A BIG SURPRISE WAITING FOR US

And then the touchdown at Cape Town International Airport. As we taxied and turned into Exit Charlie I saw two huge Fire-engines spraying streams of water on the left and on the right of the sliding gate we use to go to the Hangars and I said to Dietmar and everyone else, "that’s peculiar, look at those two fire-engines they will spray lots of water on us if they do not stop right now"…

AS WE SPOKE....we knew this was not a coincidence but the fire engines were arranged to Welcome a very special plane and a very special Pilot. And some special guests of course.

They sprayed and sprayed in a big steam and never stopped until we passed them. We turned into another Taxi way and we saw another big surprise, a Welcome party, all our colleagues and some friends were standing right there, waving and and greeting us.

What a surprise and what a Welcome.

Thank You very much everyone.

DEUTSCHE VERSION

EINE GROSSE UEBERRASCHUNG WARTET AUF UNS

…und dann die Landung  auf dem internationalen Flughafen Kapstadt.

Und wie wir da so lang rollen und in den Ausgang Charlie biegen, sehe ich eine riesig grosse Feuerwehr an jeder Seite des Schiebetores stehen, durch das wir durchrollen muessen um zum Hangar zu kommen. Beide spritzten einen enormen Wasserstrahl in die Mitte des Tores. 

Ich sagte noch …wenn die nicht sofort mit dem Spritzen aufhoeren, spritzen sie uns womoeglich um aber auf jeden Fall an…..

Meine Guete, die Worte waren noch nicht ausgesprochen, und wir wussten …dass war kein Zufall!

Diese Feuerwehren mit den Riesenstrahlen Wasser standen fuer uns da. Um ein ganz besonderes Flugzeug  und einen ganz besonderen Piloten und ein paar spezielle Gaeste WILLKOMMEN zu heissen.

Die Fahrzeuge spritzten und spritzten bis wir durch das Tor gerollt waren und dann wartete eine andere grosse Ueberraschung auf uns.

Ein Empfangs Kommitee! Unsere Mitarbeiter und einige Freunde standen am Hangar und winkten und hiessen uns mit Sekt und Snacks willkommen.

Welch eine Ueberraschung und welch ein Willkommen.

EIN GANZ HERZLICHES DANKE SEHR AN ALLE

LAST LEG TO CAPE TOWN

Monday, 02 November,  09:01, Upington, SA, 14 Degrees C, strong wind, Clear sky

Heidi's Birthday

We have a nice and early start, our Guesthouse here in Upington was very comfortable and pleasant and friendly, right on the Orange River. Anytime again.

In the back:Solar panels on huge field

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT UPINGTON

UPINGTON TOWN

ORANJE RIVER VALLEY

ORANGE RIVER

We have 40 Knots wind on the nose.

9:46 solar field of which we saw many

10:34 Calvinia on RHS

10:44 escarpment

We can see a ship  on the Atlantic ocean which is 125 km away. Hard to believe but true. The distance was obtained with the help of a GPS.

Never ever on this trip could we see that far and with such clarity.

10:57 Water Dams and fields next to River Doring

11:03 Cederberg

11:10 Cederberg

11:15 Cederberge

DEUTSCHE VERSION

LETZTE TEILSTRECKE NACH KAPSTADT

Montag, 2. November, 09h01, Upington, Sued Afrika

14 Grad C, starker Wind, klarer Himmel, Flugzeug aus dem Hangar geholt,

Heute ist Heidi's Geburtstag

Wir fliegen frueh los, unser Gaestehaus in Upington war sehr schoen, comfortabel und freundlich, direkt am Oranje Fluss. Jederzeit wieder.

09h30, wir haben 40 Knoten Gegenwind

Im Moment koennen wir ein Schiff auf dem Atlantischen Ozean sehen, der 125km entfernt ist. Kaum zu glauben, aber wahr. Es wurde mit Hilfe des GPS ausgerechnet. Auf unserem gesamten Trip hatten wir nie und nirgends so eine klare Sicht.

Anflug Kapstadt

11:14 Cederberg

Voelvleidam/ Silverfontein Farm

THE FASTEST TECHNICAL STOP OF ALL

01. November,

We started at Fothergill Airstrip very early to avoid the heat, ranger and all took us and we took off at about 07h20,

FOTHERGILL AIRFIELD

Kariba Airport, 08h47, 36 Degree C, very hot, dry clear, Flight to Gaborone

The Fastest Turn Around Ever with Re-fuelling, Immigration, Airport Tower Matters like paying landing and parking fees.

We had a wonderful  one and a half stay at the Safari camp.

And now we have a long flight ahead of us.

08H49 KARIBA TOWN

08H50 KARIBA LAKE

08H53 ALL THE BEAUTIFUL ISLAND AND PENINSULAS

Bumi Hills and 2 other Airstrips

The terrain below us is rocky and dry, the very large river beds are dry. They will only be filled this month.

The lowest temperatures here in Zim are in June and July, that’s when they have their High Season.

.

MONOTONOUS terrain, nothing to look at, all the same, all the time 

then...a dam

09h29, first water dam comes into sight and agricultur and first villages

10:12 FLAT DRY TERRAIN

10:22 Airport  Bulawayo

10:25 overfly Bulawayo

The area looks almost the same the entire way

Monotonous

11:37 towards Gaborone, No water in any of the huge dams

12:05, 7min to Gaborone

Anflug Gaborone

13h08, Gaborone, 4500feet,  
we are ready to fly to Upington, about 2.5hours, we expect Headwind,

We have 40 Degree C on the ground, there is a slight wind, all in all it went very quick here.

Worst performance we had on the Trip due to high temperature and altitude

13:23  Departure from Gaborone

13:29 still Departure from Gaborone

13:39 LAST VIEW CITY GABORONE



BELOW PICTURES OF THE COUNTRY BETWEEN  GABORONE AND UPINGTON

14:17 AGRICULTURE

15H25, ON THE WAY TO FAUP UPINGTON, SA, 2800 FEET HIGH, 

15H45, ORANJE RIVER BANKS IN BACKGROUND

FIXING THE AIRCRAFT IN RWANDA?

It was mentioned in previous posts that I was about to fix some issues with our aircraft. Fortunately, this wasn't necessary after all, but I will show some background details here.

The issue was that our turbine was starting "slow", meaning that it would take longer than normal to "spool up" to the point where it was running at idle speed without help from the battery. If a slow start becomes even slower, it may eventually lead to the point where one experiences a "hung start", i.e. the turbine will not reach the stage where it will run at idle speed without the help of the battery. Obviously, such is to be avoided during a trip like ours. The problem was that the start became slower with altitude. We experienced an "almost hung start" at Addis Ababa at an altitude of 7500 feet.

As we were operating at several other high altitude airfields in Rwanda, I wasn't too happy with the situation and wanted to become pro-active to prevent a possible hung start. I knew that the situation could be fixed by adjustment, but I had no clue how easy or difficult this would be to achieve. My solution was to contact Guillaume Marais, who has maintained our helicopters for many years and truly knows those engines. As it happens, our Silver Eagle utilises the same engine as the helicopters
we used to operate. Within minutes of Guillaume receiving my message, he responded with a detailed description of exactly what to do, along with numerous pictures showing the adjustment in detail and even a quickly produced short video. Amazing!

Armed with such detailed information, I proceeded to remove the cowling from the aircraft, hoping that I could quickly affect the setting and do a test run. Unfortunately, the area with the adjustment controls was somewhat inaccesible - at least for somebody with thick fingers and no real tools - which made me realise that I would need smebody with the right tools after all. This would not have been an issue, but due to other challenges (see below) I decided that the adjustment could wait until our arrival in Cape Town. I am nevertheless very grateful to Guillaume to have responded so quickly and efficiently, that I knew I could have the issue resolved if it became necessary. It provided me with great peace of mind.

The other challenges referred to above had to do with our booking at Nyanga Forest Lodge. We had booked and pre-paid at this high-end lodge for two nights with the intention of doing Chimpanzee tracking there. The lodge is 35 km away from Kamembe International Airport and it was pre-arranged that the lodge would arrange for our pickup on arrival. Well, on the day of our arrival I spent in excess of 3 hours (!) communication with the lodge to make arrangements for our pickup. I will spare you the details but during those 3 hours endless emails and numerous phone calls yielded no result. The lodge was simply unable to provide me with a phone number that I could use on arrival at Kamembe to request the pickup. All I requested was a reachable phone number with an english speaking person at the other end. No Sir, can't do! After three hours. With the reservations people copied into the correspondence. Ultimately, with no more response forthcoming, we were forced to spend 2 nights in Kigali instead of our beautiful forest lodge, that we had all been looking forward to.


STORM IN UPINGTON

One other aircraft issue which deserves mention is our short stay in Upington. We landed in fairly heavy winds, gusting at 35 knots and sandstorms in the area. We shut down on the main apron for the night and had almost left the terminal already when one of the fire station staff came running after us and suggested that we put the aircraft in a hangar over night, due to the possibility of further heavy storms during the night. The person had already made the effort of contacting a private hangar owner to secure hangar space for us. The hangar owner turned out to be Eben Mocke, who builds and sells gyrocopters in Upington. It was no trouble at all for Eben to re-arrange the aircraft in his hangar to make space for our Silver Eagle and soon our aircraft was secure for the night.

The next morning it was again no trouble for Eben to release the aircraft from the hangar and help us on our way. He did not even want to be paid for the service. It is truly a pleasure to experience the hospitality and helpfulness of our people in South Africa, something we were already exposed to when we arrived in the country 40 years ago. Thanks again Eben, for your help!

RELAXING AT KARIBA LAKE

Changa Safari Camp, 31. October 2015, 13h00
Arrival at the Camp

Tyres need to be protected against Hyinas, they like to chew on Aircraft tyres

First sighting

We are in a wonderful Tented Camp, right next to the Lake and we are so relaxed.
15h33, 40DegreeC, hot dry and no wind, we keep going into a cool outside shower.

The only thing I regret that we do not have a proper Internet connection I was hoping to sort pictures; that will have to wait until I am back in town.

AT LAST HE IS ABLE TO RELAX A BIT

This camp here is run in the typical way of a safari camp, very much like a SA Camp, Early Tea and Rusks, Morning Drive, Breakfast, Rest until 16h00, another Drive, than supper and early bed.

Next morning same story.

The Camp and the staff are very attentive and friendly and all is good.

Animals we have seen range from a Giant Monitor to Elephants water bucks
Impalas Zebras lots of Birds, I have never seen as many Fish Eagles before as here at Kariba, Crocodiles, Buffaloes, Hippos with young, baboons etc

BEAUTIFUL AND FASCINATING LANDSCAPE

The big 5 are here. Due to low dams lions have walked on and looked for more fertile grounds, guides expect them to come back in the area once rain starts which is soon in about 2 weeks time....

Tomorrow morning we leave early from the camp, fly to Kariba for fuel and immigration and than on to Gaborone  and on to Upington, that is a hard day of flying.