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:

http://www.africanbushpilot.com/