Being a surveyor on an air force base during the 1980s
Hennie Hugo, a registered surveyor and retired lecturer in geomatics and surveying for civil engineering, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
THE South African Defence Force, now the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), was involved in a Bosoorlog or Grens Oorlog (Bush War or Border War)1 from 1966 till 1989. In order to protect the most northern borders of South Africa, a number of smaller, shorter perhaps, airstrips or airfields, sometimes referred to as tactical airfields, was constructed or in some cases upgraded. Examples of these include Ellisras (now Lephalale), Punda Maria (in the Kruger National Park) and then a full-scale air force base with a 4,000-metre runway at Louis Trichardt. The construction at Louis Trichardt was given the project name Braambos2.
A little bit of background
Block beacon with GPS. Image supplied by Gerhard Visser.
I joined the South African Air Force during June 1972. My initial trade was a construction machine operator and I was deployed at 402 airfield maintenance unit (402AMU) with headquarters at Air Force Base Ysterplaat in Cape Town.
I completed the training course on 11 February 1976 and during 1977, I got involved in construction surveying while the George – the Southern Cape airport – was under construction. I later got permission to study surveying full-time and enrolled at the Cape Technikon, now the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. I completed the national diploma in surveying in November 1981 and was transferred to Air Force Base Swartkop to 400AMU and became a topographical surveyor early in 1982.
Braambos – the beginning
During April 1982, I was called to air force headquarters to see a civilian chap by the name of Roelf Liebenberg who was working in the design office. He handed me a small piece of paper with two handwritten co-ordinates on it for the points X & Y and asked me to go and set out these two points, upon which I asked where these points were supposed to be since there was neither a coordinate system nor a full X coordinate (southing). He answered that it is roughly 30km from Louis Trichardt3.
With much ‘prodding’ and, I’d say, almost begging, for more information, it was revealed that the two points were situated somewhere on the farms May, Edna, and Flurian and that you have to take a turn-off about 30km before Louis Trichardt at Bandelierkop followed by following a ‘gravel road’. Little did I know at the time that this survey job was to become my trial survey.
The search for data
Obviously, the scant pieces of information were not remotely sufficient to enable me to set out the two points. My first stop was the office of the surveyor general in Pretoria.
They have a register with farm names and their districts, as well as where the farms are situated. From the information I obtained there, I could determine the number of the 1:50,000 topo cadastral sheet on which the farms were situated.
Now there is an old saying that goes as follows: ‘You need not know everything, just make sure you know someone who can help you to find the information required’.
Such a person for me was my student and friend, Gerhard Visser who worked at Trig Survey4 in Mowbray, Cape Town.
He had access to all the surveying information that I could possibly want – co-ordinate lists, triangulation sheets and whatever else I needed.
Gerhard collected the required information and then hand-delivered it to Air Force Base Ysterplaat where it was dispatched on the first aircraft en route to Air Force Base Waterkloof in Pretoria. I could collect it the following afternoon.
Instruments
I was told that a whole set of instruments, used by my predecessor, one H A Kotze who was a warrant officer, was waiting at the technical stores.
I am not sure what I expected, but to my absolute horror, I discovered that the theodolite, a Wild T2 single-second instrument with inverted imaging and still fitted with a split bubble vertical indexing system, and a Wild DI 10 distomat, were the instruments awaiting me.
The rest of the surveying equipment was adequate and, although old, everything was in excellent working condition and well looked after.
There is an old saying that goes as follows: ‘You need not know everything, just make sure you know someone who can help you to find the information required’.I must mention at this point, however, for the sake of the younger surveyors that this was way before total stations, let alone global positioning systems (GPS).
Although the Wild T2 was used widely at the time, it was mostly the automatic indexing model with upright vision.
While the Wild DI 10 distomat made its appearance in the UK in 1969 and there was a small tag dangling from the container with 1969 stamped on it.
Since there was no time to waste on haggling about instruments, it was a matter of packing the equipment, metal pegs, metal tags for X & Y, tents, stretchers and whatever else was needed for the survey. I was given two field assistants, newly employed I think I should add.
One of them, a friendly chap named Aaron was previously a bedding attendant at the army college and Solomon worked in a small spaza shop, also known as a tuck shop. My mode of transport was a ten-seater Land Rover which was later on known as the Defender.
Arriving on site
Travelling to Braambos covered a distance of roughly 420km, a distance that could easily be done in one day. I was told that the owners of the three farms were well aware of my arrival. The farms were expropriated with compensation, although their livestock were still on the farms and one of the farmers lived full-time on Edna. Flurian had a furnished house but the owner lived in Pretoria. I could therefore choose where I wanted to pitch camp.
Starting the survey
For once during this assignment, the angels smiled on me. I discovered that a trigonometrical block beacon was within 250m from X. That evening I did some precalculations to enable me to set up on the beacon, find orientation and place point X.
Early the next morning I was up and out and set up on the beacon by 5.30am. Disaster struck! I could not see a single trigonometrical beacon to enable orientation. I was rattled to say the least and after about an hour of straining my eyes in total disbelief, I decided to give it up. None of the trigonometrical sheets or coordinate lists shed any light on my predicament.
I took my two assistants to town, Louis Trichardt, to buy some food and I marched into the police station to enquire about the local land surveyor, one thing that I did not find out before I left Pretoria. I was directed to a Mr Kitt Sutton.
He was a remarkably friendly and helpful gentleman. We went out for tea and once we settled down, I explained my predicament. He smiled and asked by way of a statement: ‘You are from Cape Town?’ I nodded and he started laughing adding ‘you guys from Cape Town are always over-eager. Wait until 4pm and you will have all the beacons your heart desires.
The visibility, I’ve found is not good in that area in the early hours of the day’. His suggestion was that I give it another try at 4pm.
Staring the survey – Take two
At 4pm, as instructed, I was back on the beacon and ready to start my observations and just as Mr Sutton had predicted, all the beacons that I needed and more were there. My disbelief was palpable, but I was indeed very relieved. Once oriented, it was time to set out X.
In order to protect the most northern borders of South Africa, a number of smaller, shorter perhaps, airstrips or airfields, sometimes referred to as tactical airfields, was constructed or in some cases upgraded – Ellisras (now Lephalale), Punda Maria (in the Kruger National Park) and then a full scale air force base with a 4,000 metre runway at Louis Trichardt.
Now setting out with the Wild DI 10 distomat, I took a bit of a roundabout method.
The easiest way was to set out a point on a line, but a little bit further than required. Once found, you would then measure the distance between that temporary point and in my case, point X. Now, please keep in mind that Aaron was a bedding assistant and Solomon worked in a spaza shop.
So, I had to climb off the beacon, help them with the tape, fortunately, the distance was less than 10m, to measure backwards to X’s position. Then I had to head back to the beacon, direct them on the line, tell them to check the distance and knock in the peg, followed by taking a second walk there to check on the distance myself.
Mission accomplished for point X! Since the 4km centreline had to be opened for the geological survey, I decided to traverse through to point Y and then close the traverse on another trigonometrical beacon.
When I asked Roelf Liebenberg about vegetation and the density of bushes, he said it was nothing to worry about. Luckily, I am someone that generally prepares for the worst-case scenario and therefore I had brought along adequate cutting tools.
It did still take about a kilometre or so to get my two field assistants to understand that I wanted to be able to see along the centre-line and not drive down the centre-line.
Once accomplished, I was able to close the movement on a closer known point of which the coordinate was supplied by Mr Sutton. After placing point Y and checking it, I returned to Pretoria.
Returning to Braambos
I returned to Braambos later during 1982 to start with the setting out of the taxiways and control points for and amongst others, the helicopter area, workshop area and then the positions for the perimeter fence which stretched over roughly 30km. Shortly after arriving at Braambos, a Captain Mark van den Berg and a corporal Jan Rens together with two field assistants from the South African Army arrived on site. Captain van den Berg and his team was tasked to check the accuracy of the positions of X and Y.
At this point, it was plain sailing. The necessary bush cutting had been done and they left for Pretoria two days later which resulted in a letter that Captain van den Berg wrote stating that X’s placing was within 1cm, with Y’s within 2cm. He attributed this to different types of electronic distance metres being used. But I had passed my trial survey and was told by Colonel Thiart that it had been close – I was never told that this was my trial survey!
Dangers on-site and off-site
Another snake that I thankfully never saw, except for a piece of skin that was shed by its bearer, is the luislang, the rock python, reaching six metres-plus or longer. There were, however, some real dangers off-site in the form of waterholes (pubs) in town.As we were not operating in a war zone, there was little danger from terrorists or from land mines. These were found much closer to the far northern border of South Africa.
Danger, however, in the form of snakes was a reality. The rinkhals, also known as the ring-necked spitting cobra, is a venomous snake that could spit its venom a distance of about one and a half metres. You could encounter these quite frequently, but in the majority of the encounters, they would move off into the bush without posing a threat to anyone.
Another snake that I thankfully never saw, except for a piece of skin that was shed by its bearer, is the luislang, (rock python – Python natalensis). These could reach great lengths, about six metres or longer with a body diameter of easily 10cm or more for full-grown snakes. There were, however, some real dangers off-site in the form of waterholes (pubs) in town. Now, one must understand that we had the two main ingredients for trouble, readily available booze (alcohol) and politics.
During 1983, South Africa was in heavy turmoil because of the ongoing political battles, not only apartheid, but also the heavily opposed political views amongst the government and the opposition parties – the Conservative Party and the Herstigte Nasionale Party (Reconstituted National Party).
The barman at the Hotel Louis, Oom (meaning uncle in South Africa) Gidi, was an ardent supporter of the Reconstituted National Party. One evening, after a few beers too many, one of the national servicemen started mocking Oom Gidi to the point where he lost self-control and subsequently gave the servicemen two well aimed fist punches. It resulted in two proper swollen blue eyes and the end of the privilege of the national servicemen to visit waterholes in town.
My quest for a new electronic distance measurement (EDM) instrument
Since I was responsible for all control points – checking the points placed by the two civil engineers who assisted with the general construction of surveying and setting out – I really felt that I needed a new and more modern EDM.
Alas, at the time when I resigned from the South African Air Force, the answer always remained the same ‘we do not have money in the budget’.I enquired about a WILD DI4, the price of which at the time would have been R13,000 (around £640 using a currency converter today). I approached the commanding officer who promised to find funds to procure a new EDM for me.
Alas, at the time when I resigned from the South African Air Force, the answer always remained the same ‘we do not have money in the budget’. No matter how much begging I did, ‘no money’ was the constant answer.
In view of the fact that the calculated budget for the earthworks alone was R60 million (around £3m) in 1983, this was an extremely small price for an instrument that would have eased my life dramatically.
Resignation
I resigned from the South African Air Force on 30 November 1983. From then on, I pursued a career in lecturing at the formerly known Cape Technikon, now known as The Cape Peninsula University of Technology. I retired on 30 November 2019 after 36 years.
Hennie Hugo, a registered surveyor and retired lecturer in geomatics and surveying for civil engineering, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
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1 https://sites.google.com/site/sabushwarsite/overview
2 The completed air force base is now known as Makhado Air Force Base
3 Renaming of Louis Trichardt to Makhado was announced in the SA Government Gazette on 14 October 2011, but Makhado was reverted to its old name of Louis Trichardt during October 2014
4 Trig Survey now known as National and Geospatial Information that resort under Land Affairs and Rural Development