How to get weather through the Garmin Inreach device: https://www.aeroplusaviation.com/delormes-inreach-sat-device-delivers-aviation-weather-to-the-cockpit
Note 1: service is offered “as-is” and it is a very old blog post from 2014 but still works more or less like I described it in the blog post.
Note 2: TAFs are not reliable in Africa, so take the TAFs as is, but confirm the data through other means such as the GFS model, Skew-T diagrams and Gramets
Iridium Go weather: https://www.aeroplusaviation.com/iridium-go
Note 1: Lightning data not available at the moment, but augmented radar is provided and gives you a general idea of high altitude clouds and weather int he intertropical convergence zone.
As for flying through the intertropical convergence zone: most if not all of the time you can fly around the build-up areas.
Combine the following data to create a picture of the current and upcoming weather:
(1) METAR: actual weather
(2) TAFS: note that they are often not accurate due to missing skills of forecasters in Africa
(3) Gramet and Skew-T diagrams to figure out the cloud layers. Works well T+72 hours
(4) Infrared Cloud Top Temp charts
(5) Augmented Radar overlay for those areas (all of Africa) that doesn’t have rain radar (Doppler radar).
(6) Lifted index and Cape Values can confirm convective energy in clouds to complete the picture.
(7) Weather Pro app: I use this generic weather app to check the weather along the route and at departure and destination airports as a confirmation of expected weather on arrival for example.
I personally use my own AeroPlus apps for it, but I am sure you can get the above data easily one way or the other from most other tools.
It takes just minutes to prepare. I look in the weather app at the weather, charts, Skew-T diagram for several airfields along the way and how they evolve over time, lifted index map, the Augmented Radar overlay, etc. Then I have a look at the Weather Pro app if needed and move to the AeroPlus flight plan app which shows a simplified Gramet for the planned flight plan confirming the kind of weather to expect. I am not really looking a lot at the traditional significant weather maps/charts anymore. While flying I might get the latest weather through the Garmin Inreach.
Hope this explanation helps a bit. There is a lot of information on the Gramet with the great flight plan tool from Achim on this forum as well, which might help you.
Unfortunately there is no one publication which deals comprehensively with Africa’s weather. The Met Office’s Handbook of Aviation Meteorology gives some useful general guidance if you can get hold of a copy and there is a certain amount of country and regional climatological material you can find on the internet but this is more surface than aviation orientated.
I have been through the ITCZ twice so my experience is very limited. It is much more active on the western side of Africa than on the east. Traversing it from Principe to Luanda gave three hours of IMC flight in bumpy conditions with lots of CB and thunderstorms around in a five hour flight going southwards in February. Coming northwards through Malawi and Tanzania three weeks later gave scattered CB only which were easily avoided. At the time of your trip in May, this will all be shifted northwards so you will be hitting it in central/south Sudan and the extreme north of Kenya. The METARS you quote bear this out and instead of getting thunderstorms, you get scattered sandstorms instead. In some respects these are worse.
On flight planning etc, bear in mind that in Egypt and Sudan you will be expected to follow airway routes, although Sudan has/had no radar so they won’t know whether you are or not. R/T dies around 100 nm south of Khartoum below FL150 but you can usually relay through a passing airliner. Apart from some short flights in Kenya, I flew the entire route IFR but for most of the time, you can expect VMC although very hazy at times and effectively IMC. In 2014 and 2016 flight planning software did not work south of Egypt and it was back to traditional forms leaving out the mysteries of 8.33 radios, and sophisticated RNAV and ADS-B gadgetry if you happen to have it but this may have changed.
Quote In 2014 and 2016 flight planning software did not work south of Egypt and it was back to traditional forms leaving out the mysteries of 8.33 radios, and sophisticated RNAV and ADS-B gadgetry if you happen to have it but this may have changed.
I have been filing flight plans throughout Africa from my iPhone since 2014 all over Africa and also south of Egypt, which works almost everywhere just fine as long as it is distributed correctly. Then, when you arrive at the airfield, they will sometimes shuffle a paper flight plan form to you and I then just mention to them that the flight plan is already submitted via AFTN. In some cases, such as in South Sudan, I would then have to file a paper flight plan again, but that is more an exception to the rule.
The Aero Club of East Africa at Wilson (Nairobi HKNW) has a useful info database covering airfields and strips:
http://www.aeroclubairfields.com/go.php
not just in Kenya, but some in Burundi, Eastern DRC, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Caution, as some of the entries are out-of-date.
It’s worth using their facilities for parking and flight planning – one can negotiate temporary visitor membership.
SkyDemon is useful in Kenya, but caution with airfield altitudes, some of which are inaccurate. Their Flight Plan function works fine if you’ve got internet (maybe worth picking up a local mobile phone with Safaricom, which is cheap, though personally, having switched to Vodaphone UK, their current deal gives you 60Gb/month, and for £6/day you can use phone and data same as your home country).
The ‘long’ rains are late this year (due current cyclone activity), and only started last week in the Rift Valley, but could continue well into June.
AeroPlus wrote:
METAR, TAF and GFS data through the Garmin Inreach device by sending a message to our weather server [email protected] with stated in the body only the ICAO code of the Airport you want the weather from,
Is this service still available? If so, do you filter the user agent? I just sent a message from my laptop with no answer (which is fully justified to protect you from moochers).
Yes, I tried that weather service both via Garmin InReach device and a laptop, without a return.
BTW – useful article on Kenyan airfields, particularly National Parks:
That service via Garmin Inreach should work again. Garmin had changed protocol and we adjusted the solution. I use it myself on all might flights but it is a service that is provided “as is”.
