Aerobatics team flies to greater heights
The team has been hard at work ahead of their next national competition in Ladysmith.
Margate Airport came alive recently when a number of aircraft, piloted by members of the South African aerobatics team took to the skies for a training session.
Pilots Roger Deare, Patrick Davidson, Elton Bondi, Andrew Blackwood-Murray, Eugene du Preez and Kayle Wooll practised for nearly a week in preparation for their next national competition in Ladysmith on March 8.
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Mr Deare has had a life-long love of flying, spending much of his childhood at airfields helping out and doing odd jobs at airfields and then progressing to becoming a pilot at theage of 21.
He and his current group of pilots are a high energy aerobatics formation team.
“However aerobatics is not as easy as it may appear,” he said.
“Training sessions require refuelling, aircraft checks and planes to be pushed around as well as kept clean.
“Every morning, during our sessions at Margate Airport, we started with a briefing in which the weather, runway patterns and radio calls were discussed.”
He added that the team was tutored by world champion aerobatic pilot Baptiste Vignes who was on hand to hone the pilots’ skills and rehearse their sequences for the competition.
“His patience and understanding of aerobatics has got us to where we are now.”
Mr Vignes said the sky aerobatics competition would give these pilots recognition for their talents and skill.
“We have some of the best pilots here and we need to start giving them a platform where they can show their talents to the rest of the world.”
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