Loskop dam and surroundings from the air.

After doing some work on my Streak shadow's (ZU-AVB) engine I wanted to do a slightly longer flight than just flying around the "patch". Since I have been wanting to go and take some photos at the Loskop dam for a while I decided it would be a good destination. To make the flight slightly longer, I wanted a flight of  around 2 hours, I decided to not fly straight to Loskop dam but fly North first before turning East. The normal endurance in the Shadow is about 3.5 hours but I decided to fit the ferry tank to test it since I have never used it. It provides for another 2.5 hours with reserves.

The plan was to leave early in the morning, hoping for good light for photography. As it turned out it was not a clear day with a lot of smog and bad visibility, not ideal for taking photos but still a fun trip.

The departure point, Rhino Park flying field.

Departure was not quite as early as planned due to visitors wanting to look at the plane and some low fog in the area but soon there was air beneath the wings, and wheels !

Climbing to take advantage of the wind, sitting at 6800 feet here, later I descended a bit to 6500 feet since the wind did not get stronger higher.

The air was relatively smooth, making for a peaceful flight even if visibility was quite bad. With a 15mph wind from the south the initial part of the trip benefited with a relatively high ground speed.

Some plantations just north of Rhino Park, nice open area but not many places to land in an emergency, at least the Jabiru motor was purring like a kitten.

There were few other planes in the air, I did not see a single one on the whole trip but did hear a few on the radio, still, it stays important to keep on scanning the sky for planes, not all pilots report their positions on a regular basis the way they should !

After a uneventful flight north I turned the nose east and soon the glint of the dam appeared on the horizon, target in sight !

See how bad the visibility is ? Also with the sun still quite low on the horizon and flying towards it makes for bad photography conditions, here a tiny cloud helped a bit by masking most of the sun.

At this stage I was flying at 6500 feet, mostly to take advantage of the slight tail wind but also because the terrain below was looking rather inhospitable with few places to land.

Lots of hills and valleys, here a secluded lodge nests in a valley close to the point where the river feeds into Loskop dam.

Once over the valley that the dam lies in I started to decent, the valley is quite deep, with me flying about 300 feet above the water I was well below the surrounding terrain.

Descending over the dam, here the Shadow is at 5200 feet and still descending at about 80mph and a reduced throttle setting, everything still in the green !

I wanted to fly over the dam wall as I have not been there before, everything looked so quiet and peaceful below with very little human activity, hope I did not wake to many people !

Look at the hills surrounding the dam, this is a nature reserve so the area is not developed to the same extend as you find around most our other dams.

At this point I had burned enough fuel to try the transfer from the ferry tank and the main tank. Surprise ! It did not work ! I could hear the relay click but the pump was not running. A quick scan did not show any obvious problems so I decided not to try and sort it out in the air, I had enough fuel to return to Rhino Park with plenty reserve.

This is the only developed area at the dam, looks like a holiday resort with a camping area, it is just East of the dam wall with a national road running next to it. Looks like a good spot to spend a weekend, just sad that there are no runways around !

The dam looked quite full and this was confirmed when I circled over the dam wall, it was overflowing !

What a nice sight ! After seeing so many dams mostly empty in the past the last rainy season filled most of our dams.

Ok, time to turn back, I knew I had enough fuel but I also knew I would now have a headwind. I decided to stay low as this would help a bit, it is also fun and with the mostly open areas I was flying over now it was quite safe.

Looking up at the higher ground around the dam, time to climb a bit.

Now this a better, time to head home !

Passing over some nice looking spots, this is close to the dam on the river that feeds it, lots of cars, wonder what the occasion is ?

On the way home I passed quite a few settlements, not wanting to disturb anyone I routed around them at low altitude, wonder if anyone noticed my little plane above ?

Almost home !

Any finally home after a nice flight ! The Shadow parked at Rhino Park after the flight.

The flight track as downloaded from the GPS, the top track is flying there and the bottom one the flight home.

Other than the bad visibility and the fuel pump that would not pump all went well. The pump problem turned out to be a bad connection in a power plug. The next time I see a nice clear day I will fly to the Loskop dam again, it is such a stunning area it needs a second chance.