Nairobi Wilson is a very busy GA field from which biz jets to Cessna 150’s fly. While theoretically, one can self handle, there are so many different offices to go to and different accounts that need to be dealt with, I decided to accept the services of the handler that had arranged my Kenya clearances and gave him my flight plan for the short flight to Malindi. Even this took over an hour to process; as well as landing fees, you pay (in a separate office) the equivalent of a Eurocontrol charge based on the length of the flight. I also went to introduce myself to Ken Taylor of DAC Aviation who is doing a 50 hour service on the aircraft when I return to Wilson in 12 days time.
Then it was off to Malindi to spend four days with Richard and various friends of his coming and going on a rolling basis. We took the low level NE corridor out of Wilson and when clear of the Jomo Kenyatta TMA climbed to FL75 for a pleasant VFR flight down to Malindi – 230nm in 1 hour 35 minutes. As arranged by the handler, avgas was waiting for us on arrival. We found Richard waiting for us together with two of his friends, somewhat disconsolate as their flight back to Nairobi was delayed having burst a tyre on arrival (the main runway is quite short and out of wind from the prevailing easterly sea breeze. [They made it back just in time to catch their connection to London].