CTFC news 30 November
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New CFI
Red Bull Air Race on SABC 3
A380 in JHB
More Capetonians taking over!
Yakking over Franschoek
Humour
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New CFI

JP Rossouw, who is well known to both old clubs, will be taking over from Pieter as CFI from the 1 December. Pieter will be remaining involved with CTFC to continue imparting his knowledge and wisdom to us members.

Expect a greeting from JP soon! (a not so subtle hint to the CFI from the Ed....)

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Red Bull Air Race on SABC 3 --> submitted by Alexia Michaelides

You will be delighted to know that SABC 3 has secured placement of 13 Red Bull Highlight programmes for the coming months.

The planned schedule is as follows:

6 of these highlight programmes will be flighted on Sunday nights from @ 17h30 – 18h30:

Sunday 26 November
Sunday 3rd December
Sunday 10th December
Sunday 17th December
Sunday the 31’st December (New Years eve)
Sunday the 7th January

We have an added bonus.

It is cricket season and India is in the throws of their SA tour – if the game is delayed due to bad weather or ends early our remaining 30 min programmes will be flighted.

In addition - Red Bull highlight footage will be screening as 15min features during the lunch breaks from:

26 Dec – 29 Dec (4 episodes)

If you would like more detail on the specific scheduling please feel free to contact me.

Don’t forget that the 2006 Red Bull Air Race World Series will also be on SABC 3 @ 17h00 – 17h30.

Scheduling is below:

24 Dec – Red Bull Air Race Abu Dhabi (Followed by additional Red Bull Highlight programme as stated above)
31 Dec - Red Bull Air Race Barcelona (Followed by additional Red Bull Highlight programme as stated above)
7 Jan - Red Bull Air Race Berlin (Followed by additional Red Bull Highlight programme as stated above)
14 Jan - Red Bull Air Race Istanbul
21 Jan - Red Bull Air Race Budapest
28 Jan - Red Bull Air Race Longleat UK
4 Feb - Red Bull Air Race San Francisco
11 Feb - Red Bull Air Race Perth
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A380 in JHB --> Russel Wolson

Hi Guys

I was lucky enough to see the A380 in Jhb on Sunday. Due to her relative size she seems to approach at a very low speed. Saw two touch and gos where she kicked up a lot of dust on 03 R.

Regards

Russel Wolson





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The Cape Town conspiracy --> Schalk van der Merwe
Hi there!

I am responding on the latest news letter where Sean noted that CPT pilots are taking over aviation. I feel the same sometimes seeing so many CPT locals up here and hearing their voices on frequency.

I myself trained with then Good Hope Flying Club up to NR and CPL subjects. Completed my training up here at Lanseria.

I am flying a C208B with MAF South Africa and will leave on contract with Fugro Airborn Survey hopefully soon to some far off African country! Probably need to get the French dictionary out soon!

I hope to Hire and Fly with CTFC soon! CTI is still the best place to fly! CPT has mountains and ocean..... we have errrr mine dumps and dams?

Cheers!
Schalk van der Merwe
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Yakking over Franschoek --> Michelle Joffe, pictures Frank Moody

To see more (and full size images), check out our website blog, found on our mainpage. - Ed

A flip on the Yak was definitely high up on my list of “100 things to do before you die”, so I was very happy to outbid any competitor at the year end party for a flip in the Yak with Dale “sorry, how old did you say you are” Humby.

So, on Saturday, 25 November I drove to Fisantekraal (yes, you can actually drive there!), with my photographers / aviation paparazzi, Frank “Hank” Moody and my cousin Shaun, in tow. We found Dale at the aircraft where he was engaging in his mammoth Yak preflight, a process affectionately known by Yak pilots as “Yak husbandry” and for obvious reasons! For instance, the propeller has to be turned at least 36 times in order to get the overflow oil to drip out of the plane before start up. Easier said than done….I had a few attempts at this, but let me tell you, for a dame such as myself, this is pretty hard work. Dale has clearly mastered the technique and he and the other boys had a good chuckle watching me struggle to get 2 rotations in! Then he slapped her under the wings and under the fuselage, quite vigorously, just to make sure that there were no loose objects hanging around inside…I told you they call this preflighting “husbandry”!

After refueling, Dale geared me up in the Yak attire, consisting of a very 1940’s style headset with cap and a somewhat smelly old parachute, which he assured me was still in working order – I guess it’s one of those “trial and error” chutes? Dale gave me the full passenger briefing and strapped me in tight, so there was no turning back – especially after he had told me how he had taken his 78 year old granny for a flight the previous week! Impressive, but I think that may have been part of the marketing blurb!! With a big “whumpf” and smoke all around, Dale started her up and off we taxied to the runway.

After the run ups, we lined up on runway 23, canopy closed, and off we went, rotating at what felt like 200km / hr (god bless the Russians, they work in kilometers!). We did a steep turn out to the left and headed off for the beautiful valley of Franschhoek where Dale would show off his aviation prowess at 6000 feet. Dale let me take the controls and climb from 1500 to our desired altitude. Due to the length of the aircraft, he told me to climb in an S shape so that I could have a better view of what lay ahead of us.

Once over the valley, the fun began. Now I can’t quite remember the exact sequence of events, altitude does this to my brain, but what I do recall is that I got to see Franschoek and Cape Town from some very odd angles. We looped, we barreled, we Cubaned, we tangoed, we climbed at 90 degrees, we took our bodies to obscenely unnatural g’s, we dived, we climbed some more, I was shouting out obscenities about Dale’s mother’s cat in Afrikaans (I don’t even know his mother and I really wouldn’t know if she even has a cat?)……and then….we flew inverted! That was just unbelievable! With my knees dangling next to my cheeks, Dale gently tried to persuade me to take the controls, but it just wasn’t going to happen! I was too busy savoring the moment and observing the carcass of some unfortunate insect, which probably couldn’t handle the g force and now ended up on the canopy of the aircraft! The world looks a very different place when you are upside down and I can highly recommend this angle of attack if you’re up (or is that down?) to it!

After some serious acrobatics we flew low level and tracked the contours of the Breede River, canopy open of course, and Dale gave me the controls once again for a low level flight over the farmlands.

Dale is an incredibly talented young pilot and it was a real privilege to fly with him. He is clearly passionate about what he does and I can highly recommend this experience to everyone, aviator or not! Would I do it again? Heck, YES!!!! And don’t worry, my list of 100 things to do before I die is actually endless!!

Many thanks to Dale Humby for sponsoring the flight!

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Humour

Neil Wetmore
Santa Claus, like all pilots, gets regular visits from the CAA, and the designated examiner arrived last week for the pre-Christmas flight check. In preparation, Santa had the elves wash the sled and bathe all the reindeer. Santa got his logbook out and made sure all his paperwork was in order. He knew they would examine all his equipment and truly put Santa's flying skills to the test.

The examiner walked slowly around the sled. He checked the reindeer harnesses, the landing gear, and even Rudolph's nose. He painstakingly reviewed Santa's weight and balance calculations for sled's enormous payload. Finally, they were ready for the check ride.

Santa got in and fastened his seat belt and shoulder harness and checked the compass. Then the examiner hopped in carrying, to Santa's surprise, a shotgun. "What's that for!?" asked Santa incredulously. The examiner winked and said, "I'm not supposed to tell you this ahead of time," as he leaned over to whisper in Santa's ear, "but you're gonna lose an engine on takeoff."


Linda Hodgkinson with the utimate punny

John the farmer was in the Fertilized Egg business. He had several
hundred young layers (hens), called "pullets" and eight or ten roosters,
whose job was to fertilize the eggs.

The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into
the soup pot and was replaced.

That took an awful lot of his time so he bought a set of tiny bells and
attached them to his roosters.

Each bell had a different tone so John could tell from a distance, which
rooster was performing.

Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply
by listening to the bells.

The farmer's favourite rooster was old Butch, and a very fine specimen
he was, too.

But on this particular morning John noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung
at all! John went to investigate.

The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets,
hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

But to Farmer John's amazement, Butch had his bell in his beak, so it
couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the
next one.

John was so proud of Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair
and Butch became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result...The judges not only awarded Butch the No Bell Piece Prize
but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

Clearly Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a politician
could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our
planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing
them when they weren't paying attention
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