By Garth Calitz
The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) organized a Safety Weekend at Airspan Executive Airport, pulling out all the stops to ensure a memorable occasion. The weekend was filled with activities, featuring insightful speakers and enjoyable flying events.
The weekend began on Friday with anticipated arrivals throughout the afternoon. However, as has become common for weekend fly-ins since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, there were unfortunately very few arrivals. Most participants prefer to come on Saturday morning instead of staying for the entire weekend, usually departing after breakfast.
Those who took the initiative to participate with the regulator in this event enjoyed a delightful braai, followed by a "Hangar talk" around the campfire with esteemed panellists from both military and civilian aviation sectors. In a very open and informal setting, Sally Fleck interviewed Juba Joubert, Charlie Marais, Neil de Lange, and Johan Lottering. The Entire CAA GA team were present throughout the weekend for a chat and to answer any questions that may have needed clarification.
Saturday morning arrived with high hopes that the turnout would be better than the previous day, sadly the anticipated numbers didn't materialize even with Skeerpoort Verspreiders offering Avgas at only R22.00 per litre. South African Power Flight Association (SAPFA) had organised a mini navigation rally as well as a spot landing competition, sadly both were cancelled as there were no entrants. Local pilots from Silver Creek, which is only a few minutes away from Airspan, made up the bulk of the visitors that flew in and enjoyed the wonderful breakfast, they were joined by a few aircraft from Brits and Krugersdorp.
A full day of activities was planned sadly some of the participants cancelled at very short notice. The South African Model Aircraft Association (SAMAA) were slotted to introduce their sport to the visitors but unfortunately cancelled along with a scheduled Gyrocopter display by the South African Gyro Plane Association (SAGPA). Negativity aside, The Sport Aerobatic Club of South Africa (SAC) did make an appearance with both Jason Beamish and Gareth Gill displaying the skill and discipline that is a necessity in competition aerobatics.
Airshow South Africa (ASSA) was well represented by both the Aircraft Inc. Navion Formation Display Team and Jason Beamish explaining the intricacies and dangers of “Crazy Flying” in the locally built and designed Orion Cub. Crazy Flying has become a crowd-pleaser at air shows, it normally starts with an “intoxicated” person “stealing” an aircraft and taking to the air, flying very erratically and creating the appearance that he is about to crash throughout the display.
The afternoon and evening schedule was filled with engaging presentations from well-informed and highly qualified speakers. John Comely's presentation on surviving a forced landing was particularly enlightening and is a must-see if you haven't experienced it before. Megan Stevenson, the founder and CEO of Infinite Aviation, gave a fascinating talk on Skill Acquisition and Skill Fade, a phenomenon that affects all pilots at some point.
Ex-SAAF pilot and highly acclaimed instructor Charlie Marais opened some eyes with his presentation on how pilots dig their own pitfalls by creating favourable situations to facilitate distractions, titled “Distraction to Destruction”. Highly respected career instructor David Conradie highlighted how flight training has changed with the different demographic and new student profiles, including the challenges and opportunities which present themselves.
Llewellyn Janse van Rensburg from Udrako Aviation and All About Drones addressed a very sensitive topic amongst traditional pilots, general drone safety and safe drone operations. Karen Mathews from ATNS gave a very insightful talk on the dos and don’ts of radio work, her talks normally result in a few pilots realising they have been doing things slightly wrong forever.
On a personal note, I feel that the Aero Club missed a huge opportunity to meet all the role players from the CAA in a very casual atmosphere and give the CAA staff insight into what recreational aviation was all about. I firmly believe that relationships forged in an informal setting can help “grease the wheels” in formal negotiations in future. The CAA went all out to put together a wonderful weekend and it was rather sad to see the poor turnout from the GA community, I do understand there was another rather large aviation event that clashed with this one but it was an opportunity to rid the industry of the “Us and Them” culture that is hindering progress.
A huge shout-out to the CAA and Creative Space Media for organizing such an engaging and enjoyable event. From the speakers to the catering, everything was top-notch. Well done, everyone! Hopefully, the next event will receive the support it deserves.
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