A visit with Uncle Nico.

Today is the day I will go visit Nico and discuss the Airforce and flying in general.  I woke up earlier than usual to ready myself for the visit. As I woke up I had a huge smile on my face. Even though we will only be visiting him at 10:00am, I was a good hour or two ready beforehand.

5 Minutes to go and I started counting down the seconds. I jump onto our motorbike and bolt off to the butchery where my dad will be waiting. As I got there I rushed him so that we can go. We are now on our way to Uncle Nico. (Not that he's my uncle... It's just the afrikaans peoples way...)

We arrived at his house as he stood outside in the garden. He is a very friendly person and greets everyone with a hug. He invites us inside and starts to chat about his past. Somewhere in a cupboard is all his photo albums and books etc. He shows me some of his photos and I look at them as if I have never seen a airplane before. All the beautiful places he has visited, all the people he had meet, all the planes he had flown... Wow, this person standing next to me has been at places some of us only dream about. He showed me some of his logbooks and I just see his flight hours increasing page by page. All the planes he is qualified to fly... I want to achieve that some day. I want to be like Uncle Nico!

We are now sitting in his lounge and he is showing us some of his family photos. They are a truly beautiful family. He is also a very good poet and reads us some of his poems from his head. Every minute I just learn so much from him. Not just aviation knowledge but life lessons and skills too.

We have been visiting for about a hour now and my dad has to go back to work. Nico asked if I want to help him go fetch his caravan at his hanger near Caledon. I agreed to help him as he has done so much for me already. And I get to see his plane!

On our way we speak some more about the Airforce. He teaches me some more valuable life lessons as well. This person is having a huge impact on my life. We get to the hanger and I can feel the butterflies because I know what is behind those doors. As we open it I can see the prop and the cockpit. There she is... What a beautiful plane! White with red vinyls, leather interior, the works!

 The beautiful RV-7

As I gaze at the plane Nico tells me we can go fly! Outside the wind is actually pumping about 20knots constantly... Can we really fly in these conditions? Well, Nico is a veteran pilot so he must know what he is doing, right? We pull the plane out of the hanger - Uncle Nico at the back and me at the prop. As he is doing his pre-flight inspections I have to actually hold onto the plane so the wind doesn't blow it away!

I get into the cockpit and strap myself in. Its a 4-point seat belt; it feels like I'm in a race car! We put on the headsets and close the canopy. We are now ready for take-off.

 Uncle Nico and I

As we start to bolt down the runway I can feel the G forces. It was a lot more than my first flight in the Cubby. We get some air and immediately pull out to the left. He tells me to feel how reactive the plane is and gives me control for about 15 seconds. I just do some left and right turns to feel how the plane maneuvers. Even by just doing a light turn to the left I can feel more G forces than what I felt in the Cubby while doing steep turns, although the Cubby was a different kind of fun.

 Pulling out to the left

We first have to get some altitude before we do some aerobatics. As we got enough altitude Uncle Nico first did a roll to the left followed by a roll to the right. It was amazing! My first rolls in a airplane! Next he will do a loop. He tells me to tilt my head up halfway through the loop so that I can see the horizon rise in front of us again. He loops and I can feel the G forces pulling the blood to my legs. I try to reenact what I've seen on TV and that is to to flex my abs and take a quick breath and hold it for about 3 seconds. It definitely worked!

We then go on to do a low level pass over the workers that is working in the field. We approach the hill and fly over them at about 8-10 meters. The workers is waving at us even though we are passing them at about 280km/h.

 Low level flying

Now it's time to land. As Uncle Nico spins the plane around I start to wonder how he will put this baby down on a 300m runway that is only 5m wide while the wind is gusting at 25knots. Luckily the wind is head-on. Alas he is a veteran Pilot you know... No need to worry. We slowly approach the tiny runway and hover over it. He puts it down like a butterfly on a daisy. It was a perfect landing, or well it felt like it.

Approaching the runway

He spins the plane around and drive it to the hanger. Now we have to hook the caravan... I'm not going to elaborate on that as this is my flying blog and not my "How to hook a caravan" blog...

 Caravan is hooked and we are ready to go. Ohh, wait the plane! We push the plane back into the hanger. Easier said than done as the plane is very heavy and there is a little bump thing we have to push it over. Finally it's in and we can lock up...

On our way back Uncle Nico tells me some more stories. He always has a story or two to tell... The trip back felt a lot shorter than when we went there. I get home and go on the computer to upload the photos to Facebook and my blog. While I'm busy typing my blog I get a phone call from my mother. She said that Nico had forgotten his phone in the plane and he has to go fetch it and that he will also take her and my future sister-in-law for a flip. There's no way I could miss out on this and I decided to tag along again. It's not everyday that I get to see my mother get into a little plane!

So we are on our way back to the hanger again and I tell them what to expect. I also scare them a little by over exaggerating how much G's you pull etc. I just can't believe it. My mom, the one that is always afraid to fly, will go for a flip with a veteran Pilot? I have to see this!

We arrive at the airstrip and pull the plane out of the hanger again. What I would do to be able to do this every single day... Anyway, Mariska, my future sister-in-law, decides to go first. I can see the terror in her eyes but also the excitement!

Mariska getting into the plane 

She does her flip and lands safely again. Her eyes is, I would guess, 3 times bigger than when she took off and she is also about two tones paler. Shame... Next it was my mother. They take off and I can just imagine her face. Uncle Nico doesn't take it light on her and he even does some aerobatic flips he didn't do with me... Sigh... Oh well, next time!

 One very frightened mother

She is on the ground and is hopping around like a Duracell bunny! I'm actually very glad that she got a flip so that she can see or, well, experience what I feel and why I want to fly. She also said that she now understands why I want to fly. The adrenaline, the excitement, the rush, everything is what drives me!

It was a very successful day and I cant thank Uncle Nico enough! Hopefully he will take me with him in the future when he has to fly to Cape Town or something. Not that I am expecting it but it would make a little boys heart bloom of joy.

I also learned a very valuable lesson that day. On our way back Uncle Nico talked to me about Christian living. It doesn't matter if you do the right deeds and go to church and preach the Gospel and do Praise and Worship if you don't have the right heart. It's not about what you do... In the end, it's all about your heart that is on the right place and your relationship with God.

...Jaco over and out...