Minimum Altitude

[Abe]

Hi Fliers!
Referring to AIC-20-18 06-10-27....and AIC 23-1 06-10-29 eyeee... what's dat?
OK, we all read our circulars, don't we? I will shamefacedly admit to stacking a few month's worth of AIC's till they get obtrusive, at which time they get filed in the round bin. Guiltily flipping through before "filing", these two caught my eye as deserving comment, and were duly taken home to mature in my "to do" file neatly stacked on the left edge of my home computer desk. Enter our firstborn who at seven months of age discovered he can hoist himself into a vertical position by way of chairs or such and stepping on a handy toy could reach said desk to get his grubby hands on the seemingly important stuff there... Upon recovering the strewn papers these AIC's came to light again, so I took that as a sign that I should now respond, seeing no-one else seems to have yet taken up the kudgels. "Some men are thrust into it..."

Ahem!, someone said and others wished they had said it first, something to the effect that "For want of honest people speaking up, a kingdom was lost....." (Ja, probably not like that, but mine is more fitting to our times....)

Thank you for your attendance, may I leave now?
Eish, you mean I have to spell it out?

20-18
Little by little our liberties are whittled down so that those with their noses to the grindstone will not notice it.
A "government" should be like the "management committee" of a residential estate, given a limited budget subject to public scrutiny, to do in the members interest things they do not want to do themselves individually. (Then again, I hear even some of these little guys get delusions of grandeur, so shall I rather say the government should be like the gardener of our commune?)

Who is the government then to say: "No person may fly over any part of: * The Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park (including the Mkuze Game Reserve), below an altitude of 4100FT AMSL."

Yes, not 1000ft like it used to be, not 1500ft like in some other rule, not 2000ft like the new rule over proclaimed nature reserves, and how the hell did they arrive at 4100ft?! Now, there are protected areas all over the country, just think of the consequences if, or rather when, this rule is extended? Make no mistake, our new gardener is vindictive and will try to spoil everything that is dear to the pale-faces.

Horst from Vredendal would be apocleptic, he has never been known to exceed 200ft AGL, said he felt more comfortable low. I tried to convince him otherwise, but who are we to judge? I have yet to hear of a west coast neighbour complaining. Hope you still fly, Horst?
4100ft AGL, man, that is high. From the ground the A380 would be just a speck in the sky. Persons airborne forced to fly that high in open cockpit aircraft are prone to get the bigger picture, which would put the state in peril. The law of unintended consequences might come into play. Ridiculous laws breed contempt for all laws.
Was there no reasonable person in the committee to question this? Could we see the minutes? "Wet erre dey?!"

Let's see, my airfield is in a nature reserve and close to many other reserves, and with the local hills topping 5100 ft, plus 4100ft would put us at what, 9200ft, can just about get that high, but would seriously annoy nearby international airport ATC's. Ducking the heavy metal up and down on every flight from home will also annoy me. Awhile ago someone clever suggested our answer to the threat of compulsory transponders should be to threaten to fit. Our advocate would then describe a Saturday morning with the ATC's radar a snowstorm with more snowflakes reporting by the minute. ATC will be forced to tell us to switch off transponders, we would sue for unneeded expenses and all would be back to square one. The law of unintended consequences cannot be repealed. (OK, I get diverted to my favourite topic too easily.....)

Still, hey, it is frightening to see our gardener taking over....
An old trick of despotic regimes is to make everyone a criminal by law, enabling the commissars to hit on anyone that crosses their path.
Rant over, will respond to AIC23.1 in seperate post under Accident and Incident reports.
FlySafe!
Abe.