Midweek Update 17 May 2017Plan Your Weekend……..Forthcoming Events Aviation News……….Worldwide Incidents and Accidents This Week in Aviation History………Advertising Rate Card  Get all your questions answered in one place. To listen to a recording of the live broadcast click on the link: www.debela.co.za/aviation-radio-show  20-21: SAC KZN regionals. Ladysmith. Contact Annie Boon e-mail: chunge@mweb.co.za 20: Turn your rotors in Kitty Hawk's direction, show off your spinning blades, and make an impression with your disc! Fly in to Kitty Hawk. Any aircraft welcome! 3rd Saturday of every month. Microland. Bring and braai. Fires and bykos provided. Fires start from 09h30. Contact person: Nick Swardt 082 441 8011 or Alan Hussey 072 82 2341   26-28: SAPFA President's Trophy Air Race. Springs Aero Club. Website: www.sapfa.org.za E-mail: Race@sapfa.org.za. Race director Robin Spencer-Scarr: robin@stylegroup.com.au ot Contact Robbie Myburgh e-mail: roblena@mweb.co.za Cell: 083 377 0925  27-28: Wings Park Annual Airfest Fly in. All aircraft welcome. Great fun filled weekend with some of the coolest planes and pilots around. Avgas and Mogas available. Jet A1 on request. Safe parking with kilometre long grass runway. Contact Rob Williamson Cell: 082 574 9034 E-mail: rwhw@iafrica.com 27: Botswana International airshow. Matsieng Airfield (FBMA). Contact Guillaume Knipe E-mail: Gknipe@work.co.bw Cell +267 71300646 2-3: Newcastle Airshow. Newcastle. Contact Johan Pieters 082 923 0078 e-mail: johan@champ.co.za or Christo van der Vyver 083 375 5883  3: TETE Free State Aviation Exhibition 2017 at Parys Airfield. Contact Ishmael Mokoena, Coordinator Cell 073 598 0220 4: SAAF Museum AFB Zwartkop open practise day 7: EAA Chapter 322 meeting. Dicky Fritz Moth Hall Edenvale. Contact editor@afskies.co.za 10-11: Wonderboom Adrenaline Show. Wonderboom. Contact Chris Briers E-mail: chris@briersgroup.com Cell: 082 568 7988 15-16: Lowveld airshow at the Nelspruit airfield Tel: 013 741 6412. Contact Willemien Hodgkinson e-mail: willemien.hodgkinson@kishugu.com  16-18: MISASA Microlight Championships and kroon Fly in. Contact Mervyn on 073 763 7510 for competition details. 17: Queenstown Flying Club Centennial Celebrations. Contact Alasdair 0825518375 mac@mactax.co.za 24: Middelburg Aero Club Airshow. Richardt Lovett. mail@pegasusi.co.za 082 771 8775 3rd Saturday of every month. Microland. Bring and braai. Fires and bykos provided. Fires start from 09h30. Contact person: Nick Swardt 082 441 8011 or Alan Hussey 072 82 2341 30-3 Jul: Race for Rhinos. Kubu Island Botswana.Contact Chris Briers E-mail: chris@briersgroup.com Cell: 082 568 7988 30- 1 July: SA Landing Championship Training Day - Brits Airfield. Contact Mauritz du Plessis email: whitehouse@worldonline.co.za, Cell: 083 601 1042 5: EAA Chapter 322 meeting. Dicky Fritz Moth Hall Edenvale. Contact Contact editor@afskies.co.za 5-8: SAC Nationals. Malelane, Mpumalanga. Contact Annie Boon e-mail: chunge@mweb.co.za 8: EAA Chapter 973 - Krugersdorp. Breakfast Fly-in to Crosswinds Airfield. All EAA members, Microlighters, friends and aviation enthusiasts - You are all invited to fly in or drive in to Crosswinds Airfield and enjoy the day with us. A full breakfast at R80 per head will be available, which includes coffee and tea. Map available here: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/9fed99877f4280842cbc752a7/files/ae942317-6a4c-4675-8d5c-638c47005dbe/Crosswinds_Airfield_info.pdf 8: Swaziland International airshow. Swaziland Flying Club. Contact Yorick Hulett e-mail: hulettcharcoal@gmail.com Tel: +268 760 31002  15: Hoedspruit Fun Rally. Contact Wynand Uys email: wynand@ottersden.co.za or Frank Eckard e-mail: frank.eckard@mweb.co.za cell: 083 269 1516 3rd Saturday of every month. Microland. Bring and braai. Fires and bykos provided. Fires start from 09h30. Contact person: Nick Swardt 082 441 8011 or Alan Hussey 072 82 2341 24-30: EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. Wisconsin, USA. Camping on the airfield contact Neil Bowden e-mail: neil1@telkomsa.net or Hotels in Appleton contact Calvin Fabig e-mail: calvin@designer.co.za 28: World Precision Flying Championships - Austria.   BOEING RARITY COMING TO AIRVENTURE OSHKOSH Boeing built two XL-15s as proof of concept prototypes and then 10 YL-15s for evaluation as they competed for the U.S. Army Air Forces (which quickly became the U.S. Air Force) contract for a new L-bird, a liaison aircraft. Boeing ultimately lost the contract to Cessna who had developed the L-19 Bird Dog. The L-15, the last manned piston-powered airplane Boeing ever built, never went into production. Brunquist's airplane was the last one built, rolling off the assembly line in Wichita on March 8 of 1949. It's an unusual looking airplane, to say the least. It's a taildragger, sort of, but it sits at what at first looks like a near-level attitude when on the ground. The wings and the horizontal stabilizer are mounted at a pronounced angle of incidence to the fuselage boom, which has the effect of making the twin tails - that look upside down to begin with - stick up when it's in level flight. As with any L-bird, it's got excellent visibility, and the unusual "pod" cabin area allows an observer to sit facing aft with a near unobstructed view out the back. Brunquist's father Norm bought the airplane from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at auction in 1954, while working for that agency as an A&P. The elder Brunquist installed floats on the airplane (per Boeing's original design) and flew it for years until it started showing some signs of wear and parked it in 1966. Brunquist inherited the airplane when his father died in 1994, and, when he was ready, started restoring the airplane in 2003. It flew again 13 years later, on July 28, 2016, just missing his chance to bring it to Oshkosh last year - we're really looking forward to seeing this delightful rarity here this summer. The P-47 Thunderbolt, better known, affectionately, as "the Jug," was a brute of an airplane, the largest single-engine fighter of World War II, and served with distinction in every theatre of the war after its introduction in the spring of 1942. The P-47 was originally built as a fighter, armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, but, because of its size and strength, it quickly developed into an able fighter-bomber. In that role, the P-47 became a feared ground attack aircraft, capable of carrying rockets and up to 500 pounds of bombs, in addition to its regular complement of machine guns. The P-47 was synonymous with the famed 57th Fighter Group, and the museum's examples, both D-models, are painted in that group's colours. Hun Hunter XVI is owned by Neal Melton, and honors Gil O. Wymond, while Wicked Wabbit, owned by John Shoffner, pays tribute to James C. Hare. Of the more than 15,000 produced, it's estimated that less than a dozen remain flying today.   Photo Sonex With roots in the experimental aircraft industry, the Oshkosh, WI based company is heavily invested in R&D and has been designing, building, testing, selling and supporting manned aircraft systems since the early 1970's. With many thousands of worldwide fleet hours to its credit, Sonex aircraft are lightweight, strong and cost efficient with incredible performance and economy. In January of 2015, NASC began a collaboration with Sonex Aircraft, teaming-up to create what would eventually become known as Teros: a highly versatile and economical UAS in the Group 4 classification, the largest fixed-wing UAS platform produced by NASC to-date. With knowledge of Sonex Aircraft's 40+ year heritage in the experimental aircraft marketplace, NASC first became interested in the Moni Motorglider, a 1980's design by Sonex founder John Monnett. Investigation of the Moni led the NASC team to the larger Xenos Motorglider design, and a synergy was born. Sonex Aerospace capabilities illustrated by products like Moni, Xenos, SubSonex and others provide tremendous opportunity to compliment the capabilities of Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation. With NASC's proven expertise in Unmanned Aircraft Systems via over 100,000 UAS flight hours supporting the United States Department of Defense, Navmar has the electronic command and control systems, payload experience, flight crew and support systems to combine with Sonex Aerospace's design strengths to develop and implement the next generation of innovative UAV platforms and systems. Since its inception in 1977, Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation has provided engineering and technical services in support of the Department of Defense. By providing their customers with quality products and consistently exceeding customer expectations, NASC has grown to a 200+ employee company with more than 10 locations spread throughout the United States, as well as supporting the global war on terrorism overseas.  Photo © MD Helicopters MD Helicopters, Inc. (MDHI) is proud to announce a new agreement with the Columbus Division of Police, Columbus, Ohio, to upgrade its two (2) remaining MD 500E helicopters. The two E models will be overhauled and re-certified as F-models (Type Certificate 369FF) with zero-time engines in a period of just a few weeks. The FAA-approved factory recertification takes place at MD Helicopters' manufacturing facility & completions centre in Mesa, Arizona. "Our FAA-approved E-to-F conversion program is an outstanding way for operators to upgrade from the E-model to what is essentially a new, factory-built FAA-certified F-model at a fraction of the cost," said Nick Nenadovic, Vice President Aftermarket and Customer Support for MD Helicopters, Inc. "In just a few weeks, these aircraft will return to service stronger, faster and more capable of executing their mission than ever before." The Columbus Police Department converted four (4) of their MD 500E aircraft to certified F-models via this same program in 2015. With the completion of these final conversion efforts, the Helicopter Unit will operate 6 single-engine turbine MD 530F helicopters flown by 16 sworn officers and supervisors; making them the second largest all-MD municipal law enforcement aviation unit in the United States. Averaging 5,000 flight hours per year with base flight operations of 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, the Columbus Police Helicopter unit, statistically, is directly responsible for over 300 felony arrests and over 200 misdemeanor arrests annually. It is first on the scene of dispatched runs approximately 40% of the time, with an average response time of just 1.3 minutes. Delivery of the Columbus Police Aviation Unit's newly certified MD 530F helicopters will take place this summer. Photo © Eurofighter Typhoon The 500th Eurofighter Typhoon produced was delivered to the Italian Air Force during a ceremony that took place at the plant of the Division Aircraft of Leonardo in Turin.  The first Eurofighter was delivered to the strength of the UK Air Force in late 2003. The 100th Eurofighter was delivered to the Air Force of the United Kingdom in September 2006. The 200th aircraft was delivered to the Force German Air Force in November 2009. The 300th aircraft was delivered to the Force Spanish Air Force in October 2011, while the 400th German Air Force in December 2013. Today, as before, the aircraft continues to be extremely reliable in the world and in all weather conditions . It 'been deployed on numerous occasions for tasks of " Police Air " in the Baltic with the Spanish Air Force, German, Italian and British and has proved his ability on the field during operations in Libya , Iraq and Syria . Subjected to constant improvement, the aircraft is acquiring new skills, with test and integration activities currently underway for the air-to-air advanced missile " beyond visual range " (beyond visual range) Meteor , the high-precision cruise missile Storm Shadow and the high-precision air-to-surface missile Brimstone . The integration of these weapons systems will allow the ' Eurofighter Typhoon confirmed its position as the fighter plane multi-role more capable, versatile and reliable available on the international market.  Photo © Textron The fourth Longitude took to the skies for the first time on Saturday, May 6, from the company's Beech Field in east Wichita. Textron Aviation test pilots Andrew Peters and Brian Gigax took the aircraft to full envelope during the 3-hours and 20-minute flight and the aircraft reached all of its performance targets. The first Citation Longitude flew in October 2016 and to date the flight test program has completed more than 200 flights, accumulating nearly 400 hours. Class-leading comfort The Citation Longitude is set to elevate passenger expectations in this class of aircraft by delivering the lowest cabin altitude (5,950 feet), quietest cabin, more standard features and a comfortable, bespoke interior with a superior fit and finish. With seating for up to 12 passengers, including an optional crew jump seat, the Citation Longitude features a stand-up, 6-foot tall flat-floor cabin. A standard double-club configuration allows the most legroom in the super-midsize class. Fully berthable seats are designed and manufactured in-house and a class-leading walk-in baggage compartment is accessible in flight. Natural light is plentiful with 15 large windows positioned throughout the cabin for optimal viewing. A large, forward wet galley offers versatility to meet a wide variety of passenger needs. State-of-the-art cabin technology allows passengers to manage their environment and entertainment from any mobile device, while standard internet maximizes productivity in flight.  USA, Dallas: An American Airlines Boeing 737-800 performing a flight from Boston, MA to Dallas Ft. Worth was en-route at FL380 about 160nm northeast of Dallas Ft. Worth, Texas when the crew initiated a rapid descent to 10,000 feet due to the loss of cabin pressure. The aircraft continued to Dallas Ft. Worth for a safe landing. A flight attendant and 15 passengers received unknown injuries, the aircraft sustained no damage. Slovakia, Presov: A Slovak Republic Ministry of Interior Bell 429 Global Ranger during its initial climb on a training flight spiralled down from a height of about 100 meters and 200 meters from the take-off location. The two pilots and two firefighters on board did not survive and the helicopter was damaged beyond repair.   17 May 1928  Mary, Lady Heath (10 November 1896 - 9 May 1939) was an Irish aviator. She was one of the best known women in the world for a five-year period from the mid-1920s. In 1923 she represented the United Kingdom at the 1923 Women's Olympiad] in Monte Carlo, during the games she came third place at the high jump, javelin throw and the Women's pentathlon, in 1926 she again represented the United Kingdom at javelin at the 1926 Women's World Games in Gothenburg, coming fourth[3] with a throw of 44.63 metres.  Avro Avian III. During 1925 she took her first flying lessons and the following year she became the first woman to hold a commercial flying licence in Britain and along the way, set records for altitude. She initially estimated that her flight in the Avian to Cape Town would take three weeks As it turned out it took her three months before reaching her target. After her great flight from the Cape, she took a mechanic's qualification, the first woman to do so, in the USA, where she was known as "Britain's Lady Lindy," On 9 May 1939, aged 42, she died in St Leonard's Hospital, Shoreditch, London following a fall inside a double-decker tram.  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