Sorry,
Connotation to "coffin "implied shape of fusilage and claustrophobic space only.
Apologies if offended.
Why did you start to fly?
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Tumbleweed
- Toooooo Thousand
- Posts: 2349
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:14 pm
- Location: FASC
Aviation has always been a general interest, almost 7 years ago while "working" I came across otto.co.za/micro and saw a pic of Hartes in the mist! WOW! It was hi res too. I then did tonns of more "work" and realised my salary would have to increase a great deal.
After a trip last year to Lesotho and dreaming of how cool it would be to fly these mountains (thanks again to otto's Drakensberg pics...) I decided to enrol where I'd had my intro 7 years earlier.
I can honestly say if it weren't for Demon's website I wouldn't be flying today. Thanks Demon
. And this is why it's so important to keep posting stunning pics and videos. I don't get jealous just new ideas!
After a trip last year to Lesotho and dreaming of how cool it would be to fly these mountains (thanks again to otto's Drakensberg pics...) I decided to enrol where I'd had my intro 7 years earlier.
I can honestly say if it weren't for Demon's website I wouldn't be flying today. Thanks Demon
. And this is why it's so important to keep posting stunning pics and videos. I don't get jealous just new ideas!
It was 1966 and I was in standard seven. I got a book on flying out of the library and saw a cut-away drawing of a Hawker Hunter with the pilot in it. It was love at first sight. I would spend hours looking at that picture and imagining myself as the pilot. At the time I was 15. On weekends, I would go to Youngsfield where the Cape Aero Club was situated at the time and look at the aeries. No mullah for lessons though, so flying remained just a dream.
After five years of Aeronautical Engineering at Wits, I returned to Cape Town in 1976. In 1977 I went for hang gliding lessons and in 1978 I finally bought my first pride and joy – a second-hand Rogallo wing with a bucket seat and a 4:1 glide ratio which I flew regularly from Klein Leeukop in Hout Bay to Sandy Bay. I must admit that after a while, I got gatvol of carting this 25kg monstrosity up mountains for a quick fuffy slide
so in 1978 I discovered the famous (or infamous) invention the Weedeater which I promptly proceeded to attach to the root tube of the Rogallo with a small pusher prop sticking out the back. I could not get the wing to take off from a level field (which was the whole idea in the first place) but it more than doubled the glide ratio. 
Marriage, career, kids and more kids put flying ambitions in the back burner until one day in 1984 while driving on the freeway between Pietermaritzburgh and Durban, I happened to see a MAC-CDL flying overhead. Couldn’t sleep that night. The very next day I enrolled for ML lessons at Cato Ridge. Halfway through the course the instructor disappeared. By that time I had already purchased my first aerie so early one Saturday morning I went solo by myself. That first aerie was a Ron Wheeler Scout. It had more in common with a yacht than with an aircraft. Essentially it was two yacht mast stuck together on a root tube with an engine in front. Flying it was hairy (to put it very mildly) so before long I purchased my first CDL. I still fly the same type (my latest is currently undergoing repairs in my garage).
I can honestly say that no other activity gives me greater pleasure than piloting my own aircraft. I love flying. I live to fly. :D
After five years of Aeronautical Engineering at Wits, I returned to Cape Town in 1976. In 1977 I went for hang gliding lessons and in 1978 I finally bought my first pride and joy – a second-hand Rogallo wing with a bucket seat and a 4:1 glide ratio which I flew regularly from Klein Leeukop in Hout Bay to Sandy Bay. I must admit that after a while, I got gatvol of carting this 25kg monstrosity up mountains for a quick fuffy slide
so in 1978 I discovered the famous (or infamous) invention the Weedeater which I promptly proceeded to attach to the root tube of the Rogallo with a small pusher prop sticking out the back. I could not get the wing to take off from a level field (which was the whole idea in the first place) but it more than doubled the glide ratio. Marriage, career, kids and more kids put flying ambitions in the back burner until one day in 1984 while driving on the freeway between Pietermaritzburgh and Durban, I happened to see a MAC-CDL flying overhead. Couldn’t sleep that night. The very next day I enrolled for ML lessons at Cato Ridge. Halfway through the course the instructor disappeared. By that time I had already purchased my first aerie so early one Saturday morning I went solo by myself. That first aerie was a Ron Wheeler Scout. It had more in common with a yacht than with an aircraft. Essentially it was two yacht mast stuck together on a root tube with an engine in front. Flying it was hairy (to put it very mildly) so before long I purchased my first CDL. I still fly the same type (my latest is currently undergoing repairs in my garage).
I can honestly say that no other activity gives me greater pleasure than piloting my own aircraft. I love flying. I live to fly. :D
ZS-VFZ
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