Postcards

Trip of a lifetime: Flying GA in Africa

Does flying an airplane over the bush, deserts, mountains, and coastline of southern Africa stir your sense of adventure? Bashing around the bundu (bush) can include sunsets over Victoria Falls, circling vast herds of game, and landing at remote strips and lodges only accessible by air. Could you do it on your own by just arriving at Lanseria or Rand airports near Johannesburg, South Africa, and renting a plane? Maybe. But Nick and Christina Hanks at Hanks Aero Adventures can lead you through the maze of bureaucracy, border crossings, validations, lodging choices, and procedural differences, saving you at least a week of fumbling around on your own. They provide pilots with a properly maintained airplane, all the necessary contacts, charts, and a flight planner to ensure that this strange and wondrous adventure goes smoothly.

Your first big decision will be when to go. In Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and most of South Africa, flying weather tends to be at its best in the dry and cool fall and winter months (April through October). The vegetation is greener early on, but game is more easily viewed later when foliage turns dry and brown and animals are concentrated around water holes.

Hank's Aero Adventures

Hanks Aero Adventures puts out a newsletter, African Flyer, full of advice for prospective visitors. Each issue is filled with itineraries and descriptions of lodges. Visit the Web site ( www.hanksaero.com) or e-mail ( [email protected]) for more information or to plan a trip.

November through March are very hot inland and sometimes accompanied by severe thunderstorms. November is nicknamed "suicide month," and some lodges close during November and December. However, in Capetown, South Africa, the April through November period can bring Atlantic storms and high wind. Although you may be a qualified instrument pilot, instrument flying is not permitted on a validated U.S. pilot certificate.

Having decided when to travel, you will need to find an airplane. If you decide not to use Hanks Aero Adventures, you could go to Lanseria Airport, Johannesburg's general aviation hub, and ask around the flight services there. Be sure to bring your logbook with current endorsements from a flight instructor in any airplane you plan to rent. In South Africa, pilots receive separate ratings for each airplane they are checked out in, and currency in a Cessna 172 won't allow you to rent a Cessna 182. You will also need your medical and an aircraft radio station license from the FCC. (The application form and instructions are available on AOPA online [ http://wireless.fcc.gov/aviation/fctsht4.html].)

The next step is to get your certificate validated. This requires you to pass a brief open-book written test on regulations and a flight check that might last from one to three hours. The airspace around Johannesburg is complicated and confusing. Aviation officials want to be certain you can aviate, navigate, and communicate in their style and without the crutch of a GPS. For the first time in about 30 years I was asked to calculate a wind triangle on a plotter. I wasn't even sure I could, but I stumbled through. Once you have completed the written test and flight check, the paperwork goes to the Directorate of Civil Aviation offices in Pretoria, which will take most of another day. Plan to spend about four days making preparations and overcoming jet lag before launching on your bundu adventure.

Bring your own headsets, intercom, GPS (with the appropriate regional database), and a handheld VHS transceiver. While these items might be available once you arrive, you cannot be certain that they will be to your liking. It's also a good idea to review a copy of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) flight plan form you will be using.

A word about malaria protection: Many commonly prescribed medications can cause psychological disturbances and should not be used by pilots. Check with your doctor or AOPA's aviation medical specialists (800/USA-AOPA [872-2672]) to determine which medications can be used safely.

For our trip, we rented a Cessna 172RG for 10 days and spent the time visiting a private ranch, game lodges, and a dive resort. Typically, a trip like this costs $4,500 to $5,500 per person. Prices can vary widely depending on your selection of lodges and airplanes, with packages from Hanks Aero Adventures ranging from $4,500 for eight days of flying to $9,000 for a 22-day trip. Luxury lodges typically cost from $250 to $600 per person per day. This usually includes all meals and teas (superbly presented and catered to a variety of tastes), the game drives (two or three a day), drivers and trackers, and wine or beer with meals. Since these lodges are up to international standards and are located in remote areas where logistics are difficult, the prices are more reasonable than they may seem at first.

The first leg of our trip took us to a private ranch strip north of Johannsburg owned by Lex Erasmus, a South African Airways captain. After bumbling northward out of the Johannesburg TMA (traffic management area), we headed into the nearly featureless high veld. Immediately we appreciated the GPS we had brought. Trying to find this strip, hidden behind a hill, with only a wobbly VOR needle and a DME would have been a bit dicey. Besides, this area is home to hundreds of unmarked ranch strips, so you might end up on a bulldozed, unused strip with nobody about. Our stay at Erasmus' lodge was congenial and amazing. The staff has created an oasis in the middle of the dry bush.

Our next destination was in Zimbabwe, requiring customs stops on both sides of the border. On the South African side, Pietersburg International Airport (also known as Gateway International Airport) is a huge former air force base. Here officials seemed accustomed to foreigners struggling with their forms and were quite helpful. It was also here that we first met the fee structure for landing and airway use. Even the smallest public fields have someone on site to collect fees. If you run out on them, they have a central database. When you go to refuel or land at a large airport, they've got you, and you go nowhere until you pay up.

On the Zimbabwe side of the border, things were more interesting. We circled the border station at Beitbridge three times, at about 500 feet agl as instructed, before landing at the nearby airport. After an hour or more, no one had appeared.

Luckily, Hanks Aero had given us the name of a man who lives under a tarp at the airport, guarding a wrecked Mooney. He offered me part of his simple meal of sazda, a maize porridge that is a staple in the area, and guided me to the railway freight depot. There, after several attempts, we made contact with customs officials, and they indicated that someone might come out and clear us. Sure enough, it happened. We filed the few short forms, no tip was offered or expected, and we were on our way to Barberton Lodge near West Nicholson and another unmarked strip. I called this lodge "the citadel" for its amazing location on the top of a rocky outcropping guarding 17,000 acres of private game reserve.

A word of caution for pilots about the bush strips in the high veld. Typical altitudes are from 4,500 to 6,000 feet. With temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) or more, you only have the equivalent of cruise power for takeoff. The strips are rough — dirt, gravel, grass, calcrete, or mud when it's raining. Quite often your choice is between upslope and downwind on takeoff. In a Cessna 172 anywhere near gross, this makes a 1,000-meter (3,300 foot) strip just adequate, and a 200- to 300-foot-per-minute climb rate not much better. Practice your short and soft field techniques at cruise power, and be sure to do some turns in slow flight before your journey.

To raise the ante, there is often game on these runways, ranging from warthogs to elephants, either of which can ruin your day. At least you can see elephants, hippos, buffalo, and rhino. The smaller game blends in or may rush out onto the runway at the last second. If the strip operator doesn't clear the runway for you with a vehicle, make a low pass yourself and check the runway condition while you are at it.

Our next stop was Tzaneen, back in South Africa. Our approach path took us over the northern edge of the Drakensberg Mountains, an impressive line of buttresses that rise to over 11,000 feet further south, dividing the low and high veld zones. In Tzaneen we relaxed for two wonderful nights at the Coach House Inn, a truly first-class establishment located at a historic stage-coach stop. The food, wine, and view looking out at the Drakensbergs are superb. The surroundings are in the heart of orchard country where many of the delicious South African fruits and juices are processed — quite a contrast to the dry bush inland.

From there we went to the Makalali Game Lodge, a place that must be unique in all of Africa. Here, for the first time, we needed to place thorn-bush wheel covers over the airplane tires to keep the jackals from chewing on them. Some lodges use barbed wire and cyclone fence enclosures to keep game from tasting your airplane.

The owner of the lodge decided he wanted something different from the usual camp motif. He hired an Italian designer for his four camps along the Makhutswi River. The result is a visually stunning statement that might be called African gothic or tribal haute funk. A picture is worth a thousand words. Most people will love it; a few will hate it; none will ignore it. The visionary young chef there creates a cuisine that is a match for the surroundings.

The lodge owner and directors have a policy of giving local communities opportunities and training to profit from the operations and the animals. Makalali protects its 30,000-acre concession.

Our next stop was Sodwana Bay and nearby Mbazwana Airport, where we had a spot of bad luck. The through bolt on the nose-gear axle broke in spite of my best attempts at a soft-field landing. We spent an extra day there for repairs. Sodwana Bay is a famous dive spot at the southernmost coral reef on the Indian Ocean coast. A fast-moving front and high winds made diving conditions marginal, and the boat launch and recovery from the beach through the surf was an E-ticket ride. However, the multitude of reef life made the effort worthwhile.

The next leg took us down the coast to Richards Bay, where we found a complete and beautiful change of scenery — blue-green water, crashing surf, and many whale sharks. The weather report announced a 1,500-foot cloud base and 6 kilometers visibility, but a few miles from the airport it was clear that the report was way off. A call to the tower resulted in a report of 600 feet and 2 kilometers and we were cleared for a special VFR approach. Fortunately, Hanks Aero had provided us with the instrument approach charts, and we decided to intercept the VOR inbound final approach course where I knew there would be no obstructions. The reverse happened inbound to Johannesburg. The weather report was calling for towering cumulonimbus, thundershowers, and some broken low clouds. None of it happened.

On our return flight to Johannesburg a headwind cut our ground speed to about 80 knots. That was only annoying, but the airplane's reduced service ceiling, down to about 7,000 feet on this hot day, proved to be a trap. Nearing Harrismith the land slowly rose to above 6,000 feet, with a higher ridge to the west and a mountain to the east. We were slowly sinking and running out of options except for a shallow turn back or landing on the deserted road under us. How did this happen? Sinking air caused by wind blowing over the ridge to the west and complacency on my part. Sliding over to my right, I got out of the descending air and squeaked on through to the lower elevations ahead.

Having Nick and Christina to back us up also proved useful when an uprising occurred in Lesotho, a legally separate country located entirely within South Africa's borders. They phoned us at Richards Bay and suggested an alternate route back. The usual procedure was for us to call ahead to each of our destinations with an estimated time of arrival. With marginal telephone landlines and busy party lines in the bush, this sometimes just doesn't happen. Everyone here carries cell phones. Some pilots even use them to contact towers or air traffic control when the ground radios are out or have mysteriously changed frequencies.

The adventure and allure of flying in Africa are tempered by its frustrations. Nothing is simple, from ordering breakfast to getting clearances, so one needs patience and a sense of humor. But we found people to be almost universally friendly, helpful, and interesting. In a bank in Harare, when I walked up to the teller and said, "I would like to change some travelers checks, please." She replied, "Hello, how are you today?" I got the drift and learned to be more polite in my greetings.

And remember that game parks are not theme parks. A group of tourists in Kruger National Park got out of their car to be photographed with the lions. Only the photographer returned. A woman was "taken by a lion" on her way to her tent from a lodge in the Okavango Delta.

While we were on our trip, a buffalo killed two hunters and there were leopard attacks. When we did a walking safari our guide said, "See all the animals out here. They are prey, and they will all die in the jaws of a predator. You are the slowest thing out here. Don't run if you are charged. You won't get 10 paces." That's heart-stirring advice if you are charged and the guide's knowledge and his Eddystone .458 are your only protection.

If you plan to fly with more than two people aboard, plan to rent a Cessna 182 or 206. During the dry months (April through September) the Okavango Delta should be on your itinerary. Here the waters of the Okavango River sink into the 300-meter-deep sands of the Kalahari Desert. It is an island of water surrounded by an ocean of sand. Most of the 35 lodges there can only be accessed by air. Maun, Botswana, is the jumping off spot for charter flights, but you can land at any of the strips if you are staying at one of the camps.

To make this trip is a major commitment of time and money, but you will bring back a lifetime of experiences and memories. Talk to anyone who's done it, and you will find their enthusiasm contagious.

Robert S. Tripp, AOPA 1335701, had a 39-year career as a test pilot and airline pilot for two major airlines. He is a freelance writer and has recently completed a novel.