Adrift at sea

The Albatross display by Pete van der Westhuizen and Brian Gruer was as polished as usual. This was followed by a short pantomime illustrating the use of the Albatross in search and rescue role. A boat (very nice one in fact) got into trouble at sea and the Albatross performed a low flypast to ascertain the status and direct support to the distressed sailor. Of course an added danger was the 4 “Sharks” that swam up to and around the boat. The allure of these sirens was such that the Albatross pilot wanted to trade places with the skipper of the boat. In the end it took a Cheetah to disperse the danger. All very tongue in cheek and good for a giggle or two (if not a laugh).

Another one of the light aircraft that was displayed to the crowd was the Polaris flown by Mark Greggson. This aircraft almost stood still in the air during an impressive showing of her slow flying capability, of course the strong wind helped in this.

Pierre Gouws in ZU-TEE gave his usual impressive solo display and this was followed with a reprise by the Cessna duo of Archie Kemp and Carl Jenkins. Nigel Hopkins, in a solo display in his Silverton Radiators/Avpix Extra 300 concluded the days flying events. The wind was blowing very strongly at this point and this was clearly visible from the ground as the aircraft was visibly moving horizontally in the sky during the upward manoeuvres.

Nigel Hobkins

General

It is a pity that the weather did not play ball as this did affect the overall show and aircraft turnout. The crowd that attended was well entertained though and all credit must be due to the flying display organisers. There was some disappointment though that publicised attractions never appeared but those are the dangers with any airshow event. Aircraft can and do go unserviceable or plans made do not always come to fruition.

As per last year the crowd was very good even though queues for food and refreshments were lengthy. It took up to an hour to get served in the fast food tent. Hmm, I wonder if we can get take-aways delivered to the media enclosure?

Top photos: C.Hugo, F.Hugo, photo manipulation: A.Dyason. All photos: C. Hugo, F.Hugo.

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