achimha, originally we planned to fly down the east side and back up the west. However studying the weather patterns, west Africa between Nigeria/Sao Tome and Angola seemed to have greater challenges for flying VFR or at least in quasi-VMC. Also given circa 550 nm max prudent legs (with very careful fuel management) the fuel issues north of Angola were thorny. I learned about the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone, and the trip was timed to provide the least problems with this weather phenomenon. So we went via Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, then S Africa. The return was similar except we came through Mozambique and Zanzibar. The flying was really incidental, this was a series of paperwork and fuel challenges. Suitable airfields have customs but no fuel or vice versa. To break it up into stages, you could probably leave your aircraft hangared in Egypt (hangars at HEOC), and Nairobi HKNW should be perfectly possible too.
More people should try flying around in Africa; it seemed daunting at first, but having done it once I would be keen to do another trip. Thinking about Dakar in the autumn.
I think the only real mistake we made was having too short a timescale, 3 weeks each way to/from Cape Town with a break of about 10 days there, in my case largely spent doing maintenance. I was very tired when I got home (actually I left the aircraft in Italy over Christmas …. a long story!); we did not have enough rest/sightseeing days, mainly due to delays in the early stages over permits and fuel, but also due to an overambitious timetable.
As I said, if anyone wants to investigate the practical details of doing a similar trip, I will be more than happy to suggest contacts etc. and comments on airfields, routes etc.
@Bluebeaerd did you take the East or West route through Africa? A trip like that is really hard to do when having both a family and a business so I’m thinking about splitting it and leave the airplane in Egypt for some time.
I have a friend flying Boston to South Africa this week in a Meridian. Just about to leave Bangor. Would love to fly to SA.
If anyone else is interested in doing this trip, I and a friend flew from Ireland to Cape Town and back in 2011/2012 in my RV-6, following a year’s planning. I will always be glad to help anyone contemplating this perfectly feasible trip, with identification of the foreseen and unforeseen issues and how they were solved. We would have been greatly assisted if we had had someone to talk to during the planning stage.
Yeah, one needs to have a very well organised approach in order to do a trip like this without any major unforeseen events. That said, I was surprised that
-he didn’t know Faro didn’t have any Avgas (never had any in recent years)
-he didn’t bring along any real cash for a trip like that (!)
Otherwise, looks like a great effort. A good read, too.
Robert is a good friend from when I was based at White Waltham – as Peter says, he spends his time doing, rather than talking. What he doesn’t mention is the level of detailed preparation that he engaged in before taking off, in terms of organising handling, avgas, overflight permits etc. The level of detail was just mind-blowing. The other thing worth pointing out is that the trip was conducted IFR, rather than VFR , hence the use of big airports rather than lots of VFR grass-strips. With IFR you at least broadly know what you are getting into. With VFR flight-planning in some of the central African Republics, I wouldn’t even know where to start.
An Incredible trip and a terrific account.
Great reading indeed and surprisingly uneventful.
I have met this Twin Com guy. Very quiet – just gets on with it and does things most of us would not dare try.
Only had time to skim-read it so far, but it brought back memories of the best and also the worst flights of my life. Flying in Africa is simply incredible – in every sense of the term.
He has realized what I am dreaming for to do with my Cessna. Wonderfull trip and report. It would be of interest to know the costs of this trip in sum. It makes me sad to read about the lack of airmenship – big boys do not like little airplanes – since they are a disturbing factor in business. And the vultures waiting for rippoff at big and medium airports ruins the pleasure of such adventure just from the first stop in southern europe.
