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Stephen Aubury wrote the following letter which accompanies the above two photographs of ZS-EYO.
John,
I have attached two more shots from colour transparencies for you; ZS-EYO at Oudtshoorn on 30.06.1973 and an interior shot taken during the flight itself.
As you can appreciate this was a long time ago but I do have certain memories pertaining to the flight; after all, it was my first flight on a DC3 which had long been my favourite aeroplane. The flight was from Cape Town to George, via a stop in Oudtshoorn, in order to reach my final destination of Mossel Bay. It had been a long trip setting off from Heathrow on the evening of the 28th and on reaching Jan Smuts on the 29th there was an onward flight to Cape Town. I met up with a fellow Company man at Cape Town for an overnight stay before the flight with Air Cape to George.
What I do remember being told in Cape Town was that our onward flight was not assured; we were to be on standby as the flight was full. At some stage my fellow traveller checked with Air Cape to discover that we now had reservations due to a cancellation --- I cannot confirm the veracity of what he said, but I do remember that he told me that a number of seats had been freed and that the person who had cancelled their flight was no less a personage than Gary Player with some family !
Clearly I took the advantage of exiting ZS-EYO on arrival at Oudtshoorn in order to take the attached photograph; I cannot say whether all passengers did deplane here (unfortunately my memory does not stretch this far) but I would think not as it was just the first stop on the ‘milk run’.
The recent comment from John Titterton on your site I can confirm. The descent in to George was my roughest (well, bumpiest anyway) flight ever and I felt distinctly unwell at times. I thoroughly welcomed terra firma on arrival at George, but was disappointed that my first flight in such an iconic aircraft had been quite so unpleasant through the final stages. Now I can at least put the blame on the Outeniqua Mountains and that air pockets are a frequent occurrence in the area; cannot place the blame on the lovely DC3 then !! Anyway I have since had smoother DC3 flights in C. America.
The interior shot of ZS-EYO would have been taken during a smoother part of the flight. It allows you to see the overhead netting that, according to Mr Titterton, you could become intimately attached to if not wearing your seatbelt!! Notice also the lovely curtains and the informality of the open cockpit door.
Best regards Stephen Aubury
December 2009
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DC-3 South African operators 
