The Sling Squawk – June 2026
7 Jun 2026
“I met Linda Sollars, A320 Captain and renaissance woman, at Oshkosh last year while I was wandering around admiring the vast array of planes. I’d been following the development of Slings for about 10 years and when I passed ‘Sling Island’ I saw her sitting in her High Wing (HW) Sling 4 chatting to people. She’d flown in from Michigan the day before, where she’d had the original Rotax 915 iS engine replaced with a 160 hp turbocharged fuel-injected Rotax 916.
It was now two years after she’d personally flown the HW from the Sling Factory in South Africa to Oshkosh in 2022 and that was nine months after she’d commenced a full self-build of the plane at the Sling factory near Johannesburg. But her amazing story goes way, way further back than that. I was so intrigued by our five-minute chat that I arranged to sit down with her for a one on one in depth interview the following day.”
– Philip Arthur (Air Chat)
After reaching Cape Town in Part 2, Josh Flowers and Chelsea Smith of Aviation101, along with Chris Lammert and Keelyn Costello, reunite with friends and fly their Sling aircraft north from Stellenbosch through the Tankwa Karoo, before crossing into Namibia and exploring the spectacular Fish River Canyon. From formation flying and the Tanqua Kuru Bicycle Race to fireside celebrations and an off-airport landing in the desert, the journey becomes less about following a plan and more about embracing whatever comes next—because sometimes the most memorable part of flying happens after the engine shuts down.