In January we received a mission request from Didi Skinner of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), specifically its Working for Water initiative.  DWAF needed to assess the extent of the invasion of the alien Pom Pom weed, an unwelcome import from somewhere in South America, apparently.  After the mission Col. Bill de Pinho submitted the following report, together with some very impressive pics -:

"The flight took place from Grand Central with Bateleur Pilot Tony Kent in his C182 (ZS-JBW), Bateleur Director Col. Bill de Pinho, Charl Steenkamp from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) and Danie Krynauw from Tswane College (working on research for DWAF).  Didi Skinner was with us briefly for planning before our flight, but she "chickened out" of the flight itself.

The flight took place on one of the clearest days in Johannesburg that I have seen in ages (even with the low scattered cumulus cloud around).  The mission entailed flying along pre-determined routes, mainly along National or Main roads.  Starting from Grand Central (FAGC) we proceeded to the Krugersdorp Fourway Stop/Robot, having checked out the N14 (R28) first for orientation purposes and ideal height for viewing the dreaded Pom Pom.  First we went along the route to Tarlton, then back to Krugersdorp ridge/nek along the N14/R28 and followed the highway (N1) to the Pienaarsrivier offramp, (past Hammanskraal).   The ATC at Waterkloof was very helpful (as well as the Caravan doing touch and goes) and allowed us to transit at 300 foot AGL.  We then transited to Bronkhorstspruit where we flew along the N4 route westwards to the N1 intersection (Pretoria Botanical Gardens).  We flew over the city of Pretoria seeing familiar sites such as the Union Buildings, Loftus, etc.  Then we continued with the N4 (west of Pretoria City) to Hartebeespoortdam.  Once again we transited to Shoshanguve/Mabopane and proceeded south along the R80 to the Daspoort tunnel area.  We then proceeded to do the Rietvlei Dam Triangle (Northern point being the Dam/Nature Reserve area, SW corner being Kalfontein, and SE corner being Bapsfontein area) before returning to FAGC.

The mission was a success and lots of good footage was taken by Danie. Charl marked all the areas on his map, which will be transposed onto his GIS System.  A few photographs taken by myself are attached to this report.  I have included a few taken at ground level as well.

The flight took three-and-a-half hours and was flown at an average altitude of between 300 and 500 foot AGL.  This is not always possible in the controlled air space that we were operating in, but thanks to Tony, who piloted us safely and professionally throughout, and to the navigational skills contributed by myself, we were spot on for what Didi, Charl and Danie wanted us to achieve.

Here's to the follow-up flight scheduled for the end of March or early April, when the "Team" will once again cover the same area to review the result of DWAF's attempts to combat the Pom Pom infestation."