A Trip round Africa
by William Hall
Pathfinding Trip Report
This is the story of my flight round Africa in a light aircraft in April/May 2002. It is intended to provide information to others trying to do the same thing and as a way of getting my impressions down before they fade.
As navigator for the Air Squadron it fell to me to plan the routing for the projected 2003 trip to South Africa. I automatically assumed that we would go out and back via the reasonably well-trodden East Africa route, some of us have flown out to Tanzania before and it seemed the low risk option. It was then suggested that it would be more interesting if we went out via West Africa and returned up the east coast. At that stage I had not even considered that way, I knew nothing about West Africa apart from various horror stories about Sierra Leone, Liberia etc and all the dubious letters/emails one gets from Nigeria offering 10% of 98 million dollars that someone has stolen. Anyway, most of the area ended up in the wrong empire and speaks French. Research showed that assumptions are often wrong - some places are best avoided (e.g. Nigeria) and some do not want small aircraft (e.g. Algeria), but many are usable and a trickle of ferry pilots do go up that side, particularly when going between South Africa and North America.
The Route
 |
|
PREPARATION
Clearances
For clearances I used Overflight (see www.overflight.co.uk). It used to be possible to do many clearances oneself but more and more countries now require it to be done via in country agents that are not always obvious. All countries outside Europe except South Africa, Botswana and Kenya required Landing or over flight clearances. On departure I had no reply yet received from Gabon and Congo. Note that Overflight has moved to Horsham, see web site.
In the event I had problems with clearances as follows:
Togo: They had me down as coming one month earlier. Probably a Togo cock-up rather than in UK. Did not cause any problems.
Gabon & Congo: No answer received. I was ok but might not have been. Overflight has started using an agent for these countries so no further problems expected.
Tanzania: Clearance only granted on day of flight in spite of repeated attempts, it seems this was because they had never heard of a Robin aircraft before and didn't know what it was. Also the north east of Africa is alive with western military aircraft that seem to be looking for someone. In general Overflight say that the whole area is being very slow to answer clearance requests at the moment.
Visas
According to the FCO web site UK passport holders need visas before arrival for most of West Africa until Namibia, though aircrew are officially exempt in some places. In the event I only got a visa for Gabon, this was used but I don't know what would have happened without it. Everywhere else between the Canaries and Namibia no one even asked to see my passport.
Fuel
Avgas is getting very hard to get in many places so an attempt was made to check its availability on the route. Steve Dudley, UK sales manager of Shell, and Renne Pierre Raffalli of TotalFinaElf were quite helpful. It proved difficult to establish what the situation was in Congo and Angola, Overflight's agent indicated that there was no avgas in Luanda but it existed in Point Noire. There seemed to be no problems with avgas except at Libreville, Point Noire and Djibouti (see later). It was possible to use a Shell Carnet in almost all places, otherwise a BP carnet or Visa card worked, I only had to pay cash for fuel in Nouakchott and Djibouti.
Money
I took Euros for Spain and dollars for the rest. This worked more or less ok but a bit of local currency for taxis etc would have been useful at times. Take plenty of small dollar notes and make sure you have the "new" dollar bills.
Charts
I now use Jeppview and FliteMap running on a Fujitsu P-600 tablet computer for European IFR information, finally defeated by the effort required to keep the paper version up to date. A Jeppesen Africa trip kit was used for the rest, this fits into 2 binders as opposed to Europe's 5-6! This was backed up by the database in the Garmin 430. For topographic information a set of ONC 1 million scale charts was carried (available from Stanford's, London) and the South African 1 million scale WACs (available from www.wingsnthings.co.za). These WACs are much better than the ONCs but have the annoying American property of being very small (I suppose so that you can fold them easily in your Tiger Moth).
Aircraft
I have owned my Robin Aiglon G-BIRT for 20 years and have flown it to (amongst others) Vegas, Sydney and Moscow. GBIRT is simple with fixed undercarriage and propeller and a good old fashioned Lycoming O-360 engine. With one exception (see below) I had no significant mechanical failures.
Navigation equipment
Obviously mostly GPS. GBIRT has a Garmin 430 and a battery operated Garmin 295 was available as backup. The standard airways fit of VOR/NDB/ILS was also there and was used occasionally to cross check the GPS but if they disagree I tend to believe the satellites! In my opinion the sources of failure (USA turning off, jamming, undetected bad data etc) are less likely than engine failure and much less likely than an out of calibration VOR, at the moment anyway. A pencil and map were used when useful features were available on the ground, the ONC charts are only good with the most significant features (mountains, large lakes, coastlines, major rivers and cities), the road data does not seem very accurate. Radar coverage is non existent apart from Europe, South Africa and the Middle East, though there appears to be some primary coverage elsewhere it is more military than civilian. Airborne radar was much in evidence in the Middle East.
Comms
No HF was carried; this caused surprise in some places but no objections. VHF coverage is now almost universal in Europe but only exists within range of airports in most of Africa and often at less than theoretical line of sight distance. A cellphone (Vodaphone) worked in many cities but not in Nouakchott, Gabon, Point Noire, Ndola and Djibouti. Text messaging does not work in many other places.
An Iridium satellite phone was also taken. This is slightly larger than a normal mobile phone but works anywhere, with a headset adaptor it can be used in flight and with the tablet computer an internet connection can be established (if a very slow expensive one!). This was useful to check weather ahead either directly on the net or ringing someone up at home and asking them to do it for you. See www.iridium.com. The headset adaptor connects between the headset and the aircraft and allows normal radio use except when making or receiving a call, it is the VL-1000 available from www.blueskynetwork.com. There are (much!) more expensive Iridium options for aircraft, but these are more suited to jets etc. I noticed no interference with nav equipment though all phones were off for takeoff and landing.
Personal
Flying long distances into the unknown in light aircraft day after day is a very stressful business. I found it critical to drink a lot (of water) in the evenings and not too much in the morning. Relax and get to bed as early as possible, 4AM starts are often mandatory in thunderstorm territory and even one bad nights sleep can make life much more difficult. Try and get a good breakfast - an important factor in hotel choice is the availability of an early coffee. Take something to eat en-route; a breakfast bun from the hotel is good. A stock of nutty snack bars, dried fruit etc is also useful. Chocolate does not work in Central Africa.
Clothing
I found it very useful to look the part. Dark blue trousers, a white shirt with four gold stripes were a major advantage in many places. Usually you just walk straight through any security check and often get a salute as you go through. I wore high tech travel trousers, which had a useful set of zipped inner pockets for dollars and passport. It is also VERY hot and sweaty, it's important to have cool cotton shirts - avoid the 80% polyester "Pilots Shirts" available from Pooleys etc. Bear in mind that you may not be stopping anywhere long enough to get any laundry done for some time.
Diary
18 April
White Waltham - La Coru�a
Normal last minute packing and wondering if I've bitten off more than I can chew this time, but this feeling is soon lost in the business of actually doing it.
My first IFR flight on airways in Europe for some years since I tend to prefer a low level VFR flight to fighting with the computer in Brussels. A relaxing flight on a bright spring day with the transponder quietly flashing. The only problem appeared after landing when, thinking the tyres looked a bit flat, I went to pump them up but found one of the spat bolts missing. A bit of judicious sign language to a fireman produced a choice of M8 bolts that solved the crisis.
19 April
La Coru�a - Lanzarote
Went IFR again, down Portugal before turning right to Lanzarote over the sea. A more direct route precluded by Morocco's insistence on certain entry/exit points and large military areas over the ocean. Lanzarote is a BIG tourist airport with lots of potted palms. I am issued a pretty girl with a walky-talky who guides me round a maze of corridors and drives me around, unfortunately I have to leave her at the airport. At the standard euro beachside hotel I contact Commodore Sharples who is broadcasting my progress by email, he seems disappointed that nothing exciting has happened.
20 April
Lanzarote - Nouakchott
From now on I file VFR except a couple of times in South Africa, I find this causes the controllers to bother one less. The Canaries approach controller is far too busy with his Boeings and as soon as I leave the CTR he says goodbye and I'm on my own. I don't get a romantic view of the African coast coming slowly into view because the ground is covered by a cloud layer at 2000ft or so. As I proceed south this breaks up and a good textbook desert with crescent dunes is revealed. Nouakchott merges with the sand which laps up the streets like water. I land at the very quiet airport and as my engine stops a man rushes out greets me and helpfully informs me that I have no clearance for Mauritania and for a fee he would fix it (in fact Mauritania only ever replies to clearance requests if they object) I ignore his request and, in spite of further threats, nothing comes of it. Every one else is friendly; a middle aged French woman mans the met office where there is good information. I chat to the Fugro watch keeper (apparently oil has been found). A group of military men in fatigues approaches to ask my business and seem satisfied with my explanation. After only one hour on the ground I'm on my way.
Nouakchott - Bamako
I route via Kayes since this takes me over a more populated area at the cost of a couple of miles extra distance. The desert slowly gets greener with first a few trees then bushes and by Bamako it's only semi desert. There is patchy VHF coverage and when I get within 100nm of my destination I am informed of CB activity but luckily on the far (eastern) side of Bamako. I descend into what feels like an oven, the air is hot, dry and filled with red dust that accentuates the red gloom as sunset approaches. Within 5 minutes of my landing a hot dust laden wind blows strongly at right angles to the runway causing an Air France flight to overshoot. I carefully make my way through the blowing dust and GBIRT is tucked up next to some sorry looking Wessex helicopters that look like they last flew in 1975.
I am getting into the ITCZ thunderstorm zone so I want to make as much progress as early in the morning as possible so I strike up a deal with a tall fireman to collect me at 3AM from my hotel. I then go to the hot sandy Hotel Faso where I have an excellent pepper steak (at least the French ex-colonies have good food) and retire for a couple of hours to my oven like room. The early start fails due to an area of thunderstorms on the satellite picture (the met office is well equipped) so I get a few more hours sleep.
21 April
Bamako - Lome
In the morning the thunderstorms are no longer a factor so I take off for Lome. The ground gets slowly lusher, there are more and more carefully laid out towns that look very much like the ones that Babar the elephant used to live in. Even in the morning I have to dodge a thunderstorm building 100 miles north of my destination. When I get in range of Lome they tell me I have no clearance, I assure them I have and quote the number and am then informed that it's for last month! But there is no real problem and I am allowed to continue. Lome is hot humid and very quiet as I park next to a 707. After a short pause a USA government pressurised Beech twin arrives and disgorges a group of men in fatigues who salute and shout at each other briefly before silence descends again. A man in uniform approaches, salutes, and gives me a hand written form for the information that should have been in my clearance. I go into the flight planning office hoping to continue to Libreville that day but a violent group of storms in the Gulf of Guinea stops that idea.
I ask the friendly staff to recommend a hotel and am directed to the Hotel Napoleon. This is a small privately owned place run by a Frenchman in a very relaxed style overlooking a lake. I am invited to drink wine with a couple of local pilots (French again) who sing the praises of their Viscount (the last one flying they say). An extremely attractive receptionist smoulders in one corner while lively French chitchat goes on all about. The pilots give me two useful bits of information: Be careful with Nigeria - if you are forced there without clearance (e.g. with engine problems) there is an automatic $20,000 fine. The last people who went to Libreville without clearance got thrown straight into prison.
22 April
Lome - Libreville
At this stage I do not have clearance for Libreville (Overflight have not received an answer). So the only thing to do is to send a request over the AFTN network from the Lome flight planning office. This appears to work and after a couple of hours a reply is received that gives permission. Meanwhile the thunderstorms out to sea are still there but seem to be shrinking slightly. In my opinion a shrinking thunderstorm probably won't kill you so I depart. This time I am right and the storms are negotiated. The problems start when I get in radio range of Libreville who tell me in no uncertain terms that I have no clearance and am not welcome - perhaps I should go to my alternate. Friendly alternates are rather thin on the ground in these parts so I protest my innocence and read out (in French) the message I had received in Lome. My accent is not too good and after a short pause they again suggest I go elsewhere. I start to look at my maps to decide what to do but after a few minutes Libreville relent and say that I can proceed inbound, I do not know why they changed their mind - perhaps they found my clearance or just decided they would let me in.
On landing I am met by 2 customs officials in French Gendarme uniform who want a General Declaration form, I am then left alone. Libreville airport is busy, there is lots of coming and going overlooked by large French men with crew cuts and radios. Several big hangars are servicing turboprop and jet aircraft there is even a flying club but the C152s outside it have flat tyres. A sad looking jet seems to have landed a bit too much sideways and is propped up on pallets.
I stay at the Hotel Atlantique which is one of those hotels that pilots end up at (similar to the Loftendir at Reykjavik). It is on a good tropical beach, walking distance from the airport and only slightly scruffy, again the French influence gives good food.
23 April
Libreville - Point Noire
I now make a mistake. There had been no problems with fuel so far and, lulled into a false sense of security, I do not carry a full fuel load for the short hop to Point Noire. After the normal French style habit of asking one to go to "point whiskey" that only exists on an unseen chart in the Gabon Air Pilot I am released to my own devices as I leave the TMA. The three hour flight is over lush jungle and a tangled river system that steams in the morning sun. The relaxed mood is soon spoiled when Congo ATC ask me for a clearance number that I don't have, I fall back on saying "romeo tango, standby" and (thank god) they are apparently too busy to ask again. At Point Noire they are resurfacing the runway, there is no nonsense about closing the airfield, one simply avoids the obviously wet bits of tarmac and steamrollers. Along the side of the runway there are aircraft with people living in them, washing hangs from their wings. On the ramp there is a hive of activity, Antonovs with Russian registrations jostle with each other for parking positions carrying who knows what to god knows where. Passengers and well-wishers mill around in front of my propeller. I quietly find myself a parking place under the wing of a jet, shut down and am relieved as no authority takes any interest in me. I flag down a fuel truck touting for business and ask him where I can find avgas; he politely informs me that there is no avgas here. Without letting my considerable consternation show I enquire who I can ask about this (often someone has some drums in a shed) and he points me towards a hangar several hundred meters away with "Aviation Service" on it. Wondering what a few weeks in Point Noire would be like I walk over there to find a tidyish hangar with a couple of piston aircraft parked outside and two Frenchman doing something complicated to a large polyethylene tank. The boss (M. Ryman) confirms that there is no avgas; he also states that he was in Libreville yesterday and there was none there either (in which case what have I got in my tanks?).
I am now faced with a choice of either going back to Libreville and taking on a full load of fuel before flying from there to Ondangwa (not attractive because of my lack of Gabon clearance), I could stay in Point Noire or I could fill up here with motor fuel and go south to Namibia. I choose the latter course. Even if the practice is not condoned by the CAA, I feel that my engine was originally designed for 95 octane fuel, there should be enough lead in the avgas still in my tanks to keep the valve stems happy and mogas formulated for use on the equator would be unlikely to produce any vapour lock problems.
M. Ryman helpfully changes some dollars for me and lends me two 60 litre jerry cans. My gold stripes work their magic as I nod politely at the customs man (whose attention I really don't want) and make my way to the taxi rank. A little later the gold stripes enable the taxi driver to queue barge at the petrol pumps where I cause much interest and buy the cheapest fuel of the whole trip. I am assisted by a couple of helpful lads who, for a small consideration, help wrestle with the 100lb jerry cans in the (by now) noon equatorial sun, the whole process being watched with interest by a crowd of Russians from the shade of their aircraft's wing. Two trips are required and by the end my helpers and I are covered in sweat and petrol but I feel much happier since I now have a chance of leaving Point Noire intact.
Point Noire - Ondangwa
I file a flight plan to Windhoek since this is in the Jeppesen as a 24H airport. A visit to the weather office provides no information at all which is a slight worry since it is now after midday and I have over 9 hours to fly requiring a night arrival. I have the Iridium phone so I ring my brother Martin and ask him to email the TAFs to my phone. Luckily the messages don't arrive for some time so I don't see the very bad (and wrong) forecast for my destination. After waiting for a steam roller to get out of my way I take off heading south towards Angola and am soon dismissed by Point Noire ATC in disgust at my lack of HF. The fuel seems to work ok, though I am careful not to allow the engine to get pure mogas and I don't lean to the ragged edge. I get high oil temperatures but this is normal in GBIRT when climbing out on a hot day, particularly if the engine is warm from an earlier flight.
Luanda seems to be a global crossroads, jets of all nationalities keep the frequency busy and I am easily able to get a relay. ATC is surprised at my estimates and ask for my indicated airspeed, they find my reply of 95 knots hard to believe (this is a maximum range trip and I am throttled right back).
As I pass Luanda I see weather building ahead and within the hour, as daylight and radio contact fades, I am confronted by a building line of thunderstorms on my track. There follows a tense few hours as I try to remain out of cloud enough to see and avoid storms in the darkness (I have no radar or Stormscope). Fortunately there is a moon and at night one can often see which are the bad places by the amount of lightning. After what seems a long time I leave the bad weather behind and fly on for lonely hours over Angola, no lights to be seen and even the 126.9 broadcast frequency is quiet.
While still over Angola my DI suddenly starts to spin and the attitude gyro drunkenly leans to one side - it appears that my vacuum pump has failed. This is not an immediate emergency since the weather is now clear, I still have the electrically powered turn indicator that drives my wing leveller and GPS gives a good heading reference. If this failure had happened earlier while in and out of the clouds amongst the storms it would have been much more worrying. I give Christopher Sharples a ring and he send out an email with some of the events of the day.
It is with some relief that I make contact with Windhoek Control, but as I cross the border ATC asks me if I'm aware that Windhoek is in fact not a 24 hour airport and I would have to pay to keep it open. After a bit of discussion it's decided that the best (cheapest) option is for them to open Ondangwa (300 miles north of Windhoek) for me. This is done and I make my first night landing for some years.
At Ondangwa the tower operator is very helpful, he gets the immigration man to come in and books me into a hotel who say they are sending a car, he then goes back to bed since he has to be up at 7AM. Unfortunately the promised car never arrives in spite of repeated calls to the hotel. I have a long, rather surreal, conversation with the woman airport guard. We sit together in the warm, insect filled night, she cradles her AK47 and tells me about relatives in Wales, she feels that most men (present company excepted) are untrustworthy swine and break girl's hearts. Perhaps it's the rifle on her lap that stops me going into too much detail about how much trouble women can be. Eventually, after midnight, I give up and spend the rest of the night, rather uncomfortably, in my aeroplane.
24 April
Ondangwa - Upington
I am woken by a beautiful clear African sunrise, Namibia feels very different to where I have been. I am quickly refuelled and on my way to Upington in South Africa. The sky is a hard blue, decorated with a smear of cirrus and I get an excellent view of the Etosha Pan in the unlimited visibility. There is even a tailwind and I soon land on the longest runway in the southern hemisphere. This was built to allow heavy fuel loads to be carried in apartheid days when South African flights were not allowed to stop anywhere. The refuelling equipment is certainly impressive and looks like it could easily make GBIRT spherical if mishandled.
It's now 48 hours since I have seen any washing facilities, I notice that people seem to be keeping at a bit of a distance and my beard is coming on nicely. Upington is a good respectable town and immigration is not sure they like the look of me, however they can find no real reason to stand in my way and I spend the night in a small town hotel.
25 April
Upington - Stellenbosch, Cape Town
Cape Town has a fairly complex set of controlled airspace so I file IFR. In the event there is no problem and I have a relaxed flight over spectacular scenery. My transponder even gets some exercise. At Stellenbosch airfield I am greeted by a group of South African Air Force officers, it's only later that I learn that I was in fact expected at Cape Town International where the press, VIPs, girls etc were waiting to receive me.
GBIRT is given to the tender ministrations of John Navarro of Stellair where she gets an oil change, new vacuum pump and general titivation for the return trip. I meet up with Harold Bloch, friend of Caryl Waterpark, who lends me some space in his hangar and we discuss the 2003 Air Squadron trip which he will join. I then depart with my Aunt Nita and her husband Donald Fabian in their semi-antique Jaguar for a few days rest.
28 April
Stelanboche - Quaggasfontein
Quaggasfontein is a farm with an 800 meter rough strip near Graaff-Reinet in the Karoo, about half way between Cape Town and Johannesburg very close to where my mother was brought up. Going here in aviation friendly South Africa is simply a question of drawing a straight line on the map and flying there. There is a hot wind blowing and the strip is 4000 ft up so a little respect is required, but the long dirt runway is fairly smooth and presents no difficulty. Stella Loock kindly lets GBIRT spend a few days in her hangar with the family 182. I spend a couple of days with my cousin Anthony de la Harpe on his farm.
30 April
Quaggasfontein - Lanseria
I depart the Loock strip on the tail of a weak cold front; this produces nothing more than a few clouds, which soon clear to give another perfect flying day. I file IFR to reduce the flaf factor in the Joburg CTR and the quietly polite ATC lines me up with the runway for a low workload arrival. Lanseria is a user-friendly place and quite grand, there are several high-maintenance people getting in and out of jets with large quantities of luggage. Porters are on the apron to carry my small bag into the terminal. I am collected by an English public school type with an eye patch and taken to his hotel close by.
1 May
Lanseria - Ndola
There is minimum red tape in the marble departure area. I follow a DC3 to the threshold and depart. I soon leave the heavy-duty controlled airspace behind and fly over dry Botswana, saltpans, past the Victoria Falls and over Lusaka before landing at Ndola surrounded by fertile farming country. I am refuelled after much turning of valves on the underground tank farm. Zambia has a slightly Indian feel to it with the bumpy roads lined with advertising hoardings, a grand but scruffy hotel and lots of paperwork.
2 May
Ndola - Mombasa
My departure is delayed by my lack of Tanzanian clearance. This hang up apparently caused by the Tanzanian authorities not knowing what a Robin Aiglon was and being worried it might be a military aircraft. Eventually, after much chasing by Overflight, I receive a message on the Iridium phone giving me the sought after clearance number.
I depart over beautiful countryside covered with lakes, lush forest and bright green areas of grass. As I cross the Tanzanian border a layer of cloud comes between me and the ground and I see very little of Tanzania, this is the only flight that has the view seriously spoiled by cloud.
I arrive in Mombasa, which is large, quiet, hot and humid. I am helped by a self styled "handler" who charges me a reasonable $30 to guide me through the complex procedures required to fill in forms, pay landing fees, pay air traffic dues, request weather information etc, etc. There are 3 German four engined search aircraft on the apron; they are looking for Osama according to the local rumour mill. I stay in a supposedly 5 star hotel which has a definite hint of Butlins to it, again there is much paperwork (is this all the British Empire left?).
3 May
Mombasa - Djibouti
I depart Mombasa and am dismissed as soon as I leave the CTR. I have no direct ATC contact until in range of Djibouti, 1000 odd miles later. I route over Somalia, via Mandera, luckily I have not seen "Black Hawk Down". Ethiopia feels vast and empty; I fly for hours over a red scrubby desert with only the occasional sign of life. As the day progresses the lower layer of hot, bumpy turbulent air slowly gets higher and higher until I have trouble keeping on top of it. I am reluctant to descend beneath the layer of cumulus that marks the upper limit because I am aware of the mountains in the north near Dire Dawa. These go up to 11,000' and while there are plenty of ways through them they can stir up weather that makes them difficult to pass, particularly late in the day when I will arrive. The area is also still fairly tense after the war with Eritrea so I don't want to go too far off course (during the war at least one civilian aircraft was shot down). Eventually late in the afternoon I see ramparts of cloud over the mountains, I carefully plot a series of GPS points through a lower area and prepare for a bumpy ride in the shower clouds. Then, as often happens, the weather is not as bad as it looks from a distance and I find a way between cloud and mountains, only getting a bit wet.
I land at a hot and humid Djibouti. A group of Americans, who are a bit reticent about what exactly they are doing, are quite surprised to see me. They feel they are in the middle of enemy territory and are not expecting British light aircraft. My problems start when I ask for avgas, I am told that there is none and it will not be available for several weeks. I am reluctant to use the motor fuel option because the next day requires a longer flight than previously attempted in GBIRT, much of it over water and while there are plenty of diversion airfields in Saudi Arabia, Sudan etc I feel that any unplanned stops in those parts may prove very expensive (assuming they are not fatal). I find an airfield in Yemen that is supposed to have avgas and start to try to prove its existence. Then a man comes over, takes me to a nearby hangar and shows me 3 drums of avgas that he says belong to the Air Force but he can sell them to me. I negotiate the price from the astronomical down to just expensive and refuel as the sun sets.
I travel in a marginally roadworthy taxi to the Djibouti Sheraton, one of the more disreputable hotels on the planet. It is set up for the (mostly French) male away from home with a Casino and a selection of attractive girls available for hire. It's been a long day and I have a quick dinner (quite good) before retiring to my dingy room. My sleep is disturbed by very enthusiastic bedroom antics above; I'm too tired to feel jealous.
4 May
Djibouti - Luxor
I take off just after dawn, fuelled to the gills. I hear at least two powerful radars that create interference in my headphones. The slightest deviation from course brings polite advice from ATC; there is a general feeling of being watched. My route takes me over Yemen to avoid the Ethiopia/Eritrea war zone. Though I am climbing as hard as I can I pass quite close to heavily populated mountain tops and hope that the reputedly trigger-happy Yemeni tribesmen don't decide to take a shot. The bulk of the 10 hour flight is over the Red Sea with the occasional classically pretty desert island, blue water, white surf and yellow sand.
There is little wind and I arrive at the expected time. Luxor (and Egypt in general) has a well-deserved bad reputation for aviator hassle and sure enough as I park on the apron the vultures descend. Fortunately previous experience enables me to avoid the normal pitfalls. E.G. getting on a bus from the aircraft to the terminal ($150) or assuming that the person helping you is part of the airport staff (he's not and will give you an invoice for $500). I offer the man $30 and say I will pay the landing fees separately. A policeman suggests I pay him a fine of $50 for crossing the apron without an escort but is not very offended when I refuse. I stay in the Movenpick hotel, which is on an amazing site (an island in the Nile) with beautiful views of sunset over the river.
5 May
Luxor - Malta
On arrival back at the airport I fill in many forms (typical question: how many of your crew have deserted / died / been put in quarantine). After departure I find there is a headwind of 30-40 knots and calculations show that I will run out of fuel two hours before Malta, this is not helped by ATC insisting that I go on a fairly roundabout route via Cairo. I can divert to Crete, which is close to the halfway point so I continue. The situation slowly improves and by the time I get to the coast estimates show I will run out of fuel as I arrive at my destination. I get on the internet and check the weather, the Malta forecast is good and the wind there is from the north east which makes me think that the winds will improve soon. In fact they never really do and I arrive at Luqa airport with one hours fuel remaining. I make the mistake of landing as soon as I see the runway and then I have to taxi for several miles to the GA parking. When I get to the hotel there is no food available and I go out to the only place still open, Pizza Hut, I am back in western civilization.
6 May
Malta - Lyon - White Waltham
I file IFR to Lyon to avoid the business of having to go very low under the Rome TMA and/or round it and the multitude of danger areas in that bit of the Mediterranean. I am soon under radar control and the euro ATC system amends my flight plan in a complex way then feeds me into an NDB approach at Lyon Bron. There has been a tail wind and a quick calculation shows that I can make White Waltham before sunset.
� W D Hall 2002
