Kroon breakfast fly-in 2017

By Rugene Frost

Kroon a small airfield on chicken farm just north of the red and white radio mast hosts one of the most enjoyable fly-inns for the LSA and weight shift category aircraft in Pretoria, and this year was no exception.

The club started when the owner Jacques Kroon started to fly at a small airfield with Dawie Du Toit, his instructor.  Jacque’s father, a chicken farmer, gave Jacques a weight shift aircraft and an open piece of land on which Jacques built one hanger and cleared a grass runway. Soon after that Dawie moved his flying school to Kroon airfield. The flying school still exists and offers LSA and weight shift training. Kroon airfield currently has five hangars and all of thirty aircraft call it home.

Kroon Fly-inn is known for its good boerie breakfast with bacon, scrambled eggs, wors, soup, freshly baked bread, pap and sous all for just R 50.00. The club members all got together at 05h30 to start preparations for the busy day ahead.

The morning started off slowly with only the local club members flying. Just after 06h00 the first visiting  aircraft arrived, the morning picked up quite quickly with sixteen weight shift trikes and thirty-seven  fixed wing aircraft joining  the fun. Not to be outdone the Rotar wing community was represented by Gyro copters, a Robinson 44 Raven and a Bell 407.

A friendly spot landing competition was organised  amongst  the pilots which was won by one of the club members Ben Grundling in his Aquilla ZS-CVX 

The day progressed quickly with all the weight shifts flying out before 09h00 before the air got too unstable. A gaggle of Bathawk and Bantams flew in and one of them was the first Bathawk equipped with a Rotax 912 engine Bathawks are normally powered by Camit six-cylinder 125 hp engine.

To everyone’s  surprise a Cessna 210 joined overhead, at first no one thought  that the Cessna would land as the runway is a mere  800m with 150m basically unusable and obstacles on either side of the runway. The Cessna joined downwind and the gear came down. At this point excitement grew to see what was going to happen, before it could really sink in the Cessna was on final approach running it in at a high power setting and at a high angle of attack. The pilot knew exactly what he was doing as he touched down at the beginning of the runway and stopped the aircraft halfway down the runway.

Kroon airfield is certainly one of the most welcoming flying clubs around with a happy comradery between the club members. Once a month there is a club braai and in summers they have a sleep over at the airfield all you need  is your caravan or tent and you are sorted for the night.

The event is very well managed by the club members with regular safety and preparation meetings well ahead of time. Pierre Van Der Walt a former weight shift pilot was in charge of all radio communications ensuring all aircraft got in and out safely. There is also a “follow me” quad bike to show aircraft to the parking’s area after landing to eliminate confusion.

Marketing was done by Johan Welman but it’s also expected of all the club members to spread the word. 

Well done to Kroon airfield and all its club members for the yet another successful event.

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Kishugu Lowveld Airshow Nelspruit 2017

 by Garth Calitz

Nelspruit came alive with sound of aircraft over the Youth Day weekend, with the Kishugu Lowveld Airshow taking place at the civil airfield just outside the city. The Airshow was originally planned for 12 and 13 May but had to be postponed due to the bad weather that soaked the whole country that weekend.

The weather once again threatened the Airshow with low cloud greeting the participants and spectators on Friday morning, a decision to go ahead was made as the forecast looked promising.

The show was kicked off with Harley Davidson procession down the runway followed by a skydiving display including the massive 80 kg National Flag.

The skydivers had barely landed and the Bat Hawk took to the muggy skies, The Bat Hawk is a proudly South African “Light Sport Aircraft” designed and built by Micro Aviation SA in Africa for African conditions.

Two local Kitfox aircraft showed off their agility and manoeuvrability in a show of aerial ballet, Kitfox aircraft sold in kit form from their factory in the USA and are very popular with bush pilots worldwide.

Unfortunately the low cloud on the escarpment prevented some of the participants from making the flight from the Rand, one affected team was the Torre Pitts Specials only two of the four aircraft took part in the show. Never the less the two ship formation, flown by Scully Levin and Arnie Meneghelli thrilled the crowd.

Neville Ferreira flew His Hi energy display in his South African built Slick 540, Neville will be joining many of the other display pilots to compete in the National Aerobatics Championships at Malelane next month.

Juba Joubert was next on the programme in the Jaguar sponsored  Aérospatiale Gazelle, Juba has been actively involved in many airforces throughout Africa and has flown many different types of Helicopters including the Russian MI range of aircraft.

Team Extreme and their Hi-Impact aerobatic display never fail to please Nigel Hopkins, Mark Hensman and Jason Beamish throw their Freestyle Aerobatic aircraft around in a sequence of body bending manoeuvres.

Gary Whitecross the only glider pilot on the airshow circuit was tugged into the muggy Nelspruit air by Derek Hopkins in a Lombada. Gary’s silent aerobatic display is fast becoming one of the most popular displays at airshows.

Scully Levin this time in a single North American Harvard was next on the cards, the rest of the Puma Energies four ship were unfortunately prevented from attending due to the weather. Scully seemed to really enjoy doing a solo display and gave running commentary throughout the sequence.

Enter Spartan, Jeffery Cooper from 2 squadron in Machado flew an exciting display in the Saab JAS 39 Gripen. The Gripen was equipped with a 1000 litre supersonic belly tank something not often seen and the extra fuel came in very handy as he was kept holding for a good 15 minutes  as there was Passenger traffic at the nearby Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport.

The Russian Antanov AN2 “Little Annie” followed appearing even slower after the fast paced Jet display. Mark and Jon-Marc Hill operate the AN2 on behalf of “Just Love Mission”

Sticking with the Bi-Planes Ivan van der Schaar showed off the grace and beauty of his Boeing Stearman, Ivan recently received a command at Comair on the slightly larger Boeing 737-800.

The Aero Raptors, once again flying borrowed planes as their aircraft are making their way back home by sea from china, delivered a polished display. Pierre Gouws, Ryan Beaton Nigel Hopkins and Mark Hensman made up the team on the day.

The flying programme was monetarily halted for a parade by “Working on Fire” fire fighters paying homage to their collages that recently went above and beyond in fighting the massive fires in the Western Cape.

After the break Gary Whitecross once again took to the sky as the sun started breaking through the clouds.

Ivan van der Schaar once again demonstrated his flying ability this time in the tiny Pitts Special S2A, the Pitts and the Strearman make up “American Flying Classics” based at Petit Airfield in Gauteng

Scully and Arnie once again flew a display with the two Torre Pitts Specials this time in wonderful blue skies.

Pierre Gouws as always flew a magnificent display in the L-39 Albatros, this particular L-39 belongs to Richard Lovett who hails from Middleburg, the venue for the next Airshow on this year’s calendar.

Kishugu the title sponsors of this magnificent spectacle handed over an R1 million outside broadcast Vehicle to Capital Sounds boss Brain Emmenis, The vehicle will be equipped and used at all the evets that Capital Sounds cover throughout Southern Africa.

Mark Gentles the Silver Falcon leader reached new heights and was crowned the most capped Silver Falcon ever, Mark has now reached 187 displays in his six years with the team. This was reached in magnificent style, for only the second time in history, the Falcons formatted on Jeffery Copper in the Gripen for an amazing display of skill as the aircraft are by no means matched in handling or speed.

Canopies filled the sky above the airfield as the second batch of skydivers came back to terra firma, the landings were led by swoopers these guys literally throw themselves at the ground at breakneck speeds swooping as the pull out of the dive.

The hero pilots from Kishugu’s Working on Fire displayed their accuracy at Fire Bombing with both the Bell UH1 and Air Tractors, Both these types were used extensively in the recent fires in the Knysna area.

Team Extreme once again took off to thrill the large crowd, Nigel and Mark performed a heart stopping apposing take-off.

Race time!! Juba raced against a Jaguar motorcar the Jag managed to steal the glory, beating the Gazelle by quiet a margin.

As the day grew to and end and darkness fell the Silver Falcons performed a beautiful twilight display followed by a Fireworks and Balloon Glow Display.

The organisers can really take a bow, this show will be remembered as one of the greats and considering was postponed what they managed here a real achievement. See you all next year..

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