Monthly Archives: November 2017
Just Love Mission The Journey of Little Annie
Just Love Mission by Jarryd
Just Love Mission The Journey of Little Annie
The Antonov An-2 ,Russian nickname: “Annushka” or “Annie”; “kukuruznik” – corn crop duster; USAF/DoD reporting name Type 22 NATO reporting name Colt,is a Soviet mass-produced single-engine biplane utility/agricultural aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design Bureau beginning in 1946. Its remarkable durability, high lifting power, and ability to take off and land from poor runways have given it a long service life. The An-2 was produced up to 2001 and remains in service with military and civilian operators around the world. The AN2 is the worlds largest single engine bi-plane.
The Just Love Mission is a charity non profit organization aimed at aviation fraternity, The Hill family who reside in the east of Pretoria South Africa, have a very special family member. This family member never moans or fights with her sister, brother or parents. Her name is Little Annie she recently just turned 30 years old a couple of months ago and each day she gets stronger and stronger.
Mark Hill an ex SAAF Chopper and Fixed wing pilot who went solo in a Harvard 7673 on the 19th November 1981 at the then AFB Dunnottar who he spent with many other delightful pupes known as the Central Flying School.aviation
enthusiast Gary Price suggested the AN-2 as the ideal aircraft type to reach rural areas with
unconventional landing space,especially some of the rugged terrain in Southern Africa.when a personal friend, Mr. Niall Olver, CEO of Execujet Global, he then discussed the idea
with his friend and business associate Mr. Andrei Martirosov, CEO of UTair in Russia ,
that this dream was realized and ratified on condition that “Little Annie” was to
be flown from Siberia to Cape Town as part of the ocean to ocean theme.
The An2 flew all the way from Tyumen (Siberia) to Cape Town and then back to Pretoria, where she now lives at Wonderboom National Airport in Pretoria. Using 19 500 liters and 470 liters of oil on the whole trip, Little Annie got to see some of the most beautiful countries on the trip down to South Africa.
The An2 is used on an outreach program to communities who are not able to get up close and personal with aviation. They give communities hope that they too may achieve their respective dreams in flying in an aircraft and influencing youngsters to become pilots in the near future, by doing this many communities have made Little Annie a great mentor and still follow her on her African Journey and meeting great people along the way.
Little Annie has become a very fond participant both at Airshows and Air Races around South Africa. She performs very gentle Maneuvers and is a great asset to the Skydivers and their jump ship at airshows. She has preformed at the smaller airshows and to the international airshow including AAD at AFB Waterkloof ,both Botswana airshows and Race for Rhinos. Jon Marc Hill who is Mark Hill son,recently obtained his Display rating at the Polokwane Airshow in October.
If you would like to contact Little Annie on their website www.littleannie.co.za and find them on Facebook at Annie Hill.
More Photos , Click to enlarge
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Langebaanweg Airshow, what to expect!
Langebaanweg Airshow, what to expect!
Langebaanweg Airshow, what to expect!
With just over a week to go till what is to be the most awaited airshow of 2017.
It’s the last Airshow for the Year 2017, the 2nd SAAF hosted airshow for the year, the other being SAAF Museum airshow that was held in May earlier this year and then the 1st Airshow in the Western Cape since 2015 that was at Stellenbosch. The last open day for the public at AFB Langebaanweg was in 1995 during the 75th anniversary of the South African Air force. The Silver Falcons have had the opportunity to dazzle crowds all over the country, but rarely the opportunity to showcase its Pride, Passion and Precision at their home base. Due to the unique location of this Air Show, it allows for certain unique displays that would not necessarily feature at other Air Shows around the country. This makes it one show not to miss.
This Air show would allow the SAAF to celebrate a significant milestone with Pride. An Air show planned and executed by the AFB Langebaanweg entirely to allow the greater public the experience the professionalism and pride that we have for the SAAF. It would allow the public to experience the Passion that we have for our Air Force and serving our Country, and through this Air show inspire confidence in our Air Force and provide a platform for the youth to commit to serving their Country as well. This Air show will provide a platform to showcase our Precision. Showcasing our Aircraft operated in a professional manner and in such ways as to highlight our exemplary training and professional members.
Ample Parking is available and Disabled parking with Golf Cart Shuttle available to the display area for those in need.
The Gates open at 07:00 and show starts at 09:00 and is expected to come to an end with the Gripen Breaking the Sound barrier at about 17:00. Read more…
What to bring along, Sunscreen and a Hat, camping chair or a blanket to sit on and Picnic baskets are welcome, however many Food and soft drink vendors will be onsite! A Beer garden will also be onsite for those a bit thirstier! ATM facilities will be available. We do recommend to bring cash, as at an Airshow cash is always King and to avoid long lines at the ATM’s.
Silver Falcons Team 81 for this 50th Anniversary show is:
Major Wendy ‘Electra’ Badenhorst
Major Corné ‘Stilbo’ van Deventer
Major Mark ‘Katana’ Gentles
Major Sivu ‘Sivuple’ Tangana
Major Omphile ‘Biggy’ Mutloane
Major Bheki ‘Swaziboy’ Shabangu
Read more on the Silver Falcons
View full Airshow Program here
The following is a list of the various aircraft that are confirmed to take part in this Air Show:
SAAF Aircraft:
3 X Oryx (Static, Flying and Backup)
1 X Lynx
4X Hawk (Static, Flying and Backup)
7X Gripen (Static, Flying and Backup)
2 X C208/1 X C212
2 X C47TP
1 X C130BZ
6 X Silver Falcons
18 X Astra’s (PC7’s)
2X Rooivalk(Static, Flying and Backup)
Civilian Aircraft:
Puma Flying Lions – 4 X Harvard
Raptors 4 X RV 7/8/9
Nashua Extra 300LP
Mango B737-800
Neville Ferreira Slick 540
Impala ZU-IMP Impala
Mother City Skydiving Jump Platform Required
AMSRCC 7 x RC Aircraft
Team Extreme 4 x Cirrus/Extra 300
Little Annie AN-2
CTFC TBC Static
Working on Fire AT802/C206/Huey
Robin Cross 6 X Static Display
CTFTC DV20 Static + Air
SFC (C152+C172) 2 X Static Display
AMScor EC145 Static + Air
Below is a photos of all the Aircraft to fly at this wonderful Langebaan Airshow 2017!
Photo’s from various photographers with the SAAFMPC group and Team Aviation Central members!
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Swartkop Warbirds fly-in
Swartkop Warbirds fly-in
25 and 26 November saw the Military Radio Control club annual Warbirds fly-in at Swartkop Air Force base. Warbirds was to be on Saturday and Civilian Aircraft on Sunday, However the much needed rain prevented any flying on the Saturday. Sunday was a perfect weather day for any sort of flying, including Radio Control. Not many aircraft turnout for the fly in, most likely due to pilots thinking the entire event was cancelled due to Saturday’s heavy rain. The show organized by Lieutenant Colonel Gert de Klerk and the Military Radio Control flying club
First in the air was Wesie with Lockheed P-38 Lightning twin, what an amazing aircraft this is.
Lockheed P-38 Lightning
Next was Local boy Pierre Le Roux with his Bell JetRanger III, Pierre put this Jetranger thru its paces with almost perfect flying.
Bell JetRanger III
Pierre was followed by Arno Janz in his Red Bull Yak 55, Not his is an powerful Airplane, powered by a 210cc four stroke engine!
Red Bull Yak 55
This was followed by Arno with his RV4 and Wesie with P38, spoiling us with two aircraft in the sky!
This was followed by the ‘Red Baron’ a Super Stearman powered by a Laser 360 build and flown by Humphrey Le Grice, Now she is a Beaut!
Red Baron
Next up, BAE hawk flown by Dirk Visser.
BAE Hawk
Direct after the BAE Hawk it was once a gain Dirk Visser with a Playboy F14 Tomcat, Twin turbine and sweepback wings! After struggling to get the right-hand engine going all systems was go for this amazing Radio Control airplane to fly.
Playboy F14 Tomcat
Next up was the Star of the day with young, 8 year old Ger-Drie de Beer with his Extra 330LP powered by a 60cc Twin Engine, Can this youngster fly! Take-off was immediately followed by a 1/4 Rolling circle, some stunning aerobatics and low-level flying. Die Seun mag maar vlieg!
Ger-Drie
Young Ger-Drie was followed by with his American levy Yak 55, once again some excellent flying routine.
American levy Yak 55
Lastly we saw Dirk Visser in is Airwolf like chopper, what a lovely Chopper this is!
Click to view large photo!
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The Show must go on!
The Show must go on!
3rd June 2017, It’s the Newcastle Airshow KZN 2017 and Ivan Van Der Schaar gets into his Boeing Stearman as his slot in the show get close. The Stearman does not want to start and on investigating Ivan found out that the Starter motor of the Stearman had packed up. They start phoning around and then Riaan Kamffer from Secunda could help him out with a replacement.
Next problem, the starter needs to be fetched from Secunda that is about 190km away. Derek Hopkins volunteered to fly up to go and fetch the starter, but once again, this option was not that simple as Derek had to do the Glider Tug for Gary Whitecross’ display. So, Neville Ferreira Aerobatics then took the Glider Tug job over form Derek. Okay, now that the starter was found, Derek set off
to Secunda while Neville doing the Glider tug. All that was needed was the field technical assistance, although Ivan had the skills, he could do with help on emergency field repairs skills. The Silver Falcons Aerobatic Team support crew saw the need for help and immediately jumped in to assist Ivan with the replacement.
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So, in the end Ivan got to fly his Boeing stearman at the Newcastle Airshow 2017 as the closing slot and this also being the top slot for any airshow!
This just show how dedicated the South African Airshow pilots and Support crews are to the Airshow industry. Well-done to all that was involved in Helping Ivan on his day in need to let The Show Go On!
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Gripen to break sound barrier at Langebaan Airshow
Langebaan Airshow -By Jarryd Sinovich **Please register on our site to leave your comments!
See it – Hear it – Feel it
Gripen to go supersonic at Langebaan Airshow 2017
The Langebaan Airshow 2017 does not carry the theme “See it, Hear it and Feel it” without reason, if all goes according to plan a SAAF Gripen set to break the sound barrier at this Amazing and well organized airshow, Something that is overdue in the Western Cape for many years! This Show celebrates the 50th Birthday of the South African Air Force’s Silver Falcons Aerobatic Team! #seeithearitfeelit
The Aviation Central Formation, Gripen and Falcons
The sound barrier or sonic barrier is a popular term for the sudden increase in aerodynamic drag and other effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches supersonic speed. Aircraft first began to be able to reach close to supersonic speed an these effects were seen as constituting a barrier making supersonic speed very difficult or impossible.
Gripen near the point of breaking the sound barrier
This will be the first time the Gripen will be breaking the sound barrier in front of the South African public at an airshow all in conjunction with the Silver Falcons Aerobatic Teams 50th Anniversary airshow being held at AFB Langebaanweg airshow on the 9 December.
This is the first airshow in the Western Cape since 2015. We are certain the crowds are in for a treat with an crowd favorite the proudly South African made Rooivalk will also be on display.The Rooivalks are based at 16 Squadron Air force base Bloemfontein.
7 Gripen Formation at Roodewal
4 x Hawk at Roodewal
The Organizers got given 7 Gripens and 4 Hawks, this airshow should not be missed and we have not been given an indication on how many will be Static, Backup and Flying. (Please note that this can change as per decisions by SAAF HQ)
A list of other Aircraft to attend this Airshow:
To view full program click here
SAAF
Denel Rooivalk
Pilatus PC-7 Mk II Silver Falcons
Pilatus PC-7 Mk II
Atlas Oryx
Westland Super Lynx
Agusta A109
Bae Hawk MK120
Saab Jas 39C/D Gripen
Cessna C208
Casa C212
Douglas C-47TP
Lockheed C-130BZ
Civilian
Harvard, Puma Flying Lions
RV7, RV8, RV9, Raptors
Aero L-39 Albatros
Extra 300, Nashua
Boeing 737-800, Mango
Slick 540, Neville Ferreira
Atlas Impala Mk1
Radio-Controlled Aircraft, AMSRCC
Cirrus And Extra 300, Team Extreme
Antonov An-2, Little Annie
Huey, AT-802 And Cessna C206, WOF
Diamond DV20 Katana, CTFTC
Eurocopter EC145, AMS
Skydiving, Mother City Skydiving
Static displays of aircraft and classic cars
Aviation Central‘s Flippie and Jarryd will be attending this show!
Heads-on with Gripen, Polokwane Airshow
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Large Scale Aerobatic Champs Howick 4th & 5th November 2017
Large Scale Aerobatic Champs Howick 4th & 5th November 2017
Large Scale Aerobatic this weekend was at the Howick Model Flying Club which is situated in the Natal Midlands, just off the R617 Rd in the town of Howick,the town is more commonly known for Howick falls and for the Midmar Mile held at Midmar dam during the year.HMFC is an RC club flying everything from electric to gas,gliders,helicopters and aircraft. A radio controlled aircraft is a small flying machine that is controlled remotely by an operator on the ground using a hand-held transmitter .
On the weekend of the 4th & 5th of November saw the Large scale Aerobatics Championships held at the field, with some great weather and an awesome atmosphere between spectators, pilots and the organizers. Rc aerobatic aircraft ranging from 30cc to the bigger 150cc models were put through their aerobatic paces. There were category’s the pilots fall under that being the Freestyle up to the Advanced category’s the pilots flew.
It was fantastic to watch and be part of CMC Hobbies which are based nearby in the town of Hilton, who offer a great spread of Rc hobbies to the South African public. To the private generous individuals and LSA South Africa who were present, the clubs chairman Clive and his team of organizers on a safe a successful event.
Aviation Central looks forward to visiting the club again soon ,hopefully with more members, who can also taste the world of Rc flying in Natal. Thanks to all who were not mentioned we gladly appreciated your hard work being placed in this sport. To all the participants well done on your achievements. If you need any info on this Club or future events, please contact Clive on 0735007177 or clive@cmchobbies.co.za 
View photos from the Gauteng Large Scale Aerobatic Champs
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Advertising opportunity for Aviation Events
Advertising opportunity for Aviation Events
We are excited to announce that we will be making out Facebook cover image space available for organisers to promote their event on Aviation Central.
Aviation Central (AC) is a Facebook page that mainly focus on the promotion of Airshows, Air Races, Fly-ins and Radio Control events in South Africa and some of our neighbouring countries.
We endeavour to bring as much news and updates to our 27 000 and growing supporters, and our page attracts over 19 000 unique Facebook users daily.
AC has the most likes, followers, and page views on Facebook than any other active aviation related Facebook pages (including magazines) in Southern Africa, with the exception of airlines.
Our target audience is mostly the non-aviation professional who don’t always have time to search for events, and who brings their friends or family to airshows for the day and the plane spotters standing behind high airports walls to catch a glimpse of arriving and departing aircraft or just the guy looking up into the sky each time a plane goes by.
Over the years we have also build up relationships with event organisers and the countries display pilots and keep up with their every move.
With our ever-growing audience, we want to keep them informed about events as we receive information, therefore we require show and event organisers to keep up updated with calendars, posters, and any other news and highlights of upcoming events.
In order for us to help you promote and report on your event, we also have costs to cover so we decided to make our Cover image space available at a small cost.
The cover image is a prime spot on any Facebook page and it’s available for rent to organizers of aviation events ONLY.
The rest of our event promoting, all remains as is and FREE.
The cost will be linked to peak airshow season, mid and low seasons.
To see for yourself go to www.facebook.com/AviationSA
Below is an example what the page would like with the Langebaan show poster.
Our Cover image can be yours. Each day is from 7am till the next day 7am and is on a first-come-first-serve base!
Some quick facts form Facebook statistics on Aviation Central – September 2018
- Number of people who saw any of our Page posts (unique users) 289253
- Number of people who saw Page posts in news feed or ticker, or on our Page’s timeline (unique users) 22137
- Number of impressions that came from all of our posts (total count) 2130149
- Number of times users saw posts via stories published by their friends (total count) 2935248
- Daily: Number of people who have seen any content associated with our Page (unique users) 38624
For more information please email Lettie at admin@aviationcentral.co.za
Regards
Flippie van Emmenis
Team Lead and Owner
Aviation Central
0812704430
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Radial Breakfast Fly inn 2017-11-11
Radial Breakfast Fly inn 2017-11-11
Brakpan airfield situated in the south east rand is home to the Brakpan aero club which was established in 1953.The field is 17km from from Or Tambo International airport and is in the middle of many sounding metros.The new renovated club house a favorite for its new lounge, pub ,braai and pool facilities.
On the 11th of November saw the Radial Breakfast Fly, many aircraft flew in from around Johannesburg area. While many aircraft that are based at the field were out and about, allowing the public and visiting public to admire their aircraft.
Photo Bennie Henning
The field is home to a rare warbird that will hopefully be gracing the skies of South Africa one day, a sky raider which is being rebuilt to flying condition. The project has so much interesting information to view and was a definite had to view on the day.
The event was planned by Ivan and Sonica Van Der Schaar,They have recently just become new residents at the field after being based at Petit for quite some time. Ivan is a airshow regular which he displays his Boeing Stearman and Pitts S2A.They have also recently purchased the airfields B&B.We look forward staying over a night or two soon.
Some interesting aircraft flew in on the day including the only one of its example flying in South Africa, the PAC MFI-17 Mushshak which is a Pakistan built training aircraft, flown in by Jon Marc Hill and owner Hilton Wolf.
Resident Gordyne Dyne flew his Nanchang CJ-6A,very similar to the Russian built yak52,where 2 examples were present on the day.
The theme being a radial fly inn, the day saw three Boeing Stearmans at the field including Ivan Van Der Schaars machine. The other two examples flew in from the near by Fly Inn Estate.A lone Waco flown in by Nico van Staden from the Hekpoort Valley airfield near Brits was a great surprise.
The Fly inn was a great success and a great turnout. We salute you Ivan and Sonica and the Brakpan Aero Club. We look forward to many more great events at the Brakpan Airfield in the future.
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SAAF Museum Flying Day 2017-11-04
SAAF Museum Flying Day November 2017 by Jarryd Sinovich
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Airshow of the Year 2017
