Saturday morning 4th September
dawned clear and cold, hey it’s supposed to be spring in this neck of the
woods temp of 40 C is just not on. The reason for the early
departure was our trip to Groblersdal (120 miles NE of Johannesburg) for
the annual EAA Fun ‘n Sun Spring Fly In. There were five aircraft going
from Solitude (8 miles S of Jhb), two Challengers, a Rans S-5, a Trike and
my Skyfox.
Ronnie Jack in his Trike and Maria and I in
the Skyfox took off first because of our slower speeds with our first
destination being a private strip near Delmas about a third of the way,
where we would stop for fuel and coffee. Our route took us along the
southern side of the Witwatersrand (White Water Reef) which is the
largest gold producing reef in the world. The scenery was great with the
sun just making its appearance and we settled down for a comfortable
hour’s formation flight.
About 40 minutes into the flight
Mr. Murphy and his leprechauns started playing their games. The radio, GPS
and intercom stopped working. A fuse had popped. As this area is quite
busy I decided to land and rectify the situation. I signaled our
intentions to Ronnie and landed on country road with Ronnie following me
in. We quickly replaced the fuse with a stronger one (I hadn’t taken the
new landing light into account), had a quick cup of coffee and resumed the
flight to Delmas.
We landed 10 minutes later and
joined the rest of the crew as well as a couple of other aircraft. More
coffee, fuel and off we went for the final 85 mile leg. The weather had
warmed up a touch and we enjoyed flying over Bronkhorstspruit Dam and the
farmlands on our route. Just about 30 miles from our destination I
realized that there was another gremlin on board, the fuel transfer pump
stopped working so I could not get fuel from the auxiliary tanks strapped
to the back of the seats into the main tank. Time for another
precautionary landing to sort it out. Not much choice, the main road to
Groblersdal was too busy to take a chance. We looked around and finally
found a bit of straight track on the outskirts of an African village. We
did a slow approach and touched down successfully on the rough surface.
Within seconds we were surrounded by millions (slight exaggeration) of
excited children who would not have been more surprised by the arrival of
a UFO with a couple of little gray men. We then borrowed a makeshift
funnel and proceeded to transfer the fuel into the main tank. Just about
that time Jean and Chris van der Hoof, of EAA Chapter 322, drove past on
the highway, saw our plight and came to see if they could
help.
Once we had fueled, we paced the ‘runway’, strapped in and
started the take off run.
Bounce, bounce,
crunch!The left main wheel hit a rock and broke one
of the support tubes. Back to the drawing board! We then decided that Mr.
Murphy just did want us to fly to Groblersdal. So we asked the local
minister if we could leave the Skyfox in his care, promising him a $25.00
donation if it was in the same condition when we collected it the next
day. We removed the instrument pod and grabbed a lift with Jean and Chris
for the rest of the way.
Fun ‘n Sun
Well we finally got there at about 11:00 and
were greeted with some good-natured ribbing. The event was well and truly
on its way with more than 120 aircraft of various shapes and sizes. Three
EAA Chapters were represented. There was even an N registered
Heliocourrier that did some impressive short field demonstrations.As far
as ultralights were concerned there were half a dozen examples of locally
manufactured trikes, a couple of Kitfoxes, a Beaver, a Thunderbird, 4 Bush
Babies, the South African clone of the Avid/Kitfox as well as an Aerosud
Aviatikat Russian single seat biplane rigged for crop spraying. Andre Du
Plessis’s Rans S-5 got a lot of attention and he was proud to announce
that there are currently 13 Rans aircraft in the country with three more
on the way.
The afternoon carried on with flower bombing
and banner cutting events as well as an air rally. There were also
aerobatics displays by the Harvard, a Yak, a Pitts Special and Chalkie
Stobbarts beautiful Spanish buit Bucher Jungman. Peter How arrived at
about 2 o’clock with his graceful DG800 powered glider and Chris
Borchers’s immaculate 1929 Air Camper and Archie Kemp’s Cessna 195
impressed everyone with their professionalism. The ultralights took off
again at about 4:30 for a sundowner flight over Loskop dam (much to my
envy). They returned just before dark and reported smooth air and
beautiful scenery as well as the sighting of the rhino herd on the south
eastern shore of the dam.
The evening started with the
traditional braai & pap(BBQ &
grits) and continued with partying, prize giving and much waving of hands
as pilots are want to do when a group of them get together. We retired to
our tents at about midnight in various states of joyfullness only to be
awoken during the night by snores that registered strength 3 on the
Richter Scale and the sound of ultralight engines at about 5:30, off on
the dawn patrol. Most people started leaving at about mid-morning having
enjoyed a great weekend doing what they like best.
Getting Home
Right, back to
my problem! Maria and I are now both wingless and wheeless. So what are
friends for? Gerry Moore, who hales from Spokane, drove up in his Cherokee
(Jeep not Piper) with a boat trailer attached and collected us at about
9:30, when we headed back to collect the Skyfox. Arriving at the village
we found that our friend had tied down the plane and covered the engine
and seats with plastic sheets to keep the dust out. Needless to say we
were both grateful and impressed. An hour later we had the Skyfox
dismantled, loaded and tied down. Just before we left Chalkie flew
overhead in his Bucher and gave us a wave and a low pass.
Well we
were finally on our way home and now could relax, right? Wrong!! One of Mr
Murphy’s little people still had it in for us. We were about 30 miles from
home, on the highway, driving slowly at 40 MPH when the biggest darn dust
devil I ever saw pounced on the trailer, broke the tie downs and sent the
wings on a 200 yard flight down the road. The driver behind us had the
fright of his life and just managed to miss the wings. Luckily not too
much damage, but we’ll have to strip the wings to have the dacron
repaired.
We finally got home at about 4 o’clock,
trying to convince ourselves that we had had a good weekend. Well, at
least, it was interesting and an adventure!
