it’s the rainy season in Tanzania, not a major one unfortunately for the people. But for pilots, at least for the few who can enjoy a scenery, the show can be incredible. The visibility is perfect, up to 150 miles sometimes and the clouds have smoked LSD sometimes. Yesterday I was overflying lake Manyara near Arusha where the latest rains have easily filled up the shallow lake. Some clouds were perfectly reflecting in the lake, like cotton balls. The surface of the water was glassy which, over a larger surface, can make things tricky by eliminating the regular landmarks thanks to a mirror effect. One would look down and see clouds and blue sky. It could give the feeling to fly upside down. When I was learning to fly a seaplane some years back, I experienced that phenomenon a few times. Coming low for landing on a lake outside Yosemite and not seeing the water level below my wings, just looking at the sky in the “mirror”. Luckily there are some procedures to land safely nevertheless but it was a weird feeling. Same situation when the water is crystal clear and there is no wind. You just see the bottom of the lake and have no clue where the water line is. That seaplane…one of my best flying memory! Imagine the Yosemite area and flying freely, near huge cliffs, waterfalls, flying in narrow steep canyons, landing on rivers or lakes under the curses of the fishermen of course. One of these landings was particularly sweet: the approach was to be made in a tight canyon without seeing the landing spot till the last 10 sec, just after a last 90° turn. There was always the surprise to see a bloody fisherman on “my” landing spot of course. Too bad on one occasion I didn’t have the instructor’s approval to scare the fisherman enough to make him dive in the water…but I’ve been flying alone a lot in this country! Poor Masai…though some deserved to bite the dust after the low fly by when they were obstructing the airstrip.
anyway back on lake Manyara just before sunset.
towards the sun, the cloud reflection in the foreground, lake Eyasi shining in the distance.
flying away from lake Manyara (the flat shiny spot on the left)
talking about perfect visibility, the triangle is the famous volcano Oldoinyo Lengai at 100km or so.
Comments