[freetoadventure]

Posted a video on YouTube that I filmed at the Stellenbosch Flying Club 'Oshkosh Fly In'

Trust you guys will enjoy it!

cheers
Mark

[Iceman]

South Africa is the great untouched flying gem as far as most Europeans are concerned. I have only ever flown out of Durban Virginia, but would love to do a full tour off SA and its northern borders. What's the Rand rate doing at the moment ? Flying rates were very attractive when it was 10:1 when I used to frequent Durban on business.

Iceman

[freetoadventure]

Thanks ICEMAN, have explored our borders and the countries beyond, still true adventures to be had ... for my latest check out http://www.freetoadventure.com/video/flying-the-blue-sneak-peak , the exchange rate is now even more in your favour ...£ = R 13.33

[eltonioni]

Agreed. The most magnificent trip I ever did was around the Cape of Good Hope out of Cape Town International.

Graggy peaks with no emergency landing sites? What craggy peaks? Lifejackets? What lifejackets? Great white sharks... etc Would do it again in a heartbeat.

[Irv Lee]

If anyone is around Cape Town area for business or pleasure with a Tuesday evening to spare, Stellenbosch always have a social evening then. To get food on a Tuesday evening you must pre-book in the morning. There are usually other evening with things going on (eg: Thursday sometimes a steak night, but Tuesday is the 'pre-book for food' day). Pleasant friendly place even if you don't have time to actually fly whilst down there.

[BlackheathBloke]

I'm struggling to find anyone in Cape Town that seems to understand the coversion process for my CAA licence.

I am planning to fly extensively there next June, during the World Cup, so might have to bite the bullet and pay these scammers for 5 days 'tuition' !

[Ben]

Nah, I don’t believe that it is possible to fly in S.A.
We were there for 2 weeks and tried to fly 5 times but no luck. Six weeks before arrival we booked an aircraft at George just to be told later on that they have no record of us and that the aircraft was given to someone else.
We booked an aircraft with a private operator on another airfield (about 50 miles towards Capetown) for 2 days later but it rained all day. Then we arrived to Capetown and also drove to Stellenbosch to book an aircraft, took a wrong turn and when we stopped for instructions a driver came from behind and smashed the car, by the time we arrived at the airfield they all went home and there was no one to talk with, only a lone drinker at the bar who tried could not help.

When it was time to leave Capetown to Johannesburg (with Kulula) while they were loading us and refuelling the aircraft the fuel hose detached (from the aircraft) and sprayed the aircraft and the apron with Jet A1, all on board were asked to get off and we were delayed until all was cleaned. Arriving at the Kruger Park we went for an hot air balloon flight but there was no wind, so after 1h in the air we have landed in the next field about 200m from the one that we took off from.

Nah, in S.A they just talk flying but they don’t fly.

Ben

[Irv Lee]

I'm struggling to find anyone in Cape Town that seems to understand the coversion process for my CAA licence.

So try someone in Hampshire - I run a pre-arrival paperwork validation service ! It always saves days, sometimes weeks, after arrival as you are pre-approved by the SA CAA and only need your log book signing by the local CFI to say he/she has given you a flight test and you have passed one of the 2 air law options (see below). Then you are instantly legal without sitting around for days/weeks waiting for the SA CAA to issue your paperwork

I am planning to fly extensively there next June, during the World Cup, so might have to bite the bullet and pay these scammers for 5 days 'tuition' !

I can help there too. It sounds like they are trying to put you through their (difficult) computerised SA PPL air law exam- you don't need that particular exam if you are only there for a vacation rental for under 3 months - the SA PPL Air Law can be substituted with a locally set air law paper relevant to your needs as a visiting pilot. Some clubs don't know this, some clubs don't want to know this as they have a course....
Everyone so far who has needed only the 3 month vacation validation has passed the paper first time after a couple of 'reads' of a booklet I sell for the purpose. If you SA school refuses to set a 'local paper' for the air law, I can recommend a school which will - it's fairly pointless sitting the real SA PPL Air Law - why would you need to know the validity of a SA PPL or a SA medical, you are never going to have one, you're only there for a temporary validation. The 'problem' is that the SA CAA accept either the formal air law exam or the locally set ''relevant' one - so some schools force you through the harder less relevant one