Hallo again AWF118,
Sorry, have had a bit of night duty to cope with recently.
To set the record straight, I was in SA to attend 'Aviation Africa', that year at Jan Smuts, have a few meetings with customers outside the show, visit the CAA in Pretoria and return.
One of my hosts, the one taking me to Pretoria, hearing that I was complaining about not having seen one wild animal invited me to the Zoo, knowing full well that the War Museum was right next door! I had no idea. That's how I got to photograph those wonderful exhibits both inside and out.
On the way to the Capital, mein host stops at a roadside shanty, seems to have bought some exotic fruits, then drives offroad to a high chainlink fence with padlocked gate. Lo and behold he has a key! Fastening gate carefully behind us we drive about half a mile, past a Maule aircraft in a lean-to (no strip visible), we came to a farm. There we found almost every conceivable animal you could wish to see! Watch out for the rhino - he'll mash your fingers at the fence if you let him...watch that little beestie, he'll jab you through the fence, and so on. But then out came the fruits - he'd bought flippin' carrots, for three baby elephants that had soon emptied my pockets of most everything, and followed me everywhere to get more. Very sweet! It was a farm that raised and trained animals for film use.
I didn't half smell funny at the CAA, wouldn't have missed it for the world though.
Next day a Cessna 150 flight from Lanseria to Pretoria, popping in to Swartkops (it was a Sunday, he is a reserve officer)....no r/t, just land. Looked over all the museum pieces, including Shackleton, MiG-21, Sabre, Canberra, Buccaneer, various Dassault jets...in those wonderful old 1919-vintage hangars, a Jumo engine (plenty more of those, still unpacked, I was told). Taxied out past stored Puma helicopters, still active DC-3s and DC-4s, chaps kicking a ball around didn't bat an eyelid. Back via the Dam, Johannesburg, Soweto. Braai in the evening, floodlit cricket.
Somehow squeezed in a Citation trip down to Cape Town too.
That's what I call air show attendance!
But what happened to the Ju-88 the South Africans had??
brgds
Alan
p.s. my 1934 Air Pilot shows Heston Landing Area as
N. - S. 700 yards
N.E. - S.W 700 yards
E. - W. 575 yards
S.E. - N.W. 650 yards