Jo’burg interlude

The doctor

After a nice braai on our last night at Thanda, we drove the next day to Durban and then flew to Jo’burg and met my dad.

Keith was suffering from tick bite fever pretty badly so we went to see my parents’ friends (they’ve known them since we lived here), and their daughter who is a doctor. She started out by saying tick bite fever can be fatal and that the skin around the bite actually dies (necrosis or something) so you can end up with a hole where the bite is. Nice. But then she gave him scripts for the drugs he needs to treat it so already he felt better about it.

I thought I’d check out my cold whilst I was there, but it ended up being a bacterial sinus infection. Also lovely. (Sorry Tasch and anyone else who I might’ve passed this on to! But on the bright side I managed to hike the Drakensberg with it.) I got a few scripts and some extra stuff for my 5 ½ month overland trip ahead. I think half my luggage is medication…

Flight conversion

My dad needed to do a conversion from a low-wing Piper aircraft (which he normally flies) to a high-wing Cessna 172 with a diesel turbo-charged engine. It can easily carry 4 passengers and the fuel can last for up to 8 hours. He needed to familiarise himself with the controls of this new aircraft, its optimal speeds for take-off, rate of climb, gliding, etc., and its emergency procedures. We started off by checking the plane is ok, checking the fuel quantity with a dipstick in the wings, then we had to drain the water from the fuel as water collects in the tank and as it’s heavier than the fuel, it goes to the bottom and has to be drained. After all the checks, we got in with a guy who has a rating for that particular plane (I got in the back) and had more checks before we could taxi to the runway and take off. It was just over 1 hour of training mostly involving circuits at 6,000 feet (touch-and-go’s), 2 x 360 degree turns at a 30 degree bank angle both left and right, and landings with 30 degree, 20 degree and 0 degree flaps.

We flew over the nearby squatter camp, where people often come from and meander on the runway. Once some people stole the runway’s landing lights as they contained copper. Nothing was on the tarmac today – only some cattle were nearby but not too close. As we didn’t go so high up, I could see lots from the air: the Ergo Slimes Dam (holding the residue after gold production); Carnival City; and people with dogs in their backyards. With so many take-offs and landings, we must’ve annoyed the locals somewhat. In any case, now he can fly the Cessna 172 and has an official stamp to prove it.