James & Jean are still settling in Réunion after a long flight & as soon as we get any updates from them we will post it for you. In the meantime, the one aviation forum in South Africa has more photos of yesterday’s departure which you can go and have a look at at the

In a way it was a blessing to have the delays. We worked so hard and so late every day that all of us were absolutely exhausted. So, early yesterday morning when Jean told James on the phone that we had a fuel leak that we absolutely had to fix and he then told Jean

First things first – thanks to Sias Dreyer for setting up a magnificent weather tool for The Airplane Factory Aviators to use in the circumnavigation. More about that in a minute. Sadly I failed to take a photograph of the left wing main tank off (perhaps someone else out there has one?), but to get

Breaking news – Sadly the Sling will not be leaving for Reunion today. It has been necessary to delay departure by another day because of IFR conditions in Durban and also becuase of a small leak in one of the ‘B’ accessory fuel tanks. Right now we’re busy removing the adjacent ‘A’ tank so as

Herewith some photos of the last few days while we made up our 40 hours of flying.

So things really are moving on – as at 14h00 today the (peerless) Sling 4 prototype has 23 hours on her airframe and Mike and Jean are off towards Durban to put on some more, test the fuel transfer systems, test the satellite tracker, do more work ascertaining exactly the best power settings for economy

One of the most important aspects of a flight around the world in a light aircraft is getting rest so that you can remain sharp at all times. In past trips Mike and I have often found that the hassle factor associated with finding accommodation, getting currency, food to eat and suchlike outweighs the value

It’s the final weekend of the month and that traditionally means that the entire Airplane Factory staff complement gets off early on Friday and that no-one works overtime on the weekend. Mike, Jean, Gareth and James, however, are here putting some of the last minute touches (what Jean refers to as “tweaks”) on ZU-TAF before

Vaughan, Bearcat, Jason and everyone else who supported us at the first flights – thanks for that. Bearcat and Vaughan, what awesome shots! Vaughan, I’ve stolen the flying shot with the sun behind to put on or website. I hope that’s OK. We did some more flying yesterday afternoon and it looks very much like

What an emotional roller-coaster! We’ve spent much of the past week keeping open the gap which would have allowed us to get to Oshkosh before the end of the show. Yesterday put the lid on that – with the CAA sticking to its guns on the 40 proving hours they require before issuing an authority