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LATEST
NEWSLETTER
1 November
2007
Well
the year has once sped by at an alarming rate and as I get older
this rate seems to increase exponentially!
The
main event this year was the Presidents trophy air race which
went off well with no major hitches and a little money was
made.
The
KPA has taken over the clubhouse by mutual agreement with Kassie,
whilst Kassie still occupies one of the offices for flight
school purposes. We know that this will be a mutually
beneficial arrangement with our strengths complimenting one
another.
With
this year drawing to a close we have 2 events left, one being a
road race at the airfield (to raise funds in order to upgrade
the club plane), where we have created a track and
cars/bikes/4-wheelers race against the clock, much like British
Hillclimb or rallying. This event is called the KOSH Cannonball
and will take place on the 17th of November.
KPA
YEAR END FUNCTION 2007
The
second starts on the evening of the 23rd November
with Horace Blok, ex SAAF and crew member on the ill fated
Pelican 16 Shakelton that went down in the Sahara desert, and
Karl Jensen, giving us a presentation and taking us through the
trip. I have been told that this is a very interesting story and
should not be missed. The bar will be open and braai fires lit
and ready.
On
the Saturday we will start off with a competition that we hope
to make a yearly event (The suggested name is the “Matlosana”
and thus giving it an identity) and attract many other aircraft
in the process. EAA has been invited to take part.
At
08:00 local, we have a handicap air race in which all airies
will take part ie blik, plastic and microlights. There will be 2
courses, one for microlights (36 minutes at 50 MPH) and one for
blik and plastic (36 minutes at 100MPH), running similtaneoulsy
and designed so that all airies should cross the line at once.
Now we are fallible, and this might not happen, but the idea is
to have fun, so with our not so perfect handicap system, the
first plane over the line wins.
After this we will have the normal bomb dropping and spot
landing comps as well as a ribbon cutting comp and a “slowest
over a marked 200 meters relative to your airies stalling speed”
comp. All this culminates in the year end braai, Christmas Party
and prize giving.
If
you are available to help with these events, please call me.
082-855-5550 or 018-462-1724
So
diaries these dates and make sure you are there!
Lekker Vlieg!
Cliff Lotter
30 January 2007
Carl Jensen, ex
SAA captain, great story teller, raconteur and gentleman is
coming to visit us on the 9th of February at
the clubhouse. This takes the place of our monthly braai that
would normally take place on the first Friday of the month. It
will be an informal do, starting at 6:30, with Carl doing a
hangar talk for about an hour and then a braai. Please bring
your own meat, salads, cutlery, crockery and glasses. There will
be a bar running. Carl chairs the monthly talk show at Rand air
port that is hugely popular, he is a great entertainer so this
promises to be an evening to remember.
The Presidents
Trophy Air Race and air show arrangements are coming along fine
but there still remains a lot of work to be done.
It has been
decided to have a quarterly club flying competition as opposed
to a monthly comp and I will relay the dates as soon as they
have been finalized.
There are also
various fly-ins planned and these dates will also be forwarded
shortly.
Yours in
aviation,
Cliff Lotter
07 November 2006
Hi everybody,
Just a short
newsletter.
Don’t forget
the AGM on the 16th of November at the terminal
building PC Pelser at 19:00 hours.
In terms of the
constitution, the election of the office bearers is to take
place in the following manner: Nomination forms are to be
completed and given to Alida 7 days before the AGM. The form
must contain the name of the nominee, the date, the position
nominated for and the signature of the nominee. At the AGM
voting will take place for nominees only.
The committee
consists of the following positions:
If you feel you
would like to be part of the committee please contact me.
We have been
granted the air race for 2007 which is great but our planning
was to host it in 2008. Our problem is that we have the air show
as well in 2007 and to make matters worse, they will be on
consecutive weekends! (25th & 26th of May and 2nd
of June). So we will have to decide whether we will cancel the
air show or do both.
In the new year
we will be getting aviation orientated speakers to address us at
our monthly braai’s again. This was very popular and very
interesting when we instituted it and I think a lot can be
learnt from these talks.
Cliff
6 September 2006
Well, its been
a hectic few months for most of us but hopefully things will
calm down in the last quarter of the year!
The new runway lights
have finally been finished, well nearly finished, just a few things
outstanding but these should be completed within a week or so. They are
working really well with the luminescence being greatly improved, at
least you can see them now on finals. The PAPI’s have been connected to
a separate supply so that we can change their brightness to suit whilst
keeping the R/W lights at full brightness. A big thank you must be given
to the council for spending close to R400,000 for this upgrade.
The lights can be
turned on by going to 133.500 mhz and clicking three times, give them
about 5 seconds to turn on. They will automatically turn off after 20
minutes.
We have asked the
council to budget for taxiway lengthening and extending the apron and
hopefully this will be implemented next year.
At last we have
acquired a club plane to play with and as soon as we have sorted out all
the paperwork we will start with conversions to type for those that are
interested. It will also be available for new students to learn on. It
is a Zenair fitted with “speed wings” and an A200 continental engine
(same as the Cessna 150) and is registered in the LS-1 category making
it more affordable to play. We are looking at about R400 per hour.
Jeff Frost had a back
operation which delayed the completion of his Tiger Moth by a couple of
months but he is nearly back to full steam so we hope to see this
classic in the air shortly.
The Theron’s have taken
delivery of their new Europa kit and are making progress famously.
Suckers for punishment they are, as this is their second one!
A sad removal from the
Klerksdorp register was the Seneca belonging to Fred Kruger as it has
been sold, and has subsequently sold his hangar as well. I hope this is
not the end of Fred’s flying as he has always been credit to our
aviation fraternity!
Piet Geldenhuys has
taken a job in Botswana so that has also put a hold on his Whisper
motorglider’s progress although his son , Spyker, is carrying on with
the building progress in between his Bsc studies.
Check out our new web
site that is very generously being managed by Chris van Eeden,
www.fakd.co.za, it really looks great and a big thank you to Chris !
He tells me there is still a bit of work to be done, so if you can’t
open everything yet, be patient and try again tomorrow.
This weekend (2nd
of September) we flew to sun and fun in Rustenburg and what a nice time
we had! There were 4 aircraft from Klerksdorp with a total of 9 members
attending. We camped at the airfield and although it was cold we managed
to make it through the night. There were about a 100 aircraft in
attendance most of them being homebuilts. The only complaint we have
regarding this event was the price of the food as R18 for a sosatie we
think is a bit steep. The Round Table run food stall also ran out of
food early in the afternoon leaving a lot of hungry pilots in the lurch
including yours truly. Len Hatting came to the rescue by stealing 12 dry
buns from the kitchen which were duly washed down with Stroh rum and
strawberry cooldrink after which Len proceeded to commandeer the
resident tractor and trailer to use as transport to town in order to
visit a local restaurant as he was still hungry. SAPS Superintendant
Vermaak threatened to arrest him and take him to the alternative
restaurant in town by helicopter but luckily Piesang was on hand as
legal representation and the matter was solved amicably over another
Stroh rum, or was it two?
We are looking at
changing the month in which we have our airshow to June or May because
of the wind problem in August but are still in negotiation with ASSA,
the national co-ordinating committee.
Until next time, safe
flying.
Cliff Lotter
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