The wonderful news I would like to share with you is that we had a very small 'sod-turning ceremony'  at the Johannesburg Zoo on July 2nd.  A few Bateleur directors, our architects, project managers and Jenny Gray (CEO of the Zoo) got together to mark the occasion and the spot - with a spade!  The building is being sponsored!!  Work on the foundations started in August.  I can hardly believe it!  The Bateleurs will have a home at last.  We hope to have it ready for an 'opening party' sometime during the last couple of weeks in November.  We will let you know as soon as possible.

Something else I would like to share with you is the fact that we have quite a number of illustrious flyers amongst our ranks.  This year Don Bailey won the President's Trophy Air Race, whilst last year it was Dr Ivan Marx who garnered that prize;  Barry de Groot has also been a recipient of this prestigious award whilst he, together with Chris Booysen and Jay van Deventer, have their Springbok Colours.  Barry has represented South Africa on fourteen occasions at World Championships - seven times in Rally Flying, six times in Precision Flying - and he has won a whole array of awards including the "Gold Wings" award.  I am sure there are other recipients of awards amongst our squadron of volunteer pilots of which we are not aware, so apologies if we have omitted anyone.  We have only just begun drawing up an awards roster and would really appreciate knowing about any other Bateleur pilots who belong on that list.

It has been an exceptionally busy time for The Bateleurs. Joan and I have just finished the 71-page Sponsorship report and we need to bring you up to date with missions flown from way back in February and onwards, beside coping with a barrage of flight requests from Working for Wetlands.  We have already flown more than ten of these missions but will leave reports on those for another special edition or the next newsletter.

This newsletter contains the usual mix of ongoing monitoring missions for The Cape Leopard Trust, Pelican counts and ORI and some very worrying and serious controversial mining stories that have appeared, with help from The Bateleurs, on 50/50 and in the printed media. Although we don't have a specific mission on the Wild Coast to tell you about yet (one case report got lost in transit) we hope to fly a weather-postponed mission for the Eastern Cape Parks Board over the Wild Coast in the next few days.  Div de Villiers sent us an appreciative message in July "... I worked along the Wild Coast during the holidays and have once again come away appalled at the blatant disregard for the environment. Please be assured the Bateleurs are really helping us tremendously with the surveys." 

Ivan Marx's helicopter at the Seringveld Conservancy 

Someone else who has 'helped tremendously' is Bateleur pilot Dr Ivan Marx who did some really worthwhile flying for the Seringveld Conservancy's press day.  Ivan flew sixteen top journalists, doing eight separate circuits to accommodate them all - including a 50/50 cameraman - in his Allouette 2 Turbine helicopter.  Given the aerial perspective, it was clear to all just how ruthless this greedy legal and illegal mining of the wetlands is, and what terrible destruction it is wreaking.  Several newspaper and magazine articles were written and a hard-hitting 50/50 programme went on air (enriched no end by Ivan's generous flying).  In a recent article in The Star Leon Marshall wrote:

"Mining falls under the aegis of the DME, which is a law unto itself - literally.  It is not governed by the normal conservation laws.  It has its own set of environmental legislation to comply with, practically running its own police.  Its priority is mining, not conservation. 

The result is to be found in what is happening in the Mpumalanga Lakes District, a precious ecological phenomenon, which will, economically, be far more sustainable as a tourist destination than as a temporary mine camp that leaves lasting scars.

It is to be seen, also, in what is happening in the Seringveld north-east of Pretoria where sand miing is fouling up river systems and defacing large tracts of land which were, until recently, intended for inclusion in an imaginative tourist-driven protected area." 

The pictures below say it all.
 

Putting together this mission to look for collared wild dog which had 'disappeared' from the Kruger Park was not easy.  But for Bateleur pilot Bruce MacDonald it was a 'once in a lifetime flight' despite the fact that it was such a long flight to have to accomplish within the allotted time stipulated by KNP.

The wild dogs were part of a combined project between Kruger National Park (KNP) and the Carnivore Conservation Group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT).  KNP released the dogs while EWT took responsibility for monitoring them - the Alpha female was collared.

Bruce flew Linda Hedges, a Carnivore Conservation Group field worker and her telemetry equipment to search for the dogs, and this is his report:

"The aim of the mission was to locate a pack of wild dogs in the Central and Northern regions of the Kruger National Park. This pack had recently been released into the Kruger National Park from the Marakele Game Reserve in the North West Province and was last reported in the Kruger sometime during January earlier this year. Pat Fletcher from the EWT had requested that the Bateleurs assist in locating the wild dogs from the air.

 I was joined by field worker Linda Hedges of the EWT who assisted in operating the on board telemetry equipment. We were blessed with fantastic weather and conditions were ideal for this kind of exercise. We got airborne from the Xanatsi airfield in the Klaserie Nature Reserve at 08h00 to comply with the Kruger regulations. Kruger authorities had requested that we not enter their airspace before 09h00 and be out of the airspace no later than 13h00. This is due to the wilderness trails that take place during these periods. I would have preferred to have had more time for this mission as this area is so vast.  I would also have liked to have been able to fly accurate east-west grids from the Punda Maria area southwards down towards Letaba, but unfortunately time did not allow for this."

"Our route took us from Xanatsi, crossing over the Olifants River into the KNP approximately 15 miles to the east of Phalaborwa. From there we headed directly north via Mopane to Shingwedzi.  We picked up a 15 kt headwind on our way north which added another 30 minutes to our Shingwedzi leg. 

Having re-fueled at Shingwedzi, we routed north along the Kruger/ Mozambique border along the Limpopo National Park. This was the area thought to be potentially most productive for finding the dogs. No signal was picked-up on this section. We continued in a northerly direction up to the Pafuri/Limpopo area and turned south west just short of the Limpopo River on the northern boundary of the KNP.

The scenery from the air in this section of Kruger was absolutely mind-blowing, ranging from huge open plains in the north, dotted with giant baobabs, to undulating mountainous terrain in the west. This area is still mostly untouched and pristine with almost no tourist roads or facilities in the area. You can fly for miles without noticing any man-made obstacles, roads or infrastructure and you really get the feeling of "Africa of old."

In the Punda Maria area we picked-up a very clear signal from one of the dog's collars and descended to have a closer look. The vegetation in this area is very dense and regrettably we could not get a visual of the dogs from the air, although we did search at low level for quite some time.

Unfortunately there seems to be some confusion with frequencies on collars in the Kruger.  I was told that there is also a collared buffalo with the same frequency collar in the area and it could well have been from that animal that we were receiving a signal. 

From the Punda Maria area we started working our way back to Shingwedzi as we were starting to push our time limit for being out of the Kruger airspace by 13h00.  We landed at Shingwedzi at approximately 12h30 and refueled for the last leg back towards the Olifants to the south. No signals were received on this leg.

On landing back at Xanatsi , all tracks and waypoints were downloaded from the GPS and handed over to Linda.  Her immediate plan was to investigate from the ground the signal we had received in the Punda Maria area, to ascertain whether this was a signal from one of the dogs or possibly the false buffalo signal. If necessary, the flight would continue with pilot Billy Swanepoel, in Mozambique, to see whether the dogs had crossed over."

"Our thanks must go to the KNP management staff that made this mission possible, in particular Freek Venter, Markus Hofmeyr, Ken Maggs, Albert Machaba, Ben Van Eeden and Grant Night.  I would also like to thank Chris Rossouw, the owner of Xanatsi Camp in the Klaserie for the use of the Bantam ZU-EFZ and for sponsoring 50 liters of fuel for the mission.

To end with I must thank Nora and the Bateleurs for the wonderful opportunity of getting to fly this mission. It was an absolute privilege to be able to fly in such an awesome wilderness area.  For me this was an experience of a lifetime."

After Bruce's flight to try to locate the dogs Linda did cross over to Mozambique by land where Billy Swanepoel took over the aerial search in the Limpopo National Park - also in a Bantam.  Unfortunately for everyone concerned, the dogs were not found.  The signal Bruce and Linda had received turned out to be the buffalo they feared it might be.  Nor were the dogs positively identified in Mozambique.  To the best of our knowledge, the dogs have not yet been found.

This picture is of a terrain model (created in GIS from NASA's SRTM Space Shuttle radar data) of the Sabie Gorge area, with a superimposed flight path for the mission requested by Dr Nick King of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT).  The aim was to assess the situation vis-a-vis raising the height of the Corumane Dam, and the mission was flown by Bateleurs pilot Craig McKenzie.

This is the report we received from Nick King: 

"In early 2007 it was brought to the EWT's attention that plans were fairly well advanced for raising of the wall of the Corumane Dam in Mozambique. The dam is situated on the Sabie River east (downstream) of the SA-Mozambique border (running along the Lebombo mountains) and currently floods back approximately to the border at full-supply level. Similarly to the upgrading of the Masingir dam, the plans are to insert the sluice-gates, thereby effectively raising the current wall height. Unlike the Masingir dam however, there appears to be no agreement in place with SA to do so. Any increase will cause significant inundation of the river back through the Sabie river gorge through the Lebombos, flooding the unique habitats which exist here. The other significant gorges through the Lebombos such as the Inkomati and the Olifants, are already degraded and/or will be lost in the near future (Masingir dam on the Olifants; Moamba Major dam on the Inkomati), making the Sabie gorge ever more valuable. In order to have legitimate inputs to these processes I&APS need adequate background information.

A flight request was made jointly by the EWT and the National Parks Support Group (NPSG) to The Bateleurs for a flight over the gorge in order to obtain graphic detail of the area and habitats to be affected. The request was granted, CEO of SanParks, Dr David Mabunda gave his permission to overfly KNP and  flight dates were set for February 11-12."

Volunteer pilot Craig Mackenzie and I departed from Grand Central at approximately 13h30 on Sunday 11 Feb. We headed east in order to pick up the Sabie river at the earliest opportunity around Sabie town, and track it through to the KNP, arriving at Skukuza around 15h00. A large storm-front had built up from the SE and we had to fly somewhat further north between Hazyview and Skukuza in order to miss the first thunderstorm, before landing at Skukuza where we were met by Dr Petri Viljoen, a member of both The Bateleurs and the National Parks Support Group Trust (NPSG). The storm passed by around 16h00 but unfortunately the cloud-cover remained in the area until late afternoon, preventing any attempt to fly the mission that day. Unfortunately this also meant that Dr Bandile Mkhize, Head of KNP, could no longer accompany us, so Dr Freek Venter of SANParks substituted for Dr Mkhize the next day." 

"The following morning dawned clear and we departed around 07h00 from Skukuza, routing first to Komatipoort for viewing of the Crocodile river, the confluence with the Inkomati and the Inkomati gorge through the Lebombos, then turned north up the Lebombos to the Sabie river.  We did a number of circuits and passes up and down the river in the Sabie gorge area, with the dam in full view on the Mozambique side of the border, before routing northwards for approx 15 minutes along the Lebombos, returning south to the Sabie river and then back up the river to Skukuza. Flight time inside the park was 1.4 hrs. Total flight time to and from Johannesburg was 4.75 hrs.

Over 200 photos were taken during the flight, with geo-referencing via GPS. The current impoundment of the Corumane dam reaches back into the Mozambican portion of  the Sabie gorge with flooding and siltation of these unique rocky gorge habitats. It was obvious from the vantage of the flight that any raising of the dam level would flood back over significant portions of the remaining gorge area, potentially drowning all of this habitat within the KNP. With the demise of the few other gorge areas through the Lebombos, this constitutes a significant loss of a rare habitat type within the KNP and is serious cause for concern. The EWT now has the evidence to hand to be able to meaningfully raise these issues with the relevant authorities such as DWAF. We will also endeavour to alert the NGO community within Mozambique of these issues.

Our sincere appreciation to The Bateleurs for enabling this flight, to SANParks for facilitating the expedition, to pilot Craig Mackenzie for his time and superb flying skills, and to Petri Viljoen for his time and excellent photographic work."

The Bateleurs were approached by Nikki Berryman who was working with Carte Blanche on a story to do with crop-spraying at Groblersdal.  Christoph Andrykowsky volunteered to fly this mission and his report is a wonderful account, from the pilot's perspective. 

"N3043Z a PA22/22 (a Piper Pacer re-converted taildragger) is a very seasoned plane. It has been gracing the skies since 1959 and for most of its life doing good for Christian Missions around Africa (more details about it on www.dukeairborninvestments.com). I registered with the Bateleurs the day I took ownership of N3043Z and it took me only about six years to finally fly my first Bateleurs mission.  It wasn't for lack of trying but it somehow never worked out. The mission that came closest in the recent past was to be with Derek Watts from Carte Blanche - surveying the Winterfeld Mine area around Burgersfort - but the underlying story on the damming of rivers was dropped before the footage was filmed. Maybe it was for the best - in 1959 planes were not built for people as tall as Derek.

I was quite excited to get another call for a Carte Blanche mission, this time for the more scenic Loskop Dam/Groblersdaal area. The presenter this time around was Devi Govender. (see picture).  The story was again about water, this time in the context of irrigation and crop-spraying and the alleged side effects from these chemicals experienced by the local population around Groblersdaal.  Essentially arial footage was required to show the canal system that links the Loskop Dam with Groblersdaal, and the proximity of this canal system and the farmers' fields to the residential areas of the town.  Easy!

A couple of phone calls on Friday and Monday between Nora, the film crew and myself, I cleared my diary for Tuesday morning, and I was committed. N3043Z is hangared at Lanseria so off I went for an early start, beating the corporate heavy iron to the holding point at 06L. 

This was glorious early morning flying at its best, through the coldish autumn air, Pine Dene Routing, West of Kitty Hawk out through the PTA GF II, landing as promised punctually after one hour at 08:30 on FAGL's RWY 23.  In my six years of ownership and maintenance, old N3043Z has had a 100% dispatch reliability - not bad for an old lady (granted I fitted a new 180hp engine not too long ago).

In the meantime it appeared that the Groblersdaal community had caught up with the intentions of the Carte Blanche team and had delayed them at their B&B.  At least that  was the story I was told about their 30 minutes delay to reach me at the airport, and that their host had lost/misplaced the keys to their gate ...

I used the time to take off my rear passenger door for the photo/film shoot and hide it in the bushes.  N3043Z is a very nice film/photo platform:  the rear-sitting cameraman can lean out into the open under the high-wing with an almost unobstructed view, and the Demer STOL wing tips and Micro-aero Vortex Generators allow for safe flight as slow as 45-50 knots if necessary."

"Devi and crew arrived, admired the old lady and left me with Jacques, the cameraman, as they had to rush off to another interview.  The two of us set off.  As we turned left after take-off from RWY 23 we spotted a tractor spraying orange trees.  I went for another low pass for some footage subsequent to which the tractor promptly disappeared.  For the next hour we did not spot any more sprayers ... one wonders about the local bush telegraph.

The requests for 'extras' from my rear passenger were very reasonable. He needed one very very low pass, as he put it "like a cropsprayer" - with which I gladly obliged. N3043Z and its pilot like to 'hug the ground' sometimes.

We spent the rest of the hour circling the town, followed by low-level flying along the canal to the Loskop Dam.  The dam is one of my favourites in SA (ranking second after the Ebenezer Dam next to Haenertsburg/Tzaneen).  We did a very scenic circle of this stunning and very full dam.  The Parks Board runway that I had once spotted and noted as good picnic spot seemed now to be disused or under water.

We followed the canals back to Groblersdaal and touched down on RWY 05 after exactly one hour.  Jacques seemed happy and commented on how much more pleasant this was than the Antonov ride he had taken in the DRC ...

As I had only cleared my diary for the morning, I needed to head back.  I dropped Jacques off, picked up my door and waited for the passing student pilot from Wonderboom do his 'touch and go' on his cross-country exercise.

The flight back was uneventful. I was back in my office in Houghton by lunchtime, and that included filling up the plane (the long range tanks hold 61 gals) before putting it back in the hangar, ready for the next mission.  As I said 100% dispatch reliability, just the way I like it.

Note:  the author has a commercial pilots licence (FAA) with multi-engine and IF rating and has accumulated close on 1200 hours total time of private flying in Southern Africa and the US over the last fourteen years. "

Two kilometres of the Vaal River choked by hyacinth weed.

We were approached by the Orange Vaal River Yellowfish Conservation & Management Association (OVRYCMA), who wanted a flight over the Vaal River between the Barrage and Bloemhof Dam, to observe and photograph the state of the river, to observe and photograph developments and impacts on the river, and to track fish using radio telemetry.

The study aims to get a better understanding of the behaviour of these two species in order to develop fisheries and habitat (river) management protocols that will enhance their survival and maintain a healthy ecosystem and a flourishing eco-tourism business.   A major aim is to determine home ranges and the impact of environmental variables on the movement of the two species.

Bateleur pilot Paul Luff flew researcher Linda Nel of the Centre for Environmental Studies at the UnIversity of Pretoria over the study site, giving her a much better idea of impacts on the area, including a spruit that had dried up, the exotic plants in and around the river, and the ways in which farmers are managing their farms.

We were asked by Janine Grobler, a freelance producer commissioned by 50/50, to provide aerial assistance to the camera crew for a programme on open cast coal mining in the Chrissiesmeer district.  The programme was shown during July and both the Bateleurs and pilot Mike Assad were given due credit for the excellent aerial footage obtained. Here is the report from Janine Grobler:

"I would like to thank The Bateleurs for your assistance.  It's marvellous to have people that can assist us and that dedicate their time to the environment.
 
When filming on the ground one can focus in on a particular issue but aerial footage always give a wonderful overview of what one is discussing, and it also gives the viewer a sense of place. As producers we have very restrictive and limited budgets that frequently prevent us from spending the time needed to film in an area.  In the Chrissiesmeer case the aerial view certainly allowed us to see the geography of the area and how the lake area resembles parts of Scotland, surrounded by undulating hills and scattered pans.  It also gave us excellent shots of open cast mining - something one would not be able to see or assimilate from ground level, even when walking among the plants. This of course allowed us to see and grasp the possible impacts of open cast coal mining on an area such as Chrissiesmeer - and then we could put this across to a wider audience. 

So a big thank you to Nora and Mike for putting themselves out to help us.  Mike particularly, as the weather (just like Scotland!) was not good and as a responsible pilot he was concerned.  But the clouds lifted a bit and he supported us in our endeavour to get the footage that (I believe) added excellent value to the programme.  There has been a huge response to the programme, and I have received many phone calls from people who are under similar threat from coal mining.  So much so that I am now working on a programme concerned with acid mine drainage in the Witbank/Middelberg area.
 
Interestingly, fifteen years ago I did a similar programme, but it appears that not much has been done about it.  Now the Olifants river system is under huge pressure, not only from old and abandoned mines, but also from those presently operating - as well as other users.  The acid mine drainage is already polluting the Loskop dam which is used by farmers for irrigation, and there are many serious concerns that this could spread further downstream and into the Kruger and Mozambique."