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"Blessed are those who have soared beyond the earthly ties into the blue yonder to experience the fantasy of flight, for they have lived the ultimate thrill of life." Athol F.
A celebration of Martin van Straten's life
One of the toughest jobs in life is to write about the passing of a true friend who was like a brother to me. How can one express one's despair at the loss of such a wonderful person who sadly has been snatched from our midst whilst he was in the prime of his life?
Martin was the ultimate aviation perfectionist and we spent many hours together in the air and on the ground always enjoying the simplest pleasures of life. What happened is the question on every person's lips? With all his flying experience and zest for life, why did his beloved L-29 crash into the sea adjacent to Air Force Base Ysterplaat on Friday afternoon at about 15h50? As an eyewitness to the situation, one can only speculate as to what happened, because we probably will never fully understand the actual circumstances that caused the accident. Whilst one moment Martin was straight and level on downwind for landing on the runway in formation with his team, the next moment his L-29 pitched down towards the ocean, hit the sea and the rest is history.
'Prestick' as we all knew him, received his nickname from his incredible ability to always be in exact position as a wingman on his leader in formation flying. At forty-two, Martin was in peak condition and he always featured a larger than life smile. During the twenty or more years that I knew Martin, I often witnessed his life skills as a compassionate person with a true zest for life. He departed this earthly place doing what he loved most, flying as a member of the SASOL Tiger formation team. For those of us that mourn his passing, life will not ever be quite the same without Martin. To his family and loved ones, especially Martin's mother Karen, his daughters Stephanie (13) Natalie (11) and Christina (7) as well as his fiancée Ella, our team wishes you strength during this terrible time of loss.
Martin, cheers my friend, until we meet again in some distant place may your soul rest in peace.
Martin's funeral arrangements
The family has advised that Martin's funeral will be held at Christ Church corner of 9th and 11th Roads Errand in Midrand at 15h00 on Friday afternoon 29 September. Thank you.
Bye to Andre and hello to Travis
We are very sad to have to say bye-bye to Andre Schild our marketing manager for the past two years who moves onto greener pastures with Future Publishing. Andre has set very standards in marketing African Pilot that have contributed to the significant growth of the magazine over the past two years.
At the same time we extend a welcome to Travis Lincoln who will be taking on the position of marketing assistant to Mark Mansfield (assistant editor) and me as editor and CEO of the business. Travis is contactable at e-mail: marketing@africanpilot.co.za or (011) 702 2342/3.
Now that AAD 2006 is complete Mark Mansfield is contactable on the same telephone numbers or e-mail: mark@africanpilot.co.za
Africa Aerospace and Defence 2006
The most important three-day aviation and military business exhibition was concluded with two days of spectacular flying demonstrations on the Saturday and Sunday. Enormous crowds of enthusiastic spectators watched a programme that was both safe and thrilling. Although the American hardware was missing this year, the SAAF displays by various types were excellent. In addition spectators were privileged to see the Thunder City displays of four Lightnings in formation, the only four aircraft in flying condition left in the world today, the Buccaneer also unique to South Africa and Hunters. Helicopter displays were plentiful both SAAF and civilian types. One of the highlights of the airshow was the South African Airways Airbus A340-600, flown by Johnny Woods, Scully Levin, Dennis Spence and Stu Lithgow. The grace and sheer beauty of such a large airliner expertly flown with the incredible backgrounds of the Cape Mountains made many photographers very happy.
Another special flight was that of the only surviving Shackleton which is based at AFB Ysterplaat. Commentary by Horace Block and the observation of public address silence during the actual fly-bys of this magnificent relic of our aviation history was in good taste. This year Brian Emmenis and his very large Capital Sounds team worked under trying conditions as they battled the Cape winds, especially on the trade show days. In fact, the weather could not have been kinder on the two airshow days. It has always been a pleasure to work with Brian and his team, especially as Capital Sounds uses African Pilot articles as reference material in their address to the public. Brian was ably assisted by several other commentators who were specialists in the particular field of operation. In addition, Andrew Blake, spokesman for the SA Navy and Leon du Plessis assisted Brian throughout the five day AAD 2006 event. I have been to many airshows throughout the world and nowhere have I experienced a team who pack so much enthusiasm and credible knowledge into the event as Capital Sounds do on a regular basis.
The varied programme appeared to be well managed and on time, despite some hiccups at Cape Town International Airport from where many of the fast jets were deployed. Ysterplaat Air Traffic Control tower utilised the services of one of the Cape Town ATC's to assist with the co-ordination of slot times in what was to be a very full programme. Successful airshows depend heavily on accurate timing, which includes good pilot briefing, aircraft despatch control, excellent ATC anticipation and programme management. This year's AAD had all the elements of a most successful airshow, which came together at the right time. If it had not been for the sad accident on Friday afternoon, this was to be one of the finest events of its kind ever.
However, I believe that increased participation from the civilian sector would have been most welcome. Apart from the Mazda Zoom-Zoom Zlins, Castrol Flying Lions, Pierre Gouws in his black L-39 jet, the 80% scale Spitfire and several other smaller types in this sector was poorly represented. There are many wonderful civilian aircraft based in Cape Town that should have been demonstrated at AAD. The huge crowd certainly received their money's worth because in addition to the flying displays, there was plenty of time to visit the many exhibits in the adjacent halls.
Crowd control and parking control was outstanding with no known transgressions of the airshow rules, but sadly South Africans have to learn to be more litter conscious. After Saturday's airshow I noticed that spectator areas were a mess of rubbish, despite the many litter bins that were strategically placed all over the base. I believe the time is right for ALL airshow organisers collectively to get into campaigns to improve the litter situation. Signs like "DON'T LITTER", "BE PROUD SOUTH AFRICANS" and "PLACE YOUR LITTER HERE" have to become more prominent. If these efforts are backed by television, radio and newspaper messages, I believe we can win the battle over littering.
Problems with media accreditation at AAD 2006
Several appropriately recognised photographers realised that more than half the so called 'accredited photographers' at AAD this year were nothing more than keen amateurs that have no specific outlet for the images they take at airshows. They do not work for any recognised media at all, nor can they show where their work has been published. This specific situation is getting worse by the year and is causing concern for those of us who do work for recognised magazines, newspapers and television. Something will have to be done, because the real media persons have to find other ways to get results at these events. At AAD this year, most recognised media persons found some other quiet spot where they could work that was well away from the allocated position, because this was over run by photographers who managed to be accredited by the system. However, Kanthan Pillay who had the difficult task of sorting out bona fide media persons from the others explained that many of the 'hangers on' were washed by the system he put into place.
African Pilot's presence at AAD 2006
Without doubt this was one of the most important exhibition and airshow events we have ever attended from a marketing perspective. The AAD 2006 Official Exhibitor's Catalogue was a resounding success and was praised by the organisers as well as the owners of the event. We would specifically like to thank the organisers for entrusting our team to publish the catalogue for the benefit of all exhibitors. In addition the effort and level of organisation of the exhibition was outstanding with very few complaints from exhibitors. We felt that the quality of business visitors to AAD 2006 was exceptional and this allowed us to conclude as well as make numerous contacts that will result in significantly increasing the content of the magazine from a global perspective.
Security was stringent and as promised very few under sixteen's were granted entry to the trade days. Often events of this nature are overrun by hoards of schools kids who deplete pamphlets, catalogues and promotional material that is specifically aimed at business. One has only to think back on a time when a major European exhibition allowed hoards of school kids to descend on the event and many of the kids were found to be removing promotional material which was dumped into a dumpster ready for paper re-cycling. On behalf of all exhibitors, I would like to thank the organisers for attending to the requirement of ensuring that the first three days remained strictly business days.
The South African Air Force kindly flew our October magazine to Ysterplaat in time for our launch at AAD for which we thank them very much. To our team specifically, I congratulate all of you for your hard work which consistently pays off as African Pilot has become the best quality and most widely read aviation magazine in southern Africa.
Further information of the failed 'Air Race' at Hartebeespoort Dam
It has come to light that had it not been for the significant intervention of several leaders in the aviation airshow business that collectively have considerable experience in planning and execution of airshows and related events, this event would have been a total failure. The organisers had not considered a 'Plan B' and it appears that by late on Thursday afternoon 14 September many of the requirements for the staging of the 'Air Race' had not been met by the organisers. Consequently, several qualified members of the Aero Club and ASSA pulled together to ensue that the event took place albeit as an ad hoc mini airshow.
Without doubt the person who held things together on the day was Brian Zeederberg who was ably assisted by Ian Popplewell as the flight director and safety officer respectively. Together with ATC's from Rand Airport, they worked off the top of a scaffolding tower at the water's edge where with cell phones and radios they co-ordinated a most successful event, given the circumstances on the day. In the background Scully Levin, Stan Oliver and Neil de Lange managed to get the authorities to allow the event to continue, whilst at the same time the pilots who performed saved the day.
There are many reasons why this event failed and some of these are:
- The poor choice of a suitable date since the event was staged the week before certain pilots were preparing to attend Africa Aerospace and Defence 2006 in Cape Town
- Lack of proper planning with specific respect to a suitable 'Plan B'
- The race pylons were not fully water tested and they failed on the day
- The course was not properly constructed in good time for pilots to practice
- Communications broke down due to a lack of suitably qualified personnel
- Suitable pilots were not available due to their business and flying commitments
There are many lessons to be learned from this fiasco, but the most important of all was that when the chips were down, correctly qualified airshow personnel were able to partially rescue the situation for the benefit of all of aviation in South Africa. At the same time the North-West Province is to be congratulated on a bold attempt to deliver exposure of aviation to the people.
Latest method of hijacking cars â€â€œ report from Discovery Health
Gavin Osmond (one of our engineers at Discovery) was involved in an attempted hi-jacking on Wednesday night in Rivonia, where a young perfectly nice-looking white guy convinced him into winding down his window at a traffic light, informed him that he wanted his car and then threw acid in his face. Gavin's face was burned extensively and the membranes have been burned off his eyes. He was temporarily blind for a few hours. He is undergoing daily treatment and it will be several months before his eyes recover properly.
DO NOT WIND DOWN YOUR WINDOW FOR ANYONE!
Please pass this message to as many people as you can in order to prevent another motorist falling victim to the trash that we have to live with in South Africa. It is also a good idea to have the windows of your vehicle safety filmed in order to prevent the smash and grab problem we are faced with. At African Pilot we have had all our vehicles fitted with safety film. For further details on vehicle safety film please contact Ricky on his cell phone: 082 828 9214. When will the cops start working in order to shut down the criminal element of our society?
Aviation humour
Stewardess announcement:
"Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."
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