Re: Where I Fly.
Two Weekends ago, 9 friends including my older brother, and I decided to go in search of the classical semi-desert pan in the North Western Parts of South Africa and land with our short field machines and camp for the night.
We found a pan on Google Earth, we did a deed search and asked the farmer if we could enjoy an evening on the pan and have him come and join us for a couple of drinks and a "Braai" (That's our word for a good old Barbeque).
The kind gent and his family answered in the affirmative, so off we went!
1. Kitfox 5 with a Franklin 116hp Motor
2. Bushbaby Explorer (Kitfox 4 copy) with 100hp Rotax.
3. Cessna 170A.
4. Sling 2 (totally South African designed and built Home Build)
5. Supercub
6 Cirrus Sr22 (not short field, but, MAN! Did this guy make it do marvellous stuff!
The rest of the group departed from Wings Park near East London and met my brother, Mark and I on my farm airfield, whereupon we went on to Queenstown (The Supercub had to refuel) and then to Gariep Dam.
A guest house took us all in for the princely sum of + - 18 US Dollars each and they had a pool. It was 35 Degrees C (?? Fahrenheit), so in I went and washed my sweaty shirt.
After Lunch, we were kindly taken on a tour of the internal structures of the Gariep Dam wall. This was commissioned in 1966 and was really interesting and an eye opener regarding the design excellence of those days.
Saturday morning saw us departing Northwards along the Orange River for Lunch at an Afrikaner Town called Orania. These are a separatist group who are wanting to govern themselves in that tiny area. Also very interesting and to note was the politeness of everyone as well as the bus ride from the airfield to the restaurant and back costing $ 3.00. Not each! That's IT!
After sitting out a 2.00pm storm, we left for the last 70Nm leg for the pan, and after selecting a suitable landing site without a layer of water we set down and camped.
I phoned the farmer who promptly travelled the 40 km with his family to join us for the evening.
As things were beginning to get jolly, a Massive storm blew in and we all scrambled to hold down aeroplanes and forsook our tents. Mine snapped a pole and became a wet bag to sleep in.
The lamb chops (we took an entire lamb cut into chops to eat) that hadn't been consumed were promptly covered in grit and mud.
After a not-so-great night's sleep, we had gritty lamb chops and boiled eggs for breakfast and set off for home.
I tankered fuel for the Bushbaby and the C170 tankered fuel for the Supercub. I was heavy with full fuel, Gas Cylinder and all the cooking utensils, Most of the lamb, a tent, a passenger, 10 liters of fresh water and a Jerry can of Fuel for the Bushbaby. I also had my luggage and sleeping kit.
I burned 19 litres an hour and the whole trip was 8 hours.
Most of all it was tremendous fun!
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