Gabriel Wings

Team Leader: Scully Levin leads the Gabriel Wings Aerobatic Team. On the 8th October, 2013 he will be celebrating fifty years of flying, having flown solo only nine days after he turned seventeen in 1963. Scully has over 27 000 hours of flying experience and in between his primary career as an airline pilot, he has been flying as a professional airshow pilot for over thirty years. Scully’s favourite airshow aircraft is the Pitts Special S2B, which he describes as the “Ferrari of the skies”. After having reached SAA’s mandatory retirement age of 63, Scully joined mango Airlines where he flies the Boeing 737-800 on domestic routes.

Right Wingman: Arnie Meneghelli, aged 66, flies as the right wingman. Arnie is a very successful businessman and founded Academy Brushware with his father many years ago. Arnie is a huge aviation enthusiast and likes nothing better than getting to fly airshows on the weekends. He is also

an aircraft collector and owns a number of unique vintage and state of the art aerobatic aircraft.

Arnie has 5 500 hours of flying to his credit, which, given that he flies only on the

weekends, is a considerable amount.

Left Wingman: Sean Thackwray flies on Scully’s left hand side. Sean is a Senior First Officer with South African Airways and flies the Airbus A340 on international routes. By the end of 2013 or early in 2014, he is likely to be upgrading to the rank of Captain and he will then fly the Airbus A319 on SAA’s domestic and regional routes. Sean learnt to fly in the South African Air Force, and having a natural aptitude for aerobatic flying, he was earmarked for further training as a fighter pilot. After completing his initial fighter-pilot training on Impala aircraft, he went on to fly the supersonic Cheetah series of aircraft. Sean has 11 000 hours of

flying experience.

Soloist: Ellis Levin flies the solo routines in the distinctive black and red Pitts Special. Ellis learnt to fly when he was still at school and inherited his love of aerobatic flying from both his grand-father, who was a World War II pilot, and his father, Scully. Ellis has 13 500 hours of flying and has just completed his tour of duty as a Senior First officer on SAA’s fleet of Airbus A340 aircraft. By the last quarter of 2013 he will be flying the Airbus A319 as a Captain on SAA’s domestic and regional routes. Ellis’ solo show is punctuated by exciting low level, high energy, manoeuvres and is timed to fit in between the more graceful manoeuvres that the team flies as a three-some. Ellis is also the most versatile pilot in the team as he is able to fly in any of the four positions that exist, namely as the leader, the right wingman, left wingman or soloist.

Displays scheduled for 2013 and 2014

31st August

Bethlehem Airshow

7th September

Zandspruit Aero Estate Airshow at Hoedspruit

29th September

Rand Airport Airshow

4th, 5th, 6th October

Upington Airshow

12th October

Secunda Airshow

2nd November