CATEGORIES
SACRIFICE
John continues his anecdotes about the sacrifices he has had to make in the course of his helicopter bush flying career.
KENYA - SAA PARTNERSHIP DELAY
KENYA AIRWAYS AND South African Airways announced the establishment of a highly anticipated Pan-African Airline Group three years ago.
TO PARIS FOR LUNCH
One morning I arrived back at Lanseria from a two day charter to a dreary Northern Cape iron mine. Entering the terminal, I removed my wings and epaulets, thrust them into my flight bag, and headed for the restaurant.
ASCA'S MPUMI MPOFU: READY FOR TAKE-OFF
Ms Mpumi Mpofu has occupied the hot seat as Chief Executive of ACSA, the Airports Company of South Africa for a tumultuous past four years.
HYDROGEN POWERED PLANE TESTED
WORLD’S LARGEST liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft, using a 1 MW fuel cell engine, has been tested.
CAMEROON - BLAMES BOEING
BOEING JUST CANNOT STAY out of trouble. It has become the whipping boy for endless absurd claims.
IRIS GOES TO SOMALIA
Having spent the last couple of years flying to a rota, I was thoroughly enjoying the freedom and randomness of flying charters at Sunbird Aviation.
TELEPORTATION
One of the best clients for whom I ever flew was BP, the British oil giant. I was with them in Algeria for about seven years, from the very start of their large gas projects, right in the heart of the Sahara Desert, near the small towns of In Amenas and In Salah.
FEBRUARY 2023
February has shown steady growth in the number of aircraft registered. Four fixed wing and one helicopter were added while the non-type certified (NTCA) register grew by seven.
RIGHT SEAT RULES NO. 16 FUEL SYSTEMS WHY SO COMPLICATED?
You know those aggranoying people who say, “Oh I wouldn't fly in one of those little things - you can't just pull over and fix it if something goes wrong\"? What makes this particularly irritating is that the bastards are right.
WHY CAN AEROPLANES FLY UPSIDE-DOWN¿
In 1945, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, precursor of NASA and source of much of our knowledge about practical aerodynamics, published a hefty compendium of aerofoil data, NACA Technical Report 824, which later appeared in book form under the title Theory of Wing Sections.
Flying Cars A fool and his money...
There is a hoary old adage - that you can fool most of the people most of the time. And that's enough to raise lots of money for screwball ideas. The Pegasus, a VTOL business jet that is nothing more than a computer graphic comes to mind.
TRAVOLTA'S CROOKED PILOTS?
TWO PILOTS ARE CHARGED with embezzling close to $800,000 from John Travolta.
SAFETY FEATURE
General aviation hides behind the safety record of its big brother - the airline industry.
STELLENBOSCH AIR SHOW
The Western Cape does not get as many airshows as the Joburg area - which is a shame as it has great airshow performers and one of the best venues in the world for a flying club airshow.
SAA TAKATSO SALE CALLED OFF
SOUTH AFRICA’S Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has announced that the sale of a 51% stake in South African Airways (SAA) to the Takatso Consortium has been cancelled.
EAA AIRWEEK 2024
Having attended Oshkosh in 2023, I was looking forward to our own, miniature version in Middelburg, Mpumalanga.
PIPER'S COMANCHE 180 - IT TICKS ALL THE BOXES
The Comanche is a fabulous plane - that was frankly just too good to be a Piper.
INDIAN OCEAN ISLAND ODYSSEY (OR FIASCO)
Before the South African political transformation, a group of diving enthusiasts wished to extend their diving experience to the more northern reaches of the Indian Ocean.
THE WAR AGAINST CYBERATTACKS
The recent much-publicised breach of the South African National Defence Force's (SANDF) networks by the 'Snatch' ransomware team, in which they stole multiple terabytes of files and published them online, has thrown into sharp relief the need for strong cyber security practices for African militaries, especially as they adopt more digitised processes and products such as drones and command & control systems.
IRIS - HER EARLY YEARS.Air Kenya
Laura McDermid continues her stories about Iris McCallum in East Africa.
ROBBIE ROBINSON
\"Hello. I am your Examiner...I am here to help you!\" Oh yeah...Really?
CAPE TOWN SUPPLEMENT: INTRODUCTION -
Aviation in and around Cape Town is doing simultaneously well – and not so well.
AOPA BRIEFING IS IT ABOUT THE MONEY?
Chris Martinus: President Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association South Africa
JOHN ILLSLEY
Too often we only present tributes to remarkable people when they have died. This article is a tribute to a man who is very much alive, yet who has already made a greater impact and touched more lives in general aviation in South Africa than anyone else I can think of.
Blackhawk's 150th CARAVAN ENGINE UPGRADE
Blackhawk Aerospace has completed its 150th Cessna Caravan engine upgrade.
CESSNA LONGITUDE
THE LONG-AWAITED CESSNA FLAGSHIP FINALLY ARRIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA
RIGHT SEAT RULES NO. 11 COORDINATION
Hubie was one of those people who can't march. He was a clever guy. He had a pharmacy in Riversdale in the Southern Cape and was also mayor of the town - but the poor guy simply could not march.
THE FUTURE OF AVGAS
The US Environmental Protection Agency EPA) has released its long-anticipated final determination on the danger of leaded aviation gasoline.
EL TAIL WAGS DOG
‘Hinge moment’ is the technical name for the force required to deflect a control surface. In small, relatively slow aeroplanes hinge moments are not very large; pilots move the controls with ease. But as control surfaces get larger and speeds get higher, hinge moments grow rapidly.