Tag: experience

The African Experience

Its been a while since my last entry, but it has been an interesting time. Getting used to how different it can be in Zambia compared to South Africa. Yes S.A is an African country with a highly dualistic economy, and living in Johannesburg it won’t be much different from staying in a large European city.

Zambia I’ve learnt is not the same, after being here for a week or so I needed to go wash the plane, arriving at the airport thinking it will be easy only to be informed there is not water at the airport. The kind security lady then directs me to the nearest village where there is a well that I can use for clean water. So off I go to find the well, it turns out the well is just a hole in the ground with some stones packed around it. Then what looks like old seat-belt straps tied together to hold a cut open plastic oil container to lower down into the water. With my bucket filled the plane was washed ready for the flight the next day.

Early the next morning I fire up the IO520 engine in the C207 and off I go to Ndola for a passenger pick up and drop-off at the mine. The flights go smoothly with no significant weather or snags to report and we arrive at the mine. This would be my first visit to the mine and having packed a overnight bag to spend the night and fly more passengers out the next morning we jump in the Land Cruiser and off we go.

Arriving at the accommodation it is permanent bush tents that look like something you’ll find on a luxury safari.

The accommodation from the outside.

Thinking this isn’t too bad I head inside. There is a nice single bed set up in the middle of the room and that when I walk through to the bathroom area in the tent.

No I guess its not the worst ever but not ever having been here and use to a more luxurious life (not going to sugar coat it) I was a little horrified. I was also informed that the hot water runs off a Boiler Donkey. A donkey is basically a meat container with water that you burn a fire below to heat it up.

After dinner I headed back to my tent and decided I’ll skip my evening shower and went to bed. The next morning I found out my donkey was never lit so I wouldn’t have had any warm water and speaking to one of my passengers it took his shower 30 minutes of running the hot water before it was actually warm.

The next week I did have a shower, but due to my lack of patience it was a cold one.

So far I’m still enjoying it, and I’m sure I’ll still have many more interesting experiences before I leave.

Smoke Smell in the Cockpit

One thing most pilots will tell you when it comes to an emergency situation nothing is worse than the smell of smoke in the cockpit.

There are two types of fires that I am concerned with in the Cessna 207 I am flying, engine fire and electrical fire. Both have significant implications if they occur and require a different approach to extinguish the fire. In the case of a engine fire, you want to remove the fuel from the engine and then pitch the nose down increasing airspeed to extinguish the flames. If it is an electrical fire you need to remove the current from the electrical system thus preventing further sparking or heat buildup in the wiring.

Why am I telling you this? Well on a recent flight to Ndola everything was going well, I was in the cruise, no clouds and smooth air with a ground speed of 130 knots when I suddenly got a distinct smell of plastic burning. I turned to my friend and asked if he smells the same, hoping it was in my imagination. Sadly he confirmed he also smelt it.

Right, so 1500ft above the ground we might have an electrical fire onboard. One thing I’ve learnt is not to rush into a hasty decision that can make things worse and try to stay calm. Since my GPS unit was plugged into the 12V lighter port that seemed like a logical place to start, I unplugged it, it was cool to the touch signaling the problem wasn’t there. Next I check all the circuit breakers on the panel in front of me, none have popped and I don’t feel any heat. I take my hand and slowl feel underneath the instrument panel, no heat. I lower my head to make sure I don’t see any smoke, nothing.

After not finding any signs that the fire is originating inside the 207, and all indicatione on the instrument panel are normal, we decide it must be smoke from outside that made its way in through the vent due to us maintinaing a relatively low altitude. For the next 5minutes I still monitor all the instruments closely until the smell eventually dissipates.

I am very relieved that it was not an actual fire in the aircraft, but it serves as a good reminder to be ready for anything while flying, and know your aircraft and systems Incase an emergency does arise.

En route to Ndola, 5500ft with mist on the ground

Keep flying and stay safe. 🇿🇲