The Oak is blooming and some nice trips

The oak tree which forms an integral part of our home has done its annual magical costume change as illustrated by these two photographs taken a few days apart.

Leon (my cousin) and me went on a quick visit to Bethlehem. We were hosted by Crause my youngest brother who operates his Air Ambulance Service and a flight school from there.

Our routing was through Vereeniging Oranjeville and Frankfort (where we had a great T-bone steak on the banks of the Wilge river) into Bethlehem.

The next Morning we went on a run through the valley of Clarence, Sunnyside and Golden Gate.

From there we went past Qua-Qua, Kestell, Reitz and so forth, this was noticably dry countryside but poised to turn into paradise by the first rains which cant be far off.

Leon's bike is fitted with a GPS which has this fantastic feature that allows you to download the record of a trip and lay it over Google Earth.

Th image above is of the Clarence - Golden Gate - Valley which is a real bikers dream with a smooth sweeping road in some of the most beautiful rock formations on earth.


That same evening I flew freight from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth and the to Cape Town and back to Port Elizabeth. It was great to fly overhead the same area that we covered that same morning on the bikes.
The boeing I was flying that night (ZS-OBN) is of course also fitted with a GPS and this is a shot I took of the GPS on the last leg of the night just before sunrise with a healthy tailwind indicating that our groundspeed was 1079 Km per hour.

Juanita went on a road trip (She had a few days off in Kigali before her next flight to Ethiopia).

Apparently she went some seven hours driving south along the great lake of Tanganyika and when she gets back I will post her photos and other details of the trip.

End of Winter

As can be seen on the image below where I am standing on the snowswept stairs to the aircraft, it has been a hard cold winter in South Africa - this was on the morning of the 27th of June this year and since we are not used to this and geared for snow it took us nearly two hours to clear the wings and tail of the Boeing 727 of ice and snow with the help of the Fire trucks


We then flew down to Cape Town and back and was greeted by a Johannesburg covered in snow, something that only happens every 30 odd years.

Over the last few months we as a family was very busy Louis still flying in Zimbabwe and Johan Jr in Namibia, Juanita has been home for a while but is now on a trip to Rwanda - Tanzania - Germany - Malawi and then America.

My own schedule was rather hectic as I had to go for my annual simulator training early in July and this year it was in Bournemouth in the UK. At the end of July after only 4 days at home I did another trip to West Africa and only returned last week. Both these trips were marked with unusual weather - the well publicized floods in the UK occurred while I was there and disrupted everything especially flights from Heathrow. In the photo me and Flt Eng. Mike Melton and First Officer Steve Brits is standing in front of the simulator - for the non aviation types, this is a instrument that can drain all your energy out of you in a very short period (normal sessions are 2 hours a short break and another 2 hours) also known as a sweatbox and various other nicknames. As you can imagine, not most pilots favourite machine to operate but a very effective training tool, where engine fires, hydraulic failures and malfunctioning control surfaces are "normal"!

The tour to Monrovia had just as much rain but it was less disruptive since they experience an annual rainfall of 6000mm or SIX Meters and the drainage over the years have been shaped to accommodate the amount of water.

I have now been back in SA for a week and thank goodness the winter is at its end. We have put our house on the market and in this area property only really sells in the summer.

This coming week my Brothers and father are going on a hunting trip for Blesbuck Springbuck and Kudu in the Northern Cape near Kimberley, I cant make it, but Louis has flown down specially for this from Harare so in my next post I hope to tell about their experiences to get some biltong for their respective families.

Zimbabwe Namibia USA and Liberia

The last two months have been relatively quiet - Steven Spent several weeks in hospital in Cape Town but is back in Windhoek where we hope is recovery will be speedy - See Jr's email for more about Steven.

Juanita has been very quiet work wise but is at the moment on a trip via Kigali to London, San Francisco, Washington etc and she should be back later today.

My own travels took my back to Monrovia for a 18 day tour and that was also where I spent my birthday with a great crew, and we went to our old haunt, the Sushi Bar at the Royal Hotel. Since I got back I have been flying a relaxed schedule, locally for Imperial Air Cargo between Cape Town Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. As I am writing this I just got back from Port Elizabeth and it is now 0300, I will be driving back to Lanseria in an hour to pick up Louis who has also been flying all night.

Since Louis have been working in Harare he has had a very exiting time and is enjoying the flying tremendously. Since the well known incidents of 11 March where several people were injured by the police at a prayer meeting in Harare and they were pretty much in the thick of things trying to help get the injured to South Africa and their efforts being thwarted by the ruling party. Eventually by order of the High Court in Zim some of the injured were eventually flown down to Lanseria Airport.

Louis has in the mean time moved into his own flat in Harare very close to the residence of President Mugabe (big advantage of the location of his flat is that there is never cuts in electricity or water) and is within walking distance of the Royal Harare Golf Club where he has joined as a member.

Two days ago Louis sent a text massage that he is on his way down here again but first has to go to Ndola in Zambia to pick up the patient. Later we received another message that the patient unfortunately died on the airport of Ndola so they went back to Harare.

Yesterday in the late afternoon while I was sitting reading a book (Commando by Deneys Reitz) on Summerstrand beach in PE , I got yet another call from Louis - this time from Victoria Falls where he was picking up an old couple that had fallen of an elephant - and as if that was not enough, he was called out again to go back to Bulawayo immediately to bring a second patient down to Lanseria, so here I am writing a bit on my blog between 3 and 4 in the morning killing a bit of time before setting of to go and pick up Louis who will be landing at five o'clock

The following email describes what Johan Jr is up to in Namibia

All is well here in Namibia just woke up at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon due to work that is. I have flown two nights this week thu and fri night and will fly again on Monday night. I am really starting to enjoy the aeroplane im flying I have about 230hrs on it now and getting very comfortable with the aircraft.

Happenings at work

As everyone knows a friend of mine Steven was in a plane crash and im glad to say that he is back in Namibia after major back surgery . He is still not well though he has now lost 20kgs a lot for a guy that weighed 80 that is allot. the other thing is he is very weak cant sit for a long time. He can feel his left leg but below the knee he has no movement control, at least he is positive and smiling and putting up a brave face. Looks like there will be some big court cases coming up.

The other thing is I have also started flying a few charters around Namibia with Bay Airs Cessna 310 nice to fly in the day a bit. I have flown mostly down the west coast between Walvis bay and luderitz. A very quiet and small town that can be likened to the moon I just stayed in the nest hotel a very comfy 4 star hotel on the water. The other thing about luderitz it is where they manufacture wind, to have a 40kmh wind is a standard day makes the flying fun and interesting low along the beach at 390kmh always fun especially to watch the cocky American business man try and take pictures of seals on the beach at that speed.

My plans for the weekend are to catch up sleep and watch some rugby and cricket maybe a round of golf when it cools down outside. Its school holidays soon and kirsty might come to nam to visit for a week or two which im looking forward to.

So that has been what the Kosmos Steyls have been up to recently sorry I have been quiet for the last few months, and thanks for everybody who enquired about my silence, but as soon as something exiting happens I will post it as soon as possible.