Up at 5 am local today to give time for a quick breakfast before the driver came to take us to the airport for a 7 am (0400 Z) departure. The airfield was quiet when we arrived but soon became busy with MAF people getting ready to send two aircraft off to Juba.
We were first to depart just after 7 am as the sun came up; even at this hour, it was quite hot and with an airfield elevation of over 2,000 ft, we used most of the 720 m shortened runway on departure. Then climbed to FL120 and radio silence for the next three hours plus. Even CAT far above us were having difficulty speaking to Khartoum. South Sudan is presently quiet so we routed direct to Malakal and then northwards to Khartoum helped by a useful tailwind. At first we were in a thick dust haze so ground contact was minimal but improved as we neared Khartoum and the inversion level dropped to around 4,000 ft.
We were the first of three aircraft to arrive at the final approach fix at about the same time so we kept our speed up on the ILS to land in somewhat reduced visibility and blowing sand.
The avgas barrel soon arrived with a pump but this mysteriously failed at about the same barrel drawdown as our pump did yesterday and we ended up decanting the fuel into a stainless steel bucket into our water filter with avgas spraying around in the brisk wind – health and safety people at home would go nuts!
Flight plan to Aswan filed for tomorrow and then to our hotel. Rather luxurious after yesterday’s camp hut!
Lokiochoggio to Khartoum: 780 nm in 4 hr 40 min