An event of this magnitude cannot be undertaken without the help of dedicated and professional assistance. This year this came from ATNS which handled the flow of traffic; "Hosepipe" Hannekom who was the Safety Director, as well as CC Pocock who was the Flight Director. Graham Cooper, who kept the spectators entertained with his light hearted humour, handled the commentary.

What made this year's event different wasdefinitely the participation of the SAAF and CAA, as well as a motorbike race versus Ian Puntis flying the Sport Cruiser. Of course the aircraft won - just!

On the skydiving side, Mike Rumble demonstrated his agile skills and jumped from various aircraft with his Garmin Canopy.

The grand finale was a formation fly-past with the Beech 18 flown by John Herbet from Mercy Air an a Harvard the Harvard Club of South Africa flown by Dereck Hobkins, with CC using the opportunity to "blow-up" the airfield with simulated bombing runs.

Commentator - Graham Cooper

Fifth Annual Fly-In / Airshow

By Dave Becker

The annual fly-in at "CC's"is always an enjoyable event and can be relied upon to produce something unexpected.

The current airfield, originally established by CC Pocock as the Bush Pilots Airfield, then more recently named Barberton Valley Airfield, is now the official airfield for Barberton.

This year's event saw some 57 aircraft on the field during the 3 day event. Two SAAF helicopters from 19 Sqn, AFB Hoedspruit, an AS330S-2 Oryx 1227, andan August A109LUH, 4020, were a popular drawcard. The great bulk of the aircraft wereNTCA's and certified light aircraft, including the Sport Cruiser, Flamingo, Bantam, EuroFox, KitFox, Apollo Fox,Jabiru, Bush Baby, Samba, Lambada, Topaz, Cheetah, CH-701 and CH-801, the latter making its first airshow appearance. Also making its first national airshow appearance was the new Aerokopter Sanka (ZU-RIT) light helicopter from the Ukraine, while the attendance of a Piper J5A Cub Cruiser, N35297, was also a first.

For many of us though was the radial engined aircraft that were the big attraction. Derek Hobkinds and Andre Klepper brought the Harvard 2A, ZU-AOZ/7166, belonging to the Harvard Club od South Africa and its black and yello target tug finish proved popular with the spectators. It was a fortaste of the big Harvard Fly-In and formation being planned for the Open Day at AFB Swarkop on 1 November. The other radial type was the 1959 model Beech E18S-9700, ZS-OIJ (BA-428), ofMercy AIr, White River, Which was flown by John Herbet. This aircraft, which has the later model G18S type windscreen and cabin enclosure, was fitted a while ago with a localy manufactured Hamilton long nose conversion. The aircraft was however recently used in the making of a film about Amelia Earheart, some of which was filmed in South Africa. A Lockeed 12A Electra junior, F-AZLL. was brought out from france for most of thesequences and it was thus finished in bare metal, with orange wing leading edges and tailplane. It's Hamilton nose reverted to the standard type.

The Pyrotecnics display at the end of the airshow saw the Harvard and Super 18 making simulated bombing runs, followed by the 19Sqn Oryx with Bambi bucket to put out the resulting fires.

A special word of thanks must go to Peter Owen of the vteran Phoenix hotel in Barberton who, with his staff, provided excelent fair for all the attendees, accommodated many of them in his hotel, and was available at the oddest hours to shuttle them back and forth to the airfield. A big thank you is also due to Graham Cooper for the entertaining commentary, and to CC and Shirley for putting the whole thing together.

Barberton Bush Pilots Fly-In

By Jodi Love.

As a first time attendee at the Barberton Bush Pilots Fly-In, I was not sure what to expect. My husband and I left Rand Airport at 15h00 on Fridaty afternoon in a Cessna 172, with a 25 knot tail wind and we arrived overhead Barberton Valley Airfield in less than 2 hours.

The airfield was well marked with a good dirt surface and ground marshals were on hand to show us where to vacate the runway and guid us to our parking spot. This years Barberton Bush Pilots Fly-In was well attended with more than 50 aircraft flying to barberton and joining the fun despitethreats of cold fronts and high wind speeds. By the friday afternoon at least 27 planes had arrived and many of the pilots and their passengers had already set up camp under the wings of their planes in true bush style. The night was warm and there was a festive atmospherein the camp. The organisers hadarranged the the beers were cold and a hot ptjie was ready for dinner.

There was a good mix of Non Type Certified Aircraft (NTCA), certified types, microlights and singleBell Jet Ranger helicopter. Some of the types pressent were: Savannahs, C172's, a C206, Piper cubs, a Tripacer, Kit Foxes, Bush Babies and two Bantams. A large number of locals arrived by mid morning to watch the displays and have a close look at the aircraft. The safety officials and marshals had their hands full keeping everyone safe. As such there were not any incidents. Fortunately fo the spectators, this was the only part of the show that was uneventfull.

The programm was packed full of demonstrations and displays. Commentary was spocken by Grahanm Cooper with non-stop information on the types of planes and the names of the pilots flying them. Graham also had a great sence of humour asking all the ladies to line up when the Oryx emptied its bambi bucket full of water. Parachutist Mike rumble jumped from a number of planes. Some departures were quite tricky as the planes had narrow doors through wich to climb. One of the trickiest jumps was from the Bell Jet Ranger flown by Henk Pretorius. Mike climbed out of the helicopter, ballanced on the skid and closed the door before he jumped, whilst Henk managed t okeep the helicopter in a hover high above the crowd. Some of the pilots treated the crowd to low fly pasts as well as a few aerial displays. Two of the planes that were displayed were the Sports Cruiser flown by Ian Puntis and a Savanna tha amazed the crowd with its short take off's and landings. CC Pocock flew a fantastic low level display in his C172 and showed us what bush flying is all about.

Late on the Saturday afternoon CC Pocock had arranged for a spectacular pyrotechnics display using the Beech-18 and the Harvardto do his "bombing runs".

At the end of a fun filled day of flying, the festivities continued around the camp fires with good food and a prize giving for the spot landing and flour bombing events. After a good party, most of the pilots retired to bed at a respectable time, as they wanted to make an early start the next morning to avoid the predicted winds.

Afetr a hearty breakfast we preflighted and took off into a beutifull clear sky. However, as we climbed out over the escarpment towards Gauteng, we encountered some serios turbulence and head winds which slowed us down to a ground speed of 30 -40 knots at times. This improved as we neared Rand.

We arrived back safely after a slow and bumby flight, but feeling very content after a fun filled weekend. Pierre and I will be back next year.

Thankyou CC and Shirley Pocock for a most entertaining fly-In.