Microlighters

Eish flying is gonna become expensive. R 11,23 from next week with the prospect of some more rises in April..

Filling up an Aquila - R 561,50

Filling up a Raptor - R 842,25

Filling up a Cobra - R 932,09

Fly downwind boys, fly downwind. And start using those thermals to get some free altitude..

Eish!!!

Yesshh.. Eishh.. And this is not the new levy (incidentally also 28c) This is the actual rise in the price. Come 1 April, the new levy of 28c kicks in which then takes us to R 11,56!! PLUS, the actual price may go up also!!

Lets see, from 01 April, barring MORE hikes in Brent Crude:

Aquilla - R 578
Raptor - R 867
Cobra - R 959,48.

I'll have to start driving less in order to foot the trike's fuel bill. Maybe I must go and live in my hangar. Or start brewing some moonshine in my yard and mix it 1:1 with the petrol. I bet the Rotax will love that!

WIth the benefit of a company fuel card I must say that I am always a trifle embarrassed when someone asks me the fuel consumption of my car, which I REALLY don't know to any degree of accuracy - I know the tank now costs R850 to fill, and that's about as far as it goes!!

Now, if they asked my how many hours I could stay aloft in my aerie at 60KIAS I could provide them with VERY accurate data!

Priorities, right?

Arnt you guys glad we dont fly on Avgas

Daar kom nog groot kak.... With fuel going up and electricity doing the same, eveyone's gonna suffer. But Fly we WILL!!!

...even if we have to eat peanut butter and bread the whole month For goodness sake let's just not take money out of the beer kitty!

Hooray for the 503's

I burn 8l an hour...

Tip to save fuel:
Fly really high so you can glide the other half of the trip
Setup prop to work with bicycle paddles..so once you reach altitude,you can kill engine and start paddling

You will have the legs of Rambo after 6 months of that

Have a lekka one


Rafs

I am amazed that some of our landsburgers have not yet come to the realization how easy it is to steal fuel from an aircraft parked in a hanger.
But check it out henceforth, it is going to start to happen.!!!

Nee man Blue max...moenie ideas in die diewe se kop sit nie

I try and leave my plane with the minimum of fuel in the tank... also plan my routes as such. At most, not more than 20l left in the tank after I have flown... well at 18 litres an hour, it does get pricey.

I am amazed that there is sooo much fancy diesel technology out there and that one could really fly cheaply with stuff like bio-fuels but it really has not caught on. At Mossel Bay Airfield, there are 2 Toyota 2.0L turbo diesel powered Pietenpols that really fly on a whif. At one stage, Peter Funkt was using Smart engines with amazing results. Just a pity though that the installation is so extremely pricey!

Have to agree with Alan though, we shall find ways to fly...

£1.44 per litre (about R17), not much better over here in the UK. Luckily with the rubbish weather we hardly ever get to fly.

Andrew Micklem

Ouch Amick... yes when you do a straight comparrison with elsewhere in the world it does not seem so bad

I have always wondered how things are in Europe...perhaps you have some time to elaborate? Great Brittain seems like one hell of a busy piece of airspace...How do the recreational pilots fit in to this. Do you all carry transponders? I feel here in SA we are trully blessed with an enviroment that really gives us an opportunity to fly with relative freedom. So many open (uncontrolled) airspaces, great weather (most of the time).

What's it like over there?

Regards,

Blue Max wrote:I am amazed that some of our landsburgers have not yet come to the realization how easy it is to steal fuel from an aircraft parked in a hanger.
But check it out henceforth, it is going to start to happen.!!!

Correction Blue Max - it started long ago. At Empangeni while stealing fuel, one "landburger" used a match to check the fuel level.

Burnt down the hanger and several aircraft. sadly, he apparently survived the fire blast out of the filler.

John Boucher wrote:I try and leave my plane with the minimum of fuel in the tank...

JB - this is not recommended - I think you being tongue in cheek - I know that you know better.

Bundy wrote:Ouch Amick... yes when you do a straight comparison with elsewhere in the world it does not seem so bad.

Here $3.50 a gallon - about R6.20 a litre.

Regards
John

Hi Bundy

I'm training at Plaistows in St Albans and it is a narrow corridor smack in between Heathrow, Luton and Stansted airspace (Coordinates: N5143650 W00022690 Elevation: 395ft AMSL), see http://www.exodusairsports.co.uk. This corridor carries most of the GA and microlight traffic from the Midlands around London and across the channel. It sounds quite hectic and there are quite a few aircraft in the air at one time, especially the two or three days with nice weather, but if you are aware and keep a good lookout it isn’t really a problem.
Most microlights don’t carry transponders unless they prefer transitioning through controlled airspace rather than around, usually a more direct route. Many European countries also require transponders now. When doing long water crossings or flying in the more desolate areas (yes, there are desolate areas here) pilot often like the comfort of being on radar some but the units are expensive.

Unfortunately our airfield falls within the Olympic exclusion zone so the only way you can fly during the Olympics (1 month, luckily reduced from the original 3 months) you need a transponder and a flight plan so I’ll either be grounded or have to trailer my trike to another airfield, assuming I have qualified .

The weather can be a pain, I had a lesson booked today but with a Low Pressure moving over we have wind, rain and probably snow later on . You can easily go a month without flying especially because I am at the solo stage the weather has to be very mild.

Still, one of the advantages here is loads of lovely farmers’ fields to land in in the case of emergency. I do watch the videos of flying back in SA and look at all the pics and ‘kry lekker lus’. I’m only sorry I didn’t get the opportunity to fly when we lived there.

Oh well, maybe one day.

Andrew Micklem

Blue Max wrote:
I am amazed that some of our landsburgers have not yet come to the realization how easy it is to steal fuel from an aircraft parked in a hanger.
But check it out henceforth, it is going to start to happen.!!!

Ek raak self lus om bietjie te gaan rondloer op Microland daar tussen die aeries wat nooit vlieg nie.....kan en pyp in die hand.....

Please guys - this is really only a joke! Ek sal nie julle petrol tef nie..of sal ek?

Bundy wrote:Arnt you guys glad we dont fly on Avgas

Daar kom nog groot kak.... With fuel going up and electricity doing the same, eveyone's gonna suffer. But Fly we WILL!!!

...even if we have to eat peanut butter and bread the whole month For goodness sake let's just not take money out of the beer kitty!

We will never take money out of the beer kitty - because then what are we going to do "when in doubt?" If we cut back on the beer, it may lead to a situation where there is no option but to go and fly, leading to dangerous flights!