South Africa

Updated July 2010

The "gaps" in the list of serial numbers - African Mysteries

For decades it was unclear what ever happened to serial numbers 012, 017 and 018. For various reasons there are no sales documents, but all three Sagitta's went to South Africa at some stage. After I started the website in 2004, Bruce Greeff from the Whispering Wings Gliding Club in South Africa, reported those three Sagitta's were still around. Two apparently in "tired" condition, but one was almost completely restored by the Sagitta Syndicate of his gliding club. Owners are Hannes Pieters, Neil Viljoen and Peter Kleine. Thanks Bruce for the help in locating these people and the three "lost" Sagitta's!

s/n 019 ZS-GES
Finally, April 2008 Gerda Pieters could report that the fully restored Sagitta ZS-GES serial number 017 made her maiden flight at Paris Airfield! Click on the pictures for larger images.

s/n 018 9J-GAE & ZS-GTG
Thanks to an email in 2005 from Carol Clifford we know that ZS-GTG is still allive as well.
"ZS-GTG is at Magalies Gliding Club in South Africa. It is in reasonable condition and currently up for sale. The past owner left the country and working elsewhere and no longer gliding. It does not have a current LS.1 but is not bad having always been hangared."

That was all information available; numerous efforts to contact previous owners through old registration records were in vain. It took another three years before we got the following email from Dave Thomas about s/n 018, then registered as 9J-GAE in Zambia.

"I can confirm the history of 9J-GAE (s/n 018), as I was the one who exported it from Zambia to RSA in the early 1980's after having the sad duty to suspend the Copperbelt Gliding Club due to lack of membership. I was the last Zambian Gliding Instructor, and we only managed to get three members together in an extra-ordinary meeting to decide what to do with the Club as I was also emigrating.

In the end, we decided to try and mothball the our two-seater Bergfalker (which was badly in need of a new skid), the Olympia 2B, and the winch-launcher and leave them in the hangers, and to export the Sagitta to RSA so it could continue flying there. The hope was that if ever a new Instructor came to Zambia they would have the nucleus to rebuild the club (although we could not guarantee that the Gliders would not be vandalized, as the airfield was practically abandoned). One of the three members intended to stay a few more years in Zambia, and agreed to host all Club records for as long as possible, and to try and find a successor when he left. Unfortunately, I have lost touch with him, so do not know what happened to them. We do know that the club-house and hanger have disappeared completely, although the airfield is still there

So, we packed 9J-GAE into a container, and gave the shipping company instructions to send it straight away. Unfortunately, it took a year or two before it eventually arrived through the RSA customs, and the wings got filled with water somewhere on the journey.

The Baragwaneth Gliding club wasn't interested in restoring it, so we 'sold' it on to someone who was willing to take the risk that the water damage was not severe (unfortunately I no longer remember their name)... from this site I learned that they did eventually get it flying again, which makes me glad we didnt leave it in Zambia, particularly as I heard that the Bergi and Oly were indeed destroyed by vandals. Not sure why there are no records, as I passed on the original Zambian C of A documentation, as well as the import certificates for it. There was no official export certificate for it, as one was not supposed to remove aircraft from Zambia. I cant remember the price we sold it for, but it was barely enough to cover the transport costs.

I had many happy memories flying 9J-GAE, however I think my two best memories of it were

- Our CFI Vic Brierley throwing it around the sky and doing low-level aerobatics (looping off the Ground)

- When I did my 5 hour (Silver C) flight in the Oly, a friend Werner Schueb (R.I.P) did his at the same time in the Sagitta. We shared the sky with my brother Owen (in the syndicate owned Standard Austria), and an eagle. The eagle kept formatting on us, either at our wing-tips or above the canopy, and led us to the thermals. Unfortunately we need a bit more lift than he did, so we couldn't always climb with him, but we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and the five hours went by very quickly.

Not many people flew 9J-GAE, as it was the 'elite' club glider only pilots with over 25 hours flying time (if I remember the amount correctly) were allowed to fly it.
The picture shows the Sagitta with the blue fuselage, and two keen Sagitta pilots 30 years ago, David Thomas and Dave Davis.

We were aware that there was a problem with the C of G, (although werent aware what), so anyone under 65Kg had to take a lead-seat with them to move the weight forward unconfirmed rumour was that if you forgot the seat, you would get into an unrecoverable spin. Not sure how true that was, be assured that I never forgot the lead-seat.

Original colours when I first saw 9J-GAE in the early 1970's were white top and orange underside.

After minor restoration (circa 1976), we painted it a metallic blue (only paint we had available:-). This was a bad choice (for two reasons, it was not really visible against the sky, and the top of the wings got too hot to touch), so we repainted the topside white again. These were therefore the colours when it arrived in RSA.

Many thanks for some nostalgic memories.
Dave Thomas

Update 2010: a surprising two emails shedding even more light on the story

Ray Hill is writing: "The Sagitta which was based in Zambia and taken down to South Africa by Dave Roberts. They both show the late Vic Brierley, the legendary CFI and Chief Inspector of the Copperbelt Gliding Club. Dave wasn't the first owner. It was imported into Northern Rhodesia way back, possibly by Ted Hodges, but that was long before I got out there so I can't be sure. I seem to remember Vic saying that two Sagittas went to the Copperbelt but your records don't seem to support that. Dave bought it when the club folded and somehow got it down South. A brave effort! The first owner might have been a chap who had left for Rhodesia well before I got out there. He was Ted Hodges. By 1971 the owner was the Copperbelt Gliding Club. Dave bought it at the time the club was dying and as he relates, managed to get it down south. What still breaks my heart is that Vic Brierley, whom you see in both photos, cleared me to fly her a few months before I returned to Scotland, but spares needed for a tail repair still hadn't appeared by the time I left, so the name Sagitta doesn't appear in my logbook. Strangely, I remember Vic telling me that two Sagittas were shipped out to Northern Rhodesia, as it then was, and that one had gone south well before I went out. I don't know if your records confirm that. No one where I fly now, Cairngorm Gliding Club had ever heard of a Sagitta before I moved up here.

Craig Brierley (Vic's son) is adding: "I was doing some random google searching when I found your sagitta website and was amazed to read a reference to my father Vic Brierley, my Father was the CFI of the Copperbelt gliding club in mufulira, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), I felt compelled to send you a couple of scans of my father with the sagitta s/n 018 reg at the time 9J-GAE, at some point I am hoping to get some old cine film converted to digital format, one interesting clip is of my father flying in formation with the clubs tug while inverted."

Older stuff, this was all info available in 2004:

Research update 08.08.2004
Found on Lima Papa's South African Civil Aircraft Register
s/n 012 ZS-GGD Current (?) registration from 1975
s/n 017 ZS-GES Current (?) registration from 1965
s/n 018 ZS-GTG Current (?) registration from 1992

An email from Richard Cawsey ( Gliding Links, UK ) suggests that s/n 018 was registered in Zambia in the 60's and 70's and went to South Africa in 1992. Following information was found in a 1980 book of African aircraft registers, published by Air-Britain:

9J-GAE Sagitta 013 (no s/n), Copperbelt Gliding Club, Mufulira
ZS-GES Sagitta (s/n 017), A P Alchin, Port Elizabeth
ZS-GGD Sagitta (s/n/ 012, N P Kelly, Baragwanath

Richard also found a few snippets from "Sailplane & Gliding", indicating that at least one Sagitta has been based in Zambia:

S&G 12.66: Karen Martin brought a Sagitta from Zambia to the Rhodesian Championships in Oct. 1966.
S&G 8.70: Sagitta with John Sangster at Lusaka.
S&G 8.77: A gliding club in Zambia possesses a Bergfalke, Capstan, Olympia, Sagitta and Standard Austria.

If anyone has copies of these issues and would be so kind to scan the articles or pictures and mail them to us, that would be great!

Note from the editor:
Dave Thomas could confirm a lot of this information in 2008 (see above). Thanks!