Bush Pilot Course - African Adventure

I’m not sure why I was looking at Bush Pilot training courses about a year ago, probably I was just bored on a Friday afternoon. In any case I suppose the reason is now irrelevant as history shows that I found the ‘Sky Africa’ website (http://skyafrica.com/what-we-do/bush-pilot-training/ ) and thought that here was something fun that I could try, particularly given the strength of Sterling vs the South African Rand. Here was a real adventure holiday on a different continent where I could improve my flying skill, learn new trick as see some fantastic wildlife. I mentioned the course to Alex Guild and he agreed to join me for the trip. My intention was to fly the Cessna 182 but due to this being unavailable I chose the Cessna 172 ZS-OHK as my mount for the trip; Alex would fly a Pa28-235 ZS-DYX which would have a 100hp more than my 172.
We took the KLM flight from Aberdeen to Schipol and then onwards to Johannesburg on 22 September arriving at OR Tambo International at 2200. Sky Africa had booked us into the Birchwood Hotel complex (rather pleasant) which is near the airport and it was just 200 Rand (£9) to get a taxi to the hotel where our 1st priority was a couple of beers. A text from Sky Africa sent to Alex told us that Clemens Maly would collect us at 0900 and take us to Brakpan for the start of our course. We would be in the hotel for 2 nights before flying to Kunkuru on the 25 September.
Next morning, Clemens duly collected us; we were to find out later in the week that he was also an excellent pilot as well as a taxi driver! It would be Clemens who would do most of the airfield briefing, with Tony Kent going over Forced and Precautionary Landings the notes of which are below

Frequencies:

• Brakpan 122.7
• Springs 122.4
• JHB ATIS 126.2
• JHB INFO 119.5
• Safety Comm Equivalent 124.8
• Low Level 124.8
• Unmanned Airfield 124.8
• GF Areas 124.2
• Chat 123.4

Airfield FABB Brakpan

• All Ccts to EAST - RW 36 Rt Hand Cct; 18 LH
• AF Height 5300ft
• Cct Height 700ft AGL on JHB QNH
• Mag Var 18.5W
• All departures and arrivals 6000ft on JHB QNH
• Must be SSR equipped
• No manned tower
• All comms ac to ac 122.7
• Flight test - East Rand Trg Area
• Departures to East (Jan Smuts Dam) or South (Ergo Slimes Dam) Only

Departures
To South

• RW 18 climb to 6000ft and route dct to Eastern Side of ERGO
• RW 36 Rt turn to downwind 6000ft off down

To East (Caution Springs)

• RW 36 RH Cct to Downwind then route dct Jan Smuts Dam
• RW 18 LH Cct to Downwind then route Dct Jan Smuts Dam

Arrivals No Overhead Joins at FABB
From South

• Call inbound at ERGO on 122.7 aim for hangers remain clear of 36 Final

From East

• Call Inbound on 122.7 at Jan Smuts Dam after handover form JHB Info (119.5)

RT. Contact JHB info 119.5 when departing cct and on return when entering buffer zone

C/S
Type
Departed Brakpan
Alt 6000ft
Intentions (e.g East Rand Trg Area)
JHB SRA
No Semi Circular Rule - instead North Track 7500ft; South 7000ft; Unable 6500ft or below

SA Air Law

'Blue System'
CAA Regs 2011
Min Heights over Built Up Areas or Open Air Assy (200+ ppl) 1000ft Vertically 2000 ft Horizontally except T/O and Landing

• <1000 ft agl clear of ground and cloud
• >1000 ft agl viz >5k 2000ft horizantally and 500 ft vertical separation from cloud

• No VFR on top
• Flight above 3/8 or more prohibited
• IMC Extremely dangerous without weather radar
• Instruments Required - Magnetic Compass; Accurate timepiece; Altimeter ; ASI

Flight plans required only for flights between 2 or more controlled A/F; International Flights or Transitting Controlled Airspace

High ALtitude Ops

Props and Wings Less Efficient

LEAN - LEAN - LEAN

Start Up Leaning:

1. Engine Start
2. Check Oil Px
3. Lean

Run Up Leaning

1. Mixture Rich
2. RPM 2000
3. Carb Heat Check
4. Lean gently until max RPM
5. Rich slightly approx 3 full turns

TAKE OFF:

• Long Ground Run
• Feels Uncomfortable
• DON'T PANIC
• You Have Runway - USE IT
• Use Ground Effect

Forced Landings

Precautionary Landings

Options (you have time so use it):

1. Airfield
2. Fallow Field
3. Reaped Field
4. Planted Field
5. Ploughed Field
6. Open Field
7. Road

Wind

Obstacles

Sun

Shape

Size

Slope

Sivilisation

Flight 1:42 in ZS-OHK Local Area - ERGO - East Rand TA - Steep Turns - Stalls - Incipient Spins - Forced Landing - Precautionary Landing - Dalmass - Lakes - FABB Join Downwind 6000' - 2 x Ccts

Dinner this night was a Geronimo burger in Highflyerz - an aviation themed pub attached to the hotel that was to become a favourite.

Day 2 - 24 September

In the afternoon a Braii (sic) was held on the roof of the Ops building. As I had flown early I did eventually get a lift back to Birchwood after dark in Got lift back in Glen's Jaloppy - a true experience of Africa

Our second night at Birchwood was spent mostly in trying to find 2 Rand (0.09p) coins for the washing machine – Alex’s OCD had kicked in and he wasn’t going to go into the bush unless he had done some laundry 1st. The trouble was that the 2R coin that was required for the washing machine was a little rare. The Hotel had none as it had been a public holiday and they had no bank run that day. After 2 hours of wandering from place to place we eventually entered Highflyerz just before closing time, got a beer each and at last a handful of 2Rs. Back at the hotel I handed my dirty clothes to Alex and went to bed. He stayed up past midnight to get the clothes cleaned but his personal crisis passed

Friday 25 September

Next was the most interesting strip of the day – Freeway. I presume it is named Freeway as it is right beside the main road heading north from Jo’burg. Freeway is a long (2900m) gravel strip that was used by the SAAF C130s during the border wars of 1966-89. There are still the hulks of DC6? Transports left at the side of the runway. It was here that I did my 1st mid then low level inspection going into a procedure turn to land on the strip. This worked a treat. A second landing was also done pretty well even if I do say so myself. From Freeway it would be 25 minutes to our refuelling stop at Brits which had an 800m asphalt strip and was the base for the SA aerobatic championships. On the way we flew over the Tswaing (place of the salt) crater, which is under consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It seems however that human encroachment is likely to spoil this setting before too long as there were shanty dwellings pretty much as afar as the eye could see to the south west of the crater. The approach to Brits worked well and I landed on the uphill runway (02). After a can of coke and filling the tanks of OHK I took off on 20 downhill with tailwind which is the recommended thing to do given the high density altitude where the downhill acceleration outweighs the tailwind effect (unless of course the wind is particularly strong)

Freeway

From Brits it was just a 10 minute hop to Kunkuru where I think the powerlines on the approach to 05 led to me coming in too high and then flaring high but OK. OHK was parked for the night and once the other ac arrived and were put to bed we clambered aboard the Landcruiser for the short drive to Kunkuru lodge where cold Windhoek soon proved popular and we were shown to our accommodation for the next few days. A briefing for tomorrow’s flying was held at 1800 which was followed by dinner and more Windhoek.

Kunkuru

Total flying for the day 2hrs 54mins

Saturday 26 September

After a good night’s sleep, interrupted only by roaring of the Lodge’s resident Lions, I awoke at 0600. Oddly this roaring was not that disturbing to my sleep, perhaps it being a natural sound it did not keep me unduly awake or perhaps my lodge was further from the Lion enclosure than that of the others meant it wasn’t as loud for me as for the others! After a fine breakfast we drove up to the strip for a soft field take off on 23 . Flap to 20 and stick right back , once airborne unstall the wing and keep nose just off the runway, flap 10 and allow to accelerate in ground effect at 65kts gently climb away. This one was a good one. From now on most touch and goes would be short field (0 flap until 55kts then 10 flap , rotate accelerate in ground effect to 70 kts and climb away at 65. All future take offs from Kunkuru would be soft field though the last one would be somewhat twitchy as we hit turbulence on take-off – more later

Mabalingwe

Sand Rivier at 3250’ amsl is a sand strip. Here I did a Medium (500ft) and low (50ft) level inspection plus 2 x Touch and Goes both nice. 15 minutes later we were repeating the exercise at Zebra – a grass strip hidden in trees, this time for a single Touch and Go. Then it was on to the most exciting strip of the day Mabalingwe on the way there an eagle took evasive action on us an disappeared in a steep dive below our starboard wing
Mabalingwe is a game reserve and the landing strip is the access road to the reserve. The road is only 5 metres wide and would be the narrowest we would land on all week. OHK was the 1st to arrive (EGP had already gone on ahead) so it was our job to stop the traffic by flying low over the gatehouses at each end of the strip. There is only one way in and out of Mabalingwe so I landed uphill on 04 (not that the runway had any markings!) and taxied to the end of the road to await the arrival of the 2 Pa28s. These duly landed and we all then took off, in reverse order downhill on 22 and set course for Thabazimbi.

Thabazimbi

Because of the mountains, there are no circuits to the north at Thabazimba. Disconcertingly howver there are also mountains to the south as the airfield is in a valley. Wanting to stay well clear of the hillside to the south I turned in too early on the 1st approach and seemed to be descending at idle ofr ages before getting to the correct height for the approach, all week Glen would be telling me to get lower so I seem to have got in some bad habits. Disconcertingly also there are houses on finals (as indeed there are at Brakpan) that cause turbulence. The 2nd approach was better as I extended downwind for longer but still OHK seemed to have a great glide ratio.

Refuelled at Haakdoring

Next stop was our fuelling point at Haakdoring. For the life of me both this day and Wednesday I could not see the strip (a dirt one) from above. Glen pointed me in the right direction but it was only by following the flightpath of a formation of 2 helicopters also inbound to Haakdoring that I was able to locate it. Turning finals it was easy to see as the landmark of a large haystack was just to the right of short finals. We were the last ac in so trundled up to the fuel point and filled immediately. Haakdoring is a farm strip but it also has a flight school and excellent classroom facilities where I was able to get a drink of water (the temperature was now around 35C). In the hanger there were 3 helicopters, a C182 and a large Crop-sprayer. In the garden there was a pet Kudu and impala! I liked Haakdoring.

Getting airborne again we headed Northwest to Batavia for a low pass and then Derdepoort on the way we had another airmiss with an eagle. It was here that we saw Elephants close to the Botswana border. More disconcertingly our oil temp was in the red (partly because the gausge was reading high and also because of the high OAT) so we decided to give Sebele a miss so as not to overwork the engine and allow the revs to be maintained at around 2300. Making the mixture richer also helped bring the temperature back into the green. Instead, therefore of Sebele we headed directly to Pilansberg aka Sun City where we did an orbit of the sun city resort before carrying out a touch and go (annoyingly badly) and heading south to Rustenburg in order to top up our tanks for the next day’s flying and also picking up a 25l drum of fuel for the C152 to allow her to fill later at Kunkuru. This latter addition would cause a bit of bother given the now full AUW of OHK and the OAT of 35C at 3700ft amsl. Taking off downhill, the climb out was leisurely to say the least as I coaxed the ac into a shallow climbing turn in order to avoid the chimney of a factory and head her towards the granite quarries of Rooiknoppiesdam over which we all seemed to arrive at the same time! After taking time to take a good look at the quarries it was just a short trip back to Kunkuru for a straight in approach to 23.

After beers and a quick soak of my feet, Glen took everyone for a Game Drive and the chance to get a good view of the Sunset from a small and oddly formed hill. Highlights for the trip was the small family of Hippos and the Sable plus the glimpse of the Golden Wildebeest that sadly the failing light prevented me getting a good photo of. The Golden Wildebeest looked almost like a mythical creature.

Total flying for the day 5 hrs

Sunday 27 September

We were going to get away at 0800 but the opportunity to view the feeding of the Lions could not be missed so everyone piled into the Landcruiser to follow the feeding truck (itself reeking of the smell of rotting chickens that were being thrown over the fence). The 30 minutes delay to the commencement of flying was well worth it.

Shona Langa

Another soft field take off started the day as we headed north East towards Klipvoordam and then turning north on a Navex to the airfield (where we did not have permission to land, at Sunset Ranch. Form here it was almost directly east onto Shona Langa for a low level inspection and a couple of touch and goes. The plan was to carry out square searches for any airfield not found but today my navigation was fine so generally I was hitting the strips too accurately to need to do a square search, Nevertheless the technique was briefed by Tony before the flight and is useful to know:

From Shona Langa we flew to Zebula for 3 touch and goes (I was starting to get high on approach again! ) thereafter it was a long transit to a rather intense period of activity with all 4 aircraft operating in close proximity at the 2 strips Kromdraai North and South (2 sand strips just a couple of km apart). After flying 2 circuits at Kromdraai S and it was straight in to Kromdraai North where a full stop is required as there are telegraph lines across the runway meaning it’s a one way in and out job. At the end of the strip was a large termite mound to avoid on turning around.

Kromdraai N

Krokodilkraal

Getting airborne from Kromdraai I had little time to collect my thoughts as it was only 4 minutes to the next strip – Mawala. Here I landed long and thought about a full stop but Glen encouraged me to keep going and selecting 10 flap at 55kts we easily cleared the obstacles at the end of the runway. Again it was a short hop to the next strip Krokodilkraal a 1000m of gravel for 2 more circuits and then lifting an a 5km hop across to Karoobult (800m of grass) for a further 2 touchand goes. The reward for this intense work was a 15 minute low level (<100ft) flight with the occasional 60 degree angle of bank along the Krokodil River to our next strip at Vaalkop and then on for a final 3 circuits at Beestekraal (850 m of gravel and with 2 fish eagles on the approach after a procedure turnn) and then getting down to 50 ft for a flight along the length of Roiknoppiesdam before climbing at the end to over 1000ft to get a good view of the Crocodile farm at the Dam’s southern end. For the middle part of the day’s flying there had been a lot of navigation and time to think but all of this last piece from Kromdraai onwards had been intensely busy and enjoyable. I t was however a relief to head off to Brits to refuel and grab a coke before the return to Kunkuru where a late lunch was most welcome.

Beestekraal

With the afternoon still young, Glen, Alex and I took off for a Game Drive whilst most of the others enjoyed the hospitality of Paul and Sanet (the owners of Kunkuru) . Glen told us how to identify Zebra and impala spoor though for a while, we were not encountering much animal life when all of a sudden we came across a family of Giraffe that were perfectly happy for us to get right up to them and get some good photos although the light was by now fading.

Total flying for the day 4 hrs

Monday 28 September

As every other day this one dawned warm and sunny, my skin was now turning from pale blue (the result of a Scottish summer) to white! This was going to be another long day of flying as we were going to the furthest north point of the week (Nungu) via the Waterberg mountains and the Poer Se Loop canyon (low level and great fun) and Mokolo Dam. To start the day off though we would get in some formation flying between Kunkuru and Shona Langa.

It was over 30 years since my last piece of formation flying and then I had a jet engine and airbrakes but I surprised myself at how easy station keeping was on Heyo and Philip in EGP. EGP was airborne 1st followed by me in OHK. The brief was for EGP to stay in the overhead until all 4 ac were formed up but Phillip decided to head on route to Klipvoordam as OHK formatted and the 2 Pa28s were still on the ground. The only way they were going to catch us was if we orbited at Klipvoordam (Glen’s strong suggestion to Phillip over the RT). Here the Pa28s caught up and I was able to get a good shot of Alex in DYX. Somewhat annoyingly Alex (perhaps his hero is Buzz Aldrin – who was famously ‘too busy’ to take a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon) did not get one of me! Fortunately Heyo did though on a mobile phone rather than an SLR. Still there was Karma in the situation as Alex needed a Paisley to English translator for most of the trip and I was not now always around when he needed me.

The formation broke at Shona Langa, where we each did our own landing after Heyo had done the low level inspection. Still we were closely grouped and although I was 1st to Warmbaths (Vultures orbiting in the deadside overhead) Alex and Tony had to stop here and try to repair a prop pitch problem with DYX. Both Dan and I also stopped to allow Glen and Clemens to assist. Deciding that nothing more could be done but that DYX could continue we were soon airborne and en route ot our next target- Bufland for a single touch and go and then for a northern navex through the Waterberg Mountains via old and new Entebeni. Here we took some time out to practice Wing Overs and view Hanglip mountain with its golf tee and target green in the shape of Africa.

Taking the opportunity for canyon flying was great fun though we were soon headed towards our refuelling point at Waterberg Aerodrome (via 2 circuits at Vaalwater South). Here we refuelled OHK from the 25l drum we had been carrying since Kunkuru using a siphon tube. It was from here that we flew onto Bushwillow for a single circuit before entering Poer Se Loop canyon with EGP following us through and some great low level flying. As we exited the mountains we headed for Haakdoring (which again I struggled to see – seemed damned well camouflaged to me) for fuel, taking the chance to do 4 more circuits at Thabazimbi on the way.

The trip to Kunkuru from Haakdoring was only 35 minutes be we extended this by re-visiting Krokodilkraal and Sand Rivier (3 landings) as well as going into Liverpool (1000m gravel) for one touch and go.

Tuesday 29 September

Today was a day off but and although there was plenty of time to relax today we were not idle. After breakfast at 0700 we piled into the Landcruiser to follow the farmhands to watch the feeding of the prize Buffalo, a couple of herds of which were kept on the farm. Buffalo are one of the so-called big five (the others are Lion; Leopard; Hippo and Rhino) that are labelled as the most dangerous animals to hunters. On the way back to the lodge we saw a large male baboon. Sadly these are not welcomed on the farm as they attack the prize animals so they are often shot – though none of us were armed.

Later we were given a lesson on survival relevant to the local environment. Alex took from this only 1 lesson – don’t bury your passengers. This was followed by lunch and a couple of hours shooting with rifles, shotguns and pistols (and I couldn’t a barn door for some reason). Finally we all took the chance for one last game drive as we would be departing Kunkuru for the last time in the morning.Violin Spider at Dinner

At night Alex and I realised we would still need to find something to fill our last couple of days as Wednesday would see the end of the course but we would not fly out of South Africa until late on Saturday night. Clemens suggested we visit the Kruger National Park (on my bucket list) and contacted Janna in the Sky Africa office to organise a trip. Janna booked us back into the Birchwood for Wednesday night and booked us in to the Kapama River Lodge in Kruger for Thursday night. She also sorted a dry hire rate for OHK and organised permission to land at the SAAF base at Hoedsprit (pronounced variously by Alex as Hootsberg; Hootssport; Hoots spot – I was surprised he didn’t try Hoots Mon!) 6km from the lodge.
Tonight at dinner a Violin Spider crawled up the side of the table leg. This, one of only 3 really poisonous spiders in South Africa, was captured in a glass by Glen who then released it away from the lodges. The bite of this spider causes severe tissue necrosis so Glen was being more humane than I would have expected of him

Wednesday 30 Sept

On this morning’s soft field take-off I applied all of the correct techniques but OHK did not want to climb and we struggled away at just 55kts over the trees. Both Glen and I were mystified by the lack of performance and could only conclude that we had been affected by turbulence (today was the only one with any wind - this was to get up to Northerly gusts of over 30kts in the next couple of hours).

Our route back to Brakpan was to be something of a sightseeing tour taking us as it did over the marina at Hartbeesport Dam and passed the South African Nuclear Weapons research station ( decommissioned after Apartheid) and then the Aerotek Test Track (once owned by the SA Army) and on to the Ernie Els golf course; Kayalami race track (now by either Audi or Volkswagen I can’t recall which); Ellis Park rugby stadium; Soweto before recovering to Brakpan via Ergo Slimes dam for a perfect landing on 36.

En route I had a few less perfect landings. Aviators paradise (800m asphalt), just 14 minutes after take-off was beside the road into Jo’burg , was the 1st touch and go of the day. Once we had circled the Jo’burg CBD and flown over Soweto (SOuth WEst TOwnship)– now pretty much just a suburb of Jo’burg we did an approach to Tedderfield where a 30 kt crosswind decided against attempting a landing. Not to be cheated the north/ south orientation allowed 4 circuits of the grass strip at Panorama, where the only disconcerting thing was the rising ground at the end of 01 runway and OHK’s awful climb performance at this altitude (500 ft amsl) as she really seemed to struggle to climb. Oddly just 5 minutes away at Klipriver (also grass and at 5000 ft ) she climbed away easily. Well that was the end of the bush course from here it was just 15 minutes (Still Air Time) back to Brakpan. Of course we had a gale of a headwind from ERGO to Brakpan so that short few miles seemed to take an age to cover.
Well that was us. We would have a night at the Birchwood and another Geronimo Burger at Highflyerz for dinner. Glen had kindly agreed to pick us up in the morning where we would find a fully fuelled and serviced OHK for our trip to the Kruger.
Total flying for the day 2hrs 12 minsThursday

1 October

Today we were off to the Kapama River Lodge in the Kruger National Park. This was the only lodge with spare rooms that Jana could find so it was expensive (for Africa) but it was superbly opulent! All food was included and there was a structured programme, including an 0500 wake up call for the morning game drive but I’m getting ahead of myself.
First we had to get away from Brakpan and OHK wasn’t quite ready when we got there. Our earlier high oil temperature readings had caused Bernard (the Engineering Manager ) an overnight headache and he had had the gauge replaced by an electronic ine which was still being fitted as we arrived. Alex and I decided that I would fly the leg to Hoetsprit and Alex would fly the return leg.

After a short delay and a test flight of OHK to check the new gauge, during which I filled 2 x 25l drums with Avgas (there would be none available at Hoetsprit), we eventually filled OHK to he brim and set off at 1030 departing to the east via Jan Smuts dam and then Delmas. For the 1st hour or so, the flight to the Kruger is over some pretty flat and fetureless terrain (made more featurless today because of very poor visibility in haze). However as one enters the Low Velt info zone to the east of Middleburg, the terrain changes, becoming hilly as well as high. Transiting at 7500 ft (density altitude nearer 10 000ft) we were under powered so I chose to go around hills rather than over until we entered the scenic Blyde River Canyon in the Drakensberg 20 miles from Hoedsprit where the views were great. The approach to Hoedpsrit was a surprise after a week of trying to find small bush strips as this military field is over 10 000ft long and provided a decidedly odd perspective. Still landing was a cinch and we were soon at the civil arrivals terminal on the other side of the field. Here I emptied the spare fuel we carried into the main tanks and we locked the ac for the night.
Kapama had sent out a ranger to collect us and we were soon on the way to the lodge. Our ranger gave us the best tip of the day – ‘have your camera out and always switched on’. Even on the way to the lodge we had great views of Giraffe just wandering on the road. We were greeted at the lodge and given the low-down (meal times; Ranger’s name; Time of the Game Drive and Dinner etc) most efficiently before booking in and shown to our extremely opulent rooms.

As it was lunch time we went to the all you can eat buffet and filled our faces and then at 1500 presented ourselves for Afternoon Tea and then for the Game Drive at 1600 with our Ranger –Chanee and Tracker Vusi. For the next 3 hours we drove around the bush and for me the highlight of the trip was seeing Rhino in their natural setting. Other animal seen were Hippo, impala; Kudu ; Njala; Honey Badger; Jackal; Giraffe Warthog and a Chameleon. At dusk we halted for a very civilised drink stop and then continued into the night.

Dinner was back at the Lodge where we ate with the others in Chanee’s care a feast that included Butternut soup; impala pie and ice cream as well as a very good S African Wine. Eventually we retired late after a couple of beers in the bar.

Friday 2 October

0500 the phone rings. ‘Good morning sir its time to get up’. Bleary eyed I quickly showered, gave Alex a shout and we headed to the dining area where coffee, tea and fruit juices were being served along with croissants and muffins (breakfast would be at 0900 after our morning game drive). Once again Chanee took us under her wing and we once again went in search of game. We never found a leopard but this morning we were lucky enough to see a pride of lionesses within 10 feet of us. Apparently the animals see the Landcruiser and its passengers as one big animal and not as lunch – step off the vehicle however and you’re in a whole heap of trouble!

Breakfast was served after the game drive and was, like all the food excellent. We had a couple of extra coffees but for us our time at the Kruger was over and at 1100 we were on our way back to the airport. This time Alex was the pilot so I did the navigation and radios. Our route out was slightly different than the one in as we followed the Olliphant River as far Groblersdal. Here we were able to offer support to Jo’burg ATC by relaying a radio message to an ac inbound to Middleburg. Alex landed at Brakpan at 1430 and our African adventure was over. All there was left to do was to get back to Highflyerz for a Geronimo Burger, lots of Windhoek and Some live music. It was a great pleasure to have the company of Clemens that evening as he arrived to say cheerio and somehow we ended up drinking Whisky and proceeding downstairs to the nightclub.
Saturday 3 October

Nursing our Babalaas we were breakfasted by 0900 and checked out of the Birchwood by 0930 but we still had 14 hours to kill before leaving for home. We therefore took a taxi to the South African National Museum of Military History at Ditsong where we stayed until 1430. Back at the Birchwood we collected our bags and caught the courtesy bus to the airport just in time to see England’s abject performance against Australia in the RWC. The flight home was uneventful except on arrival at Schipol to find the airport fogged out and our flight to Aberdeen cancelled! (we did get a later one).

The Crews:
C172 ZS-OHK – P1 Self; Safety Pilot Glen Price
C152 ZS-EGP – P1 Heyo; Safety Pilot Dr Philip
Pa28-235 ZS-DYX – P1 Alex Guild; Safety Pilot Tony Kent; Pax Ken
Pa28-235 ZS-FHA – P1 Dan; Safety Pilot Clemens Maly; Pax Jan and Bea
Many thanks to Sky Africa for a wonderful trip and in particular to Glen for his perseverance and good humour putting up with me.

Check out the Flipagram I made at https://flipagram.com/f/i5RbYrBh2I

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Book Review ; A Fortunate Life - The Autobiography of Paddy Ashdown (2009); Read 3 October 2015

It is purely accidental that I once again found myself reading another Sunday Times top 10 best seller this year, but I have owned this book for a while now, and am familiar with Paddy Ashdown's excellent factual recounting of the 'cockleshell' raid of WW2 recounted in 'A Brilliant Little Operation', so took the chance of a long flight to Johannesburg to start this book, written in 2009.

In nearly 400 pages of close typed text, Paddy Ashdown chronicles what has indeed been an extraordinary life, particularly when compared to the manufactured politicians, most of whom have no real world experience, that we find in Britain today. The book starts, after a short prologue of Ashdown's 1st meeting o Radovan Karadic, with a potted history of the 2 sides of the Ashdown and the accidents of history that brought his mother and father together in the British India of the late 1930s. During WW2, Ashdown's father would reach the rank of Colonel fighting the Japanese and it was in one of the infrequent leave periods he obtained that Jeremy John Durham (he would get the nickname Paddy at school and it would follow him in the Royal Marines, simply because the school attended happended to provide a number of RM officer recruits) Ashdown was conceived.

Ashdown's early years were spent 1srt in India , until the end of the Raj when the family moved to the parent's ancestral pprovince of Northern Ireland. Still young, Ashdown would go along on his fathers' poaching and fishing trips. Sent away to school Ashdown was no great scholar, oddly given his later renowned linguistic skills, he was particualrly criticised for his lack of ability in languages. Unsurprisingly his key strengths were in athletic pursuts but another weakness was Maths, which he needed for selection as an RM officer. Solving this issue though had a happier outcome as his 30 yr old female private maths tutor offered the young lad more than maths tuition!

From school, Ashdown was accepted, at the 2nd attempt, for RM officer training at which he seems to have thrived. This period is easily the most interesting of the book as he covers his basic training and inital posting to Singapore, during the Indonesian confrintation. Accounts of operations are interspersed with his marriage and the learning of Malay and then onto his training in the SBS and return to Singapore. SBS operations are covered as well as the development of remarkable skills to deploy divers directly from submarines and recover them (essentially by having them fish for the sub). Also covered is his tour of his native Northern Ireland at the start of the troubles.

Ashdown, at the end of his SBS tour took a leave of abscence to learn Mandarin Chinese for a couple of years being based in Hong Kong. Before his family flew out he lived for several months with a Chinese family to help develop his knowledge of the language. As a serving British soldier, it was thought that with Mao's cultural revolution waging to the north, that Ashdown was vulnerable and a couple of incidents stick out for their level of threat but also as hilarious vignettes. For example when out with Chinese friends their group was confronted by a horde of students shouting Maoist slogans and waving copies of Mao's red book. This did not look good but Ashdown's companions told him to put his head down whilst they also started waving red books in the air, the students passed cheerily. Ironically the red books waved by Ashdowns friends were their cheque books - the ultimate capitalist symbols but exactly the same shade of red as Mao's tome.

As a now fluent Mandarin speaker, Ashdown's days in the army were numbered, as soon as the NI tour was over he was scouted by 'the Foreign Office' to act as a spy based out of UN offices in Geneva. It was whilst on leave from this job the he became interested in Liberal politics and when his tour was over he resigned (without having a job to go to) and settled in Yeovil, where he and his wife had earlier bought a home. Why Liberalism? Ashdown answers the question easily by pointing out the essential difference between Liberalism and Socialism being the Liberalism is about the equality of opportunity whereas Socialism aims for the equality of outcome (thereby lowering everybody's outcome!).

The 2nd half of the book moves on to Ashdown's political career and finally his work in Bosnia, initially as leader of the Lib Dems - essentially as an interfering British MP in the civil wars of 1992 -95 and then later as the appointed UN representative for reconstrucing the country in the 2000s (which saw his initial appointment doubled in length from 2 to 4 years)

Relying on his savings initially, Ashdown was selected as the candidate for the Liberals in Yeovil (then a safe Tory seat) in 1977. His strategy, he claims was to take the constituency party from 3rd place to second and then to overturn the Tory majority within 3 elections. One key tactic that he used was to act as if he was already the constituency MP; by holding constituency surgeries he was able to solve peoplpe's problems, usually with the then Ccnservative controlled council, just as an MP could be expected to do so. He was elected as MP at the 2nd election. The politics of this period have now moved into history but the 1983 General Election was fought with the backgroiund of the Labour meltdown under Michael Foot and the defection of Owen; Jenkins; Williams; Rodgers at el to form the SDP. Ashdown covers the increasing close relationship between the Liberals and the SDP that lead eventually to the formal merging of the parties (when David Steel astounded all by outwitting David Owen). It was at this point that Ashdown became leader and it was his task to merge the 2 parties, a task that was to prove difficult and acrimonious but ultimately successful. David Owen continued on his own path with the SDP but eventually that party was wound up. In this part of the book, Ashdown is not afraid to protray himself warts and all - admitting to the affair with his aide that let to him being called even occasionally today (more than 25 years later ) as Paddy Pants Down.

The 1992 election was looking to be a close call (in the end Kinnock's triumphalism was premature as John Major won with a tiny minority) . In the run up to the election, Ashdown considered what it would take to go into a coalition government wisely, unlike his successor in 2010 ( Nick Clegg) he always stood by the rule that in setting conditions for coalition PR was not negotiable as he recognised the weakness of the smaller party in any coalition (the book was written 2009 - Clegg should perhaps have read it!). A surprising follow up here was the possibilty of coalition with Blair's labour in 1997. Ashdown claims that Blair wanted a coalition and could be persuaded over PR. It seems that negotiotions went on for over a year after Blair's landslide victory but I cannot conceive how Blair could have, or even needed, got a coalition past his labour colleagues when he had a huge Parliamentary majority.

Unable to get Blair to commit, Ashdown took the opportunity to step aside as Leader but remained close to Blair. A result of this was his support (which he admits here was wrong) for the Iraq war; his appointment to the House of Lords and UN High Representative (effectively pro-consul) for Bosnia Herzegovina; and even a US request for hime to act as advisor to the Afghan Government of Karzai (proposed by Condoleeza Rice but which Karzai scotched).

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

North Coast 500 – 2 days, 2 blokes and an MX5

It was a Facebook post entitled ‘Scotland's answer to America's Route 66’ that grabbed my attention. Apparently the route around the Northern part of Scotland, which has apparently been promoted since June 2015, has been named among the top six road coastal road trips in the world. The North Coast 500 is the brainchild of the North Highland Initiative (NHI), set up by Prince Charles to showcase the area, and is targeting car and motorbike enthusiasts, as well as cyclists and walkers wanting to take in some of the most scenic parts of Scotland.

Setting Out

Well that was tempting as Inverness, the starting point, was only an hour or so from home. The only thing that made me think twice was that this was the coldest and wettest summer in living memory (we had 197% of our usual rainfall in July and the Times later confirmed that Scotland had less than a week’s summer in 2015!). Indeed it was the weather that turned my planned 3 day trip into a 2 day one as the original plan had been to do this on a weekend when I had the Friday off but it had pi**ed down on the Friday and Saturday so instead I decided to delay a week and take Iain on the trip over the weekend of 22/23 August instead. Of course the MX5 would prove to be the ideal transport if we could put the roof down along the way and it stayed down all weekend!

More justice could be done to this route on a 4 day trip and frankly I think I will try to do that next year but for now we had but 2 days. I am going to let the photos speak for themselves as we left home in bright sunshine on Saturday morning making our way to Inverness and crossing the Kessock bridge as our starting point. Through work I am pretty familiar with the drive along the Cromarty Firth but I always find the parked Oil Rigs somewhat awesome as a statement of Human ingenuity. Continuing our drive along the Dornoch Firth we stopped eventually at Golspie to grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the view of the Duke of Sutherland’s statue on the hill above.

For some odd reason I had always assumed this monument to one of the architects of the Highland Clearances was in the North West! There was a movement a few years ago by a bunch of socialist/nationalist types to have this monument to landlordly greed demolished. Thankfully, that all seems to have died down now and this particular rogue remains cold and lonely on his plinth for birds to crap on. We didn’t go up the hill for a look, instead we went straight to the ‘Coffee Bothy’ with every good intention to just have a coffee destroyed when we noticed the all day breakfast on the menu. Sitting outside in the early afternoon sunshine we both devoured the superb, and cheap , ADB and enjoyed a pot of coffee at the same time.

Nowadays, almost all the books I buy are e-books, the exception being made when I visit charity shops and with an Alzheimer Scotland shop almost directly across the road from the ‘Coffee Bothy’ I couldn’t resist going in. This was a treasure trove and within 5 mins and for just £5, I had 5 excellent hardbacks. Shopping completed, we set off again but were soon stopped again. This time at Brora, where there seemed to be a competition for the best-dressed scarecrow with some excellent examples scattered around the town

Berriedale Braes, south of Wick, was our next stop. Here there is cemetery with a fine view towards the sea and above a hairpin bend (the only one on the East coast – the west would have many more). Intrigued by the notice that there was a Commonwealth War Grave in the cemetery we followed muddy path around the cemetery wall until we found the entrance on the north side and went in. The views out to sea would make this a fine eternal resting place and as we looked out to sea we saw 2 oil rigs in transit.

 

Wick was a fuel stop but we didn’t hang around. For now the sky was becoming overcast and this made the flat landscape of few miles north to John o Groats seem pretty bleak. Frankly these few miles are probably the least interesting of the trip. Nevertheless on arrival at JoG you do get great views across to the Isle of Stroma and Orkney and with more time available it would have been good to take the ferry from here to Orkney to explore a little more. Instead we had coffee and a rather dry scone (it was 5pm by now so probably a little late in the day) in one of the many small cafes. As we had not booked a place to stay overnight, Iain and I had a discussion about where we should stop. Thurso promised a choice of hotels but we thought Durness would be a better option. Iain googled for Hotels in Durness and found the Smoo Cave Hotel who informed us that it would take around 3 hours to get to them from JoG and that they had a room we could have and, most importantly that the restaurant would serve well into the evening. We told them we would see them in 3 hrs.

 

The route along the top of Scotland is a gem, particularly once past Thurso. We stopped off at Dunnet Head – the most northerly point of Mainland Britain, though we did not go right to the edge of the cliff! From here it was through Thurso and then a most magnificent drive passing Dounreay and getting better and better views of Ben Loyal and Ben Hope. The road was quiet and the scenary just got better and better as the A road became single track, with passing places only (though still marked in the map as an A road). All the time we had the roof down as the sky had cleared of cloud and the lowering sun made a beautiful skyscape. Midges had not bothered us all day – we were after all travelling at 60mph so we were complacent enough to stop by the roadside to get a better view of Ben Loyal. Instantly we were covered in the sods. ‘Quick back in the car’. Of course the midges were now also in the car and travelling along with us at 60mph but with a relative velocity of 0 mph! It took a good few minutes to swat the buggers.

As Loch Erribol (Loch ‘Orrible to RN sailors in days of yore) was a great sight as we neared Durness. Chancing the midges we stopped again and got away with it this time before driving the final few miles to Durness and a great welcome at the Smoo Cave Hotel just 2 ½ hours after leaving JoG. Here we found very welcoming locals, a lively bar with Real Ales and 1st class food (the local seafood is excellent). Although a restaurant area was available we decided to eat in the bar. I had Scallops and black pudding starter cooked just perfectly and then joy of joys a real steak pie (i.e.one with sides and bottom as well as a top. We had been advised on calling that no en-suite room was available but this didn’t matter as there was a huge bathroom next to our twin room.

Replete after dinner we were in bed and in the land of nod by 1030 that night having booked breakfast for 7:30. I awoke at 0630 to see just low cloud and rain from the window. Damn! Checking the MWIS forecast however I found that the overnight rain was forecast to clear quickly and that although near gale force winds would be encountered on the munroes we could expect a good day low down. The forecast was to prove spot on as by the end of the day we would both have sun burnt faces!. First though Breakfast which, like the food the night before, was very good. The freshly cooked to bacon, egg, beans, sausage was to die for and should keep us going until lunch time no bother.

If the trip along the North Coast on Saturday Evening was special then from Durness right through to Bealach na Ba that would take us from 0800 right through to 1700 on Sunday was truly amazing as the scenery was in a class of its own. At 1st we still had a little low cloud on the hill tops but this was clearing quickly. For the most part of the morning we would have a watery haze in the sky which had the odd effect of foreshortening distance, making even smaller hill look like giants. By the Afternoon, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Starting from Durness we travelled south on the single track A838 towards Scourie. Before long meeting a German motorcyclist stopped by the roadside. A quick chat ensued, the motorcyclist full of praise for the almost empty landscape. Continuing south we found the sea again at Loch Laxford, familiar to me only through John Ridgway’s ‘Floodtide’, before refuelling at the automatic fuel pump at Scourie – where fuel was cheaper than in Inverness. As we made our way further, Quinag loomed above the landscape and barred our immediate way south pointing us instead westwards towards the point of Stour along a steeply undulating B-road that we had to ourselves as far as Lochinver. This was MX5 driving country of the highest order. There are 3 Corbetts on Quinag which gives me a reason to return again next year.

The Stour Peninsula eventually throws you out on to the fast A-837 for a quick run into Ullapool. On the way though for a late morning coffee, we were greeted to fine views of Suilven looming through the haze which not only made it seem bigger than it is but made it seem incredibly atmospheric. Passing Loch Assynt we sighted the ruins of Ardvreck Castle but didn’t stop – it seemed too early in the day, though I now wish we had spent a few moments there. As one travels through the west coast of Scotland one rapidly runs out of superlatives. Ian noted that he was getting blasé with the photography (I had made him Expedition Photographer) as every look in every direction just revealed more and more great views.

 

Ullapool was quiet but open and we were able to replenish our scone and coffee reserves near the harbour before continuing south once more. Keeping to the coastal road we skirted the southern shore of loch Broom as we circumnavigated Wester Ross and caught great views of the Summer Isles (a great kayaking location – next year perhaps?) and Gruinard (where Churchill tested Anthrax as a biological weapon during WW2).

After passing Gairloch we headed east with Beinn Eighe, the 1st of the Torridon Munros soon coming into view. At the end of Loch Maree is Kinlochewe where there is a small Petrol Station. As the sun was now high in the sky and the day had turned hot we decided that as well as it being petrol time, that it was also Ice cream time so I bought a Raspberry Magnum for each of us which we devoured as we headed towards Loch Torridon. Here we were faced by the 2 magnificent Munros – Liathach and Beinn Alligin. Looking at Liathach from the east made me wonder how on Earth I had ever walked up and down her as the steepness of the mountain’s sides is exaggerated from this side. Here we stopped several time to take photographs.

From Torridon we progressed on into Applecross – a completely new experience for me – on an unclassified road which gave wonderful views to Rona and Skye through a shimmering haze. For me Applecross was the highlight of the whole trip. This peninsula is reached and left only with difficulty but it is worth the effort. It was 3pmby the time we reached Applecross itself. Here the sun was beating down, a few families were paddling in the water by the beach and we felt we deserved a fine lunch so stopped at the Applecross Walled Garden Restaurant. This walled garden is a in need of some green fingered attention but the Café was wonderful. Again a real Ale for Iain and a coke for me ( I was driving so under the SNP’s nanny statist policies could not even indulge in 1 pint for fear of being in breach of the recently introduced lower driving limit for blood alcohol). But the food was truly magnificent. Freshly caught fried fish in a massive portion – so large I could have slept even without the beer.

On leaving Applecross the road climbs rapidly to the Bealach na Ba. The road is signposted as not suitable for caravans and the reason becomes very clear when one reaches the top as the road boasts the greatest ascent of any road climb in the UK, rising from sea level at Applecross to 2054 ft (apparently this is the third highest road in Scotland) and whilst the climb is steep, the descent on hairpin road is a precipitous 25% gradient most of the way to Strathcarron, again at sea level.

For me Strathcarron really marked the end of the journey as the rest of the route through Glen Carron and on to Inverness is on a standard fast A-road and traffic returns. This part is not pleasant but after then endlessly rolling film of gorgeous scenery that had been with us since breakfast, these last miles back to Inverness were for me an anti-climax, and for Iain a chance to snooze.

So overall impressions. North and Western coasts are stunning. The whole journey provides great opportunities to see and do more than we had time for in our 2-day trip and it will be worth a re-visit, perhaps by bike next year. If you get the chance go and do it. Iain’s comment on the trip ‘The whole cost of the MX5 was repaid in that 1 trip’

Website for the route is at:

http://www.northcoast500.com/home.aspx

this has a good cyclists itinerary:

http://www.northcoast500.com/itinerary/cyclists-(1).aspx

and a better article than mine from the Gaurdian:

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/aug/23/scotland-north-coast-500-road-trip

 

Posted with Blogsy

South Africa Kit List

Passport
Credit and debit cards
South African Rand
Cash - £/Euros
UK drivers licence
Hotel booking - Birchwood


4 t shirts
PJs
8 socks
8 underwear
2 x Outdoors trousers
6 L/S shirts
Jacket

Soap powder for washing clothes

Ipad and charger
iPhone & charger (S African SIM card to be used in country)
South African Travel adaptor
IPod

Books
Kindle
Guidebook

Toiletries
Imodium
Pills
Insect repellent
Sunscreen

Flying stuff

• EASA  licence
• Medical
• Logbook
• Headset + spare batteries
• Kneeboard (large & small)
• Plotter
• Electronic E6B
• Timer
• Sunglasses
• Headlamp

 

Skydemon and charger

 

Camera kit:

• EOS
• Telephoto lens
• Spare battery + charger
• Lens cases

 

Mission Completed by Air Chief Marshal Sir Basil Edward Embry GCB, KBE, DSO & Three Bars, DFC, AFC. Read 30 August 2015

This is the autobiography of Air Chief Marshal Sir Basil Embry, one of the RAF’s outstanding leaders off the 2nd World War. Perhaps his greatest belief was that commanders should lead from the front and throughout the war this is what Embry did. Whilst the war years take up most of the book, the early chapters cover Embry’s early career from joining the infant RAF in 1921, whilst the last couple of chapters take the story from 1945 to his retirement in 1956, via his roles as C in C Fighter Command and NATO.

Embry was one of the pioneers of the early RAF. On completion of flying training he served in Iraq in the air policing role, where he also helped pioneer the first Baghdad to Cairo air route (to say airline would be to overdo it) as well as the Air Ambulance role (for which he received his AFC). On return to the UK he became a senior flying instructor with the CFS and was involved (though he doesn’t take the credit) in the development of Instrument Flying instruction. After this tour he served as a Sqn Ldr on a 5 year posting to India’s NW Frontier where he was to receive the 1st of 4 DSOs.

Starting the war as a Wing Commander in the Air Ministry he quickly set about organising himself a posting to command an operational Bomber Sqn (107) equipped with Blenheims. Throughout the book it is clear that Embry put a premium upon morale which he believed to be always improved by his example of leading from the front. Additionally Embry was a pioneer of operational analysis and a successful innovator, using lessons learned and attempting to perfect performance thinking about how his crews could improve their performance and following through on these ideas, often cutting through bureaucracy to achieve his ends. An early example in the winter of 1939 being the rigging up of a practice Blenheim gun turret from a crashed aircraft and a factory supplied electrical test system that was obtained by Embry’s claiming to be acting on the order of the Air Ministry when in fact he was calling on his own behalf. Later, when AOC 2 group he would analyse the group’s average bombing performance, the result of which was to reduce the margin of error from 1800 yards to 200 yards. Also in 2 Gp he pioneered, against official wishes, the use of models to allow low level Mosquito crews to improve their navigation and target recognition which were crucial in the pinpoint attacks on targets such as Amiens gaol and the Gestapo headquarters in Aarhus and Copenhagen amongst others. Although

Embry flew a number of missions throughout the Battles of Norway, including attacking the German Heavy Cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and France in 1940 and these are well covered in the book, though Embry is laconic with regards to his own participation. 1940 was indeed a busy year for Embry as apart from his leadership of 107 Sqn (for which he received a 2nd DSO). Told on 26 May that he was to be promoted to Group Captain, he took the opportunity to fly one more mission, after having formally handed the Sqn to his successor. It was on this mission that he was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. He and his observer Pilot Officer Whiting became POWs but the unfortunate recently married Gunner, Corporal Lang was killed. Embry was quickly captured but whilst being marched to captivity in a column of British prisoners, he and another airman made their escape when they took as a good omen a road sign ‘Embry, 3 km’ at which point they rolled down a bank unnoticed by their captors. Although both men were at once separated they both made it back to the UK. Embry would evade recapture for two months before becoming the 1st evader to return to Britain. Whilst the story is more fully covered elsewhere (‘Wingless Victory’ by Anthony Richardson) the story of the escape is well covered here also. Back in Britain, Embry spent 3 weeks at but when offered command of a night fighter wing he jumped at the chance despite reverting to the rank of wing commander. The wing disbanded in December 1940 and Embry became AOC RAF Wittering returning to the rank of Gp Capt in March 1941. As in the future Embry continued to fly operationally in the radar equipped night-fighters of No. 25 Sqn.

Embry - at right as AOC 2 Gp

In October 1941 he was seconded to the Desert Air Force as an adviser the AVM Coningham in the use of tactical bombers and he saw operation during the relief of Tobruk during operation Crusader. In early 1942 Embry returned to the UK to serve, briefly as AOC Wittering again and then on promotion to AVM as AOC 10 Group Fighter Command before transferring back to Bomber Command and taking up command of 2 Gp just before its transfer to the 2nd TAF in preparation for Overlord. It is well known that Embry’s dynamism and leadership were outstanding this command, though in this book Embry, whilst recalling a number of key developments and operations, including the attacks on V1 and V2 sites and the Overlord invasion, he is certainly not one to blow his own trumpet so one doesn’t realise just how much operational flying he continued to undertake. Even in the rank of Air Vice Marshall, Embry continued to fly on, and often lead, all of the high profile operations carried out by the group although he would fly under the pseudonym of ‘Wing Commander Smith’. It is a shame that Embry did not make more in the book of the operations that he flew during this time as many of them now are regarded as classic attacks , well planned, well led and superbly executed.

This book, which was written in 1956, on Embry’s retirement starts and finishes with discussions around what was then ‘current’ policy. Embry rails against the Treasury’s failure to deliver what operational commanders need and of the division of responsibilities within between the Air Ministry and the Ministry of Production - now both long since disappeared. It is interesting to look back at 60 years later and how the world has moved on but many of the points made ore of course no longer relevant, particularly the concerns over operating in the nuclear battlefield (itself a doctrinal casualty of NATOs switch from Tripwire to Flexible Response in the late 1960s). In addition to the issues of the day, time has also affected how one sees the style of the book. In today’s terms it is incredibly formally written. Throughout surnames are used and Embry continually refers to his wife as ‘my wife’ rather than by her name! These are minor niggles, however and this book is well worth reading.

 

 

Great News - Hill of Flinder Wind Turbine developer withdraws appeal

Developers have withdrawn their appeal against the decision to refuse the 400ft wind turbine on Hill of Flinder that would have dwarfed the nearby Dunnydeer Hill and its ancient Hillfort and Castle remains (the oldest example of its type in Scotland. I 1st mentioned it here:
http://acallow.blogspot.co.uk/…/wednesday-18-feb-2015-summe…
And here was my Letter of July this year against the Appeal - feel free to plagiarize:
The Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals
4 The Courtyard
Callendar Business Park
Callendar Road
Falkirk, FK1 1XR
Dear Sir/Madam
Scottish Ministers Reference: PPA-110-227
Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997
Proposal: Erection of Single 900kW Wind Turbine (Hub Height 45m, Total Height 67m), Access Track and Ancillary Infrastructure
Address: Land At, Hill Of Flinder, Insch, AB52 6YY
Grid Reference: 359088.827708
It has come to my notice that, contrary to the advice of the local planning authority the developer of the above proposal has decided to appeal . In addition to my previous comments I would reaffirm my strong opposition to this application. Whilst there are strong ethical grounds to object to the redistribution of taxpayer's and energy consumer's (many of whom are not wealthy) funds via subsidies to landowners there are a number of practical concerns that make this application unacceptable:
1. This application has already been rejected by the appropriate local authority. Surely the Scottish Government should take cognisance of the primacy of LOCAL officials in local matters.
2. Visual Impact – as I have already mentioned, Hill of Flinder is a wholly inappropriate site. The proposed turbine shall be almost 200feet tall (which is HALF the height of Dunnydeer Hill!). It will therefore be visible from a wide area; inevitably it shall dwarf the ancient 12th Century Dunnydeer Castle – the oldest of its type in Scotland and thereby despoil the stunning scenery of the area.
3. Inappropriate siting; impact to health and well-being of residents – this proposal is sited too close to dwelling houses. The construction works will expose residents to considerable noise and disruption and the completed turbine will inevitably have a visual and audible impact, detrimental to health and well-being.
4. Environmental damage - the environmental assessments presented are predictive. If incorrect the damage cannot be undone.
5. Economic argument – without taxpayer funded subsidy this development would not be considered. Furthermore a single turbine cannot possibly have a measurable effect on global climate change, though it will have a serious detrimental effect to my village.
I trust that my points shall be given careful consideration in your decision process.
Yours Faithfully
Alan Callow

Tour O The Borders 2015

On Sunday 9 August I completed my 1st ever sportive the 2015 ‘Tour o The Borders’ which started and finished in Peebles. The route was a 120km (74.6 miles) with 4722ft of ascent. My Official race time was 6hrs 35 though my moving time for the event was 5hrs 21 the difference being due to an hour and 15 minute delay due to an accident when two of the leading riders crashed within minutes of each other on the descent form Talla. Most riders were then unable to progress and spent a very cold 1 hr 20 on the Talla summit in strongish winds and showers waiting for the road to be re-opened.

Whilst this was an inconvenience the sight of the Air Ambulance collecting one of the injured riders was a sobering one and a reminder that one’s own inconveniencing was nothing compared to those who were injured.

I had journeyed down to Peebles with Alex, who would be starting in the 1st wave, on the Saturday as Registration was open from 10am-8pm on Saturday only on Peebles Tweed Green. Here we collected out race chips and I moved my start wave from 12 to 7 based on the improved time I now expected, having been in training since May. I had booked accommodation in plenty of time at Innerleithen but with just 3 weeks to go this provider cancelled our booking due to a cock up on their booking system so at the last minute we ended up in Hawick at the very friendly North Bridge Street B&B (but 1 hour away) where we were welcome to put our bikes indoors overnight. Sadly we couldn’t wait for breakfast as we needed to be on the road back to Peebles at 0430.

The 1st wave of riders was off at 0645 and I got going at 06:59. After 1:15 hrs my Garmin Edge froze so all other timing was done by Strava on the iPhone which turned out to be lifesaver with its autopause function. The course is an interesting one, pretty hilly all round with the 2nd main hill - Talla - being the Beast of a 1 in 20! It was here that we were all delayed on reaching the top. From Talla to the food stop at the Gordon Arms it was possible to really fly and overtook a large number of riders. There are plenty of food stops though I only stopped twice – when passing the old Gordon Arms Hotel for Jelly Babies and Macaroni pies.

Two big hills come on the 32km loop that the 120km course riders were doing that starts and ends at the Gordon Arms. The first of these was directly into the strong SW wind whilst the second ‘Whichyknowe’ had the timed climb (11min 55.57 secs for me). Just before ‘Whichyknowe’ another rider pointed out that my rear wheel was wobbling badly. I couldn’t see it myself at first but when climbing Paddy Slacks another rider called me to stop the wheel was really wobbly. On inspection almost all the spokes were loose. With no mechanics close by and no phone signal I was now stopping often to tighten spokes with my fingers and going reasonably slow downhills as I didn’t want the wheel to collapse. I reckon this problem probably lost me 10-15 minutes on the final time.

My Final position was 1132 out of 1403 finishers on the 120km course (228th in the M50-59 Category out of 282). Cash raised for the Matt Hampson foundation (so far) £495

Lessons Learned

1 – Get an early start, this will help with parking, preparing the bike and get you into the loo with plenty of time to spare

2 – Try to get accommodation nearer to the race (not always easy given 2000 entries)

3 – Check over the bike again – I reckon my loose spokes cost me around 20 minutes as I nursed the back wheel home for the last 30km or so.

4 – Carry a lightweight poncho or similar, my teeth were chattering on top of Talla when the race was delayed