By Garth Calitz For decades, the light piston twin was the aircraft of choice for pilots who wanted to travel farther, carry more and enjoy the reassurance of having a second engine. From the Beechcraft Baron and Piper Seneca to the Cessna 310, these aircraft became familiar sights at airports around the world, serving private owners, businesses, flying schools and charter operators. Today, however, the piston twin finds itself at a crossroads. Modern single-engine aircraft o

By Garth Calitz South Africa’s general aviation community has plenty to worry about. Fuel is expensive, maintenance bills have developed an alarming resemblance to small property deposits and regulatory compliance can sometimes feel like a full-time occupation. Now there is another question worth asking: what happens when the places we fly from begin to disappear? Across the country, small airfields face a combination of infrastructure problems, financial pressures, developme

By Garth Calitz Photos by Trevor Cohen, Guy Martin and Garth Calitz There are airshows, there are fly-ins, and then there are days when aviation becomes something considerably more important than aircraft flying overhead. Saturday, 3 October 2026, at Wonderboom National Airport was firmly in the third category. The Elders’ Flight 2026 was an opportunity to give senior citizens a taste of flight, but that description rather undersells what happened. For more than 500 elderly S

By Garth Calitz New SACAA charges came into effect on 1 October, proving once again that in South African aviation, the aircraft may be grounded, but the invoices never are. South African pilots, aircraft owners, operators and aviation organisations were greeted on 1 October with another round of increased fees from the South African Civil Aviation Authority. The new charges affect a range of regulatory services, including pilot licensing, examinations, aircraft operations, m

By Garth Calitz EASA suspends all Elixir operations following fatal Rochefort crash as investigators search for answers Elixir Aircraft, one of Europe's newer general aviation manufacturers, has been dealt a devastating blow following the death of two of its production test pilots in a crash in France on 1 October. The accident, involving an Elixir aircraft during a test flight near Rochefort-Saint-Agnant Airport in western France, has prompted an immediate grounding of the e

By Garth Calitz South Africa’s aerospace industry has been handed an important reprieve in the latest round of US trade measures, with civil aircraft and aircraft parts and components specifically excluded from the 12.5% tariff imposed on South African exports. For an industry that has spent years building a reputation for producing capable, internationally competitive aircraft, the exemption is more than a footnote in a lengthy tariff schedule. It could make the difference b

By Des Waerden Amendment 36: What the Last 18 Months Have Taught Us Almost a year ago, I wrote an open letter to the General Aviation community about the withdrawal of AIC 18.19 and what I believed the issue was beginning to expose within our industry. At the time, Amendment 36 was still somewhere ahead of us, the outcome was far from certain, and much of that letter was a call for the GA community to get involved rather than simply accept the situation as the new status quo.

By Garth Calitz Amendment 36 offers a possible route back to flight for Part 91 aircraft grounded solely because their engines reached the infamous 12-year limit. In the past, owners of Part 91 aircraft reaching the engine’s 12-year calendar limit could mean only one thing: ground the aircraft, open the cheque book very wide and get in line for an overhaul — even when the engine had relatively few hours, good maintenance records and no obvious signs of distress. That situatio

By Garth Calitz South Africa’s long-running general aviation battle over the so-called 12-year engine rule appears to be approaching a significant turning point. After years of consultation, debate, technical arguments, regulatory reviews, and enough paperwork to probably qualify as an aircraft component in its own right, the 36th Amendment to the Civil Aviation Regulations has finally been signed off by Transport Minister Barbara Creecy. The Minister signed the amendment on

A lightweight bush aircraft is not necessarily the first machine that comes to mind when considering a transatlantic ferry flight. Yet that is precisely what a new Carbon Cub UL has accomplished, completing an extraordinary 6,900-nautical-mile journey from Lewiston, Idaho, to Poland and demonstrating just how far modern light aircraft technology has progressed. The flight, completed in July 2026, marks the first transatlantic crossing by a Carbon Cub UL and represents a signi