Holiday trip with the boys

vernon11 · Postby **vernon11** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 9:08 pm

It was bloody great meeting with you guys at Port Edward. Just a pity you could net have landed here.
Vernon.

Peg Leg · Postby **Peg Leg** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 12:33 am

I've been following this post from day one and enjoyed every minute of it. I must say, you guys absolutely rock. Shows what a good machine can do in the hands of a capable pilot. I am so impressed at the speed and ease with which you guys criss-crossed the country. I' loved every minute reading the post and can imagine you must have loved the trip a zillion times more - great encouragement to aspirant microlight pilots. Well Done!!!

Merry Christmas

Wart · Postby **Wart** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 6:55 am

Welcome home to the F.U.C.T Tour and thanks for the updates; hope to see some more pics on here before this thread dies!!

Thatchman · Postby **Thatchman** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 8:49 am

Howzit

Here is an update of the trip from Sr Francis back to Jhb.

We departed St francis after breakfast on Sunday. Not sure what the time was but it was about 9am. Sortly after take off Havoc reported that someone had stolen his fuel as he had filled up and pre-checked the night before and now his tank was low. He landed at Paradise airfield to find a full tank and a sticky fuel gauge.

The plan was to overnight in Burgersdorp with a stop at Craddock International airport. The scenery was totally different after 3 days of coastal flying it was now all hills and mountains. It was mostly cloudy conditions all the way to Craddock. We landed there in hot as hell conditions on a reasonable gravel runway. Craddock international had no restuarant, no toilet, no fuel, no nothing. We spent about 30 minutes there while we transferred fuel from our 60 liter containers that we were carrying. Some of the local population arrived to see what was happening. We hoped to see Straydog there but he had driven down to the fish river.

The flight from Craddock International to Burgersdorp International was very thermic. It was hot, windy and bumpy and not an enjoyable flight. We arrived there at about 2pm with a total flight time of just over 4 hours. There have 3 nice big gravel runways in very good condition. We landed, tied the trikes down and were met by some of Big G's family who have a farm within sight of the runway. They left a bakkie for us which we used once we had got all out shit organised. Clearly things work differently in the eastern cape as the Dog, a huge fat black laberador looking thing rode in the front with Big G driving and the rest of us had to sit in the back of the bakkie. We were treated to cold beer and a kudu braai. Later we made our way to the B&B, dropped off all our stuff and made a few fuel runs to get sorted for the morning flight home.
At the B&B we were by now sorted with the snoring stuff. Big G was banished to his own room. Focker and Chokeeeeeeey were in a room and the non-snorers myself, JY and Havoc were in a room. We were all stuffed from a hard flight and were sleeping by 9pm.

We decided on an early start the next day as we were all keen to get home so we were at the field at 5h30 to load and check the planes.

We bid farewell to John for his solo flight back to Debben and we were airborne at about 6am. There were strong headwinds and we eventually found the best flight level at 10 000 feet where our ground speed ranged from 65 mph to 80 mph. I got hold of JY and he was enjoying a 35mph tailwind.

The radio was very quiet. I think we just wanted to get back home now. We had decided to take a direct routing and give tempe airfield in Bloem a miss. With our fuel bowsers on the back seat we had enough juice and would just have to find some place to land to trf fuel.

After about 2 hours we decided to look for a landing spot and found a strip of grass in between some farmers ploughed lands. We put down there in about a 20 mph wind which was straight down the "strip". The B&B had given us breakfast packs which we tucked into whilst we trf fuel and after about 30 mins we got airborne again and decided that we would not stop again for the remaining flight if the fuel was enough.

Big G wanted to swing past his spot at the Vaal dam to see what his builders had dome so he started peeling off in a slightly different direction.
After cloudless conditions we approached a darkish rain cloud near Kroonstad. While myself, Focker, Chokeeeeeeeey and Havoc routed a bit to the west to avoid the worst of it, Big G got arseholes wet.

It was a good sight to see JHB again and when we called Lanseria Tower for a routing in to Rietfontein it was a fantastic feeling of accomplishment but at the same time it was sad that our adventure was over..............until the next one.

We touched down at Riet at about 1 pm, opened the hanger, opened the fridge and helped ourselved to some ice cold beers.

30 mins later Big G came in.

We then gave the triked a good wash and high pressure hosing to get rid of all the salt and then put our babies to sleep for some rest.

All in all we did 32 hours of flying and covered over 3000 km. I will post some pics of the final legs later today.

I slept like a baby on Monday night and yesterday I went back out to the airfield and took off at 11h30 for 12 days at Zebula in the Waterberg. I landed there at 12h45 and will give the trike a rest for a few days.......maybe.

Cheers
Reilly

Postby **Nkwazi** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 9:04 am

Fantastic trip Reilly, sounds like an awesome time was had by all

coastwise · Postby **coastwise** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 10:17 am

Some pics from St Francis.

coastwise · Postby **coastwise** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 10:33 am

St Francis

AndyG · Postby **AndyG** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 10:59 pm

Hey Guys you rock,

Hope to join you soon!!

Andy

John Young · Postby **John Young** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 5:45 am

Hey Demon,

Thanks for that lekker cruise.

At the time of this photo, "On the other hand Darren" was on the helm as lookout, Bob the auto-pilot was engaged and the boat was slowed down to 4 knots.

Very hard life Demon has to lead in Cape St. Francis.

Regards
John ZU-sEXY

ANGEL'S · Postby **ANGEL'S** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:06 pm

Nice thread boys. Inspiring stuff.!! Where to next??

Postby **Tailspin** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:09 pm

Now this is a holiday i really want to do one day when i am grown up.

nice one fellas

Postby **nicow** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:10 am

GREAT!!!GREAT!!!GREAT!!!

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us!

Low Level · Postby **Low Level** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 2:54 pm

Had the pleasure of meeting the guys by chance.

Was on holiday in Margate, and spent the 16th of December having brunch INSIDE a restaurant, cause the wind was pumping outside, and anything in the region of the beach was a torment. After the brunch my wife suggested we went for a drive, and for some obscure reason my car headed in the direction of the airport.

Not much going on there, cause of the weather. While driving out of the airport parking, my wife said she saw microlights on her side. Jaaa sure, microlights in this weather.

She said maybe it's the kites of the kite surfers. While straining my neck, sure as pie - I saw microlights

I told my wife, this is going to be interesting and turned around - and interesting it was.

GT 450's or whatever, the wind was howling, and these guys did a brilliant job by getting their planes safely on the ground.

A bit frustrated with myself for grabbing my camera, and not my video camera.

: Welcome to Margate; Welcome.jpg (51.08 KiB) Viewed 2206 times

Check out the trees in the background - that wind was pumping.

: GT.jpg (61.72 KiB) Viewed 2205 times

Old John Young's prop didn't stop turning, when he got out and asked me to hold onto his wing. He jumped behind the fence and grabbed a smoke. Duppie - dunno if its the ATC or airport manager or whatever, came out laughing and commented, J Y is sucking that thing, it looks like a welding rod.

: In need of a smoke; John Young.jpg (93.8 KiB) Viewed 2204 times

Low Level · Postby **Low Level** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:03 pm

Some more pics of the MWB and their awesome flying machines.

: One half.jpg (69.5 KiB) Viewed 2197 times

: Other half.jpg (86.23 KiB) Viewed 2197 times

Gaylord's comment after landing "Grant my mate, all I was thinking, you're not gonna make a moer of a lot of money out of me today"

: ......after an interesting landing.; Gaylord.jpg (84 KiB) Viewed 2196 times

Duppie mentioned the wind was between 32 and 36 knts at time of landing.

Also had the pleasure of being on the beach early morning when the guys left for the remainder of their trip.

All I can say to you guys..... ^*^^

P.S. MWB - Men With Balls.

John Young · Postby **John Young** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:40 pm

Ldel wrote:Duppie mentioned the wind was between 32 and 36 knts at time of landing.

Nice posts Ldel. Duppie was ATC on duty.

If you look at the last photo, the windsock is more than 45 degrees across the runway - that's what made it so wild with the turbulence over the ridge, hangers and houses.

We watched two big bliks make "very interesting" landings after us.

Regards
John ZU-sEXY