Cross Country of Note

[African Grey]

After some careful planning and blessed with Perfect weather for Saturday and Sunday we had the honour of flying the follwing Cross Country route:

Circus Airfield - Springs - Loskop Dam - Steelpoort - Lissataba (Blyde/Olifantsrivier Concervancy)
RETURN LEG
Lissataba - Blyde River Canyon - Pilgrims Rest - Graskop - Witbank - Circus Airfield.

Total Time: 6.4 Hrs (incl 1 Hr Bush flying in the Hoedspruit Area) Covering a total distance of 595 miles (including a good few orbits in stunning areas) at an average of 93 mph. Fuel burn / 88 L = 13.75/Hr.

Gavin's sister owns a spot in the Blyde Conservancy on the Olifants River and it has been a dream of his to fly to the lodge on his dual X-Country during his licence. I could only afford a one night stop over but will be heading there following a similar route next weekend with a collegue and fellow student.

Hope the pics are not too many - but have to share with you guys. We've still got an awesome country.....and I'm priviledged to be able to this

Pics below:
01 - Gavin and I at Lissataba - (African Grey) on the left "obviously"
02 - On the climb exiting Hoedspruit CTR with MP Beacon in the background
03 - Blyde River Dam / Canyon
04 - A Tight turn in the Canyon (We always has a possible landing spot - even though it may not look like it)
05 - The Lowveld Way - Gavin decanting a "Plastic Bag" of fuel (Also checked there was no dissolving of plastic before decanting)
06 - Just past Graskop in the forest area this waterfall disappeared into the ground
07 - Lodge overlooking the Olifants River (A fresh hippo spoor in the sand ahead discouraged us from walking further towards the reeds on the left)

Thanks Gav and Cheetah912s - ZU-EHY....A priviledge teaching you in a great aircraft.

[African Grey]

Other Pics:

[African Grey]

Last One....

[3wheels]

Hey you buggers........ I go to Cape Town for a few days and look at what you get up to

Great looking trip guys, can't wait to get to the hanger and hear all the details.

[skydancer]

Did you guys manage to stop by at Hoedspruit civil airfield?I was just curious what it looks like,use to do some microlight training there with Leading Edge Flying school,and will never forget that little airfield Great pics! Nice to see the Blyde area again.

[blainec]

Well Well Well , Mr Bird I am suitably impressed , I was beginning to wonder if EHY was ever going to escape the Circus cabbage patch .

Now with that type of fuel consumption and a reasonable speed it must be one of the cheepest ways to enjoy cross countries.Now that you know what fun it is I expect more postings of new fly aways. I must asy after seeing the photo's I miss EHY somewhat.

I finally finished my gyro license yesterday so we can now plan a nice trip together.

I am flying to the Grobblersdal fly in on Thursday 1 May , hope to see you their . Look out for my Gyro reg ZU- EUM.

regards
Blaine

[Morph]

Brilliant,

I really miss my plane

[Lesser_spotted_owl]

Good stuff Gavin n' Russ,

Hell of a x-country, bit more scenic than the other route around Iscor,

see you at the field

[African Grey]

Howsit Skydancer...

Negative on the visit to Hoedspruit Civil...heard a lot of activity from the field while inbound on Saturday. We stayed in the Olifants/Blyde Concervency on the outskirts of the CTR.

Must say though the Lowveld Controllers were great......

As mentioned in the post we had PERFECT weather not a breath of wind nor bump until well past Graskop and inbound for Dullstroom/Walkersons Area.

Rgds

[flybynite]

Pictures looks cool!!

Long flight at 93 mph.


Regards


Larry

[bell406]

I know Gavin and he told me he was doing his MPL and congrats on such an adventurious cross country. But one thing bothers me, was it legal. After all the aircraft must have been well overweight as in 550kg plus which would put it into the PPL catagory. I refer to a post by Mary Stephens on Avcom in Feb 06 2008 where she stated " If the instructor is a MPL instructor, then he/she conducted the training illegally and enforcement action could be taken against him/her."
Would just like to know for the record weather or not this cross country is legal because if not it would then mean that Gavin has wasted his time and money and this sort of thing should not be allowed to carry on.

[Mogas]

A warm welcome to you bell406.
Thats on helluva 1st post!

[German]

[3wheels]

Welcome bell406.

Mogas, there should be some intresting replies coming soon

[John Young]

I know Gavin and he told me he was doing his MPL and congrats on such an adventurious cross country. But one thing bothers me, was it legal. After all the aircraft must have been well overweight as in 550kg plus which would put it into the PPL catagory. I refer to a post by Mary Stephens on Avcom in Feb 06 2008 where she stated " If the instructor is a MPL instructor, then he/she conducted the training illegally and enforcement action could be taken against him/her."
Would just like to know for the record weather or not this cross country is legal because if not it would then mean that Gavin has wasted his time and money and this sort of thing should not be allowed to carry on.

Hi bell406 - welcome.

You are obviously an informed person. However then, as you already know - this whole MPL / RPL / PPL saga is still swaying "to en fro".

As I understand it ....

It is true that the Cheetah, Bush Baby etc. may soon not be classed as MPL - but rather RPL which is still not finalised (months away maybe?).

What are MPL instructors, students and pilots with MAUW exceeding 450kg (but less than 600kg) supposed to do with no alternative in the meantime?

I don't think that "Gavin has wasted his time and money ...." Furthermore, once he completes his MPL and the RPL eventually has force and effect, he will then need to fulfil whatever differences are legislated between MPL and RPL to have his license upgraded.

I don't think that it will be a "big deal". My 2c anyway.

Regards
John