Team BushCat

16/12/2016

Day 35

These two images say it all. Thirty five days after we left Crete, and fifty two days after leaving Shoreham, UK, we reached out destination, Stellenbosch, outside of Cape Town.

It was a bitter/sweet feeling: happy to have safely arrived, but curiously sad to leave the daily focus of flying and the camaraderie of friends.

Still thanks to all, and especially to the two little BushCats, and those who made them. The BushCats, and their Rotax engines, flew over a quarter of the distance around the globe, over seas, sands, mountains and bush without the slightest murmur of complaint!

15/12/2016

Day 33,34

From sea to shining sea...

After leaving Johannesburg yesterday, the BushCats today sighted the southern ocean at Plettenberg Bay, east of Cape Town, at 34 degrees South, under blue summer skies.

Back on Oct 24th, the BushCats pointed their noses out over the English Channel in cold, autumn weather at 50 degrees north! Since then they have traversed, accompanied by their mother ship, the Caravan, a full 84 degrees of latitude from north to south.

Tomorrow is the final push west along the Garden Route for a "grand arrival" at Stellenbosch, in the heart of wine country, outside of Cape Town.

13/12/2016

Day 32

The BushCat dance team! Today was the year-end barbecue at Skyreach, the manufacturer of the BushCats. Boeing, Airbus.... bring it on! Let's see your dance team!

13/12/2016

Days 27,28,29,30,31

Bush Cats come home! The two little Bush Cats were welcomed home to Springs, outside of Johannesburg, the place of their manufacture. If you scroll back through all the posts, you will see them being placed into a container in Springs back at the end of August, before being shipped to England. So after early 6000 miles of trouble-free flying, they came back to their starting point in style - to be welcomed and poured over by the factory staff.

To get here, the fleet had left the Victoria Falls, flow down to Bulawayo for two nights, to the Limpopo Valley in Botswana for a night, west to Gaberone the capital of Botswana, and then back east to Johannesburg. The Bush Cats have now been serviced and are ready for the final push to Cape Town.

Unfortunate news is that two aircraft have had to drop out of the Rally - a Tiger Moth and one of the Helicopters were blown into each other while on the ground during a storm in Botswana.

08/12/2016

Taken early this morning... the iconic photo: BushCat over the Victoria Falls.
Here's the back story. Last nigh at dinner we were addressed by the Zimbabwe Deputy Minister of Tourism, a statuesque lady! Nick, pilot of the oldest biplane offered to take her for a ride over the Falls. But, her body guard would have to accompany her. But no space in the biplane. Solution? I volunteered Adam to take the body guard, who was even taller than his boss, in a BushCat and fly behind them! Then I & Robert took off in the other BushCat to photograph the whole event.

07/12/2016

And for those of you into aviation stuff... here is a BushCat ("7PM") coming into to land on the dirt strip at Victoria Falls. Adam ("6PM") can be heard calling final behind me.

07/12/2016

Now that I have some time and bandwidth, I can upload some videos. A flashback... before embarking on the Rally, the country most of us were concerned about was the Sudan. In fact, we could not have been more enthusiastically received there, with a musical welcome at most stops. My favorite was this welcome we received at Damazin at the top end of the Blue Nile.

07/12/2016

Day 25, 26

We left Lusaka and headed down to the huge Kariba Lake (a dam on the Zambezi) and then turned up river, and headed for the Victoria Falls. We landed on the Zimbabwe side, and check in at the classic Victoria Falls Hotel. It was been beautifully restored and is worthy of its "five star" status.

The next day we flew to a local dirt strip where pilots of the Zimbabwe Aero Club (yes, there are still private planes and pilots in Zimbabwe!) had flown in, and a welcome lunch and drinks (G&T without the G for me, as I was flying) was provided by Puma Energy (aviation fuel), who are one of the sponsors of the Rally. It was great to get another dose of real African Hospitality.

A flight was made over the Falls in the company of a Helicopter camera ship. I will share those photos when they become available.

But here are some photos taken with my camera (thanks to Steve who used it to take photos of the BushCats, while flying with Jeff Earle in the 206).

06/12/2016

Remember you can track our progress and route on
share.delorme.com/pm00

click on the "+" sign toshow the route taken

Follow along online. The MapShare site shows the progress of someone tracking with an inReach satellite communicator. Read messages they have sent to MapShare. You can even reply.

05/12/2016

Here are some more bio's of the other teams on the rally (see accompanying photos):

Keith flies a 1928 Travelair biplane that for many years was based in the San Juan Islands, giving joy rides. Keith comes from Los Angeles and is a talented technician and mechanic, having amongst other things, built custom motorcycles for various people and shows. Collin is the son of Nick and Lita who are flying one of the other biplanes. He is currently serving in the US Army.

Martin and his wife Julia come from Yorkshire. He is a successful business man, and bought the huge Antonov that they fly to participate and contribute to the trip (it and the Caravan are the baggage planes). The plane is being piloted by Mike, who comes from New Zealand, but lives in the UK. In addition to being a licensed aircraft technician and inspector, he has flown all kinds of airplanes around the world, and when not flying, races motorcycles (second place in Isle of Man TT!). Colleen is his partner in life and business.

Pedro flies a 1928 Travelair biplane. He comes from Los Angeles where his business is doing the design for restoration of classic homes! Quiet and outwardly reserved, his smile reveals a warm interior.

Yasir and Timur hail from Egypt and fly a Cessna 172. Yasir is a heart surgeon in Cairo.

Cedric and Alexandra come from Belgium where they run a flight school. They fly a Stampe biplane, which was made in Belgium in the 1930's.

Boris and Yulia officially live in Cyprus, but come from Russia. They fly a turbine-powered R66 helicopter.

Paddy and Sarah come from England. Paddy worked in the technology industry and he and Sarah now run a small seed capital firm. They met while flying helicopters and this trip is actually their honeymoon!

05/12/2016

Day 23, 24

Day started with a short (140nm) hop across into Zambia… “home at last”. We had a warm welcome at Kasama, with literally hundreds of school kids swarming over the airplanes (see photos). We were lucky there as after refueling, we were able to get the smaller planes out of Kasama ahead of a thunderstorm. The Caravan and Antonov were not ready and had to wait it out. The storm was so violent that it literally picked up the Caravan (an 8500lb airplane) and spun it around! No damage fortunately. But if the small planes had been on the ground, most of them would have been turned upside down.
From Kasama, we headed down over the Benguelo Swamps to a farm strip at Mkushi, north of Lusaka. The views over the swamps were stunning, and it afforded ideal terrain for what the BushCats enjoy most – getting very close to the ground.
At Kawa, we were treated to a real “farm welcome”. The grass strip itself was exquisitely beautiful and the local farm community put on the kind of reception that only a farm community can. Bob, one of our participants from Australia, said (compared to Australian farmers) “same kind of people, same hospitality, same kind of food… just the accents are different.”
Then the next day it was on to Lusaka, for another warm welcome. We were welcomed by the Minister of Tourism, the Head of the Air Force, the local classic car club, and swarms of children!

05/12/2016

Day 22
We left Zanzibar after another delayed start, but with a tailwind, good time was made, heading west across the center of Tanzania to Dodoma to land and refuel. Dodoma is the “Brasilia” of Tanzania, the new national capital being built in the middle of the country. The decision to relocate the capital was made in 1973, but only now are the functions of government being moved out there, into what looks like a rather dry and barren landscape.
From Dodoma, we turned south west, headed for Mbeya in the south west corner of Tanzania, where we spent the night. On the way, we crossed over the Ruaha National Park, a huge park, largely empty it seems of everything, except miles and miles of Brachystegia (“Miombo”) forest. It was pretty as the trees were coming into new leaf so a variety of shades of green were on display. And we did manage to see some herds of buffalo and elephant.
Mbeya is located in a high valley (4000’) between two ridges of quite high hills (going up to 9000’). That area is the breadbasket of Tanzania, green and fertile. The towns of Mbeya and Songwe run into each other and were much bigger than I expected. Apparently, they are the commercial hub for activities that reach into Tanzania, Zambia and the DRC.

01/12/2016

Day 21. Today was a rest day in Zanzibar. A few photos to give an impression of Stone Town, the old part of Zanzibar, where we are staying. Tomorrow, we have a long day's flying west and south to Songwe, close to the Zambian border.

01/12/2016

Nice photo from David...

30/11/2016

Day 20

My son, Ben, who joined us in Nairobi and leaves us in Zanzibar, decided we could not depart Ngorongoro without a descent into the Crater. So Team BushCat went down in a vehicle at 630am and came back out at 8am... a great experience, even if only 90 minutes long! Ngorogoro truly is some sort of a paradise... see the photos.

We rejoined the fleet at Lake Manyara, then on to Kilimanjaro airport, and then on to Zanzibar. Flying down the mountainous spine of Tanzania, we reached the Indian Ocean and crossed over the 25 miles of open water to reach the island of Zanzibar.

The little BushCats started on Octbober 24th at 50 degrees north at Brighton on the English Channel, and are now at 6 degrees south next to the Indian Ocean!

29/11/2016

Here are some photos of fellow Rally participants.

John and Norman hail from England. John, who has a deliciously dry wit, has a family business in Sheffield. After doing consulting work around the world, Norman farms near Swindon. They have been friends for many years and share ownership of their 1941 Australian-built yellow Tiger Moth.

Fabian and Johannes hail from the Dusseldorf area of Germany and are flying in an immaculate recreation of the classic Waco bi-plane. Johannes also happens to own the aviation service center in Windhoek that Pasquale and I have used. Small world.

Wolf and his daughter, Emily, come from the Sinsheim area of Germany, and fly in a highly efficient modern motor glider that can easily out run most of us. Wolf's family own timber estates, including forests in the Seattle area!

John and his daughter, Bella, hail from the east coast of the USA. They flew the 1941 Stearman biplane from Egypt to Kenya and had the misfortune to suffer an engine failure and forced landing just before Nairobi, where they were due to hand over to another crew. The photo was taken the day after... they looked in remarkably resilient spirits.

29/11/2016

Day 17,18,19

Day 17 was spent servicing our aircraft in Nairobi, at Wilson Airport, the home of aviation in East Africa. It is an incredibly busy little airport, but we did find time to visit the Aero Club of East Africa (est. 1916) where the likes of Denys Finch-Hatton ("Out of Africa") once hung out. The Rally organizers had also organized a sortie to a nearby national park, where the biplanes were supposed to land on a dirt strip and re-enact events of yore. Well, the dirt strip turned out to be a narrow road, and the only one who ventured to put his wheels down there was Adam in a BushCat, whereupon he was promptly interviewed by Al-Jazeera!

The next day (Day 18) was largely eaten up carefully weighing things and repacking the two baggage aircraft as peoples bags (or some of them) finally caught up with them. This meant a late start for Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, too late to reach Ngorongoro. So the night was spent in Arusha instead. Today (Day 19) a few planes decided to brave the landing at the lodge on the lip of the Ngorongoro Crater at 8,000' above sea level, the rest elected to land at Lake Manyara (only 4,000') and catch a lift up on stronger airplane or to combine a game drive with a drive up to the Lodge.

27/11/2016

Selected photos from the legs from Khartoum to Damazin (Sudan), to Gambela (Ethiopia), to Lokichgio (Kenya), to Eldoret, to Nairobi

26/11/2016

Day 11, 12, 13, 14, 15:

"Seven Poppa Mike, this is Lokichogio Tower, you are cleared to land runway zero nine... Welcome to Kenya!"

What pleasure and relief that these words brought when I heard them late on Friday. It is hard to describe the highs and lows of the past five days.

The low was definitely being held incommunicado (passports and all electronics confiscated, no phone calls allowed, with just the clothes we were wearing) for two full days and nights along with the other forty five members of the Rally in a small hot humid airport terminal cafetaria at Gambela, Ethiopia. The reason was that our flight clearances had been held up, but we did not receive word until we could not turn back. From this experience, I learned that it is a privilege to have a support network, and to be a US Citizen. My thanks and love, and those of the 45 other folk of 15 different nationalities, go to those who swung into action when we were able to smuggle word out. In due course, I will personally thank those in our Government who really went beyond the call of duty. Help when it came made it a Thanksgiving to always remember.

The other low was losing a fellow Rally aircraft in a crash landing today after an engine failure. Father and daughter who were in the plane are both thankfully uninjured.

The highs...

I learned how good people can be to each other in periods of stress, sharing and caring for each other.

I learned that I can in fact sleep quite well on a concrete floor with just a sweat shirt for a pillow.

And... the last two days have taken us over some of the most remote and magnificent scenery in Africa. I will sort out the many hundreds of photos and post further tomorrow.

21/11/2016

Day 10 was a rest day in Khartoum. In the morning Pasquale took us to the Blue Nile Sailing Club (yes, it still exists and is quite smart), where he had stopped for a few days on his epic descent by raft of the Nile thirteen years ago. His host there, and chairman of the club, happens to work for the Civil Aviation Authority, and he arranged for a friend of his who owns a grand restaurant (the biggest in Africa!) to take some of us for a sunset cruise to the confluence of the Blue and White Niles.

Later this evening it is a reception at the British Embassy, and then a 4am breakfast, and a 6am takeoff with the goal of reaching Ethiopia by day's end.

20/11/2016

Few more photos from Merowe....

20/11/2016

Day 9 saw us depart Merowe for the Khartoum, capital of the Sudan.

Tomorrow will be another rest day before 3 days of hard flying which will take us down the Blue Nile to the western edge of Ethiopia, and then down to the northern edge of Kenya, and then on to the rift valley of Kenya.

The last 4 days of flying has taken us 1,000 miles down the length of the Nile from Cairo to Khartoum. The overwhelming impression is how important the Nile is to both countries. Without that strip of green running down their centers, both of theses countries would be just a vast, rocky and largely lifeless desert. We generally started flying from a town on the Nile and ended at town on the Nile (Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simnel, Dongola, Merowe, Khartoum, and ahead, Ad Damazin). But to shorten the route we would cut across the desert between the bends in the Nile. After leaving the Nile and until encountering it again, was just nothing, nothing, nothing. Only after leaving Dongola, did we see the occasional acacia tree and the occasional camel in the desert.

And yet there are riches here. In 1500 B.C., the Pharoh Thutmose III came up the Nile and founded the Temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal (which was maintained until roughly 400 AD - nearly 2,000 years!) He was drawn up to Nubia by the gold that was found there, and today, once again, there is apparently a new gold rush on with people mining the sand dunes for alluvial gold. In addition, new dams over the Nile are being built. Just upstream from Merowe is a new dam across the Nile, the 5th largest dam in the world. Opened in 2009, it will push water back for over 100 miles. This is enabling power generation (power came to Merowe only a couple of years ago) and new irrigation schemes, funded by foreign powers and companies (China, Qatar, Saudi, ...)

19/11/2016

Short Update for Days 6,7,8
On Day 6 we flew a short leg from Aswan to Abu Simnel. We spent the night there on a cruise ship, docked just around the corner from the famous temples that were relocated there after Lake Nasser was filled up. This enabled us to go at sunrise to see the temples.
It had been decided to not enter the Sudan without the Antonov, which had been having an extraordinary series of adventures, including an emergency landing at a military field. So we were prepared to wait. But suddenly word came that they Antonov was on its way to Abu Simnel, so we all went out to airfield, and lo, it appeared. Then it was a rush to get airborne for Sudan, for a flight to Dongola, refueling, and a flight to Merowe arriving just as the last light was fading. Everywhere in Egypt people were amazingly friendly but it was good to be moving and finally set foot in Sudan. The welcome here in Sudan was also warm, with the provincial governor being on hand in both Dongola and Merowe to shake our hands.
Today, Day 8, was a rest day. We had a tour of the very interesting ruins in this area. There has been a major Egyptian Temple (to the God Amun, the Sun God) here from 1500 B.C. to about 400 B.C. Then around 650 B.C. Eqypt was conquered by Nubian rulers, the Black Pharaohs, who ruled for about 100 years. One of them is mentioned in the Bible was the protector of Jerusalem against the Assyrians. Our guide was an Italian lady, who first lived in Australian at Ayers Rock, and then has lived here in the Sudan for 14 years!

17/11/2016

But https://share.delorme.com/PM00
will update automatically, so can always see where we are.

Follow along online. The MapShare site shows the progress of someone tracking with an inReach satellite communicator. Read messages they have sent to MapShare. You can even reply.

17/11/2016

PS: Internet connectivity is likely to be spotty for next week or so, as we head down through Sudan, so updates may be terse and/or delayed.

17/11/2016

November 16/17 - Day 5/6

We stayed at the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan. Built in 1899 by Thomas Cook, and beautifully restored a few years ago by the Sofitel Group, it is magnificent! Agatha Christie stayed here and was inspired to write "Death on the Nile". It looks over Elephantine Island, which was the fortified point that controlled traffic, in times of the Pharaohs and the Romans, across and around the first cataract on the Nile. Just upstream is the Aswan High Dam, and Lake Nasser behind it.

Today we go on to Abu Simnel, and are scheduled to spend the night on a Nile Boat on Lake Nasser. A concern is that the main baggage plane (the Antonov) is falling further behind - caught up in bureaucracy and lack of fuel! So folks here carry on, most making do with "what they wearing". Not much glamour to match the setting!

17/11/2016

November 16, Day 5

To catch up, the decision was made to fly two short legs, Hurghada to Luxor, Luxor to Aswan, in one day and (alas!) skip visiting the temples in Luxor. This was accomplished with a relatively efficient fueling process in Luxor, albeit a couple of barrels over Avgas short! But the legs were short, and fuel was shared out and by 430pm we were all at Aswan.

Aswan is the start of Nubia, and we felt that we were really in Africa at last! Not just darker faces, but a more relaxed atmosphere.

17/11/2016

November 15 - Day 4

The Egyptian Aero Club had obtained special permission for the formation to fly over Cairo and down over the 7 bridges of the Nile, something that would have involved closing the airspace to traffic to the International airport for a while. But alas with haze and strong winds, and after lengthy deliberations, this was not to be. So we departed for the Red Sea and a run down the coast to Hurghada which supposed to be just a refueling stop. But with delayed departure and delays in refueling, the sun was setting. So it was an unplanned night in Hurghada, which is a very large (!) Las Vegas style resort on the coast.

14/11/2016

Monday Nov 14, Day 3.

Today was a rest day in Cairo. Most Rally members could choose from a variety of tours (Eqyptian Museum, Souk, etc.) But for a hardy few of us there was work to be done! So Robert, Adam, and I set off in company of few others for the 2 hour taxi ride out to the airport west of Cairo. Actually our taxi drivers were "true gentlemen" who handled us with politeness and did a great job navigating the extraordinary traffic.

Our mission was to uncover the cause of one BushCat flying faster than the other. The suspected cause was propeller angle. This involved revving up the engines on the ground to max throttle and comparing the RPMs. And indeed 6PM was revving too high. So adjustments needed to be made.

But the wind was blowing strongly from the north, rocking all the airplanes, making it hard to measure and turn the propeller blades through a 0.5 of a degree - which has to measured carefully with an accurate spirit level. So we asked if we could push the plane into a hangar - the helpful airport authorities agreed, but no key could be found to the two hangars. So we pushed the little airplane around the side of the terminal building into the lee of the wind and opened the "Prop Shop", using make shift aids when needed - see photo. Out of the wind the sun was hot and the flies were biting. Plus we got encouraging messages from Steve, informing us of the difficulty he was having selecting a desert at lunch back at the Intercontinental Hotel! Actually Steve deserved his desert and more as he has been a rock of stability, good humor and professionalism on this trip - we could not have got this far without him.

Chief Engineer Robert, ably assisted by Adam, with me looking for dropped washers on the ground, rose to the task. And by 3pm we were able to close the Prop Shop and declare victory! And face another 2 hour taxi ride back to the hotel!

Tomorrow the fleet sets off for Luxor, via Hurghada.

14/11/2016

Sunday Nov 13th, Day 2:
The Egyptian Air Force wanted us out of their hair by 8am, so we had a 5am breakfast, and were all airborne very early after exhaustive security checks at Mersa Matruh airport. Another 300 mile flight took us east along the coast and then a right turn at El Alamein (memories of WWII) for Cairo.
Again we had a hero's welcome at the airport - this time by the Vintage Car Club of Cairo.
Then... while the rest of us got in a bus for the Pyramids, one of the fleet, a vintage Belgium Stampe biplane, flown by Cedric and Alexandra, the most photogenic couple, took off to land alongside the Pyramids... something that used to be de rigeur for passing biplanes in the 1930's, but never since! But permission was granted and the TV crews were on hand, etc.
After that for the rest of us had to endure Cairo traffic on the long ride to the hotel for a "black tie" dinner. But with most of the Rally members travelling with just a toothbrush, it made for quite a variety of costumes!