Wonderboom Airshow

[BAKELA]

Heard that at Wonderboom this coming weekend there will be more jetties (down Orca boytjie!) and the like than what the SAAF has, never mind can get airborne (safely!).

Also that 1-time (go!) and Link (go!) will do flypasts. Whats the gaff? 4 Ship Hunter (MTN) formo? Goody! Will Link show off the new colours?

Maybe we should organise a good p:mad:ss up at FAWB for a change? That's where I went solo after all in the '70's!!! Come on Deanos, usually you know what's cutting????:confused: :confused: Gunnns...Gauteng for this one? It could be good...

[B Sousa]

Gunss in Gauteng.never happen. Its not green enough, too high in elevation and no Tassies.........

[Gunship]

Yip ... Thanks BAKELA but I am ok on the tassies 5 000 km straight North of you oke's ;)

Have a good time :ok:

[BAKELA]

I'm sure I can import the Tassies with Kulula from down south mountain way, get the elevation down to sea level in several hours but the 5000km's north...she's the problem! Bert, can Tassies not get you on a kayak accross the water? Oh well, enough of Pink Floyd now..to bed we go...damn corks again!

[Goldfish Jack]

Saw an attempt to get one of the Hunters to Wonderboom yesterday from the Cape - what a complte joke it was to say the very least.

Chap took off and there was no alt readout from his transponder - then he did not call the app controller, so we did not know his alt and whilst he gaily headed towards Wolseley with no radio contact, we had to re-route the occasional B737-800 (sorry chaps) to avoid a possible incident. When he eventually called us, he moaned saying it could not be his equipment as it was a new box. Quite comical - he was right it was not his equipment - it was the aircraft's! He elected to carry on to Wonderboom under controlled airspace with no mode C. A/C looked like i dont know what with 4 drop tanks. As he got to the Sutherland area he lost most of his electrics and decided to return to FACT, and then lost his ASI. What frightened the living daylights out of me was that he could not tell us how much fuel he would have remaining on the aircraft when he landed - said it was not possible to calc it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) SO how does he do any fuel planning?

Was great fun watching this circus going on! When he eventually got back into the circuit, he got very tense with the aerodrome controller (who incidentally has 23 years experience in the twoer) saying what was the point of the emergency services being on stand-by as he had nothing wrong with his aircraft and it was unnecesary. Well as he touched down and deployed his brake-chute, it came away from the aircraft!! I think the said pilot then s&^t himself and used all 10500ft of the runway to stop, still muttering that it was not necessary to have the fire vehicles on standby. Luckily the vehicles could remove the said chute quickly otherwise the runway would have been blocked and more aircraft would have had to go around and be delayed whilst it was removed.

Seriously though, the time has come to put thundercity into full time static display and let us appreciate the a/c there before they kill someone/injure someone again

[126,7]

Wow Goldfish, you really dont like the guys at Thundercity......
Lets hope they get the hunter sorted out and he makes it to the Boom. I'm gonna be there and hope I get to see as much action as you guys in the Twr at CPT :-)

[Gunship]

Hey fishbowl ... surely you did not have it ALL this morning .. wrong side of the bed or 6 x C150's doing circuits and bumps ;)

[126,7]

surely you did not have it ALL this morning

You are talking about All Bran Flakes I presume :} :}

[alwaysinverted]

Sounds really hectic! Goldfish, do you know who the pilot was? It does'nt sound very professional, but there are a couple of low time PPL's that own and pole those jets. Would be interesting to know.

One thing that I have never been able to fathom out is why the SACAA allow those guys to break every rule in the book. Some of the "heavies" there (at Thundercity) have no instrument rating, and everytime he takes the Lightning to 45000 feet, he breaks the rules. The same when they ferry the jets around the country to airshows, flying above FL 200.

Goldfish, maybe you can tell us how it supposed to work.:confused:

[warloc67]

Yeah, things at Wonderboom are on the move. The displays that I know of is:

Sasol Tigers (4 x L29)
Flying Lions (4 x Harvards)
Schurlock
Wesbank
Mazda
L39's
Possibly Hunter
737 800 on static.

and then althe rest including fling wings etc.

[TMAguide]

From AVCOM.....
The guy flying the Hunter is having quite a week.....

On landing at Wonderboom today he managed to make a mess of a Baron which was parked outside a maintenance Hangar on the cement apron next to Pretoria Flying School. The Baron had its engines removed and its tail was resting on a tyre on a drum. The Baron was blown through about 45 deg by jet blast from the Hunter and the tail fell off the drum and the left wing now sports a nice dent on the leading edge after impacting the bakkie that was parked in front of it! Shocked

Not sure if the Hunter was following the instructions of a marshal, but the whole manouver seemed pretty ill thought out to me. The entire cement apron which is quite large was almost empty, with lots a space to turn away from people and planes! It really seemed unnecessary for the Hunter to creap right next to the Hangar and the PFS Fence and then do a quick 90deg turn with a high thrust setting. I would a thought it might have been easier to leave to aircraft facing west and then ground handle it later, especially if one considers that the Baron was only a few meters behind. The Hunter stopped with its tailpipe pointing straight into the PFS gardens where people sit and young children often play, behind the fence that is supposed to keep them safe from aircraft!

[Gunship]

God bless the pilot but he sounds like a likable turd to me :E

[Kennel Keeper]

Said pilot is the owner of the aircraft not Thunder City.
Licence was revoked for a short time during December for a altitude/ IFR violation during the Durban display.

[Solid Rust Twotter]

Nice enough bloke to talk to, and as Guns has said, a likeable boytjie. We all shag the cat occasionally....:}

[FlyOff]

If I had that toy, you can be green:D

[AfricanSkies]

The airshow was great guys, thanks for all who put in such an effort! :ok:

It had a nice relaxed casual, home-grown atmosphere, no foreigners invited, no F-15 showing up to upstage everything, just a huge collection of aircraft, from the tiniest microlight to large airliners - and you could almost have touched them all if you wanted to! Nice and intimate compared to the large European shows, and very professionally done:ok:

Dave Stock put on a lovely display in the Hunter and Mike Weingartz flew the Imp with what can only be regarded as consummate skill, as he elegantly and most gracefully traced fluid arcs through sunlit canyons in the clouds of silver and gold...magnificent!! It must have felt sublime, Mike! I bet even the Imp loved it!

Glen Dell had the crowds holding their breaths as he did amazing things with the Slick, it was as if the aircraft was dancing!

A tremendous effort by everyone especially those who brought their aircraft to Wonderboom, thanks! Its nice to see the heart of SA aviation beats so strongly! ;) :ok:

[126,7]

Sure am glad the Hunter made it to Wonderboom. What a display. Nice colours too.
Good to see that the airlines made the effort to be there. 1Time, Kulula and Spoories. And all the other participants: Good show!! Glad I was able to be there and enjoy the sun and have a nice Windhoek Draught or two.:ok: