Arriving on home turf

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Local pilot Chandré Swanepoel touched down in Mossel Bay in a "homemade" plane on Thursday, 13 June.

He is part of the U-Dream project, which involved a group of youths assembling a plane together. It came in kit form. They were supervised by a team of professionals.

The plane is currently being flown to Cairo in a series of short flights. When the Mossel Bay Advertiser spoke to Chandré this week, the plane was at Victoria Falls.

Chandré has completed his stint as a pilot; he is now part of the ground crew. The plane took off from Cape Town last week in the Cape to Cairo challenge.

Chandré said this week: "It was a good flight from Tedderfield to Mossel Bay. The view was stunning. When we arrived at Gariep Dam to refuel at the landing strip, it was like a ghost town. We then continued to Mossel Bay." It was originally planned to fly from Lanseria to Mossel Bay, but certain technical hitches with the plane which had to be sorted out, necessitated a take-off from Tedderfield rather than Lanseria.

Chandré admits: "We had some problems during the flight. These are normal. We had radio communication failure and had to relay through our support aircraft. It was around the Bloemfontein airspace. There was a piece of plastic left on the antenna - packaging, that had not been removed, because it was a new antenna. We think this was the cause of the problem," Chandré says, laughing.

"It was an unbelievable experience."

When the Advertiser checked this week, the plane was at Victoria Falls. To track the progress of the U-Dream plane, go to www.indigosat.co.za, and under "events', go to U-Dream project.

The wing showing a map of Africa.