SA Flyer Magazine June 2023

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POSITION REPORT

THE OLD ADAGE HAS it that ‘You can’t fight city hall’. And so the CAA grind on with their destructive rule making until the volunteers who guard GA get weary or inattentive.

One such issue is that of either registering or licencing all airstrips/airfields/aerodromes (now called landing sites). Over the past 15 years, no matter how hard to industry pushed back with convincing arguments to show that registering airfields is unnecessary, they have finally succeeded in publishing rules (CARS 139.06.02 and 91.0703) which require all landing sites to be either licensed or registered.

In the CAA’s defence – they have made it reasonably easy to get a landing site registered by simply completing a form online. But I have to believe that they just failed to grasp the impact this will have on the utility of general aviation (GA). Yet again there is the strong suspicion that the CAA is stifling the freedoms created by GA in response to pressures from the paranoid securocrats – who have failed to control our notoriously porous

creates a whole new level of liability for anyone who registers an airstrip. This arises from the disclaimer built into the registration letter that, “the operator of the registered aerodrome shall endeavour to comply with the basic aerodrome safety measures under duty of care to promote overall safety.”

AOPA-South Africa has roused itself and strongly advises owners and operators of registered aerodromes to immediately inform the South African Civil Aviation Authority in writing that application for registration was NOT “done with the understanding that the operator of the registered aerodrome shall endeavour to comply with the basic aerodrome safety measures under duty of care to promote overall safety” and that any risks are the responsibility of the aircraft operator and/or pilot.

AOPA-SA adds that any person who asks for a “copy of your certificate should also be informed in writing that any usage of the aerodrome is entirely at their own risk, notwithstanding the devious paragraph inserted in the certificate.”

They believe that “Failure to do so WILL ensure that you will be sued and held liable for any accident that happens at your aerodrome, even if it was not your fault. Although AOPA South Africa knows perfectly well what the term “duty of care” means, we have no idea what the terms “basic aerodrome safety measures” or “to promote overall safety” mean – and neither do you. Don’t find out the hard and expensive way.”

that it

Guy Leitch

The requirement for licencing or registration of landing sites is now a fait accompli in law. The most worrying consequence is

AOPA-SA has roused itself

There are some issues that are vital to the utility of general aviation that the CAA has been pushing for years to try limit and control – despite well-argued reasons not to push bad legislation through.

No great story ever started inside the comfort zone.

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RIGHT SEAT RULES

EBACE 2023 ROUNDUP

ABOUT NINE YEARS AGO we dared publish our first Opening Shot taken with a cell phone. It was bit grainy, especially for print - but it worked. Since then cell phones have come a long way and the most incredible results are being achieved in low light conditions that would have put even the most top-flight SLR with super-fast glass to shame.

This Caravan photograph is one such image – and even more remarkably, it has been cropped from the portrait format.

Handre Scheepers is a corporate/charter pilot and instructor in Cape Town. He writes, “I took this picture before sunrise at ExecuJet Cape Town before a flight to the Tankwa Karoo with my iPhone 13 - the standard one.

Handre says he started flying charters when he was 18 from Rand and Krugersdorp on a Cessna 210. He has since moved to Cape Town for scenic charter flights as with his keen eye for a good image, he clearly enjoys the scenery.

Single - or noPilot Airliners

TO DEAL WITH THE SHORTAGE, the airlines are making profound changes to pilot employment contracts. In South Africa, SAA has increased the retirement age from 63 to 65. In the USA the much-protested minimum requirement of a 1500 hr ATPL to get into the right seat has quietly been dropped.

Also in South Africa, we are seeing massive recruitment drives to suck up South African pilots for the world’s airlines. Many are finding the attractions of no load-shedding, a safe environment for their families, and large sometimes tax-free, dollar-based salaries, very attractive.

rise in Artificial Intelligence systems. And so there has been increasing noise about a move to single pilot cockpits.

The idea that technology has advanced far enough to make pilots redundant fascinates the general flying public, not to mention all the professional pilots who may one day lose their jobs to a computer.

unions heap scorn on the idea

But pilot recruitment strategies that poach from other airlines, or extend retirement age, or reduce entry requirements, are still not going to be enough to meet the shortfall caused by the loss of up to 40% of the pilots due to retirements during Covid and cut backs by the airlines.

At the same time there has been an exponential

Basic automation has been making the skilful parts of flying an airliner easy. Autoland has already been around for fifty years. It is reported that pilots spend on average just six minutes actually hand-flying the plane on each flight. And now satellite communication (think Starlink) will make it possible for an air traffic controller to step in and take control of an airliner if the only pilot onboard is incapacitated.

It is said that the Airbus A350 was designed for single pilot operation. This will not come as a surprise to pilots used to the overarching role

The pilot shortage has finally arrived. To attract and retain pilots, airlines are having to pay more – for pilots with less experience. This will hasten the move, which many see as inevitable, to single pilot cockpits. And single pilot flightdecks require much the same technology as no-pilot flightdecks.

of the computers in keeping pilots from doing stupid things – in contravention of the Airbus “Flight Laws’. In the endless Boeing vs Airbus debate, ‘real pilots’ prefer Boeings with their direct controls, while the ‘accountants’ prefer the Airbi that use computers to keep the pilots in line.

An SAA captain who moved from flying Boeings to Airbus said, “I took my star screwdriver and disassembled the Airbus’s side stick - and wasn’t surprised to find that it isn’t connected to anything at all; no wires, no cables, no nothing!”

He was of course only joking, but it’s important to understand that the Airbus is designed around the automation system - and not the other way around. This makes the pilot largely redundant. So the bean counters are increasingly attracted to the idea of just singe pilot cockpits.

The concept of a single pilot airliner is forty years old. In the 1980s Boeing showed a single pilot flight deck 737 mock up. The first and most obvious objection then, as now, is what happens if the only pilot gets sick? Boeing calculated that for flights up to four hours, the statistics on crew incapacitation were well within the 10 to

the -6 limit required. But the incidence of pilot incapacitation cannot be ignored and, as we have seen, pilots are getting older.

A key requirement for single pilot ops is satellitebased communication with aircraft, and this is now available. The development of satcomm with airliners is largely being driven to provide internet connectivity to passengers.

The military is far ahead and uses satellite comms to fly UAVs. So it’s entirely reasonable for an airliner to have just one pilot. When she needs to go to the toilet or have a rest then, like a UAV, the flight can be managed from the ground. Instead of having a second pilot costing millions a year, the flight could be monitored by a cheaply trained flightsim enthusiast in Mumbai, earning just R100,000 per year – and looking after many flights at once.

Conservative airline pilots and their all-powerful unions heap scorn on the idea. They point out that all airline pilots would have to be rated as commanders, and ask how they would achieve that competency without first being co-pilots? And, if there’s no co-pilot, who would do the paperwork?

The world learned to live without lift operators - can it learn to live without pilots?

Another concern is that autopilots have to have an override mode to trip them out. An un-disengageable autopilot is the thing of nightmares and B movies as it power dives the aircraft to its doom. But if the single pilot has to go to the toilet, he must know that George (or Otto Pilot) is not going to trip out if it encounters a sudden gust, or gets conflicting information from a frozen pitot.

Some scatological wag suggested that pilots should not have to actually go to the toilet. Since she is alone in the cockpit, it should be possible to make a pilot’s seat that, with a flick of a switch becomes a toilet so she can go there and then. This would probably suit women better, as no real male pilot would sit to pee.

One of the other problems with single pilot ops is who keeps the pilot awake on long hauls?

Again, this is not a new problem. There have been numerous incidences of both pilots having fallen asleep and missing reporting points, and even the top of descent. In the days of DC-8s, KLM pilots had an egg timer in the overhead to wake them up. Today, if nothing has been touched for twenty minutes, the Boeings put up an EICAS message that reads; ‘Pilot Initiated Event required’. If there’s no response, the caution alert sounds. After another minute, if still nothing has been done, the Master Warning screams.

Also, cabin crew can check up on a single pilot just as effectively as they do for a flight deck full of pilots. And the postulated flight monitor in Mumbai can also give the plane a call every few minutes.

Nonetheless, the designers of single pilot fight decks will still have to plan for the reality that a single pilot can fall asleep, especially if he

What happens if the only pilot needs to go to the toilet?

We have learned to accept driverless trains

does not have anyone to talk to about his latest divorce, or how management/the wife/ the girlfriend is screwing him over. And systems must advance sufficiently for the pilot to be permitted a power nap.

Perhaps the real problem holding back pilotless airliners is that the passengers would not be happy. But it’s not unreasonable to expect that they could soon get used to it. We have learned to accept driverless trains, and it wasn’t so long ago that lifts in skyscrapers had operators.

The big question is whether passengers would be comfortable with just one pilot – or even no pilots. The aircraft hardware and software has built in redundancy, but could it ever be okay if the ‘wetware’ (the human brain, which is the weakest link) – has no backup? There has to be redundancy, so to have single pilot operations there will have to be aircraft that can fly with no pilots at all. Ipso Facto - Pilotless planes.

This redundancy can come from the explosive arrival of Artificial Intelligence. Sir Tim Clark, the head of Emirates, says “Artificial intelligence will likely be along for the ride in every flight deck.” Clark has said that single pilot operations might be a possibility, but he doubts passengers will accept a pilotless flight deck. “You might see a one-pilot aircraft, but they be a long time coming.”

Can an airliner be flown on a fully automated basis? Clark said, “Yes, the technology is right up there now, but in my view, there will always be somebody on the flight deck.”

The idea that passengers may be so committed to cheap tickets that they would accept just one pilot may be fallacious. Using round numbers, assume a Second Officer earns R1 million and flies 40 long-haul sectors per year, that is R25,000 per sector. If that is distributed amongst 300 passengers, it is less than R84 per ticket. On a fare that could easily cost R10,000, this is less than 1%. I reckon passengers will be happy to pay R100 for the comfort of a second pilot.

In the final analysis it’s worth remembering that, no matter how smart AI gets, the old aphorism about human experience and judgement and the subjective skills of CRM, all add up to the aphorism that pilots are not paid for what they do: they get paid for what they can do when the electronic brains get confused.

So, I don’t see single pilot ops, and its natural conclusion, pilotless planes, happening any time soon. j

guy@saflyermag.co.za

Driverless trains are here.

ASCEND AVIATION WINS GLOBAL BUSINESS AWARD

ASCEND AVIATION HAS BEEN AWARDED

The Business Concept Aviation and Aerospace Award for 2023 for Best Aircraft Sales Company, Africa.

The Business Concept features businesses that have favoured the digital space and have thrived in a tough industry. There are no fees payable to be considered for an award.

The Business Concept’s award recognises that the process of buying an aircraft can be complicated and daunting. To address this, Ascend Aviation’s services range from choosing the aircraft to delivery. The Ascend team is there to support and advise customers. They get to know each customer to better understand their needs, which, together with their extensive knowledge about the products, means they are able to provide clients with excellent customer service.

Ascend Aviation concentrates on the supply of pre-owned jets and turbines of all makes and models. Maartin Steenkamp says, “We offer our clients bespoke, premium service when purchasing an aircraft and insist on personalized service for each of our clients.”

In addition to aircraft sales, Ascend Aviation offers: acquisition mandates, aircraft valuations, aircraft management, aircraft finance, aircraft insurance, and aircraft ferrying, including importation and exportation. This makes the process much easier for its customers as they can sort through all requirements in the same place without needing to go elsewhere.

Steenkamp is passionate about the importance of personal attention, relationship-building, and the integrity needed to provide customers with excellent services in the aircraft industry. “We believe that South Africa is the hub of Africa for private aviation, therefore we are perfectly situated to service our clients, not only in Africa but worldwide,” he says.

Ascend Aviation’s success has created a springboard for expansion to a new office in Portugal and, in the near future, to the Middle East. j

Maartin Steenkamp, the CEO of Ascend Aviation, is thrilled to have won recognition on the world stage for the quality of Ascend Aviation’s products and services to aviation.

Ascend Aviation has won Business Concept's 2023 Aviation and Aerospace Award.

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GLIDE, SAIL, SOAR

A HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS AGO, people were arguing about how they did it. They watched buzzards glide from horizon to horizon without moving their wings, and guessed they must be harvesting some mysterious essence of upness from the air. Few seemed to realise that air moves up and down as well as horizontally. One who did was Hiram Maxim, an expatriate American living in England who invented, among other things, a most efficient piece of harvesting equipment, the machine gun.

Maxim was, among many other things, a serious aeronautical experimenter who built a huge aeroplane that might have flown – albeit uncontrollably – had it not been prudently secured to the ground by tracks both above and below its wheels. With a thorough understanding of physical laws and a keen eye for the sea and the sky and the birds in between, Maxim correctly analysed

the dynamics of bird flight. One of his papers, entitled “Natural and Artificial Flight”, can be found in an edition of the Aeronautical Annual for 1896. These Annuals – three of them -- were compilations of writing and thinking on human flight, mostly contemporary, but some dating back as far as Leonardo, which appeared from 1895 to 1897. They are available in modern reprints from aeronauticalpublishers.com, and give fascinating insights into the now muddled, now lucid state of aeronautical thinking in the years just before powered flight was finally achieved.

It is dispiriting to see Octave Chanute, the trusted advisor of the Wrights, fumbling the ball on the subject of soaring, and, conversely, it is refreshing to read the commonsensical observations of Maxim’s assistant, Percy Pilcher, and of a much-disliked rival of the Wrights, Augustus Herring. Pilcher, a disciple

A northeast wind is picking up. Two redtail hawks are circling above this ridge, rising higher and higher, sliding fast when they turn southward but seeming to hover in place when they face north. Each surge and billow lifts them higher. They must soar for pleasure; they’re so far up now, no likely prey would hold still long enough for them to stoop to seize it.

some mysterious essence of upness

of the German gliding pioneer Otto Lilienthal, would probably have produced the first powered hang glider before the turn of the century had he not, like Lilienthal himself, died in a flying accident.

Chanute, who spent a great deal of time closely observing sea gulls in California, distinguished between “gliding”, which involved loss of altitude, and “sailing,” which did not. He used the terms “sailing” and “soaring” interchangeably, though at times I think by “soaring” he implied a gain of altitude – all this, of course, without wingbeats. It was, in reality, a distinction without a difference. The Nobel-winning physicist John Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, in Chanute’s words “the highest scientific authority in Great Britain,” had written in 1883 that if a soaring bird appeared to gather energy from the air, it could come from only three possible sources: sacrificing its own speed, vertical movement of the air, or differences of wind speed in closely neighbouring air masses. This was entirely correct; all other opinions, however painstakingly reasoned and documented by Chanute, were nonsense.

An aeroplane gliding is like a car rolling down an incline. Gravity supplies the pull; the road, or

the trimmed attitude of the aeroplane, compels the direction. The angle at which an aeroplane glides is determined by the ratio of its weight to its drag, also called the lift-drag or L/D ratio. Values range from the Space Shuttle’s four to 60 or more for the most extreme sailplanes.

Loss of altitude yields power to overcome drag, just as a downhill road allows a coasting car to overcome friction and air resistance. The power obtained from descending, in horsepower, is simply the weight of the bird or aeroplane or car in pounds, multiplied by the rate of descent in feet per minute and divided by 33,000. Thus, a 3,500 pound aeroplane descending 800 feet per minute liberates about 85 horsepower for overcoming drag.

General aviation aeroplanes have L/Ds between 10 and 16 or so, but the higher numbers certainly ignore the effect of a windmilling propeller, which is likely to be the reason for having to glide in the first place. Jet transports are said to reach 18 or 20 – surprising, again, in view of their enormous fans. At any rate, Boeings and Airbuses are rather good gliders, notwithstanding the newspapers’ habit of calling any aeroplane’s descent after a loss of power a “plunge”.

The JS-3 Rapture has a LD of 55 - for every 1000m height you can travel 55 km in still air.

Many exciting aviation yarns involve gliding after an engine failure, and this scenario, though extremely rare, is one pilots enjoy theorizing about. In writing about pilots who bypassed acceptable but inconvenient emergency-landing sites in hope of making it to a proper runway, which they then failed either to locate or to reach, I have reflected on the folly of aiming for an emergency landing spot at the outer limit of one’s gliding range. It seldom works: Gliding distance does not readily stretch. Only a tailwind can lengthen it.

I have sometimes thought that the ideal procedure, upon suddenly losing power, must be to zoomclimb, trading speed for altitude, as prescribed by Lord Rayleigh, until reaching the best gliding speed. I reasoned that an aeroplane has a most-efficient angle of attack, which determines its best gliding speed. In cruise, at a much smaller angle of attack, it is considerably less efficient, and so, I thought, the sooner you get it to the most efficient speed the better.

Now, I know, from my own and others’ experience, that in real life an engine does not suddenly switch itself off. It vibrates or roughens, coughs and sputters and sags and surges and maybe clanks, while we fumble around with fuel tanks and magnetos and mixture until we finally accept the inevitable and begin to search for a landing place.

Many exciting aviation yarns

So my zoom-climb idea was purely theoretical, though the altitude gain from zooming – a few hundred feet, perhaps – might not be unwelcome.

That, however, assumes you want to stretch your glide, which I have already advised against doing. A case could be made that, after a loss of power, time may be just as valuable to a pilot as distance. Every aeroplane has an indicated airspeed, the minimum-sink speed, at which it loses altitude as slowly as possible. Unfortunately, while the gliding speed is close to the approach speed, the minimum-sink speed is just a few knots above the stall – a dangerous neighbourhood to linger in.

All certified aircraft have published glide performance tables.

The differences in gliding performance with speed are small, but not negligible. A generic heavy single with a clean stall speed near 70 knots would sink at about 700 fpm at 75 kias with a windmilling prop. At that speed its L/D, or glide, ratio, would be 10 or 11. Its best glide speed might be around 90 kias, but the L/D there would be only a few percent better. The sink rate, on the other hand, would be 15 percent worse, and the delay before arrival correspondingly shorter.

At a cruising speed of 155 kias, on the other hand, the L/D with windmilling prop would be under 8 and the rate of sink over 2,000 feet per minute. You can see why I thought it might be good to slow down as quickly as possible.

The most important thing to remember, in aeroplanes with separate prop and throttle controls, is THROTTLE FORWARD, PROP BACK. Glide at your approach speed, with the throttle open and the prop in coarse pitch – that is, low rpm. You will do almost as well as a buzzard. j

The best glide speed provides the best distance.

SKYHAWK’S ASTRONAUT BLAST-OFF

Skyhawk Aviation flight school at Lanseria held a hugely successful aviation outreach to promote STEM (Science technology engineering and maths) education. Guest of honour was Nicole Stott, a NASA astronaut.

NICOLE STOTT opened her presentation by describing her route to becoming an astronaut – from her start as a private pilot to getting accepted into the rigorous NASA astronaut training programme and then her path upwards to space.

As a pilot, one of her most remarkable accomplishments was flying the highly modified Gulfstream GIII to practice Shuttle approach and landings. The Gulfstream was modified to have Space shuttle controls, a dive brake and strengthened undercarriage for the very fast and steep glide back to land.

Stott says that unfortunately she never got to actually fly the Space Shuttle, but she was the first woman to do a spacewalk. She has done two – one from the Space Shuttle and one from the International Space Station (ISS). She has been in space for 104 days.

As a celebrity astronaut Stott can command a fee of R50,000 per day. She was therefore sponsored by a number of education development NGOs: Living Maths and i-innovate in particular, plus Tata Consultancy Services. The event was co-hosted by the Sakhikamva Foundation, under the leadership of former SAA pilot Fatima Jakoet.

Sakhikamva has partnered with Lanseria based Skyhawk Flight School. Around 500 school students, plus flight school students, instructors, parents and visitors assembled to hear Nicole Stott.

Other than the usual difficulties with gate control officials at Lanseria, the huge event went off seamlessly. Sakhikamva and Skyhawk are to be congratulated in putting together this very effective outreach for the development of aviation.

Part of the large group of school students who attended the Skyhawk astronaut experience.

Mike Gough of Skyhawk with astronaut Nicole Stott.

LECTURERS – THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE TERRIBLE.

I’VE JUST SEEN THE MOST wonderful story on social media about effective lecturing. Here is a pruned version. Even if you have seen it, it’s still worth another look.

Legal studies 101

It’s the first lecture on Legal Studies 101. The professor enters the hall and slowly looks round the class. Eventually he points at a student in the third row.

“You there, what’s your name?”

“Sandra”, the girl replies.

“Leave my lecture hall now. I don’t want to see you in my lecture.”

Everyone is quiet while Sandra packs up her stuff and leaves.

The professor looks around at the much intimidated class.

“Why are there laws?” he asks.

Silence.

He asks again, “What are laws for?” A few

hesitant answers are heard.

“Social order?”

“To protect personal rights?”

“So that you can rely on the state?”

The professor is not satisfied.

“Justice?” calls out one student.

“Correct! Did I behave justly towards Sandra?”

Everyone shakes their heads.

“Indeed I did not. Why didn’t anyone protest? Why didn’t you try to stop me? Why didn’t you do anything to prevent this injustice?”.

Nobody answers.

The professor then goes on to explain that what they have just learned would have taken many hours of lectures, if they hadn’t just lived through this injustice

He stressed that if you don’t fight for justice, you will ultimately be the victim of injustice.

Let me start by telling you a couple of stories about lecturers so you can see how different techniques work – or don’t.

I would shoot myself in the head.

A wonderful lesson and beautifully illustrated with a story they will recall to the grave.

Remember, I keep banging on about two things: involving the students, and emotion being memory glue. This guy used them both so beautifully. He had every one of them emotionally involved.

Sadly, not all varsity lecturers are as smart as this guy, and not all military lecturers are as bad as the next couple.

A bunch of sun-browned army people, with encouragement from a shiny booted sergeant, have the whole thing up and running in about half an hour. That’s it. There’s your camp, and it’s identical to every other camp.

Anyhow I am at this place and there’s great excitement because a General or Field Marshall, or something distinguished, is coming to brief us on some vital part of our future. I never did get to understand the hierarchy of ranks above a Commandant. Not my sort of people.

Dozing off

I was at this Commando camp at some dismal, dusty bloody place in the bush. I can’t remember where it was because they are all the same.

The guys tasked with setting up a military camp go straight to aerial or satellite photos and select a spot that is devoid of vegetation and scenery of any kind. They stick a pin in the map and send out a convoy of camo army trucks full of tents and tea-urns.

It’s hot and we have just had a filling, and rather disgusting, lunch of cow cube stew. I have bagged a semi comfortable seat at the back and am leaning against the canvas. The important dude’s chopper arrives in a cloud of tent-flapping dust, and he is soon droning at us in a military monotone.

You know when you go to sleep in front of the TV, and it’s great until it suddenly goes silent, because of load-shedding, and you wake up with a hell of a fright? Well this happens to me.

His exasperation seemed to escalate

If you cannot keep your class's attention you are wasting everybody's time.

The droning has stopped and everyone has turned round and is staring at me.

I won’t trouble you with the distressing details of my interview with Commandant Robertson afterwards, other than to mention that he used some cruel and insensitive adjectives to describe my ancestors, whom he had never even met.

His exasperation seemed to escalate when I explained it wasn’t my fault that I’d drifted off. It was, in fact, the General’s fault for being so boring.

So, how would you feel if someone went to sleep while you were lecturing them? Might you examine the possibility that you are not doing a hell of a good job? I think I would shoot myself in the head.

military, firearms lecture presented to the wrong audience.

The lecturer was a kind-hearted, well-meaning RAF Regiment sergeant. I should explain that the RAF Regiment is the RAF’s army. They wear blue uniforms and their main jobs are the defence of airfields and sentry duty.

This poor sergeant had obviously given this lecture a thousand times to new army-type recruits – but possibly never to a bunch of cocky Officer Cadets. And so we found ourselves on the receiving end of a rapid-fire address on the use of a military firearm.

“Now this ‘ere is a Sten gun. Hofficers and airmen can use this weapon. It can be fired from the shoulder, or from the ‘ip.”

“Excuse me, Sarge, can officers also fire it from both the shoulder and the hip, or is that just the airmen?”

The Sargent and the Sten

Talking of shooting – here’s an example of an excellent, well-delivered, by-the-book,

“Are you takin’ the piss, Sir, or were you not payin’ hattention?

Military camps can pop up in the most desolate places.

I mention this event to show how important it is to match your delivery to your audience. It’s just as bad to instruct beneath them, as it is to talk over their heads.

Which raises the question of the level at which you should aim your lecture. If you pitch it for the most intellectually challenged, the whole class will be able to understand it, but most of them will be utterly bored. And if you aim it for the smartest then you will quickly leave the majority behind.

The solution is to aim at the top two thirds of the class, and then help the stragglers afterwards; or point them at another source of info.

I find it almost unworkable to give a talk, let alone a lecture, to a large and diverse audience consisting of people who have a wide range of interests and backgrounds. I foolishly got bullied into talking to a throng at a Y3A (University of the Third Age) meeting. I found it almost impossible to make it equally interesting for grannies and teenage boys.

I was on an SAAF instructors’ course at Potch and that was a whole lot of fun. They taught me how to stay alive while converting pilots onto their magic Cessna 185s. I am generally not a Cessna fan, but hell these are brilliant aeroplanes. They do, however, call for some interesting ‘don’t crash’ techniques when getting a pupe to do touch and goes.

It’s a long story, but briefly, a full flap go-around needs such massive forward stick pressure that you simply aren’t strong enough to control the brute with one hand. So, as she rears up like a Lipizzaner stallion, you have both hands on the stick and simply can’t let one go to either trim, retract some flap, or reduce some power.

stench

I will never do that again – others may know how to handle it, but not I. Actually I think it’s the difference between giving a lecture – for teaching – and a giving a talk for entertainment. Two very different things.

Fortunately your duties as a flying instructor generally give you a cohesive bunch of students who are all learning new material.

You also don’t have enough hands during a touch and go. She is directionally skittish on the ground and you will lose it if you take your eyes off the runway for a millifrac. You have one hand on the stick and another on the throttle and you would dearly love to dump the flaps and retrim. The problem is that when you lower the flap lever to the floor your head disappears below the top of the panel – so you lose sight of the runway and will do an embarrassing and expensive 180 before you can say Whoa!

Retrimming is not an option – it’s an excruciatingly slow and painful business –the wheel, which lives between the seats, is unbelievably stiff and extremely low geared. This means you can use a hell of a lot of runway while wrestling with the thing for minimal effect.

Perfect at Potch

It’s possible I’ve been giving military lecturers a bad rap and I shouldn’t do that because their lecturers are generally knowledgeable and their material is well prepared and presented. Here is one of the best series of lectures I have ever attended.

Of course the answer is to use less than full flap, or not so much trim for the landing. But when you convert someone in the SAAF you do it properly, and they must be able to handle the worst possible situation.

Because of the brute strength needed to overcome the go-around stick forces, the SAAF don’t convert female pilots on to the 185s.

And more than one SAAF pilot told me that,

a full blast of armpit

of all the aeroplanes they operate, the 185 is regarded as the most difficult to fly.

But I have side-tracked myself. I was meant to be telling you about their brilliant lecturing –actually the brilliant lecturing of one particular instructor. I’ll call him Major Pat McDonald, I like to use real names but the military can get twitchy about what they regard as security.

Anyhow Pat kept the whole class wide awake and sitting on the front of our seats, even during that wonderful dozy period after a good lunch (no cow-cubes for the air force thank you) on a pleasantly warm afternoon.

I watched Major Mac closely – I was determined to discover his secret for keeping the class enraptured. He was interesting, he was animated, he was a good speaker, and he explained why we needed to know whatever he was talking about.

He also had an excellent habit of frequently asking questions – to make sure we were absorbing and keeping up.

And then his secret suddenly struck me. He didn’t say, “Davis, what is the maximum oil temperature in the 185?” If he had asked that question I would be on the spot – but I would be the only one who had to scratch is head.

By the way we had to know such things – ‘in the red’ is not good enough.

No, Major Mac would do it this way, “What is the maximum oil temp on the 185?” Then he would walk very slowly back and forth while he looked round the class making eye contact with each of us.

We all had to try to remember the answer. He timed it beautifully. No one could relax. Then he would break the tension by slowly saying, “I think I’ll ask Captain Davis to tell us.”

Absolutely brilliant. By using just this one little trick he had every one of us on our toes throughout the lecture.

Another, more obvious, trick is to always ask open-ended questions. These are questions that

The Cessna 185 was considered the SAAF's most difficult plane to fly. Pic Trevor Cohen.

require an explanation, or evaluation, rather than just a one or two word answer. For example it’s a whole lot better to ask what a constant-speed prop does, rather than ask whether the 185 has a constant-speed prop. Okay, enough stories –time for some more tips on being a bloody good lecturer.

• Arrive early so you can welcome students and address them by name where possible.

• Bring a bottle of water – talking can be a thirsty business.

• Begin the class with a short review of the key points.

• Link current material to previously-learned content

• Repeat their question so the class can hear, or write it on the board.

• Split your attention so that you are focused on the class in general for 75% of the time, and the student for 25%.

Beware the smartarse look-at-me student who pretends to be asking a question but is actually trying to brag about his own knowledge. It drives me potty when, at question time, someone sets out along these lines.

“Of course I understand how the defuser jet in the carburettor can contribute to the situation in relation to the effective brake horsepower, when the dry adiabatic lapse rate tends to… blah blah.”

“Excuse me pea-brain, is there a question, or do you think we are impressed?”

When you ask questions:

• Involve the whole class.

• Acknowledge all the answers.

• Move around the room to elicit participation.

unwashed and smelly Pom

• Don’t give your opinion too early – let the pupes discuss the problem first.

• Ask questions early in the lecture to stimulate interest and gauge students’ level of knowledge.

• Ask questions in the middle, to break the pace of the lecture.

• Use a 5 minute written pop-quiz at the end. Pupes to hand in their answers. It makes them pay attention and gives you feedback.

• Write questions on the board.

• Collect papers and report on responses next time the class meets.

• Use case studies/ accidents as discussion points to involve everyone.

• Use day to day examples whenever possible.

• During Met lectures, discuss the current weather and visible cloud types.

• Get out of the lecture hall where possible and organise field trips to the Met office, the AMO, and the tower/ATC.

• Role playing is a wonderful way of involving the class – remember Manny and the radio lecture.

• Remind yourself to smile.

• Have a backup plan for power failures.

• Keep regular eye contact with the entire class.

• Speak with the students, not at them.

• Vary your vocal speed and pitch, as well as your facial expressions.

• Use humour when appropriate.

When a student asks you a question

• Thank them for participating.

• Dim the lights when using the projector.

• Write key words and names on the board.

• Stay after class to chat with students and answer their questions.

Involve students

Remember I said it was important to involve students? Here’s a story to illustrate that point.

By far the most detestable student I ever met was an unwashed and smelly Pom whom I christened Armpit Edwards. He used to go for weeks without cleansing his miserable, skinny bod. I would get a full blast of armpit stench whenever he raised his hand to use the overhead trim handle in my little Colt.

At a lecture, one evening, I was explaining the workings of the inner ear, the dangers of vertigo, and the fact that one can become so disoriented that the concept of up and down means nothing.

In the middle of my explanation, Armpit Edwards, who was sitting at the front, stood up, turned to face the class and said, “I’ve never heard such bullshit. I could always tell which way up I was by looking at the wings and getting them level.”

I was so incensed by this blot on the landscape, that I told him his next lesson would be free as long as he reported back to the class on his success.

It’s not necessary to go into the detail of how he screamed and yelped when I took him into cloud and told him to take control.

Actually, to give him credit, at the next lecture he did describe the lesson in graphic detail and finished with, “e’s bluddy right y’know.” j

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

The South African Defence Force is chronically underfunded. Just how bad the situation has become is revealed by our Defence wonk Darren Olivier, who researched the expenditure figures for 1988. Darren writes:

“South Africa’s official budget allocation to defence in fiscal year 1987/88 was $3.3 billion. The defence allocation was nearly 6 percent of GDP and over 14 percent of total South African Government spending for the year. By way of comparison, it's now around 0.85% or so of GDP and less than 3% of government spending.”

Darren Olivier

THEV35

BONNIE

– ONE OF THE BEST BUYS EVER?

Text Guy Leitch. Images Garth Calitz.

The classic Beech V-tail is a great value high performance single.

When the Bonanza first emerged, it set a new standard for light aircraft design and now, 77 years later, it is still regarded by many as the most desirable piston single.

RIGHT FROM THE FIRST MODEL, it had that most distinguishing of all characteristics; the V-tail. The unusual butterfly winged tail has long had its share of both proponents and detractors. Walter Beech claimed that the V-tail was lighter and aerodynamically cleaner than a conventional tailed aeroplane. (See the box on History and development)

In theory Walter Beech may have been correct, but in practice, the unconventional tail has been a continual cause of heated debate amongst its many fans and detractors. It seems there are very few who have flown a V-tail Bonanza who do not have strong feelings about its uniqueness.

The primary complaint is that the V-tail is less stable in yaw. For some commentators this has always been the real problem. However, conventional wisdom holds that if the pilot simply rests her feet on the rudder pedals, most of the missing longitudinal stability is restored.

reputation for shedding their tails

The other criticism is that early models developed a reputation for shedding their tails in flight. It has been claimed that more doctors were killed by the Bonanza than by heart attacks. The reason for the early spate of structural failures was simply that it was a plane ahead of its time.

To start with the detractors: there are two main reasons why the V-tail is perceived to be inferior to those Bonanzas with a conventional tail.

When the Bonanza was launched immediately after World War Two. it was the first true light aircraft that was effective as a business tool, and so it frequently was expected to get to pressing business appointments in crappy weather.

The V-tail was supposed to have less drag and weight than a conventional tail.

The clever control mixer that combines elevator and rudder inputs.

How the control mixer works.

Despite the early setbacks, while other highperformance singles such as the Spartan Executive and Beech Staggerwing had been used as pre-War business transportation, the Bonanza rapidly outsold the much heavier earlier generation aircraft and the sheer weight of numbers led to a higher number of accidents.

In the much-anticipated post World War 2 general aviation boom, private flying was still in its infancy and for many new pilots the fastest and most complex aircraft they were familiar with was a Piper Cub. Inevitably, there were losses of control in clouds, flights into thunderstorms, icing, controlled flight into terrain and all the other life-threatening situations that surprise pilots unfamiliar with their own and their plane’s limitations.

Like other aircraft that developed a reputation,

such as the Malibu and Twin Comanche, there was fundamentally nothing wrong with the design. Beechcraft addressed concerns by providing leading edge stiffening cuffs and the FAA mandated this as an airworthiness directive.

There is one further ongoing criticism of the Bonanza and that is the centre of gravity restrictions on all the short fuselage models, not just the V-tail. Bonanzas have their fuel tanks in the leading edge of the wing and thus the C of G moves aft as the fuel burns off. It is thus possible to takeoff with the C of G within limits and land with it out of limits. On older Bonanzas this is less of a temptation as they have the rear bulkhead further forward than the later S and V series. This rules out the use of a fifth kiddie seat and provides less opportunity to load the aircraft at its maximum aft C of G.

Bonanza rapidly outsold the much heavier earlier generation

After inflight break-ups these small but effective stabilser leading edge cuffs solved the problem.

In reply to V-tail critics, Beechcraft introduced the Debonair in 1959. Essentially a straight tailed Bonanza, it may have been the beginning of the end for the V-tail. The 1968 E33A, which was directly comparable to a 1968 V35A, was actually 45 lbs lighter than the V35A of the same year.

Initially Beech claimed the V-tail was three knots quicker in cruise; with 177 knots. However, on later models, Beech finally acknowledged there was no difference and pegged the cruise for both planes at a more honest 172 knots.

V-tail critics were vindicated when Beech ceased production of the V35B in 1982. And so, if the maker finally agreed that there was no direct performance gain from the V-tail and the market had rejected it, what is their undying attraction?

Perhaps the most rational reason for owning a V-tail is simply that you get an aeroplane that is in every way great, for a discount of 25-percent to the price of a comparable, conventional-tail Bonanza.

The V-tail remains a classic with a large and loyal following. If you ask any pilot who owns one to define the plane’s attraction, he is liable to wax poetic about speed, handling, design and looks. Speed is perhaps what the Bonanza is most renowned for in that it seems to combine the two opposing demands of speed and comfort more effectively than any other design.

The cabin is spacious and airy, albeit narrow. The seating position is high and the windows expansive, providing excellent visibility.

Under the cowl the 285hp Continental IO-520 became standard from 1968.

remains a classic with large and loyal following

Like humans, aeroplanes tend to put on weight as they age. Compared to its competitors, the V-35 has a low max all up weght

Handling is one of of the Bonanza’s strengths. Unlike Piper singles, with their generally sloppy ailerons and Cessna singles with their lumbering elevator forces, the Bonanza is well balanced in all axes.

Beech has always been renowned for its build quality, and this makes the Bonanza essentially ageless. Everything on this aircraft has a look and feel of quality, and Beech is famous for their attention to detail, such as the retractable step on the starboard side of the fuselage, which reduces the chance of pax tramping on delicate flaps.

Climbing aboard reveals a spacious four-five place cabin. The Bonanza shares the same cabin section as the Barons and this provides a tall, rather than a wide cabin. The instrument layout is dominated by Beechcraft’s famous ‘throw over’ control yoke. This is a hefty structure that obscures the lower part of the

instrument panel – but leaves the space in front of the right seater open. For training, a dual yoke is obtainable and is relatively easy to fit.

The landing gear is a Bonanza strong point. Essentially the same as the 3,000 poundheavier Beech Duke, it is an electrically driven system that retracts or extends in five seconds. It is straightforward without complex, separately actuated doors and is thus low on maintenance.

One of the inherent virtues of the Bonanza design is the wing, which has remained unaltered since the first example was built. Without relying on elaborate devices such as fowler flaps, it provides an excellent range between stall and high speed. Stalls are straightforward with the nose dropping through the horizon for a typical height loss of 200 to 300 feet. There is no noticeable tendency for either wing to drop. The effectiveness of the V-tail is demonstrated by holding the wings level throughout the stall simply by applying rudder (or ruddervator).

One of the great mysteries to me is the

The sturdy fast acting electrically powered landing gear.

mechanical actuation of the control surfaces. If you apply left rudder, both surfaces move to the left but if you apply up elevator at the same time, the left surface must simultaneously move up and down, which would probably be a sound basis for developing a split personality (or understanding Schrodinger’s cat). This requires a complex mixing device under the cabin floor.

per minute on a warm day with 50 gallons of fuel.

Flying the V-tail

Start-up is conventional big bore Continental – requiring plenty of fuel to prime from the high and then standard fuel pump settings.

Taxying is pure Beechcraft. The plane feels solid, without any of the drumming of tinnier airframes. The run-up is conventional. Power for takeoff requires plenty of right rudder to counter the torque effect until rotation at about 70 knots. Best rate of climb is 90 knots with a comfortable cruise climb being 110 knots. With the engine throttled back to 2,300 rpm, three up, we still managed 800 feet

Typical cruise numbers are 2,200 rpm at 22 inches giving 145-150 KTAS. The 50 degree rich of peak fuel burn at this power setting is 13.5 gallons an hour, which provides around five hours endurance and a VFR reserves range of around 600 nautical miles. If it is more speed you are after, 2,300 rpm and 23 inches at 8,000 feet gives a true airspeed of 160 knots and a fuel burn of 15 gallons per hour.

Returning to the circuit, the Bonanza’s handling once again comes to the fore. The wheels can be lowered at up to 130 KIAS, which makes them effective speed brakes.

We turn final at 90 KIAS and track solidly down the approach. With full flap we let the speed reduce to 80 and then 70 KIAS over the fence. With the gentlest of flares, this classic settles comfortably onto her sturdy main undercarriage and with minimal braking you can get stopped in 400 metres.

A typical V-35 panel with the Beech 'throw-over' yoke.

one of the most distinctive classics in the air

ABOVE: Rear seats have plenty of space, albeit a bit narrow.

BELOW: Removal of optional fifth seat provides huge baggage space., but it is CofG sensitive.

Landing have always been one of the Bonanza’s nicest features. Unlike other low wing designs that seem to do battle with ground effect until they suddenly give up and fall through it with a thump, V-tails are generally great ego boosters as it is hard to drop them on with anything other than a firm squeak.

Best rate of climb is 90 knots

As mentioned, the much-maligned longitudinal instability of the V-tail can be overcome by simply resting your feet on the rudder pedal. Regardless of whether you are in a butterfly or straight-tailed version, it is still a Bonnie. The added bonus is that, having a V-tail makes you the owner of one of the most distinctive classics in the air.

Conclusion

What a V-tail offers is all of the strength and flying qualities that make Bonanzas great, but at a fraction of the cost, thanks to the discount of the V-tail to the conventional tail BE33 and BE36 series.

Regardless of how it is measured, whether by comfort, quality of manufacture, speed or utility, the Beechcraft Model 35 has never had an equal and is remembered as one of general aviation’s most significant designs. It was, and remains to this day, incomparable.

Fuel selector beneath pilot's left knee has been known to cause problems.

V-TAILS AND SAFETY

THE V-TAIL BONANZA HAS A REPUTATION for being more dangerous than its straight tailed siblings. As a consequence, it came under close scrutiny in the mid-1980s following a series of in-flight breakups.

Several Airworthiness Directives were issued, and a special study was done by the FAA and the Department of Transportation, which resulted in a stabiliser reinforcement kit at the root of the V-tail. After the installation of the kit, the in-flight breakups decreased dramatically. It was these inflight breakups that have created the substantial price discount that makes them such good value.

AOPA reports that compared to other complex singles such as the Cessna C210 and Piper Lance/Saratogas, Bonanzas have a lower overall accident rate.

Unsurprisingly the big culprit in Bonanza crashes is weather. Looking at accidents that occurred in instrument meteorological conditions, the overall rate for the Bonanzas was slightly better than its peers. Not surprisingly, it was much safer if Bonanza pilots were instrument rated and on an IFR flight plan.

The V-tail Bonanza’s centre-of-gravity envelope is relatively narrow, and loss of control with aft CofG in IMC conditions is a common cause of crashes.

Additionally, the balancing of the tail control surfaces is critical to avoid aerodynamic flutter.

One area where the Bonanza comes in for sustained criticism is in the nonstandard placement of the landing gear switch, which is on the right side of the throttle quadrant. The gear-up landing accident record on the nonstandard versions, is about 40 percent higher than for the comparison aircraft.

There have been a significant number of undercarriage retractions on the runway when the pilot intended to raise the flaps. This idiosyncrasy was rectified in 1984 for the A36 and B36TC Bonanzas when the gear switch was moved to the left side of the throttle. Additional squat switches and a throttle position switch have been added to all latemodel Bonanzas to help prevent that sinking embarrassment. However the V-tails still have them the ‘wrong way round’.

In 1944, the Beechcraft Model 26 was the first Beech to fly with a V-tail empennage.

j

THE BONANZA’S HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

IN 1944, DURING WORLD WAR 2, the Beechcraft Model 26, known as the AT-10 Wichita, was the first Beech Aircraft design to fly with a V-tail empennage. The flight test programme centred on investigating stability and control characteristics of the unusual configuration.

In the wake of World War II, America’s lethargic general aviation market was ripe for a plane that was fast, comfortable and above all, affordable. Walter H. Beech and his “Beech Boys” answered that call with the all-metal Model 35 Bonanza.

After suffering through the war, the American general aviation market exploded with demand for new aircraft. The market seemed unlimited, and sales of planes built by Cessna Piper, Taylorcraft, and other airframe manufacturers skyrocketed.

choice centred not only on drag reduction and weight (two surfaces instead of three), but also because a V-tail could be located higher on the fuselage to avoid turbulent airflow coming off the wing.

As early as 1943, the company had conducted wind tunnel tests of a V-tail and in 1944 installed an experimental assembly on a Model 26, AT-10 multi-engine trainer. The assembly featured a dihedral of 40 degrees and flight tests indicated that the V-tail was a promising alternative.

aviation market exploded with demand for new aircraft

Ralph Harmon and Jerry Gordon successfully campaigned for adoption of that configuration for the new monoplane, but the dihedral was reduced to 30 degrees. Extensive wind tunnel tests of a 1/5-scale model of the plane showed that the V-tail was equal to a conventional empennage in terms of controllability, but produced less drag.

Walter Beech knew that to compete, his company would need a game changing plane. He put Ralph Harmon in charge of a group dedicated to bringing the project to fruition by 1945. As the plane’s design evolved, automotive stylist Wayne Porter joined the team to make the new Beechcraft attractive inside and out.

Throughout the design process, the engineering team had made every effort to reduce drag, and a V-tail arrangement was favoured over the conventional configuration. The reason for that

For Beech the choice of the engine was among the most critical aspects of the project. Letters were sent to Lycoming and Continental asking if they would consider developing an engine. Both companies responded in the affirmative. Two powerplants eventually became available—the six-cylinder Continental E-165 and the fourcylinder Lycoming GO-290, both rated at 165 horsepower for takeoff. Because each engine met specifications, Harmon decided to test both designs.

Although during the war, tailwheels still dominated both military and commercial aircraft, the Beech team agreed that only a fully retractable, tricycle landing gear was acceptable.

The next consideration was the aerofoil section and the wing itself. The engineers had experience with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 23000-series aerofoil that had been used on the bullish and brutally powerful XA-38 “Grizzly” in 1944 and the venerable Model 18. The team also tested a laminar flow aerofoil that offered less drag but would be more expensive to build. In 1946 Beech Aircraft did flight test work with a laminar flow aerofoil, but no further action was

taken. Wind tunnel tests showed that the NACA 23000 aerofoil was the best choice for the plane’s overall performance capabilities.

Throughout 1945 the team made slow but important progress, including an exhaustive stress analysis and fatigue testing program using two prototype airframes. These Beechcrafts would never take to the sky, yet they “flew” for a simulated 20,000 hours to prove the plane’s robust airframe design and to ensure that no fatigue failures would occur during the certification flight test program. It is important to note that the fatigue tests were performed in addition to the normal static and fatigue tests mandated by the government’s Civil Aviation Authority.

pushing the aircraft to fly even faster

The last V-series Bonanza was built late in 1982, bringing an end to uninterrupted, 35-year production run of more than 10,400 planes since 1947.

On December 22, 1945, a test pilot flew a 40-minute evaluation. He found the plane was about 10 mph faster than calculations had predicted, with a cruise speed of 175 mph. He cautiously probed the airplane’s low-speed flight characteristics with flaps and landing gear extended and retracted, investigated control response in pitch, roll and yaw, as well as determining stall characteristics. He was impressed with the plane’s overall behaviour, and after landing said to Walter Beech, “It’s the best airplane we’ve built yet!”

During 1945, the certification program continued to advance, but one of the pre-production airplanes was destroyed and the pilot killed when the V-tail separated from the fuselage (the observer bailed out and reported what happened). The accident occurred during high-speed dive tests aimed at determining maximum dive airspeed when balance weights on the empennage separated from the control surfaces, inducing flutter. Deeply grieved at the loss of the pilot, Harmon’s team pushed forward and implemented design changes to the empennage that resolved the problem.

To ensure Beechcraft quality, Walter Beech ordered what today is known as “Function and Reliability” flights using three airframes. The three Beechcraft were flown day and night in all weather conditions (except icing) along a 170mile course that included 10 airports. The pilots eventually accumulated up to 600 hours on each of the planes, making a minimum of three takeoffs and landings per hour.

The flights served their purpose, revealing minor problems affecting landing gear and flap motor operation as well as reliability issues with a few other components, all of which could be resolved before certification and production.

As the certification programme drew to a close, and before final specifications were released to Beechcraft dealers worldwide, Beech received orders (with cash deposits) for 500 planes. When the final specifications were released, the orders swelled to 1,500 planes.

Finally, on 25 March 1947, the then US CAA issued Approved Type Certificate for the Model 35 Bonanza, paving the way for series production to begin. Initially, the factory manufactured 12 planes per day during 1947. By the end of 1948 1,500 Bonanzas had rolled off the assembly line.

In 1949, the A35 Bonanza made its debut and was the first Model 35 to use a sheet metal spar instead of the tubular steel unit used in early production planes. As the years went by, the Bonanza continued to evolve through the F35, N35, P35, S35 and finally, the V35.

Introduced in 1966, the V35 was powered by a Continental IO-520-B engine rated at 285 horsepower and it could attain a maximum speed of 185 KTAS at sea level. Maximum gross weight was 3,400 pounds – an increase of more than 800 pounds since the Model 35 of 1947. Both the V35 and V35A (introduced in 1968) featured a one-piece ‘Speed Sweep’ windscreen that replaced the two-piece unit of the S35.

Production of the iconic Model 35 came to an end in November 1982. The last Model 35 to be delivered to a customer, V35B serial number D-10,399 was in August 1984.

“It’s the best airplane we’ve built yet!”

j

PILATUS DELIVERS 2,000TH PC-12

THE PILATUS PC-12 has grown to dominate the single engine pressurised turboprop market – and has far exceeded even its manufacturer’s most optimistic hopes. Pilatus officials happily admit to having been surprised by the success of the PC-12 as they had hoped to produce 1000 of the revolutionary aircraft.

On 1 May 2023, Pilatus announced the global fleet of PC-12s had surpassed ten-million flight hours. And on 12 May 2023 Pilatus delivered the 2000th PC-12. So widespread has been the success of this aircraft that it is as calculated that at any one time the world’s skies are populated by as many as seventy PC-12s. In 2022 alone, Pilatus produced eighty PC-12s for deliveries across the world.

The PC-12 flew for the first time on May 31, 1991, from the Pilatus factory at Stans Switzerland. The first aircraft were delivered in 1994 and the PC-2 went on to become the

market leader in a segment that has few options – with only the Beechcraft Denali on the horizon.

Markus Bucher, CEO of Pilatus, said on delivery of the 2,000th aircraft: “Year after year, our PC -12 is, and will remain, the world’s best -selling single-engine turboprop aircraft in its class with pressurized cabin. j

The handover of the 2000th-PC.

TOO HIGH AND TOO FAST - AGAIN.

Aircraft registration: ZS-NTA

Date and time of accident: 9 June 2016. 1408Z

Type of aircraft: Cessna 172M

Type of operation: Training (Part 141)

PIC license type: Commercial (instructor)

License valid: Yes

PIC age: 34

PIC total hours: 258

PIC hours on type: 22

• This discussion is to promote safety and not to establish liability.

• CAA’s report contains padding and repetition, so in the interest of clarity, I have paraphrased extensively.

History of Flight:

Point of departure: Springs (FASI) Elevation 5340’

Point of intended landing: Springs (FASI)

Location of accident site: Springs (FASI)

Meteorological information: Temp. 20°C. Wind 330/10 CAVOK

POB: 2

People injured: 2

People killed: 0

On Thursday 09 June 2016, the flight instructor and student pilot took off from Springs on a VFR training flight in the East Rand general flying area. The aircraft had 95 litres of Avgas on board.

Fifteen minutes later the student headed back to Springs and joined overhead at 6800’ (1460’AGL). The student, in preparation for landing, first checked the windsock and observed the wind direction at 330°, which favoured runway 32, which is approximately 554 metres in length.

The student completed the pre-landing checks and continued with the approach from the South at 75 knots indicated airspeed (KIAS) with the flaps selected to 20°. The instructor stated that the airspeed was still 75 knots on approach, The aircraft touched down in the middle of the runway at high speed.

After touchdown, the student applied back pressure on the control yoke, with the intent to reduce the ground speed, but without success. The aircraft continued to roll. The student further applied foot brakes, again without success.

After realising that the aircraft was about to

overrun the end of the runway, the instructor took control and applied full left rudder following which the aircraft collided with a wall. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The instructor and the student sustained minor injuries.

the aircraft bounced

The aircraft approached at high speed, landing too deep. On touch down, the aircraft bounced before it lost directional control and collided with a wall.

The instructor did not intervene timeously to prevent the accident.

The cause of the accident was as a result of an unstable approach resulting in the aircraft landing deep in the runway and at a high speed.

Probable cause:

High speed landing leading to the aircraft landing deep in the runway, bouncing and losing directional control.

Contributing factor: Instructor not intervening timeously.

SAFETY MESSAGE:

Take-off and landing are the most dangerous phases of flight and need full attention of the pilot to ensure a safe flight. Pilots, or in this case instructors, must give full attention to the training being conducted, and monitor aircraft systems and all parameters, to enable early intervention.

After approaching too high and too fast, the C172 collided with a wall.

JIM’S COMMENTS

This is one of the worst accident reports I have ever seen – and considering the horrendous quality of some of the others – this is indeed serious criticism.

It contains conflicting reports about who did what, and when. However, it’s obvious that they landed far too deep, and far too fast, and the instructor, who was comatose, reacted way too late.

When I say he reacted too late – I don’t mean when he took control on the ground. I mean he should have seen what was coming when they turned on to the final approach and called for more flap or a go around.

When I look at accidents like this it makes me wonder whether the magic 200 hours is enough for some instructors to be guardians of other people’s lives.

The 40 hour PPL and the 200 hour Com rules were established in the days when these were reasonable targets.

I got my PPL in exactly 40 hours – to the minute. And the training comfortably included stuff like restarting the engine in flight (by diving the hell out of the aircraft until the prop started windmilling), solo spins overhead the airfield, so the instructor could watch you, three crosscountries, a hell of a lot of glide approaches, numerous go-arounds, and the final flight test.

And there was not much to do around the circuit. Brakes – some aircraft had them, some not, and they didn’t do much anyway. Undercarriages – were all fixed. Mixture – not on a Cub. Pitch – never heard of it. Fuel – nothing to do, it was always switched on, obviously, and there was only one tank. Flaps – nope, we sideslipped to lose height.

So we didn’t really have to do any checks – we just enjoyed the ride.

Carb-heat was another matter – forget that in the glide your prop would soon look like a pencil.

Cross countries were uncomplicated by beacons, frequencies and confusing lumps of airspace. You just had to keep away from the cooling towers, which were a warning that Jan Smuts was nearby. You also tried not to fly over Dunnottar, which was thick with Harvards, or Waterkloof or the Voortrekker monument, both of which were verboten.

There were no magenta lines. Pencil lines on paper maps accurately reflected the nature of the territory over which we flew – rather slowly.

How was all this possible?

There was little, or no, ATC, and very little traffic.

But I am getting carried away by nostalgia when I should be explaining a couple of things:

• Tailwheel aeroplanes caused us to get plenty of practice in go-arounds.

How was all this possible in the time that it takes some of today’s pupils to go solo? It’s not that we were smarter than today’s pupes – or that our instructors were better – they weren’t.

No, the secret is that we only learned the basics of flight. We were flying Cubs, and Tigers and Aeroncas, that had very few clocks to confuse us, or knobs to fiddle with.

• 200 hours on basic aeroplanes, in empty skies, was enough for us to get a Comm and instruct on Cherokees and little Cessnas.

Today, technology has given us faster and more complicated aeroplanes, in cluttered airspace, with less time to think and more buttons and clocks to understand.

Now, 80 hours in a 172, in busy airspace, is barely enough to train a safe PPL.

And a 200 hour com pilot, or instructor, is really floundering.

The other day I asked a 250 hour com pilot, when she had last done a go-around. Her answer was, ‘never’.

Horrifying? No – absolutely terrifying. Surprising? No, not at all.

Nowadays, with little aeroplanes with nosewheels on long runways, it’s almost never necessary, especially when ATC are there to nursemaid other traffic out of your way.

So, getting back to this accident – and a hundred more stuffed up go-around accidents – the system is such that we are seldom taught to do go arounds, and pretty much never practice them. We are not prepared for them, and are hugely surprised when faced with a real one. And when we have finished being surprised, we have no idea what to do.

Most pilots have practiced EFATOs, and done a simulated one during their last flight test. A go-around – nah – no idea what to do.

It’s very possible that this is the first real-life go-around this instructor had ever faced in his life. I think he was frozen with indecision.

If we could stop the action when they were at say 500’AGL and ask both the instructor and the pupe, what they felt about their airspeed, height, power setting and configuration, I’m sure they would both have said, “We are too high and too fast, and we need more flap.”

Correct – they were an unbelievable15 to 20 knots too fast, and way too high, and why only 20° of flap?

And why didn’t they do anything about it?

I’ll tell you why – the option of a go-around didn’t enter their heads – they had seldom done one

before. Or if they had, it was long ago. It was just not part of their planning.

Remember the five dangerous characteristics? This one is RESIGNATION – let’s do nothing and see what happens.

What should happen is that on final approach we should brief ourselves that if we don’t like anything, at any stage we will do a go-around. It might be nothing to do with airspeed, height and power – perhaps a dog runs into the runway. Or you spot an idiot landing on the cross runway. Or you realise you still have the wheels up.

Your self-briefing should say, If anything looks wrong I will:

1. Smoothly take full power, using rudder to keep straight

2. Level the nose

3. Retract the undercarriage

4. Bleed off flap as airspeed increases

5. Climb away

Note: heavy aircraft sometimes call flaps to be retracted before the undercarriage. This is because inertia may cause the aircraft to touch down during the go-around.

Take home stuff:

• Not sure how? – get some dual from a good instructor.

• Use the correct approach speed.

• On every approach your throttle hand should be itching to go smoothly all the way forward for another few minutes of flying.

• Be like an airline pilot and brief for the goaround every time. j

Use the correct approach speed.

THE DELTAHAWK JET-A ENGINE

Last month we apologised for making an engine the Gadget of the Month. And this month we are doing it again. But the news is BIG.

DeltaHawk’s DHK180 is configured in an inverted “V” with mechanical fuel injection and liquid cooling.

IT SEEMS WE HAVE BEEN WATING forever for a variable and affordable diesel engine for general aviation aircraft. The one that was much hyped and thus hoped-for was the all new, clean-sheet DeltaHawk direct injection diesel.

And then completely unexpectedly – it has been announced that the DeltaHawk DHK180 piston powerplant has been FAA certified.

once again. Few new designs have surfaced in the past 60 years. One of the better attempts was the Adept V6 petrol engine from Durban, South Africa – but after years of hype, and one brief low-power circuit around Virginia Airport, the project finally folded.

The liquid-cooled, 180 hp, 4-cylinder diesel engine uses an inverted “V” configuration and mechanical fuel injection, along with a slimmer design expected to fit more efficiently into modern aircraft cowls. It’s turbocharged and supercharged, has a direct drive without a reduction gearbox, and claims to have 40 percent fewer parts than other engines in its class.

The DH180A4 has a fuel burn of 7.5 gph at 135 hp.

“We began by completely reimagining what a general aviation engine should be,” said Christopher Ruud, DeltaHawk’s CEO. “And the result is that we now have a certified engine that is a game-changer. It’s been a long time coming but, in engineering, simple is hard. However, this engine’s performance, simplicity, and reliability have made it worth the time and the investment, as it is truly ‘power reimagined.’”

It’s not easy or cheap to bring a new powerplant into the GA market, and the DeltaHawk story proves this to be true

But the DeltaHawk has survived and is finally here. The DHK180 stems from the DH180 originally on display at EAA AirVenture 2014 on a Cirrus SR20. After the Ruud family took controlling ownership in 2016, the path toward certification became clearer: The 180 hp variant showed up at Oshkosh in 2019, also on the SR20, and at that time DeltaHawk expected certification by the end of that year. With a little delay—and pandemic induced slowdowns—the engine has now acquired the Type Certificate it needs to move into production.

According to the company, it has had interest from potential suitors from kit builders to the military—even from NASA to power its Subsonic Single Aft Engine Aircraft (SUSAN) scale flight test vehicle. As it burns JetA it will be a welcome change from Avgas burning Rotaxes used for the MQ-1 Predator UAVs.

DeltaHawk expects to deliver the first production DHK180 in 2024.

j

in engineering, simple is hard

The DeltaHawk on a Cirrus in 2019

APRIL 2023

THERE IS YET ANOTHER BOEING 737 for FlySafair, another Airbus A320 for Global, an ATR72 for Solenta and an Embraer E190 for Airlink. This shows just how our scheduled flying market is growing.

There is also an ex Angolan King Air 200 added this month.

The Boeing 737 for Safair, ZS-FGZ, is 12 ½ years old and this registration was previously used on a Twin Comanche that was exported to Malawi. The Airbus A320 for Global is eighteen years old. This registration was previously used by a Grunau IX glider which was scrapped. The King Air takes up a registration previously used by a Beech 1900C which was exported to the States way back when.

There is a Bell 407 registered this month and this one comes from China.

The drone register has been a bit quiet this month with only twenty-two being added to the register and nine removed. I don’t think this reflects the state of the market which I think is much more active than this.

Guimbal Cabri G2 helicopters exported to New Zealand

The deletions from the TCA register this month include a DC9-82 that’s been sitting on the ground next to Global Airways hangar at OR Tambo airport for years. I’m led to believe this one had a damaged main spar and was uneconomical to repair. I actually watched them break her up – quite saddening. The rest of the deletions, nine in total – six fixed wing and three helicopters have gone to places all over the world but interestingly enough three Guimbal Cabri G2 helicopters

Another Boeing 737-800- ET-AOB is now ZS-FGZ with Safair.

The register amendments this month are very interesting, especially when we see that the Type Certified (TCA) additions include four aircraft for our various airlines.

ABOVE: And another Embraer E190, UR-EMG is now ZS-YDE with Airlink.

BELOW: Imported- King Air 200, D2-ESP is now ZS-NXX.

BELOW BOTTOM: This TBM 800, ZS-CCB has been exported to Kenya.

ABOVE: Broken up - ZS-TOG was a DC9-82 now scrapped at OR Tambo. Photo Ray Watts.

BELOW: Another Airbus A320, YR-DSI is now ZS-GAC with Global Airways.

BELOW BOTTOM: Already in Safair's new livery, VP-CGT is now ZS-FGZ.

were exported to New Zealand. A Eurocopter EC130 was also exported to Iceland. One doesn’t often see this country as a destination for South African registered aircraft.

Tail piece

At time of writing the next air show will be the

SAAF one at Swartkops on the 6th of May but for the life of me I cannot get any information out of the organisers as to whether there’ll be disabled parking available. This is important as I know of quite a few disabled folks who’d like to attend the show. j

EC-MMZ is an ATR, now ZS-XZE with Solenta.

ZS-RLH is a Robinson R44 now exported to Zimbabwe.

ZS-RUV is a Robinson R44 exported to Mozambique. Photo Ray Watts.

PTAR 2023 – BATTLE OF THE BEASTS

Spanning an impressive 86 years, the Presidents Trophy Air Race (PTAR) remains one of the most prestigious annual events in Southern Africa.

Text Laura McDermid. Pics: Laura McDermid and Garth Calitz

Dion Raath (nav) and John Sayers get airborne in their thundering Harvard.

THIS YEAR SAW Rob Jonkers handing over his Race Director’s cap to young Iaan Myburgh, who ushered in some changes to the 2023 format.

The objective of the race over two days is to measure the pilot and navigator’s skills as they attempt to improve their allocated handicap speed over a set course.

The much-loved route plotting element was reintroduced, and the exact distance was withheld. This encouraged each team to fly at their maximum potential, thus minimizing the possibility of artificially manipulating the aircraft’s speed and getting an unfairly favourable handicap sped.

that didn’t dampen the excitement

Two speeds are considered for determining the aircraft’s final handicap speed, namely the 3D speed (the speed calculated in 3-dimensional space under ‘perfect’ conditions) and the handicap speed (speed that factors in the characteristics of the actual course). Test flights to determine the 3-D speed of each individual aircraft are carried out the day before the competition.

This speed, together with the speed as determined by the aircraft manufacturer as well as the average speed of any past PTARs, are all considered.

There were 28 entrants this year, a fraction of that seen in the heyday of general aviation, but an accurate

The Lovett hangar formed a great base.

Plotting on the tail plane.

Keeping it real - the Van’s RV-14 ZU-ITF, after being scrutineered

Girl power Tshomarelo Moima and Thobeka Shozi with their Cessna 172D.

The quest for speed - Phil Wakely cleans off bugs.

reflection of the financial constraints that many people face due to South Africa’s economic climate.

Fortunately, that didn’t dampen the excitement; the crews were in fine fettle on Day 1 as they took off in clear blue winter skies from Runway 32 at Middelburg Airfield (FAMB).

ZU-ITF, a Van’s RV-14, lovingly built by Richardt Lovett, departed first with a 3D speed of 174.82KT, closely followed by the remainder of the field, setting a record at FAMB of sending 28 aircraft off in just 13 minutes.

The total course distance on day one was a respectable 268NM.

The first five aircraft to cross the line were ZS-FVV, a Piper PA28-235C, ZU-FZF a Sling 2 and ZU-ACP an AM3C Bosbok (the winner in 2021), ZS-WSE a Harvard T-6G and ZS-DLY a Cessna C210N.

The day went off without a hitch for most,

but the SAPS team of Thabiso Mongalo and Lindelwa Mdaki in ZS-CZM, a Piper PA-28-180 got lost and arrived thirty minutes later than expected. A stark reminder of how critical the fuel reserve is when calculating range at faster speeds.

The excitement on Friday afternoon was infectious as the crews settled in to plot their course for the following day.

As is typical of such events, stories of the day’s flying dominated the braai that evening, but by 21h00, the dining hall had emptied out significantly in preparation for the big day ahead.

Day 2 dawned, revealing a sky blanketed with high cirrus clouds and a brisk north-easterly wind. The tension in the briefing that morning was palpable as 56 sets of eyes remained riveted on Iaan as he outlined the day’s plan.

On Day 2, the slowest aircraft takeoff first with takeoff times calculated to include time gains/ losses carried over from Day 1 so that everyone

Third placed Johan Kruger and Quintin Whiteman in their Cherokee 235.

The spirit of the raceDion Raath, the Nav of ZS-WSE shakes the hand of ZS-FVV’s nav Johan Whiteman.

should cross the finish line at the same time. There was therefore an hour between the first and last planes and by the time ZU-ITF took off at 11h02, the wind was gusting 20KT.

The day’s route was 298NM in a figure of eight that saw the planes flying over the airfield at half time.

The roar of the geared Lycoming GSO-480B1B6 ‘Avgas converter’ (so called because it converts Avgas to decibels) could be heard before the distinctive grey shape of father and son team Apie and Frederik Kotzee’s Bosbok came into view, followed closely by Piper PA-28235C flown by Quinton Kruger and Johan Whiteman.

No sooner had they flown overhead the field when the Pratt & Whitney R1340-AN-1 Wasp radial shook the earth as the team of Dion Raath and John Sayers in the canary yellow T-6 Harvard thundered past like a comet. Not far behind them was ZS-KLR, a C-210L.

Despite their exhaustion, the crews that alighted from the first five planes were ebullient. Some were still shaking from the effects of adrenalin.

The order in which the planes arrived on Day 2 was indicative of the results but not final - scores could change depending on penalties incurred on Day 1, which meant that there was still a long wait ahead for the final results to be calculated.

The strong winds and turbulence were a bane for the lighter planes earning many crews’ altitude penalties on Day 2. Conversely, the conditions turned out to be a boon for the bigger planes.

In a scene reminiscent of the Roman Games, the finish ended with the Battle of the Beasts. Both these aircraft have illustrious pasts that have earned them a place in African history.

ZS-WEC was part of a squadron of Harvards that were given to the Portuguese Air Force who took them to Mozambique where they were

Apie and Frederik Kotzee, winners of PTAR 2023.

used by FRELIMO. And ZU-ACP was one of 40 AM.3Cs Bosbok’s that the South African Air Force ordered in 1970. The Bosbok was retired from service in 1992 following the end of South Africa’s involvement in the Angolan War.

In an epic finish, the Bosbok ZU-ACP took first place followed by the Harvard ZS-WEC in second place, separated by 3 minutes.

A great feat of flying ensured that the Piper PA-28-235C ZS-FVV remained on the podium in third place.

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of SAPFA and Tarryn and Iaan Myburgh, the competition went off without a hitch and there were no protests lodged, not even by the famously competitive John Sayers, who had been beaten into second place once again.

The debate still rages as to whether navigation aids such as GPS and EFIS should be allowed. The purists argue that at its heart, this is a ‘gentleman’s’ sport, and the use of any technological aid should be discouraged. This argument could be likened to any sport where performance enhancing drugs are used illegally to give athletes an edge. The athletes that have trained hard and rely only on their natural talent are sorely disadvantaged.

One suggestion is to split the PTAR into two categories: an Assisted Flying Category and a Purist Category. Only the participants in the Purist Category are eligible for the original floating trophy. Although this sounds like a good idea on paper, I still think that there will be those who will enter the Purist category and will continue to use banned aids.

I was a scrutineer at PTAR this year, and I realised that there are many, many places that one can hide a device. In the past, GPSs have been flung out of the plane before landing. However, as technology advances, devices are getting smaller and more sophisticated and hiding one on your person becomes very easy.

Integrated glass cockpits has made the job of the technical scrutineer very challenging. Disabling antenna’s and blanking out EFIS screens gave Marc Robinson from Century Avionics sleepless nights as pilots bemoaned the fact that they were unable to see their headings.

It is sad when a sport is tainted by deception. Then again, winning at all costs has been the curse of the human species since the dawn of time. However, I remind myself that human ingenuity has also enabled us to defy gravity and how privileged we are to be able to enjoy the wonders of flight.

TABLE OF COMPARISON

North American Harvard T-6 AM.3CM Bosbok

Engine Model(s) Pratt & Whitney R1340-AN-1 Wasp radial engine

Piaggio-built Lycoming GSO480-B1B6 6-cylinder air-cooled, horizontally opposed piston engine

Winners all- Prize giving at the gala dinner.

Fuel Prices as at 26/04/2023

Prices include VAT but exclude any service fees

Fuel Prices as at 29/05/2023

Prices include VAT but exclude any service fees

LOWVELD AIRSHOW 2023

– A WELCOME RETURN

Nelspruit is known for hosting above average airshows, and this year was no exception.

Working on Fire Bombers used Ukrainian flag colours.

Text and Pictures Garth Calitz

FOR 2023, anchor sponsor Kishugu once again teamed up with ABSA and Airlink to deliver a short but action packed show.

On Saturday morning there was doubt that the show would go ahead, as low clouds plagued the area. Fortunately, as the day warmed, the cloud base rose high enough to go ahead with the show safely.

The gates opened at 10:00 to admit long queues. By the time the first display was flown, the airfield was packed to levels that haven’t been seen for many years.

Radio-controlled aircraft were the first to get airborne, with the BAE Hawk model, painted in Saudi Airforce livery. The miniature jet got the crowd primed for the rest of the day. The jet was followed by large-scale aerobatic models, and what these RC pilots accomplish with these aircraft is amazing.

Once the RC aircraft were back on the ground, Bobby Rowe took to the air in a Micro Aviation Bat Hawk. Bobby has the ability to show just how manoeuvrable this versatile little South African-built aircraft is. The Bat Hawk is now used in many African countries for a variety of tasks, notably anti-poaching. And South

airliner in the tight confines

African Bat Hawk pilots are currently working with the authorities in the Ivory Coast to set up an anti-poaching programme.

A highlight for many was the first appearance of the Airlink E195.

Danie Terblanche performed remarkable feats of flying in the humble Robinson R66.

The show was well attended. Pic Sharon Cassidy.

Andre van Zyl suprised many with his gyro antics.

An unusual combination by Ivan and Jeandre van der Schaar - a Cherokee 235 with a RC model.

A low cloud base limited the Flying Lions to a flat display.

A parade of emergency vehicles was followed by bikers from the Nelspruit to promote the “Look Twice for Motorcycles.”

A HEMS Bell 407 from the Mpumalanga Department of Health lofted two skydivers to the cloud base which made for a short free-fall and canopy ride to land in front of the crowd line.

The Goodyear Eagles Pitts Specials made up of Nigel Hopkins, Jason Beamish, Trevor Warner and Johan von Solms wowed the spectators. This team has been entertaining crowds in Southern Africa for over 30 years.

Ace helicopter pilot Danie Terblanche showed the abilities of the Robinson R66. Danie is capable of manoeuvres in this helicopter that should not be attempted by less experienced pilots.

The weather deteriorated during the afternoon, so, fearing that they would not be able to make their way back to Johannesburg later in the day,

The Puma Energy Flying Lions performed a flat display and immediately headed home. The twilight display by Scully and Ellis Levin, Sean Thackwray and Arnie Meneghelli is a favourite amongst airshow faithful, but sadly the weather wouldn’t allow it.

The RV Raptors took to murky skies to fly their formation aerobatics display. Nigel Hopkins led the team and was joined by Ryan Beaton, Trevor Warner, Dion Raath and Johan von Solms. The Raptors disappeared in their own smoke as there was not a breath of wind.

Ivan van der Schaar and his son Jandre were next on the cards. Unusually, they fly a display in both an RC and a full-size aircraft. Ivan normally flies his Boeing Stearman, but due to the weather, Ivan made the flight to Nelspruit in his Piper Cherokee 235.

The air was then filled with the howl of an Extra 330SC as Nigel Hopkins gave his usual polished display of freestyle aerobatics, including both

The amazingly authentic RC Saudi Hawk.

The inimitable Brian Emmenis kept the atmosphere electric.

No Lowveld airshow woud be complete without Working on Fire.

low-level and gyroscopic figures. It is always a pleasure seeing this seven times South African unlimited champion throwing his aircraft around the air.

With darkness creeping in, Working on Fire showed Nelspruit what they do all winter in the surrounding mountains and forests. First up was the Cessna 172 spotter, followed by two Air Tractor 802F fire bombers and two Bell UH-1 Hueys. The two fire bombers performed a formation drop down the flight line with blue and yellow fire retardant. Spectators wondered if this was also a show of support for the Ukraine. Then the two Hueys landed in front of the crowd to attach their Bambi buckets. They dropped into the valley to fill their buckets before dropping their 1000 litre loads along the crowd line.

Andre van Zyl took his Magni Gyro into the darkening sky. Andre can fly the Gyro in ways not many people would believe was possible.

Airlink, a major sponsor of the air show, arrived with a new Embraer E195E. Capt Jaco Henning,

a local Nelspruit man was flying, with Capt Dean Nicholas in the right seat and safety pilot Johan Niclaisen. They expertly flew this airliner in the tight confines of the Nelspruit Airport airspace.

Nigel Hopkins and Jason Beamish got airborne for the final display of the day, a high-energy two-ship aerobatics display in their Extra 330s. Nigel and Jason have been performing together for many years and are so in sync with one another the twilight didn’t bother them.

The spectators that had stuck around for the whole day were rewarded with one of the most impressive fireworks displays ever at an airshow in South Africa. Brian Emmenis and his team from Capital Sounds ad fittingly selected Hooked-on Classics to accompany the fireworks and the flying displays.

Special mention must go to key sponsor ABSA and Col. Koos Kiek and his safety team who did a marvellous job of keeping the show on track.

The show ended with a huge fireworks display. Pic Rayno Snyman.

FLYING BOATS

The motor launch ferried us across the tranquil waters of Lake Naivasha in Kenya. Giraffe browsed from flat topped thorn trees, while hippopotami occasionally broke the lake surface with characteristic snorts, before subsiding again, to leave their ears and inquisitive eyes visible to our passage.

Imperial Airways Empire Class Flying Boat advertising poster, 1937.

FURTHER OUT ON THE LAKE, a large moored four-engine Short Solent flying boat’s shining metal hull and wings gleamed in the bright sunlight.

The aircraft had an upper and lower deck, with a small cocktail bar on the lower deck, near the boarding entrance. The fuselage was divided into ship-like communal cabins, with four on the lower deck, and two on the upper. All thirty-nine passenger seats were large, comfortable, and upholstered in luxurious green leather.

Uniquely, the aircraft also contained a viewing promenade enabling passengers to stand at large side windows and gaze down onto vistas of wild game and other passing spectacles.

each of the four Bristol Hercules radial engines were started.

Then the mooring was cast off and the aircraft began to taxi across the water. The seat pocket ahead of me bore the logo of BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), the successor to Imperial Airways. Below this the company moto read; “We take good care of you.”

The engines were then individually run at higher power as their magnetos were checked as well as other performance parameters, and the variable pitch propellers exercised.

occasional tremors felt through the hull

Being unpressurised, the cruising altitudes were in the region of nine to ten thousand feet, at a speed of about one hundred and eighty knots.

We disembarked from the large launch and entered the door of the impressive flying boat. Once the passengers were boarded and seated,

Minutes later the flying boat turned into wind and the power advanced on all four engines, which roared in unison as the big machine accelerated across the water, with occasional tremors being felt through the hull.

Several seconds later the aircraft rose up onto its stepped hull, and began planing like a speedboat skimming across the surface.. As the acceleration increased a bow wave rose up

The Short S.26 Empire Flying Boat G-AFCI Golden Hind taking off.

the fuselage sides, gradually creeping up above the height of the lower windows. A green hue suffused the cabin. Moments later the buffeting from skimming across the small waves ceased as the flying boat rose. The water dropped away from window level, giving the impression that we were rising out of a green aquarium.

The cabin instantly brightened and the gleaming wing floats, and takeoff flaps shed cascades of water blown into beads by the slipstream.

that we were approaching the equator. Then, when “crossing the imaginary line” the flying pilot moved the control column briefly forward then back to induce a slight bump, and announced that we had just ‘physically crossed from the Southern to the Northern hemisphere.’

This was greeted with cheers and applause by the passengers.

a gourmet lunch

on bone china with silver cutlery.

As we climbed away, enthralled, I turned my gaze from a shining aluminium wing float and enjoyed the vista of the receding lake below. Then we turned north, setting course for distant England.

A while later, at our cruising altitude, the Captain made a passenger announcement, advising

A smartly attired air hostess handed each passenger an ornate coloured certificate bearing their name, hand written in immaculate cursive script, which attested to their crossing of the Equator, together with the date and time of the event. The certificate also carried the name of the aircraft captain, and crew.

The cockpit crew then privately changed from

The bulk of the Short Solent MkIII is evident.

their white summer uniform into a blue serge version, to indicate that they were now bound for the English winter season. The grand pageantry exhibited by BOAC in those days was modelled on the great ocean liners of the period.

Then a three-course gourmet lunch was served on bone china with silver cutlery.

Later that afternoon we landed on a long straight stretch of the Nile river, at Khartoum.

The flying boat taxied to a halt, and the Union Jack was placed in a small receptacle outside the left cockpit window. Then the Sudanese flag was similarly mounted at the opposite side of the cockpit.

A smart launch with brass fittings and well lacquered wooden panels conveyed us to a large thatched lapa ashore, where fezzed Sudanese waiters served refreshments while the flying boat was refuelled for the next leg of the journey to Egypt.

After drinks and sandwiches the aircraft took-off, and headed north for a very late night landing in Alexandria harbour. This was accomplished by the aircraft lining up between bouys fitted with flickering paraffin fuelled goose neck flares.

I did not recognize the complexity of this manoeuvre at the time, nor I suspect was it appreciated by most of the other unconcerned passengers.

A mural in the Victoria Falls Hotel celebrating the Flying Boat Service.

Again, launches took us ashore, where we were served a fine dinner at a harbour side hotel, while being entertained by a stout Egyptian ‘Gilly Gilly’ conjurer; a magician who hid a ball beneath inverted copper cones then invited the audience to guess which cone hid the ball.

The next trick involved selecting a lady in the audience who sported a low cut dress. He then approached her, bent forward, and seemingly pulled a small, wriggling live snake from her bosom. A memorable, but risqué’ finale for the period.

After dinner the flying boat was reboarded and took off again. After a while, passengers mostly dozed, while others relaxed in the lower cabin cocktail lounge, sipping champaign and other tipples. International passengers in those days dressed smartly and treated their airborne voyages as special occasions. Later, most of the passengers slept on the comfortable reclining green leather seats, beneath blue woollen airline monogrammed blankets. Dawn found us landing at Augusta harbour in Sicily.

From the shore bound launch, the clear visibility permitted us to see distant Mount Etna’s volcano, gently smoking.

After breakfast we were ferried back to the aircraft, and took off on the final leg to Southampton, where we landed during the afternoon.

There, after clearing immigration and customs, most of the passengers boarded the comfortable BOAC provided coach that carried us to the airline’s terminus at Victoria, in London.

During the coach ride, still enchanted by the flying boat trip, I turned to my father and said, ‘Dad, when I grow up, I want to be a pilot.’

He smiled and ruffled my hair. In time, my wish was partially granted. I did become a pilot. But, pilots never grow up.

j

A Shorts flying boat gets airborne.

GRAND CENTRAL AIRPORT AVIATION COMPANIES GUIDE

GRAND CENTRAL AIRPORT

DUE TO ITS CENTRAL LOCATION, controlled airspace and non-cumbersome security protocols, Grand Central Airport is ideal for private aviation.

Pilots will find a variety of aviation services companies located at the airport, should they need technical assistance.

The airport is operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and offers car rental facilities and a travel agency.

The airport offers over 25 dedicated helipads as well as parking and hangars for private aircraft. There are plans pending to build four new hangars.

Thanks to its location and facilities, Grand Central is one of the busiest general aviation airports in South Africa. Recognising this the owners made a significant investment in the airport’s infrastructure and facilities in 2014 which included having the runway redone. Unfortunately, in terms of future development, Grand Central can’t expand because the

surrounding land is owned and managed by Old Mutual Properties.

An Executive Departures lounge provides the ideal location for passengers to relax before embarking on a flight. The airport also boasts a 16-seater boardroom facility on the first floor. The Airport now offers a hot desk office with two small 4-seater boardrooms & free wi-fi for nonoffice bound executives.

The Harvard Café located in the terminal building has a large seating area looking out over the apron where visitors can watch light aircraft and helicopters taking off. There is also a large outdoor children’s play area.

Pilot training plays an important role in Grand Central Airport’s operations. Many young South Africans dream of becoming pilots when they grow up but few realise how achievable this dream really is. Whether flying for pleasure or pursuing a career in aviation, the diverse selection of flight schools based at Grand Central Airport allow students to train for any license in both the fixed wing and helicopter domain.

Grand Central, as the name suggests, benefits from having an ideal location in the heart of Gauteng. It’s a quick hop from the apron to the highway to Johannesburg or Pretoria and the nearest Gautrain station is just 5 minutes away.

Grand Central is ideally located and has shown the resilience to survive the Covid-19 pandemic.

The imposing terminal building.

Part of the airport’s 2020 master plan was to build hangars and do renovations on the southern end of the airport where aircraft currently park in the open. However, this idea will only see fruition once there is a recognised demand from enough charter companies to support a complete large scale building plan in order to prevent having to redo work at a later stage. In the current constrained environment this has to be considered unlikely.

The plan also has to be approved by the shareholders of the airport, and a majority shareholding has recently changed hands.

during load shedding and is looking at getting enough generators to power the entire airport.

International status

Grand Central has long hoped to regain its international status, which its lost in 1998, however the security requirements are considered too cumbersome for the diminished airport.

Tenant Relations

A challenge for any airport is balancing relationships with tenants while remembering that an airport is ultimately a business. One of the biggest issues for the tenants has been the fees and rentals that Grand Central charges. But for the convenience of having a 1850 m tarred runway, air traffic control, fuel available seven days a week and maintenance staff on hand five days a week, the airport maintains that the rates are market related.

Grand Central currently has a generator that powers the runway lights and control tower

The boardroom is available for business meetings.

Many service providers have established operations at Grand Central.

LOCATIONS

PAMBELE AVIATION

DR KENNETH INGHAM

AIRBUS

LANSERIA FLIGHT CENTRE

SMALL JOURNEYS DEMAND BIG CHANGE

Reimagining transport through the power of innovation, CityAirbus NextGen is designed to connect people. With an 80km operational range, this four-seat vertical take-off and landing aircraft will offer new options for community journeys, while its fully electric propulsion will help keep the world a beautiful place.

AIRBUS SOUTHERN AFRICA (PTY) LTD

AIRBUS IS A GLOBAL LEADER in aeronautics, space and related services. Airbus has been active in Africa’s helicopter market for over 40 years. It has maintained a presence in South Africa since 1994. Airbus Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd is a oneroof entity (shared services), incorporating Airbus Commercial, Helicopters and Defence & Space and has its headquarters at Grand Central Airport in Midrand, South Africa.

Airbus Helicopters provides the most efficient civil and military helicopter solutions to Southern African and Indian Ocean customers who operate an in-service fleet of around 350 turbine helicopters, to serve, protect, save lives and safely transport passengers in highly demanding environments. On top of the popular H125 & H130, the continent’s sector accounts for a significant number of medium-lift helicopters and is regarded as a market ideally suited to the twinengine H145, H175 & H225 aircraft.

Airbus Southern Africa (AZA) boasts an award winning Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) facility at Grand Central Airport hangars ranging from H120, AS350 series, H125, H130, H135 series, H145 series. From new aircraft assemblies and customisation, AZA also covers all types of maintenance, including the major inspections. As an OEM customer centre, AZA is recognised within the Airbus Group and has an excellent history with aircraft rebuilds, retrofits and Airbus approved modifications.

AZA also provides training and assistance, and has trained civil, military and parapublic pilots in the H125 FNPT simulator in Johannesburg since 2016.

Airbus Helicopters offers a new support and services structure. Operators will be matched to the best combination of services according to their profile and fleet make-up, thanks to a logistic spare parts stock at AZA, covering Parts replacement for the Region.

Simplified to just three flexible solutions, HCare is now composed of HCare Initial, HCare In-service, or a combination of the two, HCare Lifetime. For each, customers can opt for one out of three levels of material management performance. Still available for specific fleets will be the HCare First package for Airbus Corporate Helicopters (ACH) aircraft and HCare Classics for the out-ofproduction legacy fleet (H120, Dauphin, Puma and Gazelle).

To find out more about Airbus Southern Africa’s products and services, visit our website.

Contact:

Telephone : +27 11 266 2600

Fax: +27 11 266 2628

Web: www.airbushelicopters.co.za or www.airbus.com j

PAMBELE AVIATION

PAMBELE AVIATION (based at Grand Central Airport) is a dependable air charter company operating throughout Southern Africa providing light aircraft transport services. We have more than seventeen years’ experience providing charter flights for the private and business sectors, the hunting fraternity, business leaders, tourists and VIP’s.

The primary aircraft being operated are a Beechcraft King Air B200 and a Cessna Grand Caravan 208B. A number of light piston engine aircraft are available for smaller group sizes, or for those who are budget conscious.

A satellite base of operation is located at Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport serving the Lowveld region of the country.

Pambele Aviation has an unblemished safety history.

Pambele Aviation holds license N892D and a valid Part 135 AOC.

Contact Details

E-mail: fjoubert@pambele.aero

lowveld@pambele.aero j

Formerly known as JEMAX AVIATION License # N892D

Central Aerospace Medicine

Dr Kenneth Anthony Ingham is a Senior Aviation Medical Examiner with rooms situated in the immediate vicinity of Grand Central Airport, Midrand. Dr Ingham is an experienced Aviation Medical Examiner with a career beginning in 1969 as a Flight Surgeon at Langebaan air Force Base. As a registered Senior SA CAA Aviation Medical Examiner, Dr Ingham’s practice (Central Aerospace Medicine) is suitably equipped to carry out the full range of medical examinations necessary for aviation relevant to pilots, air traffic controllers and cabin crew operating under licences issued in South Africa, Australia and Canada.

He is in possession of a Certificate in Travel Medicine, a Diploma in Public Health and BSc (Hons) Aerospace Medicine and is registered with the Department of Labour for professional divers. He is also registered with the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) for medical examinations of Seafarers. For more information contact Dr Ingham on: Tel: (011) 315-5817

Email: kaingham@hotmail.com

Website: www.aerospace-medicine-sa.co.za

Consulting rooms: Block A, First Floor, 49 New Road, Opposite Grand Central Airport, Randjiespark, Midrand.

Registration Details:

HPCSA: MP0123684

Practice No: 1559257

SA CAA: MS015

Canada: A-277

CASA: 587648

Dive Med: DM 041

LANSERIA FLIGHT CENTRE

LANSERIA FLIGHT CENTRE, established in 1989 offers professional flight training located at Grand Central Airport. Our aim is to provide our clients with the highest standard of comprehensive training available and experience that you can draw on to plan your training and future in aviation. LFC is internationally recognised as a first-class flight school and aviation training organisation. We specialise in providing professional pilot training for full-time or part-time clients.

LFC is the first choice among aspiring pilots for professional flight training; we cater for domestic & international clients.

With his team and over 35 years’ experience, Ian Dyson looks forward to continuing a rich tradition of professional pilot training and flight services to

the aviation industry. We have successfully trained both domestic and international airline pilots, hobby aviators, hourbuilding programs and supported advanced pilot training from ab-inito all the way through to airline transport pilot licenses

Many of our clients now fly for the world’s top airlines including British Airways, Qantas and Emirates and many more.

Contact: Grand Central Airport, Midrand +27 11 312 5166

www.flylfc.com j

INVENTOR OF GPWS DIES

DON BATEMAN, the inventor of the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) passed away on May 21 2023 aged 91.

Bateman dedicated his life to aviation safety. Flight Safety Foundation’s CEO stated: “It is accepted within the industry that Don Bateman has probably saved more lives than any single person in the history of aviation.”

Bateman began working as electrical engineer with Sunstrand Corporation, which later became Honeywell, and pioneered the Ground Proximity Warning System in the late 1960s (the related patent was granted in 1976). He went on to improve the system into EGPWS as well as develop other innovative and cost effective avionics devices.

RIP: SA FLYER ARTIST RYNO CILLIERS

Don Bateman, who invented GPWS with President Barak Obama.

RIP Well known and long serving SA Flyer artist Ryno Cilliers passed away on 12 May after a short ilnness.

MAINTENANCE / REFURBISHMENT & AVIONICS / INSTRUMENTS GUIDE

Quiet the noise. Amplify the experience.

NEW BOSE A30 AVIATION HEADSET

Less distraction. Less noise. Less pulling you away from the joys of flight. With unparalleled comfort and three selectable modes of active noise cancellation, the Bose A30 Aviation Headset enables flight the way it was intended.

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE REFURBISHMENT AND AVIONICS GUIDE

SOUTH AFRICA STILL HAS a thankfully deep repository of skills in aviation maintenance and a thriving industry refurbishing old aircraft.

It is not uncommon to find 60 year old airframes being refurbished to genuinely better than new condition, thanks to engine improvements and updated avionics, particularly since ‘glass cockpit’ instrumentation has become far more affordable and easy to install – even in type certified aircraft.

These days a good used Cessna 182 with perhaps a midlife engine can be bought for around R2 million – which is a seventh of the price of a new plane. Not only have you saved millions but your insurance is much cheaper. Of course, maintenance will be a bit – but not that much – higher. And this is where a good AMO comes in.

SA Flyer owned a Cessna 182, ZS-FPI, and then a complex turbocharged retractable Piper Saratoga, ZS-OFH. What we learned is that the differences in maintenance between a good and

poor AMO is very noticeable in terms of aircraft availability and reliability. This was evident when we switched from the Rand Airport based agents to Ferreira Aviation in Bloemfontein.

Avionics

Avionics are the field where the most progress has been made and this makes older aircraft excellent candidates for an avionics upgrade. Particularly popular are STCs for the installation of the industry standard Garmin G600 and G1000.And for those aircraft that have the performance – the installation of altimetry to meet RVSM requirements.

Specialist avionics installers at Lanseria such as Aeronautical Aviation and Century Avionics pioneered the installation of the industry standard Garmin G1000 into King Air 200s and these have now become a very popular upgrade across the industry.

The refurbishment industry has made it possible to own old aircraft that are as good as new. And you can also add a lot of sexy new avionics kit, such as terrain avoidance systems that a fifty-year-old piston single would have lacked because those systems had not yet been invented.

Older corporate aircraft have been excllent candidates for avionics upgrades such as this Garmin G1000 NXi for a King Air 200.

SA Flyer's Cessna 182 is an excellent example of what can be accomplished with refurbishment.

Typical installations include a dual air data attitude heading reference system (AHRS), dual PFDs, a centre MFD with moving map, FMS, navcoms and WAAS GPS, radar display, and a pedestal-mounted FMS keyboard. Popular too are numerous electronic engine instrument displays and a battery powered all-in-one standby PFD.

A typical avionics selection for the upgrade of older piston singles involves a Garmin G600 glass-panel with synthetic vision as a PFD for the pilot’s side. This gets its data from a WAAS capable, TAWS-B certified Garmin GNS 530W and GNS 430W GPS/navcom that fits in the centre radio stack.

On the right side of the panel a JPI EDM 930 engine-monitoring screen that displays all engine parameters including fuel flow, rpm, manifold pressure and electrical output is an ideal partner for GAMI injectors for better temperature control and lean of peak operation for fuel injected engines.

Engine Upgrades

The leader in engine upgrades to the ubiquitous turboprops that are so popular in Africa is Blackhawk. This company has specialised in upgrades to the engines of the King Air range in particular, but also handle Cessna Caravans , Pilatus PC-12s and Piper Cheyennes.

The engine upgrade that put Blackhawk on the map is its Beechcraft King Air 200 engine replacement. Blackhawk offers no less than three engine upgrade packages for King Air 200s. The three upgrades are the XP42, XP52 and XP61 and they all generate important performance and savings benefits, yet each package has distinctive characteristics to benefit specific flight requirements and profiles. Some of the key benefits include: An increased rate of climb, higher single engine service ceiling and faster cruise speeds resulting in reduced time on airframe and engines and higher resale value (according to Vref).

Blackhawk’s XP52 engine upgrade exchanges

Instrument upgrades such as this to SA Flyer's C182 improve the aircraft's capability and safety.

the B200’s original PT6A-41 or PT6A-42 engines for factory-new Pratt & Whitney PT6A52 engines. No major airframe modifications are required and some of the key benefits are for Africa’s hot and high operations: the extended maximum operating ITT to 820 C with a higher horsepower flat rating of more than 1346 shp which enables it to reach higher altitudes more quickly, fly higher and faster and thus reduces specific fuel consumption. It is calculated that this typically saves $38,000 per year in reduced operating costs.

Bizjets, which tend to age quicker due to higher utilisation and faster obsolescence due to jet engine designs becoming more fuel efficient, are excellent candidates for refurbishment. This is especially evident in the re-engining of older airframes such as the HS125-400 with modern high bypass fan jets.

Even the basic jets with OEM fanjets such as Cessna’s Citation 501-SP are able to benefit enormously from engine upgrades. New engines such as the Williams FJ44-2As, which put out 2,300 pounds of thrust a side, provide a much needed performance improvement. At better than 400 knots TAS (50 knots faster than the original) and with a full fuel payload of 1,670 pounds, the Williams engine upgrade takes a well loved aircraft and makes it faster, stronger and gives it a 1,400 nm IFR range.

C182 and the ‘heart attack’ scheme on our Saratoga. This scheme was done by our artist Darren Edward O’Neil and we were so pleased we added his signature. Darren will propose a sketch layout and then, with painstaking attention to detail and proportion, make sure it is applied as intended to the physical requirements of the actual aircraft.

A key point to remember when repainting aircraft is that it must be done by an approved maintenance organisation as the control surfaces have to be removed and then professionally rebalanced before installation.

Interiors

Interiors are another critical item – most owners elect to use wool carpeting, and new padding and leather covering for seats. All materials must have a fire certificate – so this is not a job for non-aircraft approved suppliers, even if they are much cheaper.

Another popular aftermarket option are airbags –built into the seat-belt for the front two seats, as well as new LED lights and new plastic window reveals.

South Africa is blessed to still have such a deep legacy of aircraft refurbishment skills and it is the antidote to increasingly unaffordable new aircraft prices.

j

Paint and Interiors

It’s not just about engines and avionics – refurbishment customers want their planes to look like new. All good paint shops start with a complete paint strip and prime, followed by three coats of base paint with additional coats for the colour. Decals are becoming an increasingly popular option.

Specialists can do you custom paint schemes as was the case with the yellow extremities we had for better visibility on our

Innovative custom paint schemes such as for SA Flyer's Saratoga are increasingly in demand.

208 AVIATION

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE / BLACKHAWK

Established in 2007, 208 Aviation is a South African privately-owned company that strives to provide a broad range of aircraft maintenance and inspection services. With 15 years of operation, we have become a key player in aviation operations on the African continent.

208 Aviation has a full SACAA Part 145 AMO (Aircraft Maintenance Organisation) approval with Category A and C ratings. We also hold CAA approvals for South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Uganda and Malawi.

Our speciality is Cessna 208 Caravan, Beechcraft King Air, Kodiak, TBM and Eclipse aircraft maintenance and technical support.

We are a very proud approved Blackhawk dealer and installation facility.

Over the years, we have earned a reputation for providing superior quality workmanship. Doing things right is how we do business. We consider it our responsibility to go above and beyond when it comes to aviation safety and customer satisfaction.

With sound growth and a proven track record, we welcome you to experience the advantage of a dedicated team that brings unprecedented commitment to our customers. Take a few minutes to discover what our expertise can do for you at www.208aviation.com

Call: +27 83 744 3412

Email: ben@208aviation.co.za

Website: www.208aviation.com j

AERONAUTICAL AVIATION

BASED AT LANSERIA International Airport, Aeronautical Aviation was founded in 2005 and has been supporting and offering specialised services within the General Aviation industry with the repair, overhaul, and installation of aircraft instrumentation, avionics, electrical and pilot accessories. Our innovative laser department specialises in the refurbishment of backlighting switch and circuit breaker panels, transforming old, outdated panels to look as new as the equipment being installed.

Our team of qualified technicians have knowledge and training on all the products we supply and are Garmin and Collins Aerospace Factory trained. We believe that offering hands on training on equipment installed into an aircraft is a pivotal part to ensuring our clients are armed with the knowledge to operate the equipment fully, epitomising the Aeronautical Aviation difference.

Our extensive dealership base with our numerous suppliers including Garmin, Bose, Collins Aerospace, and Avidyne enable us to provide our clients with a variety of options to suit budget and operational needs. Aeronautical Aviation are proudly Garmin’s largest accredited dealer and distributor in Africa, as well as a Garmin Platinum dealer.

At Aeronautical Aviation we pride ourselves on service excellence and are committed to providing our customers with outstanding and exceptional quality. j

WE SPECIALIZE IN:

- Avionics

- ACK Agents (ELTs')

- Repairing and fault finding in rotor and fixed wing aircraft

- Overhaul and repairing of DC/ AC Electrical, Magneto and ignition equipment

- Full Battery workshop facilitating NiCad and Lead Acid batteries

- Aircraft electrical modifications and installations

- We travel to any destinations for MPI’s and repairs

Danie van Wyk: 083 269 8696

Fax: 011 701 3232

CAPE TOWN

Signature Hanger, Beachcraft Road

Cape Town International

Tel: 021 934 5373

Erwin Erasmus: 082 494 3722

Website: www.aeroelectrical.co.za

Email: office@aeroelectrical.co.za

AERO ELECTRICAL SOLUTIONS

AERO ELECTRICAL SOLUTIONS was established in 2004 by Erwin Erasmus and Danie van Wyk joined shortly afterwards. Between the two of them, they have more than 60 combined years in Aviation. Both Erwin, who now heads the Cape Town Branch, and Danie, who manages the Lanseria Branch, started their careers at Atlas Aircraft Corporation mastering their skills set in General Aviation, Avionic &

AES are a SACAA (South African Civil Aviation) approved at both their facilities at Lanseria Airport and at Cape Town International airport. Between the team of eleven engineers, they carry W & X, Avionics, Instruments, Ignition Equipment, Radios, Auto Pilot, and Compass systems (pulse and non-pulse) licences.

AES has excelled to such a high degree

AEROSPACE ELECTROPLATING

AEROSPACE ELECTROPLATING has been based at Rand Airport, Germiston since its launch in 1980 and for the past 43 years has served the aircraft industry with distinction in the supply of high quality surface finished products.

From 2012 the company is now a subsidiary of Mistral Aviation Services and run by Oliver Trollope with a highly experienced and qualified team of electroplaters.

Aerospace Electroplating is fully approved as SACAA AMO 506. Its processes are approved by Denel, Airbus Europe, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney and Allison Doil. The company offers a wide range of services for aircraft owners and

general industry, and through their partnership with Mistral Aircraft Services they can also offer engineering and non-destructive testing services.

Aerospace Electroplating’s highly qualified team are available to advise prospective clients on the perfect solution to all electroplating solutions to perfectly re-finish aircraft components to the manufacturer’s specifications.

Aerospace Electroplating can be contacted on Tel: 011 827 7535 or email: petasus@mweb.co.za j

ELECTROPLATING

506 For  all  your  SACAA  approved  plating  requirements

Cadmium Plate in Gold, Silver or Clear Passivation

Hard Chrome

AMO  506

Hard Silver Plate

Electroless Nickel

For all your SACAA approved plating requirements

Hard Copper Plate Anodising in Grey, Red or Black Black Phosphating

We  are  situated  at  30B,  Building  98,  Rand  Airport.  Next  to  Fields  Airmotive. Call  Des  on  011 827  7535  or  063 or  Peter  on  081 775  2434  or  083

For  all your  Aircraft  and  Allied  Electroplating  and  queries.

Alodine

Cadmium Plate in Gold or Silver Passivation

Call  Des  on  011 827  7535  or  063 or  Peter  on  081 775  2434  or  083

For  all your  Aircraft  and  Allied  Electroplating

Hard Chrome

Hard Silver Plate

Electroless Nickel

Hard Copper Plate

Anodising in Grey, Black Phosphating

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

Anodising in Grey, Red or Black

Black Phosphating

Phosphating

For  all  your  SACAA  approved  plating  requirements   We  are  situated

For all your Aircraft and Allied Electroplating requirements. SA Flyer

Phosphating

CEMAIR CEO MILES VAN DER MOLEN and his wife Dr Laura van der Molen have always been strongly supportive of animals. CemAir was one of the first airlines to actively support pet travel – even in the cabin if appropriate.

Their willingness to take on the responsibilities of animal travel culminated in a request for them to urgently transport a sick pangolin, with badly infected wounds, from Hoedspruit to Johannesburg. The Pangolin was treated with great care and went on to make a good recovery. The story gets even better, as the pangolin was then found to be pregnant.

Pangolins are one of the most threatened species in the world and so this selfless action by the CemAir team has made a significant difference to not just one – but a new family of pangolins.

CemAir provided free transport for a sick Pangolin to specialist treatment in Johannesburg.

Ournewstockhasarrived!

ALUMINIUM

2024, 3003, 6061, 7075

STAINLESS

15-5PH, 17-4PH, 17-7PH

ALLOY STEELS

ALUMINIUM 2024, 3003, 6061, 7075

4130 ANNEALED AMS 6350 4130 NORMALIZED AMS 6345

TITANIUM

6AL-4V, CP1, CP2, CP3, CP4

STAINLESS 301 15-5PH, 17-4PH, 17-7PH

IN ALL FORMS OF: SHEET, PLATE, COIL, ROD, BAR, TUBE, EXTRUSIONS

ALLOY STEELS

4130 ANNEALED AMS 6350

4130 NORMALIZED AMS 6345

ALL MATERIAL FULLY CERTIFIED TO INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS, SUCH AS: AMS, QQ-S, QQ-A, ASTM, SAE, MIL

TITANIUM

www.alclad.co.za I Ed Knibbs: +27 83 251 4601 I ed@alclad.co.za

6AL-4V, CP1, CP2, CP3, CP4

IN ALL FORMS OF: SHEET, PLATE, COIL, ROD, BAR, TUBE, EXTRUSIONS

ALL MATERIAL FULLY CERTIFIED TO INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS, SUCH AS: AMS, QQ-S, QQ-A, ASTM, SAE, MIL

www.alclad.co.za I Ed Knibbs: +27 83 251 4601 I ed@alclad.co.za

www.alclad.co.za | Ed Knibbs: +27 83 251 4601 | ed@alclad.co.za

Visit us at our partner company at the Paris Air Show, Paris Le Bourget Exhibition Centre, Hall 3, USA Pavilion, Booth 3-F174, Mon, Jun 19, 2023 - Sun, Jun 25, 2023

Alclad Sheetmetal Services was established in 1987 and were located at Lanseria Airport for many years. In recent years Alclad has concentrated on material sales to the African aviation industry.

Ed Knibbs has 40 years’ experience in African aviation and have been importing and supplying material for more than 25 years. With that knowledge he is capable of locating and supplying the full range of aluminium, stainless, titanium and other aerospace alloys. The company’s policy is to provide products and services that meet international aviation standards and which are delivered on-time and at the greatest value.

Alclad have an agreement with Sigma Aerospace Metals in the USA, who have

multiple machine capabilities for all aerospace metal needs. All materials supplied are from approved vendors and supplied with full certification and traceability.

Alclad’s commitment to the supply of quality material and knowledge of aircraft materials has made us leaders in supply of aerospace metals to the aviation industry for many years.

We have a large inventory of aerospace material in our warehouse close, which is conveniently located close to Lanseria Airport. The have large sheet stock inventories include:

2024: aluminium alloy. 6061: aluminium alloy. 7075: aluminium alloy.

Ed Knibbs : +27 832514601

Recently accredited to perform EMB145 Landing Gear Overhaul and Repair.

AviSys Aviation Systems is an established Maintenance Organization AMO 1089 with SA-CAA, and other African CAA accreditation to perform component maintenance and overhaul capabilities under its Category B rating. Currently, AviSys is equipped to cater for our Clients needs as per the SA-CAA Approved Capability List and Operational Specifications on the following:

• Aircraft Braking Systems repair and full overhaul capability with SA-CAA Component Release to Service (Authorised Release Certificate) on the following OEM Makes; ABSC, Honeywell / Bendix, Goodrich and Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems.

• Aircraft main and nose wheel assemblies for the above makes, to repair and overhaul.

• Landing Gear Repair and Overhaul

• Helicopter Servo Actuator Repair and Overhaul

• Flexible Hose Build-up

• Engine Fire Bottles HPT, Service, Fill and Re-charge

AviSys Aviation Systems is committed to deliver Service Excellence and Quality Workmanship at market related prices, carried out with years of cumulative aviation experience in our field by means of dedicated hand-picked Staff Members

AviSys looks forward to establish long and just relationships with our client base, in order to meet our high standards of customer satisfaction.

A warm Thank You and shout out to our long standing and loyal Customers’ Support for the past 12 years!

 Email: dewald@avisys.co.za

Phone: +27 (0) 83 442 5884 7 Fax: +27 (0) 86 618 6996

AVISYS AVIATION SYSTEMS

AVISYS AVIATION SYSTEMS is an established Maintenance Organisation (AMO 1089) with SA CAA, and other African CAA accreditation to perform component maintenance and overhaul capabilities under its Category B rating.

Currently, AviSys is equipped to cater for our clients’ needs as per the SA CAA Approved Capability List and Operational Specifications on the following:

• Aircraft Braking Systems repair and full overhaul capability with SA CAA Component

• Release to Service (Authorised Release Certificate) on the following OEM Makes;

• ABSC, Honeywell / Bendix, Goodrich and Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems.

• Aircraft main and nose wheel assemblies for the above makes, to repair and overhaul.

• Landing Gear Repair and Overhaul

• Helicopter Servo Actuator Repair and Overhaul

• Flexible Hose Build-up

• Engine Fire Bottles HPT, Service, Fill and Re-charge

AviSys Aviation Systems is committed to deliver service excellence and quality workmanship at market related prices, carried out with years of cumulative aviation experience in our field by means of dedicated hand-picked staff members.

AviSys looks forward to establishing long and just relationships with our client base, in order to meet our high standards of customer satisfaction.

Hangar 17 Wonderboom Airport

Email: dewald@avisys.co.za

Phone: +27 (0) 83 442 5884

Fax: +27 (0) 86 618 6996

Website: www.avisys.co.za j

AVTECH AIRCRAFT SERVICES based at Wonderboom National airport maintains Beechcraft, Piper, Cessna, Bellanca and Aerostar aircraft. With over 28 years of operation, the family-owned business has a vast experience in aircraft maintenance and meets the highest standards, still under the guidance of Rieckert, Sr.

Avtech Aircraft Services component shop specialises in the overhaul and repairs of continental fuel systems, carburettors and constant speed units, which include Woodward, McCauley, Hartzell & PCU5000. This division is run by Andre Botha, AKA Proppie, who also has many years’ experience in his field.

The Avtech team have collectively over 170 years of experience, between just four people. Avtech is therefore a wise first stop for all your general aircraft maintenance requirements.

For more information contact Riekert Stroh, Snr, on 082 555 2808 or Riekert Stroh, Jnr, on 082 749 9256. Visit them at Hangar 6 Wonderboom Airport.

GENERAL MAINTENANCE & REFURBISHMENT ON LIGHT AIRCRAFT

At Dynamic Propellers cc we overhaul and maintain all Hartzell, McCauley, MT-Propeller, 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.

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.

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.

PILOTS AND PLANES

PILOTS AND PLANES IS AN aviation related retail outlet specialising in Pilot and Aircraft Owner requirements.

Pilots and 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, PILOT)

• Sunglasses (RAYBAN, RANDOLPH, BONDI BLUE)

• Study material and equipment

• A wide range of Aviation related gifts

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 Melanie at Wonderboom Airport on: Tel: 012 567-6775

Email: pilotshop@pilotsnplanes.co.za Or Francois at Rand Airport on: Tel: 011 824-3339

Email: rand@pilotsnplanes.co.za

VISIT US AT THE AERO SHOW 6-8JULY 2023 (Stand E6) at WONDEROOM AIRPORT j

EXECUTIVE AIRCRAFT REFURBISHMENT

“QUALITY IS OUR PASSION”, is the mantra that we live by at Executive Aircraft Refurbishment (EAR). Our quality workmanship and service excellence, combined with knowledgeable staff, has earned us the reputation as the No.1 Aircraft Interior and Exterior refurbishment facility.

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

Our interior shop specialises in complete interior refurbishments such as the renewing of overhead stowage bins and seating, roof-liners, cockpit glare-shields, cabinets and galleys, wool carpets, textile and non-textile floor covering, refurbishment of seats and foam building in

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

From interior refurbishment to exterior spray painting, we do it all. Entrust your fleet to Executive Aircraft Refurbishment for a fresh new look and we promise to have your aircraft ready and serviceable when you need it.

CONTACT:

Tel: +27 (0)10 900 4149 |

Mobile: +27 (0)82 547 8379

Info@earefurbishment.com | Francois@earefurbishment.com

Hangar 11 (interior shop) and 31(paint shop)

Lanseria International Airport South Africa, Gate 5, North Side j

FERREIRA AVIATION

FERREIRA AVIATION’S main base is conveniently situated at the Tempe Airport, Bloemfontein. Building on the success of the Bloemfontein branch, they have recently expanded by opening a second, fully capable branch at George Airport in the southern Cape, offering the same world-class service pilots and aircraft owners have grown accustomed to over the years.

Ferreira Aviation specialises in the maintenance, repair and rebuilding of most light piston and turbine engine aircraft, as well as Bell Jetranger and Robinson R22 & R44 helicopters. Ferreira is approved for all Cessna, Beechcraft, Cirrus, Mooney, Piper and Air Tractor single and twin piston and turbine engine aircraft, as well as various other less common variations.

All work carried out, including sub-contracted work, is overseen by senior management throughout the entire maintenance process to ensure that topquality maintenance is carried out in the shortest possible times – with best possible prices.

Ferreira Aviation is known for employing top-class engineers with a vast amount of experience to attend to anything from the smallest snag to full rebuilds. The company employs their own pilots to carry out post-maintenance test flights, and your aircraft can be collected and delivered from anywhere in Southern Africa.

Be sure to contact Ferreira Aviation for your next maintenance event to experience the world class service provided by this AMO.

Contact Ferreira Aviation on:

Tel: +27 (051) 451 1683 / 083 262 0313 / 083 557 6120.

Email: stanley@ferreiraaviation.co.za or wyndham@ferreiraaviation.co.za.

Visit: www.ferreiraaviation.co.za

George Airport Contact details:

Tel: +27 (044) 050 5451 / 084 331 3964

Email: jp@ferreiraaviation.co.za j

Ferreira Aviation specialises in the maintenance, repair and rebuilding of piston and turbine engine aircraft and helicopters including Robinson R22 & R44 as well as Bell Jet Ranger Helicopters

They have a state of the art facility conveniently situated at the Tempe Airport, Bloemfontein in Central South Africa as well as a newly established facility in George in the Southern Cape, employing well-trained aircraft engineers with a vast amount of experience to attend to anything from the most niggling snag to MPIs and rebuild work.

Ferreira Aviation employs their own pilots to carry out test flights after maintenance, and aircraft can also be collected and delivered from anywhere in Southern Africa.

Fully equiped avionics shops are available at both facilities to attend to all avionic and instrument needs

Contact Ferreira Aviation on:

Tel: +27 (051) 451 1683 / 083 262 0313 / 083 557 6120

Email: stanley@ferreiraaviation.co.za

wyndham@ferreiraaviation.co.za

Website: www.ferreiraaviation.co.za

George Contact details:

Tel: +27 (044) 050 5451 / 084 331 3964

Email: jp@ferreiraaviation.co.za

•

HELI-AFRIQUE

HELI AFRIQUE SPECIALIZES in general helicopter maintenance, upgrades, repairs, interior and exterior refurbishment and modifications, specialising in the Airbus Helicopter SA341, H125 (AS350/355 series), H120 (EC 120), H130 (EC 130), H135 (EC 135 series), BO105 and BK117 helicopters. We provide first and second line maintenance of TURBOMECA, Allison and Lycoming Engines and hold a service centre for Robinson R22 & R44 helicopters.

Heli Afrique assist with inspections, C of Registration, Airworthiness formalities and have assistance from SACAA Inspectors to issue Certificates of Airworthiness and Certificates of Registration from abroad in foreign countries.

Heli-Afrique facilitates the sale of used helicopters, carry out export/import, customs and

HELI AFRIQUE – WE HAVE 40 YEARS

shipping formalities. We provide pre-purchase inspections of helicopters worldwide.

Based at Rand Airport Hangar 56, Heli-Afrique holds a large range of spares inventory for the above mentioned helicopters and engines.

Heli-Afrique holds the following CAA approvals: SACAA # 830, Republic of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola and Lesotho.

We are the proven alternate ‘AMO’ to Airbus Helicopters and Safran (TURBOMECA) in Southern Africa.

Contact:

Tel: 011 827 8632/33

Email: tino.conceicao@heli-afrique.co.za www.heli-afrique.co.za j

EXPERIENCE IN THE BUSINESS.

We specialise in general helicopter maintenance, upgrades, modifications, repairs, interior and exterior refurbishment.

• SA341

• AS350/ 355 series

• EC120/130/135 series

• BO105 series

• BK 117

• McDonald Douglas

• Robinson R22/R44 Schweizer Hughes 300

• Hangarage service available

First and second line maintenance on Safran (Turbomecca), Allison and Lycoming engines. CAA approvals : SACAA # 830, Republic of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho We now support the BK 117 B2 model “Helicopter for Medi Vac Operations”

MISTRAL AVIATION SERVICES

SOUTH AFRICAN OPERATORS have aircraft based all over the world. Mistral Aviation was founded in 2002 to address the high cost of operating aircraft thousands of miles from the original equipment manufacturers. The company specialises in brake and landing gear assemblies.

Mistral believes that by utilising the favourable labour rate and local expertise within South Africa, the cost of importing the components can be offset whilst producing a product comparable to that of the European and US facilities. In addition to its wide range of older types such as the B737 and B727 classics, Beechcraft 1900 and 350, and FokkerF27,

Mistral is now approved for the Embraer EMB 135 series.

Mistral Aviation reminds prospective clients that it is an independently owned company and has always traded as Mistral Aviation Services. It is in no way linked with Mistral Aviation, based in the DRC, or any other companies with similar names.

Contact Mistral Aviation at: Telephone: 081 755 2534 or 081 250 5429. Email: Peter@mistral.co.za or visit www.mistral.co.za. Mistral can be found at Safair campus on the east side of OR Tambo airport.

M AND N ACOUSTIC SERVICES

M and N Acoustic Services (Pty) Ltd is a SANAS accredited laboratory and specialises in calibrations on acoustic, human vibration, vibration and DC/LF measuring equipment. The laboratory also operates according to the ISO/IEC 17025:2005 Specification for the competence of calibration laboratories.

Our electrical calibration capabilities include:

• Acoustics

• Noise Exposure Meter

• Sound Level Meters

• Integrating Sound Level Meter

• Dose Badges

• Noise Dosimeters

• Vibration

• Human Vibration Meters

• Vibration Meters

SERVICES

• NDT None destructive testing

• Overhaul

• Midlife inspection

• Refurbish

• Repair

• Assembly

• Disassembly

• Dynamic Balance

HARTZELL SAMPLE APPROVALS

• Composite Blade Overhaul

• Erosion Shield Replacement

• Pitch Change Knob Shot

Peening

• Cold Compression Rolling

• DC Low Frequency

• Multi-Meters

• Clamp Meters

• Insulation Testers

With a dedicated team, they will ensure excellent turn-around times and affordable prices, while never compromising on delivering an outstanding service.

Your Calibration is our concern!

For more information, contact:

Amanda Naudé

Tel: 012 689 2007

APPROVED PROPELLERS

• MT Propeller (Certified Service Centre)

• Hartzell

• McCauley

• Hamilton Sundtrand

• Hoffman

• Sensenich

• Whirlwind

Email: admin@mnacoustics.co.za j CONTACT US

Esta: +27 12 567 1689 esta@propcentre.com

Theuns: +27 71 362 5152 theuns@propcentre.com

Hangar S1, Wonderboom Airport, Pretoria, South Africa

SACAA Approved AMO 155

Dolf: +27 82 852 8965 dolf@propcentre.com

Web: www.propcentre.com

“Let us keep you flying”

P-PROP

PIETER DE NECKER trading as PPROP, has designed and manufactured wood propellers since 1982.

Since 1983 Peter has designed and manufactured over 4000 propellers and serviced over 16000 propellers. It all started with a propeller for a microlight called a Fledge with a 22 HP Sachs engine, the propeller was only 36inches in diameter. This piqued Peter’s interest. He started by finding books and reading up on propellers, there was no Google in those days, information was scarce and very limited, but with perseverance and a very curious mind he managed to acquire some information.

By 2006 Peter had made 2000 propellers by hand. He then acquired a CNC machine with all the CAD and CAM programmes. All handmade propellers then had to be converted and redesigned for CNC cutting. This was a very long and tedious learning process, but with

determination he managed to muddle through this.

Today Peter has designed approximately 500 propellers for engines up to 300hp. PPROP has also designed and manufactured various propellers for DENEL and BAE by military standards.

Peter and Bets have now relocated to Still Bay, but will still be manufacturing and servicing propellers for light aircraft.

Rudolf Pretorius will handle most clients in Gauteng and surrounds.

Bets and Piet contact: 082 925 5834

Rudolf: 082 335 0118

Email: pietpropeller@gmail.com

betszorro@gmail.com

rudolf.pretorius@gmail.com

Address: Farm SP25, on R305 Still Bay

j

CONTACT US

BETS DE NECKER 082 925 5834

RUDOLF PRETORIUS 082 335 0118

Emails: pietpropeller@gmail.com

betszorro@gmail.com

rudolf.pretorius@gmail.com

Address: FARM SP25 ON R305

STILL BAY 6674

www.p-propeller.co.za

THE P-PROP IS RENOWNED as a high quality wood and composite hybrid propeller - meaning a laminated wood core covered by carbon fiber and glass weave over 70% of the blade area. Each propeller is theoretically designed using the latest state of the art engineer airfoil programs, developed and tested by the best in 3D NURBS graphics to the most exacting BS ISO 1011 military standards. Years and years of development, improvement and utter refinement have yielded a brilliant product that is equal to or better than any similar propeller flown by top pilots today.

PJ AVIATION

PANEL UPGRADES with Kanardia and TQ Avionics

From Slovinia, Kanardia’s electronic flight instruments are well known for their intuitive, easy to use interface, lightweight design and reliable, fast hardware at competitive prices. Every module is interconnectable with supplied plug-in CAN bus cables, with no sub-modules, racks or install kits required. Expansion is easy, from just a PFD to say full 2 axis auto-pilot and engine monitor with logging. The 7 or 8,4 inch

touch screen EFIS is supplied with EMS box and detailed mapping without subscription, in master and slave versions and interfaces with TSO’d space saving German manufactured TQ Avionics dual watch VHF-COM and Mode-S / ADS-B transponder. Call us for your nearest installer, or homebuilders do it yourself – it is that easy and we are just a call away.

www.pjaviation.co.za

083 265 0581 j

083 265 0581 www.pjaviation.co.za

PANEL UPGRADES with Kanardia and TQ Avionics

SKYSOURCE INTERNATIONAL SOUTH AFRICA

SKYSOURCE INTERNATIONAL South Africa was established in 2016 and has established themselves as leaders in the turboprop maintenance sphere, they offer full end-to-end solutions for the turboprop operating community. The entire Skysource team live by a simple mission “Quality is our passion”.

The highly qualified team at Skysource have all been hand-picked by the management for their level of training and their unique skill-set. The team skills are constantly being improved through a rigorous training policy that has become part of the Skysource culture.

Skysource International South Africa endeavours to keep all their client’s aircraft operating to the highest safety standards, allowing the client to focus on fleet management and the commercial success of their businesses.

Based at Lanseria International Airport

Skysouerce is centrally located for all turboprop owners and operators from all over Southern Africa to access with ease for all of their MRO needs. Skysource delivers tailored, cost-effective maintenance, repair and overhaul solutions to the regional turboprop community. With longterm maintenance solutions, they assist in lowering costs and eliminating surprises further down the road.

Maintenance and repairs are done within the fastest possible time frames as they understand how costly time constraints can be in aviation.

Skysource aims to extend the lifespan of its client’s aircraft and keep downtime to a bare minimum. In addition, Skysource specialises

in scheduled inspections, testing and airframe repairs, and provides tailored solutions, based on each client’s individual needs.

To further assist their clients Skysource has recently acquired a share in aircraft paint and interior refurbishment specialists also based at Lanseria this along with their avionics capability expands their service to include any request that a client may have.

Skysource pride themselves on building lasting relationships with their clients, the relationship often starts with a pre-purchase inspection, which the Skysource team will perform anywhere in the world offering the client peace of mind when acquiring an aircraft.

Skysource is approved by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) as an Aircraft Maintenance Organisation (MRO), as well as an approved USA FAA facility. Skysource has both an airframe class-1 composite rating and airframe class-3 all-metal rating, as well as ratings for CESSNA 208 , PC12 , KING AIR 90, KING AIR 200, KING AIR 350, Beechcraft 1900C and 1900D Lanseria International Airport Hangar 203

Gate 5

Office: +27 10 900 4300 or Cell: +27 72 036 3433 j

SKYTRIM AIRCRAFT REFURBISHING PTY LTD

SKYTRIM AIRCRAFT REFURBISHING Pty Ltd. AMO 906

Skytrim is a leading aircraft interior and exterior aviation refurbishing company based at Rand Airport.

The company’s Mission Statement says it all: “To provide leading edge upholstery and painting for the aircraft industry. Service, quality, compliance and total customer satisfaction with every job is paramount while maintaining a pleasant and healthy environment for staff.”

Skytrim designs, develops, and manufactures luxury aircraft interiors and exteriors plus all

accessories. The company has the ability to embroider designs on seats. The company is recognized for integrating the latest production technology in work processes.

You fly it, we refurbish it.

Contact Rico Kruger

+27 11 827 6638

082 378 1326

www.skytrim.co.za

Please add face book and Instagram Hangar 10, Rand Airport, Germiston j

STANDARDAERO is one of the world’s largest independent providers of engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services, providing OEM-authorized support for leading aeroengines and APUs including the AE 3007, APS 2300, CF34-3/-8, CFM567B, GTCP36, JT15D, LEAP-1A/B, PT6A, PW100, PW150A, PW901A/C, RB211-535 and RE220.

StandardAero’s facility at Lanseria International Airport near Johannesburg is a fully authorized Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) Designated Overhaul Facility (DOF) for the PT6A family, and the world’s only independent service provider authorized to overhaul the PT6A-140. In addition, the facility provides full support – up to and including overhaul – for 41 other variants of the engine.

The Lanseria facility also offers service center and mobile repair team (MRT) support for the PW100 turboprop and JT15D turbofan.

With more than five decades of experience in repairing and overhauling P&WC engines, StandardAero has developed a reputation for quality workmanship, industry leading turnaround times, exceptional customer service and competitive pricing.

PT6A FLAT RATE OVERHAUL (FRO)

POINT OF CONTACT:

Jason Gallant

General Manager

Office: +27 11 701 3035

jason.gallant@standardaero.com

StandardAero Lanseria, a Pratt & Whitney PT6A designated overhaul facility (DOF) and the sole independent DOF approved for the PT6A-140, is pleased to support operators across Africa with P&W’s flat rate overhaul (FRO) program, which combines OEM-level quality with guaranteed “not to exceed” capped pricing. Meaning that you can plan your maintenance expenses with confidence, and without any compromises.

StandardAero Lanseria, a Pratt & Whitney PT6A designated overhaul facility (DOF) and the sole independent DOF approved for the PT6A-140, is pleased to support operators across Africa with P&W’s flat rate overhaul (FRO) program, which combines OEM-level quality with guaranteed “not to exceed” capped pricing. Meaning that you can plan your maintenance expenses with confidence, and without any compromises.

The FRO program does not incur extra charges for typical corrosion, sulphidation or repairable foreign object damage (FOD), and PMA parts are accepted.

The FRO program does not incur extra charges for typical corrosion, sulphidation or repairable foreign object damage (FOD), and PMA parts are accepted.

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

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

STAR AIR MAINTENANCE

BASED ON THE DENEL CAMPUS at OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, Star Air Maintenance was established in 2009 to provide maintenance up to C-Check for Star Air’s growing fleet of 737s and third-party aircraft.

Providing their clients with a world class service has always been central to Star Air’s vision for the company. Through Star Air Maintenance, Star Air offers a ‘best in international standards’ service in terms of quality, turnover times and cost efficiency, allowing airlines to focus their efforts on marketing and ticketing their routes.

The company’s vision has ensured that Star Air Maintenance has kept pace with the recognised international standards in terms of safety, best practice and service to its clients. Through extensive improvement programmes, Star Air Maintenance has ensured its staff compliment of over 40 trained professionals is able to deliver one of the best airline support services on the continent.

For more information, contact Star Air Maintenance on:

Tel: +27 11 973 5512

Email: marzanne@starcargo.co.za

Website: www.starair.co.za j

TPSC

TPSC (AMO076) was founded in February 1992 by a highly experienced aircraft engineer, Mr. Dennis Byrne, who has been in the aviation industry for the past 60 years. TPSC is a family-run business, currently jointly owned and operated by siblings Caryn Scrimgeour and Dale Byrne. With family being the core of the business, it is essential to ensure an open-door policy with all our clients as well as our staff, which enables us to communicate and understand the needs and requirements of all involved in the continued success of the business.

TPSC operates an aircraft maintenance organization (AMO) based at Lanseria International Airport in South Africa. TPSC has built up a reputation over the years for providing a high standard of aircraft maintenance and customer service throughout the Southern Hemisphere of Africa. We have been operating from Lanseria International Airport for the last 30 years, specializing in Beechcraft, Cessna, Daher TBM, and Piper aircraft.

With our vast experience in aircraft maintenance, administration, parts procurement, and a network of trusted and experienced professionals in their respective supporting functions, i.e., avionics, electrical, and instrumentation, NDT, sheet metal, interior and exterior refurbishment, turbine, piston engine, and propeller overhaul, we can ensure to give our customers the service they deserve.

The TPSC facility and staff are fully approved by the South African CAA and Malagasy CAA. We also have the assistance of a fully endorsed FAA A&P/IA to assist with the release of US-registered aircraft.

Contact:

Turbo Prop Service Centre cc

Hangar No.29&30, Lanseria Int’l Airport, Lanseria, Gauteng

T: +27 (11) 701-3210

www.tpscsa.co.za j

Turbo Prop Service Centre cc

Lanseria

Tel: +27 (11) 701-3210

info@tpscsa.co.za

www.tpscsa.co.za

AMO 076

 TPSC is a SACAA AMO 076, ideally located at Lanseria International Airport.

 We are able to cater for your various aircraft related requirements.

 Specializing in Beechcraft, Cessna, Daher TBM & Piper Aircraft.

Hangar 29/30

International Airport

Lanseria, Gauteng, SA, 1748

UAVIONIX CORPORATION

UAVIONIX IS THE LEADING PROVIDER of ADS-B products world-wide for General Aviation and Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS). Founded with a mission of advancing aviation safety through a connected airspace, uAvionix’s innovative tailBeaconX combines a rear LED position light with a 1090 MHz ADS-B OUT / Mode S transponder, SBAS GPS, and antennas that future-proof your aircraft for ADS-B requirements. The advanced AV-30 EFIS display is an easy retrofit in an existing 3” panel slot and serves as the tailBeaconX transponder controller. Together, the tailBeaconX and AV-30 deliver cuttingedge performance for both certified and experimental aircraft.

Comprised of aviation enthusiasts and pilots, the uAvionix team leverages unparalleled engineering and manufacturing expertise to deliver transponders, cockpit displays, and portable ADS-B devices that improve safety and your flying experience.

uAvionix ships to South Africa. Interested in becoming a uAvionix customer or reseller? We look forward to connecting with you!

REDEFINING

THE ADSB TRANSPONDER

EASA Approved and Now Shipping

Email: sales@uavionix.com

Website: www.uavionix.com

tailBeaconX combined with the AV-30 or supported third-party EFIS elevates your cockpit functionality while future-proofing your ADS-B transponder to meet South Africa, US, Canadian, and future ADS-B requirements. tailBeaconX replaces your existing transponder while upgrading your rear position light.

VELOCITY AVIATION

VELOCITY AVIATION was created in 2007 to deliver exceptional service with regards to Flight Clearances, Ground Handling, and Aircraft Parts.

With the primary focus of creating a service unique to the African continent, the company’s accuracy, efficiency and professionalism are always combined to match and adapt to the client’s needs in order to exceed their expectations.

Whether it’s providing passenger assistance, aircraft charter and management, flight planning

Several manufactures have appointed Velocity Aviation parts division as a direct distributor, agent, or franchisee. The organisation has extensive inventories, including Goodyear Aviation tires and tubes, BP aviation lubricants and turbine filters, new and overhauled avionics and components and general parts and accessories.

Velocity Aviation guarantees the fastest and most efficient response to their customers’ needs and requirements, and maintaining an exceptional level of service has allowed the



Afr ican Commercial Aviation

Edition 173 | June 2023

Cover: Dian Townsend

Iris – goes to Khartoum

Mission Aviation Fellowship: Flat tyres & prayer

14 18 24 29 30 33 34 35 36 38

EDITION 173 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Bush Pilot - Hugh Pryor

Pilots - Laura McDermid

Defence - Darren Olivier

SAAF Museum Airshow 2023

EBACE 2023 Roundup

AME Directory

JUNE 2023

Publisher Flyer and Aviation Publications cc

Managing Editor Guy Leitch guy@flightcommag.com

Advertising Sales Wayne Wilson wayne@saflyermag.co.za

Layout & Design Patrick Tillman: Imagenuity cc

ADMIN:

+27 (0)83 607 2335

TRAFFIC:

+27 (0)81 039 0595

ACCOUNTS:

+27 (0)15 793 0708

The Mysterious Kilimatinde Flat Tyre

News - Embraer’s huge NetJets deal

Alpi Aviation SA: Flight School Directory

Merchant West Charter Directory

Skysource AMO Listing

Backpage Directory

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

ONE OF THE UNEXPECTED consequences

of the Covid-19 pandemic is that some African governments ostensibly committed to ‘Open Skies’ liberalisation have used the pandemic as an excuse to move backwards into ‘closed skies’ to protect their own flag carriers.

This has emerged from a thesis by an as yet unnamed law student who points out that South Africa presented a submission to last year’s ICAO AGM which claimed that during the Covid-19 pandemic, national governments bypassed World Health Organization (WHO) public health recommendations in a rush to impose travel bans. These travel bans targeted specific countries in ways that exacerbated political divisions, blocked essential goods and deflected from established mitigation measures — including travel advisories, diagnostic testing and quarantine policies.

The 41st session of the ICAO Assembly that took place at Montreal in October 2022 adopted forward-looking resolutions in respect of pandemic preparedness planning.

The South African submission highlighted a need for reforming global health law to reflect evolving public health knowledge and emphasised the need to base decisions on scientific principles and WHO guidance. The submission contended that the need for national and international collaboration in the fight against the spread of communicable diseases remains very pertinent and indicated that there is a need for increased alignment between International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and WHO at a global level. This is to ensure that States are provided with coherent guidance.

It is proposed that ICAO must continue developing guidance material to assist States in making riskbased decisions when responding to future pandemics and health emergencies. It urged States to ensure that decisions taken during pandemics, including travel bans, are scientifically based and implemented.

The ICAO Executive Committee supported the actions presented and urged the ICAO Council to ensure that relevant guidance material is available to assist States. The ICAO Executive Committee also urged States to ensure that decisions taken during the pandemic including travel bans are scientifically based and implemented in accordance with the WHO requirements.

While realizing that more still needs to done as evidenced by initiatives that are yet to actioned in terms of the relevant resolutions, the resolutions are nonetheless essential as they will provide new guidance on this subject, in addition to providing much needed literature from the highest decisionmaking body of ICAO - more so regard being had to the fact that same constituted the first opportunity that the ICAO assembly deliberated and pronounced itself on this component of the research for the sake of posterity.

In conclusion, the student states that if Open Skies in Africa is to have a chance to deliver its objectives, then airlines need to implement the resolutions aimed at prevention, control and management of pandemic outbreaks and viral infections akin to Covid-19 in light of the speed with which they spread around the globe. 

POL PART 1

POL, BEING FROM THE PHILIPPINE Islands, was a good Catholic, as so many of his compatriots are. He was a man of slight build and remarkable modesty. His build was so slight, in fact, that he had considerable trouble lifting the heavier pieces of equipment which were in everyday use on the oil rigs which were dotted about in some of the remoter parts of the Libyan desert. So, in order to improve his contribution to the company’s efforts, Pol set himself the daunting task of building himself a new body which would be better able to cope with the weighty demands of his job.

I, as well as being the pilot of the Pilatus Porter which our clients had on contract, had some fairly agricultural welding abilities, and therefore got involved in the construction of some of the weightlifting equipment which Pol required for his selfimprovement programme.

that Pol was one of the more reliable tools in the box, even if he did have those funny untrustworthy slanty little eyes.

Pol, Horst and I were, in fact, the only non-Frenchspeakers on the camp and in a strange way our inability to croak with the rest seemed to bind us together, at least as closely as the croaking bonded the French. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed this, but even French people quite often can’t understand other French people. Sad really, but true. Still, I suppose you could say that about many Nationalities.

funny untrustworthy slanty little eyes

Weeks of pumping this iron had had little noticeable effect on Pol’s physique, although he did seem to have less trouble hurling the tools of his trade around the oil fields. His colleagues came to rely on him more and more. Even the French engineers, who were not noted for their cosmopolitan attitudes, began to accept

We three became close friends and Little Pol was eventually inducted into the “Thursday Evening Society”, to partake in the illicit consumption of the powerful, if fairly unpalatable, brew which Horst and I brewed, in an old, (but, I hasten to add, surgically clean,) commode in my room. I had liberated the commode from a house in Benghazi which had been hit by frantic Libyan Navy gunners during the American raid on Benina Airport.

The French guys knew what was going on, of course, because the delicious aromas escaping from the commode were difficult to hide in the confines of

Leopoldo was a machinery operator for a very large oil field service company of French origin. I was their pilot and we were all working in Libya, for our sins, before the bottom fell out of the oil market.

a desert camp. But they never ever found out from where the heady odours issued, even though from time to time, they were actually sitting on the brewery itself... and we never let on.

Then one day Pol was sent off to Rig 18 with some tools for an upcoming logging job. He left camp at about eight o’clock in the morning, with the tools and two litres of water, and the sand was blowing the visibility down, sometimes below a hundred yards.

Rig 18 was about a three or four hour drive away, initially following the black top road northwards towards Dahra. Then there was a desert road which turned to the right off the main road at kilometre 58 and you just followed the Baker barrels for an hour or two until you got to the divide. (An American oilfield support company kindly provided this service, marking the desert tracks with old oil barrels with the destinations written on them in large white letters.)

“There’s a red barrel there and you take the left fork and keep going for another hour or two, until you reach a barrel with 18 written on it. You turn right there and that will take you, another hour or two later, to the rig. ‘Can’t miss it’, as they say.”

Well, they might not be able to miss it...but Pol did.

We got a call from the engineer in charge of the job that evening. He was wanting to know when Pol and the truck were due to arrive because the rig was standing by, ready to start the logging job.

That was the first indication we received that Pol was missing. “Missing” in the Libyan desert during summer is a seriously life-threatening situation to be in, particularly if you have only two litres of water with you. And that’s what Pol had taken with him, since there was absolutely NO chance of him getting lost, according to “Those that know”!

So, early the next morning we started to initiate Search and Rescue procedures.

We alerted the Occidental Oil Company that we might be needing the assistance of their two aircraft. We

called in the other aircraft which was operating for our client and we asked if the plane which was serving the sister company of our client could be released to join the search if required...and then Horst and I began the search.

We started by following the route which Pol was most likely to have taken. We flew low. Low enough to read the destinations on the Baker Barrels. The wind had dropped over night and so the visibility had improved. But a kilometre or two is not very much to be able to see when you’ve got the whole Libyan desert to search. So we were not very surprised at the end of that day, to return empty handed.

Now it was time to call in our colleagues and the next morning we had a meeting of all the pilots from our other aircraft and the pilots from Occidental who had kindly volunteered their services and brought along some observers to discuss the search plan.

Pol was obviously not on the road to Rig 18 since Horst and I had examined every yard of it yesterday. So he must have missed the track in the dust and lost his way. The question was, where was the easiest place to miss the track? Well, to be honest, if the visibility was down to a hundred yards... almost anywhere. These desert routes were notoriously ill-defined. Sometimes they were two or three hundred yards wide where people had diverted to find a way through the soft sand and in the dunes you couldn’t even see right across the multiple wheel marks which make up the route.

So it looked more and more as if we would have to resort to the tedious and not always successful “Creeping Grid” search pattern. This would involve drawing out search areas on the map and allotting each aircraft to one area in order to avoid duplication.

The principle of the creeping grid is that you follow a line across one side of your search area, then you turn left, fly for fifteen seconds at right angles to your original track and then turn left again, ninety degrees to follow a reciprocal heading, parallel to the first course, back to the start line. Then you turn right and fly for fifteen seconds and then right again to go back to the

other side of your search area. You keep doing this kind of zig-zag pattern until you have covered your allotted piece of desert.

Yes it IS boring and Yes it IS difficult to keep awake and NO you don’t have much chance of finding anyone, but you HAVE to do it because dying of thirst in the desert is one of the more lonely and miserable ways of meeting your maker. Believe me. I’ve nearly been there myself and when you see your rescuers you start your life all over again and you owe the rest of it to the guys who DID keep their eyes open for you.

So, on the second day, with Horst as my observer, we took off for our allotted piece of desert. We had sandwiches and three monster green-skinned water melons, the ones with gently sweet crispy pink sorbet flesh crammed with black seeds just too big to swallow comfortably. We also carried a big, five litre plastic cool bottle full of ice-cold water, on top of our standard twenty litres of emergency water. So we wouldn’t go thirsty, unless of course we did a Pol and got lost!

We ground up and down across our search area all morning and then returned to base for fuel. Then, back to the grid for the afternoon. After searching unsuccessfully for seven hours, enthusiasm began to wane and optimism leaked away with each passing dune. Eventually actually keeping awake became a fight.

I tried conversation...anything ...politics...do you believe in men from Mars? “Of course I do!” said Horst as though I had questioned the theory of relativity....”What about ghosts,” I asked, “do you believe in them?”

“Stupid kid’s stuff!” Horst said, as if to shut me up. “Antibody who believes in that sort of old rubbish should be locked away!”

Minutes later I noticed Horst’s eyelids giving way to the irresistible weight of boredom-fatigue and I could feel that it was going to be my turn next, so I hauled back on the stick and hurled the ‘plane into a series of violently confusing manoeuvres, up and down, round

and over. Horst woke up with the world gone rabid.

“What the hell are you up to?!” he shouted, grabbing at anything within reach as he suddenly came awake.

“I felt myself dropping off and I noticed that you were gone already, Horst, so I thought I ought to wake us up,” I said innocently.

“Well you certainly grabbed my attention!” said Horst, readjusting himself in his seat. “I nearly had a heart attack!”

“I’ll tell you what.” I looked at Horst, “It’s going to be dark in about an hour, so let’s do another forty minutes on the grid, then we’ll call it a day and go back so that we can land before it gets too dark to see the runway at Zella.”

But in my guts I knew that we were never going to find Pol alive with this kind of search procedure. So the extra forty minutes were simply a kind of placebo to make us think we were doing something for our friend. We didn’t know, at that stage, how close we had been to finding him. He was right on the boundary between our search area and the area allotted to one of the Oil Company Twin Otters, up by the Sirte Prohibited Area and we had unwittingly spent more time trying to avoid bumping into each than looking for Pol. Both of us had flown almost right over the top of him without even catching a glimpse. It sounds strange, but it’s amazing how much hides underneath an aircraft’s fuselage when you are on a search and rescue mission.

And so, an hour later, we landed back at Zella and after putting the aeroplane to bed, we went to the briefing room in the hangar to discuss plans for the next day.

Three days in the desert with two litres of water are normally enough to finish the story for most of your average expats, and only one person in my experience had previously survived four days at this time of year. So it looked like tomorrow might be our last chance to save the little Philippino, assuming, of course that he had made it this far. 

optimism leaked away with each passing dune

LAURA MCDERMID

IRIS - HER EARLY YEARS. PART 2

Laura McDermid continues her stories of Iris McCallum’s flying exploits.

In this, Part 2 of this series, our intrepid Iris McCallum continues her story about growing up – and learning to fly in post-colonial Africa.

MY EARLIEST MEMORY of my dad is of him pushing the point of his skinning knife into the thick yellow hide in the soft hollow of the crocodile’s throat and pulling it with both hands in a red line that ran from the mouth to the white tip under the tail.

As lucrative as this job was, it was also extremely dangerous and with three small children, my parents thought it best to move their young family to Kenya.

For a couple of years my dad worked as a a professional hunter (PH) for various companies until in 1955 he and a few friends established their own safari company, White Hunters (Africa) Ltd, based out of Nairobi. It wasn’t all about hunting animals. In those days, East Africa was wide open, and it was up to PHs collectively to establish conservation.

The national park ordinance of 1948 had come into being in the year I was born, 1951, when the Serengeti

was the only national park in Tanganyika. It was divided into two ranges:

• Eastern Serengeti including the Ngorogora highlands

• Western Plains stretching to Lake Victoria.

The Serengeti is a wonderfully varied country with short grass plains in the south-east, interspersed with granite kopjes, acacia savanna in the centre, and hilly, more densely wooded country to the north. In the western corridor, scattered acacia woodland and open plains stretch to within 8km of Lake Victoria, dominated by the central range of mountains that form a spur running from east to west.

As a little girl, I worshipped my dad and used to accompany him to his work at every opportunity. Their office was up a flight of stairs that I recall being very high (or perhaps I was very little). My dad would take my small hand in his great fist and he would hoist me up each stair, and I’d pretend that I was flying.

The owner had paid for me to convert onto a Citation.

Iris battening down the hatches of 7Q-YTL.

Once in the office I was left to play in the gun room. To this day the spicy scent of gun oil transports me straight back to the towering rows of rifles chained to the wall. I would spend hours polishing them until they gleamed with a soft blue metallic sheen.

My favourite pastime was to stack ammunition according to their size. I would sit in the middle of the floor surrounded by bullets of different sizes and would diligently sort them into neat little piles.

Occasionally I was allowed to play with an emptied 7 mm Remington Magnum. I would scare the crap out of the office manager, Colonel Robert Caulfield aka ‘pork chop’, when I’d sneak up behind him and shout ‘bang-bang’!

He would fix me with a withering stare, his great handlebar moustaches quivering with the curse that lay unspoken on his lips. The poor man was entrusted with keeping an eye on me whilst my dad was in meetings, but I suspect that it wasn’t the favourite part of his job.

Memories of my childhood faded as my mind returned to the present.

I had been working for Limbe Leaf Tobacco, a tobacco merchant and processor based in Blantyre, Malawi, where I had been flying a Citation SP1 7Q-YTL for the past 3 years, beginning in 1983.

The owner, a wonderful Irishman by the name of Jack Stevens, had paid for me to convert onto a Citation. Thus ensued two weeks of training in Wichita, Kansas, the original birthplace of Cessna.

At the time it was an exciting prospect, as up until this point, the closest plane I’d flown in terms of size and performance was a C402.

The Ctiation was powered by twin Garrett TFE731 turbofan engines and had a range of 2000nm. I was looking forward to the speed, and of course to the fact that I could fly at FL200 without having to breathe through an oxygen mask.

Tobacco buyers from Europe and the USA would arrive in Nairobi and it was my job to collect them and fly them in style to the tobacco auctions in Harare, Lilongwe and occasionally Maputo.

Flying an American tobacco buyer to an auction in Harare.

I was dead bored and missed ‘real flying’.

It also afforded me the opportunity to maintain contact with friends and family when I was in Nairobi. It was a lucrative job and I enjoyed it.

However Malawi was a small, nonprogressive country that seemed to squeeze the life out of me with each passing year. As much as I’d enjoyed flying the Citation, I was dead bored and missed ‘real flying’.

There really isn’t much skill needed to fly the jet. Once you knew which buttons to push, you could just set up the flight plan in the GNS-500 (a VLF Omega navigation system) and the flight management system (FMS) meant that the plane could literally fly itself.

I’d learnt in life that where you are is where you’re meant to be. Everything is an opportunity to learn and grow. I had faith that a new avenue would present itself in due course. I was at home one afternoon when the phone rang.

‘Hi Iris, it’s Robin Hurt speaking, how are you’?

Robin was a good friend of my brother Danny. He was also a well-known and respected PH in Tanzania and had recently set up his own company called Tanzania Game Trackers Safaris, which was doing very well.

“Danny tells me that you’ve been flying all over Africa and that you’re quite the pilot. I need someone with your skill set and experience to set up the aviation side of my business; are you up for a new challenge?’

I had been gone from Tanzania for over 30 years, and I was ready to follow my heart.

I envisaged the great plains, a paradise of grass and game, bathed in brilliant sunshine under a deep blue African sky.

‘Yes Robin’! I was ready to come home.

Heather Stewart joins Iris in Malawi as crew on the Citation.

SOUTH AFRICA’S ON- OFF -ON RELATIONSHIP WITH RUSSIA.

The ongoing controversy around the suspicious late night docking and cargo handling of the Russian ship Lady R in Simon’s Town Naval Base in December shows no sign of going away. Especially not after the explosive allegation, made by the US Ambassador Reuben Brigety in April, that claimed South Africa had shipped military equipment to Russia on board it.

WITHOUT GETTING INTO the details of the Lady R controversy, which has already been covered extensively in the media and will reportedly be the subject of an official inquiry, it’s worth diving into one of the historic claims that has been made in support of South Africa’s ongoing and very friendly relationship with Russia. Namely, that the Russian government, when it formed the core of the USSR and later as the Russian Federation, has been a steadfast and loyal friend of the African National Congress and the cause of freedom in South Africa in general, and an unwavering opponent of the Apartheid regime.

a dacha used by Brezhnev

There was a period between 1987 and South Africa’s first full democratic elections in April 1994 where first, the USSR, and then the Russian Federation were more than happy to do business with the Apartheid regime, even to the point of engaging in sanctionsbusting, inviting South African military personnel for visits to Russia, and collaborating on top secret development projects.

It turns out this isn’t quite true.

This was driven by the new pragmatic approach of Mikhail Gorbachev, who became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985 and who keenly understood the USSR’s desperate need for more foreign income after its disastrous misadventure in Afghanistan and years of an increasingly sclerotic domestic economy. The result was Perestroika, a massive restructuring

of the Soviet economic and political system that was officially announced in July 1987.

By late 1989 Perestroika was in full swing. Moreover, the war in Angola was coming to a negotiated end, partially because of the USSR deciding to withdraw its support for the Angolan and Cuban forces and the US taking an increasingly hard line against South Africa. With the biggest source of tension between the two countries now gone, and South Africa’s external security fears ebbing, the two countries began to talk. South Africa desperately needed modern fighter aircraft engines and the USSR needed external funding in hard currency.

South Africa at the time was struggling to source suitable modern fighter aircraft engines to both upgrade its current fleet and to power a fighter aircraft it had been developing under Project Carver. All it had were older Atar 09K50s, which even upgraded, weren’t good enough.

anecdotes, by the beginning of 1991 a South African technical team was in Zarechye, just outside Moscow, kept away from public eyes in what used to be a dacha used by Brezhnev.

Within a few months the project had grown to a full design and engineering team from the SA defence industry and SA Air Force, with some frequently in Zarachye and other parts of Russia, collaborating with their Soviet counterparts from design bureaus like Klimov. Two of the key companies were Aerosud, founded in 1990 by a number of ex-Atlas engineers, and Marvol which was founded by Mark Voloshin.

The team faced a daunting challenge

A few years into the project, a pair of joint ventures were set up to both facilitate the project and provide plausible cover: RusJet which included Russian companies like Klimov as partners, and SIV which separately imported R-73 missiles for integration onto Mirage F1s.

So a joint project was proposed: Modifying Klimov RD-33 engines, as used on the MiG-29, so that they could be used on the South African Air Force’s Mirage F1 and Cheetah aircraft. According to the fascinating memoir of Kobus de Villiers, Top Secret and other

The combined team faced a daunting challenge: The RD-33 is a turbofan engine and is both substantially shorter and requires much more airflow at all stages of the performance envelope than the older generation 09K50 turbojet. The RD-33 was also designed for twin

SAAF Mirage F1AZ 216 fitted with the Russian SMR-95 lighter, yet more powerful turbofan, made over 60 flights.

engined operation and components like its gearbox, fuel supply system, and generators were in either the wrong places or unsuited for application in a Mirage airframe.

A Mirage F1CZ, 214, was secretly shipped to Russia and taken apart by the Russian technical team to allow them to understand its internal structure, engine controls, and fuel attachment points amongst other things.

Bear in mind that at this stage South Africa was still under a United Nations arms embargo and still a pariah state, making this entire project not only illegal, but questionable in a moral sense. For that reason, secrecy was extreme, especially during travel within Russia.

The product survived the 1991 coup attempt and the dissolution of the USSR, and by 1994/1995 had resulted in a redesigned RD-33, designated the SMR95, and test installations in a Mirage F1AZ and a Cheetah D. It was undoubtedly a technical success with large performance gains.

Amongst the changes that distinguished the SMR95 from the RD-33 were its length, increased from 4 229 mm to 5 440 mm to maintain CG limits, the relocation of the gearbox to below the engine, changes to the fuel supply system, and new more powerful electrical generators to account for the single engine usage scenario. The SMR-95 variant for the Mirage F1 family was designated the SMR-95A, and that for the Cheetahs the SMR-95B, as there were slight differences required for the two airframe types.

On the Mirage F1AZ (216) and Cheetah D (847) that were used as the installation testbeds and test flying aircraft, a number of airframe and other changes were required. Amongst these were substantial changes to the intakes. The intake lip was reshaped and the movable ‘mouse’ that was previously driven by a screwjack was replaced by one powered by hydraulic rams and computer-controlled to ensure adequate response times for the more powerful engine.

The combination of the engine being both substantially more powerful and more than 300 kg lighter resulted in huge performance gains, especially in acceleration, with a 50% improvement in the transonic regime, and 30-40% improvements in combat radius as a result of the engine’s higher fuel efficiency.

While the SMR-95 had a shorter engine lifespan than the 09K50, as a result of different design and operating philosophies, the performance changes breathed new life into the Mirage F1 and Cheetah designs. The Mirage F1AZ flew around 70 test flights and the Cheetah D at least 10.

However by 1993-1994 the project was already being deprioritised, as South Africa was by then anticipating being readmitted to the international community and able to buy modern fighters on the open market once the arms embargo was lifted. Project Carver, one of the drivers for the project, was cancelled in 1993. By 1995 the SMR-95 project had been cancelled as well.

There was a bit of related controversy, when in 1996 the Russian government demanded back the four RD-33 engines and fourteen R-73 missiles that it had sent to South Africa for the project, claiming that they had only been on loan, and accusations that the project had been approved under false pretences and without the proper authorisations. It’s likely though that this claim was predominantly to provide cover for: the USSR and then the Russian Federation being

The Klimov RD-33 turbofan engine had to be heavily modifed to fit into the Mirage F1 airframe.

caught out having broken the UN arms embargo in its work with South Africa and provision of engines and missiles.

Later some of the companies involved resurrected the project and tried to interest other countries in an upgrade for their own Mirage fleets. The SMR-95Aengined Mirage F1AZ, 216, became the first Western aircraft to fly at the MAKS show but no buyers emerged.

Later, Klimov would take many of the design changes and incorporate them into what became the RD-93 as used on the Pakistani JF-17 fighter aircraft.

Perhaps because of the revelations about this programme, and news about other contacts between the then-KGB and NIS, and SADF visits to Russia, when the ANC came to power in 1994, it treated its former ally a bit frostily, though not in an entirely unfriendly manner, even though Russia sent a host of aircraft down for the 1995 SAAF anniversary air show at Waterkloof.

In 1997 when South Africa initiated the Arms Deal, the Russians were offered no special consideration, and in fact weren’t even sent the RFP for some requirements. This forced them to submit unsolicited proposals, none of which passed the evaluation boards. It was really not until the mid to late 2000s that the ANC and Russia once more grew close, thanks in large part to new overtures from the Putin-led government.

Some of the rhetoric about Russia’s links to South Africa and supposedly steadfast support to the ANC and an enduring friendship is therefore ahistorical. In reality, both sides prioritised their own interests when convenient. And between 1989 and 1994, it was more convenient for the USSR and then Russia to work with the dying Apartheid regime than with the ANC, which it had supported for so many years. 

The Chinese-Pakistan JF-17 fighter used the RD-93 engine first modifed for South Africa.

It was undoubtedly a technical success

SAAF MUSEUM AIRSHOW 2023

The first Saturday of May in Centurion has for many years been synonymous with the SAAF Museum Airshow, although it had been quite some time since the skies over Swartkop had so much air traffic.

SAAF enthusiasts were thrilled to see the Gripen flying - doing a dusk display with flares.

Text: Dian Townsend Images: Trevor Cohen

AS IS TRADITION , the airshow

build-up started with the race between the Museum’s Alouette II helicopter and the Gautrain. Make no mistake, the Gautrain is no slouch, but it is no match for the Alouette!

As the week progressed aircraft from both the SAAF and civilian owners arrived at the newly renamed Mobile Deployment Wing Swartkop. By Friday, the flying action was in full swing with validations and practice displays being flown.

Saturday was airshow day! Pre-dawn spectators enjoyed rare warm temperatures as the sun started peeking out from over the horizon.

no shortage of mouthwatering action

Shortly after 08:00, the first display; by the powered para-gliders from nearby Grasslands Airfield commenced. After a few passes down the crowd line, they made way for the EMS cavalcade.

The museum’s flying aircraft ranged from solo Harvard displays and the Alouette ballet, to unique formations and even the miniwar simulation. The true highlight of the Museum displays though, was the formation

It's the SAAF Museum Airshow so the old and the new were enjoyed.

It would not be complete without a P-51 MustangMenno Parsons is a national treasure.

The Rooivalk bunting and droping flares.

Star Air Cargo provided airliner action with their Boeing 737-300.

In the absence of an Impala the L-29 Delphin provided early jet trainer experience.

Going far back in time - the Auster in SAAF colours.

of a Cessna 185 with two Alouette III’s and the SA330 Puma flanked by two Harvards.

The civilian displays also did not disappoint! Andrew Blackwood Murray delivered a master class of aerobatics in his Extra 300, which was followed by Andre Van Zyl in his Magni M-16 Gyrocopter. Although the Magni was by far the smallest rotary-wing aircraft on display that day, it was flown to absolute perfection by Andre, demonstrating exactly why the gyro is such a versatile tool.

The first jet noise came from the striking “Austrian Eagle’ L29 Delphin flown by Grant Timms. Grant also formed part of the Classic Flying Collection displays, the first of which was the 2 ship Tiger Moth formation where Grant was joined by Steve Brown. These two were later joined by Rodney Chinn for the Chipmunk display. The Auster AOP (Aerial

Observation Platform) also graced the Swartkop skies at the skilled hands of Steve Brown.

The first aerobatic formations came from the Raptors Aerobatic Team in their Van’s RVs. The 5 ship was flown by Nigel Hopkins, Dion Raath, Ryan Beeton, Trevor Warner and Johan von Solms. The two Pitts Special teams: the Goodyear Eagles and Hired Gun, also kept the crowds enthralled.

the crowd favourite flare drop.

The energetic duo of Nigel Hopkins and Jason Beamish’s Extra 330 display has always been a crowd favourite.

Another unique duo was the father-son combo of Ivan and Jeandre van de Schaar with the Boeing Stearman flying in formation with the RC Extra. The coordination and trust between these two is special.

The Chipmunk formation.

The Gripen flew again in the dusk - its 'vlamgat' delighting the pundits.

What the show is all about - building a passion for flying in the young.

FlightCom: June 2023

For the helicopter fans, there was no shortage of mouth-watering action. Juba Joubert is without doubt one of the finest helicopter pilots in South Africa. And if that wasn’t enough of a treat, Menno Parsons flew his stunning tiger-striped Huey. Menno returned in his P51D “Mustang Sally”. That V12 Packard Merlin with the whistling gun barrels speaks for itself. Elegant, graceful, beautiful...

Last on the civilian side was a rare visitor: the Boeing 737-36E from Africa Charter Airline which was piloted by Dennis Spence. Seeing these big birds at airshows is always spectacular.

The imposing Rooivalk displayed its flying capabilities to perfection, with the display ending with the crowd favourite flare drop.

Saving the best for last, were the fast movers, noise makers, ‘vlamgatte’. The fast jets from Air Force Base Makhado did not disappoint. The Hawk Mk 120s of 85 Combat Flying School and SAAB JAS-39 Gripens of 2 Squadron were both flying and on static display.

stunning tigerstriped Huey

There was no shortage of military aircraft on display. Although we missed the Silver Falcons 5-ship, Central Flying School still delivered a top-notch solo Pilatus PC-7 Mk II display.

The previous airshow held at the SAAF Museum was back in 2019, making this welcome return show just that much better. Seeing large crowds line up against the fence line at Swartkop once again was a beautiful sight and we can only hope that this show will be a permanent fiaxture on the South African airshow calendar.

Something different - the RV Raptors formation team goes through their moves on the ground.

EBACE 2023 ROUNDUP

Game-changing technologies, the debut of all-new aircraft, groundbreaking solutions for sustainable flight and exciting market opportunities were all centre stage for one of the most significant editions of the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) to date.

Grand Prix star managers Toto and Susie Wolff opened EBACE 2023.

THE SHOW OPENED with a blockbuster keynote with Formula One powerhouse duo Toto and Susie Wolff. The global superstars in racing, business and philanthropy wowed a standingroom only crowd with stories of leadership and continuous learning. The two extolled the shared aims of racing and business aviation, pointing to parallels for safety, sustainability, technical excellence, diversity and high performance.

With a steady stream of announcements from aircraft manufacturers, the show featured the unveiling of Textron Aviation’s new Cessna Citation Ascend, and the EBACE debut of Airbus Corporate Jets’ ACJ TwoTwenty, Bombardier’s Challenger 3500 and Gulfstream’s G800 aircraft.

“At EBACE, we saw how business aviation is reinventing the very technology of flight to take on new missions, serve new customers and connect the world sustainably,” said EBAA Chairman Juergen Wiese. “For decades, our industry has pioneered breakthroughs to fly not only further but more efficiently, and

at EBACE, we accelerated our incredible pace of innovation.”

“We saw amazing new aircraft announced and debuted, designed to meet the needs of an evolving global business marketplace,” said National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) President and CEO Ed Bolen. “We had a first-hand look at the fuels, propulsion systems and technologies that will lead to net-zero flight. We were inspired by the trailblazers in our industry who are championing teamwork and inclusion. EBACE showed us all that is possible today, and how our shared vision will shape tomorrow.”

In the static park the latest Gufstream G800 starred.

There is something for everyonePiper brought a piston single

EBACE 2023 featured a full and bustling exhibit floor, a sold-out aircraft display, and packed sessions on the show floor, including in the new sustainability theatre.

The sense was that throughout the week, EBACE 2023 reflected a spirit of optimism and opportunity:

In a first-of-its-kind panel on the show’s media day, CEOs from the top aircraft manufacturers shared their investments in low-emissions technologies and united goal of decarbonizing business aviation.

Carbon emissions from all attendee travel

In a top-billed session, Patrick Ky, the executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Michael Huerta, the former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) administrator who serves on the boards of Joby and Delta Air Lines, talked with advanced air mobility (AAM) developers. With leaders promising certification and the first commercial flights by 2024 – and several AAM aircraft displayed on the show floor –EBACE affirmed the new mode of air transport will soon become a reality.

This year, EBACE promoted the production and use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) with a sold-out

FlightCom:

2023

The futuristic Lilium VTOL concept brought a full scale cabin mockup.

Cirrus was there with an all-black Vision SF50.

More conventional VTOL from Airbus Helicopters in the static park.

The bounce back after Covid ensured good attendance.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) was a big focus.

The huge Palexpo halls at Geneva Airport are ideally located.

supply of SAF at GVA for the show week, availability of the fuel at select U.S. airports with EBACE-bound flights, and an EBACE book-and-claim option at a U.S. airport where the fuel is not present.

Carbon emissions from all attendee travel to and from the show, and from the 22 hotels and the shuttle buses used for EBACE were offset by carbon credits provided through a partnership with 4AIR. A record number of exhibitors signed the EBACE Exhibitor Sustainability Pledge, making this year’s convention perhaps the most sustainable ever.

A newsmakers series brought together leaders from government, industry and philanthropy on transforming aviation’s most pressing challenges into its most promising opportunities. In one newsmakers session on sustainable propulsion, engineers reported on testing hybrid-electric and 100% SAF-powered aircraft – nearly ready for commercialization.

EBACE’s three-day Sustainability Summit convened experts to detail the many ways entrepreneurs and companies are making the sector ever-more sustainable on the ground and in the air.

This year’s EBACE Career Day, with dozens of students in attendance, kicked off with Mack Rutherford, the youngest person to fly solo around the world. After Rutherford discussed his advice for reaching everhigher altitudes in life, the students were provided with peer-to-peer learning opportunities, and a tour of the EBACE exhibit floor and aircraft display.

The keynote session also included SolarStratos CEO Raphaël Domjan, the visionary pilot whose solarpowered aircraft, capable of flights into the stratosphere, could reshape the very definition of aviation.

transforming aviation’s most pressing challenges into its most promising opportunities

Aviation careers were another key focus.

propoasl to deal with cockpit invasions - it was not adopted.

THE MYSTERIOUS KILIMATINDE FLAT TYRE

People from all around the world can say they have experienced the thrill of a holiday safari, but only those living in the most rural parts of Tanzania know the hope of a life-saving safari flight.

THE WORD “SAFARI” MEANS

“JOURNEY” in Swahili. The journey of a Mission Aviation Fellowship safari in Tanzania is not in a 4x4 driven by a game ranger, but rather in a Cessna 206, flown by a mission pilot.

MAF’s vital flights transport medical professionals and people to encourage and bring hope to socially and economically marginalised people in Tanzania, to those who are otherwise completely isolated from medical care.

He

them. Plans to build a fence have been communicated with the Kilimatinde hospital, but when land and many stakeholders are involved, things take time.

prepared

for a flat tyre landing

Everything happens really slowly in Tanzania, but then on one sunny day you can have habari njema - good news!

One of MAF’s pilots, Jarkko Korhonen flew the team to Kilimatinde in 5H-SIL, a Cessna 206. Landing or taking off in Kilimatinde takes great caution. Normally there are people hanging around or crossing the narrow runway. If the grass on the sides is long, it’s hard to see

From Kilimatinde, Jarkko picked up five nurses, vaccines and other medical equipment to fly to the Chidudu mobile clinic. Fourth year medical student, Sophie Roe, from Birmingham University, joined the local medical team. She was doing her practical medical training at Kilimatinde Anglican hospital. Over 100 mothers and infants were seen to at the clinic.

In the afternoon Jarkko was in a hurry to get the medical team back to Kilimatinde hospital. Everything went well, and he was able to return on time back to Chidudu. But then, when taxying in after landing, he suddenly had to use more power and the plane started turning abnormally. He prayed, “God please let there be no puncture”. In Chidudu there’s no mobile network and there are no roads to the village.

He opened the door and saw that the left main wheel was completely flat and worried that they would have to stay overnight at Chidudu. He decided to pump the tyre to see the size of the puncture. He looked for the pump in the plane pod, but it wasn’t there. It had been moved to another plane which had a broken pump.

In Africa, resourcefulness becomes important. The villagers had a small bicycle pump. After pumping it, he checked the tyre and couldn’t find anything visibly wrong, which was strange. The tyre seemed to hold air. They loaded the plane, while others continued to pump. Then he did a very quick departure and he was able to get airborne normally.

To his relief he was on the way to Dodoma, which has maintenance facilities.

He prepared for a flat main tyre landing, but in the air, every time he checked, the tyre looked normal. Then he landed, and everything was exactly as it usually felt. He climbed out the plane and checked the tyre and it still held air!

He was able to fly the team back in time and indeed very thankful to God that he didn’t need to stay overnight at Chidudu after the long day. It still remains a mystery as to what happened to the tyre at Chidudu.

Operating a C206 out of remote airfields may sometimes require a miracle.

the left main wheel was completely flat

SA Mission Aviation Fellowship South Africa is a Johannesburg-based Christian mission organisation that uses aircraft to transform the lives of the world’s most isolated people in need. They are part of MAF International that serves 26 developing countries. Their pilots and personnel deliver relief workers, doctors, pastors, school books, food, medicines - everything that can only be safely and speedily delivered by air. MAF SA has seven full-time employees and was founded in 1971.

For more information, please see: www.mafsa.co.za

or contact Gabriella Szabo, Marketing and Events Coordinator, MAF SA, Fundraising@mafsa.co.za

Tel +27(0)116592880, +27(0)748244024

The medical team fills the Cessna 206.

Medical student Sophie Roe helps with the vaccinations.

EMBRAER’S HUGE NETJETS DEAL

NETJETS HAS SIGNED A NEW DEAL with

Embraer for up to 250 Praetor 500 jet options, which includes a comprehensive services and support agreement.

The deal is valued in excess of US$5 billion, with deliveries expected to begin in 2025, and will be NetJets’ first time offering the midsize Praetor 500 to customers.

For over a decade, NetJets has operated Embraer’s Phenom 300 series—one of NetJets’ most requested aircraft.

The partnership between Embraer and NetJets began in 2010 when NetJets first signed a purchase agreement for 50 Phenom 300 aircraft, with up to 75 additional options. In 2021, after Embraer successfully delivered over 100 aircraft, the companies signed a continuing deal for up to 100 additional Phenom 300/E jets, in excess of $1.2 billion.

NetJets is averaging over 1,200 worldwide flights per day. “Since 2010, Embraer has enjoyed NetJets’ ongoing commitment to our industry-leading aircraft,

which is a true testament to the value of our brand and our ability to deliver the ultimate experience in business aviation,” said Michael Amalfitano, President and CEO of Embraer Executive Jets.

The Praetor 500 claims to be the most technologically advanced midsize business jet, with a best-in-class range—enabling U.S. coast-to-coast capability— industry-leading speed, and unparalleled runway performance. It’s the only aircraft in its category with full fly-by-wire flight controls.

Embraer says that not only does the Praetor 500 offer exceptional performance, but it also offers one of the most comfortable cabin experiences. It features the lowest cabin altitude in its class, as well as the tallest and widest cross section in the segment. Additionally, it offers a flat-floor cabin, stone flooring, a vacuum lavatory, and ample baggage space, including a fully enclosed internal baggage compartment.

NetJets has signed for U$5bn worth of Embraer Praetor 500 jets.

South Africa

BACKPAGE DIR ECT ORY

Air Line Pilots’ Association

208 Aviation

Ben Esterhuizen +27 83 744 3412 ben@208aviation.co.za www.208aviation.com

A1A Flight Examiner (Loutzavia)

Jannie Loutzis 012 567 6775 / 082 416 4069 jannie@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za

AES (Cape Town)

Erwin Erasmus 082 494 3722 erwin@aeroelectrical.co.za www.aeroelectrical.co.za

AES (Johannesburg)

Danie van Wyk 011 701 3200 office@aeroelectrical.co.za www.aeroelectrical.co.za

Aerocolour cc

Alfred Maraun 082 775 9720 aeroeng@iafrica.com

Aero Engineering & PowerPlant

Andre Labuschagne 012 543 0948 aerocolour@telkomsa.net

Aerokits

Jean Crous 072 6716 240 aerokits99@gmail.com

Aeronav Academy

Donald O’Connor 011 701 3862 info@aeronav.co.za www.aeronav.co.za

Aeronautical Aviation

Clinton Carroll 011 659 1033 / 083 459 6279 clinton@aeronautical.co.za www.aeronautical.co.za

Aerospace Electroplating

Oliver Trollope 011 827 7535 petasus@mweb.co.za

Aerotel

Martin den Dunnen 087 6556 737 reservations@aerotel.co.za www.aerotel.co.za

Aerotric

Richard Small 083 488 4535 aerotric@aol.com

Aviation Rebuilders cc Lyn Jones 011 827 2491 / 082 872 4117 lyn@aviationrebuilders.com www.aviationrebuilders.com

AVIC International Flight Academy (AIFA)

Theo Erasmus 082 776 8883 rassie@aifa.co.za

Air 2000 (Pty) Ltd

Anne Gaines-Burrill 011 659 2449 - AH 082 770 2480 Fax 086 460 5501 air2000@global.co.za www.hunterssupport.com

Aircraft Finance Corporation & Leasing

Jaco Pietersen +27 [0]82 672 2262 jaco@airfincorp.co.za

Jason Seymour +27 [0]82 326 0147 jason@airfincorp.co.za www.airfincorp.co.za

Aircraft General Spares

Eric or Hayley 084 587 6414 or 067 154 2147 eric@acgs.co.za or hayley@acgs.co.za www.acgs.co.za

Aircraft Maintenance International Pine Pienaar 083 305 0605 gm@aminternational.co.za

Aircraft Maintenance International Wonderboom Thomas Nel 082 444 7996 admin@aminternational.co.za

Sonia Ferreira 011 394 5310 alpagm@iafrica.com www.alpa.co.za

Airshift Aircraft Sales

Eugene du Plessis 082 800 3094 eugene@airshift.co.za www.airshift.co.za

Alclad Sheetmetal Services

Ed Knibbs 083 251 4601 ed@alclad.co.za www.alclad.co.za

Algoa Flying Club Sharon Mugridge 041 581 3274 info@algoafc.co.za www.algoafc.co.za

Alpi Aviation SA

Dale De Klerk 082 556 3592 dale@alpiaviation.co.za www.alpiaviation.co.za

Apco (Ptyd) Ltd

Tony/Henk + 27 12 543 0775 apcosupport@mweb.co.za www.apcosa.co.za

Ardent Aviation Consultants Yolanda Vermeulen 082 784 0510 yolanda@ardentaviation.co.za www.ardentaviation.co.za

Ascend Aviation Marlo Kruyswijk 079 511 0080 marlo@ascendaviation.co.za www.ascendaviation.co.za

Atlas Aviation Lubricants

Steve Cloete 011 917 4220 Fax: 011 917 2100 sales.aviation@atlasoil.co.za www.atlasaviation.co.za

AVDEX (Pty) Ltd

Tania Botes 011 954 15364 info@avdex.co.za www.avdex.co.za

Aviatech Flight Academy

Nico Smith 082 303 1124 viatechfakr@gmail.com www.aviatech.co.za

Aviation Direct Andrea Antel 011 465 2669 info@aviationdirect.co.za www.aviationdirect.co.za

Avtech Riekert Stroh 082 749 9256 avtech1208@gmail.com

BAC Aviation AMO 115 Micky Joss 035 797 3610 monicad@bacmaintenance.co.za

Blackhawk Africa Cisca de Lange 083 514 8532 cisca@blackhawk.aero www.blackhawk.aero

Blue Chip Flight School Henk Kraaij 012 543 3050 bluechip@bluechip-avia.co.za www.bluechipflightschool.co.za

Bona Bona Game Lodge MJ Ernst 082 075 3541 mj@bonabona.co.za www.bonabona.co.za

Border Aviation Club & Flight School

Liz Gous 043 736 6181 admin@borderaviation.co.za www.borderaviation.co.za

Breytech Aviation cc 012 567 3139 Willie Breytenbach admin@breytech.co.za

Celeste Sani Pak & Inflight Products

Steve Harris 011 452 2456 admin@chemline.co.za www.chemline.co.za

Cape Town Flying Club Beverley Combrink 021 934 0257 / 082 821 9013 info@capetownflyingclub.co.za www.@capetownflyingclub.co.za

Century Avionics cc Carin van Zyl 011 701 3244 sales@centuryavionics.co.za www.centuryavionics.co.za

Chemetall Wayne Claassens 011 914 2500 wayne.claassens@basf.com www.chemetall.com

Chem-Line Aviation & Celeste Products

Steve Harris 011 452 2456 sales@chemline.co.za www.chemline.co.za

Clifton Electronics cc CJ Clifton / Irene Clifton 079 568 7205 / 082 926 8482 clive.iclifton@gmail.com

Comair Flight Services (Pty) Ltd Reception +27 11 540 7640/FAX: +27 11 252 9334 info@flycfs.co.za www.flycfs.co.za

Corporate-Aviators/Affordable Jet Sales

Mike Helm 082 442 6239 corporate-aviators@iafrica.com www.corporate-aviators.com

CSA Aviation – Cirrus South Africa

Alex Smith 011 701 3835 alexs@cirrussa.co.za www.cirrussa.co.za

C. W. Price & Co

Kelvin L. Price 011 805 4720 cwp@cwprice.co.za www.cwprice.co.za

Dart Aeronautical Jaco Kelly 011 827 8204 dartaero@mweb.co.za

Dart Aircraft Electrical Mathew Joubert 011 827 0371 Dartaircraftelectrical@gmail.com www.dartaero.co.za

Diepkloof Aircraft Maintenance cc Nick Kleinhans 083 454 6366 diepkloofamo@gmail.com

DJA Aviation Insurance 011 463 5550 0800Flying mail@dja-aviation.co.za www.dja-aviation.co.za

Dynamic Propellers Andries Visser 011 824 5057 082 445 4496 andries@dynamicpropeller.co.za www.dynamicpropellers.co.za

Eagle Flight Academy Mr D. J. Lubbe 082 557 6429 training@eagleflight.co.za www.eagleflight.co.za

Execujet Africa 011 516 2300 enquiries@execujet.co.za www.execujet.com

Federal Air Rachel Muir 011 395 9000 shuttle@fedair.com www.fedair.com

Ferry Flights int.inc. Michael (Mick) Schittenhelm 082 442 6239 ferryflights@ferry-flights.com www.ferry-flights.com

F Gomes Upholsters Carla de Lima 083 602 5658 delimaCarla92@gmail.com

Fireblade Aviation 010 595 3920 info@firebladeaviation.com www.firebladeaviation.com

Flight Training College Cornell Morton 044 876 9055 ftc@flighttrainning.co.za www.flighttraining.co.za

Flight Training Services Amanda Pearce 011 805 9015/6 amanda@fts.co.za www.fts.co.za

Fly Jetstream Aviation Henk Kraaij 083 279 7853 charter@flyjetstream.co.za www.flyjetstream.co.za

Flying Unlimited Flight School (Pty) Ltd Riaan Struwig 082 653 7504 / 086 770 8376 riaan@ppg.co.za www.ppg.co.za

Flyonics (Pty) Ltd Michael Karaolis 010 109 9405 michael@flyonics.co.za www.flyonics.co.za

Gemair Andries Venter 011 701 2653 / 082 905 5760 andries@gemair.co.za

GIB Aviation Insurance Brokers Richard Turner 011 483 1212 aviation@gib.co.za www.gib.co.za

Guardian Air 011 701 3011 082 521 2394 ops@guardianair.co.za www.guardianair.co.za

Heli-Afrique cc Tino Conceicao 083 458 2172 tino.conceicao@heli-afrique.co.za

Henley Air Andre Coetzee 011 827 5503 andre@henleyair.co.za www.henleyair.co.za

Hover Dynamics Phillip Cope 074 231 2964 info@hover.co.za www.hover.co.za

Indigo Helicopters Gerhard Kleynhans 082 927 4031 / 086 528 4234 veroeschka@indigohelicopters.co.za www.indigohelicopters.co.za

IndigoSat South Africa - Aircraft Tracking Gareth Willers 08600 22 121 sales@indigosat.co.za www.indigosat.co.za

International Flight Clearances Steve Wright 076 983 1089 (24 Hrs) flightops@flyifc.co.za www.flyifc.co.za

Investment Aircraft

Quinton Warne 082 806 5193 aviation@lantic.net www.investmentaircraft.com

Jabiru Aircraft

Len Alford 044 876 9991 / 044 876 9993 info@jabiru.co.za www.jabiru.co.za

Jim Davis Books

Jim Davis 072 188 6484 jim@border.co.za www.jimdavis.co.za

Joc Air T/A The Propeller Shop Aiden O’Mahony 011 701 3114 jocprop@iafrica.com

Johannesburg Flying Academy

Alan Stewart 083 702 3680 info@jhbflying.co.za www.jhbflying.co.za

Kishugu Aviation +27 13 741 6400 comms@kishugu.com www.kishugu.com/kishugu-aviation

Khubenker Energy (Pty) Ltd T/A Benveroy

Vernon Bartlett 086 484 4296 vernon@khubenker.co.za www.khubenker.co.za

Kit Planes for Africa

Stefan Coetzee 013 793 7013 info@saplanes.co.za www.saplanes.co.za

Kzn Aviation (Pty) Ltd

Melanie Jordaan 031 564 6215 mel@kznaviation.co.za www.kznaviation.co.za

Lanseria Aircraft Interiors

Francois Denton 011 659 1962 / 076 810 9751 francois@aircraftcompletions.co.za

Lanseria Flight Centre

Ian Dyson Tel: +27 11 312 5166, F: +27 11 312 5166 ian@flylfc.com www.flylfc.com

Lanseria International Airport

Mike Christoph 011 367 0300 mikec@lanseria.co.za www.lanseria.co.za

Leading Edge Aviation cc

Peter Jackson Tel 013 741 3654 Fax 013 741 1303 office@leaviation.co.za www.leadingedgeaviation.co.za

Legend Sky 083 860 5225 / 086 600 7285 info@legendssky.co.za www.legendsky.co.za

Litson & Associates (Pty) Ltd

OGP/BARS Auditing & Advisory Services & Aviation Safety Training

Email: Phone:enquiries@litson.co.za 27 (0) 8517187 www.litson.co.za

Litson & Associates Risk Management Services (Pty) Ltd

eSMS-S™/ eTENDER/ e-REPORT / Aviation Software Systems

Email: Phone:enquiries@litson.co.za 27 (0) 8517187 www.litson.co.za

Loutzavia Aircraft Sales

Henry Miles 082 966 0911 henry@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za

Loutzavia Flight Training

Gerhardt Botha 012 567 6775 ops@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za

Loutzavia-Pilots and Planes

Maria Loutzis 012 567 6775 maria@loutzavia.co.za www.pilotsnplanes.co.za

Loutzavia Rand

Frans Pretorius 011 824 3804 rand@loutzavia.co.za www@loutzavia.co.za

Lowveld Aero Club Pugs Steyn 013 741 3636 Flynow@lac.co.za

Maverick Air Charters

Lourens Human 082 570 2743 ops@maverickair.co.za www.maverickair.co.za

MCC Aviation Pty Ltd

Claude Oberholzer 011 701 2332 info@flymcc.co.za www.flymcc.co.za

Mistral Aviation Services Peter de Beer 083 208 7249 peter@mistral.co.za

MH Aviation Services (Pty) Ltd

Marc Pienaar 011 609 0123 / 082 940 5437 customerrelations@mhaviation.co.za www.mhaviation.co.za

M and N Acoustic Services cc Martin de Beer 012 689 2007/8 calservice@mweb.co.za

Metropolitan Aviation (Pty) Ltd

Gert Mouton 082 458 3736 herenbus@gmail.com

Money Aviation Angus Money 083 263 2934 angus@moneyaviation.co.za www.moneyaviation.co.za

North East Avionics Keith Robertson +27 13 741 2986 keith@northeastavionics.co.za deborah@northeastavionics.co.za www.northeastavionics.co.za

Orsmond Aviation 058 303 5261 info@orsmondaviation.co.za www.orsmondaviation.co.za

Owenair (Pty) Ltd Clive Skinner 082 923 9580 clive.skinner@owenair.co.za www.owenwair.co.za

Par-Avion Exclusive Catering Jakkie Vorster 011 701 2600 accounts@par-avion.co.za www.par-avion.co.za

PFERD-South Africa (Pty) Ltd Hannes Nortman 011 230 4000 hannes.nortman@pferd.co.za www.pferd.com

Plane Maintenance Facility

Johan 083 300 3619 pmf@myconnection.co.za

Powered Flight Charters

Johanita Jacobs Tel 012 007 0244/Fax 0866 66 2077 info@poweredflight.co.za www.poweredflight.co.za

Powered Flight Training Centre

Johanita Jacobs Tel 012 007 0244/Fax 0866 66 2077 info@poweredflight.co.za www.poweredflight.co.za

Precision Aviation Services Marnix Hulleman 012 543 0371 marnix@pasaviation.co.za www.pasaviation.co.za

Propeller Centre Theuns Du Toit / Dolf Du Toit 071 362 5152 / 082 852 9865 theuns@propcentre.co.za dolf@propcentre.co.za www.propcentre.com

Rainbow SkyReach (Pty) Ltd

Mike Gill 011 817 2298 Mike@fly-skyreach.com www.fly-skyreach.com

Rand Airport Stuart Coetzee 011 827 8884 stuart@randairport.co.za www.randairport.co.za

Dr Rudi Britz Aviation Medical Clinic

Megan 066 177 7194 rudiavmed@gmail.com

Wonderboom Airport

SAA Technical (SOC) Ltd

SAAT Marketing 011 978 9993 satmarketing@flysaa.com www.flysaa.com/technical

SABRE Aircraft

Richard Stubbs 083 655 0355 richardstubbs@mweb.co.za www.aircraftafrica.co.za

Savannah Helicopters

De 082Jager 444 1138 / 044 873 3288 dejager@savannahhelicopters.co.za www.savannahhelicopters.co.za

Scenic Air

Christa van Wyk +264 612 492 68 windhoek@scenic-air.com www.scenic-air.com

Sheltam Aviation Durban

Susan Ryan 083 505 4882 susanryan@sheltam.com www.sheltamaviation.com

Sheltam Aviation PE

Brendan Booker 082 497 6565 brendanb@sheltam.com www.sheltamaviation.com

Signature Flight Support Cape Town

Alan Olivier 021 934 0350 cpt@signatureflight.co.za www.signatureaviation.com/locations/CPT

Signco (Pty Ltd)

Archie Kemp Tel 011 452 6857 Fax 086 504 5239 info@signco.zo.za www.signco.co.za

SleepOver Michael Richardson 010 110 9900 michael.richardson@sleepover-za.com www.sleepover-za.com

Sling Aircraft Kim Bell-Cross 011 948 9898 sales@airplanefactory.co.za www.airplanefactory.co.za

Solenta Aviation (Pty Ltd)

Paul Hurst 011 707 4000 info@solenta.com www.solenta.com

Southern Energy Company (Pty) Ltd

Elke Bertram +264 8114 29958 johnnym@sec.com.na www.sec.com.na

Southern Rotorcraft cc Mr Reg Denysschen Tel no: 0219350980 sasales@rotors-r-us.com www.rotors-r-us.com

Starlite Aero Sales

Klara Fouché +27 83 324 8530 / +27 31 571 6600 klaraf@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Starlite Aviation Operations

Trisha Andhee +27 82 660 3018/ +27 31 571 6600 trishaa@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Starlite Aviation Training Academy

Durban: +27 31 571 6600 Mossel Bay: +27 44 692 0006 train@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Status Aviation (Pty) Ltd

Richard Donian 074 587 5978 / 086 673 5266 info@statusaviation.co.za www.statusaviation.co.za

Superior Pilot Services

Liana Jansen van 0118050605/2247Rensburg info@superiorair.co.za www.superiorair.co.za

Swift Flite Linda Naidoo Tel 011 701 3298 Fax 011 701 3297 info@swiftflite.com / linda@swiftflite.com www.swiftflite.co.za

The Aviation Shop Karel Zaayman 010 020 1618 info@aviationshop.co.za www.aviationshop.co.za

The Copter Shop Bill Olmsted 082 454 8555 execheli@iafrica.com www.execheli.wixsite.com/the-copter-shop-sa

The Pilot Shop Helen Bosland 082 556 3729 helen@pilotshop.co.za www.pilotshop.co.za

Titan Helicopter Group 044 878 0453 info@titanhelicopters.com www.titanhelicopters.com

Top Flight Academy Nico Smith 082 303 1124 topflightklerksdorp@gmail.com

Turbo Prop Service Centre 011 701 3210 info@tpscsa.co.za www.tpscsa.co.za

Ultimax Aviation (Pty) Ltd Aristide Loumouamou +27 72 878 8786 aristide@ultimax-aviation.com www.ultimax-aviation.com

United Charter cc Jonathan Wolpe 083 270 8886 jonathan.wolpe@unitedcharter.co.za www.unitedcharter.co.za

United Flight Support Clinton Moodley/Jonathan Wolpe 076 813 7754 / 011 788 0813 ops@unitedflightsupported.com www.unitedflightsupport.com

Velocity Aviation Collin Pearson 011 659 2306 / 011 659 2334 collin@velocityaviation.co.za www.velocityaviation.co.za

Villa San Giovanni Luca Maiorana 012 111 8888 info@vsg.co.za www.vsg.co.za

Vortx Aviation Bredell Roux 072 480 0359 info@vortx.co.za www.vortxaviation.com

Wanafly Adrian Barry 082 493 9101 adrian@wanafly.net www.wanafly.co.za

Windhoek Flight Training Centre Thinus Dreyer 0026 40 811284 180 pilots@flywftc.com www.flywftc.com

Wings n Things Wendy Thatcher 011 701 3209 wendy@wingsnthings.co.za www.wingsnthings.co.za

Witbank Flight School Andre De Villiers 083 604 1718 andredv@lantic.net www.waaflyingclub.co.za

Wonderboom Airport Peet van Rensburg 012 567 1188/9 peet@wonderboomairport.co.za www.wonderboomairport.co.za

Zandspruit Bush & Aero Estate Martin Den Dunnen 082 449 8895 martin@zandspruit.co.za www.zandspruit.co.za

Zebula Golf Estate & SPA Reservations 014 734 7700 reception@zebula.co.za www.zebula.co.za