2004 Tip of Africa Fly In

On 21 - 22 December 2004 Grahams Hobbies, in association with Tsaba Tsaba Nature reserve, hosted the first annual Tip of Africa Fly In at Andrews Field in Struisbaai.
Although the weather at times was trying to disturb the event, we still had a great turn up of Pilots, and some wonderfull flying. The interesting part of this event was that some Full scale enthusiasts came form as far as Mpumalanga in their planes to enjoy our great hobby, and have some fun. In fact, we even received e-mails from foreign countries of people showing interest in such idea as flying at the southern most tip of Africa! So we are looking forward to this event becoming a huge success in the future.
Our motto was that we would not allow more than three pilots flying at the same time, as this distracts onlookers and pilots alike, because if you cannot hear your plane, flying it becomes difficult. Also, we arranged for model car enthusiasts to participate by allocating a time slot for them at the Airfield. This added some more flavour to the event. We had a Bell Jet Ranger and Cessna 172 taking people for short "flips" and then of course the awesome display of Finley Smith in his Yak 52. He even took some of us up to experience up to 6.5+ G's. Something I personally will never forget.
The R10 000.00 in cash prizes were handed out on the final day, and we decided to hand over our Tip of Africa floating trophy to Finley Smith for 2004.
All entrance fees received at the gates, about R6000.00, was handed over to local charity.
We are already brainstorming this years event, and will soon notify everyone on dates, program etc.
Kind regards
Neil Bezuidenhout
(Grahams Hobbies)