CTFC news 10 August
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ACSA Fees

Fly Ins

Women's Day Fly In
Tools for Pilots

Aviation News

Humour

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Dates to diarise

3 August - Party at CTFC

11-12 August - Woman's Day Fly in at FAWC

24-25 August- Vredendal Fly In

5 September - CTFC AGM

20 October - Aerobatic Nationals, Oudtshoorn

9-11 November - TFDC Fly-In, AFB Overberg www.flyin.org.za

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ACSA Fees (Update) --> AWSA

Subsequent to the publication of Government Gazette no 29987 (22/62007) and Government Gazette 30021 (29/06/2007), which included details of substantial increases, ACSA has published a further large increase of fees in Government Gazette 30136 (2/8/2007). This update follows barely a month after the promulgation of the original fee increase and replaces Gazette number 30021. Aviation observers have expressed dismay at these latest developments. This gazette can be found at:

http://awsa.co.za/docs/20070803_gg30136.pdf

The new fees, which will become effective at the beginning of November, will result in an increase of passenger fees of 55.9% for domestic flights and as high as 66% for some cross border flights. Landing fees will increase by 15.6% and parking fees by 12.7%.

Compounded by the growth rate of 12% pa for passenger movements and 8% pa for aircraft movements, ACSA profits will in all probability reach unheard of new heights in the 2008 financial year. According to comments by some of ACSA's larger users the situation has become untenable and will now require drastic remedial action.

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Women's Day Fly in at FAWC 11/12 August

Join us for a fun excursion on Saturday 11 August to FAWC. The guys and gals there will treat us to dinner, entertainment and breakfast on Sunday morning for those who will be staying over.

Please book your accommodation ASAP if you haven't already done so: Aan de Doorns 023 342 1402 or Church Street Lodge 023 342 5194 or camp at the airfield if you prefer (Ed at the Gliding club 084 277 6233).
Please let Ursula know urgently how many people she should cater for or you may have to watch while the others enjoy their scrumptious meal. R80 for both dinner and breakfast - what a steal!
Mail Ursula at shebear@acenet.co.za or call her on 028 272 9193 or 076 166 8761.

If you are looking for passengers to fill your plane, or are a passenger looking for a plane to fill please let Linda know.

If the weather fairy decides to mess up our flying plans, we'll drive up and spend the night there anyway. That'll teach her.

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Tools for pilots --> submitted by Russel Wolson

Online weather station dedicated to the GFA in the Delta 200 area in Cape Town. Live updates every 15 minutes.

www.bushwacker.co.za/wx.htm

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Aviation News this week --> Gareth Pinnock/Danny Buitendag/ Anthony Berkow

Plane crashes into a house in JHB (and the callousness of our society)
Emergency landing gone wrong near Cullinan
Improving African Air safety
GA flying in Israel


Plane crashes into Jo'burg house 8 August (from News24.com)

Johannesburg - A seriously injured man was trapped in the wreckage of a Piper aircraft which crashed into a Johannesburg house on a flight between Lanseria and Grand Central airports on Wednesday, police said.

Senior Superintendent Eugene Opperman said the Civil Aviation Authority was investigating the crash.

There were two people in the aircraft when it hit the house, then a tree, in Birdhaven, Johannesburg, said Johannesburg Fire and Emergency Management Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley.

They had been on a routine test flight, he said. Both occupants of the plane were seriously hurt in the crash. No one in the house was injured.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

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Near-tragic plane crash draws onlookers --> Lebogang Seale (IOL.co.za)

Curious children jostled to peep through the hole of the wall into the yard of a mansion.
Their mission: to catch a glimpse of the mangled wreck of a plane.
Others screamed at their parents to carry them shoulder high, All the while, cameras - including the cellphone variety - clicked.

'I don't understand how something like can happen. It's so sad, but cool!'
This was the scene on the corner of Wingfield and Greenaces avenues in Birdhaven, Joburg, when a near-tragic plane crash transformed the garden into an instant tourist attraction.

The accident happened on Wednesday evening when a Piper Seneca twin-engined light plane crashed into the property, seriously injuring the pilot and the co-pilot.

The men - Michael Richards, 47, and his colleague, known only as H Matticks, 48 - were on a routine flight when they lost control of the plane, according to emergency services workers.

On impact the co-pilot was thrown out of the plane and landed on some tree logs.
The pilot was trapped in the mangled wreck of the aircraft. It took paramedics almost an hour to rescue him.
Their condition on Thursday was said to be stable.

On Thursday, scores of people descended on the quiet suburb as news of the crash spread.
When a team from The Star arrived, a fleet of cars lined the street and curious people - most with their children - wanted to catch a glimpse of the spectacular accident.

"Oh my God! Look at the wing! It's so huge. Daddy, what kind of a plane is that?" asked one child.
The wing was suspended on a tree in the garden.
The plane's propeller lay between the wall and the tree. Next to it was the engine. Mangled pieces of metal lay scattered.
"It's crazy. I don't understand how something like can happen. It's so sad, but cool!" said 10-year-old Matan Traube, from Melrose.

Brothers Adam, 14, and Doron, 12, interjected: "It's exciting because it's like history. An aeroplane crashing into a garden? Jeez!"
Nadine Singer, 34, from Savoy said: "It's so scary, very frightening. It's just a matter of luck that no one was seriously hurt or killed."
Even more bewildered was Mary Lang, 59. "It's so shocking. I'm just happy that people survived," she said - complaining that her cellphone camera was fading.

As more and more people arrived and milled about the yard, the owners of the crash site stood chatting at the main gate.
"It's quite disturbing. Not what we expected," was all Yvonne Schneider, the daughter in the family, would say.

Andre Snyman, the first Netcare 911 paramedic to arrive on the scene, said the pilot and his colleague were extremely lucky to have survived.
"When I arrived, the co-pilot was lying about three metres in front of the aircraft after being flung out.
"The pilot was still trapped inside the cockpit.
"I feared for the worse because I could see only his upper abdomen. I wasn't sure if his legs were broken.
"I became concerned when he complained of some pains on his legs but was relieved when he said the pain was not severe."

Snyman said the men were extremely lucky the aircraft did not catch fire.

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"Plane flips over after landing --> News24.com 30/07/2007

Johannesburg - Paramedics say a mother and son escaped almost unharmed when their light aircraft flipped over after an emergency landing in a field near Cullinan.

The pair had been flying around Cullinan for several hours when they were forced to make an emergency landing.

The plane was piloted by a man in his 40s, accompanied by his mother.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Nick Dollman said the aircraft flipped over onto its roof after it had taxied for about 100m along the bumpy field after a successful emergency landing.

"The plane landed upside down with the roof on the ground and its wheels in the air."

"The mom had a cut on her face but both occupants were extremely lucky to escape with minor injuries."

The plane was a write-off, he said."

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African Civil Aviation Authority aims to boost African air safety --> www.seattlepi.com

DOUALA, Cameroon -- As Capt. Terry Palmer's airliner neared the international airport at this commercial hub in central Africa, the routine weather report he received from the tower indicated light rain and scattered clouds on the final approach.

"Instead, in the fading light I saw this huge black mass, like a twister just to the side of the runway heading. It was a waterspout, the top of which appeared to be significantly above our level," said Palmer, who was flying a Canadian-built DHC-6 twin turboprop from Cameroon's capital of Yaounde.

"If that had been at night and if we had flown into it, I wonder if we would have survived it," the New Zealander said.

Palmer's experience illustrates Africa's continuing problems with air safety. These were highlighted last month when a brand-new Kenya Airways Boeing 737-800 crashed into a jungle swamp seconds after take-off from Douala airport, killing all 114 people aboard.

The continent traditionally tops international air accident lists, with a crash rate about seven times higher than the rest of the world.

But now, Africa has a new tool to try to improve its safety record. African governments on June 28 will inaugurate a continent-wide air safety agency that is modeled on the EU's Aviation Safety Agency and the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency.

"Until now air safety was left to individual countries, but from now on the African continent will speak with one voice," said Harry Eggerschwiler, chief of operations for the African Civil Aviation Authority, or AFRO-CAA.

"The political will is there to reverse the trends," he said.

In the 1960s and 70s, outgoing colonial powers such as France and Britain established national aviation authorities to regulate commercial carriers. But lack of qualified staff and little or no government oversight caused local airlines to quickly allow standards to slip.

"In Africa it's not considered particularly unusual to reach a scheduled destination at night and find the airport closed, the runway lights off and air traffic control nonfunctional," said David Ryerson, a South African pilot who flew for the now-defunct Air Afrique. "We would usually just circle awhile and then head off to an alternate airport."

The industry deteriorated further with deregulation in some countries, creating a large number of new operators that frequently fly old Soviet-built aircraft leased from Ukraine, Moldova or other former Soviet republics in Central Asia.

The broader problems of extreme weather, poverty, war and corruption also have had a damaging impact on Africa's air industry, contributing to numerous crashes over the past decade.

According to accident statistics compiled by the International Air Transport Association, the number of major accidents per million takeoffs in Africa amounted to 4.31 in 2006, compared to a worldwide average of only 0.65.

The safety record is so dismal that the European Union now bans 74 African airlines - from a total international blacklist of 91 - from entering its air space.

Last year the African Union, the continent's political umbrella organization, established the AFRO-CAA as a means to stem "the alarming rate of accidents, hull losses and fatalities in the African continent when compared to statistics of other areas of the world."

The new organization will have a total of about 80 to 100 staff members at headquarters and another 25 in its five regional offices in Ethiopia, Cameroon, Libya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Its principal tasks will be to improve overall safety standards by developing uniform technical standards known as Civil Aviation Requirements for use in flight operations and aircraft maintenance.

It also will synchronize the licensing of pilots and issuing certificates of airworthiness to airliners, which would replace widely differing national regulations. And it will provide experts to assist national authorities in implementing safety procedures.

The FAA has offered free training for air operations officers and accident investigators, Eggerschwiler said. The European Union also has offered assistance to the new agency.

"This will be a big step to improve safety in Africa," Eggerschwiler said. "When you go to international safety meetings you always hear 'Africa, Africa.' Well, we are now doing something about it."

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Israeli Goverment plans to fortify light aircraft to prevent use in terror attacks --> Zohar Blumenkrantz, Ha'aretz Correspondent

Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz has announced plans to outfit all light aircraft in the country with sophisticated anti-theft devices that will prevent them from being stolen for use in terror attacks.

The Transportation Ministry on Tuesday published an appeal to private industry to develop sophisticated security devices that will prevent theft or interference with flights during landing or takeoff.

Since the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001, owners of light aircraft in Israel have been required to affix special locks to their aircraft, to prevent them from being opened or moved while they are on the runway.

The ministry's new initiative would call for special security devices that would notify a special control room after any attempt to tamper with or break into aircraft.

There are currently about 660 private aircraft in Israel, of those 440 are of the Piper or Cessna class, 190 are Ultra-lights, and 53 are gliders.
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Humour

Heard on the airwaves --> Chantal van Steijn

(Comair on final approach to FACT)

TWR: Comair 123, winds light and variable, cleared to land

.......

TWR: Comair 123, winds light and variable, cleared to land



Comair 123 : Sorry Tower, but now our passengers also know that we are cleared to land!