Trip to the Vaal dam and surroundings.

After the recent flight to Loskop dam to take some photos I decided the next "mission" should be the Vaal dam, a larger dam and a bit further than the Loskop dam.

I also wanted to test the fuel transfer pump that failed during the Loskop flight. I ended up replacing the pump and on this flight it performed 100% extending my flight endurance by 2.5 to 3 hours.

Once I got to the field things did not look to promising, there was some lightning in the distance with a cold wind blowing, it had all the characteristics of a storm moving in. By the time I had rolled the plane out of the hangar and done the pre-flight checks there were two storms moving closer, both from the South, the direction I had to fly ! After discussions with a few guys at the field the general feeling was that we were not going to do much flying today !

I decided to do a few circuits, staying close incase the weather moved closer and the winds became dangerous like they can become in front of an approaching storm.

This is what it looked like once I was in the air.

There seemed to be a gap between the storms, it would mean a detour a bit towards the east but I decided I would go and have a look, I could always turn back if it did not look good.

Soon I was flying with storms on both sides of me, the one towards the east was not to close and since the air was quite smooth with only a 15mph headwind I decided to continue keeping a close watch on the larger storm towards the west.

The view towards the west.

The storm towards the west was huge and I could see heavy rain falling with lots of lightning activity ! I made sure I did not get too close.

A few spots of sun brightened up the world, and my mood !

I flew into rain quite a few times, every time I had to divert a bit further east. I could see the ground below me was wet and I encountered very strong lift on a few occasions. It was quite difficult to stay below the maximum allowed altitude in this area, 7500 feet. In spite of the gloomy conditions I was having fun and the Shadow was behaving like a well bred horse !

A few fluffy white clouds brightened up the world.

Most of the trip I had the huge storm next to me towards the west, lots of rain falling, when a flew into a few light showers it was interesting to see how the rain drop merged into little rivers that flowed away quickly in the air currents.

The Vaal dam on the horizon !

After having to fly past Heidelberg towards the east I finally had the dam on the horizon and it looked clear, it was only at this point where I was finally sure that I would be able to take a few photos at the dam.

This is what the dam looks from about 5 miles away.

There was still a lot of storm activity in the area so I knew I would not have much time above the dam, I was also worried about the return flight at the second storm was moving in behind me. The original plan was to stop at Heidelberg on the way back, to stretch legs and maybe to fill the tanks since they have just commissioned a refueling point at the airfield and I wanted to support them.

Finally above the dam !

Once above the dam I descended to 6000 feet, the light was not great with many dark spots and only a few places where the sun managed to shine. Since I have sailed on the Vaal dam before I wanted to go and have a looks at the places I remember.

The Yacht club and the island, look at the power station on the horizon.

I have sailed a 32 foot sloop from this yacht club on the annual "Round the island race" so it was great to see what it looked like from above, it does look a lot smaller from here !

Interesting shapes !

The Vaal dam is a combination of many coves and streams, not the normal one large expanse of water we normally find in South African dams. Things were quiet below, since it was not that early anymore, around 9am, I was wondering why I did not a a single boat of any description on the water, were people afraid of the storms ?

Everyone still sleeping ?

Lots of new developments could be seen below with many small communities, most of them with their own yacht basins and boat launch facilities, soon the whole shoreline will be covered by buildings.

The island.

Due to the weather I decided not to stay to long, if Rhino Park was covered by a storm I might have to divert to a different field, also at this point the cup of coffee I had before leaving started to remind me that it would like to be released soon !

Looking back at the dam.

I reluctantly turned around and started the return trip, I could see storms ahead but they did not look as bad as the earlier ones. The headwind I had up to this point now turned into a tail wind and even though it was dropping in strength it still added a bit to my ground speed.

The N3 highway close to Heidelberg with a few cars heading towards Durban.

As I got closer to Heidelberg I could see that a stop would not be possible, there was a rain storm right above the field, I called to find out what the conditions were but it appeared that no one was flying so I decided to continue without stopping, I had plenty fuel and as the horizon looked dark I wanted to get back to Rhino Park quickly.

The Johannesburg skyline in the distance, look at the smog !

Soon I was getting close to Springs, I could see that it was open and there were a few planes flying but by now it looked like there was a storm heading towards Rhino Park so I decided to see if I could get there before the storm !

A mine dam just outside Springs.

As I approached Rhino Park I could see that the storm just passed, everything below me was wet but I had a clear path towards Rhino Park, now I could relax and enjoy the last few minutes of the flight.

As I got close to the field I had a call on the radio from my friend Graham Cooper on the ground, he wanted to know what the conditions were like since he wanted to go for a flight. He asked me to do a low fly-by over one of the seldom used runways to take a few photos, since I have very few photos of my planes flying I was just too happy to comply, and it would be fun anyway !

The Shadow low over the runway flying past at about 120mph, photo courtesy of Graham Cooper.

The low fly past was fun ! At the end of this short runway there is a hill so it required a sharp pull-up, the Shadow zoomed up at a 2000 feet per minute rate of climb !

Leaving the taxi-way on the way to the hangars, photo courtesy of Graham Cooper.

After a uneventful landing and taxi back to the hangars I had quite a few people around wanting to know what the flight was like and if the storms did not cause trouble. All I could say was that it was FUN !

The track of the flight downloaded from the GPS. The track towards the right (east) was the flight towards the dam, notice how I had to divert towards the east of the direct (shortest) path due to the storms.

Total flight time was 2.5 hours but this included a few circuits before I left and the fly past at the end of the flight.

I ended up taking about 100 photos but the flight was also real fun, I find I learn a lot more from these more challenging flights than from just flying around aimlessly.

Time to plan the next adventure !