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Hi,
A short time ago I came back from a rather long real life induced break (work and adding another member to our family had something to do with it) and learned to my great joy, that it was now possible to combine ACH with FSE. I struggled a bit to log on to FSE again, but after sorting that out I quickly joined the ACH group there and subsequently leased my Cessna C185 Skywagon to the group. It is located in central Africa, a remote area of the world where Unicef and other UN agencies are doing a lot of good work. So I thought what better than to fly some charter ops for ACH there.
As my C185 is not yet part of the ACH hangar, I had to change my career back to 'basic' and grab an available DHC-6 from somewhere in Spain. I took the one that had been on the ground longest (and that one had only stood still for about a week - I guess FSE is quite popular in here :- )
My first flight with the Skywagon for ACH was from Kasane, Botswana (FBKE) to Livingstone, Zambia (FLLI) it was a short hop of about 40NM and weather where optimal so I cruised along VFR following the mighty Zambezi river all the way to Victoria Falls, a few miles South of FLLI.
Low level cruising along the Zambezi
Short final approach to FLLI; PAPI lights and asphalt runway is a rare luxury in this part of the world
From Livingstone I grabbed 3 jobs roughly headed in a North-Easterly direction. My intent is to continue this general direction until I reach the Ethiopia / South Sudan area, where there is always a looming humanitarian crisis and various UN and other agencies are doing a great but almost impossible job of alleviating the suffering of countless thousands of displaced persons and refugees; the victims of civil wars, famine and insecurity.
The first job took me to a small grass air strip (that wasn't in the simulator - so I had to create it beforehand) called Choma in Zambia (FLCH). Since I have not coughed up the v$ to install a GPS in my Skywagon yet, I had to rely on visual navigation and my NAV radios. I had two VORs 90-120NMs South of my destination, so by calculating the cross bearing (previous, hard earned experience has taught me that deviation is quite a significant factor in this part of the world) I manged quite easily to find the general area. Local map showed me a small lake just North of my destination so that helped me spot the airstrip without too much difficulty. The landing was another matter though. The strip was not that long, there was a moderate crosswind and the treeline were very close to the airstrip.
Coming in with full flaps and minimum speed just above the treeline for a crosswind landing.Notice the deer running away across the strip - very close to causing a go-around.
Thankfully, nothing got damaged and I am looking forward to the rest of my adventure. Thank you to the staff and Ricardo for making it possible to combine ACH with FSE and I hope the Skywagon gets added to the hangar soon
ps. I have called ahead to the next major airport I will arrive at (Lushaka intl., Zambia (FLLS)) and warned the local paint shop that I need a blue/white overhaul of the bird so I can fly the ACH-colours.
Cheers and happy landings,
Anders
A short time ago I came back from a rather long real life induced break (work and adding another member to our family had something to do with it) and learned to my great joy, that it was now possible to combine ACH with FSE. I struggled a bit to log on to FSE again, but after sorting that out I quickly joined the ACH group there and subsequently leased my Cessna C185 Skywagon to the group. It is located in central Africa, a remote area of the world where Unicef and other UN agencies are doing a lot of good work. So I thought what better than to fly some charter ops for ACH there.
As my C185 is not yet part of the ACH hangar, I had to change my career back to 'basic' and grab an available DHC-6 from somewhere in Spain. I took the one that had been on the ground longest (and that one had only stood still for about a week - I guess FSE is quite popular in here :- )
My first flight with the Skywagon for ACH was from Kasane, Botswana (FBKE) to Livingstone, Zambia (FLLI) it was a short hop of about 40NM and weather where optimal so I cruised along VFR following the mighty Zambezi river all the way to Victoria Falls, a few miles South of FLLI.
Low level cruising along the Zambezi
Short final approach to FLLI; PAPI lights and asphalt runway is a rare luxury in this part of the world
From Livingstone I grabbed 3 jobs roughly headed in a North-Easterly direction. My intent is to continue this general direction until I reach the Ethiopia / South Sudan area, where there is always a looming humanitarian crisis and various UN and other agencies are doing a great but almost impossible job of alleviating the suffering of countless thousands of displaced persons and refugees; the victims of civil wars, famine and insecurity.
The first job took me to a small grass air strip (that wasn't in the simulator - so I had to create it beforehand) called Choma in Zambia (FLCH). Since I have not coughed up the v$ to install a GPS in my Skywagon yet, I had to rely on visual navigation and my NAV radios. I had two VORs 90-120NMs South of my destination, so by calculating the cross bearing (previous, hard earned experience has taught me that deviation is quite a significant factor in this part of the world) I manged quite easily to find the general area. Local map showed me a small lake just North of my destination so that helped me spot the airstrip without too much difficulty. The landing was another matter though. The strip was not that long, there was a moderate crosswind and the treeline were very close to the airstrip.
Coming in with full flaps and minimum speed just above the treeline for a crosswind landing.Notice the deer running away across the strip - very close to causing a go-around.
Thankfully, nothing got damaged and I am looking forward to the rest of my adventure. Thank you to the staff and Ricardo for making it possible to combine ACH with FSE and I hope the Skywagon gets added to the hangar soon
ps. I have called ahead to the next major airport I will arrive at (Lushaka intl., Zambia (FLLS)) and warned the local paint shop that I need a blue/white overhaul of the bird so I can fly the ACH-colours.
Cheers and happy landings,
Anders