Well the Soccer World Cup has come and gone and all of us as South Africans can be proud of our country. To say that it all went off flawlessly would be an understatement.

I had watched for months as workers buzzed around at our own airport and was never certain quite what they were all up to until the big day arrived. We then discovered that they had built temporary pubs and arrivals halls in and around the usual buildings and that various roads would be blocked off to be passenger and team specific.

For one of the last games in Port Elizabeth I sat outside (I live right under the approach path for runway 26) and watched large airliners approaching to land every two minutes. I could actually see them lined up on final approach for as far as the eye could see. As the hours ticked by I began to wonder just where they were parking all of these massive machines. Either they were stacking them on top of one another or indeed they were blasting off the other runway at the same rate?

Apparently not. Just how our folks at the airport managed to pull this off logistically is beyond me. Our controllers apparently did a sterling job of slotting everybody in without too many problems and the folks on the ground managed to park aeroplanes in places where we never even knew they had places.
There were apparently some 200 arrivals that day which must surely be a record for Port Elizabeth? We even had my old mate Peter Meyer land an Airbus A340 here and not only did it fit on the runway but our boys and girls managed to find a place to park that too! Very well done to everybody.

Well enough waffling from me, we have once again got a snorter of a magazine for you to get through including a bit of ‘controversial’ stuff in the form of wingloading tests which should elicit a response from some people I am sure.

So put yer feet up, relax and enjoy this 63rd edition of your favourite magazine. Oh..... Did I tell you that it was a goodie?