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 on Weathersa (unsuccessfully… my password wouldn't work).
My sister wandered in and asked if I wanted to go cycling. I figured I might just die, but yeah, okay, why not. So I run around, eat brekka and all that. The place is 5 minutes away; it’s a beautiful farm on on the north-western side of the Helderberg Mountain. This was my first real mountain biking experience, and I almost did die. Why did they put all the steephills there; it’s just climb after climb!
That done, I went home, showered, ate, and decided to try get to Mossel Bay.
I opted to route via Franschoek Pass instead of Sir Lowry’s Pass. It would add an extra 20 minutes to my trip, but that’s better than hitting turbulence.
As I left Stellenbosch airspace and made a call saying I was routing to Helshoogte, a voice said “The female caller, your registration please.” As soon as I heard it, I knew it was ATC (Air Traffic Control), and I thought ‘Oh no, did I climb too soon and enter their airspace by accident?’
“The female caller is Delta Victor Romeo.”
“Delta Victor Romeo, please be advised there is a formation of 16, that’s one six, aircraft routing to Stellenbosch.”
“Thanks for the warning sir.”
Yay, I wasn’t in trouble!
I didn’t take chances with Franschoek, and I climbed to over 5000ft before going over the pass. All I encountered was a small bump. There was a fire on the other side of the Pass, and I thought ‘Where’s Working on Fire?’. Then I looked to my right. Oh. The area between Kleinmond and Sir Lowry’s Pass was on fire, and a huge plume of smoke was rising from near the Steenbras Dam.
Once overhead Theewaterskloof Dam, I descended to FL035, and routed to Caledon. Eish, I cruised at 40-50kts groundspeed for most of the way. My slowest was 38kts. To entertain myself, I started singing “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts…”
I passed overhead a tiny town called Protem, and the GPS said it would take me 50 minutes to get to Riversdale. 15 minutes later, I checked the GPS again. Still 50 minutes to go. Great. What if I descend? As soon as the thought crossed my mind, some wind threw me around. Okay, climb then. Once at FL045, my groundspeed stayed above 60kts. Happy days!
The rest of the Cubby-drivers decided to meet me at Riversdale. The place is interesting (the runway, not the town). The wind was pumping so there was a lot of wid shear, you fly over a road on short Final, and there is a very convenient bump on the runway just after the point of touchdown. My thought process on landing was something like “Okay, cool, I’m on the ground… wait, I’m airborne again! Hmmm, how did that happen?”
After meeting everyone (I only knew one of the 6 guys that was there), getting some magic juice for the Cubby and a quick photo session, we were off. The flight to Mossel Bay took just over an hour.
Once at Mossel Bay, I did my first straight in approach (okay, we joined on left Base). The wind made sure we knew it was there, and the runway is like the sea; up and down. I got the Cubby down. She came up. I got her down again. The left wheel decided to get airborne again. I finally got all three wheels planted firmly on the ground. Yes!
I was knackered (still am). I did 3.8 hours. It was supposed to take me 2.5, but the wind, she is pesky. I got to know the rest of the Cubby-drivers, and they are all a really great bunch of guys. Yes, I was the only female Cubby-driver. I think I’m the only female Cubby pilot in the country.
After dinner, JP, R and I left. JP and I were staying at R’s place. We couldn’t have asked for a better host. He and his family made me feel right at home, and R even provided us with some entertainment… He had an ostrich egg, and he wanted to show us how strong the shell is.
“It’s so strong you can stand on it! Look, I’ll show you.”
He placed it on the (tiled) floor, and started putting his weight on it. Crunch. Egg everywhere! Yummy.
Now, it’s time for some sleep.
Saturday, Day 3
Early (0645) wake-up. Breakfast is at Oudtshoorn, and we want to be airbornce at 8am. Well, being pilots, we only took off at about 0845.
It took us just under an hour to get there, and I was so tired of sitting, but the breakfast was worth it; fruit salad, juice, toast, and a delicious omlette, all for R30! Brilliant!
Oudtshoorn has a lovely airfield, and I don’t know why they don’t have airshows there; the runway is long and wide, Jet A1 and Avgas are available, and there’s ample space. What more do you need?
Unfortunately Oudtshoorn has something you don’t need; thorns. Out of the 7 aircraft parked in the grass, I was the only one that got punctures…
After brekka, we headed back to FAMO (Mossel Bay). I didn’t know the area at all, so I just followed S (CYB) and C (DJZ). E in OHI (C172) flew back with us too. He slotted in behind me. He seems to enjoy flying slowly behind us Cubby’s. After crossing the Robinson Pass, we did a fast descent, and the Cubby hit 100kts (groundspeed). That's the first time I've gone that fast in the Cubby.
As we approached the airfield, a little white ‘rocket’ shot past us. Cessna Mustang ZS-YES had come for a visit.
After landing and shutting down, DVR and YES posed for some photographs. Lunch was delayed, so we changed my tailwheel tube while we waited. When I say “we”, I mean everyone else did the work; I just stood there. Guys, thank you so much for all the help, I really appreciate it!
Lunch still wasn’t ready, so I got myself acquainted with R’s Cutlass (Cessna 172 RG). What a beautiful machine!
The food was finally ready! After our snack, we planned the afternoon’s activities. We were going to go on a scenic trip up the coast towards Knysna. The Mustang had to leave, and we were graced with a couple of fly-pasts.
We had a quick briefing before our flight along the coast, and some of the guys decided that they didn’t actually want to go; they would be flying that way tomorrow, and didn’t want to do the trip twice. I didn’t mind not going; if there was a strong headwind, there was a good chance that I’d come close to running out of fuel.
So we decided to fly in to Billy’s field instead. It’s about a 5 minute flight, and the ‘strip’ is essentially a dirt track. After we were all on the ground we stood around and chatted. I looked down the ‘runway’ and decided that I’d quite enjoy flying into places like this often. It’s different and exciting.
10 minutes later and we were ready to go again. I was airborne in no time, and my “low-level fly-past” didn’t really work out; it was more of a spastic sideslip.
Right, now what are we going to do? Flour-bombs and spot landings? Sounds good! We went two at a time, so that the others could watch. As soon as we were done, two more would take off. S in CYB and I were the first two.
I lined up for the flour-bombing, and just as I was about to lob the ‘bomb’ out, my door closed. I ended up overshooting by something like 10m (or was it 16m? Either way, I came in 3rd).
I had only planned on doing one spot-landing (we were meant to do one glide approach and one powered approach) because I didn’t want to place too much strain on the punctured tires. Well, that one spot-landing turned into several bounces down the runway, and I ended up going around.
My next try was better, but I flared too early and dropped the last few feet. I took power at the last second and managed to cushion the landing. It was fun watching the others, and E in OHI was the only one that landed within 5m of the line.
I’d done almost 3 hours of flying today. Booya! Time to pump the Cubby’s tires up, tuck the planes in, relocate puffadders, eat, and chat. Dinner was fantastic (braai), and dessert came in the form of a night flight over Mossel Bay. Thanks E!
Sunday, Day 4
Everyone was leaving today. The guys were up at the crack of dawn, but I decided to have a little lie-in. Once I finally got up, R informed me that the Cubby’s tires had gone flat. Great…
After some breakfast, R and I made our way to the airfield. We jacked the plane up, put more puncture fix in, and pumped the tires up. I was only planning on leaving on Monday, but we wanted to see how long the tires would stay hard for.
Job done, we went back to his hanger. We were going to do some flying in his Cutlass. The best thing? He’s instructor rated on it, so I can log the hours. The pre-flight was pretty standard, but the rest of it, well, I was thrown in the deep end.
Not only does it have retractable gear, but it also has a variable-pitch propeller. R explained the basics to me, and then we were off. It was different to say the least. We did medium turns, steep turns (I really need some work there), clean stalls, dirty stalls (landing gear and flaps down), and a simulated engine failure.
She stalls in a docile manner, and she’s also very forgiving in general. You don’t need to worry about accidentally extending the gear when you’re going too fast because, well, you can extend it at almost any speed. The controls can get heavy though, and I found that I constantly had to adjust the trim.
Upper-air work done, we returned the airfield for some circuits. Apart from the gear, flaps, pitch, cowl flaps, manifold pressure, and carb heat, it’s the same as the Cubby. After the second circuit I started getting to know the machine. I could hear the slight change in sound as you coarsened the pitch on downwind, the slight clunk as the gear extended/retracted and locked, the fact that 10 degrees of flap didn’t seem to do much, but 20 degrees definitely did. After a few circuits clunks and slight variations in sound became comforting.
But by the end of the flight, I was tired and pretty much drenched in sweat; it was hot, and it was stressful. I couldn’t believe that we had flown for 1.4 hours; I thought it was less. Time flies…
We checked the Cubby and one tire had started to deflate, but the other was fine. I also phoned the Met Office to see what the weather was doing. The chap was very kind and he said “Go now, leave, get in your plane!” The weather between FAMO and Stellenbosch was good, but it was going to deteriorate. So I decided to leave that afternoon. (Good decision!)
We went back to R’s place so I could get the rest of my stuff and plan my flight. His wife made us a wonderful lunch, and I’m grateful for that; I think the pasta was the only thing keeping me going, because after getting back to Stellenbosch, I was ready for a nice long sleep.
The flight back took much less than the flight there. The wind couldn’t decided if it wanted to be head or tails, but it was very light. The visibility, however, was shocking; a layer of smoke hung between FAMO and FASH.
I landed at FASH 20 minutes before sunset, and was greeted by a C172 and C177RG parked where the Cubby normally sleeps. Luckily one of the members came and helped me rearrange everything. I wouldn’t have managed without him!
I logged 10.7 hours between Friday and Sunday, bringing my total Cubby hours to 108, and my grand total to 127. This weekend has showed me what flying should be like; friends getting together, sharing stories, flying to random places, helping each other out, and having a good time.
R, thanks for organizing this trip, and thank you for letting me be your guest. To all the other pilots that attended the fly-in; it was great to meet you. You guys are absolutely amazing, and I’m glad that I could be a part of everything.
Until next time…
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