Ben Wilhelmi

Bush flying in Tanzania

 

 

During my recent years with Safari Air link...

That tiny Go Pro camera to fix here and there outside the plane... great results, crappy manufacture sadly.

 

Fueling in the bush...an old military truck, a coupla drums, a fuel pump, Katavi park

One of the many visitors around or on the airstrip., Msembe, Ruaha park.

 

Busy day/night in the Selous reserve. 3 of our Caravan 208 planes after a rainy afternoon..

 

I took off at dawn, early mornings are not my things but starting at night and facing the wide sky lightening up has its perks. And in this occasion, I had slept next to the aircraft. Wake up, 2 min walk and start up...pretty cool. Breakfast on board. 

A day trip at Iringa airfield for these students. As everywhere they were more interested in pictures...

Boeing 727 dwarfing our Caravan. That venerable beast was a wonderful plane but few remains, getting old and abused. and very noisy. The noise abatement rules make their operations difficult. This one is operated in Kenya but here shot in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania.

Another early flight, Ruaha park.

Mtemere airstrip in the Selous reserve (now Julius Nyerere national park for half of it), on the edge of the Rufiji river. The plane looks lost on the parking spot.

My colleague Danie on take off, Msembe airtsrip, Ruaha park. Notice the distortion out of the exhaust.

South Sudan, random pictures

 

 

South Sudan, a veeery common scene...

 

Notice the scars and the jewel on the chin. The place was Kapoeta on the Kenyan border. Somebody told me they were cousins with the Masai people.

Fashion, henna work, jewels, South Sudanese women try hard to escape a bit from the daily horrors.

 

Welcoming party in Yirol for a VIP. Dance and...

...guns! I hated those happy trigger dudes around people and my airplane...

When the plane drops cargo in a no-seat configuration but people insist on boarding on the return flight...ah well if they are happy to sit on the floor, why not. I just to be careful and explain in detail that the aft area is a total no go (not exactly true but just to be safe over the language barrier).

Happy to sit on the floor or on anything...on another occasion there had been fighting all night long and people had died in Rubkona village and sporadic shootings were still going on while boarding! That day I took about 10 women and 22 kids on board. That plane, a Grand Caravan 208, is normally configured for 13 passengers... South Sudan being the wild west, thsi shouldn't be a surprise.

USAid center on a delivery day, Pibor.

 

Full load of biscuits...the plane was so packed I couldn't take another box. Except on my lap.

Those Chinese made bicycles are everywhere in East Africa, and beyond? One of the few kind of good Chinese products...a Grand Caravan in the background. Yirol.

Tribal woman, impressive scars to say the least.

A rare sweet moment in that war torn country... there were a few kids on that airstrip in Aweil
, all dressed in an interesting fashion and more than happy to pose and check the results on the screen.

Guess what some airfield lousy little chief of whatever (you know the kind with a few pens in his shirt pocket and black sunglasses) gave us a show of abuse of authorities, trying to make me delete my pictures under the name of security...kids, a dirt strip, one aircraft wreck, one old hangar, scorched earth as far as you can see, you get the picture...

some smartphones are great to fool those photo idiots. If you don't open the phone with your password but open the camera function, it shows "no picture no video in this folder" coz they are stored somewhere and one has no access without the password. This guy didn't  know that and I fooled him.

Random pictures, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

One of my previous jobs, pilot at Flying Medical Service. Real bush flying as this airstrip implies.

 

 

Technology discrepancies...

 

Fishermen casings around Pemba islands.

 

Waving at friends... I will never forget these experiences in such balloons. Here in Ruaha NP.

 

 

Not a car from the company I fly for! we meet interesting dodgy companies out there...

 

One of the ferries between Zanzibar and the mainland.

 

Many rivers flow in Tanzania, here is the Luwego.

 

A young woman in Zanzibar.

Different cultures and religions...

A young girl in the bush.

 

Safari Air Link, some aircraft pictures

 

Danie Kruger on take off one early morning, warm light.

 

 

Somebody must have discarded some left over food…

Peter and Matthew Fox taking off  on the Mustang.

 

Paul Lenehan hoping to chase a curious giraffe off the airstrip. Failing to do so, those animals can be unfazed sometimes, I had to run there and chase it away myself.

Another company is now short of one C206. The pilot couldn’t avoid such a giraffe last week. No injury except the fatal one to the poor giraffe..

 

A black-backed jackal passes by.

Parked Caravan at Mtemere airstrip threshold. Rufiji river, Selous reserve.

 

Dust and crosswind. Paul at the wheel.

 

Rains and mirror effect.

 

Refueling under the Moon.

 

No passenger on board, a steeper turn is allowed.

 

Our old C206’s, not in use anymore, out of Msembe, Ruaha NP. The midday heat distorts the picture.

 

Nick Bliss and Peter Gitwara in action.

 

One early morning refueling.

Tanzania, wildlife aerials

 

As usual, no drone was used! Just me and the aircraft. And no passengers. this was just before landing in Msembe, Ruaha NP.

 

Whereas in the Katavi NP, I got those buffalos splashing in the flooded Katasunga plain.

 

 

and further these zebras and topis (damalisques en français)

 

Finally some hippos in a colorful pond.

 

In the Mikumi NP, a giraffe was unfazed by my take off.

 

Elephants and hippos in the Great Ruaha river, Ruaha NP. When that river is fully flowing, the sand banks will disappear.

 

Msembe airstrip again, some visitors….

 

Wildebeest (gnous en français) somewhere in the Serengeti one early morning.

Flying Medical Service, clinics in the bush, Tanzania

 

Flying Medical Service operates 2 Cessna 206s.

An old picture: I had been stranded in a Masai village, Pininyi on lake Natron shores. The problem was a jammed starter. Pat Patten, the manager-founder, had come to rescue me with a new starter. A night in a Masai village can be interesting.

 

A one-legged man leaves the clinic after some treatment on his stump.

 

Babies receive their drop of polio.

 

A nice ‘medical’ hut in the Rift valley.

 

An airstrip near an active volcano named Lengai.

 

In this place, Oleparkashi, the clinic takes place under the wing. Notice the scale hanging from the wing.

 

A man goes home, probably quite disappointed. Nothing we can do for his elephantiasis on the legs.

 

Patiently waiting for the doctor.

 

Another hut, a different view of the volcano Lengai.

 

The last 2 pictures were shot on slide film with my lovely Rolleiflex.

Flying Medical Service, outreach clinics

 

Lake Natron, Flying Medical Service uses there 6 airstrips, out of which only one has a decent dirt track. Here in Monik, the doctor works under the wing to benefit the shade. 40C is common out there.

 

 

The precious scale, a great indicator of a baby’s health.

 

A mother receives a tetanus jab.

 

 

A patient is being brought to the airplane.

 

 

Some pictures in South Sudan

 

A tourist(?) market, well NGO people fall in that category somewhat.

I’ve been warned, Sudanese people can be cagey about pictures, especially the thousands of men sitting and doing nothing, well apparently. They are called security men. If true they made a special effort to look poor and craggy. So they’d be happy to jump on an unsuspecting photographer under the pretense of security. Secuwhat? The place is just a big dump behind rebuilt…but any way, any excuse to make some money is good enough.  So street photography is not as easy as in Tanzania…

 

I can see many similarities though.

 

I thought I had been spotted by Mr Darkglasses here but no action followed.

“Keep Juba clean”, yes please, the place is the dirtiest town I have seen so far.

 

I suppose one has to cope with the hurdles of a country being under reconstruction. Not everybody can afford a modern steel and glass office .

 

Cool name for a bank? Well is there any elephant in this country?

 

Happy ladies in Agok.

 

Unfazed kids: my gesture to shoo them away from the airstrip were ignored. They were still there when I took off…

A flight in South Sudan

 

The place is called Rubkona. First we had been told to avoid overflying the village as some skirmishes had been spotted earlier in the day. Supposedly the rebels were in town and the governmental troops at the airfield.

On final, one can’t help but notice that refugee camp, which was quite flooded in that sandy colored water. Bad karma or what? These people are being terrorised, robbed, looted, abused by both camps and when finally they find some kind of shelter, the elements come in force.

Yes I can say the troops are around the airstrip but I’d say the rebels and them have passed a truce or something not to fight in the hottest moments of the day because the soldiers were really really relaxed. I even spotted one in his underwear doing his laundry! I wish I could have brought a picture because I have a feeling that a guy in boxers, Ray Bans, a red beret and the AK 47 against the basin won’t happen everyday.

 

Seeing these torched cars I initially thought that indeed there had been some fighting. But in this case an airplane crashed on landing and hit these jeeps.

Here is a bit of the aircraft mangled with the car wrecks.

 

The remains of the HS 748.

 

The UN peacekeepers, from Mongolia, took the job more seriously. All geared up and armed.

This Blue dude never dropped his binoculars in the 10 min I was snapping around.

 

 

A UN soldier keeps watch around the Mi 8.

 

Here is another picture of the flooded refugee camp. After take off it hit me that the whole area is dead flat like a pan. And out of all the places the engineers or city planners could have chosen, they selected the lowest part so that with the first rains, this hollow point would get hit. And apparently nothing else around, notice how the perimeter is clearly holding the water. I’d like to hear the story behind this, hear what those planners have to say for their defense.

Outreach clinics, Flying Medical Service

 

26 airstrips near remote villages are parts of the Flying Medical Service schedules.

 

Scales, either on a branch or on the wing hook.

 

A serious patient was brought to us. Right away the doctor decided to give fluids.

 

 

Ngorongoro Highlands, and volcano Lengai in the Rift Valley.

 

A rare dull day on lake Natron.

outreach clinics in the Tanzanian bush, Flying Medical Service

 

Flying Medical Service  operates on about 26 remote villages. Here is our doctor of the day treating a kid’s wound.

 

A nurse busy with vaccination cards and syringes.

 

Monik, an airstrip on lake Natron. Extinct volcano Shombole above and active volcano Lengai below

 

A one-legged man goes home after a treatment on his stump.

 

Bush airstrips show challenges sometimes minor, sometimes serious. Slopes, altitude, difficult terrain and surroundings, flash floods…

Flying Medical Service, Tanzania

 

Flying Medical Service provides various health cares in northern Tanzania and operates in remote areas where roads are usually non existent.

who can see the airstrip on this picture?

 

Easier to spot here, Monik village on lake Natron. The mountain is a volcano, Lengai.

 

The wing provides shade to the doctor and her ‘cabinet’.

 

 

 

Things change, cheap motorbikes have shown up some years ago. This man offers his taxi skills.

 

Women waiting for the vaccination jabs.

 

The nurse is busy weighing the babies.

 

The baby has a more interesting haircut than his mother.

Flying Medical Service in the bush

 

Behind stands a Cessna 206, a 6 seater, Flying Medical Service favorite workhorse. Compare it to a Land Rover with wings.

It’s amazing what a few boxes of medical supplies, a doctor and 2 nurses can accomplish in the most remote areas of Northern Tanzania. The most common diseases can usually be treated on the spot. Notable exceptions are severe cases of malaria, complicated pregnancies, and various wounds. The Tanzanian bush could show some similarities with the Wild West. Spears, machetes, wooden clubs are still common. Kalashnikovs become sought after. Add wildlife for a nice combo. That’s why we need some extra seats for occasional patients to bring back to the nearest hospital.

 

A selection of airstrips in the most beautiful landscapes.

 

 

 

Measles, polio, tetanus, BCG…up to 10 vaccines are nowadays administered.

 

A doctor, here with one his metallic cases full of medicines, typically works in the shade, whether provided by a tree, a wing or a hut.

Flying Medical Service, outreach clinics in Tanzania

 

Where there is no road or medical facilities in the Tanzanian bush, some aircraft come handy for outreach…that’s where Flying Medical Service  steps in with a doctor, 2 nurses, some medical supplies.

Tetanus jabs for pregnant women.

 

A bunch of patients and onlookers surround the doctor.

 

A nurse prepares the vaccines.

 

Normally this an easy airstrip. Till it gets flooded in the rainy seasons. Luckily it is one of the few long and wide airstrips we use so I could go around the puddles on landing and take off.

 

Some irstrips in the Ngorongoro Highlands are a bit challenging… This was the best location for the whole area. At 6500 ft high and with a 11% slope.

 

 

Flying Medical Service, mobile clinics in Tanzania

Flying Medical Service, a great little NGO for which I flew more than 6 years…

A doctor inspects a baby. It’s amazing what can be achieved with 3 boxes of supplies. The people we treat live far away from any facility and still , from these remote clinics, we rarely fly a patient out to the nearest hospital. The doctors manage to cure most cases.

 

Curious visitors on lake Natron.

 

A medical hut in bricks, the only one in the 25 villages we visit.

 

A Sonjo mother waits with her child.

 

Maasai warriors playing and posing for my benefit, and theirs as they will receive a few prints later. I made a point not to give any money but prints to each model.

 

Women come from a long way to attend the clinics.

 

We get to land in the most stunning landscapes, here in the Rift Valley near the active volcano Lengai

 

I had just flew this man from the hospital back home. He still had difficulties to walk and was waiting for friends or relatives to carry him home.

 

A lone tree serves as a clinic spot.

 

I had had a brake problem so TJ, a former colleague, came to swap planes.

Flying Medical Service, clinics in the bush, Tanzania

 

a doctor chats with a Maasai patient.

 

An active volcano, Lengai. We’ve got  a few airstrips nearby.

 

A man has just received a bag of medicine.

 

a typical Maasai homestead. Miles away from anything like a shop, a dispensary, a road…

 

People coming to the clinic.

 

A mama has just received a vaccination shot.

 

It used to be the real bush out there. Only traditional clothes were to be seen. But if a lodge or a hunting company come nearby and provide jobs, fashion changes quickly or newcomers show up.

little flight in the bush with friends, Tanzania

 

Out of the blue, this beautiful aircraft showed up in Arusha. The owner and a pilot friend wanted some familiarisation flights in the bush. So we flew 3 days. Here we are in Monik, a Flying Medical Service airstrip on lake Natron. The volcano Lengai in the distance was splendid that day.

 

because of the small wheels and fairing on this aircraft, we couldn’t go to the roughest airstrips. But for 2 normal Belgian pilots, those easy strips were amazing enough.

 

Another day in Endulen, Ngorongoro area. Zebras were all over the place, including on the airstrip.

 

The wheel fairings had been removed. The small rocks could destroy them.

 

A Go Pro 3 camera had been fixed on the wing. Amazing quality, I want one now…I’ll post the link soon.

 

Zebras again.

 

We did some other airstrips but didn’t stop completely in all. Flew gently in some gorges, overflew the flamingoes on lake Natron, enjoyed the colors and abstract shapes of that wonderful lake, spotted wildlife, circled over the Ngorongor Crater...

In Malambo, we were threatened by a drunk Masai and his spear! In Olbalbal, we kept the engine running but I gave medicines urgently needed to the local health worker. Thanks to Miguel and Johan for helping Flying Medical Service. The plane is even made available for FMS but we declined. This yellow beauty is brand new and our operations would wear and tear it pretty quickly.

There are quite some difference with our preferred C 206’s but this FB-A2 Expedition E350 would do wonders, it is real bush plane. Some minor modifications would make it a bush killer.

Anyway I enjoyed the flying very much, was happy to meet new cool dudes and their equally cool passengers.

There should be more flying in a few weeks!

Flying Medical Service crash, part II

 

 

one wheel track towards the killing tree…

 

damaged vegetation, the wreck lies 60m away from the impact point, the engine 80m away! The thing weighs close to 300 kg…

 

Picasso was here…

 

the leading of the right wing, looking backwards!

 

 

a serious bend in the longitudinal axis is here very obvious. That nose wheel shouldn’t be so high up in the sky.

 

and this wheel shouldn’t be that close to the door either… all that mess on the low right side of the picture is where the windshield was. It is amazing the 2 guys in front didn’t get serious injuries on the head.

 

Pat at work on the nose assembly. Incredible, the whole unit looked fine, so we salvaged it amongst various parts.

 

the pink shirt dude was a bit of a helper but was also impatient to get to the wreck for his own benefit. People had collected all the missing bits, mainly medicines, syringes and papers, alongside the accident trail seen here on the right side, and all should be burnt.

It was obvious some people had taken some medicines for self medication or resale…risky business especially amongst uneducated people. We have seen disasters before.

anyway, we're busy looking for a replacement aircraft so we can continue our medical outreach work in remote areas. If you are willing to danate for a great cause, please visit http://www.flyingmedicalservice.org/

Flying Medical Service, aircraft accident, Tanzania

 

Unfortunately an accident happened last week in Ilkiushi Oibor, also called Mkongonero, south of Arusha. Fortunately, though some injuries are serious, nobody died.

To make it simple, the cause of the accident is a fly-by that didn’t go well.

I was away for the week so I didn’t take part in the first 2 flights out there, that is the rescue flight with a larger plane to bring everybody back, including the 2 girls on stretchers, and then a second flight to bring an aviation inspector and assess the wreck.

It was then decided to fly a 3rd time this Sunday. I joined Pat my former boss, but still friend, at Flying Medical Service  down there with a big tool box.

 

Not a pretty sight… N36MS lying to rest.

 

a wheel track after the fly by went wrong. Further are the scrubs and the tree the plane at high speed.

here are some bits of the windows, probably on impacting the nose on the ground after the tree collision.

 

Pat having a close look . That nose wheel alone in the sky should be at eye level. While the engine was ripped apart, the whole front section was bent downwards, yes not upwards, the plane must have been by then close to vertical position on the first impact…

 

that is one wing. Yes, fellow pilots, that black hole is the fuel cap, which means indeed the wing has been twisted upside down! The tail was torn and twisted forwards at an angle 140 deg angle, and sideways 90 deg. The portion sticking up is an elevator. The 2nd elevator was found 70m away. A cargo door had been popped out…

and again those amazing landing gears, the 3 of them, were intact! Funny enough the main tyres were flat. Fat thorns had been picked up while going through the acacia tree.

the seats and the instruments are all over the place.  We couldn’t help wondering how nobody got crushed, especially the 2 front passengers…Cessna engineers definitely did a great job in designing the C 206 cabin.

 

lots of onlookers, some helpers too, others impatiently waiting for us to leave and finish off the wreck. Nothing gets really discarded in Africa.

 

we are looking to replace such an aircraft. In the meantime we are not able to provide our usual medical care in the remote areas. People won’t be able to get treated, kids won’t received their vaccinations… So if you are interested in donating, just visit our website  http://www.flyingmedicalservice.org/, thank you.

bush flying, Tanzania

 

somewhere in the Serengeti, time for a low pass and chase the zebras. Beware the zebras! One “shot down” a C 206 some years ago. Seriously, the pilot was a bit too enthusiast in his successive low passes, came too low on one and hit a zebra somewhat hidden in the dust… the people on board survived the subsequent cartwheel.

 

Rift Valley, a Flying Medical service C 206 on some of our airstrips we use for outreach clinics.

 

on lake Natron, a salt lake.

 

either we use an existing hut, a tree or the wing to set the clinic…

 

no cheating in this picture, the slope is at 11%, check the people standing upright. 400m long at 6500 ft high, on a crater slope. Quite challenging.

 

outside Ngorongoro Crater. This airstrip is either a dust bowl or a Scottish type green area.

 

a view of a flooded strip just after take off.

 

Boeing in mud, take off in Arusha, part IV

 

the plane had been scheduled for 6 am take off last Friday. I missed the part when the plane was put back on tarmac. Another pilot, a Boeing test pilot I heard, was called for this special take off. Preparations kept on all morning. Planes used the runway kind of as usual with this “50 ft obstacle”. Here a Caravan on landing. The Arushan crowd was still impressive on the outside perimeter.

 

Finally the stair is removed and engines are started around midday.

every single employee at Arusha airport wouldn’t miss the action. notice the dust being displaced by the engines run up. Discussions were interesting between pilots (none of us qualified on this kind of beast), the main question was where the B 767 would take off. I initially wanted to stay at the very end of the runway but then I had to work on our aircraft, I couldn’t wait hours outside.

 

 

not too sure what this white smoke is… ( update: this is white chalk from the painted displaced threshold)

 

powerful engines! The noise was deafening.

 

and surprise, the plane lifted at about 1000m only!

 

 

 

 

A Boeing lands in Arusha, part III

 

our Flying Medical Service C206 on short final.

 

a police biker escorted the mobile stair truck from Kilimanjaro airport.

 

a new digging machine, the nose wheel.

 

apparently some UN people were on board, which explain this UN guard on the spot.

 

another plane on final. The Boeing tail is definitely an obstacle. One good piece of news on a selfish level, except the show time, is that the terrible noisy ATR aircraft won’t probably come for a while and our ears will be grateful. Even when things are clear and normal, ATR landings can be rock’n’roll to say the least.

 

and the next day some airplanes landing.

 

 

 

 

notice the onlookers on the right side, less than yesterday but the excitement is still there.

Flying the bush in Tanzania

 

 

 

 

flooded airstrip. Propeller strikes happened because of soft ground there even when the ground looked dry. So nowadays, the company policy is to avoid this strip when water is apparent.

 

Bush fire are always a hazard. Will e fid our plane intact net morning? Those fires can be natural of course but are also man made, poachers or park authorities for fire control. Since these incompetent people only manage their nose picking, we have reasons to be concerned.

 

 

some of the numerous visitors we’ve got to chase before take off in national parks.

 

I had just landed on this flooded airstrip and didn’t waste time to grab my camera to witness the next planes to come.

 

some airstrips are real highways but there are always animals crossing to keep us alert.

bush flying, Tanzania

 

unwelcome visitors…

 

flooded strip

 

volcano Lengai and the Flying Medical Service C 206.

 

low flying over Olduvai Gorge.

 

 

yep this is an airstrip. Unfortunately shared with local drivers…

 

 

Hercules C 130 at work. Impressive beast but perfect in the bush.

bush flying in Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bush flying, Tanzania

 

preparing for low flying, that is just after I safely shot this picture, then I could go much lower and focus on flying.

 

lake Natron, there is an airstrip in this forest. Stunning area to overfly….

On final for landing somewhere on a lake Natron airtsrip

 

another airstrip on the shoreline, straight in the middle of this picture.

 

Just outside Serengeti, a Caravan…

and a Twin Otter, here on landing.

 

facing an active volcano, Oldoinyo Lengai in the Rift valley.

 

 

a much traveled and discarded shoe…

flying in the bush

some of Flying Medical Service special airstrips…an obvious one to spot on the picture…

but this one…on the edge of the top green area,

 

time to call the gardener for this one.

 

trying to fix a burst tyre in the bush….

 

flooded airstrip but totally manageable for Flying Medical Service pilots.

and here is a proof.

 

 

an airstrip lies beneath these low clouds.

great I need to fly across this.

Flying Medical Service, Tanzania

 

to attend our bush clinics, some people will walk from afar. I’m always in awe in front of scenes like these, people and vast expanses of savannah or mountains…

Flying Medical Service operates about 30 airstrips, hardly any would fit western standards, and that’s why I love it.

true, we can argue about the definition of airstrip sometimes. Yes we use this whatever as an airstrip.

 

an elder Masai lady explaining her case.

 

Sonjo family.

 

nurse at work with vaccinations and weighting.

 

a doctor at his practice…

 

Masai woman in full regalia.

 

sharing the airstrip is a common thing, sometimes annoying. I’ve been lucky over the years, except a wildebeest and a gazelle, without damage for the airplanes, I haven’t hit anything.

 

 

old and newer pictures but all shot on various film cameras.

scenes and people, Tanzania

 

woman caught in a dust devil.

 

 

 

 

 

pinhole picture. I like to experiment once in a while…

 

donkey scratching its back, and destroying our airstrips…volcano Lengai.

 

That pond dries up in the dry season. I wonder how the women cope with the laundry. More water to fetch far away from some waterhole?

 

 

another pond that dries up every year. The herders enjoy the recently dried up bottom while green grass is still available.

Tanzania, bush flying

 

we had some visitors at night…elephant tracks.

 

a colleague came to rescue me after a brake failure, we just swapped airplanes so I could continue safely on the medical tour and the other short airstrips. Notice the brown spot, an anteater hole that I had had just filled up.

 

 

 volcano Lengai far away.

 

wet airstrip…and dry some months later. Same location.

time for the water level to stabilize.

 

 

 

aircraft accident, Tanzania, part 12

 

I’ve just found an old picture of the larger area. Meet Empakai Crater and its salt lake. The rim towers at 11.000 feet. The airstrip, Engoveroni, lies on the lower left corner…yes that little green strip.

once in a while I take a walk while the clinic goes on and this what we see from the next ridge. As said before, at a slope of 1 to 11, the Vertical Speed Indicator will show 600 ft down on take off. I just love this challenging airstrip, with a lot of respect too.

 

so now our garden starts to look like an open abstract art gallery.

here is the propeller. Any idea to reuse that except for a lower glass table? Our mechanic wants to make tyre levers out the blades. Maybe we should call our friend Wieke, an art designer in Arusha,  and see what she’d do about this.

we had had second thoughts whether to bring the engine back…looking at this crushed assembly…

but with a bit of stripping and cleaning , we went from this to that!

so with a few parts to change, we hope the factory will accept an exchange.

in the meantime another piece of art hanging in the garden. There are some crashed wings a bit further and the latest propeller cone below.

 

even the table survived the crash and is to be straightened out. The thing was located in the external belly pod that had been ripped off on impact.

bush flying in wet season, Tanzania

 

 

We had just landed in Oljoro, not on any map, cloudy but dry weather. All at once the clouds let go all their contents. The airstrip got flooded within 5 minutes.

 

the airstrip…

 

 

at least somebody else got happy with that weather. I was happy too just for the experience. We’d have to take off at some point…

 

 

It didn’t look too good but then the Cessna 206 is such a bush beast…

 

and off we went, a few splashes here and there on the run when one can feel the airplane slowing down but here is the picture to prove we got airborne. The strip is that diagonal from top left to low right. Interestingly enough, seeing this amount of flooding would keep me away from landing. I couldn’t wait to see next airstrip.

 

here is it, Olpirikata, 10 miles away till not on any map sand a total different landscape. We didn’t land, this is soft ground and we’ve had 2 propeller strikes here in the past! So that silver ribbon doesn’t bode well.

Flying Medical Service in the bush, Tanzania

 

this is an example of a village we fly to. Judging by the main street, it is easy to guess how remote and somehow forgotten the place is.

 

most of the villages we attend are quite remote anyway, otherwise why bother?

 

Masai women waiting at a clinic.

 

while the clinic is going on, some women come and sell fruit and vegetables just next to the clinic hut. Yes that is a clinic hut…

 

or eggs.

 

polio droplet distribution.

 

 

the doctor at work under the aircraft wing.

 

OK there is room to improve the airstrip (but then where is the fun?) but what a stunning landscape: an active volcano in the Rift Valley….

 

Masai girl, freshly excised,  a status she is proud of and showing off in her special attire.

Flying Medical Service in the bush

 

after the accident last month and the numerous pictures about the wreck and salvaging trip, maybe it would be nice and more cheerful to show a bit of the regular work.

No matter what the useless local newspapers wrote, Flying Medical Service is a non religious organisation, not a missionary one, otherwise I wouldn’t be flying for them. The confusion comes from the fact that my boss is a priest but more importantly a pilot. But he is quite good at keeping things separate.

So we operate 2 Cessna 206’s, well normally that is, to about 30 airstrips and 3 hospitals for our regular clinics where we provide medical treatments, vaccinations and sometimes an evacuation back to the hospital. Emergencies, medical or other NGO staff transfer are on our programs too.

 

We have the splendid privilege to fly the real bush in odd conditions, see the most stunning landscapes in northern Tanzania. And Flying Medical Service airstrips are of the special type. We’ve had an ex Marine pilot here who once was asked why he did fly for us. His answer should be framed: “I wanted to do some real flying…”. Even if he was half joking, I still feel good about that!

 

here is a nurse attending a pregnant Masai woman. She’ll receive folic acid and iron pills, her blood pressure and weight will be checked, given a tetanus shot…part of what we call ANC, ante natal care. Family planning is also available and becomes more and more popular. It’s about time: Masai women still have at least 6 kids in average.

 

 

A doctor will set the ‘practice' wherever he/she can, under the main tree, under the aircraft wing or sometimes in a hut. All we need are 2 or 3 boxes of medicines for the most common diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia, various infections…for the difficult cases, pregnancies usually, we fly the patient back to the hospital of the day. It’s really amazing what a doctor in those conditions can achieve.

 

 

people will walk form far away to meet us. The audience can be quite colorful!

 

in case the bush hospitals can’t help, the patient is flown to a better location. These are old pictures from 1999 when ambulances were still quite non existent, we’d use our own little jeeps. This boy didn’t make it. It will always stays a weird feeling to fly somebody, hoping the patient will make it and then we hear the bad news. Strangely enough, we’ve seen the most spectacular cases on board and the survival rate is incredibly high. We’re talking about bullet, lion, leopard, buffalo, snake, hyena gory wounds, and the list goes on with various diseases, arrow and spear in the head or through the torso, a face chewed up by a hyena, a skull split open, car crash victims, or aircraft lately…

 

it never gets boring, I can tell you that much!

aircraft accident, Tanzania

 

Engoveroni, a most difficult airstrip on the slope of a crater, Empakai, in the Ngorongoro highlands. At 6500 ft our Cessna 206’s seriously lack power. A turbocharger would be welcome. The airstrip itself is located on a ridge, there is no way a safe go around can’t be done, the airstrip slope is at 11% (for the pilots, the VSI shows 600 feet a minute down on take off). So when something went wrong just before landing, the pilots tried a U turn in a narrow valley and unfortunately hit the side …

that’s the white speck in the middle of this picture. The airstrip sits on the upper left.

 

quite in the middle again. Brian at the controls while I shoot during the second flight to rescue the passengers. Just cuts and bruises and a wrist fracture…

 

 

they didn’t miss by much….

 

some cropped pictures for details. Masai people came to the rescue, very helpful. Nobody died whatever the f... rumors said.

the red cross…that’s our belly pod which was ripped off on impact, then the airplane flipped over 30m away. Notice the white spots? The medicine bottles and jars littered along the crash path. The passengers looked terrible, were in pain obviously, there is blood everywhere inside the cabin which is only a bit crushed by the way(thanks Cessna for the good design) but most have been released from hospital already.

Wings are chewed, the tail is nearly severed, the engine is completely ripped off the aircraft, the propeller looks designed by Picasso…

 

 the belly pod and the medicine trail...

 

a better view of the valley side.

a friend mentionned a broken butterfly…

 

we flew again today with various team members and an inspector to have a close look and salvage many little things like instruments. It looks way worse from the ground than from the air!

And impressively enough there is a lot more to salvage so it was decided to drive there tomorrow with a pick up and bring the big stuff back. A little adventure awaits Jacek and I. Oh yeah baby…

 

to be continued….

bush flying, Tanzania

 

a Flying Medical Service mobile clinic in the Rift valley. Trees are rare in this place so either the nurse hangs the scale on the hut either on the wing hook like here.

 

the sun is quite harsh on lake Natron. So umbrellas made in China became popular as soon as they appeared some years ago.

 

Stunning vista covering most of lake Natron. There are about early 10 airstrips around and none of them is registered so no commercial flight brings tourists here.

 

a crazy sloped airstrip located on a ridge.

 

same place in he Ngorongoro area, different season.

 

after a violent downpour the airstrip gets flooded. The take off was interesting

 

yup the airstrip lies in there, picture shot just after take off.

 

or here, that is the thin shiny strip. We didn’t land that day. We know this soil here is really soft. We learnt it the hard way: 2 of our aeroplanes sank in on landing and hit the propeller.

Tanzania, bush flying

 

Pininyi, one airstrip on the western shoreline of lake Natron.

 

I had to fly that way so I decided to wait  a bit.

 

we, at Flying Medical Service, have a hard time to convince villagers to maintain their airstrips. High grass will be pulverized by the propeller, will give a nice green hue to everything and the bits will stick to the airplane. And it is a mess to clean.

 

 

Olorbelin, one the few airstrip FMS uses on lake Natron.

 

Engoveroni, a special airstrip, sloped and slanted.

 

That new aeroplane had just been ferried from the USA and its extra 500 lt fuel tank was being removed, the seats were installed again.

 

Formation flight, quite loose here because I’m taking the picture, muuuch closer a few seconds later.

 

What to do when the ignition switch dies? With a bit of luck you’ve got an enthusiast engineer around, Ludwig, who will be more than happy to roam the hospital for a spare one. In this case an X ray machine switch which had matching specifications. Then with some wires and bandage tape, you’ve got a real bush fixture. Electrical wires taped outside the airplane to the battery looked shoddy but this was a real good job.

Tanzania, bush flying

 

some of my very old pictures in Tanzania, all on films.

A big chunk of Tanzania is volcanic, so there are many gorges out there. Once in a while it was too tempting to indulge myself.

 

Sengerema, a smart airstrip in the middle of the village…at the hospital is located on the very edge of this strip. Convenient…

 

Those are the remains of a Boeing 707 cargo which tried to land at night during a power cut. The generator never kicked in, the pilots were running short of fuel and had to do something. Now why didn’t they go to Entebbe next door is a mystery to me. The landing failed a bit, they finished the landing run in the water. The airplane was quite intact, sticking out of the water line, no casualties, but the salvage crew tore the plane apart. Behind are parked some Russian IL 76. See the documentary “Darwin’s nightmare” for juicy details…

 

Dusty take off in the dry season. One of the 2 Cessna 206’s Flying Medical Service operates.

 

This airstrip is quite challenging, the slope is at 11% and is slanted too.

the same strip can cause an embarrassment to ladies…we land and because of the slope, the weight in the back seats can cause the plane to sit on its tail. Then a lady, ladies are usually lighter than men and we make them sit in the back, steps out and then the plane suddenly comes back to a normal position. Embarrassing and a little joke usually pops out.

 

Olpirikata, the narrowest airstrip we use.

 

I had told the Masai people to maintain the airstrip, a never ending fight….

 

Bush fires had been raging around but the short grass on the airstrip was spared.

 

While on clinics, we may have time for some quality time. Here some video footage is shown to circumsized Masai boys.

bush flying in Africa, photography

 

Nairobi, mafia deal, insurance scam, jealous competitors… no truth ever came out for that bombed KingAir. The plane stayed in full view of the tourists clearing customs for weeks. Welcome to Africa.

 

Below are pictures in Tanzania where I have been living for 14 years.

More peaceful, a Flying Medical Service clinic.

 

the slopes of Empakai crater, one airstrip lies on a sloped ridge. Look carefully, you’ll see an airplane on this picture, a Flying Medical Service.

 

 

 

after a serious rainshower.

 

sandy airstrip, inexperienced pilot and that was it for the day for that Cessna 206. No injuries.

 

oops they forgot to lower the landing gear, or so they claimed… That Let 410 was eventually sold after some repairs.

 

A Cessna 206 on landing in the middle of nowhere, or the middle of everywhere as read once in a Colorado village.

Cessna 206, Tanzanian bush

 

the airplane, the pond, the curious Masai kids.

 

normally a pilot sits on the left seat but there was a new pilot to train so I sat on the right seat, gave him a lesson about flying low and I took some shots

here on final just before landing in the Ngorongoro area

 

 

next to an active volcano, Oldoinyo Lengai

 

 

high wing aircraft have a few advantages, the wings provide shade to our doctor and the patients, the clearance is better if the airstrip hasn’t been properly cleared of bush or high grass, aerial viewing of the ground is better.

 

a Masai warrior on his motorbike.

 

the C206 on a sloped airstrip. The Ngorongoro Highlands also offer incredible landscapes.