It's a dirty job, but...

[CBLong]

I'm off to South Africa at the beginning of April, for a three week holiday. We'll be in Cape Town for a week or so. Naturally, being a pilot and all, I'm definitely planning a trip to Thunder City (http://www.thundercity.co.za) . I've just about convinced myself that it's worth spending $3,500 for a trip in one of their Hunters.... but I'm also horribly close to convincing myself that the extra $5,500 (total $9,000 or approx £6,000!) for a flip in a Lightning would be money well spent. On the face of it, this seems like madness, but then.... 0 - 50,000 feet in two minutes must be worth six grand of anyone's money, surely??

Can any Pruners help me with this difficult decision??

The price for the Hunter trip seems pretty comparable with Delta Jets here in the UK, whereas it should surely be significantly cheaper in SA? Is there any way of avoiding paying OTT "tourist" prices?

Is the Hunter more "fun" than the Lightning, despite the latter's hugely bigger numbers?

Decisions, decisions...

:confused:

cbl.

[witchdoctor]

Personally I'd plump for the Buccaneer. The guy loves to go low level (and why not?) and beats up a few beaches at aroung 50ft and 500kts. Where else would you ever get an experience like that?

[FNG]

Very, very tempting indeed, but why not save the cash and join LownSlow and I in buying something old and daft (see Fiat Warbird thread)?

[CBLong]

Hmmm... good call, witchdoctor, but I think I read somewhere that the Buccaneers don't have dual controls, and I was assuming (perhaps incorrectly...?) that passengers, particularly PPLs, might get a little stick time in the dual control machines??

[Learning_Slowly]

Now let me think a Hunter... which lets face it you can fly over here, a beautiful aircraft granted. Or the other alternative.. the Lightning big big scare your pants off engines and as you said a rate of climb that is virtually unbeatable.

If you can convince the missus that the extra money is well spent do it. I mean many people can say they have flown a Hunter but how many can say they have flown a Lightning.

[18greens]

Lets face it, you can't fly a Lightning in the UK ergo no choice.

[Circuit Basher]

No question.

Has to be the Lightning

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- twice!!!!

Save your lose change for the divorce lawyers!! ;) :)

[Windy Militant]

Slightly flippant reply but Judging by the Number of WWEWOl's* on The Mil Thread quite a few. But back to the thread If you can stretch the budget, go for either the Buccaneer or Lightning. There's quite a few Hunters about which will probably still be flying for quite a while. The Bucaneer and Lightning both have a limited number of airframe hours so do it while there's still the chance. (Hmmm must complain to the managment we don't seem to have a green with envy smilie);)
*When We Was On Lightnings

[CBLong]

Well, we just got back from our SA holiday ("we" being my girlfriend and me) - this is my first day back at work, so I'm trying to catch up on what I've missed on Pprune... ;)

I went for the Lightning flight on 10th April - we had perfect weather for it in Cape Town on that day, although the weather generally was a bit ropey. It's impossible to describe the whole experience but suffice to say I think it was worth every penny. :ok: Many thanks to my pilot, Dave Stock (I didn't ask if he was a Ppruner) for a fantastic flight.

We started with a vertical climb to 5000' after accelerating (with afterburners) to 300kt at about 50' above the runway - that climb took about 7 or 8 seconds, I think. That was followed by a transit / climb to the military airspace south-east of the Cape, a supersonic (M1.4) dash to Cape Argullus (sp?), a couple of 4G turns, about 10 seconds of zero G, lots of rolls, finally descending to about 200' and 500kt over the sea before pulling into another vertical climb up to 25,000' in only 15 or 20 seconds - the view through the side window gave me some idea of what being launched into space on a rocket must look like! Rounded off with a fairly sedate transit back along the coast to Cape Town International at 250kt or so, chasing and very nearly catching an airliner down finals before touching down at something like 170kt (which seems bloody fast to a PA28 driver, let me tell you!), deploying the braking parachute and taxiing in.

The only trouble is I'm going to have to go back for a go in the Buccaneer as well one of these days! I'm also a bit annoyed that I've *still* never seen a Lightning flying, even though my gf now has! ;)

I know it's a hideous amount of money to spend but I thoroughly recommend the experience to anyone who can possibly afford it, even if you have to sell a kidney or blackmail your bank manager.

I'll post pictures etc later if anyone's interested. By the way, if that fellow UK PPL who videoed the takeoff and landing from Thunder City's hangar (sorry, I didn't get your name in the excitement!) reads this, please get in touch, I'd love a copy!

witchdoctor - having seen the Thunder City promotional video and got a taste of fast jets, I'd agree that the Buccaneer looks like a superb experience - it's much more chuckable than the Lightning and the way they were hurtling along valleys at well below hilltop height looks like a lot of "fun".... :) The Hunter looks fantastic too... I guess I'd better do some work and start earning some more cash...!!

cbl.

[Aerobatic Flyer]

Wow! Very envious - especially about the vertical climb to 25000ft. Definitely worth a few quid!

I can't understand why you've never seen a Lightning flying, though...... Why didn't you watch your girlfriend take off when she had her go?:D

[niknak]

OK, a Lightning is a bit special I admit, but what would you have paid to FLY in a Lancaster?.............................. :ok:

[topcat450]

if it was me...not a lot for the lanc...

But the lightening...wow...I'm seriously envious

[knobbygb]

So do you actually get to take the controls for long? What does this feel like? Is the pilot an instructor so you can log the time as P.u/t or does it just go down as passenger time? I can't afford £6000, but if I could I'd at least expect to be able to log the time.

:\ (sorry, no smilie for 'jelous as hell')

[witchdoctor]

Don't know why you bothered - I can do all that and more in my Aerobat.:p

I'm not jealous....I'm not jealous.....I'm not jealous....I'm not....BANG! :(

[TheKentishFledgling]

Nah, I'm not jealous either :*

Would definately be interested in seeing some photos!

tKF

[18greens]

Hats off to you for going for it. And you got to join the supersonic club.

If you had gone up in the Hunter you would be spending all of your time wondering how to get a Lightning trip. As the saying goes "Buy cheap buy twice". You definately made the right decision. I am soooo jealous.

I think the lightning also beats the bucc because of the dual controls.

How long did you get in the aircraft and how much hands on did you get?

[CBLong]

knobbygb - I can't say I actually flew the thing - I had 'hands on' the controls for a while but I was just following through the pilot's actions. I had been looking forward to getting a feel for the handling etc, but when it came to it, I was actually quite content to let the pilot put the machine through its paces and just enjoy the ride! Maybe next time... :)

I also haven't logged the time - not sure whether I could legitimately do so or not, but again, I did it just for the pure experience of flying in a Lightning, so I'm not really bothered about having exotic entries in my log book - if I ever fly one P1, I'll log it!

We were airborne for about 40 minutes, plus maybe another 10 minutes taxiing in and out - we were held at the threshold of the runway (19, I think it was) for a couple of minutes while a C152 landed! The flight as a whole used nearly all the fuel capacity of the aircraft, including the ventral tank - Dave (the pilot) estimated we only had enough fuel for two circuits, so it was quite a close call chasing the airliner down finals - we were only cleared to land about 10 or 15 seconds before touching down. I was quite looking forward to a 'run and break' style go-around, but it was not to be!

The whole experience was very enjoyable, including the post-flight debrief, which mainly consisted of me grinning like an idiot while trying to drink a beer. I had a chat with Dave and the chief (I think) engineer, a Brit who obviously loves all the aircraft, and listened to their discussion of how the flight went - apparently the nose gear was a bit slow in both directions, and there was also a problem with the 'Mach strip' - it was still indicating M1.1 when we were parked - due to the static or OAT probes, they thought.

The overall impression was that everyone involved was 100% professional but also genuinely enthused and excited to be working with these classic machines. I find it quite sad that the CAA won't let them fly in the UK, but it's reassuring to know that they're down there, still flying... :D

By the way, Windy Militant - I asked about how many hours the airframes had left on them, and apparently that's not a problem at all - the one I flew in, ZU-BEX, was one of the last ones built and only has about 150 hours total, so it should be airworthy for many years to come - and long may it be so.

cbl.

[QDMQDMQDM]

All credit to you for taking the plunge. You only live once -- better make it a good one.

QDM

[CBLong]

I've uploaded some pictures to:

http://www.oview.demon.co.uk/lightning/

cbl.

[bcfc]

Excellent photo's, cbl :ok:

Did you take any of their new Buccaneer? Last time I saw it, it was cluttering up our hangar at Exeter...at least I think it was chunder city that took it.

[Hairyplane]

I was in Cape Town recently (and had to scrub my trip to Thunder City on account of the fact that I would have had to walk round with a potty gaffer-taped to my butt (watch out for those cheap fast-food places ).

I worked out that £15 will buy the equivalent of £100 in SA - such is the exchange rate.

It therefore stands to reason that SA - with its fantastic weather, cheap fuel and labour plus breathtaking scenery - has to be the place to operate expensive flying machines.

A wonderful country - provided you take some sensible precautions (and we ain't just talking hand inspections of the restaurant cooks here) - which I strongly commend to you all.

Tempted to fly myself down there within the next few years.

HP

[DamienB]

Having just read all that and looked at the pictures I am now so green with envy that somebody has just planted a 'DO NOT WALK ON THE GRASS' sign on my head.

One day...

[DBChopper]

How can you all be so envious?It doesn't even have rotors! Ok, I know... back to Rotorheads I go...

(actually, looked and sounded great!)

DBChopper
;)

[CBLong]

bcfc,

There was a Bucc being worked on, don't know if it was "yours" - you can see it in this photo:

http://www.oview.demon.co.uk/lightning/hangar2.jpg

at the far right. It's up on blocks (apologies if that's not the correct aeronautical engineering term!) and I think the flaps and ailerons were off, but it's basically in one piece, to my untrained eye.

You can also see two more Lightnings in that photo - the whole one's easy to spot, but between the Hunter and the Bucc you can also make out the main fuselage section of the other. They're doing some pretty major work to that one - basically rebuilding it after it was shipped to them in pieces. The nose and cockpit section is on a jig in its proper place relative to the fuselage, but not bolted together with it.

The photo 'fantasy hangar' on the website I posted earlier also shows two more Buccs and two more Hunters - talk about "kid in a sweet shop"... :D

cbl.

[bcfc]

Hmmm, tricky to say. When I last saw it, it was painted in the red, white & blue of the Rae and went to Cape Town in August. I think its reg was ZU-NIP/XW936.

[my mother always warned me not to be a spotter :8 ]

Cheers for the piccys.

[DamienB]

In which case it's the one on the right in the piccy above - the other two have been painted overall black.

[Windy Militant]

CB Well done that man!;) I'm glad to hear that there's still a fair bit of life left in these beautiful birds.

[Circuit Basher]

CBLong - I've held back from saying anything so far, but without meeting you, I already hate you so very much! ;) :{

You forgot to take me, you ba$tard!!!

I'm not jealous, but just check your tyre pressures and fuel religiously for the next few months until I get over it....!!