Peter Garrison – My mother, who would fortify herself for any aerial voyage with either Miltown or Chivas Regal, would later revisit with perverse relish each “air pocket” the plane had encountered. I’M NOT SURE WHAT she believed an air pocket consisted of, but I suppose it was something likeRead More →
GERHARD VAN EEDEN – THE OWNER OF MADIBA BAY SCHOOL OF FLIGHT IN PORT ELIZABETH. “It’s not going to last. You know that, right?” “Yes, well I guess we’ll see.” That was how conversations went when I arrived in Port Elizabeth with our first Sling in December of 2012. WELL,Read More →
Guy Leitch – As the global aviation industry bounces back surprisingly strongly from the Covid calamity, it was inevitable that the system would start breaking under the pressure of lost skills. A LARGE PART OF THE SURPRISE may have been that the crisis first occurred in the lower skilled employeesRead More →
George Tonkin – “Never has so much been owed to so few by so many” – Winston Churchill speaking of the Allied airmens’ gallant efforts shortly after the Battle of Britain. ON THE EVE OF THE GREATEST air battle in history, all seemed desperate and lost in Britain with aRead More →
(Story & Pics Rob Russell) – Ag Aviation Africa (AAA), the Sub-Saharan and the Middle East agent for Air Tractor, hosted an open day and launch party before the Stellenbosch airshow to introduce their newly approved Aircraft Training Organisation (ATO), Ag Aviation Flight Academy (AAFA). THE AVIATION COMMUNITY, customers, potentialRead More →
Things aren’t always what they seem. One of the pleasures of this job is hearing from readers. Some write to correct my errors or to note my omissions. Some are hostile, though the population recommending my immediate consignment to the infernal fires has for some reason dwindled in recent years.Read More →
You may have noticed, if you follow the adverts in American aviation magazines, a sudden multiplication of the number and variety of angle of attack (AoA) indicators on offer for smaller general aviation aircraft. THIS BURST OF ACTIVITY was triggered by a new FAA policy allowing AoA instrumentation to beRead More →
The pilot, who was also the owner of the aircraft, took off from runway 29 at Wonderboom on a private acceptance flight following maintenance. The flight was conducted under visual meteorological conditions (VMC). Shortly after rotation, he experienced an engine failure and conducted a forced landing on an open areaRead More →
Let me tell YOU about the worst passenger in the world. Any first-year trainee shrink would’ve warned me not to fly with this guy, based on the five shrinkery categories – where the spectrum of scores ranges from one on the left-hand side to ten on the right: • ConscientiousnessRead More →
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. Aircraft Registration:Read More →