Thabo's new aircraft...

[The Guvnor]

http://www.mg.co.za/mg/m&e/2000/06/me20000608.gif

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:) Happiness is a warm L1011 :)

[This message has been edited by The Guvnor (edited 10 June 2000).]

[This message has been edited by The Guvnor (edited 10 June 2000).]

[The Guvnor]

Bobs Used Aircraft ... I wonder if they mean Bob Garbage? :) :)

http://www.mg.co.za/mg/m&e/2000/06/me20000606.gif

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:) Happiness is a warm L1011 :)

[V1 Rotate]

I hope that Mbeke selects Themba Mclain for command.
V1 Rotate

[skyvan]

Amen to that.
At least all of the scotsmans training records went missing (conveniently for him), so there is nothing to stop him (apart from ability) from doing the job!
Still, he may surprise us all, and disappear by himself (or in a dark alley )

[The Guvnor]

Mclain isn't related to that Makatini character in that chocolate bar ad on TV a few years back, by any chance? You remember - the one set at the Highland Games!

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:) Happiness is a warm L1011 :)

[skyvan]

Can't be related to Makhatini, he arrived at work!! (even if it was to eat a chocolate bar!)

[A Arab]

Themba the flying Scotsman to Captain the machine Sali as copilot and Nomvete as flight engineer.

[The Guvnor]

"There's no nepotism in SAA - just because my son happens to be head of fuel purchasing; various nieces and nephews in flight ops etc... it means nothing!"

Who said that??? :) :) First one with the correct answer gets a case of Windhoek Export...

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:) Happiness is a warm L1011 :)

[tired]

You said it, Guv.....

I'll email you the delivery address for the Windhoek. ;)

[Yossarian]

While on the subject, has anyone any idea what Thabo's new a/c is likely to be. I've heard some interesting rumours, but.........let's hear yours first.

[The Guvnor]

Tired - nope, sorry, no coconut (or Windhoek)

Yossarian - I understand the boys at Execujet are getting very excited about a major sale ... does that help?


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:) Happiness is a warm L1011 :)

[The Unteleported Man]

Thought I'd dig out this blast from the past instead of posting a new thread.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Mbeki to get his R300m plane (http://www.ananzi.co.za/zones/news/2001022121-16-story.html)
By Sapa

President Thabo Mbeki will finally receive his luxury plane, according to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's Budget.
A total of R300m will be spent over the next two years for the purchase of a long-range aircraft to be used mainly by the president. according to the Estimates of National Expenditure 2001 document.

The defence vote reflects an extra R200m in the 2001/02 financial year, and R100m the following year to fund this purchase.

Opposition parties last year criticised the president when news first broke that Mbeki wanted a new plane.

However, the presidency defended the intended purchase, saying the current plane was too small, old and had even broken down on state visits, embarrassing the president.

Meanwhile, the medium term expenditure estimates for the presidency - which consists of the office of the president and the deputy president - reflects a significant increase, to R89,8m, from the R79,7m revised estimate for the previous year.

It is estimated the budget for the presidency will be R97,7m in 2002/03 and R103m in 2003/4.

According to the Estimates of National Expenditure 2001, the increase is due to the expansion of activities in the private office and Cabinet service.

The allocation would also fund an electronic document management system to handle the presidency's ever-increasing correspondence.

By Sapa </font>

Wow! That's a lot of embarrasment.

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The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.

[Springbokkie]

Quote: Star - Fly SAA, says DA...

President Thabo Mbeki should follow the example of fellow international leaders and make use of the national airline for all long-haul flights on his trips abroad, the Democratic Alliance said. According to yesterday's Budget, a total of R300-million will be spent over the next two years for the purchase of a long-range aircraft to be used mainly by the president.

[putco]

What a Knob........!

[AfricanSkies]

What do you expect?

Next year it´ll be another R400 million because the last jet was 'lost'....

[MileHi]

What, now a GRAVEY AEROPLANE to go with the GRAVEY TRAIN?

[The Ant]

Totally off the point, Guvnor how are you posting images onto the web site? I have tried copying/pasting but no joy (jpg images).

[The Guvnor]

Simple ... go to the image you want, then right-click on it and click "select image location". Then come here, type right click and click on 'paste' and away you go!

(That's applicable for Netscape - have no idea how to get the image location in IE!)

OK, I have just played around ... you'll need to go to properties, highlight the location and click on 'copy'. Then you'll be able to do this...

http://www.celticairways.com/img18.jpg

[This message has been edited by The Guvnor (edited 01 March 2001).]

[The Unteleported Man]

But can you do this Guv?
http://www.celticairways.com/img18.jpg (http://www.celticairways.com)

The Ant, if you click on http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/edit.gif you can see how a message has been put together (although you can't edit it). What Guv forgot to point out is that the image must be available on the internet first.

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The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.

[The Unteleported Man]

http://www.mg.co.za/mg/zapiro/2001/feb/feb23.gif (http://www.mg.co.za/mg/zapiro/)

Of course the bulk of the electorate can't read, write or count to 300 million.

[The Unteleported Man]

Still, at least they'll have an aeroplane once they've spent the 300 mil!

http://www.mg.co.za/mg/zapiro/2001/mar/mar02.gif

[flyingwigwam]

http://www.mg.co.za/mg/zapiro/2001/mar/mar01.gif

I did it, I did it!!! Eventually!

(Goes hopping and skipping down street clicking heels.)

Why is it that the only images I have seen are in the African Forum? Obviously smarter than all the rest.

[This message has been edited by flyingwigwam (edited 07 March 2001).]

[This message has been edited by flyingwigwam (edited 07 March 2001).]

[The Unteleported Man]

Looks like a BBJ or A319. What a surprise.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Mbeki one pilot short of a jet - News 24 (http://www.news24.co.za/News24/South_Africa/0,1113,2-7_995970,00.html)

Erika Gibson



Pretoria - The critical shortage of pilots, and "vague promises" of salary increases for Air Force pilots, could result in a lack of adequately-trained crew members to fly President Thabo Mbeki around in his new jet next year.

Tenders for the jet were recently closed and are to be submitted for selection to the cabinet.

Several Air Force commanders of the VIP fleet of aircraft at 21 Squadron have resigned over the past few months and have been employed elsewhere. In terms of guidelines set by Boeing and Airbus, manufacturers of the two aircraft under consideration, the captain of a presidential aircraft is required to have a minimum of 1 500 flight hours to his or her credit.

At least 1 000 of these hours should be acquired on passenger jet aircraft.

At present only three commanding officers in the squadron meet the requirements. Two of their contracts expire ahead of the delivery date of the new aircraft. Neither is considering staying on.

A single commander cannot be on duty 24 hours a day, and no other Air Force pilot meets the required flight hours acquired on passenger jet aircraft.

Experts say that an alternative would be to lower guideline standards. Indirectly this would pose security implications for Mbeki, since the guidelines were set to ensure maximum safety for him during his flights.

Another possibility would be to appoint commanders from the private sector on a short-term contract base. This would result in the Air Force having to pay market-related salaries, and could not be regarded as a medium-term solution.

Pilots set to fly the new jet aircraft would have to undergo extremely expensive adjustment courses. The Air Force could not afford these courses every few months for a new set of pilots.

Defence Force spokesperson Captain Niko Allie on Wednesday said the presidential jet was still in the acquisition stage.

"The moment things move to the planning phase, the Air Force will consider its options in appointing new crew members for its new jet aircraft."
</font>


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The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.

[The Ant]

Thanks guv for the tips about posting images. I have IE, so I shall continue to experiment.

The obvious thing to have done if the government is adament about the new aircraft is to have tied the deal in with SAA's B737-800. The BBJ is almost identical (B737-700), the cockpit and systems are all identical. SAA's simulator is therefore available and piggybacking it onto a bigger deal would have made it much cheaper.

[AfricanSkies]

Yeh, Ant, that would have made sense and been too easy though...which shows why they didn´t include a pilot training package in the deal either...they would have probably had take a reduction in their 'backhander' too...nah..

[dvrfly]

Latest rumour doing the rounds is that Trevor is resigning from the CAA in disgust and that he will be the new pilot for our revered leader. Apparently Moloma will be FO for a 2 month training period till he's bought a new licence!!

This is a parody, not to be taken seriously.
:)

[This message has been edited by dvrfly (edited 25 March 2001).]

[This message has been edited by dvrfly (edited 25 March 2001).]