Season's Greetings
The Cape Town Flying Club sends warm wishes to all our members over the festive season. We hope that you all enjoy a break and please stay safe on the road and in the air.
Please note the following dates of closure of the CTFC, during which no flying will take place:
Thursday 25 December (Christmas Day)
Thursday 1 January (New Years Day)
The club will be operating as normal during the holiday period apart from these two days.
Special thanks to Enrique Guallart for sending us this photo, taken along the Pyrenees, bordering Spain and France, along with his Christmas wishes to the club.
Cape Town Flying Club End of Year Party
Our year end function took place on 29 November, and Vossie Vosloo takes full honours for the wonderful event. A big thank you goes to Robin Coss for giving us carte blanche in his hangar, and the venue was great. For those who weren't able to join us, it was a lovely evening with a sit-down dinner, delicious food and lots of wonderful people.
 
Formalities were dealt with swiftly and annual trophies awareded. Congratulations to the following people:
- Antonie Vermaak - Deal Alliance Award for outstanding performance in commercial ground school and subsequent exams.
- Gareth Roos - Advanced Student Pilot for outstanding performance in advanced training
- Michelle Mann - Denis Jankelow Award for exceptional display of Airmanship and Flight Safety
- Morné Kleinhans - Instructor of the Year for exceptional commitment to instruction
- Tiana Ditner - Jonathan Hoffman Trophy for Dedication to Aviation - for enthusiasm and commitment
- Jared Seymour-Hall - Professional Pilot of the Year for exceptional display of professionalism
- Nicholas Owen - Student Pilot of the Year for outstanding performancde during PPL training
Honorary Life Membership was awarded to Antony Russell for his unbelievable contribution to the club over the past few years.
Congratulations to everyone who won awards and also well done to those who won prizes in the lucky draw. We received incredibly generous donations this year in terms of prizes, either as a straight draw or those that were auctioned, and the generosity of our members was really wonderful to see.
It has been a most challenging year for the club but now that summer has finally arrived, we are starting to see an increase in flying hours. Also, with the holidays approaching, it is good to see more people at the club during the day catching up on some flying after a stressful year.
 
We enter 2009 with new challenges ahead and hopefully, many new students!!
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
Fly safely, and more importantly, drive safely.
Alexia
KHP Ferry - Not for Sissies
We were delighted when Nicholas Basson offered us the loan of ZS-KHP for the summer months. After swift negotiations, it was decided that our previously owned and much loved Tomahawk, would make the long journey back to Cape Town. I managed to secure the ultra-skilled services of our much loved ex-instructor, Sean O’Connor, to help with this flight. The reasons for choosing Sean were multi-factorial.
1. He is drop dead gorgeous
2. He knows what he’s doing in a Tomahawk
3. I am not rated on the Tomahawk
4. I am a complete whoos when it comes to long cross countries
5. Sean was free and available at the time
6. Sean is drop dead gorgeous.
In any event, after a 4 hour delay at CT International due to a Kulula technical problem, we finally reached Port Elizabeth just before 5pm before making a 2 hour drive to Nicholas’s farm on the outskirts of Bedford in the Eastern Cape. Our stay at Chestnut Grove farm was glorious and Nicholas and his wife entertained us grandly with a lovely dinner and an excellent red from the cellar.
Friday morning 5am, we were up and about, packed and ready to go down to Thorngrove Airfield to inspect and pre-flight. We were in possession of all the log books, certifications, release to service, etc and I clutched in my hand the list Jaco had given to me marked “NON-NEGOTIABLES”. I checked each item and off we went. All in order.
 
The aircraft was parked under cover but not in a hangar and the pre-flight proved to be nothing short of an education. A bird had nested itself very comfortably inside the engine and it took 10-15 minutes to clear this out. Then, an insect of some sort had nested in the pitot. Now we were armed with a GPS (2 actually), maps, hand held radio, flight logs, airfields book, even a leatherman, so when I was asked for a pipe cleaner I realized just how incompetent I was. However, a Griek maak ‘n boer se plan, and I dug out the nest with some local flora. By this time, the sun was beating down on us, I had already broken two nails cleaning out the nest and an angry wasp was now proving to be difficult to convince this was not personal.
After an extensive and exhaustive pre-flight, the engine started up beautifully, and run-ups and checks proceeded without any problems. I did my first ever take off in a Tomahawk and I must say, enjoyed it enormously. Sean was relaxed but did point out the high terrain which took me by surprise as it had not looked that bad from the ground. But by then the temperature on the ground was about 26 degC, and a slow climb ensued as we turned to head for Beaufort West.
The flight to Beaufort West was beautiful and uneventful. KHP flew like a dream and Sean and I settled into an easy routine of FREDA checks, “I spy with my little eye” and the odd slap on the wrist as I drifted off course. Our arrival at Beaufort was expected (and lunch had been pre-ordered) and I greased in my first ever Tommy landing like an old pro. Not to blow my own trumpet, but it was graceful, lady-like and to prove my point, a guest at the B&B came down to compliment Sean on his landing. He groveled sufficiently when Sean corrected him, a moment of sexism which I enjoyed immensely. Sean and I were starving as we left too early to bother about breakfast and we both inhaled two toasted sandwiches and salads at the wonderful B&B at Beaufort West Airport. The B&B is under new ownership and management, is beautifully decorated, and I can highly recommend their hospitality for any travelers passing that way. After re-fuelling and gasping in the 40 Deg heat on the ground, KHP decided she was a bit full after lunch and ate up three quarters of the runway before deigning to get airborne. Density altitude was 11 000 feet!!!!!
 
So, boiling hot, CB’s developing in the distance over midday Karoo, and we set off for our final leg to Cape Town. First set of FREDA checks during the climb proved uneventful, and again the odd index finger tapping on the GPS to show me the error of my ways. We took a full hour to reach FL85, and the outside temp was 26 deg. We made generous use of our water bottles and the next set of FREDA checks went something like this:
“Sean, did you change the fuel tanks?”
“No.” (Sean looks at fuel tanks). Silence.
“Sean, we had full tanks one hour ago, but now both are on half.”
Fffffffff@%#!!
Map out, where are we? Over Laingsburg. Just past Laingsburg to be exact.
Visual check of fuel caps show nothing out of the ordinary, no leaks visible, but now fuel tanks reading quarter tanks.
SEAN: “OK, we have a problem. We need to get on the ground. There is an airfield dead ahead. Not sure what airfield it is, but lets just get this plane on the ground. Notify ATC.” (we were obviously on a flight plan).
Sean took control of the flying and I attempted to contact ATC. No response. It suddenly occurred to me that Sean’s lips were moving but no sound coming out. Saying his prayers because now the tanks were indicating empty? No, he was trying to tell me that the radios have gone and then it all started to make sense.
Alternator failure.
I grabbed my handheld radio and put out a pan call on 125.6 and 121.5. If anyone heard us we will never know, but ATC certainly had not.
A good inspection of the air strip was carried out and as we turned I recognized the little town nearby as Matjiesfontein. Sean had control and if anyone was saying prayers, it was me giving thanks that I didn’t have to land on that bumpy narrow little pathway.
 
Relieved, safe on the ground, procedure kicked into play. I telephoned ATC in Cape Town who sounded pleased and relieved to hear from me as they had lost our transponder a little way back, then slowly watched us disappear off the radar!! We rang the club and very soon, help was on the way in the form of a Toyota Bakkie. We off loaded all our gear and removed the battery and trundled into Matjiesfontein on a boiling hot Friday afternoon. The workshop at the hotel was able to charge the battery for us overnight, and Sean and I resigned ourselves to a Friday night in the roaring metropolis of Matjiesfontein. We got some exercise, some coffee, some food and plenty of free time. Thank you to all of you who rang with words of encouragement, esp Linda Hodgkinson. I understand Peter Erasmus had a few witty words to say as well. For those of you smart-alecs who made cracks about honeymoon suites etc, I hate to disappoint you, but nevertheless I thank you for the complimentary suggestive sms’s all the same.
We checked into a little cottage that was part of the hotel, and waited. Waited, wondered and wandered around the village looking for entertainment. We settled for a smoky bar initially, then dinner at the hotel. The heat got the better of us, and we succumbed to the hustle and bustle of the crickets and turned in early in anticipation of an early morning start.
Armed with recharged battery, Sean forced me to do the take off. I squeaked in a particularly high pitched yelp when a springbok ran in front of the aircraft just before I rotated. We nearly came back with a trophy of horns. But sunny skies after that and off we went. My heart rate slowly came back to normal and I could just see Sean out the corner of my eye shaking his head with his eyes to the ceiling thinking “WTF, what did I do to deserve this?” But he smiled reassuringly, as all instructors do, and told me I was doing fine and off we went. Closing in on Cape Town we see the mountains but nothing on the other side, no horizon. A white out!! Cloud. Low and as far as the eye can see. Lovely. Identify Ceres air field as our alternate but press on in the hopes of a gap.
 
Yay! Good old Gouda. Always a little gap in the mountain under the cloud. Onwards and downwards. Leveled off below the cloud at about 1 500ft and ATIS declared FACT to be IMC. Just what we needed. We could hear traffic reporting at Fisantekraal so headed in their direction and joined the circuit for a full stop landing to ride out the weather.
Thank you Linda for the coffee and muffins!! You were a life saver. Thank you Sean for the most fantastic fun filled flight. I learned so much from you and although I never got to do any upper air work and still need to do my rating on the plane, I gained tons of experience. I am sure you can get those grey hairs that I gave you sorted out at a good barber in Dakar.
ZS-KHP will hopefully be ready for flight after her MPI with a new alternator. I hope that those of you who fly her have as much fun with her as I did.
Alexia Michaelides
Fuel, Aircraft Rates & Maintenance
Several members have asked why the aircraft rates have not been decreased to reflect the recent drop in fuel prices. The fact is that the club's maintenance bills are still very high, and in the interest of safety, this is not an area where we are prepared to compromise. Compared to clubs around the country, we are very much in the market and safety will always come first.
Deal Alliance Training Schedule 2009
The following documents may be of interest to anyone wishing to participate in the Deal Alliance courses in 2009:
Safety Corner
Contributed by Gareth Pinnock
Accidents and incidents never just occur. To borrow a well worn line: "there is a chain of small, seemingly insignificant events, that come together to cause a significant failure".
For every accident or incident that makes it into our club file, there are many occurances that fail to end in an accident, or even in an incident. This is often not due to any particular pilot skill, but just good old fashioned luck. The pilot concerned bet their life, and the lives of their passengers, on one roll of the dice. What is worse, sometimes the pilot (and definitly the passengers) were not aware that fate was indeed the hunter.
The stories presented here are not part of a "name and shame" campaign. We can only gain experience by making mistakes. Unfortunately, we do not live long enough (or fly often enough) to make them all. The stories here are so that you can put yourselves in the pilot's shoes, and see what they went through, and rejoice with them that they came out unscathed – wiser and alive.
The stories here happened to CTFC pilots over the years.
If you have a story that you feel that others can learn from, write it down and send it, anonymously if you like.
Running on empty
Place: Peninsula
Plane: Warrior
The pilot was taking some passengers around. Been conscientious, he did a mass and balance, and limited the amount of fuel he took on board. For a normal peninsula, he would have enough for his 45 minute reserve.
All went well, with the peninsula taking slightly longer than expected, but the passengers seemed to enjoy the flight. Then the passengers asked to see Robben Island.
The pilot had 2 choices: either tell the pax that they couldn't, or go to Robben Island and hope that he had enough fuel.
The pilot did not want to disappoint his pax, and was sure that by leaning the mixture he should be fine...just had to hope there was no hold up at FACT....
In the end, the pilot landed safely, but when the refueling truck came, he found out that the tanks were running on fumes. A little extra flying time would have meant fuel starvation.
Lessons learned
Even though the pilot knew he had a fuel problem, he did not make the legal requirement of declaring a fuel emergency. He was worried about possible repurcussions, and elected to take his chances. It is very easy to convince yourself that everything will turn out ok, and that this can't happen to you. The pilot was worried that someone would find out, and that if he took a chance that might pay off, no one would be any wiser.
This risked the lives of himself, and his 3 pax. It is always easier to accept resignation, and hope for the best. Unfortunately, when making a bet like that, the stakes are very high.
Similar accidents in the club's history (in that the a/c ran out of fuel)
MEE (C172, variable pitch), Upington.
1 Fatality, 1 seriously injured
Aircraft written off
OWF (C152), just east of FACT
No injuries
Aircraft written off
Pictures
Contributed by Jaco van Zyl
Our CFI Jaco van Zyl recently had the opportunity to do some upper airwork in a Hawker Siddeley HS 748.
 
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