Flippie Vermeulen explains what it is like to fly this historic aircraft.
When I sold ZS-NTE to Peter Adrian it was on the condition I should assist with the delivery flight from Rand Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Zweibrücken in Germany and help with the maintenance and flight operations in Europe for as long as the aircraft remained on the South African register, which, of course, I gladly agreed to. What we didn’t know was that it was going to be a challenge getting the aeroplane registered in Europe and, two-and-a-half years later, it is still on the South African register and, yes, I am still flying ZS-NTE in Europe.
Needless to say, it was quite emotional for me to be flying a 73-year-old C47/DC-3 over the regions where significant battles of World War Two took place, where the DC-3 played such a significant role. It was all the more so since I was able to share the experience with my son Bennie Vermeulen, the manager of our maintenance organisation at Springbok Aviation Services, who also prepared the aircraft for our flight to Shannon.
The temptation normally is to fly these vintage planes at the lower levels under visual flight rules (VFR), but transiting some of the highest densit…