Some pics from my local 'Airfield'.

Last Sunday morning, two of my buddies from a nearby rural town, came to fly in my area. The weather was nice for flying with no wind at ground level. (although there was a 25Km/h Easterly blowing above 500ft (150m) altitude. I took off first and went into a circular pattern while waiting for the others to 'get up'. Unfortunately, because of zero wind on the ground, they never managed to take off, however I used the 'waiting time' to take a few pics of my local airfield. Usually I spend little time in the area. (Only during takeoff and when I come-in to land)

My friend Gert's wing lying on the ground. He never managed to 'get up' though :-(

General view of my 'home turf'. Note the cut grass where the local aero modeling club use to take off and land. The airstrip is about 100ft by 10ft wide. (30m x 3m)

Checking the parking bay at Twisters (bottom right). Usually is full of cars - not on a Sunday morning though :-)

Looking to the South. About 2Km away is my friend Van Rooyen's house.My Nokia N8 cell phone has a very good camera. Even when I zoom-in, somehow manages to keep-up the rather good picture quality.

Flying at my Father in law's farm.

I am paramotoring for a few years now, yet never bothered to fly near the farm of my father in law. It is not that far off. About 30miles or 50KM to the west. The previous day I did try to fly there but a nasty and fairly turbulent head wind only let me do about 15Miles/20KM. Gladly my wife agreed to pick me up and give me 'a ride' for the reminder. The next day the weather improved a little and when a few friends of mine decided to fly in the area, I too 'went for it'. I took off fairly late in the afternoon. The scenery was beautiful. Due to the wind coming over the mountains, the air was a bit turbulent but within reason and so, I had a very nice flight just short of a hour. How I wished I had a nice video camera to tape it all. For now though a few pics, hastily taken with my old and trusted cell phone, will have to do.

Chris been helped to takeoff on his second flight ever! He is a big man of 115KG (250pound). He is using a tandem paramotor and got off the ground rather nicely. He is a good paraglider pilot and now a paramotor one too :-)

This is part of my father in law's farm, with the N2 interstate road in the background. The road basically cuts the farm in two.

 Some more Tsitsikamma dams. This entire area is well known for the diary farms. Note the green grass all over. It is used to feed the 1000's of cattle.

This is a 'close-up' of one of the many milking stations. Twice a day the cattle are herded inside where machines are doing the milking job :-)

A very nice weekend . . .

Here are a few pictures from our weekend at Keurboom river resort. I want to thank ALL my friends with whom I had such a nice time there. I can't wait for the next outing.

Picture near my field landing.

A few weeks ago I did run out of fuel, while returning from a epic flight at a nearby water dam. It was only 3Km from 'home' but the terrain was so difficult and remote, it took me hours to get any help. The fact that it got dark while walking with the motor on my back, did not help either. Anyway, while looking over my old track logs, I saw the one flight from last year, which had a similar return path. I quickly checked for pictures I took during that flight and  guess what: One single picture was taken and it was at the exact spot (+-150m) from where I was forced to land. The only difference was the altitude :-) Should I have had this height while my engine cut off, I should have easily glided the 3KM to home. WTF This is life :-) 

Our local Airfield is underwater.

For almost 6 months now the Paradise Beach airfield has a huge problem. During August 2011 we had good rains. At first people were happy but when flooding became a issue, the mood changed quickly. Worst of all areas was Paradise Beach. There, a huge dune of about 30-40m high and 300-500 meter wide, has cutoff the low lying inland. Therefore, every time it rains more then normal, the rain water is stuck.  Unfortunately the local airfield is regularly submerged. Depending on the amount of water, it can take up to a year before it dries out and by that time the following rainy season is here. I am fortunate though. Very fortunate I don’t need an airfield at all. A car park will do. I fly a paramotor

The pic I took hastily with my cell phone (a oldish Nokia N8) while paramotoring up and down the coast. If you are interested, there is a short youtube video. However, the quality is not that good. My helmet handy-cam is rather "skinny". Mind you, it easily fits in a standard sized match box with room to spare.

Some more pics from our Capetown vacation.

Wine tour - the end. (note the slightly blurry bottle in the background! I am shaking a bit. Or is it the ground shaking?

Club Mykonos on the west coast. Believe it or not, I won this round :-)

Clanwilliam dam is 100% full. Looks much better in reality then in this pic.

Eating pora's "fish and chips".

And buying the "Fish and Chips" from the one and only - Pora's fish market :-)

Marina just before going on the famous "Cobra" roller-coaster at Ratanga junction in Capetown. The Cobra pulls a bit more G's then my paramotor when I fly tight spirals, but it only lasts for a second or so. Mind you, that was enough for Marina to slightly hurt her neck :-(

Michael (right in the front carriage) on the "snail train" at Ratanga pleasure park.

Michael watching the Orix antelope on the slopes of Cape Point. 

Table Mount seen from Water front - what a sight -

This pics have been taken with my cellphone (Nokia N8) and are geo-tagged!

Use the program Picasa + Googleearth to see the exact location.

Welcome to the 21-st century :-)

Capetown Vacation pics.

Emerei. Michael, Marguerite and Marina at Hout Bay.

 Hout Bay - Panorama picture.

 Old ship in the dock - Capetown.

 Unknown butterfly at the Butterfly farm.

 Wild dove at the Butterfly farm.

Cape Parrot at the Butterfly farm. 

 Marina with friend at Morgenhof Winery.

 One more wine tasting to come . . .

 Marina, Marguerite, myself and Michael on Table mountain.

 Emerei, Marguerite and Marina on Table mountain.

 Marguerite, Marina and Emi on Table mountain

 The whole family on Table mountain.

Myself with Emerei on Table mountain.

My Home from 250m up.

This is what my house looks like from about 250m up. While paramotoring this morning I gave a try my cellphone's camera. And the pic did not came out too bad :-)