The November edition featuring Southern African airlines, Gifts for Pilots and Aircraft Leasing is nearing completion and this edition will be published on Tuesday 31 October. This edition also features the Airbus Beluga story, Luxaviation Fleet additions, End of India’s MiG21s,m Pilatus PC-24 upgrades, Air France celebrates 90 years, Great Train Race to Heidelberg, Lift Airline and Disney co-branding and RNBAA-BACE 2023 Las Vegas report.

The main feature of the August edition of African Pilot is the AERO South Africa, Avionics and Instrumentation as well as headsets available in South Africa. Every month, African Pilot features all aspects of aviation from Airline business to Recreational and Sport Aviation, whilst Military aviation, Commercial and Technical issues are addressed monthly. Within African Pilot’s monthly historical section, we feature the Best of the Best, Names to Remember, Fact File and our monthly historical feature.

This edition features the Zimnavex, Maputo airshow, Light Sport and South African built aircraft, the presidential inauguration aircraft flights, EAA Young Eagles, Potchefstroom airshow, Textron SkyCourier C208 and the installation of solar panel at Sun City using a helicopter. In addition, the magazine also contains all the normal chapters such as Airline Pilot, Commercial Pilot, Helicopter Pilot, Military Pilot, Sport Pilot a Technical section and the four Historical subjects. Once again, the June edition of African Pilot takes on a completely different flavour to previous magazines mainly due to the extensive photography and embedded videos.

The June edition of African Pilot features aviation careers including flight training and maintenance careers. Also to be featured will be the SACAA’s airshow at Wonderboom National Airport, SAAF Museum airshow, Lowveld airshow and the Bloemfontein Tempe airshow as well as the annual President’s Trophy Air Race. In addition, the magazine will also contain all the normal chapters such as Airline Pilot, Commercial Pilot, Helicopter Pilot, Military Pilot, Sport Pilot a Technical section and the four Historical subjects. Once again, the June edition of African Pilot takes on a completely different flavour to previous magazines mainly due to the extensive photography and embedded videos.

The May edition of African Pilot will be featuring Business Jets and Business Charter Operations. However, every month, African Pilot features all aspects of aviation from Airline business to Recreational and Sport Aviation, whilst Military aviation, Commercial and Technical issues are addressed monthly. Within African Pilot’smonthly historical section, we feature the Best of the Best, Names to Remember, Fact File and our monthly historical feature.


African Pilot’s April edition features Helicopters and Helicopter Maintenance as well as all matters involving the helicopter business in the world. This edition also features the Helicopter Association International (HAI) that took place at the Anaheim Convention Centre in California, USA late in February. We also explore who is to blame for SAA’s failed privatisation, FlySafair trends, Absolute Aviation’s acquires Aviation Centre Namibia, Vektor Aviation’s Insurance Conference, Aero Club of South Africa’s AirWeek, EAA’s Young Aviators and the Stellenbosch airshow. We also look at GNSS jamming and spoofing and the monthly Airworthiness Aviation Directives (AD) summary.

The March edition of African Pilot featuring Piston Engine Aircraft, Piston Engine Propellers, Piston Engines and Piston Aircraft Maintenance. This edition also features the new Cirrus G7, Singapore Airshow, test flight in the Sling TSi, Turbulence at SAA, CAASA AGM and Awards, SAAF Prestige Day and Is Flight Training becoming Safer?

The February edition featuring Turboprop aircraft types, Military Turboprop trainers, Boeing 737 MAX-9 problems, Fighting Westen Cape wildfires, EAA launches Young Aviators, USAF B-21 Raider and the Japan Airlines A350 accident revelation as well as many more exciting features.

The January edition will features the annual Aero Club awards as well as a wrap up for the 2023 year. Every month, African Pilot features all aspects of aviation from Airline business to Recreational and Sport Aviation, whilst Helicopters, Military Aviation, Commercial and Technical issues are addressed monthly. Within African Pilot’s monthly historical section, we feature the Best of the Best, Names to Remember, Fact File and our monthly Historical feature.

The main feature of the December 2023 edition features the lesser-known regional airports in and around Gauteng. These include Baragwaneth, Brakpan, Brits, Eagles Creek, Kitty Hawk, Krugersdorp, Panaroma, Petit, Rhino Park (now Legend Sky), Springs and Tedderfield. This edition also includes the spectacular SACAA Aviation Industry Awards and the Dubai Airshow. 

The October edition of African Pilot featuring Aircraft Maintenance and Refurbishment has been completed and will be published early this week. This edition also features the high successful Children’s Flight, the disappointing Rand airshow, Durban, Virginia airshow, pipistrel aircraft now represented by Absolute Aviation, Textron and NetJets significant order, Airbus Helicopters PHI order, USAF F-15EX evaluation and USAF Red Hawk trainer amongst many other exciting features. I also wish to thank the many loyal advertisers that supported this special edition of African Pilot.

This edition features EAA AirVenture and the UK airshow Flying Legends. In addition, African Pilot features all aspects of aviation from Airline business to recreational and sport aviation, whilst helicopters, military aviation, commercial and technical issues are addressed monthly. Within African Pilot’s monthly historical section, we feature the Best of the Best, Names to Remember and the monthly aviation Fact File. 

Within this edition African Pilot will feature the AERO South Africa exhibition, avionics and instrumentation as well as headsets as features. However, once again African Pilot will be filled with exciting features, reports from the world as well as from within South Africa. I travelled to the United States on Friday 21 July to attend EAA AirVenture, Oshkosh for the 21st time – only missing the two pandemic years. Within the August edition, I will contain a brief report on the largest aviation airshow and exhibition in the world. However, the full report with a substantial video and picture gallery will be featured within the September edition of African Pilot.

The July edition of African Pilot featuring Light Sport Aircraft (LSA), amateur built aircraft and South African built aircraft has closed and will be released to the world by 30 June 2023. In addition, there were many aviation events scheduled for the month of June including the amazing Maputo airshow (exclusive), the Paris Air Show, Cosford airshow (England – exclusive), an interview with the winners of the PTAR 2023, Parys airshow, EAA’s annual convention, CAASA AGM (exclusive), Children’s Flight Zambia and many more. African Pilot has strived to report on as many of the local and international events as possible.

The June edition of African Pilot featuring Aviation Training, in addition, this edition features the many aviation events that took place during the month of May 2023 including, Bill Harrop’s Balloon night glow, Bona Bona fly-away and SAPFA Speed Rally, President’s Trophy Air Race (PTAR) in Middelburg, SAMAA Nationals also in Middleburg, the Zebula fly-in, Lowveld airshow, SAAF Museum airshow and the Tempe, Bloemfontein airshow. This 268-page May edition has 14 videos and 13 picture galleries.

The May edition of African Pilot featuring Helicopters including Helicopter OEMs from all over the world, Helicopter operators in southern Africa, Helicopter flight training and Helicopter AMOs . This 230-page May edition has 15 videos and 12 picture galleries. 

The April edition of African Pilot featuring Piston Powered aircraft types, Propellers, Piston Engines and AMOs. In addition to the main feature, African Pilot always publishes news from around the world and this edition also contains the Middel East IDEX exhibition feature and a feature on Australia’s Avalon exhibition. We also take a look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine one year on and what this devastating war is doing to most of Europe.

The March African Pilot edition features Business Jet aircraft, Jet Engines and Business Jet Charter companies. This 288-page edition has 17 Picture galleries and 16 videos embedded.

The February 240-page edition of African Pilot with 13 videos and 11 picture galleries features Turboprop Aircraft, Turboprop Engines and Propellers was distributed to the world on Wednesday 1 February. Apart from the significant feature on Turboprop aircraft types, this edition has plenty of up-to-date aviation news as well as the usual historical features.

The 200-page January 2023 digital edition with 11 galleries and 11 videos was released on 21 December, featuring Aviation Insurance, Aircraft Finance and Aircraft Sales.

The final edition of African Pilot for this year, the 241-page December 2022 digital edition with 10 galleries and 14 videos was released on 01 December and has a feature on many of Gauteng’s smaller airfields including the history and what the future holds for these airfields.

African Pilot’s 341-page November edition includes 19 videos and 12 picture galleries embedded into the digital magazine was completed on Friday and will be sent to the world today Monday 31 October 2022. This edition features African Airlines and Gifts for Pilots as well as a Grand Central Airport feature since the airport celebrated its 85th birthday during October.

Inside this month:

Special Feature

AMOs and Refurbishment 2022
Aircraft Maintenance and Aircraft Refurbishment including Cockpit Panel upgrades (Read more on page 64)

Hunt for the Rietbok by Wouter Botes
The mystery surrounding any aviation event, crash, disappearance or tragedy, will forever fascinate most people. Is it the unusual scenario that flight places human beings in, or the fact that it doesn’t happen very often? That is compared to vehicle accidents and most other tragic events. The fact remains that any plane with it’s crew and in most cases, passengers that vanished into thin air, no pun intended, rules the headlines and creates a life of it’s own in the minds of everyone following the developing story. Malasia Airlines Flight MH 370 is a very good example. (Read more on page 138)

Inside this month:

Children’s flight 2022
The African Pilot team of four photographers and me shooting video for most of the time visited the Orient Airfield to attend the Children’s Flight on Friday 2 September. What a beautiful event that was well organised with no incidents. (Read more on page 164)

Rand airshow
This year’s Grand Rand Airshow sponsored by Master Power Technologies was incredible, after several years where the airshow had been on hold due to the pandemic and other reasons. (Read more on page 172)

Inside this month:
Special Feature
EAA AirVenture 2022
The 2022 edition of EAA AirVenture, the first full-scale gathering of the General Aviation world’s biggest party post-pandemic, kicked off with strong storms, rocking the wings of many of the planes gathered in Oshkosh. However, the damage was minimal as many of the tens of thousands of aircraft on the campgrounds and around the airport were tied down to weather the severe weather. Fortunately, this was the only severe weather for the entire week, which was blessed with blue skies painted with fluffy white clouds, ideal for airshow photography. (Read more on page 68)

Inside this month:
Aviation Safety
With the General Aviation accident rate climbing, aviation safety is a serious feature within this edition. Aviation safety companies have expressed their opinions on what the problem with ‘just culture’ is within the pilot body, especially when there is so much at stake. (Read more on page 106)

Charter Companies
Possibly due to the fact that after the pandemic, charter business is not yet back to normal since the charter industry appears to still be challenged. In the past many foreign visitors visited southern Africa to spend time at a multitude of amazing wilderness resorts and this was good business for charter companies. (Read more on page 134)

Inside this month:
Special Feature
Avionics and Instrumentation
Our comprehensive annual Avionics and Instrumentation feature unwraps many new developments within the exciting world of aviation, not just in South Africa, but also the entire world. The future of marketing lies in the production of specialised video material where advertisers can showcase their products and services and African Pilot provides the ideal platform for this new technology. (Read more on page 74)

Inside this month:
AERO SA 2022
Our AERO South Africa report (page 122) where the event was staged at Wonderboom National Airport for the second time also features a fully edited video that was produced by the African Pilot team. Within this video we set out to interview as many of the exhibitors as possible in order to provide them with a showcase of their business. (Read more on page 122)

Royal International Tattoo
An excellent illustrated report on the annual Royal International Air Tattoo staged in the United Kingdom will be found on page 34 of this edition. My thanks go to the Ian Doyle and Anna Wilson for this amazing report. From all accounts, this year’s RIAT was incredible. (Read more on page 34)

July 2022 - Volume 21 No. 07
Inside this month:
Special Feature
Light Sport Aircraft in South Africa
A review of 2021 market shares and information regarding the state of the light, recreational aircraft industry shows that, after a surprisingly strong 2020 despite the pandemic, 2021 returned to Earth a bit but with some shifting between categories. In 2021, the contrast that stood out was between factory-built and kit-built lightsport aircraft (LSA). In 2020, perhaps because builders were locked down at home and completed more projects, kit registrations blew the doors off factory-built. For 2021, the ratio equalised again with kits narrowly edging out factory-built. (Read more on page 128)

Inside this month:
EBACE 2022
Airshows and more

Inside this month:
Special Feature
Aviation Training
HOW FLIGHT SCHOOLS ARE COPING WITH POST PANDEMIC BUSINESS
In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic devastated aviation, including most flight schools around the world. Now that the pandemic is mostly something of the past, African Pilot looked at how flight schools have managed their business by limiting exposure of their staff, instructors and students. (Read more on page 100)

Inside this month:
AERO Friedrichshafen 2022
AERO 2022 was a great success! General Aviation is optimistically tackling the challenges of the future and presented a wide range of solutions for even greater safety and sustainability at the four-day leading trade show in Friedrichshafen. The exhibiting companies and the international trade audience were thrilled to meet and exchange ideas in person again. (Read more on page 184)

A visit to NAMPO
On Thursday, 19 May I flew to NAMPO near Bothaville in the Free State from Brakpan with Charles Fuller, Rob Osner and Tony Kent is Charles’ delightful Trinidad. The early morning flight was remarkably smooth and on arrival, it was clear that the airfield was very busy with arriving aircraft and helicopters. Full article with picture gallery and video. (Read more on page 34)

President's Trophy Air Race
This year’s Presidents Trophy Air Race was held at Tempe airport Bloemfontein. The race had been traditionally held on the last weekend of May, but with the advent of the Botswana airshow also taking place on the same weekend it was decided to move it a week earlier, which if we all had the perfect hindsight, with the Botswana airshow cancelled for this year, we could have held it on its traditional date and subsequently avoided these final days of most unseasonal weather that cover the central part of South Africa over the race weekend. (Read more on page 174)

nside this month:
Special Feature
Helicopter operations 2022
According to the latest figures from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association 2021 saw the rebound of the helicopter industry from the woeful pandemic days. Turbine helicopter sales plummeted 16.9% in 2020 and piston helicopter sales did even worse, with a 20.7% drop. However, this all turned around in 2021, with piston helicopter increasing 27.5% in 2021 to 181, while turbine helicopter deliveries increased 24.8% to 645. The value of helicopter deliveries for 2021 was $3.7 billion, an increase of approximately 28%. (Read more on page 94)

Special Feature
Piston Aircraft 2022
Within this edition of African Pilot we have produced our annual Piston Engine aircraft feature, complete with engines, propeller types and AMOs. This has once again been an interesting exercise as certain European piston engine Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are still without any African representation. (Read more on page 85)

The March edition featuring Business Jets, Fixed Base Operators (FBOs), maintenance, aircraft sales and Business Jet Charters. The feature only includes Business Jets that are currently in production and does not contain any jets that have been proposed or envisaged. However, as part of the feature, we have included the future of ‘Supersonic Business Jets,’ the production and test flying of which are still likely to be many years into the future.
 
Inside this month:
Africa's most powerful airforce?
Africa is home to some of the world’s longest-running conflicts and for many African countries having a military force is paramount. But which country is the dominant force in the air? (Read more on page 234)

90 Years of the Tiger Moth
The 22nd of January 2022, was the date for the belated 90th Tiger Moth anniversary Fly-In at Luskintyre, NSW, Australia. We had postponed this event for a further 3 months from the original first flight 90 years ago in October, 1931 in the UK. (Read more on page 268)

Singapore Airshow
The Asia-Pacific aviation industry’s slow recovery from the pandemic amid government restrictions cast a shadow over the Singapore Airshow. The biennial event has bookended the pandemic, with the 2020 edition disrupted by the virus emerging from China and the latest show coming as the industry attempts to plot a way out of its biggest-ever crisis. (Read more on page 252)

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African Pilot is a niche market specialist aviation magazine that has been publishing uninterrupted for the past eighteen years. Subscribers to the magazine can expect glossy layouts with a modern ‘coffee table’ look featuring South African, African and world aviation events, interesting facts about aviation, historical features and general news within aviation. African Pilot is the only South African aviation magazine that strives and is most successful at covering most southern African aviation events. The magazine provides a platform for the organizers of airshows and specific aviation events to market their particular event to members of the public.

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African Pilot - November 2023

African Pilot - November 2023

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