little Eyeteye Johnnies can be damned unsportin' if you give 'em half a chance!" he growled, trying to rationalise himself out of being blamed for the sinking."

little blighters would steal your underpants too

Still, the main thing is that Il Duce won't be getting any of his ammo, will he!" he decided, "But I'm bally disappointed in this Capitano fellah, d'you know. Pity really. I was thinking of asking him if he'd care to make up a four for bridge this evening too."

After some weeks of idling away the time in unproductive and soul-destroying boredom, the Italian captain approached the British commander with an idea that he suggested would benefit everybody. What he proposed was that the Italians should go, a few at a time, out to the Umbria, under armed guard, of course, to do routine maintenance on the ship, so that she could be moved at a moment's notice when the time came.

What never entered into the commander's calculations was the sheer size of the danger which now lurked beneath the surface of the water in the mouth of the harbour. A complete square mile of Halifax, Nova Scotia, had been obliterated by an ammunition ship which blew up, in the harbour, after a collision and, if the 'Gypoes had their way, the same fate would fall on the accursed city of Port Sudan.

Well, the Commander thought that sounded like a jolly good idea so he sent the Eyeteye Capitano, who he thought wasn't such a bad sort after all, do you see, out to the ship with the Chief engineer chappy and a pair of his oppos to get stuck into a spot of chippin' and paintin' under the watchful eyes of a couple of the lads, don't you know. And then, feelin' that he had done quite enough good works

After the war, the Royal Navy were asked if they could dispose of the Umbria, but they said that the explosives on board had become so unstable by now that any salvage attempt would be suicidal. So there she lies to this day and the Gypoes may still have their revenge! 

FlightCom: May 2022

NEWS

BLACKHAWK’S PC-12

Blackhawk Aerospace has started FAA certification flight testing for their new Pilatus PC-12 XP67P Engine+ Upgrade program. BLACKHAWK’S UPGRADE REPLACES the stock Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67B engine with a higher-powered and more efficient PT6A67P model. The Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) approval is expected early in 2023 with EASA certification shortly thereafter. The XP67P engine technology uses improved metallurgy which allows a higher Internal Turbine Temperature (ITT) limitation of 850°C compared to the stock -67B’s 800°C limitation for takeoff. Maximum continuous ITT for climb and cruise is 760°C for the -67B and 820°C for the XP67P. Further, the PT6A-67P is a 1200 shaft horsepower (SHP) engine that produces 142 more thermodynamic horsepower than the stock -67B. The combination of the higher ITT and increased thermodynamic horsepower produced by the XP67P engine enables operators to utilise full torque to more efficient cruising altitudes. On an ISA day, the stock -67B starts losing power at 15,000 feet, whereas the XP67P can maintain full power to FL250.

The PC-12 is a very popular aircraft with over 1,700 in operation, making it the second largest single-engine turboprop market behind the Cessna Caravan. With more than 600 of the PC-12s eligible for the XP67P upgrade, many of the aircraft in the addressable market are at, or close to, an overhaul event. This is the optimum opportunity to upgrade to a new engine, bringing these early model aircraft up to PC-12 NG factory standards. Further, operators will receive favourable core engine credit of $95 per hour for time remaining to the factory TBO, if upgrading before overhaul. Blackhawk’s STC will include a factory-new P&WC PT6A-67P engine and will be approved with the existing Hartzell four-blade aluminium propeller to minimize the retail cost. Blackhawk plans to certify additional propeller options in the future to provide operators modularity in the upgrade package. 

“Blackhawk is excited to kick off certification testing for the XP67P program and bring the conversion one step closer to reality for PC12 operators,” said Jim Allmon, Blackhawk’s President and CEO. “This is a new market for us that fits naturally into our existing roster of aircraft, and we look forward to delivering this upgrade to Pilatus operators soon.” The Blackhawk PT6-XP67P engine in a PC-12. 12 FlightCom: May 2022

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www.avesholding.com FlightCom: May 2022

13 2022

DEFENCE DARREN OLIVIER

AERIAL

SEARCH AND RESCUE The recent devastating flooding in KwaZuluNatal, in which over 400 people have died, has once again highlighted South Africa’s deficiency in terms of aerial search and rescue aircraft.

HE COUNTRY NOW has available only a fraction of the capacity that it had as recently as ten years ago thanks to years of underfunding.

do so by gathering both the aircraft and crews from bases around the country. Precious time was lost, so a response that should have begun within hours, instead took days.

Despite facing the likelihood of both more frequent and more devastating natural disasters in the future as a result of climate change, we have continued to allow our capabilities in disaster response to degrade. If current trends continue it won’t be long before we’re unable to provide any state-owned rescue helicopters for a disaster at all. So, it’s important to recognise the risk and implement steps to reverse this trend.

Similarly, three South African Police Service (SAPS) helicopters fitted with hoists joined the SAAF helicopters at Durban’s Virginia Airport after a few days, but the service was unable to provide an immediate rescue response either as a result of aircraft and crew nonavailability.

the SAAF’s availability rate has hovered at around 25%

Although the South African Air Force (SAAF) has since been able to contribute a handful of Oryx, A109, and BK117 helicopters to the rescue and recovery efforts in KwaZulu-Natal, it has had to 14 FlightCom: May 2022

To be fair, some of this is because the nearest units were themselves affected by the intense flooding. 15 Squadron is the only SAAF helicopter squadron in the area and its home base, Air Force Base Durban, became unusable after water levels rose over a metre in some areas. In fact,

someone leaked a photo of one of the unit’s A109s inside a hangar with its undercarriage completely submerged. It had been undergoing maintenance and could not be flown out. Millions of Rands worth of difficult-to-move equipment has been damaged or destroyed by the flooding at the base. Yet this too can be blamed on perpetual underfunding, as 15 Squadron and the other units at AFB Durban were meant to relocate to King Shaka International Airport years ago but have never had sufficient budget for it. King Shaka has much better flood defences, and AFB Durban’s position on what used to be Durban International Airport has been growing more precarious for some time.

more than sufficient to allow for at least a dozen helicopters and crews to be available at 24-48 hours’ notice. Instead, just 17 of the Oryxes, 3 of the A109s, 3 of the BK117s, and none of the SuperLynx 300s were operationally ready or available at the time Armscor and the SAAF recently reported the fleet’s status to Parliament. And notably, while availability rates do go up and down as aircraft go into and emerge from maintenance, or have their hours used up by unplanned missions, the SAAF’s availability rate has hovered at around 25% for a few years now. The effect of persistent underfunding, that so many of us warned years ago would begin to severely harm availability rates, is now being felt. Moreover, at the same time the SAAF has to sustain at least five Oryxes in the DRC for the United Nations mission there, two Oryxes and an A109 in Mozambique for the SADC mission, and at least one Oryx per base inside South Africa for standby tasks. Or, inexcusably, VIP flights. This is also over and

input costs per flying hour have more than doubled

Even so, the SAAF has enough helicopters on paper that it should easily have been able to commit twice as many to the KwaZulu-Natal relief effort as it has, and it should have been able to do so much faster. There are 39 Oryx, 25 A109LUH, 6 BK117, and 4 SuperLynx 300 helicopters in the inventory, and under normal circumstances and regular peacetime availability rates that should be

A 15 Squadron Agusta A-109 LUH at the old Durban airport following the floods.

FlightCom: May 2022

One of the few - a SAAF Oryx in action in the Durban floods.

above the huge impact of Denel’s ongoing collapse, which has meant that Oryxes and A109s have sat at Denel Aeronautics for months awaiting servicing because Denel has been blacklisted by suppliers and is struggling to buy spare parts. It’s become so bad that Armscor has taken to paying suppliers on Denel’s behalf. Gone are the days of Operation Litchi in 2000, when the SAAF deployed a dozen helicopters to Mozambique at short notice and rescued 14,500 people. That’s now far beyond our capabilities, even though it should not be.

response to low availability and lower hours, Joint Operations reduces the on-paper requirements for the SAAF to meet, which in turn causes National Treasury to reduce the funding allocation to the SAAF and cut flying hours further because they don’t understand defence and treat the SANDF like any regular department. It’s a disastrous downward spiral.

Less availability means the SAAF can fly fewer hours

And it’s getting worse, because it’s a negative self-reinforcing cycle. Less availability means the SAAF can fly fewer hours, which means aircrew can’t remain current on all mission types especially high-skill ones like hoisting, so there are cases where aircraft are available, but crews are not. In fact, at this stage a shortage of aircrew current in all mission types is probably a bigger constraint than aircraft availability is. In

16 FlightCom: May 2022

The decline is stark: Today’s SAAF is funded for only 12,000 flying hours in total. This is broken down into 7,000 hours for Force Preparation (FP) (all training, currency maintenance, etc), 4,000 for Force Employment (FE), and 1,000 for VIP. To put it bluntly, that’s an insane allocation.

In comparison, just two years ago the SAAF received funding for 17,200 flying hours, of 4,000 FE, 12,200 FP, and 1,000 VIP hours. Just over ten years before that it received enough funding for nearly 40,000 flying hours, comprising 14,000 FE, 25,000 FP, and 1,000 VIP hours. In other words, in

Given the lack of SAAF and police helicopters - other assets such as the Transnet Pilot helicopters had to be borrowed.

just over twelve years the SAAF’s budgeted flying hours have been cut by 28,000, a 70% decrease, even though the size of its fleet has remained constant and the number of missions it has been committed to have increased. The only role to have remained untouched, predictably, has been VIP transport. These declines have occurred, not only because the SAAF’s budget has been slashed dramatically over the years, but since 1999/2000 its average input costs per flying hour have more than doubled in inflation-adjusted terms as a result of the Rand’s depreciation and the increased cost of fuel. With all that in mind, it’s no wonder that the SAAF today can’t provide the same response as it did for Mozambique in the year 2000, or for so many other large-scale disasters before and after that. It’s unreasonable to expect it, given how little money we allocate to the Air Force. Nor is this the fault of the aircrew, technicians, logisticians, and all the others who have mostly been going above and beyond for years despite the ever more difficult conditions, and

who are by now completely exhausted and burned out. Resignations have climbed sharply. It really is mind-boggling how the situation is allowed to continue, with no serious attempt by Cabinet to properly review its defence policy to prevent continued decline. If it can’t afford to increase spending, then it needs to downsize the force and review its mandate and find alternative arrangements to fill the resulting gaps. Instead, as it has done again and again, the moment an unexpected situation arises, or disaster strikes, and despite steadily slashing the defence budget, Cabinet still demands that the SAAF pull a rabbit of a hat and perform the same old magic. But that magic is weaker now, and it can’t perform miracles. The next time it’s called upon we may find it’s gone for good. 

FlightCom: May 2022

PILOTS LAURA MCDERMID

Laura McDermid continues her stories of Iris McCallum’s flying exploits in East Africa The gibbous moon crests the horizon in a blaze of crimson. Not for the first time, I find myself marvelling at the stark contrasts of this harsh desert landscape. By day, Wajir is a featureless dustbowl that is transformed into a celestial wonderland by night.

N 1991 UNICEF’S AFRICA division recruited me as a pilot. I was initially based in Mandera, the north-eastern province of Kenya, which is bordered by Somalia to the north and Ethiopia to the east. A year later the compound was moved to Wajir County in the south-west due to its proximity to the military base which had a good runway and offered better security for the two Cessna 208 Caravans. As fighting increased between rival factions, the then president of Somalia was forced to flee Mogadishu, resulting in the collapse of the central government. Without governance, various armed factions known as ‘clans’ began competing for influence, and customary law collapsed.

My work varied between transporting medicines and food as well as flying the injured to hospital and shuttling UNICEF officials around. Recently I’d flown a high-ranking official to meet with General Mohammed Farah Aideed, the newly self-proclaimed president and later the ‘most wanted’ person by the USA military. Whilst the official was whisked off to meet with Aideed, I was guarded by armed men who found me to be rather intriguing.

As fighting increased between rival factions

UNICEF has been operating in Somalia since 1972 and has continued to render services to children and women, working with local administrations where they exist, Somali communities, local and international non18 FlightCom: May 2022

governmental organizations, and other UN agencies to help deliver services to this ‘failed state’.

They kept looking from the plane back to me. Eventually their curiosity overcame their incredulity and they struck up a conversation with me. Before we left, they handed me a small vial of scented oil, an honour bestowed on people they held in high regard. A few years later an unsuspecting Australian pilot

made an emergency landing in the same place and was captured by Aideed for entering Somalia without a visa. His light aircraft was confiscated and he was sentenced to 25 years in jail. He was imprisoned in a windowless cell for four months until the Kenyan president intervened to get him released and he promptly returned to Australia. The ordeal during that time must’ve been horrendous as the poor chap reportedly committed suicide a few months later. UNICEF had rented a row of shops in the village of Wajir which doubled as offices and bedrooms. These backed onto a large courtyard that housed a few canvas army tents and three canvas stalls which had been converted into ablutions. The single entrance opened onto a row of trestle tables where we’d dine together each evening. I spent most of my time in the cockpit of the C208 5Y-MAK and would easily rack up 100 hours in 10 days. Then I’d fly back to Nairobi for the Mandatory Periodic Inspection and spend a couple of days at home, resting and stocking up on ‘essentials’ such as beer and wine. I had just returned from one of these trips and was enjoying dinner under a magnificent canopy of stars with twenty people I regarded as family. We are an eclectic mix from all over the world. “Thanks for the cold brew, Iris,” said Jeff. Jeff Butler, a 28-year-old American pilot from the humanitarian organization Airserv, had recently replaced fellow pilot Big Jim who flew the Twin Otter to the Congo. We realized that the C208’s are as capable as the ‘Twotter’ but cost half as much to run. “Pleasure Jeff, consider them payment for putting the seats back into Baby Mak,” I replied. The standard passenger seats in 5Y-MAK had been removed and replaced with purpose-built canvas seats which could be taken out when the plane needed to be loaded with supplies. The task is meant to be effortless, but inevitably I end up wrestling with the ungainly seats, and I avoid the job whenever possible.

Iris wrestling with the seats in Baby Mak.

We continue our banter as the moon rises higher in the sky, bathing the desert in soft light. “A Bloody Mary for you Noreen?” chirps security officer Robert ‘Bob’ McCarthy. ‘Sod off Bob,” Noreen laughs. ‘I’m off to bed.’ My good friend Noreen Prendeville is one of three medics in our team. Bob teases her at every opportunity about her phobia of blood. I follow Noreen to our adjoining tiny rooms. As I open my door I am hit by a wall of heat. I love the desert but it’s still stiflingly hot in September and the failure of the Gu rains earlier this year is jeopardizing 2003’s agricultural production, plunging the country further into drought. ‘Thank heavens for my fan.’ I allowed myself two indulgences when I moved here, one being this fan, the other a small bar fridge.

FlightCom: May 2022

PILOTS I flop down on the bed, enjoying the feel of air blowing through my unruly curls and soon I fall into an exhausted sleep. “Shreeeee-Shreeee”. The shriek of police whistles pierces the night. I jump out of bed and open the single wooden shutter, squinting through the metal bars. I see people with guns running towards the compound, their long, thin shadows stretched out far behind them. I hear a gunshot. “Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack”. The pillow on which I was lying mere seconds ago explodes in a cloud of feathers. I crouch low in the corner between the window and door. I’m gripped by terror, my heartbeat so loud in my ears that I fear the bandits will hear it through the wall, but they walk past, presuming me dead.

The scuffle continues for a few more minutes and then deafening silence. It feels like an eternity before a Kenyan soldier announces that it’s safe to come out. My fingers fumble as I pull on my flight suit. I gingerly open the bullet-riddled door, almost colliding with one of the radio operators. ‘Thank god you’re okay Iris!’ He blurted. ‘Jeff has been shot and he’s been taken to the local clinic, but they don’t have any of his blood type. You have to fly him to Nairobi immediately.’ Time seems to stand still. It feels like I’m observing myself from afar. ‘Get a grip Iris’. I shake myself out of the stupor and hasten to find someone from the army to drive me to the airstrip. ‘Damn it!’ I must remove the canvas seats that Jeff had installed mere hours earlier. Job done, I check the 5Y-MAK in Wajir (note the dead camel in the foreground).

20 FlightCom: May 2022

Iris with some of the UNICEF staff at the Wajir airstrip.

airframe and make sure the tanks are full of JetA. The screeching of tyres announces the arrival of Jeff, Bob, and the medical team. They lift Jeff onto the mattress in the aircraft and set up a drip. “Can one of you please take a look at my leg?” Whilst attempting to flee the gunmen, Bob had caught a bullet and had ignored his own discomfort until Jeff had been stabilised. Whilst Noreen attends to Bob, I kneel next to Jeff and gently stroke his sodden brow. He flinches at my touch. “Please don’t do that Iris, it hurts all over”. My throat constricts. I leave him and distract myself with the pre-flight. The night sky embraces me as I lift off and leave the earthly horrors behind. I level off at 9000”, lower than I’d ordinarily fly, but I can’t potentially risk depriving Jeff of oxygen. Safe in my sanctuary in the sky, my heartbeat returns

to normal. I’m in my own world, just another dot in the inky blueness. The two-hour flight feels like an eternity. I make my call as soon as I know I’m in range. “Good morning Jomo Kenyatta Tower, this is FiveYankee-Mike-Alpha-Kilo. Outbound from Wajir airport with six on board. Two of them have been shot, one of whom is critically injured and requires emergency assistance”. “Five-Yankee-Mike-Alpha-Kilo cleared inbound, runway 06 in use. Will dispatch emergency vehicles.” I touch down just as the first rays of orange sets the sky on fire. The vehicles are waiting, and Jeff’s limp body is lifted out. The look on Noreen’s face confirms my worst fear. Despite the three bags of Ringer’s Lactate, Jeff has lost too much blood. ‘Farewell my friend, I will miss you’.

FlightCom: May 2022

PILOTS

The letter of thanks to Iris.

Bob is taken off in an ambulance, accompanied by the medics.

What we presumed to be rebel bandits turned out to be Al Shebaab and was the beginning of the civil war.

I make the 10-minute flight to Wilson airport where I refuel and hose the inside of Baby Mak down. As Jeff’s blood soaks into the African earth, I offer up a silent prayer. His missionary parents will be devastated.

The U.N. authorized the arrest of General Mohammed Farah Aidid and on October 3, 1993. During an attempt to make the arrest, rebels shot down two of the U.S. Army’s Black Hawk helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers (inspiring the movie Black Hawk Down), forcing President Clinton to speed up the withdrawal of U.S forces, which was completed the following year.

Knowing that UNICEF will want to evacuate everyone, I fly back to Wajir to collect the rest of my team to fly them back to Nairobi. With no other pilot to assist, the mission has me logging 10.4 hours that day. Once back in Nairobi, I invite Noreen to stay with me as neither of us could face being alone. Despite being awake for 48 hours, we spend the rest of the night talking and drinking fine Scotch.

22 FlightCom: May 2022

In loving memory of Jeff Butler.

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FlightCom: May 2022

BY JOHN BASSI: PART

LOOKING BACK AT LOCKDOWN THE MOMENT OUR LIVES FOREVER CHANGED.

It always fascinates people when they see how much I can pack into the helicopter to go away on trips. Some call it my flying bakkie.

T’S NOT UNCOMMON for me to be away in the bush for a few months at a time, often staying in serious dumps with little or no comforts. I have learned to become fully self-sufficient. There is nothing more annoying than being in some remote hole where you are unable to fry an egg because there is no frying pan. I take everything, plus some, including items to keep me sane, like books and DVDs. With a fully loaded helicopter and 3.5 hours fuel, my lift off is somewhat flat, loving ground effect for as long as needed and departing in a dignified manner, much like a 747.

Augrabies. The outside air temperature passing over the arid Kalahari with its ripples of red sand dunes running off in parallel lines was 38 degrees C, so I feared it would be in the 40s on the ground. There seemed to be an impossible contrast from the red sand to that of countless life forms, shimmering water, green fields of irrigation and vines looming ahead along the snaking Orange River, a barrier that changes the landscape from rolling dunes in the east, to desolate, arid planes interspersed with barren looking rocky outcrops and hills to the west.

my li ft off is s omewhat f lat , loving ground effect

I climbed away from Tempe mid-morning and set course for Augrabies, planning to get there ahead of the others so I could take time to unpack and settle into my chalet, walk down to the chasms of the falls and breath in the earthy wet spray that explodes above the gorge.

The on-going drought made a sobering contrast from the wet, green and lush mountains of yesterday. Ahead and in every direction to beyond the horizon lay a shimmering sun beaten landscape devoid of anything green. It was going to be a hot few days flying at

24 FlightCom: May 2022

Beyond the river, quiver trees cling in clusters to whatever nourishment they can find, look closer and life is everywhere, albeit, beetles, lizards and snakes with the occasional springbok.

Twenty minutes out from the falls I look down at an expanse of desert plains, extinct rivers with tributaries like fingers on a hand, russet-coloured boulders and black shiny slabs of rock making the land appear lunar in its hostility. Yet, a few years back, Black rhino roamed freely. They thrived on the poisonous euphorbias and various cacti; that was until our government allowed a land claim to remove this protected land from National Parks. Now, it’s just a

A cut short mission at the Augrabies Falls.

barren, lifeless Martian landscape where no man can eke a living. The average water flow over the falls is no more than a few hundred cubic metres per second. Sort of disappointing to see it like that for the first time, but the gorge and scenery make up for the lack of a mighty

waterfall. During floods however, it is another story when 2000 or more cubic meters per second plummet into the narrow space. Augrabies becomes a miniature Victoria falls, with so much water thundering from every direction the very ground shakes. This only happens for a few days every ten years or so.

FlightCom: May 2022

From the sky above you can look back millions of years and clearly see the fissures that were once the long extinct previous falls. You can see at least four separate gorges carved out of the rock by the river as it eroded new weaker fissures and changed its course. And you can see how the future waterfall, millions of years from now, is already forming. The handful of poverty-stricken custodians of this awarded land claim are unable to farm or generate any income from this hostile place. However some very dynamic government thinkers got a New Zealand company to explore and plan a hydroelectric power station. The plan involves diverting the Orange River away from the Augrabies falls, through pipes where it would plummet down one of the extinct gorges downstream from the current falls. Huge excavations would be made to install the turbines in the gorge. However, the power station would require a constant flow of over 1200 cubic meters per second, something that only happens for a few days every few years after good rains, so another white elephant to line pockets with stolen money. Even with the low water, the Augrabies camp was a hive of tourist activity, the restaurant had a steady flow of thirsty hikers and relaxed guests coming and going. As promised, I got the braai ready for our re-union feast and waited in the airconditioned chalet for the team. The helicopter was fuelled up and everything set to begin with the monumental task of flying 400 metre transects over the entire reserve in furnace heat. Trepidation ran high with rumours and an impending 26 FlightCom: May 2022

Flying down the Augrabies gorge.

speech scheduled for 20:00 from Cyril. But whatever was happening in Italy seemed so foreign and far away that our little team and the important game census we were about to begin in such a remote corner of the world was surely immune to some invisible distant virus. At 8 pm we sat huddled around the TV set with our plates full of skaap chops and boerewors, hot off the fire. We sat silently with mixed emotions, blank expressions, confused thoughts attempting to decipher and understand and accept the foreign concept that was being dealt out to us. The words sounded surreal, like they were other words meant for other people, not us…we had a census to fly!!

This couldn’t include us? “Citizens of South Africa, wherever you may be and no matter what you are doing, you have three days from midnight tonight to go home. At midnight on the 26th March, there will be a curfew, no person shall be allowed to leave their home for any reason.” We sat staring at each other, trying to comprehend these words. We looked at each other, waiting for one of us to say something to make all the thoughts go away. Cathy spoke first. “I need to get to Upington tomorrow and to fly to Johannesburg and then book a flight back to Skukuza, but I don’t think there are flights tomorrow.” Nkabeng said, “I need to get to Kimberley tomorrow, and you need to get back to Golden Gate,” looking at Johan.

Those quiet alone times ferrying machines provide ample time to think. Fortunately, I am able to land right outside my home on the mountain near Simonstown, and I decided to face the coming days one step at a time, the first step being the need to reach Tulbach for fuel. Step 2, fly home and unpack. Step 3, stock up on food and water and fill the car. Step 4 purchase some Airfix plastic model airplanes and paints, to build and keep busy. The next two days were utterly chaotic and emotionally confusing, however, with that initial 14-day lockdown I can honestly say that I was in utopia. I was having my needed holiday, a peaceful quiet break to be selfindulgent, to recharge and completely relax. Little did I know then how all that would change.



And I quietly realised that I needed to get to Cape Town. I do not remember what happened after that, we all went our separate ways to bed. In the morning everyone, including myself, seemed detached and preoccupied, packing, phoning, planning. The camp was empty by 8am, not a tourist in sight. I stood alone next to the helicopter, looked out over the vast open space dotted with quiver trees – and felt numb. The team had bombshelled off, and I stood alone with my jumbled thoughts, not wanting to leave. The flight to Cape Town from Augrabies was just over the fuel endurance of the helicopter and the massive desert area that lay between me and home was intimidatingly vast and uninhabited. My saving grace was James, based with his two Bell UH1 firefighting helicopters at Tulbach, just on 3 hours away. There was no other way out for me, headwind or not, I had to go.

On the ground at Simonstown to wait out the curfew at home.

FlightCom: May 2022

FLIGHT TEST by Guy Leitch

B L ACKHAWK

350:

TH E U LTI MATE KI NG AI R Blackhawk's XP-67A upgrade to the King Air 350 is claimed to make it "the best performing King Air".

28 FlightCom: May 2022

Black hawk Modifications have built an enviable reputation taking excellent turboprops and making them even better. This is par ticularly evident in the spectacular gains they have achieved with the Beechcraft King Air range. FlightCom: May 2022

FLIGHT TEST

HE OLD ADAGE THAT ‘you can never have too much power’ is the core of Blackhawk’s modifications. But it’s not just a matter of swopping the standard engines for more modern higher-powered versions – you have to be able to use that power, and so the engine conversion includes new props which are quieter and more efficient. Blackhawk established its reputation as the leading turboprop modifier by upgrading the King Air 200. It was then a natural outgrowth for it to expand its range of upgrades to include the top of the range King Air 300/350 series.

BETTER THAN NEW The heart of an aircraft is its engines. The Blackhawk upgrade of the King Air 350/350ER features Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-XP67A engines (-67s), producing 1,050 shaft horsepower (shp) up to 25,000 feet. AOPA reports that Blackhawk’s latest offering is a package for the King Air 350 and 350i that the company calls its XP67A Engine+ Upgrade. It swops out the stock Pratt & Whitney PT6A-60A (dash 60) engines for PT6A-67A (dash 67) powerplants—the same engines used in the Pilatus PC–12NG turboprop single.

Interestingly Blackhawk does not change the standard rated power of the King Air 350. Both the -60A and -67A engines are rated at 1,050 shaft horsepower—the 350’s originally certified airframe limitations—but the -67A has a big advantage: Its thermodynamic rating is 1,200 shaft horsepower. In other words, the -67A has higher interstage turbine temperature (ITT) redlines than the -60A. This essentially gives the upgraded engines about 150 more shaft horsepower per side.

THE BENEFITS OF A HIGHER FLAT RATING Flying a turboprop means managing a balancing act between torque (the twisting force exerted on the propeller shaft) and ITT limits. At lower altitudes, where air is denser, it’s easy for pilots to advance power during takeoff and climb and reach—or exceed, if they’re ham handed—torque limits, but dense air keeps ITTs cool. As the plane climbs into the thin air at altitude, torque falls off, but ITTs creep up because that same thin air does a poor job of cooling internal engine components. If you try to make up for a loss of torque by pushing up the power levers you’re likely to exceed ITT redline, which is bad because expensive engine damage can occur.

The King Air is much loved in Africa and the Blackhawk upgrade makes it even more versatile.

30 FlightCom: May 2022

The Blackhawk PT-6-67s drive a new five blade MT composite prop.

But by using the more powerful -67A engines with higher than stock -60A ITT limits, then winding back its power output by adjusting torque redlines, Blackhawk gives its mods more torque and power at higher altitudes without the penalty of reaching ITT redlines. In essence, the engine is loafing. It has power to spare—enough for significantly better performance. This performance-enhancing strategy is called flat rating, a technique for staying within airframe airspeed and power limits without exceeding engine temperature limits. Blackhawk claims its upgrade can give a mid-weight King Air 350i jet-like performance, with a 60-percent improvement in climb rate, an 18-minute time to climb to the airplane’s FL350 maximum operating altitude, and maximum cruise speeds of 332 knots—all of this under ISA +25 degree conditions. A key point of this modification is that the basic engine power rating has not changed. The original PT6A-60A engines are also rated to 1050 shp, but only to 15,000 feet, above which power drops off steadily, reducing

cruise performance – particularly in the FL300s of which the aircraft is capable. The full 1,050 shp begins to drop off above 14,000 feet compared to standard 350 models, with ITTs that hit redline and thus begin losing power at 7,000 feet. The Blackhawk -67 engines are mated to svelte 5-blade composite MT-Propellers, which makes the Blackhawk conversion immediately identifiable on the ground. The Blackhawk’s new engines and props are said to make the King Air 350 the “fastest, biggest load hauling and highest-flying King Air.”

ON THE GROUND The Blackhawk 350 looks pretty much indistinguishable from the original – excluding the big new 5-blade props that is. The aficionados will recognise a few small cowl flaps for the oil coolers, and a fairing on top of the engine nacelles that covers the propeller governor. If you open the nacelles’ side access panels

FlightCom: May 2022

FLIGHT TEST

The Blackhawk XP-67 marketing brochure shows the conversion produces impressive improvements.

you can see an extra section in the intake airbox. This is to make room for the -67A’s extra compressor wheel. The -67A has four axial compressor wheels; the stock engine has three.

test we re using AOPAs review of a Blackhawk 350i. They report that with two pilots, seven passengers, and 2,500 pounds (about 373 gallons) of fuel aboard, our weight rang in at 14,400 pounds.

For many owners of King Airs the opportunity to do a Blackhawk upgrade also spurs them on to upgrade the avionics, interiors and exterior paint. Thus, many 20 plus year old King Airs due for engine overhauls get not just the Blackhawk engines and props but also a full avionics refit, changing the original Collins Pro-line to the latest Garmin G1000 NXi integrated EFIS avionics suite. Aopa reports that Of the 350s that have so far come in for the XP67A upgrade, some 40 percent have already had their original Pro Line 2 panels swapped out with G1000s.

With a high residual thrust level, slow taxy, especially downhill to Lanseria 07, requires some finesse. The MT props can idle as low as 750 rpm, so this feature came in handy. The standard plane’s Hartzell propellers’ lowest idle speed is 1,050 rpm, set by pitch stops installed to keep the Hartzells out of a resonance range between 450 and 1,050 rpm.

Other popular upgrades for the King Air 350 include the addition of long-range Centex 190 gallons saddle tanks in the nacelles. These tanks give the 350 an extra 2400 nm range, which is invaluable for long range operations in Africa. Nothing makes a plane appear quite as young as a shiny new paint job and the big new 5-bladed props add to the big King Air’s ramp presence. In-flight wifi and screens for in-flight movies are other popular options – especially when the long range tanks are fitted.

IN THE AIR Blackhawk has achieved notable sales successes in Africa across the King Air range – but for our flight

32 FlightCom: May 2022

The takeoff briefing was: Runway 07 for takeoff, abort for any major abnormality below V1 of 95 knots. Rotation speed is 104 knots. Lift off and pitch to 10 degrees nose up. Accelerate to the V2 of 114 knots on runway heading. Left turnout to 340. Expect FL280 in 10 minutes. Takeoff power set on both dash-67 engines, track the centreline as the 350 hits V1, then VR. In ISA+16 conditions the initial climb rate was 2,500 fpm, settling in to 2,000 fpm as we pitched for the VY of 140 knots and passed FL200 10 minutes after takeoff. Through FL270, we saw 222 KTAS while burning 450 pounds (67 gph) per side in the ISA+16, outside air temperatures as displayed on the G1000 NXi. Once level at FL280, it was time to look at the torque/ ITT situation as maximum cruise power was set. The power levers were set for 99-percent torque, but the -67A’s ITTs stayed at a cool 808 degrees Celsius— well below their 840-degree redlines in the conditions.

Real numbers - 302 KTAS in the cruise at FL280.

Established straight and level in the cruise at FL280, the speed improvement from the new engines was evident with a very creditable 303 KTAS displayed on the Garmin G1000 NXi, albeit with a higher torque and thus fuel flow. (See the Blackhawk FAQs). For those economy-minded in these days of war-inflated fuel prices, the POH quotes a fuel flow on the standard engines at 83% torque of 287 pounds per hour per side. With the dash -76s the Garmin was displaying a fuel flow between 341 and 351 lbs/h. Blackhawk’s marketing brochures claim a maximum cruise speed of 332KTAS and this may well be achievable, albeit at a power setting higher than the cruise. While the stock engines burn less fuel, Blackhawk argues that the modified plane makes up for this with faster speeds, reduced block times, and a concomitant reduction in direct operating costs. At FL320, Blackhawk says its upgrade yields an overall 40- to 45-knot advantage over standard 350i models. The

degree of the improvement claimed by Blackhawk can be seen from their graphic. Outside the cockpit, the big 5-blade MT composite props were spinning at just 1620 rpm and it was apparent that they were significantly quieter and smoother than the standard Hartzell aluminium props. The standard King Air 350’s -60A engines and airframe combination provide the best performance at a less than ideal FL200, where on an ISA +10 degree day, at a hefty 83% torque, a true airspeed of 296 knots is claimed by the POH. At a more economical FL280, 61% torque should provide 284 KTAS with the standard engines. AOPA reports that “at one point we needed to fly through a cloud layer, and to prevent icing in the engine intakes we had to open the ice vanes—doors in the intake passages that eject supercooled droplets and frozen precipitation from the air flowing into the engines. Do this, and power drops as torque falls off. In our case, torques dropped from mid-90-percent levels

FlightCom: May 2022

FLIGHT TEST

The -67 engines have a fourth compressor wheel - evident in the longer green section.

to 80 to 82 percent. Normally, an airspeed loss would have followed. But with the -67A’s higher ITT limits, we pushed the power back up to 90-percent torque, letting the ITTs settle at the 820-degree mark, restoring our lost airspeed while retaining safe margins from ITT redlines. The landing was jet-like, in that, depending on weight, you maintain 120 knots or so down final, slowing to 100 knots on short final, landing in a flattish attitude, and using reverse thrust and braking to stop. Sort of what you’d expect in such a fast, heavily loaded airplane. In other words, no full-stall landings, please.

CONCLUSION The flight test clearly showed the benefits of the engines’ flat rating upgrade as well as the smooth propellors and the remarkable abilities of the Garmin G1000 NXi. Blackhawk makes a compelling proposition for its upgrades. Their marketing material claims with considerable justification that the Blackhawk King Air 350 is the “best King Air ever.”

34 FlightCom: May 2022

The key performance improvements are: •

A 60% increased climb rate with a 332 KTAS maximum cruise speed

•

Smooth new 5-bladed propellors

•

A 3,600hrs P&WC enhanced engine warranty. This starts with the standard P&WC Enhanced New-Engine Warranty of 2,500 hours or 5 years and then adds pro-rated coverage to a 3,600 hour TBO.

Where the big turboprop Kings Airs shine is hauling a big useful load out of tight airstrips. Comparing the Blackhawk King Air 350 to the Cessna Citation 2, Blackhawk reckon that the King Air with XP-67s has a 62% greater payload with full fuel compared to the pure jet CJ2. While these engine and prop transplants are unavoidably expensive, Blackhawk claims that owners and flight departments with typical utilisation can expect to achieve a $90,000 annual operating cost saving. 

Blackhawk's answers to frequently asked questions.

FlightCom: May 2022

FLIGHT TEST

TH E VALU E PROPOSITION THE IDEAL time for a Blackhawk conversion is when the engines reach major overhaul, and often the owners of the aircraft take the opportunity to give their aircraft a full midlife facelift, with new avionics, usually a Garmin G1000 NXi, paint and interiors. However, the value of a Blackhawk conversion is often compelling enough for owners to do the upgrades before the original engines are due for overhaul. Blackhawk encourages owners to not wait until the engines reach TBO by providing a credit of up to $70 per hour per engine for every hour remaining to the factory TBO.

The well-known G1000 has achieved amazing new capabilities in the G1000 NXi.

Blackhawk maintains that their engines have the strongest resale value of any engine upgrade on the market as “nearly every Blackhawk powered aircraft sold within 500 hours of the upgrade recovered close to or more than the combined investment of the airframe and engines.” Intangibly, it is argued that the faster climb and cruise speed saves time on each mission giving the businessman passengers more time to be productive. 

36 FlightCom: May 2022

The quality of the displays on the G1000 NXi and associated system's EFIS are excellent.

NEWS

RUSSIA FORCED TO USE LOCAL ENGINES FOR ITS IRKUT MC-21

Due to the international sanctions imposed on the country following the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has to use only domestically made engines for its Irkut MC-21. IRKUT, THE MANUFACTURER of the MC-21 twin-jet, will now only use the indigenously made PD-14 high-bypass turbofan engine, which is developed by Russian company UEC-Aviadvigatel, In 2009, Irkut had selected Pratt & Whitney to supply the MC-21 aircraft with PW1000G-JM turbofan engines. Later that year the country decided to have both internal and external suppliers for the engine to secure flexibility in controlling rate and price.

Thus, UEC-Aviadvigatel was involved in the MC-21 project and started developing the PD-14. Facing the toughest international sanctions in its history due to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has decided to accelerate the development of its domestically manufactured commercial single-aisle aircraft Irkut MC-21. 

Russia now has to use local engines for its Irkut MC-21.

FlightCom: May 2022

FACE TO FACE

FA CE T O FACE

DIRECTOR OF THE CAA:

MS P OP P Y K HOZ A Ms Poppy Khoza has been the Director of the CAA for more almost 10 years – something of a record. She must be doing something right to have lasted so long in such a difficult job. Guy Leitch caught up with her. GL: I have been very critical recently about the CAA and particularly the handling of the Comair grounding. One of the criticisms I had of the grounding was that you were not leading from the front. That is, you were not handling the media announcements, but rather leaving it to your senior managers. Grounding an airline is an extremely serious action and so would it not have been reasonable for you to have been personally making the announcements as the Director of the CAA (DCA)? PK: The reason is simple: The power to ground an aircraft or suspend an airline is given to the authorised officer in terms of the Civil Aviation Act read with the associated regulations. A person who feels aggrieved by a decision of the inspector or authorised officer has a right to appeal to me. Until the suspension or grounding is appealed against, it would be premature, irregular and improper for me as the Director to be involved, comment or handle media queries. It is for this reason, that the Director should not only be seen, but should actually be impartial and stay out of announcements and involvement with the airline and media.

38 FlightCom: May 2022

GL: Have you ever overruled one of your inspectors? PK: Yes, there are many times when I have overruled inspectors or authorised officer decisions because I have an opportunity to evaluate representations and evidence from both sides. GL: You have done very well with your ICAO audits, achieving a world class 87%. However, I am reliably told that in November an FAA inspection uncovered a number of findings and that the FAA will be back in May to review progress on these findings. Are you concerned that the FAA may downgrade the CAA from its current A1 status? PK: The FAA uses largely the same eight critical elements used by ICAO during an assessment, although there are some differences in their audit methodology. I am comfortable that we have addressed all their current concerns. GL: One of the ongoing findings from ICAO has been the lack of true independence of your

accident investigation division (AIID). What is the progress of this?

Director of the CAA, Ms Poppy Khoza has been in the job for almost 10 years.

PK: As you know, the new Civil Aviation Act was signed by the State President in April, and there are provisions that are specifically meant to finally make it possible for us to achieve a properly independent Accident Investigation function. The Department of Transport shall handle this process until the end. GL: Okay. But will you continue to supply office space and administration support to the new directorate – and pay the staffs’ salaries? PK: I am confident that the Department as demonstrated by the provisions of the amended Act, that they will ensure the independence as envisaged in the Act. The intention is to ensure that AIID is totally separate from the SACAA. The full details of this separation will be unpacked by the DOT in due course. What we do know is that the AIID shall have its own administration as intended. GL: One of the hot topics at the moment is that of the registration and licensing of airfields. This seems to come up every few years and causes much push-back from the industry. PK: As the CAA we have a duty of care to the users of aviation in South Africa. The world is becoming far more litigious, and we cannot risk another major lawsuit against us from for example a V-VIP who may be injured in a crash at an unlicensed or unregistered airfield, used in especially the hospitality industry. We are not insisting that every airfield be licensed but we need to know what airfields are out there, and what level of activity they are supporting. This is essential for our safety and security oversight responsibilities and will also guide strategy in going forward.

We are currently working on the draft of a new subpart (subpart 5 of Part 139), in collaboration with the industry, and which has already been published for comments. GL: You are also under a lot of pressure from the State Security Cluster on this? PK: There are concerns about the spread of terrorism and smuggling of endangered species and contraband as well as human trafficking into and out of Southern Africa and again it makes sense that we must know where airfields are. But there are four different levels of registration – so it is easy for the airfield owners and operators to let us know where

FlightCom: May 2022

they are located and what level of flying operations they handle. The registration of an aerodrome is a very simple process, involving a short form, to be completed by the owner and no fees are payable. This form is emailed to SACAA, and the registered aerodrome is then added to the list published, for all pilots to see, and to do proper flight planning. Registered aerodromes are not licensed or oversighted under normal conditions. GL: You recently took the unusual step or writing a letter to the captains of the aviation industry and it received quite a lot of negative comment. PK: There is always a group of persons who will choose to believe that the CAA can do nothing right, and we understand that. Equally there has been a lot of appreciation from those who objectively understood the intention of the letter. That letter was an open and honest attempt to warn the industry that the CAA is concerned about the increasing rate of incidents and that we are pro-actively asking them to address those concerns. In a sense it was like sitting the captains of industry down around a table and letting them know that if things did not improve then we would have to intervene. What we are concerned about, actually should also be concerning to the industry and they should be learning from the incidents and ensuring that they take pro-active steps to identify and correct the gaps. While we acknowledge that the licence holders and the SACAA have different mandates and roles to play, we are, however enjoined in ensuring that our joint efforts culminate in civil aviation safety and security.

PK: Like all systems that are implemented there were teething issues in getting the new system settled and working to its maximum intent. I am pleased to say that these have now largely been dealt with and we have captured much of the manual information onto the system. This is streamlining our licensing process and making customer service much better. We will continue to improve our systems to make it bearable for the users to transact seamlessly with the regulator. Be on the lookout for further developments which we are rolling out in this financial year, including online payments and accessibility of the platforms on a 24/7 basis. GL: You are now, after at least 15 years of trying by the CAA, finally succeeding in quoting accident statistics, not just as numbers of accidents, but in terms of accidents per number of hours flown. This is a huge improvement. Is it a function of the new ERP computer system?

We a r e now able to capture f lying time

GL: Your customer facing licencing department went through a difficult period during the Covid-19 lockdown. The delays were attracting severe criticism from your clients. This now seems to have been largely fixed. Is it because your R93 million Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) System is now properly working?

40 FlightCom: May 2022

PK: We are now able to capture flying time for both aircraft and for flight crew. However, there are again a few niggles in the systems – which we are continuously working on to improve the quality of the data it produces. We are delighted that we have managed to get this right as requested by the industry. GL: Finally, I hear that you have cancelled your plans to move into the big new ACSA building at OR Tambo. PK: Yes, the lockdown made us take a hard look at our human resource and space requirements and we have had to cut our cloth according to our reduced income from passenger levies. So, we are exploring other options for a fit for purpose building which takes into account the new dynamics of the new and future world of work. 

NEWS

LEARJET - FINAL DELIVERY THE LAST LEARJET HAS BEEN delivered. The iconic Learjet has been flying since the 1960s and was one of the first biz-jets to be developed.

Éric Martel, president and CEO of Bombardier, said the company is focusing instead on the production of Global and Challenger jets.

According to JetNet.com, approximately 3,043 Learjets have been built and of those approximately 2,145 are still in use. Nonetheless, in February 2021, Bombardier announced it was discontinuing the production of Learjets, however, it said it would continue to provide support and maintenance for the aircraft still in use.

The final Learjet was delivered to Northern Jet Management in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in March. On its company Facebook page, Northern Jet Management posted a picture of employees with the message “Monday the 28th of [March] 2022 saw the end for one of the most popular business jet families ever. 

The roll-out of the last LearJet.

FlightCom: May 2022

NEWS

LANDING C172 SHOT The pilot of a Cessna 172 says he was two minutes from landing at about 700 feet when a bullet went through the wing, hitting the fuel tank. STUDENT PILOT DAN BLACK says he and his instructor were practicing landing when they heard a pop and then smelled fuel. “Once we started to smell the fuel, we knew something was going on,” said Black. “But we didn’t think it was a bullet. We saw that fuel was coming out of our wings, so we knew we had an issue with the left tank. And we parked the plane and dumped all the fuel out into buckets. And then during that process, we noticed there was a hole in the wing.”

“It went all the way through the wing and stopped here in the bottom side of the fuel tank,” said Gardner Aviation Services owner Dominic Scalera. Templeton Police, the Worcester District Attorney and the FAA are investigating where the shot came from, but the owner here says it’ll be hard to tell. Scalera says as soon as they patch the hole in the plane and fix the fuel tank, the plane will be right back up in the air. 

A gung-ho American took a pot shot at this C172 and holed the fuel tank. 42 FlightCom: May 2022

NEWS

RUSSIA JAMS GPS Airlines have reported Russian GPS jamming in four regions. The Russian military's jamming of airline satellite navigation is likely collateral damage from the war, an EASA spokesperson said. ACCORDING TO A REPORT citing a French aviation official, Russia’s military is jamming airline satellite navigation near the Black Sea, eastern Finland and Kaliningrad, a Russian province along the Baltic Sea located between Lithuania and Poland. The satellite navigation disruption is being caused by Russian trucks with jamming equipment meant to defend Russian troops from GPS-guided munitions, Benoit Roturier, satellite navigation head of France’s civil aviation authority DGAC, told Bloomberg. “I don’t think the goal is to jam civil aviation at this stage,” he said. “That is collateral damage.”

“The effects of [Global Navigation Satellite System] GNSS jamming and/or possible spoofing were observed by aircraft in various phases of their flights, in certain cases leading to rerouting or even to change the destination due to the inability to perform a safe landing procedure,” EASA said in a safety information bulletin. “Under the present conditions, it is not possible to predict GNSS outages and their effects. The magnitude of the issues generated by such outage would depend upon the extent of the area concerned, on the duration and on the phase of flight of the affected aircraft.”

Some of the potential issues that have occurred due to the A Russian GPS jammer. In addition to Kaliningrad, jamming include: Loss of eastern Finland and the Black Sea, GPS disruptions ability to use GNSS for waypoint navigation. Loss have also been reported in the eastern Mediterranean of area navigation (RNAV) approach capability. near Cyprus, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Inability to conduct or maintain Required Navigation Northern Iraq, according to the European Union Performance (RNP) operations, including RNP Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). and RNP (Authorization Required) approaches. Triggering of terrain warnings, possibly with pull “For some countries closer to the front, who may up commands. Inconsistent aircraft position on the be less advanced in putting in place contingency navigation display; Loss of automatic dependent plans, the current situation has served to highlight surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B), wind shear, terrain and surface functionalities. Failure or degradation the need.” of air traffic management (ATM), air navigation On March 17, EASA published a safety information services (ANS) and communication, navigation bulletin warning pilots that spoofing and/or jamming and surveillance (CNS) and aircraft systems which had intensified in the four geographical areas due to use GNSS as a time reference. Potential airspace infringements and/or route deviations due to GNSS Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. degradation. 

FlightCom: May 2022

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GRAND CENTRAL KRUGERSDORP

LANSERIA AIRPORT / RANDBURG

086-605-8948 www.aviatech.co.za/

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Aeronav Academy Skyhawk Aviation Vulcan Aviation (Pty) Ltd MOSSEL BAY Starlite Aviation Training Academy

(011) (011) (087)

701-3862 701-2622 265-7150

701-3873 701-2623

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(044)

692-0006

www.starliteaviation.com

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Johannesburg Flying Academy

(064)

756 6356

Algoa Flying Club

(041)

581-3274

086-461-7067

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Johannesburg School of Flying (011) U Fly Training Academy (011)

827 9827 824-0680

info@jsf.co.za 390-1738

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Richards Bay Air Carriers

(035)

786-0146/7 786-0145

Rustenburg Flying Club

(082)

821 1690

082 619 8633

Bird Aviation

(016)

556-1007

info@birdaviation.co.za

Desert Air (PTY) LTD

+264

61 228101

+264 61 254 345

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Blue Chip Flight School Loutzavia Legend Sky Powered Flight Training Vortx Aviation Training

(012) (012) (083) (078) (072)

543-3050 567-6775 860-5225 460-1231 480-0359

543-1826 543-1519 086-600-7285 086-666-2077 086-524-0949

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PANORAMA

PORT ELIZABETH RAND AIRPORT

RICHARDS BAY RUSTENBURG

VEREENIGING AIRPORT

WINDHOEK - EROS AIRPORT

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WONDERBOOM AIRPORT / AEROPARK / RHINO PARK - PRETORIA

44 FlightCom: May 2022

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w w w. a l p i a v i a t i o n . c o . z a

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Dangerous Goods

Hangarage

Export Docs & Clearing

Lodge Transfers

(armed)

Line Inspections

Security Based

Aircraft Leasing

Aerial Photography

Maintenance

Surveys

Aircraft Sales

Contracts

Safari Charters

Special Events

Helicopter

Freight

FAX NO

V.I.P

TEL NO

Biz-Jets

CODE

> 20 pax

NAME OF CHARTER

< 20 pax

CHARTER DIRECTORY

Long-Range

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

BRAKPAN FABB Titanium Air

(011)

914 5810

083 292 0978

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ExecuJet South Africa

(021)

934 5764

934 2087

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Streamline Air Charter

(011)

395 1195/8

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(031)

564 6215

564 6222

(011)

805-0652/82

805-0649

Batair Cargo

(011)

659 2000

701 2253

ExecuJet South Africa

(011)

516 2300

659 2520

Majestic Air Charters

(018)

632 6477

Out of the Blue Air Safaris

(011)

701 2653

CAPE TOWN jjj

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DURBAN KZN Aviation

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GRAND CENTRAL Pambele Aviation

LANSERIA AIRPORT j jjjjj j 082 905 5760

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OR TAMBO INTERNATIONAL Fair Aviation (Pty) Ltd

(011)

395 4552

395 4244

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Federal Airlines

(011)

395 9000

086 667 1789

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Streamline Air Charter

(011)

395 1195/8

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(012)

566 3019

RAND AIRPORT FlyFofa Airways

www.flyfofa.co.za

WINDHOEK - SWAKOPMUND Scenic Air (Pty) Ltd

(+264)

6440 3575

info@scenic-air.com.na

WONDERBOOM AIRPORT - PRETORIA Alpha One Aviation

(082)

301 9977

Flyjetstream Aviation

(012)

543 0060

(083) 279 7853

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Maverick Air Charters

(012)

940 0320

086 648 2690

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Powered Flight Charters

(078)

460 1231

086 666 2077

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

FlightCom: May 2022

AMO LISTING

FAX NO

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

CODE TEL NO

CAPE TOWN

Interior

NAME OF AMO

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

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

Cape Aircraft Interiors

(021)

934 9499

934 2022

ExecuJet South Africa

(021)

934 5764

934 2087

Placo

(079)

674 8351

076 901 6780

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BAC Aviation Greystones Aviation Components

(035) (031)

797 3610 569 2614

797 5341 569 2630

Astwood Aircraft Electrical

(011)

315 9605

315 0094

Superior Rotorworx

(076)

595 2120

(082)

346 0150

086 697 9096

ExecuJet South Africa

(011)

516 2300

011 659 1071

Gem Air

(082)

905 5760

011 701 2653

Integrated Avionic Solutions

(082)

831 5032

012 567 7320

Lanseria Aircraft Interiors

(011)

659 1962

Plane Maintenance Facility

(011)

659 2204

SkySource International SA

(011)

900 4300

The Propeller Shop

(011)

701 3114

086 543 7988

Tynay Aviation

(082)

088 6663

011 659 1157/8 j

Diepkloof Aircraft Maintenance

(083)

454 6366

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Aircraft Maintenance International Leading Edge Helicopters cc

(013) (013)

741 8221 j082 787 0415 741 5582 741 8188

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Ferreira Aviation Flightdeck Instrument Systems Westline Aircraft Maintenance

(051) (073) (051)

451 1682 513 3205 451 1717

Aves Technics Nevergreen Aircraft Industries Star Air Maintenance

(011) (010) (011)

568 7677 003 3747 395 2201

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(046)

604 3686

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

710 0864 827 7535 827 2491 383 2024 445 4496

DURBAN

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GRAND CENTRAL AIRPORT j jjjj

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KRUGERSDORP Skyworx Aviation

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LANSERIA AIRPORT

CAPE WINELANDS AIRPORT NELSPRUIT

NEW TEMPE BLOEMFONTEIN

OR TAMBO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

PORT ALFRED

RAND AIRPORT

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451 1683

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jj pmf@myconnection.co.za

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451 1641

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j manager@nevergreen.co.za

973 4761

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

46 FlightCom: May 2022

827 9896

lyn@aviationrebuilders.com

086 689 5645 086 548 2651

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Composite Manufacturing

Structural Repairs Inspections NTCA Aircraft Seat Belts Instruments

FAX NO

Sheet Metal Rebuilds Overhauls Electrics NDT Testing Refurbishments

CODE TEL NO

Interior

NAME OF AMO

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

SA Flyer Magazine May 2022

Articles inside

FACT TO FACE: MS POPPY KHOZA

FLIGHT TEST:BLACKHAWK 350

LOOKING BACK AT LOCKDOWN

UNICEF

IAN,SUDAN AND THE MINISTER CHRIS PATTEN

PUPES - PLEASURE OR PAINS

DROP TEST

HOT AIR BALLOONING

CEMAIR BOUNCING BACK STRONGLY

PREPARING PILOTS FOR REAL LIFE

WHEN AIRLINE PILOTS HAVE FUN

POSITION REPORT May 2022