Thought I would share a lekker flight, yet a scary one for me,with you all. This morning a friend of mine and I flew out to a lodge ( man I forget its name) in hoedspruit, after Mother Nature decided to hold us back with the frikkin fog this morning, we went to Wimpy for breakfast, and took off at 08h30 and flew over delmas, over witbank, then decided to land at middelburg, which has no frequency loaded on the latest chart from RAASA --- and couldn't get anyone on the radio to assist, we decided to fly on to lydenburg, where we also saw no freqnuency in the chart, but eventually got it 124.8 -- landed at a deserted strip, for a comfort break.
We had to climb extremely high to clear the mountain range (with sufficient clearance to avoid rotor and wind effect from the massive mountains!!) and when we landed in deserted Lydenburg i realized that its pretty damn awesome this flying thing.....
Anyways we took off again after a comfort break, and headed toward the next massive range in front of us, to which I had to route further east to clear the highest point, as I didn't want to have to climb too high again. Anyways, it is a rather scary experience when the wind moers you around up there, at a point I had full rudder input, and not enough authority... So I decided to Maar change direction and go with the wind, and found myself doing 128mph ground speed (108mph wind speed) in a matter of a second or two!!! Sweaty palms and a skid mark or two, found me talking to 126.4 hoedspruit control, who ..... And listen to this!!!
When I called in " hoedspruit civil, Cheetah ZULU UNIFORM, DELTA YANKY BRAVO, good morning" I was greeted with excitement and "a very good morning DELTA YANKY BRAVO go ahead" I frowned... I replied "DELTA YANKY BRAVO, routing from lydenburg to hoedspruit civil, two on board, 4 hours endurance, requesting passage please"
Tower -- " DELTA YANKY BRAVO, squawk 7000, QNH1025.............."
DYB -- "Control, no transponder installed"
Training aircraft in the area --- " LAST CALLER, YOUR POSITION AND HEIGHT PLEASE!!!!"
Tower -- " DELTA YANKY BRAVO, what is your position and speed??"
DYB -- " DELTA YANKY BRAVO, apologies I am not familiar with the area, we have pilgrims rest on our 6 o clock"
Trainee-- "PANIC PANIC.... DOUBLE TRANSMISSION"
Tower-- "DELTA YANKY BRAVO, PLEASE CONFIRM IF YOU ARE PASSED PILGRIMS REST!!??"
DYB --" Tower, DELTA YANKY BRAVO- confirm passed pilgrims rest"
Tower -- "DELTA YANKY BRAVO, PLEASE CONFIRM FLIGHT LEVEL!!?? Other aircraft In the area, aerobatic practice underway in the box at zandspruit-- please steer clear and remain clear of Hoedspruit military air space!!"
Hahahaha eventuall they realized that the Cheetah was the small one - not the fast one!!!! Needless to say, the guys in the tower were awesome and guided me through unfamiliar territory with the utmost assistance and patience!! Thanks to the gent in the tower this morning you a star boet!!!!
Without him, I would have more than likely caused GROOT Kakas in the aerobatic box near zandspruit which was directly in front of my GPS routing.... Alas, what a scary and intimidating flight, a safe one, but scary none the less for a pilot with a total of just over 110hours under his belt. Kaaaaking myself for the flight back on Sunday....
I love my cheetah, what a plane!!! Yee ol faithful!!
Cross country flying can be very challenging. We are flying down to Numbi at the end of September for Africa cup...similar route...we are going to rock and role. Slap chips, a kidney belt and Sanatogen are a must. 
