Has my little guy have a flying surprise coming up

[James Bentley]

One of the very best days I have ever had flying wise, was a Young Eagles Day at Cato Ridge about 12 years ago

At the time I had my Grumman AA1A and flew a bunch of aspiring aviators around the patch.

It was such a rewarding experience to see the delight on their faces after landing

The weather was also one of those magical days which added to the great atmosphere

Now, if only my sons would enjoy flying as much as I do

[slysi]

That's what it is all about ... making those eyes light up and the grin extending from ear to ear.

My 12 year old had a similar experience in a Zlin 526F doing the full aerobatic experience too - he was stoked!

Well done RV

Hey Sox, do you own the 526, I knew the aerie well cos I was in the same hangar & chatted at length to the ame who was working on her at the time a few years back, lovely aerie. LON if my memory serves me correctly.

He wishes he owned it

[Sox]

That's what it is all about ... making those eyes light up and the grin extending from ear to ear.

My 12 year old had a similar experience in a Zlin 526F doing the full aerobatic experience too - he was stoked!

Well done RV

Hey Sox, do you own the 526, I knew the aerie well cos I was in the same hangar & chatted at length to the ame who was working on her at the time a few years back, lovely aerie. LON if my memory serves me correctly.

He wishes he owned it

RV ... I'm in the fortunate position to know one of the owners very well, so when he is back from doing airline shifts and wants some stick time he usually phones me up and I jump in with my camera. She is really great aerie.

Slysi ... just because you have to ask your boss for time off is the reason you haven't cracked the nod!

[Tumbleweed]

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[RV Sometime]

hey, I'm loving this thread, too little time this morning to post photos, wilco tomorrow, my little guy is flying Gogas 210 this morning from central to rand. We are involved in the orphans day. I would have loved flying the twinco, must hurry up the convex.

[Sox]

My 12 year old had a similar experience in a Zlin 526F doing the full aerobatic experience too - he was stoked!

Marc in ZS-WTA

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[Wart]

RV we are waiting for the pics and the whole story!!

[RV Sometime]

Sorry boet, it was a whirlwind weekend as is usual when I have my kids, started with the flying on friday afternoon, fetching my car from Lanseria, 2 hungry kids, running into a friend of mine who works for Safomer with one of her friends who I have chatted to many times, involved with the magazines, late evening, flying the orphans on saturday morning through to saturday evening, big late party at home & spending the afternoon on sunday with one of the hooligan mates. I did over 500km in schlepping too cos the little guy also had a bday party on saturday evening.

Here are the pics.

This one was taken when we arrived at Lanseria. Lex is a very close friend of Gogas. The kids knew instantly that something was up when I collected them from school. I had an rv grin & they knew we were doing something special. It was game over when they started seeing the road signs on the way to Lanseria. They thought we were going down to my holiday home & I told them nope cos my aerie is Grand Central based, we were just collecting some spares for Goga. When we got onto the apron, my little guys jaw dropped, it was the first time he had seen a kingair up close & personal.

[RV Sometime]

Then we piled into the aerie & got my boytjie into the right hand seat. You can just see the pillows we put on the seat to elevate him enough to see over the brow. He was full of questions about all the instruments, he is not used to so many, my aerie is full if panel including a hsi, garmin 430, stormscope etc, but nothing as sophisticated as this panel. Gogas 200 is his baby & is incredibly well equipped. He had just had a hot section inspection done, costing in excess of usd 65k, scary stuff & so far out of my leauge, not even funny.

[RV Sometime]

The aircraft is configured as a 10 seater & Lex's sons came with us. This pic is of a wide eyed little gal who has not flown with me since we flew into a vicious sandstorm 3 years ago in my beloved 235, DED.

[RV Sometime]

We got airborne & Goga slowed her down to 180 kts because she becomes extremely sensitive to manual control inputs above 230kts. He would have been intimidated but he did a sterling job. You can almost feel the level of concentration when he had control.

[RV Sometime]

We flew out to the Hekpoort valley & Rietfontein, Demon & the Rietfontein gang will know exactly where we were.

Note the ah & the angle of bank, steeper than a steep turn, the little guy did not lose more than 200 feet, I was very proud of him.

[RV Sometime]

Alas, it was over too soon, we phoned my ex to ask her to come outside to see my boytjie orbiting over his home in Northcliff. He did a single orbit which had a 5 mile radius because of the speeds involved & the physical inertia of the aerie. This photo is as we were coming to the approach for Grand Central. It was all over within 15 minutes. In a trike this flight would have been 2 hrs plus endurance & would have cost 5% of the cost purely of the jetA1, an awesome experience but one which makes me more resolved to buy my trike. This aircraft costs in excess of R9k per hr to run, I was very grateful that I was not picking up the tab for the flying. Thanks Goga, you know the impact you had with inviting us to fly with you on Friday, I cannot describe my sons feelings enough, suffice to say that he just crashed on Friday evening, he sleeps with me when I have the kids & he had a huge smile on his face whilst sleeping, I knew exactly what he was dreaming that evening

I run my home as a commune & my tenants are a great bunch of hooligans & then after the kids were sleeping, we partied until 03h30 saturday morning & got up at 06h30 to get the kids prepared for saturdays flying, naturally, I could not possibly have flown myself, I had a bit of a hangover

[RV Sometime]

Here Goga & my boytjie are hauling the 210 across to the pumps at Grand Central to prep for the orphans day on Saturday.

[RV Sometime]

Here we at the holding point for 35 at Central on saturday morning. I got selfish cos I wanted to fly a bit & made a deal with my boytjie that he could fly back later from Rand to Central. We flew formo with this Cherokee 6 to Rand. Obviously, with me having a babelaas Goga had control to remain legal.