The Sling Squawk – June 2026
7 Jun 2026
“Peter walks over to inspect the rear fuselage section we have clecoed together – he takes a quick look and says “Yes, that’s right, rivet it.” In my head, and probably written all over my face, is the thought, “What me? Don’t you want to look at it in more detail or get someone who knows how to pull rivets to do it?”
However, to start at the beginning, cast your mind back to the LAA Rally in 2016, where the Association was celebrating its 70th anniversary. As part of the celebration, and as they were looking to start importing their Sling 4 aircraft into the UK, The Airplane Factory from South Africa, with the help of launch customer Lucian D’Sa and great support from the LAA, had the idea to build a Sling 4 in seven days using a team of ten people! Volunteers were sourced through an article in Light Aviation and, when I saw this, the timing was just perfect. I was looking to build a kit, so what better way to gain some experience than as part of this project.
And so it was that eight of us from the UK (of which only two had any previous experience of aircraft building) and four guys from TAF, started to get to know each other in a big tent at Sywell.”
-David Pilkington (Light Aviation Magazine UK)
After twenty-five days, countless flights, three countries and more adventures than we ever could have planned for, the African flying adventure of Josh Flowers and Chelsea Smith of Aviation101, along with Chris Lammert and Keelyn Costello, has reached its final chapter. But there’s still plenty of Africa left to explore…