SA_F_2015_04_

80 SA Flyer

T

HANKS to the

magnificent efforts

of the helicopters

of Working on Fire,

millions of Rands

worth of damage

to property and

loss of life was

avoided in the

recent huge Cape

fires. Tragically this came at the cost of

the loss of one of South Africa’s foremost

helicopter pilots, Hendrik ‘Bees’ Marais.

On Sunday afternoon 1 March a bush

fire started in the hills above Noordhoek

and Fish Hoek on the Cape Peninsula. By

Sunday evening, thanks to a magnificent

effort by the helicopters of Working on

Fire and hundreds of ground firefighters, it

looked as though the fire had been beaten.

However it was not to be.

In the early hours of Monday morning,

the blaze flared up again in Muizenberg,

above Boyes Drive, and was fanned by

strong winds. It soon covered the entire

central peninsula and burned for almost a

whole week.

This huge conflagration put impossible

demands on the airborne firefighting crews

from Working on Fire. As the crisis grew

the SAAF managed to supply two Oryxes

from 22 Squadron. The SAAF had a major

constraint with crew as each Oryx requires

four crew-members to operate, compared

to the Huey’s one. Oryx crew were flown

in from 17 Squadron in Pretoria and were

supplemented by a crew who flew in from

TFDC at Bredasdorp. And even ACSA

helped with a large fire tender loaned from

Cape Town International Airport.

In the end, thanks to the herculean

efforts of the pilots, the support crews,

and in particular the 2,000 fireman and

volunteer firemen on the ground, the worst

of the blaze was contained and less than a

hundred houses were seriously damaged.

There were in total ten crews manning

the three Hueys: Fred Viljoen, 'Bees'

Marais, John Mittlemyer, Mike Bothma,

Bruce Benson, Brian Davies, Gert Uys,

Mark Jackson, Steven Mostert, Henning de

Beer and Darrel Rea.

The three AT802 fixed wing fire

bombers flew every day except on the

Tuesday when the weather was bad, with

low cloud and rain. But there was no rest as

they then had to operate on another fire in

the Grabouw area. The bomber pilots were

Rinus van Raaij, Willie Marais, Koos Kieck

and Trompie Nel. Then there were the three

spotter aircraft flown by Johannes Botha,

Riaan Rautenbach, Wolfgang Moll and

Jannie De Vos.

The workload was intense. By the

Thursday Fred Viljoen estimated he had

dropped as many as 350 loads of water and

Johan Mittelmeyer as many as 500. The

helicopter pilots regularly flew the maximum

of seven hours per day, to the limit of 35

hours per week. The vast number of loads

required incredibly intense flying with some

loads taking barely a minute to load and

drop, particularly those from the sea at

St James, which were dumped above the

houses.

If ever there is a single shining example

of the effectiveness of general aviation and

the heroic efforts of its pilots, it is in the

massive saving of life and property that

these indomitably brave crews effected with

their great skill and unrelenting work.

PHOTO ESSAY

Circling high above the fires are the spotter

planes to guide the fire bombers in.

j