Microlighters

Hi Guys

A mate of mine is interested in flying. He is concerned that living in CT, that the wx is not condusive to flying. He does not want to fork out the cash and then only be able to fly once in a blue moon.

Can some fellow Stormers supporters give some advice here please.

Speak with Gert, he flies 24x7 and if he's not flying he's sleeping or putting others to.

Cape Town weather is just abit more finiky than the rest of the country. Cape Town summer weather just involves getting up abit earlier than usual. Wind only gets up around 9ish alot of mornings.

As Diesel fan says Gert is flying most of the time. Mid Jauary to mid-february we only has a 4 day streach of South easter that we knew was going to blow for days so thats when you plan parties where there is no worry about having to get up early.
And then we had a week of beautiful weather where I was still flying happily till 11.

To put it in another perspective. I flew a hundred hours last year, and i only fly weekends.
Now Gert goois 300 hundred hours a year.
And all this happens underneath the big flat mountain!!!!
How much does this guy want to fly, bru?

Check www.zu-dve.com Thatchman. I was very concerned when I started flying that I'd only be able to fly mornings - from a safety perspective. Gert put that notion to rest. He often flies around 14h00 etc.

Name is GertCoetzee on forum - it's his alias for Gert

I did about 80 hours in the last twelve months and yes, flying early in the morning or late evening is the best, but it also depends on where you fly from. You must remember that we have four weather systems in a given day in different areas in the peninsula which makes the weather predictions very diffivcult but I came to trust the big bay weatherstations readings which can be seen on www.windfinder.com. Some airfields like mornings star is unforgiving even in a slight breeze where as wintervogel will be friendly in winds up to your aircrafts cruising speed. He will not make a mistake to start flying in cape town, it is worth every cent. Tell him to contacts me and I will organize a flip or three for him to see what it is like, and if he joins the western cape microlight club he will have massive amounts of info about every nook and cranny in this area. Even better, let me invite him to one of our club meetings so he can meet and chat with the other pilots.

I flew over 100 hours last year. You can have four seasons in one day here in CPT - very good experience building. The only reason I havent flown more hours is because I have to work and raise a family the rest of the time.

Besides when you do your training you will not be let loose if you havent passed your meteorology exam and be able to handle the aircraft in various conditions.

I recall one flight I had last year from Carnarvon to FAFK where there was not a single ripple of turbulence for the whole 3 hour flight. Unbelievable!

Contact Aerosport @ Fisantekraal 021 9753891 / 0828837347 for info re training. You can have a demo fight and feel the weather for yourself. This time of the year is best.

Regards

Summer you do contend with the wind, but there are good days and the sum sets very late, 20h45 and is up at 05h00.

Winter you can practically fly all day as we don't have the freezing temps of the higher altitudes, nor do we have the heat to generate uncomfortable thermals. As Bachuss says 100 hours a year is easy to achieve with weekends only

I think every province has their fair share of kak weather. Yes, even "sunny beautiful Durbs" can sometimes throw the book at you. However, where there is a will, there's a way. It amazed me how after I started flying, I didn't really take notice of the weather, if it was kak, I would drink indoors, if it was good...outdoors. Now that the weather plays a important role, you learn to take the good weather opportunities and fly then. If the weather is bad, accpt it, and as I said earlier, go and have a drink. just don't be tempted to fly if it happens to "clear up"

Hi Guys. Thanks for all the responses. I will pass them on, especially the offers for a flip and some first hand exposure. Hope to meet some of you guys in the Kalahari this year.