Andre Balt

Andre Balt was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on November 26 1949. His parents moved to Cape Town when he was ten. At seventeen he joined the SAAF and in 1968 qualified as a pilot at the Central Flying School in Dunnottar. In 1969, he converted to DC-3’s and remained with the SAAF until 1972 during which period he did 1500 hours on the Dakota out of 1800 hours in total. In 1973, he studied Chemistry at National Diploma level and was employed by De Beers Diamonds until 1979, when he rejoined the SAAF for six years as a Citizen Force pilot, part-time. He was promoted to Captain and awarded the ‘Top Gun’ trophy. In 1992, he captained Convair 580’s but that small airline company went bankrupt and he returned to bush flying doing famine relief in war-ravaged Africa, seeing the new millennium in at the South Pole. He now flies in Algeria and has over 13 000 hours with over twenty different planes on his licence, but his greatest love is still the DC-3! He has two delightful daughters living with their mother in Johannesburg.