Flying in South Africa

BY Derek Melton

My logbook shows 194 hrs flown in South Africa over a six-year period. I had arrived from Botswana in September to take up a university ecology research and teaching post in Pietermaritzburg,KwazuluNatal Province. After a few months settling in to work I found my way to the Pietermaritzburg Aero Club at Oribi Airport (FAPM), where I was met by Mel the CFI and shown around. Oribi is at 2425ft elevation with then a 1200m paved 34 / 16 runway, plus two shorter grass strips. It was quite busy with both general aviation and scheduled flights, mainly piston single and piston twin or twin turboprop aircraft. There was also a very active skydiving club. Radio communications only required use of a traffic frequency. PMB Aero Club had been established in 1938 with a logo of a winged elephant that looks rather good on a baseball cap or tie. The club had two C150s and two C172s. It also had a restaurant run by Heather, a bar and a fine swimming pool next to the ramp. I’m afraid these facilities have set somewhat high expectations for flying club amenities ever since! Mel checked over my USA ppl and my logbook showing Botswana flying hours in a C210 and worked out the paperwork and flight test I would need to receive a South African ppl. Given my experience and currency he suggested just a one hour dual flight in a C172 to get familiarized with the plane and local area, to be followed by a practical flight test.

It was a hot summer’s day when I turned up on January 16th for an initial dual familiarization flight in ZS-FXX. Mel appeared a large easy going man, but I quickly learned he set high standards and so

I should not relax too much, even on a “familiarization” flight. After a few circuits we headed away from town with Mel pointing out various landmarks before entering a hilly area with rock outcrops, deep river valleys, natural scrub vegetation and the occasional farm. Mel cut the power, noted that the engine had failed and asked what I was going to do. Apparently my restart efforts did not work, so I needed to plan for an emergency landing.

One green area looked like a managed field, so I glided in that direction, which met with Mel’s approval. I was able to maneuver for a right base arrival, coming round to final at about 300ft. I thought I had made the field and moved to power up for a go around, but Mel kept the throttle closed and said to continue the approach. At 100ft with a dead pan expression he calmly said we might as well land. The area was flat and the grass short which helped for a smooth arrival. As we slowed I looked across,no doubt with my mouth somewhat open,at a now grinning Mel, who suggested I park over where he pointed so he could fetch something from his house, which was also over there! He may have done this with students a few times before.

Two weeks later in February I took and passed the practical flight test. After that and with paperwork sent in, I received my South African ppl on March 2nd, bound impressively with pink ribbon in a small dark blue cardboard folder, rather like an old UK passport, along with other relevant pages including “authority to operate radio apparatus”.

Over the next six years I was able to use the C172ZS-FXX and the recently acquired ZS-KVW to help with my wildlife research. Two main studies were inshore dolphin abundance surveys, and movement studies of radio-collared eland in the Drakensburg Mountains.

The follow description of a main dolphin survey is based on an article I wrote at the time in the PMB Aero Club magazine “Telstar”, plus by looking at my logbook. From April 23rd to May 5th I flew ZS-KVW for over 40 hrs carrying out dolphin censuses. The survey covered the coast more than once from Kosi Bay, on the Mozambique border,to East London in the Cape, a distance of 458 nm. Operating height was 750ft AGL with two colleagues as observers, who also used photography to document larger groups. Northerly flights were along the shoreline looking offshore, while southerly flights were 800m offshore looking in. Calibrated tapes on the struts helped me maintain the offshore position when at 750ft AGL.

Day one was a write-off with 18 knot winds and white caps everywhere near our starting point of Durban Virginia (FAVG). We could only census below 10 knots otherwise sea conditions meant that under counting would be very high. The second day was perfect. I had fueled half way up the sleeves, giving 50 gallons; this C172P had optional extra long-range tanks totaling

62 gallons. With camping gear and three onboard we were 60 lbs below gross. Within minutes of takeoff we were in position to start surveying heading north from Umhlanga with dolphins immediately in sight. I planned most legs to be less than 1.5 hrs which allowed observers to take a welcome break, especially if we had done a lot of circling over larger dolphin groups to get consensus on numbers or to take photos. The longest leg was over 4 hrs between FAVG and East London (FAEL). Landing the first time at East London’s

2000m runway was a big contrast to our other stops and included being marshalled on the ramp by a man with orange paddles who positioned us next to a B737. My passengers were very impressed, but I tried to be nonchalant as though I was very used to such treatment. That flight took 4.2 hrs and used 31 gallons of fuel for a use rate of 7.3 gal/hr. Many rest stops used short dirt or grass Natal Parks Board or Forestry Department strips with no facilities, such as at St. Lucia and Kosi Bay. These strips were often muddy and required a pre-landing field inspection and soft field technique for landing and takeoff. Flight planning also required thinking of refueling since even when fuel was present,refueling was sometimes not actually possible especially on weekends.

Most observations were of bottlenose dolphins, but humpback, spotted, common and spinner dolphins were also identified by my experienced observers. Results were eventually written up and added weight to the suggestion

Flying in South Africa

that dolphin by-catch in shark nets off swimming beaches were likely reducing dolphin population numbers.

A second research study that used flying concerned eland in the Drakensburg Mountains along the South African - Lesotho border. The Drakensburg Mountains have peaks between 7,000 ft and 11,000 ft and comprise conservations areas at higher elevations, with forestry and farmland lower down. Eland are the largest antelope in the Drakensburg Mountains with males weighing up to 900 kg. The focus was on the ecology of animals that used farmland, since they were viewed a problem species by farmers, as they often damaged cattle fences and ate crops. With help from Natal Parks Board staff, seventeen eland on farmland at around 5000ft were marked with either colored collars or radio collars to allow their movements to be documented.

While most observations of eland with colored collars came from on-foot or on-horseback ground surveys, most observations of radio-collared individuals were from aerial surveys. I used a yagi-antenna affixed to each wing strut, with cabling to a left-right switch box in the cockpit and a commercial Yaesu receiver. It was a quick process to affix or remove the system and it never gave problems with aircraft operation. Reception range was up to about 50km line of sight, but in practice was often much less in higher mountain terrain. The left – right switch box allowed each antenna to be used in turn, which along with circling resulted in a direction fix to fly towards the signal. Survey flights originated in Pietermaritzburg and were of 1 to 2 hr duration, often with a rest landing at a farmer’s mountain grass strip “El Ranchito”. Surveys generally involved flying up ridges or across ridges at an angle and down valleys, at up to 9000 ft MSL. When a signal was picked up the plane was flown to the animal and altitude AGL reduced to attempt a visual observation, with numbers in the group and vegetation type also recorded. The main challenges with the mountain survey flying was quickly changing weather conditions, including cloud and rain and afternoon thunder storms in summer. Carb icing occurred on at least one occasion, but cleared with full carb heat, after much rougher engine running when carb heat was first applied. Also, on clear winter days, strong streams of cold air were sometimes encountered flowing down from snow-covered peaks, which could cause a swift loss of altitude and emphasized the need not to fly up valley bottoms. Over a two year period I found radio-collared animals 128 times. Results showed that eland marked on farmland were actually using higher conservation areas 75% of the time, especially in spring and summer, which emphasized the need for more integrated eland management between these areas.

Flying C172s from the PMB Aero Club for ecological studies certainly helped my research, was good fun and was a useful way to gain hours and experience. I planned the aerial surveys, but in general then had trained observers carry out observations so I could concentrate on the flying. I also tried to be a stickler for the needs of flying to come first, which could mean not taking off or finishing a survey early.

I returned to the PMB Aero Club in 2012 along with my grown son Noel who is also a pilot and found that it was still going strong with a couple of new aircraft, but still including ZS-KVW which I had mainly flown, sometimes with a young Noel as passenger. KVW had been bought as a three- year old plane in 1984 for R48,000,but in the 2000s it was being insured for R600,000.

Exchange rate variations make a straight comparison between years difficult but you get the general trend. I also learned that Mel had retired in 2007 after 35 years with the club.

Unfortunately I did not have time for a flight, but I did get a smart new club baseball cap. I just need to find an occasion where I can wear my old club tie, which through lack of use is still in pretty good shape.

Derek has flown in Botswana, South Africa, the USA and France, in addition to Canada. He has written about Flying in France and Flying in Botswana in previous editions of the Patrician.

Sawubona, hambakahle, means Greetings, go well in Zulu.