This year the forecast looked a lot better, and as the kids, Rain (3) and Moya (5) have done quite a bit of flying with us, we decided to take them with. They were very keen and could not sleep the previous night. Getting them up at 05:00 in the morning was no problem.
Lucy, one of the fabulous female flyers from La Mercy, was on the camera, and captured some of the beautiful memories for us to keep...
Getting ready, early in the morning. 8 trikes from La Mercy, including 2 students, Raz and Jan.
The kids were first to get on the planes, and they just wanted to go. Moya went with me, Rain with her dad. All strapped up, warm and excited.
The flight was gorgeous as ever. But a head-wind. It was slow going, and Zulu1 kept on teasing us with "have found a tailwind at 1500', Zinkwazi. Have you guys got a tail wind as well" No. We have a head wind. After sending pilots to all altitudes from 500' - 3500' to look for Zulu1's tailwind, we finally caught up to the fact that we were all (him included), flying into a 20kt headwind
Razz tucked under his lovely Aeros wing.
Moya and Mommy on the way up. He loved it. But after about 20min into the 2 hour 20min journey, kept asking "are we there yet?". I kept on pointing to hills and smoke on the horizon, telling him " can you see that, its just past that hill / smoke" But he still loved it. Sang to me zulu songs all the way (I think Zulu is his first language :D )
About 1 hour from Empangeni, my skygod asked me if I thought to put a nappy on Rain. I'm not sure how I would have convinced the 3-year old lady to do that, so the answer was clearly no. Did not need to ask why he was asking. By now we had broken into 2 gaggles, and my skygod had to land on the beach with sky-princess urgently. Most were relying on him to show us where to go, so while they were on the beach, everyone started a game of student - dodging between 500 - 1500' overhead. Everyone circling to wait for David.
Seconds after they touched down on the beach, a parksboard official with a clip-board came over. David explained to him why they landed, and he bought it, as there were 7 trikes orbiting overhead, and a little girl, by now in tears. Rain was not impressed with the lack of privicy, and could not "go", so it was tears all the way to Empangeni.
The flight was stunning though, and the hospitality there brilliant. We all tucket into the rolls, coffee and rusks, and met up with so many lovely flying folk.
The way back was equally eventfull. Turbulence along the Mtinzini beach can be horrible. No matter what the wind direction... its bumpy
Throw two students with a 15-20kt NE, and you have an interesting mix. I took Rain with me, and Moya went with his dad on the return journey. There were some problems with one of the students' magnetos, and David spent some time fixing the problem on the ground. I decided to head off, as little Rain was getting tired now (its about 11:00 already). Before I change frequency, I just hear Raz on 124.8 to my skygod : "Dawie, the turbulence here is really F*$% me up". :D I had such a giggle at that :D Rain fell asleep in my back seat, but only after singing "Twinke twinke little star" about 10 times. She woke up 30min later, and from there we saw whale sharks
, dolphins and had a Yak 52 nearly take us out the sky (although she just though it was nice to see a big plane up close )After the last guys landed, I only heard the rest of the story. Moya was very proud that they had landed on the beach... He was glad that it was not just his sister who got the chance. But the reason for it...
One of the students called " David" David says " Ja Jan" student goes " Dave I got a engine-out" 500' over these trees
Calm instructor, calm student and he was talked down safely to land on the beach. Carb icing. Got it going again uneventfully. As they safely got off the beach, Razz goes "Dawie, my temps reading 120degrees" . 10 nerve-wrecking minutes later... faulty instrument. Oh well... all in a day's work
Great lessons all round. Could write a book about the stuff we experience with our little flying machines.
