RAY WATTS – September 2022

This month, although not quite as exciting as last month, nevertheless contains a few delicious items.

Ray Watts.

FIRST OF ALL, there is an Embraer 145 added to the register which was seen operating in Russia with her South African registration, ZS-ABB, applied in the last month. Unfortunately, nobody that I know has been able to photograph her as yet. This Embraer takes up the former registration of an Avro Avion which was written off in 1947.

Continuing their strong growth, Cemair have added yet another CRJ900 to their fleet, bringing their total to four of this type. This one, ZS-CMU, was the registration of a Cessna 182 which was cancelled way back.

Some unusual imports were a Piper PA36- 285 Brave, which is a crop sprayer, a Lear Jet from the USA and an Airvan from Botswana. The Piper Brave takes up the registration of a Cessna 210 which went to Tanzania in 2014.

There were three Cessna 172s delivered in a dismantled state, to Rand airport during the month from Botswana and two of these have now come on to the register. In total nine new TCA registrations were issued this month, including a new glider.

On the Non-type certified NTCA register we see another seven new registrations issued including a new RAF 2000 Gyrocopter. I haven’t seen one of these registered for a long time. There are also three new RVs, two Slings and a Bathawk registered.

As per usual we have lost aircraft to the export market. The total number of aircraft exported this month is seven. These include an ex SAA A320 ZS-SZD which was returned to her owner as OE-IPJ. This aircraft was flown to Accra and then on to Ljubljana in Slovenia. There are rumours that she may be returning to operate for Global Airways, but this isn’t confirmed as yet. African Air Charters have sent one of their Boeing 737-300s to Indonesia. Amongst the others exported are three helicopters, a Beech 1900 and a Piper Matrix. Their destinations are really worldwide including Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Austria & Australia.

On the NTCA side we lost three aircraft with two going to Namibia and one to Mozambique.

We continue to see the number of drones registered increasing and this month another fifty-one were added and nine de-registered.

Tail piece

I attended AAD 2022 and manned the SA Flyer stand. On the Saturday I was really encouraged by the number of young people who approached me with questions of how they could become pilots and aircraft engineers. Strangely enough, there were more enquiries about aircraft engineering as a career than there were enquiries about being a pilot. There was one young lass who is determined to fly but couldn’t afford it. She went and got a drone pilot’s license and now flies the DRV security drone northeast of OR Tambo. She is using her earnings from this to put herself through her comm and IF ratings. She is really determined to get into the airlines. I’m really impressed by the number of intelligent questions I was asked.

SAA’s shrinking fleet – ZS-SZD is a A320 exported to Austria as OE-IPJ. Photo Ray Watts.

REGISTER REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2022

REG MANUFACTURER TYPE NAME SERIAL NUMBER PREVIOUS IDENTITY / EXPORT COUNTRY

New Registrations ZS-

ZS-ABB EMBRAER-EMPRESA BRASILEIRA DE AERONAUTICA EMB-135BJ 14501210 P4-888, B-3280, B-8556

ZS-CMU BOMBARDIER INC CL-600-2D24 15063 TS-ISB, C-FIAP, EC-MEN, N510AP, I-HDTB, N563ES, C-FXCE, TC-ETB, C-FIIW

ZS-LUG PIPER AIRCRAFT INC PA-36-285 36-7660005 N550TP

ZS-NCT BEECH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION E55 TE-939

RE-INSTATED

ZS-TLF LEARJET INC 45 228 N150AB

ZS-TLJ GIPPSLAND AERONAUTICS (PTY) LTD GA8 GA-8-03-027 A2-AKJ

ZS-TLL CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY 172N 172-68184 A2-…,

ZS-JWZ, N733CD ZS-TLM CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY 172N 172-76444 A2-…,

ZS-SHZ, N99424

New Registrations ZT-G

ZT-GRT M&D FLUGZEUGBAU GMBH & CO.KG JS-MD 3 3.MD 169

New Registrations ZU-

ZU-IXF DENNIS LEWES PARKER VANS AIRCRAFT RV9 93242

ZU-MRS PHILIPPUS RUDOLE ENGELBRECHT RV 7 74891

ZU-PBL SLING AIRCRAFT (PTY) LTD SLING 4 TSI 392s

ZU-PUR SLING AIRCRAFT (PTY) LTD SLING 4 TSI 364s

ZU-RGX WILLEM H M BARNARD RAF 2000 GTX SE FI M2-01-07-11-045

ZU-XCO MICRO AVIATION SA BATHAWK R 0107

ZU-XIV ROBIN COSS AVIATION (PTY) LTD RV-14A 140845

Aircraft deleted ZS-

ZS-EXC ROBINSON HELICOPTER COMPANY R44 II 11735 AUSTRALIA

ZS-JCT BEECH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION 1900D UE-0088 CANADA

ZS-OHJ PIPER AIRCRAFT CORPORATION PA-46-350P 46-36099 BRAZIL

ZS-PKV THE BOEING COMPANY 737-300 24789 INDONESIA

ZS-RHN BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON 407 53187 AUSTRALIA

ZS-RMJ ROBINSON HELICOPTER COMPANY R66 0647 BRAZIL

ZS-SZD AIRBUS INDUSTIE A320-232 6007 AUSTRIA as OE-IPJ

Aircraft deleted ZU-

ZU-BUF SLING AIRCRAFT (PTY) LTD SLING 4 Tsi 235s NAMIBIA

ZU-SBC SA RAVIN AIRCRAFT CC RAVIN 500 0405003 NAMIBIA

ZU-TCE MICRO AVIATION SA BAT HAWK 0008 MOZAMBIQUE