MY NEW BABY

[GR8-DAD]

When are you coming to monring star to show her to us?

Fetching her on Sat am, Morph man hopefully as co. Back to Nooitgedacht and if weather ok on Sun, visit to MS

[Gadget]

Kewl. Hope to see ya there.

[Morph]

I on,

I am just looking at the weather. Might even fly up to you on Friday Afteroon, or if not definately drive Friday night

[Ranger]

Oooooooo! Mooi bly maar mooi. Congrats and enjoy.

[KFA]

I WANT ONE Looks great. Me and Winglet will be building a explorer next year. Looking foreward to it

[Morph]

Friday after work the Morph-meister hopped in the car (it was pumping SE with 38deg C at Nooitgedagcht at 5pm and not much better at 7pm and I was not lus for the thermals and rotors) and skooted the 150km up to Citrusdal to GR8-dad's place. There were two reasons for going the night before.
1. We had to leave Citrusdal at 04h00 to get to Loeriesfontein before sunrise
2. It was a good excuse for a pissup with my mate

The softnesses and little clones were not around so it was just me and the dad. A few beers and a really decent seafood potjie, (Thanks dad) lots of lies later we retired. It was 23h00. 02h45 the fricken body clock woke me up , just minutes before the cellphones alarm went off and scared the sh!t out of me and Dad, especially dad because the emisions from his bowels continued to wreak havoc on us all the way to Loeries

03h30, a quick 's', no 's' and 's' later we departed for Nooitgedagcht to collect Gert (not Coetzee) who was to act as vehicle courier. We made him drive, with the excuse that this was to be considered his dual checkout, and we would sign his conversion once there so he could safely return solo in the bakkie. It was a good excuse as we needed a bit more sleep. (if only Dad's bowels would )

2 and a half hours later we drove into the sleepy little , hhhmmmm, what do you call something with a bottle store, a few houses and the only garage in town with no cars nor fuel (just planes ) We met Boet at his workshop and had extensive discussions regarding the two Explorers he was building. He took me to see a Bush Baby that had been written off after blowing off a trailer, and showed me how not to build a plane. Even without the damage this plane was in a bad state. Not worth the 200k that was paid for it

Then on to the airfield. Dad's baby is a beaut, 47 hours, 912s, magnificent condition. The only problem was the wind was howling (loeries is at 3000ft on top of a platau) and both Dad and myself were not keen to get going. But after a few little problems were sorted with the brakes we took off and headed for Nooitgedacght. Boet told us to fly IFR (I follow roads) since this place is very barren and unless we are very fit and can easily hike 50km to the nearest human being it is better to land on the roads in an emergency. He aso forced us to take water with us.

Fortunately the wind strength dropped off at altitude and with a nice 10mph tailwind and the motor purring along at 4500 saw us cruising along at 90mph ASI and 100mph GS. 1hour later and 1.5hours ahead of the bakkie we decended into the Clanwilliam valley. Temps were high and thermals were working but this little plane handled all within her stride.

Dad executed a hasslefree landing and we cracked our first beer on the little lady.

[Gadget]

Man she's a beauty. Wondered what happened to u lot on sunday. Probably the explosive gasssssss that kept you away. When will we see her for real.

[GR8-DAD]

......it was just that perfect mixture of beer, seafood, curry and wine, mixed at the exact ratio, achieved only once in 20 years, never to be repeated again.... and it had to go somewhere afterall, t'was my bakkie and my plane

Morph is giving a lot more credit to the landing than what I deserve, I was working real hard and sweating a bit to get this baby safely to the deck. The wind was creating havoc, gusting unsteadily from the north-west at 20-25 knots. I decided to come in a bit faster than normal at 75 mph powering in. Problem was that as soon as we throttled back to loose height and airspeed the gusty wind had us all over the place with Nooitgedacht having some unforgiving features on approach both sides of the strip.

Put her down without flaring too much and gave them old bungycord suspension a good ol test and passed with flying colors. Overran the turnoff to the hanger by some 50m - brakes still need a bit of setting. Boet did a beautiful job but some minor snags still to sort out, nothing he won't be able to handle whilst Dad is jetting off to Europe for 2 weeks on Wed.

[Boet]

Jaaaaa, die manne was "gas"vry Saterdagmore!! For all the guys flying all over the show. It is getting summer, and this summer is going to be brutally hot and it seems dry in some places. Make sure that you NEVER FLY WITHOUT WATER!!!!! Not even a short cross country. There is still a couple of loose ends on GR8DAD`s new pride and joy that I promised to attend to very soon. This aerie was not built as new at my facility, so it is somewhat "different" from the product that we push out. Not inferior, just different.
Me and Gert accompanied the lads in the BB for a while, and this bb is quite quick. We had to haul arse to catch up!! GR8, jou errie lyk mooi in sy element!

[GR8-DAD]

Dankie Boet, die dank moet natuurlik na jou gaan dit is jou vakmanskap. Sien jou die 11 Nov

[Boet]

Took the drive up to Nooitgedacht this morning to attend to some minor snags on GR8DAD`s aerie. It was winter today. Gusty wind and rain squals. Is`nt it supposed to be summer now?

[KFA]

I have suddenly turned green Happy flying. My kit will be delivered in Des Only then will my jealous colour turn normal again.

[GR8-DAD]

Boet, sorry that I couldn't make it, bit far for me right now

Bad weather there today , I'll hopefuly do some flying on the 12th when I am back, see you then.

BTW, you have PM and SMS.

[Boet]

KFA, what kind of kit you buying??

[Willie]

Baie geluk Ek sien nie jou radio nie