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Getting the right amount of FUEL?

I am still puzzled (see Dec story) by the short-delivery of fuel from the petrol stations where I get my mogas (95 unleaded car petrol from the same stations you fill up your car) for my aeroplane. Not getting any consistent quantity of fuel in my container, I brought it inside to check my measurements with a measuring jug. This proved that my original lines on the petrol container were more or less correct and that I am being short-changed when I refill the container.

The exception was Saturday when my container was again fiulled up to the line... it almost seems that the measuring device the petrol stations use depends on the weather or air pressure, so that when the QNH is lower you get more fuel? Is this possible? How do the petrol station's bowser dispensers work and does air pressure affect the accuracy of these?

I have asked Wendy Knowler of East Coast Radio's Consumer Watch to investigate, as at R11 a litre, a 2l shortage on every 25l fuel sold means about R25 per car tankful of petrol consumers are being overcharged nationwide (when the weather is good?) Does the sunny-day filling up of your tank subsidise those who fill up on a rainy day?

Life ends for Volvo

I thought Volvo was for life... isn' that what the adverts say? Apparently NOT.

My Volvo is only 6 years old. I would maybe just be starting my first school year at that age, not ending my life? But the end is nigh for my Volvo.

It started with a warning light that the car was overheating. After spending R8000,00 changing the water pipes and water reservoir (can you believe that Volvo sell the plastic water bottle for R600?!!!)... the repair guy said that he actually thought it needed a head gasket change as well and quoted me R13000,00.

So we towed it to McCarthy Volvo Pinetown for a second opinion. Volvo kept the vehicle for a few days and ran their full diagnostics test using the latest equipment Volvo has to offer. Nope, they said, the previous service guys must have been ripping us off. There is nothing further wrong with the car and gave it a clean bill of health. The service manager was even so kind as to drive it home for my ex-wife.

Alas, the car broke down on the highway home.. no problem said the service manager Dominic, just let it cool for a bit and I can drive it back again to Volvo Pinetown for more tests. Well the car got cooked by the time it arrived back at Volvo Pinetown and now Dominic says it needs a R70 000,00 new engine as the old one is so cooked the head cylinder is distorted and cracked. And Volvo wants me to pay for this!!!

My R70 000 repair?

They say it had a pre-existing problem and it's not their fault... pre-existing like they gave it a CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH PASSING ALL TESTS AND NOW IT HAS A THROW-AWAY COOKED ENGINE!!! This is bulshit!!

What happened to Volvo for Life? I even offered to buy a new car from them if they could share some of the repair costs and build it in to the sale of a new vehicle. But all they did was put a new car salesman on to me and offer me R35 000,00 for the trade-in on my "old" car (which has a book value of R140 000,00). Is this how Mc Carthy Volvo like to do business?

Facebook shows Volvo complaint

Facebook is a powerful networking platform and my complaint about my treatment from Mc Carthy Volvo has made their home page. I wonder how long it will last there? However this will just be the start of my campaign unless I receive fair treatment from this motor giant in South Africa. The small guys should not be trodden on by them when they are trying to sell cars that are supposed to be FOR LIFE.

Taking a break

Kate-Lynn's Graduation celebration lunch with Granny and Mom

Taking a break from the hectic past 2 days with Kate-Lynn's graduation victory, we celebrate with her and granny and enjoy the pool's relief from the sweltering heat in Durban.

Kate-Lynn Graduates Top Achiever 2011

Our incredible daughter scooped all 3 top academic awards at her Graduation Ceremony today. Not only did Kate-Lynn graduate with a B.Ed. degree in foundation phase teaching, she was awared the Top Academic Achiever Award, Top Award in Teaching Practice and Overall Top Achiever Award for her class of 2011 and also picked up a Special Reseach Prize for her efforts and one of only 2 students to make a formal presentation at an Education Conference at the end of last year.

Well done Kate-Lynn, this is an amazing achievement and follows top student awards each of the 4 years of her degree training. I am so proud of you!!!

Here's the link to more pics on Facebook.

Welcome to Durban Skies for Danish friends

Christoffer and Simon from Copenhagen fly our Sling ZDL

Great to be back in Durban and able to fly our plane again. January was hectic re-opening the office, then our January big bash party and last week of January driving to Cape Town then flying to Bulgaria for skiing. So good to be back and up in the skies again (in Red Rocket).

Today I started my first lesson converting my NPL licence to PPL at Virginia and then took our Danish Couchsurfing guests up in the air for a short flip. The weather was not lloking great and rain was predicted for the whole weekend, but it's been holding off, so I managed to get some air-time and took both Christoffer (who said he was afraid of heights) and Simon up for the first flip in a small plane. Exhilarating and they both did well, despite them having a considerable hang-over from the night before.

Welcome Couchsurfers

 It's great to be able to host Couchsurfers from across the world. Usually we take turns cooking the different national dishes - last night was Shay's turn (from Israel) and tonight Christoffer and Simon from Denmark will show us their stuff. Everyone pitched in to help though including my daughter Kate-Lynn. We had meatballs (Shay's mom's recipe) with lentil rice, a vegetable stew and hummus, with Fatoosh salad. Very yummy and we all ate too much. Welcome to Durban guys!!

Christoffer, Mayan, Llewellyn, Dave, Simon and Shay

Poor Emirates Service

We never got an upgrade and NO REPLIES

Emblazoned across a full page advert of the Sunday Times Emirates advertised ... "Fly Emirates and get an upgrade" from economy to business class on a leg of the journey if booked by the 30^th November 2011. This prompted me to book a seat for a party of 4 of us to go skiing in Bulgaria in January 2012, having just returned from that trip.Despite the advert and the booking, I never heard from Emirates regarding the upgrade promised and so logged an online query on their website shortly before departing. NO REPLY. Further queries and NO REPLY. Contacting their local office I eventually was given an email address of their Customer Complaints department in Johannesburg... customeraffairs.jnb@emirates.com NO REPLY. 2^nd email NO REPLY.

I get to the check-in for our flight from Cape Town to Dubai on the 25^th January and was booked in to economy.. No one at the check-in had heard of the advert and said that sales department usually handle these promotions and check-in could not help. She gave me the email address of sales at Emirates.. anja.meadon@emirates.com whose reply was to the effect that "my hands are tied and I am unable to assist" as "this is a customer complaint and needs to be handled by that department".

What kind of a sales campaign is this and what kind of service or after-sales service is this?

As you will have guessed we continued on economy for the forward and return journeys and have never heard further from Emirates!!!

Is this really the way Emirates wants to do business in South Africa?

Here's the link to the Avcom Aviation forum posting on the matter which has had over 1000 readers viewing the complaint.

Some scenes from our Dubai and then Borovets Ski holiday

After settling Mark in his new digs in Cape Town, he and I jetted off on an Emirates flight via Dubai to Athens and Bulgaria for snowboarding and skiing.

When Emirates re-scheduled their flights we got to spend a day and a night in Dubai and a chance to take some pics around the world's tallest building. Pretty awesome and the monorail, built since I was last there a few years back, is now fully operational and the best way to get around Dubai.

After that we landed in Sofia, Bulgaria, via Athens, in heavy snow and our taxi took us to Borovets.. the most snow seen there in 10 years and with temperatures plummeting to -18c and with wind factor on the top of the mountain -40c... incredible and sooooo cold!!

Staying in our ski-apartment on the slopes of the Borovets Ski Village, we were warm and cosy and even did some cooking in. Shopping was in the nearby village of Samokov where I ventured down for groceries a couple of time. The first day we tried snowboarding again, and managed to stay on the board of. mark did well but Llewellyn and I migfrated back to skis.. we are more capable and faster on these and even managed the red slopes.. although the blue cross country route was the more enjoyable.

Meeting the Stellies mates

Getting back to Stellenbosch Mark invited his mates around for a braai at his new digs last night. Today Mark and I fly out of Cape Town to Dubai and the next day on to Athens and Bulgaria for snowboarding.

Round Trip to Cape Town in the planning

Flying has had to take a back seat this month as we plunge headlong through a busy period... first off the office recovery after the few days Christmas break, then the office New Year Party which kicks off on Friday night and with our PRO Bobby off sick, we have had to put it together ourselves. Then my son Mark's car got stolen and with Lynn's car in for repairs we were down to sharing 2 cars between 4. This Saturday I am off with Mark to get his car back to Cape Town for the new Varsity term, and Wednesday Mark and I fly off to Bulgaria to snowboard for a few days. Emirates cancelled one of their flights so we also get stuck in Dubai for 1 day arriving at 2am!

So our poor Sling Airplane "Red Rocket" is waiting for it's pilot. In the meantime though we are planning a trip to Cape Town, up the west coast and to Sutherland for the stars in April. Here's what our EasyPlan route is looking like. And our friend Marc in his yellow submarine will be joining. Wow. Going to be exciting.

New Year a family affair

New Year started off with a braai at the guesthouse on New Year's Eve, followed  by a full roast dinner on New Year's day with my mom and the kids and the afternoon with the Galway cousins at their Westbrooke Beach holiday home. The next day we flew off to Margate and San Lameer where Llewellyn's sister picked us up for morning breakfast on the beach and a lazy morning in the sea and around the pool. Awesome re-charge of batteries before I head off to work today.

2011 in pics - January to December

1st January 2011 - New Years Day lunch at home

January - a quick trip up to Phuthaditjhaba and Witsieshoek top of the Berg

January - Kate-Lynn flies out to Trondheim, Norway on a 3-month student exchange

January - Mark returns to Cape Town for his 2nd-year engineering

February - we visit Shisa farm and Mark for his 19th Birthday

7th February - Mark's 19th Birthday in Stellenbosch

March - We do some renovations and decor changes at the Guesthouse

March - Dave executes his first Notarial document as a Notary Public

March - Dave runs a Consumer Protection Act Seminar at his Toti law office

March - visiting Port Elizabeth for Llewellyn's SpecSavers Conference

April - Vinnie and Erland from Norway visit Durban

April - Kate-Lynn returns from her Norway exchange

April - My friend Ralphs pays us a visit in Durban

April - We visit Gold-Reef City, Johannesburg, with the kids

May - the guesthouse is full with the annual Indaba Travel Show in Durban

May - We go to Battlefields, Dundee, for the weekend and to view an RV we were considering buying.. scene of the Blood River battle and museum

21 May - Dave has his first flying lesson in a Foxbat at Light Flight Cato Ridge with instructor Brad

June - Comrades Marathon in Durban.. cheering the runners on

June - reminder of what not to do when flying an aeroplane. Wreckage of a Light Flight pilot killed with his dad on the day he got his licence.

June - Mark returns for his Varsity Winter vacation

June 19 - Father's Day lunch with my mom and kids

June - first dual cross-country to Margate, Richmond, Ixopo and Cato Ridge

June - Mc Naught and Co wins Best Legal Services award

June - we visit Johannesburg Tedderfield Airfield to meet Mike Blyth of The Airplane Factory and see our Sling airplane in production

30 June - Dave's first Solo Flight

July - we dress up for the July Handicap Races at Greyville Race Course

July - the kids chilling and soaking up Durban's glorious winter sun

July - on Mark's return to studies in Cape Town we pay him a visit and enjoy the Cape, the wines and the song..

July - Cape Town rocks!

August - Llewellyn turns 41 and the twins 11

August - the Phoenix runs around just north of Durban

August - Llewellyn organises a table at the Madame Zingara spectacular and dinner in Durban

24 August - Dave gets spoilt on his 53rd birthday

31 August - we jet off on Emirates from Durban to Jordan and Syria

September - Amman, the capital of Jordan

September - we met some awesome guys on our desert safari and enjoyed too many beers on the shores of the Red Sea

September 15 - Dave takes delivery of our new Sling Airplane from James of The Airplane Factory in Johannesburg, flying up with Instructor Brad to fly the plane back to Durban together.

September - Dave gets to fly this cute helicopter at Light Flight

September - A welcome braai for the Sling - ZDL Red Rocket at Light Flight

October - during the year we host several Couchsurfing guests at the Guesthouse