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Welcome to my website.
I am an ex Air Zimbabwe Pilot.
ADF aircraft.jpg (78876 bytes) I have created this website for two reasons. Firstly  in memory of those who died in the two Viscount Disasters and secondly to create a place to store some aviation history and  photos of the Rhodesia and  Zimbabwe aviation.
I have no agenda: I am not interested in any politics, only simply in the recording and storing of facts and photos.
Please find a scanner and send me any pics you would like to share with others. Or drop me a note about the website. Read some of the emails received from all over the world.

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Click  to send message or pics to me

 Some emails received in the last two years:

Howzit Rob
 
Just a quick note to let you know that Ant Hill (Tony) works with me on the tobacco floors if you want to contact him you can email him on my add  before you get this I hopefully will to remember to introduce you when you come to the floors.
 cheers for now    I did meet Tony in July 1999 and he is well.Webmaster

Hello,

It appears that your company were involved in putting together a website called 'Viscounts in Africa, the Air Rhodesia Story', which I have spent a lot of time studying of late.

I am a professional pilot living in the Channel Islands (independent British speaking islands close to France) and write aviation related articles for specialist magazines. I am currently finishing a piece about the Viscount disasters in Rhodesia for 'Airways International' magazine, and would like to contact the ex-RH pilot who put together the website in question to seek his permission to use some material. I have tried to use the post box facility at the end of the website, but this appears little more than an icon.

I would not expect you to pass me any details of the individual concerned, who no doubt has good reason to remain anonymous, but if there is any way that the fact I am trying to contact him could be communicated, I would be grateful.


Dear Rob,

Thanks for your help, the photos are exactly what I was looking for.

I have managed to track down a model of a Viscount 700 at a mail order hobby shop in

the UK, I'll order it from there. Thanks for your offer.

The books look interesting.....I may be tempted!!!


Hi

 
I just found your site today, and visited it because I knew two of the people who survived the Hunyani crash, and were shot afterwards.
 
Walter and Margaret Ferrier were long-time friends of our family. Walter worked at the Vehicle Inspection Depot in Umtali Road until his arthritis worsened. Margaret worked for Pearl (?) insurance. They had flown up to Kariba to visit their pregnant daughter Margaret and her (Aussie, pilot) husband Garry Mitchell.
 
The family was told that Walter was helped from the wreckage, and to where they were told to gather, by other survivors because he was almost crippled with arthritis. Something that has always stuck with me is that it had only been Margaret Ferrier's second-ever airplane flight. The first had been on the way up to Kariba. The reason she had never flown before was because all her life she'd had an irrational and very strong fear of flying...
 
Just wanted to share that with you.
 
Regards,
Carol Hart

rom ava natkin.

purser finnair. md11. check training instructor.

hi i grew up in the generation of kids who trailed their fathers

on "business trips" on RH839/RH844 on a friday... by the time that

viscount got back to salisbury airport it is a mystery those men

managed any business at all.....and those poor women in mauve...

anyways... Here at Finnair we assist in some other airlines safety

training for various airlines and i had the misfortune to travel to

Kinshasa not so long ago and there is a viscount sitting there, all

white. a 700- series i think, (round doors, 10 windows) But there is

no registration on it howvere it looks like it still actually gets in the

air from time to time. I asked about it but noone was able, or

willing, to say much.

If i go again I will try take a picture for you.

Ava


Gudday!!

Thanks for your informative site on Air Rhodesia and her relations!!

A few months back I showed your web-site to a friend of mine, Ian du Plessis, whose

father, Andre, was the pilot of Umniati. I am sure he would like me to pass his

appreciation on to you.

I make model aircraft as a hobby and intend to make a few of the the CAA and Air

Rhodesia planes. The first project is of the DHC Beaver, largely based on the colour

photo you had on your web-page.

Do you have any other Beaver photos that can help me in terms of the CAA

markings?? In particular there is a round marking on the fuselage that I cannot make

out on the photo - the CAA logo is on the fin but it looks like something else - and also

wing markings.

The next planes I intend to do will be a DC-3 in early Air Rhodesia markings, and, if I

can get hold of a suitable kit, a Viscount 700 in the later markings.


 

A very good site, compliments and thanks.

I was wondering whether you would know how or where I could

start by getting (even a copied) Air Rhodesia time table from

approx. mid 1977. This isn't going to be easy I know. It's for personal

interest combined with nostaligia (i was only about 11 then though)

but a part of my career in finance is now to assist with emergent

airline aircraft/route suitablity.

Dear Webmaster (I couldn't find your name on the site),

I found your Air Rhodesia site today by looking up which sites were linked

to mine. You've taken the bit about Intaf planes from my Dad's book. Thanks

for acknowleging that and for providing a link to it. I found your whole

site very informative and well laid out. There was a young pilot in my Intaf

intake at Chikarubi who was whisked away to fly even before we had finished

our training, I forget his name through. I was in IANS4 in January 1976.

Regards,

Mike Hemans


Im sorry Im getting to you so late but it has been difficult to get any

info regarding the above.I urgently need to know if one can obtain

Lat/Log coordinate of the crash site of Flight RH827 Viscount "Umniati"

down the 12-02-1979.

Reason we are leaving on the 02-04-99 08h00 flight to Zimbabe to try and

find the site to lay a wreath for my fiance's mother , it will be her

first visit in 20 years...

Please if you can help , thanking you kindly.  

Kind regards David                      Webmaster: I was able to put him in touch with someone who knows the cords

This e-mail is from JHB South Africa.