From the Aeropages Forum
Whist having a braai at a friends house yesterday afternoon in Noordkruin Krugersdorp, a small Piper Cub came flying slowly along the Krugersdorp ridge at +/- 600 ft AGL with 10 degrees of flap on. As a fellow pilot with a great interest in Aircraft, I watch as he flew racecourse circuits up and down above the houses making gentle turns, many of which where over the National Botanical Gardens which as far as I am aware is restricted Airspace due to the Eagles that nest there.
Besides the fact that he was flying below the required 1000ft AGL over a residential area and entering not only above the Botanical Gardens and FALA Airspace (Unannounced I assume) he did not seem to pose much of a threat or annoyance to anyone.
About 20 min after the display by the Cub, the real Airshow got started. A red and white Seneca entered the Krugersdorp Airspace from FALA' Airspace (Once again over the Botanical Gardens and below 1000 ft AGL) and proceeded along to approximately where the R28 cuts over the ridge. Here, the pilot of the Seneca gave us an excellent show of his flying abilities by proceeding to do a number of figure of 8 maneuvers directly over the houses below. One would of thought that the pilot of the Seneca would at least keep some altitude whilst doing this maneuver, but instead being a good showman, he tried to get the aircraft as close to the ground as possible, by climbing high followed by a very steep climbing turn and into a dive just to pull up again about 200ft AGL into a climb in the opposite direction. At least when he climbed out he took the aircraft above the required 1000ft AGL, but unfortunately straight into FALA' TMA. Due to the place that he chose to due his aerial display, he also put himself smack bang into ILS traffic inbound for FALA (thank heavens the sky was clear and there was no traffic for the ILS at FALA or else we would of gotten a lot more than just a display of fancy flying moves yesterday afternoon).
The days activities was then finished off by a third aircraft (C182 as far as I could see) sneaking below the Krugersdorp ridge line and clearly within FALA airspace over the Botanical Gardens once again towards the R28. I say sneaking because I seriously doubt he had called FALA on the Radio to tell them where he was or else he would not of been so low.
To the pilot of the Cub I say - What you did was a bit reckless although you did not pose a threat to either yourself, your passengers (if you had any) or the people on the ground. You might of made some eagle pie, but other than that you where at least safe and cautious. For you, one slap on the hand.
To the pilot of the Seneca - What you did was 100% reckless and you endangered not only your life, but also your passengers lives (if anyone was dumb enough to go fly with you that is) as well as everyone on the ground below you. You can count yourself lucky that nothing went wrong during your display. Next time you decide to do something this stupid, go and do it out in the Magaliesburg GF so at least if you mess up the only one that will die is you.
To the pilot of the C182 - The next time you decided to fly into controlled airspace, at least have the decency to give the tower a call and tell them where you are and maintain a safe flying altitude whilst in controlled airspace. I don't want to end up flying into you one day, just because you could not be bothered to give the Tower a call on your radio.
Come on people, lets keep flying safe and fun for all. In the past 12 months I have had two near misses whilst flying in the Krugersdorp / Roodepoort area. One because the other pilot did not bother to give any radio broadcasts and the other because the pilot said he was one place when in fact he was about 6 miles closer. These two occasions don't included the number of times I have had to dodge paragliders over the Krugersdorp Ridge and Hartebeesport Dam. Personally I feel it is time that it becomes law that all paragliders have to have radios on them and that they to must give position broadcasts because one of these days, a plane is going to take one of them out and then who are they going to blame?
My message to all of those out there that love to fly as much as I do, be it in a plane, a glider, a hot air balloon or paraglider, is to fly responsibly, do your position broadcasts as accurately as possible and lets all have a safe, incident free 2003.
Hear Hear !!!
