56 African Pilot April 2015
AFRICAN PILOT’S WESTERN CAPE CORRESPONDENT
IRENE MCCALLAGH’S OBSERVATIONS
When I arrived at the airfi eld at 14h00 on Friday afternoon, I was greeted
by a wide open fi eld with just one aircraft parked with a small tent under
its wing. This surprised me, as generally there is quite an air of hustle and
bustle in the lead-up to this Swellengrebel fl y-in weekend. Mike Cooper and
his passenger Michael Saunders had arrived early in their Rans and after
landing they searched the sky for more incoming aircraft. Alas, no other
aircraft arrived so the two men spent a lonely night camped next to their
aircraft.
The club’s campsite was open to visitors, but this year the pre-erected tents
with mattresses were absent and the entire event had a very scaled down
feeling about it. The Friday evening’s gourmet steak dinner was excellent,
after which Cobus Brink, who had travelled by road from Mosselbay,
presented a slide show. Sadly, this was received rather haphazardly as
people were still eating, even though it was well after 22h00. We joked that
photographers outnumbered pilots.
That changed during the course of the Saturday morning. After the initial
low-lying clouds cleared, there was an infl ux of traffi c with planes landing in
quick succession: the biggest being an Aerostar and the most exhilarating
the Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros ZU-KIM, a high-performance jet
trainer aircraft developed in Czechoslovakia, fl own by Alan Fergus with
Alewyn Burger. Alan always supports this fl y-in and each year arrives with
something ‘interesting.’ Last year he brought the Howard DGA, which
created quite a buzz.It was fascinating being shown the modifi ed cockpit of Mike Lomberg’s
Glasair Sportsman. After tragically losing the use of his legs in a road accident
some years ago, Mike had the plane’s controls adapted and foot pedals
are now manually operated. There is a hook under the wing to hoist up his
wheelchair, which is stowed during fl ight in the space previously occupied by
two passenger seats, which have been removed. A most inspiring story and
we wish Mike very many more happy years of fl ying.After a hearty breakfast and an exchange of ‘hellos’ over coffee, most pilots
fl ew out by Saturday lunchtime due to the possibility of adverse weather
conditions that had been predicted later in the afternoon, with only a handful
remaining to enjoy the Buffeljagsdam ‘booze cruise.’ I also departed on
Saturday afternoon. All in all this was a very enjoyable ‘meet and greet,’ but
I did miss the open day event atmosphere which I have come to associate
with FASX. In previous years we have seen fl ea market stalls in a shady
hangar, local produce for sale by residents, vintage cars and motor-bikes
on display. These attracted the townsfolk and created a fun day. This year
the event seemed to have a more serious ‘aviation only’ air about it, with the
local population only invited for the music event planned for Saturday night.
Hopefully next year’s Swellengrebel fl y-in will return to its former status to
encompass the fun extras again.Sling 2Glassair Ikarus C42