Having an aircraft means somewhat more flexibility in terms of using general aviation to get to where you want on (more or less) your own terms. Of course, having an aircraft also means you can make totally financially unjustifiable trips on (more or less) your own terms.
I tried to do a long cross country to a congress I was presenting at in August, in George. George is an airport with a bit of a reputation – on a small plateau on the coast behind some rather imposing mountains and some rather fiddly airspace which I’m told ATC does not ever allow you to penetrate on a VFR flight plan. I was going to be doing this trip in a rented SR20 but as it turns out the weather forecast was very marginal and I didn’t fancy my chances of getting in. Also, it’s not really fair to congress organisers to have a speaker who may not make it due to weather – so I binned that trip and flew commercial.
When this congress in Cape Town came up it looked like a much more viable option for flying myself. Firstly – no really large mountains, secondly summer weather which at that part of the coast is not characterised by cloud or thunderstorms, and thirdly access to my own aircraft (so no demurrage costs for the days it would be sitting on the ground).
Johannesburg to Cape Town is well within the limits of the Sling4 – range is around 750nm and with a flight plan distance of 665nm this would be easily doable. The prevailing winds tend to flow west to east so this would reduce the range somewhat and my personal limits call for never landing with less than an hour’s fuel in the tanks so a refuelling stop would be required along the way. I settled on FATP – New Tempe in Bloemfontein – about 95min flying time from Johannesburg.
| Date of Flight | Aircraft | Route | Distance (nm) | Time(hrs) | Total(hrs) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 November 2018 | ZU-IBM (SLG4) | FATA(Tedderfield)- FATP(New Tempe) | 202 | 2,1 | 101,9 | |||
The plan was to leave just after sunup on the Friday morning. The plan was thwarted by various delays including me leaving my snacks behind and having to source some more food for the trip. By the time I departed Tedderfield the sun was well up – I need to plane better and arrive earlier – prefilghting and the other admin related stuff I had to do delayed me too much.
The flight to New Tempe is 200 odd nautical miles – easy airspace – and with not a hill in sight – the air was clear and smooth and I thought this was going to be an easy trip. And it was – at least as far as FATP.
Upon arrival at FATP New Tempe I fuelled up (sadly only Avgas available) – 41litres used for the 200nm trip – around 10Gallons. Some R66 turbine helicopters were also fuelling up – one of the pilots was wearing the whitest Flight suit I have ever seen. The equivalent of a white tuxedo.
| Date of Flight | Aircraft | Route | Distance (nm) | Time(hrs) | Total(hrs) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 November 2018 | ZU-IBM (SLG4) | FATP(New Tempe) to Morningstar | 495 | 4,5 | 105,4 | |||
By the time breakfast had been consumed it had got very hot, so I was pretty stoked to be on my way again. Bloemfontein cleared me straight through their airspace which was a plus – but then the turbulence started in earnest and even climbing to FL105 didn’t help much. This part of the world is renowned for its gliding conditions and its easy to see why – had updrafts in excess of 600fpm at times! My smooth sailing plan was but a memory and I was basically holding on for dear life at times. Having a loaded weight of about 600kg doesn’t help when its bumpy. For the first time I was glad I was alone – I can’t see passengers enjoying this too much!
Still, the discomfort was more than made up for by the views and the starkness of the scenery. We settled down at about 125-130kTAS which worked out to about 110-115 kts GS – not too shabby. It’s no Mooney but it does the job.
Then it was time to get down. Under the category of “if you don’t ask…” I requested a VFR transition through the Cape Town TMA – the reason for this is that their TMA is 2000ft AGL and the mountains in the area while not high are certainly intimidating to some extent and permission to transit the TMA would keep me higher for longer and allow a more gradual descent while being well clear of the mountains. Fortunately they were happy to allow this and my arrival into Morningstar airport was very straightforward.
Upon arrival at Morningstar I tied IBM down and then tried to put the canvas canopy cover on. I wish I had a camera for this. The wind was howling from the starboard side of the plane and every time I had the canopy in place and I walked round to tie it on it would blow off. Eventually I stuffed it INTO the cockpit and covered everything with it. For reasons best known to the manufacturer it has Velcro straps which are entirely inadequate for the SouthEaster.
This was the furthest I’ve ever flown myself, my longest single leg, my longest trip and the first time at two new airports. A good day’s flying! 4h at FL105 with a DA of 12500ft took it out of me somewhat – I do carry a pulse oximeter in the aircraft and used it regularly – never below 91% but still I was exhausted.