Around an hour’s drive from Bloemfontein is Bultfontein in a typical agriculture setting. In recent years it became known for a very popular fly-inn organised by Piet Vermaak and his team. Pilots on the descent had to plan their approaches carefully as all visiting aircraft was an instant contender in the spot landing competition with some great prizes. The landing completed on the grass strip, one taxies to an escort point where a four wheeler with a “Follow Me” day-glo flag takes you to your parking spot. All aircraft are evenly spaced along demarcated white lines. Yes everything is organised to the letter. Yet upon exiting the aircraft, pilots were met with a typical crispy Free State morning which made the hearty breakfast in the Wesbank sponsored marquee tent an excellent prospect.

A large microlight and gyro-copter contingent arrived on the Friday afternoon while most of the gyro-copters arrived throughout the Saturday morning.  Some rare aircraft types attended and included two Tiger Moths (one journeyed from Krugersdorp and took more than 3hrs due to the weather conditions), Cessna 152 “tail-dragger”, motor gliders and a Corvus Corone Mk1. The Corvus Corone is a new entry on to the South African scene as affordable aircraft ownership and marketed as the “Sunbird”. Manufactured in Hungary and locally assembled the aircraft is of an all composite construction and depending on the engine fitted the endurance can be almost 10hrs. An emergency parachute recovery system is one of the options on the Corone. The aircraft is locally distributed by Laszlo Liszkay from Corvus Aircraft SA. Perhaps the most interesting was a KingAir from Naturelink on a scheduled charter as the only bigger twin to attend.

Laszlo Liszkay and the Corvus Corone

John Miller from SA Flyer Magazine