“Civil” as the local aviators call the otherwise relatively unknown second airport of Polokwane, recently hosted a unique helicopter event. No doubt the previous status as a SAAF air base let to Gateway International, as the main airport of Polokwane to seize most of the lime light. However, on Saturday 23 June 2007, “Civil” staged the first ever helicopter fly-in for the Southern Africa region. It is ideally suited for such an event as the surrounding area is relatively flat, the airport features a large concrete parking bay for visiting aircraft, no interference from scheduled commercial aircraft, availability of fuel and the general airfield layout easily accommodating ASSA regulations set out for an aviation event.

The idea of a fly-in for helicopters originated in early May 2007 during a civilian helicopter precision flying competition staged near Tzaneen.  Co-ordinating the fly-in was Johnny O’Reilly and Johan Wilkens, stating it would not be an airshow type event. In stead it would be along the lines of a fly-in to test the interest in an event of this nature. Mainly due to an all helicopter event has not been seen in South Africa before. As can be expected Robinson Helicopters was very well supported in all types of the R22 and R44 variants. One example of the R44 was hired on the Saturday morning and the nose pointed in the direction of Polokwane to attend this unique event. Most rotary aircraft make use of both a main rotor and a tail rotor. The attendees on the Saturday featured examples of a twin blade, three blade, four blade to even a five blade main rotor. Even vintage helicopters featured at the fly-in with two trusty Alouette II helicopters. Although very popular in the US, Enstrom is not very well supported in South Africa at present as the market share is held by Robinson. But a lone example attended in the form of a 280CX, as one of the latest models from the manufacturer.

Johnny O'Reilly