98 SA Flyer
The ongoing low intensity conflict
between CC ‘Captain Chaos’ Pocock
and the CAA has escalated into
a ‘take no prisoners’ war. Chris
Martinus explains the saga.
THE SCENE
Only the twittering of the birds and the faint hum of insects can
be heard in the peaceful Barberton Valley around Barberton Airport.
It is midsummer in early January, and the heat shimmers over the
bush and surrounding hills.
This is the home of Bush Air, where pilots come to learn to
y their aircraft more safely – to deal with the more challenging
environments of ying in the bush, the mountains and at the limits
of their aircraft’s capabilities. Hundreds of pilots have come here to
acquire the knowledge and skills of carefully exploring the hitherto
unknown world below the white arc on their airspeed indicators.
Every now and then an aircraft does a touch and go, and the
peaceful hum of the bees collecting their stores for the still-distant
winter is briey disturbed by the clatter of a light aircraft engine.
THE CHARACTERS
CC Pocock
Bush Air is operated by CC Pocock, a pilot and aviation
personality who needs little introduction. Loved by many, reviled
by some, CC is one of those characters nobody seems to feel
indifferent about.
A qualied pyrotechnician and air show pilot, CC thrills the
crowds at air shows, when he is allowed to join the programme,
with his massive explosions and thrilling antics while ying a
lowly Cessna 172. The things he can make the Cessna do have
spectators and pilots alike gasping in awe, probably much to the
chagrin of air show pilots ying much more impressive and powerful
machines. Yet the little Cessna seems to capture the imagination
of all who stare saucer-eyed as it knife-edges impossibly low past
walls of re.
Some pilots shake their heads in disdain and have been
predicting his imminent ery death for years, but the slightly-built CC
with his trademark tousled, long blonde hair is reaching late middle
age and seems to be staying well ahead of the grim reaper.
His courses on surviving the situations that kill so many pilots
every year are widely acclaimed by all those who have taken the
time and effort to hone their knowledge and skills. CC teaches his
courses all over the world and is appreciated in many countries by
many regulators, including by the mighty FAA in the United States,
who have accredited his courses in their country.
In addition to his South African pilot licence, he holds a US
commercial pilot certicate and instructor rating.
CHRIS MARTINUS, PRESIDENT AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION – SOUTH AFRICA
of CC and the CAA
CC is one of those characters
NOBODY SEEMS TO FEEL
INDIFFERENT ABOUT.
The Cis Case
CC with his trademark
tousled, long blonde
hair looks the
part. His courses
on surviving the
situations that kill so
many pilots are highly
acclaimed by those
who have done them.
Guy Leitch
www.sayermag.com
Hannelie Oosthuizen
Ms Oosthuizen is an Enforcement
Specialist in the legal division of the South
African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA).
She is the nemesis of many a pilot or
aircraft owner who may have deigned to
break the myriad laws and regulations that
control aviation. Enforcement notices from
Oosthuizen have caused numerous pilots
to quake with fear of dire retribution by the
authorities.
‘Just Culture’, the more benign
approach to safety problem reporting
espoused by airline pilots all over the
world, is not a term in Oosthuizen’s lexicon.
Aviating miscreants must pay for their
mistakes and transgressions, and pay
heavily. The lady is merciless; the penalties
severe.
CC crossed Oosthuizen’s radar well
over a year ago, and this was one victim
she was not going to allow to get away. She
decided that CC Pocock was conducting
training for remuneration and reportedly
without the necessary licences and
certicates. And not only that, but it had
also been reported that CC had landed on a
closed runway.
A penalty notice was carefully compiled,
detailing the many dreadful crimes that he
had allegedly committed in the peaceful
environs of Barberton Airport. It was noted
that Bush Air offers Bush and Mountain
Flying Courses, but is not an aviation
training organisation (ATO); that CC holds
only a private pilot licence and has sat in
the right-hand seat of an aircraft during
training; and that the aircraft used were not
registered to an ATO and did not have Part
91 approvals.
The list of claimed infractions goes on
for pages, cataloguing that CC has logged
1006.5 hours of instruction, has issued and
signed certicates for foreign students as
well as locals, and has the blatant temerity
to even advertise these courses and list
hundreds of testimonials from past students
on Bush Air’s website.
Oosthuizen concluded that CC quite
obviously has a total disregard for the Civil
Aviation Regulations and therefore poses
an imminent aviation safety risk to students,
the general public and property on the
ground.
In a matter so dire, Oosthuizen wrote
that CAA intended to cancel his private pilot
licence permanently.
Ngaka ‘Joe’ Makua
Ngaka ‘Joe’ Makua is a lieutenant
colonel with the South African Police
Service Directorate for Priority Crime
Investigation, more commonly known as the
Hawks, at the Priority Crime Management
Centre in Pretoria.
Joe Makua is a big and imposing guy.
With shaven head and facial scars, he
is reminiscent of the Pulp Fiction villain,
Marsellus Wallace – the blue uniform and
gun on his hip makes his already daunting
appearance quite scary indeed.
Armed with Oosthuizen’s list of heinous
crimes for CC, worthy of the investigative
skills, qualications and experience of a
very senior member of the elite Hawks
police unit, Makua slapped the siren on
his roof and sped to the scene of these
appalling crimes and this imminent danger
to humanity. On that ne summer’s day, he
drives to Barberton Airport, the lair of the
wild-eyed CC Pocock, the threatening man
with his camouaged aeroplanes, kegs
of gunpowder and a deant attitude that
claims he has committed no crimes at all.
Johan Armstrong
Johan Armstrong is an inspector with
the Civil Aviation Authority. Also a big guy
with an imposing demeanour. He has also
struck fear into the hearts of many a pilot
and aircraft owner. Indeed, he was also
the subject of disciplinary procedures in
respect of the assault of an aircraft owner
at a ying school in Brakpan some years
ago. It is a matter of public record in the SA
Law Reports that he applied to the Labour
Court to block the proceedings, but this
failed. He then appealed the decision of the
Labour Court; this too failed. However, his
contention at the disciplinary hearing that
the aircraft owner spat in his face and that
this was justication for the assault was
accepted, despite witnesses having claimed
that the spitting incident never happened.
Armstrong is well-known among Sling
aircraft owners as the guy who effectively
grounded almost all Slings (a non-type
certied kit aircraft) for not having complied
with maintenance procedures that are
only applicable to type certied aircraft.
He is well-respected among his inspector
colleagues as being very good at law, in
that he can interpret almost any regulation
to mean anything he wants it to mean.
Also more than a year ago, a CAA ramp
inspection of the Bush Air aircraft was done
and a list of fairly minor snags was issued,
which were thereafter duly corrected. This
same aircraft, the characteristic camo
green Cessna 172, was subsequently
registered to a US owner with the FAA,
but continues to be used by Bush Air in its
various activities.
THE PLOT UNFOLDS
Makua arrives at Barberton airport
and strides into the building. CC is
understandably shaken that he has
attracted the scrutiny of such a high-
CHRIS MARTINUS, PRESIDENT AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION – SOUTH AFRICA
AOPA BRIEFING
A qualified pyrotechnician and
air show pilot, CC thrills the
crowds at air shows in his C172.
Bush Air
100 SA Flyer
ranking police ofcer from an elite unit such as the Hawks, who is
menacingly accusing him of running an aviation training business
without a licence. Clearly, the government considers this to be a
much more serious issue than investigating people who have been
charged with hundreds of counts of fraud and corruption.
CC assures the policeman that his courses do not require an
ATO certicate, but Makua hears nothing of it. He threatens CC with
prosecution and dire penalties. He later softens a bit and suggests
that paying a R10,000 ne and “having a meeting” with the CAA
could make all these “charges” go away.
Makua leaves in a swirl of dust, leaving a thoroughly outraged
and intimidated CC Pocock standing there, wondering what to do
next.
This would be a good time to get the assistance of AOPA-South
Africa’s Pilot Protection Plan, he reckons. CC calls them up, tells
his whole amazing story and emails all the documents and letters to
AOPA, where these issues are duly researched and considered.
AOPA sends Makua a polite letter recording all these events
and communications and points out that an ATO certicate is
very specically not required by organisations where “training
and instruction is conducted in the interests of aviation safety:
provided that such training or instruction is not conducted for the
issuing, renewal, reissuing, validation or revalidation of any licence,
certicate or rating in terms of the Regulations,” as per Part 141.
The Civil Aviation Regulations (CARs) dene ‘training’ as
tests or the verications of skill or prociency, specied in the
Regulations.
Clearly Bush Air’s courses t well within the exclusion of Part
141 and do not even fall within the denition of training, since the
courses are not even remotely specied in the Regulations.
Was the letter even read, let alone comprehended?
THE CAVALRY ARRIVES
Two days later Armstrong, Oosthuizen, Makua and a couple
of ordinary cops from the local police station descend upon Bush
Air like an FBI anti-terrorist SWAT team. They storm into his home
and workshop, stating that they wish to search the premises on the
grounds of “monitoring compliance”.
CC is on the phone to AOPA, who advises him to remain calm,
not be confrontational, but simply to inform them that he does not
consent to having his property searched. “But you invited us in,”
Makua lies.
Despite inspecting everything on CC’s aircraft and searching
his home while Oosthuizen takes photographs, they nd nothing.
No charges are pressed, no prosecutions instituted. Only a blank
data plate required by the FAA is seized off CC’s workbench.
Perhaps they had nally read the letter.
CAA GOES BANANAS
The South African Civil Aviation authority is not well-known for
admitting its mistakes or making apologies. The tactic of choice is
to blunder ever deeper into the hole.
Armstrong, referring back to the minor snag list from the ramp
inspection of more than a year ago, writes and insists that Bush
Air’s Cessna is not airworthy.
This notwithstanding that the aircraft is now registered with the
FAA and that an FAA Designated Airworthiness Representative
had own to South Africa for the specic purpose of inspecting
the aircraft and issuing an FAA Certicate of Airworthiness many
months earlier. Also notwithstanding that Armstrong had sent the
said snag list to the FAA prior to the FAA inspection and after all the
snags had been attended to. Was this just vindictive, since he had
even inspected the aircraft thoroughly himself during the infamous
Storming of Barberton a few weeks earlier?
In the interim, all hell breaks loose, since AOPA has now
notied the FAA, the US Ambassador, ICAO, the Director of CAA
and the Minister of Transport, and asked for some kind of sensible
explanation for what was becoming a serious violation of the
Convention on International Civil Aviation.
The aircraft was by then already falling due for its second
FAA-mandated annual inspection, so it was decided that CAA be
invited to inspect the aircraft after signing off by an FAA-appointed
technician, who would also be present to assist. The CAA accepted
the invitation and the dates were set. CAA’s Blake Vorster assured
AOPA that a “team” would be sent down to inspect.
They never pitched up.
CONCLUSION
AOPA, also representing the US owner of the aircraft, therefore
notied CAA that it considered the matter nally closed.
But one wonders what crazy antics CAA will think up next in
what appears to have been simply an abuse of authority based on
some bizarre personal vendetta.
CHRIS MARTINUS
CESSNA T210H FOR SALE
Aircra Make and Type: Cessna T210H
Year Model: 1968
Airframe Hours: 6020
Engine Type and Hours: Con nental
TS10-520C, 610 since overhaul
Prop type and Hours: Hartzell Hc-J3YF-1RF
420 since new
Avionics and other equipment: Garmin 530; King nav/
com; Bandix ADF; 2 X VOR/ILS; Stormscope
Can be viewed at: George but can be fl own to CT or PE
Price: R 950 000 excl VAT
Contact details of owner: Andrew McFarlane
0721499303 or email fl ymacavia on@gmail.com
SA Flyer 2015|07
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