May 2021 by Flyer & Aviation Publications

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation

Africa’s Biggest Aviation Magazine

FLIGHT TEST:

Edition 304 May 2021 Cover: Garth Calitz

B55 – BABY BARON – IT’S A BLAST!

GUY: SAA TRANSFORMATION AND SAFETY JIM: TWIN FUEL MANAGEMENT FLYING A R44 WITH A DYING ENGINE! DARREN OLIVIER – THE SIXTH GENERATION FIGHTER

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May 2021

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POSITION REPORT I AM ENCOURAGED by the level of resilience in the General Aviation community. It is bouncing back nicely from the lows of the Lockdown.

Presidents' Trophy Air Race. This year it is being held in Ermelo, thanks to the enthusiastic support and hard work of the Ermelo flying community.

Most importantly, the CAA seems to be managing to get itself back to a semblance of acceptable service. Yet it is still far from the old standards before the new computer system complicated things and made triple the work which requires three people to check everything.

The flying schools are reporting their busiest ever months, with some doing well over 1000 hours on just 12 planes. The maintenance must be a logistical nightmare. Unfortunately, the high level of training has led to one of those feared ‘black swan’ events – a mid-air collision at night, with the loss of four bright young lives. My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones, but these are the risks we take to live our lives to the full. For the flight schools the tragedy is most keenly felt as it was under their responsibility that the tragedy happened.

Turnaround times have now been reduced to about three weeks, which most CAA clients can tolerate. There are of course still frustrated expectations on both sides with businesslife threatening delays caused by documentation foul-ups, yet at the same time I hear wonderfully reassuring anecdotes of CAA staffers going above and beyond. Thus, a special authority to fly was issued to a modified NTCA to enable it to be ferried back to Cape Town during its proving hours. Just like the good old days, I can hear some say almost begrudgingly.

THERE REALLY IS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

The Aero Club soldiers on and has celebrated its centenary with a well-supported flyin at Middleburg. It was an old style fly-in and crews camped under their wings, adding much esprit de corps. Visitors and sponsors travelled to the platteland from far and wide and it is great to see the flame of GA still burning brightly. Another big event coming up is the

May 2021

In this issue we feature that seeming anachronism as our flight test, the piston twin. Common wisdom holds that a twin is not worth the extra operating and maintenance costs. And then of course there is that that hoary old aphorism – that if you lose an engine, the second is only to take you to the scene of the accident. But statistics show that that is just not true – especially for a well-trained pilot. While high performance singles continue to climb in price, with old two 210s now asking R2m, a well-loved piston twin like the Baron B55 we feature offers excellent value in the low R million range. And they really are a real blast to fly. At the other extreme, our military aficionado Darren Olivier has written a fascinating piece on the coming sixth generation of fighters. So there really is something for everyone!

Guy Leitch

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Edition 304

CONTENTS COLUMNISTS

FLIGHTCOM

SA FLYER

Bush Pilot - HUGH PRYOR Airlines - MIKE GOUGH

FC 20

16 Guy Leitch - ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE 22 George Tonking - HELI OPS 26 Peter Garrison - LITTLE AEROPLANES 32 Jim Davis - PLANE TALK 40 Johan Walden - A SLIM LOGBOOK 60 Jim Davis - ACCIDENT REPORT 72 Ray Watts - REGISTER REVIEW

16 20

FLIGHT TEST:

May 2021

B55

Reaching new heights

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FC 06

THE DTIC'S AEROSPACE INDUSTRY SUPPORT INITIATIVE

May 2021

Edition 304

CONTENTS FEATURES SA FLYER

48 68 80 85 91

FLIGHT TEST: B55 MINI FEATURE - Mark Holliday Aero Club: CENTENARY AIR WEEK AVIATION INSURANCE FEATURE RAND AIRPORT REVIEW

REGULARS 14 FLIGHTCOM

06 Aerospace: Support Initiative 12 Airline Partnerships 26 Face to Face - CEO of Air Austral 28 Airports - Fisantekraal 30 Defence - Darren Olivier

Opening Shot

75 Bona Bona Register Review 76 SV Aviation Fuel Table 78 Aviation Direct Events Calender

FLIGHTCOM

19 AME Directory 24 Starlite Flight School Listing 25 Atlas Oils Charter Directory 36 AEP AMO Listing 38 Aviation Directory

May 2021

BUMPPPFFF: PRINCE PHILIP on the Harvard he earned his wings on at White Waltham, a Royal Air Force base in Berkshire on 4 May 1953. Though he had been interested in joining the air force instead of the navy in the 1930s, Philip only began training for his pilot’s license on November 12, 1952. Despite opposition from Winston Churchill, he continued to train and was awarded his wings in May 1953. Before his last outing as a pilot in 1997, he had spent about 5,986 hours in the air.

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OPENING SHOT GREGORY CLEGG LIVES FOR FLYING

May 2021

As a young pilot and engineer, he has had a spectacular rise in flying skills, and is to be regularly seen ploughing back into aviation by piloting the ‘meatbomb’ skydivers at Carletonville in the Atlas Kudu jump ship.

May 2021

Send your submissions to guy@saflyermag.co.za

To get this striking image he attached a GoPro 4 to the wing and triggered it as he started his fast descent back down to the ground to collect another load of skydivers.

ATTITUDE FOR ALTITUDE: GUY LEITCH

For a white male to presume to talk about race and disadvantage is a losing strategy. But I seemed to have skipped the Woke 101 class, so once again I’m just going to barge into that fuzzy thinking space where fools and angels fear to tread. I THOUGHT I WAS BURNED OUT with the SAA saga. But then I did a bit for Cape Talk Radio on the safety perception of pilots promoted because they were previously disadvantaged. And inevitably the racist word came up. I expected lawyers’ letters to start flying, demanding snivelling apologies and country-wide retractions of the words I had dared say on public radio.

government is doggedly pushing ahead with its attempt to reincarnate SAA V2.0 – actually Version 20.0. And yet again we witness the enthralling insanity of the government doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The only reason the government is so bloodymindedly persevering with SAA is because it is committed to a policy of ‘transformation, regardless of cost’. Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, has been a massive failure and a sell-out to the forces of ‘rapid economic transformation’ (RET). And for what it’s worth, the reality of RET is akin to Samson pulling down the temple. If RET is allowed to spread, nothing will leave this country faster than its capital and its brains, leaving an economic wasteland.

nothing will leave this count r y faster than its capital and its brains

What words? That which no one dare utter - that if SAA replaces most of its experienced white pilots with less experienced ‘previously disadvantaged’ pilots, then the airline will be considered unsafe. Fighting talk for a frightening prospect.

Let me take a step back. The ongoing Covid blight (a fourth wave?) provides a once in a lifetime opportunity for SAA to be honourably wound up. When (or arguably - if) we need a new national airline, it can be restarted. Keeping it on life support – while key body parts like the pilots bleed to death – is insanity. Yet the

May 2021

The highest profile RET target remains SAA’s pilot body – which has despite intense efforts, remained 80% pale male and whose union

SAAPA, is fighting a long war of attrition to escape being completely run over by the government.

Training Captains in the DG so there would be a chronic shortage of examiners to conduct sixmonthly recurrency checks.

The government claims the Business Rescue Plan needs just 88 pilots when it restarts the airline. It is using the Covid-19 crisis as the opportunity to decimate the white-male pilots, so that the 88 survivors of the 360 that were on strength at the start of the business rescue process will come from what is now euphemistically called the designated group (DG). The government’s aim was to have the SAA pilot body comprised of the same proportional racial mix of South Africa, being: 76%, Black, 9.1% White, 8.9% Coloured and 2.5% Asian.

The government therefore has had to reluctantly compromise – just a little – and it now accepts that of the 88 surviving pilots, 34% will be Black African, 9% Coloured, 14% Indian and 38 White (43%), comprising the legally required Training Captains and Post Holders. Women of all races are about 22% of the 88.

is there something f undament ally wrong with Af r ic an pilot s?

This social engineering (worthy of the Apartheid government) couldn’t work as many of the DG pilots have not qualified as Captains, especially on the long-haul routes. Further, there are no

transformation.

The Department of Public Enterprises may have compromised, but the elephant in the room is the reputational cost of racial

Quite simply – the moment an airline promotes pilots based on the colour of their skin, or their gender, ahead of experience, then the airline’s reputation for safety will be compromised. Note that I said the airline’s reputation. It remains a

Why would fare paying passengers believe that SAA safety is not compromised?

May 2021

Afriqiyah Airways A330 crash in Tripoli - basic pilot error.

hotly contested question as to whether pilots from the DG group will actually be any less safe than more experienced pilots. But as the marketers keep telling us, perceptions are real. In the minds of the travelling public who may still buy SAA airline tickets (if only to get some of their taxes back), SAA will have compromised its ‘non-negotiable’ safety standards when it appoints pilots based on the colour of their skin, and not on experience. For those with the gall to argue this, the DG pilots are quick to issue lawyers’ letters claiming that they are as good as any other pilot as they all pass the same proficiency checks. But this is an absurd claim – just because you have passed your check ride does not make you as good a pilot as someone with 10 years more experience, and many thousands of hours of instruction. BENDING OVER BLACKWARDS Promoting pilots on the basis of gender or race and not seniority also raises an incredibly incendiary question: whether any allowances were made to accommodate any pilots from the

May 2021

DG who were struggling and needed additional training to pass check rides. I have heard plenty of plausible evidence that compromises and allowances were indeed made to assist struggling DG pilots. The most recent was the Brussels Covid flight stunt – which thanks to a basic error and the absence of fresh training to remind the pilots to check the take-off weight numbers, almost ended in the disaster of an Airbus A340-600 stalling after take-off and smearing itself across the East Rand Mall. So the travelling public (and the SA taxpayers who are still expected to pay for this whole sad mess) have the right to feel that safety standards are being compromised for the sake of racial transformation and political expediency. The concern is that, by aggressively pursuing a policy of Africanisation and indigenisation, SAA will slide into Third World standards – and accident rates show that Third World airlines are not as safe as First World airlines. It is almost trite to have to say that the air transport industry is a highly competitive, capital and technology intensive First World enterprise with no room for the interference that has marred state-owned African enterprise. African airlines have been notoriously bad at meeting first world standards. Ten years ago,

The iconic image of yet another third world crash. The smoking hole from the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Boeing 737 MAX.

the global average of hull losses was 0.61 per million flights, yet the rate for Africa was 7.41 hull losses per million flights – TWELVE TIMES greater. It required a massive external intervention by IATA to improve Africa’s disastrous safety record. This is a damming indictment of the African air transport industry’s standards, and more than sufficient reason not to trust the Africanisation of airline operations. The reasons for the high accident rates are usually training related: In 2007 Kenya Airways Flight 507 out of Douala managed to be the first airline to crash a new generation airliner. Why? Because the Captain didn’t check that his aircraft was trimmed before he pressed the Command Button to engage the autopilot. Contributing to this was a serious lack of flying skills and situational awareness which caused the pilot to roll the aircraft inverted, instead of rolling to the nearest horizon. The Captain had repeatedly failed flight-tests, yet allowances were made, and the co-pilot was young and intimidated by the Captain, and no doubt the cockpit authority gradient was steepened by the African custom of deferring to age. Shortly after the Douala crash, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashed a NG 737-800 out of Beirut due to ‘the flight crew’s mismanagement of the aircraft’s speed, altitude, headings and

attitude through inconsistent flight control inputs resulting in a loss of control and their failure to abide by CRM principles...’ Just four months later, in May 2010 an Airbus A330-200 of Afriqiyah Airways crashed on a go-around at Tripoli after the pilots didn’t respond to the flight director’s command to raise the nose. Many experienced pilots quietly aver that the reason the two Boeing Max crashes happened in Third World countries was due to inadequate pilot training. When the MCAS had misbehaved earlier, the pilots responded timeously, nipped the trim runaway in the bud and it was a nonevent, which barely warranted a mention – even in the specialist aviation press. The question must then be asked – is there something fundamentally wrong with African pilots? Let me state very clearly that the answer is an emphatic No. As I asked in a column some years ago titled, “Are some races bad pilots?”, although Africa may have an appalling safety record, it is not due to innate problems with the pilots, but rather, with the continent’s safety culture and standards. Yet the South African government seems determined to repeat the same mistakes.

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HELICOPTER OPS: GEORGE TONKING

While sitting quietly in my office doing admin recently, I got a panicked call from one of my pilots, Carl Nicholl. Something about an engine failure in-flight… Trying to limp back to Grand Central… I grabbed my flight gear, seconded a crew member and tore downstairs to a Robbie resting out on the pad. AT FIRST GLANCE, worldwide statistics would have you believe that helicopter flying is inherently safe, compared to walking across the street, which is technically the most dangerous thing you could do! In South Africa, however, our accident stats seem to indicate that both general aviation, and light helicopter flying in particular, is becoming more dangerous.

intensively for our particular high-pressure operational environment. One of those pilots was Carl, who started out, as so many do, with an innate love for flying machines. From flying radio-control models, to drones, he finally became a commercial helicopter pilot, with lots of input from both me and a few of my fellow pilots in the industry.

you basically fall out of the sk y

When training to be a pilot you prepare for every emergency situation imaginable, but never expect to put that training into actual practice. In the security flying industry, we also realised that we would need to train pilots more

May 2021

In the interest of aviation safety, I asked him to share his in-flight emergency account.

“It all started out as a normal Monday morning, with an ops flight planned from the Ultimate Heliport, over Pretoria and back home in a Robinson R44 Raven II. But after only thirty

minutes of flying, my Monday morning began to unravel with a hard kick to the left and a deafening sound you don’t normally hear in the engine.

to find the R44’s cruising sweet spot – in this case, around 60kts, which allowed me to barely maintain altitude with the RPM still just in the green.

Another two kicks to the left, followed by the Low Rotor RPM (LRRPM) horn got my brain racing. In helicopters, rotor RPM is life. Put simply, if the main rotor slows down too much you basically fall out of the sky. It’s your job as a pilot to act fast to maintain your RPM by lowering the collective to reduce drag on the blades. This I did, and found that the engine was still providing power, but at a significantly reduced level.

I quickly made for the closest fire-service equipped airport – Grand Central. “Tower, Mayday! Mayday! Mayday,” I radioed the ATC. It felt almost surreal uttering those words for real, but there I was nursing the crippled aircraft towards the airfield, while keeping my eye open for alternative spots to land in case the donkey decided to croak completely. The N1 Highway was starting to look very attractive for a possible auto-rotate descent.

At that point the helicopter was in a descent due to the reduced power. “What else can I do to stay airborne?” I asked myself. The answer was

“Do you need fire service,” Grand Central’s ATC radioed back.

Safe on the ground.

May 2021

“Yes,” I replied, in no uncertain terms. I already knew I would need a long, hard runway to do a run-on landing at speed, to keep airflow over the blades. Helicopters require a lot more power to hover than for forward flight, so hovering was out of the question. Autorotation remained a possibility, but I chose to use the engine while I still had it. The key in any emergency situation is to keep a clear mind, while weighing up your options. Different pilots may decide to respond in totally different ways. I’d made my choice and was desperate to execute it as well as possible. Grand Central cleared me in on Runway 17, as I lined up I was surprised to hear George, a.k.a. "The Silver Fox", on the radio, ready to help guide me in from the vantage of our other R44, circling nearby. “Not to alarm you,” he said. “There are huge clouds of smoke billowing out behind you. But, we are here with you. Scream if you need me.” I said nothing, knowing if I screamed once, that I probably wouldn’t stop until strapped into a strait-jacket safely on my way to the loony bin.

After touchdown at 40 knots the skid was long.

May 2021

On approach, my RPM was stable, the engine was just hanging in, and levelled off five feet from the runway surface, I knew that it was now or never. I slowed the aircraft down further, raising the collective to soften the landing. At that, the LRRPM horn screamed shrilly.

“Put her down now,” said "The Silver Fox" in my helmet, as my speed nudged below 40kts. Another thing I remembered being taught in training was not to use your cyclic rotor disk attitude to slow down, as this can bring the main blades dangerously close to the tail boom – running the risk of severing the tail from the craft. So, how to stop the chopper?

It turns out the villain of the day was a failed valve, which dropped into the cylinder, before having a party with the piston. Those debris then got carried over and had a party with a second piston, leaving the horizontal 6-cylinder engine with only four functioning cylinders. It’s testimony to Lycoming that the engine did not fail completely. No-one’s fault, just undetectable wear and tear.

Scream if you need me

More training came flooding back. You reduce the lift by lowering the collective, making the aircraft “heavy” and forcing the friction between skids and tarmac to slow you. After skidding for 157 metres, I finally came to a sweating halt. What a feeling, (once I’d remembered how to breathe again), to hear everyone whooping and applauding over the radio.

Having survived my in-air incident, I can’t encourage pilots enough: Practice, practice and practice your emergency procedures until they become second nature. You may not expect to become a statistic. But do all you can to not be!”

Carl, twenty minutes later, back on " a different " horse.

May 2021

LITTLE AEROPLANES - PETER GARRISON

LIT TLE

AEROPL ANES Where Do Little Aeroplanes Come From? They grow in the heads of little kids AS A YOUNG BOY I LOVED AEROPLANES. It was in the late forties and early fifties, the era when jets were replacing props. Except for the Douglas Skyraider – a great homely radialengine taildragging behemoth that became a favourite of some pilots in Vietnam because it could be punctured in so many places without becoming disabled – the aeroplanes I sighed over were jets. I don’t know if it was my first plastic model, but it may well have been, because I remember the agony of impatience in which I accompanied my mother and grandmother on an interminable hike through a department store on Wilshire Boulevard while a newly-purchased kit for a P-80 Shooting Star waited beside me on the back seat of my grandfather’s ‘51 Chevrolet, the taupe fabric of whose seats felt as if it could give you rug burn. Silver paint, it turned out, was hard for a young kid to apply convincingly – not that I had done too elegant a job of gluing the parts together in the first place. But no matter. It was probably from that aeroplane, or from the similar but less graceful F-94, that I contracted the fondness for tip tanks that lurked in me undetected until I started designing my own planes years later. There they were again, for no reason other than that some fighter of the Korean War era with an excessively thirsty turbojet engine had had them.

May 2021

In like manner, my Melmoth’s single cooling air intake, placed below a big spinner, probably reflected a similar crush, nourished unconsciously since childhood, on the F-86D. Other models of the -86 had a round air intake with a small visor-like extension on top, like the headlights of the next car my family bought, a white and turquoise ‘55 Bel Air that my mother, who was given to anthropomorphising the inanimate objects around her, christened Happy. But the F86D model had a parabolic radome on the nose and a beautifully sculpted intake beneath it; it was arresting in a way that I can’t explain to myself even now. An early sketch of a cowling design for Melmoth shows a combination of spinner and intake whose affinity to the -86D is more evident than the final version’s is; the smaller air requirements of a reciprocating engine forced me to shrink the inlet to the point that all trace of its ancestry vanished. Is that too far back to go? Not really, because for me the design of an aeroplane was a series of aesthetic choices. When I sketched a detail I was creating a personality, not recording the outcome of a rational calculation. This is not how aeroplanes are supposed to be designed. Any book on the subject will tell you how it’s really done. You begin with a specification, which is basically a description of what the aeroplane is supposed to do. From the

payload the aeroplane is intended to carry and the speed it is expected to attain a rough guess at the necessary engine power follows, along with an estimate of the likely total weight, which you base on past experience and comparable existing aeroplanes. Realism and optimism are always battling for the upper hand. You have to think you will be able to better what has been done before; otherwise why design yet another aeroplane? The size of the wing is arrived at by first specifying a desired landing distance. This in turn – assuming that you will be using conventional brakes – implies a maximum landing speed. Now, the lifting ability of a given wing at a given speed is limited by certain physical laws. You can raise the limit by adding big, complicated flaps, like the marvellous ones that emerged from the wings of the Boeing 727, but they add to the weight, complexity, cost and difficulty of construction. So you first make a tentative decision about how sophisticated your wing is going to be, and that leads, by way of the maximum lift coefficient, which you look up in a book, to a wing loading. Dividing the gross weight by the wing loading gives you the wing area. The shape and positions of the wing and stabilising surfaces, the placement of engines, pilot and passengers, the choice of skin

gauges and the spacing of stiffeners and spars – all emerge from a similarly rigorous, coolheaded balancing-out of competing values and demands. Always, and above all, lightness dominates the designer’s thoughts. Again and again the estimate of the total or “gross” weight is refined by tabulating all the items in the aeroplane and its payload and the original estimates of power and size are adjusted to suit. But I was never that designer. At 20 I was spending an idle year out of college when I made a clay half-model of a singleengine aeroplane similar to a P-40. I meditated a great deal on whether or not its fuselage could be formed of a single sheet of metal – a silly question, since even if it were possible there would be no point doing it. By that time my father’s idea of our flying around the world in two Piper Comanches had been dropped for lack of a sponsor, and we had papered the walls of a room with the huge pale blue oceanic navigation charts that we would never use. But a residue of romantic ideas about long-range flying stayed with me. Back at Harvard after two years away, I roomed with a Boston-born fellow named Bob Smith. Bob had taken a year off too, living across the Charles in a seedy apartment so faintly heated that when he would awaken on winter mornings

May 2021 The F86D Sabre's nose was echoed in Peter Garrison's Melmoth.

Melmoth had tip tanks and a cooling inlet - as a legacy of early dreams.

there would be a crust of ice in the toilet. My high school friend Tom Houston, then a junior in Eliot House, moved in with us for a while and slept on the living room couch. During the spring term I built a model of an aeroplane, a relative of the clay half-model but made of file-folder paper at one-tenth scale. It had tip tanks, a single air inlet, and the “cranked” inverted gull wing and aft cockpit placement of the Vought Corsair. On a big piece of poster paper I made a perspective drawing of it diving toward the viewer; Tom added a terrified third-worldish figure running away. In those days we did not pause to reflect upon the moral overtones of our iconography. One day we took the model to the stadium across the river and launched it outward over the grass from the second tier of seats. It crashed immediately. Tom majored in classics. He had been a skilled cartoonist at Loyola High, and very funny. Once we collaborated on a Latinization of “On Top of Old Smoky”. I had done five years of Latin, but Tom was much quicker than I and came up with all the words while I watched. The first two stanzas went (serious Latinists, hold your noses!):

May 2021

Super nivos’ atque / Vetus fumibund’ / Amicam perdidi / Amando tarde. / Nam dulce’st amare / Sed non reliqui / Et peior quam fur est / Ingratus amor. This piece of doggerel has stayed with me for sixty years when so many better things are lost. One day I went down Mass Avenue to MIT and visited Otto Koppen, a professor of aeronautical engineering, ex of Vought, who had participated in the design of the Corsair. He frowned at the inverted gull wings, for which I felt a visceral admiration but could provide no rational excuse. The Corsair’s, he said, had given no end of trouble, both because of the extreme complexity of their construction and because the wing tended to stall prematurely in the bend. Alas! An icon of imagined coolness bites the dust! You know those line drawings in which a bunch of monkeys are camouflaged among the trees and children are asked: “How many monkeys can you find?” Amateur-designed aeroplanes are like that. But when you look at them don’t look for monkeys. Look for the lingering infatuations of a nine-year-old. j

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PLANE TALK - JIM DAVIS

THE GREEN AEROPL ANE JIM’ S EARLY DAYS PART 2

Jim remembers some of the extraordinary people who came to him for lessons at his first flying school. IF YOU CAST YOUR MIND BACK to the last issue, you may remember that I introduced you to one of my favourite odd-ball pupils – Jeff Towill. He was the 40 year old, bumbling Boris Johnstone look alike, who asked if I could teach him to fly a green aeroplane. This turned out to be a paint peelingly tatty Luscombe Silvaire that he had just flown in from his home in Beaufort West, 150 miles away and over two serious mountain ranges. It seems that the person who had sold him the Luscombe had thrown in some illegal instruction as part of the deal. Illegal in that he was not an instructor and had only just got his own PPL.

neatly,” he conceded. “But I still don’t know how to go round sharp corners, or land in fields or any of that sort of thing. Perhaps you could show me some of those?” Oh dear, oh dear – this was not going to be easy. I gathered he was referring to steep turns and precautionary landings. But actually Jeff’s training turned out to be a lot of fun. He was a bright guy with good hands and an understanding of machinery.

t he dar k e r patch up ahead w ill t ur n out to be a nice big hole

“Well you see, it’s kind of like this,” Jeff explained, “I mean to say, old chap – I can kind of fly it, but I think perhaps I should get a sort of a licence thingie.” “So you’ve been flying without a licence?” “Do you know, I think you’ve put that rather

May 2021

DCA kindly credited him with the time he had been flying illegally and I filled in the gaps. I did his flight test and the written exams and he soon disappeared back to his home in Beaufort West with a shiny new PPL. Shortly after Jeff got his license he headed off to East London, some 350 miles away at the coast.

I knew nothing of this until one night when his wife, Ethne, phoned and asked if her husband was a safe pilot. Now, I realised this was a loaded question. Ethne was a very sharp woman. She was one of these lightweight

May 2021

human beings who’s inclined to scare the shit out of their more massive partners. She possessed not only a razor-sharp brain but also a violently serrated tongue. You didn’t want to be near Ethne when she was dissatisfied with the way the world was treating her. I say it was a loaded question because Jeff was something of a law unto himself. He was also plain scatty, a combination of talents that frequently got up Ethne’s nose like a stray bogfly.

t he weat he r was lik e t he ins ide of a cow The phone line was clear and I could tell by her tone that Jeff’s piloting skills were not the real reason for her call. But, as I had just signed out the issue of his PPL, I was largely responsible for his actions in the world of aviation. Ethne’s voice made it clear that Jeff had done something bloody stupid and she was about to let me have it with both barrels. “Why do you ask if Jeff is a safe pilot?” I enquired, playing for time. “Do you know what the bastard has done?” she almost screamed down the line. Now, how the hell would I know what Jeff had done before she told me? But I decided against pursuing that line of inquiry. “Tell me about it, Ethne,” I said as soothingly as I could. I held the phone away from my ear in preparation for the blast. “The effing idiot has just phoned me and told me he doesn’t know where he is.” “Well you married him,” I replied, in an unsuccessful bid to lighten the tone. Ethne was in no mood for frivolity. You know that tight-

May 2021

lipped, narrow-eyed look that women use to show who’s boss? Ethne managed to do that over the phone. Terrifying. Anyhow, here’s what happened. Jeff had flown his little Luscombe safely to East London and was on his way back when a fairly sparse flock of friendly little sheep-clouds drifted beneath him. None of us has a problem with that – we’ve all done it. But sheep are sly little bastards, and the next time you look there’s quite a lot of them. Very soon you’re not watching the sheep, you’re looking out for gaps between them. Then there are no gaps below you, but you’re pretty sure that darker patch up ahead will turn out to be a nice big hole. You and I know that such a thought is just plain wrong. But Jeff hadn’t been flying long enough to understand this fundamental law of meteorology – sheep, once gathered, seldom scatter. Please take notes if you like. And so he headed hopefully onward until the seriousness of his situation became alarmingly obvious. He did a 180 and headed back towards the place where he had last seen a gap. But, of course, it wasn’t there anymore, so he had to go further and further back. I won’t alarm you with the distressing details of how the sweat started to run down his nose and drip on to his map. Or how his mind conjured up pictures of events just before everything going black. I don’t want to upset you by explaining how the downward movement of the fuel gauges acted as the hands of a clock ticking away the last moments of his life. Suffice to say that he viewed his future with some disquiet. By the time he did eventually find a gap and descend through it, he was in a very different world. Above the cloud he had been basking in the late afternoon sunlight, but now he found himself in a dark, damp and gloomy place with misty visibility and patches of drizzle.

As both fuel gauges started to knock against the stops, the cloud base lowered and daylight started to give way to darkness. Jeff realized that what he needed was the safety and warmth of a country pub. Fortunately, his track took him pretty well along the R63. A route that was both flattish and easy to follow. The road runs roughly east-west along the base of the Winterberg Mountain range. It can’t be mistaken for any other road because it mingles with the railway line for the entire route. Several streams run down from the mountains and head south across the Karoo. And at each river crossing, you find pretty a little town. In short, navigation from East London to Beaufort West is easy and undemanding – if you just follow the road and railway and check off the towns as you pass them.

No doubt the perceptive reader will have spotted a problem. Even though you know you’re on track, it’s easy to get lost because all these little towns have the same geographic features – mountain, road, railway, river, bridges and so on, all with the same orientation. So if you haven’t been checking on groundspeed and time, it’s almost impossible to tell one from another. Such places as King William’s Town, Fort Beaufort, Adelaide, Bedford and Somerset East are pretty much identical to the aerial navigator. Normally a glance at your watch would clarify the matter, but Jeff had thrown out that option when he was backing and forthing above the cloud. The long and short of it is that when he eventually spotted a field and landed, he had

ZS- BWH was Jeff’s green Luscombe.

May 2021

no idea where he was, and the weather was like the inside of a cow. He tied the aeroplane down and walked a short distance to the main road. It wasn’t long before a farmer in a bakkie picked him up and asked where he was going. Now Jeff didn’t want to ruin his big pilot image, he was wearing one of those sheepskin-lined bomber-pilot jackets with the collar turned up against the weather. So he just said, “Into town will be fine.” “Ag ja, man, but where in town?” “Church Street will be great.” That was a pretty safe bet. “Maar waar in Kerkstraat?” But where in Church Street? Jeff had this very British way of

speaking. “Do you know, I’ve completely forgotten the name of the jolly place. Is it the Grand Hotel, or the Royal Hotel, or something like that?” “Ja, it’s the Grand. I’ll just drop you there.” And so Jeff slouched into the hotel, looking more bedraggled than usual. Drops of rain were dribbled down his collar as he leaned on the wall of the tikkie-box and dialled home. Ethne was naturally in something of a tizz. She had expected him home before dark. “Where the bloody hell are you?” she screeched. Jeff tried to fob her off with the story he had told the farmer – that he was at the Grand Hotel – but she knew him better

Fort Beaufort, Adelaide, Bedford, Cookhouse and Somerset EastMay all look 2021 pretty much the same from the air.

There is a Grand Hotel or a Royal Hotel in every country dorpie.

than that. “The Grand Hotel WHERE, you idiot?” “Ah, now you’ve rather got me… you see it’s like this…” “You don’t know where the vok you are, do you? Unbelievable. Well bloody well ask someone.” Now, I know this sounds silly, but you can’t just drip water on the carpet of a country hotel, and accost a passer-by to ask where you are. All you will get is a funny look and a hurrying away of the accostee. Jeff’s money was ticking away in the public phone so he hurried back to inform Ethne that the people wouldn’t tell him where he was. It was at this stage that Ethne banged down the phone and called me to enquire about whether he was a safe pilot. I don’t remember exactly what I told her, but thinking about it afterwards I realized that Jeff wasn’t a bad pilot – he was just Jeff. And Ethne was exactly the right wife for him. She was actually a hell of a lot of fun – when she wasn’t spitting flames. j May 2021

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A SLIM LOGBOOK - JOHAN WALDEN

T HE HA NG A R R AT V OYA GE (PART 3)

Question: Does 200 hours and a commercial licence in

hand automatically make you, a starry-eyed junior comm, confident enough to wield the powers that your beloved ‘Blue-Book’ grants you? EVERY TIME YOU ADD A NEW LICENCE or rating to your repertoire, your examiner rates your “competency” on a six page test form. Every two years, to revalidate your licence you must pass a “maintenance of competency” check flight. Knowing how to fly into a big airport with complicated airspace and a web of taxiways requires ‘theoretical knowledge’ and ‘competence’ according to CAA. But doing it for real with paying passengers and a schedule to keep requires a dash of something not on the test sheets: Confidence – being comfortable in your own skin.

THE DRAGON SLAYER

After forcing a hard look in the mirror, as a CPL student plugging away at exams and building hours in the back garden of his home base, I had to admit, my answer to the above question was a flat 'No'.

Somehow, without causing any burst veins in ATC, we had managed to tiptoe our way through Johannesburg’s maze of no-go airspaces and make it safely to Wonderboom – where the web of taxiways awaited us. We refuelled and then hauled ass southward to Kimberley. Elation pumped through my veins as we shot

Co-pilot Sean and I were sitting in the hotel’s morning shuttle on our way to Upington International – if you could call it that. I’d had the best night’s sleep I’d had in the past four days playing dot-to-dot across South Africa in the Jabiru – probably because we’d conquered ‘the Big One’ – the bee-hive that is Wonderboom Airport in Pretoria. Since leaving Morningstar it had taken us two days to get there in the ‘Jabbi’, cruising at an underwhelming 95kt.

I T LOOK ED L I K E A NOT HER P L A NE T

And that, dear reader, is why we went on the Hangar Rat Voyage.

May 2021

out of Joburg and into the open again. My fingernails were shorter and my butt had chewed a hole in the seat, but we both knew we had slain a big dragon that day, and the worst was over. We’d scratched Kimberley and Upington off the list, and today we were headed for our last destination, Springbok, before flying down the West Coast to home-sweet-home. Tonight we would be sleeping in our own beds again.

HOMEWARD BOUND

PEANUTS AND RAISINS

It was 07h00 and already a bead of sweat rolled down my nose. The temps for the day were set to roast anything under the sun, so I wanted to shove off ASAP. Half expecting to find a pile of shrivelled plastic on the ground, we found the Jabiru had somehow survived the infernal heat and retained its shape to a degree compatible with flight.

With better tailwinds at FL065 I levelled off and flipped on the autopilot – which, for once, would actually function in the smooth air today.

So, at just after 08h00, we waived our goodbyes at the Upington tower while the ‘Jabbi’ laboured back into the heated air for another few hours’ donkey-carting.

Sean’s job, apart from making sure I didn’t do anything stupid, was navigating and updating the flight log as we went. He was a good co-pilot and so far had given me no inclination to throw him overboard. He also possessed this incredible ability to remain perfectly relaxed no matter how crazy things got – a trait I envied. I on the other hand, seemed to

1600nm of experience building. The last day was Upington to Morningstar. May 2021

Our Jabiru retained its shape despite the heat at Upington.

have been born with an extra organ in my body: A little red fluffy monster that let out a piercing scream like a little girl every time I had to do something ‘new and scary’ – like taking on the complexities of Wonderboom. As I crunched a handful of peanuts I looked over at what my partner in crime was up to. He was on his phone in what appeared to be a conference call. When I enquired as to what he was doing, he looked up at me with a surprised expression as if to say ‘Is something wrong?’ and casually said, “Oh, I’m just in a meeting with HR for my new accounting job orientation”. I stared at him and a smile crept over me. The man was perfectly comfortable sitting here at 6500ft while he took a work meeting at his very first accounting job. As one does right?

May 2021

Perhaps I could learn a thing or two from Sean, I thought. FLUFFY-MONSTER The cat up front purred on, and for another hour the Earth rolled by. All we could see was desert ‘non-scenery’, flat as a pancake, stretching out in all directions as far as you could see. Peering forward I could just make out the shape of mountains on the horizon, but that was about it. A while later the landscape changed drastically. We knew the mountains were coming, but it was still a surprise. We found ourselves staring down from our little bubble in the sky onto a Martian landscape, mesmerized by its staggering beauty.

It was like flying over Mars - minus the craters.

Mountains pushed out of the vivid orange landscape all around.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I never had the slightest idea that a place like this existed here. The ground was vivid orange and deep brown rock pushed out, sometimes in long ridges, sometimes as a lone mountain in the middle of nowhere. It looked like another planet – minus the craters.

here yourself. I realized that I was so caught up in the technical aspect of ‘operating’ the aircraft from A to B that I had forgotten why the heck I was here in the first place: I was flying, and it was unlocking one of South Africa’s best-kept secrets right in front of my eyes.

I HA D F OR GOT T EN WHY T HE HE CK I WA S HER E I N T HE F I R S T P L ACE

And the only way to see this place, other than from 35,000ft through a tiny porthole, was to take a little plane and fly

With that realisation my fluffy-monster got tied up with a roll of duct-tape and thrown into the back of a black Mercedes hearse, never to be seen again. May 2021

The Hangar Rat Voyage was a resounding success.

Late that afternoon as we came overhead Morningstar, I saw the windsock flailing in the south-wester across Runway 20 – we were home! As if by fate (though probably by luck) I pulled off the best landing of the whole trip on that runway. Beaming with delight, we inserted the ‘chokkies’ and pulled the covers over the Jabiru for the last time.

May 2021

I declared the Hangar Rat Voyage a resounding success: Not only did it change that answer to a “Yes”, I could excercise the powers of a CPL blue book, but it had also passed on a pearl that neither of us could have ever expected. And that pearl is simply to look out and enjoy the amazing sights we can see through the cockpit window. j

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THE BARON B55 – NOW THAT’S FLYING! Images Garth Calitz and Jason Beamish. Text Guy Leitch

FLIGHT TEST: B55

High operating costs may scare pilots away from light twins, but they give great bang for your buck.

The free market is a wonderful thing. It prices in all the joys and the pains of aircraft ownership. You can buy a hassle free but fundamentally unchallenging Cherokee 6 or Cessna 206 – or for much the same money – you can have a real blast – fly a Baron. 48

May 2021

IN TERMS OF BANG FOR THE BUCK there’s little to beat a Baron. Sure, the twin costs a lot more to operate – but the low acquisition price makes it so very worth it. You can buy a very nice Baron 55 for a lot less than an RV10. Just remember to set aside the change for fuel and maintenance. I have less than 100 hours on the Baron 55 but it gave me some of my best memories. It’s the plane I most aspired to fly as I gathered type ratings, and it didn’t disappoint. With a few hundred hours total time, and a step-up through the delightful Twin Comanche, I was soon comfortable in the left seat of a Baron. Firing up the big grumbly six-cylinder Conti in a Bonnie or 210 is one of flying’s pleasures. Conti’s sound better than Lycomings. When you get into a Baron: Start 1 and then Start 2 = twice the pleasure. The whole plane thrums with 12 cylinders of smooth Continental power chomping at the bit, to haul you to away to distant horizons.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SPECIES In a once every four-year event, and perhaps as a portent of its exclusivity, the Baron first flew on February 29, 1960, which makes it now a distinguished 60 something. Its birth on a leap year day was clearly auspicious as the Baron 55 was the right plane at the right time. In an era when fuel was cheap and the safety advantages of twins was taken for granted, the fast and capable Baron ticked all the boxes. It’s easy to see that the Baron range is directly related to the Bonanza. Yet Beech’s first pass at a light twin, the unlovely Twin Bonanza, with its bulbous cowls and uncool straight tail, missed the mark. Despite its name and appearances, the Twin Bonanza, first flown in 1949, causes confusion in the Baron’s pedigree as it is not a true derivative of the Bonanza. The Baron line is more accurately descended from Beech’s Travel Air twin – which was also a development of the Bonanza.

You could be f orgive n f or t hink ing t hat t he Fr e nch des igne d t he Bar on.

Let me get the demon of operating costs out of the way: If you want to go fast and far, and with a decent load of people, bags, and fuel, the light twin was built to do it. Twins are often used for proper IMC and so get more avionics – and weight. Older airframes with no deice boots, radar, or a well-stocked panel, can handle a family of six, full fuel, and baggage on a four-hour flight with reserves. However, many owners consider the back two seats unsuitable for adults and take out one or both, leaving lots of space for baggage. Think of it as a luxurious four-seater that can do six, at a squeeze.

SA Flyer’s turbo Saratoga is just 10 knots slower than a Baron, but with full tanks it could not haul even three 200lb males with small bags for 500 nm. And if the ‘Togas engine stopped, we only had one option – down.

double rear door.

Just ten years after its birth, the Baron 55 had its big upgrade – a stretched version – creating the Baron 58, which used the longer Bonnie A36 fuselage, with club seating and a

Unlike its smaller competitor, Piper’s Seneca, Beech generally avoided the costs and complexities of turbochargers. Nonetheless, pressurised and turbocharged models were launched in 1976. After years of complaints about the Barons’ big idiosyncrasy in its power lever layout, in 1984 all Barons got an industry standard power quadrant and lost their signature throw-over yokes. Like all GA manufacturers, Beech was hard hit by the tort lawyers with product liability suits and the ‘baby Baron 55’ was discontinued in 1982, followed by the turbo and pressurised Barons. So the youngest Baron 55 is now at least 40 years old. May 2021

ABOVE: The instrument panel works better with the single control yoke. BELOW: Rear baggage door hatch big enough for kids to climb into as two optional back seats. INSERT: Baron 58 has double doors and club seating.

May 2021

ABOVE: The instrument panel - with the very intrusive dual control yoke. BELOW: Cockpit and passenger access is through the right front door only.

May 2021

THE BABY BARON Five seats were available in the earliest 55s, with six becoming the norm by 1962 with the introduction of the A55. Over the years, maximum take-off weight (MTOW) increased incrementally. When the B55 was introduced in 1964, MTOW went from 4,880 pounds to a round 5,000. In 1966, MTOW went up to 5,100 pounds. Useful load is very useful, especially in older models. Typical useful loads are in the range of 1,500 to 2,000 pounds, depending on age and equipment. The second engine gives you redundancy, but it also offers an abundance of power for takeoff, something that translates directly into rate of climb. At typical weights you can expect better than 1,500 fpm at cruise climb to 7,000 feet and around 800 fpm up to 9,500 feet. Beech claimed a maximum climb of around 1,700 fpm from sea level at max take-off weight. The old joke is that in a light twin the second engine is only there to take you to the scene of the accident. But that’s unfair – even for the normally aspirated Baron. With one engine caged, you can still see around 150 fpm climb at 9,000 feet at typical weights of around 4,500 pounds, with two aboard and a little more than half tanks. At sea level and MTOW, the Baron’s maximum single-engine climb is an impressive 350 fpm. I’ve flown singles that can’t do that. But you do need to have your finger out to use that capability.

and climb-out phase, the aircraft will roll inverted. Unlike the turbocharged Senecas, both engines rotate the same way on the Baron, meaning the left engine is the critical one. Barons have a reputation for build quality – and by association strength and solidity. Although Barons are certified in the Normal category, they are stressed to, or beyond, Utility category limits, making for peace of mind. Flight load limits for the B55 are 4.4 positive Gs and 3.0 negative Gs, making it stout for a light twin. YouTube has a Baron 55 performing beautiful aerobatics. The extra strength gives the Baron a relatively high turbulent-air-penetration speed of 156 knots at max weight. BEECHCRAFT ECCENTRICITIES You could be forgiven for thinking that the French designed the Baron. It has some peculiar design features, especially regarding the wing. The leadingedge and the rear portion of the wings attach to the spar by a piano hinge. Another strange feature is that the wings are attached each side to the fuselage by four bolts that act in tension. For this reason, the wing bolts are ridiculously large and require crack-testing every five years and renewing every 15. What’s more, new nuts need to be fitted every time they are disturbed, which is not a cheap exercise.

t he s e cond e ngine is onl y t he r e to t ak e you to t he s ce ne of t he accide nt

Vmca is an absolute no-go zone. Vmca is the minimum speed at which the rudder can handle the asymmetric thrust from one engine. Below Vmca if you are airborne and have an engine failure, particularly in the safety-critical, take-off

May 2021

The lower forward wing-attach bolt forms a pivot point for setting the incidence of the whole wing. Knowing this feature, a well-known President Trophy Air Race winner once had the wing’s angle of incidence changed to give him less drag at high speed.

Despite the age of the design, the Baron still has great ramp presence. The impression of the machine’s solidity and speed are enhanced by its big engines, squat, strong-looking gear and slim fuselage. Just like a Cherokee, the pilot and passengers need to enter through the right front door. Space is tight as the front seats are upright and the footwell is cramped by the centre consol. Closing the door requires leaning into the right seater’s lap to ensure the door is shut properly. The door stay defeats many pax; the door needs to be pushed slightly more open and the stay is manually released from its slot to pull the door closed. The door is secured by rotating the handle anticlockwise to engage the top and

bottom latches. Doors popping the top catch scare passengers. The cockpit is just 42 inches wide, making it 7 inches narrower than the Seneca. But most pilots and pax are happy to rub shoulders in a Baron. If six seats are fitted, access to the rear seats is via the baggage door. This is okay for children. With just four-seats, the large rear door opens to a generous baggage area complementing the nose locker which is capable of holding a hefty 300lb, making for an ideal family touring machine. Fully loaded, the typical 55 can carry a family consisting of a 200lb man with a 150lb wife, two 100lb children and 150lb of baggage in the nose locker and a further 120lb in the aft baggage bay. This allows full tanks totalling 136 USG (515 litres – so work on R10,000 to fill it from empty) , which at an average burn of 24gph and allowing for a 45 minute divert, gives a massive five hours endurance at around 180 KTAS, for 900nm range. Singles are wimpy in comparison. IN THE COCKPIT The 55 and indeed all Beeches, have a very upright seating position. This makes the view out very good. The high instrument panel has three sections. The very deep avionics stack is offset right of centre by the power quadrant. Fortunately, there’s plenty of space to accommodate most avionic wishes, including radar.

The 'Baby Baron' may have six seats, but its really a 4 + 2.

Unless it has the hefty dual control yoke, the 55 will have an old style throw over yoke, which gives clear space in front of the right seater. Beech’s solution to fitting dual controls for training was a huge T-bar which looks large enough to hold the wings on, obscuring most of the lower avionics. May 2021

Trim changes with gear and flap are easy to anticipate.

The cause of many a Baron incident is the order of the engine control levers – from left to right: pitch, power, mixture instead of the standard power, pitch, mixture. The throttles are taller than the prop and mixture levers. Pilots will set the throttles and then move their hand to the right to set the prop rpm. Trouble is - get hold of the mixture levers, which has been known to result in an unwelcome silence.

of sight on the floor between the front seats. The placarding is clear and thankfully lacks ambiguity.

Jim Davis has written up some of the accidents caused by the idiosyncratic power levers – as well as the gear and flap positions. Normally the wheel-shaped gear knob is on the left, flaps on the right, but in the Baron the gear knob is situated to the right. The flap-shaped switch is to the left, in what would be a normal position for the gear switch. Another quirk is electrically operated cowl flaps, unlike the simpler manual ones on the B58.

Early B55s use 260 hp Continental, IO470s so starting does not require the three handed Lycoming dance. Continentals are started with the mixture rich, with plenty of prime – but the pump may not be left on high as the engine floods – often on take-off with the frightening possibility of dual power loss.

The fuel system is a complex four tank setup (compared to the B58 and Seneca’s two), complete with selectable aux main fuel gauge switch to display the desired tank on the singular respective fuel gauges – another recipe for an incident. The fuel cocks are positioned out

May 2021

FLYING THE 55 The left side wall contains the mag switches, – which to confirm you are flying in a proper plane – do not need a key.

Taxying out gives you the feel of a hefty plane. Line up and open the two throttles and the abundance of power is immediately evident. The take-off roll is exciting with the expected right bootful of rudder needed to maintain the centreline. Engine failure while still on the ground means closing the throttles and stopping on the runway. Once airborne, best rate of climb, blue line

speed, is of concern for obstacle clearance. Thanks to sturdy gear, the Baron simplifies the pilot’s job by having the same max take-off and landing weight, meaning that fuel doesn’t need to be burnt off and a quick circuit and landing can be carried out.

trim change is minimal, but the drag is very noticeable. The stall-warning bleats at 90kt, followed by very noticeable buffet at 83kt with the full stall at 80kt indicated. Combinations of gear and flap have little effect on the stall warning, but the stall with full-flap and gear down is 66kt. You get the feeling it will drop a wing if you give it a chance.

it lands mor e lik e a tur bine t han a pis ton s ingle

At a typical light weight you can haul the nose up to see 2,000 fpm. That gets you to circuit altitude before you take a breath. Trimmed hands-off at 23 inches MP and 2300 RPM, the fuel flows are typically 11 USG per engine with 175 KTAS.

Slowing for a clean stall, the attitude change is very noticeable. Trim changes are easy to anticipate and the wheels cycle fast – in less than 5 seconds. With the gear down the

Landing is straight-forward as long as the speed has been nailed. Approach speeds are only slightly higher than those of most high-performance singles, but it lands more like a turbine than a piston single. Establish a landing attitude, watch the airspeed, and you’ve got the recipe for a flattering chirp-chirp arrival. Too much speed and it will float surprisingly far for such a heavy plane.

Nose baggage bay is rated for a very useful 300 lbs. 55 May 2021

The Twin Bonanza was the Baron's less loved forbear.

TO SUM UP Most pilots who have had the pleasure of flying the Bonanza and Baron agree that it’s a vastly rewarding pilot’s aircraft. They are as strong and as solid as they feel, with a very robust landinggear. They are a good, solid instrument flying platform. Passenger comfort is not as bad as one might think in the slender fuselage. Maintenance costs, as with all twins, can be at least double single-engine prices. They are not the easiest aircraft to work on, which considering the age of the design, is hardly surprising.

In times of expensive fuel, twin flying gets less attractive, but if you have a mission for a twin, the Baron is as good as it gets for personal transport. The Baron occupies an unusual place in the aviation universe. It’s a refined plane, with few things not to like about it. That refinement combined with its essential capability and utility along with its blue-blood aviation heritage make the Baron an attractive product sixty years – and counting – after it first took to the skies.

STAYING CURRENT Twins are safer than singles – especially well-flown twins. A piston twin demands to be flown regularly if you are to be current and safely fly with one engine out. To stay ahead of their plane, pilots must regularly practice emergencies. The key is fly by the numbers – just like a real big plane. Flying by the numbers reduces workload and frees the brain to better manage the overall flight. This awareness will in turn help you avoid the most common causes of serious Baron accidents: flying below Vmca, and mixing up the power levers and gear and flaps.

May 2021

Find a Baron-savvy multi-engine instructor to show you the specific combinations of pitch, power and configuration for each phase of flight. Fly it as light as fuel reserves allow to maximize performance. Reducing weight by only 100 pounds will decrease take-off distance noticeably, and improve single-engine climb by as much as 25 percent. Know your plane. Ultimately, it’s the pilot’s command of his steed and knowledge of its systems, and the decisions he makes, that determine the safety of any aircraft type. The Baron is a blast.

Baron B55 - 1970 Specs

Portable Rebate

SPECIFICATIONS Gross Weight:

5,200 LBS

Empty Weight:

3250 LBS

Maximum Payload:

1,950 LBS

Fuel capacity:

136 USG

Engines two Continental:

IO-470

Horsepower:

2 x 260 HP

PERFORMANCE Cruise Speed:

175 KTAS

Best Range (i):

934 NM

Vne:

223 KIAS

Fuel Burn @ 75%:

24.0 GPH

Stall Speed: Gear and Flaps

66 KIAS

Rate of climb:

1,682 FPM

Rate of climb (1 engine):

388 FPM

Ceiling:

19,100 ft

Ceiling (1 engine out):

6,600 ft

Take-off distance:

1,315 ft

Landing distance:

1,237 ft

Take-off distance over 50ft

2,050 ft

Landing distance over 50ft

2,202 ft

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May 2021

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UNIT NO 2, GATE 5 LANSERIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT May 2021

ACCIDENT REPORT: JIM DAVIS

A I R CR A F T AC CI DENT

R EP OR T

• This report is to promote aviation safety and not to establish legal liability. • Unless stated otherwise all times are local (Bravo time) • The CAA’s report contains padding, repetition, poor English and incompetence. So, in the interest of clarity and readability, I have had to correct and paraphrase extensively

SENECA FUEL CROSS FEEDS SYNOPSIS After take-off from Runway 12 the aircraft climbed to approximately 250 ft AGL when the left hand engine RPM suddenly decreased from 2450 rpm to 1500 rpm. The pilot reported that he then advanced both power levers, but the left engine failed completely.

May 2021

AC CI DENT R EP OR T : Aircraft Registration: ZS-KFT Date of Accident: 8 October 2012 Time of Accident: 1146Z Type of Aircraft: Piper-34-200T Type of Operation: Private (Part 91) Pilot-in-command Licence Type: Commercial Age: 20 Licence Valid: Yes Pilot-in-command Flying Experience Total Flying Hours: 531,0 Hours on Type 66,9 Last point of departure: Runway 12 at Bethlehem Aerodrome (FABM). Next point of intended landing: Lanseria International Airport (FALA). Location of the accident site: Panorama residential area, Bethlehem 21’02 /20’10” at 5 561ft AMSL. Met Info Wind: 090˚/11kt; Visibility: 10 km; Temperature: 23˚C; 1/8 Cloud cover. The density altitude was 7 573 ft Number of people on board: 1 + 0 No. of people injured: 0 No. of people killed: 0

He executed a left turn in order to turn back towards the runway and executed a forced landing on an open field at the western side of the aerodrome. The aircraft rolled for approximately 400 metres before it which it went through a ditch and collided with a fence and a street light pole.

The Seneca after ripping off its undercarriage.

The landing gear was substantially damaged during the landing, and the left hand propeller separated from the engine during the impact sequence. The investigation revealed that both the fuel selectors were found in the cross-feed position, this configuration is prohibited in accordance with the flight manual. The pilot did not feather the engine following engine power loss as required by PHO. PROBABLE CAUSE Fuel mismanagement MASS AND BALANCE Aircraft Basic Empty Weight: 2 823 Pilot: 185 Fuel on board: 416 Take-off weight: 3 424 The maximum take-off weight for this aircraft was 4 570 lb.

The fuel was tested and found to be free from any contamination. During the on-site inspection of the cockpit, the propeller pitch levers were found to be full forward. This is inconsistent with the settings of a feathered propeller. It was therefore concluded that the left propeller had not been feathered. The pilot could not explain why it was so. The left Continental TSIO-360-EB, was removed from the wreckage and transported to a maintenance facility. It was not possible to subject the engine to a bench-test procedure, due to the impact damage. An engine teardown inspection was carried out. No anomalies were found that could have prevented the engine or its accessories from operating normally. The fuel system components were benchtested. They were found to meet all the operating requirement limitations as contained May 2021

If the plane had been cleaned up and the gear retracted it could have been safely flown back and landed.

in the manufacturer’s manual and was found operating satisfactorily. Irrespective of the reason for the power loss, the aircraft could still have been flown safely if the pilot feathered the left-hand propellor. The pilot was licensed and current in accordance with existing regulations and had accumulated 39,9 hours on the aircraft within 90 days. He obtained a multi-piston engine rating on the Piper Seneca on 25 February 2012 at total flying hours of 131,3. That would have been the last time that he had completed emergency drills on this aircraft. The pilot did not comply with the emergency procedures for an engine failure during takeoff as stipulated in the pilot’s handbook. However, it cannot be ignored from a human factor’s point of view that due to the aircraft’s height and the inoperative engine, the pilot’s

May 2021

workload had increased substantially, leaving him with no other option than to execute a forced landing. FROM THE POH The fuel selectors are on the floor between the front seats. Each selector has three positions: ON – OFF – X FEED. ON causes each engine to feed from the tanks on its side. X FEED causes the engine to feed from the tanks on the opposite side. OFF shuts off the fuel from a side. If one engine is inoperative the selector for that engine must be in the OFF position when the operative engine is selected to X FEED. Taking-off with both selectors on “crossfeed” is prohibited.

Engine failure during take-off at 85 KIAS or more. (also from the POH) If adequate runway remains CLOSE both throttles immediately, land if airborne, and stop straight ahead.

If runway remaining is inadequate for stopping, decide whether to abort or continue. If decision is made to continue, maintain heading and airspeed, retract landing gear when climb is established and feather inoperative engine prop.

IMMEDIATE ACTIONS: Maintain direction and airspeed above 76 KIAS Mixture controls......................................forward Propeller controls...................................forward Throttle controls......................................forward (40 in Hg max.) Flaps.......................................................retract Gear.......................................................retract To identify inoperative engine: Throttle of inop. engine...........................retard to verify Mixture of inop. engine...........................idle cut-off Prop control of inop. engine...................feather TIDYING UP: Trim........................................................as required Auxiliary fuel pumps...............................OFF (except in case of engine driven-pump failure) Magnetos of inop. engine.......................OFF Cowl flaps...............................................close on inop. engine, as required on operative engine Alternator of inop. engine.......................OFF Electrical load.........................................reduce Fuel management..................................OFF inop. engine, consider crossfeed. Minimum control speed..........................66 KIAS Best S.E. R/C.........................................89 KIAS

JIM’S COMMENTS Where do I start - with the CAA’s incompetence, or the pilot’s? From the report it seems that the investigator simply failed to ask the right questions. The critical part of the flight, between sitting at the threshold, and the left engine losing power at 250 feet AGL, is blank. This means we can only guess at what happened.

The same applies to the bit between losing the engine and hitting the ground. We know nothing about what the pilot did with the undercarriage, the flaps and the windmilling prop - all of which should have grabbed his immediate attention. The best I can do is tell you what seems to have happened, and contrast that with May 2021

what should have happened. Briefly, the pilot seems to have become a very lucky passenger in a crash, and what should have happened is the aircraft should have climbed away comfortably to return for an uneventful single engine landing.

fuel selection shortly before take-off. We can only guess at what the pilot did on the ground - but we know for certain two critical things he failed to do. I’m saying the accident started on the ground, and could have been prevented on the ground.

Let’s go through the flight from the pre-take-off checks to the crash.

Here are the two things he failed to do.

Piper recommends that you test each engine individually on X-feed while taxying. I like the theory, but I have never done it because I have no idea how long the engine will run on the fuel in the pipes at taxi power. So that test seems pretty meaningless unless you have a hell of a long way to taxi. Besides it doesn’t feel good to be changing tanks or fiddling with

He failed to check the fuel selection. Most aircraft will get into the air if that is the only check you do. The Senecas have the simplest fuel system I have ever seen on a twin. Each selector is either ON or OFF or on X-FEED. If you knew nothing about flying a twin - where would you put the selectors for take-off? Not difficult is it? I will explain more about that later.

If you lose power firewall the levers until you can identify the engine which has lost power.

May 2021

And he didn’t brief himself on what he would do if an engine failed. Here is what he should have said - out loud. (We put far more value on instructions that we hear - even if they come from our own mouths.) • If an engine fails - or if I have difficulty keeping straight - while there is usable runway ahead - I will throttle fully back on both engines and stop on the runway ahead. • If there is no usable runway I will: • Fly the aircraft by keeping straight with the rudder, and lower the nose if necessary to maintain at least 76 kts. • Take full power by moving all six power levers fully forward. • Retract the undercarriage. Heavy metal pilots like to do the flaps first in case the aircraft sinks on to the runway. (Light aircraft generally don’t have the inertia for this to be a problem. The undercarriage is a major drag contributor - it’s best to get rid of it asap.) • Retract the flaps • Identify - dead foot = dead engine • Confirm identification by throttling back the suspect engine • Bring the mixture on the dead engine to idle/ cutoff • Feather the dead engine. • I will then use 5 degrees of bank into the dead engine and trim as needed. • Finally I will replan my flight, notify ATC, tidy up - cowl flaps, mags, fuel pumps, alternators, etc.” This may seem like a long list of things to remember at a critical stage of flight. And if you are not current and so suffer from the startle factor, it is indeed a formidable list. But think of it this way, if you can’t run through the immediate actions in less than 15 seconds, you should not be flying a twin. The difference between just flying a light twin, and flying it safely, is largely defined by how you handle that crucial 15 seconds. When you convert to a light twin it’s not just another

type in your license - it’s a massive step that separates a pilot with a professional attitude from the weekend warrior . It’s a very big deal if you are not current. This is when most out-of-practice multi-engine pilots kill all on board. And it is a total nonevent if you are current. When I say current, I don’t mean current on twins - I mean current on EFATO actions. I have seen many accident reports where pilots who have thousands of hours in twins lose control and go inverted soon after an engine fails. You are either current and competent with an EFATO, or you are not. This is no time to scratch your head and try to remember what should do. I advise all twin pilots to sit in the aircraft on the ground and go through those initial actions, up to feathering, time and time again. You will be surprised how quickly, smoothly and safely you can do everything once your muscle memory gets used to it. So, to recap, this guy failed to switch the fuel on and he failed to prepare for an engine failure. If I had been a passenger I would have climbed out before the pilot opened the throttles for take-off. When the left engine lost power at 250 feet, the aeroplane did two things on its own - it turned left - into the dead engine and it lost height rapidly. At this stage the pilot had the presence of mind to level the wings before it ploughed into a field and ran for 400 metres before taking the gear off in a ditch and hitting a lamp post. According to the POH a lightly loaded Seneca will easily land and stop in less than 400 meters - even at that density altitude. This aircraft was very light - 1,146 pounds below gross.

May 2021

The report says nothing about flaps being used for the landing, and the photographs show no signs that they were used. This is a hobby-horse of mine. If you are going to land, or crash, do so at the slowest possible speed. Even a small reduction in speed causes a massive decrease in damage. As the inertia varies with the square of the speed, using flaps can make any crash much more survivable. We don’t know whether the undercarriage was retracted after take-off, but it was found to be extended for the landing. This is worth a bit of consideration. There are two schools of thought on when to retract the undercarriage after takeoff in a light twin.

Either way, this guy should have retracted the gear before he was at 250 ft. And it was certainly down when he landed - so perhaps he wasn’t entirely a passenger. But that immediate left turn - into the dead engine, and the immediate loss of height are exactly what the aeroplane will do on its own if you do nothing. Or perhaps the new young pilot was simply doing the instinctive thing that any low hour, single or multi, pilot tends to do - turn immediately back to the field. There used to be a rule with twins that said never turn into the dead engine, but this is not strictly correct - all asymmetric turns should be gentle, and there is a strong tendency for turns into the dead engine to tighten up and cause a rapid loss of height if you are not careful.

s it in t he air craft on t he gr ound and go t hr ough t hos e init ial ac t ions

The first, suggests that you leave the undercarriage down until there is no more usable runway ahead. This seems eminently sensible - if there’s a problem and you simply throttle everything right back and land straight ahead on the runway.

The second school of thought says - if you have stacks of runway ahead it seems stupid to drag the aeroplane slowly into the sky with the gear hanging out. It’s more energy efficient to pull up the gear once you are clear of the ground and have a positive rate of climb. You can now accelerate and gain height rapidly. If there is an engine failure you have the advantage of a clean aeroplane and plenty of height and airspeed. I use the second option - not because I have any figures on it but - because it just feels right. If an engine fails, I want it to be when the aircraft is clean, accelerating and climbing. I really don’t want it to happen when I have a bag of drag at low speed and low altitude.

May 2021

I see that the CAA’s final comment was that the pilot’s workload had increased substantially, leaving him with no other option than to execute a forced landing. What absolute rubbish. If the aircraft was flown properly it would have had a rate of climb, at that density altitude, of 300 ft/min and a single engine ceiling of 14,000 feet. NEWS FLASH. I’m sitting in a coffee house in Wilderness enjoying the palm trees and a cool breeze off the sea. As I try to tidy up this article I have a Eureka moment - I have just found out why the aircraft crashed. Have a close look at these two photos of Seneca fuel selectors. The one with a hand in it is from the accident aircraft. Spot the difference? The plastic label for the ON position has been broken off. Although the pilot should have been familiar with the forward for ON position, he obviously wasn’t. He had a brain-fart, or possibly worse - a hangover - and simply didn’t have his mind on the job. The rest is history.

What the signage should look like.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN? • A light twin is only slightly more difficult to handle than a single - until an engine fails. It then demands immediate and professional action. • Fuel selection in any aircraft is a life-ordeath thing - it calls for more than casual attention. • Expect an engine failure on EVERY take-off, in any aircraft, and brief yourself for it. • In any emergency the rule is Aviate, Navigate, and Communicate, in that order.

However, the accident aircraft had the 'On' sign broken off.

Aviate means fly the aeroplane no matter what. Navigate means point it in the most intelligent direction. Communicate means tell someone who can help - but only if you have plenty of time. • A turn into the dead engine on a twin must be planned and gentle. • Full flap during any landing will give you a slower touchdown and make it more survivable. • Moving up to a multi calls for moving up in professionalism. j

May 2021

MINI FEATURE - MARK HOLLIDAY : OUTLANDINGS

THE DAY OF T HE Y E AR One of the things about landing out is that you have a lot of time for introspection and analysis. This was most certainly true of a flight I consider my biggest failure.

May 2021

DECEMBER 22 is summer’s longest day and the low cloud over Joburg looked like it was going to burn off quickly, confirming my take on the favourable weather forecast. Haagie pulled out DHI (our trusty old Super Cub) and I was airborne at 10:15 in my fully ballasted ASW27.

The interminable ride to the turnpoint into wind is always greeted with a sigh of relief as you turn downwind on the homeward run. At 15:30 I still had 500 km to go, yet I felt confident thanks to a decent tailwind and the promise of a 16,000 foot cloud-base in the distance.

The task was a 1000 km out and return to a point near Olifantshoek. The day developed quickly and I was soon on my way. The thermals only got strong near Vryburg and the last 100 km into the turnpoint was in the blue; quite nerve-racking as there were no outlanding opportunities for hundreds of kilometres over the scrublands.

A large storm had formed near Sannieshof and the anvil’s shadow produced shade extending all the way home. The air was very turbulent at the top and the lift was hard to centre, so I decided to head for an intense localised storm over Hartebeesfontein in the hope that there may be enough lift to give me a speedy ride home.

As I got closer I recognised the tell-tale signs of dead air around the storm and eventually landed near Buckingham, to record 940 km for my efforts. If only I had dumped my water and flown straight, I am sure I would have gotten home. Lessons: From 16,000 feet (11,000 feet above ground), I had about 1½ hours of gliding time. I could easily have headed to patches of sun in the north to connect with areas of re-cycling lift, instead of wasting time flying 35 degrees off course to a place where the wind was obviously blowing away from the storm. I have often puzzled as to why the outflowing air never created a convergence away from the storm- perhaps it occurs much further away than we think. The turbulence near cloud-base was caused by lateral wind shears and I could have possibly worked them had I been empty, but who wants to discard the energy stored by taking your ballast to cloud-base? Uncle Ivan was my crew and recognised my exhausted state after 8 hours in the cockpit. He insisted on driving my car and trailer home. Lessons: There are many, but the most sage was Ivan’s comment that the drive home is the most dangerous part of the trip. j

Finding the converging air around thuderstorms can be tricky.

May 2021

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APRI L 2021

Above: A welcome new arrival - ZS-AKF, a brand new Challenger 350 for the LA Group.

WHEN I RECEIVED THE AMENDMENTS from the CAA earlier this week I though I wonder what kind of a surprise I’m going to get seeing as last month was really pathetic, numbers wise. This month there are four TCA fixed wing aircraft registered including a brand-new Bombardier BD100. I see the CAA have started to allow people to re-register aircraft and there is one of these this month. One of the aircraft registered, a Navajo has apparently been out of the country for some while and is now back, but nobody knows where it has been. The CAA refusing to supply the owners names is really a pain in the neck. I’d love to know who the new Bombardier is for and who the owners of the other aircraft are. The AS350B3 has returned from working in Burkina Faso. There were no new ZT-R helicopters registered this month. The NTCA side of things continues to grow at a healthy pace, with another ten being registered

May 2021

this month including a rare RV3 and another Gazelle helicopter. There are two Slings included in this lot and I can’t wait for the first High wing Sling to appear. I think this aircraft is going to be a top seller. There were another thirty-eight drones added and six withdrawn from use. We’re bleeding aircraft to the export market and another twelve have been exported to places all over the world, one helicopter was scrapped, and one registration reallocated, this is the one I mentioned above. There have been a couple of accidents which, although they haven’t officially appeared in the amendments, I have included them here, because as you know the CAA simply don’t take aircraft off the register that have crashed. One helicopter has been exported to Argentina. Just as a matter of interest, I was helping a friend with some research this week and he wanted to know how many aircraft there were on the register. This is what I discovered:-

ABOVE: ZS-ATR is an ATR42 exported to Namibia. BELOW MIDDLE: ZU-TAD is a Sling 4 exported to Australia. Photo Ray Watts. BELOW BOTTOM: Another loss - ZS-PRX and sister ship ZS-PTX were Red Cross Air Mercy Service Pilatus PC12s, now exported to Canada. Photo Dave Becker.

May 2021

ABOVE: ZS-CUU, an early model C182, was written-off near Hoedspruit on 4 March 2021. Photo Ray Watts. BELOW: ZS-SRZ is a Beech 1900D exported to Central African Republic as TL-VIC. Photo Dave Becker.

Fixed wing ZS- =

5933

TAIL PIECE

6318

I have to mention the death of Gen Des Barker and Col Rama Iyre in the Patchen Explorer ZS-UGF. This was a great loss to the aviation community and my thoughts and prayers go out to their families. Another loss to the firefighting aviation community was experienced fire spotter Mr Siem Venter who was killed when his C182 crashed near Mariepskop. We’ve had an extraordinary number of accidents this year. Please folks – keep it safe and don’t take chances. j

ZU- =

Total

12251

Helicopters ZS & ZT-R = 1307

ZU- =

Total Grand Total

193 1509 13760

These figures are not totally accurate as the CAA has to remove a lot of the dead wood from the register still.

May 2021

A la Carte Restaurant

Weddings & Spa Conferences

Luxury Accommodation

Bush Picnics Game Drives

MARCH 2021 Reg New Registrations ZS-

Manufacturer

Type Name

Serial number

Previous Identity

ZS-AKF

BOMBADIER INC

BD-100-1A10

20870

C-GOXA

ZS-CCD

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

T210N

210-63231

ZS-MUO, N7443N

ZS-SAO

AEROSPATIALE INDUSTRIES

AS 350 B3

1997

XT-HSB, ZS-SAO, I-AFCN, JA9461

ZS-TKG

PIPER AIRCRAFT CORPORATION

PA-31-325

31-7612066

? …., ZS-CED, ZS-NVP, ZS-XXX, N59856

New Registrations ZUZU-ITX

ANDVENTURE AIR (PTY) LTD

ZENAIR STOL CH 750

AA-705S-003

ZU-ITY

VAN'S AIRCRAFT

RV-3B

11492

ZU-ITZ

SLING AIRCRAFT (PTY) LTD

SLING 2

193

ZU-IUA

MICRO AVIATION SA

BAT HAWK R

0075

ZU-IUC

PETER GOLDSMITH

KFA EXPLORER 2

170-10-15 EXP 2

ZU-KDZ

PAUL ANTHONY APOSTOLITES

BEARHAWK PATROL

55P-119P-120P

ZU-MCP

SHADOW LITE CC

JABIRU J430

969

ZU-ROR

WESTLAND HELICOPTERS LTD

GAZELLE AH MK1

1994

ZU-ROS

DAVID PHILIPPUS KEYSER

EAGLE R&D HELICYLE

6-26

ZU-VRW

THE AIRPLANE FACTORY

SLING 4 TSI

236S

N685ZB, ZB685 (RAF)

Aircraft Deleted ZSZS-ATR

ATR-GIE AVIONS DE TRANSPORT REGIONAL

ATR42

060

NAMIBIA as V5-HCN

ZS-CUU

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

182

182-54072

WRITTEN OFF MARIEPSKOP 4/6/2021

ZS-DVM

CIRRUS DESIGN CORPORATION

SR22

2993

POLAND

ZS-GKS

SCHEMPP-HIRTH FLUGZEUGBAU GMBH

ARCUS M

153

AUSTRALIA

ZS-HIR

ROBINSON HELICOPTER COMPANY

R44 II

12205

SCRAPPED

ZS-LSN

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

152

152-85900

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA as N95470

ZS-MUO

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

T210N

210-63231

RE-ALLOCATION now ZS-CCD

ZS-NXB

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

U206G

U206G-06207

PARAGUAY

ZS-PDC

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

206H

20608222

BOLIVIA

ZS-PLI

ROBINSON HELICOPTER COMPANY

R44 II

11544

AUSTRALIA

ZS-PRX

PILATUS AIRCRAFT LTD

PC-12/47

634

CANADA

ZS-PTX

PILATUS AIRCRAFT LTD

PC-12/47

695

CANADA

ZS-RYD

ROBINSON HELICOPTER COMPANY

R44

1520

ARGENTINIA

ZS-SBM

ROBINSON HELICOPTER COMPANY

R44

12099

WRITTEN OFF XUMABEE BOTSWANA 5/3/2021

ZS-SRZ

BEECH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION

1900D

UE-133

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC as TL-VIC

ZS-UGF

PATCHEN EXPLORER

WRITTEN OFF SWARTKOPS AFB 17/3/2021

ZS-XCH

ATR-GIE AVIONS DE TRANSPORT REGIONAL

ATR72-201

108

HUNGARY

SLING 4

072

AUSTRALIA

206L-4

52355

ARGENTINIA

Aircraft Deleted ZUZU-TAD

THE AIRPLANE FACTORY (PTY) LTD

Aircraft Deleted ZT-R ZT-RCP

BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON CANADA

BONA BONA VIDEO N12 N12 Between Between Klerksdorp Klerksdorp & & Wolmaransstad Wolmaransstad Reservations: +27(0)18 451 1188 Reservations: +27(0)18 451 1188 // 071 071 674 674 9969 9969 info@bonabona.co.za www.bonabona.co.za info@bonabona.co.za www.bonabona.co.za

May 2021

FUEL TABLE www.sv1.co.za Fuel Prices as at 02/03/2021 Fuel Prices as at 02/03/2021

Fuel as as at at 01/04/2021 FuelPrices Prices 01/04/2021

ces i nclude VATexclude but exclude any servi ce fees Pri ces iPri nclude VAT but any servi ce fees Ai rfi eld Avgas Jet A1 Ai rfi eld Avgas Jet A1 Baragwanath R 21,50 Baragwanath R 21,50 Beaufort West R 19,20 R 14,35 BeaufortBethlehem West R 19,20 R 14,35 R 21,97 R 15,62 Bethlehem R 21,97 Bloemfontei n R 17,32 R 15,62 R 10,70 Bloemfontei n R 17,32 Brakpan R 20,50 R 10,70 BrakpanBrits R 20,50 R 16,75 Brits Cape Town R 16,75 R 22,20 R 8,94 Cape Town R 22,20 Eagles Creek R 18,98 R 8,94 Eagles Creek R 18,98 East London R 17,16 R 8,89 Ermelo R 18,64 R 8,89 East London R 17,16 R 21,00 Ermelo Fi santekraal R 18,64 Fly-In R 18,50 Fi santekraal R 21,00 R 20,50 R 13,50 Fly-In Gari ep Dam R 18,50 George R19,20 R 13,50 R10,43 Gari ep Dam R 20,50 Grand Central R 18,40 R 12,31 George R19,20 R10,43 Hei delberg R 18,20 Grand Central R 18,40 R 12,31 Ki mberley R 17,55 R 10,70 Hei delberg R 18,20 Kitty Hawk R 18,70 Ki mberley R 17,55 Klerksdorp R20,98 R 10,70 R14,80 Kitty Hawk R 18,70 Kroonstad R 16,56 R 10,70 Klerksdorp R20,98 Kruger Intl Nelspruit R 19,32 R14,80 R 12,02 Kroonstad R 16,56 Krugersdorp R 19,40 R 10,70 Kruger Intl Nelspruit R 19,32 Lanseri a R 19,21 R 12,02 R 13,46 Krugersdorp R 19,40 Margate R 20,90 R 13,00 R 19,45 R 13,46 Lanseri aMorningstar R 19,21 R 19,70 R 13,00 R 11,65 MargateMosselbay R 20,90

SA Flyer 2021|05

Nelspruit

Oudtshoorn Morningstar Parys Mosselbay Pietermaritzburg Nelspruit Pi etersburg Ci vi l Oudtshoorn Port Alfred Parys Port Elizabeth Pietermaritzburg Potchefstroom Pi etersburg RandCi vi l Port Alfred Robertson Port Elizabeth Rustenberg Potchefstroom Secunda Rand Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect Robertson Springbok Springs Rustenberg SecundaStellenbosch Swellendam Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect Tempe Springbok Springs Thabazimbe Ultimate Heli (Midrand) *** Stellenbosch Upington Swellendam Vereeni gi ng Tempe Vi rgi ni a Thabazimbe Welkom Ultimate *** WiHeli ngs (Midrand) Park EL Upington Witbank Vereeni gi ng Wonderboom Vi rgi ni aWorcester Welkom*** Heli copters only Wi ngs Park EL Witbank

Wonderboom

Worcester *** Heli copters only

Tel: +27 14 576 2522 Ina: +27 82 553 9611 Email: aviation@sv1.co.za Marina: +27 82 924 3015 Co-ordinates: S25°50’37 E27°41’28 76 GPS May 2021 Import/Export no. 21343829

R 18,86

R 17,10 R 19,45 R 19,90 R 19,70 R 19,20 R 18,86 R 16,10 R 17,10 R 21,40 R 19,90 R 20,36 R 19,20 R 19,90 R 16,10 R 19,33 R 21,40 R17,20 R 20,36 R 17,97 R 19,90 R 18,98 R 19,33 R 17,66 R17,20 R 19,20 R 19,20 R 17,97 R 18,50 R 18,98 R 18,00 R 17,66 R 18,58 R 19,20 R 20,40 R 19,20 R 21,10 R 18,50 R 18,03 R 18,00 R 17,88 R 18,58 R 20,36 R 20,40 R 16,56 R 21,10 R 18,50 R 18,03 R 18,26 R 17,88 R 18,16 R 20,36 R 17,40 R 16,56 R 18,50 R 18,26 R 18,16 R 17,40

R 13,00 R 11,19 R 10,32 R 10,12 R 11,70 R 10,70

Pri but exclude anyany serviservi ce fees Prices cesi nclude i ncludeVAT VAT but exclude ce fees Ai rfi eld Avgas Jet A1 Ai rfi eld Avgas Jet A1 Baragwanath R 21,50 Baragwanath R 21,50 Beaufort West R 21,85 R 14,50 Beaufort West R 21,85 R 15,62 R 14,50 Bethlehem R 22,97 Bethlehem R 22,97 R 15,62 Bloemfontei n R 18,76 R 11,00 Bloemfontei n R 18,76 R 11,00 Brakpan R 20,80 Brakpan R 20,80 Brits R 16,75 Brits R 16,75 R 9,51 Cape Town R 22,79 Cape R 22,79 R 9,51 EaglesTown Creek R 22,05 Eagles Creek R 22,05 R 10,04 East London R 18,61 Ermelo R 20,01 East London R 18,61 R 10,04 Fi santekraal R 21,51 Ermelo R 20,01 R 19,50 FiFly-In santekraal R 21,51 Gari ep Dam R 21,50 Fly-In R 19,50 R 14,50 George R19,77 Gari ep Dam R 21,50 R11,03 R 14,50 Grand Central R 18,40 George R19,77 R 12,71 R11,03 Hei delberg R 19,60 Grand Central R 18,40 R 12,71 Ki mberley R 17,34 R 10,49 Hei delberg R 19,60 Kitty Hawk R 19,60 KiKlerksdorp mberley R 17,34 R14,80 R 10,49 R20,13 Kitty Hawk R 19,60 R 12,08 Kroonstad R 19,09 Klerksdorp R20,13 R 12,02 R14,80 Kruger Intl Nelspruit R 19,32 Kroonstad R 19,09 R 12,08 Krugersdorp R 19,60 Kruger R 19,32 R 14,03 R 12,02 Lanseri Intl a Nelspruit R 20,70 Krugersdorp R 19,60 R 14,00 Margate R 22,50 Morningstar R 20,95 Lanseri a R 20,70 R 14,03 Mosselbay R 22,75 Margate R 22,50 R 11,65 R 14,00 Nelspruit R 18,86 Middelburg R 20,70 R 13,05 Oudtshoorn R 17,10 Morningstar R 20,95 R 12,50 Parys R 20,19 Mosselbay R 22,75 R 12,45 R 11,65 Pietermaritzburg R 22,00 Nelspruit R 18,86 R 13,80 R 13,05 Pi etersburg Ci vi l R 18,95 R 11,80 Oudtshoorn R 17,10 R 12,50 Port Alfred R 21,40 Parys R 20,19 R 12,45 Port Elizabeth R 21,27 R 12,48 Pietermaritzburg R 22,00 R 13,80 Potchefstroom R 20,19 R 12,45 PiRand etersburg Ci vi l R 18,95 R 11,80 R 19,87 R 13,49 Port Alfred R 21,40 Robertson R18,50 Port Elizabeth R 21,27 R 13,50 R 12,48 Rustenberg R 18,62 Potchefstroom R 20,19 R 12,19 R 12,45 Secunda R 18,98 Rand R 19,87 R10,21 R 13,49 Skeerpoort *** Customer to collect R 17,95 Robertson R18,50 R13,22 Springbok R 20,50 Springs R 20,50 Rustenberg R 18,62 R 11,50 R 13,50 Stellenbosch R 19,50 Secunda R 18,98 R 12,19 Swellendam *** Customer to collect R 18,90 Skeerpoort R 17,95 R 11,40 R10,21 Tempe R 19,73 Springbok R 20,50 R 11,79 R13,22 Thabazimbe R 20,69 Springs R 20,50 R 12,95 R 11,50 Ultimate Heli (Midrand) *** R 21,39 Stellenbosch R 19,50 R 13,65 Upington R 19,46 R 11,71 Swellendam R 18,90 R 11,40 Vereeni gi ng R 17,88 R 10,32 Tempe R 19,73 R 11,79 Vi rgi ni a R 21,27 R 12,48 Thabazimbe R 20,69 R 12,95 Welkom R 19,09 R 12,08 Ultimate Heli R 21,39 R 13,65 Wi ngs Park EL (Midrand) *** R 21,25 Upington R 19,46 R 11,71 Witbank R 19,50 Vereeni gi ng R 17,88 R 10,21 R 10,32 R 18,45 Wonderboom ViWorcester rgi ni a R 21,27 contact R 12,48 No Welkom R 19,09 R 12,08 *** Heli copters only

R 10,12

Wonderboom

R 13,05 R 10,94 R 11,86 R 11,65 R 12,70 R 13,05 R 11,80

R 10,94 R 11,86 R 12,98 R 12,70 R 11,86 R 11,80 R 13,06 R 12,98 R 13,60 R 11,86 R 12,19 R 13,06 R9,62 R12,07

R 11,50 R 13,60 R 12,19 R 10,00 R9,62 R 11,79 R12,07 R 12,36 R 11,50 R 13,00 R 11,19 R 10,00 R 10,32 R 11,79 R 11,70 R 12,36 R 10,70

Wi ngs Park EL Witbank

Worcester *** Heli copters only

R 21,25 R 19,50 R 18,45 No

R 10,21 contact

SA Flyer 2016|11

• SKEERPOORT • THABAZIMBI • PARYS AIRFIELD • ULTIMATE HELIPORT, MIDRAND • POTCHEFSTROOM AIRPORT

Tel: +27 14 576 2522 Ina: +27 82 553 9611 Email: aviation@sv1.co.za Marina: +27 82 924 3015

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May 2021

Events by PRESIDENTS TROPHY AIR RACE

NEWCASTLE AIRSHOW

20 May – 22 May Ermelo Rob Jonkers 082 804 7032 chairman@sapfa.co.za

5 June Newcastle airﬁeld Contact Johan Pieters E-mail: Johan@champ.co.za Cell: 082 923 0078

EAA AIRVENTURE OSHKOSH

BOTSWANA AIR RACE AND AIR SHOW

26 Jul - 1 Aug Wisconsin, USA

29 July – 31 July Matsieng Gaborone hentie@dwddrilling.com www.botswana-airshow.com

NO SOUTH AFRICAN TRAVELLERS ALLOWED

DRONES AND UNMANNED AVIATION CONFERENCE 24 June - 25 June Emperors Palace Convention Centre Contact Mandaza E-mail: info@12stonereality.co.za

Cell: 063 580 6400

AVIATION AFRICA EXPO 14 & 15 October 2021 Kigali Rwanda www.aviationafrica.aero Alison Weller: alison@accessgroup.aero

Flying in Africa – that’s what we love

May 2021

Flying in Africa that’s what we love!

Middelburg Airweek 2021

©Mike Puzey 2021

Comprehensive airfield information, up-to-date aeronautical data, friendly and efficient customer support, easy Flight Planning, electronic logbook, In-flight Navigation with EasyCockpit, Weather overlays, Weather cams, Events notification ... you have it all.

www.aviationdirect.co.za • info@aviationdirect.co.za • +27 11 465 2669 •May 072 340 994379 2021

GARTH CALITZ: STORY AND IMAGES

AERO CLUB

OF SOUTH AFRI CA

CENTENARY AI R WEEK

MayRaptors 2021 keeping it tight. The

THE GENERAL AVIATION community of South Africa converged on the sleepy Farming and Industrial town of Middelburg in Mpumalanga for the annual Aero Club Air Week. The Aero Club of South Africa was all set to Celebrate their Centenary in 2020, sadly all the planned events were put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic that all but shut down the entire world. Aero Club Chair, Rob Jonkers, was adamant to not let this significant milestone in recreational aviation go uncelebrated. With no clarity on what the future of lockdowns could hold, Rob and his dedicated team went to work to plan and finally realise this gathering of aviators from across the recreational aviation spectrum.

It is a huge releif that aerobatics supremo Nigel Hopkins has managed to keep his Extra 330S in South Africa.

The Balloon and Airship Association BAFSA along with the Powered Para-glider Pilots entertained the early birds with a display of their flying skills. Bill Harrop, veteran Balloon pilot managed to make the local newspaper when he made a perfect landing on the Middelburg school rugby field after a flight from the airfield.

reminded them of the legendar y Ma r g a t e E A A conventions of t he 199 0’s

Friday 23 April was set aside for arrivals and the first aircraft started arriving as early as 7:00 am and the trend continued throughout the day with many old friends meeting up for the first time in a long time. The Experimental Aircraft Association of South Africa (EAA) decided to “piggyback” on the Air Week and hold their annual convention on the same weekend, effectively cutting the cost for both the Aero Club and EAA. Preserving planes and having fun camping under the wing of an ex SAAF Albatross.

The Sports Aerobatic Club made a concerted effort to promote their sport at the Air Week by having display sequences of all the classes of aerobatics classes contested in South Africa. Ivan van der Schaar displayed a Graduate sequence in his Stearman. Trevor Warner showed what a RV/ Sportsman class pilot could expect, followed by Jason Beamish with an Intermediate sequence. Andrew Blackwood Murray and Kale Woole in turn performed Advanced class sequences. The highlight for the airshow starved public was Nigel Hopkins displaying what it takes to compete at Unlimited class and for good measure he threw in a 4 minute freestyle sequence. Rise Above Aviators the former Aero Club Transformation and development section spent the weekend enthusiastically introducing the youth of Middelburg to the wonderful world of aviation and even managed to take some of the wide eyed youngsters for a quick flight. May 2021

ABOVE:Flying the flag - the Puma Flying Lions. BELOW: Bill Harrop - a ballooning institution in SA.

May 2021

Skills aplenty in precision 13 ship RV formation.

Great turnout of Bat Hawks in honour of recently deceased Andrew Pappas.

The high pace of the weekend was stepped up a notch or two when three of the leading Aerobatics teams, representing Airshow South Africa (ASSA), performed their “airshow” displays. The Puma Energy Flying Lions, Goodyear Eagles and The RV Raptor formations were able to perform without a full-blown airshow authority being issued as they all operate under their own AOC’s. In a fitting tribute to the late Andrew Pappas a perfect thirteen ship RV formation was put in the air, they performed a spectacular break followed by four aircraft returning to do a missing man formation to honour the founder of the Bat Hawk light aircraft.

It's not a Tiger Moth - the Stampe-Vertongen SV.

The South African Power Flight Association (SAPFA) organised a Speed Rally for the Tuesday, which was a public holiday, to showcase their offerings. Unfortunately, most of the visitors did not stay to enjoy the rally as they departed on Sunday. Many of the visiting pilots claimed that this Air Week reminded them of the legendary Margate EAA conventions of the 1990’s, it is estimated that up to 170 aircraft had come and gone over the duration of the Airweek making this the most well attended event in recent history.

Balloons and Paragliders started the weekend's flying each day.

Well done to Rob and his team for putting together a wonderful event under very uncertain and difficult circumstances. Middelburg Aero Club graciously made their facilities available to the Aero Club on very short notice and were an outstanding host, truly making this event one for the record books. It’s great to see the spirit of flying burning so strongly. j

May 2021

Aircraft Registration: ZS-NUY Aircraft Make and Type: Cessna T210M Year Model: 1978 Airframe Hours: 4646.3 Engine Type and Hours: TSIO-520-R TT: 2119.7 SMOH: 1072.9 (TBO 1600) Prop type and Hours: McCauley TT: 1072.8 (140.7 since O/H) Avionics and other equipment: Garmin GMA - 340 Audio panel intercom Garmin Aera 500 GPS Bendix King kx 155 tso Nav/ Comm (Comm1 and VOR) Bendix King kx 165 tso Nav/ Comm (Comm2 and VOR) Garmin GTX 330 Transponder Navomatic 400B autopilot WX - 900 Stormscope Viewing Location: FAGG

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May 2021

AVIATION

INSURANCE

FEATURE

May 2021

Introduction

INTRODUCTION The African aviation insurance market is undergoing a period of profound transformation which represents a fantastic opportunity for those ready to take advantage of the market changes. A recent McKinsey report notes that prior to the impact of COVID-19, the insurance market was expected to grow at compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) of 7 percent per annum between 2020 and 2025, nearly twice as fast as North America, over three times that of Europe, and better than Asia’s 6 percent. Africa’s insurance industry is valued at about $68 billion and is the eighth largest in the world—although this is not equally distributed across the continent. Markets are inconsistent in terms of size, mix, growth, and degree of consolidation, with 91 percent of premiums concentrated in just ten countries. As the market resolves into a post-Covid “newnormal” it is those insurers and brokers who have positioned themselves best who will come to dominate the new normal. This will require pro-active marketing.

May 2021

This introduction outlines the current state of the diverse African insurance market and the trends that are shaping it, and articulates five imperatives for achieving success on the continent. A strategic approach that takes into account the unique characteristics of African markets and looks to collaborate with regulators to drive reform and safeguard consumers could unlock significant value not just for industry players but for society more broadly at this critical time. GROWTH POTENTIAL The African insurance market’s immaturity points to significant scope for growth. There are six primary insurance regions in Africa with South Africa constituting around 70 percent of premiums.

Af r ic a’s insurance industr y is valued at about $68 billion

With the continent now battling the novel coronavirus, McKinsey’s modelling in South Africa and recently published financial results across the continent indicate that these projections are likely to take a knock over the next three years. The pandemic is profoundly affecting both lives and livelihoods, and consumers are cutting back on discretionary expenditure—including insurance—in the face of income and market volatility. However, this impact is expected to delay rather than alter

the pattern and potential of future growth. And in some cases, the crisis may accelerate existing trends—notably the shift toward digital and remote channels, which has the potential to offer new opportunities to both insurers and consumers.

The level of maturity in these six regions is low, relative to global reference countries, as measured by insurance density (premium per capita). While most African countries have experienced double-digit insurance growth in CAGR in local currency over the last five years, this has mostly been driven by economic growth, rather than deepening market penetration. Levels of insurance penetration in Africa are half the world average measured as a percentage of GDP, and premiums per capita are 11-fold lower than the world average. This points to significant scope for growth. Across the continent, distribution channels

also vary by region as well as between life and nonlife products. Brokers and agents remain the most prominent channels, although direct sales and bancassurance have increased their share. For example, in the Ghanaian life-insurance market, the bancassurance share of premiums has almost doubled from 7 percent in 2015 to 13 percent in 2019. Ensuring long-term growth prospects through Pan-Africanization In the past six years, established insurers have tended to diversify across the continent. And expansion is likely to continue with further investment in Africa. While regional players will possibly benefit from greater integration as a result of expansion, for international players such as Sanlam, Allianz, Old Mutual, and AXA, the primary goal is to capture long-term growth. Sanlam, for example, has, through the purchase of Saham, gained a foothold in more than half of all African countries, and a top five position in six markets outside of South Africa, while Allianz

has made acquisitions in Morocco, Nigeria, and, more recently, Kenya. French multinational AXA has a presence in nine African countries, while Old Mutual has a presence in 13 African markets. CONCLUSION The global pandemic has created uncertainty and economic pressure across the continent, but the fundamentals for insurance growth remain solid. Now is the time to think more deeply about refining a strategic approach that leverages partnerships and is selective about which geographies to target while driving innovation across products and channels, expanding services, and upskilling the workforce. Assisted by these choices, insurers will be strongly positioned to take advantage of the vast—and underpenetrated—African markets, helping to unlock greater security for consumers and contributing to social and economic security on the continent. j

Your Asset – Our Highest Priority Azriel Aviation Africa, specialist Aviation Underwriting Managers, in partnership with Constantia Insurance Group, forms a powerhouse in the Aviation, Short-Term and Life Insurance markets.

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AVIATION AFRICA

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May 2021

Property and Aviation Insurance Brokers (PAIB) are your Aviation specialists • We are aviators , PPL licensed and CPL subject qualified since 2004. • We understand the liability, risk, technicalities and CAA requirements facing our aviators in South Africa. Move to a Broker who is a pilot and understands your requirements. PAIB is an Authorised financial service provider 13367 offering cover with all major underwriters. j

paulcormack@propertyinsurancebrokers.co.za

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May 2021

SA Flyer 2021|05

Companies

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AVIATION INSURANCE

TO MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS

ith more than 50 years of experience, Genesis Insurance Brokers has established itself as one of South Africa’s leading aviation insurance Brokers. Our expertise and commitment ensure you can always count on us when you need it most. We understand that every risk is unique, which is why we make use of multiple Insurers to ensure that you get the best deal, and that every aspect of your risk is adequately covered. Contact us today for an obligation free quote to insure your Aircraft. T: +27 11 789 7845 | E: info@genesisib.co.za W: www.genesisib.co.za

Genesis Insurance Brokers is an authorised financial services provider (FSP 14995)

May 2021

Companies

DJA Aviation DJA Aviation was formed over 40 years ago by Dennis Jankelow and to this day remains South Africa’s foremost specialist aviation insurance brokerage, offering the greatest concentration of aviation insurance experience and expertise on the African continent and continuing to lead the market in the areas of product innovation and technical development. DJA Aviation creates aviation insurance programmes for its clients that are perfectly balanced in the critical areas of cost, coverage, service and security. In addition, DJA Aviation’s long-standing and close relationships with the insurers who underwrite its products – locally, regionally and internationally – ensure that a DJA Aviation client is in the best possible hands when losses occur. DJA Aviation is an authorised Lloyd’s correspondent and has conducted aviation insurance business at Lloyd’s for more than 40 years, a relationship that is strengthened by regular visits to the Lloyd’s market by DJA Aviation’s key personnel. DJA Aviation is an Authorised Financial Service Provider (FSP No 15808) and a proud member of the iCapital Group. DJA Aviation’s social responsibility programme includes on-going support for the South African Guide Dogs Association for the Blind.

Contact DJA Aviation on: Tel: 0800FLYING (0800 359-464) Email: mail@dja-aviation.co.za Website: www.dja-aviation.co.za

May 2021

RAND

AIRPORT

REVIEW

May 2021

Introduction

Rand Airport

– 91 years old

Despite its age there is plenty of life in the Grand Old Lady that is Rand Airport. RAND AIRPORT IS NOW OVER 91 years old but thanks to the steady demand for training and regional flying still has had over 50,000 aircraft movements in 2020. In its ninety-year plus history, the airport has seen grand times and great moments. To some it may seem like its glory days are past – but to others it is still Rand’s central airport and a key transport node for Gauteng. The aeroplane shaped terminal building’s art deco architecture has qualified the building to be a national monument. But it is not just a musty monument to a bygone age of flying. There is a lot of life left in the old girl yet, and savvy entrepreneurs have recognised the potential.

for those aircraft owners who live in northern suburbs. For those coming from the north and west there is an off-ramp and plans for an onramp onto the N3 from Rand Airport Road, which will make access even quicker and more convenient. A number of projects to develop the airport and its surrounding land are currently under construction. The current growth proposals recognise that Rand Airport’s existing infrastructure can easily be combined with future projects (offering office space, an industrial park, shopping and hotel facilities) due to the large amount of available land belonging to the airport and the airport’s prime position. It has the potential to become an integrated Airport Park.

The airpor t has proven to be a tremendous invest ment for its owners

The most intriguing new opportunity is that by the airport’s local authority, the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. Ekurhuleni continues to promote an ‘Aerotropolis’ that recognises the central location of Rand Airport and its proximity to OR Tambo International. The airport is also very well located near the centre of the Witwatersrand’s network of highways, and in particular the country’s rail network. The recent highway upgrade makes it convenient, even

May 2021

Rand is a busy airport. It hosts air charter operators, flying schools and a number of aircraft maintenance organisations, as well as pilot shops, car hire and other enterprises. The ownership consortium has embarked on a revamp campaign, emphasising; “It has the potential to become the complete integrated Airport Park,” which will include hotels, shops and an industrial park.

The airport also hosts a large annual air show which plays a vital role in making aviation accessible to the masses, particularly the underprivileged. Rand has become the home of most recreational flyers as access to hangars is considerably easier than at other large Gauteng airports. Rand is currently undergoing a financial valuation exercise. The airport has proven to be a tremendous investment for its owners with some suggesting the initial R18 million purchase price might today have been transformed into a value of well over R500 million. The ownership structure of the airport is unique in that all the hangars are owned with full freehold title. When the airport was sold in 2000 some of the hangar tenants elected` not to buy their hangars and so these are owned by the Airport Holding company and are let to tenants, providing

essential long term income for the management and up keep of the facilities. Over the past 21 years the ownership of the airport has been remarkably steady a testimony to how well the original ownership structure was conceived and assembled. There were originally 23 private shareholders in 2000 and there has been very little change. Most of the sales have been taken up by existing owners. There has been a small consolidation to the current 19 owners (plus the Mayondo BBBEE consortium and Ekuhekleni Town Council). Hangar space is plentiful, and the airport still has much room for building. The runway and infrastructure have been maintained in excellent condition by General Manager Stuart Coetzee and his team. The airport features a top class air traffic management capability which makes it safe and a popular choice for flight training schools. j

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

May 2021

Companies

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

We offer a wide range of services for aircraft owners and general industry, and through our partnership with Mistral Aviation Services, we can offer engineering and NTD services. We look forward to the future with a range of innovative services to continue servicing the aircraft industry. Tel: 011 827 7535 Email: petasus@mweb.co.za

AEROSPACE ELEC

Our processes are approved by SACAA, Denel, Airbus Europe, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney and Allison Doil.

AMO 5

For all your SACAA approved

AEROSPACE ELECTROPLATING

Cadmium Plate in Gold, Silver or Clear Passivation

AMO 506

Hard Chrome

For all yourAMO SACAA506 approved

r all your SACAA approved plating requirements

Hard Silver Plate

Cadmium Plat Clear Passiva

Electroless Nickel

Hard Chrome Black Phosphating For all your SACAA approved plating requirements Hard Pl We are situated at 3Silver 0B, Build Phosphating Hard Copper Plate

plating requirements

Anodising in Grey, Red or Black

Alodine

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

Call Des on 011 827 7535 oNi r 0 Electroless Cadmium Plate in Gold or or Peter on 081 775 2434 or 0 Silver Passivation Hard aCopper For all your Aircraft nd AlliedP Hard Chrome Anodising in G Hard Silver Plate

Electroless Nickel Hard Copper Plate

Phosphating

Anodising in Grey, Red or Black Black Phosphating Phosphating

SA Flyer 2021|05

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

Black Phosph

We are situated at 30B, Building 98, Rand Airport. Next to Fields Airm Call Des on 011 827 7535 or 063 150 1533 94 May 2021 or Peter on 081 775 2434 or 083 208 7244

AVIATION REBUILDERS AVIATION REBUILDERS is an SACAA approved category B and X5 Aircraft Maintenance Organisation, number AMO 188, based in the Showroom at Rand Airport, Germiston. Established in 1997, Aviation Rebuilders is your competitive and reliable option for all your sheet metal, welding and flight control cable assembly requirements. Our enthusiastic team is always keen to tackle any challenge. We boast a fully equipped sheet metal repair facility, which in the capable hands of our highly experienced technicians provides excellent quality and turn-around times for your maintenance requirements. Aviation Rebuilders is also able to offer the assembly of wire rope flight control cable assemblies to

sample or specification with the offering of all the standard Mil-Spec stainless steel cable and fittings from 1/16” to 3/16”. Another specialty offered by Aviation Rebuilders is our welding facility, offering weld repairs using TIG methods to aluminium alloys, carbon steel and corrosion and heat resistant steels. Contact Aviation Rebuilders on: Tel: +27 (0)11 827-2491 Cell: +27 (0)82 872-4117 Email: lyn@aviationrebuilders.com

SA CAA AMO 188

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

VISIT THE SHOWROOM @ RAND AIRPORT, GERMISTON

011 827 2491

082 872 4117

FAX

THANK YOU TO OUR CUSTOMERS FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT May 2021

Companies

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

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

HELI-AFRIQUE HELI-AFRIQUE’S MISSION is to support the clients needs in keeping the helicopter serviceability to a maximum at all times 24/7 365 days a year. Heli-Afrique specializes in general helicopter maintenance, upgrades, repairs, interior and exterior refurbishment and modifications, specialising in the Airbus Helicopter SA341, H125 (AS350/355 series), H120 (EC 120), H130 (EC 130), H135 (EC 135 series), BO105 and BK117 helicopters, also carries out first and second line maintenance of TURBOMECA, Allison and Lycoming Engines as installed in above helicopters, and holds a service centre for Robinson R22 & R44 helicopters. Maintenance is in no way limited to the facility at Rand Airport, ‘Heli-Afrique’ is willing and can travel throughout Africa to support any of the above helicopters and/or the world to

May 2021

accommodate client’s needs that have South African registered helicopters. ‘Heli-Afrique’ can travel worldwide to carry out inspections, carry out C of Registration, Airworthiness formalities and have assistance from SACAA Inspectors to issue Certificates of Airworthiness and Certificates of Registration from abroad in foreign countries, thereby, eliminating the high cost of imports, shipping downtime to South Africa and the cost of ferry flights to the contract countries. ‘Heli-Afrique’ facilitates the sale of used helicopters, carry out export/import, customs and shipping formalities As an added service ‘HeliAfrique’ will perform pre-purchase inspections of helicopters no matter where in the world the helicopter are located. At their facility at Rand Airport, Heli-Afrique holds

YOUR ONE STOP SHOP FOR ANYTHING NEEDED IN THE LIGHT AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY.

a large range of spares inventory for the abovementioned helicopters and engines and can also supply spares, components and engine modules for helicopter engines thru our established overseas supplier network. Adjacent to their ‘state of the art’ facility at Rand Airport, ‘Heli-Afrique’ owns a large hangar dedicated to helicopter and light aircraft hangarage which includes a cleaning service, will ensure a hangared aircraft is completely prepared for flight on 24 hour prior notice.

We are able to help customers with an array of “hard to find” items which we import according to their requirements. We are distributors of Aeroshell and stock a wide selection of oil and grease. We also carry alclad, tires, tubes, hose, 4130 tubing, aircraft sheet metal, bolts, nuts, rivets, air filters, oil filters, spark plugs, aircraft logbooks etc.

Contact us for all your needs as we are the proven alternate ‘AMO’ to Airbus Helicopters and TURBOMECA in Southern Africa with the resources and support from overseas suppliers to back ‘Heli-Afrique’.j

SA Flyer 2021|05

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

www.acgs.co.za

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

HELI AFRIQUE – WE HAVE 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN THE BUSINESS. We specialise in general helicopter maintenance, upgrades, modifications, repairs, interior and exterior refurbishment. • • • • • • •

SA341 AS350/ 355 series EC120/130/135 series BO105 series McDonald Douglas Robinson R22/R44 Hagarage service available

SAF 08 | 2011

First and second line maintenance on Turbomecca, Allison and Lycoming engines.

Hangar 56, 10 Viking Way, Rand Airport Tel: 011 827 8632  Fax: 086 503 1870  Tino: 083 458 2172 Email: technical@heli-afrique.co.za and info@heli-afrique.co.za



Office: 083 446 0066

May 2021

SA Flyer 2021|05

CAA approvals : SACAA # 830, Republic of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho

Companies

DART AERONAUTICAL Dart Aeronautical was established in 2006 and is situated at Rand Airport. We are committed to providing excellent service with the highest technical standard, not only locally, but to surrounding airfields as well. This division is headed up by Jaco Kelly and Pieter Viljoen. The team of 15 specialises in all aircraft types ranging from homebuilt to DC9 aircraft.

Instruments, Airtex, S-Tec etc. Our ability to purchase directly ensures our completeness and that our customers receive value for money without any reduction in quality and safety. We carry a wide variety of serviceable units in store that can be used as loaners while working on a customer’s unit or that can be purchased or exchanged.

We are market leaders in instrument and instrument panel refurbishments, which include the use of aircraft approved paint, router cutting and laser engraving.

Contact Pieter Viljoen on:

Dart Aeronautical is an agent for all major equipment suppliers such as Garmin, Mid Continent, Bendix-King, Sigma Tek, JP

Website: www.dartaero.co.za

Tel: +27 11-827-8204 Cell: +27 83-652-4421 Email: pieterviljoen@mweb.co.za

DART AIRCRAFT ELECTRICAL Building on the success of Dart Aeronautical and M&D Aircraft Electrical, Dart Aircraft Electrical has now established itself as a leading aircraft electrical shop in the Gauteng Area situated at Rand Airport.

Aeronautical House at Rand Airport.

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

• Alternators

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

• Aircraft electrical wiring installation and repairs

Sharing the premises with Dart Aeronautical, DAE is located on the ground floor of

May 2021

DAE will be able to sell, overhaul, service and repair the following: • Starters • Fuel Pumps • Magnetos • Strobe Boxes

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

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

GI 275

Attitude Indicator (AI/ADI)DART AERON

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

GFC 600 New Garmin Autopilot Options

GFC 600 GFC 500

G 5

N G A O

® E NC A FIN IONS T E OP ABL E AIL AV QUIR ! EN OW 99 N May 2021

Companies

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

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

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

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

•

Alternators

•

Fuel Pumps

•

Magnetos

•

Strobe Boxes

•

Aircraft electrical wiring installation and repairs

•

Electronic components

DSIGN & FA B R I C AT I O N

•

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May 2021

“Dsign & Fabrication was born from “a creative” with a passion for design, development and the construction of novel solutions.”

What we offer: - Kitchens / Bars - Custom Furniture - Construction - Built-in Cupboards - Branding Dale Scrimgeour 082 302 9820 Megan Scrimgeour 082 462 2692

- Shopﬁtting - Point Of Sale - Green Screens - Events & Stages - Exhibition Stands info@designfab.co.za Rand Airport, Hanger B9, Airport Park, Germiston 1419

DSIGN & FABRICATION Dsign & Fabrication was born from “a creative” with a passion for design, development and the construction of novel solutions in the residential, marketing, events and exhibition sphere. The company fledged in 2017 as a one man band which subsequently grew into a team of twelve with approximately 50 years of experience collectively. A squad of draftsmen, carpenters, welders, metal workers and designers who pride themselves in quality and perfection, the go to team to transform dreams and designs into reality.

fittings, Dsign & Fabrication can do it all.

A medium sized company with a wellknit crew, employed on a long term basis, Dsign & Fabrication provides you with safe and reliable solutions. From manufacturing customs pieces and designs, specialised carpentry, restoring and refurbishing work and home spaces to mall activations and shop

We are social: https://www.facebook.com/ DsignAndFabrication/ https://www.instagram.com/dsign.and. fabrication/?hl=en j

An innovative force that not only exceeds your fabrication needs but respects the climate we all face at present. Safety and hygiene standards are paramount. Pivoting is a skill that any entrepreneur and successful business has to master, with Covid proving to be the ultimate test . South Africans are known for their grit and ingenuity and Dsign & Fabrication is just that, South African.

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

Dynamic Propellers’ repair services are performed both in-house in a state of the art aviation engineering workshop, or in the field. Highly skilled engineers will travel domestically or to neighbouring countries and abroad to cater for customers’ propeller requirements. Dynamic Propellers is an SACAA Authorised Service Centre, AMO 1150, and is the sole McCauley Authorised Service Centre for the African continent. Contact Details: Pero Visser Tel: +27 79 492 0592 Email: pero@dynamicpropeller.co.za Andries Visser Tel: +27 82 445 4496 Email: andries@dynamicpropeller.co.za

May 2021

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Companies

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

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

Everything is performed in-house, including cold compression rolling on Hartzell propeller blades, as well as dynamic balancing of propellers in the field. Dynamic Propellers cc is an Authorised Service Centre for MT-

SA Flyer 2021|05

E-mail: andries@dynamicpropeller.co.za pero@dynamicpropeller.co.za Tel: +27 11 824 5057 Fax2mail: 086 548 2651 Pero: 079 492 0592 Andries: 082 445 4496 100

www.dynamicpropellers.co.za

95 75

25 5 0

info@eliteaa.co.za www.eliteaa.co.za (011) 824 3804 Rand Airport Main Teminal Building CAA0400

Elite Aviation Open Day will be announces on our facebook page

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PPL CPL Night Rating Instrument Rating Instructor Rating

Turbo Prop/Jet Rating Type Rating Class Rating Radio Licence Exam Test Centre

ELITE AVIATION ACADEMY Elite Aviation Academy is situated in the Main terminal building of Rand Airport. Building on its rich aviation history, Elite Aviation Academy will also offer a series of foreign student exchange programmes.

• • • • •

Elite Aviation Academy currently operates the following fleet of well-presented and maintained aircraft: • 3 x PA28-181 Archer • 2 x PA28-161 Warrior • 5 x Cessna 172 • 1 x PA28-200R Arrow • 1 x BE 55 (285 hp) Barron

The school is accredited to conduct the following training: • PPL • Night Rating • Instrument rating • Multi engine training • Airline transport pilot licence • Instructors GR III, GR II and GR I • Turbo prop and Jet conversions

Elite Aviation Academy cater for all the following scope of training: • PPL overage training • Night flight rating • Instrument rating

Instructors rating Multi-engine rating ATPL preparation Alternate instrument renewal Alternate ATPL Renewal

Tel: (011) 824 3804 Email: info@eliteaa.co.za Website: www.eliteaa.co.za

PILATUS PC-12 CENTRE As one of a global network of Pilatus authorised independent sales and service centres, Pilatus PC-12 Centre Southern Africa (PCSA) is the official distributor for Pilatus aircraft in the region and the only such centre in Africa. Officially opened in 2007, Pilatus PC-12 centre has celebrated a decade of providing unmatched servicing and sales support to the Pilatus brand from its base at hangars 41 and 42 at Rand Airport. With a team of dedicated, highly qualified and competent staff members whose focus is to provide an all-round holistic sales and maintenance support experience for its customers. Nobody knows Pilatus aircraft like PCSA and at the same time the company strives to know its customers just as well.

PCSA supports an ever-growing fleet of more than 85 Pilatus PC-6, PC-12 & PC-24 aircraft in the African region. The company strives to maintain Pilatus’ intense focus on postsale maintenance support, where customers are served locally through strong personal relationships and backed by knowledge and technical support from the Pilatus factory. Pilatus PC-12 Centre Southern Africa (PTY) Ltd Hangar 41 and 42, Rand Airport, Germiston South Africa Tel: +27 (0) 11 383 0800 Cell: +27 (0) 82 511 7312 Fax: +27 (0) 11 824 0884 www.pilatuscentre.co.za j May 2021

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Companies

For all your Avionic, Electrical and Installation needs Flyonics (Pty) Ltd offer a premium service specializing in:

Avionics Design and Modification Servicing and Installations Certification projects Repairs Maintenance Consultation Our latest installation included a Bell 206L-1 upgrade completing a new Look and increased performance standard Installed in the Bell206L-1: L3 ESI-500 Electronic Standby Instrument Trig TY96A Radio Avidyne IFD440 FMS/GPS/COM/NAV Avidyne AXP322 ADS-B Out Transponder Avidyne AMX240 Audio Panel Aspen EFD1000H Pro PFD Our complete range of aviation products and highly experienced team offer a superior service to the Aviation industry Our Reputation precedes us, and we offer references from our ever-growing list of customers CONTACT MICHAEL KARAOLIS | MOBILE: 082 686 2374 | EMAIL: MICHAEL@FLYONICS.CO.ZA | WEBSITE: WWW.FLYONICS.CO.ZA | SACAA AMO 1421, HANGAR 30, RAND AIRPORT, VIKING WAY, GERMISTON

CONTACT: Chantal Du Plessis +27 61 508 3356 104

May 2021

BUMPPPFFF:

Progress.

Deflated Mango at Shoprite check out.

Looks good - Bye Aerospace's new all-electric eFlyer.

May 2021

105

E L A

L VI

INCOME PRODUCING: RATED EXCEPTIONAL 9.7 ON BOOKING .COM

FOR SALE: R7,995,000.00

100 Dorries Drive, Simon’s Town, Cape Town:

FEATURES: • Chef’s Kitchen • Open Plan living area • All on one level • 3 sea view bedrooms • Walk in cold room • Separate Scullery • Double Garage • 4 open parking bays • Back up water tanks • x3 studio flats downstairs

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Simon’s Town, Cape Town

The villa boasts breathtaking views overlooking False Bay and Roman Rock Lighthouse. The main living areas and two of the bedrooms have large sliding glass doors opening onto an expansive sea facing deck.

Contact: Nicola +27 83 449 5868 | nicola@penguinpalace.co.za

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation Edition 150 | May 2021

Darren Olivier – The Sixth Generation Fighter

The DTIC's AEROSPACE

INDUSTRY SUPPORT INITIATIVE: getting much done from little

BRIEFING – Airline Partnerships and Alliances

AIR AUSTRAL’S

JOSEPH MARIE MALE the dtic

Department: Trade, Industry and Competition REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

FlightCom Magazine

the dtic

AMO 227

FLIGHT SAFETY THROUGH MAINTENANCE

Overhaul / Shockload / Repair of Continental and Lycoming Aircraft engines

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

SA Flyer 2021|04

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

Better solutions and services for your World. From state-of-the-art trip support to payment card programmes and reliable into plane fuel delivery, MH Aviation Services, based in Johannesburg, is Africa’s most innovative aviation services partner. Join the 8,200 flight departments who depend on our bespoke global solutions and local expertise to take their success to new heights. Fuel | Trip Support | Card and Reward Programmes | Logistics | Planning

Discover our Flight Operation Solutions 24/7 Support: +27 82 940 5437 Office: +27 11 609 0123 tsopsafrica@wfscorp.com mhaviation.co.za

CONTENTS

TABLE OF

Publisher Flyer and Aviation Publications cc Managing Editor Guy Leitch guy@flightcommag.com Advertising Sales Wayne Wilson wayne@saflyermag.co.za Layout & Design Emily-Jane Kinnear Patrick Tillman

MAY 2021 EDITION 150

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

06 12 16 19 20 24 25 26 30 36 38

Aerospace: Support Initiative Airline Partnerships Bush Pilot - Hugh Pryor AME Directory Airline Ops - Mike Gough Starlite Directory Atlas Oil Charter Directory Face to Face - CEO of Air Austral Defence - Darren Olivier AEP AMO Listing Backpage Directory

© FlightCom 2021. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronically, mechanically, photocopied, recorded or otherwise without the express permission of the copyright holders.

A NOTE FROM

THE EDITOR: IATA IS AN EXEMPLARY ORGANISATION. It has effectively promoted and defended air travel and its airline members for 75 years. I have attended IATA’s annual global media briefings in Geneva for many years and have been privileged to develop relationships with many of the key people who do much excellent research. So when in the middle of the Covid lockdown, IATA announced that the risk of Covid infection from being squeezed three into a seat row on an airliner was less than 1%, I accepted it as fact. This despite my common experience of picking up some sort of flu or cold when flying long haul. And as a side note – I am writing this from my Covid-pneumonia hospital bed.

Of course there are always there sides to any story. IATA was quick to drive a few truck sized holes in the CDC study. They pointed out that the study did not consider the significant risk-reduction impacts of the wearing of facemasks by passengers and cabin staff (nor could it have, given that the data collection occurred in 2017). The Harvard School of Public Health Aviation Public Health also disagreed with the CDC study by quoting a study which, “substantiates that the layered approach of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) instituted on commercial aircraft - effectively diluting and removing pathogens and in combination with face masks - results in a very low risk of SARS-COV-2 disease transmission on aircraft.”

This would be a disaster for the airlines

IATA argued convincingly that the aircraft’s HEPA filters and the cabin air recirculation prevents the lateral spread of the virus as the cabin air enters from above and discharges through the floor. And then last month, my unspoken reservations about this very low rate of infection seemed to be confirmed when something of a bombshell study was published by the United States Center for Diseases Control (CDC). The study found that based on scenarios in which the middle seat was vacant, infection was reduced by 23% to 57%, compared with full aircraft occupancy. The conclusion was clear: “Physical distancing of airplane passengers, including through policies such as middle seat vacancy, could provide additional reductions in risk for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 on aircraft.” This would be a disaster for the airlines which, with roughly 33% of their seats unsellable, could never be able to return to profitability.

“Additionally, the CDC study addresses only exposure and not transmission. There have not been large numbers of confirmed or suspected cases of onboard transmission reported at any stage of the pandemic, and almost all of those that were, occurred without the wearing of masks on-board.” The big thing is the multi layered approach. If the airlines can continue to prevent Covid Positive people from getting onboard there will zero spread of infection in flight. And the UK and USA amongst others are approaching herd immunity. So we can be optimistic for a return to sustainable air travel levels at the beginning of the third quarter of this year. This will be a life saver for many struggling tourism businesses. 

AEROSPACE By Toby Chance

AEROSPACE INDUSTRY

SUPPORT INITIATIVE - PUNCHING ABOVE ITS WEIGHT

In a well-functioning economy, as in the natural world, the big gorillas in each sector dominate the ecosystem while hierarchies of organisations evolve below them to create the diversity and abundance for the whole to thrive. The aerospace industry is no exception.

ARIÉ BOTHA IS A KEY player in stimulating the small to medium enterprise segment of the industry as Programme Manager of the Aerospace Industry Support Initiative (AISI). This is where the innovations and technology breakthroughs are mostly found so it is vital that the green sprouts are nurtured and fed. AISI is a programme of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), under the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic). It was established in 2006 as part of government’s strategy of improving competitiveness in the sector with a specific emphasis on industrialisation of technology and technology-based supplier development. In the post-Covid world and with South Africa’s economy under strain, driving localisation and exports are now its top priorities. Botha emphasises the need for a strong product platform to drive the industry, which is experiencing a serious skills exodus. The Rooivalk helicopter was that platform in days of old, but with nothing to replace it and Denel’s years of mismanagement placing its future in jeopardy, the entire ecosystem is in danger of collapsing.

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the dtic

Marié Botha heads up the dtic's AISI.

It is in this unstable environment that AISI aims to make a difference to the businesses lower down the food chain: the start-ups and emerging businesses that rely on larger customers to prosper. With a limited annual budget of around R20 million its efforts have had a remarkable impact, boosting advanced design and manufacturing capabilities in the sector leading to innovation, job creation and a boost to exports.

Sentian UAV Project of Proceptworks.

The AISI’s Technology-Based Supplier Development intervention provides enabling mechanisms to assist industry to improve productivity, implement quality management systems, optimise operations and integration into global supply chains. Its Industry Development and Technology Support programme focuses on advancing production innovation such as the use of advanced manufacturing and other fourth industrial revolution technologies to build more durable, compact and efficient products. Beneficiaries supported have projects at a technology readiness level 4, above which are companies with technology proven in the laboratory and being up-scaled for industrialisation. They are supported with funding, strategic advice, skills development and market access through networking along the supply chain. Access to new and existing processes, products and methods is also facilitated to ensure that beneficiaries develop products and services, which enable them to exploit multiple market opportunities.

AISI’s greatest need, according to Botha, is more focused government support and more local customers. In trying to supplement its limited budget and support capabilities, AISI has a partnership with the Small Enterprise Development Agency and Small Enterprise Finance Agency, both reporting to the Department of Small Business Development. On the radar is an effort to tap into international funds but this is some way off, Botha says. The success of AISI has prompted the dtic and CSIR to expand its support model into other sectors such as automotive manufacturing, medical devices and energy. If South Africa is going to succeed in keeping and attracting hi-tech skills and develop its export profile, government and the private sector will need to re-double their efforts to work collaboratively, with ambitious targets and the resources to match. AISI is a shining example of how much can be done with a little. Companies wishing to apply to AISI should look out for their annual request for submissions which can be found on their website https://aisi.csir.co.za/

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The Proceptworks team of Dalumuzi Dube, Nigel Nkundhlande, Ischmael Chiremba and Edmond Moyo.

SOME NOTABLE SUCCESSES AISI’s Technology-based supplier development programme have had a number of notable successes in the African aerospace sector. Beneficiary name: Cape Aerospace Technologies Project in progress: 400 N Gas Turbine Industrialisation Product market: Recreational aviation aircraft and unmanned systems Cape Aerospace Technologies (CAT) specialises in the design and manufacture of propulsion systems based on gas turbine technology and associated electronic control systems. After the successful industrialisation of a 250 N gas turbine engine, with support from AISI, is has set its sights on building and commercialising a 400 N engine in a three year project.

project has been completed and is the outcome of an AISI-initiated roadmapping exercise. To get a sense of scale, their micro-engine will be mounted on an airframe in a limited space and must conform to an “envelope” with an engine diameter of 147 mm, an engine length of 380 mm and a total weight of less than 4kg. David Krige, Managing Director & Head of Propulsion Systems, explains, “the critical and major components for engine operation are the impeller, the diffuser, the combustion chamber, and the turbine stator and rotor. These are the internal components making all things possible for the engine. Therefore, they must be designed to match one another.”

with a limited annual budget of around R20 million, its efforts have had a remarkable impact

This Cape Town based company has a three decade history stretching back to the 1980s when it designed and built the first pulse jet in South Africa. Today, in close collaboration with Stellenbosch University it is focusing on micro and small engines aimed at the recreational aircraft and defence industries. The 400 N project has been planned in six stages and is currently ahead of schedule. Phase 1 of this three-year

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Cape Aerospace Technologies ascribes its success to its meticulous in-house design-tomanufacture process, including engine and subsystem assembly and testing. Krige confirms that Cape Aerospace Technologies will localise up to 80% of the 400 N content.

Beneficiary name: Jonker Sailplanes Project in progress: 24m Wingspan Open Class JS Product market: Recreational aviation aircraft Potchefstroom-based Jonker Sailplanes is the only significant manufacturer of sailplanes outside Europe

Gas Turbine Industrialisation Project of Cape Aerospace Technologies towards the development of a 400N Engine.

the dtic

The CAT 400 turbine assembly, is an AISI assisted product development.

24m Wingspan Open Class JS Project of Jonker Sailplanes.

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and has successfully exported the JS1C Revelation and the JS3 Rapture. The company has made good progress during the first phase of a three-year project based on an AISI-initiated roadmapping exercise, for the design and industrialisation of a new model, the JS2-24 with a 24.5m wingspan. Says Uys Jonker, Managing Director, “this development is in response to international market demand, and the fact that competition in the Open Class in recent years from the EB29R sailplane has meant that we need to innovate to meet our competition head-on.” The team at Jonker Sailplanes worked with the North-West University on the relevant aerodynamic research and engineering for this product to outclass any competition. Basic aerodynamic research was conducted to develop better profiles, reduced drag of all interfacing surfaces and to optimise plan forms. The 24.5m wing design presented challenges stemming from the aerodynamic requirement for a long, slender and thin wing, while the structural design required a wing with a larger cross section. Jonker confirms, “It required five design iterations to enable the convergence of the conflicting structural and aerodynamic requirements.” CSIR Windtunnel.

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Several design challenges were addressed in Phase 1, some of which were fully resolved while others will be addressed during the next phase. These included the design of the structure at the wing root area, which requires further design verification; driving of the flaperons at four stations to reduce twist deformation which impacts performance; design of the wingtip lockpin to fit under the flaperon driver tube; and a new airbrake design with an extra lift arm in the middle to pull down the airbrake cap.

Beneficiary name: Proceptworks Project completed: Sentian UAV Product market: Unmanned systems 100% black-owned Proceptworks, based in the Maboneng precinct in Johannesburg, is the brainchild of four engineering students from the University of the Witwatersrand who had a vision to build a drone manufacturing company. Formed in 2015, it progressed rapidly and was the SMME and Overall Winner of the 2019 ATNS AVI Awards and Runner Up in the 2019 SACAA Civil Aviation Industry Awards: Aviation Innovation category.

AISI is proud of its association with the world beating Jonker Sailplanes.

Under their direction, significant progress on the development of a uniquely South African modular unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), dubbed Sentian, has seen the airborne platform completed by the end of 2020. Conceptualised as a ‘drone for good’ in the service of humanity, this UAV has the potential to support and help all forms of sustainable life. Examples include the use of its payload to deliver critical medical supplies or to provide surveillance of crops. “It is one of the most exciting projects we are supporting”, says AISI Programme Manager Marié Botha. It’s an exemplar for young, black engineers to aspire to and fits exactly the profile of the new generation businesses AISI aims to support.”

Dalumuzi Dube, Edmond Moyo, Ishmael Chiremba and Nigel Nkundhlande of Proceptworks are satisfied with the outcomes achieved over the past year. The team built a quadcopter as an experimental test bed to ascertain flight dynamics for performance and stability as well as takeoff and landing capabilities. The quadcopter outperformed expectations for flight, vertical takeoff, landing and hovering, as well as stability.” These results were then used to configure the systems required for control and flight, notably the flight controller (for which Pixhawk, a sophisticated autopilot system, was utilised) and the ground control system. Successful flight tests were conducted at James and Ethel Gray Park, Johannesburg, a model plane flying venue. 

the dtic

Department: Trade, Industry and Competition REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

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AIRLINES

AIRLINE

PARTNERSHIPS As an educational tool or refresher course to our readers, we run an occasional series of briefing articles to explain key aspects of the airline industry that often cause confusion. This month we provide an overview of the range of airline alliances, codeshares, partnerships and joint ventures.

HE GROWTH OF THE AIRLINE hub and spoke network model transformed the way Airlines serve their passengers in terms of the range of destinations on offer. However, due to the route limitations inherent in hub-and-spoke networks, airlines formed alliances to broaden their route networks beyond the restrictions of the hub-and-spoke model. Alliances between airlines are as arrangements entered into between airlines to share routes, and to a lesser extent to share ground infrastructure such as booking systems and offices. The key advantages of such alliances are that the airlines can expand their route network and feed their own operated routes, thus achieving economies of scale.

encourage people to choose certain routes over others. The airlines then decide on how to share the earnings equitably among the partners. A key driver of alliances is the need to have tied, or dedicated, feeder routes to the hubs to connect longhaul services. In South Africa a good example of this are SA Express (While it operated) and Airlink airlines, which were both tied airlines to feed the SAA long-haul route network.

Africa’s small, badly run airlines cannot compete against the super-connectors

Alliances also give airlines multiple options for routing passengers. One such example is ‘sharing metal’ – when a passenger flies on an alliance partner’s aircraft. This has become common practice globally and means that airlines need to provide pricing incentives that 12

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Alliances and partnerships between airlines have therefore become a necessary characteristic of the global air travel market. These partnerships cover a continuum from the most basic arms-length interlining agreements to joint ventures, and in the most complete sense, mergers involving equity partnerships. These partnerships and mergers are discussed in the following paragraphs. THE HUB AND SPOKE MODEL The hub-and-spoke model has come to dominate long-

The ill-fated attempt to start a pan-African alliance using one of SAA's Boeing 747SPs.

haul air transport linkages, while the point-to-point model is the dominant paradigm for LCCs. This has had a number of consequences for African airlines:

feed the hubs, so that they in turn can be fed by them. Lastly, Africa’s small, badly run and undercapitalised airlines cannot compete against the super-connectors.

First, the cost of establishing hubs is high and has created a natural barrier to entry for both airlines and their home states, which would be required to fund the hub development. Second, given Africa’s fragmented political landscape, it has proven difficult to achieve enough cooperation across states to agree on the location of a hub. This is particularly the case in west Africa, although east Africa has effectively developed two hubs, being Addis Ababa and Nairobi, while southern Africa has Johannesburg. (By way of anecdotal illustration of the difficulties of regional cooperation, despite the undesirable colonial legacy of the name Victoria Falls, Zambia and Zimbabwe cannot agree on an alternative name and so the original colonial name has endured.) Third, and perhaps most importantly to this discussion on alliances, the need to bulk-up traffic to feed the hubs has required regional airlines to cooperate in order to

It can be concluded that taken together, these factors have created an imperative for African airlines to form alliances with the large European or Middle Eastern carriers. The adage, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’, is apposite in this regard.

sharing metal allows more flights and thus creates more traffic MERGERS

As the hub-and-spoke model grew to dominate airline route structures, it became evident that size is important to airline success and that mergers became more commonplace. There are a many examples: The International Airlines Group (IAG), formed in 2011 by British Airways and Iberia; the KLM /Air France holding group; and the 2012 merger of Continental and United airlines in the USA. Of specific interest to Africa is the merger between two

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smaller struggling South American airlines: Chile’s LAN and Brazil’s TAM airlines, which formed LATAM. This created the economies of scale and a route network large enough to enable the airline to be notably successful, with a consistent history of growth and profits since its establishment in 2011. ALLIANCES The current dominant structures created for partnerships are the three key airline alliances: Star Alliance founded in 1997, was the first and is still the largest, followed by Oneworld in 1999 and SkyTeam in 2000. The key characteristics of alliances are that member airlines pay dues to their chosen alliance, and then reciprocate benefits to other partner airline passengers. The key advantage for passengers is that they can expect consistent standards across the alliance, and shared benefits in loyalty programmes.

These alliances permit airlines to coordinate their operations by ‘sharing metal’ and allows them to provide more flights and thus create more traffic, by placing their passengers on another airline’s aircraft. While the airline must naturally pay the other airline to carry their passengers, they retain a margin which is pure profit, and which avoids the cost of operating aircraft which are not full. Alliances add value by using an agreed pricing strategy between alliance members to reduce fares between hubs. Contentiously for the competition authorities, the reduction in competition between hubs has a countervailing effect, in that the total surplus produced typically rises, suggesting that the positive effects of alliances may outweigh any negative impacts. AIRLINE PARTNERSHIPS As noted, there is broad evidence that Africa’s

The Hub and Spoke model of air connectvity.

small, poorly managed and undercapitalised airlines cannot compete against the super-connectors. ‘Superconnectors’ is one of the terms used to describe the Gulf three middle-eastern airlines, namely Emirates, Etihad and Qatar, although Turkish Airlines is increasingly considered as one of the super-connectors. (The Gulf Three are also called the Middle East 3, or ME3). The inability of small African airlines to compete against these very large carriers is evident in the extent to which the super-connectors are increasingly taking over routes to and within Africa, which formerly were operated by African-based airlines. Given the competitive airline hub-and-spoke distribution pattern that created the necessity of having tied feeder routes to support long-haul services, partnerships between 14

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airlines have become a necessary characteristic of the air travel environment. INTERLINING After the three alliances, interline agreements are the next broadest type of agreement between airlines. Interline agreements encompass a wide level of cooperation, as there are airlines that have interline agreements who do not otherwise partner. An interline agreement is an agreement between airlines to handle passengers when they are travelling on multiple airlines on the same itinerary. This makes it possible for passengers to check-in with their bags

The Point to Point model of air connectvity - with not all connections shown.

actual flight is operated by the ‘Operating carrier’ or more precisely (and in line with IATA definitions), the ‘Administrating carrier’, (abbreviated to OPE CXR). The shared ‘code’ in ‘code-sharing’ refers to the flight number’s two-letter IATA designator. Each airline sells seats on a specific flight under its own airline designator and flight number as part of its schedule.

all the way from departure point to their ultimate destination, possibly a number of sectors or legs, later. CODE-SHARING A codeshare agreement is an arrangement whereby an airline can sell seats under its own IATA identifier (or code) on another airline’s flight. Most major airlines have code-sharing partnerships with other airlines, and code-sharing is a key feature of airline alliances. The

Code-sharing has become widespread in the airline industry due to the creation of the three large alliances and has the following advantages: a common flight number is less confusing as it allows a passenger to book from point X to Z through a hub at point Y on just one airline, and with just one payment. For airlines, it provides a vast increase in routes served without actually having to fly to those places. Of particular appeal to airlines is that when a passenger flies on a code-sharing partner’s aircraft, the margin paid to the booking airline is pure profit. For application to the African context with its continuing use of flag carriers, it is worth noting that code-sharing directly undermines the supposed benefits of having a flag carrier, as a state’s passengers could end up flying on a competitor’s aircraft. Also relevant to African operations is that buying a ticket on one airline and ending up flying on another airline (which may be perceived inferior or dangerous) is confusing and not transparent to passengers. 

Africa cannot even agree on renaming the Victoria Falls -FlightCom let alone forming airline alliances. Magazine 15

BUSH PILOT HUGH PRYOR

FRANK

ABUKUTSA

AT HUWERA

Pilots are immensely privileged. Flying over the vast and intricate surfaces of the Earth gives us a view of our planet which is not available to ground-locked mortals. The Amazing Wadi Douan in Yemen.

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OU CANNOT HELP BUT BE impressed by how infinitesimally small is man when you view the planet he inhabits, particularly at night, against the rich tapestry of the universe. We are minute little beings, clinging to a rippling mantle, floating on a sea of magma, spinning in an unfathomable void which is speckled with myriads of other clusters of stars and planets like our own. The universal forces which propel our existence are so gargantuan that we are only now beginning to appreciate our own insignificance. It becomes more and more difficult to believe that we are indeed created in the image of God. I sometimes wish that I could buy a DVD of the geological history of the world. To be able to see how mountain ranges are forming and continents are drifting, of how ice caps ebb and flow like tides and seas become deserts, would be thrilling. These momentous events take too long for us to appreciate or comprehend in our short lifespans, but if I could catch a glimpse of that primeval turmoil, it would increase tenfold my ability to see into the future and to understand my relative unimportance in the grand design.

food menus appeared to have been inspired by those found in late eighteenth century French Revolutionary jails. Really the only saving grace of Camp Life was the entertaining nature of the inmates and the generous supply of alcohol. Things eventually got so bad that all the Pakistani labourers, the cable layers, the operators and the domestic staff, including our Pakistani cook who was blessed with the unlikely nomme de cuisine of William, went on strike. The Crew Chief, Renée, and his colleague Serge, immediately formed a crisis committee and unanimously volunteered Driss, the Moroccan explosives expert, Lazarek, the computer guru, and me, to take over the catering. Our first job was to clean out the kitchen trailer, which was an experience in itself. Our labours must have seriously depleted the cockroach stocks of the Arabian subcontinent. It always fascinates me how you can be minding your own business in the remotest corner of the Rub al Khali (the Empty Quarter, as the deserts of Arabia are known), surrounded by hundreds of miles of nothingness and the flies will always find you.

Have you seen the passengers?

Sitting on the plateau in Yemen, five thousand feet above the plain which forms the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, you gain an intimate glimpse of the titanic struggle which is broiling under your feet. There is almost no vegetation. The geology is revealed as it happens, formation grinding against formation with no modesty, like naked mud-wrestlers. It was before the first Gulf War, and James Bond was still up against the Soviet Empire. According to one senior opposition shadow Minister, Maggie Thatcher still had the biggest balls in the British Parliament and I was flying a Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter for a French seismic survey company in South Yemen and we had a camp on the top of that self same plateau. The seismic survey company was famous for its toilet facilities. There weren’t any. The showers were only one better. That’s one between sixteen people. The

It once occurred to me that you would never be lost in the desert, if you could speak ‘Mouchoise’ (French for Fly language.) I distinctly remember being told, as a toddler, that flies only have a range of about two miles, maximum three. Those ones in Arabia must have amazing ferry tanks installed, or maybe they are refuelling from camels en route…or possibly from the kitchens of remote seismic survey camps. We certainly had our share, anyway! That first day of the strike, in my piloting capacity, I loaded three large cool-boxes into the back of the Pilatus and flew off to Aden, the then capital of what used to be South Yemen, to get the supplies. That took about three hours there, and three hours back. It was a brain-numbing trip which I used to make three times a week. The Pilatus is an unstable old thing and if you allow your concentration to drift for more than a couple of minutes, she falls over. Nodding off can be seriously damaging to your career if you don’t wake up before the ground comes through the windscreen.

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The Pilatus Porter PC6 carrying supplies happily into the remote desert.

There are few professions which require a person’s mind to be so totally concentrated for six hours in a day without a coffee break or toilet. I had found one of them. I still loved the old Pilatus Porter though. Cantankerous she was…yes…but when the chips were down, she would get you home, out of the most intimidating situations. When I got back from Aden, I parked the Porter between the tie downs and put her to bed. Her Pratt & Whitney PT-6 turbo-prop engine ticked contentedly as it cooled. We unloaded the aircraft and put everything in its proper place, in the growing dark, as the sun slipped quietly away, down behind the hills to the west. The barbeque was all glowing cinders and hot weldmesh, just crying for thick, richly marinated fillet steaks. We butter-wrapped potatoes in cooking foil and threw them in the fire. Lazarek had thrown together a coleslaw salad with the inspired addition of sultanas and chopped mint. I had brought oranges and bananas back from Aden, with the frozen food. Beers suddenly appeared, to wash away the day’s dust and tensions and everybody relaxed into the warmth of a high desert evening. 18

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This happy state of affairs continued for over a week. It couldn’t go on like that, of course. Our clients were getting too fat on this regime and so, suddenly, after ten days, i was instructed to go to Aden and pick up the new catering staff. We were effectively being relieved of our duties… in the nicest possible way, you understand. The Frogs have never been famous for their tact, have they! I arrived in Aden, armed with the regulation cool boxes, and parked by our workshop/container. Tony, the engineer, greeted me and enquired about the health of the aircraft. As usual with the Pilatus Porter, there was nothing to report. Its legendary reliability was accepted like one of the laws of physics by the pilots and almost to the point of boredom by the engineers. “Have you seen the passengers?” I asked. “Yeah.” Tony replied, “You’ve got one ‘Khawaja’ (local lingo for ‘European’) and two Kenyan Africans. One of them’s enormous.” Tony grinned. “Looks like a rugby player. If you want to meet them, they’re waiting in Domestic Departures.” “I’ll catch them after I’ve done the flight plan.” I said,

“I’ll bet you were awesome on the rugby field!” I said, with some feeling. “I wasn’t allowed to wear my spectacles when we played, so I couldn’t see the danger,” Frank laughed. “So people tended to keep out of my way.”

SURNAME

FIRST NAME

LOCATION

TEL NO

E-MAIL

✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

Britz

Rudi

Wonderboom Airport

083 422 9882

rudiavmed@gmail.com

Church

Belinda

Valhalla

079 636 9860

churchbs@live.com

Du Plessis

Alexander

Athlone Park

031 904 7460

dex.duplessis@intercare.co.za

Erasmus

Philip

Benoni

011 849 6512

pdceras-ass@mweb.co.za

Govender

Deena

Umhlanga Rocks

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

✗ ✗

Ingham

Kenneth

Midrand

011 315 5817

kaingham@hotmail.com

✗ ✗

Marais

Eugene

Mossel Bay

044 693 1470

eugene.marais@medicross.co.za

✗ ✗

Opperman

Chris

Pretoria Lynnwood

012 368 8800

chris.opperman@intercare.co.za

Schutz

Ernest

Germiston

011 825 5300

schutzfm@iafrica.com

Tenzer

Stan

Rand Airport & JHB CBD

083 679 0777

stant@global.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗

Toerien

Hendrik

White River, Nelspruit

013 751 3848

hctoerien@viamediswitch.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗

Van Der Merwe

Johann

Stellenbosch

021 887 0305

johann.vdmerwe@medicross.co.za

Van Niekerk

Willem

Benoni

011 421 9771

http://willemvanniekerk.co.za

Other countries

AME Doctors Listing

EASA registered

“Frank is going to change your life,” said Tony, encouragingly. “He’s your new Camp Boss.” 

FAA registered

Ali, the Air Traffic Controller, doubled as a Briefing Officer, and checked and accepted my flight plan. He asked me to take a letter to his brother who was a surveyor with our seismic team. Ali had a problem making ends meet on a salary which had not been reviewed since the British had left, twenty years previously and so I was fairly confident what request was contained in the letter. I was embarrassed to calculate that my pay-check was approximately twenty times greater than Ali’s although I had responsibility for a maximum of ten passengers where he was ensuring the safety of hundreds. Neither he nor Nasir allowed this obvious discrepancy to get in the way of our friendship, however, and I did what I could to try and redress the balance in kind, by satisfying their very modest requirements whenever I came back from taking leave.

Off-site Specialist tests

“Sounds good. See you in a minute.”

On site Specialist tests

“Full mains should be OK. We’ve just received twenty thousand litres in the camp.”

Senior Class 1, 2, 3, 4

Tony nodded, “What do you need?”

Tony was right about the rugby player. He was seriously massive. He wore a pair of spectacles which were so thick that I could hardly see his eyes from my reduced elevation. This is Frank,” said Tony with the proud flourish of a circus ring master. “Ex Kenya Rugby International and one of the biggest people I know!” An enormous black hand reached down and grasped mine with surprising care. “I have heard a lot about you. I hope it is not all true!” The great paw moved up and down as if conducting the resonant music of his words. “But anyway, it is a pleasure to meet you.” The voice was so deep and distant that I was half expecting the big lips to move a couple of seconds before the sound arrived.

Regular Class 2, 3, 4

“Could I ask you to handle the refuelling?”

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AIRLINE OPS MIKE GOUGH

A few weeks ago, 27 March , marked the 44th anniversary of what is still the world’s worst aviation disaster – the collision of two Boeing 747s at Tenerife Airport, Spain.

Having Pilot Monitoring is invaluable for trapping mistakes.

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ORST AS IN TWO ASPECTS: The highest single death toll for any aircraft accident, as well as the worst in human behaviour in the flight deck that resulted in this mega tragedy. Thankfully, no one has yet beaten the total 583 fatalities in a single accident, and with the measures developed in terms of human factors as a direct result of this accident, we have been able to steadily and progressively train ourselves away from our occasional bizarre behaviour as humans. As most of us are well familiar with the events that led up to this disaster, I’ll summarise just how many holes in multiple pieces of cheese had to line up for everything to go so perfectly wrong.

building, injuring eight people, but with a telephonic threat of another device having been planted. The airport was duly closed and flights diverted to Los Rodeos airport in Tenerife. The Pan Am flight requested to hold until clearance could be obtained, as they had in excess of two hours additional fuel (those were the days, in terms of nonoptimised fuel planning), but ATC refused this request and sent them off to Tenerife. The severely congested Los Rodeos airport had to contend with aircraft way bigger than they were used to, as well as drifting, heavy fog. Captain van Zanten, with the intention to complete the mission within the new Flight and Duty scheme, had been pushing for refuelling and clearance to depart, which, the moment Grand Canaria was declared safe, he obtained and was the first to taxi to the departure end of the single runway.

the CAA feel it is appropriate to criminalise and penalise errors

Starting at the end, the catastrophic decision of Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten of the KLM Boeing 747 ‘Rijn’, to commence their takeoff without ATC clearance, had its own set of surrounding factors. This pilot was very much the ultimate company man, being head of training and ironically, head of the safety department. He was also under pressure to implement the then very new flight and duty plan, aimed at reducing fatigue in long-haul crew members, and by extension, reduce incidents and accidents. The other aircraft, a Pan Am Boeing 747 ‘Clipper Victor’, happened to be the same aircraft that did the world’s first ever commercial 747 flight in January 1970. Eight months after this inaugural flight, it became the first (and only) B747 to be hijacked, and landed in Havana, Cuba. Seven years after those events, it was inbound to the Grand Canaria Airport in the Canary Islands from New York, while the KLM machine was inbound from Amsterdam, on a holiday charter flight.

As both aircraft descended into Grand Canaria, a local terrorist group detonated a bomb in the terminal

The Pan Am Clipper taxied behind them, at 3 knots (according to the surviving First Officer Bragg) due to the extremely dense fog. As the KLM Boeing completed their line up on the runway, the Pan Am aircraft was still painfully slowly backtracking. A triple radio transmission blocked the crucial call from ATC to KLM to hold their position, while Captain van Zanten advanced the thrust levers for takeoff. Both the First Officer and Flight Engineer’s concerned queries of the validity of the takeoff clearance was brushed off by the Captain with the words “Check Thrust”, an instruction to the engineer to set the correct takeoff thrust. The engineer realised that the Pan American was still on the runway and again asked the Captain if they were clear, to which he emphatically responded “Oh yes”. All 249 souls on board the KLM aircraft perished (including 52 children), and only 61 of the 380 persons on board the Pan Am 747 survived, as the two aircraft collided. This was mostly due to one man’s mission fixation, and the inadequate response of his crew, to challenge

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the might of the uber Captain. However, the multitude of contributing factors demanded the attention of flight safety specialists around the world. Two years later, in 1979, NASA held a workshop on a new-fangled concept that was referred to as Cockpit Resource Management, which focused on human factors in aviation accidents, and specifically the value of clear communications. This morphed into Crew Resource Management, as the variables in many instances extended beyond the cockpit.

once one of the world’s oldest legacy airlines (on similar B747 Classic aircraft that were involved), and immediately realised what an incredibly powerful safety tool this is – for those who choose to implement the lessons in the flight deck.

the awareness of a nearsignificant error did sink In 1981, United Airlines in the US was the first airline in the into the left world to introduce mandatory CRM training for their flight seat occupant deck crews. It was only in 2006, through IATA initiatives, that CRM became mandatory training globally.

I did my first CRM course in early 1998, six months and several long range flights after joining what was

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In 2010, I recall taxying out at night in Hong Kong for a flight to Johannesburg with one of our more ‘old school’ captains, who had recently returned from a contract with an Asian carrier. It was the Captain’s sector, and he was Pilot Flying. Taxi clearances at these large, busy airports can be complicated at the best of times and careful attention to clearances and read backs is essential.

Observing an imminent error in turning onto the wrong taxi way, I immediately pointed it out, and my concerns were dismissed with “I write things down you know”.

Prof Philipe Salazar's book is an excellent guide to planning a flight under SA's complex air law requirments.

Threat and error management is another great differentiator between airline and GA ops.

So do I, but maybe one of us wrote it down wrong… A quick call from me to the ground controller to confirm the clearance showed the error of the Captain’s thinking, but accepting this was not to be, as he barked (on frequency!) for the controllers to stop changing their minds…to a brief moment of silence. Despite not ‘loosing face’, the mood did soften on the flight deck, as the awareness of a near-significant error did sink into the left seat occupant, and a more ‘cooperative’ mood prevailed for the 13 hour flight back home. The strides towards a less-steep cockpit gradient over the years has been significant, and now that we are on the 6th Generation of CRM training, we have accepted that even CRM in itself has issues. It is interesting to note that it was only around six years ago that the concept of error management came to light. It’s taken us that long to realise that errors are inevitable, and as important as it is to avoid errors, we have to be able to trap and mitigate the consequences of this. We will continue to err as humans, so we need to learn to cope with that and recover the situation.

This was the birth of Just Culture, which encouraged the reporting of errors and mistakes to add to our data base of knowledge. Certain players in the industry (our CAA in South Africa, for example), feel it is appropriate to criminalise and penalise errors. How far in the Dark Ages are we with this approach to aviation safety? It is no wonder that this thinking may well be a contributory factor in the 28 aircraft accidents we have had this year so far in this country. This brings me to the point of this article. For so many years, we have been developing methods to instil a practical practice of human factor mitigation in the professional cockpit. The lack of mandatory Single Crew CRM training in the General Aviation world is the seed that has been sown over time, with the grim harvest which we now reap. As I find myself full time back in the GA environment, the gulf that exists between these two worlds is huge, and without astute and competent leadership, we will only watch that tally increase. 

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FACE TO FACE

E C A F O T FA C E Despite its name sounding Australian, Air Austral is the national airline of Réunion Island. Based at the Roland Garros Airport in the French overseas department of Réunion, it operates scheduled services from Réunion to France, South Africa, Thailand, India and a number of destinations in the Indian Ocean.

Air Austral CEO Marie-Joseph Male.

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This niche carrier surprised many when it ordered two new Airbus A380s, which many considered an over-reach. And indeed it was. In April 2012, founder and CEO Gérard Ethève was replaced by Marie-Joseph Malé following the financial difficulties caused by the consequences of unwise business decisions compounded by high fuel prices. The A380s were cancelled and the Boeing 777 fleet reduced. Ironically, the airline also operates Boeing 787s and the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine grounding resulted in its wet leasing an A380 in 2018.

UY LEITCH CAUGHT UP with MarieJoseph Malé at the AASA conference which he hosted in Reunion.

GL: Given the importance of Reunion as a tourist destination and as a part of France, how big is the contribution your airline makes to the Reunion economy? MJM: We are the third largest private employee in Reunion and we make tourism happen in partnership with the other airlines such as Air France. But we are the only ones based in Reunion, so our contribution is absolutely critical. GL: The question is often asked: What’s stopping African airlines: Can you outline the limitations Air Austral faces? MJM: One of the challenges we face is the fully liberalised air travel context in Europe. This means that we have five competitors just on the Reunion – Paris route. It is uncommon to see that much competition on a single route.

MJM: Yes, we codeshare with Kenyan and with Air France and are looking to expand our codeshares. GL: Are you part of any Alliance? MJM: We are part of a small Alliance called the Vanilla Alliance. This includes Air Seychelles and Air Mauritius and Madagascar and ourselves, but we are not part of any of the big three alliances. GL: Your route structure has to feed from Paris because you can’t really feed it from the Reunion side? MJM: We also feed from the Reunion side. We have the best network in the Indian Ocean. We fly to eight points in Madagascar and the Comoros Islands. We have three or four flights a day to Mauritius. We fly to the Seychelles and to Mayotte and Rodrigues. So we have a good network in the Indian Ocean. GL: As a French carrier do you find government bureaucracy difficult to overcome?

All French carriers have high costs

The other challenge we face is costs. All French carriers have high costs in terms of the social and fiscal costs. For example, when you look at the salaries and the other costs in Mauritius, they are just 8% of the salaries we are paying to the government in France. In general, we have another 50% costs, which makes a huge difference. GL: Where do you usually fly to in Africa and what are your post Covid expansion plans? MJM: We currently fly to Johannesburg and to Mayotte. We are looking at expanding into Nairobi. GL: Do you codeshare with other airlines – for instance Kenyan?

MJM: In the early days we found it difficult, but as a French airline we have the benefits of France behind us. We have the full European power in our negotiations. GL: Who owns Air Austral? MJM: Air Austral is 98% owned by a Society of which the local government is a majority. It’s not exactly government-owned but it was privately owned to 2008 and now a minority shareholder in the form of our local government came up with the money to save the airline. GL: Do you have a good working relationship with your shareholder or do they from time to time try and dictate how you should operate?

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Air Austral primarily links Reunion Island to France.

An Air Austral Boeing 777-300 suits the high capacity tourist market.

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MJM: We have an excellent relationship with our shareholder.

GL: Are you looking at Nairobi because you need a better hub?

GL: What are your expansion plans? Are you looking to obtain Fourth, Fifth and higher freedom rights across Africa and elsewhere?

MJM: Yes we would like to see a west African hub develop.

MJM: Yes, what we are achieving is to develop a regional network. We want to in fact increase frequencies to Johannesburg – [pre Covid] we had three frequencies per week. At the same time we are trying to develop more incoming traffic from South Africa, but that takes time. We are looking at developing ecotourism.

we would like to see a west African hub develop

We will be discussing with South Africa the possibilities of codeshare beyond South Africa. For me Southern Africa is something that we must expand into. And we hope that Kenya will be a good partner for us. Litson Ad - Half Page.pdf

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GL: What about your plans for expanding further east? Can you compete against the Gulf-3?

15:35

MJM: As far as the east is concerned, we will be starting operations with our partner Air Mayotte, direct to places like Guangzhou. It would be convenient if we could build our expansion plans to the east route through a hub in Nairobi. We will be quite prudent in our route development and if we can go via a hub like Nairobi and share the route, it will be an all-round advantage. GL: What about your fleet expansion plans? MJM: I think that for the time being we are okay.

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DEFENCE DARREN OLIVIER

Loyal wingmen and AI and optionally crewed cockpit will be key abilities.

A white label missile being tested on a Hawk of SAAF 85 CFS Squadron 30

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The race to develop the sixth-generation successors to today’s fifth-generation fighter aircraft has begun in earnest with at least seven international programmes going at full pace even as some countries have yet to fully induct fifth-generation aircraft like the F-35, J-20, and Su-57 into service. PART OF THIS IS BECAUSE timelines for aircraft development are punishing, as long lead times mean that if air forces want to field these new types from 2030 to 2040 they need to scale up development now. But there’s more to it. There’s a real belief, and optimism, that recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and computer-aided and automated design, engineering, and manufacturing can combine to create changes that are more revolutionary than evolutionary. So what does sixth-generation actually mean in this context, and how does it differ from fifth-generation? Well, like any attempt to force the messy real world into neat and well-defined labels, nobody fully agrees on its meaning, what its defining characteristics are, and whether certain aircraft ‘deserve’ to be classed under it. We have to muddle along with what amounts to a general consensus on which most agree, and which centres around the following key factors:

warfare systems, and directed energy defensive countermeasures. • Open architecture for the rapid integration and rolling out of updated capabilities and software. • On-board AI capable of both assisting the pilot with decision-making like target recognition and optimal air combat strategies and conducting those tasks independently during autonomous uncrewed missions. • A system-of-systems approach, in which the core aircraft is merely one element of a system that includes uncrewed remote payload carriers (‘loyal wingmen’) and decoys, • An extremely high bandwidth low latency ‘combat cloud’ data network to allow for co-operative engagement, sensor fusion and processing workload sharing between aircraft and for the core aircraft to act as a command and control node for swarms of uncrewed supporting assets. This also enables a fully distributed approach to electronic warfare.

An optionally piloted core aircraft

• An optionally piloted core aircraft making heavy use of low-observable technology. • New generation engines, likely variable or adaptive cycle, which will be both higher performing and more efficient than current generation fighter aircraft as a result of being able to dynamically vary the bypass ratio. They’re also being designed to provide much more reserve power in order to operate longer-ranged sensors, electronic

• Fully virtual cockpits with all avionics information displayed on a pilot’s helmet-mounted display. Individually, some of these capabilities already exist in some fifth-generation aircraft, and some are even being trialled in 4.5 generation aircraft like the Typhoon and

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Rafale, but the entire integrated approach can’t be achieved without all-new clean sheet designs. That’s if it all works, of course. Experience shows that it’s never that simple and that many of the proposed features and enhancements of each new generation of aircraft are quietly dropped by the time it enters production. However even if we assume some lack of success in meeting these ambitious targets it’s obvious that sixth-generation aircraft and their associated systems are going to be incredibly capable and represent a big jump over what’s presently in service. It’s also clear that whoever fails to develop and field these new systems in significant numbers is going to be at a huge disadvantage in this new era of global military competition. Against a country fielding a full sixth-generation air combat capability, with substantial numbers of autonomous and semiautonomous swarming payload-carrying drones and decoys, the traditional approach just isn’t going to work for very long. They’d have both much better situational awareness and be able to expend uncrewed but smart drones at a rate higher than others can sustain losses of crewed fighters.

The mockup of the 6th Gen Tempest for the RAF in 2018.

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As of writing, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, China, Russia, India, and Japan all have or are part of active sixthgeneration development programmes. The United States appears to be furthest ahead with the first of its two programmes, Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD), after the US Air Force announced in September 2020 that a demonstrator of some sort had already flown. However no details were provided about what that demonstrator actually is or entails, so it’s possible it may be a technology development aircraft for one or more of NGAD’s new technologies rather than a prototype for the new core fighter. NGAD’s version of the remote carrier/loyal wingman concept is known as Skyborg, with contracts for flying prototypes awarded to Boeing, General Atomics and Kratos. Boeing will likely supply its Airpower Teaming System, under development for the Royal Australian Air Force’s Loyal Wingman programme, and Kratos is expected to supply a variant of its XQ-58 Valkyrie developed for an early US Air Force Research Laboratory programme. The US Air Force has been spending serious

development time and money on capacity data link networks for years now, with the intention of creating smart data clouds linking aircraft, remote payload carriers, and munitions without the need for specialised communications aircraft. For instance the service’s imaginatively named ‘Golden Horde’ programme, which recently underwent a series of live tests, is designed to allow smart bombs and missiles to communicate with each other and their launch aircraft in order to intelligently swarm, autonomously select targets, and attack them in the most efficient way. One of the scenarios being developed is for bombs to intelligently analyse the results of impacts from weapons released before them to reconfigure in flight to either attack the same targets from alternative angles (if the first hit wasn’t successful) or shift to other targets. Development of adaptive cycle engines is also continuing at pace via two projects, the nearerterm Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) (for which companies like GE have already developed designs like the XA100) and the follow-on Air Dominance Adaptive Propulsion Technology (ADAPT). These are expected to produce double-digit improvements in thrust, about 25% reductions in fuel consumption, and ultimately megawatts of excess electrical power for onboard systems.

details have emerged than for the US Air Force’s NGAD, though. The UK, Italy, and Sweden are collaborating on the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme, though for now only the UK and Italy are partnering on the core next-generation aircraft, called Tempest. Like other sixth-generation programmes, Tempest is planned to be a low observability optionally piloted fighter aircraft with adaptive cycle engines producing an ‘unprecedented’ level of electrical power, a virtual cockpit, and a high capacity secure data network for command and control of remote carriers and drone swarms, communications, and other co-operative engagement scenarios. While BAE Systems, the project’s prime contractor, has not yet revealed its plans for remote payload carriers, both it and the RAF have made it clear that those are a non-negotiable element of FCAS. In its latest defence policy review, the ‘Defence in a Competitive Age’ command paper released earlier in 2021, the UK government announced that it would be committing £2 billion to the project, which is expected to enter service by 2040, saying the following:

the traditional approach just isn’t going to work

Finally the NGAD programme is being run using the ‘Digital Century’ approach, now called ‘eSeries’, of relying on the latest generation computer aided design, engineering, and manufacturing in order to reduce the time of development and the cost of fielding the new type. This approach was already pioneered on the US Air Force’s new trainer, the T-7A Red Hawk, which has gone from first flight to full-scale jigless production in just five years. The US Navy has its own NGAD programme, formerly known as F/A-XX, but is reportedly working with the US Air Force to figure out where both programmes can be joined in order to share costs and technologies even though they may result in different aircraft more optimised for each service’s goals. Far fewer specific

FCAS will deliver an innovative mix of crewed, uncrewed and autonomous platforms including swarming drones. This will deliver an advanced combat air system capable of fighting in the most hostile environments. The development of novel technologies, and a step change in how we use simulators for mission rehearsal and training, will enable the Royal Air Force to be among the most technologically innovative, productive and lethal air forces in the world. FCAS is following a relatively risky development process that leans heavily on computer-aided design in order to leave the final configuration open for as long as possible while instead proving and reducing risk on all the supporting technologies first. For this reason the FCAS project team expect to fly their first demonstrator of their core aircraft, Tempest, much

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later than competing projects but hope that they’ll gain more flexibility and a better final product as a result. While Sweden has yet to formally join the Tempest portion of FCAS, it hasn’t ruled out doing so in the next few months. Or it may opt for a local design, like it did with the Gripen, that nonetheless incorporates and interfaces with the other FCAS elements. France, Germany, and Spain are in turn collaborating on their own programme, also confusingly known as Future Combat Air System (FCAS), so many observers prefer to use the French acronym of SCAF for Système de combat aérien du futur instead. Dassault is the prime contractor for the core aircraft, known as the New Generation Fighter (NGF), with Airbus taking the lead in the development of remote payload carriers and other supporting elements of the programme. Mock ups of both the NGF and a remote carrier design were exhibited at the 2019 Paris Air Show, though neither were detailed. A high-capacity co-operative engagement data link, known by its French name of tenue de situation multi plateformes (TSMPF), will enable communications, data sharing, sensor fusion, and similar capabilities between aircraft and platforms. Safran and MTU have been selected to provide a new adaptive cycle thrust vectoring engine for the NGF, which will include cutting-edge materials in order to achieve a turbine temperature of 1 825ºC, substantially

higher than current generation engines, while still being lighter, more fuel efficient, more powerful, and more compact. At first there was consternation that SCAF might never get off the ground, owing to a series of highprofile public disputes between France and Germany on work share and intellectual property ownership, but these were finally resolved in April 2021. Under current schedules, a flying prototype is expected before 2030 in order to allow for an in-service date of around 2040. Japan’s programme, F-X, anticipates a first flight in around 2028 and an in-service date of 2035, with full-scale production kicking off in 2031. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is the prime contractor, largely as a result of its success with its X-2 demonstrator and after the Japanese government in March 2020 rejected a series of proposed designs from BAE Systems, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin, although there are still plans to partner with UK or US companies for part of the programme. The F-X is expected to be quite large, bigger than the F-22 and most other similar aircraft, as the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) has opted to prioritise range and payload over agility. Oddly though, while the planned IHI Corporation XF9 engine is likely to be exceptionally light weight and powerful, while also incorporating thrust vectoring, it does not seem that

Full scale mock-up of the FCAS at the Paris Air Show 2019 with its smaller, unmanned loyal wingman.

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Japan intends to field an adaptive cycle version of the engine. Russia is developing the Mikoyan PAK DP, intended to complement and possibly replace the fifth generation Sukhoi Su-57 now entering service, but as yet it remains largely a paper concept without much active progress or requirements clarity. It’s also clear from statements by Russian officials that for now they see it more as a high-speed, high-altitude interceptor capable of speeds of Mach 3-Mach 4 at altitudes above 12 000 metres, rather than an all-round aircraft. And while Russia has experience in developing remote carriers, and has even worked on some aspects of co-operative teaming between them and crewed fighter aircraft, it does not yet appear to have created an integrated programme around PAK DP to incorporate the technology. India announced in October 2020 that it intends to develop a sixth-generation follow on from its fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), though it’s unclear whether they intend this as a whole new programme or whether it’s the

proposed Mark II variant of that aircraft. According to the Indian Air Force, the new aircraft is intended to have “directed energy weapons, smart wingman concept, optionally manned combat platforms, swarm drones, hypersonic weapons”, and other elements, though no specific details have been released. Finally, China announced in 2019 that it had started its own sixth-generation fighter aircraft programme to follow on from its fifth-generation J-20, which entered service in 2017, but thus far it has revealed few details other than that the new platform will be optionally piloted and will incorporate a new generation engine. It also plans to field the new type by around 2040, however, so as to keep up with the US and Europe. All in all, the next few years should be interesting as more details emerge about sixth-generation systems and we see which elements have survived their brush with reality and which have become genuine advances that produce a qualitative edge. Whatever happens though it’s likely that air warfare will be changed forever. 

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FlightCom Magazine

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FLIGHT SAFETY THROUGH MAINTENANCE

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BACKPAGE DIR DIRECT ECTORY ORY A1A Flight Examiner (Loutzavia) Jannie Loutzis 012 567 6775 / 082 416 4069 jannie@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za Adventure Air Lande Milne 012 543 3196 / Cell: 066 4727 848 l.milne@venture-sa.co.za www.ventureglobal.biz

Alpha One Aviation Opelo 082 301 9977 on@alphaoneaviation.co.za www.alphaoneaviation.co.za Alpi Aviation SA Dale De Klerk 082 556 3592 dale@alpiaviation.co.za www.alpiaviation.co.za

AES (Cape Town) Erwin Erasmus 082 494 3722 erwin@aeroelectrical.co.za www.aeroelectrical.co.za

Apco (Ptyd) Ltd Tony/Henk + 27 12 543 0775 apcosupport@mweb.co.za www.apcosa.co.za

AES (Johannesburg) Danie van Wyk 011 701 3200 office@aeroelectrical.co.za www.aeroelectrical.co.za

Aref Avionics Hannes Roodt 082 462 2724 arefavionics@border.co.za

Comporob Composite Repair & Manufacture Felix Robertson 072 940 4447 083 265 3602 comporob@lantic.net www.comporob.co.za Corporate-Aviators/Affordable Jet Sales Mike Helm 082 442 6239 corporate-aviators@iafrica.com www.corporate-aviators.com C. W. Price & Co Kelvin L. Price 011 805 4720 cwp@cwprice.co.za www.cwprice.co.za Dart Aeronautical Jaco Kelly 011 827 8204 dartaero@mweb.co.za

Atlas Aviation Lubricants Aerocore Steve Cloete Dart Aircraft Electrical Jacques Podde 011 917 4220 Mathew Joubert 082 565 2330 Fax: 011 917 2100 011 827 0371 jacques@aerocore.co.za Sales.aviation@atlasoil.co.za Dartaircraftelectrical@gmail.com www.aerocore.co.za www.atlasoil.africa www.dartaero.co.za Aero Engineering & PowerPlant ATNS DJA Aviation Insurance Andre Labuschagne Percy Morokane 011 463 5550 012 543 0948 011 607 1234 0800Flying aeroeng@iafrica.com percymo@atns.co.za mail@dja-aviation.co.za www.atns.com www.dja-aviation.co.za Aero Services (Pty) Ltd Chris Scott Aviation Direct Dynamic Propellers 011 395 3587 Andrea Antel Andries Visser chris@aeroservices.co.za 011 465 2669 011 824 5057 www.aeroservices.co.za info@aviationdirect.co.za 082 445 4496 www.aviationdirect.co.za andries@dynamicpropeller.co.za Aeronav Academy www.dynamicpropellers.co.za Donald O’Connor BAC Aviation AMO 115 011 701 3862 Micky Joss Eagle Aviation Helicopter Division info@aeronav.co.za 035 797 3610 Tamryn van Staden www.aeronav.co.za monicad@bacmaintenance.co.za 082 657 6414 tamryn@eaglehelicopter.co.za Aeronautical Aviation Blackhawk Africa www.eaglehelicopter.co.za Clinton Carroll Cisca de Lange 011 659 1033 / 083 459 6279 083 514 8532 Eagle Flight Academy clinton@aeronautical.co.za cisca@blackhawk.aero Mr D. J. Lubbe www.aeronautical.co.za www.blackhawk.aero 082 557 6429 training@eagleflight.co.za Aerotric (Pty) Ltd Blue Chip Flight School www.eagleflight.co.za Richard Small Henk Kraaij 083 488 4535 012 543 3050 Elite Aviation Academy aerotric@aol.com bluechip@bluechip-avia.co.za Jacques Podde www.bluechipflightschool.co.za 082 565 2330 Aircraft Assembly and Upholstery Centre info@eliteaa.co.za Tony/Siggi Bailes Border Aviation Club & Flight School www.eliteaa.co.za 082 552 6467 Liz Gous anthony@rvaircraft.co.za 043 736 6181 Enstrom/MD Helicopters www.rvaircraft.co.za admin@borderaviation.co.za Andrew Widdall www.borderaviation.co.za 011 397 6260 Aircraft Finance Corporation aerosa@safomar.co.za Jaco Pietersen Breytech Aviation cc www.safomar.co.za +27 [0]82 672 2262 012 567 3139 jaco@airfincorp.co.za Willie Breytenbach Era Flug Flight Training www.airfincorp.co.za admin@breytech.co.za Pierre Le Riche 021 934 7431 Aircraft General Spares Bundu Aviation info@era-flug.com Eric or Hayley Phillip Cronje www.era-flug.com 084 587 6414 or 067 154 2147 083 485 2427 eric@acgs.co.za or hayley@acgs.co.za info@bunduaviation.co.za Execujet Africa www.acgs.co.za www.bunduaviation.co.za 011 516 2300 enquiries@execujet.co.za Aircraft Maintenance @ Work Celeste Sani Pak & Inflight Products www.execujet.com Opelo / Frik Steve Harris 012 567 3443 011 452 2456 Federal Air frik@aviationatwork.co.za_ admin@chemline.co.za Nick Lloyd-Roberts opelonke@aviationatwork.co.za www.chemline.co.za 011 395 9000 shuttle@fedair.com Aircraft Maintenance International Cape Aircraft Interiors www.fedair.com Pine Pienaar Sarel Schutte 083 305 0605 021 934 9499 Ferry Flights int.inc. gm@aminternational.co.za michael@wcaeromarine.co.za Michael (Mick) Schittenhelm www.zscai.co.za 082 442 6239 Aircraft Maintenance International ferryflights@ferry-flights.com Wonderboom Cape Town Flying Club www.ferry-flights.com Thomas Nel Beverley Combrink 082 444 7996 021 934 0257 / 082 821 9013 Fireblade Aviation admin@aminternational.co.za info@capetownflyingclub.co.za 010 595 3920 www.@capetownflyingclub.co.za info@firebladeaviation.com Air Line Pilots’ Association www.firebladeaviation.com Sonia Ferreira Capital Air 011 394 5310 Micaella Vinagre Flight Training College alpagm@iafrica.com 011 827 0335 Cornell Morton www.alpa.co.za micaella@capitalairsa.com 044 876 9055 www.capitalairsa.com ftc@flighttrainning.co.za Airshift Aircraft Sales www.flighttraining.co.za Eugene du Plessis Century Avionics cc 082 800 3094 Carin van Zyl Flight Training Services eugene@airshift.co.za 011 701 3244 Amanda Pearce www.airshift.co.za sales@centuryavionics.co.za 011 805 9015/6 www.centuryavionics.co.za amanda@fts.co.za Airvan Africa www.fts.co.za Patrick Hanly Chemetall 082 565 8864 Wayne Claassens Fly Jetstream Aviation airvan@border.co.za 011 914 2500 Henk Kraaij www.airvan.co.za wayne.claassens@basf.com 083 279 7853 www.chemetall.com charter@flyjetstream.co.za Algoa Flying Club www.flyjetstream.co.za Sharon Mugridge Chem-Line Aviation & Celeste Products 041 581 3274 Steve Harris info@algoafc.co.za 011 452 2456 www.algoafc.co.za sales@chemline.co.za www.chemline.co.za

FlightCom Magazine

Flying Frontiers Craig Lang 082 459 0760 CraigL@fairfield.co.za www.flyingfrontiers.com Flying Unlimited Flight School (Pty) Ltd Riaan Struwig 082 653 7504 / 086 770 8376 riaan@ppg.co.za www.ppg.co.za Foster Aero International Dudley Foster 011 659 2533 info@fosteraero.co.za www.fosteraero.co.za

Gemair Andries Venter 011 701 2653 / 082 905 5760 andries@gemair.co.za GIB Aviation Insurance Brokers Richard Turner 011 483 1212 aviation@gib.co.za www.gib.co.za Gryphon Flight Academy Jeffrey Von Holdt 011 701 2600 info@gryphonflight.co.za www.gryphonflight.co.za

Guardian Air 011 701 3011 082 521 2394 ops@guardianair.co.za www.guardianair.co.za Heli-Afrique cc Tino Conceicao 083 458 2172 tino.conceicao@heli-afrique.co.za Henley Air Andre Coetzee 011 827 5503 andre@henleyair.co.za www.henleyair.co.za Hover Dynamics Phillip Cope 074 231 2964 info@hover.co.za www.hover.co.za Indigo Helicopters Gerhard Kleynhans 082 927 4031 / 086 528 4234 veroeschka@indigohelicopters.co.za www.indigohelicopters.co.za IndigoSat South Africa - Aircraft Tracking Gareth Willers 08600 22 121 sales@indigosat.co.za www.indigosat.co.za

Integrated Avionic Solutions Gert van Niekerk 082 831 5032 gert@iasafrica.co.za www.iasafrica.co.za International Flight Clearances Steve Wright 076 983 1089 (24 Hrs) flightops@flyifc.co.za www.flyifc.co.za Investment Aircraft Quinton Warne 082 806 5193 aviation@lantic.net www.investmentaircraft.com Jabiru Aircraft Len Alford 044 876 9991 / 044 876 9993 info@jabiru.co.za www.jabiru.co.za Jim Davis Books Jim Davis 072 188 6484 jim@border.co.za www.jimdavis.co.za Joc Air T/A The Propeller Shop Aiden O’Mahony 011 701 3114 jocprop@iafrica.com Kishugu Aviation +27 13 741 6400 comms@kishugu.com www.kishugu.com/kishugu-aviation

Kit Planes for Africa Stefan Coetzee 013 793 7013 info@saplanes.co.za www.saplanes.co.za

MS Aviation Gary Templeton 082 563 9639 gary.templeton@msaviation.co.za www.msaviation.co.za

Kzn Aviation (Pty) Ltd Melanie Jordaan 031 564 6215 mel@kznaviation.co.za www.kznaviation.co.za

Skyhorse Aviation Ryan Louw 012 809 3571 info@skyhorse.co.za www.skyhorse.co.za

United Flight Support Clinton Moodley/Jonathan Wolpe 076 813 7754 / 011 788 0813 ops@unitedflightsupported.com www.unitedflightsupport.com

North East Avionics Keith Robertson +27 13 741 2986 keith@northeastavionics.co.za deborah@northeastavionics.co.za www.northeastavionics.co.za Landing Eyes Gavin Brown Orsmond Aviation 031 202 5703 058 303 5261 info@landingeyes.co.za info@orsmondaviation.co.za www.landingeyes.com www.orsmondaviation.co.za Lanseria Aircraft Interiors Owenair (Pty) Ltd Francois Denton Clive Skinner 011 659 1962 / 076 810 9751 082 923 9580 francois@aircraftcompletions.co.za clive.skinner@owenair.co.za www.owenwair.co.za Lanseria International Airport Mike Christoph Pacair 011 367 0300 Wayne Bond mikec@lanseria.co.za 033 386 6027 www.lanseria.co.za pacair@telkomsa.net

Skyworx Aviation Kevin Hopper kevin@skyworx.co.za www.skyworxaviation.co.za

Legend Sky 083 860 5225 / 086 600 7285 info@legendssky.co.za www.legendsky.co.za

PFERD-South Africa (Pty) Ltd Hannes Nortman 011 230 4000 hannes.nortman@pferd.co.za www.pferd.com

Southern Energy Company (Pty) Ltd Elke Bertram +264 8114 29958 johnnym@sec.com.na www.sec.com.na

Litson & Associates (Pty) Ltd OGP, BARS, Resources Auditing & Aviation Training karen.litson@litson.co.za Phone: 27 (0) 21 8517187 www.litson.co.za

Pipistrel Kobus Nel 083 231 4296 kobus@pipistrelsa.co.za www.pipistrelsa.co.za

Southern Rotorcraft cc Mr Reg Denysschen Tel no: 0219350980 sasales@rotors-r-us.com www.rotors-r-us.com

Plane Maintenance Facility Johan 083 300 3619 pmf@myconnection.co.za

Sport Plane Builders Pierre Van Der Walt 083 361 3181 pmvdwalt@mweb.co.za

Precision Aviation Services Marnix Hulleman 012 543 0371 marnix@pasaviation.co.za www.pasaviation.co.za PSG Aviation Reon Wiese 0861 284 284 reon.wiese@psg.co.za www.psg aviation.co.za

Starlite Aero Sales Klara Fouché +27 83 324 8530 / +27 31 571 6600 klaraf@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Rainbow SkyReach (Pty) Ltd Mike Gill 011 817 2298 Mike@fly-skyreach.com www.fly-skyreach.com Rand Airport Stuart Coetzee 011 827 8884 stuart@randairport.co.za www.randairport.co.za Robin Coss Aviation Robin Coss 021 934 7498 info@cossaviation.com www.cossaviation.co.za

Starlite Aviation Training Academy Durban: +27 31 571 6600 Mossel Bay: +27 44 692 0006 train@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Litson & Associates Risk Management Services (Pty) Ltd. eSMS-S/eTENDER/ eREPORT/Advisory Services karen.litson@litson.co.za Phone: 27 (0) 8517187 www.litson.co.za Loutzavia Aircraft Sales Henry Miles 082 966 0911 henry@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za Loutzavia Flight Training Gerhardt Botha 012 567 6775 ops@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za Loutzavia-Pilots and Planes Maria Loutzis 012 567 6775 maria@loutzavia.co.za www.pilotsnplanes.co.za Loutzavia Rand Frans Pretorius 011 824 3804 rand@loutzavia.co.za www@loutzavia.co.za Lowveld Aero Club Pugs Steyn 013 741 3636 Flynow@lac.co.za Marshall Eagle Les Lebenon 011 958 1567 les@marshalleagle.co.za www.marshalleagle.co.za Maverick Air Charters Chad Clark 083 292 2270 Charters@maverickair.co.za www.maverickair.co.za MCC Aviation Pty Ltd Claude Oberholzer 011 701 2332 info@flymcc.co.za www.flymcc.co.za MH Aviation Services (Pty) Ltd Marc Pienaar 011 609 0123 / 082 940 5437 customerrelations@mhaviation.co.za www.mhaviation.co.za M and N Acoustic Services cc Martin de Beer 012 689 2007/8 calservice@mweb.co.za Metropolitan Aviation (Pty) Ltd Gert Mouton 082 458 3736 herenbus@gmail.com Money Aviation Angus Money 083 263 2934 angus@moneyaviation.co.za www.moneyaviation.co.za

SAA Technical (SOC) Ltd SAAT Marketing 011 978 9993 satmarketing@flysaa.com www.flysaa.com/technical SABRE Aircraft Richard Stubbs 083 655 0355 richardstubbs@mweb.co.za www.aircraftafrica.co.za SA Mooney Patrick Hanly 082 565 8864 samooney@border.co.za www.samooney.co.za Savannah Helicopters De Jager 082 444 1138 / 044 873 3288 dejager@savannahhelicopters.co.za www.savannahhelicopters.co.za Scenic Air Christa van Wyk +264 612 492 68 windhoek@scenic-air.com www.scenic-air.com Sheltam Aviation Durban Susan Ryan 083 505 4882 susanryan@sheltam.com www.sheltamaviation.com Sheltam Aviation PE Brendan Booker 082 497 6565 brendanb@sheltam.com www.sheltamaviation.com

Sky-Tech Heinz Van Staden 082 720 5210 sky-tech@telkomsa.net www.sky-tech.za.com Sling Aircraft Kim Bell-Cross 011 948 9898 sales@airplanefactory.co.za www.airplanefactory.co.za Solenta Aviation (Pty Ltd) Paul Hurst 011 707 4000 info@solenta.com www.solenta.com

Unique Air Charter Nico Pienaar 082 444 7994 nico@uniqueair.co.za www.uniqueair.co.za Unique Flight Academy Nico Pienaar 082 444 7994 nico@uniqueair.co.za www.uniqueair.co.za Van Zyl Aviation Services Colette van Zyl 012 997 6714 admin@vanzylaviationco.za www.vanzylaviation.co.za Vector Aerospace Jeff Poirier +902 888 1808 jeff.poirier@vectoraerospace.com www.vectoraerospace.com Velocity Aviation Collin Pearson 011 659 2306 / 011 659 2334 collin@velocityaviation.co.za www.velocityaviation.co.za Villa San Giovanni Luca Maiorana 012 111 8888 info@vsg.co.za www.vsg.co.za

Starlite Aviation Operations Trisha Andhee +27 82 660 3018/ +27 31 571 6600 trishaa@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Status Aviation (Pty) Ltd Richard Donian 074 587 5978 / 086 673 5266 info@statusaviation.co.za www.statusaviation.co.za Superior Pilot Services Liana Jansen van Rensburg 0118050605/2247 info@superiorair.co.za www.superiorair.co.za The Copter Shop Bill Olmsted 082 454 8555 execheli@iafrica.com www.execheli.wixsite.com/the-coptershop-sa Titan Helicopter Group 044 878 0453 info@titanhelicopters.com www.titanhelicopters.com TPSC Dennis Byrne 011 701 3210 turboprop@wol.co.za Trio Helicopters & Aviation cc CR Botha or FJ Grobbelaar 011 659 1022

Vortx Aviation Bredell Roux 072 480 0359 info@vortx.co.za www.vortxaviation.com Wagtail Aviation Johan van Ludwig 082 452 8194 acrochem@mweb.co.za www.wagtail.co.za Wanafly Adrian Barry 082 493 9101 adrian@wanafly.net www.wanafly.co.za Windhoek Flight Training Centre Thinus Dreyer 0026 40 811284 180 pilots@flywftc.com www.flywftc.com Wings n Things Wendy Thatcher 011 701 3209 wendy@wingsnthings.co.za www.wingsnthings.co.za Witbank Flight School Andre De Villiers 083 604 1718 andredv@lantic.net www.waaflyingclub.co.za Wonderboom Airport Peet van Rensburg 012 567 1188/9 peet@wonderboomairport.co.za www.wonderboomairport.co.za Zandspruit Bush & Aero Estate Martin Den Dunnen 082 449 8895 martin@zandspruit.co.za www.zandspruit.co.za Zebula Golf Estate & SPA Reservations 014 734 7700 reception@zebula.co.za www.zebula.co.za

stoffel@trioavi.co.za/frans@trioavi.co.za

www.trioavi.co.za Tshukudu Trailers Pieter Visser 083 512 2342 deb@tshukudutrailers.co.za www.tshukudutrailers.co.za U Fly Training Academy Nikola Puhaca 011 824 0680 ufly@telkomsa.net www.uflyacademy.co.za United Charter cc Jonathan Wolpe 083 270 8886 jonathan.wolpe@unitedcharter.co.za www.unitedcharter.co.za

FlightCom Magazine

CARGO

Boeing 737-300 Cargo Aircraft available for wet (ACMI) lease.

SA Flyer 2021|05

Based at OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg South Africa.

Contact: yvonne@starcargo.co.za or peter@starcargo.co.za Tel: +27 11 234 7038 www.starair.co.za FlightCom Magazine

May 2021

Articles inside

Jim Davis - ACCIDENT REPORT

George Tonking - HELI OPS

Peter Garrison - LITTLE AEROPLANES

Jim Davis - PLANE TALK