OK, having serviced ZU-TAF and prepared themselves for the road ahead, Mike and Jean, together with Sias and Tim, had a good look at the various ways home, the weather and things philosophical. Jean and Mike have both been away from home for a long time now and they’re definitely getting a bit homesick! Anyhow, the long and the short of it is that there’s an exciting change to the route home – Instead of flying up north to Recife, crossing to West Africa (again into headwinds) and then navigating down the African West coast, the Sling 4 is going to navigate its finest ocean crossing yet – from Sugar Loaf Mountain to Table Mountain – Rio to Cape Town.
The logic is this – a look at the weather over the past few days, months, years (and possibly millennia) suggests that a well timed flight from Rio to Cape Town will give tailwinds of at least 15 knots average the whole way (possibly quite a bit more). Our baby has out-performed even her parents expectations substantially, to the extent that it’s become increasingly clear that a well timed take-off from Rio should result in a safe and satisfactory landing at Cape Town International Airport a maximum of 29 hours later. Now fully confident that we can use our full fuel complement without any performance problems, fully fueled up ZU-TAF will cruise for a minimum of 30 hours without a fill-up. Moreover, with our satellite tracker working beautifully, an HF radio on board and the satellite telephone providing even social communications if desired, Sias Dreyer is able to give real time weather advice to the pilots, routing them around storms and into the best tail-winds. Given that position, it just seems to make no sense at all to head off north again into the trade (head) winds to battle down the African coast.
So the decision is taken, Mike and Jean will stay in Rio just until the weather is perfect for a flight directly across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Town. Right now it looks like a departure Wednesday evening (from 1800Z) would work nicely, but of course this will need to be monitored closely as time passes. There appears to be a window of opportunity from then until Friday, whereafter they’ll have to wait until the next “cycle”. Please hold thumbs. All things being equal that’ll put Jean and Mike in Cape Town on Friday afternoon 23 September 2011. I hope to join them there and return to Johannesburg on Saturday for a reception and after-party. Please diarise to meet them at Stellenbosch Airfield on Friday evening, or Saturday afternoon at Tedderfield if you live near Johannesburg.
We’ll keep you updated as we go.
Ate logoJames
