Flying the bush, Tanzania

 

various pictures over my years in Tanzania.

That pilot didn’t judge the soft sand properly and struck the propeller in.

 

Make sure to clear the goats or whatever else from the strip before take off.

 

One narrow airstrip…which is also a road obviously and unfortunately. We keep on putting rocks and branches to tell morons to drive away from the airstrip but to no avail. The place is huge but these jerks have to drive on it…and damage it of course.

 

Diving and buzzing to chase the zebras off the airstrip. Great fun too! Up to 3 times is sometimes necessary to get rid of them… maybe flying just 2 or 3 m over their head just scares them too much and they stop thinking? The main trick is to “corral” them and direct them away. Just splitting a group of animals in the middle is useless. As opposed to the Red Sea  story, and this one is proven: the group will split apart and close in right away when the plane is gone. Most animals feel safer in  group...

 

Some areas are just terrible for flies!

 

The slippery and dreaded black cotton. That mud is heavy, wet, slippery like black ice and really sticky. Some motorbikes don’t have enough power and the back wheel can get jammed, stalling the engine

“Argile noire lourde” en français.

 

Floods! But the airstrip was spared.

 

A C206 in a climbing turn at over 240 mph? No, just a blocked pitot tube. Some water puddles on an airstrip had sent some particles through the tube. No more reliable airspeed readings… A few landings like that on our short airstrips was good experience.

 

Same airstrip but 2 weeks apart.

Comments

[ben wilhelmi]

thanks Gaf!

[Gaf]

great photos Ben