BOTSWANA fly-away 25 April to 10 May 2015

[Goose]

Tnx. Goose. Today was a huge disappointment.

That is efrica for u. That is why I dont like to fly over the border there is always "some thing that is the problem"

[Louis Cole]

I have flown accross the border a few times and have only had problems on the South African side. At Selibe Phikwe one of the CAAB officials rented their house to us for the night and at Nata the CAAB officials guarded our trike overnight. It is in stark contrast with the treatment I received at Upington and Rietfontein on our Nabian trip 2 years ago.

[mulderpm]

Some pics

[mulderpm]

More pics

[mulderpm]

Some more

[mulderpm]

And more

[mulderpm]

7 trikes over the delta this morning. Stanley's, Delta Camp and then Chitiau. 100 miles round trip , 2 hrs flying

[Madman]

Wow...I have never seen so many trikes on trailers all at once before

Awesome pics

[mulderpm]

A dream has come true. Thanks to all the brave and adventurous pilots and the ground support ladies for making this happen. All for a couple of minor problems everything went off without a hitch. And thanks to Merv for trying his utmost to get us permission to overfly Zambia/Vic Falls. That, for the moment, seems to be reserved for registered operators only

One more last flight tomorrow morning to Moremi and then we are done....

[mulderpm]

Fantastic 2 hr flight over the delta this morning. Flew all along the souther border of Moremi. Just marsh land with islands and lots of animals as far as the eye can see. It looks like a fantasy paradise.

AMH was back on her trailer in an hour. Total cost for the 4 flights at Maun Airport was P359. A bargain. And such friendly people. We will be back

[nicow]

Lekker jaloers...

[sampie]

Fantastic 2 hr flight over the delta this morning. Flew all along the souther border of Moremi. Just marsh land with islands and lots of animals as far as the eye can see. It looks like a fantasy paradise.

AMH was back on her trailer in an hour. Total cost for the 4 flights at Maun Airport was P359. A bargain. And such friendly people. We will be back

I had to pay P418-00.You think they charged me more for keeping the other planes from landing on that first day?

[Louis Cole]

Day 9 had us all lined up at sparrow and we were off for Sua Pans on a 318 km leg. One of the pilots forgot to close the choke completely and landed briefly before setting off after us. We landed on of the dedicated landing strips on the tar road for a fuel stop without incident and followed the long rwy. until we had the pans in sight in the distance. The pans are really awesome with lots of pelicans to be seen and flying over large expanses of water makes you briefly doubt mr. Rotax until you have the edge in sight. Landing on another official long tarred rwy after 3 hrs 30 mins. was a pleasure and the ground crews met up with us an hour later. Some of us bypassed Paul's accommodation arrangements until he put his foot down but everyone had a bed to sleep in.

Dinner for the next 2 nights were sundowners on white clad tables around an open fire with 5 star food and service. Pictures to follow sometime in future.

Day 11 we headed for Maun at 06:20 over the pans for Gweta and then for an unknown rwy at a place called Motopi for a refuel. I did a low level by-pass to inspect the rwy and reported in Afrikaans that the rwy was not useable as there were thorn trees growing on the rwy. Frank saw me complete my inspection run and thought I had just taken off. Being a Pom, he didn't understand me and duly landed, clearing the rwy for me to land on a very suspect rwy. The rest of the group landed on the tar road and with a big truck blocking the road for us, we set off for Maun International. The approach, landing and radio procedures at Maun deserve a discussion
by itself and had us all in stitches for a long time afterwards.

[Tumbleweed]

Awesome trip. Thanks all for keeping the armchair adventurers interested.

Experience comes from experience and not flying hours round the patch.

[mulderpm]

The approach, landing and radio procedures at Maun deserve a discussion by itself and had us all in stitches for a long time afterwards.

Thanks Louis for all your reporting.

Some reporting to tower and approach:

Maun APP - "Aircraft call sign, number on board and endurance please?"

Pilot - "ZU-XXX, none on board, endurance 3 hrs 30 min"

Maun APP - "Aircraft Type?"

Pilot - "It is a Aquilla, weight shift microlight, with a 582 Rotax engine, takes 2 persons....."

Maun APP - "......Type of aircraft please ?...."

Interveneing pilot - "Z159"

Some even had two crew on board.

On another occasion, at Kasane. After an elaborate repeat by the pilot of everything Kasane TWR had just said to him, Kasane TWR said, - "JUST ENTER!!!"

We were in stitches....afterwards.

All the air traffic officials and controlers were very acomodating and patient with us. As a token of our appreciation we gave both Approach and Tower ATC's each a box of chocolates. Smiles from ear to ear. When I went to say goodby to them, she said " aag are you leaving already" don't know whether it was sadness or joy in her voice.