By Garth Calitz with Photos from Andre Venter
The Aviation industry must be one of the hardest-hit sectors of the economy and will take a long time to recover from the devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with the demise of SAA, SAX, Mango and the latest victim Comair not to mention the multitude of international airlines retrenching South African pilots have left many aviation professionals in a bind. True to form the aviation community of South Africa rallied to the call by PilotInsure, to offer their services to aviation professionals that have decided to start new businesses generally outside of the industry.
The Steady Climb innovation was created to assist these aviation professionals, some of whom have been without an income for the two last years. This was the sixth fly-in to raise awareness for this worthy cause and in complete contrast to many of the previous “Steady Climb” Fly-ins, the weather couldn’t have been better.
Sadly, the turnout was rather dismal with less than twenty aircraft flying in for the day, this was pretty surprising considering that the fly-ins hosted all over the country in the last few weeks have been exceptionally well supported. Nevertheless, the people that did make an effort to support "Steady Climb" had a very good time with many vendors showing off their wares.
The vendors included:
Aviation4SA – Provision of South African Aviation Legislation.
Cel-Shot – Video production to promote your business via social media and WhatsApp.
Evans Aviation – Suppliers of Avionics, instrumentation, propellers and Engines, aircraft and leases. NTCA and certified.
Flying Eyes Sunglasses – Engineered for headsets and helmets with a lifetime warranty.
Pilot Insure – Specialist life and disability insurance for Aviators.
Rainbow Skyreach – Light sport aircraft manufacturers of the BushCat Aircraft. Available in nosewheel or taildragger versions. Affordable, reliable and practical.
Take Off – This is an aviation-inspired brand of exclusive, high-quality aviation-themed apparel, aimed at capturing the adventure of flying.
Aqua-Therma – Alternative water heating solutions
Aviators Coffee – Erick Greyling – Excellent quality roasted coffee.
Readiness Squared – Pre Emergency Planning for your aviation operators.
Shieva Consulting – HR and Payroll solutions.
Thanks again to David le Roux and his team for putting a great event together, and Nigel Musgrave for keeping things safe and running smoothly. ATNS controllers were brought in to control the visiting aircraft unfortunately they had a very boring day.
