The Free State’s flat, almost timeless landscape lends itself to flying.
The New Tempe Airport 10km outside Bloemfontein in the direction of Kimberley makes the most of the excellent flying conditions year round. With an average of just 27 rainy days per year and 12 hours of daylight for summer training (10 hours in winter), Tempe has become a mecca for a menagerie of thrill seekers.
The airport offers pilot training and accommodation via the Westline Aviation academy, as well as skydiving (affiliated with the Mangaung municipality) at one of the oldest skydiving clubs in South Africa. For the more cerebral, the Bloemfontein Gliding Club (located on the eastern side of the New Tempe Airport) offers soaring safaris for four months of the year to local and international pilots and presents the annual national gliding championships.
On November 12, New Tempe Airport once again played host to an air show sponsored by Chevrolet. The main theme of the show was experimental aircraft and visitors feasted on a cornucopia of oddball flying contraptions, from gyro helicopters, to microlights, to ultralight aircraft with see-through bodies made of a plastic-canvas material.
Just before noon, Johan van Gruting put on an acrobatic display, twirling his Tiger Moth through the Free State’s unspeakably blue skies. Another curious craft was Rainer Friebose’s swanlike (and amphibious) Seagle, South Africa’s only flying boat.
One of the difficulties in getting these craft up and running in South Africa is the limits imposed by the department of water affairs, which feels that these craft could accelerate water hyacinth infestation of inland bodies of fresh water. While a number of model aircraft were also on show, a highlight was the performance of Dave Mandell’s L39 star-spangled Albatross jet.
The Albatross is a high performance jet trainer aircraft that hails from what was Czechoslovakia. Although this aircraft was introduced as early as 1971, Mandell’s camo-decked L39 looks (and flies) good as new. The performance, paintwork and silver trim make Mandell’s flying machine a show stealer. Almost 3 000 of these jets are still employed by various air forces, including the Libyan, Soviet and Royal Thai air forces. James Bond, believe it or not, flies an L39 in Tomorrow Never Dies.
Mandell, who hails from Port Elizabeth and is a member of the Algoa Flying Club, flew up especially for Saturday’s Chevrolet-sponsored air show. The last event of the day was a speed demonstration on the runway of the Chevrolet Lumina. By 8pm the beer was well and truly flowing and the music pumping in the well-catered tents leading up to the awards ceremony and prize giving. The air show is always a great day out for the whole family.
Bloemfontein Skydiving Centre
New Tempe Airport
Bloemfontein
Free State
Telephone: +27 (0)51 451-1143 or +27 (0)76 394-6059
Westline Aviation Flight School
Telephone: (0)51 451 1717
Fax (0)51 451 1641
Bloemfontein Gliding Club
Telephone: +27 (0)51 430 9290
Mobile: +27 82 454 9717
website:http://www.bgc.org.za
Email: [email protected]
This article originally appeared in the Mail & Guardian newspaper as an advertorial supplement