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'Aviation is proof that, given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible' - Edward V. Rickenbacker.
African Pilot's February edition
On Friday we received copies of our February edition together with the African Pilot 2006 Aviation Service Guide. Our thanks go to our printers, Colorpress, and Alic Lotter in particular, for assisting us in getting the magazine onto the shelf. Both books are being packaged into plastic bags and will be distributed nationally this coming week. This, our second free Service Guide, is a vast improvement on our first edition presented last year, with double the entries as well as significantly more information for the aviation industry of southern Africa. During the course of this year African Pilot will be producing three more free aviation related supplements that target the different sectors of aviation.
Exciting new developments at African Pilot
Readers will notice that we have changed the structure of the February edition in order to accommodate new developments planned for the monthly magazine. We have moved the Letters, Gallery and Airshow Calendar to the front of the magazine in order to provide space for African Pilot's â€ËœShop Window' section that will be placed at the rear of the magazine. A discount of 20% on advertising rates for half page and a full page only is offered to advertisers who would like to utilise this section of the magazine from March onwards. Please contact our offices for details: +27 (0)11 702 2342/3 or e-mail: marketing@africanpilot.co.za
In addition, SASOL and ASSA have sponsored a â€ËœCreative Caption Competition' with fantastic prizes for the most creative caption to an aviation related picture. The monthly prize winner will receive a SASOL hamper worth R500 as well as a framed and signed SASOL Tigers' print by either Frans Dely or Athol Franz worth another R500 â€â€œ total value R1 000. Although entry is free to all African Pilot readers, we request entrants to submit only one entry per person, per month via e-mail or post. The winning caption will be published a month after the closing date, which is the last day of each month.
African Pilot reader competitions
African Pilot is the only African monthly aviation magazine that provides readers with â€Ëœserious value for money' should they decide to enter our regular competitions. Our February edition contains the following five competitions:
- Regular cover competition â€â€œ a two night stay for two couples at Popallin Ranch's luxury De Wet's Camp on the Limpopo River
- Valentine's prize from Villa San Giovanni restaurant at Wonderboom Airport including dinner, accommodation and a scenic flight
- Our regular monthly African Pilot Gallery photo competition â€â€œ a framed fighter picture â€â€œ value R350
- SASOL Creative Caption Competition â€â€œ worth R1 000
- Win a flying experience of a lifetime with Team ORACLE SA â€â€œ value R36 000
Entries are free to all readers anywhere in the world. However, we do request that, in order to provide a fair chance to everyone, we stipulate one entry per person per competition. This means that in the month of February you can enter five competitions. Now that's a deal!
Cottage for rental - Kyalami
We have a new two bedroom self contained cottage for rent on our 1.5 Ha property in Beaulieu, Kyalami ideally situated close to Grand Central and Lanseria Airports. The area features a country lifestyle and is remarkably quiet and very secure. Our asking rental is R3 600 per month all inclusive, except electricity which is metered. Interested? Please contact Jane at (011) 702 2342/3 or 083 232 3597
SA pilots return from Al Ain â€â€œ United Arab Emirates
The remainder of the South African team, consisting of pilots and airshow commentator, Brian Emmenis, returned home from a very exciting ten days in the UAE after displaying their skills on the world stage at the Al Ain Aerobatic Show 2006. Although the weather did not play ball on the Saturday, resulting in the airshow being cancelled on that day, the organisers simply added another day to make up the five days. All participants that I spoke to praised the organisers as well as the UAE Air Force for an outstanding airshow.
Brian Emmenis remarked:
"My last few days at Al Ain were incredible. I think that the highlights for Beverley and I were:
- Meeting His Highness, Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan. I had the opportunity to pin my little SA flag on his jacket. This moment was photographed and televised worldwide
- Hosting the FAI prize-giving from the sound stage in front of thousands of spectators was also special, especially when I called out the Mazda Zoom-Zoom Team as well as the Sasol Tigers. Seeing our chaps receive FAI medals so far from home was something that I will remember for a long time
- Finally, the privilege of being in a position to work with all the South African teams that did more than their best was exciting. They most certainly did our nation proud. The level of hospitality provided by our hosts was extraordinary.â€Â Salum Alkum Atholâ€Â
South African Air Traffic Controllers
For many of the international pilots flying in and out of Al Ain every day, ATC could have been a nightmare. However, most of the pilots were pleasantly surprised when they were greeted by friendly voices in English, which they could all understand. Little did they know that most of the ATC controllers hailed from South Africa and that several of them have many years of airshow experience. In fact, Joe Bruce was one of the controllers that worked with Brian Emmenis at airshows in South Africa way back in 1985 whilst he was based in Bloemfontein. Skippie Scheepers, also from Bloemfontein, was responsible for the controlling of the Al Ain Airshow each day. Pierre Venter, initially from Durban, was the Officer in Charge of the Tower.
The ATC assistants were made up of personnel from Pakistan and India. Most of the pilots built up an excellent working relationship with the controllers and were often seen giving the tower very close fly-bys on completion of their flying routines. The Americans were so impressed that they took the controllers for joy rides as a â€Ëœthank you' gesture.
Although there were many media persons present at the Al Ain Airshow, most represented daily newspapers and television media. Magazine representation was rather thin with African Pilot being the only African publication present. Local newspapers carried fantastic articles with headlines such as:
- Airshow defies gravity in a stunning display
- Daredevils take to Al Ain skies
- On the wings of glory
- British pilot sets world record at airshow
- Jordan's Falcons to compete at Aerobatic Show
Our teams competed in the official FAI World Grand Prix No.23 and were placed as follows:
Mazda Zoom-Zoom with a score of 72.96% were narrowly beaten by the Royal Jordanian Falcons who scored 76.42%
The Sasol Tiger Jet display team scored 64.33% and were placed third behind the Russian Knights in first place and the Breitling Jet Team in second place
In addition, the wing walking display by Stu Davidson and SA flag Extra, flown by Patrick Davidson, were well received by the audience. I am certain that the organisers of this fantastic aviation event will invite South African teams back again next year because of excellent relations forged between our nations at this event. African Pilot was proud to have been invited to report on the five-day Al Ain Aerobatic Airshow. Our readers can look forward to a substantial report with dramatic pictures in our March edition.
Aviators' evening â€â€œ 23 February
AFB Ysterplaat is hosting an Aviators' Evening on Thursday 23 February 2006 from 18H00. This event is open to all aviators or persons interested in aviation. We market the event widely in the Western Cape. I will get the Promotional Poster to you next week. We believe that this is a unique event and would appreciate it if you could publish an article on this in your magazine. Capetonians, please place this date in your diaries as African Pilot will try to be present for this interesting evening and this would be an opportunity to meet with readers. For further information please contact Cassie de Castro e-mail: bengal@mweb.co.za
Cancellation of South African Airshows
We were advised this week of the cancellation of two airshows in March, both of which would have been first timers on the airshow circuit. Organisers are requested to please be more certain of staging an airshow event, which involves many different people, display teams, broadcast and the media. There is no point in reserving a date in the hopes that the airshow will come off when there is uncertainty about sponsorship or any other issue. If in doubt, please contact Air Show South Africa â€â€œ ASSA - in order to become fully acquainted with the requirements for staging a successful event: E-mail: annep@henleyair.co.za
17 to 18 March West Coast Air Carnival - hosted by SAAF AFB Langebaanweg
Contact: Riaan Olivier or Martin van der Merwe (022) 706 2137/2259
24 to 25 March Middleburg (Mpumalanga) Airshow
Contact: Roy Vermaak 082 379 1123 www.royslodge.com
Addition to the airshow calendar
12 August Tempe Airshow, Bloemfontein
Organisers: Kassie Kasselman 082 404 1642
Capetonians: please take note
Stellenbosch Fly-In 27 to 29 January. Come & Join the fun at Stellenbosch Flying Club. Fun flying and other activities, food and drinks galore, parties on Friday and Saturday. Camping facilities are free. For more information contact Allison Navarro â€â€œ 082 7287386
Round the Island yacht race â€â€œ Vaal Dam
Brian Emmenis will once again be hosting the Round the Island Yacht Race from 3 to 5 February. He would appreciate some support from aviators as in the past. This event attracts huge crowds and receives great TV coverage. It is not an airshow or fly-in, but a major yachting event with aircraft flying past the Yacht Basin throughout the three days. For further information please contact Brian at e-mail: capital@icon.co.za
ACCSA and VAT invoices
We've received 'Non-tax' invoices from ACSA in respect of passenger taxes associated with the movements of our light aircraft out of George. Our auditors are bemused by the fact that pax taxes are legitimate, VAT-rated services, and the refund on VAT, which has suddenly been denied our aircraft partnership which is VAT registered. I went to the ACSA office at George Airport, and spoke with various ACSA people who seemed knowledgeable about this new 'Non-tax' thing.
Firstly the background: ACSA have received a directive from SARS to say that passenger taxes are levied on â€Ëœpassengers' which means that â€Ëœthey (the passengers)' should pay the VAT. In other words, SAA et al. have no right to claim the VAT refund for themselves, since the refund is applicable only to the passengers themselves. So, ACSA have been advised by SARS that invoices for Pax Tax are non-tax for the likes of the scheduled carriers such as SAA.
The spin-off is that the rest of us in General Aviation are tarred with the same brush.
All is not lost, because I persuaded ACSA that our passengers travel at no cost to themselves in ZS-LDB, being our invited friends, which is true and correct. This implies that we, the aircraft operator, foot the ACSA bill, and therefore we the aircraft operator are entitled to the VAT refund. ACSA have acknowledged this and have telephonically agreed we're correct. Further, they have admitted that our aircraft operating partnership can be [easily] given some sort of special status in their accounting system that will provide us with proper, regular VAT invoices for passenger taxes, reclaimable as input tax in the normal way. Currently we're waiting to see if these verbal promises are worth the paper they're written on.
Now, being on the warpath, I am disgruntled that we pay R35.09 + tax per passenger for absolutely no benefit whatsoever, whereas it costs only R16.13 to taxi, take off, circle about, land and taxi back at George airport, at great expense to the controllers and operations at George Airport, not to mention the general inconvenience of using up airspace time. In other words we pay twice as much for no service at all as we do for services of value. We must be careful here, in case ATNS latch on to this and on a relative scale of things say: if they can afford R40 per pax for bugger all squared, then take-off and landing must be worth at least R250 excluding VAT.
My immediate advice is to throw a tarpaulin over any pax in the aircraft (ATC do have binoculars in the tower), and never declare passengers! In the longer term, I hope we can mount a campaign to change the situation whereby those passengers that use luggage trolleys, check- in counters, luggage and personnel x-ray screening, waiting areas with seats, electronic displays with arrival and departure information, toilets, staff announcing flight information over loudspeakers, VIP lounges with or without water coolers and coffee dispensers, buses to aircraft, luggage handlers and aircraft loaders, carousel luggage dispensers, etc. (i.e. scheduled passengers) - pay on a different scale to those of us who are not afforded any one of these luxuries after pulling our light aircraft out of the hangar.
This'll be a long battle no doubt, involving regulators and government gazette fee structures, but on principle I'm damned if such GA-bashing inequities should pass without a fight.
Are you concerned about this situation?
Best wishes, Neil A Fraser
Virgin Galactic and New Mexico announce Spaceport agreement
Virgin Galactic and the State of New Mexico have announced plans to build a $200 million spaceport on a 27 square-mile area in the southern part of the state. The spaceport will be home to Virgin Galactic's world headquarters and Mission Control for its personal spaceflight business.
"When Burt Rutan and SpaceShipOne won the X-Prize in October 2004, we knew the new space industry had arrived,â€Â said Secretary Rick Homans. "And when Sir Richard Branson announced that Virgin would use that same technology to fly paying passengers into space, we realized that our most important job was to convince Virgin Galactic to come to New Mexico and launch the personal spaceflight industry.â€Â
Virgin Galactic President, Will Whitehorn, noted several factors that make New Mexico an ideal operations' base: climate, free airspace, low population density, high altitude, and stunning scenery. For further information, please visit the Website: www.virgingalactic.com
Happy landing for Cirrus pilot and passengers
A Cirrus SR22 with three people on board landed gently in a grove of trees adjacent to a road near Childersburg, Ala. USA, after the pilot deployed the ballistic parachute. All three walked away from the airplane unhurt. The pilot, Kerwin Day, is a certified flight instructor and ATP-rated pilot with over 12,000 hours. He reported that he had control difficulties while attempting to manoeuvre through an area of in-cloud icing conditions, according to a news release from BRS, the maker of the chute system. The airplane was not equipped with an icing protection system. Day said that while trying to climb to a higher altitude to escape the icing, the airplane began to shake and entered into a stall; it then turned sharply and Day experienced a total loss of control. "I pulled the chute and got a sudden jolt against the seatbelt," Day told BRS. "The nose pitched down and very quickly levelled itself and in less than a minute we were on the ground." All three exited the airplane, and a call was placed to 911. The Childersburg Fire Department responded, and the group was taken to the fire station. Later, as the three drove back to Atlanta by car, they spoke with BRS via cell phone from a barbeque restaurant, happy and relieved. "This is how we think any aircraft incident should come to a close - with somebody getting on a cell phone and calling home,"
The airplane had departed from Birmingham, Ala., headed for Orlando. NTSB investigator, Corky Smith, said that the pilot filed an IFR flight plan and obtained a DUATS weather briefing before departure. The aircraft entered the clouds at an altitude of 5,000 feet, and at 7,000 feet began taking on ice. At about 8,000 feet, while climbing out of the clouds, the buffet began followed by the spin to the left. The pilot reduced power and applied opposite rudder, but the aircraft did not respond. He then informed ATC before pulling the ballistic parachute. The happenings resulted in a pilot report of unusual text: PIREP: MGM UUA /OV SCD 270004/TM 2200/FL090/TP SR22/IC SVR ICG 077-090/RM ACFT WAS DESCENDING BY PARACHUTE DUE TO SEVRE ICG BUILDUP. African Pilot applauds the pilot's quick reaction to save his and his passengers' lives - amazing that they walked away.
Flying with the e-News Copter
This past week I had the privilege of flying in a Robinson R44 alongside Eon de Vos, flying his Jet Ranger, in order to photograph the e-News Copter over greater Johannesburg. Both helicopters are managed by Alpine Aviation, based at Grand Central Airport. This was a fantastic opportunity not only to capture spectacular photographs of the brightly painted helicopter against the city sky line, but also to learn more about the e-News operation. Our readers can look forward to an interesting, illustrated article on helicopter news reporting in our March edition.
Aviation news bulletin of the Aero Club of East Africa
KCAA promises meeting with recreational pilots
The Aero Club of East Africa has again requested from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, that a major forum be organized at which recreational pilots and sportsmen, who pursue activities such as ballooning, gliding, para-gliding, ultra light aviation, homebuilt aviation, skydiving, private aviation, para-motor flying and other aerial activities, can put forward their specific views on the proposed Kenya Civil Aviation Regulations. At the moment, the air sport practitioners feel that the draft KCARS are flawed, have many gaps and are spiked with erroneous or unnecessary rules. The air sports groups are worried that the technocrats at KCAA may have very limited knowledge about the aerial sporting activities, and thus impose rules that are too restrictive, inappropriate or simply unworkable for recreational aviation. It is feared that the 'KCAA enforcers', by virtue of their inexperience in air sports and just to "be on the safe side", will simply apply the same standards to air sports as they do to fixed wing aircraft. For example, to cover a bureaucrat's .........position, it may be easier for KCAA to mandate that anybody who takes to the air MUST have a full private pilot's licence. This is out of step with the practice in the leading aviation nations, where special licences are granted to recreational pilots and air sports enthusiasts. How lack of knowledge by KCAA officials can lead to problems is illustrated by the recent case of two para-motor enthusiasts who were arrested, although the Kenyan air law contains absolutely no guidelines about modern air sports such as para-motoring. The police charged them and a Court convicted them for "flying a balloon" (sic). In most North American and European countries, aviation sports that take place at low levels are not controlled (or only marginally so) by Government authorities.
The Aero Club has been assured by KCAA Consumer Protection Manager that the requested meeting will be called soon and that the air sport representatives will be advised in good time.
KCAA retracts AIC about aerial photography
In September 2005 the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority published an Aeronautical Information Circular (No. 10/05) in which pilots were notified that a "statutory clearance from the Director of Surveys must be obtained before deployment and capture of any aerial photography". Effectively, the AIC made it illegal to take any photos from an aircraft, including snapshots of landscape features by a passenger. The Aero Club of East Africa and the Kenya Association of Air Operators complained about this to the KCAA on several occasions and requested clarification. This has now been obtained. Another AIC (No. 11/05) was issued by KCAA on 20 December 2005, notifying the general public that "any institution undertaking aerial photography for mapping purposes must secure statutory clearance from the Director of Surveys". The operative words are "mapping purposes". Effectively this means that aircraft passengers, or even film groups, who want to capture oblique images from the window of an aircraft, such as landscape features, wildlife, etc., no longer require permission from Survey of Kenya. The AIC No. 10 of September 2005 has been withdrawn.
African Pilot comments
When one learns about legislation of this type, one questions the intellectual knowledge of the â€Ëœlaw makers', especially in the modern world of hi-tech digital imagery. Any person situated anywhere in the world can simply visit Google Earth and obtain crisp clear images on most major urban areas of the world today. In many cases the satellite images are so clear that one can count the motor cars at an airport facility. What is the point of wasting time developing legislation that is already five years out of date? But then one would have to know how to switch on a computer in the first instance.
Aviation humour
After a real crusher of a landing in Phoenix, the flight attendant came over the intercom with the following announcement: "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Captain Crash and the crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. Once the tyre smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we will open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal.â€Â | 