Paul Lastrucci: We are spoilt for choice when it comes to recreational aviation in South Africa and this weekend was no exception. A full calendar of events this weekend for aviation enthusiasts as well as for some of our EAA members who took part in a high adrenalin air show held at Wonderboom, as well as spot landing competitions held at Brits and Stellenbosch and a breakfast fly-n to Springs Airfield hosted by the Ekurhuleni East Flying Club.
My decision was an early start from Krugersdorp airfield on this mid Spring Morning and go to Springs, where I had the privilege of leading a trio of vintage Piper Super Cruisers eastbound, from Krugersdorp to attend the scrumptious Springs breakfast. It's always a privilege to shooting the breeze with familiar faces and meet new ones. It was a smooth flight somewhat hazy; and we were on the ground just before 8 am.
Springs airfield has a spectacular rich EAA history and still has many Classic and vintage aircraft tucked away in the hangars. Springs Airfield was the first home base for our EAA Chapter 322 in South Africa, with Mike Spence, Woody Woods and Bill Keil who started Chapter 322 as we know it today.
The logo of formerly named the Springs Flying which was founded in 1955, now known since 2019 as the Ekurhuleni East Flying Club
A mini-Oshkosh was held at Springs over 51 years ago in March 1973 and it was a real big event sponsored by Simba-Quix, South Africa's biggest snack company and still around today. About 55 aircraft attended the fly-in. Chapter 322 did the organizing under Ron Johnstone and in conjunction with the hosting club, The East Rand Flying Club, under Chris Immelman. Chris described the show as a mini-Oshkosh scene and said, as an outsider, he believed the show, which attracted 5000 people was a big boost for private aviation in South Africa where the public is still inclined to think of EAA as sticks and strings machines. A lot has changed since then.
The show was strictly for pre-1950 and homebuilt aircraft. By 1100 hours about 55 pilots had parked their machines in three long rows in front of a crowd of 4,000 people. Together they represented a spectacular show of aviation history.
Early arrivals
Prior to the establishment of EAA Chapter 322 in 1968, it was during the mid to late fifties the Popular Aircraft Association of South Africa (PAA of SA) was formed in Durban, led by Mr A J Oppenheim. Oppenheim got in touch with EAA Headquarters in the USA in a letter to EAA USA in September 1959 where he gave an overview of the fraternity and their large hangar at the Virginia Aerodrome near Durban, and soon they expected to develop their own home base at an airfield near Pinetown.
In their letter they advised that two runways will be built and shops erected for the kit and aircraft manufacturing projects. A clubhouse and restaurant may be added, and members will be allowed to use the hangars for construction work. An amateur airplane building course might be given, in which the association will have instructors to tutor and supervise members in the construction of their own planes. They also invited Paul Poberezny and the EAA USA “main manne” to take part in the Governor General Handicap race in 1960. The EAA USA then formulated International Chapters and Chapter 322 was born.
Karl Jensen's shiney 1955 Cessna 170B
Jeff Earle in his Piper Super Cub
The PAA was prior to any International Chapters and Paul Poberezny, founder of the EAA in the USA, did much correspondence with them and gave them technical assistance as part of an association. In South Africa at that time, the homebuilder bug had just bitten and it was difficult to procure materials for individual projects, so they formed a company to purchase materials and offer kits for two types of aircraft. Named General Aircraft (Pty) Ltd., it will sell on a "pay as you build" basis.
Speaking of aircraft materials, no chrome-moly steel tubing was available in South Africa and our “small” small steel works finding it uneconomical to produce this specification in the small quantities needed, and it being prohibitively expensive to import it. Therefore, although plans for several American steel-framed aircraft had been bought, no construction was done during that time. Instead, wooden machines of European design were preferred and the Druine Turbulent and Emeraude were chosen.
Oppenheim modified the Turbulent somewhat, giving it a canopy, a larger tailfin to increase stability, and using the German "Stamo" engine, a 45 hp version of the Porsche motor. Fuselage members had to be strengthened for this and weight went up by 40 Ibs. Also, a thin fiberglass fabric with hypoxy (epoxy?) resin is being used instead of fabric for covering with a weight gain of 15 Ibs. However, the increase in performance and weather resistance is felt to be worthwhile.
Kerry Mathysen with Chef Rob Heard who is also the flying club chairman
Line for the scrumptious breakfast
Shady Marquee for visitng pilots and friends....Shall we climb in without further debate
Interestingly our South Africa's Civil Air Board at the time, made it unnecessary to have a certificate of airworthiness for aircraft up to 65 hp and 1200 Ibs. This did away with the usual expensive, time-consuming licencing procedure. An authorized person inspects a plane several times during construction and certifies that it agrees with specifications. A Permit to Fly is then issued which allows the holder to fly for fifteen hours near his home field. If there are no faults as a result of a final inspection, the plane can then fly anywhere.
The Lastrucci clan in their Piper Cruiser
Strange but often seen ritual
The Popular Aircraft Association has been given the responsibility for inspections. My My!! How times have changed, the regulatory authority nowadays is just so top heavy and the regs are unnecessarily totally overkill, they need to take a leaf out of these guys books, but that is a story for another day.
One of the aircraft built during the early years of the PAA is a Bowers Fly Baby ZS-UFI built by Tony Wills in Pietermaritzburg in his flat on the first floor. He had to do some building construction to get it out once it was completed. It's now based at Springs and is still flying A beautiful example still in its original livery of which I had the privilege of flying in the mid-nineties, when it was part of the Lastrucci hangar at Krugersdorp. Its sister ship ZS-UFJ is presently undergoing a restoration by Pete Lastrucci at Krugersdorp.
Leon Meintjies' Piper Pa-12 from Krugersdorp
Parked at the edge of the lucerne field at Springs
Peter and Paul Lasrucci's restored Piper Cruiser....Privately owned Atlas Bosbok and the Gavin Brown Collection Tiger Moths
Piper Super Cub and Rainbow Cheetah
Another aircraft of this era, that comes to mind and is in fact the oldest flying homebuilt in South Africa is the Cvjetkovic CA-61 Mini Ace built by Toy van Rensburg at his farm near Clocolan in the Free State. It also now resides at Krugersdorp in the custodianship of Dale de Klerk and flown by Dale and Keaton Perkins. You just got to look East or West here in Gauteng and there is some serious aviation history still being preserved.
Raymond Ayre (former Club Chairman) and Lex Erasmus (former SAA B747 Captain)....SAPS Pilatus Porter made a copurtesy call with EAA 322 Duncan McKeller and companion
A visiting RV
Peter and Celia Lastrucci from the far West Rand and Grant Timms and Rob Osner from the East Rand
A highlight at Springs is The Classic Flying collection at Springs formed by the late Gavin Brown and now taken to new heights by son Steve and enthusiasts. These guys take it out of the park and after the scrumptious breakfast the club puts on for free, (Don't forget the Spinner to donate to their cause next time if you did not do so this time) its followed by a mandatory perambulate through the hangars to take a look at the Tiger Moths, Chipmunks Stearman, Stampe, Fairchild, Pitts Special a Helio Courier and a few beautiful classic cars in immaculate condition to boot. Springs Airfield is host to a treasure trove of nostalgia, upheld by guys like Grant Timms, Lex and Christo Erasmus to name a few, is the place where aviation mentors with hundreds of years of experience, still actively contribute to the passion of aviation.
We blasted off just before 11h00 am back to Krugersdorp riding shotgun with Celia in the back seat of our Piper with Pete upfront doing the flying, a lekker day was had by all. Looking Forward to the next one.
Karl Jensen about to depart, replete with good cameraderie and breakfast...
....and overhead Petit Airfield on the way to Fly In Estates
Karl Jensen Member and EAA Ekurhuleni East Flying Club member: Indeed, a delightful event that participation appeared to be marred by forecast hectic winds, but fortunately they were manageable for most recreational pilots. The hospitality of the Flying Club members was terrific with this annual fly-in, drive-in breakfast event. The Club was founded in September 1955 as The East Rand Flying Club. This name was however changed in 2019 to the Ekurhuleni East Flying Club and is presently chaired By Robbie Heard, a former SAA Captain and an avid airplane restorer.
Although the airfield lies close to busy OR Tambo International Airport, it is not within their CTR and with the airfield exclusive unmanned procedures VHF frequency, it is a pleasure to fly in there. The main runway 03/21 was resurfaced in 1994 and extended to 1600m. On the day of the official opening of the 'new' runway, I flew the SAA Historic Flight Junkers Ju52 in for the occasion and Brian Wallace Captained the DC4 Lebombo landing there. Presently there are approximately 200 airplanes housed in 85 hangars. There are several AMO's, flying schools and Avgas facilities.
A big thanks to all who took part and all the enthusiasts who extended their hospitality for us all.
 and Lex Erasmus (former SAA B747 Captain).jpg)
