Headsets, bags, logbooks and the small things you only find you need at three thousand feet. Counter open seven days. Courier goes out at two.
See what's on the shelf
The shop is the front third of Hangar 9 at Rand Airport, with the school's two 172s and the Cherokee parked on the other side of the roller door. Kobus opened the counter in 2009 after twenty-two years instructing off this same apron, and there are three of us behind it now — all of us current, all of us flying something on our days off. That is the whole rule the shelf runs on: nothing goes on it that one of us has not used in an aircraft. If a headset has never been worn on a two-hour nav on a hot Highveld afternoon, we do not stock it. If a bag has not been in and out from behind the seats of a 172 fifty times, we do not know whether the base will hold, so we are not going to sell it to you and tell you it will. It means the range is smaller than a catalogue. It also means we can tell you which of two headsets is quieter without reading the box out to you.
Rand Airport's main gate is off Rand Airport Road in Germiston. Tell the guard you are going to Hangar 9 and sign the visitors' book — you do not need airside access and nobody is going to ask you for a licence. Park on the tar outside the hangar doors and not on the grass; the grass floods within an hour of a Highveld thunderstorm and the tow tractor needs the turn. Open 08:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 14:00 Saturday and 09:00 to 13:00 Sunday, which is when most of you actually fly. Anything paid before 14:00 goes out on the overnight courier the same afternoon, anywhere in the country. Headsets and radios go on the bench and get tested before they are packed, so a late Friday order sometimes leaves on Monday instead — we will phone you rather than let you work it out off the tracking.
Name, email, the aircraft or the rating you are working towards, and what you are after. Kobus or Thandi answers the same day. 011 827 4144 · Hangar 9, Rand Airport, Germiston.
