African Pilot

23/07/2024

Last known Battle of Britain pilot reaches 105 years of age

On 17 July 2024 the last known remaining fighter pilot from the 1940 Battle of Britain celebrated his 105th birthday. Group Captain (retired) John Allman ‘Paddy’ Hemingway, DFC, AE, was born in Ireland in 1919. In the summer of 1940, Hemingway turned 21 while flying Hawker Hurricanes with the Royal Air Force’s 85 Squadron, led by then Squadron Commander Peter Townsend. Townsend was later to earn arguably greater fame for his romantic involvement with Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth.

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22/07/2024

News from ATNS
Maintenance of Instrument Flight Procedures at various airports

Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) SOC Limited is currently managing the maintenance programme for instrument flight procedures at various airports nationwide. These procedures are based on South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Procedures for Air Navigation Services – Aircraft Operations (ICAO PAN-OPS) design criteria which change from time to time. As part of the process, the procedures are being reviewed and updated to meet the current ICAO PAN-OPS criteria and advances in technology.

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22/07/2024

In this edition of APAnews;
https://preview.mailerlite.com/e5e7o9l6o4/2529714975774087823/n5h6/
- Arrival at EAA AirVenture, Oshkosh
- Excellent news for Sling Aircraft
- FlySafair welcomes two aircraft in preparation for the summer holiday season
- News from ATNS
Maintenance of Instrument Flight Procedures at various airports

19/07/2024

Astronaut Gen. Joe Engle goes west

On 10 July Former astronaut Gen. Joe Engle died at the age of 91. Engle was an accomplished Air Force pilot with the distinction of flying two different winged spacecraft, the X-15 and the Space Shuttle. Beyond that he flew 185 aircraft and accumulated 15,400 hours, including the first operational shuttle flight and another later on. Engle grew up in Kansas, the son of an agriculture instructor, but he never considered a life kicking the clods. “My mom used to say that she could not remember me seriously wanting to do anything but fly airplanes,” he told NASA’s Oral History Project in 2004. “I never met an airplane I didn’t like,” Engle said of his love affair with flight. “Some are less relaxing and less enjoyable and less fun to fly and some of them are a lot more work to fly than others. But they have got their own personality.”

18/07/2024

Boeing 777-9 enters certification flight testing

The FAA has granted Type Inspection Authorisation to Boeing for its 777-9 after a shakedown flight with FAA inspectors aboard on Saturday. “This certification test flight validates the aircraft’s safety, reliability, and performance. We appreciate our regulator’s rigorous oversight and are grateful to our customers who have chosen the 777-9 for its efficiency, environmental performance and passenger comfort,” Boeing said in a press release. The plane has been in the air for years with Boeing pilots aboard, accumulating 3,500 hours all over the world. In that time airlines have ordered 480 of the latest and likely last model of the 30-year-old design. Boeing is hoping to begin deliveries next year and the first one is likely going to Emirates, a longtime and enthusiastic operator of the type.

18/07/2024

Airlink boosts Durban - Harare route with daily flights

From 07 August 2024, Airlink, Southern Africa’s premier airline, will be adding more frequencies to its direct Durban-Harare service to provide a daily return flight. The additional flights will operate on Wednesdays, departing Durban’s King Shaka International Airport at 10h30 and arriving at Harare’s Robert Mugabe International Airport at 12h40. The return service leaves Harare at 13h20 and lands in Durban at 15h35.

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18/07/2024

In this edition of APAnews:
https://preview.mailerlite.com/d1r8q4y2d1/2526798810043128813/z6p0/

- Airlink boosts Durban - Harare route with daily flights
- South African Airways in the news again for all the wrong reasons
- Unnamed African country acquires BOYGA ammunition drop drone
- FAA investigates a close call between regional jets

16/07/2024

16/07/2024

Polish Air Force training jet crashed at Gdynia Airport

A Polish M-346 Master jet crashed during rehearsals for the Gdynia Naval Aviation Brigade’s 30th Anniversary event. The fate of the pilot remains unknown but the footage available online and posted on social media suggests that the pilot did not eject. The Aermacchi M-346 Master is a family of military twin-engine transonic advanced jet trainers and light combat aircraft.

15/07/2024

The July 2024 edition of Future Flight magazine is now available!
Free to download and read online! Follow the link below!
https://futureflight.online/Jul2024magazine/

15/07/2024

Pilot killed when firefighting floatplane crashes in Montana

On Wednesday afternoon an amphibious-float-equipped firefighting aircraft crashed, killing the pilot. According to sheriff’s office reports from Lewis and Clark County, the Air Tractor AT-802 FireBoss hit a mountainside and crashed into Hauser Lake while fighting a fire at Horse Gulch northeast of Helena, Montana. The County Sheriff, Leo Dutton told local news outlets the pilot was identified as Juliana Turchetti (45), a Brazilian native operating with a working visa. She was employed by Idaho-based Dauntless Air, identified as a company with more than 25 years’ experience in aerial firefighting.

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15/07/2024

In this edition of APAnews:
https://preview.mailerlite.com/o6q2f0d0f6/2524635030777502579/k0b7/
- Headwinds, but no closure of Plettenburg Bay airport at this time
- EAA Chapter 322 monthly meeting
- Tourist helicopter crash off Hawaiian island of Kauai
- Pilot killed when firefighting floatplane crashes in Montana

12/07/2024

Mechanic sucked into Boeing jet’s engine

A mechanic has been sucked into a Boeing passenger jet’s engine and killed at Chabahar Konarak airport in southern Iran after he went to retrieve a tool near the aircraft. Local mechanic Abolfazl Amiri was undertaking routine maintenance work on Iranian domestic airline Varesh Airline’s Boeing 737-500 when he was sucked into the engine. According to Bild, the engine on the right-hand side had been started for a test run with the cover flaps open. A safety area had been set up around the engine as is usually required. But when Amiri realised, he had forgotten a tool on the engine, he went back and was sucked in and killed before the engine caught fire. Amiri’s remains were recovered after the airport fire brigade arrived at the scene. The fatal incident occurred in Chabahar Konarak airport in southern Iran.

11/07/2024

Fifty new aircraft scheduled to enter service with the Nigerian Air Force

During the course of the coming year, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has confirmed plans to acquire 50 new aircraft from combat jets to attack helicopters. Speaking during the opening of new aviation facilities in Katsina State on 18 June Chief of Air Staff, Marshal Hasan Bala Abubakar said the aircraft include 12 Bell AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters, 24 Leonardo multirole M-346 jets, 12 Leonardo Helicopters AW109 multipurpose helicopters and two Airbus C295 transport aircraft.

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11/07/2024

Brilliant photography exposed on FlyAfrica

Picture credit: Timothy Homan

After the most successful Elders Flight organised by Felix Gosher at the SAAF Mobile Deployment Wing (AFB Swartkop) on Saturday 6 July, the website FlyAfrica has been inundated with postings of some of the finest aviation photography I have ever seen. From exciting videos to creative stills pictures, it is abundantly clear that South African aviation photographers are amongst the best in the world, whilst at the same time the sheer enthusiasm of the photographers is great to see. On behalf of African Pilot, I want to thank all those photographers who has shared their amazing pictures. South Africa has excellent photographic talent and I would like to recognise all of you for your special contribution towards the huge success of the Elders Flight.

11/07/2024

In this edition of APAnews:
https://preview.mailerlite.com/n1b1k8a0j4/2521730789511534842/w4x5/
- Brilliant photography exposed on FlyAfrica
- AAD 2024: Registration for Trade Visitors and Media Accreditation Now Open
- Falko Regional Aircraft purchases two Embraer E190 aircraft leased to Airlink
- Fireblade celebrates its 10th anniversary

08/07/2024

Chinese Wing Loong II UAVs being smuggled to Libya intercepted by Italy

Disguised as wind turbine parts that were being smuggled to Libya in shipping containers Wing Loong II unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were seized by Italian authorities. The United Nations has an arms embargo imposed on Libya, necessitating the subterfuge, which saw six containers filled with weapons included two Wing Loong UAVs and two control stations marked as wind turbine components. On 18 June the containers were inspected at the Italian Port of Gioia Tuaro Guardia di Finanza confirmed in a statement on 2 July. It said the containers were deemed suspicious after examining their shipping route and ‘anomalies in the accompanying customs documentation.’

06/07/2024

05/07/2024

27 arrested over suspected protest plans at airports

A total of 27 people have been arrested in a coordinated operation over suspected plans to disrupt airports this summer. All of the individuals were arrested under a section of the Public Order Act, which makes it illegal to conspire to disrupt national infrastructure. Among the arrested were high-profile members of the Just Stop Oil group, which recently had two protestors break into the Stansted Airport and spray paint jets.

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04/07/2024

Starliner astronauts prepare for extended ISS stay

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two-person crew of NASA and Boeing’s Starliner crew flight test (CFT) will remain on the International Space Station (ISS) for at least a few more weeks. During a media briefing on Friday, NASA and Boeing representatives said the astronauts’ return to Earth will come after ground testing at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico is complete. Teams are working to re-create some of the issues experienced by the reusable spacecraft during its inaugural crewed flight to the orbital laboratory.

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04/07/2024

US Air Force General court martialled for ‘assuming control’ of a C-17 too soon after drinking
A court martial has fined Air Force Maj. Gen. Phillip Stewart $60,000 and confined him to Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas for six months after he flew a C-17 in low level manoeuvres following a night of drinking. In the first court martial of its kind, a jury of eight generals, all of whom outranked Stewart, found him guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer and dereliction of duty by ‘assuming control’ of the transport plane at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma during a trip in April of 2023. Earlier he admitted to adultery and having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate officer and was found not guilty of sexual assault involving that officer. The charges resulted from that evening and from an earlier encounter in which he invited a female subordinate to spend the night with him at a hotel in Denver on another work trip. Stewart, who commanded the 19th Air Force at the time, was relieved of that command a few days after the Oklahoma evening. The 19th Air Force is in charge of training.

04/07/2024

In this edition of APAnews:
https://preview.mailerlite.com/u4p2b4q3s8/2516659980086548822/u1v6/
- AERO SA 2024 - Day 1
- AERO South Africa 2024 is underway at Wonderboom National Airport
- Malibu crash kills five family members
- 27 arrested over suspected protest plans at airports

02/07/2024

Leonardo to assemble AW609 at Grottaglie facility

Last week Leonardo announced that the company plans to add a second final assembly line for the AW609 tiltrotor at its Grottaglie production facility in the province of Taranto in southern Italy. This would be in addition to the primary AW609 assembly line in Philadelphia. The decision marks a strategic shift for the aerospace and defence group, which said it is diversifying the use of the Grottaglie site that had been mainly intended to build aerostructures for Boeing 787s.

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02/07/2024

The correct way to manage an airshow

After spending this past weekend attending the Polokwane airshow, I was impressed with the organisation and welcoming that the members of the media received from the organisers. The reality is that from a continuity perspective all airshow organisers should appreciate that the more favourable the media reports are, the more likely positive reports and excellent pictures that will be published. In South Africa most airshow organisers are good at what they do and of course I am aware that often this is a thankless job, but now and again airshow organisers and officials at these events behave in an anti-social manner and this will cause serious damage to their next event due to negative reporting. What also made this airshow unique was the ad hoc debrief at the hotel where most of the pilots, media and officials stayed for two nights. At this spontaneous de-brief that was attended by around 30 people, I was impressed by the significantly positive comments that came from different persons involved in the production of the airshow. I sincerely hope that other airshow organisers will start taking my comments seriously and up their game for the next airshow they organise.

02/07/2024

In this edition of APAnews:
https://preview.mailerlite.com/l0s9x3y8d6/2514487902575008107/r5g9/
- The correct way to manage an airshow
- Polokwane airshow – most entertaining!
- Impressions of the 2024 Taildraggers fly-in weekend
- United States delivers C-130 Hercules to Botswana

01/07/2024

The July 2024 edition of African Pilot magazine is now available!
Free to download and read online! Follow the link below!
https://www.africanpilot.co.za/Jul2024magazine/

27/06/2024

Crop dusters collide in Idaho, killing 1

On Thursday 20 June an Air Tractor AT-802 and AT-502B collided in midair near Arco, Idaho while conducting agricultural operations, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other. The two crop duster planes were operating for the same company when they collided at about 12h30 and landed in a sage and grass-covered area. East Idaho News reported that the two planes were from Visser Air Ag and were spraying the fields together. The company sent the local news outlet a statement, confirming the loss of one of the pilots. Local News 8 reported that the deceased pilot was Sage Teichert (43).

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27/06/2024

In this edition of APAnews:
https://preview.mailerlite.com/a7g8m1v0s7/2511578511592921645/t9a4/
- Kenya to receive 16 helicopters and other military support from US
- Bell 206L-3 LongRanger, ZS-RUM accident
- 13 hospitalised after Korean Air flight’s rapid 26,900-foot descent
- Crop dusters collide in Idaho, killing 1

24/06/2024

Idiots damage business jets at Stansted, UK

This past week Just Stop Oil activists sprayed orange paint over private jets at Stansted airport on the airfield where Taylor Swift’s plane is stationed. Two activists, Jennifer Kowalski (28), a former sustainability manager from Dumbarton and Cole Macdonald (22) from Brighton, broke into a private airfield in Stansted at 05h00 on Thursday before targeting the jet. Fortunately, the police were on the scene within minutes and the two idiots were arrested. The two activists cut the fence into the private airfield at Stansted demanding an emergency treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030.

This situation just shows how ‘soft’ the world has become on dealing with activists that deliberately damage business jets and other property. The time has come to sentence these protesters to serious jail time so that they can learn some manners.