Impala Mk I

Mike Weingartz flew the following display, when he gave another of his highly polished Impala Mk 1 displays.  It was great to see the aircraft present with all the other jet trainers on the day, as they all were very much from the same era, with the K-8 the most modern one of these aircraft.  The next act was a race that was held between Dennis Spence in his Pitts, and a Subaru.  The race was eventually won by the Pitts Special.

Yaks

With the large number of Yak 52’s present in South Africa, the owners have on a number of occasions flown formation flypasts and displays with the aircraft.  One of these teams that were seen at Welkom during a previous year was the three aircraft formation display team led by Annie Boone.  The team did a display with the lead aircraft flown by Annie and Nigel Hopkins, Larry Beamish flying as no 2 and Charles Urban flying as the no 3.  The display was a nice smooth display, making good use of the smoke capability of two of the three aircraft.

 The IMG team was told in a discussion with the owner of the third aircraft that the fitting of a smoke system was already on the cards for the future.  The Harbin Y-12 then again served as a launching platform for the skydivers and a very nice touch was two members who jumped with the Swaziland flag displayed during the descent. This was followed by an aircraft that is actually registered in Swaziland itself, although usually operated from Barberton by CC Pockock as part of his Bush Pilot School.  The aircraft, a Cessna T-41 was well handled and the display was of a high standard, showing the capability of both the pilot and aircraft, without any dangerous situations or manoeuvres being undertaken.

Throughout the day, the display programme allowed for the arrivals and departures of the scheduled Swaziland Airlink aircraft that is flown to Matsapha International Airport.  These included Jetstream-41 turbo-propeller aircraft and a BAE-146 jet.  The Swaziland Airwing, although not flying as part of the display programme, except for one display, was active with two Alouette III helicopters the whole day.  One helicopter served as rescue standby aircraft for the day, while the other Alouette III was used to give flips to the spectators during the day.

Swaziland Airlink