SA001 and 2 Thunder City

Chris Booysen and Dave StockEnglish Electric Lightning
Very few South African Flying Records had been ratified by an official body. There are a large number of anecdotal records that are bandied about without any of them have been independently verified. After encouragement from the FAI, SAPFA took on the task of maintaining the documentation relating to speed and altitude records for Class C aircraft.

The record attempts were kicked off at the Overberg Airshow when Dave Stock set the first South African record to be monitored and recorded by SAPFA.

Dave Stock, piloting the Thunder City English Electric Lightning T5 - ZU-BEX, reached 6000m in 70 seconds. The GPS logger placed in the aircraft by SAPFA representatives failed as it was unable to cope with the massive acceleration. The backup manual timing system had to be used.

The Lightning develops 36,000 lbs of thrust whilst burning 500 litres per minute of Jet A1 fuel. The aircraft lifts off the runway at 160 knots and then accelerates to 600 knots (Mach 0.95) before pointing almost straight up to maximise the rate of climb. ZU-BEX was specially prepared for the record attempt and had its external fuel tank removed to reduce weight. In full power with the afterburners aflame the aircraft had only 5 minutes endurance.

Thunder City repeated their assault on the SA Speed and Altitude records at the Ysterplaat Airshow on 3 December 2005. Pilot Dave Stock, Thunder City’s test pilot, was at the controls was accompanied by well known British businessman, John Caudwell. John, a qualified pilot, bought the privilege at a dinner auction for the Caudwell Charitable Trust for £9,000.

The record set was the time to climb to 9 000m record which was completed in 1 minute 43 seconds. This despite the failure of one afterburner.

English Electric Lightning T5 - ZU-BEXIan Pringle, also a Thunder City pilot described the flight profile of the second attempt as follows:

Full power was advanced against the brakes in stages until the wheels started to creep, then full power was selected and the brakes released. The immediate requirement was to check engine rpm and afterburner and, since all parameters were in order, it was GO GO!

On reaching 150 knots the nose was aggressively rotated to the take off attitude. Lift off was achieved at approximately 170 knots, the gear was raised and the aircraft rotated at 2g until the 20 degrees nose up at 200 knots was achieved. The flaps were selected in and passing 250 knots once the gear was up, a rotation forward at 0.2 g was started. Acceleration became the primary focus as the requirement was to go as fast as possible as soon as possible. This was the stage where we caught our breath for the next five seconds or so.

The aircraft was held down until 550 knots was achieved, then a 2 g rotation to 70 degrees nose up was commenced and, once achieving Mach 0.9, the load factor was reduced to 0.4 g, which gives zero pitch rate climb angle was between 70 and 80 degrees nose up.

Passing 12 000 feet, the g was further reduced to 0.3 g with a nose up attitude in excess of 80 degrees in order to maintain Mach 0.9 and the aircraft was rotated to the inverted position. Once inverted, g is maintained at 0.2 g until passing 20 000'. At 20 000' the aircraft was rotated to erect flight at approximately 60 degrees nose up and a 2 g rotation to the vertical was commenced, the plan being to pass 30 0000' approaching vertical flight. As 30 000' was passed the focus was shifted to the recovery where supersonic limits and aircraft handling started to become a concern.

We passed the apex altitude going straight up with speed going straight down and a recovery from the vertical was required. If speed went below 200 KIAS, a compressor stall and after burner flameout was probable. In addition, if the speed was insufficient, the aircraft would perform some sort of oscillatory stall and an auto-rotation and spin were quite possible. The rest was rather simple: recover the aircraft, get the engines back on line and get on the ground with fuel that was probably around the 2000 lb mark.

The next problem was FUEL, FUEL, FUEL or rather, the lack of it - just enough to get on the ground with one overshoot if the chute failed. So it was pull 5g and enter a tight spiral to prevent the aircraft from slipping through the sound barrier with engines at idle. Transfer fuel to the number one fuel tank to ensure that there is sufficient fuel if it becomes necessary to shut down the number two engine. The quickest way down was to keep the speed at Mach 0.88 (avoid Mach 0.93 sonic boom speed), fly for the runway for a low altitude pass, break hard onto downwind to get the speed off, gear and flap down with an approach at 170 knots. Pass over the boundary fence at 155 knots and get the chute out on touchdown. Time to breathe as the entire flight should be less than eight minutes.

Just to confirm what I am sure you already know: one afterburner on the Lightning went out quite early and therefore the time to 9 000 m was about 105 seconds, which is sure to be a South African record - but disappointing as the Overberg flight took just 70 seconds to 6000 m and was a better performance.

UCAR 2009

Moments and Milestones: A Day at the Races

By John Miller
UCAR 2009: Menno Parsons and Gavin Branson
The words “recreational flying” are rarely, if ever, found in the same sentence with “Boeing 737,” but while two South African aviation enthusiasts, Gavin Branson and Menno Parsons, were having a few beers last August, the combination became strangely plausible.

Branson is the CEO of a charter company, AirQuarius, which owns several Fokker F28 and Boeing 737 passenger jets. Parsons, an electrical engineer, owns a couple of airplanes, including an Aero L-29 Delfin.

Parsons likes to compete in air races, so he was interested to hear that the Rustenburg Flying Club (a small group about 90 minutes from Johannesburg) was organizing a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale-compliant sub-competition, to be held in August 2009. The organizers opened the event to jet aircraft, hoping to attract warbirds. Parsons contemplated entering his L-29: “I thought that I might have a chance of winning if I entered my jet. But on our second or third beer, I suggested to Gavin we enter one of his Boeings. Before I knew it, I heard myself say: ‘I’ll hire the Boeing for the day.’ ”

Branson immediately contacted his chief pilot, Captain Mark Nel. “I’ve never had a request like that before,” says Nel. “Usually it’s a call to do a charter flight into some African country, or to stand by for a posting to a far-flung Middle East contract. Flying a Boeing 737 around a 300-mile course for a flying club event stretched my sense of humour.”

Rustenburg’s runway was too short to accommodate a 737, so Nel and First Officer Hugo van den Berg helicoptered to the airfield to attend the obligatory pilots’ briefing, where they learned the 737 would be competing against a Hawker Hunter, an Aermacchi MB326, and an Aero L-29.

FAI rules usually require that record flights follow an out-and-back routing, but safety considerations dictated a dog leg on the 737’s return lap to avoid air traffic. The change added three miles to the course, but would add only about one percent to the elapsed time—a small penalty for the safety benefit.

A 737’s best speed at 5,000 feet would be Mach 0.64, or 360 knots (415 mph). (The Hawker Hunter, on the other hand, has a maximum speed of 620 knots. Because of this advantage, the aircraft were split into different classes.)

On race day, the 737 departed Lanseria Airport, traveling the 38 miles to Rustenburg in minutes, and lined up with the runway, where Nel and van den Berg swept through the start gate to begin the timed course.

Many on the ground assumed Nel and van den Berg would be hunched over the Boeing’s controls, closely monitoring the flight’s progress and squeezing every knot out of the jet to return to the finish line as quickly as possible. Not so.

“We levelled off at flight level 105, and engaged the autopilot,” Nel says. “Then we asked the cabin crew to bring us a cup of coffee, juice, and a sandwich. We let the autopilot and [flight management system] take us round the course whilst Menno called out landmarks he could see from the cockpit windows. With the turn points programmed into the system, the Boeing flew itself around Bloemhof Dam and Leeudoring and settled nicely onto the return track whilst our cabin crew enjoyed the flight in the business-class cabin.”

Although the Hawker Hunter started the course later, it finished first, completing its run in 37 minutes, 38 seconds. The 737 came in second, crossing the line at 51 minutes, 14 seconds. The Aermacchi MB326 came in third.

After crossing the finish line at low level and completing a pass down the runway, Nel and the crew returned to Lanseria—wrapping up a not-so-routine day at the office.

UCAR 2010

The day finally dawned and the rain gods let up enough and the race was on!

The 2010 on again off again Unlimited Challenge Air Race at Witbank (eMalahleni) was given the green light and it happened as well as expected. Sadly a large number of competitors pulled out literally on Friday night and Saturday morning due mainly to the doubtful weather and the changing of dates.

However, The Witbank hospitality was of its normal high standard and the quality of competitor was outstanding. Some of the highlights were Richard Maier in his deadstick racing King Air, the pocket rockets, the diesel 182 and, of course Ron Wheeldon in the amazing Hunter. Ron and co-pilot Gary Hughes set a new World Record (provisional) at a massive 908km/h. The next record for the Hunter to beat is the 1000km closed circuit record which was set in 1965 at 859 km/h.

It was interesting to see a piston twin nail the King Air as were a number of other interesting results on the day. See below for full results.

The format of the race us simple enough to replicate and, unless people want to make a weekend of it, it can be run on one day which keeps mummy and the kids happy. We would like to see it become a permanent feature on the SAPA calendar and it probably makes sense to have it in August as this fits in with other events as well as the weatherman.

The one thing that we could do with the UCAR is to take it to some of the more weather friendly coastal clubs such as Stellenbosch or Virginia. We could, of course never go to P.E. because even microlights have to be IF rated there.

We all understand that the rules of the UCAR, being weight based, favour the new Tupperware aircraft but the essence and spirit on which the race is based is more of a pub type arm wrestle where the challenge is amongst those who believe they have the faster machine. Then the tricks as to where to place the weight. Whether to use the autopilot or not. What altitude to use on which leg. Does slipstreaming work or is it too bumpy. This is the real fun part of the challenge. The guys who are going for records.............. well that’s good too.

We look forward to seeing a great turnout in August next year.

Individual Records