Welkom 27 59.489S  026 40.626E and De Rust S 27 46.144 E 026 52.095

NOAA http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready-bin/main.pl?Lat=-28.00&Lon=26.66

 

Sample flight 18 September 2005  in kmz Google Earth Format , 4 hrs 40 minutes, max A1 4154m, A2 2814m, 7.0 m/s max, max 68 km/h

 KMZ File for Airfield link to Google Earth

http://www.welkompublicity.co.za/events.htm

Welkom area


 

Maps

 From   http://www.tiscali.co.za/tiscali/general/streetmap.jsp
 

Airport is located next to the Flamingo Pan, turnoff from the R30 Odendaalsrus - Bloemfontein Road.

From JHB , take the N1 to Kroonstad, then follow the R34 towards Welkom.

Then either go via Odendaalsrus or Welkom to get to the R30.
Which involves lots of going around in circles.
If you go via the Welkom route, through the city, get out via Stateway or Long Road until they intersect with the R30.
Turn towards Bloemfontein direction. About 1-2 km on the R30 turn to the right towards the airport.
We meet under the shade under one of the trees next to the apron area.

 Airspace Info

Site Details

winch from airfield.
One Airband radio required when winching takes place.
Welkom is 118.000 MHz  airband required for winch operators
Got an E-W 2km runway and a N-S 1.5km dirt runway
no ceiling , 3000 m ATO in summer

Do not drive unnecessary on the runways.
Before entering a runway or crossing it , stop , and check if there is no aircraft taking off or landing.

For the North - South dirt runway, go through the hangar area , and then onto the dirt runway.

Facilities might be locked. Do not assume that the toilets are open.
Bring shade, water, cooldrinks.
Town  center with shops is about 5-10 km away.

Closest  garage for pertrol and tyre punctures is 5km.

Beware of anthills on the dirt runway.
Before the first launch on a weekend, run the full track and clear any anthills and establish where to drive and where not.

For flying use 141.600. 141.625 got funny noise gadgets transmitting. Seems to be minining related.

Where to stay

  Info January 2004

Virginia Holiday resort with big water slide at the river. Boat hire.
 Tikwe Lodge 057 212 3306
 

Clives Place

Odendaalsrus +- 16 km from Welkom
 082 977 5344 or 057 398 2003

 per Caravan R100 per night, sleeps 4

  Camping ( own tent ) R30

  Chalets R110 per person, or R150 per family+kids

  Breakfast R30
 

  Welkom Stanville Inn  057  353 2482

   Single room R150
   Double room R180
   Family room R200
   Breakfast R30

  Welkom Hotel   057 355 1411

   Signle/Double R258
   Breakfast R40

  Camping next to Welkom Hotel R40
 

  Welkom Lodge   057  357 2291/2/3

   Family room R150
   Other rooms R150
    Breakfast R35
 
 
 
 

 Where to eat and drink

 Reastaurants  in the center of Welkom

  What else to do

Flamingos in the pan next to the airfield
Almanskraal game reserve
Virginia Holiday resort.
Hennenman gliding club.

 Gold Museum


   100 km flight by Ulf 1 February 2004


109 km flight by Ulf  29/11/03

  Kml file


  Saturday 29/11/03 at Welkom

  Being a wind dummy is a stressy job.
   There we arrive at Welkom, winch is setup, and the question is who is supposed to go first.
   Everyone agrees it should be me.
   Let's send up Ulf first. Let him check out what the conditions are like.
   And if he sinks out then he can wait until everyone else had his turn.
    Everyone gets one attempt, and then the next one gets a chance.

    So the pressure is on. I better stay up if I want a decent flight. Or I can fly again at sunset.

    First takeoff,  80m above the ground a loose loop falls off the drum and blocks.
   I get catapulted, the left riser accelerator pully breaks,
      the glider turns, and then the line breaks.

    Next I only see green stuff rushing towards me. The glider feels like it is still there.
     No  tendency to turn or spin. Just going dead straight down towards the ground.
    Similar to those fun fair rides when you come down the looping star.
     Then things settle down and I start seeing the horizon and some sky again.
     No collapses, no flops, no ruffles, rock solid wing and we are back to normal flight 40 m
    above the ground and then I land. Nice to fly a DHV 1 when things go wrong.

   The accelerator is gone, no more speedbar can be used.

    The conditions look light. Not much wind. Lets go again. This time the winch launch is less hectic.
     Getting a thermal halfway down the runway, and it takes me to 1700m AGL.
     Very light drift towards Kroonstad.
    15 minutes into flying the GPS 72 gives a battery low warning.
     I switch it off in case I need it later.
    Lesson - Never use old alkaline rechargeables, which you dumped out of your radio for your GPS.
      The logger with the good old GPS 12 is in the back pocket and will collect the flight.
    So, no GPS, no groundspeed, and no speedbar. The gadget flyer is back to nearly basics.
     I radio through that I will head towards Kroonstad, in case the radio also packs up.

     Halfway to Kroonstad, at the top of a thermal hitting the inversion.
     And I am listening now to the constant chatter of  the Senekal security services.
     What is wrong with that radio now?
      2000m high, gloves off, just do not loose them, get that radio out.
   Yes, the frequency is locked. But it is now on 145.000. How ??? No idea.
        How do you change this thing again? Last done that some years ago.
      Pressing buttons while body steering in the inversion .
      Bummer. now there is a T in the display and that thing makes funny noises.
      And now there is a big C where the frequency used to be.
     But there is nothing what a German Engineer can not fix.
     A few minutes later the display is back to 141.625 and locked and ...  why is this thing making
     those diii -daaa - dooot - doot noises now.
     Switch back on the 72 and get a quick position before the battery goes dead.
      50 km from takeoff on a bearing of 242, the radio shows that I transmit ok, but those funny noises
      make any reception a pain.
        I switch off the radio. More back to basics.
      2 hours in the air, 70 km , 2500 m over the Kroonstad Ultracity.
     On the way to Welkom this morning we said this would be the default goal for today.
      Try to make it here.
     But I am high, and there is still plenty of daylight left.
     I pick a road going to nowhere which is more or less in the general drift direction.
     80 km  or 10 km past Kroonstad. Now what is this brown curtain of dust doing there at the horizon?
     Looks like a gustfront. Come on, be real, there are hardly any clouds in the sky.
     No overdevelopment. Must be some sort of big bushfire creating all that haze.
     90 km, that dust seems to come closer. Or maybe I get closer to that big fire.
     100 km there seems to be some more dust in front of me, but hey, there is hardly any sink.
      Must be some sort of convergence. But I do not like that dust in the air further on.
     In case this is some front I would like to be lower.
     But the vario shows very light climb while flying  straight.
     1500 m AGL says the Vario. Based on Welkom takeoff.
     There is definitely dust getting kicked up about 10 km ahead of me.
      Get down now, fast, land, get out of the sky now....
        Find some open area in case you get dragged.
       In I go into a Spiral.
      How high am I above the ground? No idea.
      That alti info does not give me the height over ground.
       Fascinating, I managed to get the sink indicator off the limits.
      Wake up.
     Rather look at the blur around you to take a guess when to stop.
      Otherwise you might miss your impact.
      Those trees shooting past now look like big trees , maybe time to stop this.
      Out you go spiral.
       That dust is maybe 5 km away. Tuck your ears. Now what is that wind doing,

      Perfect landing. No sign of that red dust. Very light breeze.

      I can kick myself. Why did I land, there is nothing on the horizon.
      The sky still looks perfect.
      Could have still flown for an hour.

       Oops those cows are coming towards you.
      Rather bunch the glider and get away from the cow inspection committee.
     Kids from the township close by arrive.
     where am I... , Edenville.
     Give Vernon a ring that I landed ok, 109 km from takeoff, and I got cold feet because of
      some dust in the air.
     Wait a minute there is some orange stuff now a few kms away blowing towards us.
     Time to pack up this canopy in a hurry, that wind is picking up.
     Glider is in the bag ... and here comes the dustfront. 50 km/h wind now.
       Visibility down to a few meters
      Bye everybody , I am off to towards the main road and find the pub in Edenville.
 

 

From: "Westview Lodge" <wes.tview.@global.co.za>
To: "Gauteng PG" <gauteng.pg.@smartgroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 10:48 AM
Subject: [GautengPG] Welkom flying
 

Hi all

some of us went to welkom for the w/e.

on saturday judy (bruce's wife) was first in the air and got up in lightish
lift and flew into the welkom town (there are plenty of easy and friendly
landings there). bradley followed and got close to hennerman some 25 km
away, reporting a fairly good cloudbase, wind very light and in all
directions. Ulf got away on his second flight and also managed similar
distance. i had a line break on both of my flights, so preferred not to fly,
but rather do some recovery.

on sunday we had a fresh E wind to start, becoming lighter at around 11:30.
Ulf was first up and got winched to 700mt. I was second followed by bradley,
vernon. Cloudbase was initially at around 1100 mt agl and 5/8 cloud cover.
wind remained constant for most of the day at 20k/hr NE, becoming 9km/h
later, lift was inconsistent in strenght varying from light to moderate.
cloudcover became 3/8 in the early afternoon with a very short cloud cycle.
not knowing the area i aimed downwind towards bloem intially taking a
courageous direct route over farmland (there are some roads but going in a
90 degrees direction!) and only zig-zagging and following tarred roads later
to avoid long recoveries. I landed very close to Branfort, which is close to
the beginning of the bloem TMA. max height around 1500mt, distance 76km,
flight time 3:35. bradley, ulf, vernon got around 35 km.

welkom is a nice site with two good runways, one tarred, one not. the area
is user friendly because of a good network of roads in all direction.i woudl
definetely recommed it. thanks to bruce and judy for the hospitality.

clive



 

 De Rust private nature reserve.

By invitation only.

 

http://www.de-rust.co.za/

Very good accommodation, pool, pub, playground,  ....
 

  There are 8 chalets, 3 rondawels, 2 bunk rooms with about    20 beds and camping.

   Usually it is R180 (+40 pp) per chalet (Sleeps 4)
   R100 (+30 pp) for rondawel (Sleeps 4, ablution block)
   Bunker R40 pp, no linen

   Camp R50 (+30pp)

 Attached the road map to De Rust private nature reserve.
Basically after Kroonstad one turns right to Welkom on the
R34. I think it is about 44km before you will see a huge
De Rust display board on your right at the turnoff onto a
dirt road. Just follow the directions. (Think it is 3km,
turn right and continue for another 6km.) Please be careful
just after the right turn; some cowboys have been humbled
in this area.

There are two toll gates on the N1. (R9 & R28 ..think)

There is a nice bar, so don’t worry about drinks.
The chalets are self-catering.

 


October 2004    Jon Pio at 3500 m ATO