African Bush Pilot

Electrically charged airways

2012-01-22T04:20:00.006+03:00

Lightning strike Darwin airport with Saab in foreground.

My whole professional flying career to date has been in hot sticky climates and Darwin is another. As a bonus feature of the tropics with its sanity stretching humidity is mass f*#k off thunderstorms regularly! I have posted pics in the past of these monsters firing off bolts of lightning. I enjoy watching a good thunderstorm, unless I am at work....because that usually means I have to go up in the same sky as the storm in the very near future.

Last week I was rostered for an early flight from Darwin to Dili in Timor. Just as I got to work in the wee dark hours a pre cursor to the apocalypse unleashed (A large storm). All flights were delayed until the apocalyptic curtain raiser had moved on. It gave me more time to browse through the small duty free store.

We got airborne only thirty minutes behind schedule...not too bad considering. A left turn after take off had us climbing in a relatively Northwest direction as we zig zagged through the remains of the earlier apocalypse. The climb was a lot smoother than I had expected a few close flashes of lightning and a slow rate of climb due to a little ice build up that's all. Ninety miles from Darwin we broke out into clear skies and plodded off over the Timor sea enjoying a light breakfast of fruit salad. It was not until our return to Darwin that we heard that two other aircraft on the same track had to turn back to Darwin after suffering lightning strikes!

Looking back at was.

Since being up here in the top end (Aussie term for Darwin and surrounding area) I have heard about/seen a storm so regular its been named 'Hector' or 'Hector the convector'. It sits over the Tiwi islands for most of the wet season. Second world war aviators used Hector to aid with navigation. Upon further reading on the net I came across Catatumbo lightning in Venezuela! This maybe the worlds most frequent thunderstorm....and to top it off this thunderstorm is actually bad for the environment! It is caused by methane gas rising from bogs...apparently.

Now you may have seen old posts with the odd article from the Ngami times in Botswana...like "Serial donkey rapist caught". The NT news is also famous for outlandish headlines.

Flooding and exploding mountains!

2012-01-22T02:30:00.003+03:00

I am going through the masses of pictures I have scattered all hap hazard through my hard drive and there is plenty of golden pictures that I need to share. Before leaving Tanzania a former colleague gave me these awesome shots of Ol Doinyo Lengai smoking away.

In Western countries aviation comes to a stand still when ash clouds are involved....I guess in Africa ash clouds are the least of your worries.

The daily wet season commute...yes that is how high the water came up on the front of my car. On one such occasion I was driving/floating to work when a large truck sped past going in the opposite direction and I swear the bow wave swept over the roof of the little corolla. But without photographic or video proof its like the classic fishing yarn of the on that got away...I have a few of them but I will keep them for another time

I have posted pictures flooded Dar es Salaam streets and some who follow news closely may have heard of large scale (larger than normal) flooding in Dar es Salaam in late 2011. I doubt the problem will get fixed, can't let a little flooding get in the way of a new presidential jet.

Oz flying: The Saab

2012-01-14T09:13:00.004+03:00

Saab 340 simulator in Melbourne.

For those of you who have not experienced full motion simulators....they are preddy much the most complicated video game you can play.
Basically you strap in for four emergency filled hours and emerge at the end a shell of your former self that entered four hours previously.

Saab simulator cockpit.

I must say though these simulators feel extremely real especially when alarms start screeching and lights begin flashing all over the shop. You are fooled into the moment and believe if you cannot rectify the simulated fault at hand you will be smeared across the virtual landscape!

Saab 340B on the ramp in Darwin (top of Australia)

After having the certificate, all the relevant sections signed in my logbook, 28 hours in the simulator and legally endorsed (rated) on the Saab 340B I had never actually set foot on the aircraft.

Update from the Ex-Ex-patriate African Bush Pilot.

2012-01-12T05:02:00.008+03:00

It’s been 19 months as some of you noticed since my last post and I no longer dwell in East Africa.
Since leaving Tanzania I have spent 12 months flying Aerocommanders (Shrikes) around Cape York and Torres Strait in far far north Queensland, Australia. The work was not as exhilarating as Bush flying in Africa it mainly involved servicing remote indigenous communities.

Yes I did step back from the smooth Cessna Caravan with its Pratt Whitney turbine engine in East Africa to prehistoric (1960’s/1970’s) twin piston engine aircraft with upwards of 28000 hours on their rickety airframes in outback Australia. But it was a box I needed to tick as down here in Australasia Multi-engine flight hours are preddy much a must have in ones logbook.
However recently I have landed a gig as a first officer (co-pilot) flying Saab 340B’s...again in Australia, but I will survive. I’ve even had the Africa trained out of me now that I have entered the world of high capacity (aircraft with lots of seats), SOP’s (pilot talk for regimented procedures), flight attendants who serve coffee and I sit in the right seat get and told what to do by the man (or lady, must be politically correct) sitting in the left seat with FOUR gold bars upon their shoulders.
......Oh yeah and I did get married too.

Very top of the page is Aerocommander which I flew in Cap York

On the Nullurbor Plains (Western Australia) the Royal Flying Doctors Service has these emergency airstrips on the road!

The piano keys (threshold) for the emergency airstrip

Whilst on a paid night stop at a small island on the Great barrier reef i squeezed in a little snorkeling....hard day at the office

Squeezing in a little fishing in the morning before work...living the dream

Remote Australia also has wildfires that burn on unchecked like African bush fires .

This phenomena always fascinates me. Smoke begins to form into cloud as it ascends. Pyrocumulus cloud.

Flying South down the Eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria

Above and below. My wife and I have done plenty of camping (exploring the outback) since arriving in Australia.

The little usually quiet air field in Weipa (North Queensland) became very busy last February as Category five tropical cyclone Yasi (Hurricane/Typhoon/nasty ass weather) bore down on Cairns and all aircraft were evacuated.

Presently I am in the process hammering out a book packed with untamed stories from my adventures and a few from other eccentric characters I have met along the way.

Looking at a release in 2013.

The name may change, but this is the name I have taken rights out on for now.

Flying into Rwanda

2010-05-02T18:15:00.003+03:00

Last week I was lucky enough to fly a charter from Kigali the capital of Rwanda to Mwanza in Tanzania on the Southern shores of the inland ocean Lake Victoria.
This was my first trip to Rwanda, so I was stoked (happy) when I learned the charter took off out of Kigali at 0600 (very early)....Not because I like to get up at the crack of dawn, it meant positioning in Kigali the night before the charter providing a chance to explore Kigali.
Before leaving Mwanza to Kigali I was given a shopping list by the base pilots there for the large wax encased cheeses that Rwanda produces and of course Rwandan coffee (Bloody good coffee!). Also before leaving the Mwanza base I was assured it is safe to walk on the streets at night....now after spending a few years on this continent I was a little weary of this particular advice especially in a African city!Enroute whilst passing over the Southwestern corner of Lake Victoria I passed over Rubondo Island which is infact a National Park. I have heard from other pilots that have landed on the island that the Elephants that inhabit this island are monstrous in size like as if they are prehistoric creatures.This escarpment is on the Western shore of lake Victoria.This ribbon across the landscape is Kagera River it marks the border between Tanzania and Rwanda....Well this was the exact moment my GPS beeped to say I at the FIR boundary (the border in Aviation speak). This photograph is of a village in Rwanda, the majority of villages are not constructed with any particular order. There are a few villages near the border which are perfectly laid out like this one pictured above...I am GUESSING this village is a village built to re home refugees from the Rwandan genocide. One thing I particularly noticed after flying over the border was the intensity of population compared to just over the border. In Rwanda every hill, every swamp and every other piece of land is either cultivated, covered in villages or roads. Two old Boeing 707's parked on the apron in Kigali.
As soon as I got on the streets of Kigali I did my cheese and coffee shopping before walking the 1 kilometre to the pizza restaurant I had been recommended to eat at. I had already decided it was safe to walk on the streets at night...no one would surly attempt to mug me in streets where there is an armed soldier or guard stationed every 20 metres down each side of the street.
Flying East into the sunrise early in the morning.

The first rays of sun reaching this chain of hills just inside Tanzania. The hills look as if they belong to a geographical fault line....do not quote me on this.

Also check out:

African Bush Pilot

Electrically charged airways

Flooding and exploding mountains!

Oz flying: The Saab

Update from the Ex-Ex-patriate African Bush Pilot.

Flying into Rwanda

Flights cancelled and stampeding baboons

A week in the Serengeti and a flap motor failure

Tribute to a fallen Aviator

Seronera the Serengeti's avaition hub

Happy Birthday African Bush Pilot

Buying an aquarium on the way home from a days flying

Bush flying is what we do!

Flying, flying and more bush flying

Rocks on Airstrips and McDonalds on the African Savannah

Pilot meltdown in East Africa

Life as an aviator in Africa.

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

Bush flying jobs, they are out there

Cessna Caravan vs African bull Elephant!

New operator in Tanzania 'Safari Plus'

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

The Holiday season above the savanah

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

Bush flying away

An entertaining read of a modern day pioneering aviator

Bush pilots automatic sphincter reaction

Flying out bush and a free lunch

The month before Christmas....flying as usual

Another week in East Africa

Bush Pilot highs and lows

Pilots life in Dar es Salaam

Bush flying in the African wet seasons

Another week playing Bush Pilot

Maun life

Looking for flying jobs in Africa?

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

The Overnight bonus of being a Bush Pilot in Africa

African bush flying to a remote ruby mine

Another bush flying hazard

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

Another year bashing around bush flying in Cessna's

Tanzania's Air force might on display

Flying delays in Africa

Taking the private jet lifestyle on safari

Surviving a FIVE day power cut

Bush fires in Africa

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

Light Aircraft Bird Strikes

I get paid to fly!

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

Bush Pilot on Safari

Mimi and Toutou go forth

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

Another week in the life

Smuggling and the carriage of Arms

The Bush Pilot Spoils

The African Experience

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

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

Snapshots from the days of Maun

Thought I ought to touch base.

From luxury to prison and back to the sweat pit

Serengeti sunrise & a smoke Salmon breakfast

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

Flying in Africa during the low season/wet season

Flying and living in Africa

My first proper Bird Strike!

Pilots wanted

Wanting to fly in Botswana or Tanzania?