We slept like babies latched to their mothers breasts.
Dawie arrived at dawn, and we were up. Refuel, pack, logistics(I mean toilet) decide which way to route, and we were off.
Stunning, those early morning flights, hey. You just have to experience the calm of dawn in an open cockpit slow flying trike to feel you have 'touched the face of God'.
Anyway, the calm of dawn turned into the chaos of controlled airspace. How things can go wrong
I call Wonderboom, cheerily saying "good morning, and letting them know we are off to Durbs". SORRY, we cannot accomodate you, RWY 06 in use. Can you climb to 7 500feet?" WHAAAT! come-on, you gotta be kiddin' I think. Anyway, I answer "I would rather cross over the Ridge and contact Waterkloof and fly through their airspace". Wonderboom controller says O.K. and instructs us to change to 124.10. No probs I scheme. Brett is sitting nice and tight, so a good formation. Wonderboom says O.K., "and call outbound over the N1 at the Quarry". I acknowledge. Then the sweet little voice gets all hardeg*t with me and wants to know where I entered her airspace. I explain that I have not entered it yet, but that I am about to. I also explain that this is a diversion cause Wonderboom could not accomodate. I even tell her we are off to Durbs, and if she could not accomodate, it would have meant we would have had to turn around and go via Pinedene, a long detour, so pleeez forgive me for calling her at short notice. So ja, she says "continue, but don't do it again". I promise never to enter her airspace again without calling at least 10 miles out.
Now here comes the fun part. Over the N1, and I push the PTT button to transmit. NIKS. BLERRIE F**ALL. JUST NIKS. Radio PTT in sy MO*R.
"Bennie", I say, "pleeeze block the radio mike with your one hand, and with you other hand push the PTT button on the side of the radio". Lucky Bennie is a slim Kerel, so we manage to let the heksie in the tower know that we are clearing her airspace. But now my transmission is down to a windy, noisy strength 3. Brett tells me this later on. But it is O.K. for me to communicate with Brett.
Now I was watching Brett drink all that brown fuzzy water around the Braai the night before, and I am silently wondering when he is going to throw another 'Dave I gotta land for a leak' move at me.
And you know, we flew right over Bronkhorspruit Airfield. We could have made a perfect 'leak-stop' there, but Brett, he is a member of the male species. This means that when we were over a perfect airfield, he did not have the urge. He kept it until 20 minutes later.
"Dave", he says "I gotta have a leak"
Jislaaik, but there is nowhere to land man. NO WHERE!!!! Just blerrie rocks and bushes and veld. NO WHERE. And Brett says "Dave, I gotta leak NOW".O.K. Bennie, I've got it, and down we go, 150feet AGL. Now I'm seriously kicking up dust trails with my wing wake turbulence. "Bennie," I say, "You look ahead for power lines. O.K. That's all you do, just look for power lines, cause I am searching big time for a place to put this trike down". Hell, it is really kool flying so low and twisting and turning and spiralling around, cranking 50degree full power turns, pulling G's, avoiding your own wake turbulence, doing precautionary runs over teeny, weeny little places where only highly experienced pilots should land.
While I am doing this ( all takes about 3 minutes ), I spook 2 silver-back jackals. What a sight. The one jackal takes off in the direction of my turn, so for about 5 seconds, I am in a cranking 50 degree bank, pulling about 2G's, just 100feet AGL, and I am looking straight down at this jackal. And he is hauling ass. Man, that jackal is running for his life, cause there is a moerse Aarend making a war cry sound over his head.
Sorry Jackal. Brett needed a leak.......
Anyway, I find this spot, but it is tight, seriously tight. Some farmer fenced off about 250m length of ground. There is a fence down both sides, and also at both ends. And he has graded a track down the centre, exactly the width of 1 and a 1/2 times the wheel base of a trike. The worst is that he has left the 'windrow' of graded soil on both sides of the little strip. So there are serious sand boulders, covered in tufts of grass, just left and right of your back wheels. So it's tight, very tight. I pull straight in and land and stop right at the end.
Now ol' Brett, his legs are shaking and he is starting to leak in his rods
Now desperation drives a man to do some silly things, and on this day, desperation drove Brett to forget about something called WAKE TURBULENCE. I have just climbed out, Bennie is still in the trike, when I see Brett coming in to land. No time to stop him. He is coming, nothing is stopping him. Hell, he is holding off, looking good, when O'bloody hell, my wake hits him. Now I watch as in slow motion Brett touches down with his front wheel and one main wheel in the strip, with his other wheel going for an 'off-road' experience. Man, it is life in slow motion as I watch all hell break loose. Clods of soil flying left and right, trike bouncing and rolling and yawing almost totally out of control.............. Aiden, that's one strong undercarriage..........The dust has'nt even settled, and ol Brett has got his joystick out
Aish, met ys. Asb.Airborne from there, and 20 minutes later we land at Boris' place, called Benics. Boris provides us with fuel, and I watch carefully what fluid Brett
takes in. I have had enough of these pit stops now
Kroon to Boris 1hr 30m.
I forgot to mention, the headwind we had yesterday is a tailwind today. A good tailwind from Kroon to Boris, but a quartering tail wind from Boris to Newcastle.
Boris does not seem to sense our urgency. Especially Bennie and Brett. They do not want to face the same gruelling conditions of the day before, so we suffer Boris's well known hospitality. Thanks for the DVD Boris. I watched it last night. Nice.
We leave Boris, destination Volksrust. Ground speed 105km/h. I can live with that, I smile, close my eyes and order a frosty beer from the cabin attendant.................
Now we hit big thermals. Up, down, around, left, right, up, down, left, around, right, down, up, down, down,down,down, up, up, up, up, left, right, up, around...........Will it ever stop
One minute Brett is at our height, next moment he is 1000 feet above us, and when I look again, he is 1000 feet below us. And it is birds of prey, swallows, and yes, this is the Transvaal, there are mielie leaves hauling through the sky at 2000AGL. Brett is panicking, he does not know what these things flying past him are. He tells me he had visions of these things piercing and shredding his wings, and him falling to his doom........Hell, I am laughing as I write this. I decide to show Bennie how to use a thermal, and we do one orbit, gaining 600 feet in one turn!!! How's zat. Lekka hey. I am dreaming of hang gliding this stuff, and Bennie is slowly but surely learning to 'walk the dog'. That's right, tame the beast and play with it.What happens is these conditions, is that if you do not stay in the thermals, then you end up flying straight through them into the next mass of descending air. Invariably, there is more airspace in between thermals than there are thermals, so you end up flying in sinking air. This is exactly what we were doing. This meant that we were averaging 6000 to 6400RPM ALL THE WAY from Witbank to Volksrust. I also showed Bennie how you find nasty bumps just before you enter a thermal, and then it is smooth inside the thermal, then nasty bumps jast as you leave it. So, I hope you understand thermal a little bit better now Bennie. But like I said, thermal lore is like studying the behaviour of Great Whites. It is not allways like it should be. Just like some other Sharks I know. Then they play the game, then they don't. You just never know.
But Winter thermals are generally predictable. It is those Summer bliksems that you must watch out for. They defy all the rules...........
Volksrust comes up just in time. I have also had enough now, and need a break. Nice strong crosswind, but we both land fine and pull into some shade. Top up the fuel, share an orange( nice juicy oranges are a great way of hydrating and topping up with energy), and I say to the guys "O.K. you ready". Stares. Just stares. Just stares is all I get. "Hey, you guys O.K?" I ask.
"What about crossing the mountains?" they both say in kindergarden harmony
Ja-no-well-no-fine I think. By now the prevailing wind is about 10kts, with the thermal gusts coming through at about 18 kts. But we are standing behind buildings, so it appears much worse than it is. I don't tell them this. Bennie, you and Brett reading this. Remember, if you want to know what the wind is doing, go and stand in clean air. It allways feel 10 times worse if you stand amongst the buildings and trees etc., So, I have been privately watching the windsock all the time, and have decided that it will be O.K to cross over in the saddle in a direct line between Volksrust and Newcastel. "Let's go", I say, "It might be a little bumpy, but no worse than what we have had so far. It is definately not life threatening stuff". With that, Brett says he is 'in'. Bennie has no choice. I see him allways making phone calls every time we stop. I think he is either working with a book-maker or he is phoning AVBOB to confirm his policy.......................What do you know!!! The flight from Volksrust to Newcastle was a WALK IN THE PARK. Hardly any turbulence worth mentioning. My calculation of the conditions was spot on, and we actually had a pleasant flight into Newcastle. Bennie and I kept to about 600feet AGL as we went through the neck, but Brett was a little spot in the sky above us
Our height quickly became 2000 feet AGL as the ground dropped away quicly down to Newcastle. What was very, very interesting, was listening to, and watching a Cessna 210 ZS-KVK, take off from Newcastle, AND NOT CLIMB. I actually said to Bennie, " Oh! S**T, watch this, hier kom k*k. That cessna barely made it over the houses on the western side of the extended centreline of RWY29. I mean he just made it. He called, after passing over the houses, at 5000feet. Those houses are already about 300feet higher than the runway. About 1 1/2 minutes later he called again, climbing through 5 300!!!!! Only a 300 foot gain in 1 1/2 minutes. ZS-KVK, if you are on this forum, please tell us about your hair-raising take-off. Me thinks you forgot to do a density altitude calculation. Me thinks you will not forget again. 
Anyway, I am glad you made it......fly safe my fellow aviator.Bennics-Newcastle 2h25min
Logistics taken care off at Newcastle, and now I hop in with Brett for the flight home to La Mercy. I am about to climb in the back seat and Brett says "hey Dave, you fly mate, I am finished". I gladly agree, knowing that we are about to have the best flight yet, home into calm late afternoon skies
A quick hop back to Dirk's farm strip in Dundee for a fuel top-up. And a quick stop it was. I did not even climb out of the pilots seat. Johan DuPlessis (Dirk's neighbour) was also there to wellcome us and help. Thanks for the petrol guys. Within 5 minutes we were off again, Ground Speed 110 - 120 km/h. Over the Tugela Valley at 3000 feet above the river valley, passing over the tops at 1000 feet in the loveliest of conditions. Home, home, ZU-CAC smelt her stable in was straining at the bit to gallop the last leg home.
Passing Greytown, I heard the familiar voice of Brett Tungay in RYR, flying in the 'berg. Comms were good, so we traded pleasantries. Then guess who comes onto the 'waves. Ol' Kevin KB. Says he is working lekka for Brett up in the berg. He has progressed from washing the helicopter. He is allowed to re-fuel it now
Nice chatting to you guys.........nice to hear familiar voices...........nice to be on the home-run............GPS showed ETA as 5.23pm SA time. Exactly at sunset we landed. Exactly at sunset the previous day we landed at Kroon.......What is it about sunset.......................I switch my cellphone on, and call FF. "Hey Fairy", I say "where are you. I mean it is sunset. Are you expecting us after dark?" "shut up Grumpy", she says, "I am just around the corner, and have got beers on ice for you"...............I fell in love with her all over again
Geoffrey, my night guard, lit the fire in the fire circle, and Brett had a lovely ice chilled been with FF and me, while the children played. Brett left, and I was once again a king in my castle.............
Thanks Brett and Bennie for sharing another wonderful flight around SA with me.............
Newcastle- La Mercy 2h15min
Bennie flew a total of 3h55 on day 2, and Brett flew 6h10
Cheers guys, and fly safe.
Unfortunately the camera's batteries packed up when I took it.