Groblersdal breakfast fly-in and air show 2008.

The annual Groblersdal fly-in and air show has the reputation of being one of the best ! The members of the Groblersdal flying club are some of the most friendly people I have met and I was really looking forward to this fly-in. The Groblersdal flying field is also a great place to visit in a beautiful area.

This time of the year the weather is normally great for flying with little rain and nice smooth flying conditions. Well, this year things were different ! When I got to Rhino Park early on Thursday morning there were storms around and lightning could be seen in all directions, not a good start to the trip !

We had two planes and two Gyros who wanted to fly to Groblersdal, we decided to wait a while and see if it might clear up, having a cup of coffee while discussing our options in the hanag while rain was falling on the roof. By 7:30 the general feeling was that we would have to cancel the trip, it was raining and a thunder storm could be seen in the direction of Groblersdal. The rained stopped a bit and the sky cleared up slightly, while everyone was standing around wondering if they should go home or wait I decided to go and have a look, promising the people on the ground I would let them know on the radio what it looked like from above.

So, finally, I was in the air by 8:00 !

Once across the ridge just to the north of Rhino things did not look too bad, there was a storm in front of me but I could see that it was moving east quite fast so I decided to see how far I could get. I radioed the people on the ground telling them that it was worth a try, they were soon following !

The air was not as smooth as it normally is early in the morning but it could be expected due to the storm activity but it was not bad. At least I had a slight (8mph) tailwind that helped the Rans S12 along its way nicely, I was having fun !

This was the view along the way, here I am flying slightly to the west of the Loskop dam.

I wanted to fly to Groblersdal via the Loskop dam but today it was not meant to be, when I got close to the dam the storm was right above it, things got very bumpy so I had to divert a bit to the west to get around the storm. Soon I was within 10 miles of Groblersdal and after I changed frequency I could hear many planes converging on the field, at least not everyone abandoned the trip due to the weather !

It was a bit windy but after a uneventful landing I was soon parked next to the runway along with a nice collection of planes. It was great to see so many familiar planes and faces, it is always nice to catch up with some old friends. All pilots were handed a complimentary bag of goodies and free breakfast tickets, great stuff Groblersdal flying club !

The Rans having a rest while I enjoyed the fly-in and flying displays.

CC taking off for his bush flying display, this guy can fly !

CC diving down.

CC Pocock doing what he does best, giving us a display of real bush flying, showing us how it should be done ! No, he did not crash into the trees !

We were also treated to a display by two guys jumping out of perfectly good aircraft, crazy people hey ?

Here is my fellow Rhino pilot, Graham Cooper, doing his thing as commentator, he kept us informed and entertained the whole day !

A Gyro pretending to be a helicopter doing a real steep approach.

Graham and Peter followed me from Rhino Park in this nice Icarus C42

!

My friend Rodney from Petit landing in his Stork followed by a Cessna, look at the cross wind blowing the spectator boundary tape at the bottom left of the photo !

Still one of my favorite planes, a KR2, this one is a regular visitor to fly-ins.

Pilots getting ready to leave !

Later the afternoon people started heading home after a great day, soon reports were coming in of more bad weather on the way, one of the Rhino guys, Leon, flying a gyro, called from Rhino saying that he just arrived and there was a large storm or front moving towards Rhino, if we wanted to get home we would have to hurry !

This time Graham managed to leave before I did, I got caught in a long queue of planes wanting to take off, once airborne I found things a bit bumpy but not to bad and I had a tailwind AGAIN ! How is that for good luck ? I normally fly the Rans at about 5500 rpm, a "economy cruise" setting but on the way home I decided that I wanted to get to Rhino before the storm so I climbed out to 7000 feet at 5800 rpm and cruised at 5700 rpm, the old lady can still move when she needs to !

When I was about 20 miles away from Rhino Graham radioed that he just landed and that things were real rough ! Not good, he warned me to be careful and said that he would wait for me in the pub, he needed a drink ! Now that made me think.....

He was right, the air coming over the ridge at Rhino was really turbulent, I landed on the "short" runway 03 to at least be mostly into the wind that had now picked up quite a bit. The landing was "interesting" but not to bad, soon the Rans was safely back in the hangar I was sitting in the pub with Graham and Peter having a cold one, talking about the days flying and planning the next trip !

It was a great trip, a slight challenge flying wise but worth it, thanks Groblersdal, we will be back next year !!