—African Flying Adventures
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
AFRICAN FLYING ADVENTURES (PTY) LTD
Tour Terms and Conditions
1. Who we are and what these terms cover
We are African Flying Adventures (Pty) Ltd (AFA), registration 2022/507088/07, 50 Long Street, Cape Town 8000, South Africa, [email protected], a member of SATSA. We organise self-piloting flying safaris and wine tours for licensed pilots and their guests, and scuba-diving excursions for licensed scuba divers: accommodation, meals, guiding, ground transport, activities, itinerary planning, flight-planning support and licence-validation assistance. We are not an airline or charter operator. The aircraft is hired by you, as pilot, under our separate Aircraft Hire Agreement (Standard Terms) with its Trip Booking Form, Pilot Details Form, Route and Airfields Plan and Pilot Undertaking. You fly it as pilot in command; your family and friends fly as your guests; nobody pays for carriage by air and no guest contributes to the cost of any flight (on European tours, EASA cost sharing may be permitted as stated in the Hire Agreement). On most group tours an AFA pilot flies a support aircraft along with the tour; at your request and invitation an AFA pilot may instead fly with you as safety pilot, which is not a paid service and no part of the tour price is for it. Seats in the support aircraft are not sold and are not part of the tour; occasionally, free of charge and at AFA's discretion, a member of your party may ride along in it at his or her own request. A pilot who does not bring an aircraft may hire one from us. On a group tour, AFA usually flies along in a support aircraft; on an individual tour, the pilot flies himself or, at his request and invitation, asks an AFA pilot to join as safety pilot. These terms, the Aircraft Hire at a Glance sheet, the Hire Agreement, the itinerary and the website information for the tour are included in our quotation, sent through Xero; accepting the quotation digitally accepts all of them, and no signature is needed. Where your tour is booked through a tour operator, clause 17 applies.
2. What is included
Accommodation and meals, except where the itinerary states otherwise; safari activities included by the lodge in its standard rate; drinking water; itinerary planning, airfield clearances and landing-ground indemnities, cross-border clearances and permits (you remain responsible as pilot for the documents and fees), and, on group tours, a briefing on most flying days.
3. What is not included
Travel to the Meeting Point and home from the final Meeting Point, and all costs before and after; travel insurance and any insurance personal to you; passport, visa, vaccination and medication costs; drinks, which are for your own account, and gratuities; everything to do with the aircraft — hire, Excess Cover fee, fuel, oil, landing, parking, handling, navigation and cross-border charges, the bush-flying checkout and any positioning flight — all of which are contracted and paid under the Hire Agreement; permits and clearances that carry a fee; taxis, local transport, commercial flights and car hire; rescue, medical evacuation and support services.
4. Booking
Tell us you are interested by email or through the website; we send you the Tour Offer, with the itinerary and the Hire Agreement attached, and tell you how long it is valid. Your booking is confirmed when you have accepted the Tour Offer and the Hire Agreement and the tour deposit of EUR 5,000 per person has reached us; we then send a pro-forma invoice for the balance. You may not combine our tour elements, reservations or aircraft hire with those of other suppliers without our written consent.
5. Payment
One schedule applies to the tour and the aircraft:
| What | When | How |
|---|---|---|
| Tour deposit — EUR 5,000 per person (non-refundable) | On acceptance of the Tour Offer | Bank transfer to our Wise or Investec account |
| Aircraft hire — estimated hours plus a deposit of three hours at the hourly rate (VAT as set out in the Hire Agreement and the quotation), plus the Excess Cover fee | Not later than 90 days before the tour, and in any event before handover | Bank transfer to our Wise or Investec account |
| Balance of the Tour Fees (accommodation, meals, ground arrangements) | Not later than 12 weeks before the tour | Bank transfer or card |
| Pilot documents (Pilot Details Form, licence, medical and logbook copies) | By the date in the quotation, normally 75 days before | |
| Charges arising during the tour — extra hours, fuel, landing, parking, handling and cross-border charges paid through us | By card at return of the aircraft, before the end of the tour | Card |
| Final statement, later invoices and refund of unused deposit hours | Within 30 days after the tour; any amount due is payable within 7 days | Bank transfer |
Bank transfers go to our Wise, Investec or FNB account; card payments through PayGate or PayFast in South African rand. Exchange-rate movements and bank or card charges are for your account; card payments are credited net of card fees. Prices exclude VAT, which is added where applicable. Aircraft hire rates shown on our website are indicative only; each owner sets its own rate, and the rate for your aircraft is the one in the quotation. Expenses we incur on your behalf are agreed in advance. Payments are made without set-off. Amounts overdue by either party bear interest at 2% above our bank's prime rate.
6. Cancellation and refunds
If you cancel, or fail to pay by a due date so that we cancel: the deposit is not refundable; other tour payments are refunded less a handling fee of 45%, and only to the extent that lodges, hotels and other providers refund us; cancellation of the aircraft hire is governed by clause 2.5 of the Hire Agreement. Changes you request after confirmation are subject to an administration fee of EUR 1,500 plus any change in cost, and take effect seven days after we confirm them. If we cancel the tour for any reason other than your breach, we refund everything paid to us within 30 days; we are not liable for other costs you have incurred, such as flights to the Meeting Point, and recommend travel insurance that covers them.
7. Insurance
Take out comprehensive travel insurance when you book, covering accidents as a passenger in a vehicle or light aircraft, flying a hired aircraft, medical evacuation from remote areas, search and rescue, and any evacuation, hospitalisation or quarantine a government may require. We cannot approve your cover and are not responsible if it is inadequate. As pilot you are covered by the Excess Cover and the pilot liability cover we arrange under the Hire Agreement (clauses 5.2 and 5.4); the aircraft owner's policy and deductible are explained in the Insurance Summary sent with the quotation.
8. Passports, visas and health
Your passport should be valid for six months after the tour with two blank pages; apply for visas in good time. Ask your doctor about vaccinations and medication and tell the doctor you will be piloting an aircraft, as some malaria and other medications are unsuitable for pilots; carry your vaccination record. Southern Africa is not a yellow fever area; a yellow fever certificate is required only if you arrive from, or transit for more than 12 hours through, a yellow fever risk country such as Kenya or Ethiopia. Governments may impose health entry requirements at short notice; meeting them is your responsibility and we may be unable to take you if you do not. If you need medical care during the tour we will try to obtain it and inform your insurer; give us your next-of-kin details, and you agree to repay the costs we incur, for which we provide receipts.
9. The tour
At least two weeks before departure we send the tour information: Meeting Point, itinerary, what to bring, and the flying notes on route, airfields, clearances, the insurance limits and any excluded areas such as the Lesotho Mountains; on group tours we brief on most flying days. Accommodation is in good-quality hotels and lodges; we also use tented camps, roof tents or ground tents in unfenced areas where wildlife is active, and standards in some countries are lower than in Europe or North America, so we ask for flexibility. Single rooms are generally available at extra cost. Most tours require reasonable fitness and appropriate footwear; be prepared to walk a couple of miles a day on uneven ground. Soft bags are advised; as pilot you set the baggage weight for your aircraft.
10. Route and airfields
The itinerary sent with the quotation sets out the route and the airfields. It may change and the lodges may differ from the initial plan, as clause 11 says. Where an airfield owner requires permission or an indemnity, we obtain the form, you sign it, and you land there only once we hold the signed form and have confirmed that you are cleared. On group tours our support aircraft flies the route with you. If you fly independently of a group, any change of route or landing ground needs our permission first, by WhatsApp, Garmin inReach or email, except a diversion the pilot in command considers necessary for safety, which you report as soon as possible.
11. Changes and the aircraft
This is Africa: we need, and reserve, the freedom to adjust the itinerary, the route and the lodges. A place may become inaccessible for reasons outside our control (weather, natural disaster, political events, a permit not granted), a lodge may be unavailable, or new information such as the movement of wildlife may make a change better for the group. We tell you of a change as soon as we decide it, replace accommodation with accommodation of a similar standard where reasonably possible, and in some cases the extra cost is yours. Such changes do not entitle you to cancel. If the aircraft becomes unserviceable or is unavailable through no fault of yours, the Hire Agreement governs the aircraft (no hire charges while it is down, a substitute aircraft where we can find one, otherwise a seat in another aircraft on the group tour); for the tour we re-plan around the substitute aircraft or by road where practical, and lodge costs we cannot recover remain payable while any amount a provider does refund is passed on to you.
12. Your obligations
Hold the travel insurance in clause 7, a valid passport and any visa, medical clearance and the fitness the tour requires; as pilot, meet the requirements of the Hire Agreement, deliver your documents on time, sign the airfield indemnities we obtain and, when flying independently of a group, ask before changing route; and have every member of your party sign the Passenger Acknowledgement before flying. Follow the instructions of our tour leader. If in our opinion you act in a way that may cause an accident, injury or serious displeasure to others, we may exclude you from the rest of the tour; we may also terminate the agreement if you are in material breach or more than 30 days late with a payment, in which case all amounts owing become due.
13. Our liability
Our total liability to you in connection with the tour, in contract, delict or otherwise, is limited to the Tour Fees you have paid, except for liability that cannot be limited by law. We are not liable for anything that happens before you reach the Meeting Point or after you leave the final one, for your failure to reach it on time, for the number or quality of wildlife you see, for goods or services you buy other than those we arranged, for medical problems, infectious disease or other medical emergencies, for your own or your party's carelessness, for acts of third parties or wildlife not connected with the tour, for standards of service, safety or hygiene abroad that are lower than at home, for delays or cancellations by airlines and other carriers (pursue the airline under the rules that apply to it, such as EU Regulation 261/2004), or for problems we could have resolved during the tour but which you raise only afterwards. Liability in respect of the aircraft is governed exclusively by the Hire Agreement. Neither party is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss or loss of profit. Nothing in these terms excludes liability for death or injury caused by gross negligence or any liability that cannot be excluded under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008. You indemnify us and our staff against claims arising from your breach of these terms or the acts or omissions of you or your party, except to the extent caused by our negligence.
14. Force majeure
Except for the obligation to pay money due, neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including weather, natural disaster, acts of government, permit and customs delays, unrest, war, epidemic, airspace or border closure and the unavailability of avgas. If such an event prevents the tour we first seek to reschedule; if it continues for more than 60 days either party may terminate on written notice and amounts paid are refunded less costs we have irrevocably incurred and cannot recover.
15. Photos and intellectual property
Our itineraries, briefings, documentation and website content are ours. Photographs and video you take are yours; you give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use images you share with us or post publicly about the tour for our marketing, with credit where practical, which you may withdraw for any image by email.
16. Personal information, complaints and law
We process your and your party's personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 and, for EU residents, the GDPR, for the tour, pilot approval and validation, insurance and regulatory compliance, and share it only with the providers, the aircraft owner, its insurer and the authorities as needed. If anything falls short, tell your tour leader immediately so we can put it right; if it is not resolved, send us full details in writing immediately after your return. These terms are governed by South African law; the parties submit to the jurisdiction of the High Court of South Africa, Western Cape Division, Cape Town, and of any Magistrate's Court with territorial jurisdiction. We may subcontract parts of the tour without being relieved of our obligations. Neither party may cede this agreement without the other's consent. This agreement is concluded by your digital acceptance of the quotation, is the whole agreement on its subject, and may be amended only in writing. If a provision is invalid the rest stands. Notices are given by email to the addresses on the quotation.
17. Bookings through tour operators
A tour operator may offer our tours in one of two ways. Agency: the operator acts as our sales agent under a separate agency agreement; each participant is our Client, receives our quotation (directly or through the operator), accepts these terms as in clause 1, and pays either us or the operator, which collects for us and pays us over; the operator's commission is settled between us and the operator. Wholesale: the operator books as principal under a Trade Booking Addendum and is then the Client for the ground arrangements of the participants it names; it is responsible for passing the itinerary, the tour information and these terms on to each participant, for providing us with each participant's details in time, and for ensuring that every participant signs the Passenger Acknowledgement before flying. In both cases the hire of an aircraft is always a direct contract between the pilot concerned and us under the Aircraft Hire Agreement: a tour operator is not a party to it, does not offer, sell or collect payment for aircraft hire or carriage by air, and no part of any price a participant pays the operator is for flying. We are not bound by any representation a tour operator makes beyond our Tour Offer.
