Life as an aviator in Africa.

This picture above is of the ladies just outside my compound gate that set up shop every morning. They provide a cooked breakfast for the Askari's (security guards) and whoever else wants a handy cooked breakfast. You can see the flames from the small wood fire underneath the pot.

Yesterday I flew the afternoon bus service around the houses (the spice islands) which involves 3 stops each way and takes just under 4 hours to complete. Add on the hour each way for Dar es Salaam traffic and 45 minutes arrival at the airport prior to departure....and my day turns out to be a massive 6 hours and 45 minutes long, almost an honest days work.

Anyway Taking off from runway one eight out of Zanzibar with a left turn for the North easterly heading for Pemba I was right on the heals of another company Caravan bound for Pemba. I did not take too much notice of the Kenyan registered ATR 42 ( A twin engine turbo prop aircraft that is considerably larger than the little Cessna Caravan I was piloting) which was lined up behind me in Zanzibar....even though it was heading to Mombasa in Kenya which is on a very similar track as the Pemba track. About 6 minutes after take off I was in my content little world climbing through Flight level 040 (4000 feet) I had the company traffic about 1 mile ahead insight which I was slowly gaining on.......when I saw a white flash out to my right! Now had I been expecting it, I would of had my camera out ready instead I almost jumped out of my seat! The pilots in the Mombasa bound ATR had decided to pass by my little Caravan no more than a wing length apart at about twice the speed I was traveling, before turning off onto their correct heading...It looked very specy as an old lecturer at flying school would have said.

An ATR 42 from Fly 540, may have indeed been the one that roared passed me yesterday.

On Saturday afternoon I think East Africa had a general communication breakdown, well it seemed that way to me at work. First after arriving at work I strolled out onto the apron to check out the Caravan I was scheduled to fly, I climbed up into the cockpit, turned a fuel selector on to stop the incredibly loud beeping sound that would scream out if I turned on the master power switch without a fuel tank selector open (It is these alarms and things that make a Caravan almost idiot proof...touch wood). I then switched on the master and nothing happened, hmmm. A senior ramp attended strolled up and said 'no power, there is no battery'. Well no one had told me the engineers had taken the battery for another aircraft which was having battery trouble as this was the VIP plane it didn't fly as often. I called up operations who quickly assigned me another Van (retarded pilot talk for Cessna Caravan) which had just landed. The disembarking pilot told me the pilot seat was not locking in place...he had used the bolt usually used to hold the tail stand in place when parked to lock the seat in one position until he got back to Dar es Salaam. Two broken planes and it was nearly time for take off. Finally the engineers fixed the seat and I got away to the afternoon Selous flight 30 minutes late...not too bad as this is Africa.

I had 3 stops in the Selous Game reserve. First stop Stieglers Gorge....no vehicle to pick up my passengers. I can't just leave my passengers and go, you never know what critter may consider them as LUNCH. I loaded the passengers back on board they were going to have to come to Dar es Salaam for the night. As I was about to take off the 4wd flying out of the bush to the airstrip....that was close. Second stop was another drop off....I saw no vehicle again! But as I shut down the engine a guide materialized out of the bush with a small Asian man armed with a large camera to greet my passengers. Apparently there had been so much rain the road was washed out and the guides had come by boat to the airstrip. The small Asian man had a ticket for my flight despite my manifest saying nothing about picking up a small Asian man up from Siwandu airstrip. I had enough seats empty this problem could be sorted in Dar es Salaam later and so I welcomed him on board. Third stop was Mtmere, here half the wildlife in the Selous game reserve seemed to be holding a meeting on the airstrip! I closed the meeting with a mock low level strafing run down the airstrip which was reinforced by a safari land rover on the ground.

When one is having a BBQ (Braai to South Africans) using Charcoal there is no better way to get the coals glowing than a few drops of JET A1 (Jet fuel). Above is my Jet A1 powered BBQ on my balcony.

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Flying in Africa, living the dream...well occasionally

I spent the last two nights up in the North of Tanzania, one night in Arusha and the other was my first ever night stop at the Serena Lodge on top of the escarpment at Lake Manyara. As you can see from the infinity pool with a 700 foot drop behind, it doesn't disappoint. It's a hard life when you get paid to stay in these nice safari lodges.....

Early this morning on my 22 minute dash/flight from Lake Manyara to Arusha I noticed something odd at the top of Mount Meru......it was snow! In the two years I have been in Tanzania I have never seen snow on Meru. This is the middle of Summer not even winter. Then I go and read articles that say the snows of Kilimanjaro are melting....due to global warming, etc, etc. Well if the little brother (Mt Meru) got a light dusting of snow surely the larger sibling (Mt Kilimanjaro) which stands 6000 feet higher must of got a absolute dumping of snow!

Through the bug splattered perspex windscreen of the Caravan I took this photograph of another Caravan making a quick exit from Msembe in the Ruaha national park.

Whilst enjoying a baridi sana (very cold) bottle of Kilimanjaro beer from the pool side bar at Serena lodge yesterday afternoon I took this photo of the Lake Manyara airstrip threshold. Where the grass ends near the cliff is the threshold for runway three zero. I have mentioned those radio aerials in my April 15 post last year. These are the aerials pilots use to locate the airstrip when flying along below the escarpment when a very low cloud base exists...I mean the cloud sits right on the edge of the cliff. Back In December when I was flying I heard 4 aircraft turn back to Arusha because they couldn't even see the radio aerials as the cloud base was below the escarpment.One of the many rivers that run through the city of Arusha they are fed by the mountains behind the city. In the background a game of football (soccer) is taking place.

A routine fuel stop in Dodoma. No Electric pumps here, manual labour must be cheaper. These two guys manually pumped 300 litres of Jet A1 into the Caravan. The action requires one guy on each side of the rocker handle...they have their routine down pat.

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Bush flying jobs, they are out there

Flight level 105 (10500 feet), clear skies, auto pilot doing the work.....living the dream all I was missing was donuts, coffee and somebody serving them.

Now I am sure many of you are keen to know what the title is about.

I get a few emails from time to time from pilots wanting to fly in Africa and want to know the best way to go about obtaining a bush flying job.

I always say the same thing and it is something I frequently mention in my Ebook.......

You just have to book a ticket and go!

There is only so much info one can obtain off the Internet. Then there is our favourite pilot rumour network- I read these forums occasionally but never participate. I see the rumour network as somewhere for pilots with something to whinge about to whinge. Yes there is a lot of valuable information hiding amongst all the depressing whinge fests.

More often than not...well I have anyway when looking for work have left forums more in despair than a feeling of having acquired some useful information.....It will always say the jobs have gone....This is true because someone else booked their ticket, turned up, got the job, while the forum junkies were waiting at home for confirmation of job openings.

The operator I fly for hired 4 pilots in January for the Cessna 206 and the Caravan. There are other operators also looking for pilots around Tanzania. Ok for low timers most of the jobs going in Tanzania require minimum of 1000 hours total time as it is mostly Caravan flying....but the pilots who are turning up and taking the jobs have come from other operators around Africa. Like the 4 pilots hired by the company I am with came from jobs in Botswana, Namibia and Zambia....this means some sort of vacum must be beginning to take shape.

Those low hour job vacancies will be snapped up by the pilot there on the ground...not by the pilot sitting on his computer in Europe/America/Australia/New Zealand.

This picture above and the two below were taken by the pilot I work with, with the really good camera, Aaron Cawsey. The above picture is the volcanic vent at the top of Oldonyo Lengai which every other year spews Ash and other volcanic debris out into the atmosphere.The other mode of flying or drifting around the Serengeti national park.

A young giraffe about to become supper near Kleins camp in the Serengeti national park.

Dhows sailing in the Zanzibar sunset which is silhouetted by a dirty great Cumulonimbus (cloud) on the horizon.

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Cessna Caravan vs African bull Elephant!

Apparently with his ears spread out he is only bluffing!...But I am sure if he meant it the 2 million dollar Cessna would probably come off worse. The rains in the Ruaha national park in December and the beginning of January have brought the usually drought stricken Park to life in abundance. Even with thousands of acres of succulent grassland and water everywhere a lot of game still seems to be living right near and on the airstrip at Msembe...most common Ruaha airstrip dwellers are Impala and Elephants...There is also regular threshold displacements as Giraffes create obstructions by just standing among the thorn bushes on the western threshold at Msembe airstrip.

No wonder the bull elephant wasn't happy with me and my Caravan, because his herd of ladies were cut off by me on the other side of the airstrip.

Two weeks ago my little Aussie lady and I went over to the powerless island of Zanzibar for the night to attend a good friends wedding...

.....I better quickly fill you in on the power problem..or lack of it for that matter in Zanzibar. In mid December 2009 all the 1.2 million inhabitants of Zanzibar were plunged into prehistoric times. Now of course power cuts are apart of life here in Africa, but Zanzibar still hasn't got power after it went out 7 weeks ago! It will apparently be restored by the end of February. Remember this is the middle of Summer in the tropics. I cannot help but be sorry for the thousands of tourists who paid thousands for their exotic getaway on the rundown historical tropical island...it's like paying $500 per night for a Sauna while you sleep!! One can only blame the appropriate authorities for not maintaining the islands Electrical grid and cable linking to the mainland for the last forty years....They only had a slight warning when there was a month long power cut back in May 2008. I wonder which Western Government or charity will pay for the repairs.....

....Back to the wedding. My Scottish mate (friend) who I went to flying school with and now flies for a local operator on Zanzibar had his wedding at sunset out on a sandbank just off shore from Stonetown two weeks ago. It turned out to be a bloody good wedding with a reception on the peer at Mbweni ruins afterwards...and for a penny pinching Scotsmen he put on fair amount of food and Drink (I didn't fly until 1400 the next day...12 hours bottle to throttle).

Yes of course all just married couples go and chase birds to consummate their marriages.

I know in the past I have talked about how tricky Arusha airport can be to get into in marginal weather conditions with....subtly sloping topography, Mt Meru climbing to 14000 feet very close to the northeast and Monduli at over 8000 feet (claimed its last Cessna 206 in 2008) to the North West. But to top it off every other approach is plagued with these pimples rising from the landscape up to 1000 feet. With no approved precision approach and many many daily schedules into this airport life can get interesting when the weather turns to custard... forget about the boss and make the decision that keeps you alive.

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New operator in Tanzania 'Safari Plus'

Here in Tanzania a new operator is very close to starting up a schedule and charter service throughout Tanzania. They are part of the large Hoteliers 'Kempinski'. They will be operating under the name 'Safari Plus'

The fleet at present consists of two well equipped Beech 1900D's and one Beech Kingair 350.

One point that interests me is this operator is going to be taking the 1900's into bush airstrips like Seronera. At 5000 feet above sea level this airstrip is 1500 metres long with about 800 metres of gravel and the other 700 metres is grass which has many disguised holes dug by the various wild animals that dig holes on the Savannah.

The proposed schedule will be daily flights from Dar es Salaam-Zanzibar-Arusha-Seronera (in the Serengeti national park) and then done again in reverse back to Dar es Salaam. I am not too sure if this is accurate as they haven't got the schedule up and running yet.

Now it would be good to see this operator get up and going...especially with the nice hardware they have. Nice to see other aircraft other than the trusty old Cessna Caravan beating around the bush.

The new operator that I mentioned in my 1st of June post Indigo Aviation with the old 1947 model Dakota haven't flown there schedule in months...unless they fly at night when I'm not out flying. It was always going to be difficult to run a daily schedule route with one old Dakota.

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Caravan Engine failure... severe PT6 (turbo prop engine) malfunction revisited

I know being the New year i should be looking ahead not dwelling on 2009...but I thought this is a good time to post the bore scope video of what happened to the power turbine when I was final approach to Zanzibar Island in November.

As you could see a blade was missing....it must be embedded in a house roof somewhere over Stonetown. As I spoke about in my November 22 post, I had a catastrophic engine malfunction in a Cessna Caravan. I mentioned the deafening high pitch scream the turbine was creating...well if you looked close enough you can see a damaged blade next to the missing blade. This damaged blade was scraping against the outside of the turbine casing as it rotated at 30000 RPM....hence the deafening screaming!

Had the flight been much longer the power turbine would have picked up the tempo and fired more blades out the exhaust as the turbine became more imbalanced.

With a new power plant strapped (bolted) on the front the old damaged engine is loaded in the back for the short hop back to Dar es Salaam.

Last minute checks on the new turbine.....hmmm looks Ok.

In my very last post I spoke about the wash out at Matambwe airstrip in the Selous game reserve. The very next day an old school Tanzanian pilot flying for a charter company touched down at Matambwe.....BEFORE the wash out! He saw the grand canyon in the airstrip too late and was unable to avoid the trench through the airstrip. Everybody on board was unhurt but now there is a crippled sitting out in the bush with a completely warped propeller...there is no visible damage to the nose wheel despite the large trench it fought with.

On a better note that doesn't involve aircraft incidents...which are rare for the volume of bush flying that is carried out here. I presently have a good Irish mate and his fiance staying with me while he is job hunting here in Tanzania. The two of us were at flying school in new Zealand together then flew in Maun together...I have lost count of how many pilots (bums/underpaid bus drivers) who I few with in maun who have used my spare room in the last year.

I'm hoping for kick backs in a few years when all those pilots have cushy jobs flying something big with a fat pay cheque....I will then give them a subtle reminder of when I provided a place to crash when they were desperate....haha we'll see

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The Holiday season above the savanah

Since my full on whinge about bad weather over Christmas the weather has made a change for the better....to my utter relief! Some pilots don't seem to have any fear about embedded thunderstorms and mountains hiding in clouds....either I'm a pussy or they are nuts!

With all the Brits (Poms as we call them in New Zealand) escaping the cold in England for the holiday season for a African safari with a bit of sun burning on the beach in Zanzibar all of us pilots have been flying like mad. The last three days I have only been flying charters....it's a nice change to the usual schedule routes. The above picture is of Ngorongoro crater whilst enroute from Zanzibar to Seronera in the Serengeti National park. I know in the past I have posted pictures of the crater, but it never ceases to amaze me when I fly over it in clear weather. It's an ancient unflooded volcanic caldera, 2000 feet deep and is home to around 25000 large wild animals....on a half day safari you are almost guaranteed to sight the BIG 5 .
Two days ago I had a flight to Matambwe gate in the Selous game reserve. I was told before taking off out of Dar es Salaam that i must check the airstrip before landing as it may have washed out during the recent heavy rains. Well as you can see it is washed out! Though it doesn't look it from 300 feet above the ground but that trench through the middle of the airstrip is waist deep....and being situated 400 metres in from the threshold it is enough to write off any non cautious pilot in a fixed wing aircraft. As a kiwi farmers son I'd say all it needs is a culvert pipe, a tractor and a days work to fix....but I bet it will be in this state for months to come. At least the airstrip is long and still usable for us pilots in our small bug smashers (Caravans & C206s).

Company Caravan landing at Kiba in the Selous.

The two pictures here are of Lake Manyara. I took these pictures on various charters over the last few days. Today whilst approaching Lake Manyara airstrip which is perched up on the escarpment above the lake I saw a spectacle I had never seen before. At first I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at....a thick PINK line which stretched out for about a mile and it was gliding across the lake surface? Then as I got lower I realized and marveled at the THOUSANDS of Pink Flamingos flying low over the water! It was amazing to watch...sorry I never got to take a picture as i was kind of close to landing, so my hands were kind of full. Plus my little Olympus point and shoot camera wouldn't have done the spectacle justice.

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Out flying Christmas day....at home would have been safer

Me on Christmas day flying with my Santa hat on.

Yes I had to fly Christmas day...no big deal it's an occupational hazard. I was also rostered on to fly one of the best Cessna Caravans in the fleet fully equipped with all the bells and whistles....so I couldn't complain there either.

The day consisted of a 0830 (local time) departure from Dar es Salaam on the schedule run to the Ruaha National park via the Selous game reserve. The flight consisted of 2 stops in the Selous and 2 in the Ruaha.....easy done it dozens of times.

Was I in for a shock!

Airborne out of Dar at 0847, only 15 minutes late that's bloody good for Tanzania. Before I had even climbed through 1000 feet I was in rain with the weather radar screen painting horrible shapes and colours everywhere. With a bit of evasive action to the North and then to the South I came out clear of the thin line of BUILDING weather. Getting up to 6500 feet it was a nice cruise above the cloud. The two stops in the Selous were uneventful (the way aviation should be). Now climbing out of a Selous airstrip called Kiba with a full load of tourists bound for the Ruaha I had an Italian mate in a Cessna 206 radio me on the traffic frequency 118.2 (Tanzania uncontrolled traffic frequency) saying he was climbing out of Stieglers Gorge airstrip heading for Dar es Salaam. Stieglers and Kiba are about 8 or so miles apart both have 500 foot elevation with a 1300 foot hill in between. We were on conflicting tracks though we couldn't see each other, my TCAS (traffic collision avoidance system or something like that) couldn't see him either...but we knew we were close. Then all of a sudden he saw me, I saw him the TCAS screamed 'TRAFFIC TRAFFIC!' as we both climbed over the hill. We passed safely despite the TCAS's complaints, but had we not been keeping a listening watch on the traffic frequency it could have been a big fright for the both of us. I later heard him struggling to get through the large line of thunderstorms blockading Dar es Salaam.

I climbed up to Flight level 100 (10000 feet) to clear the Udzungwa mountains. As I approached the mountains that slight feeling of apprehension began stirring in the pit of my stomach....there was terrible weather ahead from the mountains onwards! Had I been in a Cessna 206 I would have turned for home with my tail firmly between my legs. Though the cloud and rain ahead looked terrifying the radar was only painting green...not too bad. The autopilot was holding station nicely as I entered the cloud, it wasn't bumpy so no immediate thoughts of disengaging the autopilot. It is a lot easier to fly IMC (basically flying blind in cloud) with an auto pilot to keep you right side up. I spoke to a company Caravan from Arusha to the Ruaha flying past Dodoma(Tanzanias political capital city/town/village) , I asked him how the weather was over his way...his response 'I don't know I can't see a thing through all this cloud and rain'.....hmmmm. Now 45 minutes in complete white out starts playing on your nerves whilst flying single pilot under Instrument rules over mountains with only one engine (I could feel more hair growing on my chest). With the autopilot holding nicely I noticed the passenger in the front seat next to me watching everything with a knowledgeable eye, I asked him if he had flown before, turned out he flies helicopters for the British military. It was a good distraction to talk to him for a few minutes.

With 18 minutes until I reach my destination the NDB ( world war two era navigational device basically an electrified clothes line) needle reverses and I confirm this with the TWO nice Garmin GPS's that I am over Iringa...time to descend. The weather was now horrific flying now in complete yellow according to the radar! The rain suddenly became so heavy as I began my decent that I not only turned on the igniters but also opened the inertial separator....I had never opened this during flight except for bush landings. I had never flown in such heavy rain I was thinking it must be almost impossible that nothing other than water was entering the turbine! At 7000 feet I broke out visual between two layers of cloud the ground was covered in a low lying cloud layer...the rain eased here. 5 miles northeast of Msembe airstrip I got through a hole in the low cloud and flew 500 feet above the ground to the saturated airstrip. Once landed, I quickly dropped off my pax (shop talk for passengers) before mentally preparing for the next interesting flight.

The next airstrip was Jongomero which was 25 miles up the Ruaha river and 500 feet higher than the present airstrip...hmmm and the cloud here was only 500 feet above the ground.

So I took off with a early right turn for a scud run (low level) up the river, the helicopter pilot next to me was loving...I had my grim face on. A Caravan had crashed two months earlier at Jongomero in very similar conditions, (pilot and the one passenger were unhurt) so I wasn't going to push my luck here. With a 200 foot circut poor visibility and light rain I safely touched down at Jongomero.

Now all I had to do was fly all the way back through 2 hours of rain, cloud and thunderstorms before I could have my Christmas dinner in Dar es Salaam.

The flight back was just as horrendous until 30 nautical miles from Dar, here I was greeted with sunshine...

...Christmas day 2009 was easily one of the worst flying days i have encountered in nearly 2000 hours flying in Africa, at least I did not have to worry about Icing.

Last week repositioning from Arusha to Dar es Salaam riding as passenger in a Cessna 404 we pass this lumbering Cessna 208 Caravan.....sorry about the sun damaged window

Enjoying a sun downer from the Arusha backpackers roof top bar I took this picture of Mount Meru.

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Bush flying away

The top picture is from our room at Ras Kutani looking out to the Indian ocean....not bad

Earlier in the week I had a night stop at the small beach side retreat of Ras Kutani...ok I had to fly the Cessna 206 there but I was able to take my little Australian lady along with me...a nice perk of the job. After a short walk down from the airstrip the easiest way to reach the resort is by row boat.Part of the short walk down from the airstrip.Enjoying the afternoon from the pool....before having to fly the honey mooners out to Dar es Salaam early in the morning for the British Airways connection Yesterday I was on a repositioning flight via Zanzibar I got to enjoy a rare opportunity to sit in the back of a Cessna Caravan.
A few days back I took this picture of Siwandu airstrip in the Selous game reserve if your really look hard you can see a Caravan at the left hand threshold.

On my way to Arusha 4 days ago it was one of those rare days where I am not flying over a solid layer of cloud at 10000 feet. I took this photo of the clay pan 70 Nautical miles south of Arusha called Ruvu Masai. There is somewhere down there an unmarked airstrip which I wrote about in my July 27th post when I couldn't find it.

Last Wednesday I pulled into a local butchery in the centre of Dar es Salaam and felt a large bump....I wondered what I had hit?! After inspection I found it was this open man hole! This is quite standard in Dar a lot of the man hole covers are missing adding another hazard to daily commutes. I am incredibly lucky that the front end of the corolla is still not in this exposed man hole.

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An entertaining read of a modern day pioneering aviator

Gertie's Day Out

This book is written by a colleague of mine, she is the safety officer for the operator I fly for here in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Now Eve Jackson or Eve as we all call her at work has had real adventures!

Like flying from England to Australia in a microlight with a two stroke engine or being taken captive by rebels in Sudan!

If you put these flying adventures down in writing with a little outgoing eccentric English humour it is well on its way to being an entertaining read!

Weather you are a passionate about aviation or just enjoy reading about the ambitious exploits of outgoing individuals, this is a highly recommended read for you!

The book is available on Amazon as an Ebook or Paperback.

Gertie's Day Out

Bush pilots automatic sphincter reaction

Now with a title that has the word 'sphincter' in it and with a picture of a Cessna Caravan seat( the Captains/where the only pilot sits) with a large patch of leather missing, you maybe confused?
Well when I climbed into this Caravan last Thursday for a days flying....this was the first thing that caught my attention...A dirty great hole in the centre of the seat!?
My only guess is the previous pilot got themselves into a rather scary situation, like severe turbulence and their sphincter muscle has had an automatic reaction where it grabbed a mouth of the seat to try anchor itself and owner to the aircraft seat....The pilots sphincter obviously lacked faith in the 5 point harness.
This is the completely uneducated conclusion I have drawn to explain why this seat has a large section of leather missing.Maybe the pilot found themselves surrounded large thunderstorms, similar to this angry cell i photographed just South of Dar es Salaam airport on Saturday afternoon.Flying South down the coast from Mafia Island to Kilwa on Thursday I managed to miss all the built up weather which was hugging the coastline.

A colleague and I are enroute from Zanzibar to Pemba together on Saturday afternoon.

I have heard a rumour recently and I haven't been able to find any evidence anywhere on the Internet....maybe I will have to research in the old fashioned ways, like before Google existed. The rumours are that late next year in Tanzania my best friends the bureaucrats at TCAA (Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority) are introducing a law for any aircraft that is carrying more than 9 passengers it must have two pilots. This doesn't come as much of a surprise I know in Zambia at least this law is already in place and that contract operators throughout the continent have been flying two crew in Cessna Caravans which usually carry 13 passengers for years. I like many others think Caravan is a relatively easy aircraft to fly...some say like a big Cessna 172...just a little more expensive to buy and operate.

Occasionally when I have flown two crew here for mining or hunting charters...one of the pilots has very little to do...the checklists are very basic and don't take up much time at all. Maybe operators will take out a few seats to keep the aircraft single crew or will pilot salaries...dear I say it, be halved as the pilot responsibility will be halved....Scary thought.

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Flying out bush and a free lunch

Yesterday again bashed out another Dar es Salaam-Zanzibar-Dar es Salaam to pen into the logbook along with the hundreds of others. If I got just $1 for every time I flew over the Zanzibar channel I would be laughing all the way to the bank. I guess here in Tanzania its the Zanzibar runs that become monotonous, in Maun, Botswana it was SCENIC flights. The first 100 scenic flight are fun. After that first 100 or less you know every tree, lagoon, channel, buffalo elephant...etc. At least on the scenic flights there was plenty of chances to practice formation flying(never done any formation until Maun) with a buddy....I never tired of that.

Flying in formation with a Cessna 210 over the Okavango Delta

Anyway after Zanzibar run number 389 or whatever it was I had a charter flight in the VIP Caravan to a airstrip called Siwandu in the Selous Game reserve.

Presently we are in a quiet period which precedes the Christmas rush, apparently it is a great time to go on safari...I wonder how many pilots here will agree.

Because it is a slow period after flying the charter out bush, I was to wait 4 hours and fly the afternoon schedule out of the Selous back to Dar es Salaam.....I was not complaining it meant a free lunch in a Safari camp!

Not a bad spot to lunch looking out over Lake Nzerakera, this lake is connected to the Rufiji river.
This old single tusked elephant roams around the camp waiting for the vegetable and fruit scraps to be wheelbarrowed out of the Kitchen. Apparently as soon as he hears a wheelbarrow he comes running....I'm glad I don't have the job pushing the wheelbarrow!

Watching a afternoon thunderstorm and shower pass through from the comfort of the Terra firma (ground) whilst enjoying a coffee...It had clear 90 minutes later when I had to fly.

I too had a close encounter with this Elephant in camp whilst I enroute to the bathroom. I believe he has been named Nicola.

On the way back to the airstrip we came across this little fella with a small herd of Giraffes. According to the driver of the Land rover he/she is only two days old. It's the first Giraffe I can say I am taller than...just.

Looking down the length of Siwandu airstrip...yes there is a Caravan down the end of the strip...the pilot was at lunch.

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The month before Christmas....flying as usual

I have no excuse for periods of blog neglect. I could blame the uncomfortable increase in humidity and temperature as we approach the hottest months of the year. After a long day sweating it out in a cockpit I get home and all I want is a ice cold beer or to lie perfectly still in air conditioning...but I'm not going to use that excuse....I will put it down to lack of creative thinking.

Anyway business as usual over here in the great big sweat pit of East Africa. Recently I seem to be getting roped in to flying the Cessna 206 as much as I am the Cessna Caravan....I am finally regaining the my former confidence in the little piston engine 206. Though I did have to make a missed approach in the bush last week at a airstrip called Stieglers gorge, it was one of those moments where one realizes conditions are a bit too much for their ability or the aircraft's. With 4 heavy dudes (passengers) on board, full fuel, lots of bags, strong cross wind, moderate shower of rain and severe mechanical turbulence (turbulence from trees and surrounding hills) it all became a bit too much for me.

Turning onto left base the little 206 began to get smashed around usually I can deal with this no worries, then god turned on the precipitation (water that falls from the sky) out of no where, he was testing my decision making, I reckon. I began to turn onto what I thought was a final approach to the south east at this stage the hills and trees started rising up around me....hmmm I could only see out my side windows, straight ahead there was too much water on my windscreen to see anything. No forward visibility, a bucking aircraft, strong cross wind, and a relatively heavy bug smasher (the light aircraft I was piloting) was all too much for me to deal with into a bush airstrip so I opted for a go round and opened up the turbo 206 to full climb power......then slowly turned the bumpy decent into a climb. It turned out to be a bloody good decision to go around as looked down at the airstrip below me I saw a herd of Zebra crossing the airstrip about half way down....I would of really been testing the brakes had I landed then spotted pedestrians creating their own Zebra crossing. Anyway I carried out a wide circut gave the shower of rain time to move on and carried out a uneventful landing on the second attempt.

Moving on to something completely random.

The other day I was happily cruising along at 10000 feet enroute Zanzibar to Arusha in a Cessna Caravan...when there was a splat on the window...I thought nothing of it. The last thing that would have gone through that bugs mind was his rare end at 170 knots. It wasn't until I landed in Arusha when a passengers behind me leaned over and asked 'what was that bug doing flying at over 10000 feet above sea level?'....That was a good question, I had no answer . I was flying above a solid layer of cloud, the bug would have had to have been instrument rated...It was also cruising at the wrong altitude South bound bugs should either be at 9000 feet or 11000 feet(only if it was on oxygen). How high do bugs fly?

Below are four pictures taken by the pilot who has his camera handy more often than I, Aaron Cawsey.A rare clear day shot of the largest free standing volcano in the world, Mount Kilimanjaro.

This penguin you can see in the distance is actually a pilot at Klein's camp airstrip in the Serengeti...hmmm he seems very fascinated with that particular Acacia treeThe VIP Cessna Caravan doing a spot of over taking.

I took this picture one late afternoon as I had the honour of flying directly into the setting sun....I should have just gone on a instrument flight plan and flown with the windscreen cover on.

This may not interest many but I took this photo to prove to myself the rest of the year that on the very odd occasion there is a visible horizon on the coast. 99% of the year haze limits visibility to about 10 nautical miles.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Another week in East Africa

You must check out this video that a colleague of mine found on You tube.
A passenger has filmed this Tanzanian pilot giving his pre-flight safety briefing...I gather from the video he was in a hurry on this particular day.

It has been one of those weeks, where it's gone before you know it...

Today I'm flying the Dar es Salaam-Zanzibar-Pemba-Tanga and then again in reverse order afternoon bus route...It feels like a bus route as you carry islanders to and from the mainland or the larger island Zanzibar.
At times you have to laugh at the antics of some of these islanders. Other pilots have even told me they have carried goats and chickens from Pemba island.
On one occasion there was a over booking, so when the local islanders in Pemba boarded the aircraft and found no seats available they began demanding that two 10 year old children should sit on their parents laps?!! Now I got involved and told the passengers 'This is no dalla dalla where you can pack every free space available with human bodies!' (dalla dalla is a local term for bus)
My remarks were ignored...besides what did the Mzungu (white) pilot know anyway? for a start, weight is an issue! I got out the aircraft full of bickering Islanders and went for a bottle of coke...this wasn't going to be settled in a hurry. Eventually two other random uninvolved passengers had enough and disembarked the aircraft...now I could go it only took the best part of an hour to sort.

On Tuesday I sat my annual Instrument renewal (something I need so I can be sent up flying in undesirable weather). Now here in East Africa...well on the coast anyway the weather is clear 85% of the year. With this great weather all the time ones instrument flying can become a little rusty....I couldn't actually believe how rusty I was!! I passed though...just.

This picture I took at 1000 in the morning looking South East down the Rufiji river from FL110(11000 feet). You can tell it is the wet season when the cumulus(cloud) is already beginning to build up at 1000 in the morning.

Tomorrow night is our Movember party at the Irish pub in Dar es Salaam. All of us pilots here who grew feral moustaches for a month now get to drink beer and collect money for Men's health...or in Tanzania we donate it to the Cancer institute.

It's going to be a good night...I have Sunday off.

Also Check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Bush Pilot highs and lows

Well the last week has been incredibly interesting for me....back flying the Cessna 206 again, sailing around Dar es Salaam's tropical reefs and the biggest surprise of all, a engine failure in a Cessna Caravan (Yes I had a PT6 die on me) will elaborate more on this towards the end of the post.
The above shot is of myself strapped into a little old Cessna 206...about to go bush. I'm sure you can all see my disgusting moustache that I have been cultivating for Movember(All in the name of men's health)

This is Kiba airstrip in the Selous game reserve with the new runway being built straight through the middle, notice the Rufiji river in the background.

Just airborne out of Stieglers gorge airstrip in the Selous, looking down at the Rufiji river winding through Stieglers gorge...of course.

With a large storm minutes away from breaking over Msembe airstrip in the Ruaha National park, I am correcting for the cross wind.... Still correcting for the cross wind....it looks like I am heading straight for the camera man(Aaron Cawsey)

Thanks to my instructors 6 years ago in New Zealand who taught me how to carry out a crosswind landing...I managed to straighten up and line myself with the runway/dirt strip.

Yesterday, My Aussie lady, a few other friends and myself went out on a rather large yacht for the day. Sailing and snorkeling around the islands and reefs that lye just off Dar es Salaam. Basically we living a day like millionaires with a crew to look after us and do all the hard bits...like sailing. In the picture above a local fisherman is using a surf board as his commercial fishing vessel....He is at least 3 miles offshore and I don't think his vessel has an engine.

Enjoying a beer after lunch in the shade on the trampoline in the bow of this large Catamaran.

The Snorkeling and diving around Dar es Salaam is amazing with the huge abundance of fish on the coral reefs. But the fish stocks in these waters are being destroyed by illegal fishing methods like the use of explosives. I found this video on You tube of fisherman using dynamite off Dar es Salaam. Only 20% of the fish killed by explosive are fit for human consumption.The Fiffa world cup has it's own airliner as the cup travels around Africa visiting every country (I doubt they will visit Somalia). Here the Trophy was in Zanzibar.Okay, Here is a Cessna Caravan that fell short of Jongomero airstrip. Everybody was unhurt. The exact reason why this Caravan crashed has not yet been fully established....all I can say is it won't be flying anywhere in a hurry. Here is the Zan Air Caravan taking off out of Mtmere airstrip in the Selous Game reserve. The pilot is a good friend of mine from Scotland. The two of us trained together in Christchurch, New Zealand, then we flew in Maun Botswana at the same time and now we have both ended up flying in Tanzania. I wonder where on Earth we will end up flying next.

ENGINE FAILURE

I don't know about you, but I always thought IF I was going to have a engine failure whilst flying it would have been in a piston engined aircraft not a turbo prop!

As it turned out my first engine failure happened just the other day and just shy of my 2000 hours total time as pilot flying. On Thursday afternoon I took off from Dar es Salaam with 10 passengers on board a Cessna Caravan for the 39 nautical mile flight to Zanzibar(around about 20 miles being over the ocean).

The 20 minute flight was the same as the 100+ other Zanzibar flights I have done...I positioned for the right downwind runway 18 as Zanzibar tower told me to do....Base leg was normal too....Just as I turned onto final approach the beautiful reliable whine of the turbo prop PT6 engine turned into 100 screaming banshees!!

1-2 seconds panic!

What is making this ear splitting noise?

Oil temp and pressure ok.

ITT(Inner turbine temperature) was ok.

Hmmm the propeller only 400 rpm...hmmm?

For some reason the Propeller was back against the stop! I pushed it forward to where it was supposed to be. Still don't know why this was so.

I looked at the Torque gauge it was fluctuating all over the place!

Another second of panic

Thank Goodness(or some other really descriptive words) I'm going to make the runway.

I wasn't even able to hear the control tower over the ear splitting noise coming from the engine.

The Caravan touched down right on the piano keys (white lines that mark the beginning of a good place to land).

Once I slowed down the dying turbine was still screaming away...The token amount of thrust still being delivered to the propeller allowed me to taxi into the terminal where I promptly shut the screaming engine down (no cooling down today) in front a curious crowd that had assembled to see what was screaming out on the apron.

I turned and said 'welcome to Zanzibar' to my passengers before vacating the aircraft.

Once my hands slowed their shaking to less than 1000 rpm I phoned my office to announce I was no longer flying today.

The next day after the engineers had put a Bore scope (a small camera on the end of wire) into the turbine they discovered a blade had come off in the power turbine and damaged another. The damaged blade was the one making all the noise as it was touching the engine casing...so as it spun around at whatever ridiculous RPM it was scraping against steel...hence the ear splitting screaming.

Now after talking to pilots who know other pilots around the world who know other pilots I have so far gathered that this was the 5th failure of this kind to happen with the PT6 power plant...but I'm sure after a proper google search the figure maybe a little different.

All I can say is I was bloody lucky that it happened so close to a runway!

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www.africanbushpilot.com

Pilots life in Dar es Salaam

As a follow up to my October 30 post 'Maun Life' I have put together a collection of pictures that I hope can give you the reader a mental picture of what life is like here in the city of Dar es Salaam on the tropical East African coast.
This shot is my little Australian lady posing with a baridi sana tusker(very cold beer) at South Beach in Dar es Salaam. A great place to go chill out on free days....occasionally one must share the beach with locals, as seen in the back ground. The storm water system in the central city is really great after large downpours it stores the water in the middle of the busiest roads. I wrote about this in my March 30 post

This is Coco beach out on what we call the Peninsula/Masaki. It is deceivingly beautiful, when one gets up and close you can see all the rubbish...the local council really does work hard around here to keep the beach tidy...yeah right maybe if a NGO(Non Government Organisation) or Aid agency paid for it to be cleaned up. It is also a very popular hang out for Mwezi's (thieves) so muggings are common here. My better half walks here regularly but with a big group of woman and all their dogs...they generally don't get bothered. I wouldn't recommend it as a good beach for a late night skinny dip, you would probably get your clothes stolen and glass in your feet this would sober you up quickly.

This is the Peninsula/Masaki from above. It is where many of the better off people live, I guess the bonus is it gets a slight sea breeze which helps to alleviate the stifling humidity. Some call this the posh part of Dar es Salaam.....but I live here and I'm sure not posh. You can see some pics of my compound in my April 15 post

This is the local fish market. I prefer this small fish market in Msasani over the large smelly, busy and mwezi(thief) ridden one in the city.

Here you can buy anything from the sea...Tuna, Snapper, King fish, Lobster, Prawns, Squid....etc. It is very cheap if you spend time bartering with the guys....when they see my white skin the prices are instantly inflated. Once a price is settled they will fillet it or descale and gut it for you. It's hard to buy much more fresher seafood than what you can get here.

I have spoken before about the ridiculous traffic jams in Dar es Salaam and how most people bow down to the corruption by buying their drivers license out right with no tests at all. With thousands of people stuck in traffic each day the street hawkers make a modest living. In the last week in traffic I have brought a new cellphone charger for the car, apples, magazines, cashew nuts, new key ring and once I even brought a flick knife.

I can't remember what the excuse/reason was but here we are in the midst of a pilot BBQ one evening.

In my old apartment we were on the third floor...so yes that is a very big tree out my bedroom window with a curious monkey in it watching me.

I use to own this cheap Chinese motorcycle which are everywhere here in Dar es Salaam. I took note from the locals and used it to to carry everything...It's amazing with a little imagination you can carry all sorts of wonderful things on a motorcycle. Here I have a bundle of firewood on the back.

My partner is involved with an Orphanage in her spare time that only take Aids orphans. It's really hard to spot which one is her...

They seem preddy happy with their new soccer balls.

The crazy central market in Dar es Salaam is called Kariakoo, one can buy anything here...I mean anything. Usually we are the only white people so one does have to be vigilant as muggings are frequent. This was the first place I saw how the public deals with thieves. The accused was stripped of his clothing by a angry crowd and beaten....I never saw what eventually happened to him, he was swallowed by the angry mob.

Typical residential area for the masses in Dar es Salaam

The city centre of Dar es Salaam with the port behind it looking South.

Well I hope this gave you a small insight into this crazy city known affectionately by it's residents as Bongo or just Dar es Salaam to the rest of us here by necessity (I'm only here for the flying).

Also Check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Bush flying in the African wet seasons

This picture was taken by a colleage of mine Aaron Cawsey last week of a Cessna Caravan departing Msembe airstrip in the Ruaha national park. Apart from being a great angled shot, I guess it is almost free advertising for Coastal Aviation.

At this time of the year in large parts of Southern Africa suicide season is almost at its peak. This is the extreme temperatures and humidity that smother the atmosphere as the Rains prepare to break. Once the heavens open up it is a huge relief because it takes the edge of the unbearable temperatures. But for the fair weather aviators in their clapped out Cessna 206's & 210's it means weather to contend with.

Here in East Africa we fair weather aviators are blessed with two menacing wet seasons. Anyway one who witnesses a large African thunderstorm can't help but be in awe by its size and power let alone the instant floods they rain down upon thirsty Savannah's.

When I was in Botswana the best way to deal with these large weather build ups whilst flying VFR ( visual flight rules...looking out the window for navigation) was to fly low (500 feet above ground). Botswana is incredibly flat the entire country only has a few small pimples rising up out of the great flat expanse. Possibly divert maybe up to 10 miles off track to get around or find a hole through underneath. Only occasionally did one encounter severe updrafts and the turbulence was not usually an issue. If a large Charlie bravo/Cumulonimbus/thunderstorm is ever sitting over your destination airstrip the options are to land at a near by strip or orbit a safe distance away for it move on, these weather systems generally move quickly. A pilot always carries extra fuel at this time of the year. I have even had to apply the same methods in the Serengeti national park and the Selous game reserve here in Tanzania. Close fork lightning are common place during these times of the year, but a aircraft getting struck is quite rare.A Cessna 206 crashed at an airstrip in the Okavango Delta this time last year. Allegedly the pilot was trying to land at an airstrip which had a large thunderstorm in very close proximity to the air strip. The pilot realized it was not safe to land and aborted the landing only to have a rather strong down draught slam the 206 into the ground. Though the aircraft was a wreck everyone survived. The picture above is of the radar dome on the Cessna Caravan.

The shots of lightening and the heavy shower were my amateur weather photographs when i was flying in the Okavango Delta.

Here in East Africa the go underneath find a way around the weather isn't always an option. For example Tanzania has Mount Kilimanjaro which stands at 20000 feet. I personally think that most other mountains average between 8000-10000 feet.

Only three days ago I flew from Dar es Salaam to the Ruaha national park as I was approaching the Udzungwa Mountains my stomach began to tighten with nerves. The cloud build up at 0930 in the morning was already peaking at well over 20000 feet, for me approaching in a little single engine Cessna Caravan at 12000 feet it was rather daunting.

However the Caravan had just had a new weather radar installed the previous day, so it was about to be tested for its accuracy. After the instrument had warmed up and tested itself, it began to show me what was hiding in the wall of weather ahead of me. It actually was not that bad. Though I went into IMC (one of aviations many abbreviations, this one basically means 'flying in cloud') for the best part of an hour I zig zagged around all the small hot spots with the aid of the weather radar.

On the way back it was a different story the Charlie bravos had almost matured and were firing their bolts of lightening all over the place. Now with a load of passengers I flew 140 degrees instead of required 090 degrees (compass heading). I was about to make good use of some advice older pilots had given me. Their advice is to fly South of track to get off the mountains where a large escarpment drops off onto a river plain near a place called Ifakara. Once clear of the highlands the weather usually drops away. This day it worked true after only 30 minutes of keeping clear of the magenta on the radar screen (this colour almost means death if you were to fly into it) I broke out into bright sunshine with the cloud tops a 1000 feet below me. I turned back onto track and flew parallel to the Mountains. Flying beside the mountains I got to watch these angry thunder storms that reached for the heavens put on a spectacular lightning show...I didn't even think to get my camera out of my flight bag, I was just relieved to be flying in sunshine.

Again these two off context pictures were taken by Aaron Cawsey. Top, is a sunrise at Jullius Nyerere International airport Dar es Salaam. Second from top, is a wild elephant which has been nicknamed Rafiki (Swahili for the word friend) trying to sneak away from the camp kitchen at Lake Manze in the Selous game reserve.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Another week playing Bush Pilot

Over the last week I have spent most of my time up in the North of Tanzania flying into the Goldmines and depositing tourists into the Serengeti national Park to take photos of gigantic herds of funny looking cows and donkeys with striped pajamas (The great Wildebeest migration and its entourage of Zebras).
On my way up north I was flying the schedule which meant a stop in Arusha. After departing out of Zanzibar at 0930 the weather was spectacular no clouds, smooth air...awesome day for flying. It was like that for most of the flight North. As I got with 80 nautical miles of Arusha I could see a lot of weather built up around the Mountains (Kilimanjaro and Meru). The ATIS ( monotone voice that gives up to date aerodrome weather) for Kilimanjaro international didn't sound the greatest and it's 1600 feet lower than Arusha airport. I called up a pilot on our comapny frequency he was on a short final approach to Arusha he told me he had only just got in by the skin of his teeth and he has 20000 hours. Armed with this news I made an early decent to try to get into Arusha VFR (Visually) under the clouds as I got to within 13 miles of Arusha I came up against a wall of weather. There is no safe published instrument approach into Arusha . In hindsight I should have used the knowledge I had and flown the ILS (Precision instrument approach good for when the weather is crap) into Kilimanjaro international airport and waited for the weather to clear. Now my only option was to go to Kilimanjaro anyway visually weaving around large showers of rain. On the ground in Kilimanjaro the usual doubts of 'should I have tried harder to get into Arusha?' when two other Cessna Caravans landed one from the same company as I and the other from an Arusha based comoany. Both of them couldn't get into Arusha...I wasn't the only one who made a good decision to divert to Kilimanjaro. After one hour the three of us started up and made the 10 minute flight to Arusha in weather that was 100% better than the previous hour. That was the worst weather I encountered last week except for a few variations from track for isolated thunderstorms in the Serengeti. I did have two days standby in the Tilapia hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria...I enjoyed watching the large storms from the ground, it's only when I am no longer attached to Terra firma(latin for 'solid earth') that the respect/fear rises up.
The very top picture is final approach to Kogatende airstrip, the river is the Mara river. Here is where the Masai mara in Kenya joins the larger Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

The above and below pictures are taken at Geita goldmine airstrip in North west Tanzania. The small red and white striped cylinders are for armed guards to take up position inside when gold is flown out of the Mine. These cylinders are placed all around the apron every 30 metres or so.
The tower in the background is also a guard tower these are placed every 200 metres down the runway. It shows how much Gold is worth in this lawless part of the bush.

A Kraal or Boma in the north of Tanzania on the border of the Serengeti the families cattle are housed in the pen centred inside the Kraal. The reasoning of this kind of local security compound is to protect cattle and even people from prowling lions at night.

Lake Manyara airstrip can be just seen on top of the escarpment below the isolated shower of rain.

This is the fire crew at the airport on Pemba island....I reckon if there happened to be a fire on start up they would be running the opposite direction. But hey, atleast they look the part.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Maun life

I have decided to put up a couple of posts with pictures of my moments in Maun, Botswana and then another post later on of life in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

It is my feeble attempt for curious readers to try and picture what life is like for ex-patriots/pilots living at these two African destinations.

The above shot is from the cafe Bon Arrivee in Maun looking across to the airport main entrance.

Believe it or not this hippopotamus is near the centre of Maun in the Thamalakane river.

My view and a lot of other ex-patriots would agree with me is that Maun is a dusty frontier like town that is over run by donkeys with absolutely no road sense (you can't say you have lived in Maun until you have been in a car accident involving a donkey).
Over on the right is the main Bus station in Maun if you can call it that.

Speaking of donkeys the residents of this house is a family of donkeys near the Sedia Hotel.

On the right there is about to be a boat race (I won't go into detail) between two operators. I also won't mention names. This is taken at Sitataunga camp, pilots are no longer welcome at this establishment...it's too far out of town anyway.

I know my pictures in this post don't really show it but Maun is basically a desert 8 months of the year. But when it finally gets around to raining it bloody rains. This is the Delta Air office underwater in one afternoon downpour.

On the right is the typical uncoordinated lay out of Maun seen from above.

The evening sun setting through the horrendous dust/smoke haze that is present a good half of the year.

Yes on the right that is town supply tap water....hmmm good for cleaning out ones bowels.

As you can see with this really early model Land rover it isn't rated in the standard 'horse power' but this is rated in 'Donkey power'.

It's good to see 2 donkey's actually working instead of standing around on the roadsides trying to commit suicide.

Christmas dinner got a little out of control especially when the Zebras started dancing.

An earlier Christmas was even more primitive. Ignore the date it was Christmas day. Trying to cook Christmas dinner on a fire whilst raining...hence the half of canoe substituting as a fire cover.

The standard way that food is cooked all over the continent of Africa on a charcoal or wood fueled bbq (Braai if you lean towards South Africa. They are mostly constructed from scrap steel...but in times of desperation anything can be substituted as long as it doesn't burn. Great excuse to invite mates around to drink beer.

These 4 New Zealanders/fellow kiwis stayed at our place in Maun for about 4 days as they rode motorbikes up the length of Africa. They made the whole trip into a documentary called 'African odyssey'

And when boredom kicks in all of us boys are still boys underneath especially when it comes to entertainment.
Ok I know it was brief but they were some of my relatively PC (politically correct) pictures from my days in Maun.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Looking for flying jobs in Africa?

Are you struggling to find relevant information on how to obtain bush flying jobs in Africa?

If you are a regular reader please scroll down the post, to skip the following.

For those of you who have just stumbled across my blog for the first time it is linked to my website which promotes and sells an Ebook jam packed with information for pilots considering Africa as a place to fly. The Ebook focuses mostly on Botswana and Tanzania....as these are the two countries where I have been and are presently based.
I have just released an update for the Ebook.
Because of course over time things change...like Aviation authorities like the DCA in Botswana or the TCAA in Tanzania slightly change their rules and requirements for ex-patriot pilots. The immigration departments change their procedures and requirements as well. Or some bar that was all the hit with pilots last year may not be the place this year.
This Ebook has all the information from Visas, how to get here, best techniques for landing jobs, accommodation, best time to go and dozens of other questions a pilot wanting to head out to Africa may have....definitely all the questions I had before heading out to Africa 5 years ago.

Interested in the Ebook?

www.africanbushpilot.com

Now for the regular reader or casual browser.

A few days back I took this picture whilst cruising above a thin layer stratus cloud (I'm sure it was stratus, but I am the first to admit I am not a cloud expert, but I can definitely identify a Cumulo-stay-away-fromus/Cumulonimbus/thunderstorm).

I was on my way down to a place called Lindi 180 nautical miles south down the coast from Dar es Salaam to do a medivac (medical evacuation). The Caravan had 3 paramedics on board, the back two rows of seats removed for the stretcher bound patients we were to pick up and a load of emergency medical equipment.

The flight down at FL115 (11500 feet) was uneventful...hence the photo taking. I landed at Lindi on one its wagon wheel of grass runways. I couldn't see a ambulance waiting...was it going to be one of these African moments....hurry up and wait! It was already late afternoon I was only going to wait until 1745(local time) I had to be airborne before dark, naturally. Lindi airport/airstrips has a reasonable terminal with even a fire engine not bad for a remote coastal town. When I filled out the landing register I was the first plane here in over 2 months. The TAA (Tanzanian airport authority) were out in a flash to collect taxes and landing fees from me...though I got a receipt for the payments I swear that money never made it past the nearest local pub ( I shouldn't be so pessimistic).

Waiting for the critical car accident victims to arrive one of the paramedics rang the phone number they were provided, to find out that the patients were coming in a Taxi....a TAXI? how critical are these people was my initial thought if they can get into a taxi.

1 hour later I was preparing to leave when a taxi arrived packed full of people (a family sedan with 5 adults and 3 children!). Everyone got out of the car ok, who is injured? well wasn't my business I am just the pilot. Then the whole family wanted to board the aircraft....I'm on a medivac not running the local bus service(not this day anyway), I put my foot down and said only the injured are getting a free insurance paid flight to Dar es Salaam. So with my 2 additional WALKING passengers aboard I took off in the fading light for a 80 minute flight back to Dar.

One guy did have a bandage on the side of his face apparently and was unconscious the day before when the accident happened.

As it looked to me and the bemused paramedics was that these two guys had achieved a flight to Dar es Salaam courtesy of their medical insurance...I will have to remember that trick myself for in future.

www.africanbushpilot.com

The aircraft that brought bush flying in Africa to the masses and still does earn a tidy keep for itself

During the middle of the week I somehow drew the short straw when there wasn't any other Cessna 206 pilots around the office......and had to do a flight into the Selous game reserve to an airstrip called Beho Beho.
I was roped into doing a check flight in August just to have the 206 current on my license...hmm this came back to bite me on Wednesday morning. I hadn't flown solo in the machine for over a year, but then 1000 hours flying 206's in the past must count for something.
After climbing into the particularly cramped(it seemed cramped) small cockpit adjusted to the rudder pedals being so close together and phsyced myself up for a ride behind a loud piston engine out into the bush (A Cessna Caravan isn't a Boeing 777 but compared to a small 206 it is rather spacious with arm rests and all).
After the initial surprise of being airborne at what felt like running speed, I climbed away bush bound releasing Avgas fumes into the atmosphere instead of the usual Kerosene.
Out of Dar es Salaam I decided to fly 1500 AMSL(above the sea level for the confused) under the weather (clouds and stuff) instead of the Caravan technique of busting up through the weather to the nice smooth sunny blue area above.
I had to dust off my old Garmin 96C(GPS) as these old girls don't come standard with all the navigational bells and whistles of the Caravan. For any of you wondering yes I can fly without a GPS if need be....but mate it makes life a lot easier and relaxed with one of these devices telling you where to go.




This large clearing out in the forest about 30 nautical miles southwest of Dar es Salaam is land that a foreign company has acquired to grow various crops for bio fuels. I don't know how if I agree about clearing third world forests for farming even if it is for something environmentally PC (politically correct) as bio fuels. But then it wouldn't have taken long until charcoal producers cleared all the forest around here leaving the land desolate anyway. The populations thirst for charcoal for cooking and whatever else is the leading contributor to deforestation in East Africa...there you go you now know another useless fact.









Logs bound for charcoal, I can't see any sustainability....no replanting here. Bags of charcoal for sale on the road side.

A large herd of buffalo on the move as I come into land at Beho Beho...I wonder what is making them run? maybe it's the quiet roar of the 6 cylinder Continental IO-520 engine attached to an aluminium frame passing over above them.


After all that I picked up the two young honeymooners and got them back to Dar es Salaam in one piece...no worries. I don't want to fly Cessna 206's everyday I've done my fair share of that, I will leave it up to other fresh faced pilots needing to build hours. But it is good to keep ones hand in, on a sturdy aircraft type that has more than proved up to the job over past decades when it comes to the Bush flying in Africa.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

The Overnight bonus of being a Bush Pilot in Africa

I have gone through some old and recent folders on my laptop to just show off some of the awesome places I have been lucky enough to stay at....and get paid at the same time it's bloody great.
The accommodation ranges from 5 star hotels on idyllic beaches, to high end safari camps out in some national park/game reserve or some other out of the way place with a comfy bed and a good meal.

Below I have posted a few snapshots of various locations where I have had a camera handy....if I had always had a camera handy for every nice place a lowly bush pilot like myself had been sent to this post would be the never ending post......

The above picture is of me and Chameleon whilst on a night game drive just outside the Serengeti.....night drives are illegal inside Tanzanian national parks and game reserves.

This is Greystoke camp, Mahale National Park. on the edge of Lake Tanganyika....good place to go searching for our relatives like Chimpanzees. I wrote about it as the best overnight ever in a April post.

Oddballs camp in the Okavango Delta, Botswana it is only 30 seconds walk from the airstrip use to be a great place to go scrounge a quick cooked breakfast or lunch....got to love a free lunch Now yes, I was having an open air bath with in the Serengeti national park with a glass of wine. This was at the gigantic Kempinski Bilila lodge

This grainy shot is from mokoro (a hollowed out log that floats, it kind of resembles a canoe) looking back at Gunns camp. Now the airstrip that services this camp called Ntswi is a fun short strip with water at each threshold. The best part about night stops/overnights out in the bush is the potential of free game drives. The following pictures were taken by a Canadian colleague called Aaron Cawsey who also flies for the same operator as I do. His wildlife pictures come out better than mine with my basic little point and shoot camera. These pictures were taken in the Serengeti last week at a place called Kogatende right on the Kenyan border. Above is two large male hippos having a scrap...over female hippos I presume.

Lions mating

The male lion is finished and is out of there...got to love his style.

Large crocodile taking a young zebra.
This camp Meno A Kwena tented camp above the dry Boteti riverbed near the Makgadigadi pans in Botswana is a traditional style camp almost how early explorers must have done it except they had wagons instead of land rovers/land cruisers. Good spot to drink beer and watch all the animals come to you as this is the only water for miles and miles.

Tunza lodge nestled on the shores of the great Lake Victoria

Pemba beach resort, Pemba Mozambique. Now it was a hike and a half from Zanzibar to Pemba Mozambique (not Pemba island as it is only 67 miles away from Zanzibar) in a Cessna 206....the best part of four hours flying.

Sandrivers camp on the banks of the Rufiji river in the Selous game reserve is one of my favourite spots to stay and be paid...hell I would actually pay to stay here if i had too.

I will stop going on now as I'm sure you haven't even read this far. I could go on all day...this is one great perk of the job and occasionally I even get to take my little Australian lady along to enjoy the spoils of my occupation.

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African bush flying to a remote ruby mine

Late last week I had a charter out to a airstrip called Mbuga....it is usually a hunting airstrip the best part of 200 nautical miles South West of Dar es Salaam. The flight there was in no such way a straight line with large angry build ups of cloud that could toss around my little Caravan with little effort, I had to fly large distances North and South of track all the way to steer clear of these natural monsters (Cumulonimbus clouds/thunderstorms if you don't understand) in the sky. Anyway I landed with my 7 passengers safely at the remote airstrip where dozens of children appeared out of the bush to stare at the aeroplane and its load of wazungu (Swahili word for white people).
I had come fully prepared for a long wait with the plane I had my laptop, a good book and the most important thing a packed lunch. Well it turns out my passengers asked me to come along....by now I had worked out from overhearing conversations that these people were interested in some sort of mining so I was curious. We all boarded waiting land cruisers and set off. I had no idea where we were heading. Two hours later after a bumpy climb up into the mountains that look over the western plains of the Selous game reserve we emerged at a village called Mahenge which is around 3000 feet above sea level. From this village we picked up a few villages who jumped on their back for the trek to a ruby mine or Spinel mine to be correct.
Now I come from steep hill country in New Zealand where my old man (father) farms sheep and Beef, so I thought I was use to 4wd tracks in steep mountainous country.....I was mistaken these tracks to the ruby mine gave anything I had encountered back home a good run for its money. Apparently two 4wd vehicles had gone off the edge during the last rains. I was starting to wonder about the type of mine down such a rough billy goat track like this. I had seen the massive Gold mines in the north of Tanzania so thought that was the standard...After asking one the mine owners (one of my passengers) about these ruby mines I soon knew the operations here were like something you could see on 60 minutes or some other current affair show that documents dangerous semi legal third world mining. Except the crowed I had flown in here had just acquired a claim up the valley from these small super dangerous mines where they were going to start a real operation. The people I had flown in were engineers, geologists and investors who had come in to survey the sight.
After spending a hour in the blistering sun in this valley at the edge of the Earth we headed back to Mahenge for a quick lunch before heading back to the plane (which was miles away). The lunch was in a small local pub/restaurant called the 'Riverside bar' nice name but it was preddy basic. We dined on a large pot of duck soup which contain 3 whole ducks, potatoes and bananas. At the end of lunch word had got around the village that there were wazungu in town so anybody with a few ruby's in their back pockets turned up hoping to make a quick sale. I had never even seen a ruby before let alone the 200 odd i seen at lunch that day.
On the way back to the airstrip our Toyota land cruiser broke down and now with the light beginning to fade I was getting anxious i wanted to be airborne before sunset. After pushing the vehicle to the nearest farmers mud hut we filled up the radiator with and we were off again. I managed to get airborne just before dark and as a bonus all the weather build up I had encountered that morning had completely dissipated so it was a pleasant evening flight back to Dar es Salaam. We landed just before 1930 and as a bonus I received a $100 USD tip.....I had a awesome day out bush and got a tip for it...I could not complain. But if I knew the tip was coming maybe I would have purchased a stone in the bar.
Though I had forgot my camera this day I had my Ipod so I managed to take some blurry snapshots from the videos I took...unless I'm stupid I can't work out how to take still pictures with my nano, only videos.

This is the impressive new Blackhawk XP 42A upgrade for the Cessna Caravan....Even the name sounds awesome. From the standard 675 horsepower this monster brings the output of the PT6(Engine) up to a staggering 850 horsepower. From 160 knot cruise speed to 190+ knots

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Another bush flying hazard

I was on short short final for the runway(airstrip) 15 on Mafia Island late last week when a large dust devil (whirly-whirly to Australians or a small whirl wind to the rest of us) sprung up on the airstrip. It was too late to initiate a go-round with a fat load of tourists and islanders i would have ended up going straight through the dust devil anyway.
My remedy to this situation was to just land earlier than i had intended. The best thing with the Cessna Caravan is when you go below 400 lbs of torque the earth rises quickly from below with minimal distance travelled (watching the airspeed of course). It's great for uncalculated approaches where a pilot ends up way too high on final approach.

With just enough height to clear the trees between the beach and threshold, oh and enough to not get caught out by the ever present mechanical turbulence/wind sheer at mafia (turbulence caused by objects on the ground like trees, buildings and politicians usually is only below 300 feet above the ground). I touched down early not the prettiest of landings, retracted the flaps instantly to reduce lift and went through the dissipating dust devil at about 45 knots. Despite being on the ground the quickly rotating winds still tried their best to weather cock the plane in the 1 second it took to pass through(turn the aircraft into wind). I think if I had another 15 knots of speed it could have been messy, but then I wouldn't have landed if that was going to be the case.

This day just reminded me that dust devils are a hazard to slow low flying aircraft. They are not always visible if they haven't picked up much dust or rubbish. My old chief pilot in Botswana drummed it into me 'NEVER to fly through dust devils'. An agricultural pilot once told me he flew through one by accident whilst spraying low level he said the aircraft suddenly shook and floundered in the air (He managed to pass through and keep it in the air). With the air rotating so fast in a dust devil the air that was giving you that trusty lift by passing over your aerofoil(wings) is suddenly moving in some random direction and not giving you any lift what so ever...this is when you become a brick and gravity takes over.

A distant dust devil at Ruvu masai airstrip or should I say Pan. Top picture is a dust devil in the Amboseli national park in Kenya.

Each year us pilots here have an excuse to grow feral facial hair for...Movember, it is growing all over the world. I even think some cheeky Australians put a copyright on it. In the rest of the world men grow moustaches during November for charity mostly for testicular cancer.

Here there is only a general cancer hospital so we give our collected money to them.

But in Tanzania we have managed to make ourselves look disgusting for two months of the year instead of just Movember by introducing....Growtober. Throughout October the participating pilots abandon their razors and grow beards so come the first of November all we need to do is sculpt in a beautiful feral moustache in full bloom instantly. So if anybody is traveling through Tanzania during these months don't be surprised if your pilot looks a little unkempt. The above pictures are of our Movember party at the Irish pub in Dar es Salaam last year...it's an excuse to drink beer whilst collecting money for charity...how can your wife argue with that.

Two Dhows sailing up a channel on Pemba Island.

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Only in African Aviation! I'm sure this is illegal in Western countries.

Yesterday while I was doing one of many 10 minute turn rounds on the island of Zanzibar I saw this MD-80 on the apron. When I saw what it was advertising the blogger in me could not resist taking a few quick snap shots.

Seriously how many of you have seen a airliner/big jet with advertisements for hard liqueur slapped all over it? Well for me its a first.

Even the tail got a dirty great Pushkin Vodka logo smeared all over it.Either Pushkin is having one good financial year or this South African airline is in desperate need for revenue.Always remember to read the small print.

I still don't know if this small sentence under the engine deems it politically correct to have such a advertisement on a International airliner...but it works I now have this vodka brand ingrained in my mind.

Well now I have just given '1time' and 'Pushkin Vodka' free advertising....surely I deserve a commission for that.

For something a little more along the lines of 'bush flying'. This Piper Seneca has been pushed off the side of Mtmere airstrip in the Selous game reserve. Its nose gear(front wheel for the uneducated) collapsed on landing. The nose gear is propped up in this picture but you can see the damaged propellers. Believe it or not this exact aircraft has suffered the same fate twice in one year on the same airstrip....For those of you thinking it must be a rough airstrip this is actually not a bad airstrip compared to some. I'm starting to believe that Seneca's are not really that suited to African bush flying....I know some of you may disagree. I will stick to the Cessna Caravan with its large strong fixed(non retracting) undercarriage.

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Another year bashing around bush flying in Cessna's

For one whole month this blog has been neglected...for one whole month I was off the continent it was great. But now its back to another year flying around East Africa, at least I love my job and I am even more greatful to have a flying job at the moment.

I must say to my many millions of readers.......I do apologise for the lack of recent posts....I was busy drinking nice wine and hunting wild Boar with my old man(Dad) in New Zealand.

My first couple of days back flying have been in reasonably fair weather so it has been a good start....but I do know the fair weather is on borrowed time. There is a increased humidity in the air and more cloud building up each day....so the short rains are preparing let loose. Maybe if I am lucky/unlucky I will get a few days of serious actual instrument flying with the weather radar painting magenta all over the screen(very very scary patches of weather) to help get me current for my Instrument rating renewal in 4 weeks time.

This radar here at Julius Nyerere International airport in Dar es Salaam is currently and has been since it was sold toTanzania in 2002 at the centre of a Corruption investigation. Apparently officials from BAE systems in the Uk bribed Tanzanian ministers to buy this military style air traffic control radar. I guess it is wrong to get a THIRD WORLD country to purchase a 28 million pound radar system. I do like to know that the controllers here have the best equipment watching me buzzing around in a Cessna caravan....But i do occasionally worry about the locally trained controllers as their situational awareness at times can be a tad off, even with a 28 million pound or 56 billion Tanzanian shilling radar system to assist them.

An almost essential device. It may not be part of the MEL(minimum equipment list) but this device built by Apple commonly known as a 'Ipod' plays a integral part in pilot stimulation on long flights or even on short flights for that matter.

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Tanzania's Air force might on display

On the first of September it is the 45th anniversary since the Tanzanian Air force was formed.

To celebrate this the Air force is going to be unveiling their new fresh out of the crate MiG 21's or to be correct their new Chinese copies the F-7. I have spoken of the old MiG 17's in my April 24 post.

Over the last week these seriously old MiG's have been practicing their beat-ups (low passes) at Dar es Salaam airport they are quite specy (impressive) to watch. Along with this anniversary the air force has been having open days....so after my flights on Friday I wandered over to have a look. I took my camera over in my pocket also but was hastily informed by uniformed soldiers that I was not to take any pictures of aircraft. This meant I had to now be a little more discreet with my snapshots...hence the lack of them.

I was quite impressed with their medivac helicopters with winch and various medical equipment. There may actually be a chance for a wounded defence force soldier with these helicopters around.I even managed to get up into the cockpits of the transport Anotonov's. I took a look inside the cockpits of our favourite Chinese rip off MiG 17's and was shocked at the state of them everything looked broken...these MiG pilots must be crazy.

This is a distant photograph of the hanger housing the new Chinese copies of the MiG 21's and the containers seen contain the rest of the fleet of new fighters soon to be in Tanzania's arsenal.

A random shot of the University in Dodoma (Tanzania's political capital)

Queing up behind these three Precision air ATR 72's in Dar es Salaam. When there is a VIP departure the entire airport comes to a halt creating chaos for other arriving and departing aircraft.

I hope the Tanzanian Government is not going to hunt me down because of a few pictures I posted of their state art Air force...

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Flying delays in Africa

Right now I am sitting in our nice comfortable air conditioned crew room in Dar es Salaam waiting for a Caravan to be released from maintenance...so I can then go and sweat out two Zanzibar flights before I going home.
Within three days I can lock my headset in my locker and forget about it for one whole month as I am off on leave. Don't worry I have put together plenty of material to keep my loyal readers happy with fresh posts whilst I am absent from this continent (if I do have any loyal readers that is).
While I am away it would be rude not to check out the Aviation scene in Australia and New Zealand so I will be having a look around over there. But don't fear I can see myself still grafting hours out over the African bush for a year two longer.
The top picture is of our crew taxi from our hotel to the airport in Zanzibar suffering a minor snag enroute (a flat tyre).

Afternoon sun on the Indian ocean.

Again afternoon sun

Indigo Aviation Dakota (DC-3) crossing the Zanzibar channel low level.

Approaching Pemba Island the cloud created from the rising afternoon air betrays the distant islands location.

East coast of Zanzibar from 7500 feet.

West coast of Zanzibar. If one enlarges Stone town and the airport are visible.

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Taking the private jet lifestyle on safari

I have said it before and I will say it again...'these big game hunters have money'.
The Selous game reserve is the largest game reserve in Africa. Only 9% of it is accessible to the average Joe to go take photos of Giraffes and stuff. The other 91% is reserved for the high rollers to do a spot of hunting.
Hunting does bring in 10 times the revenue for conservation and the country in general....most of the time, this is Africa where money has a tendency to vanish.
Anyway I try not to run a propaganda blog I will get back to aviation.
Early this morning we took off and set course to the south west for a 230 nautical mile run down deep into the Selous to Mkuyu airstrip at 12500 feet(still wasn't above the haze). I say 'we' because some of the well feds(wealthy) require two pilots for insurance...etc.
The chief pilot had briefed me on Mkuyu airstrip saying it was narrow, very rough, has big soft sandy patches and land uphill. It all sounded straight forward enough just follow those instructions and 'she'll be right' as they say.
Lined up on final approach to land I realized it is quite narrow, not much wider than the wing span. Stray too much off the centre line there will be a nice solid tree waiting to take a bite at the wing. The width was no worries it was when I touched down and hit the deep sand patches at speed....I now have a fair idea of what it must be like for a racing driver that goes off into the sand trap at a race way...wrenching deceleration. I am glad the Cessna Caravan has a sturdy undercarriage(wheels and stuff).
The clients were interesting they had chartered two Caravans one for all their luggage and the other(my plane) for the family of hunters and entourage.
With a quick turn around and a short field take off we were off without a hitch. I don't usually do short field take offs out of the bush as a personal rule...but when airstrips are in this kind of state its sensible to not subject the aircraft to such stresses.
On arriving in Dar es Salaam we were instructed to taxi to terminal 2 to a Global Express parked on the apron. As soon as we shut down the passengers disembarked strode across the 20 metres of apron and up into the large corporate jet. The doors shut it taxied straight out and jetted off to Spain....I'm not quite sure where the Customs and immigration formalities were done, but I swear in less than 20 minutes they were from a dirty bush going Caravan to a Jet heading North to Europe.

I said in a recent post I said I spotted a large pod of whales in the Zanzibar channel. Nearly daily now I am spotting these large ocean going mammals from the air. So I decided to google them I couldn't find much just a few snippets. They are apparently Humpback Whales migrating South at this time of the year.
Another phenomena that seems to be a topic of conversation with a few people recently(pilots) has been a thing called 'Al Nino'. I usually worry myself with this fancy named weather patterns but according to some around here it is going to be a negative thing flying wise for a few months. With the sea temperatures up and a few other factors we are likely to encounter large build ups in weather. Large Cumulonimbus's(thunderstorms) everywhere for months on end in tropical regions like here in East Africa....I can't wait...I'm only joking!

I know I wrote about bush fires in my 'Bush fires in Africa post' but I couldn't resist this shot above of fire burning unimpeded across the Savannah in the Selous game reserve.

A large crowd of children that gathered around the aircraft from a surrounding village. I guess this is a novelty in these remote parts.

Descending past a company Cessna Caravan yesterday morning.

Sunrise at Zanzibar airport. A Let 410 in the foreground from Zan air.

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Surviving a FIVE day power cut

What kind of country has five day power cuts....unless there is a typhoon/cyclone/hurricane tearing the place to pieces. In many previous posts I have whinged about the eternal plague of power cuts here in Dar es Salaam, but this time Tanesco (electricity provider) has actually scheduled a blackout that will span FIVE whole days!

Ok yes we can all live without electricity once in a while...our ancestors did without it for thousands of years the poor buggers. My little Aussie lady and I don't have a generator. I am sure most people who have a generator can't afford to keep their precise air conditioning units on for the entire five days...all their incomes will be going up in diesel fumes. Our biggest problem with all the black outs in Dar es Salaam(In our apartment) comes from the water. The water tank for our apartment is under ground and we live on the second floor.....it doesn't take a genius to work out when the power goes there is no way to get water up into the apartment. So we have collected a small reservoir of water out of used 10 litre drinking water containers. This is for showering (pouring the containers over our heads) and washing. Because I live in Africa our full time maid uses it for washing dishes, washing clothes, mopping the floor and whatever else she needs it for to keep our apartment habitable. One can easily live without electricity, but water is a basic need for survival....we can always go to a friends down the road in a powered part of the city if it all got too much. The very top picture is of a shower set up I once used at a camp in the Makgadigadi pans, Botswana. The second picture from the top is a bucket shower I have replicated from the camp shower. One just needs to boil water on the gas stove, fill the bucket with the water (not just boiling water it could be detrimental to ones health), then turn the tap on of course and there you have a bush type shower in your spare bathroom.Our reserve water in the laundry.

Another contraption I whacked together so we can wash our hands and have some form of running water.

A outdoor candle lantern at home that looks good and is practical.

kerosene lanterns and back up candles all a must when one lives in Dar es Salaam. Jet A1 also works a treat in these lanterns.

Overtaking a slower Caravan at 0630 this morning enroute Zanzibar-Dar es Salaam to make the British Airways connection to Heathrow.

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Bush fires in Africa

During the winter/cooler months in the majority of Sub-Saharan Africa it is the dry season. With the dry season comes the tourists with their giant 200 mega pixel, single lens reflex, image stabilizing, 400 times optical zoom cameras and to photograph birds, large mammals....etc. Also during these months the bush is ablaze.

These fires are not much of a head turner here in Africa like in Western countries where armies of fire fighters are mobilized along with squadrons of aerial water bombers. No here one drives along with the side of the road burning as long as it isn't affecting you personally then you don't even notice it.

I'm guessing that a lot of them are started by man....like primitive farmers attempting to clear land, but then there are the national parks which also have hundreds of thousands of acres/hectares burnt each winter....I'm not sure whether they are started by natural causes or by us out of control Apes which are quickly destroying the planet.

Also these fires can be kind of like the Phoenix for the bush, as is the case in Australia where bush fires are a integral part of forest regeneration.
Either way I am not much of a raging environmentalist (egomentalists as Jeremy Clarkson would say) it has just made for some interesting flying experiences over the years.

This year hasn't been as bad as other years...so far. There has been a few days where the visibility has been down to a few miles.

On occasions these fires can be so great that I have been basically flying in IMC (Instrument meteorological conditions). Botswana seemed to be worse than here in Tanzania.

Once I was flying from the Okavango Delta to Kasane and it seemed like the entire Chobe national park was ablaze. Before I knew it there was so much smoke in the already incredibly hazy atmosphere I no longer had sight of the ground and so I was now flying completely off instruments. When this happened aircraft position reports became a lot more frequent as I was definitely not the only bug smasher (light aircraft) up in the smoke.

Some days it could get so bad that it wasn't until on short final to land that air strpis/runways became clearly visible. One memorable day according to my logbook it was August 10th 2006 I flew a Cessna 210 from Maun, Botswana to Windhoek Eros, Namibia return. Descending back into Maun I was flying visual flight rules but the visibility was so bad from the smoke and dust that I intercepted using my GPS the heading for runway 08 and positioned for a long final. I called the tower to inform them I was on a 5 mile final....I didn't have the runway in sight.....2 mile still no runway.....at 0.5 of a mile I saw the threshold. Flying in such limited visibility into land is not half as tense as shooting a ILS(fancy term for a precision instrument approach) to minimums during the angry tropical wet seasons here.That is how bad the visibility can get in Africa during the Winter.

The bush fires do have their moments of beauty. Late one day after flying back from a scenic flight over the Okavango Delta the sun was setting. In the twilight there was this brilliant red flame front (a big line of flames) about 3-5 miles long it snaked its way through the bush. I kick myself for not taking a photograph that evening when I look back on it.

Anyway this picture of a leading edge is on the Cessna Caravan that had the run in with a stork a few weeks back. With the wing patched up she flies as good as new...believe me I flew this machine for 4.0 hours on Wednesday.

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Dubai airport major hub, Hong Kong airport major hub, Msembe airstrip in the Ruaha National Park major hub....!?!?!?

Two days ago I was on the scheduled flight to the Ruaha National park via the Selous Game reserve from Dar es Salaam. Msembe airstrip in the Ruaha is where we meet the company scheduled flight from Arusha. Now here we usually swap a few passengers and occasionally we also swap aircraft. If one Caravan needs to head to Dar es Salaam for scheduled maintenance the other goes up to the Northern bases for a couple weeks. So out here on a dusty strip with only a small village for park ranges we do crew and aircraft changes...it isn't Dubai or Hong Kong as a aviation hub, but I guess we all have to start off somewhere.

Yesterday was one of those days that kept getting longer and longer. I started in the morning with a flight out to the Selous Game reserve with three quick stops. At Mtmere I had to over shoot because of a family of Giraffes meandered out on to the airstrip...they had a low flying Caravan pass metres over them at 100 knots (185 kilometres per hour) for their efforts. Then I had two back to back Zanzibars....on one of the leagues I saw a large pod whales heading south but from 3000 there was no way I could say what kind of whales they were.

Anyway after all this I land back in Dar es Salaam in the early afternoon, tech log completed, back packed.....then operations informs me that I have another flight at 1530. So much for the lazy afternoon at home instead it was off up to the crew room to pass away two hours flying the couch(sleeping).

A company Cessna 404 over taking me. Though I knew the 404 was about to overtake me, Dar approach piped up and said 'Mike Alpha Delta are you aware of potential conflicting traffic beside you at FL065'....hmmm I think so.

Some of you may notice that I seem to randomly post pictures of Dhows. I apologize if some of you think they just take up space on my posts, but I think these dhows are amazing. It is a design that has been tried and tested for Hundreds of years. Today on the Swahili coast they are the most numerous ocean going vessel by far.

I attempted making pizzas a few nights ago from scratch. They were incredibly tasty...not very round though so I don't think I will be giving up my day job....who would want to give up flying anyway.

The parking area at Msembe airstrip, Ruaha national park.

Our new holiday home by the sea. Some urchin or local fisherman has built this shack in a very precarious location on the cliffs in Dar es Salaam.

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Light Aircraft Bird Strikes

I have written about 'Bird strikes' in my April 24th post, but now I have decided to post a few pictures of bird strike after shots I have gathered whilst flying in Africa. I had thought previously that blogging about aircraft incidents and accidents as being potentially detrimental to the health of my blog, obviously I am over that fear now.
So over the next few paragraphs I will mention a couple of stories and tips I have gathered over the last few years for dodging large birds in light aircraft over here on this large continent....I guess they can be applied elsewhere too.
When I first began my line training in Maun Botswana there was basically a whole section on large birds in particular Vultures.
-Never fly directly under Vultures-their avenue of escape is to dive....you would be lucky to be around after a 12 kilogram(25Lbs) Vulture came hurtling through that thin layer of perspex in front you.
-Never wear a base ball cap whilst flying-apparently it limits ones visibility above(it was a hard choice for me as my skin only needs a glimpse of sunlight before I burn).
-Never have your head inside the cockpit for too long. We were always flying VFR(Visual flight rules).
And the list went on my memory is a bit hazy.
You can be as vigilant as possible and still have a strike.

These birds can ride the thermals really high, according to Transport Canada's website the highest ever recorded bird strike was in a DC-8-62 on the 23rd October 1991 at a whopping 39000 feet(Flight Level 390 to be politically correct). Well most of us GA pilots in our bug smashers can't even obtain half that altitude. In Africa I personally have rarely seen a bird(vulture, Stork or Eagle) higher than 6000 feet AGL(Above ground level) or above the cloud base....maybe in this part of the world birds are not instrument rated?

Many of the Aircraft wounds I have seen that are directly related to bird strikes are on Cessna 206's and 208's. Logically the majority of bird strikes are going to be head on....unless your flying something ridiculous like a ultralite/microlite/contraption or paragliding where one may have a freak bird strike from behind. The thought of having a 9KG(19lbs) Stork come barrelling through the perspex at 150 knots is a discomforting feeling.....but then if one thinks too in depth about much of aviation it can be discomforting.

I will explain the the pictures from top to bottom: The very top picture is straight out of the 'Ngami times' October 2006 of a Cessna 206 where a Vulture has gone through the perspex, going between the pilot and right seat passenger. But due to aircraft weight(5 people on board) and drag from no windshield the aircraft could not maintain altitude. Luckily everyone walked away from the accident. In fact the passengers got into another aircraft and were flown onto their next safari camp.

Second from the top is of the crashed 206 lying in water, I took the photograph whilst on a scenic flight the day after the accident.

The third from the top is your typical vulture looking for a light aircraft to go play chicken/vulture with .

The next picture is the tailplane of a Cessna 206 that had a lucky escape with only minor damage after a bird strike.

Then recently here in Tanzania a Cessna Caravan(208) flying from a airstrip in the Serengeti national park to Mwanza struck a Marabou stork on the leading edge of the left wing whilst flying at 130 knots. It jammed the ailerons in a slow right role, the pilot countered the roll with rudder and power for one hour to land himself, passengers and aircraft safely in Mwanza. I was quite impressed when I learned that the ailerons had locked a slow right role.

That man earned his beer that day!

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I get paid to fly!

0700 on Sunday morning I woke up slightly groggy with the memory of the humiliating defeat New Zealand suffered against South Africa in Rugby the night before.....and the Killi's(Kilimanjaro lager) I had consumed whilst watching the game. Anyway you may think I'm crazy being up that early on a Sunday if I didn't have to work?......someone has to walk the dog(George our latest rescue dog) especially when he is busting to get outside to relieve himself. Whilst out walking the dog my phone rings.....its operations.....there has been a problem with the schedule and they are short on pilots.....and basically can I fly ASAP? Oh well there goes my quiet Sunday morning with bacon'n'eggs for breakfast. I wasn't too fussed at all I love to flying and as a bonus somebody actually pays me to fly so who cares if my work day started a few hours earlier than expected(I was obviously in a good mood for an early Sunday morning).
I get to work to find out I'm flying the 1030 flight to Mafia Island(by this time it was more than 12 hours bottle-to-throttle). The Cessna Caravan I was to fly had been fuelled earlier that morning for an Arusha flight that never happened so now I had enough fuel to fly to Mafia and back 4 times....thankfully the scheduled flight was only half full.
I landed in Mafia at after 1120(it was a late departure as the flight is only 35 mins). I had just over an hour on the ground before heading back to Dar es Salaam, usually I would sit in the plane and read a book/sleep, but today I decided to take a walk through the sleepy little village beside the airstrip with my camera in my pocket to fill in time.
The top picture is of a Dhow sailing into the village. The next is a Sunday market under a large tree you could buy everything from fresh produce to new shoes under this tree. The picture just above is a netball hoop on the side of a soccer/football pitch. I have never seen the people in East Africa play any other game other than Soccer/football is like religion you could almost think that by law the only game to be played is soccer...but no out here on this lazy little island in this sleepy village there is a netball hoop...it fascinated me anyway.

I recently read Wilbur Smiths new book 'Assegai'. I won't go on about it too much, you can click on it to know more. There is just one part that has really interested me about this FICTION novel as it is based in East Africa with pre world war one aircraft.....rigid canvas with prehistoric piston engines attached. In the story a mountain in the Rift valley plays a key part in the story. The way it goes a pilot takes off from the top of a mountain and brings down a German Airship using a fishing net trailing behind and tangled up the airships propellers.....a little far fetched I know...I also think the mountain is just made up by the author too. I have crossed the Rift Valley in Numerous place regularly in Tanzania and a few times in Kenya. The Rift Valley is generally quite wild country as it is a dry hard place for anybody to carry out any kind of existence I know the Masai do and have managed to for hundreds of years. The high mountain tops that line the Rift are generally very fertile and regularly get moisture from the swirling clouds so they are usually covered in dense forests and green pasture compared to the valley thousands of feet below. The book talks of a prosperous Masai village on top of one of these mountains. I'm guessing this mountain is fiction as well. But I'm sure Wilbur got his idea from a Mountain like Kitumbeine an extinct volcano on the rift with a lush forest and grassy plateau on top which is 9400 AMSL(Above sea level for the non aviation geek).
Though this mountain is in Tanzania which was back in the period the story is set was German East Africa the mountain in the story is inside Kenya then British East Africa(they were so unimaginative with names, why didn't they take a leaf out of Cecil Rhodes book who named modern day Zimbabwe after himself Rhodesia). I photographed Kitumbeine on Saturday whilst flying Dar es Salaam-Kleines camp-Dar es Salaam up on the Kenyan border a 770 nautical mile round trip...I was glad to have auto pilot.
I think I have rambled on long enough about a fiction novel to even bore myself.

If you are somebody who has lightly read any past posts would have heard me rant on about power cuts. Yes they are a never ending part of life here in Tanzania unless you are part of the elite crowd who own big expensive diesel generators that can even run the Air conditioners through the hot'n'sticly tropical nights. But on the other hand us mere mortals just have to deal with it. But I have decided to finally invest in a UPS(uninterruptible power supply) at least for the TV and computer so I can still keep functioning after the power goes out even if it is for only half an hour.....MOST of the time that is all it takes before the electricity is retored. You know when your watching a really good movie and 20 mins before the end the power goes off.......well now I hope to alleviate this problem with a UPS giving me an extra half an hour TV viewing whilst sitting in darkness.

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Where do I land?! maybe the co-ordinates are wrong!?

Well we are midway through the busiest two months of the year July and August. In the last week I have logged over 30 hours...to me its a lot of flying hours enough for me to be in bed by 9pm every night without even enjoying a cold beer to unwind.
In the last week I have been out depositing the ridiculously well off big game hunters out into the dusty, hazy, dry bush country that isn't any good for anything other than billionaire's running around roughing it with their bunduki(Swahili word for rifle) and their Masai tracker's searching for an ego boost.
Also I have been an international caravan pilot this last week. I had a flight down into the scarcely developed North of Mozambique to drop tourists at the idyllic almost unspoilt islands that are dotted along the coast. From the mouth of the Ruvuma river these islands are regularly spaced out running south, hugging the mainland coast to the town of Pemba(Mozambique not the island called Pemba in Tanzania).

Last Tuesday I was scheduled to fly North West of Dar es Salaam to two hunting airstrips. Now hunting strips are not as developed and well groomed like those that service the more P.C.(politically correct just in case you didn't work that out) photographic safaris. These can be clearings hacked out of the bush or a natural open expanse with the landing area marked with a few white painted stones at each threshold...if your lucky. Believe me these strips can be rough, similar to driving your car at 100 kilometres per hour over a corrugated gravel road if that helps you get an idea. Anyway one of these hunting airstrips called 'Ruvu Masai' really got me excited. I got a briefing from chief pilot of the surrounding terrain, airstrip surface...possibly very soft were his words and last of all very very difficult to spot from the air or even the ground for that matter. Here's me lightly dismissing his last remark I've been flying in the African bush for a few years now and I thought I had seen it all.....wasn't I in for a shock. Descending down onto the co-ordinates pre-programmed into the GPS I begun wondering when I would spot the airstrip I was only 5 mile away...then 3...then 2....0.5 mile....0...then 1 mile again! Where was it? Were my co-ordinates incorrect? Had I made a mistake programming in the co-ordinates? Had the GPS decided to S#*t it self?....but the surrounding terrain matched the VNC(Visual Navigation Chart/map for the simpletons). So thinking I was blind I began orbiting the area where there was supposed to be an airstrip....there was a great clay pan about 3 miles by 10 miles in size....but then where on that do I land? There could be soft spots that could easily right off the aircraft, my boss would not be impressed especially if it wasn't even the place I was supposed to be landing. After 3 anxious orbits of the area I spotted two hunting land cruisers parked by an Acacia tree. It wasn't until I orbited again the drivers on the ground realized my predicament and drove out onto the clay pan/dust pan at this time of the year. Then the front of the dust cloud(this marked the position of the two cruisers) turned onto south easterly heading....now we were getting somewhere I knew I had to land in that direction. I decided once the dust had cleared I would land on the vehicle tracks that I could clearly see on the dusty surface of the pan. So here goes nothing I lined up on the hastily marked landing area, fully psyched up for any eventuality. I touched down onto a surprisingly smooth dust pan apart from tarmac it was the smoothest surface I had ever landed on. Relieved I helped unload all the stores for the Spanish hunters 21 day safari and departed without a hick up on that gigantic open expanse. After that flight I thought to myself 'now that was real bush flying!'

On Thursday in the VIP Cessna Caravan I flew South of Dar es Salaam bound for the stunning tropical Island of Vamezi just off the coast of northern Mozambique, but first procedures have to be followed correctly by stopping off in the sleepy town/large village of Mocimboa da praia. Here customs and immigration formalities were undertaken before departing for the 25 mile hop over to Vamezi Island. As you can see above the terminal building is a little tired...it looks as if the civil war finished just yesterday. The only room with windows and a door is the customs and immigration room on the far right...there is no toilets no nothing here...but since it has the appropriate border authorities one can say this is Mocimboa da Praia international airport or aeroporto international in Portuguese.

30 minutes of filing out forms in the customary African fashion, with carbon paper, stamps and US dollars changing hands(never local currencies) we were off.

http://www.vamizi.com/The airstrip at Vamezi is technically a paved runway though I struggle to believe there is paved runways out there much rougher than Vamezi...except for Moshi runway up near mount Kilimanjaro with its gigantic pot holes that could almost swallow any unsuspecting light aircraft in one go. The direction of the runway at Vamezi runs North-South from coast -coast as you can see. After dropping off my two French passengers it was a brief stop back at the lavish Mocimboa da Praia aeroporto international for formalities and then the strong Monsoon winds pushed me back North to Dar es Salaam with a handy ground speed.

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Bush Pilot on Safari

I have had the best part of the last week off work...it was awesome. My family flew over from New Zealand so my little Aussie lady and I have been on safari with my family in the Selous Game Reserve. 3 Kiwis(New Zealander/small nocturnal flightless bird from nz what a great national icon)and a token Australian went on safari.

I fly to the Selous a hand full of times each week...so I thought when my family are here we will drive from Dar es Salaam to the Selous. It is now good to say I've done it, but I won't do it again when the flight is 35 minutes and the drive 6 hours over rough sandy bush tracks.

I am going to stick to flying there from now on.

I spent the first 2 days almost bed ridden with one of those occasional African stomach bugs that can really knock you down. By the end of the Safari I had recovered enough to enjoy a drink and cigar around the campfire at night(sounds really colonial I know).

On the second night I was in my tent when I stood on a lump that was under the canvas tent floor, my first thought was why would they leave a stick under the tent when erecting it......I then clicked!!! it wasn't a stick it was a snake that had made its way under the tent floor obviously seeking warmth. I really jumped back and watched the long stick under the canvas floor move across the tent floor and disappear by the wall. I had heard of snakes crawling under tents before but this was my first encounter. It makes for a good story....how many people can say they've stood on a snake and not been bitten? I can.

I thought it would be rude not to let my parents experience a sunset cruise on the Rufiji river in a small boat(dinghy with an outboard motor). What an experience it turned out to be....several times we had close encounters with angry angry hippos(Hippopotamus or Kiboko in Kiswahili) hell bent on tipping over this small boat invading their territory. I once flew a tourist out of the Okavango Delta in Botswana who had managed to narrowly escape injury when a hippo crunched the wooden mokoro(traditional canoe) he was in at the time.

In the very isolated bush villages where all the dwellings are constructed of mud and thatch there these brand new shiny mosques. I couldn't resist taking a picture to show the contrast between house and mosque.

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Mimi and Toutou go forth

Its a random title I know but I promise to come to it later.
Over the last five days nothing out of the usual has really happened apart from finally giving up on my bomb of a rental car and paying a little more for a better vehicle...so fingers crossed I don't have to fill the radiator daily on this one...
Oh my partner and I were without electricity for 24 hours...only our apartment was powerless and believe me what an effort it is to get the electrical company to come the same day.

I have decided to write about a couple of random things today one aviation orientated the other a bit of useless history that fascinates me....possibly one or two of you.
Above picture is final approach for Siwandu airstrip
With the Game reserves pumping through the photographic tourists at the moment with it being the busy season small bush clearings(airstrips) are becoming bustling domestic airports...almost.
In some places these airstrips are only a few miles apart. For example one stretch of 20 miles down the Rufiji river in the Selous Game reserve there is four airstrips, Mtmere, Siwandu, Kiba and Stieglers gorge. The other day I did a league from Siwandu to Mtmere in 4 minutes from take off to touch down(flying Cessna Caravan) with two rushed 6 minute turn around at each end. In 16 minutes including a minute each time for cooling down the turbine I had loaded and unloaded safari goers and bound for Dar es Salaam again(some would say self loading freight rather than tourists...got to respect them a little they do pay my wages).
Thinking about how quick these flights are reminds me of when I flew in the Okavango Delta in Botswana as all the airstrips there are a stone throw away from each other. This picture I stole and modified from Google Earth of a small section in the Okavango includes Xaxaba, Delta and Ntswi airstrips. The distances between these 3 airstrips is 2 & 3 nautical miles...barely worth retracting the flaps.
One can see how bush flying in these areas can only be good for a fledgling pilots/any pilots for take offs and landing practice.


For those of you repulsed by history stop reading now.
Two above pics: Satellite image of Lake Tanganyika, supposedly the gunboats Mimi and Toutou.
Here's where Mimi and toutou come into the line up if anybody remembers my May 21 post about the sinking of the German cruiser the konigsberg during world war one...well I have recently read about another interesting engagement between German and British navies on the Western side of Tanzania. For those people out there who are geographically savvy the west of Tanzania is landlocked apart from the 600 kilometre long Lake Tanganyika. Yes the Germans had 2-3 ships stationed on this lake. After the Konigsberg was destroyed its large guns were sent from the Rufiji Delta to Tanganyika to arm the large Graf von Gotzen on the lake.
The British heard about the German navy precense on the lake and sent out gunboats from England. Trained them up through Africa from Cape Town, then dragged them by old steam traction engines through the Belgium Congo to lake Tanganyika. By some good luck the British sunk and captured two of the German vessels. The Graf von Gotzen was scuttled in the German retreat from Kigoma in July 1916.
The book I recently read was 'Mimi and Toutou go forth' it explains this ludicrous story more in depth.

Now here is the part I find even more fascinating the Ship Graf von Gotzen was salvaged in 1924 and renamed 'MV Liemba'. Believe it or not but this ship still steams up and down lake Tanganyika but as a passenger/cargo ferry nowadays.

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Peak season - Newly weds, Well feds & Nearly deads go on safari

With the beginning of July came the dramatic increase in flying.......standby days have already became a fond distant memory.

The tourists have arrived in their masses just like any other year despite fears that the likely travellers would stay home this year and count their pennies...no their here. They have all come to catch a glimpse of the lions, tigers and bears(of course there is only lions here though I have had a couple of safari goers completely oblivious to this fact...seriously!).

My brain is a bit fried from bulk flying recently so I will attempt to keep this brief. In the last week I have been criss crossing Tanzania all day everyday depositing the newly weds, well feds and nearly deads into various game reserves. On Friday though I did only just make it in time to start my day because my cheap old rental car was overheating and only just managed to limp into the airport car park.

The top picture is almost self explanatory "Arusha the Geneva of Africa". As lovely as Arusha is with its temperate climate it is nothing like Geneva to me anyway, though the Rwandan genocide trials did take place here so they do have something in common.

Next shot is Coastal and Safari air link Caravans at Msembe airstrip in the Ruaha national park.

Zantas Cessna 206 in Dar es Salaam......I had to take a picture I love this planes registration.

You may have to click on this picture to see what I'm talking about. This morning when enroute from Lake Manyara to Ruaha I took this picture high above some fields near Tanzania's capital city Dodoma. On close examination I think the countless craters over the landscape are where farmers have dug for water...don't quote me on this. But what it really looks like is some World War two bombers have flown over and bombed the landscape.

Thursday last week I flew Zanzibar to Arusha with no passengers and overtook this Coastal Caravan enroute at 10500 feet AMSL(At Mean Sea Level for the non - aviation geek)

One of those rare moments when the full 14000 feet of Mount Meru is bare to the whole world and not clothed in cloud.

Last of all these are just two other types of aircraft hauling tourists in and out the bush here. The Pilatus PC-12 is operated by Northern Air and the Large Dash-7 is operated by Regional air services.

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Another week in the life

of a pilot grafting for hours in East Africa.

Top picture is Chumbe Island. It has a secluded little resort nestled between the old lighthouse and small beach which is on the western point. If one overheads this island when flying it puts you on a perfect right downwind for runway 18 Zanzibar.

Some of you may remember me going on about constant power cuts during the wet season. Well the Tanzanian electrical company not mentioning any names....TANESCO actually managed to maintain 6 continuous weeks of electricity in Dar es Salaam. It was bliss while it lasted. The rumours are that inland hydro dams just don't have enough water in them so they are conserving the resource by having constant power cuts through the dry months. The other rumour I have heard goes along with my usual stories of people here with authority/power......abusing it for personal gain. Anyway the story goes along the lines that the Government has recently slashed the energy budget by 25% and here it is, increased the minister travel budget by 100%......hmmmm yeah I'm sure that is ok with the millions of Tanzanians who don't even have the opportunity to have a home with electricity.

I better get off this political topic before somebody makes me disappear one day soon.

I have spent the best part of the last week flying a Caravan with a new power plant in it....it has gone from being the pig of the fleet to being one of the best almost over night(it took longer than that too change the engine). No more take offs at altitude with all the engine parameters on the limit. I now don't have to really worry too much when extra people turn up at a bush strip wanting a lift out......weight permitting of course.

Also I have been ending up with the late Zanzibar flights each day, it means one ends up having to deal with Dar es Salaams rush hours in traffic(4pm until well after 8pm except on Sundays). The upside is the last flight is nearly always a night flight and my logbook is hungry for all the night hours it can get.

I took this picture of the sun setting through your typical dry season haze/smoke layer as I crossed the mainland coast line.

The next is of oddly laid out apartment buildings just on the outskirts of the old section of Stone town(on Zanzibar). Up close these apartments are absolutely disgusting and house hundreds of people. From the air it resembles a large cross....maybe some christian architect was having a laugh by designing a large crucifix in the centre of Stone town on a completely Muslim island. All I know it is the most predominant feature visible from the sky when one looks upon Stonetown. In the bottom right corner of the shot you can see large of cables coming out of the ocean...well that's Zanzibar's mooring to the mainland to stop it floating away. No actually it is the underwater electrical cables from the mainland that supplies this island with energy. May last year this cable was damaged somewhere in the 20 nautical mile expanse of the channel, causing a blackout one month long for the 1.2 million inhabitants of the island...luckily it was the tourist low season and not too many holiday makers had their holiday ruined.

As a ex Cessna 210 or Centurion pilot I couldn't resist the temptation to take a few snap shots of this well kitted out Swiss registered 210 on the apron at Zanzibar. Turbocharged, pressurized, four bladed propeller, wing extensions(I guess they also hold auxiliary fuel tanks) and even a dirty great radar dome on the right wing....I mean starboard wing. Myself personally wouldn't be too keen on the idea of taking a Cessna 210 through bad weather even with the best radar one can buy. Either way this machine is well equipped for a leisure flight around the globe.

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Smuggling and the carriage of Arms

Last week a friend of mine who lives in Zanzibar called me up with an unusual request.......he wanted me to buy bacon and bring it to Zanzibar on my next flight. It does sound a like a odd thing to ask but when you are a ex-patriate living on the Island of Zanzibar which is 99% Muslim...pork isn't exactly common stock in Butcheries. So on Friday afternoon when I flew the 1400 bus service around the Spice islands I also had the undeclared package of bacon for the deprived non Muslim island dweller. Then from Tanga back to Dar es Salaam I either had somebody important on board who required body guards or half my local passengers just really liked travelling around with their firearms. I don't know exactly what the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority(TCAA) laws are here but airport security always gives passengers firearms to the pilot to carry during flights.

So I left Dar es Salaam with my bag full of bacon and returned to Dar with it full of pistols. On a very small but legal scale it was kind of like the Russian Illushian/Antnov transport jets out of Mwanza.....If you don't know what I'm on about the rumours are that these transports fly illegal arms into African hot spots from Europe and then pick up dried fish from Mwanza for the return trip to Europe. If you can see past the moral problems it is a good business concept the aircraft is making money each way.

Early this morning I had my 6 monthly base check. This requires some upper air work, a few turns, a couple of stalls, simulated engine failure into a bush strip on the coast and topped off with a few circuts in various landing configurations. If I say so myself it went well......bar my lack of rudder in a wing drop stall.....but hey I'm still alive so can't complain.

After that I did the 0830 flight to the Ruaha national park. I was given the companies Cessna Caravan which is in the VIP configuration(for people with lots of cash that can charter a caravan with only 6 seats). It has 6 reclining seats, two fold out tables and even a toilet. Anyway the reason I had this aircraft today was lack of passengers on this particular route and all other aircraft were busy, despite the apparent recession we are actually busy.

After I levelled out at 10500 feet above the extreme smoke/haze layer which smothers the air here during the dry months I engaged the auto pilot slide the seat back and relaxed for one hour and a half as I cruised over the Udzungwa mountains.

First stop in the Ruaha was Jongomero one of my all time favourite bush strips after lake Manyara with the 700 foot drop at the end of the runway. Jongomero is built over a rise so you land up hill and complete your landing roll going down hill. The key I have worked out is not too carry too much speed over the rise when landing...because trying too brake while going down hill in a expensive aircraft is the not the best feeling. There is also two giant Baobabs(big fat trees that look like they are upside down) very close to the airstrip which could catch the unaware pilot out on a heavy take off.

The pictures in order from the top: Flying VFR(Visual flight rule) above the weather late one afternoon last week. The honourable president of Tanzania's toys his Fokker and Gulfstream. In a country where the majority of the people live in below average conditions with no electricity the president has two personal jets.....I guess its typical of African leaders. Ruaha river. External and internal pictures of the VIP Caravan. Elephants lingering beside Msembe airstrip in the Ruaha national park. In Dar es Salaam traffic one can almost do all their grocery shopping you can buy everything from...children's toys, fake watches, kitchen utensils, DVDs, magazines that can't be found in any stores here, prepaid phone credit, ice creams, all kinds of nuts, fresh produce, COLD drinking water(don't know how they keep it cold), car accessories, cigarettes and even pets(puppies, goldfish and guinea pigs). The only thing you can't buy is cold beer......but its illegal to drink and drive in most parts of the world even in crawling traffic after a long day.

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The Bush Pilot Spoils

On Friday I had my first flight into the Selous Game Reserve in three months, was bloody great to do some bush landings without having to trek way up North to the Seringeti.

Within 45 minutes I had landed at three different bush strips along the Rufiji river, with one go around(A 'go around' is where one aborts a landing approach due to unsafe landing conditions, because a lazy guide hadn't cleared the airstrip for animals in this case) at Stiegler gorge due to a harem of Impala leisurely strolling across the airstrip.

I have now spent the last three days soaking up the sun (I am quite pasty/fair skinned so I was in the shade most of the time) at one stunning little get away spot called Ras Kutani on the Indian ocean one hours drive south of Dar es Salaam. It is a very common destination for British honeymooners who I have come to name Jack and Emma's. The operator I fly for flies the Jack and Emma's from the Dar es Salaam airport over the short distance(17 nautical miles) to Ras Kutani airstrip.

Anyway because I am a Tanzanian resident(sounds scary) and fly the Jack and Emma's I get a discount to stay at this little exotic place of luxury.

So with my little Australian lady having her birthday over the weekend I took the opportunity to take her to Ras Kutani for 3 days, its a birthday present that I get to benefit from as well(I got her another gift too).

We drove down our old beat up Toyota saloon. It was ok on the way down on a bright sunny Sunday afternoon. But today on the way back it was a different story as it had rained all night, nearly the entire road back to Dar es Salaam is dirt, it was a miracle that the 2wd car got us back to without really getting bogged in Mud(though it came close more than once).

Pictures: Top picture is of our little shelter from the sun, Caravan parked at Mtmere airstrip in the Selous game reserve, ferry across the harbour to go south of Dar es Salaam(enroute to Ras kutani), A dhow on the south side of the harbour and last of all our room at Ras Kutani.

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The African Experience

I have had an interesting week, one of those weeks that really remind one that, yes you do still live in Africa, good reality check.

The first reality check being kitchen and laundary waste water from the apartment above leaking through into my apartment. Extremely hygenic! It has only taken a week from when the plumber first inspected the problem until he came with the correct materials to fix the WASTE water leak. One does love the speed at which things progress in Africa.

The second happened last wednesday when I went to a friendly football match between New Zealand and Tanzania in Dar es Salaam. Due to traffic we were late and decided to enter through the first stadium entrance we came accross even though we had VIP tickets. At first I was thinking this is alot of people waiting to enter the stadium, untill suddenly the crowd was retreating. I quickly realized the mass of humanity was in retreat from a line of advancing riot police with battens raised. One guy fell in front of me I did not see him get up as he was quickly hidden by the tide of people running back. Yes we were caught up in a large mob of Tanzanians trying to storm the gates to see the game for free. In the confusion my little lady, a kiwi friend of mine and myself were soon through the skirmish. I guess the police saw 3 wazungu(white people) in the surging crowd and guessed we had tickets. New Zealand ended up losing 2-1. Afterwards we got interviewed by East Africa TV, where we did the haka( war dance usually done by the All Blacks not the All Whites) for the cameras saying that was our supporters dance. Example of the haka http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMCAV6Yd0Y

The third reality check came when I arrived at the camp I was to spend the night on Friday night in the Seringeti. I decided to sit outside my tent in the afternoon sunshine and fill out my paperwork. What a mistake that turned out to be, I hadn't applied any insect repellant. Tsetse flies give a nasty little sting when they bite, with most people thats all it is, on rare occasions they can give humans Sleepy sickness. With me I seem to react and get large painful welts that last for about three days. I got mauled by these risilent little critters.

The pictures from the top: Tented camp in the Seringeti, out of date control tower on Pemba Island, Tsetse fly and fire truck North Mara goldmine.

This one is of a fire truck with a retractable windsock on the back. The company I fly for have a couple of Mine contracts in the North West of Tanzania. The local communities around these isolated mine sites are extremely lawless. Every attempt to permanently install a windsock at this mine airstrip has ended with the pole used to hold the winsock aloft being stolen within days of its erection.

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I'm still alive.....for those of you wondering.

Nine months of the year Dar es Salaam is a sticky sweaty frustrating city to dwell in. But...for 2-3 months of the year the humidity goes on a break. These months are June, July and August.
It doesn't cool down enough to throw on a sweatshirt not even in the evening....It's roughly the equivalent of midsummer in Gods country(New Zealand). One can sleep with the air conditioner off, my temper is a little less fiery and I no longer sweat just watching television(too much information I guess).

I have just put together a few pictures I have taken since my last blog.
The top picture: The DC-3 is going to be operated by a new entrant here in Tanzania called Indigo Aviation. From the information/rumours that I have gathered is that they plan to fly daily schedule flights too Zanzibar, Selous game reserve and Mafia island. I'm no expert(I'm a functionary that just steers Cessna Caravans for my boss) but operating a busy schedule with only one aircraft in my eyes is a big ask let alone the particular aircraft being 63 years old. Anyway good luck to them, it's good to see an old bird like that operating in this part of the world.

Next shot is short final for Mafia Island. I do apologise for the dirty windscreen. Mafia is a popular Island for recreational divers and for the average tourist after a bit of adventure. Here for the best part of the year one can go snorkeling with Whale sharks....its on my to do list.


The shot: My lovely little Aussie woman posing with our current street dog(Frank) that we are rehabilitating so he can go to a permanent home. Some people come to Africa to save the aids orphans or take on the impossible task of reducing corruption....but no my partner she rescues street dogs. The point of this picture is the power line that is hanging down over the road. Only in Africa does an electrical cable hang down over a road for 3 days.


While I was taking the picture of the power line I took this picture of the shops across the road from our apartment building. Starting from the extreme left is the gas shop(not far to lug our gas bottles when empty), Dry Cleaners,General Store(stocks everything from fresh produce to beer), Dvd store and a clothing store......I have everything on my doorstep no need for Tesco or Coles when here you can buy everything you need out of a old sea container.

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Barbara Bush(former first daughter not the old lady) above the Rufiji delta

I love to fly don't get me wrong, but there is always the satisfying feeling of being paid to be standby at home. It's like being given a free Sunday where you can laze around the house all day the only rules are: no drinking and keep your mobile close at hand...no worries.

Yes I am standby at home today....back to the Dar-zanzibar-Dar slog tomorrow.

The day before yesterday I had an afternoon charter down to Kilwa. Its a small settlement 120 nautical miles South of Dar es Salaam. Nowadays Kilwa boasts a couple of small lodges which cater to the intrepid game fisherman who wants to land a large Marlin in a exotic corner of the globe. According to history back in the 11th through to the 16th century Kilwa was one of the principle trading ports in the Indian ocean. It traded in the traditional African booty of past times which was, gold, ivory, spices and of course slaves. Today there is only ruins of the great mosque and palaces that once stood there.

Also on the way down I took this picture of Rufiji delta out the right window and then out the left this one of Mafia Island(I no passengers onboard).

I doubt many of you have heard the World war one story in the Rufiji delta. The German cruiser Konigsberg hid up there to make repairs after sinking two ships one being a British cruiser. The British discovered the cruiser in late 1914. Since the ship was too far up the delta for large British ships to get within gunnery range it took them another 8 months before it could be destroyed in July 1915 by lighter gunboats. Most crew escaped and served in German east Africa as infantry most were killed or died of disease.

These pictures are of the Konigsberg the latter was taking during large spring tides nine years after it was sunk. I have have never been able to spot the wreck, I guess nearly 100 years of salt water may have eaten most of it away.....I will let you know if I ever spot it.....if your interested.

Enough of the history lesson. When I arrived in Kilwa I'm waiting for my passengers to get themselves in order and board the Caravan. Along time ago I stopped trying to interact with my passengers too much except for rare circumstances when one has a good crowd on board. All I noticed was that the entire group were American.

Anyway as I was flying back a pilot from my company asked me over the uncontrolled traffic frequency 'Do you have the famous lady sitting next to you?'.

I said 'no, whose the famous lady I am supposed to have on board?'.

He replied quickly 'Bush daughter'.

Bush daughter? was that some movie or t.v. show I hadn't heard of, I just as quickly dismissed the thought and concentrated on flying.

It wasn't until I landed back in Dar es Salaam and saw 3 Toyota landcruisers waiting for me to shutdown did my slow brain put 2'an'2 together. I had Barbara Bush(former first daughter, one of the twins) sitting in the seat behind me. Barbara and her entourage said thanks and farewell before filing off to the waiting motorcade.

I always thought these sorts people would require two pilot crews or atleast two engines, not a single pilot in a single engine Caravan. Maybe insurance companies are not so strict for former first daughters.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Snapshots from the days of Maun

Today is a nice an easy day almost a long weekend all i had to do was come to the airport for an afternoon standby as i have said before 'flying the couch'.

Life is managing to hold an unusual calm here at the moment we havn't had large power black outs for a while, I have had continous running water for almost two weeks and my run down old rental car is running ok(touch wood).

With this idle time I have decided to throw up some picutres and a couple of interesting articles from back in the old days(3 years ago) when I flew clapped out Cessnas in Maun Botswana.

The Articles are only two of the gems that Ngami Times(local paper in Maun) turn out on a regular basis. Only in maun would you come accross donkey rapists! I guess one would have to have had a fair few Windhoek lagers.....plus some to find a donkey attractive.

Or the witch doctor from Zanzibar...who needs a lawyer when your local witch can cure your caught cases for 30 Pula(if i'm correct its only $6USD)

The other pictures down the righthand side:

Flying formation from Maun up the Okavango Delta to Shakawe near the border with Namibia

A quick flight around Victoria falls in the hope i may get a tip from my passengers whilst flying from Kasane to Livingston in Zambia.

Temperature in the C206 one afternoon 50 degrees celcius....the conditions us pilots put ourselves through along the road to acheive the ultimate goal of a air conditioned cockpit, with a sheepskinned covered seat at 30000 feet.

High over the Makgadikgadi salt pan in a Cessna 210. Apparently this pan was once the worlds largest inland ocean. I also believe that the waters from the Okavango river use to flow into the makgadikgadi pan, but nowadays the water spreads out in the Delta and vanishs into the sands of the Kalahari.

A late afternoon scenic flight down the Gomoti river with another Cessna 210 off my wingtip.....such a hard life.

I'm not going to go into any detail of the after hours debauchery that Maun pilots were famous for in their irresponsible ways.

My 21st birthday out at a bar/camp 15 minutes drive out of maun called Sitatunga was bad enough.

Anyway my significant other has just come off 7 nights straight at the hospital, so I'm off home now to drink wine and cook meat over hot coals with her.........I'm not flying until 1500 tomorrow if anybody is wondering.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Thought I ought to touch base.

Before I mumble on about the small irrelavant happenings of my life over the past week, I will explain the video.
I have really put consideration into wether it would be wise publish this video on the internet. Of course I decided to publish it as you can surly see. It was three years ago in the Okavango delta in Botswana. There is no way you could catch me doing something this stupid these days...I enjoy living far too much. But it does make for good viewing.

Since my last Blogg I can honestly say I have been busy........flying. With the tourist season just around the corner there are extra charters popping up and the southern game reserves(Selous and Ruaha) open up in 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to alot less landings on Tarmac and more rough bush strips. I know over the last bloggs I gone about the wet season...well it has all but petered out to nothing. It never rained as much as usual. Dar es Salaam only became a disaster zone a handful of times and I only had one or two airbourne moments where my heart rate slightly rose. I guess it isn't the best for Tanzania with lack of rainfall in catchment areas for hydro dams which generate a large percentage of the countries electricity.Tanesco(Electricity provider) struggle to keep the power on at the best of times let alone having water shortages as an excuse to blame for the ongoing power outages. Some envirnomentalists or "egomentalists"(in the words of Jeremy Clarkson) would say its global warming that caused the lack of rain in Tanzania this year. I say its just one of those things that happens every now and again.

I had two interesting moments on Tuesaday, first of all I was Climbing out of Zanzibar enroute for Arusha when my Artifical horizon completely crapped itself(a personal technical term for a defect). With the very real possibility of bad weather in the four hour round trip I wasn't going to take the risk. So I headed for Dar es Salaam to get a fully functioning aircraft. I eventually got my passengers surprisingly only 1 hour behind schedule and did spend roughly 20 minutes submerged in cloud on the way. The second moment when I was only 10 minutes away from landing in Zanzibar when the chinese passenger in the front right seat beside me told me there was a problem....I was thinking PROBLEM!? What does he know that I don't, all the engine instruments were ok and then I looked back at all the passengers they all seemed relaxed.

He then said 'No I have the problem, I have need to go toilet' in his broken english.

I said 'oh, no worries we are landing in 9 minutes, if you can hold on'.

After a slight pause he said 'No!'.

No?! what was he wanting me to do....let him go out the storm window or something like that. He solved the problem himself. He asked if he could go down the back of the aircraft and go in his small carry on backpack. I said 'if you can't hold on and your willing to take a leak in your own bag, go for it'

So with only minutes until landing the Chinese passenger goes down to the rear of the caravan and does his business. I have never had to go to such extremes ever, he must of been busting to degrade himself in such small confines with 12 other people.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

From luxury to prison and back to the sweat pit

I'm now kicking back in the sweat pit/Dar es Salaam after a week of sleeping in a different bed each night from five star luxury to a cockroach infestation.
Sunday I was sent out to the Prison/mining town where the company I fly for have a Caravan based 60 nautical miles Southwest of Mwanza. I thankfully was only there for one night. I took this picture of the view from my cell/room,this large man made lake contains Cyanide filled mine tailing's.....view like this must do wonders for property values. I have decided to name it lake Death.
I know i have already gone on about the wildebeest migration enough over the last couple of posts, so I'll make this the last time for a while at least.
On Tuesday I pulled out every little piece of information from memory where other pilots had told me how to get into Arusha in bad weather. Pilots at Seronera who had just come from Arusha passed on info that the airport was completely clogged in with rain. I have a GPS approach that I had obtained from a Arusha based operator. The Arusha based pilots swear by this approach, though I have flown it in marginal weather conditions and know it keeps you clear of the terrain. I wasn't willing to dive into angry turbulent cloud and do a unpublished approach which lets one down through mountainous terrain......well not that day anyway. I took the less popular option of going low level around the south of the mountains from the Serengeti plains via lake Eyassi, then over the escarpment at lake Manyara and then my plan was to follow the highway into Arusha. But the weather was down to the ground on this final stretch so I deviated off track and began to head for Kilimanjaro International which I knew would be clear (the two airports are only several miles apart but there is a 1500 foot difference in elevation). As I was passing abeam Arusha enroute for Killi I saw a hole in the weather which was revealing the factory near Arusha airport, I took my chances and went for it. I landed only five minutes after my scheduled landing time, so all was good.
After a quick lunch of the local cuisine(beef stew and rice) and with the Caravan refuelled I steeled my nerves to go back to the Serengeti. Cruising at 12000 feet (FL120 for the aviation nut) I was well in the pea soup(heavy cloud and rain or as a aviation geek would say 'precipitation') concentrating on my tracking as unseen mountains were passing me by either side of track. After a good 30 minutes flying in IMC(Instrument meteorological conditions) I came clear of the weather into beautiful sunlight over Ngorogoro crater as if the previous 30 minutes were apart of my imagination. Those of you who have never heard of Ngorogoro crater it is one of those rare places in Africa where a self respecting tourist can expect to see the big five within a few hours. It is packed full of wild animals and also hundreds of other self respecting tourists all year round.



It was after this demanding morning that I was rewarded with one of my most memorable sights to date yet whilst flying from Ndutu to Seronera at 500 feet above the ground I literally flew over hundreds of thousands of Zebra and Wildebeest. I tried to photograph it, but the sheer scale of animals from horizon to horizon can't be captured by a small point and shoot camera. I also flew over a lion kill amongst this mass of animals, the circling vultures gave away the location.

On Tuesday night I decided to trade in the absolute luxury of Bilila(Kempinski) for the wildlife lodge which is closer to the airstrip....it turned out to be a mistake. I was innocently watching a DVD on my laptop when cockroaches began crawling around me!! They were coming out of the pillows, needless to say I didn't use my pillows that night. I feel sorry for those poor self respecting tourists forking out a small fortune for their once in a lifetime safari to end up sleeping with cockroaches......definitely not my cup of tea.
I couldn't resist taking a picture of this Antonov, along way from home with its Deutschland registration.

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www.africanbushpilot.com

Serengeti sunrise & a smoke Salmon breakfast

Well the last three days have been a bloody good change of scenery after basically a month of Flying Dar(Dar es Salaam)-Zanzibar-Dar-Zanzibar-Dar-Zanzibar and back to Dar again you get the picture.
I'm sure the recent pictures speak for themselves with, Oldonyo Langai the volcano that is the Masai mountain of God, Masai kraals high up on the slopes of Empakaai crater (roughly 10000 feet above sea level), and Empakaai crater itself. The view from Bilila the new Kempinski hotel which is situated in the Serengeti. Giraffe crossing. Zebra/Wildebeest crossing a small creek

Yesterday I was sitting down at the restaurant that serves cheap local food at Arusha airport eating my beef and rice, when a random guy came up to me with his hand out to introduce himself. At first I was thinking what is this guy on about has he mistaken me for some other bloke.....no it turned out I have flown him numerous times. He explained to me he works for Kempinski's( large global hoteliers that have been around since forever) and that they are wanting pilots to come out and stay at the new lodge that opened yesterday.The gods must have been smiling on me, I happened to be over nighting at Seronera ( The airstrip that services numerous safari lodges including Kempinski's) last night anyway and Kempinski's was hell of a lot more attractive proposition than the old rundown lodge we pilots usually stay at near the airstrip.

Whilst I was climbing out of Arusha bound for the Serengeti I heard a good friend of mine over the radio in a Cessna 206 also enroute for Seronera from Dar es Salaam. I told him to go to a chat frequency, it turned out he too was spending the night at Kempinski as well.....this was going to be a good night.

This morning after a good night in Absolute five star luxury and free beer I arrive at the aircraft to find Hyena's had visited the Caravan during the night. Usually I can't be bothered placing thorn bushes around the aircraft tyres to deter the hyenas that have a insatiable fetish of eating aircraft tyres. Anyway yesterday I did this and it probably saved me from being stranded in the bush today. I started taking off the pitot tube covers( sock like things that cover the pointy steel tubes on the wings when on the ground) then got to the propeller to remove the strap that stops the propeller from turning from in the wind......but today it was gone except for a small piece of chewed up strap on the ground. I'm guessing the Hyena was showing his frustration for not being able to eat the tyres.

I'm now in Mwanza on the Southern shores of Lake Victoria and tomorrow I'm off to prison. Not literally prison....but close. It is a gold mine where my company has an aircraft based and we nicknamed the mine prison as the security is crazy.....I guess it is Africa and it's needed. The upside to this prison is lots of free food in the mess and twice a week we fly to Nairobi in Kenya which equals duty free. So Monday that's where I will be.

Right now I'm off to a water front bar to watch some live rugby.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Tanzanian military blows itself up????!!!!!

For a better explanation go to this link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8024656.stm

Yesterday my little Australian lady and I were spending some romantic quality time together ( doing the grocery shopping ) when suddenly the supermarket shook like a bomb had just gone off nearby. Two minutes later a Indian manager asked us to leave the store as there has been an earthquake. I come from New Zealand so I like to think I know what an Earthquake feels like.....this didn't feel like an earthquake at all. Once we were outside it sounded like world war three was taking place in the direction of the city centre.

With our shopping having to be abandoned half way through, we went to a restaurant at Sea Cliff for lunch still confused as to what was creating the thunderous racket downtown.

At lunch I made a few phone calls to friends who were at various locations around the city and started to piece together some ludicrous story about a military base blowing up!

Well it turns out to be true, the armoury at a military base on the outskirts of the city SOMEHOW blew up. After reading a newspaper this morning the report said up to 100 explosions occured throughout yesterday afternoon.
Living in Tanzania something always seems to happen that would not ever be thought of let alone take place in a western country......like an armoury full of bombs exploding......or a two lane road in Dar es Salaam can become four or five lanes in rush hour(s)....or a large navy vessel getting stranded on a beach whilst dropping Officers off for a beer at a beach front resort.

On another note I am currently really not appreciating my current surroundings because here I am blogging away while out my room window is the iconic plains covered in acacia trees which the Serengeti is famous for and great black Cumulonimbus clouds ( clouds that are black, scary and lightning comes out of them) thundering away above.

Today I flew over the wildebeest migration that is beginning to move south, Hopefully over the next few days I can get some good pictures of these vast herds from the air....watch this space.

Also Check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Flying in Africa during the low season/wet season

I'm kicking back at home enjoying my two days off, no dodging red spots on the radar screen for me today.

Yesterday as you can see I was standby at the airport which we have all nicknamed 'flying the couch'. During the yearly low season of April May we all manage to log a few hours flying the couches in the pilot room.

But while yesterday I was literally flat out......sleeping, I can tell you that Saturday and Sunday were a entirely different story. I had not really logged any IFR (instrument flight rules) time since my last instrument flight test in November, that all changed on Saturday with low cloud and heavy rain blanketing the whole coastline of Tanzania! Over the weekend I flew two VFR (visual flight rules) flights out of twelve and those two were carried out in marginal conditions. So with no functioning autopilot in the Caravan I shot Every instrument approach that man has managed to scheme up over 100 years of aviation (I never used signal fires, which I believe was a common navigation beacon back in the early years of wood and canvas).

I feel I have earned my days off and dollars this month.

On Thursday I am off up to the Serengeti National Park and Mwanza (A city perched on the southern shores of the Ocean sized Lake Victoria) for a week. Hopefully will get a flight to Nairobi or Kigali where I can stock up on duty free, the spirits at home are approaching critically low levels. I haven't done any real bush flying in over a month with all the Southern Game reserves closed for the wet season, so I am looking forward to the raw seat of your pants flying which is what motivates me to fly here....until I grow up and want a big comfy chair at 30000 feet.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com

Flying and living in Africa

Well I have found out one of the reasons why my apartment is having water problems so regularly.......it is being stolen! I know in Africa if it isn't bolted down it will disappear instantaneously. I never thought that water would be stolen from my water tank. Now we have padlocked the lid on the tank shut so lets hope I can now bring the water bill down. In Dar es Salaam there is no water mains like most developed cities it is trucked to every house. Even though my partner and I live in a apartment building our apartment has its own water tank and pump.

Then today I get pulled over by the police and the TRA (Tanzanian Revenue Authority) on the way back from the airport they were doing spot checks on motor vehicle registrations and insurance. To my surprise the old Toyota that I rent from a local has a FAKE vehicle registration. The inspectors knew little English and I only the same in Swahili, so after ten minutes they understood the car wasn't mine and that it is rented. In good African fashion a strange agreement cocluded, two inspectors pile in the car with me and we drive to the workshop of the Tanzanian who I rent the car off. I leave the car and the inspectors at the workshop with my dodgy Tanzanian rental guy then taxi home. I still do not have the car, but I'm sure money will change hands in the right places and by tomorrow or the next day the car will be given back to me.

These are some snapshots of my flight from Zanzibar to Arusha yesterday. First pic is the old quarter of Stone town on Zanzibar, Mount Kilimanjaro while I'm cruising at 10500 feet and the last is Mount Meru which stands proudly behind Arusha (a good feature to track towards).

Also check out:

http://www.africanbushpilot.com/

My first proper Bird Strike!

Tuesday Morning my first day back flying after 4 days away I have my first incident where I have to fill out a incident report.

I was on final approach for Runway '18' at Zanzibar for my first landing of the day, when suddenly out of the waste high grass that surrounds the runway at Zanzibar airport (There must be a skill shortage for qualified grass cutters in Zanzibar) a large heron (bird) took flight. I doubt it bothered to look before it took off let alone had a clearance from control.

Anyway here was me in a caravan with Fourteen people on board almost about to touch down.....Bang!! The poor Heron went through the propeller giving the aircraft a mighty jolt and spraying the left hand side of the aircraft in blood. Seconds later I touched down taxied off the runway, informed the tower, shut down the engine and then called operations to let them know what happened.

I couldn't see any visible damage, but wasn't going to risk flying until the aircraft was inspected by an engineer. Whilst I waited for an engineer to be flown over from Dar es Salaam in a Cessna 206 and I enjoyed a bottle of flat Coke (wasn't turning out to be my day) the fire brigade pulled up with the remains of the bird from the runway threshold.

After two hours of sitting around, the propeller was deemed ok, there was no bird bits inside the turbine compressor, all the Caravan needed was a wash and she was good to go.

In Botswana I saw the terrible damage after striking large birds in small aircraft such as Vultures and I was lucky to get away with just a delay of my next flight by two hours.

The next day involved satisfying TCAA (Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority) with a incident report.....I think the heron was in the wrong....though a environmentalist would probably say I was in the wrong for invading its natural environment or something like that.

Later that day of the bird strike I got to be entertained by a rare spectacle that only occurs one week a year in Dar es Salaam the Tanzanian Airforce fighters fly. The clapped out old Shenyang J-5's, which are copies of the Russian MIG-17's. I once owned a Chinese motorcycle for my first six months in Tanzania it broke down all the time, so believe me you would have to brave or stupid to fly one of those aircraft. The Airforce fighters fly this one week a year to practice for a fly by on the 26th of April for the celebration of the Union between Zanzibar and Tanganyika which in part created Tanzania (don't quote me on that).

Also check out:

http://www.africanbushpilot.com/

Pilots wanted

Being the middle of the wet season, and with little flying at presant as is always the case at this time of the year, I have not many outlandish adventures in the last week. I spent Thursday night over in Zanzibar so got to have a sundowner and dinner on the beach at Mtoni Marine on the outskirts of Stonetown. This overnight was to position for the early flight to Dar es Salaam to connect with British Airways. After that I had two stand by days, I actually don't mind days from time to time. We all love being paid to do nothing which is what standby basically means (to me anyway).

I'm hearing stories left right and centre or is it the media scaring everybody to tighten up their perce strings?

I am also hearing that tourism here in Tanzania and even rumours from Botswana that this year is going to be a quiet year.
This is also creating rumours that there is no pilot jobs in Africa at presant......

.....I could have thought wrong my apartment in Dar es Salaam might as well be a hostel for pilots arriving in Tanzania for flying jobs. I just had two friends stay for a week they have ended up landing positions with Coastal Aviations Mwanza operation.
Then next week a Scottish mate who I actually went to flying school with in Christchurch (New Zealand) back at the begining of time(2003-2004) coming to stay while he lines up a flying job with Zanair over in Zanzibar.
I don't mind the quantity of beer in my fridge has increased with these squatters/pilots crashing at my place.

This to me gives the impression that the doom and gloom that CNN keeps preaching may not be so bad after all.

Also check out:

http://www.africanbushpilot.com/

Wanting to fly in Botswana or Tanzania?

If anyone happens to be cruising past my blog check out the video I have put up

and then after that check out my Website

www.africanbushpilot.com

Bush pilot yarns

Over the weekend I had a good mate from Arusha who is also a pilot (what a surprise) come around for dinner. As what usually happens when you get a group of people from the same profession together they start talking shop.
He told me about the interesting time he had at lake Manyara that morning and I told him about my afternoon at the Spice Island of Pemba.

His story was one I have heard before from older pilots, but luckily I have never had the pleasure of the experience. The Airstrip is located about 700 feet above the Lake perched right on the edge of the escarpment. This morning the cloud base was down to the edge of the escarpment(the same level as the airstrip). After having to fly along below the top of the escarpment hoping for a break in the weather he could just make out the base of radio antenna's which are located on the edge of the cliff. These Antenna's are about 50 meters to left of the airstrip when approaching to land from the South east. Now he knew where abouts the airstrip was he positioned for the approach to land.....the only thing was he was still 200 feet LOWER than the airfield. It doesn't take a scientist to work out that climbing and landing are usually opposites but in this case he had to climb up 200 feet to land! He climbed on his approach slightly right of the antenna, just as he reached the lip of the escaprment only feet away from being swallowed by cloud he saw the threshold 50 metres ahead.
This sounds like something a Helicopter would do, but no he was in a fixed wing Cessna Caravan. It's the kind of story to make the average pilot cringe....including me.

That same afternoon I was fumbling my way into Pemba from Zanzibar. Their was mountains of towering cumulus obscuring the island with the thunder heads reaching to what looked like at the time the edge of space. But the sea East and West of the Island was clear blue skies. I had overheard a beneficial conversation only days before. The pilot was talking to another about flying into Pemba in bad weather. He said "when there is heavy rain engulfing the island the sea is usually clear, so one can descend over the ocean and try get in low level'. I took a mental note for future use. The airport on the island is only about a mile from the west coast.
On this day I did exactly this hoping that I could slip in underneath the cloud from west coast, I wasn't going through the cloud because the weather radar was painting red on the screen everywhere ahead. I descended down to 500 feet above the ocean with the airport 3 miles off my port(left) wingtip then turned directly towards it and pushed on through the rain. It was one of the times when you are on the point of turning back when straight ahead half a mile off is the runway. I was almost perfectly positioned for a left base to land towards the South West. On the ground their was a lot of water and if I had been only minutes earlier I would not of found the airport as it would have been in the middle of a tropical downpour.

Also check out:

http://www.africanbushpilot.com/

Live like an African

I Live well, well I definitely eat well as all my trousers are magically shrinking in size. I dress well especially the clean pressed pilots uniform, that's thanks to my full time maid (she washes all the clothes by hand!).

Apart from this, the first impression from a westerner maybe to label our existence here as subsistence. I drive a Toyota, Mark2 a family saloon from the mid 1990's, this is the car of the masses in Dar es Salaam. The one I have sits low on the drivers side (maybe my trouser shrinking problem is indirectly related to the car suspension problem), it is covered in dents and scratches (some because of a certain Australian female driver who is dear to me). The radiator over heats at least once a month in Dar es Salaam traffic jams.

The apartment complex that my partner and I live in is not the most attractive building ever built...if it was located somewhere like South central L.A. you would expect to hear gunshots and see drug dealers lounging outside. There is a rubbish pile out the front of our building which serves as the compound dump and is only cleaned up once a month.


Two nights ago the Congolese family in the apartment above mine were having a party, it didn't bother too much me because occasionally I have a few pilots over and I know we are not quiet especially when Konyagi is involved (Tanzanian Gin, I'm not too fond of it personally). Anyway an expatriate from another apartment building in our compound went up and knocked on their door to complain......what a mistake these people were in a state beyond reasoning. I went out into the stairwell to view the uproar only to have a pint of beer thrown over me and then a glass vase about to come my way was a good cue to retreat back into my apartment to relative safety. It was a bit of excitement for a quiet Monday night.


It's not all that bad if you look past the aesthetics its actually a really sweet life style here. I only rent the car for a nominal amount per month, I wouldn't want to drive a expensive car here drivers are reckless (its the only time Tanzanians are ever in a hurry, I mean no offence) plus the rental company/guy rescues me off the road whenever I break down. My Apartment is actually really nice inside and comfortable. Its located in a area my partner and I could never afford to live if our companies didn't pay the rent. The neighbours upstairs well that's just bad luck, we all have neighbours we dislike from time to time.


With all this considered I live like a king, my partner and I could not maintain this lifestyle back in New Zealand. I hate Sundays when the maid has her day off.......it means I have to do dishes.

Also check out:

http://www.africanbushpilot.com/

Bush flying the weather is always fine until you go take a look.

0430 this morning my alarm went off jolting me awake, there was power in our apartment this morning so i could see while I showered and breakfasted......so far a good start to the day.


This morning I had one of our regular early morning charters that I have grown to dread. The flight is to Kilombero a sugar plantation 140 nautical miles west of Dar es Salaam. The best part is there is a low mountain range 20 miles before the airstrip reaching up to a height of 5000 feet, then less than a mile beyond the airstrip is a 10000 foot mountain range and usually there is a layer of stratus (flat blanket like cloud, not all fluffy-puffy like) that sits like a lake nestled between both ranges. Also with the low early morning light limiting visibility one has to be on tippy toes (cautious).Above pic. Between two cloud layers Mountains just below cloud and 20 miles ahead the cloud is setled against 10000 foot mountains.



Now talking to your different breeds of bush pilots there is differing ways of getting into kilombero in the morning whilst technically trying to maintain VFR(Visual flight rules). One method is to do a home made GPS(Global positioning system) approach, which basically involes decending down through cloud missing terrain if the ground can not be seen within four miles of the strip you turn left onto a heading of 180 degrees magnetic and climb for home. This to me is way too much faith in the GPS which is not approved for primary navigation in Tanzania. In clouds surrounded by mountains is definately not my cup of tea.....aircraft are not too good at flying through terra firma.


There is one other way where pilots approach from the south over the cane fields....I havn't tried this one yet.


I stick with the tried and true method of low level in sight of the ground with my own eyes(not a GPS screen) and sneaking in under the blanket of cloud by going through the mountains and then down a open valley to the sugar plantation. I have around 2000 hours total time flying and each morning I am sent to Kilombero in the mornings I really feel the nerves in my stomach as I can feel the challenge ahead.


I say this, then today all those nerves and worrying were for nothing it was a complete milkrun it was a absolutely beautiful morning no crossing the cane fields at a uncomfortable 200 feet above the ground.


When bush flying one can never be quite certain what weather to expect until they reach their destination.

Also check out:

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The flying hazard I found in Botswana and Tanzania that no weather report or NOTAM could inform you about is wild ANIMALS

Ealier I was thinking of a flight I had one month ago into the Selous game reserve where animals hindered my efforts to land. I then thought I would write about this hazard that I never thought I would encounter when I first started flying back in Christchurch, New Zealand.



Since those humble beginings I've had to go around whilst trying to land for Elephants, Impala, Hippo's, Giraffe, Buffalo, Wildebeest, aborted multiple take off's because of flighty Zebra and probably a few others that I can't think of at presant.


From the Okavango Delta in Botswana to the Seringeti plains in Tanzania No one has educated these animals to look both ways before crossing a long strip of dirt/gravel in the middle of their natural living environment.


The most recent recent was a wet day with plenty of low cloud and rain. It wasn't the best day to fly, I was on a short final approach in the Cessna Caravan for a airstrip called Siwandu in the Selous game reserve with light rain on the perspex windshield I also had limited forward visibility. At about 100 feet above the ground I could make out two Giraffe meandering across the airstrip and half a dozen Impala grazing on the airstrip. This below average day for flying had thrown one more hurdle at me. I initiated a go around which by the time the turbine came really to life I was only 50 feet above the ground sending the animals in every direction of the compass. It provided my passengers with something to really write home about. Now was the tricky part with cloud ceiling only 300 feet above the ground and light rain I had to carry out a low level circut. Trying to keep the field in sight forced me to do a tight circut. I wouldn't recommend a tight low level circut to somebody fresh out of flying school, it was near the limits that I was willing to tolerate. As I straightened up onto a short final to land I saw the safari vehicle had grasped the situation and had parked off to the side half way down the airstrip in case anymore animals tried to play chicken.


In Botswana I have encountered stubborn bull Elephants which take several low passes to persuade them to vacate the air strip and simultaneously increasing the fear of flying in your passengers who have paid a small fortune for the perfect safari.


Once in the Linyanti swamps again in Botswana spread out over a airstrip called Selinda there was herd of buffalo possibly numbering 100 animals in total. My plan of attack before landing was to drive the herd off to one side. if I flew low directly down the strip and separated them through the middle they would be back on the strip again before I came around again. Instead I started doing low passes to the East of the strip pushing them west across strip in one herd like farmers dog shifting cattle. After the third pass and with the assistance of the safari vehicle(which had the guests I was coming to pick up) the entire herd was moving off to the west clear of the strip, finally I was able to land.


When landing into African bush air strips it always pays to scan the strip thoroughly when on final approach or even do low pass to be certain of no animals. Believe me I know of more than one occasion when aircraft and wild animals have collided none come out unscathed.


The only animal my old boss in Maun, Botswana told me not to worry about was the baboon he will always get out of the way and they always have....so far.

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Dar Life

Again no major events going on here in my life at the moment.....at this very moment anyway.
Yesterday I was in traffic heading to the airport when one of those tropical downpours that borderline on natural disasters in Dar es Salaam broke flooding roads in minutes. The usual 45 minute journey grew into a 2 hour drive. At one point I drove through knee deep water for 200 metres on the main road to the airport. I only had enough credit on my mobile phone to send a text message, so heres me in traffic sending a text message to operations to tell them I will be late for my flight. I made it with five minutes to spare before my sheduled take off time.
The night before my girlfriend and I had a beer(plus a few more to wash that one down) at the Irish pub. As we were leaving we were approached by the friendly Masai warriors, yes in Dar es Salaam there is a Irish pub with a legion of Masai warriors as security. We had chatted for a while as everyone tends to do after a few beverages and one of the Masai kept telling my girlfriend she was so beautiful, he asked me if we were married I said 'yes 'to get him off the subject I could see where he was going with this. After that he asked where he could find such woman like my girl, I said you find them in Australia but they cost alot, He asked how much for one of these beautiful woman? I told him my wife(girlfriend) cost me 100 cattle which I paid to her father.......its not too far from the truth except its in cash which goes to shops everytime a pair of shoes or a bag catches her attention.

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A Couple of Bush flying experiences

Not alot to write about today as I have spent the last two days lying by a pool overlooking the Indian ocean drinking cold Tuskers(local beer) at the Golden tulip in Dar es Salaam. I am now completely sunburnt from head to toe. Though we do have a common problem here at home today......no tap water.

Lately with the majority of safari camps closed in the southern Game reserves the Selous and Ruaha for the wet season, bush landings are a rare occurance with only tarmac to tarmac flights to Zanzibar or Arusha. I am being sent up to the seringetti towards the end of the month, so I wil get my fix of bush strip landings then.

I'm just going to throw in some random pics of my flying over the last 8 months.


Up until 3 months ago I owned a cheap chinese motorcycle which alot of pilots in poverty buy for trnsport before they climb the pay scale to better living. More than once though I have been caught riding to work by those sudden tropical donwpours that basically materialize out of thin air. On this one occasion I was soaked from head to toe and had no dry clothes to change into at the airport. With my saturated uniform and squelching shoes I preflighted the Cessna 206 and took off for a two hour flight to Masasi(a middle of nowhere destination). At 10500 feet the cold air blowing on my waterlogged shoes and sox felt like my feet were suffering the early stages of frostbite. Once I landed in Msasi and the passengers had left me waiting at the strip for their return, I used the propeller to dry my sox.


I was flying back from Pemba,Mozambique to Dar es Salaam late one afternoon. The first aircraft I had departed from Dar es Salaam with early that morning in route to Pemba had developed a small technical probelm halfway causing me to turn back to Dar es Salaam to fetch another Cessna Caravan. This shot is taken in the early evening as I flew north over the Ruvuma River which marks the border between Tanzania and Mozambique.


Ealry one morning after a departure out of a Cloud covered Arusha, heading northwest for Kogatende in the north seringetti closely hugging the kenyan border. Mount Meru in the foreground standing at 14000 feet and the faint silouette of Mount Killimanjaro behind which we all know is the tallest free standing (dormant)volcano in the world measuring in at about 20000 feet high.


Best nightstop while bush flying in Africa to date was at a lodge called 'Greystoke' in the Mahale National Park on the shores of the giant lake that apparently contains 18% of the worlds fresh water, Lake Tanginyka. After a hour and a half boat ride from the airstrip a small bay with a beach that could be on any south Pacific tropical island appears with a large thatched mess hut as the beaches centre piece. Here was where I had one of my best sundowners to date, with the sun setting behind the mountains in the congo which could be seen accross on the western edge of gigantic lake(thats as close as I want to get to the congo for now).

Also check out:

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