On 4-6 March, the sleepy little town of Swellendam was in for a rude awakening. Okay, maybe not a rude one; being awoken by the sounds of planes, helicopters and jets flying around is actually quite nice.
This would be the first fly-in that I would be attending by myself. I would be camping there, so while I tried to keep the bags to a minimum, I still ended up having four stuffed in the front of the plane (good thing you can take the stick out and disconnect the rudders). I meant to take a photo, but I forgot. The plane looked a bit like a taxi.
I opted to fly up on Friday, my reasoning was that the weather might be horrible on Saturday, and then I wouldn’t have been able to go. I wanted to leave at about 0800, but as I was taxing to the runway, a friend called me on the radio and said that Swellendam was covered in mist. So, I turned around, taxied back to the hanger, and waited.
After waiting over an hour, I received word that it was clearing, so I hopped in the plane and off I went. The 1hr20min flight there was rather uneventful, and I got a bit bored as I bumbled along at a whole 60-65kts. I managed to get up to about 75kts… for about 10 seconds.
Shortly after I had passed overhead Caledon, Bosbok ZU-ADI, passed me (they left about 15 minutes after me). It’s always amazing seeing another plane from the air, and I especially love the way the Bosbok looks as it breaks away, the sun catching it in this magical way. I don’t have a photo of it passing me, unfortunately.
This was my first time at Swellendam, and I was given a kick in the pants during my landing… The windsocks were barely moving, but there was definitely wind! I had messed my landing up before I had even turned onto the Base Leg; I wasn’t concentrating and was therefore too high and too fast. Side-slipping in, I crossed the threshold of runway 15, and I was struck by three things; the wind literally hit me, I realised that the runway slopes down, and I was at least 10kts faster than what I should’ve been.
I landed deep and it definitely wasn’t one of my best landings. But I made it on the ground in one piece, taxied to my parking, hopped out and got my first view of the field.
While not as nice as Stellenbosch, it’s still a cute field. They had a campsite set up for those that were staying the night, as well as an area where you could sit and watch the show (chairs and umbrellas were provided). I spent most of the afternoon doing nothing. I managed to get an hour of studying in, and that was it for the weekend.
Things livened up a bit when people started doing their validation flights, and the SAAF’s Hawk display was quite phenomenal. Part of his display was a low fly-past in the ‘dirty’ configuration (flaps and landing gear down). He was so low in fact, that the right main wheel accidentally touched the ground. I say accidentally because I think it is illegal for an aircraft to do touch-and-go’s at a field if it can’t take off and land there. Although, I think the Hawk could probably land and stop in time if it has a drag chute. But I’m not sure. When he did his display on Saturday no part of the aircraft touched the ground.
The nice thing about being there the day before the actual show is that I had a bit more freedom; they were still setting up and I knew a lot of the people, so I got to sit in some nice spots. Unfortunately the light was horrible, I didn’t take all that many photos (by that I mean I took less than 1000).
The night was spent chatting to friends and ‘kuiering’. One of the instructors from Stellenbosch and his student were there, so we stuck together and set our tents up next to each other. At midnight, we decided to stargaze. Not only did I look at the Southern Cross for the first time (I know, right), but I also saw two shooting stars.
We turned in at 1am. At 2am I was awoken by the sound of an animal scurrying around. It freaked me out because it sounded like it was inside of the tent. I eventually managed to drift off again, and was up and about at 7am (rather amazing as I’m not a morning person).
The field was covered in mist, but it started burning off at about 9am, and people started arriving by air. They had 45 aircraft movements in 45 minutes, which is quite something. ATC was kept busy, and there were quite a few funny radio transmissions…
ATC: Aircraft XYZ, please state your position.
XYZ: Will state my position, XYZ.
Hmmm…
ATC: Lima Sierra November, your level?
LSN: Yes, I am level.
:)
The airshow itself wasn’t that big; it was primarily a fly-in. The SAAF had one Hawk display, as well as Silver Falcon #5, an Oryx and an A109. The other displays were flown by those that had flown in, and included: L39 Albatros, Pitts Special, Harvard, Bosbok, Piaggio Albatross, Gyrocopter, Sanka helicopter, L39 model, and glider aerobatics.
The glider was quite amazing, and I no longer think that they are boring. Doing three consecutive loops without losing height in an aircraft that doesn’t have an engine is quite amazing.
The light was pathetic, and there weren’t really any good spots to take photos from, so I pretty much just sat in the sun and baked.
The solo Silver Falcon display was nice because it was something different; the Silver Falcons have acquired some new team members, so this was the first time we’d seen the new #5 perform. Unfortunately he either forgot to switch the smoke on, or the system decided not to work.
The Hawk display was, wow! Low, fast and loud. He did a low-level fly-past, the roar of the engine making your bones rattle, then pulled up vertically until he was at about 10 000ft. The roar disappeared and was replaced with silence. It was surreal. Eventually he ran out of energy, hung in the air for a bit, then came back down. As he neared the ground, he applied power, and as the engine spooled up it went from a sort of a screech back to that roar. It’s difficult to describe, but it’s a sound I adore.
A lot of the people there that I knew decided to leave during the lunch break, which kind of sucked. There were still people there that I know, but they were all, ah, older. But I still had a good time. And the sunset that evening was absolutely amazing!
The fact that the show wasn’t very big meant that there weren’t thousands of people around, which was nice. It was also very well organized, and the commentator was not only funny (sometimes), but he also got the crowd and the pilots to participate, and he had enough common sense to keep quiet when aircraft were doing displays so that we could listen to the beautiful sound of their engines.
I decided to have an early-ish night. Soon after I climbed into my sleeping bag I once again heard something scurrying around. It sounded like it was under the tent, so I promptly took one of my bags and chucked it where I thought the sound was coming from. Either I killed it, or I scared it away, because I didn’t hear anything after that.
Sunday morning was much like Saturday morning; misty. It was also quite chilly, I only managed to get going after 11am due to the weather. The flight back was bumpy, but I actually managed to hit 78kts every now and then.
Needless to say I’m tired! But it was good to get away for a bit.
Lekker little x country!
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