From High Up

I have now a South African Pilot license. You can judge for yourself, which one looks best, between South Africa, Europe (EASA) or USA (FAA).

My vote goes to South Africa, easily. For sure, the license is best looking. We had to do a written test and answer 20 questions about South Africa Air Law. I prepared using a Foxone app, but since this is a validation of my FAA license, it is much easier and actual questions are left to the discretion of the instructor. We reviewed the material for about one hour and I am proud to announce, I’ve got 20/20 and hence passed. In case anybody ever doubts it, here are my actual answers, as you can see we wrote them on the stationary of the hotel.

If you ever have to take to take that test, don’t sweat it, it is really easy. The next day we went to the Wonderboom airport to do the practical. A pretty senior Cherokee Warrior was valiantly trying to lift us from the runway, but given that both of us (for avoidance of doubt, I mean instructor and I, not Ania and I)  were perhaps enjoying good food and drink too much, the airport is at 4,000 feet, it started to be hot and the engine might at some point in time, a while back, develop 150 hp, we struggled to reach our practice altitude of 6,500 feet. But eventually we got there (1500 climb at 150 fpm does take 10 minutes) and did couple of stalls, steep turns and landings at the Freeway Pretoria dirt strip. I was now a proud pilot with a VFR-only license. Wonderbooom is a pretty busy GA field with a lot of training traffic. After firing the engine, you call the ground and say: “Wonderboom ground, Cherokee ZS-EES, good morning”. They return good morning to you and you say “ZS-EES is a Cherokee 150 at apron B, crew of 2, instructions for taxi, General Aviation Area 1, endurance 3 hours, expect 1 hour and return Wonderboom”. After that, the controller says something in a thick South African accent that you have no chance of understanding. Luckily it all seemed obvious to the instructor next to me and we taxied to the runway.

In the afternoon, I made a short flight in a Cessna 182, which we will be taking for the trip. ZS-SOE is a very nicely maintained 1969 Skylane, has a fuel totalizer and seems to be liking 130 knots at 12.6 gph. Not bad! One radio is a bit temperamental, but the other one works fine and frankly, once we get out of here, I don’t expect to use much of the radio.

We already had a short exposure to the local animals, because there is part game, part zoo by the Farm Inn hotel where we are staying. We went for a short ride and saw giraffes, gnu, antelopes, tigers, hyenas, leopards and lions. What a treat.

The guide with lion cubs, he took care of them since birth, but now they are big enough that they need to be behind the fence.

We always thought giraffe is a bizarre being, but she seems unfazed.

Hyenas have the second strongest jaws (after crocodiles), but they want attack unless in a group and you run away.

Tomorrow the departure for the Timbavati Game Reserve and Motswari strip.

Suitcases, packing, last minute shopping, vaccinations, and cramming for the South Africa written test. I must be enjoying taking tests, because last year I took an EASA written in Air Law and Human Factors for the conversion of my FAA license to the European one. This year it is only Air Law for the South African conversion. Luckily, there are apps to prepare, hopefully they got questions right. I am using Foxone.

While lot of ideas are similar to United States, there are notable differences. The airspace looks more like in Europe, with various control areas and zones. Class A starts at 20,000 feet, there is a separate night rating.  There are funny things, for example you may have an electronic logbook, but you must print it every 30 days. Medical for over people 40 is valid only 12 months and the license has to be renewed bi-annually.

Would you guess what these two visual ground signals indicate? Turns out that one the right one indicates that aircrafts are required to land and take-off on runways only. Uh? We need a sign for that? So what about the one of the left?

One particular regulation that is more stringent than elsewhere, but struck me as having sense is that to fly IFR, you need to have either two pilots or a pilot and a George (two axis autopilot).

All flights and hotels are now booked, except in Cape Town, where we are going to stay in a lovely Airbnb. Thanks to Sjoerd van ter Welle, who organizes the Ultimate Self-Fly, we are going to have dinner in one of the most sought restaurants in Cape Town, if not the world: Test Kitchen – impossible to get a reservation for an ordinary human being. Let’s have a non-aviation picture here for a change.

This is our bucket list item, to see the Namibia dunes.

Since we will be already in South Africa, practically next door, we couldn’t skip the opportunity to go there.

But how?

The original idea was to skip the last return leg from Maun to Gabarone and instead fly to Windhoek, see the dunes at Sesreim (there is conveniently an airstrip at the entrance to the park) and return via the Skeleton Coast and Luderitz to Cape Town.

The only trouble was, we were supposed to fly a Cessna 172M. For those who weren’t born when that model was manufactured, that airplane has 150HP engine and 38 gallon tanks.  The terrain out there is sort of unforgiving with no trace of human activity for hundreds of miles. A bit of headwind, maybe tired engine and airframe and we would be camping out there for several months until somebody finds us.

After due exercise of my superior ADM skills (for non pilots reading this, that’s Aeronautical Decision Making – FAA loves acronyms), I decided to scrap that idea and we are flying commercial: Johannesburg to Cape Town, 5 days to visit the city, than Cape Town to Windhoek, rent a car, drive to see the dunes, and fly commercial Windhoek back to Johannesburg.

For those who think that I chickened out, the map shows distances.

Flying Safari in South Africa!

We will spend the month of June to fly around South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. Here is the first part of the trip, starting in Johannesburg, first stop in a private game reserve in Kruger National Park, than along the Mozambique coast to Vilanculos, up to Zimbabwe and Lake Kariba, Victoria Falls,  Okavango Delta in Botswana and return to Johannesburg via Gabarone diamond town. Click on the map to see details.

All the flights in a trusted Cessna 172, that will be quite a change from our Cirrus, but it seems that a Cirrus would be somewhat out of place in the African bush. Plus, we couldn’t find one to rent!

The second part of the trip will take us to Cape Town, with a side jump to Namibia, we still are working on the details of that leg.

We cannot wait.