Was the first verse of the old Apartheid era South African National anthem.
It is now the third verse of the new one as it has some catchy lines that everyone liked apparently. They kept the Afrikaans words though "Uit die blou van onse hemel"
Translated from afrikaans it means out of the blue of our heavens and not ringing out from our blue heavens.
The Afrikaans version is better for a glider pilot context.
I had a very close relationship with the blue heavens of South Africa as a glider and light aircraft pilot and used to sing these very verses when I connected with the very common 5 m/s thermals those heavens pumped out regularly in moments of sheer delight as I was elevated beyond 12,000 feet agl while flying sail planes in those gorgeous bright blue skies.
The South African thermal scene was and still is, no doubt, absolutely epic. I do miss those epic updrafts and sunshine....
I had a real good time reaching for the untouched sky in them in the eighties and nineties when I lived in Johannesburg, Harrismith and Cape Town.
In Harrismith I got acquainted with winch launching which I really loved after all the aero tow fare I had experienced until then and in Cape Town I cranked up hours in a MotorFalke motor glider as well as their Standard Cirrus which still ranks as the best glider I ever flew and I have by now flown a lot of different ships.
I did a lot of my strategic and critical thinking cranked over in a strong thermal being lofted up to 15,000 ft in old 151 Golf Kilo Delta (Grob single Astir) in fact.
The Grob Single Astir was a very stable all fiberglass sailplane that had very nice handling qualities for a first time convert from steel frame or wood covered canvas specimen sailplanes of the sixties and early seventies that I trained on.
I did all my training in Schleicher KA7 high wing two-seater training gliders designed by old Rudolph Kaiser back when....
Bricks with wings I affectionately called them things.
The KA7 was intended as a two-place trainer with good performance, a rare combination in trainers of its time.
The KA7 is constructed with a welded steel tube fuselage, covered in doped fabric skin.
The wing is a wooden structure with a doped fabric covering and employs a Goettingen 533 (16%) airfoil at the wing root, transitioning to a Goettingen 533 (14%) section at the wing tip. The wing features very powerful dive brakes.
One time I touched 17,000 ft in one of the darn things and even with full air-brake deployed and with the nose pointed vertically down, I was still, amazingly, going upwards like a home sick angel heading back to the good Lord himself.
That was one of the few times in my life that I thought I was going to die. For sure.
However, I underestimated the air-brake power combined with the nose down attitude on that occasion which helped me understand very clearly that the KA7 was not a cross country machine for the faint of heart. If at all.
It was in fact, quite the literal lead brick.
I did manage to fly a 400Km triangle in one back in 2001 a few months before my accident in my Polish PW-5 glider.
The KA7 sank like 400lbs of wet cement in a big bag when I fell outside the core of that particular powerful thermal and I had to head back to the airfield to gather my wits about me before I went up again with one more of the joy ride victims that I was charged with entertaining that particular day.
Getting thrown up and down with equal violence was brand new to me at that point in my flying experience.
Is was rinse and repeat the whole day, only after that first wide-eyed experience I gently pointed the nose down at roughly 12,000 ft and got ejected at around 13,100 and air-braked it on full all the way into the pattern and only pushed it to half air-brake on finals.
We were forbidden from doing aerobatics in the KA7's the gliding club owned due to their age though I did loop one of them once very gently to see what would happen and it was solid through that one, but as I said it was a rather gentle loop.
My final PAX that day had been begging me to put it down ASAP while I shrieked like a banshee that we were going to die as I went hands off the stick and asked him if his chute was on tight and made as if I was bailing out, pronto maximus.
I told him the thermal was so out of control that we had to bale out lest we meet our maker molto bene....
He passed out and only awoke as the front skid of the KA7 hit the ground and jolted him rudely awake.
The smell from the front seat of the cockpit area he was strapped into informed me he had lost control of his bowels in a sudden and spectacular manner at some point in the frantic proceedings.
I must admit I recall thinking it was all jolly entertaining as I applied my handy camphor cream to my upper lip to relieve myself of the stench emanating from his nether regions.
Prior to take off, said specimen had been telling me (for his girlfriends sole benefit of course) that I should really not go easy on him as he flew model planes and understood the lift effects in a thermal.
He had time with hang gliders and was ready for anything I could throw his way he told his audience with much convincing pride.
I casually asked if he had broken his fast that fine day and he informed me he had enjoyed a rather large breakfast after a hard nights drinking with the visiting party he had dragged out there for that very day's aerial entertainment.
Don't worry he informed me, stomach of iron. I'll be AOK....
My subsequent beaming smile gave the plot away entirely.
I must admit I could just never resist such ill conceived dares........
Those that knew me left for home immediately as they knew what messy tasks were coming some unfortunate student pilots way in the next 40 minutes and had no intention whatsoever of bearing witness once more to such disturbing spectacle...
If my memory serves me right, said specimen actually woofed his cookies at approx 8500ft and filled three paper puke bags in rapid succession before he started frantically begging me to land.
An unlikely event when the vario was pegged at 10 m/s....upwards... I'd never seen that in any glider at that point of my pilothood.
I also had no intention of leaving that sort of upward momentum. Not for anybody. Not for anything!! No siree Bob!!
I got the idea at that point, of informing him that the lift was so violent that we had to bale out as we had no oxygen - just to see how he'd react.
I punched the air-vent to max as he soiled himself on this news and reluctantly pulled full airbrake when I realized he was just not made of the right stuff.
But only at the top of said thermal of course...
I deliberately landed very deep and gifted him an old towel I kept handy for puke and no2 cleanup duties while he disappeared into the veldt to clean himself up while the student pilots ran up to us for the pushback from miles down the runway.
The CFI that day later crapped on me and told me my day was done on hearing said pussy boy's side of events.
He knew full well what I'd been up to.
Well, don't ask me to pull duty for joy rides again then, I informed him sans a single shred of remorse as I climbed into my car and buggered off post haste.
It was more than a year before anyone asked me to serve duty again for said PAX joy rides.
By then, said CFI I had run afoul of that day had been deposed and I served a good three years doing joy rides after that sojourn but sadly never again had a day like that thermal wise ever again.
Instead, they made me fly the Grob twin Astir on these PAX joyride days and I developed a hard-core aerobatics routine, flying base and final inverted while shrieking we were going to die while doing it..
I thought it was all rather splendid myself but apparently a few of the female PAX rides I gave were less than enthusiastic about it.
I myself thought it was great value for 35 minutes of fast and cheap thrills.
I met wife no 3 this way in fact.
She was very impressed....😂😂😂😂👌
Now I must admit that she was one ride that made me even me very sick......eventually.... 🍤🍤
I shoulda known I'd meet my match sooner or later...... joysticks of any kind just bring a man serious troubles it would seem, what a killjoy!!
My PW5 a few months before we were both viscously assaulted by a Redwood tree
When I came to the USA they did not know what a Motor Glider license was so in addition to the USA Glider Pilot License they gave me a full pilot's license and I immediately went to Buchanan airfield and started flying their Katana 2 seat training aircraft on a regular basis.
Flying Power planes is pretty boring and so I dabbled with rotor wings and Ultra-Light aircraft as well (powered ones).
I flew 300 hours in the Katana before 911 changed everything and I was told I could now only fly Motor Gliders per my UK CAA license.
I had by then decided this was the way I was going anyways.
The CGS Hawk was a lot of fun, but my partner Chris Chavez wanted to buy me out and I let him.
Over the last 20 years I have been in syndicates and helped out with avionics in Ultra-lights and flown a good few Motor Gliders like the Stemme S10 and the Birdy Electric Motor Glider.
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