Brakpan Aero Club Cessna Fly-In 16 June 2018 By Cheryl Smit Brakpan Aero Club hosted a Cessna Fly-In, in the attempt at having the most Cessnas on a South African Airfield at any one time. The new committee at FABB in wanting to place their airfield firmly on the map for breakfast fly-ins and to showcase their two kilometres of tarred runway and tarred taxiways decided to invite all Cessna owners or anyone who could get their hands on a Cessna for the day to come and fly to Brakpan so they could see the field "CESSNA-A-RISED" with all shapes, sizes, old and new, propeller, turbo-prop and jet on the field as far as the eye could see. I was invited by the legendary retired SAA Captain Karl Jensen to fly with him to Brakpan in his iconic Cessna 170 SU-VAL also known as the Pixie plane. We left Fly-Inn Estate at 08:45 and flew the +-28 nautical miles in 15 minutes. On route we were formatted on by Greg Clegg in his Jodel ZS-UEK who had also left Fly-Inn Estate just minutes before us. Karl Jensen kindly gave me a photo opportunity before landing so that I could do an aerial shoot of the Brakpan airfield. From the air I only counted 10 aircraft already on the ground which was disappointing as I was expecting to see so much more activity by that time. One of the disappointing low numbers of Cessnas that visited was a Conquest 1 And some ever popular 182 Skylanes Archie Kemp and Derek Hopkins standing next to Archie's classic 195 Two Grand Caravans visited, ZS-TAS…. and ZS-DFK with Jeremy Wood's Piper Comanche in the background SAA captains Rob Heard and Ken Rossouw flew a formation departure in a 185, ZS-MPW and a 180, ZS-NEH Another oldie was ZS-KXF, a 152 ZS-NWB a Centurion 210 visited…….. as did ZS-LBZ a Stationair U206G The apron at 10h00 Some of the visiting aircraft parked on the grass However during the morning a number of various types did start arriving one of which was the Vans RV6 Jeremy Woods at the controls of the Bearhawk Patrol that he recently bought from Wayne Giles who occupied the back seat Marie Reddy flew in from Krugersdorp in her little Ikarus C-42 Michele Martin posing by Brian Appleton's Chipmunk Rodney Benn departing in his Dornier 27 Jon-Marc Hill brought the Mushack An Alouette II hovering A Mooney departing And a Piper Seneca on the apron Brakpan Airfield with its recently renovated and upgraded clubhouse and swimming pool is centrally situated and within easy reach of the major centres. Breakfast was served in The Flying Grace an excellent restaurant run by Minnie van der Merwe Many thanks to Gordon and Susan Dyne who opened Gordon's lavish 'Man Cave' and entertained many of their friends with scrumptious snacks and refreshments throughout the day. Amongst their guests was the legendary John Martin an ex SAAF Spitfire Pilot standing next to Gordon Dyne Although not the turnout of Cessna aircraft that was expected a wonderful day was had by all. Thank you Brakpan Aero Club for the Fly-In. Pilots Post will definitely be there to report on the next one.

Events 2018

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