Microlighters

Years ago a wise instructor told me "Beware, Mountains have a nasty way of hiding in cloud".

I finally have proof of it. Caught Table Mountain in the act... fixin to catch some unwary aviator

Fly Safe!

Len

Well done Len... it caught some SAAF guys out a few years ago with tragic consequences!

Table Mountain also has at times awesome examples of Lenticular clouds....

Nou min dae ou maat!

1971 to be exact. Terrible tragedy when three HS-125 Mercurius aircraft flew into Table Mountain.
I remember walking up there with my brother, just above Rhodes Memorial and seeing the carnage. Very sad.

On 26 May 1971, in the run-up to that year' s Republic Day festivities in Cape Town, three SAAF Hawker Siddeley (Murcurius) HS-125(400B's), Registration # 01, 02 & 03 were doing some last minute prep formation flying. Eleven fatalities!

Clouds were low that day and the formation was slight behind their TOT for their practice flight over the Goodwood Show grounds. The flight leader decided to increase their speed in order to make up the time and arrived over the show grounds in a southerly heading. The briefing called for a break to the right after overflying the show grounds for a specified time, ie, towards the mountain. The formation turned right as briefed, but because of their higher speed, the formation was now slightly further south than briefed and the radius of their turn also increased. With the mountain covered by low cloud, it was an accident waiting to happen. (Dean Wingrin)

RIP

Commandant LAS Henning
Major GJ Euvrard
Major N Beetge
Major WA Prinsloo
Major HHAMC Lamoral
Captain D du Plessis Lombard
Lance-Corporal E Hays
Private GH Wassermann
Captain GN Snyman
Major MC de G Genis
Corporal RN Grobler.

Just another reason why flying into clouds can be dangerous!
Reasons:
-You may get disorientated if you don't have the correct instruments
-You don't know if there's another plane in the cloud - i.e. collision
-There could be birds
-Mountains!!

These are just a few reasons!
Where were the pics taken Len?

Ross...

Just a word of caution - you may become disorientated even though you have the correct IF instruments! I use 2 examples of accidents where this happened - John Kennedy & Worsie Visser..... to name but 2.

Correct in assuming you may have a birdstrike inside cloud. Birds do fly in cloud but not for very lengthy periods as they are also "VFR rated" and can also become disorientated. Someone might ask regarding birdstrikes at night and the answer is yes..... THEY DO HAPPEN! For example OWLS & MIGRATING birds operate at night!

There are other dangers such as possible "ICING" that may exist...

So the bottom line is "Steer Clear when Clouds are Near" even though they have this magical and mystical attraction....

Trikenut wrote:Where were the pics taken Len?

They were taken from Sable Road/N1 offramp; Western side of Ratanga Junction, over Ysterplaat AFB.

An accident is the result of a chain of events - a prime example..

John Boucher wrote:On 26 May 1971, in the run-up to that year' s Republic Day festivities in Cape Town, three SAAF Hawker Siddeley (Murcurius) HS-125(400B's), Registration # 01, 02 & 03 were doing some last minute prep formation flying. Eleven fatalities!

Clouds were low that day and the formation was slight behind their TOT for their practice flight over the Goodwood Show grounds. The flight leader decided to increase their speed in order to make up the time and arrived over the show grounds in a southerly heading. The briefing called for a break to the right after overflying the show grounds for a specified time, ie, towards the mountain. The formation turned right as briefed, but because of their higher speed, the formation was now slightly further south than briefed and the radius of their turn also increased. With the mountain covered by low cloud, it was an accident waiting to happen. (Dean Wingrin)

RIP

Commandant LAS Henning
Major GJ Euvrard
Major N Beetge
Major WA Prinsloo
Major HHAMC Lamoral
Captain D du Plessis Lombard
Lance-Corporal E Hays
Private GH Wassermann
Captain GN Snyman
Major MC de G Genis
Corporal RN Grobler.

John Boucher wrote:Ross...

Just a word of caution - you may become disorientated even though you have the correct IF instruments! I use 2 examples of accidents where this happened - John Kennedy & Worsie Visser..... to name but 2.

Correct in assuming you may have a birdstrike inside cloud. Birds do fly in cloud but not for very lengthy periods as they are also "VFR rated" and can also become disorientated. Someone might ask regarding birdstrikes at night and the answer is yes..... THEY DO HAPPEN! For example OWLS & MIGRATING birds operate at night!

There are other dangers such as possible "ICING" that may exist...

So the bottom line is "Steer Clear when Clouds are Near" even though they have this magical and mystical attraction....

Thanks John,
I was planning to put in the IF thing in, but did something for my mum halfway through the post, and when I got back, I forgot!
Even though birds fly though clouds for short periods, if you are in the cloud during the period, you could get hit. Icing is also an issue!
Wow, someone should write a book 'The dangers of clouds'!
Blue skies,