Another early morning as my alarm rings at 0445, after a quick shower and breakfast the taxi arrives to take us to Charles Prince international airport where the Cessna 207 had some maintenance completed the day before.

We refuel the plane and after a pre-flight inspection and immigration clearance we are ready for departure. Harare is still covered in a solid layer of cloud, climbing through 7000ft we are in cloud and break through the tops at 9000 to find ourselves in between two layers. It was an amazing feeling as this would be my first flight above cloud.

Let me clarify a point quickly, during my commercial pilot training in South Africa all your instrument training is done on a simulator or in the plane under a “hood” which looks like sunglasses that prevent you from seeing outside.

After an hour of instrument flying above the clouds the layer suddenly ends and I couldn’t help but be amazed as the landscape of Zambia greeted us.

The rest of the flight to Ndola was spent with me in awe of the landscape in Zambia. In Ndola we cleared customs and immigration, refueled and took off for Solwezi.

This leg was shorter, just over an hours flight and a lot of it was spent flying around cumulous buildups and a squall line that we weaved our way through.

The flight to Zambia was probably one of my best flights yet and one that I will always remember.

Keep flying and stay safe.