A_P_2015_04

April 2015 African Pilot 7

Letters

Dear Athol,

Your March 2015 edition p 86: Re Mini Ace CA-61. The other Mini Ace was

ZS-VIG. I fl ew it on 23, 24 and 27 November 1985 from John Wesson (KBY)

to New Tempe. With numerous forced landings (overheating) it took three

days, with repairs being done on the Kimberley-Dealesville road. After being

fi xed by Athol Ferreira of the then Ferreira Aviation at New Tempe, I fl ew it to

Bethlehem on 2 February 1986. Reading your article, it really brought back

memories and a look at my log book again.

Thanks for a great magazine.

Leo Palmer

Dear Leo,

Thank you for your e-mail. I am always amazed by the sentiments invoked

by various articles we publish in African Pilot and in this particular case I

will send your letter to Willie Bodenstein who wrote the article and took the

fantastic pictures that illustrated the Mini Ace ZS UDW.

Regards,

Athol

Dear Sir,

Thanks for the

interesting article on

The Rebirth of a Tiger

Moth. Whilst not

wanting to distract

from the really

excellent job in the

restoration and the

work that Alan did,

it is very sad that an

acknowledgement

was not given to Goli, without whose amazing skills,

talents and attention to detail this project would absolutely not have been

possible. To simply refer to Goli and his amazing contribution as “a young

African” to me (and a few others) is cruel and disrespectful in the extreme.

Perhaps one could publish an apology with Goli next to the Tiger and give

him the credit that is certainly due.Another small detail is that the plane

belongs to Thierry Plojoux.

Thanks for a great mag!

Regards, Rae Henderson

Dear Rae,

Of course you are correct and I will bring this to the attention of the

author of the article so that in a future edition we can publish a picture

of Goli standing next to the Tiger Moth. Thanks for bringing this

to my attention.

Sincerely,

Athol

Obituary Marius van Heerden

It is with great sadness I am reporting the untimely passing of one of South

Africa’s most amazing personalities in aviation. Marius was killed in a motor

accident on Saturday evening 1 March less than 500 metres from the turn off

to his home on a small holding near Lanseria when he rolled his car through

a ditch and into a tree. It appears that he may have fallen asleep and simply

did not take the curve in the road.

Over many years of dealing with Century Avionics, Marius was always the

life and soul of the company as well as a true asset to the business. He

was a kind person who never uttered anything bad about anybody.

Marius was also deeply involved in the Afrikaans speaking community with

his part time DJ work with Radio Bosveld and his love for Afrikaans songs.

On behalf of all those that knew this wonderful person we wish you God

speed and safe travels to that great hangar in the sky.

To everyone at Century Avionics, my deepest condolences on losing a

great asset to your business and a really fun person.