RV Rendezvous 2025 – Mossel Bay

Garth Calitz
2 days ago
4 min read

By Ian Beaton

This was to be the first truly long cross-country in our fantastic machine. Theo and I spent a long time building our RV-10 and finally managed to get our lives, wives, the weather and a fun event to coincide.

So, on Wednesday morning, we departed Tedderfield for Mossel Bay. The route was planned with Sandi, Theo's wife's comfort in mind. We stopped at New Tempe for a leg stretch and topped up some fuel, called Horace Blok in Mossel Bay to check the weather, and then headed off to Beaufort West for another pit stop and weather update. At that time weather in Mossel Bay was lifting and we flew through the Gouritz gap and arrived after a beautiful flight in Mossel Bay.

Horace Blok, ably assisted by Jan Hannekom and Steve Beck, plus some others in the background whom we did not see or hear from, had organised a braai that evening at the field. We were lent a car by Horace, which meant we had wheels to get to and from the field, so we loaded up and dropped Trevor Davids who was down in his RV7 from Fly-In at the wrong hotel, only to pick him up at the right venue thirty minutes later a few hundred metres further down the road for the trip back to the field.

In her home for the night, next to Chalkie's beautiful Radial Fairchild

We arrived back at the field to find a large group of members and visitors all sharing stories, enjoying a drink, renewing old acquaintances and making new ones.

We were presented with a commemorative mug and cap sponsored by the Mossel Bay Aero Club and Robin Coss Aviation, a great supporter of all things RV. Many thanks for these mementoes. After dinner, it was off to bed, where in our very comfortable, clean and recently renovated rondavels at ATKV in Hartenbos, a nice hot shower and pretty soon my head hit the pillow and I had a wonderful night's sleep.

Horace had arranged an introductory talk on CRM delivered by Neil Clarke from Human Factor Hub, which was interesting, enlightening and at a level that I at least understood. After this, a brief technical discussion about fuel, maintenance, air filters and various other topics kept us engaged for another hour or so, leaving enough time to brief for a short flight to Rooiberg Lodge for lunch. Eight aircraft arrived and an enjoyable meal followed by a scenic flight back to Mossel Bay via the coastline, in our instance, was the order of the day.

After landing back at Mossel Bay, putting our aeries away in the hangars provided, we enjoyed a few brewskies and talked all things flying until dinner was served. There was an emergency rescue mission undertaken by Caitlin to secure some decent red wine for her dad, Rob, to enjoy over dinner. The wine available in the bar is deemed below par. So some clandestine planning, a few calls and off she went with Dad's credit card, returning a short while later with a few bottles of acceptable wine, of which I enjoyed a glass. Back home to our accommodation, dropping Trevor at the right hotel this time and off to bed.

The next morning dawned a beautiful day and we were planning to fly to Stellenbosch to meet up with Theo and Sandi’s daughter and grandchild for lunch. Listening to the crew, Horace advised us to fly coastwise and kindly called and arranged with Overberg that we could do just that. Before we departed, the rest of the crew took part in a fun navigation race/rally flying around a course at a constant nominated speed, whilst back home, some software under development was tracking their progress, providing updates and much hilarity for those on the ground as the tracks appeared on the screen in some cases not quite where they were planned to be. It seems “vroulief” was not such a good navigator, or alternatively, the pilot made it up as he went along.

In any event, the briefing took place, maps were provided, and Caitlin spent time familiarising herself with the process, understanding the route, denoting turn points and marking up minute markers, all skills we do not practice enough and are largely forgotten after you complete your PPL. This fun exercise hopefully reignited a bit of a passion to consider participating a little more frequently in such activities.

In our case, it was coastwise to Stellenbosch, a delightful flight along the coastline, spotting whales, dolphins and the like, a short time at a really beautiful field and then back home to Mossel Bay.

This was our first really long cross-country in our wonderful RV10, and doing it together, we learned a lot about our Garmin panel and how to make it work for us. The event Horace and the Mossel Bay AeroClub put together was fantastic, a bit of a pity the weather interfered with some additional arrivals from the interior and KZN, you all missed a great weekend.