Aircraft I've owned
October 11, 1987 first flight in a Schleicher ASW19b standard class 15m glider out of Orient Airfield, Magaliesberg, South Africa.
10 August 1993 first flight Grob 109-b Touring Motor Glider out of Grand Central Airport, Midrand, South Africa.
6 June 2008 first flight Aeromot Ximango AMT200S Touring Motorglider out of Alfred Bay Airport, Cape Province, South Africa.
September, 2022. My Pipistrel Sinus on a trailer being transported to Northam Airport. A year later, due to several bureaucratic hairballs, I still have not flown it. But I’m getting very close.
My flying career began when my sailing buddies started putting girls before boats and found myself with no one to go sailing with me. So I decided to try gliding. My intro flight was at the Magaliesberg Gliding Club on an autumn day. It was like sailing but in three dimensions! That was in 1984. I went solo after about a year and bought a share in an ASW-19, 15-metre standard-class sailplane. On my third soaring flight I almost killed myself when I got caught in a huge cumulonimbus storm cloud. It’s a long story, but with that much experience, someone or something else helped that day and I walked away without injury or aircraft damage. My instructor was very proud of his student.
In 1993 I moved from pure sailplanes to touring motor gliders, which are touring aircraft with gliding capability. I’ve been hooked ever since and have owned three including Grob 109b, Ximango 200S and Pipistrel Sinus 912. All but the Sinus are tail-wheel aircraft. My power flying ratings include tail-wheel, variable pitch propeller, constant speed propeller, retractable gear and geared propeller. Other aircraft I have flown regularly are the Cessna 152, 172, SambaXL, Citabria Kcab and Tacnam 2008.
My longest pure glide is 5 hours, 30 mins, longest cross country flight was Johannesburg to Maun via Francistown 1,100kms, and my longest direct cross country in non-powered flight is 320 kms.