Ben Wilhelmi

South Sudan, random pictures

 

Juba International airport, my new base. A Caravan is dwarfed by the huge Ilyushin 76s.

 

A nicely decorated airfield, Rubkona. A bigger plane crashed on landing and rammed into these jeeps. I initially thought they had been blown up in fighting. An easy mistake to do since there were some skirmishes in the village the very morning I landed there.

 

The legendary Mi 8 Russian helicopter, a workhorse. Notice the UN peacekeepers.

 

Juba suburb.

 

Another famous craft, the Ilyushin 76, or Il 76. At least 7 of them are based in Juba, packing up the apron.

 

The Nile in Juba.

 

After the flood.

 

The famous Dinka cows with huge horns. I need to see them from close and bring a better picture.

Flying Medical Service, crash, part III

 

 

the tail section looks interesting. The vertical fin is where the red cross stands…

 

the windshield is normal located there, instead of that orange pipe and the rest.

 

the wing…a big chunk missing obviously.

 

the engine, thrown 80m away from the impact. We hardly salvaged anything from it. A magneto, the starter and the oil cap… the rest looked too messed up.

 

Masai on the prowl…

 

the 6 seats didn’t seem worth of taking back with us.  All bent, rails ripped off…they’ll make people happy.

 

Pat looking for a last bit to remove.

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.

aircraft accident, Tanzania, part 10

 

as a reminder, this was the general aerial view of the crash site.

 

up close…

 

Jacek salvaging a trophy, the propeller cone.

 

the left wing, which became right wing from our point of view, got a bit separated from the cabin. Notice the black gap. And then the angle between the leading edge, up left, and the top windshield, down left…it should be a straight line.

Here is another interesting angle. The low part of the picture shows the right wing end trashed by a tree, then it goes straight to the cabin. The left wing, the far one that is, shows that impressive forward angle.

 

The landing gear struts looked OK, amazingly enough, but it is such a hard work to remove that with our limited time out there, we decided to remove only the whole wheel assemblies, only 4 bolts each and disconnect the brake line. The nose wheel and strut had been partially ripped off so there was only one twisted bolt to remove. Take a minute to pose on the landing gear…On impact the optional fiberglass belly pod and content were ripped off. Even if they had a cushioning effect, they still damaged the real belly. It means the landing gear struts got compressed big time towards the wings, past the belly line, then came back to normal position, without obvious damage! That’s serious spring capabilities. Congratulations to the Cessna engineers (obviously not the same ones who design accessibility to parts…)

 

steep slope, crappy vegetation, that’s why we brought the pick up as high as we could…

 

a little reward the next morning!

 

our campsite. 10 Celsius in the morning and rain…

by 10 am, we had packed the Cruiser carefully, protecting all the gear an equipment with straps, foam mattress, crushed empty bottles and old tyres. I just hate rattling noises for the discomfort first (especially for a 7h trip back) and also because I can’t help feeling we’re destroying something if it rattles against another part. We could have spent another morning for some last parts but we were constrained by time. We told the Masai they could use whatever they saw fit from the wreck. And we left ready for some stunning landscapes across the Ngorongoro Highlands. We didn’t expect the light rain and the heavy fog but it gave a certain touch to the trip. More soon for these shots.

 

Now, last week I overflew the wreck, well what was left of it…we had told the Masai to help themselves, and they just did that!

the whole tail section and one wing are missing, the other wing seriously hacked, we assume to retrieve some fuel though we had told them to be careful with that but try to make Masai reasonable…now we expect some fire injuries to come. We had let between 50 to 100 lt leak on the ground, we couldn’t access all the fuel left, we were surrounded by Masai who were obviously not pleased with that waste. I was not pleased either for ecological reasons but what to do without jerrycans? Kerosene lamps and stoves are dangerous enough as such. Fill those things with aviation gas…

so the other wing has been hacked for the fuel bladder but the cut is clean and rectangular, as is the case for the vertical fin below. This is quite typical, a large piece of aluminum cut out carefully out of a flat surface…

no sign of the 2 stabilizers. They might be used as tables? They’re flat enough for that…A little enquiry might prove interesting.

as a reminder this is the initial wreck before the double salvage process.

 

we estimate our salvage expedition to be worthwhile, not to mention the fun aspect in such a bush trip and gain of experience, the booty is worth past 50.000$! That is if we ever use each part, which of course is not going to happen… but the flying instruments at 20.000$ for the whole lot, the 2 wing tip tanks at 7000 a piece, the engine hopefully at 14.000, the windows at 500 a piece (replaced twice so far after burglaries), fuel pumps, wheel assemblies, seats… who knows, if somebody needs spares, contact us. Or just for a donation, most welcome. The new 2nd hand airplane can cost anything up to 220.000$ these days.

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.

flying the bush in Tanzania

 

Small airplanes tend to be crippled after a puncture, they don’t have multiple wheels…so I needed a tow machine.

 

elephants crossing an airstrip. Sometimes it happens while on landing or take off but they are slow and big so hitting one with the plane is pretty unheard of. Whereas zebras, buffaloes, gazelles, giraffes…are most commonly responsible for accidents.

 

Masai men enjoying some shade. This picture shot with the incredible Rolleiflex camera.

 

A storm was just making the airstrip quite wet. I had just landed (too bad I couldn’t film myself) so I quickly jumped out of the airplane and got ready to shoot  the next ones.

 

A hot balloon in the Serengeti.

 

Arusha with a  poorly maintained runway and taxiway some years ago. In turn the turbine engines could swallow some dust.

 

A BN2 just crashed after its 2 engines stopped together (!). Nice job from the pilot who put the plane down nicely.

 

The Navajo I used to fly some years back., Mt Meru, Arusha.

 

Sad sighting, a wrecked rotting DC3 in Nairobi. That’s no way to treat such an old lady.

 

on take off while I was a passenger.

flying the bush, part III, Tanzania

just a bit different than the airstrips I know in Belgium….the active volcano Oldoinyo Lengai in the distance. Engoveroni airstrip, Rift valley.

 

grasshopper scheme.

 

LSD effect? Nope just a super wide lens. A cool 16 mm Nikon lens I had borrowed.

 

Barabaig woman. She kept on touching, stroking the metal of the aircraft. It looks like she had never seen smooth surfaces like that.

 

friend of mine who trashed this plane by flying (by mistake) between power lines! He got sooooo lucky and so skillful to bring that plane back. He ripped off a big chunk of the wing…

…and an appreciable bit of the rudder

 

the rudder has been compressed vertically too! The antennas on the belly have been ripped off. No doubt he really flew between cables. Since that company owes me money, I congratulated that pilot for the ‘good’ job.

 

we had received a new airplane, so we went up for some fun, 2 planes together, filming, flying in formation…

 

bush repair…the main contact switch had died. I couldn’t start the engine. Luckily we had a solar engineer with us. He got an Xray machine switch in the hospital and ‘voilà’, an elegant fixture that held for 2 weeks while waiting for a spare part. Very stylish as the cables went outside the aircraft, from this picture to the engine compartment, glued with bandage tape.

 

a narrow wet and short airstrip (the brown bit) and brakes that were useless on that slippery mud…so I applied the emergency way: kick one pedal to force the plane to spin, left in this case, play with the power to control the U turn and full power in the end to push the plane the other way and stop. As you can see, this was not quite perfect, but at least I stopped before the end of the airstrip. Few pilots have performed that maneuver, which is not in the books. Only hearsay, no training. The next one was much better.

that mud would be called black cotton. La traduction en français semble difficile et varie selon les sites, ‘sol argileux lourd’ ou ‘terre noire à coton’…? Thick, soft, extremely slippery and very sticky…the worst kind. But potentially fun.