I am now a licensed pilot on three continents. As with Australia, flying in Africa was not without its difficulties.

Our African flying experience started in Tanzania where we took several flights on Cessna Caravans between various safari and other locations. Although these were commercial flights, I was able to fly “right seat” on most of them, I even got in some time at the controls. Flying in Tanzania is interesting as many of the runways are not paved, and there is limited radar coverage. All of our pilots, but one, were excellent. That one pilot flew like it was it first day on the job and unfortunately I was not in “right seat” during that flight so I all I could do was sit in the back and hope for the best.

Once in South Africa, we were set up to rent a small Cessna 172 for two weeks from Hank’s Aero, a company that specializes in self-fly safaris. The South Africa validation process is nothing like Australia. Thanks to the help of Ross, who works for Hank’s, in one day my South Africa validation was complete. Hank’s arranged for me to meet an air traffic controller and an instructor for the flight test. The whole process was painless and informative.

The plan was for me to fly the seven hours from JoBurg to Cape Town by myself and for Karie, Lauren and Rose to take a commercial flight. From there we would go on various day trips and other short flights. The night before the flight, I checked in with the airports along the way and found out that the runway at Stellenbosch, the airport that I was planning to use near Cape Town was going to be closed for the week. I found an alternative airport and planned my route.

My early morning departure from JoBurg featured hazy skies, but I was well prepared for the route. I did have some trouble understanding the controllers, more due to the lack of good headsets than accents. An hour into the flight I had a major problem. The ammeter was jumping wildly and there was a smell of smoke in the cockpit. I shut down the alternator and some unnecessary electronics and the smoke smell went away. Nevertheless I was not willing to continue to fly in an unfamiliar plane over an unfamiliar country with some electrical failure.

I informed Air Traffic Control of the problem, and requested landing at the nearest airport. I didn’t know anything about the facilities there, but I figured that it was best to get on the ground quickly. I was able to land without incident as the plane was flying normally and there was no additional smoke or smell.

Fortunately, I landed at Klerksdorp, an airport with a mechanic, a restaurant and even a charter service. I took advantage of all three. While the mechanic was checking out the plane, I had lunch at the restaurant/bar. At first it seemed that the plane could be fixed, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. I then chartered a flight the rest of the way to Cape Town.

In Cape Town I made several attempts to rent a plane. However I wasn’t able to schedule another plane or instructor due to the closed runway at Stellenbosch, the short notice, and the limited number of planes available for training and rental. My flying in South Africa wasn’t a complete washout, however, as I went for another sightseeing flight over the Garden Route.

We hope to return to both South Africa and Australia at some point and I hope to fly some more in these fantastic countries.

–Andy