Day 1:

THE MUCH ANTICIPATED DEPARTURE DATE:

On the 29^th of November the Blue Chip Flight School fleet once again departed on a flyaway of epic proportions. We were a total of 8 aircraft, and 29 people, spread between the aircraft and the Quantum Bus. Our planned departure time was delayed due to some inclement weather en-route in the Gauteng area for the first leg to Bloemfontein, which was a last-minute destination change due to a fuel shortage at the originally planned fuel stop of New Tempe.

The time spent on the ground was however used constructively in discussing the route and procedures for the days flying. Eventually at 10:00 local time the first aircraft departed Wonderboom for Bloemfontein. All aircraft landed safely two and a half hours later and once the fuelling was done and pre-flights conducted, the fleet departed for the second leg of our journey to East London. The weather en-route was fantastic and the changing landscape below was spectacular, especially as we crossed into the Eastern Cape.

Approaching East London the conditions started to change in that the wind was picking up, but the conditions remained well within the capabilities of all PIC’s. 7 of the 8 aircraft landed within 45 minutes of each other with the last straggler ZS-GDA landing approximately an hour and twenty minutes later, for no other reason except that this aircraft is fitted with a climb prop, which does affect the cruise speeds slightly.

After successfully putting the aircraft to bed, which included tying them down to deal with the high forecast winds expected during the evening, we managed to settle down for an evening of hangar talk and a braai with our friends from the Border Aviation Club.

Day 2:

THE PLAN TO ROUTE FROM EAST LONDON TO MARGATE………..THE REALITY:

Michael and myself were up fairly early to check the weather forecasts for the route and the day, and round about our second cup of coffee, we came to the realisation that the days flying would be put on hold due to winds being forecast to be gusting 40 Kts at East London and enroute. Discretion being the greater part of valour, the decision was made unanimously to spend an extra day in East London, which Ronell efficiently arranged.

The day was pretty much spent walking around town buying provisions for another braai that evening, as well as visiting the beach and experiencing a thorough exfoliation of our skins by the sand being blown up.

Our plans for the evening were almost ruined when a huge thunderstorm blew through almost completely obliterating our braai, fortunately however the Blue Chip spirit was somewhat greater than that of Mother Nature at the time and we carried on regardless.

Day 3:

SCENE TWO ACT 2 ATTEMPT 2 FOR MARGATE:

Another early wake up for the crew and especially Mike and myself to check weather. This time we would be greeted by very favourable forecasts for the day. Calm winds no significant weather for the routing or destination.

Departure from East London was uneventful even though it was a bit later than originally planned, two and a half hours to be precise due to refuelling and payments of all outstanding parking and landing fees. Departure again was uneventful, the only real change this time was that we sent the slowest aircraft of first, with Michael bring up the rear in the fastest aircraft.

The coastwise routing was spectacular initially, with many whales being spotted from the air. The picturesque settings however changed as the first aircraft approached Port St. Johns, with the weather starting to deteriorate, which was completely un-forecast, and an inflight check of the Weather SA radar image didn’t even show up the weather building up around us. Eventually after roughly 3 hours of flying all the aircraft landed at Margate airport.

The evening was quietly spent in our guest houses with no braai, but rather some KFC, in anticipation of the final leg home. What was probably the funniest thing ever was the look on the face of the lady behind the counter at the KFC, when we walked in and asked for 27 burgers and chips and 42 pieces of chicken. She triple checked to see if we were being serious, and feeling alright.

Day 4:

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER CHALLENGE:

The planned routing for the day, Margate, Pietermaritzburg (fuel stop) and then onwards to Wonderboom. The challenge for the day however started when the SA Weather service servers were offline, and we could get no forecasts for the expected weather for our routing, this was however circumvented by using other weather applications to determine the viability of our homeward journey. After fuelling and getting the necessary paperwork and preflights out of the way we bode farewell to Margate and departed for our flight home. Approaching Maritzburg the forecast weather, we were able to obtain, was again to say the least inaccurate, with the cloud bases touching the mountains to the North. Safe arrivals were conducted by all, and after refuelling and approximately almost an hours deliberation and a 45 minute phone call to the national weather forecasting office in Irene, the decision was made to spend the night in Pietermartizburg.

However, being a Sunday evening, and the possibility of insufficient accommodation for such a large group, the decision was made to only keep a group of 10 people there to ensure the safe return due of the aircraft, the remainder would finish off the trip by doing some “low flying” in the Quantum.

For the ten of us remaining the evening was spent reflecting on our trip thus far and enjoying two or three cold beverages and a small braai.

Day 5:

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN:

The weather servers were up and running again and the forecast let us know that we were in for a fine day of flying. Monday morning was the first on time departure we managed for the entire trip, an uneventful routing to Wonderboom was completed, with all the aircraft landing safely after about two hours and thirty minutes.

THE SUMMARY

The flyaway was a lot of fun for all involved, with valuable experience being gained by the pilots flying, this included landing at international airports, dealing with moderately gusting winds some poor weather and visibility flying as well as and most certainly the most important lesson, that at no point should you be pushed to fly EVER! The fact that we cancelled plans to fly, and altered routes to suit the conditions which were presented to us is a lesson I hope that each and everyone of the pilots that participated take forward with them in their future careers.

Here’s looking forward to our next epic adventure together through the skies of our wonderful country.

Article by Brendon Lubbe - Chief Flight Instructor

Blue Chip Flight School was a co-sponsor one of the annual Trans Agulhas Inflatable boat race. The inflatable boat challenge is the toughest in the world. Over 800 km in 5 days along the rough and dangerous untamed, South African coast line. This is an annual event held every December and the race is from Plettenberg Bay to Strand, near Cape Town.

This year Blue Chip decided to make it a joint venture between personnel and students to follow this amazing race from Mossel Bay to Strand with a fleet of Cessna 172’s.

Our goal, is to lead our Captains beyond the known boundaries of Wonderboom & Gauteng and to enjoy the thrills, spills and beach action of the Western Cape.

“Trans Agulhas; a dearing trip for fresh PPL students who only knew the out skirts of Gauteng…
It all started with the planning, fifty three pages of detailed information and a pieced together map that most likely was bigger than the Cessna 172 itself.

We took off out of Wonderboom on the 26th of December for breakfast – yet due to bad weather that soon turned to lunch. Once we got there the spirits where high as we were well on our way! On the same day we ventured to Beaufort Wes- a place quite unknown to the city boys among the bunch of us.

The sleep over that night was something out a comic horror story but that was not going to defeat our spirits as the next morning we knew that the coast was our next stop.

Arriving in Plettenberg Bay, felt like seeing the sea for the very first time, from there we travelled to Mossel Bay for our first night of camping. The food was divine, as we had worked hard to get there and setting up camp in the dark, created many moments of laughter. From inside the tent point of view it was impossible to get sleep as the snored echoed through the camp site and laughter was the only resort. The camping throughout didn’t change much but what was ahead in terms of flight is something we’d never forget.

From Mossel Bay we flew to Stillbaai where the beaches gave us some time for swimming and experiencing the inflatable power boats in real shore line action. Then we flew to Struisbaai and it was very small – yet with a very tired crew we resorted to the night that highlighted the trip- Pizza and tent humor of 8 people in a three man tent.

We spent our new years in Hermanus- we enjoyed the sunset with some drinks accompanied with some pool table challenges that had every one back in spirit for the last stretch. Only three of us survived midnight to see the fireworks shoot across the ocean with the full moon as a back drop.

Coming back from Strand- we all were ready to enjoy the comforts of home…

I guess from the point of view from a student- you never know the value of flight and the gift of learning, until you put yourself out there. You learn that no two pilots are the same and that you need to trust, more than anything else, that your team will have your back every step of the way. It was tiring but something any one of us would do again in a heartbeat. 20 hours of flight, a life time of memories…..”

Article by Eulalie Venter

At first Botswana was one of my Bucket list destinations, which just patiently waited to be ticked off.

On the 15th of May this dream came true; we went on an AMAZING fly away all over Botswana on our way to the Botswana airshow.

Seven students, one instructor and the director, all very excited for this trip, got into our 3 Cessna 172, we took off at 08:25 local time from Wonderboom airport, flew to Pietersburg to clear immigrations and customs, from there we flew over the Limpopo river on our way to Francistown to clear customs, immigrations and we refuelled the C172’s and on our way we were to Maun our first destination for the trip. We flew over the Makgadikgadi salt pans. We landed just before sunset, and what an amazing view, the sunset was unbelievable. We stayed the night at Makoro lodge. We as a team got together for some refreshments and dinner!!

Next morning 16th of May before sunrise we got together for the second day of adventure. Our transport arrive, we thought that two trips to the airport would take too long, so we squeezed in! As they would say in a taxi, there is always space for one more! We went to the aircrafts to pre-flight, and once again experienced an amazing sunrise. Botswana is just one of the places in Africa where you can experience this. From Maun we flew formation all over the Delta to Chief’s Island and all along the Chobe River to our next destination Kasane. Over the Delta we saw a lot of animals like Elephants, Buffalo, Giraffe and Hippo’s. The Chobe River is just something that is undescribeable. We landed in Kasane, waited for our transport to Chobe Safari Lodge, 10 Botswana minutes which end up to be African time, 1.5 hours later they ARRIVED. What an incredible place Chobe Safari lodge end up to be, worth the entire wait! We were welcomed with a drink, relaxed and went on a boat cruise on the Chobe River. What an experience, the view from the boat is great, came close in contact with elephants, hippo’s, buffalo, crocodiles and more. We had so much fun, laughed until our tummies hurt. The guide had to come and ask us to be a bit quiet!  We watched the sunset from the boat which was just breath-taking!!

That evening we tried to arrange some transport for us at 06:00am to be able to go and fly over the Victoria Falls, but as we all know it’s Africa, and everyone need to take their beauty sleep until 08:30am, so finally we left the lodge at 08:30 and was on our way to Kasane airport.

On the 17th of May we flew back to Francistown for fuel and thereafter to Matsieng which is a private strip close to Gaborone where the airshow was held.

That evening they had a braai next to the airstrip and everyone camped next to their aircrafts. Saturday, 18th of May, we watched the airshow, afterwards that evening there was another braai, which give you a great opportunity to meet other great pilots.

Sunday the 19th of May, we were welcomed with an ice cold breeze and some low clouds. Flew low level to Gaborone, refuelled the aircrafts and we tried to get the weather for our route but Africa is Africa, lucky Air Express just landed and we were able to ask them how the weather was.

We took off to Pilansberg where we had to clear immigrations and customs. What can I say we were welcomed by real South African humour!

After all we took off from Pilansberg back to Wonderboom where you just feel at home! Best airport to do training at an incredible, GREAT school!!

What an unforgettable trip this was, can’t wait for the next!!

Thanks Blue Chip and the team for the opportunity to be able to fly international and by doing so getting that great experience!

Article by Maritza van der Bank