LFPA bids Fred farewell
After ten years of flying in Tzaneen at the Letaba Fire Protection Association (LFPA), of which the last two seasons were permanent, helicopter pilot, Fred Viljoen is bidding the LFPA farewell.
He has an impressive resume which started in 1978 when he began his training in the SA Air Force with a Harvard which was the training aircraft of the air force at the time. He also qualified as a jet pilot and flew the Bosbok spotter for two and a half years.
He did his helicopter pilot’s license in 1982. In 1992, after he flew in Africa with a DC3 T.P for King Air, he was appointed officer in command of the SAPS Cannabis Spraying Unit in Pretoria. From 2001 until 2005 he was based at the Entabeni Nature Reserve in the Waterberg where he did pleasure trips, game trips and film work.
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For the next four years, he worked in Africa again where he flew to the oil fields and did geographical surveying. Fred came back to South Africa in 2010 when he started Working on Fire to do aerial firefighting for eight years.
Thereafter he flew the medical helicopter for Netcare 911 in Cape Town for a year before starting at Heli-Tractor in 2020 where he flew the Bell-Huey for aerial firefighting again. For the last two years, he was based in Tzaneen for the winter fire season.
