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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
One of the more spectacular crashes was that of Helios Airways Flight 522 Boeing 737 which flew on with a dead cockpit crew until it crashed into a Greek mountainside. The root problem was a breakdown in communication in the cockpit. THE HELIOS 522 CRASH is a good example ofRead More →
