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36 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:its was in celebration of their birthday
SAAF Birthday?
13 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:Got treated to an impromptu airshow directly above my house late afternoon when the three SAAF BAE Hawks and two Gripens formed up and did race track laps waiting for the SONA fly over. Then afterwards the two Gripens were back doing very tight circles again directly overhead at full afterburner, setting off car alarms, rattling windows and making small kids cry. What a treat.
Apologies for the very poor quality pics.
It is almost end of the year for the budget so the Air Force might have a few litres of jet fuel to burn 
NATO is currently busy with one massive exercise somewhere. That means increased traffic of military aircraft and fighters where I stay. They are normally pretty fast and I don't always get to see them before they are gone. But have a had a few F16's giving it stick and then quite often Eurofighters and Tornado's showing off.
18 hours ago, Spokey said:
I remember in 2015 we flew from Joburg to Munich via Zurich. We were the first plane to land on Zurich that morning and it snowed during the night. It was a lovely approach in the dark. The plane we got in to fly from Zurich to Munich was still fully covered with snow when we boarded and obviously got sprayed just before take off.
24 000 liters is quite a bit. My pool that I had in SA held about 30 000 liters. What does the de icing cost nowadays per liter?
On 5/16/2023 at 1:59 PM, Long Wheel Base said:I got that video and another by someone else in the same plane, the other video you see the fire truck a lot more and that thing had been waiting there for a while. Makes me wonder if they were expecting it? Not normal for the fire trucks to be on the taxiway next to another live aircraft like that.
They did declare an emergency as the landing gear could not retract after takeoff. So the fire trucks were waiting on stand by. That boogy knocked quite a dent into the fuselage.
1 hour ago, The Ouzo said:Yeah look, all I can tell you is that they are military fighter planes, i won’t pretend to know what is what.
The aircraft you saw was the BAE Hawk, a british airplane. The were part of the big weapons upgrade in the infamous Arms Deal.
The aircraft you know that was sold to the US is the Atlas Cheetah. In this article under operators you will see that they were sold in 2017 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Cheetah
On 1/27/2023 at 10:15 AM, The Ouzo said:Does anyone know why there are military fighter planes going in and out of ORT the last couple of days ?
Looks like 4 of them, they take off and then fly north, turn around head south and back again a couple of times.
One of the four has SA flag colours painted underneath.
I thought we sold all of ours to the US ?
If memory serves me right, we sold our Cheetahs to the Americans, not the Hawks
On 1/17/2023 at 4:34 PM, Spokey said:A few more
I am of the opinion that the Lightning is one of the fugliest jet fighters ever built
Spokey, in my mind, most causes of losing all AC power would most propably be complete engine failure. Should one or more of the engines still be running the plane should still be flyable and not gliding. Or could there be many other scenarios where you could have all AC power loss but still have running engines?
I actually don't mind sitting close to the galley on the long haul. Since I can't sleep in anyway I move to the back often and streth the legs there when the crew is not busy serving the passangers and they are actually taking it ease. On my return flight now on Swiss, I was standing at the back when a lady another lady was also standing there that could not sleep. We ended up chatting with the crew while they made us coffee 3 o'clock in the morning.
Bonus, I had a slightly different experience with the check in with Lufthansa now in August on our flight to Joburg. Because our flight from Munich to Frankfurt was in actual fact a high speed train, we had to check in online 24 hours prior and print our boarding passes as that is our train ticket as well. So fo the return flight I wanted to have specific seats and when you check online, there was still many options available. So I had not had the problem that our family was split up and we could sort out our seats without paying extra.
What I can say is that the seats on the Lufthansa 747-8 is not much to write home about. Man it was small. Our return flight was on Swiss (which is also part of the Lufthansa Group) and it is chalk and cheese I am telling you. The old A340 were newly refurbished two years ago and that cabin and seats is 10x better than the 747.
Well if all goes according to plan, I will realise one of my dreams ... to fly in the 747-8. Flying with Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Johannesburg. I am as excited as a kid on Christmas
3
2 hours ago, BrentCGP said:Did the Cross Cape late last year, with a few detours.. Did Hartenbos - George, through 7 Passes and then Thesen Island to Plett pretty much solo. Did not feel unsafe at all, but there was an eye on me. Maybe pick out a route from there, cant go wrong with that route on the Garden Route part.
https://ridewithgps.com/ambassador_routes/1319-the-cross-cape?lang=en
Can never recommended 7 passes enough to anyone that has never done it. Do not go near the N2 from Knysna to Plett. Used to ride up there to Harkerville years ago to ride the Red route and return to Thesen. Wouldn't dare go there now. As for getting to PE. Maybe someone else can help with that 🙂
Done Sedgefield to Stormsriver on the N2 before detour via Natures Valley. Very nice ride. But that was 8 - 9 years ago if not more. Not sure what the safety is riding out of Knysna.
2 hours ago, Sid the Sloth said:you will have to speak to the mayor, @Wayne pudding Mol. But you are in for a treat... Road bike, gravel, or mtb?
Road bike
Hey guys,
long time since I have been on the hub. I will be in SA soon and among others will be having a holiday in the Sedgefield area. I am planning on taking a bike down and do some road riding. A few questions about safety in the area.
1) How safe is it to ride up Outeniqua Pass nowadays. I remember some time ago someone on the hub mentioned there is a squatter camp at the bottom where there could be some problems. What is the situation nowadays?
2) How safe is it cycling from Knysa out direction PE?
3) If I want to cycle from Wilderness to George, is there a road alternative to the N2 Kaaimans bridge to George. I think someone once mentioned here the Old George road but not sure what road that is.
Thanks in advance 
8 hours ago, SwissVan said:That dust looks hectic, not good for the aircraft to be flying around in it as it will get in everywhere.
We have a customers plane here now that flew to Morocco through the Sahara sand storms earlier this spring, it’s unbelievable how much sand we found during the annual inspection…. Literally 100 hrs labour to clean it up and we still have some more cleaning left.
Nearly as bad as the pollen in Switzerland at the moment….
Pollen is bad here as well. Bike was cleaned up last week after fixing it up. One ride and the pollen is all over the leading edges of the frame and components.
I hear a 737 crashed "from a high altitude" in China.
Anybody watch the Netflix Documentary "Downfall"?
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2751775513?playlistId=tt11893274&ref_=tt_pr_ov_vi
On 3/5/2022 at 7:00 PM, SwissVan said:Some news on another disaster…… MH370
Saw it the other day. Do you think they will go out again?
Since a few weeks ago, there has been quite a bit of activity of military aircraft here by us as well. Several US F16's passed over us and German Eurofighters also been active.
Really a magnificent aircraft Spokey. Do you have a ADS-B transponder on the Aircraft? Is it compulsionary to have one?
9 hours ago, Long Wheel Base said:I'm still wondering how this happened. If the correct procedure was followed then there are a few guys to blame.
When moving an aircraft for a re park which is what I believe this was, you need an engineer in the cockpit to release/set brakes, check all doors are closed, ensure hydraulic pressure is good etc etc. Then on big aircraft like this you need another engineer that sits on/in the tug that has a headset connected and he is able to talk to the guy in the cockpit. The reason you need this guy on bigger planes and not smaller ones is you can't see the tug from the cockpit on the bigger planes and if the tow at breaks the plane needs to be stopped asap. Then you obviously need the tug driver.
The guy in the cockpit should only release the brakes once he knows all doors are closed and the tug is connected.
The guy on the headset should only allow the tug driver to move once he sees the air bridge is clear and he has been told the brakes have been released.
And naturally the the driver should only push the aircraft if he sees its clear and it's not like the bridge is small or far away.
Id love to see a final report......
I think the BA insurers as well.
For the aviation fans
in Chit chat
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https://www.defenceweb.co.za/aerospace/aerospace-aerospace/saaf-gripen-fighters-soar-over-cape-town-ahead-of-2024-sona/