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Ultralight Flying Adventures! An Ultralight Adventure African Style By Marc Quesnel Saturday morning 4th September dawned clear and cold, hey its 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.
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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 hours 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 hadnt 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.
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 Plessiss 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 oclock with his graceful DG800 powered glider and Chris Borcherss immaculate 1929 Air Camper and Archie Kemps 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.
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.
We finally got home at about 4 oclock, trying to convince ourselves that we had had a good weekend. Well, at least, it was interesting and an adventure!
