Western Cape Airstrip Database..

[ACE]

. By the way Gert, I see on your track log that you have put in "UTC -2", we are UTC+2, 2hrs ahead of Grenwich.

Ah something a Jozi will not understand. This is Cape Town Time.

Behind the times I see

[Morph]

Voel Vlei Dam, S33 23.959 E19 01.260, 20-02, 260ft

It's a sand strip, disected by two farm gates. We landed on the southern side of the gates.


The gates are at the crossroads on the left(bottom corner of the black field)


Photos taken by phone, hence bad quality

[gertcoetzee]

New farmroad usable as strip in Delta 200 (north eastern sector), length approx 300m with a bit of a curve in middle 25/07. No power lines, dam to the west.

See http://www.cvdm.co.za/zu-dve/20050922.jpg
or http://microlighters.co.za/viewtopic.php?t=298&start=60

S33 31 49.7 E18 37 11.4

[gertcoetzee]

The farmstrip I have named Dieprivier, is actualle on the farm De Goede Ontmoeting and the name has been changed in the Western Cape file:

http://www.cvdm.co.za/zu-dve/Western%20Cape.gdb

Yesterday's strip (Skaapkraal) has been added.

[Morph]

Quick question

If an Airfield's bearing is 5deg and 185 deg do you round up or down on the runway designation? SHould it be 00/18 or 01/19?

Both Ou Malmes and Dieprevierbrug have the same bearing

[gertcoetzee]

Stopped giving designations since I got my trues and magenetics mixed up. Someone else can probably tell us what the correct way of designating rw names is.

Yes, both Old Malmes and Dieprivierbrug have same bearing, suppose the magnetic bearing will be +2 (vs my numbers).

I have renamed the Dieprivierbrug waypoint to De Goete Ontmoeting which is the farms' name - it could have been Soete - will have a look when I go past again.

The Old Malmes strip is a crop strip and has the skeleton of a plane on the northern side. Will land and look soon.

[ACE]

I got into my GPS setup last night and found that it was set to "true North" so I reset it to Magnetic. The current magnetic deviation is 18degrees, a big difference to your heading isn't it

[Morph]

Ace, our deviation is 23 to 24 degrees. The GPS is clever enough to automatically determine the variation, thus giving you a correct magnetic heading.

[ACE]

My GPS automatically came up with 18 degrees would this be attributed to our different geographical locations

[John Young]

I got into my GPS setup last night and found that it was set to "true North" so I reset it to Magnetic. The current magnetic deviation is 18degrees, a big difference to your heading isn't it

Morpheus is quite correct with "magnetic variation +/- 23 degrees".

"Magnetic deviation" is a another story. This relates to the amount a compass is 'swung' by having metal objects located in the proximity. Consequently, marine vessels and certain aircraft have a "deviation card" which lists the magnetic deviation at selected headings for captain / pilot correction.

Looking forward to "kicking" my instructor off the back seat soon!

[John Young]

Mmmmm ... Just read Morpheus' message again - this variation and deviation has tripped up many folk.

My understanding is;

Magnetic variation = difference between magnetic north and true north.

Magnetis deviation = difference between compass reading and the correct magnetic heading.

Someone correct me if I cocked-up.

PS: My instructor has got less than 5 days to keep his "a.se" warm on my back seat!

[Morph]

My GPS automatically came up with 18 degrees would this be attributed to our different geographical locations

Yep, if you look at the aviation maps you will see the "variation" (thanks John) lines running across the map( these are dashed lines running across the map at an angle with "18deg W" written on it for example As you move south the variation increases. If you are using a map for navigation, you would use the value from the variation line closest to you, i.e from your current position the 18 deg variation line is just below you and the 17.5 is above but further away. You would use the 18deg for the calculation. The GPS does this all automatically.

[ACE]

... The current magnetic deviation is 18degrees, ...

Here I get to quote myself, that's a first.

Wrong choice of words - I stand corrected. Even at the foot of the aeronautical maps it states the annual variation between true and magnetic north. It drifts as time goes by. Well spotted John and thanks.

.. now which was north again, oh that way..

[gertcoetzee]

De Goede Ontmoeting - Mr van Heroldt

I spoke to the farmer, and he is happy with Microlighters landing. Wanted to know why we wanted to land there.

Keep circuits to the east, and beware of sheep on runway.

[gertcoetzee]

Verified these on way to Assegaaybos. (see zu-dve log)

Assegaaibos S33 45 36.9 E21 32 50.1
Robertson S33 48 42.3 E19 54 18.3
Joubert Tredoux S33 55 08.4 E20 36 18.5 - a nice B&B on farm, excellent breakfast
Montagu S33 48 00.0 E20 12 00.0