Snake formation team

[HENNING JOHAN]

What happend to Oddball and the team?I saw them last at the Rand airshow a few years ago.I loved the display that they gave.The leap frog landing was my favourite!Did they stop because of all reg that came to the airshow scene?Miss them.

[Hadams]

Hi Henning,

That was about the last time they flew together. They were trying to get some other trike pilots to join but did not succeed. Of the four only Steve still fly regularly. One has emigrated to Aus and Oddball is now into adventure sport.

Really is a pity they stopped!

[HENNING JOHAN]

Thanks for the feedback Henry.It's a pity!

[bryan]

Are there some contact details for Steve. I would love to pick his brain about some facts.
Regards Bryan Erasmus
Zu BFR
ZU EZA
Wings Park

[John Boucher]

Some red-tape iro aerobatic or display ratings sunk the ship.... and then there was the issue iro the pyrotechnics too

[HENNING JOHAN]

Who can give a display rating for trikes then?Instructor A grade or Raasa that's doing everthing for airshows?

[John Boucher]

I had just come onto MISASA at the time. The ARO was in the final stages of implementation and I had urged that the MOP be expanded to to accommodate this very sector of our flying. We had asked that the persons in the know get together with the chaps that were doing it to formalize "display ratings" but ja, what can I say, this never happened.

I will put this forward to the EXCO once again, discuss it with the Aeroclub board and then come up with an appropriate and viable solution

[Tumbleweed]

As I understand it under normal cicumstances (fixed wing) you would have to approach an Airshow SA official i.e. a Scully Levin and explain your display before actually flying it to convince them you're in control and they would set height, speed limits and adjust according to your ability and experience.

In the case of trikes I presume you woould have to back your application through a repected high mile Misasa trike instructor to endorse the safety and competance standard should the ASA bloke not be familiar with weightshift.

I believe the ASA guys are encouraging new display pilots and safety officers to join them in mentoring programs because a lot of the seasoned okes mostly with military experience are close to retirement.

[HENNING JOHAN]

That's what I also think!Get new young blood in the ASA.The general public enjoyed the trike display.I also think also to get started with a display team that will benefit Us as a trike community like the gabriel,mazda zoom zoom and other teams that do it for the ppl and com okes.I think that the display must carry all the nornal stuff like toilet roll cut,sort field take off and engin out.That will bring more people to our sport!

[John Boucher]

Chaps, more transpired than I care to divulge on an open forum. I will definitely address this for you

[HENNING JOHAN]

Thanks John!

[bryan]

Thanks John. Andrew and I wanting to try a couple of things.
Regards Bryan

[Oddball]

We stopped flying as a team because of several reasons; bureaucracy from ASSA, RAASA and the CAA being a big part of that. Our pyrotechnics were also a headache for the organisers as we would often start fires on the ground! On those grounds it was a fair comment that they did not want us to use pyrotechnics- however, our dusk show depended on them and we were getting it right not to start fires, and we had started using exhaust smoke instead of the chemical smoke that we had.

CAA and RAASA wanted us to get modification approval for our pyrotechnics and attachments. My opinion was that the only approval required was from the guy whose arse was on the seat. We did test our attachments very carefully and in a step by step fashion and I could not imagine how someone who had never done that themselves would 'approve' these things. I could imagine chasing hours and hours of paper in getting this approved- maybe I was wrong but I had had enough by then.

Another reason was 'gatvolness'! Getting ready for a show and getting to and from shows was a real shlepp sometimes. Virginia was a case in point; de-rig and pack the aircraft onto a trailer on a Thursday afternoon/ evening; drive to Virginia on the Friday; unload and re-rig on Friday night; fly two shows per day on Saturday and Sunday; de-rig and pack onto the trailers on Sunday afternoon; drive back to JHB on Monday; off-load and re-rig later.... When the Virginia organisers told me that R16K was too much for all of that (for 4 aircraft!) that was the proverbial straw on the camels back. We didn't try to make lots of money on the displays- all we wanted to do was cover our direct costs, and we were prepared to 'sponsor' the whole thing a bit (because it was fun) but when you are flying 5-8 shows a season it all starts mounting up...

I would think that to get a display rating for trikes now you would need to get rated by someone presently in the airshow scene and perhaps I would also be able to carry some weight in getting that display rating approved- we did learn a heck of a lot in the 5 years that we flew displays.

I have not been flying for a while now as I have been pursuing adventure sports- its fantastic to be able to put your kayak onto a river, paddle for a whole day and no one asks you for any paperwork whatsoever. I'm slowly getting back into flying but that took a bit of a blow at the beginning of the year when Rob McFie's P-51 Mustang, which I had worked on for 3 years, crashed on its second flight.

Bryan, if you would like to try a few things out and need some advice and pointers send me a PM and I'll tell whatever I know.

Jay

[bryan]

Thanks we will definitely contact you soon. Some very local basics in mind.
Regards
Bryan Erasmus.
ZU BFR
ZU EZA

[bryan]

PM sent . Thanks for being prepared to share precious knowledge.
Bryan