Pilot's Post - My Flight in an Leza Lockwood Air Cam

09.03.2024

Meeting with Ricardo de Bonis from Jack Taylor Airfield was a blessing in disguise. Ricardo is friendly kind gentleman and keen to fly with passengers where ever he flies to and when he has a free weekend.

This weekend was my chance to fly in the Air Cam. I asked him if he was keen to fly to Middelburg and he jumped at the opportunity. Plans were made that we would leave FAKR AT 6am on Saturday morning.

I arrived at Ricardo's hanger, and he had already pulled the Air Cam out and was doing his checks. We closed the hanger doors and set the alarm.

It was time to climb into the aircraft and at first, I thought that it was rather difficult due to the way that I had to climb in behind the pilot. A foot here a hand there and finally my body was in the seat. I was given my helmet and applied my safety harness, watched Ricardo take the pilot seat and go through his checks and finally I heard the Rotax motors start and as the aircraft finally nudged forward, I saw a Paul and Peter' Lastrucci cub fly past on the way to Middelburg in the distance.

We made our way to the start of runway 08 to do the last aircraft checks before embarking on our flight to Middelburg.

I made sure my harness was tight, my trusted camera in hand, cellphone tucked away in a secure place. It was now time to hear the two Rotax motors roar into life. As we were thundering down the runway, I could see the sun starting to stick its head out in the distance, and bring the world round me into life.

I heard Ricardo talk into the mike and get clearance for our flight. The next moment we were in the air and onto our first check point of the flight, flying west of cooling towers and then flying north of the Tedderfield Airfield and then onto Springs where we flew east of the Airfield which seemed rather quiet that time of the morning.

It was then the long trip to Middelburg. We were still flying into a head wind which made our trip rather slow. At this time the view from the aircraft was limited due to smog in the air, but I still managed to see some land marks on the way.

Within no time we saw our destination in the distance and as we circled overhead, I managed to capture the aircraft that arrived on the Friday afternoon. We then got instructions to land on Runway 14/32 and made our way to line up for our landing. We received our instructions to follow the marshals to our parking area near the dirt runway 02/20.

I was glad to arrive in our parking area as a certain part of my body was tired from sitting still for the 2 hours flight, which is normally a 1hour 45min flight.

The Aircam with its rather unusual looks was designed specifically for National Geography to be used a camera ship. Powered by its two Rotax engines it is a delight to fly and to fly in. Ricardo is the owner of a nice collection of aircraft and the Aircam is without a doubt his favourite to fly and I wish to thank him for the honour of accompanying him to Airweek.

The Lockwood Aircam

Events 2024
EAA South Africa

My Flight in an Leza Lockwood Air Cam

By Andre Venter