Big things should be expected from such a big door. The PC-12 NGX is the only single-engine turboprop to provide a pallet-sized cargo door as standard. So, when packing for your next trip in the PC-12 NGX, you won’t have to choose between which pair of shoes to bring. Bring them all. You may even decide to bring your favourite surfboard, motorbike, or mountain bike. Yes, we’ve carried them all, and so can you in the PC-12 NGX. pilatus-aircraft.com
Contact Pilatus PC-12 Centre Southern Africa, your nearest Authorised Pilatus PC-12 NGX Sales Centre for further information on Tel: +27 11 383 0800, Cell +27 82 511 7312 or Email: aircraftsales@pilatuscentre.co.za
POSITION REPORT
Every so often a new law of business emerges that perfectly captures a truth we have never quite managed to put into words. This month I was enchanted to find just such a new law – called, ‘Crushem’s Law’.
PERHAPS THE BEST known of such laws of business is the ‘Peter Principle’ which states that people tend to be promoted to one level above their competence. The law works because we can readily appreciate its inherent truth – do well in your job and you will be promoted until eventually you get to a level where you can no longer do the job, either because you don’t have the brains or the EQ to succeed.
Another law that has natural application in corrupt South Africa is Gresham’s Law, which holds that, “bad money drives out good money.” Now, thanks to UCTs David Benatar, there is a human equivalent which he calls ‘Crushem’s Law’. This holds that bad people drive out good ones.
Keeping it simple, I reckon ‘bad’ people may be defined as those who put their own interests ahead of the greater good. They are the breakers who tear down institutions for short term gain. Jacob Zuma and his minions are useful examples.
Benatar argues that it is a universal truth that “bad people in large organisations make the lives of good people increasingly intolerable, until the point that the good people leave –or, in extreme cases, take their own lives. The
bad, in all their misplaced epistemic hubris and lack of moral scruple, bully and harass the good. The good, given their goodness, do not do likewise. As the good get driven to the margins, and then driven from the organisation entirely, two things happen: First, those without sufficient courage quickly learn that silence in the face of – if not active collaboration with – the bullies, is the means to self-preservation.
Guy Leitch the exodus of the best people
“The second thing is that the bad people oversee the appointment of more of their own moral and intellectual kind, which only further feeds the process.”
Anyone who dares push back earns the toxic wrath of the minions – or the muppets of the ‘woke’ movement. In South Africa the first line of attack against the ‘good’ is to claim they are racist. Many people, me included, simply refuse to defend ourselves against this claim – because you have to climb into the same shithole to engage the accusers. Of late, accusers have also tried to claim that the good are pro-Israel in the Gaza war. This is another tar pit from which no one can emerge with reputations intact.
Crushem’s Law has led to the exodus of many of the best people from institutions like SAA, the CAA, ATNS and ACSA. And they wonder why they cannot attract quality people – or when they can, why they cannot retain them. And thus does incompetence spread like a cancer.
j
PT6A FLAT RATE OVERHAUL (FRO)
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.
AV-30 panel display. With seamless integration, advanced features, and reliability at your fingertips, the destinations are limitless. uAvionix—your key to opening the skies.
MARNE VAN ZYL
We love visually stunning images that capture the beauty of flight. This month’s photo ticks all the boxes.
It was taken by CemAir cabin crew member Marne van Zyl in a Dash-8 Q-100 on descent in to Johannesburg. As usual it took a cell phone to get the delicate exposure correct.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel –Who is fooling who?
IATA has done an incredible amount of good work for aviation – particularly in Africa, where it succeeded against huge odds in making African airlines amongst the safest in the world.
RESPONDING TO PRESSURE from the powerful environmental lobby, with its flight shaming and biz-jet vandalism tactics, IATA has pinned its colours to the mast of ‘Net Zero’ by 2050. To casual observers ‘Net Zero’ may mean zero carbon emissions. However this is almost impossible – even for the seemingly distant 2050.
Net-Zero is a commitment to reducing carbon emissions at their source so that they do not exceed 2019 levels. The reduction should come from a combination of sustainably sourced aviation fuel, new technology and renewable energy and from infrastructure and operational efficiencies.
The reality is that the airlines only fly profitably because of fossil fuels having two features: A) An excellent energy to weight ratio (See graphic). B) They are amazingly cheap and readily available worldwide. (JetA is cheaper than bottled water.)
To get to Net Zero, IATA members will have to switch to SAF – and no, much as I would like it, that does not stand for SA Flyer –but for Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
IATA’s 330 airlines are pushing back
IATA has produced a comprehensive road map of how it expects to get there. It starts off slow and then ramps up logarithmically. But I cannot get away from the sense that this is an elaborate ploy – designed to shut up the climate activists for the next 20 years while the airline industry has no hope of getting to Net Zero.
South Africa’s Poppy Khoza chaired the 2022 ICAO General Assembly at which governments agreed to the long-term goal of net-zero by 2050. A key interim step is the ICAO CAAF/3 objective of a modest 5% average global reduction in aviation’s carbon emissions by 2030.
IATA’s 330 airlines are pushing back and Director General Willie Walsh is blaming government saying, “We absolutely did not push for 5% by 2030, and the reason is because we don’t believe the fuel companies can achieve 5% by 2030. The governments pushed for 5%.”
SAF production is the key to getting to Net Zero. As can be seen in the article on Flightcom page 14, South Africa is seen as a prime source of SAF. Dr Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Chief Economist says, “South Africa has vast potential to become a leading SAF producer … it should be a top priority for the new South African government...”
Solaris
ticked all the right boxes
South Africa already has vast tracts of suitable agricultural land and the transport infrastructure to get the feedstock to refineries. And even better – it has mothballed oil refineries which could be converted to produce SAF. Notable is the defunct government owned SAPREF refinery in Durban – which is near the lush KZN sugar cane fields.
So the cane fields will probably have to be converted to some other SAF feedstock. This brings me back to a project eight years ago, when Boeing and SAA (which in retrospect was not a promising alliance) ran a pilot project to use a tobacco-type plant called Solaris to produce jet fuel. A wonderfully informative graphic of the
Because South Africa cannot compete against Brazil on sugar production, the SA sugar cane industry is blighted. IATA says that using South African sugar cane for SAF should be a good idea. Turns out it’s not so. Sugar cane produces ethanol and at the IATA ‘Wings of Change For Africa’ Conference in Joburg in July, Dr Thomas Funke, of the SA Canegrowers Association admitted it was impractical to change ethanol into SAF. Two process are being tried with limited success: Alcohol to Jet (ATJ), and the Direct Sugar to Hydrocarbon (DSHC).
The Solaris Project ticked all the right boxes: it used small scale farmers, Solaris flowers produce seeds which produce suitable oil, and the leaves are good for secondary purposes such as animal feed.
The Solaris seeds are turned into oil and then processed through a refinery that converts them into JetA. Sounds good. But it’s not so easy. Just look at the SAA/Boeing pilot project. They gave the seeds and other inputs to three farmers, let’s call them A, B and C.
Farmer A planted his seed on irrigated land. Farmer B used medium rainfall unirrigated land, and Farmer C planted in former tobacco fields. The hope was that each hectare would yield about six tons of seed. But the weather gods did not play ball. Even with irrigated fields, Farmer A could only get four tons per hectare. Poor old farmer B’s Solaris was stunted by too little and too late rainfall, and in the end his crop was worth nothing but its feedstock. Farmer C was blessed with a bit more rain than Farmer B and got a small crop, which he says proves that Solaris is hardier than tobacco.
they would have stopped the refinery to load a small batch, instead of mixing it with the other oils they were processing. So there has to be a possibility that Farmers A’s seeds never actually ended up in the Boeing flights to Cape Town.
Anyway, the fuel they got from AltAir was used to create a 30% mix in the Boeing’s tanks with JetA1. So what we had was not really a bio-fuel flight, but just a 30% bio-fuel flight. And even that is remarkable given the current 20% limit of SAF in commercial Part 121 operations.
IATA proudly claims that every drop of SAF produced is consumed. But the elephant in the room is the cost of producing this ‘sustainable’ fuel. When pressed, the Boeing/SAA project team was evasive on providing any idea of costs. Like a well-trained choir, they all sang from the same hymn book, claiming that Solaris based JetA would be ‘on a parity’ with fossil based JetA1.
every drop of SAF produced is consumed
Fast forward eight years and SAF experts now admit that it costs around R75 a litre to produce SAF. As can be seen from our monthly fuel price table, this is around 400% more expensive than the average JetA price.
The project took Farmer A’s meagre four tons per hectare and made the oil. Then they shipped it all the way to the AltAir refinery in Los Angeles. Why so far? That’s where they have FAA certification for drop-in biofuels.
The idea of drop-in fuels is that they can be just ‘dropped in’ to aircraft fuel tanks without any changes to the engines or tanks or pipe and pump seals. In other words, drop-in fuel must be completely interchangeable with normal fossil fuel JetA1
My sceptical nature makes me wonder if they really did treat the little batch of oil from South Africa as something that had to be treated separately in the refinery. It’s hard to believe that
To have any hope of being commercially viable, SAF has to be grown on massive scale. And this is where IATAs roadmap seems to be wishful thinking. ICAO/IATA wants the world’s airline industry to use 5% SAF by 2030. The precedent is not promising. Using the SAA/Boeing pilot study as a baseline, SAA’s then environmental affairs specialist, Ian Cruickshank, accepted a target for SAA to use 20-million litres of biofuels for its flights in 2017, before increasing this 25 times in just five years to 500-million litres by 2023. That would have required a lot of farmers producing a lot of Solaris.
So let’s look at the practical implications of SAF production on the scale SAA dreamed of. To get anywhere near the legal limit of just 20%
of SAA’s Johannesburg sourced fuel needs in 2016 would have required, firstly, almost 100,000 ha under cultivation with Solaris. And, if the supply is to be ensured through drought, it will have to be irrigated – unlike Farmer B’s crops.
The numbers are scary. Cruikshank’s politically driven project wanted 140,000 tons of Solaris based JetA1 in six years’ time (2022). Samantha Hampton was the boffin for Sunchem – the company responsible for developing Solaris farming. She points out that with an ideal two good harvests per year, one hectare of Solaris produces six tons of seed which makes 1.6 tons of JetA1. Hence 140,000 tons JetA1 would require 87,500 hectares.
This was six tons / ha is optimistic and as we know – never happened. If it had, I fear that that vast fertile land under Solaris would threaten South Africa’s already precarious food security and drive up food prices even more than Covid did. Imagine what that would do for the MKP and EFF support base.
For large scale JetA production a refinery will have to be built new, or modified near the
feedstock production fields. At the time of the Solaris project this was estimated to cost a whopping R10 billion, which is a huge capital cost to recover from SAF fuel sales. Given the labour and agricultural intensiveness of the production, and the cost of transport, it’s hard to imagine it can be ever compete with JetA, which currently costs around R18.00 per litre. In a media briefing at the 2024 AGM, Walsh admitted that the airline industry’s decarbonisation goals would lead to higher ticket prices. This means that airlines will have to be compelled to use SAF.
So I have to say that I’m not convinced – I suspect ‘Net Zero’ and SAF is an elaborate fairy-tale. I hope I’m wrong, but the complexities are legion, and without knowing the consequences for food production, I remain sceptical. j
PETER GARRISON
THE
DOWNWIND TURN REVISITED
There may still be something to say about it.
A few years ago, a sightseeing flight crashed in the Swiss Alps, killing all 20 aboard. The Junkers Ju-52 was attempting to cross a 10,000foot saddle from south to north. The wind was out of the north, gusting to 25 knots. According to witnesses, the aeroplane approached the saddle, then banked sharply to the left and suddenly dove to the ground, “as if following a plumb line”.
First, as a matter of general interest, the aeroplane in question, which was 79 years old, was one of the world’s few surviving Ju-52s, corrugatedskin relics of the era of the Ford Trimotor.
A Swiss friend of mine, a former Airbus 340 captain who knew all three crewmembers on the ill-fated flight, speculated that the aeroplane could have encountered a downdraft or strong turbulence on the lee side of the pass, begun a turn back, and been caught by a gust that caused it to exceed its critical angle of attack.
His hypothesis got me thinking again about some nuances of the downwind turn.
a bête noire of mine for decades
First flown in 1931, four years before the DC-3, Ju-52s served in the Luftwaffe throughout World War II and, because like the Ford they could be operated from improvised airstrips, some of them continued working as utility cargo and passenger transports in less-developed parts of the world into the 1960s. Like the Ford they have three radial engines, but the Ju-52 looks marginally less quaint than the Ford: It is a lowwing aeroplane with wing-mounted outboard engines, and at a distance a seriously myopic person might mistake it for a DC-3. Just a few are still flying today, several operated by the Swiss sightseeing airline Ju-Air.
Downwind turns – not the turns themselves, but the confused discourse surrounding them –have been a bête noire of mine for decades. A few pilots think that merely turning downwind in a steady wind makes an plane lose airspeed because the headwind becomes a tailwind. They therefore believe that downwind turns are per se pitfalls for the unwary.
The science of this view is simply wrong, but arguments about momentum and frames of reference, no matter how often or how loudly repeated, are seldom persuasive. The simplest way to satisfy yourself about the matter is to climb up a few thousand feet on a day when there is a good strong upper wind, and fly in circles. You will see that the airspeed indicator gives you no hint of when you are facing upwind and when you are facing downwind.
The Swiss JU-52 crash led to more thought about downwind turns - and updraughts.
Nevertheless, there is considerable lore about accidents that were supposedly caused by turning downwind, and so it has been necessary for commentators like me to modify the “there’s no difference” argument with caveats about misleading visual impressions when close to the ground, wind gradients with changing altitude, and gusts.
As a practical matter, aeroplanes make downwind turns all the time without any difficulty. Every student flying round and round in the pattern makes one or two downwind turns per circuit. However, students do not usually fly circuits in extremely gusty weather, and it is about gusts in particular that the Ju-52 crash makes us think.
aeroplanes make downwind turns all the time
because its angle of attack does not change – at least not immediately. The aeroplane certainly loses lift, however, and begins to drop. Now the angle of attack increases because of the change in the flight path, but, so long as the pilot does not make the mistake of pulling back on the stick, the nose will come down of its own accord, trying to return the aeroplane to its trimmed angle of attack. The wings remain level, and the aeroplane picks up speed until it is again in equilibrium with the air mass. So, barring pilot error, there is nothing in this scenario to cause a loss of control.
The classic thought experiment about gustinduced stalls runs like this. An aeroplane is flying downwind at 10 knots above its stalling speed. A 20-knot gust kits it from behind. What happens?
The conventional answer is that it must stall, because its airspeed is now 10 knots below its stalling speed. But that is not quite correct,
Now suppose that, instead of coming from behind, the gust is vertical, coming from directly below. The situation is now quite different. The angle of attack changes by an amount determined by the ratio of the speed of the gust to that of the aeroplane. For example, a 20-knot vertical gust striking an aeroplane flying at 100 KIAS changes its angle of attack by 11 degrees – certainly enough to stall the wing before the aeroplane has time to adjust its pitch attitude. In this case, the needed adjustment would be quite large and an alert pilot would feel the need to help it along by forcefully pitching the nose down.
You might encounter such a gust while flying through a thunderstorm – one of many excellent reasons not to do so – or while flying in mountains in windy weather. Elsewhere, strong vertical gusts are less common, but when you are in a banked turn even a horizontal gust has a component that is vertical with respect to the axes of aeroplane. The resulting change in angle of attack is now affected by both the speed of the gust and the bank angle, with the worst case occurring when a strong gust strikes a steeply banked aeroplane headed directly across the wind.
The danger of such a gust is augmented by the fact that in rolling into a steep turn an aeroplane does not automatically increase its speed; instead, the pilot is more likely to give up some stall margin. For example, suppose you are climbing, wings level, at 1.3 Vs – that is, 30% above your clean stalling speed. Your angle of attack is about six degrees away from the stall. Now suppose you suddenly, for some reason, decide to rapidly reverse course. You roll into a 45 degree bank and pull 1.4 G. Your speed is unchanged, or may even diminish slightly, but your angle of
attack is now less than three degrees away from the stall rather than six. (This calculation, for the numerically inclined, assumes a maximum lift coefficient of 1.4 and a glider-like lift curve slope of 0.09 per degree.) It does not take a very powerful gust from below to exceed that small a margin.
Hypothetically, it is possible that a sudden decision to turn the Ju-52 away from powerful turbulence or downdrafts created just those conditions.
a gust from outside the turn could stall its wing
It has always been difficult to tell whether downwind turns are really hazardous for any reason at all. The confused superstition that turning from upwind to downwind inevitably entails a loss of airspeed – which arises from a confusion between airspeed and groundspeed –could easily have led people to blame the wind for stall-spins that were really due to simple pilot error, for example, getting too slow or crossing the controls in a steeply-banked turn, or to wind shear. Indeed, most stall-spin accidents in the circuit occur not on the climbing turn from crosswind to downwind, but on the turn from base to final, into the wind.
The base to final turn is a common downwind turn.
If you turn around a point your airpseed should not decrease - or increase.
So it’s quite possible that the dangerous downwind turn – even if you accept that the dangers might arise from subtler causes than disappearing airspeed – is simply a figment of imagination. But, even if you had never heard of downwind turns, you would still realise, if you thought carefully about an aeroplane in a
BUMPPPFFF:
SpaceX planning for disaster. Flight termination explosives being walked to the launch site of ship 29 on 30 May 2024.
steeply banked turn, that a gust from outside the turn, striking the aeroplane at a steep angle to its direction of flight, could stall its wing, and that this is worth keeping in mind on those rare occasions when you might be obliged to make a rapid turn in a gusting wind. j
Can you spot the planes?
DRONES DELIVERIES
After long delays while regulatory requirements were formulated, cargo drones are being used successfully in supply chains around the world, to deliver things ranging from critical medicines, mail and money to spare parts and tissue samples.
AT JULY’S SAPICS Conference in Cape Town, experts discussed the potential for drones to optimise supply chains for a wide range of commodities and expand healthcare access.
Panellists explained how drone technology is constantly developing and transforming last mile deliveries of life-saving medicines and humanitarian aid in Africa.
Drones are being used for ship-to-shore deliveries in maritime supply chains. And in state-of-the-art warehouses, including in South Africa, drones are managing inventory.
Olivier Defawe, director on the Private Sector Engagement team and innovation development expert at VillageReach, a non-profit organisation based in Seattle in the United States, was one of the panellists. VillageReach works with governments, the private sector and communities to improve how medicines, vaccines, health information and services are delivered to the hardest-to-reach people.
Defawe said that drone transport has mainly been used in public health applications to date, including VillageReach’s “Drones for Health” initiative, which aims to improve access to health products by integrating drones into supply chains. Through this initiative, VillageReach is connecting African
ministries of health with private companies to establish drone delivery systems. It is one of the leading organisations exploring the use of drones for public health, according to Defawe. “We help governments and the private sector identify where drones make the most sense. They can help to save time where it is more geographically challenging for cars, motorcycles or boats to reach destinations and also have the potential to create cost-efficiencies. The drone is a powerful tool for governments to address the equity gap, improving access to primary health care to the underreached.”
A VillageReach drone is prepared for flight.
VillageReach has helped to start drone programmes in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi and Mozambique, and now works in more than 20 countries. “The technology is exploding, along with the capacity of drones. Today, a drone can carry a 300kg load for 2,000km. Drones are a green option to achieve responsive supply chains,” Defawe told SAPICS attendees. He noted, however, that for the option to become cost effective, scale and improved asset utilisation were needed. This requires a multi sectorial market development strategy, which VillageReach is working on.
“Currently drone logistics are not considered financially sustainable for public health markets. To achieve cost-competitive and sustainable pricing for the public health market, the sector focus needs to be expanded to include applications in other spheres like agriculture, logistics, postal, energy, mining and maritime. In this way, economies of scale would deliver cost benefits and boost asset utilisation.”
Panellist Rob van den Bergh, sub-Saharan regional sales director for the OXIMIO Group, revealed that drones are playing a vital role in clinical trials for therapies that could revolutionise the prevention and treatment of diseases. He noted that cargo drones have the potential to ensure that clinical trials can cover every corner of the world, no matter how remote or inaccessible. While the actual trial medicines are not yet being transported by drone, his organisation is currently exploring using drones to get bio-specimens back from sites, he said.
Shamit Shah, who is the group managing director of East African logistics service provider Freight in Time, said that Africa is the right place for drone transport. Shah informed the SAPICS audience that Freight in Time is one of the organisations involved in a pilot project to
launch Ethiopia’s first long-range medical drone network. Over the first 30 days of this project, 6 936 vaccine doses were delivered in 44 total flights to six remote communities. “Ethiopia is a drone transport success story. The Government now wants to establish a factory in Addis Ababa to manufacture drones,” he reported.
Also sharing his insights in this SAPICS panel discussion was DSV South Africa sales director Anthony Wilson. The company is currently using drones to count stock in warehouses, especially for high-value, easily pilferable items, he stated. Inventory management traditionally involves manual barcode scans to count the warehouse inventory and keep track of stock. Besides being an unsafe and arduous task, manual counts often result in inventory data not being up to date due to discrepancies.
DSV’s drone system can scan barcodes without human interaction and detect if pallet positions are empty or occupied. Operating mainly at night, the drones don’t interrupt warehouse operations.
Wilson said that DSV was not currently using drone transport but would look at specific use cases where road transport was not feasible.
j
RIGHT SEAT RULES NO. 20
PRE TAKEOFF VITAL ACTIONS
As our pupe is approaches the holding point she must decide how to park.
THERE ARE MANY conflicting priorities. Ideally you want:
• To face into wind
• To face away from the sun
• To have the prop over a hard surface,
• Have good engine cooling,
• To see circuit traffic
• To see ground traffic
• To see both L&R base legs and final approach
• To see if there is an a/c behind you at the holding point
• Know the brakes will hold against the run-up
• Room to turn on to the runway.
VITAL ACTIONS
There’s no right or wrong way to do vital actions. It’s great to use a written checklist, but if you have a good one in your head – that’s fine. The one in the aircraft handbook is not adequate – it doesn’t deal with things like setting frequencies, getting clearances, crew/pax briefings or checking the DI and compass.
I like this checklist; it is a modified one used by the RAF and the SAAF.
a popped door is a non-event
This is where airmanship shows. You have covered these points in your preflight briefing, so let her decide where to stop and which way to face.
Low-wing aircraft have great viz on the ground and are far more tolerant of strong winds.
Follow this with departure clearance and briefings. Your pupe should nominate lift-off and climb speeds, and say what she will do following an EFATO at various stages. (We will cover this when we do forced landings.)
Engine runup-up
There’s no ideal time to do it. If you do it before the VAs, here are your problems:
• The engine may not be warm enough. Continentals like the temp to be in the green – Lycomings don’t care.
• Once you have checked that everything is fine with the engine, it’s stupid to fiddle with things that can make it not fine.
• You can easily gather carb ice while you do the other checks.
• The plugs may have time to foul while you do the other checks,
And if you do the run-up after the VAs:
• You may sit for a while with the hatches closed on a hot day.
• You may blow a stone up and jam the elevator hinge, after you have checked controls free. Jeff Towill crashed an Aeronca at George this way.
• You may blow stones and sand into the flaps. Note the before takeoff list. Systematic round-the-cockpit checks have done the rest.
The Cherokee list only covers the mechanics of takeoff - not the operational side.
Make your own decision about whether to do the run-up first or last. I do it last, but that’s just my choice.
Now let’s look at each of these checks:
HATCHES
Make very sure she understands the mechanisms and the dangers of not latching them properly, as well as the dangers of not being able to unlatch them quickly. Remind her to do it herself – and not to trust it to a pupe or pax.
Cherokee doors are notorious for popping just after takeoff. It recently happened to one in England, killing both people. They had been so busy trying to close the door that they forgot to fly the aircraft and sailed into the ground.
Generally, a popped door is a non-event. It usually trails open about 15cm. It makes a hell of a wind noise and it may turn your maps and paperwork into a young whirlwind. Ignore it. Do a normal circuit, land and fix the problem.
Not all aircraft are this kind – a popped door on a Bonanza gave me grief while taking off from a riverbed in the Northern Cape. And I keep reading about Mooney baggage doors causing crashes.
Some light twins can dump your luggage into the prop. Not nice.
I like to make sure that baggage doors that open into the cabin, are unlocked – in case you need to get out that way.
HARNESSES
Put them on snugly, especially shoulder harnesses – they are literally life-saving. One pilot I was testing told me that he found the shoulder harness uncomfortable, but he would put it on if he needed it during an EFATO. Really?
There is nothing on the checklist about seat locks, so this is a good place to do it. Plenty of Cessna pilots have died when their seat lock failed.
Again, don’t trust pax to lock their seats properly – check them. I had a passenger in a C182 whose seat slid back after takeoff. What did he do? He grabbed the stick to pull himself forward. Some mother’s children… Actually it was my fault for not briefing him properly.
Finally, make sure you can reach everything, including the fire extinguisher, with your harness on. Some Cessna fuel selectors can be difficult
ELECTRICS
This covers: circuit breakers, rows of switches, mags on both, alternators charging, avionics on and frequencies set.
TRIM
This means all the trimmers – some aircraft have three. Trim seems such a minor thing –just a little add-on to take pressure off the stick. Let me tell you of two crashes caused by poor trim setting.
The first was a Dak that crashed at Wonderboom on 21 August 1997. Here are some excerpts from the CAA’s accident report:
Final power checks were carried out on the aircraft’s engines on the morning of the accident. The AME trimmed the elevator to the full nose up position to reduce the stick forces required to hold the tail down during the power checks but he did not set the trim back to neutral afterwards.
The pilots did not carry out a pre-flight inspection. At 1646 the aircraft crashed during takeoff from runway 11.
Then there was a low-hour, newly converted, Baron pilot on the Natal south coast. They became airborne prematurely, drifted off the left side of the runway and crashed, injuring all four occupants. Investigators found it trimmed nose-up – presumably from the landing. And the rudder was trimmed to the left
If you don’t trim properly you have to be wide awake – and sometimes extremely firm, or you will crash.
THROTTLE FRICTION
Trim seems such a minor thing
The PIC, who did not wear a shoulder harness, sustained fatal injuries and the co-pilot, who did wear a shoulder harness, had serious injuries.
It appears the accident was a result of the PIC taking-off with the elevator trim set to the full nose-up position. This resulted in the nose of the aircraft pitching up after rotation, causing the pilot to lose control.
If the aircraft had been flown according to CAA’s approved Flight Manual, the elevator trim would have been checked five times before takeoff. First by the captain during the cockpit preflight check. Then by both the captain and the first officer during the afterpaperwork checklist. And finally by both of them during the pre-takeoff checklist.
Another silly little thing to fiddle with. Why worry about throttle friction when you will have your hand on the throttle anyway? Well, because it often controls the friction of the mixture and pitch levers as well, and if one of them creeps back during takeoff you can be in serious trouble. It happened to me in a Twin Comanche at Kimberley and I came within a milli-frac of dying amongst the hot desert rocks.
MIXTURE
Refer to the POH about when and how to set it for takeoff.
MAGNETOS
If you did your run-up first, then simply confirm the mags are both on.
PITCH
Pitch – fully fine.
FUEL
Don’t fiddle with the fuel selector at this stage – stay on the tank that has proved itself during the taxi and run-up. If you want to confirm the other tank is working before setting off across the desert – do it at 3,000’. You don’t only need to check tank selection, also check that the pump is on (or off on some aircraft) and the fuel pressure or flow is where it should be
FLAPS
Another tricky one. If you select flap now you might blow stones into them during the run-up. If you put them on standby, you might forget them.
GILLS
Open. That’s it.
GYROS
You should have set the DI before taxying, perhaps ten minutes ago – see how far it’s wandered. This gives you an indication of its health. Then confirm that the suction is where it should be. Make sure the little aircraft on the AH is vertically set, and there is no warning flag on the turn coordinator.
AUTO PILOT
Off, but set for your initial heading. Remember that immediately after takeoff is a very bad place to test the autopilot – particularly at night or when climbing into the muck.
ALTIMETER.
Set to QNH. But note that the airfield reference
point and the runway thresholds can vary. At Rand, runway 17/35 has a difference in threshold elevations of 136’.
CONTROLS
Full and free movement in the correct sense. Whichever way you move the stick – that control surface should move up.
INSTRUMENTS
This is a stupid check – it’s far too vague. If it’s on your checklist then scratch it out. Whenever I see someone coming to “instruments” they gaze vaguely round the cockpit wondering what to check.
You should check engine instruments during the runup. Then you do the gyro instruments under “Gyros”. And the pressure instruments have been checked during your round-the-cockpit check at start-up.
TAKEOFF
captain hauls back and the thing heads for the stars.
That has nothing to do with the correct way of flying piston engine aircraft. Watch a Dakota take off and you have a role model. Just before the correct liftoff speed for our aircraft’s weight, we should gently ease the nose up and wait for her to fly off the ground. Now we come to the important part – we must lower the nose just enough to let her accelerate in ground effect until we reach climb speed.
When I say ‘we’ I am talking about us good, competent, sensible pilots.
Years ago, when I was a 50 hour hangarrat working for Placo at Wonderboom. Zingi, my boss, sent me to Rand to collect a 140 Cherokee. It was the first of the superpowerful 150HP four seaters.
dying amongst the hot desert rocks
At Rand I bumped into three guys who wanted to go to Wonderboom. No problem – I loaded them all into the little aerie and off we went.
This is one of the worst taught exercises in the book. Instructors – please make sure you will be proud of the way your pupes take off. It’s a lifetime skill, and it’s sooooooo easy.
It’s taught badly because immediately after takeoff you are both too busy to have a meaningful discussion about what went wrong. And later – well it just gets forgotten.
I blame the advent of passenger jets for our crappy takeoffs. We have all seen how Boeings and Airbusses thunder down the runway until someone yells ‘rotate’. The
Now, if you have flown a 140 out of Rand you will be sucking air over your teeth at the thought of such foolishness. However my training in a J3 Cub had taught me that you determine the number of people an aeroplane can carry by counting the number of seats. And to takeoff you accelerate, without watching the ASI, until the lightest touch causes the ground to gently recede. You then fly a foot or two above the runway until she feels like climbing.
I have seldom seen Zingi so red faced and infuriated as when as he saw four of us clamber out of the little aeroplane. I admit he had previously had cause to question my
ancestry and my IQ. However he soon turned my crime into a selling point. He would say to potential customers, ‘You see that great, gormless oaf? Well he was stupid enough to fly a 140 out of Rand with four up – and the Cherokee wing saved his life.’
I claim no credit, the little yellow Cub had taught me how to take off.
You, dear instructor, must try to do the same without the aid of a Cub.
OK, so now we are ready for takeoff. Check the approach and both base legs for traffic. You may have turn your high-wing aircraft to see the approach and base legs.
Tell the tower you are ready – and bloody be ready – because when they clear you it means NOW. They will get very cross if start faffing and re-checking stuff.
Release the brakes and smoothly apply full power, using enough right rudder to keep the nosewheel on the white line. Confirm you have full power with the temps and pressures in the green and the airspeed increasing.
When she wants to fly, gently ease her off the ground. Level off in ground effect and accelerate to best rate of climb speed, then raise the nose into the climb attitude.
COMMON FAULTS:
• Having your seat too low or too far back.
Level off in ground effect
As you turn on to the runway check the windsock and look for other traffic on the opposite approach and the cross runway.
I came this close to hitting the fire engine, Foxtrot Tango One, at PE after I had been cleared for takeoff on runway 17. Someone on another frequency had cleared him to do a runway inspection on 26. ATC were quick to tell me it was my fault. But it doesn’t really matter whose fault it was, it taught me a valuable lesson.
Stop for a maximum of two seconds to confirm the DI and compass roughly agree with runway heading.
Not stopping is as bad as stopping too long. If you don’t stop the fuel can surge to the outboard end of the selected tank and cause it to unport. This means it moves away from the outlet and the engine will hesitate or stop.
• Opening the throttle too quickly, causing the engine to splutter, and possibly die.
• Opening the throttle too slowly, or not fully.
• Taking your hand off the throttle.
• Not using enough right rudder to stay on the centreline.
• Trying to steer right using the aileron.
• Rotating too abruptly.
• Over rotating and running out of airspeed.
• Not using an extra bit of right rudder as you lose nosewheel steering during liftoff.
• Climbing with the right wing down – still not enough right rudder
AFTER TAKEOFF CHECKS
At about 400 ft AGL do the following as appropriate to type.
Brakes – toe brakes on and off to stop the wheels spinning.
Undercarriage – selected up. Keep your hand on the lever and watch the ammeter, or hydraulic pressure. Only release the lever when you have a red light.
Power – on some aircraft reduce to 25” – or whatever the POH says.
Pitch – on some aircraft back to 2,500 RPM –or whatever the POH says.
Mixture – set for the climb.
Fuel – switch the pump off but keep your hand on the switch for a few seconds and confirm the pressure, or flow, stays in the green.
Flaps – confirm you have climb speed and smoothly retract the flaps. Watch the ammeter or hydraulic pressure. Then confirm visually, and from the gauge, that the flaps are fully up. Adjust the attitude to maintain climb speed.
FINIS. That is the takeoff completed. If your pupe does it like this you are amongst the elite few. She will impress those who fly with her, and those who watch from the ground.
Pat yourself on the back – few instructors take the trouble to teach this exercise properly. j
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
Dennis Parsons
Commenting on the development of aircraft, social media commentator Dennis Parsons wrote;
CESSNA 210 – THE EVOLUTION OF THE SPECIES
Text: Guy Leitch. Images: Justin de Reuck.
210 is a great all-rounder - with good speed, range and loads. Image Justin de
Cessna's
Reuck.
Like the Toyota HiLux – the Cessna 210 has become an icon of South African transport. It has come a long way since the first four seater models.
BIG ‘N BEEFY, the Cessna 210 Centurion is one of South Africa’s most important light aircraft. The reasons are obvious: good cruise numbers, no nonsense flying qualities, a really useful payload and good range.
Development
The 210 may be the most evolved of all Cessnas singles in how far it has come from the first models. First certified in 1959 as a 2900 lb plane with a strutbraced wing and a redline speed of 174 knots, it evolved into a 4100-pound, 325-HP pressurized behemoth with a 200-knot redline, designed to fly above 20,000 feet in icing conditions. And the P210 was the first pressurized single.
early models were raw and noisy
When the first 210 appeared in 1960 it was essentially a ‘hot-rod’ Skylane with retractable gear and a 260hp Continental. The first 210s were fitted with Continental IO-470s, a more powerful, fuel-injected version of the engine then in use on the Skylane. In fact, the first 210s were quite similar to the Skylane of the same era: Gross weight was 250 pounds greater, and empty weight was about 200 pounds more. At the time, of course, there was no other Cessna retractable.
The niche filled by the first 210s was later occupied by the Skylane RG; by that time, the 210 had grown into a heavier, more spacious and powerful plane.
By today’s standards early models were raw and noisy yet enjoyed a respectable performance.
The 210’s innovative but complex undercarriage was the subject of great curiosity and frustration. It still is. Cynics claim two types of 210 pilots: those who’ve had a wheels-up and those who are going to have one – but not because they forgot to lower it.
Early models used a complicated hydraulic system which operated the flaps as well. It clunked like a hydraulic back actor. To retract, the wheels sag, then power back to snuggle into the aft fuselage. The system was modified after 1971 and installed in the 172 and 182 retractables.
Continental was replaced by a 285hp IO-520. From 1965 a turbocharger was an option.
In 1969 the dihedral angle was reduced and the engine oil sump was changed to allow the nosegear to retract further into the fuselage. This eliminated the chin “bump” in earlier models. The wing struts also disappeared in 1969 and the following year it got proper rear seats, albeit cramped for a 4+2 layout. With gross weight originally at 2,900 lbs, the extra power and new wing increased this to a very useful 3,800 lbs by 1974.
complicated hydraulic system
Improvements don’t come without penalty – the handling, particularly in pitch forces, deteriorated, largely due to the wide centre of gravity range.
The first major design change to the 210 was made in 1962, with the addition of a rear window and enlarged cabin to accommodate two child seats. In 1964 the 260hp IO-470
Utility is the Centurion’s big pitch, one that it meets handsomely. The aircraft’s ability to carry a decent load far and fast has been the key factor in the 210’s popularity in South Africa. The aircraft is long legged, having the ability to
cruise at 155 knots for up to six hours. The turbo is even more impressive, cruising at over 170 knots while carrying almost three quarters of a ton.
Although far from maintenance free, the hefty undercarriage lends itself to unpaved strips typical in this part of the world. An example is a 210 which suffered an extremely heavy landing which bent a main wheel leg. It resisted a 40 ton load before the engineers gave up trying to straighten it and ordered a replacement from Cessna.
adjustment to see over the glareshield, which then raises eye level above the top of the side window - hampering visibility, especially in the circuit.
The 210 is mostly muscle, from the throaty rumble of the Continental to its beefy handling qualities. It’s no aeroplane for those who like fingertip control response and consistently rewarding touchdowns.
carry a decent load far and fast
The aeroplane looks heavy and purposeful, which is carried through the plane’s flight regime. As a four-place aircraft, space is ample. For six though, the two rear seats are somewhat of a booby prize for those who drew the short straw on long trips typical of many flight profiles.
The instrument panel is tall and imposing before the pilot. It requires considerable seat
Soon after the first model was introduced Cessna started to install bob-weights and springs in the elevators, resulting in high pitch forces. That has never much intimidated pilots, and it makes the aircraft stable for IMC flying.
Unlike the heavy elevators, the ailerons are fast and responsive, with light breakout forces, despite the complex high wing routing for cables. At light weights and a forward centre of gravity the pitch feel is at its heaviest and
A 1960 C210A with its strut-braced wing and 4-seat fast-back fuselage.
requires a hefty pull during the flare, however, with the centre of gravity moving aft, i.e. with more than four occupants and nearly full tanks, elevator forces lighten. Many pilots with just two up add in nose up trim on short final, but this makes a go-around a wrestle to keep the nose down.
Maximum gear extension speed is a high 160 KIAS, providing a useful way to go down and slow down. Large semi-fowler flaps create a considerable nose up pitch, and leaving flap application late causes unnecessary and late fiddling with trim.
steam locomotive, and making greasers a rather hit or miss affair.
With a cabin width of 44 inches in the middle and a height of 47 inches, the aircraft has a roomy interior for four adults and perhaps two kids.
unique wheel retraction system
The 210 has always had good rudder authority, making a decent crosswind landing capability. The sprung steel mainwheels are resistant to sideloads, but on the downside, visibility over the nose when flaring is non-existent, causing pilots to have to look past the nose, much like a
In the Air
Fit and finish in many Cessnas is not the best, and the 210 is no exception. Owners complain of leaks and plastic interior panels that crack and come apart with age.
For the non-turbo versions real-world cruise speeds are in the 160-165 knot range, with climb rates of about 750 FPM at 120 KIAS. With a payload of about 970 pounds with full fuel, a late-model 210 can haul the astonishing load of
Few 210s still have their gear doors.
five adults with about 22 pounds of baggage for each one.
Thanks to limited elevator authority, the 210 is tough to wrangle into a full-stall break, so there’s nothing particularly nasty about them. Since it's the heaviest plane in its class, it must be handled with respect, especially on landing. Judging from the number of hard landings, swerves, runway overruns and gear collapses in the accident reports, this is a matter to be reckoned with.
Although most Cessnas have an excellent reputation for short-field operation, the 210 does not shine in this category in comparison with its peers. Minimum runway over a 50-foot obstacle tallies out at a little over 2000 feet, which is close to the figures given for the A36 Bonanza, but longer by several hundred feet than those posted by the other Bonanzas and Piper PA-32R Lance/Saratoga. This is why Okavango Delta operators far prefer the Cessna 206.
Maintenance
It’s a big old complex plane so high maintenance bills can be expected.
After undercarriage problems, the most frequent cause of mishaps is fuel mismanagement. The position of the fuel caps on top of the wing places them at the high point of the tanks. It’s entirely possible that, if the plane is not level or if the nose strut is not properly inflated, the tanks will not be fully filled. Given the dismal accuracy to be expected from aircraft fuel gauges, this potential mismatch between what the pilot thinks is on board and what is actually there is a real risk.
The fuel problems were ameliorated after Cessna provided a ‘Both’ position on 1982 models.
Turbocharging helps with Southern Africa’s high density altitudes, but the 210 is not a short field performer at high payloads, especially in summer. This is the main reason charter
Cabin is tight - and the rear seats hard to get in and out of.
companies are reluctant to employ low time pilots, especially in Okavango Delta operations.
It is impossible to write about 210s without mention of their unique wheel retraction system. Although clever, this system is a major source of maintenance gripes. It is predictably the area in which the FAA issues most Service Directives. Problems originate from a myriad collection of valves, actuators, and microswitches. Early models had the dubious benefit of having hydraulic flaps which worked (or sometimes didn’t) in limbo with the undercarriage powerpack, driven by an engine mounted pump.
having their pre-1979 aircraft modified to remove the doors. Interestingly, cruise speeds were unaffected. Maintenance shops heaved a sigh of relief too.
Vapour locks in the fuel system
Not until 1972 did Cessna eventually install the electro-hydraulic system, and even then many problems persisted. Only in 1979 was the step taken to do away with the main wheel doors completely, which significantly reduced gear related problems and maintenance costs. So successful was it that many owners resorted to
The gear does not respond happily to low usage and so a well used aircraft is probably less likely to give problems. For the 210s assembled prior to 1969, the spectre of a cracked landing gear saddle bracket is high. The saddle should be inspected during an MPInot only is it a very expensive replacement, but failure usually results in one gear leg hanging half down without any method of locking it into place. There is an AD requiring dye penetrant inspection of the gear saddle every 1,300 hours and 1960 and 1961 models have to have the saddle brackets replaced every 1,000 hours. These are important points to establish when buying older, pre-1970 aircraft.
The Continental IO-520 powered the 210 since the D-model was introduced in 1964. Few
Turbo 210 shines up high with cruise speeds of up to 200 KTAS.
owners will escape the cost of cylinder repairs. Cylinder and crankcase cracks seem to be an ever-present problem. Most cracks occur with the turbocharged and pressurised versions, however normally aspirated models are also prone.
It is a problem supposedly lessened by the use of a beefed-up crankcase, easily identified by bolt knuckles along the top of the engine casing. However some AMEs claim that “the improved crankcase is of dubious benefit, as cracks seem to appear elsewhere instead. The only way to prevent cylinder and crankcase cracking is to lock your aeroplane in the hangar!”
flight and to be ready to hit the fuel boost switch if the engine should cough.
The last 210 produced by Cessna, the R-model, arrived in 1985. All R-models came with the more powerful 310 horsepower engine introduced in 1977. Cessna redesigned the horizontal stabiliser and in doing so, rid the aeroplane of all its handling ‘enhancing’ control springs and bob-weights. Only 152 were manufactured, including 12 pressurised airframes.
high maintenance bills
Crankcase cracking is not peculiar to the 210, but is a point to be aware of when operating a 210, Bonanza or Baron which use the same engine.
Vapour locks in the fuel system have been the claimed culprit of other engine-loss incidents. A kit introduced in 1981 to instal return lines to the tanks, seemed to sort it out but it makes sense to keep an eye on the fuel flow gauge during
For the R model the wingspan was extended by two feet to 38 feet, 10 inches (which made it a tight fit for a 40-foot-wide hangar door) and an additional three feet was added to the horizontal stabiliser, making it almost billiard table sized. The landing gear extension speed was upped to 165 knots, and there was an option to increase the fuel capacity by an additional 30 gallons to 115 usable.
The MTOW for the normally aspirated 210R was 3,850 pounds while the T210R could takeoff at 4,100 pounds but was restricted to 3,900 pounds for landing.
The pressurised 210 was killed off when Piper launched their Malibu single. The trouble-some P210 was never an entirely happy aircraft, beset by awkward passenger access, fuel-flow bugs and engine problems. However it was the only serious pressurised single then available, which guaranteed at least some measure of success. Only extremely well cared for examples reached TBO as the TSIO-520 Continental was very touchy about correct temperature management. Furthermore, the pressure vessel meant that the control lines had to fit even tighter, further degrading its already heavy controls.
The 210 has achieved a well deserved following and despite the idiosyncrasies is fundamentally easy to fly, well matched to the regions demands and presents no problems for maintenance companies.
Though production of 210s ended forty years ago, AMOs report good parts availability, albeit with high prices. j
Fuel and gear related problems feature high in accident stats.
Specifications and Performance
Cessna T210L
SPECIFICATIONS
Length: 28ft 2in (8.59m)
Wingspan: 36 ft 9in (11.20m)
Height: 9 ft 8in (2.95m)
Wing area: 175 sqft (16.3m2)
Empty weight: 2,303 lb (1,045kg)
Gross weight: 4,000 lb (1,814kg)
Fuel capacity: 87 USgal usable
Engine Continental TSIO-520
Power 310hp (230kW)
Propeller: 3-bladed constant-speed
Baggage capacity 200 lb
PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: 204 kn (235mph,378km/h)
Cruise speed: 193 kn (222mph,357km/h)
Stall speed: 58 kn (67mph,107km/h)
Range: 900nmi (1,700km) @ 10,000ft
Service ceiling: 27,000 ft( 8,200m)
Rate of climb: 930 ft/min (4.7m/s)
Take off to 50ft (15m): 2,160ft (660m)
Landing over 50ft (15m): 1,500ft(460m)
A SMOKY SLING –FIRE THAT PILOT
Aircraft Registration: ZU-FVW
Owner/Operator: Madiba Bay School of Flight
Date of Accident: 12 August 2014
Time of Accident: 0955Z
Type of Aircraft: Sling 2 Aeroplane
Type of Operation: Private
PIC License: Private
Age and nationality: 28 Angolan
License Valid: Yes
Type: Private pilot license
PIC hrs on Type: 124.3
• 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:
Total hrs: 168.3
Point of departure: Port Elizabeth (FAPE)
Intended landing: Tedderfield (FATA)
Accident Location: Farm
Elevation: 1782’ AMSL
Met: CAVOK
People on board: 1+1
People injured: 0
People killed: 0
THE PILOT AND PASSENGER took off from Port Elizabeth on an hour-building, VMC, private flight to Tedderfield just South of Johannesburg.
The pilot went through the aircraft’s technical documentation and then performed a thorough preflight inspection.
After approximately one and half hour’s flying at FL 095 at 90 knots IAS, smoke emanated from the instrument panel and degraded the visibility within the cockpit area to the extent that the instruments could not be scanned. The pilot alerted Cape Town ATC. However the aircraft radio became inoperative during the conversation.
There was an electrical burning smell.
After few minutes all electrical equipment became inoperative. The pilot tried to switch on the back-up EFIS screen, but without success. The smoke in the cockpit intensified.
The pilot descended to FL 075. During the descent the engine stopped and the smoke began to clear. The pilot then followed the procedures in the quick reference handbook (QRH). He switched on the engine control unit (ECU) backup switch and tried to restart the engine but without success.
The pilot then carried out an unsuccessful forced landing.
The landing gear, wings, propeller and the lower cowling were damaged.
This aircraft is powered by a 100 HP Rotax engine turning a 3-bladed Warp drive propeller.
The aircraft has a full-colour EFIS which integrates primary flight data and engine condition monitoring. This revealed that, immediately prior to the accident the sensors on the engine all failed three times to default values caused by three voltage drops. Low voltage warning lights appeared during the three engine failures. The aircraft engine was restarted 3 times.
Where the voltage falls below 10 volts the ECU shuts down to re-synchronize lanes A and B. The first engine shut down was at 1,659 hr 2 minutes. The voltage dropped below 10 volts and the engine RPM dropped to 802. The engine was restarted and it ran until the final engine shut down.
The second ECU voltage drop took place at 1,659 hr 8 minutes, at which time the voltage had dropped to 5.52 volts and the engine was running at 4411 RPM. Although the engine did not cut entirely on this occasion, the warning lights flashed.
The third and final time was when the engine cut out and could not be restarted at 1660 hr 11 minutes, at which time all engine sensors failed.
The cause of the engine failures was the loss of voltage to the ECU. Regulator B on the fuse box had completely melted. This indicates overvoltage leading to total electrical failure.
An engineer removed the ignition housing from the engine to inspect the stator for damage. Signs of burning on the stator were observed on the coils.
The investigation concluded that the burning on the stator coils resulted in melting of the insulation around the copper wires, leading to short circuiting and a persistent overvoltage condition. This led to the failure of the regulator, causing a total electrical failure and subsequent engine stoppage. Further
The Angolan pilot made a successful forced landing, despite poor prioritisng.
Heat build-up resulted in melting of the stator coils.
inspection of the stator pickups showed that they had rubbed against the flywheel housing. This caused a heat build-up which resulted in the melting of the stator coils.
Sling 2 aircraft electrical description and warnings:
This aircraft’s electrical system consists of a 12 Volt DC circuit. An 18 Ah lead acid battery provides the energy to start the engine and acts as an emergency standby supply of electrical power for electrical components in case of generator malfunction. The MGL Voyager has a 3 Ah back-up battery which charges from the Voyager backup battery connection terminals.
A single-phase generator connected to a regulator/ rectifier supplies DC power to the bus bar and recharges the battery. The positive end of the rectifier is connected to the primary bus through a 50 Amp circuit fuse mounted on the firewall. A red warning light will indicate that the generator is not operating.
Circuit protection is through resettable breakers or fuses located on the lower right side of the instrument panel.
POH EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
In-flight Engine Fire
Heating close
Fuel selector close
Throttle full power
Magnetos Off when engine stops
Find landing place
Forced landing perform
NOTE Approx time for engine to use fuel in carbs 30 seconds
WARNING - do not attempt to restart the engine.
In-flight Cockpit Fire
Master switch OFF
Heating Close
Fire extinguisher Use
Once a fire is established land as soon as possible.
JIM’S COMMENTS
MY GOODNESS I can’t believe the crew survived such a farrago of stuff-ups. The POH has nothing to say about an electrical fire which is both in the engine bay and the cockpit. And the pilot’s lack of training left him doing more harm than good.
I have a decent understanding of machinery but the electrical system on this aircraft leaves my mind floundering much as a gecko might flounder in a bowl of cold vegetable soup.
Herr Rotax departed from traditional aircraft ignition systems when he decided that his engines didn’t need independent magnetos but would manage far better on a diet of two or more batteries charged by things he variously calls generators, dynamos, magnetos and alternators. These power everything from the spark plugs to the EFIS to the beacon to the avionics to the flaps and even the trim. Oh, and the autopilot and the fuel pump. And there are two lanes – A and B, and two busses separated
by a circuit breaker; one is the main bus and the other is naturally the instrument bus.
This level of complexity is beyond the grasp of average pilots. Most of us will never come to grips with the basics let alone be able to trouble shoot.
If things go wrong with a traditional system, and the cockpit fills with electrical smoke, it doesn’t matter if your brain turns to porridge, all you have to do is put the master switch off and you know that the engine will keep running.
And if a magneto packs up in flight you probably won’t notice it. The engine may lose a hundred revs. It’s all very simple.
When a Rotax/Sling electrical system catches fire and brain porridge sets in, there’s no quick way of knowing what to do. Your best course is to treat it like any other aircraft – stop feeding the fire with electricity and fuel by shutting down both systems. Land smartly and run away.
The Rotax - Sling electrical installation is complex.
The Sling/Rotax POH has no clear answers.
This poor pilot had no idea how to handle the situation. In the nine or ten minutes he had between smoke entering the cockpit and the final engine stoppage, his main focus was on a radio call and restarting the engine.
His very first action was to have a discussion with an oke in Cape Town whose bum was not on fire and who had no way of improving the lot of one who was thus afflicted.
What happened to aviate, navigate, communicate?
During that ten minute period of faffing with the least important priorities, he could have been safely on the ground instead of being in a burning aircraft at flight level 75.
Certainly it turned out okay in the end, but this was despite his actions, rather than because of them.
Take home stuff
Unfortunately I don’t have the space here to discuss the various types of fire. All I can do is to give you the priorities that apply to most light aircraft.
• Breathe. Ventilate the cockpit. You must be able to breathe and see. If the fire is in the engine bay close heaters and demisters. This will stop smoke coming through the firewall. Ventilate the cabin by whatever means possible.
• Descend. Plan on landing quickly before the fire takes hold. Throttle fully back. If you have manual flaps use them. Think before using electric flaps – you may not be able to retract them to stretch your glide later. Trim – it may be your last chance.
• Fuel. Stop feeding the fire. Switch off the fuel and the master. If it’s an oil fire – identified by black smoke – try to stop the prop from turning by using full flap and reducing speed.
• Plan your descent towards the best available area.
• Mayday, If you have time, make a MAYDAY call so that SAR know where to look for you. If it’s an electrical fire the risk of putting on the master switch to make this call is probably not worth it.
• Trouble shoot. j
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The school offers a range of advanced courses, including IF Refresher Courses, Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS), GNSS/RNAV, CRM and Multi Crew Coordination (MCC) conducted by its qualified instructors. The school also offers PPL and CPL Ground School and Restricted and General Radio Courses. Superior Pilot Services has accommodation available. The lodge is conveniently located just six kilometres from the airport. All rooms are based on a bachelor’s unit which includes laundry and room cleaning services as well as breakfast. Students have access to the communal lounge, gym and entertainment room, pool and ‘braai’ area.
(ATO
Airbus A320 2-BINH has now joined the SAA fleet from Vietnam.
JUNE 2024
We are more than halfway through 2024 and it seems like just yesterday when I wrote the first register review for the new year.
NEW AIRCRAFT REGISTRATIONS continue to tick over, but it also seems like the aircraft paint shops and refurbishment centres are doing brisk business with corporate jets and bizprops being given new interiors and exterior paint jobs. If this points to confidence in the future growth in the local market or simply getting them ready for resale or export remains to be seen.
There has nonetheless been a net decline in the number of registrations. This month there are four certified and six non-type certified planes added to the local register but no rotorwing types. Departing our shores are nine fixed wing types while two helicopters were scrapped and two NTC types exported.
owner. This plane arrived at Lanseria on 3 July having ferried from Switzerland to SA via Heraklion, Luxor, Djibouti and Dar es Salaam.
A brandnew King Air 360
Cemair adds yet another CRJ200, ZS-CME (7938) to its fleet. This jet was delivered new to Delta Connection in May 2004 with registration N8938A which it carried throughout its service life until delivered to OR Tambo on 29 April. It was retired from service with Delta Connection in June 2013 and then entered service with Endeavour Air until 2017 when it was withdrawn from service. Cemair has given this trusty jet a new lease on life as part of its burgeoning regional jet fleet on the southern tip of Africa.
Pilatus South Africa is certainly having a good year with yet another new PC-12NGX, ZS-NNA (2374), being delivered to a Gauteng-based
Another interesting addition is the ATR 72-600 ZS-LIZ (1674). This ATR-72 was originally destined for Burkina Faso’s Liz Aviation with registration XT-YSM reserved but never
ABOVE Cessna C208EX Caravan N9003R arrives at Lanseria in June. Image Morne Booij-Liewes.
BELOW: RT-RCS is one of two Hueys repainted in olive drab and exported to Nigeria.
ZS-RKO is a Sikorsky S-76A which is one of two S-76s scrapped by its owner Titan Helicopters, presumably due to rust from maritime ops.
Cessna 206 ZS-NSH worked hard as a skydiving jumpship before being exported to Chile.
Beechcraft Baron 58 ZS-LAX has been exported to Namibia.
taken up. This registration was previously allocated to a King Air 350i (FL-1012) that was sold to a Kenyan-based owner in 2023. The ATR 72 arrived at OR Tambo International Airport on 27 May using its ATR-allocated test registration F-WNUG. It is not clear yet where it will end up but perhaps, given the registration, it may still end up flying for LIZ Aviation in Burkina Faso after all?
A brand-new King Air 360 ZS-CHK (FL1335) is also registered this month. It arrived on delivery at Lanseria on 17 June. Judging by its registration it may be the latest acquisition for long term King Air operator Chubby Chick who fly a BE350i ZS-CCK. The 360 is the latest iteration of this very popular type and, no doubt, it will not be the last one we will see delivered in the region.
Turning to the Non-Type Certified additions, we see another of the popular locally manufactured Slings being delivered to its owner as well as two new Bat Hawks. A four-seat Jabiru J-430 is also added to the local registry. ZU-JAX is listed as a Czechmanufactured Bristell LSA which seems to be the earlier version of the current Bristell designs so perhaps it is a pre-owned
example that has been imported and registered locally?
The final NTCA addition is an FK Aircraft FK9, ZU-FKR. This all-composite highwing cruiser and is available in tri-gear or taildragger configurations through the local agents FK Aircraft South Africa.
Deletions
Departing our shores are two Cessna Caravans – one heading to Canada (and mentioned in last month’s Register Review) and the other just across the border to Zimbabwe, along with a Piper Navajo II.
A Baron 58 goes to Namibia while two Cessna 206s head to Chile.
The helicopter deletions for this month sees two Titan Helicopter Group operated Sikorsky S-76As being scrapped while a Bell 206 Jetranger moves to Mozambique.
Only two non-certified types leave our shores: a Windlass Aquila moving to Namibia and a Savannah S leaving for the West African state of Benin.
ZS-LIZ ATR -72-600 MN1674 appears to have finally joined Liz Aviataion in Burkina Faso.
Cemair has added yet another CRJ200, formerly N8938A, now ZS-CME (7938) to its fleet.
Looking ahead we see a few notable local aircraft change hands or arrive on delivery prior to them being recorded in the monthly SACAA amendments. First off is a brand-new Cessna Grand Caravan EX N9003R which was delivered to Lanseria on 21 June and has the registration ZS-TTM painted under the wing, so watch this space for its official
registration date. Local agents Absolute Aviation also seems to be having a very good 2024 judging by their recent aircraft deliveries!
A second winglet-equipped A320, 2-BINH (7213) arrived at OR Tambo International Airport on 11 July on delivery to SAA. This is also a former jet of the now-defunct
Alouette III (1275) formerly of the Dutch Royal Flight is now ZU-RIK.
Vietnamese carrier Pacific Airlines and is the second of three such jets leased from China Aircraft Leasing and will soon feature in this column.
Two Bell UH-1H Huey helicopters ZT-RCS and ZT-RAI were recently noted flying at Rand Airport painted in an overall olive drab livery. These former forest fire fighting helicopters had been in South Africa for several years but were put up for sale earlier this year. Photos and videos subsequently published on social media platforms showed several Nigerian Army helicopter pilots received training on these two helicopters at Henley Air. While these two helicopters have not yet featured in this update as cancelled from the local register they were subsequently shown on social media and news agency posts on delivery to the recentlyestablished Nigerian Army Aviation Airwing at
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Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Nigeria on 20 June wearing the serial numbers NA 010 and NA 011 respectively.
Another interesting helicopter addition to the local scene (and not yet mentioned in the official SACAA register updates sent to SA Flyer) is the 1965-vintage SA316B Alouette III ZU-RIK (c/n 1275) formerly of the Dutch Royal Flight where it flew with the serial A-275. This was recently seen at Virginia airfield still in the full Dutch Royal Flight livery. This former 300Sqn operated helicopter was one of four Alouette IIIs tasked by the Dutch Airforce for VIP transport and other general tasks. These were retired from active duty on 1 January 2016. A-275 was subsequently sold to HeliFlight BV before recently moving to South Africa. j
The huge church of Vans Aircraft faithful who attended the Oshkosh AirVenture were disappointed by the lack of the still-pending RV-15.
VANS SAID the RV-15 was not at AirVenture in part because the flight testing is still ongoing. The company said that they are planning to test a number of changes to the existing airframe, including a 7% smaller wing. The aim is to trade some slow speed performance for a bit more cruise speed. Reducing the wingspan will require resizing the ailerons and flaps and may call for other control-system changes to maintain the handling balance.
The engineers have also been tweaking the empennage, including changes to the stabilator’s anti-servo tab gearing. There are plans to test a conventional tail that’s close to an RV-10’s.
A fuselage redesign will move the wing back 10 cm and should improve visibility in turns. The windscreen will have a steeper rake.
There will be changes to the instrument panel, which was originally placed to help ensure good over-the-nose visibility. Rian Johnson, head of engineering, noted that the current RV-15 has better visibility than even some nosewheel RVs, so the panel can get some ergonomic tweaks and not lose that view. It’s not expected that the company will change the powerplant, which is currently a Lycoming IO-390.
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2024 ELDERS FLIGHT
Each year the indefatigable Felix Gosher just gets bigger and better at spreading the love of flying. His 2024 edition of The Elders flight was held on Saturday 5 July at Swartkop Air Force Base.
THE ELDERS’ FLIGHTS are an offshoot of the Childrens’ Flight. Felix Gosher’s vision for the Childrens’ Flight is to share the passion for flying and for the Elders flight it is to recognise those who served our country as pilots and support staff.
The scale for the 2024 Elder’s Flight was ambitious, yet carefully planned. The objective was to fly 500 Elders and Military Veterans, using 100 aircraft.
ABOVE: Cemair's large Dash-8 Q-400 touches down with its load of Elders' flight pasenegers. BELOW: Planes as small as Frank Person's Piper Cub played their part.
ABOVE: Chief of the SAAF congratulates Felix Gosher.
BELOW: Menno Parsons walks out to his P-51 with Ivan Holshausen.
This year approximately 450 elders were flown and 50 veterans were hosted. Each person was given a shirt and hat as well as a goodie bag and blanket.
The Chief of the SAAF, Lt Gen Wiseman Mbambo and Brigadier Donavan Chetty, along with the ex-chief of the Zambian Air Force, Lieutenant General Colin Barry, watched the parachute drop from an An-2 with the South African Flag attached.
Dash-8 Q-400, plus Ron Wheeldon’s Hawker Hunter.
The flying of the Elders was accomplished by a large mixed fleet of fixed and rotary wing aircraft from single to multi-engine aircraft.
the enthusiasm and passion of Felix
The South African National anthem was played and then Lt Gen Mbambo gave the opening address.
Proceedings opened with a brief aerobatic display by the Flying Lions Harvards, followed by the Team Extreme Extras, Juba Joubert, Andre Van Zyl, and the Nashua sponsored Extra. One of the stars of the event was the large Cemair
After the Elders had been flown, the Chief of the SAAF handed each Elder a set of wings. Each pilot was also given a set of wings in appreciation for their time and the donation of their aircraft expenses to the good cause.
The now 94 year old Captain (ret) Ivan Holshausen was assisted up and into the Mustang by Menno Parsons who then flew Ivan for a few passes down the runway. Ivan flew Mustangs for the SAAF in Korea. He was also introduced to the South Korean Air Attaché to South Africa before his flight.
Ron Wheeldon provided a rare display in his Hawker Hunter.
ABOVE: The massed veteran warbird flypast arranged by Nigel Hopkins. BELOW: Veteran commentator Brian Emmenis of Capital Sounds provided the music and commentaryand was assisted by Felix Gosher.
ABOVE: An unusual guest was the former head of the Zambian Air Force, Lt Gen Colin Barry.
BELOW: A rare sighting of a SAAF Rooivalk, passing through to Bloemspruit.
Handling the many passengers was a demanding excercise.
A significant challenge was the ATNS insistence of enforcing limits on the time an air traffic controllers can work. This threatened the ability to hold the Elders flight which was in Jeopardy of not being held again. Fortunately the SAAF stepped in with Controllers which enabled the function to go ahead. The busy traffic was expertly controlled by the SAAF ATC team, under Air Boss Col. Pat Cele. The only complaints “kom plane” was from pilots having to wait for up to 15 minutes at the holding point while the controllers tried to fit everyone in.
A highlight was the mass warbird flypast. This huge formation was managed by Nigel Hopkins and comprised: four Allouette IIIs, five Cessna C185s, four Harvards and three Bosboks.
Thanks to the enthusiasm and passion of Felix and Belinda Gosher, the Elders flight has gone from strength to strength. This year key sponsors were: the SAAF, the many ground events sponsors, and of course all the pilots and volunteers. j
Story and Pics Laura McDermid
SLING AND MIKE BLYTH WIN RASPERT AWARD
At this year’s Oshkosh in Wisconsin USA, the pride I took in being South African hit an all time high when Sling Aircraft and Mike Blyth received the 2024 August Raspet Memorial Award for ‘Outstanding contribution to the advancement of the design of light aircraft and the Experimental Aircraft Association’.
Mike Blyth and the Pitmans with the Raspert Award.
SINCE ITS INCEPTION in 1960, this coveted award is regarded as a hallmark of excellence, and came as an unexpected surprise for this enterprising company.
Jack Pelton, CEO and Chairman of the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh said, “I am pleased to announce that Sling Aircraft have been selected as the recipient of the 2024 August Raspet Award for their achievements and contributions to the advancement of light aircraft design. EAA recognises the innovation and vision that Sling Aircraft brings to the aviation community with their kit and Ready-to-Fly designs.
“Long range capabilities as demonstrated by their flights from South Africa to various countries across the globe throughout the years, incorporating BRS parachutes for added safety, designing airframes that maximise the use of the efficient Rotax engine series, unique seating adjustments for added comfort, pulled rivets for ease of construction and the overriding objectives of quality and reliability speak to the special place that Sling Aircraft has earned in the aviation community,” he continued.
Mike Blyth, the brainchild behind the aircraft design, accepted the award from EAA international Communities Director, Charlie Bekker, at Sling Island AirVenture.
Opting for a less hands-on role in the organization, Mike has moved to Cape Town where he will continue his strategic role as chief designer. Mike’s departure has opened the door for Andrew Pitman to step in as co-CEO, a role which he shares with his brother James. Andrew oversees sales, marketing and finance whilst James oversees the production facility in South Africa.
The Raspet Award trophy.
Every month, three ready-to-fly Sling High Wing aeroplanes and 5 kits as well as 9 ready-to-fly low wings plus 10 kits (of which a third are the Sling TSi) are sold worldwide.
As a value added service, Sling Aircraft offer build-assist programs for those who purchase the plane in kit form.
innovation and vision
The largest build-assist facility based in Los Angeles, recently added a further 1000 square metres to their existing 2400 square meter operation to cope with the ever-expanding influx of home builds. Henry, who manages the facility, offers a few personalised features such as keyless entry and additional lighting without compromising the core integrity of the product.
The product is sold in 30 countries with the USA owning 60% of the market share, followed by Australia, Europe and South Africa.
The Sling Pilot Academies which are located in Torrance and San Diego in California, boast a fleet of 45 Sling aircraft between them, and sign up approximately 65 new students a year.
Each aircraft flies an average of 150 hours a month and requires servicing every 3 weeks, keeping the resident AMOs busy and affording them the opportunity to continually monitor what works and what doesn’t work and to respond accordingly.
Two additional flight schools are planned to open in Long Beach and Santa Monica later this year.
Due to the increase in demand, the pressure on the production facility in South Africa has resulted in a 30% increase in the staff complement together with additional factory space in Alberton, a short distance from their home base at Tedderfield. This expansion is propelled by the Sling High Wing and the TSi, all of which are powered by the latest Rotax 916is engines.
our country is the finest place in the world
James Pitman is optimistic about South Africa’s outlook following the recent national elections, and is of the opinion that our country is the finest place in the world to develop aircraft due to the progressive regulations and the strong skills base. He has no desire to relocate operations to the USA.
Mike Blyth’s objective when starting out was to “cultivate a collaborative vibe”. Through his unwavering commitment and ingenuity, not only has he succeeded in achieving this, he and his team have created a world-class organisation that has kept true to their vision whilst keeping their roots firmly in South Africa.
With a new design on the drawing board, I can’t wait to see what new heights Sling Aircraft will soar to!
j
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Despite having lost two of the three scheduled airlines that used to operate out of Lanseria, the airport is scaling up to be able to handle additional airlines and more scheduled flights.
COVID AND THE SUBSEQUENT collapse of Comair and Mango left FlySafair as the only scheduled airline at Lanseria. Safair offers lowcost domestic flights from Lanseria to Durban and Cape Town. FlySafair Head of Marketing Kirby Gordon explains that the airline is finding
steady demand returning for its key Lanseria to Cape Town and Durban routes. As the fleet grows with recent deliveries and more aircraft become available, it will also reopen its George pairing, but he explains that there is no firm date for that route reopening.
Gordon explains that Lanseria is key to FlySafair’s return to pre-2019 operational levels. As a low cost carrier, they have traditionally focussed on the secondary airports.
Overall, Gordon rates Lanseria highly in terms of customer satisfaction. He says that the airline is happy with its Lanseria operations and finds the airport management accommodating. He is particularly complimentary about the airport’s ground handling as it provides this key service itself – rather than outsourcing it to a contractor.
The planned new developments include the construction of new Fixed Base Operator (FBO) facilities, as well as the establishment of new Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities at the airport. There are also plans to upgrade Taxiway Alpha to accommodate larger aircraft.
the airline is happy with its Lanseria operations
However, the airport has announced that several new developments are in the pipeline to expand the airport so it can handle more airlines and passengers.
There are also plans to establish a fuel farm to add approximately 6 million litres of JetA1 fuel and Avgas to the current 1 million litre capacity. By adding such facilities, the airport intends to attract more airline operators to Lanseria.
Lanseria Airport’s CEO, Mr Rampa Rammopo, said that the new developments would address many of the limitations that deter some airlines, including South African Airways and Airlink, from operating at the airport.
Lanseria Airport CEO Rampa Rammopo. Image The Citizen.
Key recent improvements have been the air gates.
Rammopo said that Lanseria is gearing up to handle more flights from destinations on the African continent. “The comprehensive development projects are set to substantially increase the airport’s capacity to handle additional volumes of traffic by attracting more airlines and expanding the number of routes offered, particularly into other parts of Africa,’ Rammopo said.
With expanded facilities, the airport thus aims to attract more regional air traffic services. According to the Rammopo, this includes new flights to regional destinations in countries including Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Mauritius.
Lanseria went through a phase of rapid expansion of its facilities before Covid. Noteworthy are the multi-storey 1,000 bay parkade which is classed as a mini-hub within the airport. In addition to offering more secure covered parking, the parkade also hosts a retail area that includes a bank, car-rental facilities
and restaurants. “We are proud that the parkade serves a multifunctional purpose and increases ease of access to the airport and its offerings,” Rammopo says.
The expansion of the terminal building with a new pier increased the passenger handling capacity from 3 million to 4.5 million per annum. Another major recent development was the opening of the new control tower and fire station on the south side of the airport. “All of these investments have positioned Lanseria well for a full post-Covid recovery in both GA and airline ops.” Rammopo says.
GROWING TOURISM
Rammopo believes that by establishing more flight routes, Lanseria could indeed play a significant role in making the country and the continent more accessible for tourists.
‘This enhanced connectivity is expected to attract a higher volume of international visitors,
boosting the tourism sector in South Africa,’ he said.
South Africa is seeing growing numbers of international visitors travelling to the country. Data shows that just under 4 million travellers were recorded at South African ports of entry and exit in the first part of 2024. South Africa’s tourism grew by 9.7% to about 3.8 million arrivals between January and May 2024, according to Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille.
GROWING PEOPLE
Lanseria is passionate about developing the next generation of aviation professionals.
As part of Mandela Month, Lanseria launched its inaugural Mandela Day Career Expo, welcoming 300 learners from the surrounding area and communities – inspiring the next generation of aviation professionals.
“While the aviation sector remains under pressure, this is a space that unlocks transport, travel and tourism. As such, there are so many related and valuable career options available to all of the learners who attended,” notes Sphiwe Masuku, Fundi’s Head of Brand and Marketing. “Our role was to help bring many closer to finding them, as well as sharing critical
information around funding and the resources available to support them.”
With many high school learners facing critical choices regarding subjects, tertiary institution selection and funding applications, it is essential that they are guided to make the best possible, most informed decisions. “South Africa’s high first year drop-out rate, as well as ultimate throughput rate at most tertiary institutions is evidence of this,” explains Masuku.
“Because so many students still don’t have access to the resources or experts they need to make arguably some of the most important decisions of their lives, many live to regret what they chose. In a best case scenario, they might find that subjects could be carried over into another field of study. In the worst case, they could complete a degree that will unfortunately not move them towards their ideal career or end up giving up and dropping out – carrying study debt well into the future.”
GENERAL AVIATION
Rammopo says ; “We have taken a strategic decision to continue to support general aviation going forward. We will continue to cater for GA through infrastructure and stakeholder relations.”
The control tower and fire station were moved to the south side in 2017.
Lanseria hosts world class operations, such as Skyhawk Flight School which has partnered with the Sakhikamva Foundation to spread the love of flying.
The squeeze on GA is an unavoidable consequence of growth. However, Rammopo points out that the lighter side of GA is not discriminated against and is far from discouraged. He says that flight schools have enjoyed discounted charges from the airport’s inception. “The airport looks after the bottom end of aviation because this is the breeding ground for top end aviation.”
To facilitate GA operations the airport created an Air Operations Centre (AOC) which is a onestop point of call for all GA movements. The AOC is there to help pilots arrange requirements such as apron parking bays, fuel and baggage handling. It has also purchased a modern ATIS system and will provide a central information clearing service, ranging from airspace information to the condition of runways. The new centre is managed by the friendly and knowledgeable Mike Christoff and is staffed by either a qualified air traffic controller, or pilots.
Despite the still recovering level of activity and in particular, airline flight movements, it is reported that a constraint to further growth is air traffic control limitations, which limits the maximum circuit capacity to just two aircraft. This is a constraint on the growth of training operations for the four flight schools at the airport. Rammopo says that airport management
is working with ATNS to increase ATC capacity and skills.
SECURITY
A key consideration is that as the airport has grown and handled more international movements, so its security standards have had to be raised.
The core of the problem is that security requirements for an international airport make access difficult for General Aviation users. The challenge faced by management has been to find the balance between tight security measures and user-friendliness and convenience.
One of the on-going bones of contention has been the ever more onerous security arrangements. Most often the security standards are imposed by external authorities, thus the current security arrangements come from the NIDS – the National Inter Departmental Structure – which, in 2000, set standards for International Airports and cut down the number of ports of entry. Later these standards were adopted by the NASP – the National Aviation Safety Plan.
j
LANSERIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
In 1972 two entrepreneurs, Fanie Haacke and Abe Sher saw the need for a new airport north west of Johannesburg. They identified the Lanseria site due to its location in relation to residential areas, suitability for long runways with good approaches, and weather. They persuaded the Krugersdorp and Roodepoort Municipalities, as well as the Transvaal Peri-Urban Board, to buy the land and then let the newly formed Lanseria Management Company use it on a 99-year lease.
THINGS MOVED FAST. Lanseria Airport was opened by the then Minister of Transport, Hannes Rall in April 1974.
On 16 August 1974 a Learjet, ZS-MTD, became the first jet to land at Lanseria. The next year Lanseria hosted the Air Africa International Airshow, which has in turn grown to become AAD, the African Aerospace and Defence expo. The State President’s Air Race was hosted by the airport for a number of years.
In 1990, Lanseria’s then co-owners, the Roodepoort and Krugersdorp Municipalities and the Transvaal Administrator, announced that the
airport was to be sold. Tenders for the ownership and management of the airport were issued and the tender was awarded to a consortium of private investors in 1991.
By 1999 the continued growth in the number of operators, passengers and freight volume utilising Lanseria put heavy pressures on the existing infrastructure. An expansion programme was needed and in 2002 the original ‘corrugated iron’ terminal building was replaced by a much larger and more modern structure that included increased capacity for international passengers, many of whom use Lanseria as a departure point for neighbouring countries like
Lanseria is a catalyst for new Industrial Parks around it.
Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland and Angola. The new terminal boasted a dutyfree shop, additional restaurant and coffee shops, and a dedicated observation deck for visitors.
In 2010, the domestic departure area was revamped and enlarged to accommodate the overwhelming demand for scheduled flights to and from Durban and Cape Town.
International Status
A key facility at Lanseria has been its permanent customs and immigration facility. All South African port of entry airports had their international status reviewed in February 2001. The nine ACSA operated airports and the privately owned Lanseria were the only airports to retain their international status.
Facilities
The big infrastructure change was to the runway. The original runways were built to a 30-metre width in terms of ICAO Annex 14. However, this is a bit tight for Boeing 737-800 operations, for which a 45m wide runway is preferred. The
original runway was also getting old and the cost of on-going maintenance made the capital cost of a new runway an attractive option.
Because the airport could not close the original 06L- 24R runway to upgrade it, a new 45-metrewide runway was built between the existing runways. Due to space restrictions it could however, not be longer than the current 2918m of the existing 06L/24R.
The new runway was a major step forward in that it has a better ILS (without the scalloping of the original one) and improved integration into Johannesburg airspace. When it was completed the two existing runways were closed. Later the control tower and fire station were moved to the south side.
The change to a single runway did not have a significant impact on General Aviation. Other large airports, such as Cape Town International, are successfully able to mix light GA operations with airline operations.
Air Force Users
Until 1991, the airport was a permanent base for 4 Squadron of the South African Air Force.
During the border wars many aircraft and pilots departed Lanseria for the front line and the airport still plays occasional host to military aircraft. Notable users are the USAF which operates Boeing C-17s and 757s into the airport in support of its diplomatic missions.
The nineties were noted for their steady growth with increasing visits by large aircraft, ranging from Boeing 727s to Russian built cargo aircraft like the Ilyushin Il-76.
The SAAF based a number of museum aircraft at Lanseria and their premises was used as a maintenance and restoration workshop for a number of years. General Jan Smuts’ personal Lockheed was displayed in front of the original terminal building until removed to Air force Base Zwartkop.
The Modern Airport
Ownership
In July 2013 Lanseria was acquired by a group of private investors, namely: the Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF) , managed by fund manager Harith, a Black Economic Empowerment consortium led by Nozala, and the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF), through the Public Investment Corporation.
As Lanseria is considered a key hub, there are property development plans that embrace a 30 kilometre circle around the airport. The PAIDF has said it is looking to the potential of developments like the Lanseria Corporate Estate that is located close to the threshold of Runway 07.
‘Lanseria Smart City’
Lanseria grew to become Johannesburg’s second airport serving airline routes between Gauteng and the Cape. This expansion was a consequence of Comair’s efforts to provide a viable alternative airport for people living on the west Rand and for those frustrated passengers who found OR Tambo Airport too big, expensive and impersonal. Other airlines joined the Lanseria passenger gates. Notable were 1Time and more recently; Mango and FlySafair.
In 2010 the airport building was enlarged further with the addition of boarding gates, an expanded passenger drop-off area and other improvements.
The 2010 improvements laid the groundwork for a significant step-up in response to increased airline activity. This was motivated in part by the nation’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This event saw the dramatic arrival of many business jets from around the world. Lanseria Airport visitors were greeted with the rare sight of Gulfstreams, Global Expresses and many other types of jet aircraft parked on the airport’s grass areas.
The private sector has recognised the key role of the airport and evidence is to be seen in the massive new developments around the airport, including the vast Cradle One complex and exclusive housing estates such as Monaghan Farm and Blair Athol.
A key factor in future growth plans is that Johannesburg City and Gauteng and National government have planned the airport precinct as an industrial node. The airport is now running with its vision with what has come to be called ‘Lanseria Smart City’. The support of local government for the Lanseria Smart City can be seen in the upgrade to the roads servicing the airport. The first phase of the feasibility study has been completed and plans are underway to kick-start the project.
The Future
Given the impact of the Covid ‘black-swan’ event, Rampa Rammopo is unsurprisingly coy about how fast he expects the airport to grow in the immediate future, but when pressed, he admitted that they are planning for a return to pre-Covid levels by the end of 2024. j
AERONAUTICAL AVIATION
AERONAUTICAL AVIATION, located at Lanseria International Airport, offers a wide range of expert and innovative solutions in general aviation avionics, maintenance, repairs, overhauls, sheet metal work, and wearable technology. We have strong partnerships with renowned suppliers such as Garmin, Bose, Collins Aerospace, Dynon, Trig, L3 Harris, and Avidyne, allowing us to provide diverse options that meet your budget and operational needs. As Africa’s largest accredited distributor of Garmin and a Garmin Platinum dealer, we are committed to delivering excellence in every aspect of our business.
Our services cater to aviation enthusiasts and professionals, from simple installations to complex integrated flight decks. We specialize in repairs and overhauls and boast one of the most extensive Instrumentation, Gyroscopic, Autopilot, Electrical and Avionics Repair, and Overhaul facilities in Africa. From removing to bench testing, repairing, and overhauling almost everything in the cockpit, including related sensors and transmitters, we are fully equipped to meet all your avionic requirements.
Our CEO, Clinton Carroll, is not only a pilot but also an aircraft owner. With his extensive knowledge of the aviation industry, he understands the challenges faced in the cockpit, regulatory requirements, certification, and the costs associated with operating an aircraft. He can offer valuable insights and advice on upgrading equipment, guidance on panel layout for ease of instrument access, and provide technical and pilot perspectives on repairs and installations while ensuring the highest quality standards.
Aeronautical Aviation is a certified service provider offering line maintenance and inspection services for both Part 91 and Part 135 certified aircraft. We have a highly skilled team of technicians, including Garmin and Collins Aerospace factory-trained technicians, to maintain and repair the aircraft equipment we supply, ensuring your investment is well taken
care of and downtime is minimized.
Our sheet metal division, approved by the SACAA, and our innovative laser department can assist with all your panel fabrication needs. Whether you require the manufacturing of new custom panels, panel refurbishment, or repair and manufacture of backlit and non-lit panels for night flying, we are here to help. We are also capable of customizing and manufacturing switch panels and instrument panels for nontype certified aircraft.
We believe that providing hands-on training to our clients is essential, allowing them to operate the equipment with confidence. With our team of qualified technicians, you can rest assured that you’ll receive top-notch service and support for all your aviation needs, defining the Aeronautical Aviation difference.
In addition to our maintenance and repair services, we also have a pilot shop and aircraft parts section with a large online e-commerce store, offering pilot must-haves, avionics, installation supplies, and maintenance parts.
Hangar 202, Gate 7, Lanseria International Airport AMO 1033
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CENTURY AVIONICS
Over 45 Years of
Situated at Lanseria International Airport, Century Avionics focuses on general aviation avionics for both fixed - and rotary-wing aircraft. With over 45 years of experience, Century Avionics stands as a leading privately owned avionics establishment in Southern Africa. Aiming to be a comprehensive avionics hub for the general aviation community, delivering top-notch services all in one place. Working in tandem with their skilled and experienced Certification Department, they support Avionics STC Application / Development and Modification Approvals. Century Avionics boasts an experienced design organization (Century NAVCOM) that is recognized by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA). Loyal customers can vouch for their professional dedication, promptness, and amicable service.
The Aircraft Maintenance Organization (AMO) have secured approval in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, streamlining the avionics installation and approval process for various aviation authorities.
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AERONAUTICAL AVIATION
CENTURY AVIONICS
AERONAV ACADEMY
AES STANDARDAERO
EXECUTIVE AIRCRAFT REFURBISHMENT
LANSERIA AIRPORT
Wiseman Mbambo –struggling on
Smuggling DC-3 down Africa to SA!
Iris – The end of 5Y-ARN
Patrick Tillman: Imagenuity
Contributors
John Bassi
Laura McDermid
Darren Olivier
Jeffery Kempson
John Bassi - When Things Work in Harmony
- C-130J’s 3 Million Hours SAAF - Lt Gen Mbambo – Soldiering On Laura McDermid - Iris Farewell to Arn Pt2
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Hugh Pryor - Achmed Superior Pilot Services: Flight School Directory News - Farnborough Order Round-up
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:
Africanairlinesarechampionsatpayinglipservice to the two forces that dominate the global airline industry. The first force is liberalisation – which despite the best efforts of the Yamoussoukro Declarations and now SAATM, most African airlines just ignore. The second is climate change and the whole ‘Net Zero’ farce.
I, AND A MYRIAD OTHER COMMENTATORS, have written ad nauseum about liberalisation. So let me focus on Net Zero. The simple truth is that even with anticipated technology it is impossible for the airline industry to fly hundreds of people thousands of miles without using fossil fuel. As I point out in this month’s column in SA Flyer – nothing comes close to the energy density and low cost of JetA.
Aviation is responsible for only 2-3% of global emissions. However, aviation emissions (modelled by Boeing) are expected to double to 5% by 2030. On this trajectory, by 2050, aviation will account for a quarter of all CO2 emissions.
But it’s all smoke and mirrors. By end 2024 a mere 0.45 Mt of SAF is expected to be available for the entire aviation industry. When compared to the 300 Mt jet fuel demand in 2023, this represents a miniscule 0.15% of the total.
it’s all smoke and mirrors
One of the key counterarguments to these numbers is that new aircraft and a plethora of operational efficiency enhancements will improve aviation’s carbon efficiency by around 25% per seat. However, Boeing’s projections show that all these measures combined account for only about 30% of 2050’s predicted emissions.
Even looking as far out as 2050, it’s safe to say that electric and hydrogen propulsion are improbable, especially for long-haul flights. So the industry is pinning its hope on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). The OEMs and airlines have been staging SAFpowered demonstration flights and have announced many purchasing agreements with fuel providers.
The fundamental issue is twofold: there’s a glaring shortage of SAF, and the efforts by the aviation (and energy) sector to ramp up SAF production are a joke. Current projections reveal that even if we include all the new SAF plants in the pipeline, only around 8.4 million tonnes of SAF will be produced by 2030. That’s around 5% of demand.
Why smoke and mirrors? Because airlines claim to have signed contracts for SAF that will be impossible to produce. (Again see my SA Flyer column). For example, United Airlines has said it has contracts to buy up to 1 billion gallons of SAF. But that’s over twenty years.
The airline industry is counting the chickens of SAF supplies from eggs that will have not been laid, let alone hatched, by 2030.
For once I do not blame the African airline industry’s dragging their feet on this whole Net Zero boondoggle.
PART 1 ACHMED
Somalia has come in for its fair share of media attention over the years and, having spent some time there, I can see why.
THE SOMALIS are variously portrayed as devious, arrogant, dishonest, murderous, thieving scum floating on the sewage of humanity. Or alternatively, as stunningly beautiful, proud, intelligent, misunderstood and abused remnants of some noble warrior race from the distant past.
I have seen both sides of the coin and have to say that I sympathise with both viewpoints although I have also to admit that I started off, in the late eighties, as an evangelical believer in the “scum” theory. The person who opened my eyes to the other side of the coin was Achmed Abdi Hussein.
Achmed was a shrivelled hunchback with wise humorous eyes and a face lined surprisingly by laughter. The fact that he escaped being fed to the hyenas at birth must be attributable to his extraordinarily enlightened parents. Unfortunately I never had the chance to meet them, so I can only speak from assumption. Apparently they suffered brutal deaths at the hands of one of the original “war lords”, Mohammed Farrah Aideed, who has since also been permanently departed.
were one of the more fun things to shoot at if you wanted to get a bit of practice in.
Also, aeroplanes had recently been instrumental in reducing the population of Hargeisa, the capital of the old British colony of Somaliland, from four hundred and fifty thousand to five thousand in two days. So they were a prime target for anybody who had survived that slaughter. Hargeisa is only about sixty miles from Berbera. Just surviving was a full-time job in Berbera.
instrumental in reducing the population
Dominic, having recently been the Food and Beverages Manager of the Nogga Hilton near Geneva, was now THE Red Cross in Northern Somalia and he and I lived in a solid stone-built house near the old power-station. We built another three feet onto the top of the wall around the compound in a vain attempt to keep the bullets out and flew an enormous Red Cross flag from the roof. We were not ourselves targets, but we definitely got in the way.
At the time, I was on contract to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Berbera, Northern Somalia, flying a Pilatus PC-6. When I say ‘flying’, we weren’t actually doing very much of that, because there was so much fighting going on and aeroplanes
During the hours of day light, the fighters seemed to go to bed in preparation for the night’s entertainment, so, while the guns were relatively silent, we spent our time getting water from the old abandoned United Nations compound which still had one pipe with water in it, although none of the buildings remained standing. The extraordinary satisfaction of getting our header-tank topped up with fresh water was one of the high points of the day.
Once a week I used to go out to the airport to check the plane. Built by the Americans as an Alternate for the Space Shuttle, Berbera Airport was technically a US Naval Base. The US Navy consisted of Jesse and Karl, who lived in an air-conditioned, fairly-bullet-proof box in the base Admin Block. The runway was five kilometres long.
When I visited them, I used to invite the US Navy for a short check flight within the perimeter of the base. All two of them would invariably and enthusiastically agree. A continuous, steady, gustless forty five knot wind blew straight down the runway. Jesse and Karl would climb into the back of the plane and strap themselves in, leaving the sliding door open because of the intense heat and humidity.
I would then fire up the engine and taxi right down to the far end of the runway. There I would check the motor, making sure that everything was doing what it ought to and, after getting a thumbs-up from the US Navy, I would advance the power lever, holding the brakes locked. As the power rose, so did the tail and before we had full power, the aircraft would levitate into the air. By judicious use of the power lever, I could keep our indicated air speed around forty knots and the aeroplane would float backwards past the beginning of the runway. Then I would lower the nose and fly back for a completely stationary touchdown on the point where we had left the ground. The US Navy just loved doing that and the rest of the afternoon would be spent drinking beer, which was a considerable luxury for me, since the only alcoholic beverage which we had over at the Red Cross was a disgusting Italian sticky called Amaretto di Saronno.
This situation obviously could not be allowed to continue indefinitely. I mean, what are those two DOING all day up in that holiday camp in Berbera? Mmm? Damned waste of money, that’s what I say!
We could feel the pressure mounting, and finally it was announced that a formal visit would be made by Peter, the Head of the Red Cross Delegation in Mogadishu, and the Head of the Somali Red Crescent, who turned out to be none other than Achmed Abdi Hussein.
I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting Achmed before and with my hackles pre-programmed in the fully prejudiced position, I was frankly not over-keen at the prospect. However, when I set eyes on his wizened figure and the humorous twinkle with which he bore his deformities, I was instantly infected by his inner strength and his obvious interest in how Dominic and I were coping with the more challenging aspects of life at the wrong end of a rifle barrel in Berbera. This guy was obviously on our side!
surviving was a fulltime job in Berbera
Each flight from Mogadishu to Berbera cost the Red Cross $10,000 in an eight-passenger Swearingen Merlin, so great were the risks involved. Ten thousand bucks was a year’s salary for a lot of first-world people, so they filled the plane to the gunwales. When Murray, the Kiwi Captain, as he was known, opened the doors after landing at Berbera, I couldn’t initially see any passengers at all and it was only after removing about half the cargo that we discovered our two visitors.
The only contact we had with the outside world was a twice daily, “Operations Normal” call on the Paktor, which was a kind of HF radio telex system, to the Red Cross delegation in Mogadishu; one at midday, before lunch, and one at six in the evening before Amarettos and supper. Apart from these two “Scheds”, for the rest of the world we effectively ceased to exist and carried on our precarious lives without outside interference.
They gradually and painfully popped back into shape, having spent the previous three hours jammed between various sharp-edged boxes and heavy packing cases. As Peter slowly stretched himself and shook out his limbs, Achmed looked at him and then looked at me and smiled. “Don’t worry about me,” he said, “I always look like this!”
I couldn’t restrain myself and grasping the little hunchback’s hand, I said, “A real pleasure to meet you. You must be Achmed. I’m the pilot up here and this is Dominic, who is the Red Cross here in Berbera”.
Dominic shook Achmed’s hand warmly and then Peter joined us. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I should have
introduced you, but I was just trying to get myself back to the right size! So, now that you all know each other, shall we get settled in? Then we can discuss the programme I would like to try and work through”.
We loaded the cargo into the cars and drove back to the house. All was quiet and a mouth-watering smell issued from the kitchen where Abdullah was turning out yet another masterpiece from the limited supplies available to him.
Abdullah had served with the British Army as a cook in the Far East during World War Two, which was where he had learnt to make do with limited resources. He was a refugee from Hargeisa where his house had been destroyed by the government aircraft. Abdullah had regained consciousness after two days, with his left arm and leg trapped under one of the roof joists which had fallen after rockets hit the house. There was no sign of his wife, son or granddaughter, but the remains of the house had been looted and two large dark blood-stains boded ill for any good news.
We had passed on details to the Red Cross Tracing Agency, an organization well-known for miracles, and meanwhile we were only too pleased to offer Abdullah a job. He was our general factotum, covering everything from laundry to cuisine. As he said, it kept him from dwelling upon the ghastly possibilities which haunted his mind.
a couple of ice-cold Seerah beers
Achmed went on to describe a meeting of the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies which he had attended some years before in Northern Norway. It was held during the month of June and, as it happened, it coincided that year with the Holy Month of Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast during the hours of daylight, taking food only after the sun has set. Achmed suddenly realized that he was going to be extremely hungry because, at that time of the year, the sun never sank below the horizon in northern Norway!
The hotel saved the day by providing him with a room with black paint covering the windows. He told us with a smile that they even put pin pricks through the paint to give the impression of starlight.
Toerien Hendrik White River, Nelspruit 013 751 3848 hctoerien@viamediswitch.co.za
Van Der Merwe Johann Stellenbosch 021 887 0305 johann.vdmerwe@medicross.co.za
FARNBOROUGH ORDER ROUND-UP
The two big manufacturers always save up new a plane orders so they can announce them with fanfare at the Farnborough or Paris air shows.
This year’s Farnborough was no exception.
BOEING GOT IN FIRST by announcing orders from Korean Air, Japan Airlines, Luxair, and National Airlines. Airbus was more measured as at the end of Day 1, Drukair signed an MOU with Airbus for three A320neo and two A321XLRs.
Korean Air placed a firm order for 40 Boeing widebodies, including 20 B777-9s and 20 B787-10 Dreamliners, with options for an additional 10 B78710s. With this order, Korean Air has become the newest member of the Boeing 777X family, with the first aircraft scheduled to be delivered in 2028.
Stephanie Pope, President of Boeing Commercial Airplanes with Korean Air’s CEO, Walter Cho.
Korean Air’s CEO, Walter Cho, stated that the addition of these new aircraft marks a significant milestone in their fleet expansion and upgrade strategy. Cho said that the new additions will not only enhance passenger comfort and operational efficiency but also significantly reduce carbon emissions, aligning with their long-term commitment to sustainable aviation practices.
“We are honoured Korean Air has selected our largest, most efficient widebody airplanes to add capacity to its global network. Boeing planes have played an integral role with Korean Air over the past 50 years, and the 777X and 787 Dreamliner will continue to support the airline’s long-term goals for sustainability and continued growth,” said Stephanie Pope, President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Korean Air had been in talks with Boeing for months regarding a potential widebody order, after placing a surprise order for 33 Airbus A350s jets earlier in March.
the latest airplane technology that will support Luxair’s growth plans and the decarbonization of our fleet. There is high commonality between the 737 MAX models, and this allows for significant operational savings for the airline.”
Currently, Luxair operates a fleet of 21 aircraft, including two leased Boeing 737 MAX 8s and eight 737 NGs. Over the past two years, Luxair has expanded its route network by 30%, now serving 94 destinations.
Japan Airlines announced an order for up to 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners at the Farnborough Airshow. The agreement includes firm orders for 10 B787-9s, with an option for an additional 10 aircraft. The Japanese flag carrier currently operates 45 Dreamliners, including 23 B787-8s and 22 B787-9s.
Korean Air had been in talks with Boeing
National Airlines ordered four Boeing 777 freighters, marking the carrier’s first direct purchase of Boeing aircraft. Two of these B777Fs will be delivered in late 2025, with the remaining two arriving in 2026. These new freighters will join National Airlines’ existing fleet of nine Boeing 747-400 freighters. National Airlines’ Chairman, Christopher Alf confirmed that the B777X freighter will replace its Boeing 747 freighters in the future.
Luxair placed an order for two Boeing 737 MAX 10s, with options for an additional two. The Luxembourgbased charter airline intends to offer a minimum seat pitch of 30 inches on its MAX 10s. This configuration will allow the airline to carry up to 213 passengers on routes up to 5,740 km (3,100 nautical miles), enhancing both capacity and range to benefit from the growing demand for leisure travel.
“The purchase of the 737-10 is another step towards Luxair positioning for its future with the investment in
Drukair – Royal Bhutan Airlines, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airbus for three A320neo and two A321XLR aircraft to expand its international network. Deliveries for these new aircraft are expected to start in 2030.
The Bhutanese flag carrier plans to fly these aircraft out of Paro International Airport and the new airport at Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC). Drukair plans to expand its connectivity to Europe, South East Asia, and Australia. Drukair already operates four Airbus A320 family aircraft including three A319s and one A320.
JAL has ordered ten more B787-9 Dreamliners.
FAREWELL TO ARN PART 2
Laura McDermid continues her stories about Iris McCallum’s early years in East Africa and the Sudan.
The forlorn wreckage of 5Y-ARN.
LANDING AT JOMO KENYATTA AIRPORT
(JKA) is always a nuisance for us Wilson pilots, as we had to catch a taxi to get to back to Wilson, and then get a lift back to JKA the following day to collect the aircraft.
This placed the pilot under a lot of pressure if that specific aircraft was scheduled to depart early from Wilson that morning.
Flying our trusty Aztec, 5Y-ARN, I am cleared for final approach and settle comfortably on the ILS to JKA. But, as I get abeam Wilson, JKA ATC calls.
‘Alpha-Romeo-November, Wilson has advised that you are cleared to land there. Please advise?’
‘Affirm. Please tell Wilson that I will alter course to land there.’
‘Copy Alpha-Romeo-November, please change your frequency to oneone-eight decimal one.’
‘Changing frequency to one-one-eight decimal one, thank you and good night.’
My watch shows twenty minutes to seven which is ten minutes past sunset.
The Wilson Airport Nairobi chart and NOTAMS had no warnings of the piles of murram on the runway.
Undercarriage…. down and locked; mixture…. set; flaps…two notches; landing lights…on.
I look across to Wilson and can just make out the dark slash of the airstrip. The first 700m of the runway up to the control tower is murram after which it becomes asphalt. Murram is a highly weathered residual soil found in tropical regions which is used throughout East Africa for surfacing roads as it has a higher density than gravel, thus providing a better finish.
I contact Wilson on 118.10 and turn left away from the ILS approach and call long finals for runway 32 instead.
‘Alpha-Romeo-November you are cleared to land runway three-two.’
The approach to runway 32 was over the Nairobi National Park. Squinting into the darkness, I line up with the dark shape of the runway and as I fly over the game fence that borders the park, I ease off on the power knowing that I can slow the Aztec right down.
I sail past the threshold and gently ease back on the yoke, preparing to flare at 54 KIAS when there is an almighty bang that pushes me deep into the seat, followed by the screech of wrenching metal the likes of which I’d never heard.
Imagine the sound of a million nails being scraped down a blackboard and multiply that by a thousand.
‘Oh shit… I’ve hit a buffalo’ is my immediate thought.
We begin to slide like a giant toboggan and pumping the brakes has no effect. Realizing there isn’t anything I can do, I surrender to my fate.
As ARN comes to a juddering halt, I switch everything off and unlatch the door before turning to my passengers.
I open the cockpit door and literally slide onto the ground.
I roll onto all fours, taking in the scene before me, fully expecting to be surrounded by bits and pieces of dead animal.
the screech of wrenching metal
Surprisingly everyone is unharmed and I brief them to unbuckle and to get as far away from the aircraft as possible.
I straighten up but as the realization of what actually happened dawns on me, I sink down onto my haunches again.
Straight down the centre-line of the runway spaced approximately 30 metres apart are stacks of murram that were piled about six feet high, which from up high, in the dark were indistinguishable from their surroundings.
Mount Kenya as seen from the ground.
Nicholas-Biwotts was Minister of Home Affairs - and helpfully also Chairman of Air Kenya.
Sometime after I took off that morning, a truck offloaded the orange rock-soil in neat piles with the intention of resurfacing the runway.
No NOTAM had been issued and the ATC in the tower had not advised me to use the alternative runway or to land deep in line with the control tower where the asphalt began.
The back of my eyes prickle with unshed tears at the sight of ARN lying impotently on his belly. The initial bang must have been when the undercarriage was ripped off. Thank god I was in the Aztec as not many planes would’ve been able to survive this.
With that in mind I turn to look for my passengers, who instead of running away as they’d been told, were happily filming and taking pictures, oblivious to the rain or to the possible danger of an aircraft about to explode.
Damned TV people, always looking for sensationalism.
As a pilot, what I learnt from this incident is what you can’t see, you can’t avoid.
No one at Wilson took accountability for the accident and poor ARN was deemed beyond repair and was written off by the insurance company.
My work permit was about to expire in October and Sunbird Aviation had made no effort to renew it, which made me anxious.
Following the crash I did a few more flights during the remainder of September to Kisumu, Entebbe, Nanyuki and the Maasai Mara but things just weren’t the same after the accident.
Just when I was at my lowest ebb, I received a call from Air Kenya in Nairobi, asking me if I would like to come and fly for them. The chairman of Air Kenya, Nicholas Biwott, happened to be the Minister of Home Affairs in Kenya, and within no time had organised a work permit for me.
I was thrilled to be part of the Air Kenya group. It was a wonderful charter company where lasting friendships were forged. Some of the happiest times of my life were waiting for me.
Sometimes you just have to go out with a bang!
IATA SA AND SAF PRODUCTION
At the Wings of Change Focus Africa conference, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that South Africa should seize the opportunity to become a major supplier of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
IATA CALLED ON SOUTH AFRICA to mobilise its experience, resources, and infrastructure to accelerate the development of SAF production.
“South Africa has vast potential to become a leading SAF producer in the region. And there is a waiting market for SAF as airlines work to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. More than a strategy in support of aviation’s decarbonisation, it is a strategy for economic development and should be a top priority for the new South African government. Across agriculture, energy, and transportation, new jobs and industries are waiting to be created that would not only help fight poverty but also contribute to greater energy independence,” said Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Sustainability and Chief Economist.
South Africa chaired the 2022 ICAO Assembly at which governments agreed to a longterm goal aligned with the aviation industry’s net-zero carbon emissions by 2050
commitment. The role of SAF in achieving this goal was emphasized by the ICAO CAAF/3 objective of a 5% average global reduction in aviation’s carbon emissions by 2030. As decarbonizing aviation will require global collaboration, it is critical that global or regional stakeholders like States, development banks, industry, academia and other relevant parties bring forces together to help countries with SAF potential to develop their industry.
“Airlines are ready and waiting to purchase SAF as evidenced by the fact that every drop of SAF produced
has been purchased and used. But the production volumes are a minute fraction of what aviation needs. That’s why it is essential for governments of countries with production potential, such as South Africa, to embrace what is a unique win-win-win opportunity for economic development, energy transition, and decarbonized air transportation,” said Thomsen.
IATAhighlighted several advantages for South Africa in developing SAF production, which have also been noted by a study undertaken by World Wildlife Fund (WWF):
Feedstock Potential: South Africa has an abundance of feedstocks from which SAF can be derived including sugarcane and biomass from cleared invasive alien plants (IAPs). With respect to IAPs, harvesting them will come with other environmental benefits such as improved biodiversity and water security. In all cases, no feedstocks would compete with food production for land or water use in line with the ICAO sustainability framework.
Strategic Geographic Location: South Africa’s airports, particularly OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and Cape Town International Airport, serve as important hubs for connecting flights within Africa and to other parts of the world.
a leading SAF producer in the region
Significant Production Capacity: The WWF estimates that South Africa has the potential to produce between 3.2 and 4.5 billion litres of SAF annually. This will more than meet domestic fuel demand (1.8 billion litres) and present an export opportunity, where policies will be central for realization. Achieving production at the higher range of potential would require the co-development of a green hydrogen capability.
Existing Refinery Infrastructure: South Africa has existing refinery infrastructure which should be explored for brownfield investments—plant conversions or co-processing.
Experience: South Africa has long experience in synthetic fuel production, particularly the FischerTropsch method. Moreover, the country’s robust academic and research institutions also have a history of supporting innovations and technology for fuel production.
To capitalise on South Africa’s SAF potential, IATA urges the government to adopt a strategic plan that should include four critical areas:
• Industrial Infrastructure: Accelerate the development of production capabilities by using existing industrial infrastructure (brownfield investment) as a competitive advantage in the development and scaling of SAF production.
• Pooling Resources: Identify opportunities to develop SAF by encouraging collaboration between the government, private sector, and international partners to pool resources and expertise.
• Incentives for Research and Development (R&D): Spur innovation to drive down costs, increase production volumes, and diversify source crops/ production methodologies with tax incentives, grants, and subsidies for R&D in SAF technologies.
• Investment in Infrastructure: Support the development of necessary infrastructure (greenfield), such as biorefineries and green hydrogen production facilities with tax and other incentives.
C-130J’S 3 MILLION HOURS
At the Farnborough Airshow Lockheed Martin claimed that the worldwide C-130J Super Hercules fleet has surpassed 3 million flight hours. The C-130J “Super Hercules”
is the current model and this excludes the far higher number of hours flown by the many previous versions.
MORE THAN 545 C-130Js have been delivered to more than 21 nations. Countries with C-130Js contributing to these flight hours include (in order of delivery) the United Kingdom, United States (the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard; Pallas Aviation), Australia, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Canada, India, Qatar, Iraq, Oman, Tunisia, Israel, Kuwait, South Korea, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, France, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Germany.
Roles include combat, transport, aerial refuelling, special operations, medevac, humanitarian relief, search and rescue, weather reconnaissance, firefighting, and commercial freight delivery.
“From the highest landing strip in the world to the snow-packed runways of Antarctica and all the many mission locations in between, these 3 million hours represent the proven power and wide-reaching presence of the C-130J’s global fleet,” said Rod McLean, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Air Mobility & Maritime Missions line of business. “In celebrating this achievement, we also honour the many crew members, maintainers and airlift partners who truly keep the global Super Hercules fleet ready for any and every mission requirement.”
These hours were logged beginning with the C-130J’s first flight on April 5, 1996, to the beginning of July 2024.
The C130J Super Hercules fleet has accumulated more than 3 million hours.
The number of flight hours is also boosted by the efforts of the Lockheed Martin Flight Operations team. Their crews are the first to fly every C-130J produced. Additionally, the U.S. Air Force Defense Contract Management Agency crews support C-130J test flights at Lockheed Martin’s Aeronautics site in Marietta, Georgia, which is the home of the Super Hercules production line.
fleet ready for any and every mission
The Super Hercules variants used to log these hours include C-130J and C-130J-30 (tactical airlifter), KC-130J (tanker), WC-130J (weather reconnaissance), EC-130J (information operations), MC-130J (Special Operations), HC-130J (search and rescue, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard variants), AC-130J (gunship) and LM-100J (commercial freighter).
Lockheed Martin claims that the C-130J has proven operational readiness that allows for an easy transition, increased reliability, superior tactical airlift and combat airdrop capabilities, certification by more than 20 airworthiness authorities, and excellent engine-out performance with extended range.
It also provides unmatched interoperability with NATO and global air forces, robust industrial partnerships, and verified low life-cycle costs with significant fuel savings, resulting in a reduced carbon footprint compared to other mediumsized jet airlifters.
SNEAKING THREE DAKS ACROSS AFRICA
I stepped out of the Affretair sanctions busting cargo DC-8 at Schipol airport in Amsterdam. It had been a good night flight on the jump seat from Salisbury, with cargo stops at Nairobi, Cairo, and a mid-morning stop at Zurich.
IHAD SENT SOME CARGO business
Affretair’s way, and they had rewarded me with a free ride to Amsterdam.
Dutch customs opened my suitcase and asked why there was a King Nav Com radio unit in it, along with a roll of high speed duct tape packed amongst my clothing. I told them I was a ferry pilot arriving to pick up an aircraft to deliver to Africa. No problem.
I heard the tired DC-8 crew discussing taking an afternoon nap, to be followed by a party night in Amsterdam. Getting some good advice from them, I decided a 39 year old, red-blooded bachelor also deserved some recreation in this permissive city. So, I spent two enjoyable nights pursuing commercial legal erotic options. Then I took an airline to Munich and was met by Bob Koroskinsy, the multiple DC-3 owner and aviation spares dealer.
for Dakotas by the South African Armscor offices on the top floor of the SA French Embassy. I had flown to Paris for lunch with them, and carried the document back to Jhb, leaving the same evening.
The next day I met the other pilot, an elderly fellow I’d replaced on a contract in Khartoum a year earlier. Flight Lieutenant Monty Burton had the distinction of having flown a RAF Canberra from the UK to Christchurch New Zealand in a record time of less than 24 hours. As he modestly mentioned; “Anyone could have done it.”
embarking on a clandestine mission
That afternoon we visited the three Dakotas standing on the far side of the airfield with large oil drums placed under the engines. The batteries had been freshly charged, some fuel loaded, the engines run the day before, and a mag drop rectified.
En route to his Schwabing office we had a good chuckle about how I was awarded the delivery contract
Then we went to Bob’s office for lunch, and I handed over US$20K in travellers checks and received various related paperwork. In 1981 $20K was equivalent
to R13,605 which I paid for the DC-3 with a total airframe time of less than 3,500 hours. Once in SA the airframes would be converted to Turbine Daks, to replace the aged SAAF Shackelton coastal patrol aircraft.
The deal was that I had to purchase the preselected Dakotas. Then the SA Government would provide the ferry fees and pay me for the aircraft on arrival in SA.
That evening we spent a happy couple of hours in the ever-festive café and piano bar Schwabing area. The beer was good, the populace friendly and mostly English speaking. However, a fellow drinker encouraged me to clear my throat and follow his example in venting a tuneful yodel or two. This was not very successful, and Monty (a previous associate of “Captain Fantastic”) cautioned me to moderate my tone, in keeping with an operative embarking on a clandestine mission.
This gent was a total contrast to the dour Armscor bunch I’d originally met in their Pretoria headquarters.
Through immigration, we went out to the DC-3 and after a thorough pre-flight, started up and taxied out to the active runway. En-route a couple of airline pilots and a mechanic with a camera kept pace with us, initially taking pictures of the Dak. We’d been warned that the novelty of the vintage aircraft grumbling past modern jet airliners would attract attention. So, without even a test flight, we tried to minimise attention by getting airborne before the airport press representatives immortalised us on film.
a tuneful yodel or two
After careful run-ups, Monty entered the runway and applied full power; the tail came up and then the old aeroplane lifted off into the morning sunlight. I raised the undercarriage and was gratified to see it fully retracted after having stood outside through several freezing German winters.
The next morning a friendly Armscor employee stationed in Europe met us in the airport concourse. He had left a message at Bob’s office to tell me that I would recognise him as he would be carrying a Scope magazine. I identified him firstly by his veldskoen shoes, and the Scope magazine confirmed his identity. Over coffee he handed me a sealed brown envelope containing $22,000 in cash for our ferry flight expenses.
At a suitable height we turned toward the Alps gleaming with snow. I said to Monty, “We don’t have a transponder, so if we need IFR they’ll refuse us. So, if we can get over the Alps, it’s downhill all the way home.”
The mountains were spectacular, and so was a B727 descending towards us who, notified of our position, dipped a wing for a better view. We were certainly getting a lot of unwanted attention.
The old aircraft behaved itself, and a few hours later we entered Greek airspace, and landed at Corfu. After parking we gave the Dak a good looking over, but there were no significant oil leaks visible, nor signs of anything coming loose.
We had decided to ferry the best Dak first –and so far so good. After opening the ferry money envelope, we refuelled, then spent the night in a pleasant beach hotel enjoying gourmet Greek lamb.
Next morning I took the left seat, put a couple of lifejackets in easy reach, then flew over the Mediterranean to overnight at a resort hotel at Heraklion in Crete.
The 5200nm route flown by the Dak from Munich to Lanseria.
The third day saw us crossing the African coast west of Cairo, flying over the Sahara before descending into Luxor in Egypt. It took us ages to get Avgas there, until I bribed the Jet fuel bowser driver to neglect an Egypt Air B737 parked next to us, and return with the Avgas bowser. The Egyptian Boeing Captain scowled from his window and repeatedly pointed at his watch.
An unpleasant medical official came aboard and demanded to see our yellow fever vaccination forms. He pretended to find fault with mine, but could not as it had recently been updated with a cholera shot stamp. Meanwhile Monty was stage whispering to me that “My cholera shot expired last month.”
I said, “Well, pretend you’ve left it in your suitcase at the back, and buy time.” Monty moved aft, and I winked at the medical official. Then reaching up to the green ceiling upholstery I undid the zip and extracted a very vulgar picture book which I showed him. His eyes lit up, as I said, “I give you book, you go away, he show you cholera shot stamp next time.”
I had been to Luxor before, so was acquainted with the desires of the medical officer. A year before I had flown a Piper Aztec out of Khartoum to a road building project 400 nm out into the Western desert – with no GPS available back then.
I felt smugly satisfied
When the wind raised the sand it became a challenge. One day at Wadi Mara I’d approached the German camp doctor with my yellow vaccination book and told him my cholera shot was about to expire. He sat me down, and while I rolled up my sleeve, he stamped my book, and said “That will be good for 6 months.” Then he said, “Roll your sleeve down and keep quiet about it. The injection is more likely to give you cholera than protect you from it.”
I thanked him and walked out of the door with a pain free arm.
The pervy official deliberated and said, “You give me two picture books.” I pretended to consider, then extracted a second lewd book, also recently acquired from a liberal sex shop in Munich. The man took it and said, “Thankee, I see you next time.”
The Luxor Winter Palace Hotel was a grand establishment, and while Monty phoned his UK home, I took myself off to see and hear the memorable sound and light show at Karnak, which filled my mind with wonderful ancient Egyptian vistas.
I returned to the hotel in meditative mood, clutching my new LP record of the sound track of the enchanting event.
A curious habit existed amongst the young river boat employees on the banks of the Nile. On seeing a tourist strolling about, they often asked if you would please send them a letter once you got home. The receipt of a letter from a foreign dwelling tourist bestowed a degree of prestige when they later showed it to their friends. I mailed a couple but doubted if a letter from Apartheid South Africa would ever actually reach them in Egypt.
We took off in the clear desert air next morning for the longest leg on the ferry, to seaside Djibouti a little over a thousand miles away. We stayed clear of the Sudan, and flew uneventfully down the middle of the Red Sea at a genteel 135 knots, to arrive in good weather after nearly seven and a half hand-flown hours.
Djibouti was hot, expensive and bustling, and as we taxied in, we saw a contingent of foreign Legionnaires boarding a Boeing 737 for parts unknown. The scene was reminiscent of a swashbuckling Beau Geste desert movie.
A few drinks and a meal later we retired to a single room, as no doubles were available. Monty snored and I didn’t, so his recital kept me awake.
Airborne next morning, I turned right to follow the coastline over troublesome Somaliland en-route to my favourite destination: exotic Mombasa. There to overnight at the charming Mombasa Beach hotel.
Flying over Hargeisa we noticed that many of the suburban tin roofs were painted bright blue. A few weeks later, while delivering the third and troublesome Dakota, I was obliged to land there to transfer the fuel from a drum of Avgas we had on board, as our left engine was inexplicably using 23% more fuel than the right one, significantly reducing our range.
My spirits lifted turning final for Runway 21 at Mombasa. I had gone to junior school in Kenya and remembered great times on this coast. At one stage in my early flying career I felt I’d be happy to base myself there, and fly any serviceable aircraft that I was offered, just to be able to enjoy this exotic coast, and the company of the often larger than life personalities who lived there. But the urge to fly turboprop and jet aircraft which increasingly appeared on the SA register won out, so I stayed in Joburg.
In Africa it’s everyman for himself
At the lovely palm-fringed Mombasa Beach Hotel we enjoyed excellent cuisine amongst mostly English speaking guests.
We then learnt that the houses had newly painted blue roofs because months earlier a truck carrying a cargo of blue paint had broken down in there and was beyond economic repair. The blue paint did not go to waste.
The next morning we took off early for a double leg. First to Blantyre to refuel, thereafter as I had been instructed, to arrive after dark at Lanseria Airport Johannesburg. Our course took us overhead Dar es Salaam to avoid a restricted area, then direct to Blantyre.
Jeffery Kempson loading beer at Maun.
Flt Lt Roland 'Monty' Burton.
When shutting down on the Blantyre apron we were disconcerted to be surrounded by uniformed police. They boarded and searched the aircraft, then escorted us to a terminal lounge and began to question us. Monty sat down, lit his pipe and said, “Look here, I’m just a pilot on this aircraft, employed by this man,” he said, pointing at me. “He owns the aircraft and we’re going to Johannesburg.”
A few moments later a senior police officer walked into the lounge and said, “Everything is in order, you may proceed.”
Which we did after refuelling, paying landing fees and so on. Once back on board I said to Monty, “That was hardly the behaviour I expected from an English officer and a gentleman!”
He shrugged and said; “In Africa it’s everyman for himself, old boy.”
“Good thing I wasn’t worried,” I replied. I’m told the South African government has powerful friends in Malawi.” Presumably a phone call had been made to a senior SA diplomatic official who had cleared the way for us.
One down, two to go.
Thereafter the flight to Lanseria was rather frosty, but uneventful. We duly landed after dark and were marshalled to a parking area some distance from the terminal.
Nobody approached the aircraft while we chocked it, put the control locks in and carried our bags to the terminal. At the door the airport manager took our passports away to be stamped and my girlfriend met us at the entrance to the restaurant.
The manager said, “No one’s allowed near that Dak, and a SAAF crew is on the way to pick it up and fly it to Swartkop Air Force Base.”
About an hour later the unmistakable sound of a DC-3 taking off reached our ears, I stood up from the dining table and walked to the window. I’m told I waved as it flew past. Returning to the table, I said, “One down, two to go.”
I felt smugly satisfied but little did I know that Dak had given us the only hassle free trip of the three I had agreed to deliver. The next two ferry flights would be fraught with incident and danger.
A couple of weeks later I was taxiing out in a Beech Baron at Rand when the Avex Air survey DC-3 took off. In the left seat was the famous, recently retired ex-chief SAA pilot Capt. Bert Rademan, in the seat next to him sat Monty Burton with his pipe clenched firmly between his teeth. I never saw, nor heard from him again.
JEFFERY KEMPSON
JOHN BASSI
WHEN THINGS WORK IN HARMONY
In the previous article, I drove home the chaos and
stress that one faces during
routine bush operations.
Fortunately, not the norm, but every so often a Light Sport Aircraft goes down into the bush, into unsuitable landing sites. The fact that the crews walk away is testimony to the safe construction as well as the skill of the pilots.
“ ROMEO KILO PAPA do you copy?”
Lying under the sparse shade of a Shepherd tree on the top of a hill, the sudden radio call jolted us back to reality. The three of us leapt back into action.
Riaan had taken off from the small dirt strip over an hour ago, into the post-sunrise Karoo air, making the most of the calm conditions. The luxury of effortlessly flying in windless skies would not last.
My crew, made up of a veterinarian, an ecologist and a reserve bio technician, had given Riaan and his trusty observer a head start, allowing them to fly into the general work area and begin their search. We followed thirty minutes later wanting to be closer and in a position with good radio communication for a fast reaction time, should he find the desired rhino.
to keep the species from extinction. This is an extremely costly exercise and is reliant nowadays on public and corporate donations, since our leaders are too busy lining their pockets to give a hoot about conservation.
African conservation is firmly in the hands of donors and there is never enough money to satisfy the demands.
not for the weekend pilot
Rhino monitoring, management, dehorning and DNA profiling is a crucial component in our human attempt
Enter the invaluable Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) and skilled pilots who operate them in unforgiving conditions. This type of flying is not for the weekend pilot.
The technology available in modern LSAs has made them perfect, and yet economical observation platforms, which have become irreplaceable in wildlife monitoring. Every day somewhere in remote and usually inhospitable game reserves scattered around Africa, there will be any number of pilots flying accurate transects, or orbiting over terrain with no safe landing sites. All for the love of conservation.
The attractive cost of new aircraft, the availability of back-up and service and most importantly the safety record narrows down the most popular among the observation platforms.
All have one thing in common. Great visibility, a high wing and short field takeoff and landing capability. In Zimbabwe and many parks in Africa, the Savannah is popular, the Bantam/Bathawk, the A22 Foxbat and the Bushcat/Cheetah seem to dominate these operations.
In response to the call to my JetRanger, Romeo Kilo Papa, I ran to the helicopter, turned on the Master switch and avionics and responded to Riaan’s call knowing I would have strength five communication from the aircraft quality Garmin radios.
“Standing by Riaan”
“We have Angela and her calf visual, moving slowly south. We are two kilometres west of the north eastern corner”
“Copied Riaan, we on our way, will call you inbound.”
My crew, who were well versed in these operations were already climbing into the helicopter and strapping in. The vet was busy making up his dart with the exact dose of etorphine for the two-yearold calf. Our objective was to annually, or in many cases, six monthly, find specific cow/ calf combinations.
This type of flying may sound glorious
In order to maintain an exact data base with every rhino, knowing each animal’s genetic history, parentage and DNA, we had to find and immobilise calves before they broke away from their mothers. This usually occurs around two years of age.
Meanwhile, Riaan and his observer were maintaining a tight orbit at 500 feet, not daring to take their eyes off the exact spot where they had seen the rhino. This
type of flying may sound glorious, but I assure you it is not. Try sitting in a little two seat aircraft for five to six hours a day, eyes outside all the time with only an occasional, quick instrument scan. Quick because if you take your eyes away from the bush for only a moment, your focus is disturbed. For all the hard hours searching, in that one moment, you may miss the bum of a rhino as it vanishes into a bush.
After hours of flying transects, the Bathawk crew see a rhino.
Now the pilot must maintain an unbroken visual on the animal from his blind side, since he must position the animal into the perfect spot for the observer. The observer needs to be a tough flyer, withstanding hours of orbiting in heat, wind and turbulence, eyes always on the ground and very often through the lens of a camera. Orbiting, often in turbulent air, while looking
JOHN BASSI
through a camera viewfinder, can make even the toughest stomachs heave.
The observers we work with are amazing. They know every single animal by name, even remembering their history. This knowledge comes from many, many hours of sitting cramped up and circling over rhino. Each animal has a unique ear notch number, also, many are predictable as to their location in the bush since they are fairly territorial.
Riaan maintains the orbit, positioning the rhino at the ideal angle for the observer to take multiple photographs with a digital camera. Once done, it’s up to the pilot to fly and not lose sight of the animal while the observer scrolls through the photographs to identify the adult by looking at the ear notches.
These are tiny (2.5 to 3 cm) V shaped notches cut in a very specific order out of both ears. The position of the notch on the ear and the particular ear notched, provides a code number, identifying the exact animal from her profile sheet. You can imagine the fun, tension and banter between the pilot and observer, both trying to do the near impossible in turbulent conditions, hour after hour.
The Bushcat in action during rhino notching
An A22 Foxbat in action.
We have the pleasure of relaxing while the LSA pilot does all the hard work..
Inbound to the approximate location of the LSA, we are all scanning the sky. The vet sees the aircraft first, at our 2 o’clock, circling a couple of hundred feet above our level.
“Riaan, do you copy, I have you visual, we are 1 minute out” I call.
“Copied, they were relaxed but have heard you coming and the cow is starting to move slowly east, under my right wing, QNH 1020, I’m maintaining three five” he replies.
“I have a visual, thanks Riaan. We going down to check them. Please keep visual in case they split up” I reply.
This type of flying may sound glorious
I slow-down in anticipation for finding the animal and maintain a two hundred foot separation.
“Got you visual John, they are under my right wing tip, moving east”
I descend to 250 feet and we are all scanning frantically for the rhino, not wanting to make them run longer than necessary.
The LSA pilot’s job is far from over. He has to stay above us while we work, while I descend to within 15 metres of the now galloping cow, to verify she is the correct animal and to ensure the calf is not already notched. This procedure will often spook the panicking rhino and the two animals will split away from each other. It is therefore vital that the LSA maintains an orbit above us, keeping a visual on the break away rhino. On occasion we need to shoot a biopsy dart into the mother, which is a drop out dart that will capture a rod of flesh inside its needle. The dart often bounces out immediately, tumbling through the air from the impact and momentum. I need to focus on the dart and where it ends up, usually between bushes, log a GPS co-ordinate and then find a place to land as close as
JOHN BASSI
possible to retrieve the dart. Obviously while all this is happening, we are completely reliant on the LSA, to not lose the rhino and be able to talk me in again for the darting.
As soon as I am comfortable with the operation, have the calf visual and am happy that we can proceed with the darting without any risk to the rhino, I let the LSA pilot know that he can continue searching for the next candidate.
back in a quiet spot, drinking coffee in the shade of a tree, while the LSA crew, fly and search, circle and transect, on and on, until they spot another candidate.
The
observer needs to be a tough flyer
We have the luxury to land, shut down and spend twenty minutes on the ground while the LSA continues his search.
Once we have completed the notching and profiling, woken the calf and made certain it has fully recovered from the immobilisation, we have the luxury of landing
As if this is not stressful enough, often the LSA crew find multiple cow/calf combinations that require capture. This requires that they just keep circling and not taking their eyes off all the animals at the same time until we have completed the operation. The weather is never ideal which is okay for me in the JetRanger, but I certainly don’t envy the crew in the LSA.
Success is teamwork.
H125. Safeguarding Our Biodiversity
SAAF CHIEF:
LT GEN WISEMAN MBAMBO
– SOLDIERING ON
The South African Air Force (SAAF) has been subject to increasingly heavy budget cuts. It is therefore having to do a lot with a little, particularly in terms of its efforts towards its broader African peacekeeping responsibilities.
LT GENERAL MBAMBO DISCUSSES the challenges the SAAF is facing in meeting these responsibilities with extremely limited resources. Speaking at a recent medal parade, he said, “The SAAF is in the midst of a storm, with the world punctuated by conflicts and instability. The eagerness to
move towards the negotiating table is no longer there, with international bodies proving weak in resolving conflicts and a growing appetite to resolve conflicts through the barrel of a gun. The Israel/Palestine and Ukraine conflicts are stark examples.”
South African Air Force Chief Lieutenant-General Wiseman Mbambo.
South African Defence Minister Thandi Modise has stated that approximately 85% of the SAAF’s aircraft are currently “out of action”, with most airframes awaiting servicing, spare parts and/or repairs. For Mbambo, this means that his primary concern revolves around the SAAF’s ability to fulfil its obligations effectively. These obligations include participating in peacekeeping operations, safeguarding national borders and combating illegal activities.
Mbambo stresses that the significant responsibilities of the SANDF extended beyond traditional military roles. He highlights their involvement in societal duties like responding to natural disasters and fires.
Mbambo says that defence funding should not be at the bottom of the priority list. He explained the SAAF is working diligently with what it has and is “sweating assets.”
“Closer to home, the embers of Cabo Delgado and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have not died down yet and are flaring up, while humanitarian disasters are increasing, including wildfires and floods, meaning SAAF assets are in high demand. With lack of strategic lift capability our people around the world are sitting ducks,” he said.
Drawing a parallel between a household budget and the Defence Force’s financial situation, Mbambo pointed out that when funds are scarce, difficult decisions must be made to manage within those constraints and unpopular choices become a necessity.
Mbambo has emphasized the far-reaching consequences and risks of insufficient financial support for the Air Force, and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) as a whole. The findings of a recent SAAF strategic work session identified key under-resourcing problem areas as including: unavailability of aircraft, lack of spares, procurement issues and the unserviceable air conditioning at the SAAF Headquarters “that rendered the building [un] inhabitable”, shortage of uniform and more. Mbambo says, “If we can resolve all these issues, starting with command and control, we will be able to hold each other and ourselves accountable.”
make the most of limited resources
“The military is adopting innovative approaches to address the financial limitations. Just as a household must cut back on expenses during tough times, the SAAF is implementing cost-saving measures and striving to stay within its budget. Aviation safety must be maintained during this process,” he said.
In terms of its African peacekeeping responsibilities, SAAF assets are currently committed to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mozambique. In May 2024 there was a large airlift of SAAF assets from Upington, significantly using chartered Ilyushin Il-76 transports instead of the SAAF’s few remaining airworthy Lockheed C-130s, to support the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC).
Reporting on the SAAF Command Council strategic work session, Mbambo said, “The SANDF plays a pivotal role in maintaining the nation’s security and assisting in various domestic and international situations and a lack of adequate funding poses significant challenges.”
He emphasised the importance of investing in in-house capabilities, investing in personnel training and fostering a culture of innovation and seeking efficiencies to ensure essential tasks are managed effectively within constrained budgets. This approach allows the SAAF to make the most of limited resources and maintain its readiness.
In a recent Defenceweb interview, Mbambo acknowledged the difficulties and complexities of the current situation but emphasised the commitment to maintaining the readiness and serviceability of the SAAF for the country. He also highlighted the need for other relevant departments, like Armscor, to fulfil their mandates, particularly in successfully placing essential contracts for the benefit of the Defence Force.
Aside from its funding constraints, the SAAF has come under criticism for lowering its fitness standards for commissioned officers. More than half of the candidates for the SAAF’s officers’ forming course (OFC) failed to pass the fitness test that formed part of the entrance requirements. Controversially, Mbambo ordered that the course proceed as planned. “The SAAF should consider affording these aspirant officers an opportunity to be officers’ course qualified. It would be in the best interest of both the organisation and indeed its members, particularly those who passed the fitness test, to be allowed to proceed with the OFC. A once-off waiver should be granted to the nine learners who failed the fitness test," he said.
In his directive, Mbambo stated that those who failed the fitness test should “gradually and progressively” prepare themselves to pass the fitness test two months into the OFC.
Commenting about the “total wellness” of the SAAF, Mbambo said: “The South African Air Force vision of projecting effective air and space power through innovation in the theatre of our operations will remain
a pipe-dream unless we address the matter of total wellness of our people. Unless our people are totally well in all these areas, they cannot perform to their maximum capacity. At the moment, the members of the air force are incapable of delivering to their full potential due to these hindrances,” he said.
The SAAF has also been active in developing the South African Space Command (SASCS) which is expected to manage and coordinate all defencerelated space activities, collaborating with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) and other government agencies.
Mbambo says that establishing the SASCS represents a notable advancement for South Africa, reflecting the country’s renewed focus on space exploration and technology. Similarly, this development holds great potential for defence and beneficial impacts across multiple sectors, such as telecommunications, agriculture, and environmental monitoring.
Thus, to facilitate the smooth implementation of South Africa’s National Space Strategy, the Space Command
Integrated Planning Team (SCIPT) was formed to lead the establishment of a dedicated SASCS within the South African Air Force (SAAF). Mbambo notes that SCIPT consists of “highly skilled military practitioners and has achieved significant advancements within a short period since its establishment in 2022.”
He notes that the SCIPT team has collaborated with public and private entities at both local and international levels. “This collaboration has fostered a unified effort in implementing the national space strategy. It has nearly completed the groundwork, including mapping local capabilities and incorporating future planning mechanisms from industry experts and the federal government.”
Furthermore, SCIPT has undertaken several international engagements to ensure the SAAF aligns with the best global practices. This includes a partnership with the Italian Air Force to gain insights and experiences from implementing the Italian Defence Force Space Operations Command. In addition,
arrangements with other allied nations are underway, cementing South Africa’s commitment to embracing international standards and knowledge. “By leveraging these collaborations, the SAAF is positioning itself at the forefront of space capabilities, actively contributing to national development.” Mbambo explained.
Both Mbambo and General Rudzani Maphwanya, the Chief of the National Defence Force, have publicly remarked on the challenges of harsh budget constraints. Mbambo expressed the hope that ongoing discussions and appeals to government bodies, led by the Minister of Defence, will prompt a positive response in terms of increased funding for the defence sector.
“The price tag to maintain SAAF assets is very high,” Mbambo concludes, with the reality being a lack of adequate funding for defence. “Parliament’s comments on defence and the ministers of defence have presented the funding case but we are optimistic and hopeful this storm shall pass away.” j
RWANDA’S NEW AIRPORT
THE $2 BILLION airport is slated for completion in 2026.
Located in Bugesera District of the East African State of Rwanda, the new airport is expected to start operation in 2028.
Qatar Airways will have a 60% ownership of the new airport. The Middle Eastern airline will also acquire
49% of shares in the African country’s flag carrier airline, Rwandair, offering access to over 65 locations around the world.
The airport will feature a 30,000sqm passenger terminal with 22 check in counters, 10 gates, six aerobridges and capacity for 1.7 million passengers .
Rwanda's under construction new airport.
AFRICAN AEROSPACE AND DEFENCE EXPO (AAD)
Guy Leitch finds out from AAD Exhibition Director, Ms Nakedi Phasha, how the buildup to this year’s biennial expo is going, and
exhibitors can expect.
THE 12TH AAD trade exhibition and air show adopts the theme ‘Exploring New Paths, Sharing Solutions, Showcasing Innovation and Capability.’
The expo takes place at Waterkloof Air Force Base from 18 to 22 September 2024 and is considered to be one of the top six events of its kind in the world. It is the only aerospace and defence exhibition and air show on the African continent.
The AAD expo is a partnership between South Africa’s Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Association (AMD), the Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor), and the Commercial Aviation Association of Southern Africa (CAASA), in collaboration with the South African Department of Defence and Military Veterans (DOD).
what visitors and
Belgium, and China. The exhibitors include Sweden’s SAAB, Airbus, Turkish Aerospace Industries, and L3Harris Technologies.
The event has been designed to provide the perfect platform to strengthen existing and establish new partnerships within the defence and related industries.
drone and anti-drone technologies
AAD 2024 will introduce several ‘hubs’ that showcase the latest innovations. For instance, there are Energy and General Aviation hubs, as well as a third hub that features drone and anti-drone technologies.
AAD organisers report that as at May 2024, more than half of the exhibition space has been booked and confirmed. The event will see exhibitors coming from several countries, including the United States,
“As organisers, we want to position South Africa as the global pinnacle of innovation, excellence, and a preferred investment destination. We anticipate that more than 30,000 trade visitors will engage with over 300 exhibitors. Visitors can also attend our maiden conference edition to hear thought leaders in the industry, academia, and the defence sector provide insights into topical issues that directly impact the industry. Furthermore, we project at least 60,000
visitors will attend the public air show days to witness the exhilarating aerobatics spectacle,” says Ms Nakedi Phasha.
A unique initiative of the AAD is its youth development programme (YDP). This sees youth from disadvantaged and marginalised communities being exposed to science and technology disciplines and related career opportunities. In 2022, AAD hosted over 9,000 learners through its YDP initiative. For this year’s event, 12,000 learners from across all nine provinces are expected to descend on the base to benefit from this impactful programme.
Africa represents a significant market
sectors and regions, with the aerospace and defence industry being no exception. She points out that they observed a slight decline in attendance during AAD 2022. “However, recognising the importance of AAD 2024 as a catalyst for growth and collaboration, our primary objective is to reverse this trend and make the upcoming expo the biggest and best yet.”
Being a biennial expo, the show was hard hit by the Covid pandemic. Ms Phasha said that the recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic has varied across
“Central to achieving this goal is our focus on increasing attendance from African countries. Africa represents a significant market with immense potential for growth and collaboration within the aerospace and defence sectors. By actively engaging with stakeholders across the continent and implementing targeted strategies to attract attendees, we aim to foster a vibrant environment for knowledge exchange, networking, and partnership development.”
Ms Nakedi Phasha.
The big question is which of the big original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will be participating this year. Ms Phasha said “We are pleased to confirm the participation of several prominent OEMs. Amongst them are Airbus, Embraer, Leonardo and Russian Helicopters.”
When asked which of the major countries will be exhibiting, she replied, “We have secured extensive global participation for the event, with attendees from countries such as Turkey, India, Russia, China, Italy, UAE and the United States. This diverse representation underscores the international significance of AAD and promises an enriching and globally connected experience for all participants.”
As this is the African Aerospace and Defence Expo, African participation is key. When asked who the key African participants are, Ms Phasha said, “We are currently in discussions with major African countries, including Nigeria, Namibia, and Zambia.”
Hub upon its introduction, and it’s now operating at full capacity. As a result, there are ongoing discussions about extending the Hub due to the significant interest it has generated.”
AAD combines and expo and an airshow for the public. When asked who the key air show participants are for 2024, she said, “At this point, we are unable to disclose the confirmed key participants. Announcements will be made in collaboration with the Air Force as our planning progresses.”
the economic impact of AAD is significant
The Ukrainian and Israel-Hamas conflicts have had a large impact on the global defence industry. When asked if this has boosted or reduced interest in AAD 2024, she replied, “The conflict between Israel and Hamas has presented both new risks and opportunities for many countries. However, in the context of AAD 2024, we haven’t observed any direct negative impact on the interest in the expo. On the contrary, we have witnessed a notable increase in interest from various countries indicating a strong momentum towards making AAD 2024 the biggest and best Aerospace and Defence Expo yet.”
Feedback from the general aviation community is that it has long felt like a poor relation to defence at the AAD expo. When asked what the level of general aviation support is compared to previous years, Ms Phasha said, “We have a significant increase in General Aviation support compared to previous years. We have introduced several new hubs designed to showcase the latest innovations. The GA community embraced the
A long standing complaint is that exhibition stand costs are expensive. Ms Phasha observed that “Stand costs are influenced by various factors, and we carefully consider each aspect for every show. It’s worth noting that there was no increase in stand costs for AAD 2022. the last increase was in 2018. This year, we have implemented a slight increase in stand costs, taking into account the rising prices of essential inputs. Our goal is to ensure that AAD 2024 is the biggest and best, and this adjustment allows us to maintain the quality and scale of the event.”
Ms Phasha points out that the economic impact that the AAD has on South Africa’s economy is significant. International visitors to AAD 2022 contributed over R135 million to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while public and trade visitors generated a R150 million in revenue. R65 million of taxation revenue was raised and more than 1,350 jobs created, which bodes well for the importance of this notable showing on the Southern African landscape.”
“Looking to the future, our focus will be on further increasing international participation, fostering collaborations, and exploring new sponsorship and partnership opportunities to grow the event’s footprint into Africa. We want to provide our partners with a premier event that contributes to the global aerospace and defence market,” concludes Ms Phasha.
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