| Neanderthal man's brain was slightly larger than that of modern man. A man learns to skate by staggering about making a fool of himself. Indeed, he progresses in all things by making a fool of himself. - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
African Pilots January 2008 edition
The January and February editions of any monthly nationally distributed magazine are usually the two most difficult editions to publish, because people within the industry are looking forward to their year end holidays, and do not want to make decisions this late in the year. However, the January edition is one of the more important from a readability perspective, as many people involved in aviation will be on holiday and this is considered to be an ideal time to actually read magazines instead of only looking at the pictures. .
The January edition of African Pilot will be closing for submissions by the end of this week Friday 30 November and will be prepared for printing from Monday 3 December onwards. African Pilot welcomes the opportunity to place your advertising message in this fist edition of 2008, symbolising the start of African Pilots seventh year of publishing a highly successful aviation magazine. For further information on African Pilot marketing, please contact Andrea at Tel: (011) 702 2342/3 or E-mail: marketing@africanpilot.co.za
Significant feature in the January edition
One of the significant features of this magazine will be the article on Skyclass Aviation. The DC-4 ZS AUA belongs to the Dutch Dakota Association and was brought to South Africa by Flippie Vermeulen to be part of his Springbok Flying Safaris. However, it spent much of its time on the ground at Rand Airport and was then leased to Rovos Air for a relatively short time. Rowan Vos who owns and operates Rovos Rail tried his hand at classical aviation safaris to compliment his classical rail operation. In Rowan Vosss words How to lose R50 million in an aviation venture. Rovos Air does not operate any longer and the lease of DC-4 ZS AUA has been taken by Skyclass Aviation, based at Rand Airport.
Skyclass now operates this famous aircraft together with two other DC-4s and a DC-3 owned by SA Historical Flight. This airline now has a compliment of five vintage airliners with two others scheduled to join the growing fleet in the New Year. The airlines newest acquisition is the DC-3 ZS CAI, which is specifically utilised as a freighter between O R Tambo and Botswana on almost a daily basis. Skyclass is the largest vintage airline in the world that attracts aviation enthusiasts from all over the world who wish to fly to famous southern African destinations in business class comfort, and in the style of a classical era, instead of jet setting high above the earth. The January African Pilot will be running a feature on the operations of Skyclass as it has been established today. The article contains some fascinating information and is illustrated with beautiful pictures, ensuring another world first for a South African aviation magazine.
African Pilots annual Aviation Service Guide
As in previous years the annual A5 book will be produced and packaged together with the March 2008 edition of the magazine. Entry placement costs are affordable from as low as R250 for a one line entry within any specific aviation category. As in past years, the booklet will feature the layout of major general aviation airports in South Africa. With the assistance of Google Earth, these maps are very accurate, but the owners and tenants of buildings and hangars at airports change from year to year. For the first time the 2008 Services Guide will feature the general aviation section of O R Tambo International Airport.
The marketing of media space within this important annual publication will start this week and continue through to January 2008. It is most important for advertisers to understand that the distribution of the African Pilot Services Guide is of utmost importance. Due to the fact that this supplement is packaged together with the March edition, complete distribution into the aviation market is guaranteed. For further information please telephone Gary at our offices: (011) 702 2342 / 3 or E-mail: serviceguide@africanpilot.co.za
African Pilot to exhibit at Biggles Bistro next Saturday
The Transvaal Aviation Club at Rand Airport has changed its name to Biggles Bistro and in order to launch the new name the restaurant is having a Fly-market on Saturday 1 December from 10h00 onwards. African Pilot will have a show stand with the following items on sale: The current December edition of the monthly magazine, brand new 2008 calendars at the bargain price of R80 each, caps, T-shirts, golf shirts and back editions of African Pilot. From all accounts and the level of planning that has gone into this event, we expect a great day in the sun alongside two former SAA Boeing 747s, a DC-4 and other planes parked at the end of runway 29 at Rand Airport. For further information on exhibiting at this Fly Market please contact Grant Cross E-mail: gcross@vodamail.co.za
Oshkosh creative competition announcement
For those people who may be interested in travelling to Oshkosh next year with Neil Bowdens Air Adventure Tours, now running for its 11th consecutive year, Air Adventure Tours, Canon and African Pilot have come together to sponsor a fantastic prize.
The competition prize winner will be awarded two tickets to travel with Air Adventure Tours to Oshkosh 2008. The prize is valued at R34 000.
How to enter: Write a short aviation story with a maximum of 800 words that is to be illustrated with at least five good quality photographs. Submissions to: info@africanpilot.co.za
Closing date: 30 May 2008 and the winner will be announced in the first week of June 2008
Conditions:
- To be judged by a panel appointed by the three sponsors
- Submissions will be judged on both the quality of editorial content as well as the quality of the photographic images submitted, and their relevance to the article
- Sponsors and their direct members of staff may not enter this competition
- This prize does not include USA visa application costs
- This prize is not exchangeable for cash
- This prize must be taken up for this forthcoming 2008 Oshkosh tour
- The winner will be required to write an illustrated article whilst at Oshkosh, for publication in African Pilot, about a subject to be decided by the editor of African Pilot
- All conditions of Air Adventure Tours apply to the prize winners
For further information on Air Adventure Tours please call Neil Bowden at: 084 OSHKOSH (084 674 5674) or visit the Website: www.airadventure.co.za
Interesting proposal from an American TV programme
I am researching a TV programme for GALAFILM of Montreal, about working bush pilots. An American broadcaster has shown interest and I am required to deliver some names and anecdotes to prove that these characters and stories exist, and that adventures are inevitable due to the nature of the business and topography.
I need to talk with the men and women who are working bush pilots so I can obtain a sense of what they do for a living. I cannot have six episodes of pilots ferrying medicines and doctors, or pilots flying tourists on safaris. I need a variety of people, cargo, landscapes and wildlife. Nobody should underestimate that what may seem routine or mundane to these pilots, will be fascinating to North Americans.
Apart from 'routine tourist and delivery flights, I am interested in the pilots whose missions vary and who could rhyme off their past month of flight manifests with stories that prove that their job is never straightforward or dull. However, as flying is such a serious business with so many necessary precautions, I suspect there is a built-in advantage of excitement and suspense for the non-aviators amongst us, including me.
The format is expected to be six one hour episodes. Each episode following one or two pilots as they embark on a journey from preparation for departure, to returning some days or weeks later, and all the good bits in between, such as protecting the planes tyres from hyenas and other animals, and more.
The risk involved in shooting a series such as this, is that we will arrive in a week that nothing happens. Whilst I suspect that this is unlikely, this is our main concern. However, this is a risk inherent in television production, and it is why we need to research this project thoroughly and have enough people in our cast so that we can find something to shoot. From past experience, I know there is always a story. As we are still in the development stage, we don't have to worry about logistics now. We are not even short-listing yet. I just need a dozen or so people who illustrate this lifestyle as working bush pilots, and can talk to me about their work.
This way, when we put ourselves in the right place at the right time, the all-in-a-day's-work fodder will be there. For a somewhat similar concept, please take a look at the clip on this site:
http://www.history.com/minisites/iceroadtruckers
I hope you can recommend one or more pilots to whom I may speak so I may obtain some good stories in order to sell the concept to the network. Again, this is still just research.
Your help would be much appreciated,
Patricia Maitland E-mail: pmaitland@sympatico.ca cell: 1-416-451-2135 bus: 1-705-749-6727
If anyone has ideas on how to assist Patricia, please contact her directly. Thank you.
Important letter received from a concerned reader
Hi Athol,
I am still enjoying African Pilot - especially the photography, which has been consistently excellent since the magazine was first published.
I realize this is a little after the fact, but I just wanted to point out a few things regarding the HELICOPTER SURVEY in your June 2007 edition. I know that you probably receive your information from manufacturers brochures, salesmen and so on, but boy, it is woefully inaccurate. I will give you a few examples for aircraft that I know. I cannot comment on those I don't know, but I am sure a lot of facts on those are also inaccurate.
I fly R22 Beta II, R44 Raven II, Jet Ranger 3, EC-120B, EC-130 B4 and Huey here in George when I am not in the S-61 for CHC and a lot of that time is giving instruction. Consequently navigation with range and endurance feature prominently.
Starting with the Robinson R22 Beta II. She cruises at around 85 knots tops and this is a new one (350 hrs), so the 96 knots given is not realistic. At these altitudes she uses around 40 litres per hour, not 34, so endurance is realistically around 2.8 hours. The range would be around 490 km at 96 knots, but more realistically it is about 418 km at 82 knots.
The Robinson R44 Raven II that we have here is also new (350 hrs) and she cruises at around 105 knots indicated, not the 117 given. Her fuel usage is around 66 litres / hour for the realistic 2.8 hours endurance, not 3.1 as shown. Therefore the realistic range at 105 knots is 535 km, not 640 km.
The Eurocopter EC-120 in the article has a 735 km range at 120 knots cruise on 406 litres. I don't have enough experience on type to query consumption, but 120 knots is a tall order - it is more like 110 knots IAS. Doing the sums on these figures at 121 litres per hour consumption and a 406 litre tank, the endurance is under 3.4 hrs and the helicopters range at a realistic 110 knots becomes 735 km, not 670 km as shown.
The EC-130 B4 illustrated is Pezula's aircraft and is the exact one I fly (ZS-OPL). She does not cruise (with passengers) at anywhere near 133 knots IAS, but closer to 115 knots. With the given consumption rate, the 540 litres adds up to 2.75 hrs endurance - much more realistic than the 3.75 given. At 115 knots this allows for a range of 575 km, not 610 km. However, even that is more than what she can actually do - and she is also new and in the best of condition.
Bell 206B-3 Jet Ranger III is also exaggerated by way of performance. The normal cruise speed you can expect is around 105 knots, not the 115 given. Just doing the sums on given consumption and fuel capacity again, with 344 litres at 110 litres / hour, endurance is 3.1 hrs. Nowhere near the 4.5 given, realising a range of 597 kilometres, not the given 694 km.
Keep up the great magazine and the wonderful photos, and curse the manufacturers or salesmen or whoever it is that gives us all this duff information. This could easily get rich, but naive new PPLs with their own machines into some serious trouble! A certain R44 owner in George recently landed in Riversdale, from Cape Town after 3 minutes on the low fuel light. The aircraft is only allowed to be flown for five minutes once the low fuel light is illuminated. Maybe the owner looked at the salesmans figures showing the range to be 640km, not realising, as I mentioned above, that the range is a more realistic 535km. With the 640kms in mind the pilot knew he would easily make it to George - only 425 km by road!
Regards, Monster Wilkins
CHC George base manager
Editor replies
Firstly I wish to thank Monster Wilkins, who is a very high time experienced helicopter pilot, for this valuable information. Secondly, when African Pilot started the series on different aircraft type comparisons we became acutely aware that many aircraft manufacturers overstate the actual performance data of their particular aircraft type. For the record this fact also applies to motor manufacturers who blatantly over state the performance data of the vehicle that is being marketed.
It is extremely difficult for a magazine to challenge aircraft manufacturers on the performance data the aircraft representative supplies, especially when this data is printed on the manufacturers data sheets and is also to be found on the manufacturers Website. However, African Pilot welcomes the fact that experienced pilots like Monster are prepared to step forward and challenge the false information supplied by manufacturers. African Pilot will endeavour to produce more realistic information within future aircraft surveys by interacting with recognised operators of the various aircraft types. When a manufacturer overstates the performance data, our editorial team will gather actual on the job performance data and print this alongside the data supplied by the manufacturer.
Will SunAir rise from the ashes again?
SunAir Holdings Limited the company that plans to resurrect SunAir as a Cape Town-based international airline is negotiating a listing on the London Stock Exchange and has made an offer for an existing aviation operation in South Africa, says CEO, Andr Shaban.
The company intends to announce its plans before the end of March next year, once all financial matters have been finalised. Shaban said the reasons for wanting to list in the UK rather than in South Africa were that the UK market was 100 times larger than South Africas market. He also claimed the British and Europeans supported the transport sector and that similar companies to SunAir had opened their listing at 30p. He said support for SA companies was also expected ahead of 2010.
Shaban also said negotiations for the purchase of the existing aviation company were going well. I cannot say anything more at this stage. I initially expected to make an announcement in early December, but there were delays from the UK. I will make an announcement when everything is finalised, which should be before the end of March next year. He confirmed that the company had secured at least R1.5 billion in equity investment and that it had concluded a partnership with BEE Company Molo-Moya.
According to its Website, the business plan will involve an airline operating international and regional passenger and cargo flights from Cape Town. An airline maintenance operation. A ground handling organisation. An aviation training academy and an asset company. Also according to the website, SunAir had a meeting with representatives of Boeing, who had promised general aviation and technical advice, and support for its efforts. Boeing also indicated that it will assist SunAir in further developments.
Comair to fly to London from Lanseria International Airport?
Comair is set to take its first step in long-haul travel after obtaining the rights for four scheduled flights per week to the United Kingdom. Gidon Novick, joint CEO of Comair, is confident it will obtain rights to a daily service within the next few months. This could be the first scheduled London service ever to operate from Lanseria, Novick told TravelHub. We're looking at Lanseria as an alternative to OR Tambo International Airport (ORITA), but have not yet come to a decision.
Novick says the airline has still not been advised as to which airport it will fly in the UK, but the destination will be London, though probably not Heathrow. It's just impossible to get into Heathrow right now, he said. London is obviously a highly competitive route, but this is the most travelled route in terms of airline traffic and is so popular that the nearest competitor, Frankfurt, closely followed by Dubai, has only a third of the London traffic. Still under consideration, says Novick, is whether the service will be operated by BA Comair or kulula.com and which aircraft Comair will acquire to operate the route. However, Novick's feeling is that it will most likely be a Boeing 767 or Boeing 777. Comair has a year to start operating the route.
James Westrip, director of Africa Collection, said the potential problem with Lanseria is about onward connections. He said most tourists from the UK fly onwards to Cape Town, Kruger Mpumalanga, Livingstone and Durban, and many of these flights operate out of ORTIA. However, Kulula is now operating several daily flights to Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth from Lanseria. He added that competition on the route would be good, but the service would need to be priced competitively to overcome the possible inconvenient transfer from Lanseria.
Of course we can swim! Kulula crew
In an act of defiance against the bizarre claim by the Labour Department that kulula.com does not hire potential crew members who cannot swim, and the departments continued harassment of its holding company Comair, kulula.com crews today donned their swimsuits and headed to the public pool in Boksburg, to display their swimming talents.
Many of kulula.coms 250 crew members joined the company without having swimming skills, but have subsequently been trained not only to swim, but also to life-save and manage a water evacuation situation. These skills are mandated by the South African Civil Aviation Authority.
Star kulula.com swimmers included Pandora Nemo Ndungane who has been swimming since she was a little tyke with her favourite stroke being backstroke. Her crew buddy Mildred flipper Mohale only learned to swim after joining kulula.com, but is now as comfortable performing a rescue as a pool or beach lifeguard.
Since the story broke in the press earlier in the week, kulula.com has had an influx of applications for cabin crew positions from qualified swimmers. For a cabin crew position at kulula.com, South Africans of all colours are free to apply and should forward their CVs to talent@kulula.com. kulula.com does warn though that they are pretty fussy as to whom they choose. Qualifying criteria include not just a vibrant and bubbly personality, but also a height prerequisite of between 1.58m and 1.83m (sorry, you need to be able to reach the overhead luggage compartments), a grade 12 qualification and a minimum of three years of customer service training or experience. Being a non swimmer is not detrimental to ones application.
Airlines Welcome Heathrow Consultation
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed the UK Governments announcement of consultation into the prospect of a third runway at London Heathrow Airport. Heathrow is Europes busiest international hub and critical to the UKs competitiveness. It is also bursting at the seams. Short-term fixes, including mixed mode are useful. However, the only real long-term solution is a third runway, said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA Director General and CEO.
Heathrow airport ranks among the worlds most congested airports. The capacity cap is 480,000 slots per year. For the airline schedule commencing next March, 477,000 slots are taken-up. The remaining 3,000 slots are at undesirable off-peak times. Heathrow operates with dedicated runways for take-offs and landings. Mixed mode operations (allowing the runways to be used flexibly for take-offs and landings) could bring capacity to 550,000 slots per year. A third runway would allow up to 720,000 slots.
Heathrow has been operating with the same runway capacity for 60 years. On infrastructure, it is the poor cousin amongst Europes great airports. Paris operates with four runways, Frankfurt with three and Amsterdam with five. If Heathrow does not catch-up on capacity, the economic benefits of being Europes premier hub are anything but guaranteed, said Bisignani. The consultation committee will be weighing up the costs as well as the benefits for the economy and the environment. Lets get the calculation right. A congested airport with chronic delays has an unnecessary environmental cost. So capacity expansion has an environmental benefit, said Bisignani. The airline industrys commitment to a 25% improvement in fuel efficiency by 2020 is solid and endorsed by the UK government. The next step is carbon neutral growth whilst aiming for a carbon-free future. Short-sighted decisions must not saddle UK competitiveness with the long-term burden of second-rate infrastructure.
Cell phone guns are now a reality
Most of us see airport security as a pain, whilst some people feel violated. However, when you realize that the cell phone gun is now a reality, you will understand why in future airport security will be sending your cell phone through the x-ray machine. If you are asked to test your cell phone at an airport, this is the reason. Cell phone guns have arrived. They are real. African Pilot has viewed a video clip showing how cell phone guns operate.
These phones are not available in the USA yet, but they are already in use in many countries. Beneath the digital phone face is a .22 calibre handgun capable of firing four rounds in rapid succession using the standard telephone keypad. European law enforcement officials have been stunned by the discovery of these deadly decoys. They say phone guns are changing the rules of engagement in Europe. Only when you have one in your hand do you realise that they are heavier than a regular cell phone. Be patient if security personnel ask to look at your cell phone or turn it on to show that it works. They have a good reason! What next?
Aviation Humour
A 65 year old man went to the doctor for his class II exam. The doctor was amazed at the mans good shape.
The doctor asked, "To what do you attribute your good health?"
The old timer said, "I'm a pilot and that's why I am in such good shape. I'm up well before daylight, climb all over the aircraft doing my pre-flight inspection, fly all day and night if necessary.
The doctor said, "Well, I'm sure that helps, but there has to be more to it. How old was your dad when he died?"
The old timer said, "Who said my dad is dead?"
The doctor said, "You mean you are 65 years old and your dad is still alive? How old is he?"
The old timer said, "He is 84 yrs old and, in fact, he built and flies his own airplane. He went flying with me this morning. That's why he is still alive... he is also a pilot!"
The doctor said, "Well, that's great, but I'm sure there is more to it. How about your dad's dad? How old was he when he died?"
The old timer said, "Who said my grandpa's dead?"
The doctor said, "You mean your father is 84 years old and his father is still living?! How old is he?"
The old timer said, "Grandpa is 102 years old and he was also a pilot."
The doctor was getting frustrated at this point and said, "I guess he went flying with you this morning too?"
The old timer said, "No...Grandpa could not fly this morning because he recently married and he is on his honeymoon."
The doctor said in amazement, "Married! Why would a 102 year old want to get married?"
The old timer said, "Who said he wanted to?
Thanks to Kevin Barker for the joke. | 