XC & thermalling – South Africa

Is it for you?

Do you want to spend the worst bit of winter in the South African sunshine? Do you want to build up your airtime and confidence in reliable summer conditions? Do you want to soar next to the sea spotting dolphins playing in the surf? Do you want to chase kilometres in South Africa’s prime XC destination?

The answer is obviously yes!

Requirements

This trip is open to pilots with 15 hours post CP (or IPPI 4) who have completed an SIV and started to learn to thermal.

About the trip

We’ve explored all over the world for the perfect winter destination and we’ve found nowhere as reliable as South Africa. The Garden Route where we spend the first week is perfect for dusting off the cobwebs and honing your thermalling and ground-handling skills, so you’re ready to make the most of the stronger conditions in Porterville.

We’ll be based in Wilderness for the first week, which is home to both soaring and thermalling sites with friendly launches and landing zones, a reliable climate and plenty to do on the rare non-flyable days.

After that, we’ll move inland to Porterville, South Africa’s flying Mecca. The hot, dry climate gives us reliable XC conditions most days. Porterville is suitable for your first XC flights and most pilots leave a week here with at least a couple of 20km+ flights under their belts. We regularly set tasks of around 40-80km, but longer flights are possible.

Trip schedule

Jan 31 – Arrival at Wilderness

Feb 1-6th – Flying around Wilderness and Sedgefield. We usually have a briefingafter breakfast before heading out to fly. We regularly fly a couple of different sites in a day. Once we’ve had enough, we head back to the accommodation for a sunset drink before heading out for dinner.

Feb 7 – Travel to Porterville, usually with a wine tasting or something similar on the way.

Feb 8-13 – XC flying in Porterville.

Feb 14 – Return to Cape Town airport. We recommend you take an evening flight home so you can join us for some lunch and activities in the winelands on the way.

Flights

You can fly to either Cape Town or Johannesburg airports. There are direct flights to both these airports from Heathrow with British Airways and Virgin. There are also great value flights with Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa and other airlines with a change along the way.

We will meeting in George and dropping back at Cape Town, so you will need to get an internal connection to George. There are several local airlines flying these routes. We’ll be dropping you back to Cape Town so you can fly directly home from there.

It’s also worth considering adding some extra days onto your trip to experience some of South Africa’s many tourist attractions.

Accommodation

For the first week we’ll be staying in a guest house right next to the beach between Wilderness and Sedgefield, with a launch at the end of the road.

In Porterville we’ll be staying at a dedicated flyers lodge complete with air con and en-suite bathrooms.

Rooms are usually shared with one other pilot.

Breakfast is included.

Cost

£2,250

The trip cost includes

• Bed and breakfast accommodation, based on two sharing
• Airport transfers
• Transport to take-off and all retrieves
• Coaching and guiding.

Single rooms may be possible subject to availability, and a supplement.

booking

Contact us to book. Your place will only be confirmed once we have confirmed we have a space available and received your deposit of £350. The balance is due eight weeks before the trip.