I decided to write a true short story in remembrance of CPF and hope to one day fill in all the other hilarious gaps. So here goes the shortened version, enjoy:
My brother and 2 others trained for ages with a 3 - axis microlight instructor during 2003 and 2004 outside Bapsfontein. Once they were "sort of" licenced, they decided to relocate their aircraft. Not being proficient in radio work yet, they asked me to accompany them in my trike and do the navigation and radiowork. The idea was for me to fly from my homefield (Brits Flying Club) to Bapsfontein, gather the 3 “green” pilots and then fly to Walmanstal where my wife was going to be waiting for us with a field breakfast at around 07h30, on a little 150m long homemade airstrip. After breakfast we would set flight for our final destination, Brits.
Piece of cake ... no reason not to be in Brits by 09h15.
So I landed at Bapsfontein on a Friday afternoon in August, having flown from Brits via Pinedene in my Windlass Aquila, ZU-AZP. Soon aerial maps and a couple of cold beers where on the table and we started planning the flight.
We slept over and departed first light on Saturday for our first leg to Walmanstal. I led this ragged formation of Mac CDL's with my trike and felt content.
So we were 4 in our little squadron.
Not even 2 minutes into the flight and a tiny voice comes over the radio “I think I might have a mayday, my engine is loosing power. What must I do?” I asked him if he could maintain or at least make it back, to which he replied affirmative. Our first casualty hastily returned with a spluttering single ignition 503. He made it back to Bapsfontein and reported a safe landing and a sparkplug which had unscrewed itself halfway, loosing vital compression.
And then we were 3.
Cruising happily along in the cold winter's air at about 3000 ft AGL and, 3 miles south-west of Kitty Hawk. The serenity is disturbed by a short radio burst with a "Mayday! Mayday!" from ZS-VCX reporting (yelling) serious vibrations. He immediately cut power and entered a glide. I spiralled down to find a suitable landing spot and radio'd through the position of a nice instant lawn field and the wind direction . Circling low, I watched from above as the stricken plane did a nice engine-out landing followed by my brother and then me. SZ-VCX had a repair job done, the previous day, to its exhaust. One of the two exhaust brackets had now become undone in flight and went through the prop and a fat chunk of wood was removed from the one blade. ZS-VCX was going nowhere further today. After some rather lengthy discussions between the remaining Mac pilots, a lot of phone calls were made. Recovery was arranged for our propellor-clipped aviator by his spark plug friend.
And then we were 2.
It was now around 10h00 and breakfast mile-posts had to be moved. We took off and soon I was chatting to Wonderboom ATC on behalf of the two of us. We were barely cleared by them for a routing north via the Mamelodi Quarry when the radio sprung happily to life again. "Mayday Mayday, CPF engine out !!!".
This was really becoming rather annoying. I circled the area and saw my brother choosing the smallest 5 cent coin-sized patch of what looked like a smooth field between bluegum trees and fences. A perfect approach (assisted by his paragliding experienceof years gone by) and nice landing however saw him dissappear into 2 meters of tall Elephant grass !
Circling above him, I received a feeble "I'm OK" over the radio, which I relayed to the frantic ATC, who obviously heard the Mayday’s on his frequency and during his shift. I assured him that his Search & Rescue team can return to their brunch and tea, but it took a while because according to my position report, there was no place to land on his maps.
I had no chance in hell to safely put my trike down in that spot and told my boet to wait there as I was going to carry on to the breakfast venue where my car and a trailer would be available for recovery. So I remained airborne and continued my flight, leaving my brother stranded on the ground. Emotions of World War II pilots losing their buddies didn’t linger in my mind for longer than a split second. These were no buddies of mine, they were Mac pilots habitually scattering themselves on the ground along their flight paths.
And then we were 1....
My wife had set up a camping table located on the end of the makeshift runway, bent under the weight of loads of food and coffee for 4 big and hungry pilots. Together, with a little audience of farmworkers, anxiously awaiting the arrival of this much anticipated 4-ship sqaudron, my wife’s surprise was not faked when I arrived all alone.
Bacon, eggs and toast lovingly prepared at 07h00 by your typical caring pilot’s wife just does not taste nice at 11h00. By the way, nor does room temperature coffee at 11h00.
Then my phone rang. It was my brother. He had forgotten to open the fuel valve of an aftermarket reserve tank, resulting in the engine out ! But, he had also found the landowner, who was, at that moment, slashing a strip with his Vaal Japie tractor for my boet to take off from. He intended to fly out from there, but his radio battery was dead by now, as was the GPS's battery and whether I could explain to him how to get to the Walmanstal strip, which really was in the middle of nowhere with very few decent pointers to aid him. I calculated the flight to take him no more than 15 minutes to reach us.
A little while later I received an SMS from my boet that the landowner had finished slashing the 100 metre take off strip and that he was ready for take-off. Apparently the landowner had parked his Vaal Japie sideways at the bottom end of the runway and took a spectators seat on his tractor to watch the take off. My boet recalls afterwards that the last thing he remembered about that rather shaky and bouncy take-off was the friendly farmer, diving olympic style from his tractor, face first into the ground to avoid being swiped off his Vaal Japie by a Mac CDL's undercarriage. Imagine what you have to write on your medical aid claim form.
20 minutes later my phone rings again. "I am at a roadsign that says Dog School, Pretoria and Moloto". Miles and miles off course, he had landed near the Roodeplaat Dam wall on a muddy and slippery jeep track in the middle of a veggie farm under irrigation. This made it easier for me as I could now direct him to follow roads to the breakfast club, which really was now not more than 10 minutes flying from where he was. I am scanning the horison towards the south-west, the direction he should be coming from, when 25 minutes later, ZU-CPF approaches from the completly opposite direction ! He had seen a white thing on the horizon and thought it was my trike’s wing, which turned out to be a water tank on a stand !
Having made the same mistake as the friendly farmer, my wife had the breakfast table located at the end of the short strip in the direction he had to land in. The Mac CDL has no brakes, a fact I was about to be educated in within the 10 seconds that followed. I remember just after touchdown how my boet took his feet off the rudder pedals and dug one of his Hitec hiking boot heels into the soft and freshly graded soil at 50km/h. The other boot’s sole was firmly placed against the front wheel to act as a brake shoe in an attempt to avoid hitting or being hit by a breakfast table. He came to a full stop in a ball of dust within a distance from the table, similar to the distance one would normally sit at a breakfast table. It took a while for the dust to settle. How he got the red dust covered cold eggs into his mouth and down his throat still leaves me with a bitter taste in my own mouth untill today.
Having now also run out of every possible drop of fuel in the Mac, we decided to call it a day and do the Brits leg the next morning, which, to my surpise, was uneventfull and rather boring.
What should have been a mornings flight almost became a full weekend event. The old saying of "If you have time to spare, go by air" was also proven wrong.
It should read "If you have time to spare, go by Mac Air".
The Mac was sold about 5 years ago for R 10 000.00. I see it just surfaced elsewhere here on the forum !
Cheers
Roel
