86 Durban - Plettenberg

19 Mar 2010

There is a pilot shop in the Virginia airport, and I went in to see, if I could get more information about the special rules areas. But they did not have the Jeppesen charts that depicted the information, and I was told, the maps were unavailable for at least 2 weeks (?). But I got 3 VFR maps, 1:1000000, covering the coastline. Not of much use, but they gave some details about names of smaller towns etc. along the coast.

I did not go out last night in Durban – all the warnings about possible crime and about a deserted inner city, gets to you, so I gave it a pass. But this morning I went for a walk downtown to the harbor, and it strikes me how much security personnel there are around.

But after a nice walk, I went to the airport with a taxi, paying about half of the price, I was charged coming in from the airport(?).

At the airport, I could walk straight to the plane and get ready for departure. I had decided, that bigger cities were not really appealing to me, so I made a decision to fly all the way to Plettenberg Bay, a destination on the “Garden Route”. I would stop in Port Alfred on the way.

After takeoff, I climbed to only 500 feet, and passing the harbor entrance to Durban, I talked to Durban tower. I was permitted to continue along the coast, and after a short time I could climb to 1000 feet – a more comfortable altitude in case of an emergency.

Later I climbed to 1500 – and got comfortable in the right seat, letting the Autopilot fly the plane. I just turned the heading knob on the G1000 to follow the coastline and sat back enjoying the magnificent scenery passing by. Often I opened the window, to take pictures.

On landing in Port Alfred, I was in for a surprise. I talked to the tower, and the advised me to come in over the field at 2000 feet. And just the same: I could not get the airfield in sight?? I asked the tower, if they could see me, and yes, they informed me that the field should be at my 11 o’clock position – and there it was, a sprawling airfield, with no less than 4 runways!

On landing I had to go to the small tower, so show them my GPS. The airfield was in a “wrong” location. They agreed, and told me, that others have had the same problem. Not good Jeppesen!!

Port Alfred is a very busy flying school operation with about 45 planes!

After a cup of coffee, I left for Plettenberg Bay - again along the coastline. After a short time I called Elizabeth Approach, and a very helpful controller guided me along. He actually took the time to ask me if I was familiar with the area, and on hearing that I was not, he advised on the location of geographical locations, he requested me to report. Pretty much the same as the entry and exit points of his TMA.

Approaching Plettenberg, I called traffic on the common frequency, but there was nobody around, so I came in midfield, and landed on runway 30.

I called Avis, and 15 minutes later I had a car, and I drove of to Knysna.