A friend of mine, Mark, from New Zealand called me and asked if he could use one of our R44 helicopters’ for a game capture job in Kenya. This was the start of a long flight.

I asked Julian, on of our hour building students if he wanted to join me on the flight. He didn’t hesitate for long before saying “yes”.

Julian had a brand new passport, his first and was keen to explore the world. I had flown the route a few times but it was fascinating and a pleasure to fly with someone who was so excited about this new adventure. Julian scratched in our cupboards and found charts for the route, checked aircraft documents, loaded additional oil, 6 jerry cans and our bags.

We lifted from Wonderboom at 10:00 for Polokwane International. With 30 miles to go, Julian made contact with the Polokwane tower and was given an inbound clearance. He was also informed that their airspace was IMC with less than 1 Km visibility. A Jet Ranger was also on their way to Polokwane International and reported that he had slowed to 30 Kts because of limited visibility. We were still in clear skies….

Not much later, we slowed down to 80 Kts but could see 3 Km and continued onto final approach 05 and landed at the fuel bay. We filled the tanks and jerry cans, filled in the Gen Dec, Health Dec and Julian’s passport was given its first stamp. A long walk up to the air traffic control tower to meet the controller and fill in a flight plan. The weather from up there looked good in the direction we were going so we went back to the machine, did a pre-flight check and called for start up clearance.

A few minutes after take off, we were under blue skies again, heading for Beira. We maintained about 1000 feet above ground level (AGL). This allowed us to take advantage of the 10 Kt tail wind. We maintained over 100 Kts ground speed and soon passed over the South African boarder – Julian’s first.

After two and a half hours it was time to find a place to stop and transfer fuel from the jerry cans to the tanks. 60 litres later and we were back on our way. 20 miles from Beira and we decided to add another 20 litres to the tank. We were cleared to join on a right base for runway 21. Julian confessed that he didn’t understand a word of what was said in the transmission. I told him not to worry; by the end of the trip he will be up to speed.

We landed in front of the control tower and the fuel truck came to fill us up. The fuel guys were very friendly and 15 minutes later we were in the apron office filling in paper work. We had to walk to the other end of the terminal building for more payments and stamps before returning to the apron office for final stamps. The fuel guys recommended a hotel so we went to the parking area to summons a taxi. We climbed into the back seat of a dilapidated Toyota that was only just in working condition. The seats were torn, most gauges didn’t work, and I don’t think it was fitted with shock absorbers but it had a sound system to die for. Well, it was loud, very loud, and the driver had to shout to communicate on his cell phone. The condition of the roads were, well, Mozambique. Julian was absolutely blown away by just everything. He confessed that he had never been so far out of his comfort zone and loved every minute.

The hotel was clean and comfortable with a TV that had very limited channels and was not tuned properly. We elected to have bird for supper. It could have been chicken, as listed on the menu, but could also have been sea gull or crow. It tasted fine.

Day two started with an unappetising breakfast and a bumpy taxi ride to the airport. I dictated what was to be written on the flight plan and Julian wrote and submitted it and after a pre-flight, we called for clearance to start for Nampula. A light breeze was in our favour and the turquoise ocean was of huge fascination to my pilot. He was sucking up every minute and still loving it. There were a few rain patches but nothing severe…. Until later. We entered a rain storm that brought our visibility down and down until I took the controls and reduced our speed to 60 knots. Julian asked at which point do we stop and land. I had started to look for a landing zone in the think growth when visibility started to improve. A minute later we were clear of rain.

Nampula cleared us to land and we went through the fees process and flight plan for Pemba. Julian was now getting the hang of the process and was finding me less and less of an asset when he needed information. I went and bought us a few cokes and biscuits and waited for the paper work to be completed. Soon we were calling for start up clearance and on our way for a 90 minute flight to Pemba International Airport.

The airport is on a hill over looking the sea on one side and a lagoon on the other. We asked for clearance to pass over the air field so we could see the seaward side which was quite spectacular. We refuelled and Julian did the paper work. We then found a taxi to take us to a hotel. The driver muttered the price of the trip in Portuguese. This equated to 6 Dollars. By the time we arrived at the hotel his price was at 20 Dollars which I refused to pay. We eventually agreed on 10. Julian found the hotel room to be “quiet nice”, at 280 Dollars I should hope so. Since we had only flown for five and a half hours, we had plenty daylight hours to wander around and have an early supper…..chicken? It went down well.

We had a good breakfast and were at the airport a few minutes after our planned 0700. The emigration official assured us he would be at work at 0700, his normal starting time. He wasn’t. By 0800 he was still not in sight. The woman at the apron office gave us “permission” to go on our international flight without customs or immigration clearances. We accepted and left for Dar es Salaam. Again, favourable winds, clear ocean, green vegetation and “small” mountains were the en route scenery.

Twenty miles from Dar Es Salaam Julian made contact with the control tower and we were cleared to join on a left down wind for runway 23. We were building an awareness of where the other aircraft were in the airspace. There were two. One was a PC12. He had lost sight of the aircraft in front of him and asked the controller for information. The controller told him to keep a good look out for the PC12, to which the irate American pilot replied, “I AM THE PC12”, and initiated a go around. Had he not, he would have landed on top of the other aircraft. The two airplane pilots communicated direct with each other until the danger subsided. We were cleared to land after the PC12 and went straight to the fuel bay. Julian went off to do the paper work. He now had this process well under control. I fuelled up. The fuel attendant refused to fill our jerry cans; this was not in their procedures. I informed him that we don’t have any jerry cans, only auxiliary fuel tanks. After a few minutes of confusion, he filled our three “auxiliary fuel tanks” lined up on the tarmac, and when we were done, it was time to call the tower and go. We had already flown four hours with another four to go. A short time along the coast and then over green vegistration that slowly changed to brown and dry. We also started to see an increase in our altitude, soon passing 3000 feet and onwards. Boredom took over and we started betting on how far from Mount Kilimanjaro we would be before we saw Africa’s highest mountain. At 19000 feet, we should have seen it from 50 miles or so. 20 miles prior to our bumping into it, we spotted it. Covered in cloud, vegetation and a bit of smoke from a few large fires. Kilimanjaro International tower cleared us to pass east of the airport and to maintain 4000 feet. We were running late to meet Mark so we had to cut the corner a bit and climb to 6000 feet. Just before the Kenyan boarder we landed for a quick fuel transfer and on to Wilson International Airport. We were under the control of Jomo International until within one mile of Wilson. We were handed over and cleared to land in front of the tower. Mark was there in front of the helicopter clad in a luminous orange jacket to meet us with his big smile and warm handshake.

We had made it