March 2023 – Who Guards the Guards? The development of general aviation in South Africa faces three large hurdles: 1) The high price of fuel. 2) The weak Rand and associated high price of new planes and parts. 3) The CAA – which, despite its mandate to develop aviation, hasRead More →
March 2023 – LOOKING AT THE ADVERTISEMENTS for planes for sale is worrying. It’s not just the usual crop of aircraft from people wanting to trade up. There is a far greater proportion of pilots selling everything: their planes, headsets and hangars. In other words, they are done with flying.Read More →
February 2023 – The CAA may like to think that it is the custodian of aviation standards in South Africa, but the reality is that the designated flight test examiners (DFEs) are the keepers of flying standards. Yet they are under threat. THE QUESTION ARISES; who checks the DFE’s –Read More →
THE FAA HAS PUBLISHED draft rules for all new makes and models offering point-to-point air taxi services outside the traditional aeronautical ecosystem. This has been a daunting regulatory challenge for the administration, adding entirely new types of traditional fixed and rotary-wing aircraft. This change will only be the first bitRead More →
Guy Leitch – Who wudda thought it? According to ICAO, the biggest crisis facing the airline industry today is not the sky-high price of fuel – or the problems of actually getting it to the airports when gas pipelines are being blown up and tankers get caught in storms. AVIATION’SRead More →
October 2022 – Guy Leitch Our South African CAA is a microcosm of Africa, or if you like, Schrodinger’s cat. It is simultaneously both good and bad. LET’S START WITH THE GOOD. In her almost 10-year reign as Director of the CAA, Ms Poppy Khoza has managed that rarity inRead More →
Ray Watts – July 2022. For the first time in many years a brand-new Cessna 172 has been registered in South Africa. How things have changed. WE SEE A TOTAL OF nine Type certified aircraft (seven fixed wing and two helicopters) having been registered. The Cessna 172 takes up aRead More →
POSITION REPORT (SAFlyer June 2021) – ‘INDUSTRY NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED FROM STUPID GOVERNMENT’ THERE IS AN ENDURING PERCEPTION in Africa that general aviation (GA) is the plaything of rich whites. So we continue to lose airports to population pressure and land hunger. This is exacerbated by the location ofRead More →
A RECENT SPATE OF SPECTACULAR JET engine failures reminds us that the development of aircraft has not been so much about aerodynamic advances, but rather, it has been driven by engine development. And the biggest and most fascinating battle amongst the airline manufacturers is not between Airbus and Boeing, butRead More →
JoeBen Bevirt has ducked the media spotlight—until now. He discusses how electric air taxis will make urban transport cleaner and cheaper. The most recognizable name in the emerging electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) segment, JoeBen Bevirt, broke years-long silence during a webcast with the Washington Post. It turns out heRead More →