Snake Display team at Vereeniging Airshow:9 September 2007

[Flightstar]

The Snake Microlight Display Team flew their display during the Vereeniging airshow in very difficult windy and hot conditions on Sunday. Five trikes participated in the display, and we should salute the guys for the guts and determination shown during the display.

WELL DONE GUYS!!


It beats me why airshow co-ordinators schedule trike displays during some of the hottest times of day when conditions are testing to say the least.

[Oddball]

Thanks Flightstar!

The conditions were not great; not quite the worst that we have displayed in, but close. There was a 20kt wind with the added thermals at the time.

Just a note; the airshow organiser actually did consider us carefully and gave us the best slot that he had. The show started at 11h00 (or was supposed to anyway) with the parachute drop (isn't that an amazingly huge flag!) and then he had to schedule the Pitts guys as they had to return to Rand to fetch the Havards. He did offer to swop us with them but it would have made 10 mins difference so we stayed as scheduled. He also did not want us between 12h00 and 14h00 as he (correctly) surmised that this would be worse. Lastly he did not want to put us at the end because he was concerned that many of the people would have left because of the 'ruckbie'. So, in the end, it was very gratifying to have the airshow director consider our slot carefully and put us at the best place that he could find. He actually called me to discuss it, so that was good.

Also, at the briefing they stated that if we were not happy to fly they would be fine with this- we had the option to call if off at any time.

Generally these conditions mean that we need to space ourselves out more and be careful when landing- you may have seen us walk the grass next to the runway as we prefered to land on grass in that crosswind. In the air we communicate of course and decide on whether to do the stacked landing, depending on the prevailing conditions- if any one pilot feels uncomfortable then we change the landing.

As a matter of interest, Rand Air Show conditions were a lot worse than those at Vereeniging.

The pilots in the show were:
Jay Hyde
Elio Ferri
Steve Yap
Andreas Hohne
Werner Scheepers

[Flightstar]

Thank you for the information Jay.

Apologies Mr Airshow Co-ordinator