Make my Day !!!

Hi all,

As you all maybe aware of is that it is Tuesday the 13th today , all day but at least not as bad as Friday the 13th ,that is if you superstitious about the 13th , actually good things can happen on the 13th.

Sometimes things happen and afterwards and when you think back you know that you did not plan it that way.

Well what happened this morning with me was definitely not planed at all. As I was about to leave my home for work my attention was drawn to the hedge next to our gate. The sudden movement of wings came from a Grey Lorrie that was having a meal on the ripe berries. I always carry my camera with me and with the morning light and the red berries the Lorrie would make for a good picture.

I had my camera out in no time switched on, zoomed in and focused but just as I pressed the shutter button to take the picture nothing happened. I quick look at the display showed “Memory card Full”.

Needles to say I uttered some not so descent words and franticly start to delete as many bad pictures as I can to make space for “The Shot of the day”. This took about 30 seconds and when I got back to taking the picture, the Lorrie was not on the hedge any more but in the tree just above.

I uttered some more not so decent words and strolled head down to open the gate in frustration took a picture of the Lorrie in the tree as a consolation prize.

The next moment as I was about to open the gate, still with my camera in hand, I heard the familiar sound of twin aero engines droning away. As I looked in the direction of the approaching plane I could not believe my eyes, the sound was that of my favourite plane a Rockwell Aero commander.

The last time I saw an Aero commander fly was at a Air show (Lanceria) when Bob Hoover were flying it in a aerobatic display. Next thing I realized that I still had my camera in my hands and Immediacy took as many pictures I could. This time the Camera work with me and

I got some reasonable shots that I am posting her with the Lorrie that starred the events. As for the Grey Lorrie shot that I didn’t get I don’t mind but I am really happy to get the pictures of the Aero Commander (I don’t think their are very many in flying condition out there any more)
So of to work I go with smile a mile wide no matter what happens today on this really made my Day!!!

You can get more Pictures of this Aero Commander on Airliners.net , just follow the link below
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=ZS-KPU

F5J #1 @ BERG

The first F5J event of the year took place at BERG on the 18th February. Before I left home it look like it was going to rain and we wouldn't get any flying that day. But by the time all the eager pilots arrived, although still heavily overcast, the rain had held off and we were able to get of to a fairly early start.

After a brief discussion about the rules and the usual haggling about wind direction and landing spots locations, Ivan got things going. In all we had 9 entrants on the day, with three complete newbie's in the fray.

There were a few issues with the setting on some of the guys altimeter deceives..... Our esteemed host from BERG, Prepetation Piet, managed to launch to 270meter on his first attempt. A serious penalty of 370 points. But despite this, he still won the round. Mostly, because he flew the full 10 minutes, while the other pilots only managed around 3 to 5 minutes. Not much lift around at that time of the morning.

But soon things got down to normal and the rounds progress nicely with one or two more small issues along the way. Johan had the unfortunate mishap of his motor running in reverse at the start of one of his slots and by the time he had swapped models, half his working time had elapsed.

Ivan, who organised the event and the F5J rep, had a ball with his ETsotsi, winning the day. Well done Ivan.

After we all settled down to the format and had a better understanding of the rules, it was great to see how after each flight the guys would gather around and count the flashes on their Altis meters and compare times and landings with each other.
The new F5J rules are great and I'm sure that this format will grow very rapidly. It's so easy to just switch on and fly. No hassle with winches and wind direction and line breaks and all that bother.

Especially gratifying for me was to see so many Tsotsi's competing against each other.

It must be mentioned that Gordon and Jonathan flew glider that were just not suited to this type of event, while Melgardt started off with a similar type of glider, he flew the last 3 or 4 rounds with Ivan Tsotsi and the improvement was dramatic.