Pieter Nel’s thoughts about the work I do, the things I play with
I have successfully completed a 2-year contract at Old Mutual Invesment Group in Cape Town, where I facilitated the very technical outsource of their entire backend investment system to JPMorgan Worldwide Security Services. You can read all about it in my newsletter which I’ve just released.
As of yesterday I’m finally a licensed pilot. Did my flight test on Saturday 1 March with Captain Dick Henry. Lasted all of 4 hours flying around the Western Cape. As soon as the weather settles down a bit, I’ll take our own ZU-JCR for a spin!
I saw the pilot’s rainbow this morning! What a great way to end my training. I was flying just above the cloud just north of Melkbosstrand at around 0730, heading north. Since I’m doing instrument training, I had “foggles” on to prevent any outside view, but Dick told me to take it off so that he can share this little pilots’ secret.
Essentially it’s a rainbow, in a complete circle, down below you, on top of a layer of cloud. If you’re lucky, you should also see your plane’s shadow right in the middle of it. The photo here gives an idea, but it’s far clearer and bright than depicted there.
How it works: Rainbows are created when drops of falling water, such as a rain shower, bends rays of light and breaks them into the different colors. To see one, the sun has to be in back of you and rain has to be falling in front of you. From the ground, the bottom part of a rainbow’s arc is below the horizon. But, you can see a full circle from an airplane if everything lines up correctly. In order to do that, you have to be on the side away from the sun, and above the clouds.
Went to see ”Deep Water”, the film about amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst’s fateful 1967 Golden Globe attempt. Produced by the same people who brought us “Touching the Void”, it also features Bernard Moitessier and Robin Knox-Johnson who went on to win this first non-stop, solo, round-the world race. Both Moitessier and Crowhurst carried cameras and tape recorders on board, recording their experiences. Moitessier’s footage is absolutely awesome… you have to see it to appreciate it. In short, RKJ was the only one to complete the race. Moitessier was bound to bag the price for the fastest circumnavigation, but after 10 months, and with only 6 weeks to go to a hero’s welcome (with Brigette Bardot waiting on him amongst others!), he abondoned the race in the Atlantic, turned East, and decided to sail around the globe a second time….. Crowhurst stepped off his yacht in the mid-Atlantic after 243 days at sea.
On 25 November 2007, 0500UTC, I took my first solo flight. I’ve completed my training up to that point under Peter Muller-Brunke of Wings over Africa. Peter’s an experienced instructor with a great many hours of bush-flying in Africa under his belt. I was sent solo by Dick Henry, retired Boeig 747 pilot with some 28000 hours behind him. I’ve been doing most of my flying in a Jabiru J400, registration ZU-CYR, up to that point, and used the aircraft in the picture for my solo flight.
Flight itself took place at the old WWII training airfield Fisantekraal (FAFK), just north of Durbanville, Cape Town using runway 23. Quite a lot of crosswind on the day, and I was quite happy with my first landing. Couldn’t help but wonder how many pilots in the last 60 years also had their first solo experience on this airfield! 
