Microlight over JHB CBD this morning

[RV Sometime]

Within avcom we organised & took the CAA staff flying this morning as a joint initiative which was sponsored by Placo, the EAA & myself. The pilots involved brought their aircraft & flew at their own expense entirely. Placo supplied the meal, the EAA guys supplied the venue & I supplied the refreshments. There were also many people who participated on the ground to coordinate the whole affair.

We flew from rand, over the linksfield ridge, to the water reservoir on Northcliff hill, to Orlando Power Station & back to Rand via the Silver ball.

I was absolutely gobsmacked to observe a trike flying in a line between the Semtek Tower & towards hippo Quarry, slap bang over an illegal area, the CBD.

Consider that I had the commissioner aboard on my aircraft & a mate of mine had the CEO aboard his aircraft during this flight when we made this observation.. I made a call which went along the lines of "microlight over the cbd, please note that we are taking the CAA for flips, but I am not about to bust you by getting your registration" 125.8 was very silent after this.

The implications are huge & did not go unnoticed. Had the offending pilot had a forced lob, that pilot would be faced with incredible consequences, especially if there were innocent deaths as a result.

The long term damage is to the image which has been indelibly stamped on the senior management of the CAA about this microlight pilot & his blatant infringement of the rules. That pilot could not have chosen a worse time to do what he did & the result inevitably will spark up the bull where microlight pilots are considered to be less responsible than GA pilots.

To me, this pilot should be ashamed of himself because of the negative effect he has had because of his actions. I hope he is a member of this forum & takes a deep look at what he has done for the rest of you guys who follow the rules & fly as true professionals. I am sad that one individual can spoil an event that took such major planning & cost.

I deliberately did not get his reg because he would never fly again if I did. The commissioner was using my camera, for petes sake. How much more damning evidence do you need.

Please keep any debate clean, it is not about seperate pilots, it is about how one individual can make such a negative difference in aviation.

[Duck Rogers]

Good grief
To the microlight pilot concerned - You stupid idiot!
Thanks RV, well handled under the circumstances.

[Biggles]

Egit...

What are the concequences for this type of thing if he was reported? (appart from the fact that EAA big wig witnessed it?)

[RV Sometime]

Egit...

What are the concequences for this type of thing if he was reported? (appart from the fact that EAA big wig witnessed it?)

Not EAA, CEO of SACAA as well as the Commissioner, boet.

The result would be the immediate permanent suspension of the pilots license. If he flew again without a valid license, he would be prosecuted. I am not making mountains out of molehills, that pilot was plain stupid & could not have chosen a worse time to be in illegal airspace. RVForker & myself have an Explorer project & the ruling is that we cannot overfly built up areas. Ntca, microlight, the rules are the same We both own tca aircraft too. These issues have been discussed on this forum before.

We were gobsmacked that the CEO took the time out to come flying with us in the first place. He also wants to interact more with GA after having experienced the level of discipline that exists in GA from our interaction yesterday. He is also the man who signed off a donation of R40000.00 at the end of last year when we appealed for donations for an orphans flying day.

Visit these threads on avcom in order to get an idea of the bigger picture. I think the only reason the Commissioner did not want to slaughter this pilot is because he is a good man with a vision for the promotion of all forms of aviation.

I am particularly peeved because, personally I went to a lot of trouble to try assist with the search for Neil Calitz, someone I never met in a discipline of flying I have never explored.

We are a band of brothers, who cares whether we fly a broomstick or a Kingair. Flying in a manner that tarnishes aviation gets my blood boiling.

I have not said a word on avcom & I will not either, there are people who would use this stupid scenario to their advantage.

Have a look at this thread & note the starting date & the amount of input given.


http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20310

Then have a look at this thread after the flipping yesterday, from the most powerful person in aviation in this country, then try & find this pilot & talk to him. This is how big the picture is.


http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=22356

[Mogas]

Thank you for the way you are handeling this potentially very damaging incident RV Sometime.
I think we are all fully aware of how this could light the afterburner on the "microlight cowboys" debate.
I hope that the person who was responsible, or his mates see to it that he fronts up and issues some sort of formal admission of guilt to the brass and accepts his dues.
This is just not acceptable behaviour from a member of our branch of sport flying that generally strives to show the ability to largely self regulate.

[RV Sometime]

Thank you for the way you are handeling this potentially very damaging incident RV Sometime.
I think we are all fully aware of how this could light the afterburner on the "microlight cowboys" debate.
I hope that the person who was responsible, or his mates see to it that he fronts up and issues some sort of formal admission of guilt to the brass and accepts his dues.
This is just not acceptable behaviour from a member of our branch of sport flying that generally strives to show the ability to largely self regulate.

Thanks Mogas

One memory that comes to mind immediately is a brilliant experience I had after a trip. I had to hold at RD because of the airshow practice activity before the airshow & I posted on this forum about it but what I did not do properly imho, was to put properly into writing what I saw. I saw a snake of microlights low level between Panorama & Solitude executing the most brilliant formation flight I had ever seen in my life. it was poetry in motion & I had to orbit because of radio congestion into rand. The guys used the leader to make the calls & to see it was fantastic. I did not see the formation flight at Rand because I was dissallowed to be there cos I had not done what the missus required, but absolutely loved the amount of practice that went into the display.

That display commanded respect because of the discipline involved. I could recognise it & would love to fly with pilots who fly like that.

[Robin Hood]

As a MPL, from my side I feel I have to apologise for the behaviour of that moron as well. Thank you for he way you have handled it...

[Biggles]

Not EAA, CEO of SACAA as well as the Commissioner, boet.

Sorry CAA. I am also on AVCOM and followed the thread and organising of a wonderful initiative. Congrats on how smoothly the day ran.

As a MPL, from my side I feel I have to apologise for the behaviour of that moron as well. Thank you for he way you have handled it...

I am going to stir abit here... I feel in no way compelled to apologise for this fellow MPL... nor do I condone brushing things under the carpet. How many GA licenses have been suspended after being reported for a transgretion? I have looked and find no such statistic. I hazard a guess that not many licenses have been suspended except for after accidents/ incidents that have to be reported.

We are self policing, which means that if we do not police ourselves then eventually someone will be forced to start policing us. This goes for all avaition.

[Oddball]

I feel that I have to add something here. I recognize that it is illegal to fly in this area for a NTCA, however, I do not think that this rule always makes a lot of sense.

In terms of an engine failure, microlights, and trikes especially, can land in a very short space, meaning that there would be far less damage, if any.

There is obviously a requirement for such routing and I can say that I have had that requirement; an example: To fly from Panorama to Rietfontein would mean that I would have to fly far west of Johannesburg, then north to somewhere like Tarlton area, then east though Lanseria's area, then south to Rietfontein. This is roughly double the distance that a direct route would take.

If I fly to Rand from Panorama I have to fly over a built up area, but this is allowed (well, it's ambiguous, but it seems that everyone recognises the nessecity of it) so why can I not fly over Johannesburg when flying between Panorama and Riefontein?

To clear my plate, it wasn't me who was flying in this particular sighting, but it may just be because of timing. RV Sometime wrote "that pilot was plain stupid & could not have chosen a worse time to be in illegal airspace". Just as a matter of interest, when would a better time have been?

On the other side of the coin I must also thank you, RV Sometime, for your compliments; I am the lead pilot of the Snake formation that you saw.

I think that sometimes one needs to appy discipline and rules because they make sense, and sometimes, you don't.

Perhaps its not too bad a thing that the CAA saw it all; it certainly demonstrates a need and perhaps a re-think is required.

[RV Sometime]

Hi Oddball

You ask the question about when it would have been a better time to be flying over the cbd, my answer is any time except last saturday :D :D :D

I was chatting to a friend about it last night & the debate was interesting, because I think the legislation is ridiculous, but unfortunately we are supposed to be responsible.

The area between Panorama & Rand is not totally built up which is why I think a blind eye is turned. I sympathise with mirolight pilots & ntca aircraft owners & am taking it up with the CAA later this week. Maybe we can get the legislature changed so that the skies are opened. Watch this space. :D :D :D

[Oddball]

Hey there RV Sometime... :D

Great response- was somewhat concerned that my cheeky comment would be taken up the wrong way

One could perhaps say that it is sparsely occupied around Rand but the reality is that it is going to get more built up around airports and the Panorama/ Rietfontein conundrum, or similar, still exists. A point to raise would be to ask for recognition that microlights are a lot more reliable than they used to be.

Another point to raise would be the present contentious issue around enforcing a (very expensive) 300 hour teardown and re-build of Rotax 2 stroke engines (when we have engines that have operated fault free to over 1000 hours...). You cannot have it both ways; enforcing stricter regulations on engine operation and then still justify not allowing overflights because of reliability issues...

[RV Sometime]

I will raise that point with the CAA as well. The whole reasoning behind taking the CAA for flips was to build bridges & establish firm contacts with the senior management so that these kind of issues can be attended to. The 300 hour issue is extremely valid. If they enforce that to possibly enhance engine reliability, their argument becomes a bit dodgy. I am sure that microlighters would be happy to do the teardown if they were then allowed to overfly built up areas.

[t-bird]

Hi RV

I fly gyros with 914 rotax and tbo - 1500 hours.

I don't see why a Robby R22 will be more reliable than my gyro or cause less damage when coming down in a built up area.

But the Robby's are allowed over built up areas and even landing.

Why not 4 stroke Gyros and Microlights to fly legally over the city?

I am based in Midrand. If I plan a trip to Heidelberg I have to route to Pellindaba , Harties, Tarlton, Bara , Tedder, Kliprivier and then Heidelberg. Or the Pinedine route , one hell of a round trip.

[Dre'man]

Maybe the CAA aren't close enough to Microlights and a similar event should be organised to take them for flips etc and let them interact a little with the ML fraternity. Whether they accept or not should be a good indication of what there perception is of ML's.

[Bennie Vorster]

You stupid idiot!
Don't get caught next time.

:D :D :D