Author: Bateleurs Pilot on the mission, Michael
On Thursday the 25th of July 2024 I had the pleasure of flying members of the KZN Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs and the Oceanographic Research Institute (ORI) on their quarterly coastline inspection flight.
Airborne out of Virginia around 9am on a clear if somewhat blustery winters morning we departed initially in a south westerly direction towards the Durban harbor mouth. Once airborne we turned out left all the way through 180 degrees and headed up the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal.
Cruising along at 500ft the beach resorts of Umhlanga slipped by below our wing and within minutes we were at the Umhlanga Estuary ready to be handed over to King Shaka International Airport as we passed into their airspace. To our left a SAFAIR Boeing 737 departed on a parallel track to ours and then turned out left climbing initially to 14,000ft en route to Johannesburg.
Maintaining 500ft we soon passed Tinley Manor which is the northern most part of King Shaka’s airspace. Familiar places like Blythedale, Princes Grant Golf Estate and Zinkwazi beach then came into view and were all observed from 500ft above ground level.
North of the Tugela River mouth the flight became somewhat bumpy and for comforts sake we climbed to 1000ft where we found slightly smoother air.
North of Richards Bay we passed the large sand mining operations along the north coast the scale of which was quite surprising.
Once we reached the Isimangeliso wetlands we turned inland and headed to Hluhuwe where we landed and took the opportunity to have a comfort break and leg stretch. Unfortunately nobody was home so we couldn’t get a cup of tea. Maybe next time.
The north bound routing saw us experiencing very strong tailwinds clocking ground speeds of up to 280km/hr. Ordinarily we would expect to see speeds of around 240km/hr.
Suffice to say the south bound routing home was slowed down by what had now become head winds but the air had settled very nicely and the return leg was extremely smooth.
Landing back at Virginia after 2.5 hours of flying it felt like a good days work had been done and all the participants on the trip appeared to be in high spirits.
On a personal level I enjoyed the company, the flight and hopefully being a force for good. I trust my fellow travel mates felt the same way.
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