Flightcom Magazine May 2024

Cover: Trevor Cohen

Hugh Pryor - Teleportation Pt2

AME Directory

Laura McDermid - Iris flies across Sudan

News - SAA – Takatso deal investigation

News - Russian Tu-22M3 Backfire shot down

Jeffery Kempson - Okavango Dreaming Pt1

News - SITA Latest Airport Tool

John Bassi - When Things Fall Apart Pt1

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Contributors

John Bassi

Laura McDermid

Darren Olivier

Jeffery Kempson

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A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

In the provision of air connectivity, especially intra-African connectivity, a key motivation for African airlines is that they serve a very necessary developmental function for peripheral areas.

HOWEVER, THIS DEVELOPMENTAL function

may be uneconomic and thus would require government subsidy, either of the route, or the entire airline. And thus do African airlines have a major excuse to be loss making.

Over the past 100 years, there has been massive ruralurban migration and thus peripheral towns struggle to survive. It is argued that without government supported airline connectivity, many of these small towns would simply wither and die.

When potential investors look to set up factories or shops in regional towns one of the first questions asked is; is there a regular and safe airline service? Often these routes are too thin to be commercially viable for private sector operators and so it is argued that a state-owned carrier is needed for these routes.

with more passenger demand attracts bigger gauge aircraft that are far more efficient in seat mile costs than smaller gauge aircraft. The smaller aircraft are typically turboprops, which are not as popular with passengers as pure jets, and in some cases single engine aircraft such as the Cessna 208 Caravan and Pilatus PC-12.

$1.2 million to subsidise about 8 passengers.

The on-the-ground reality is that passengers will often choose to travel the 100 km by road to get to larger airports with better connectivity than use small aircraft on subsidised regional routes. The net effect is that it is not unusual for subsidised flights to be mostly empty. In Kingman, Arizona, the government paid $1.2 million a year to subsidise about eight passengers a day.

This is however a challenge that has been thoroughly explored in the United States which introduced the Essential Air Service program (EAS). The EAS programme was launched in the 1970s, when the US Congress deregulated the airlines yet needed to protect rural airports and air services. The EAS pays airlines a federal subsidy for each passenger they fly. However, like all market interventions, the subsidy has distorted the market, created inefficiencies and arguably, become unproductive.

In the USA, with its highly developed landscape, many of the cities the EAS subsidy benefits are less than 100 km from larger airports. A larger airport

Interestingly, where democracy has a fine balance between two dominant political parties, these subsidies are seldom challenged due to the political consequences. Thus, in the USA, efforts to reform the EAS subsidy have been rejected by Congress, where both Democrats and Republicans have defended the federal grants for their airports.

The many proponents of airline state ownership argue that profitability should be secondary, given the stimulating effect it provides for the economy. But the experience of the American EAS subsidy proves otherwise. African governments would do well to heed the market lessons of the EAS programme. 

PART 2

TELEPORTATION

Hugh continues his story of the great debates about where a comely future SAA pilot has a tattoo – and whether teleportation will destroy pilot jobs.

“ TELEPORTATION!” shouted Ian, the only direct BP employee on site and therefore the chairperson of the proceedings on this particular occasion, “Is the topic for our discussions this evening. It was suggested by Captain Andrew, and therefore I would ask him to introduce the uninitiated to this fascinating subject”

The collective focus of the congregation panned from the beguiling jeans-belly T-shirt interface to the large form of Andrew as he rose majestically to his feet.

“Lady,” a courtly nod in Chris’s direction, “And Gentlemen.” Andrew gathered up eye-contacts from the rest of the audience, “...a kangaroo leap in the pursuit of knowledge on the subject of Quantum Mechanics was reported in the newspapers this last week.”

Now all eyes were on Andrew.

A hush settled on the floor of the house.

“The significance of this event needs hardly to be emphasised. The prospect of long-distance space travel becomes a possibility denied by earlier concepts of space and time. ‘Infinity’ becomes ‘now’. The Quantum Revolution is upon us and I would ask you to contemplate, for a moment, the ways this may affect you personally and humanity as a whole.

twenty-three hours in the back of a Jumbo Jet

“Then I would like you to consider the benefits and disadvantages of the event and decide whether you feel that we should pursue this technology further or attempt to nip it in the bud and outlaw it from the start.”

“An act of teleportation was carried out and verified at a university in Australia. Not quite ‘Beam me up, Bruce!’ just yet, though. One single atom of Hydrogen was teleported from one side of a room to the other... instantly...in no measurable period of time at all.”

Andrew resumed his seat, and the floor was taken by Geoff, a big-framed Canadian drilling engineer who was, incidentally, the unlikely collector and breeder of minute little ponies. “Well, I don’t know about you, folks,” he smiled, “but if I was given the choice of spending twenty-three hours crumpled up in the back of a Jumbo Jet, to get from London to Sydney Australia, surrounded by caterwauling kids and puking parents, or just popping down to the teleporters, spending an extra fifty bucks and being zapped there

direct, instantly, I know which I would chose.”

Chris then stood up, her chin and various other delightful features jutting forward defiantly. “Well, as you guys already know, I have just set out on an airline career.”

Her voice rang out daintily in contrast to the low growling timbre of the rest of the speakers. “I have spent the last four years studying for a profession which can take a whole lifetime to achieve the ultimate goal.”

I found the vision of Christine, with the four gold bars of command, gleaming in support of the golden tresses adorning her exquisite visage, quite captivating, speaking of ultimate goals.

“I cannot support a technology which threatens to destroy so many thousands of years of experience, skill and tradition. The Quantum Revolution will be the end of the human race as we know it.”

There followed a short pause, while the participants absorbed the tragedy of not being able to see Chris in uniform if the new technology were ever allowed to take over. Then John, a large English drilling engineer, with a reputation for having a powerful intellectual mind, assumed the stand, using his glasses as a theatrical prop to conduct his discourse.

would have to be dematerialised permanently into a kind of nondimentional limbo, before we discovered how to rematerialize them. With all the inherent dangers of aviation, it was still one of the safest forms of transport ever invented, whereas teleportation was, until just recently the stuff of science fiction.

An amused grin spread across Andrew’s face, “Yes,” he said smiling. “The teleporters are bound to have many of the same problems as the present day airline industry. Lost baggage is still going to be one of the features of any future mode of transport. Imagine, if you will for a moment, the reaction of the doting Australian mother when she finds that her darling little Johnnie, freshly zapped back from school in England, has been rematerialized with an enormous pair of black ones!”

The World’s Favourite Civil Aviation Magazine

Andrew’s audience were warming to the subject. There was a shout of, “Probably not as violent as the reaction of Mr. Bicycle Olepombafoo, when he reappears in Obongobongoland, to discover that he’s got a silly little pair of white ones!”

A guffaw of laughter rippled around the little bar as imaginations started to takeoff on their own.

“But of course, there would be the nice lady in the Lost Baggage Office,” said Estfand, an Iranian drilling engineer, making his first contribution to a Teguentour debate.

“Much though I bewail the more regrettable effects of Quantum Mechanics on the career of someone so delightfully enthusiastic as the young lady here, we cannot ignore the future. Quantum Mechanics will come, whether it is promoted or prohibited. Our most important task, as I see it, is to try and understand it deeply enough to be able to harness it responsibly for the benefit of our young friend here and for mankind as a whole.”

I briefly chipped in to draw attention to the dangers inherent in the new thinking. How many individuals

“She would produce that Lost Property chart, you know, the one with all the different shapes and sizes of luggage on it, only this time it would not just be about luggage, would it? She would ask you to identify the missing items, in order to facilitate their repatriation to their original owner as quickly as possible, which could be quite quick, with quantum mechanics around.”

“What about if Darling Little Johnnie didn’t want to lose his new acquisitions.” Chris was wiping away tears of laughter from her eyes as she spoke. “How

would Mr Olepombafoo then get his own back, so to speak?”

“Maybe he would have to visit the teleporters’ monthly e-bay auction of unclaimed body parts and see if they had any suitable substitutes for his missing bits.” said Nigel, our Medic. “He’d have to find somebody else to fit them though. I wouldn’t touch the things. You’d never know where they might have been!”

The ribaldry giggled away until the beer was finished, and beds beckoned. No decision was reached about whether the new technology should be encouraged or abhorred, but even as I laid my head on the pillow, my brain was buzzing with the vast oceans of new knowledge opened up by Quantum physics.

I couldn’t help wondering whether the human race would be up to the challenge. So many things would become irrelevant. Air travel, for a start. Just imagine a world without aircraft. Think of the number of people

looking for jobs. Not just pilots, not just engineers but all the people who run airports and build aeroplanes.

Just imagine a world without airports. Just imagine a world without airplane magazines. What would they call the new Quantum Mechanics magazine, which replaced them? Probably something original like: QM.

I know quite a reasonable Editor, if they are looking for one. He’s currently editing what he touchingly calls, “The World’s Favourite Civil Aviation Magazine” in the United States, but I don’t know how long they will be able to struggle on, with publications like QM coming onto the shelves, do you? 

AME Doctors Listing

Britz Rudi Wonderboom Airport 083 422 9882 rudiavmed@gmail.com

Church Belinda Valhalla 079 636 9860 churchbs@live.com

Du Plessis Alexander Athlone Park 031 904 7460 dex.duplessis@intercare.co.za

Erasmus Philip Benoni 011 849 6512 pdceras-ass@mweb.co.za

Govender Deena Umhlanga Rocks 031 566 2066/7 deena@drdg.co.za

Ingham Kenneth Midrand 011 315 5817 kaingham@hotmail.com

Marais Eugene Mossel Bay 044 693 1470 eugene.marais@medicross.co.za

Opperman Chris Pretoria Lynnwood 012 368 8800 chris.opperman@intercare.co.za

Tenzer Stan Rand Airport & JHB CBD 083 679 0777 stant@global.co.za

Toerien Hendrik White River, Nelspruit 013 751 3848 hctoerien@viamediswitch.co.za

Van Der Merwe Johann Stellenbosch 021 887 0305 johann.vdmerwe@medicross.co.za

Iris – her early years:

IRIS FLIES ACROSS SUDAN

Laura McDermid continues her stories about Iris McCallum’s early years in East Africa and the Sudan.

THE FIVE MONTHS THAT I’d been at Sunbird Aviation had been a steep learning curve in terms of learning how to navigate unchartered territories using only a watch and a compass.

I found that the most difficult aspect of this was to keep the faith. I soon learned that the secret to bush flying is to maintain your heading, and not to do anything stupid by trying to correct something you have no control over.

Easier said than done of course.

These were all new places, and not many pilots had flown there.

Whenever I was unsure of a route, I would consult one of my colleagues. I sought out Captain Douglas Bird, inevitably named Dicky Bird.

there are no land marks and no nav aids

On 8 September 1980, I was to fly a bunch of Belgian Missionaries, who were based in Aweil, a city in northwestern South Sudan near the Sudanese border, from Wilson Airport in Nairobi in my old mate ‘ARN’, the Piper Aztec 5Y-ARN.

In order to clear customs and refuel, we had to fly to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, a distance of 489 nm and then a further 343 nm to Aweil.

Dicky Bird had done my first Kenyan instrument rating on his Piper Twin Comanche PA-30 (known amongst the pilots as the ‘widow maker’). I had previously done a twin rating on a PA-30 in the USA, and was comfortable flying the aircraft, even after not having flown one in a long time.

The aeroplane was VMC critical and was known to live up to its nickname if flown in adverse weather. Having only ever flown the PA-30 at sea level in Florida, flying this aircraft at altitude was a wonderful challenge.

Dicky Bird brought out some large Operational Navigation Charts (ONC) and laid them out on the board room table. ‘Iris, the most difficult part of this trip will be from Bor to Aweil’, he drew a line with his pencil between the two points, ‘there are no land marks and no navigation aids.’

He took out his protractor and ruler and measured the distance.

‘You’re going to be flying approximately two and half hours over the Sudd.’

‘Iris don’t fly directly from Bor to Aweil, fly to Wau instead and most importantly pick up the railway line.’ He drew a squiggly line on the map punctuated with bisecting lines, indicating the railway line.

‘Once you find it, turn right; Wau is at the end of the line. From there it’s not a long fight to Aweil, just stick to your compass heading and time.’

Once you find it, turn right

The Sudd is a vast swamp in South Sudan formed by the White Nile’s Bahr al-Jabal section and is the largest freshwater wetland in the Nile Basin, covering an area of 500 km south to north and 200 km east to west.

The Arabic word Sudd means ‘obstruction’, as indeed this swamp proved to many intrepid explorers over the centuries.

‘Oh and Iris, another thing, never ask your passengers if they recognise anything from the air because they won’t, even if they’ve been there a thousand times.’

I was all set.

Kenya Breweries had just launched the Tusker bottles for export, which we fondly nicknamed Dumpies.

Having learned early on that you had to be selfsufficient on these trips if you wanted a cool beer at the end of a long hot day, I managed to squeeze six of them into my mini green cool bag with an ice pack.

Juba Airport circa 1980.

It was the morning of the departure. I glanced at my watch for the umpteenth time willing the hands to freeze. My passengers were late which meant that I’d be chasing the sun that afternoon.

Furthermore, flying in the rift valley as it was heating up always meant a rough ride.

By the time we got through customs and immigration at Wilson, my airborne time was 10h30.

I flew north along the Great Rift Valley, skirting Nakuru National Park, over the Turkwell Gorge, along the river via Eldoret and over Kitale on the Western wall of the Rift west of Lake Victoria, and within sight of Mt. Elgon.

I

I remained high over the Lolibai and Dongatona Mountains, until I was cleared to descend into Juba.

The flight took 3.5 hours. Due to a difference in time zones, we had gained an hour, a small win.

As I opened ARN’s door, a wall of heat hit me. I felt as if I’d been punched in the solar plexus. I tried to suck air into my lungs, but it seemed devoid of oxygen and my mouth gasped stupidly like a fish on dry land. The heat scorched my eyeballs and leached every ounce of moisture out of them.

blinked to stimulate my tearducts

The land here was predominantly used for farming, and was a rich verdant green, a testament to the fertile soil.

The sun was now directly above me, pressing my shadow into a tight ball.

I blinked rapidly in a vain attempt to stimulate my tear-ducts; each time I closed my eyes it felt like sandpaper behind my eyelids.

After refuelling the aircraft, I tackled the nauseating process of immigration and customs, ushering my passengers into the airport. In the arrival lounge, old fans whirled overhead at almost zero RPM. They

The Sudd.

didn’t help to cool things down, in fact they seemed to spread the heat. I watched as the fans above my head groaned impotently, no doubt slowed by years of fly shit.

We departed Juba at 13h30 local time for Bor. The soft, superheated air rising from the runway offered so little body for the wings that we ascended reluctantly, seeming actually to sag when the wheels broke ground and sometimes barely surmounting the oncoming trees.

As expected, the flight was rough

As expected, the flight was rough. I heard one of my passengers vomit noisily into an air-sick bag. That’ll teach the buggers for being late.

This part of the trip was still easy, I just followed the White Nile North for about 40 minutes to find Bor airstrip. The Nile held an excitement and allure when viewed from the air. This river had so much history that, regardless of how many times I laid eyes on it, it was like seeing it for the first time.

I landed at Bor and offloaded the supplies that I’d bought with from Nairobi for the local mission, and topped ARN up with avgas.

We spent 40 minutes on the ground and got airborne at 16h00 for Aweil via Wau.

Aerial view of Aweil, capital of Northern Bahr el Ghazal in South Sudan.

SAA – TAKATSO DEAL INVESTIGATION

THE SOUTH AFRICAN Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is investigating the failed sale of South African Airways (SAA) to the Takatso Consortium.

Parliament’s Public Enterprises Portfolio committee recommended that the SIU should investigate the nowcancelled deal.

In November 2023, SIU chief investigator Leonard Lekgetho told parliament's SCOPA that the SIU received new allegations in relation to the SAATakatso deal, which was undergoing SIU internal processes of assessment.

“The SIU has made requests for information from various sources that include the Competition Commission, the auditor-general and the Department

of Public Enterprises in order to assess and motivate for a proclamation. The information is being packaged and is to be submitted soon from various entities,” he said at the time.

Kganyago indicated that should the SIU’s current investigation at SAA find anything on the SAA-Takatso matter, “if it falls under the existing proclamation, we take it and continue with the investigations”. The Department of Public Enterprises did not respond to a request for comment. Minister Pravin Gordhan had threatened to take the portfolio committee to court over its decision to call for the SIU to probe the failed deal. Political parties across the complete spectrum welcomed the proactive stance by the SIU, while Parliament has yet to make a formal referral.

Pravin Gordhan threatened to take the parliament portfolio committee to court.

RUSSIAN TU-22M3

BACKFIRE SHOT DOWN

In a hugely significant loss for Russia, Ukraine has claimed that it shot down a Tu-22M3 Backfire-C bomber in the Stavropol region in southern Russia.

Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR), claimed that the large Russian bomber was brought down by a Soviet-era S-200 (SA-5 Gammon) long-range surface-to-air missile.

A social media video shows the aircraft spiralling toward the ground, in an apparent flat spin, with its rear fuselage on fire. Subsequent photos and a video show the wreckage of the bomber on the ground, still burning.

Ukraine claimed responsibility for the destruction of the bomber saying the Tu-22M3 was returning from a missile attack against Ukraine when it was shot down ‘at a distance of about 300 kilometres from Ukraine.’

The Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed that a Tu-22M3 crashed ‘In Stavropol territory, while returning to its base after carrying out a combat task. The ministry said that all four crew members ejected. The Russians blamed a ‘technical malfunction’ for the incident, saying this was based on initial information and said the Backfire was not carrying munitions at the time of the crash.

The still-burning wreck of the Russian Backfire bomber.

JEFFERY KEMPSON

PART 1

OKAVANGO DREAMING:

A trilogy of tropical airborne romances.

Mopani trees occur in tropical southern Africa. They have distinctive leaves that resemble butterfly wings. Within the belt of Mopani trees in northern Botswana, there lived three beautiful blonde, blue eyed girls who dramatically affected my flying life.

THE FIRST GIRL LIVED on a houseboat at Shakawe, on the Okavango panhandle in north western Botswana. I landed there while operating a scheduled flight for one of the earlier versions of Air Botswana.

In physical beauty, this lady on a scale of 1 to 10, was an 11. She was well spoken, with beautifullymodulated cadences and a captivatingly musical laugh.

I urged my girlfriend to hurry AFRICA

In the evenings she ran the bar at the fishing camp, where I would spend happy hours wooing her with hopefully amusing repartee. This was rewarded with numerous starspangled nights aboard her quaint but comfortable houseboat.

One memorable afternoon we boarded a tourist boat and set off down river between picturesque avenues of papyrus, to picnic on a sand bank.

Many sand banks were already occupied by basking crocodiles, so we kept going. About thirty minutes later we nosed onto a large crocodile-free sandbank on the inside meander of the river. We pulled the bow ashore, opened a bottle of wine, and ate freshly prepared sandwiches.

Later we slipped off our swimming costumes and made memorable love.

The afternoon was fading as we packed the picnic box and towels back into the boat. She climbed aboard and made her way aft as I pushed us off the sandbank. The boat suddenly broke free of the grip of the sand and I fell flat on my face .

I watched the current carry the boat out of reach. She laughed and pulled the outboard’s starting rope. Nothing. She pulled it again, and again.

The current took the boat ever faster down river from the fishing camp.

I shouted to her to connect the fuel pipe to the spare fuel tank.

As she did this, the boat drifted around the bend in the river, and I realised this was now a really seriously situation.

Then I heard the engine start, but it died after a few moments. I shouted to her to press the rubber priming bulb, but I don’t know whether she heard me. Then after what seemed like an eternity, I heard the boat’s engine start – and keep running. I felt a great surge of relief.

for a two-night stop, and told him that I wanted to do his flight. As I was the Chief Pilot, and also a director of the company, he did not demur, particularly as both involved stays at pleasant riverside locations, with beer at staff-rates for pilots.

‘My husband and daughter.’

Bearing in mind the old adage that “Faint heart never won fair lady” I had, with some trepidation, decided to present the Shakawe blonde with the option of remaining with her estranged husband and daughter, or coming to live happily ever after with me in northern Joburg.

I looked for hungry crocodiles but happily saw none, as the boat approached against the current. I waded out and hauled myself aboard. We had both been more frightened than we cared to admit.

Some weeks later, I noticed a young girl in the blonde’s company, together with a handsome young male stranger sitting separately in the bar area. Later, as the lady and I strolled to her houseboat, this chap sprang out from behind a bush and bade us each, by name, good night.

I muttered a thanks. After boarding the houseboat I asked my lady friend who the fellow and the young girl were

‘My husband and daughter.’

It transpired that the estranged husband was trying for a reconciliation. The houseboat did not rock that night.

A week later, I was at Maun with an Aero Commander 500B, which I was to fly to Kasane for a two-night stop. Back then, there was almost no phone connection with many of the outlying locations. Communication was principally through side band radios, on a schedule set by the game lodges.

I found the other pilot, who was due to fly to Shakawe

It was an awkward few days. But on the second morning I took off from Shakawe with the blonde by my side and her daughter in the cabin.

JEFFERY KEMPSON

As we climbed away over the fishing camp, she said; “He’ll be down there, drinking and crying.”

Her words were sobering . I reduced the power and started to turn back. She put a hand on my knee and said, “Don’t go back. I’ve already left him, so if you don’t take us away now, we’ll just have to leave some other way.”

I pushed the throttles back up and turned back on track.

One of the passengers asked, ‘Are we going back?’

“No.” I replied, “I thought I saw an elephant, but it’s gone.” Mollified he relaxed in his seat.

The thought of the husband and father weeping in the riverside bar, as the sound of my engines carried his wife and daughter away, has burdened me ever since.

Her mother lived in Francistown, so I dropped her there for a few of days while I continued scheduled flying.

Then I collected her and flew the late afternoon schedule to Selebe Phikwe, then onto Gaborone.

Half an hour after leaving Selebe Phikwe the sun set and I turned on the red instrument lights, which back then were the norm to preserve the pilot’s night vision. I closed the curtain between the cabin and the cockpit. Then I wound out the trailing HF aerial to make the half hourly Ops normal calls to Jan Smuts. In those days most of Botswana lay within the Johannesburg FIR.

Sometime later, I tuned the radio to a Rhodesian music station, then handed a headset to my girlfriend. None of our autopilots worked, so we hand flew everywhere, which was not a hardship in an inherently stable plane.

The cockpit grew a little chilly, so I switched on the Janitrol heater in the nose and was gratified that it didn’t explode on this first winter ignition, flooding the windscreen with burning avgas. Then I selected a temperature that would dissuade passengers from opening the curtain to request a heating change.

The bar at Shakawe Fishing Camp.

A little later, with her hand on my thigh, my new girlfriend became amorous.

Just then the radio started playing the Shirley Bassey hit “Never Never Never.” I sang softly along to the music and thought that it doesn’t get any better than this. It’s been worth all the flight tuition fees, passing the Commercial Pilot exams, the stringent flight tests, and medical examinations.

Sometime later, as I began the descent, my beautiful new princess shifted position, and began to arouse me in earnest.

my right hand to close the throttles, flared, and touched down smoothly. Clearing the runway, I realised I’d forgotten to wind in the trailing HF aerial, which now adorned the airport’s boundary fence. It was worth it.

my engines carried his wife and daughter

I set up a long final approach towards the extended centre line of the runway and switched on the landing lights to pick up the reflectors along the runway edges.

Gaborone gave me a direct approach to the runway.

I urged my girlfriend to hurry, she giggled. I took flaps, selected gear, and slowed to the minimum approach speed. I stroked her hair, and sometime later moved

We set up home in a house north west of Johannesburg, anticipating the construction of Lanseria Airport, then later moved to a cottage in Rivonia. I could spend a week or more at home. I took up photography and learnt about f-stops, shutter speeds and the like, and became fairly proficient. I turned a bedroom into a dark room, developed the black and white negatives, used an enlarger and made prints. Some I merged into “Photo Shop” type renditions with moderate success.

I only took pictures of my ultra-photogenic new girlfriend and aeroplanes. Until one day she declared that she was tired of smiling into a camera, and also fed up with the smell of photographic chemicals in the house. So I quit photography.

Jeffery Kempson with an Aero Commander 500B at Maun in the 70s.

Dining out with her could be a mixed blessing. Walking into a busy northern suburbs restaurant often caused a lull in conversation, as husbands and boyfriends gawked, and their wives and girlfriends sometimes glowered at my partner, the smiling femme fatale.

We lived together for nearly three years, and were very happy at times, though my long and frequent flying absences put an inevitable strain on our relationship, not helped when I bought the growing daughter a bicycle and a model train for her birthday.

I thought that professional pilots constituted a higher life form, and that any sensible girl would be happy and proud to welcome her man home after transiting the dangerous sky. Apparently, she did not share my view.

We parted amicably, and she kept the car I bought her, and the furniture which I was still paying off. We later tried a couple of reconciliations, which didn’t really work out.

After a long and uncomfortable silence he said, “That morning, when I heard your plane’s engine note change, I thought you were bringing my wife and daughter back. So I walked out the bar, but then you turned and flew away. That felt like the end of my life!”

We both cried. As the sun set, we finished discussing how the blonde had ultimately blighted both our lives.

We stood up, shook hands, and he walked away. In the intervening years I had heard that he was a good man. Our shared misery had been cathartic, and as I descended the stairs towards the breakfast room the following morning, I felt a lightness of being, perhaps occasioned by a large karmic debt having been paid.

quell memories just a tear away

In retrospect I was too proud – and a little immature in my view that a professional aviator must be a prestigious catch.

A few years on I saw a picture of her now grown-up daughter on the back of the Sunday Times. She had become a beautiful model. It could not have been otherwise.

Many years later, I flew a charter flight to Victoria Falls, and one afternoon, while sitting on a bench under a large fig tree in the grounds of the Victoria Falls Hotel, a man sat down beside me, and said, “Hello Jeff.”

My blood froze; “Hello,” I replied. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m a salesman for a tyre company in Port Elizabeth, I’ve achieved my annual sales quota and won a prize of flights and three nights at Vic Falls.”

They say that “all’s fair in love and war.’ I disagree. The indelible stain of guilt lives with me. My only defence is that she was irresistibly beautiful. I never saw him again.

The night I left her, I loaded my suitcases into the car, then drove around aimlessly, in a state of abject misery for several hours. Sometime after midnight, I roused the staff of a Honeydew motel and booked in for the remainder of the night.

In the morning, I drove to Rand Airport, boarded one of our aircraft fresh from maintenance, and flew away, to Gaborone. There to stay and run our operation, Esquire Botswana Airways.

These days I exercise at a Park Walk in Johannesburg. On the way there, I drive past the motel that I had booked into that bleak night, so many years ago. I avert my gaze to quell memories just a tear away. 

JEFFERY KEMPSON

SITA LATEST AIRPORT TOOL

SITA, a leading technology company in the air transport industry, has launched its Airport Operations Total Optimizer, which harnesses AI to optimise various airport operational, financial and sustainability functions.

OVER THE PAST DECADE, airports have tried to optimise individual airport functions, most of which are not well-synchronised with each other. Teams, systems, procedures and key performance areas often conflict with one another and significantly reduce efficiencies, costing airports millions of dollars a year.

Staff in a modern airport operations centre take many things into account when making decisions. The problem today is that the tools currently at their disposal have a static configuration. This prevents the team from dynamically adapting their plans, to consider changes or priorities in the airport environment. Total Optimizer allows airport teams to dynamically set the relative priority of different aspects, such as operational performance, capacity provision, revenue generation, cost efficiency, passenger experience and environmental sustainability.

“This is one of the biggest innovations yet in the sphere of total airport management,” says Stefan Schaffner, VP of Airports at SITA, citing the platform’s impressive ability to leverage AI and data analytics.

SITA, with help from leading airports like TorontoPearson in Canada, has been closely studying the challenges airports face in achieving total airport management.

The SITA Airports Operations Total Optimizer is the latest in a series of solutions to optimize airport operations by leveraging accurate, reliable, shared real-time data. Already, more than 240 airports and 50 off-airport sites use SITA’s Airport Management Solution (AMS) and SITA’s Airport-Collaborative Decision-Making (A-CDM).

PART 1

WHEN THINGS FALL APART

It was going to be another typical semi-desert, Karoo October day with furnace heat shimmering off the dry plains.

ACCORDING TO THE forecasts, the wind gusts were to exceed 40 kilometres per hour and temperatures would rise to 48c by 11.00. This combination would become unworkable by 10:00 and so the pressure was on.

Weeks before, the plan seemed simple enough, whilst chattering around a table in an air-conditioned room with mugs of tea.

Management, or human intervention, of wildlife has become a critical component within the sparse islands of wild areas that remain. The interchanging of genetics by relocating animals to and from various game parks is a common example of a management tool, mimicking historical Alpha bull movements.

Our window of working time was critical, as it somehow always is, due mostly to climatic limitations, which in turn escalate other factors, each increasing risk.

The Bat-Hawk communicates the rhino’s location

There are many logistical issues that must be in place prior to a capture operation. The permits to move animals, dated to coincide with the availability of vets to capture and monitor the transport, special crates, and a flatbed truck with a crane for loading and offloading, staff and security vehicles, a ground team to help with the capture, trackers to help find the rhino in the first place, and lastly, a helicopter.

And so, on this occasion, a decision was made to capture two specific black rhino bulls for relocation into another existing population, to promote genetic diversity.

Daytime weather, wind and high temperatures put time pressures onto such operations, limiting the hours available to safely do the job, indirectly increasing challenges, which are many. Office planning and pre-dated permits seldom coincide with ideal weather conditions.

The objective of this operation was to find a specific animal, based on historical data, knowing the DNA and family history of the animal wanted. A very wild

animal, that has had a couple of millions of years on earth to perfect his acute censes, and is lurking somewhere in a vast area, of over 100,000 hectares, which has extremely limited road access.

Trackers go out before sunrise to search for spoor. They may find tracks, but there’s no way of knowing if they were left behind by that specific rhino. This is where the spotter plane should come into the mix, saving time and expense, to search the area without spooking the rhino, confirming its correct identity, or not.

The silenced Rotax engine installed in most Light Sport Aircraft creates little or no disturbance and is ideal for monitoring, whereas, the blade slapping, turbine and tail rotor noise from a helicopter creates fear in the reclusive rhino and they soon run for cover.

In the perfect world, once the correct animal is identified, the spotter plane, which in this case was a Bathawk, uses its advantage of being able to climb above the terrain, gaining height, in order to communicate with VHF, the rhino’s location to the ground recovery team. The updated information is also communicated to the helicopter to get ready to go, with the vet.

Being in mountainous terrain, communication was poor and limited to VHF line of sight within five kilometres, requiring a fair amount of flying back and forth attempting to raise clear communications.

the LSA pilot confirms the identity of the animal

At the pre-work briefing the previous night, radios were handed out, the common frequency was decided, LSA take-off time noted and deployment of the trackers confirmed along with the locations of the recovery teams and trucks. We were all set as per operations normal.

The pilots flying the LSA often remark on how calm the rhino are as they circle at two to three hundred feet. Long before the inbound helicopter is visible, the rhino become agitated and start to hastily move away, often running non-stop for many kilometres.

Since the precise location of the rhino was not known, most of the planning and positioning of trucks and staff was based on an educated guess. Regardless of the best planning, it could take up to an hour for the recovery truck to get to wherever the rhino eventually

Time and temperature are limited when a rhino has been darted.

popped out. It would also take up to 45 minutes for the helicopter to lift, get to the location of the rhino and then coax the animal as gently as possible a few kilometres from its hiding place to a safe location where the recovery would be possible.

Our Standard procedure is: before first light the trackers are deployed and already in hot spot areas. The trucks and team are in strategic positions. The LSA is airborne and sweeping river-lines assisting with covering a large area and ready to immediately move to the trackers should they find fresh tracks, or a rhino. The helicopter team and veterinarian are standing by and ready at the push of the start button.

As soon as a rhino is located, the LSA pilot confirms the identity of the animal and record a GPS co-ordinate. He then climbs away and flies until radio contact is established with the mobile recovery team in the LandCruiser and the trucks, whose drivers would be given the best route to get as close as possible to an ideal recovery point.

The pilot will then fly towards the helicopter team, giving an update and an estimate of the time it will take for the trucks to get into position. He will then fly back to the trackers to monitor the rhino’s movements from high up, and co-ordinate the operation from above.

I would only lift off when I knew that the recovery team were in position and the rhino was visual.

All of this had to happen before the ground temperature became dangerously hot, preferably not above 26C, taking into consideration that the helicopter would need to push the rhino towards a safe darting and recovery location, hopefully not more than three to four hundred metres. The rhino would be running hard all this time in the baking sun. It would be further stressed by a very intimidating machine and once immobilized, unable to regulate his core body temperature. The need for fast and efficient work to minimize all this stress, overheating and risk of death cannot be overstated.

The black rhino is known for its aggression.

On top of all this stress for the rhino, he would then be confined inside a steel container getting bounced about on the back of a truck for at least seven hours, in the heat of the day.

Obviously, with a well-oiled and experienced team, all in radio contact, with the Bat-hawk eye in the sky, what could go wrong?

Unbeknown to us, chaos awaited. Our first challenge was that the LSA pilot decided that he was not going be able to help search and fly due to the possibility of gusting wind. The pilot’s whereabouts were then unknown and there was no further communication.

The next potential problem was that the two teams of trackers who had departed along with three ground vehicles with rangers to various locations as back up, had not left at first light. This would result in a later start, moving into the heat zone.

Then we discovered that the trackers did not have radios and no cell phone signal, and therefore, no communication, with anyone. The recovery trucks were in the wrong place and they too could not be

contacted by radio and to top it all, we could not make any radio contact with the three ranger teams in the back up vehicles.

We, the oblivious helicopter crew, waited on the ground for news or an update from anyone out there as to any sign of the rhino. The sun was rising higher, the tops of the trees were rustling with occasional breaths from a warm wind and there was silence in the air.

By taking off too soon in the helicopter, there was the risk that we would spook the rhino deeper into more remote areas. But with no communication and no clue about what was happening, and the temperature increasing, a decision was made to takeoff, fly high and establish communications with the tracking teams, the recovery team and the trucks, gaining an updated overview of the actual situation. From there we would decide on our next course of action, to land on top of a mountain with VHF coms, or to assist with searching.

Little did we know, until later, that none of that would be possible due to a total breakdown of discipline and leadership. 

The Bat hawk is an invaluable spotter - when used correctly.

CAA’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW

The Silver anniversary of the CAA was hosted at Wonderboom Airport on a hot autumn Saturday in mid-April. The show was by invitation only yet had about 3000 spectators and underprivileged children through the gates.

Text and Pictures Trevor Cohen

Star of the show was the Airlink Embraer E195 in Skybucks livery.

The crowd enjoyed the food stalls.

THE CAA’S STATED AIM is to bring aviation closer to those from disadvantaged backgrounds who can only see aviation from a distance.

Spectators were able to get close to aircraft and see them start and then takeoff and preform.

There were representatives from the CAA, ATNS, ACSA and other government organizations in the tent stalls. A number of commercial operators were also in attendance.

The show started with the very impressive landing of the black liveried Airlink Embraer 195.

'Roofkykers' - the 'currently advantaged' spectators who were not invited.

ABOVE: Scully Levin puts the Cirrus SR22 through its paces.

BELOW: Fast jet action in the Hawk Mk120 flown from Makhado AFB by Lt Col Scott Logie.

ABOVE: The always available Puma Flying Lions put on a great display.

BELOW: Classic action from the SAAF Museum Tiger Moth.

AIRSHOWS

ABOVE: Juba Joubert in action in the Gazelle.

BELOW: Something new - the two Navion display.

ABOVE: The show was closed by the Goodyear Eagles Pitts Specials. BELOW: Young Tristan Eales in his Extra 330.

Then welcome speeches were made by the young and photogenic Mayor of Tshwane, Cilliers Brink. A rambling keynote speech was delivered by the Minister of Transport, Sindisiwe Chikunga.

The 25th birthday cake was cut and then the aerobatic displays began with the Puma Flying Lions doing a two and then three ship display, flown by Arnie Meneghelli, Sean Thackwray and led by Ellis Levin

an aerial ballet with two helicopters AIRSHOWS

Following his remarkable performance at Stellenbosch, Juba Joubert amazed again flying an Alouette III and Gazelle.

Andrew Blackwood Murray flew his polished display in his well-travelled Nashua Extra 300 and Tristan Eales flew his first airshow in the Extra 330C. Grant

Helicopter action came from the SAAF Museum’s Alouette II and III which performed an aerial ballet with the two helicopters flying nose to nose around each other.

From Henley Air at Rand, Andre Coetzee brought his Rocket emergency services Bell 222.

The Raptors RV Team of Trevor Warner and Dion Raath put on a 2-ship display team and Scully Levin very effectively demonstrated the Cirrus 22.

Lt Colonel Scott Logie, call sign Prowler, demonstrated the BAE Hawk Mk120 which was operated out of Makhado Air Force base in the far north.

Timms flew an elegant Tiger Moth demonstration.

The Bell 230 from Rocket EMS at Rand.

The SA Police thrilled the crowd with their anti-hijacking demo.

A two ship Savanah demo was flown by Jason Beamish and Richard Nicholson.

Pitts Special action came from Arnie Meneghelli, Sean Thackwray and Ellis Levin in the Pitts Special Hired Gun display

Captain Jaco Henning and Dean Nicholas took the Airlink E195 Embraer (in Skybucks livery nicknamed Black Betty) through her paces around Northern Tshwane.

Andre Van Zyl flew his Magni Gyro and impressed all by showing just how capable the tiny aircraft is.

Lt Colonel Scott Logie, call sign Prowler

Rodney Chinn and Grant Timms flew a beautiful formation display in de Havilland Chipmunks. Next up was a display of two North American Navion’s flown by Reyno Coetzer and Steve and Mike George.

Commentary was provided by the evergreen Brian Emmenis and his Capital Sounds team who kept the spectators informed and entertained. A big hit with the crowd was the SA Police antihijacking recovery demonstration using an Airbus Squirrel H125 and a Pilatus PC-6 Porter. The flying display closed with the Goodyear Pitts display.

This aviation event was an outreach, and so if just one person who attend the show takes up aviation as a career, then the show will have achieved its goal. 

AMO LISTING

South Africa

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Titan Helicopter Group 044 878 0453 info@titanhelicopters.com www.titanhelicopters.com

Top Flight Academy Nico Smith 082 303 1124 topflightklerksdorp@gmail.com

Turbo Prop Service Centre 011 701 3210 info@tpscsa.co.za www.tpscsa.co.za

Ultimax Aviation (Pty) Ltd Aristide Loumouamou +27 72 878 8786 aristide@ultimax-aviation.com www.ultimax-aviation.com

United Charter cc Jonathan Wolpe 083 270 8886 jonathan.wolpe@unitedcharter.co.za www.unitedcharter.co.za

United Flight Support Clinton Moodley/Jonathan Wolpe 076 813 7754 / 011 788 0813 ops@unitedflightsupported.com www.unitedflightsupport.com

Velocity Aviation Collin Pearson 011 659 2306 / 011 659 2334 collin@velocityaviation.co.za www.velocityaviation.co.za

Villa San Giovanni Luca Maiorana 012 111 8888 info@vsg.co.za www.vsg.co.za

Vortx Aviation Bredell Roux 072 480 0359 info@vortx.co.za www.vortxaviation.com

Wanafly

Adrian Barry 082 493 9101 adrian@wanafly.net www.wanafly.co.za

Windhoek Flight Training Centre Thinus Dreyer 0026 40 811284 180 pilots@flywftc.com www.flywftc.com

Wings n Things

Colin Blanchard 011 701 3209 wendy@wingsnthings.co.za www.wingsnthings.co.za

Witbank Flight School Andre De Villiers 083 604 1718 andredv@lantic.net www.waaflyingclub.co.za

Wonderboom Airport

Peet van Rensburg 012 567 1188/9 peet@wonderboomairport.co.za www.wonderboomairport.co.za

Zandspruit Bush & Aero Estate Martin Den Dunnen 082 449 8895 martin@zandspruit.co.za www.zandspruit.co.za

Zebula Golf Estate & SPA Reservations 014 734 7700 reception@zebula.co.za www.zebula.co.za