The Flying Fish

Okay, no roll… Friday, 25 March A dream has come true; I flew the Huey. I sat in the left seat, and I actually got to get an idea of what it feels like to fly a helicopter. And wow, was it different! We were flying to the east of the Steenbras dam in order to drop water on a few spots that might flare up and burn the rest of the mountain (fires have been burning in that area for days). After we left Stellenbosch, I was given permission to follow on the controls. So I wrapped my right hand loosely around the cyclic, and I rested my toes on the (anti-torque) pedals. Uhm, what am I supposed to be following? Sure we’re going straight and level, but the controls are hardly moving. I know that flying helicopters is all about small movements. But I didn’t realise just how small they had to be. When he gave (almost) full control to me, I soon learnt that my small movements weren’t small enough. And every now and then I could see him still the cyclic out the corner of my eye. I slowly figured o...

Right, I wrote Navigation and Meteorology last week. Things were off to a bad start before I had even woken up. Why? I overslept. Instead of leaving the house at 0620, I only woke up after 0630. And I had to race across to the other side of town to pick up a friend. Luckily the traffic wasn’t took hectic, and I arrived in time for my exam. Now then, Navigation was first. I was handed my stuff, and as I flicked through it I thought ‘Where’s the question paper? Maybe she’ll hand it out separately.’ We got some more stuff, but still no question paper. I looked back at the others and they also seemed puzzled. When she was finished handing everything out, she walked over to me and I asked where the question paper was. She frowned, went through my papers, and, like me, didn’t find any questions. She did the same to two other people. Well done CAA, you have failed to give us our question papers! Now what? They’ll fax them through. What’s the fax number? Uhm… After much sitting around and twi...

This year, Mossel Bay played host to the annual Cubby Fly In, hosted over the weekend. Thursday, Day 1 I woke up at 6am, planning on leaving the house at 0645. 7am, right, I’m finally ready to go. It’s a nice day, but there’s lots of cloud over Sir Lowry’s Pass. My brother-in-law and I headed to the airfield to refit the Cubby’s tailwheel (had another puncture), refuel and re-oil the plane, and prepare for my trip to Mossel Bay. With everything done, I’m ready to leave, however Mossel Bay is IMC (instrument meteorological conditions). Great. So I waited at Stellenbosch. And then I waited some more. At 12pm, I decided that even if the weather did improve, I would be too tired to make the long journey. Friday is another day. The 'taxi'... Friday, Day 2 I didn’t bother getting up at the crack of dawn; I knew there will be clouds and it will take a few hours for them to burn off. To kill some time, I browse the interwebs, check Facebook, and try to check the weather o...

Saturday, 12 March 2011 Wow, I can’t believe it’s already Saturday. What’s even more unbelievable is the fact that I was not only awake, but up and ready for the day before 7am. Amazing. Of course, I had a motive… An AMS helicopter would be conducting training exercises with the NSRI by the Gordon’s Bay Harbour. So I made my way over there to take some photographs. The helicopter arrived about 45 minutes after it was supposed to be there (helicopter pilots, pfft). So I spent that time walking along the Gordon’s Bay Harbour wall, praying that a huge wave wouldn’t come thundering along and drench my camera in water. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a harbour. I must say, it was good to smell the smells (the salt, not the rotting fish), see the sea, and listen to the waves rolling in and out. The helicopter finally arrived and landed by the Gordon’s Bay Naval Base. The AMS crew and NSRI had a briefing before going off to their respective craft. A couple of minutes later I g...

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 of...