FROM THE ARCHIVES SEVEN DAY SLING BUILD, REMEMBERED

An unusually modified safety helmet on display in the LAA Member’s Lounge, reminds us of a hectic week in September 2016, when an aircraft was built at the LAA Rally by a small team of experts from The Airplane Factory in South Africa, and a handful of UK volunteer amateur builders, which included the aircraft’s owner, Lucien D’Sa. They assembled a flat-pack kit aircraft in just seven days, as a centrepiece for the 70th Anniversary Rally.

The aircraft, arrived as hundreds of individual components and thousands of rivets in a pile of wooden crates shipped from South Africa, was the UK’s first example of the Sling 4, the four-seat derivative of the smaller Sling 2. The aircraft and the more recent Sling TSI have a popular addition to the LAA fleet in the last couple of years.

The Union Jack and South African flags act as a reminder of the great spirit of international co-operation with a perfect mixture of personalities and skills – four members with substantial aircraft assembly experience, four amateurs with an established interest and four absolute beginners. It wasn’t just aircraft skills that were gained too. Three of the five builders from the factory in Johannesburg had never before visited England, and one had never left South Africa. For them, as much as the Brits, it was a lifetime highlight.

“Sawabona” on the hat’s peak is a common greeting in northern Natal in South Africa. It means “greetings” and “respect”. Perfectly summing up the project! Steve Slater