My first Loop

From Ardmore airport (NZAR), near Auckland, NZ, with Andrew Hope from Citabria NZ, in ZK-CIT, a nice Citabria. A lot of fun, and Andrew is a great instructor. (Use the widget below, or click the large image for HTML 5 with H264 (preinstalled on Apple devices).)

Sightseeing flight in HKML

Called Reshma, chief flying instructor from the Kenya School of Flying. They have their main offices in Nairobi, but train a lot in HKML (Malindi) on the coast - less traffic, and better aircraft performance (because it is sea level, while Nairobi airports are at 5500 feet elevation). She had a Cessna 152 available, so off we went. Unfortunately, general aviation is quite expensive in Kenya, so I flew only one hour.

Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama arrived in Malindi on his first voyage 1499, and set off from here to India with the help of Arab navigators. He erected the pillar below. Chinese explorer 郑和 (Zhèng Hé) (the one with this insane armada of ships) arrived here some 80 years earlier, around 1418.

North of Malindi:

Watamu, south of Malindi. Truly great diving!

Approach to HKML RW 35 (here's a movie of the landing).

Back.

End of Trip: FAKD - FAGC

Flew with Cliff from Klerksdorp to Grand Central, Johannesburg.

Off we go.


Last Leg.


Cleaning up...


Bye, ZS-NXW! Thanks to everyone that helped - Stefan, Lee, Cliff, Ashok, Martin, Meka, Willie, Felix, Andy, Klara, Heinz, Dmitry, Almu, Margret, Tobi!

Back to South Africa: FYKT-FAUP-FAKD

Clearing customs and immigrations in FYKT (Keetmanshoop, Namibia) and FAUP (Upington, South Africa) was no problem (in Keetmanshoop, the lady at customs and immigrations still remembered me - there is not so much traffic, really).

I had a very nice tailwind (here's a video, 11MB) on the flight to the South-East, so instead of going direct to FAUP, I diverted to the Augrabies waterfalls (just a few miles west).

Augrabies Falls, Orange River. The Khoi (Hottentots) called it "Aukoerebis", place of great noise.



Intersection take off from Upington - it is a very long runway...


Waypoint FASS: Sishen. "Jo'burg West Info, Zulu-Sierra-November-Xray-Whiskey over Sishen 1412, expect next Schweizer Reneke 1510."


Rainbow - the picture does not do justice to what I saw.


I arrived well in Klerksdorp after 5.3h flight that day (FYKT-FAUP 2.3, FAUP-FAKD 3.0), and Cliff picked me up at the airport. He invited me to his company's christmas party at a beautiful lake - a great sunset, BBQ (steak!), cold beer, and fantastic company - what more can you ask for?


Tequila.

FYWE-Olifantwater-FYKT

So, the aircraft was repaired this morning, so I set off to Olifantwater (finally met Ralph, Christian, Ecki), and further on to FYKT (Keetmanshoop, Namibia) - time was getting tight.

Climbing out of FYWE (Windhoek Eros, Namibia) and circling SE of the field to gain altitude - there's a ridge around the southern half of Windhoek.


Flying over the ridge south of Windhoek.


Arrived in Olifantwater! ZS-NXW, Ralph, Fab, Ecki.


A quick break in the swimmingpool/water reservoir before lunch:


Ecki, Ralph, Christian, and Springbockbraten - the gazelle was shot on the farm, and prepared by Ecki and Christian.


Farm life...


And back to the plane and off.


On left downwind leg to FYKT (Keetmanshoop).

Back to Windhoek for repairs: FYOA-FYWE

The glas fibre cable between Ondangwa and Windhoek was cut. There was no phone, no mobile phone, no internet, and my satellite phone was out of batteries. Anyway, there was no aircraft mechanic in Namibia except in Windhoek (the friendly guy I had been recommended at Ondangwa airport itself as an expert turned out to be air traffic control, manning the tower on occasion.) Hence, I stayed another day, and after (finally) coordinating (somewhat) with Willie from the flight school and the repair facilities in Windhoek, flew back there - this time not direct (that would have led me directly over the Etosha pan), but nice and cozy along the roads. 3.8 hours later I arrived in Windhoek Eros, and had the aircraft repaired.

Lamentably, this thwarted my original plan to fly east, along the Caprivi Strip and the Okavango delta, via Botswana back to Johannesburg. Hence, I shall have to return at some point - not a big sacrifice, really.

Fröhlicher Nikolaus.

To Epupa Falls:That's the plan. Engine problems:Stuck in Ondangwa

In Namutoni, Klaus and Gerhard suggested I visit Epupa falls next. It is at the northern end of Namibia on the Kunene river between Namibia and Angola. Klaus and Gerhard were departing to FYTM (Tsumeb) to the east, I decided to fly to Epupa Falls via a fuel stop in FYOA (Ondangwa) to the west. That was the plan.

Some wild animal, eating. Beautiful creature.



On the road between Tsumeb and Ondangwa.



So, now I had arrived in FYOA Ondangwa, and had ZS-NXW filled up.

During the pre-departure run-up check, I noticed a unusually large drop in engine RPM on the left magneto, and a rough, unround engine - probably a spark plug problem. Even letting the engine run a few minutes at full RPM and very lean mixture did not fix the problem (if the spark plugs are just fouled up with carbon deposits, this procedure burns them away), in other words, I had an engine problem. I decided that it would be unwise to fly to a very remote airstrip over mountains and waterfalls with only 7 out of 8 spark plugs working: Stuck in Ondangwa (about 30 000 inhabitants, mostly in huts along the highway). Well, I spent two pleasant days here in a nice hotel, at the pool, in the bars, and nearly finished reading James Clavell's "Noble House" (1370 pages).

This sticker in the airport's bathroom cheered me up a bit: Other pilots on interesting flights must have come through.

To the Etosha Pan, Namutoni: FYWE-FYMO

The Etosha ("Great White Place") Pan is a large salt pan and nature reserve in the Kalahari in Namibia's north. There are three large lodges on its southern edge, each with a water hole (to observe wild life) and, incidentally, a runway. However, since it is a nature reserve, I did not receive landing permission, so I chose to fly to FYMO (Mokuti Lodge) at its eastern edge.

Here's a train hangar in Windhoek, taken when I departed FYWE (Eros).

En route. Alles, was ich sehe, erinnert mich an sie.

Etosha Pan.

Just landed at FYMO (Mokuti Lodge, Etosha Pan, Namibia). While approaching, I self-announced on the radio, and asked the people from the lodge to come pick me up. Another aircraft appeared on the frequency, also on the way in, and we chatted a bit - I asked them to close my flight plan, and told them that the wind was now favoring the other runway (that is, the same runway from the other end).

The crew were Germans: Gerhard working as a Captain for Lufthansa with some 18000 hours - about 100 times as many as I had. Klaus, also with Lufthansa, flew just for fun.



Klaus and Gerhard also wanted to land in Etosha National Park itself, at Namutoni Lodge, but didn't receive permission either. However, after we had already checked in with the Mokuti lodge, it occurred to us that we could get there by car (they are not allowed in the park after sunset, due to the animals, but it was still early enough), and after a few phone calls Philip from Namutoni had come to pick us up, and soon we drove through Etosha park.

Some wild animal, eating.

Some wild animal, eating.

Some wild animal, eating.


It was a good choice. In Namutoni, there is this old white fort, built by Germans in 1904. We convened on the top of its tower, and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. ("Beautiful sunset" here is British English; an approximate American translation would be "STUNNING, WORLD FAMOUS, UTTERLY MESMERIZING SUNSET WITH OVERWHELMING, COMMANDING, STAGGERING PANORAMIC VIEWS." (or, in college English, "like, you know, oh my god [seconds of silence, rolling eyes] totally awesome, you know, just _so_ tight."))





Some wild animal, eating.

Dinner was excellent. The beverage and food manager, Philip, joined us after dinner and told us many interesting stories from his travels around the world (how he came to prepare Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in a Café in Heidelberg, for example). It was a great day and fun evening.

Further North to Windhoek: FYKT-Olifantwater-FYWE

When I searched online for information on obtaining a landing permit and clearance for Namibia, I found this report about a few people flying through Namibia, Botswana and Zambia a year ago. So, I emailed them with questions. Turns out that most of them were German, one of them (Ecki) is living on a farm in Olifantwater, Namibia, some 100 nautical miles south-east of Windhoek, and another one, Ralph, was there on holiday just now with his rented plane (a Cessna 182). Ecki had only recently built a runway on this farm, and he invited me to come over.

Just landed in Olifantwater - the third airplane ever to land on this strip.

Unfortunately, since I was held up by a day due to the thunderstorms in FYKT (Keetmanshoop) a day before, nobody was here... So, I took a picture and departed to Windhoek.

Red dunes surrounding the farm.

The panel of ZS-NXW. The most modern part definitely the iPod on the left for the pilot's entertainment on long legs.

A localized thunderstorm on the way from Olifantwater to Windhoek:

The ridge south of Windhoek, very close to the airport FYWE (Windhoek Eros). Eros serves mostly general aviation (that is, smaller planes); the international airport is some 45km east of town (and not surrounded by mountains).

Final approach to FYWE (Windhoek Eros, Namibia) runway 01.