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The Flight of the Bumble Bee

As the aircraft trundled down the runaway I could feel the vibrations of the slightly uneven surface of the runaway transmitted through the airframe. Brad leaned forward and did something with the throttle. As he did so the vibrations intensified for a moment then suddenly ceased as we became airborne. ‘Beautiful.’ I thought. All was now smooth and quite. I looked down and was surprised to see how rapidly we were gaining altitude. The aircraft was flying like a bird and true to Brad’s boast the engine took on a low pitched drone, unlike the normal aircraft of this sort which have a higher pitched buzz that one could hear coming form a long way off.
“I want to take you up in the “Bumble Bee” one Sunday afternoon.” Announced Brad, one evening a few days after our arrival in Phalaborwa. ‘The Bumble Bee’ as he called it, was a fairly new microlight aircraft he had had recently purchased “I promise you a novel experience.” He said to me.” Have you ever flown in a microlight before?” He asked, but before I could reply he went on to say. “We’ll fly along the fence, the border of the Kruger Park where hopefully you’ll see lots of game, then on our way back I’ll take you over the big hole of Phalaborwa. You won’t believe how deep this is.” Sunday afternoon arrived and here we were, in the air.
‘Wow! This is great’. I thought. Coming to Phalaborwa to spend a week’s ‘get away from it all’ had been a good decision I thought. But I have to confess flying in a microlight around the Kruger Park had not been high on my list of priorities. This was Brad, my brother-in-law’s, great love in life. We thought Phalaborwa would be ideal place for Cheryl to recuperate after her operation. She’d been hospitalised for the removal of gal stones and unfortunately complications had set in and she had been in a lot of pain. Meryl, Brad’s’ wife, was my wife Cheryl’s younger sister, pleaded with us to come up for a holiday. We lived in Durban and had the choice of either going to Cape Town for a holiday with Beryl, Cheryl’s youngest sister, or Phalaborwa. At this time the Cape weather was cold and blustery so we opted for Phalaborwa. Cheryl’s father had a tongue in cheek sense of humour and named his three daughters, Cheryl, Meryl and Beryl.
The microlight was a two seater, with the passengers seat situated behind the pilot’s seat. This was raised higher than the pilot’s so the passenger could look over the pilot’s head. Both passenger and pilot wore headphones and connected via the aircraft’s intercom system and this made communication much easier than having to shout at each other.
“How are you doing there?” Asked Brad. “Are you ok?”
“Great!” I replied. “I didn’t know what a wonderful feeling of freedom flying in an open plane like this gave you. Now I know what a bird feels like.”
“Yeah and now you know how I feel too, but don’t tell Meryl. She sometimes gets a little up tight with me. Says I spend more time with this bird than I do with her. We’re going to fly south and follow the park fence so keep your eyes open and if you see anything of interest give me a shout. We’ll keep going till we get to the Olifant’s river then we’ll fly up the river for a little way then cut across the park and back into Phalaborwa. Then I’ll show you the big hole of Phalaborwa from the air. Just remember one thing. I forgot to warn you about the exhaust system. The silencer is connected to this runs below your right arm so don’t lean too far to your right or you’ll get burnt.” Having felt the heat near my right arm when I lent over, I had already realized the possibility of being burnt.
Flying in an open aircraft like this microlite was an exhilarating experience. I cannot describe the feeling of absolute freedom this gave me. Brad levelled off at about two hundred meters now, and we flew over wild rugged bush. An unusual feature of the country around Phalaborwa, were the number of koppies, which I could now see. I knew these often housed colonies of Rock Hyrax, better known as dassies and often leopard took up residence in them too.
The “Bumble Bee” buzzed on. I could see a number of giraffe. Their long necks stuck out very clearly. Then we flew over a fairly large herd of buffalo peacefully grazing in an open section of the park. They weren’t happy with us as we buzzed over them. They milled about, somewhat confused till we got some distance away. Looking back I could see them once again returning to their grazing. The country we were flying over was really very rugged and very bushy. In the distance I could see hills and more koppies. Some of these were quite large and looked as if they were made up of huge boulders dumped at random by some giant. I could also see the odd flash of water from the sun’s reflection on either a river or a dam. Africa is such a wonderful land, I thought, and one day this rugged beauty will all be gone. Whoever had the foresight to create a wild life sanctuary here was a truly blessed man.
Brad spotted a number of elephant near the boundary fence and pointed them out to me. ”Hey Mark.” He shouted into the intercom. “Can you see the elephant over to our left I’m going to go lower so get your camera ready.”
“Ok!” I said. “I see them.”
We circled around then flew lower. I could see trunks raised as the elephants sensed possible danger but didn’t know from which direction it was coming from. There were some very large animals in this herd I could see. I would hate to be down there amongst them I thought. They also milled about in confusion as we dropped lower. I clicked away hoping that I might get at least one decent photo. But that was not to be.
We flew on for about fifteen minutes more. I was enjoying this experience so much. The panoramic view was fantastic. My mind drifted and I wondered what it would cost me to learn to fly one of these aircraft. Brad said they were easy to fly and learning wouldn’t be a problem. I wondered what Cheryl would say. Probably have a cadenza “Learn to fly one then next you’ll want to buy one.” I could hear her say. The idea was worth thinking about. I knew if I got hooked on the idea I would really have to do some fancy talking.
The intercom crackled in my ear. “Can you see the river ahead of us?” Asked Brad.
Looking over Brad’s head I could see the river directly ahead of us. ”Yes!” I replied.” I see it.”
“Ok! I’m going to go a little higher then turn and fly up the river. We should see quite a lot of game along the river banks, so keep your eyes peeled.”
“Fine!” I replied and jokingly said. “Don’t go too low I didn’t bring a costume with me.”
“Don’t worry. You can have a swim in the pool when we get home.” Famous last words.
As we got closer Brad banked the aircraft to the left and started losing altitude. As we banked the engine coughed, spluttered, then fired again. “What was that all about?” I asked.
“Haven’t a clue.” He replied. “Never done that before. Maybe fuel’s too rich.”
“Well, I hope it doesn’t do that again, at least not while I’m in it.” I said
I am not into engines and never have been but I do know that if an engine coughs and splutters, there could be a fuel problem or something more drastic wrong with it. We were now heading up river, and again the engine coughed and spluttered. My thumping heart took a dive into my boots. A feeling of dismay settled over me. This is not right I thought. I really don’t need this. Meanwhile Brad was leaning forward and I can only surmise from the movement of his shoulders that he was frantically pulling at throttles and levers and things.
The engine seemed to settle and fired normally as we continued flying up river. I breathed a sigh of relief. Ahead of us I could see some large brown shapes in the middle of the river, which I took to be big boulders. But then one of the brown shapes blew a stream of water into the air I realized they were elephant. A movement further up river caught my eye. I was surprised to see what looked like a barge floating down the middle of the river.
“ Brad!” I yelled into the microphone. “Are we going to make it back?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” He replied. That was not what I wanted to hear!
“You’re the driver of this thing. Why is it spluttering like that?”
At this point the engine again coughed and spluttered and continued to do so. We now started losing altitude. The coughing and spluttering continued. There was no doubt in my mind now there was something seriously wrong with the engine. The coughing and missing went on for moment longer then sudden silence as the engine died altogether. I was surprised at how soothing this felt. Then it hit me. I was in an aircraft, in the air, with a defunct engine—and in the middle of the Kruger Park!-- And flying over the Oliphant’s river.-- And if that wasn’t bad enough, there was nothing but wild Africa all around me! Heaven Forbid! What were we going to do?
“ Mark.” Brad shouted into the mike. “I’m sorry about this. I think we’re going to land up in the river. But don’t worry. It’s not all that deep. I’ll try and get as close to the bank as I can and just hope for the best. So hang on.” That’s exactly what I intended to do. Hang on literally for dear life! The rivers not all that deep. He said How deep is ”Not so deep” I wondered. Some comfort. A baths not that deep either, but you could drown in one. If I could have wished my self back on solid ground I would happily have done so.
“What about that sort of barge I saw just now? Can’t we put down near it?” I asked.
“That’s exactly what I want to do but there’s a couple of elephant in the way.”
We were now very low, maybe thirty meters. Gliding so peacefully. Brad did something and pulled at something with his left arm and the aircraft slowly turned to our left. We continued our glide and I could see the river’s bank suddenly jump into focus as we got lower. A ridiculous thought flashed unbidden into my mind. ”In my mind’s eye I could suddenly see news paper head lines in bold black print, a crash landing in the river would make good news paper headlines “Last flight of the Bumble Bee! Microlight makes forced landing in river! Aircraft demolished by irate elephant! Pilot and passenger lost.”
We flew over the top of an elephant that waved its trunk in the air as we passed over it We were now so low I was surprised we didn’t hit it.
The intercom suddenly burst into life and Brad shouted. “Mark! I’m going to try and skim over the water. If we come down too hard we’ll flip over. This’ll take some of the momentum off her. When we hit bail out as fast as you can and make for the bank.” We got lower and lower and I could feel water spraying on me as the wheels just touched the water. Then there was a sudden lurch or drag as the wheels dug a little deeper. Then the water grabbed the wheels with enough force to bring the aircraft to a sudden and violent stop. Then we tilted forward and hit the water with enough force to plunge the aircraft into the water nose first.
The seat belt around my waist cut into me so sharply I thought for a moment I was being cut in two and Brad disappeared under a huge spray of water. We were now stationery but I could feel the drag of the river as the current was pushing us backward. Brad suddenly stood up in front of me.
“Forget the darned bank, get out and come and help me hold this thing”
I was still gasping for breath and trying to get the belt off my stomach but after a moment’s struggle managed to dislodge it. The river was amazingly shallow at this point. I thought it would be way over our heads. I manoeuvred my way out of the aircraft. Brad was holding onto the end of the left win so I staggered through the water to reach the tip of the right wing. The water only came up to my chest. “Are you ok?” shouted Brad. “Yes I think I am apart from a belly ache.” At this point I suddenly heard the trumpeting of an enraged elephant.
The elephant! Where was it? I looked down the river and not fifty meters from us a huge beast of an elephant, trunk raised, ears stretched out and trumpeting for all it’s worth, was ploughing through the water and coming towards us as fast as it could .’My God! We’re in real trouble now I thought. Not bad enough that we had to make a forced landing in the Kruger park, and in the river too but now we had a ruddy great elephant coming down on us like an express train. My stomach jumped from my boots into my mouth. I shut my eyes and prayed “Oh Lord please help us .I opened my eyes and saw something amazing happen. The elephant stopped it’s charge! It stood waving it’s trunk at us for a few moments then turned away and made for the bank. I cannot describe the feeling of relief that swept through me as I saw this.
I found myself hanging onto a wing and couldn’t remember getting there. As I hung as I hung on but could feel the current pushing us and the microlight forward. I tried bracing myself, leaning backwards. This helped a bit. But I wondered how long we could hold on like this. My right arm suddenly felt as if it was on fire, and looking down was surprised to see my right coat sleeve in tatters and large red blister on my elbow. I had been burnt by the exhaust and hadn’t felt a thing at the time. All I wanted now was to get to the riverbank as soon as I could and abandon this confounded aircraft.
“Hang on Mark” shouted Brad. “I help is on it’s way.” Amazing. I thought. I could suddenly hear voices shouting. Then Brad started waving his arm and shouting. “Over here! Ho you beauties! I turned to see who he was shouting and waving to Fifty meters away was the barge. So that’s why the elephant took off. There seemed to be a whole lot of people on it. Some waving and others holding out what appeared to be beer bottles in their hands. I did a double take, and sure enough they were waving beer bottles at us. They got closer, but now there were so many people shouting at us I couldn’t understand a thing anybody was saying.
“Mark!” Yelled Brad. “We’re in luck! This is the Sunday ‘booze cruise’ barge. They’ll get us out of here.”
Remarks from the barge were now flying at us. “ Our bird men of the ‘Oliphant’s”
“Hello. You beauties! Need a towel?” “Come and have a beer.” “What happened? Run out of airspace?” ‘Hey Brad How wet is that water?” and so on. A happy bunch of people, I thought. What a relief to realize the barge happened to be at the right place at the right time.
We were rescued by a number of enthusiastic beer drinkers. Brad knew most of them so of course they teased the life out of him. Some of the remarks that flew backwards and forward were unprintable A number of his friends jumped into the river and helped secure the aircraft. Eventually after a bit over manoeuvring the barge was turned around and the microlight lashed to the stern and towed to the barge’s home jetty where many hands helped lift it onto the jetty and tie it down till Brad was able to have it removed and taken back to Phalaborwa.
I of course, lost my camera. The right arm of the coat I used to fly in the microlight
was in tatters, having been burnt by the silencer, and I was surprised at the nasty burn I received, and very surprised at not having felt anything at the time.
Needles to say all thought’s of taking flying lessons and owning my own microlight evaporated. My expensive camera was lost so I didn’t even have a photograph to show for my ‘ordeal.’ And added to that my jacket was ruined.
This is my story of “The “Flight Of The Bumble Bee.” It was a great experience!