flying formation is an exercise I really enjoy…since I was the only pilot on board, I had to fly myself and while taking the pictures, I’d keep some distance. Otherwise we were much closer.
above the vast empty African expanses…the airplane is a great Cessna C206, a workhorse. Notice the Maasai homesteads in the high right corner, just next to the airstrip, Olpirikata. There is even a smallerl strip but that’s only the taxiway, a rarity in the bush.
this one is a Czech airplane, a Let 410. This plane was flying faster than me, just overtaking me. We wouldn’t be allowed to come that close to each other in the West. Well here neither normally but …
this Let 410 made a belly landing, that is the landing gear was not put down. The pilots, 2 of them, forgot…they must have been picking their nose before landing or what? Since it happened a few times within a year or so, all aircraft involving the same notorious company, the beliefs were that it was a scam to the insurance…specially that they never replaced these aircraft by the same models but by bigger planes…
this idiot running towards me was a self proclaimed ‘chief in charge’ trying to seize my pictures. He couldn’t even tell me his position or job on the airport. The janitor probably… that was my first ‘fuck you’ in Tanzania. And I still own the pictures….
waste of time but how can I refuse a poor smiling kid to pose in the driver’s seat…
this Cessna 206 had been delivered to us across the Atlantic Ocean. Extra fuel tank is required for the 16h flight in one go! Poor pilots, it must be boring and inconvenient. The 500 lt tank is seen here being removed from the inside of the aircraft.
a mini twister called here dust devils. They can be way higher than this one. Harmless but they can rock the airplane and surprise the pilot, me for instance, on take off.
notice the little ravine behind the airstrip. Better be concentrated on landing.
another bush fix: the oleo strut was flat, oil leakage, no more shock absorber. So to keep going without damaging the metal parts, we had put these pieces of rubber on the chrome part to avoid friction and metal contacts. The nose is tilted up for the time being fixed. Once lowered, the chrome part will be hidden.
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