Inanda mountain coffee

[Fairy Flycatcher]

5:30 am and already the first eager one has arrived for our flight to Inanda Mountain: Brett Hill, the almost pilot with 5hrs of solo under the belt.

After some gentle discussions between myself and David on who gets to fly to the mountain with the student, and who takes the Dragon, we split it half-halr, with David going there at 50'AGL and me coming back that way:-) It is cloudy with zero wind and a perfect day for flying to Inanda mountain-top for some coffee.


You can just make out a little trike, piloted by Ron, in the left hand bottom of this photo. He practiced some low level flying over the chopper square before taking on the real thing in the Umdloti Valley.

David has his radio off, and his MP3 player on and we could almost see him sway under with the music while he, Ron and Dave Devonish follow the Umdloti River Valley low level up to Inanda.


My pilot, Brett, piloted us safely at 500' AGL all the way there. Cold but lovely. Inanda Dam in the distance. We were the first there, and our attempts to chase the cows off the runway doing low-level passes failed dismally, so we did the shortest short-field we could in-between the cows, with Brett muttering "Easy on the Brakes, Easy on the Brakes" and me going "Brakes, Brakes" from the back while heading for a particularly unfriendly looking horned cow.


Then Brett did the only gentlemanly thing left to do, and chased all the cows off for the rest of the guys to land safely (while I take photos, off course)

The soccer field was great for landing this time around, as the velt around it had recently been burnt, which made short-field just so much easier.

Wart and Noel did a text-book precautionary first. Nice landing as well.





Great coffee and company under the goal-posts. This should make a stunning 2010 venue. Thanks to the Cato guys, Warren (Wart), Noel, Anton, and friend for bringing 3 planes from your neck of the woods. La Mercy pilots Ron, David, Anette, Dave Devonish, Brett Hill made up the other half. Hopefully everyone who missed this great experience feels sad enough about it to join us next weekend.

Shortly after getting back to La Mercy, cloud-base dropped to about 400'AGL, and we could not even see Inanda Mountain, so a big thank-you to the Skygods for giving us few pilots a great window of opportunity


Next week, we'll head up somewhere North, maybe Eshowe, to join up with some of the Richard Bay / Empangeni guys. If any of you would like to suggest a venue or help with light catering on landing, let us know.

We are setting up a newsgroup on Yahoo groups, so anyone who wants to join us on these flights, and join the newsgroup, send a post to natalwings@yahoogroups.com

[lamercyfly]

Hi Folk.

Yeah! Another great little fly-away. For me, this flight goes down as one of my all time favourites.

I wound that Dragon up the Umdloti River Valley, shooting up cliff faces and duelling with ridge-soaring crows..............And then winding around a corner I surprise a whole bunch of maidens bathing naked in the river...Hah! and when they wave, its not only their arms waving:):)



Looking behind, I see Ron and Dave Dev., following, and I figure that I have been hogging the river, so I orbit around and slot in behind them. Man, what a site, sitting at 150'AGL and watching Ron winding through the dense riverine bush. Not a drop of air.......not a single bounce in the sky...........just smooth, smooth silk, and all the while I am listening to "Kiss the Rain by Billy Myers".

Thanks for the flight guys. Shot Noel, thanks for bringing the Cato bird men to the fly-aways. Lekka to 'shoot the breeze' with buddies.


David

[loansharkblv]

Hah! and when they wave, its not only their arms waving:)

So where are the photo's? O'h wait - KZN not Clifton - Skip it...:D :D

Anyway, looks like you all had a fantastic time - Regards and good wishes from all the guys down this side - O'h, almost forgot - DAM says Hi

FF - If you guys head to Eshowe Please please please please take plenty of aerial photo's - Of everything that you can - I grew up there and unfortunately only got my license once I had left – I would love to see it from the air …..

[Wart]

What an awesome morning! Thanks to Dave and Annette for doing the organising. On the way back we dropped into the valley and wound our way back up to Cato. The conditions were so perfect we decided to drop in at Light Flight and Emoyeni too.

Thanks for all who made the effort!