Private Flying in South Africa
 

SOUTH AFRICA – A WHOLE DIFFERENT FLYING EXPERIENCE

by Sue Seager


 Port Elizabeth Airport with Indian Ocean in the background

   Wise or not, as a low hours PPL I decided that I would like to fly in Africa. So on a cold rainy afternoon on the internet, Google came to the rescue and I found a flying club that looked to be just what I wanted. I contacted Algoa flying club which is based at Port Elizabeth airport, South Africa and three weeks later I found myself standing in the sunshine at P.E. airport for a two week flying holiday, and relieved to leave behind the cold, grey days in the UK.

No jet lag and only an hour’s time difference I was able to head straight to the flying club the next morning. Port Elizabeth airport is situated on the south coast, it is a perfect example of GA mixing well with the grown up aircraft, domestic flights from all over Africa come into PE, ATC are extremely helpful and slot students in with the big boys. Although the majority of days are beautiful, cloudless flying days, with clear blue sky, the wind can be very strong, blowing in from the Indian Ocean, so landing skills are tested and soon begin to improve greatly!

As a holder of a JAA-PPL, before I could fly solo, a test to obtain a South African validation on my licence was required, this basically involves a S.A. air law test and a repeat of the skills test and cross country. One of the main differences of the flight test is that spinning is still included in their syllabus, luckily I had got my instructor to do some spinning with me when I was training for my PPL so it didn’t come as too much of a shock. I booked a couple of lessons to brush up on my flying skills.
 

It was awesome to fly in such beautiful surroundings, the scenery was breathtaking. Runway 08 took us straight out over the sea then north east out to the general flying area, which was surrounded by what we would call mountains but the locals call hills (approx 3000’!). A couple of days of study and acclimatizing myself to flying in such different surroundings I sat and passed the S.A. air law exam, and then the flight test. It slightly concerned me that as a holder of a private licence in South Africa you are not allowed to split the costs between passengers and pilot, the pilot bears all the costs – including not being able to partake in a drop of alcohol, it seems we get the raw deal!! However, this is all made up for by being able to pilot an aircraft over such a beautiful country. Armed with my all my paperwork, which includes JAA licence, current medical and radio licence plus proof that the relevant South African exams had been passed, I headed off to the police station – a very different experience than visiting the local police station in UK! After an eye opening wait of two hours all my forms were stamped by the officer on duty, a very boring piece of paper saying that I now had a South African validation on my licence was the result of my efforts! The validation runs concurrently with your UK medical.


Flying in South Africa is so incredibly different to flying in the UK, it is hard to compare them – I am glad that I got my licence in the UK as this is the airspace that I am most frequently going to fly in, (although following three more trips in the last year, a move to South Africa is not out of the question!) being as it is so much busier in the UK, it’s easier to make the transition to quieter flying in South Africa. I recently flew my aircraft in the UK with a person who did his PPL in South Africa – he was completely bemused by the busy airspace and the amount of radio work, admittedly we were flying round the London TMA through the Biggin Hill overhead and transiting the Farnborough Matz, not the quietest route in the UK!

However having discovered a distinct lack of ground features, when flying cross country over miles and miles of open space, with hardly a road or river to navigate by made me pleased that I had my Garmin 296 as a companion. It is quite amazing to be flying along the coast one minute and over mountains the next. The views are absolutely breathtaking, unfortunately, quite understandably, low level game spotting is out of the question as you must maintain at least 300 feet agl when flying over game reserves, though the larger game can of course still be seen from this altitude.

 


Breathtaking scenery

A fantastic feeling of freedom is what strikes you most about flying in South Africa (and, of course, the awesome weather), once out of the relatively busy airspace of Port Elizabeth you tune into the local traffic frequency and talk to local traffic, to let them know where you are and what you are doing. Many airfields are unmanned which means overhead joins are essential, not only to check for wind direction, but also to check the runway for anthills (which can easily turn an aircraft over), warthogs, stray game and the like. I have used the book “Airfields Directory for Southern Africa” as my bible, it gives information on many of the airstrips throughout Africa, with some amazing photographs of different runways and bush strips.

 
The landing strips are much longer than many in the UK as a longer take off distance is required due to the high temperatures, and it not being uncommon for runways to be over 2,000 feet above sea level. It is a must to work out your density altitude otherwise you can easily find yourself running out of runway. Only QNH is used due to the mountainous terrain throughout Africa, it does make you much more aware of your surroundings as you must always check airfield elevation so that you know what the altimeter will be reading in the circuit and how close you are to the ground! A flight plan must be filed for all cross country flights, this is where you will notice another difference, the semi-circular rule is strictly used, the flight plan will be rejected if you have the wrong height for the heading. Also bear in mind that the magnetic variation is 26 degrees (give or take depending where you are). Returning to the UK after spending this January and February in South Africa where I had been filing flight plans for 8,500 ft and the like, and not encountering any cloud at these altitudes I found it not much fun to be struggling to fly at 1500’ back in the UK due to low cloud base – guess I’ve been spoilt.


Approaching Somerset East Airfield


Africa is a truly beautiful and amazing country, a highlight of my trip was when one of the pilots came into the club house saying that the whales were in the bay, needless to say this had to be seen so I jumped in a C172 and took off over the sea and headed down the coast and there, sure enough, were not just one or two but tens of whales basking in the shallow water – a regular occurrence for the time of year I am told, but something that left me feeling very privileged to have seen. You don’t need any special visas or passport checks to fly whilst there, unlike the States where it took me a trip to the embassy in London, an interview and the princely sum of £80 to get the correct visa, not to mention a 3 hour queue at immigration, having fingerprints and photos taken all seemed to take the edge off the fun. If you wish to further your flying experience and enjoyment especially in January and February when the weather over here is not very conducive to flying, or the level of your sun tan – head off to South Africa – I’m sure you can easily persuade the family to join you with all the other delights it has to offer.

Note: Regarding the illegal concept of sharing costs, there are apparently a few legal loop holes, as there normally are in most legislation.

1)   Any passenger(s), as aviation enthusiasts, may make a financial donation to a pilot towards the upkeep of his/her plane, maintenance, etc. and should best be done at any venue before or after the flight outside the flying club premises to minimise the risk of "alleged" unlawful payment and/or bribery. 
2)   Any passenger(s) may give a pilot a gift which he in turn can raffle off again with a "prize" being a flip in an aircraft.
3)   Any passenger(s) may also sponsor a flight, provided the donor does not intend claiming a tax reduction from the authorities.
 
Useful notes from Bob Earle:

 

  • Have recently received my SA AIP updates and to my astonishment noticed that the frequency separation on the N/W coast of SA, which falls under Johannesburg ACC West (as per my letter to SA CAA & ATNS in "flying abroad - South Africa) still exists. Following a phone call to Cape Town briefing office, I was informed that (apparently) no NOTAM had been issued to rectify this problem, nor any Airac cycle action initiated. I am the holder of a complete, updated SA AIP, as well as supplements, and will happily assist anyone with Flight Briefing, who intends to do some flying in SA. My contact details are as follows:

robert.earle@yahoo.co.uk
01276 671892 (H)
077 30598505 (M)
 

The contents of this article are for general information purposes only, and do not constitute advice; no information within the article should be used for flight-planning purposes