Gallery Fly-aways Gyro Training in Ethiopia | Gyro Training in Ethiopia | | Print | |
| Written by Len Klopper | |
| Monday, 07 December 2009 | |
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No Problem, (Big Smile)November 2009Thoughts of Candid Camera, Whackhead Simpson or a friend prank-calling me flashed through my mind when I received a call from a heavily Birmingham-accented, rather brash, very humorous man, asking me if I wanted to go and train Ethiopian Airforce pilots to fly Gyrocopters. Yeah right. What? Who? Where? Is this a joke? After some discussion I began to realise that he actually knew the Gyro’s type was MT0Sport, there were 2 of them, the engine type was Rotax 914F and they had constant speed propellers fitted. He was also aware that the machines would have to be checked and signed out by an Authorised Person before flight since the rotors had been removed. He further explained that he had had special pallets made for them to be air freighted to Addis Ababa and that the rotors would have to be refitted before they could be flown. Perhaps this was not a prank call after all!? If it was, he had done his homework, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and continued to listen thinking “where on earth is Addis Ababa exactly?” Visions of Nomadic tents in the Arabian desert with camels and goats and turbans and burkhas and slashing and flashing scimitars and incense and strong coffee flashed through my mind. Being quite direct he then promptly requested when I could go, (the following Monday would suite him), how long it would take (he suggested five to ten days should be adequate) and what would it cost? (a lot). Simple questions, that lead to a multitude of other questions each with relatively complex answers. I am not an AP and I doubt that there is one in Ethiopia. “Bring one”. How many students? What is the level of their competence? What about accommodation, travel, safety, training facilities, runways, emergency services, fuel, approvals, CAA requirements, Visa’s, whether this is a war zone and, if it is, who’s side are we on? Where did he get my name and number from? Why me? There would be 2 students initially, they would be fully trained competent helicopter pilots, no war at present, all the logistics would be taken care of on my behalf, no worries, they have their information and influence - all I had to do was get there ASAP. Wow, slow down, let me catch my breath I said. “Are you serious!? “, “when can you come?” “You can arrange all this? “, “Of course, the impossible we can do immediately, miracles may take a little longer but can be arranged – no problem”. (big smile) The adventure was on! Yeeha! Frantic arrangements on both sides began to take place immediately. Visa’s that usually take days were pushed through in 24 hours with diplomatic intervention. These guys did have clout! I needed an AP and if he was an instructor then it would be a bonus since we could train simultaneously and cross-check each other’s students. I think Louis van Wyk of Aerosport at Fisantekraal in Cape Town, under who’s CAA ATO (Approved Training Organisation) I operate, thought I was joking when I approached him but soon Boytjie from Birmingham’s contagious enthusiasm, that had rubbed off on me, rubbed off on Louis also and we were on our way to the Abyssinian Empire, the ancient land of King Solomon and Queen Sheba to go and do what we love:- To fly state of the art Gyrocopters and to teach others to do the same safely. I was told by an Ethiopian that a former king of the country, during the crusades, allowed all religions to operate in his country provided they did so peacefully and that today there are 52 religions harmoniously co-existing in Ethiopia which has 100 million people (80 million officially but one of the religions believes that if you count your children the Angel of Death will visit so nobody really knows). Upon arrival at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa you immediately feel a sense of harmony and goodwill. Everyone is friendly and quick to offer a greeting and a big smile. Although poor and seemingly 3rd world with its chaotic traffic, the city is bursting at the seams with development and building projects are evident everywhere. I was astounded to see multiple story tower blocks being built without a single crane or steel scaffolding. Wooden poles are lashed together and form massive scaffolding webs around the buildings as they grow. Materials are physically carried or winched up. Poverty is apparent but unemployment is only at 8% and there are almost no beggars or street people. Forget those ghastly images of starving children covered in flies with which we all associate Ethiopia. This was during the war against Eritrea which ended years ago and although we didn’t see a single obese person (except a grossly fat visitor from Nigeria wallowing in the hotel pool) we also didn’t see a single hungry-looking person anywhere. Everyone seems to be on a mission doing something and crime is non-existent. One senses the feeling of Ubuntu amongst the people who are deeply religious, have extremely high moral standards and an inherent pride that goes with their striking good looks. Ethiopia has had its fair share of strife and revolutions and wars but the last conflict ended ten years ago and the country is clearly picking itself up and beginning to prosper. Our host and instigator of the Gyrocopter initiative in Ethiopia met us at our hotel and began to fill in the gaps for us. He is a large soft spoken Denzel Washington type man with alert interesting eyes and a generous smile. He is an entrepreneur of note, world travelled and back living in Addis doing what he is passionate about, which at the moment is providing medical diagnostic machines for the improvement of community health throughout Ethiopia. His Lab-assist technology is awesome and contributes hugely to the benefit of the health of everyday Ethiopians, bringing instant laboratory results at the point of patient care - Another one of his many passions are Gyrocopters. Doing whatever he can for the good of his country and others in the process is his primary objective and if he makes more money than the adequate amounts he appears to already have, then it’s a bonus. He discovered Gyro’s while traveling through Italy 10 years ago and met Mr. Vittorio Magni and Luca when Gyro’s still looked like pieces of windmill structure with a lawn chair strapped on. He has been hooked ever since and has watched the progress of Gyro’s around the world closely. He is most knowledgeable about their aerodynamics and I predict it won’t be long before we begin his training also. He is the person that convinced Dejen Aviation Engineering (DAVEC), similar to our Denel, to trial the 2 Gyro’s on behalf of the Ethiopian Airforce. First light on Monday morning our driver fetched us from the hotel to take us to the Hame Airforce base in Debre Zeit, about 80km east of Addis, where the Gyrocopters were waiting for us. Vehicles in Ethiopia are old yet plentiful and extremely smoky, the roads are potholed in areas and the driving style is interesting to put it mildly. Seemingly chaotic to us we soon discovered that everyone but us understood the invisible road signs and rules of the road so even though we were on the edge of our seats every morning and evening we never witnessed any traffic incidents. We were cordially received by a delegation of uniformed staff and saluted regularly as we progressed through the massive base. Both Louis and I were aghast at the rows and rows of high-tech hardware we saw. Sukhoi and Mig fighters by the dozen, Transport planes and trainers, helicopter gunships and transport machines by the row. Bunkers with aircraft lurking inside, snowballed machines, crew busy with this and that, great big Russian and Chinese trucks rumbling around, you name it. This was one serious airbase. We were politely asked to refrain from taking any photographs of any of the active tin and we of course obliged so sadly we can only describe the awe with which we gawked at the cobra-like SU27’s towering way above us knowing that one tank full of fuel adequate for 4 hours duration (without afterburner) would give us 1 600 hours of flying time on our little Gyro’s. After coffee, introductions to the commanders of the relevant units and some small talk we were taken into a board room with 14 delegates who were introduced as cadet candidate Gyrocopter pilots. “But we expected 2 current, competent pilots?”, “No problem”. Big Smile. We realised quickly that although we all spoke varying degrees of English, communication was going to be a major problem. “Please don’t keep twisting the altimeter button marveling at how it goes round and round and showing your friends, it has already been set”. No Problem (big smile) …. Whirrrr. 6,5,4,3,2,1… breathe. Sometimes simply the tone of our voices and not the words were adequate to maintain separation between the hands and the switches and buttons I am sure. Sometimes frustration would set in through lack of communication or understanding. For example. Louis didn’t want them to keep fitting prop covers between sorties. He jokingly suggested he should tell them to put the covers on and leave them on which would probably result in them taking them off and leaving them off for good. Strategically re-planning the entire event on the fly I proceeded to deliver a lecture on the aerodynamics of Gyroplanes, going back into the history of Juan de la Cierva discovering the solution to dissymmetry of lift in 1920 and thus solving the single biggest problem that was preventing helicopters from flying. Autogyros were the forerunners of modern helicopters but have surpassed them again in recent years if one looks at safety and affordability in certain applications. Louis then proceeded to give a lecture on the basics of aircraft maintenance and operating parameters and when we finally got to the point where no further questions were asked it was lunchtime. We were driven to the officers mess, accompanied by two Majors for a really tasty meal The Injira and Teff took some getting used to an then became addictive. I was particularly impressed with the hand washing before every meal and then realised that you use them to eat with. Kinda makes sense doesn’t it? Ethiopian food is very spicy and full of flavour and overall, very good. I picked up two kilograms in the week we were there. Who would have thought you’d get fattened up in Ethiopia!? The time finally came for us to go and get up close and personal with the MTOSports. We were all very eager but none as eager as our cadets. On one end of a huge, cavernous hangar filled with MI8 and MI17 helicopters, MIG35’s, L29’s and some unidentifiable machines in various state of repair and or rebuild stood a white and a grey MT0S with tape on poles all around signifying ‘keep out – this is special’. Sunlight filtered through the huge hangar doors throwing a spotlight beam onto these two beauties being dwarfed by their grandfathers and grandmothers all around and technicians and ground crew watched closely as we explained the various components to our cadets. Their enthusiasm became problematic when safety became an issue. Many unskilled hands all over touching and fiddling, tugging and pulling and turning anything and everything made our hair raise, especially the starter key while others were under the machine or turning the prop. Discipline was needed and our own military training years ago probably helped. The candidates gradually understood our intentions and things started going better. Ground crew and candidates alike were very excited about the huge wooden crate of goodies that came with each machine. Inside were flight suits, helmets and headsets, Personal Locator Beacons, GPS’s, Mr. Funnel fuel filters, logbooks, Pilot operating handbooks, manuals for each component. The MT factory did a great job in ensuring that absolutely all the paper work and required documentation was there and neatly marked and labeled as was every item on each machine. Very impressive. The German attention to detail was evident. Things take time in a large factory/military set-up such as we found in Hame. Each person has their allocated responsibility outside of which they will not perform. For example, it took absolutely forever before we were eventually given the helmets and headsets. The right person that had responsibility for headgear wasn’t around immediately and nobody else could issue them. The Airforce is also, of course, accustomed to Pilots arriving, walking once around the machine, getting in and flying. The ground crew all have their allocated tasks and get on with it. They found it very very strange that these two pilots preferred to be present during refueling, did the thorough pre-flights themselves, pushed the machines out themselves etc. This was for no other reason than we simply did not have the time to teach 20 people how and where to push the gyro, another 20 how to tie down the rotor and another 20 about refueling etc. We were there to fly; and we did. Louis inspected the already fitted rotors and found one incorrectly aligned with the pre-set markers, took them off and re-fitted them correctly. He then proceeded to point out the value of reading the manuals in the first place and showed them where the process was clearly documented. The candidates gradually understood our intentions and things started going better. When the logistics of arranging the fuel, getting it out of the drums and into the machines was finally sorted out we were ready and eager to take the machines for their maiden test flight in Ethiopia. They had been flown for under an hour in Germany already and knowing that the German quality control is superb we were confident that all would go well. The 2 Gyro’s the Ethiopians have are the 10th and 11th MT0Sport according to their serial numbers. They have not been allocated tail numbers by the Airforce yet so we elected to call them ‘MT10” and “MT11” until we had official tail numbers.
…and off we went in a nice formation on a 2km taxi to the threshold of a 2.5km runway directly cross wind. Mountains in the area prevent it from being directly into the prevailing wind and it is used mostly for Big Fast Tin. We both saluted the ATC tower smartly on passing by when we saw the uniforms inside and were smartly snap saluted back. It felt good. For the first time ever on Ethiopian Airforce soil, perhaps even Ethiopian soil, Gyrocopters were being taken seriously and treated like the real aircraft they are; Louis and I test flew the machines, watching the engine temperatures and pressures carefully, setting the constant speed props to our liking and generally just enjoying the sortie. With not a single snag to report on our return we repeated the procedure one at a time with both aboard each machine to confirm performance abilities and power/pitch settings and also to familiarise ourselves with flying from the back seats of these fantastic machines again. The MTOS has Magneto kill-switches at the back, Airspeed indicator, Trim and PTT built in conveniently so they are a pleasure to instruct on from the back seat. We had not flown the Sport version of the MT03 before let alone at 6 200 feet above sea level. Again we were very happy to return after both sorties with zero snags to report. The machines were given a clean bill of health and the books were signed. It was time to fly for real! We were both quite excited about flying these beautiful machines with their dynamically balanced rotors they are smooth as silk to fly. After a short briefing, the base commander, a pilot himself, hopped in with me and the local Ethiopion importer of the Gyro’s climbed aboard with Louis and off we went for a demo flight with them in the back seat. As we taxied out there were literally hundreds of curious blue overhauled and camo-suited aircraft technicians and ground crew lining the taxiways to watch these strange little creatures. Word had spread quickly. Remember they work on heli’s so big that we taxi the gyro’s right under through their rotors so they must have though we weren’t serious. Hovers, engine off descents, climbs, greased landings with almost zero roll totally impressed our pax and they returned beaming. When the commander was asked by bystanders “how was that” he responded “no problem” ( big smile) and then proceeded to explain with great animation and arms waving in Aramaic accompanied by a spit-spattering-lip-buzzing audio track of how we had swooped and dived and hovered etc. Everyone went home very happy and content that evening and we were hosted to dinner by the base commander who brought along the Supreme Commander of the Airforce, A Major General, re-phrase that; THE Majore General! We spent an enjoyable evening at the Sheraton drinking South African Pinotage (Their favourite wine) and talking about flying. He is a highly respected SU27 fighter pilot war veteran and one of the nicest people you could hope to meet. The following four days blurred into a continuous training, flying, eating, sleeping cycle. The schedule was intense and the pressure was on to achieve as much as possible in a very short space of time. Strong afternoon cross-winds spoiled our plan of at least sending one of the students solo in week one and although ‘Beer’ (my appropriately nicknamed student) was very close to being ready, we decided for safety reasons to postpone his going solo until our next training stint. Lives are more important than any short-term objective. It is anticipated that Louis and I will go back to continue the training during December and we are both looking forward to the Ethiopian people, food and atmosphere we enjoyed so much. We have made new friends in far-away places and eagerly anticipate returning to promote these wonderful little machines we love. Viva Gyrocopters!
PS, we’ll keep you informed! Watch this space!  Cathedral at Sunset  Group Foto  Group Inspection  Home Airforce Base  Keen Students  Len and a Student  Len taking the Commander for a Demo  Louis and a Student  My usual view  Prving Flight  Refueling  Scaffold  Scaffolding everywhere  Sheraton Addis at night  Typical Addis Ababa Scene |
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Gallery Fly-aways Gyro Training in Ethiopia