Entries Tagged 'Aviation' ↓

Last year it was October, and this year it seems to be a black December for the General Aviation industry in South Africa.

December has had five aircraft crashes so far, with three in the last seven days alone, claiming four fatalities.

7 December 2009: SA Airlink aircraft crashed in George, only overrunning the runway – no fatalities, only minor injuries

11 December 2009: The Yack, a semi-aerobatic aircraft crash landed in Bisho (Close to East London) after the elevator got stuck

13 December 2009: An Extra 300 (aerobatic aircraft) crashed into a veld close to Grasmere, Gauteng. The reason unknown, claiming two lives.

And on the same day a Piper Arrow had a engine failure after take off from Rand Airport, Gauteng – no fatalities

18 December 2009 (Today): A Beechcraft Baron crashed after take off from Wonderboom Airport, Gauteng, two fatalities

Even though there are no correlation between these incidents, they all happened in the same month. The same happened last year in October, claiming twenty lives!

I’m not one to believe in bad luck or superstition, but this sure is creepy.

Part of a commercial pilot’s license is night flying hours, and that’s what we did last Saturday night. I got some nice photo’s of Pretoria CBD, Menlyn and the highways…  The photo’s don’t do the views justice though.  Its simply indescribable.  We flew over my parents’ house too, and since its close to impossible to recognize a house from the air in the night, they flickered the outside lights for us to be able to spot them – it was so amazing to know that its their little light flickering among the thousand of other lights.

I’ve been longing to put up a proper post about this, but time has just not allowed me yet! As you may, or may not know, my husband is a pilot, currently still private whilst building his hours to complete his commercial license. For this reason, we are fortunate enough to fly very often, and to places where I have never been, and probably never would have been if it wasn’t for this!

This past weekend we went flying twice, and though I am getting used to all the strange movements which are associated with a “small” aircraft, it is still one of the most amazing experiences!!

I will be posting photo’s here more often now of places where we go, and what we see there.

Hope you enjoy