Month: February 2016

A long but successful day. We decided to compress two days flying into one. All the permits came in during our second evening at Polokwane with the exception of the Tanzanian overflight permit which was promised for early next day. So we flight planned to Lilongwe for a tech stop with a view to moving on to Zanzibar in the afternoon.

We were picked up at the hotel at 7 am and at the airport by 7:20 pm. I had been called out the evening before to move the aircraft as a Saudi 747 captain was concerned that they may blow me away while taxiing out for their midnight flight home.

But first a ramp check before departure – a first for me. A polite and friendly policeman appeared with a check list for licence, medical certificate, aircraft documents including latest release to service and confirmation that we had a fire extinguisher on board. He asked for a load sheet which I interpreted as a weight and balance calculation but fortunately he forgot about this having perused the weighty POH for some time.

Eventually off 20 minutes late into a cloudy sky (but at least this kept the temperature down), breaking through at 8,000 ft on our way up to FL130. The undercast cleared as we approached the Zimbabwe border. No reply from Harare Information at that stage but we got into contact with a Swiss PC-6 flying in the opposite direction to us 1,000 ft below and eventually saw him first on TCAS and then visually. Harare Info then sprung into life and we were cleared through the Harare TMA and on to the border with Mozambique. By now, friendly CU below were beginning to turn into less friendly TCU and CB and Lilongwe was reporting a thunderstorm with rain as we approached the ITCZ again.

For Phil’s benefit, the weather was not nearly as turbulent as for our southbound flight and although there were numerous TCU and CB around, they were generally avoidable with minor deviations. CAT higher up were having a harder time.

Lilongwe was a good tech stop; avgas immediately available at Carlisle prices; our Tanzanian clearance text appeared on landing, a quick lunch was taken and we were away within an hour and a half. The Lilongwe controller in addition to all, quite busy, local airport traffic was also controlling all overflying CAT up to FL410, procedural of course!

Soon we were over Malawi Lake, a vast freshwater lake bounded by Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. Then mile after mile of what looked like dense forest over Tanzania only slowly thinning out as we tracked NE. The TCU and CB slowly died down as the sun set and we made the second night landing of our trip at Zanzibar. Everyone there was very friendly and on the strength of our GenDec, the immigration people gave us a visa free crew entry for a four day layover.

Over 1,250 nm covered in 8 1/2 hours flying time; the bonanza is very comfortable for these long trips, Miranda got lots of sewing done and we are back up to schedule. On the whole radio comms were good with the odd relay via CAT above.

 

 

Polokwane to Lilongwe 674 nm in 4 hr 40 min

Lilongwe to Zanzibar: 589 nm in 3 hr 45 min

 

At 7 am, we still only had received one of three permits required for today’s scheduled flight to Lilongwe. By 9:30 am a second permit was issued but still no landing permit for Malawi and at 10 am, I called off today’s flight and we are staying in Polokwane for a second night after a very hot sunny day here. With a temperature of 33ºC plus by 11 am, and an airport elevation of over 4,000 ft, the density altitude will be very high and with nearly full tanks, our rate of climb would be less than spectacular.

Let us hope that the position will be resolved by tomorrow.

I originally thought we would do this in one leg but the relative shortness of the runway and somewhat variable winds convinced me to take off light for George, a relatively short distance away and then refuel for the major sector to Polokwane.

We arrived at Stellenbosch at 8 am. This gave us an hour to extract Juliet Bravo from the hangar she was in, return another aircraft to the hanger, lock it up, load the baggage, preflight the aircraft and get airborne. We just about managed it.

Cloud was broken in the Stellenbosch area and we climbed up to FL75 for the short VFR flight to George. As we went eastwards, the cloud steadily broke up and was FEW by the time we arrived. A busy training field so we were held for a short while for outgoing traffic before landing and refuelling using my BP card.

Then a long sector to Polokwane with rather more of a headwind than forecast. We climbed to FL110 to find smooth air but as we progressed inland, TCU steadily built with bases just above our level so the ride became rather choppy for the rest of the way. Around Bloemfontein, there were scattered thunderstorms and numerous requests from CAT for weather deviations.

The ride became smoother as we passed Jo’burg and Pretoria and we landed off a straight in approach in hot and dry conditions, refuelled and parked the aircraft for the night.

We had heard nothing from our agent (GASE) about overflight/landing clearances for the next leg of the flight. Apparently their internet broke down over the weekend; we wait to see what happens next.

Stellenbosch to George: 177 nm in 1 hr 20 min

George to Polokwane: 738 nm in 5hr 10 min

Miranda arrived through arrivals around 8 am on Thursday and we went back to my Stellenbosch Hotel for a coffee before going on to the next hotel in Franschhoek for a generally quiet day so that Miranda could recover from a rather sleepless overnight flight.

 

The highlights of Friday were a visit to the Huguenot Museum in Franschhoek where the history of the Huguenots cast out from France, by Louis XIV in particular, was vividly recounted as was how they established themselves here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the evening, a little wine tasting on the hotel’s own estate was a delight. In between, we got to know about Stellenbosch’s traffic jams as we went to and from the airfield to pay for Juliet Bravo’s 50 hour check.

Saturday’s delight was a visit to the Franschhoek Motor Museum. There, in four buildings beautifully laid out, were around a hundred vintage cars from the earliest days of motoring to the 1980’ties, many of them racing winners of their day. Some pictures of these are included below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, we went off to Camp Bay. As we left, there was a couple of sharp busts of rain but this soon cleared up as we drove past the main Cape Town Airport.

 

Being Sunday, Camp Bay was crowded; we topped up on lunch supplies for the way back at a local supermarket before going to the Codfather for lunch, an excellent fish spot recommended by Georgina and Bertie; they were here in November.

 

 

Following lunch, a walk along the beach, paddle (cold sea!) and then reading books under a shady tree before returning to our hotel in the late afternoon. There was a fair amount of paragliding going on off Table Mountain.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we start our return journey home.

 

Our arrival at Cape Town today was not quite in the style that we intended. We left Walvis Bay on time and quickly climbed through a thin layer of SC which had crept in from the coast overnight to strong sunshine above. We followed the coast down with endless miles of sand to the left and sea to the right.

All was going well until about 300 nm from Cape Town, the red ‘low voltage’ light appeared and it was apparent that the main alternator had failed. We switched on the reserve generator which powered the turn and slip indicator, COM1/NAV1/GPSS1 and transponder no 2 and not much else. We advised ATC of the problem and continued towards Cape Town. Phil and I shared the flying as there was now no autopilot.

We were transferred to Approach who gave us vectors for a visual approach; we had kept our speed up to facilitate spacing for CAT and then at two mile final slowed down and I switched the main battery switch on to drop flap and undercarriage. This resulted in a total electrical failure so we broke off the approach and orbited left. Phil took over the flying while I hand cranked the undercarriage down and retrieved the hand held radio, and so we landed and taxied to our parking position. Two fire engines followed us down the runway – a first for us both!

I phoned Stellair at Stellenbosch (who are going to carry out a 50 hour check) and advised them of the problem and they put me in touch with an electrical engineer at Cape Town airport who came over and diagnosed a faulty alternator rather than in the wiring to/from the alternator. Eventually with the help of a GPU, we restarted Juliet Bravo and taxied her over to the engineer’s hangar. The engineer seems confident that it should be possible to sort the problem tomorrow but time will tell.

We had a car coming to collect us from Stellenbosch Airfield but this was diverted to collect us from the engineer’s hangar at Cape Town.

So all in all an interesting experience. On reflection, I should have switched the standby generator off before putting the battery master switch on to lower gear/flaps etc and I think this is what caused the electrical failure on short finals. Having two pilots aboard definitely helped in resolving the problems and Phil and I thought we handled the CRM aspects rather well. If this problem had to happen, then Cape Town is about the best place it could happen.

Walvis Bay to Cape Town: 723 nm in 5 hr including left hand orbits at Cape Town

 

 

Phil flew this sector which was a one direct leg at FL100. Our taxi arrived to pick us up at 8 am local and we were at the airport shortly afterwards. The immigration man met us to stamp our passports (there was no one there yesterday) and then we were off in cloudless skies. Hardly any other traffic; Ondangwa tower was working today and then to Windhoek information and finally Walvis tower. Low cloud coming in off the coast made for a VOR/DME approach and we gathered from ATC that this frequent low cloud made it difficult for VFR pilots.

After refuelling (at tax free rates so under £1/litre), we paid very modest landing fees and took a taxi to our guest house. Then out to a very good lunch on the waterfront and a long walk to look for, and take pictures of, the pink flamingoes. A fair amount of smart new building taking place and we are impressed with Namibia and its friendly people.

Tomorrow is the final outbound leg to Cape Town and then a 5 minute positioning leg to Stellenbosch.

 

Ondangwa to Walvis Bay: 315 nm in 2hr 20 min

At the start of the day, we did not know whether we were going to get fuel or not. Phil called Sam Rutherford after our early breakfast. He thought the problem had been resolved and a while later, we received a call from the handler to say that avgas was now at the aircraft. The handler sent a car to collect us and sure enough, there was avgas of sorts.

Out with the pump and various willing helpers from Bestfly, our handling agents, and it was soon loaded for a departure soon after midday, local time. Our course to Ondanga in Namibia was essentially straight line; there was altocumulus and altostratus above us, scattered cumulus below with the occasional TCU or CB around. As we went south, the sky started to clear slowly and minor CU buildups were easily avoided. I flew this leg at FL110. Luanda approach signed us off at 60 miles south of Luanda and there was radio silence for the next 500 miles.

We had a slight tailwind so a marginally quicker flight than planned for. Ondangwa tower is closed at weekends so after cancelling IFR with Windhoek Information, it was blind calls on the tower frequency to join and land.

We were refuelled in 20 minutes at just over £1/litre, paid very modest landing fees, spoke to a friendly policeman who gave us the customs number to call and were at our hotel within an hour.

Bad start to the day ending up good. We hoped to be in Walvis Bay this evening but will fly there tomorrow morning to catch up with our schedule.

Luanda to Ondangwa: 565 nm in 3 hr 45 min

 

The day started well and ended badly.

After an early breakfast, we left the Bom Bom hotel at 8:00 and arrived at the airport at 8:15 and all formalities were completed by 8:45 am. We were airborne five minutes early at 0855Z for the five hour flight to Luanda.

While clear at first, we soon ran into cumulus and altocumulus with TCU around and for much of the next hour and a half, were IMC in light to moderate turbulence with the occasional bigger bump and rain. The stormscope lit up with lightning flashes, generally not too close. Phil flew this leg and much of this was hand flown. We were traversing the ITCZ.

 

Towards the Angolian border, the sky started to clear to more layer type cloud with much better visibility below than we have been used to for some time past. A hold was threatened but in the event not necessary.

 

The trouble started when we landed and asked about our prepaid fuel arranged by Sam Rutherford of Prepare2go. We were told it was not available because it was ‘out of date’. I will not narrate the detail of the events of the next several hours other than to say that it was very tedious. We ended up eventually in a real Fawlty Towers hotel!

Principe to Luanda: 746 nm in 5hr 20 min

Today has been a very pleasant day of relaxation at the Bom Bom Hotel beach resort on Principe; a hazy sunny day with a few cumulus clouds.

After breakfast we were taken on a guided jungle walk of around 3 miles. We saw banana and coconut trees and hermit crabs living in holes at the bottom of trees – some quite big. We saw an old Portuguese church with big trees growing up through it which reminded me of Ta Prom temple at Angkor Watt. We saw some pretty kingfisher type birds but not as many as we had anticipated. Phil managed a few photographs of these with his telephoto lens but there is no way of transferring them onto the blog at present.

After lunch, we swam and snorkelled; there were a wide variety of fish to be seen including some very pretty rainbow coloured ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it is time for flight planning the next two legs into Angola and Namibia. Phil has just told me that we need to leave Luanda at 0730 local time on Friday morning to reach Walvis Bay airfield before it shuts in the afternoon so another very early get up in prospect!