Ben Wilhelmi

little accident and it feels good...

 

this plane, a Caravan I used to fly for a previous company that ripped me off, has been quite damaged ....so this pilot is a now a lifetime friend. I wish I had done it myself though....curious to know the costs to fix and the loss of profit because this thing won't fly anytime soon! The high season has just started.

it looks like some serious low level flying nearly killed the pilot. He has hit some power line! Extremely lucky to be alive. Some lodges around the area have been deprived of power some a day or two.

 

 

 

looking at the rudder and vertical fin, it looks like he went under the cable to rip off 10 inches of the tail. Initially I had thought a bigger plane with high wings and propellers had chewed it. Like a giant can opener.

 

here is a full Caravan rudder...Big chunk missing he? The equivalent of the orange bit....

 

 

 

He managed to come back to the airport with one aileron missing and a funky tail, the rudder was jammed, compressed! Quite a feat I guess.

 

for those who know the caravan, they'll notice the top tail is quite shortened!

 

curious  how the rudder is now slightly bent vertically...

but I'm not judging him since it had happened to me too(many years back!)...though I had only hit the landing gear,  without damage.

and after more chat around, not only did he fly under that cable, he flew between cables!! the belly shows some little damages too, 2 antennas have been ripped off! The cable bounced and went below the landing gear.

Lake Natron again

Lake Natron and flamingoes. I have been surprised to see the flamingoes nesting again. The young grey flamingoes were still there a few months ago...

 

here is a broad view...drier surface, dull colors as I said. The flamingoes are there but they blend quite well until you come close....

 

and see their footprints...

 

and here we go, the pink spots on this funny surface that looks like a piece of wrinkly silk.

 

this shot is just a similar picture of the previous one, just seriously enlarged and cropped. Imagine I took a one by one cm square from the original shot , had to play a bit on Photoshop for contrast and sharpening. So this twisted picture shows a superb flock of flamingoes taking off all together without crashing into each other. I never fail to be impressed by this skill....

 

enlarged as well but not as much. To get a sharp shot of flamingoes it is very difficult to come very close to them and fly slow and low with a Caravan and its shitty window, its lack of slow speed....if at least I had another plot with me, I could focus and frame.

huge blow up again, not so sharp, but this is only for blog purpose, right? I'll have to be very nice and sweet with Karine and borrow her Nikon D300 and try it at higher sensibility and shutter speeds, at 1600 iso for instance. That's the big improvement over the D200.

Look inside the grey nest! White eggs. Nests looking like egg holder, made of mud and whatever the birds find on the lake crust.

 

another location, more nests.

 

 

 

maxi enlargement, not the best quality as a result, pixels are visible... cool sighting though, I just love that.

lake Natron, the one and only

 

aahh, that lake. I'd fly everyday above it....though the shallow waters are drying out these months the colors are still reasonably bright at some sparse locations....

 

these two shots are on the shore line. Notice the tracks, Maasai herders and their cows I guess.

 

 

the water channels are closing, the shores are drying out, the salt and other chemicals get white.

 

 

no clue why it shifts from orange to black, or vice-versa ....

 

another example of vanishing colors. This brownish tone used to be bright red.

 

mix of blue-purple and old red.

 

and the famous volcano Oldoinyo Lengai to close this post.

Mount Meru, Arusha

 

dominating Arusha is Mt Meru, about 14500 ft high/4500 m. It used to be a volcano, probably higher at some point than Kilimanjaro, which also used to be a volcano. There is still a crater at its top by the way.

Kilimanjaro sits clear of clouds on the horizon. The weather on the ground was so bad to day. One must enjoy the feeling to fly above these weather conditions...which I did with no passengers.

 

That little ash cone had some activity about 100 years ago they say...it sits much lower than the mountain itself.

 

here is a side view of the top. It looks like a sharp wall because this volcano collapsed during the last serious eruption.

 

the curvature of the mountain is a bit visible here, encompassing the ash cone.

 

in order to climb it, one has to walk in equilibrium on that thin ridge....the one time I tried with friends, we had to quit 30 min short of the summit because a hailstorm was raging, because none of us were really at ease with the useless drunk guide, and mostly because one professional climber had slipped and died the week before in similar conditions....

Paris V

 

sorry guys, for not keeping up or just making short texts but I'm spending one night out of two in some lodge, which starts to slightly piss me off. If one includes the long days of flying, it gives me no time to do anything. Going home, unpack, repack for the next day...it sucks. I'd rather go for a few days in a row, with some free time on the spot like in the good old days....

 

a biker on  a public bike passing a row of public bikes

 

open museum, Paris....

 

 

 

Notre Dame, la Seine, a dinghy.

 

type of picture to do if one doesn't want a law suit. No one can be recognised thanks to blurriness. Stupid French law...if it had been applied years back, can you imagine how many famous pictures would have been discarded and lost? How many famous photographers would have been stuck to sports or wedding pictures?

 

but I hope this colorful lady won't see this one...

 

Place Saint-Sulpice.

 

from the Eiffel Tower, facing the Trocadéro across the Seine.

LET 410

Let 410, that code name is our new airplane. Pretty ugly, a Czech airplane with Russian engines. A workhorse quite appreciated in Africa. Crossing my fingers to fly it soon.

here it is on final approach above the hills of Lake Manyara airstrip.

2 pilots, about 20 passengers.

and the tail will be painted in tingatinga style, a famous Tanzanian naive style, quite colorful.

volcano Oldoinyo Lengai and visitors

 

that was a cool sighting today: people on the top of the volcano. Quite unusual view though tourism is expanding there but because the climb starts around midnight to reach the top just before 6 am  to admire the sunrise on Mt Kilimanjaro (with a bit of luck )and then go down again usualy after a couple of hours for the visit on top. So by the time the airplanes start to fly around, everybody is out....

 

the other day, I gave a web site about the volcano, run by a scientist named Fred Belton. He is precisely visiting the volcano and the area these days. Maybe he is one  of these 4 persons...

 

full view of the crater. The 4 specks on the very right side are people. The whitish crown is the new crater since activity started in August '07. The old flat plateau used to stop at the dark edge.

 

there was only a slightly veil of white smoke but a strong smell of rotten eggs.

 

  

here are the guys, near the crater edge. Notice the footprints. Curious to know the thickness of the ash, how hard it was to move in it. This picture here has just been enlarged for clarity. Thanks to my fabulous Nikon D200 for allowing such enlargements. No, am not on Nikon payroll (but if they contact me....). But now am slightly jealous 'cos my girlfriend, Karine, got a D300!! Well am just waiting for the D400 in 2 years I bet....

 

they're in the middle of the picture here, tiny dots. In comparison with the 4 people, one can sense the huge size and thickness of that crater.

I've climbed that thing twice, once when a bit of lava was flowing out. Quite a wonderful unforgettable experience. We had stayed overnight, quite tired after the climb and 20 kg of gear to carry on but worth. We slept through the night nevertheless the roars from the thin chimneys.  Pictures soon one day....

Paris IV

 

 

 

groupies of Napoleon and his troops, walking through Les Tuileries.

 

one of these beautiful buildings hiding shops. This one is being refurbished and a whole part is hidden by a huge painted canvas representing what the final work will be. Nothing new maybe except that was the first time I saw a giant 'trompe-l'oeil' like this, a mirroring effect of the opposite building. Fabulous piece of art. Too bad for the huge advertising panel on the right side...

 

shopping at all costs....but still a long way to beat the Tanzanian bikers....

 

preparing a double cancer ...

 

alongside the Seine river.

 

remember that blue 2CV I mentioned last week? Here is another version of it, built on the same frame. Plastic body, even lighter than the regular one. Her name is 'Méhari' after the desert guides in the Sahara. The engine is the same, a 600cc,( that is about 40 Cu In,  tenth of a regular American V8), 2 cylinders.

 

old man having a hard time to meet the ends...

 

near Notre Dame.

tanzania in 15 min...

 

wonderful light and the colors explode... 15 min of flight above the Rift Valley...

 

 

 

shadow of the volcano Oldoinyo Lengai and the smoke...

 

 

same shadow and a rainbow...

 

 

 

all of that was in April 08, beginning of the long rains....

volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, northern Tanzania

 

long time I didn't put a post on this marvel... here are a few shots since my return in May 08. The beast is pretty lazy these days. But it might just be the sleepy monster according to some volcano specialists. It did the same pattern in the 60's before a major eruption. Let's hope it happens sooner rather than later...

for those who are interested in this volcano, have a look for more spectacular shots from various shooters at www.oldoinyolengai.org. Worth it.

 

 

 

sometimes, she pretends to be shy...wrapping herself in white clouds....

 

In the distance, left of Lengai is Mt Kilimanjaro, and right is Mt Meru (Arusha). Exceptional visibility, more than 100 miles, which is pretty rare in the dry season.

 

 

 

 

 

and a vertical view to finish this post...

 

Paris III

 

 

I love it when the authorities get serious and close down some neighborhoods to cars...

 

rows of public bicycles all over Paris. Very impressive. Politically impressive too. One of the few kept promises that I can think of...too bad some guys think too high of themselves as being artists and trash properties...

 

I'm no expert in fashion, clothing etc but I can't help thinking some people are even worse than I am... pink glasses, a stud below the lip...well at least it is entertaining to watch people. Perfectly knowing that I might be somebody's target...

 

 

many companies share the juicy business on the Seine....usually called 'bateaux-mouches'. Mouches being flies (the insect...).

 

a memorial for the French deported people in WWII.  Outside Notre-Dame.

 

and an inside view. Very sober architecture, All the names are craved but there is no real view on them. Also no stories, no pictures.

 

the book shops along the Seine. You get wonders, vintage things but also the fake or touristy crap...

 

Notre-Dame and people snapping thousands of pictures per hour I guess...

Paris under the sun, II

nice parks and grass bits all over Paris, including les Champs de Mars spreading from the Eiffel Tower. People resting all over.

 

 

unfortunately, these soldiers too. Though, probably a better job patrolling around such a place than a set of barracks or other boring sites....

 

les Champs de Mars. Skin cancers on the prowl but good viewing and for the morale...

 

nice way to avoid the traffic jams...

 

and a bicycle too of course. Paris has set public bikes all over the place. You take one here, drop it there. One little flaw with this way is that lazy people leave the bikes down any hill and it is harder to find an available bike on top of Montmartre Hill for instance. Quite a success as far as I could see. Enemies of the system are of course motorists but they complain for whatever reasons that reduce their "right of way" , their "king of the road" status anyway. Other people who affirm that cycling in a city is dangerous. True 2 dead cyclists so far in Paris. One due to reckless riding, so what to do? And if anything dangerous should suppressed as these people want to do with these bikes, what about cars...? Or horses, airplanes and trains and boats? And I bet they smoke anyway. So just shut up guys...

 

I must say I didn't mind too much going shopping in these conditions. Those big department stores like Samaritaine  here are pieces of museums, as the rest of the city, I know I've said that already, but touring inside or waiting outside such a shop half an hour is then no problem for me. Well one still has to carry the goodies of of course...girls say it is a form of sport to convince their guys...Samaritaine: from the Good Samaritan, yeah sure, try to get in there and get things without money, specially in the big names areas like Dior, Chanel...

 

French people and their cigarettes....

 

antiques...

Paris under the sun

 

hi guys,

 

long time no write... from late April to late May, I took my (short) annual leave, spent most of it in Paris, and in Brussels. One month is definitely too short  when one has been used to two or more...bloody job. Can't wait for the next one some days...

so back in Tanzania. Bad news, my boss got rid of the Cessna 206, a wonderful little 6 seater that I loved for special funny flights. That's the plane on which  to get people scream their heart out...Good news the big twin, a Let 410, has arrived. Waiting to be trained on it now.

anyway some shots from Paris. Wonderful city, an open-air museum... art and culture are what I miss most here.

 

any European knows this wonderful car, a Citroën 2CV. For Americans and others, say Deux Chevaux (2 HP in fact though it had a little more than that). I used to have one, a bright red one.  Underpowered but dead cheap to run. People have crossed the World with that. Citroën stopped production in '89 after 40 years or so. Another myth dying out. Still being built in Chile under licence. Never made it to USA for safety issues except some real old vintage models. I'd love one here in TZ as it is quite excellent on dirt roads...this one here is used as a tour taxi with the canvas roof rolled back. Great idea...

 

another oldie superbly restored. Sunny days, everybody gets out with their convertible toy, girls are half dressed getting tanned and admired (though am not supposed to watch....), the famous Paris book stalls open again along side the Seine...

 

lovers take a walk and rest here and there.

 

Notre- Dame...will I ever go up there again? I climbed it once 20 years ago on a winter day, hardly nobody in sight. Now it is packed like hell. One hour queue is common...

 

I just love these typical buildings. What else to say...

 

I could spend ours in this city, shooting, drawing, just walking. So many artists have done that before too...

 

the famous tower. This one too is too busy nowadays. So just walking around and trying to find new angles or subjects is an activity like any...

 

that spot next to the military school talks about Peace. Those glass panes show the word Peace translated in many languages. Columns are spread around. When I started photography 20 years ago, I couldn't stand tourists or even regular people in my compositions. I realized quickly, thanks to books from  famous photographers, that the empty shots were boring...and you don't have to wait 50 years to laugh at the changing fashion or way of life...

 

see , I would have waited for this lovely girl to get out of the picture. But I'd get her full frame later on....

 

yes I knows, pretty stupid but fun to do sometimes...