South African teenagers fly from Cape Town to Cairo on a homemade plane

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A plane built by South African teenagers successfully landed in Egypt six weeks after leaving Cape Town.

The four-seater Sling 4 was badembled by a group of 20 students from very different backgrounds.

The crew landed in Namibia, Malawi, Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Tanzania and Uganda during this 12,000 km (7,455 mile) trip.

Pilot Megan Werner, 17, founder of the U-Dream Global project, said she was delighted with this achievement.

"I am so honored to have made a difference around the continent at the places we stopped.

"The goal of this initiative is to show Africa that anything is possible if you wish," she added.

Another Sling 4 aircraft, piloted by professional pilots, accompanied the teenage pilots, whose purpose was to give motivational lectures for other teenagers throughout the course.

Teens built the plane in three weeks from a kit made in South Africa by Airplane Factory. The construction included the badembly of thousands of small pieces.

Megan's father, Des Werner, who is a professional pilot, said that it would normally take 3000 hours of work to bademble a Sling 4.

The impressive feat had its challenges, said Megan.

In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, they could not get fuel.

"When we finally got it, the support plane started to leak fuel, so that they could no longer fly with us and only two people – Driaan van den Heever, the security pilot, and I continued, "said Megan.

"We feared to cross Sudan because of political unrest in this country."

PHOTO: The plane was badembled by a group of 20 students of very different origins

Megan was one of only six members of the group to have obtained a pilot's license and the six flying tasks shared in their Silver plane, sporting African maps on both wings, as well as the logo of the sponsors.

Basic pilot licensing was another challenge because it only allowed flying at an altitude where the ground was still visible and prohibited entry into the clouds.

The last leg, from Addis Ababa to Cairo via Aswan, put the bravery of the pilots to the test.

"Driaan van den Heever and I flew alone for 10 hours without the support plane, so it was two teenagers, all alone, without support," Megan said.

PHOTO: Project participants (L-R) van den Heever, Werner and Hendrik Coetzer

Both pilots encountered a problem with one of their avionics systems about an hour from the Egyptian airspace. They decided that it would be better to land at the nearest airport in Cairo, instead of the international airport, as planned.

"It created a bit of chaos, but it was done in the interest of safety," said Des Werner.

"In the end, it was just a loose bond that they settled, but the bureaucratic process took a long time to settle because they had to complete a report," he said. -he adds.

"When we landed in Egypt, the authorities wanted to stop us, take our pbadports and licenses, but fortunately, after about four hours, everything was settled and we took fuel and went to Aswan. It was really great to come here, "said Megan.