Flight 19 European Vacation

[Willy]

We left Cairo, swung out over the pyramids and then headed up the Nile to Luxor. Great flight with good company.

There was a telegram waiting for me at Luxor. Seems BOAC wants me to fly for them again. Thinking about it. Sure did like that Speedbird Connie.

[Taco]

Howdy!


Just a few snaps of the flight from HECA down to HELX. We flew over the Pyramids at Gisa and then on south over the Step, Slope Pyramids, and over two others that I have forgot their names. In my case it's more than a Senior Moment! Hehe!

[Taco]

Howdy again,

We took a side trip over the Temple ruins at Luxor before landing at the airport.. Now on up the Nile into the darkest of Africa, I think. Darn, another Senior Moment.

[Willy]

Got a better deal. Found out about a DC-6 freighter at Abu Simbel and then found some people who had a B-29 that they needed ferried there. So, I flew that ol' Superfortress up the Nile and collected up my DC-6. She's a little rough looking, but mechanically solid.

[Taco]

Hi again,

Just a few photos from last nights flight. Again, we went ape with taking photos. We landed at HEBL (Abu Simbel), and at the east end of the runways is the temple of Ramses with the large figures of him, and a tribute to his wife. This gigantic temple was raised up from it's original position to a higher level in order to save it from the rising water created by the Aswan Dam.

[Taco]

Hi, hehe,

More pictures, I told you we went crazy with the picture taking on this flight. So far, most of our flights in the Near East and North Africa have been uneventfull, by this I mean we haven't had any problems with Achmed and his camel herding crew who smell like &%$#%....! Again, on both post the pictures are out of order

[Willy]

Didn't have time before takeoff to straighten out that DC-6, so I did a quick trade for a DC-7B freighter. A bit more expensive to operate, but hauls more cargo.

We ended up flying to Merowe Sudan (HSMR).

[Taco]

Just a few pictures.

[Willy]

Ran into a little problem with the Customs authorities about some of the cargo I was carrying in the DC-7 and they decided that they'd seize the aircraft and want $1 million to let it go. I think for that kind of money, they can keep it.

Hmm... Trek Lugdienst is looking for a pilot to ferry a Constellation down to Cape Town. I'm seeing more "bidness" opportunities here. Customs usually don't look as hard at an airliner as they do independent cargo haulers. Just hope that my Dutch can pass off as Afrikaans.

[Willy]

We headed east to the Red Sea coast and HSPN. Nice flight over the desert.

[Taco]

Rgr. on the flight over the desert! This is one great big sand box! After landing at Port Sudan I noticed that the three planes almost took up the whole ramp area. The station people were a little unhappy having these big birds in their yard.

[Willy]

We made the Port Sudan airport people happy by leaving to go to Khartoum. We got chased a bit by Herr Achmed in a Bf 109E soon after take off. Fred was hanging out the door with his shotgun, but the miscreant never got into range of that 10 gauge.

Anyways, it was a great flight full of literary discussion...

[Taco]

Hey there, were moving!

Hey, check out these pictures, one show a pretty young thing becking a fond fairwell to us. Another picture show a car, a 35 or 36 ford, shucks, one like that was my first set of wheels! Yep, we were cruising along drinking our coffee when this here ME109E slipped between us and Willy, from our point of view it looked like Olde Herr Achmed was trying to fly right up Willy's six. Old Dudley was cursing up a storm, kept saying we should have brought a fighter bomber instead of this setting duck! I really think he misses firing those twin 50s. Not a bad flight, we did have some throttle problem on approach and landing, but between the three of us we made a landing without tearing the airplane apart, came in a little hot, heated up the brakes to a bright pretty red. Ditto what Willy posted about the conversations. Interesting! So long until tomorrow.

[Willy]

We left Khartoum for Malakal. Nice flight and the farther we flew, the greener the ground became. Sure beats flying over that sand box...

[Taco]

Just a few crazy snapshots of yesterdays flight.