The Sling Squawk – June 2026
7 Jun 2026
“Now – after 1,600 hours of work – their dream has taken flight!
Not a model plane or a Meccano construction but an airworthy, four-seater Sling TSi, painstakingly assembled over two years in what became a family affair, with his six-year-old daughter, Tara, sorting packaging and hammering in widgets, while wife, Abi, dealt with the fiendishly complicated paperwork.
To call it a labour of love would be rather an understatement. It has taken 1,600 hours of painstaking effort, not to mention the £160,000 outlay, funded from scrimping, savings and a hefty sum on credit cards.
But today, two years after the first flat-pack box arrived (even aeroplane parts have to be assembled IKEA-style), the Aliserils are the proud owners of G-DIYA, named after their youngest daughter, now three.
Finally, at the end of November 2021, the freshly painted aircraft was signed off as airworthy, although it took a further two months for the paperwork to come through, so it was not until early February 2022 that Ashok could see the aircraft take to the skies, with Sling Aircraft UK Distributor, Tim Hardy, at the controls.
‘After all those months of hard work, it felt amazing!’ he says. ‘It was everything we had worked towards.’”
-Kathryn Knight (The Daily Mail UK)
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.