FALA/HLA Lanseria 3/19/2008 - 56k = NO

[MarkLawrence]

Lanseria - South Africa's busiest biz-jet/charter airfield that is now used by Kulula.com for commercial service to FADN/DBN Durban, FAPE/PLZ Port Elizabeth and FACT/CPT Cape Town. I spent a morning there doing some shooting. Unfortuantely, my shooting trip to FAJS/JNB OR Tambo Johannesburg International had been wiped out by really wet and cold weather for 3 days and Lanseria was the closest to go for a little shooting - even if the clouds were down and it was a little gloomy.
Lanseria is really a pleasure to shoot at. Firstly, in the 2nd level of the terminal, there is a restaurant that has a glass panel front (a conveniently placed chair can overcome that one) that really gives a good view of the active. The BEST part about Lanseria is the ramp access and - this is the easy part. Right at the vehicle gate is a permit office. All visitors have to report to the permit office to get onto the ramp. So, in I walk - and it was this easy - I'm a visitor from America that does amateur photography and I was wondering if I could get access to the ramp for some shots. Permit Lady - Hold on - let me call the security head - calls - one side of the conversion repeats what I had told her. Certainly - thank you. Please can I have some form of identification. I hand over my Florida drivers license. Permit is filled out. Permit Lady - Please be careful walking around the ramp - have a nice day. And - that was it - instant access to the ramp - close access to the taxiways and active - shoot to your hearts content - everyone just waves and is very friendly. I was asked once by a securty patrol for my permit - showed it to them - thank you - have a nice day! Lanseria is about to get a lot more active as well - 1Time, SA's other LCC is about to start there, and Kulula.com have just filed for a route from Lanseria to London Stanstead - with a 777-200ER - that is planned to start in July! Here are some shots from Lanseria - the first I took when we floew out of there to Port Elizabeth a week or so earlier

The terminal building at Lanseria
http://www.tavustheman.com/images/FALA/FALA-001.jpg
The graveyard for B727's in South Africa is Lanseria
http://www.tavustheman.com/images/FALA/FALA-002.jpg
A private helicopter on the ramp
http://www.tavustheman.com/images/FALA/FALA-003.jpg
B1900C's and D's are very popular here
http://www.tavustheman.com/images/FALA/FALA-004.jpg
King Air's are popular too - this is taken from hangars next to the taxiway
http://www.tavustheman.com/images/FALA/FALA-005.jpg
Kulula B732 lifting off
http://www.tavustheman.com/images/FALA/FALA-006.jpg
Another B1900D resting in front of the hangar - to the right is the main taxiway and active runway
http://www.tavustheman.com/images/FALA/FALA-007.jpg
Old DC-9's also find a use in SA
http://www.tavustheman.com/images/FALA/FALA-008.jpg
http://www.tavustheman.com/images/FALA/FALA-009.jpg
This is facing the main ramp at Lanseria
http://www.tavustheman.com/images/FALA/FALA-010.jpg

[JZ1]

Mark: great shots. Such a good thing that you can just get a permit and walk on to the tarmac...

[mirrodie]

Great !! I'm loving the Z registrations.

Looks like an old Aa 727 tucked in up there?

[MarkLawrence]

It was an old AA 727 - went to a company in Nigeria if I remember right - called IRS Airlines - it lasted about 3 months....

[adam613]

Very interesting shots...all of those Beech 1900s were private planes? I wonder what one of those things costs :)

[MarkLawrence]

There are a couple of larger companies (Rossair for example) that have quite a few 1900's - and a lot of smaller companies that have one or two 1900's in their fleet - I guess they are pretty cheap for SA standards - 1900's and KingAir's are really the work horses of the charter industry in SA.

[LGA777]

Nice job Mark, looks like you had a fun day. The deck/restaurant on top of the Terminal looks great, can you post any shots from their ?

Cheers

LGA777

[MarkLawrence]

Certainly will Ron - I'm still editing some of them.

[Mateo]

ZS-MNT will look familiar to some people; it's the recently-exported N305PA.