PRB C2C Southbound

[PRB]

Made it to HKKI!

[PRB]

Last DR leg. Long one too, at almost 600 miles. But with several major terrain features along the way, navigation was easy. Well, sort of easy. The towering mass of Mt. Speke was visible from a long way out. I slid a bit south to avoid the tallest part, skirted the northern tip of Lake George, then headed north a wee bit to pick up my first check point, the airport at Kasese (HUKS). From there we continued east to Entebbe, then on to HKKI. Ran into more thunderstorms over Lake Victoria. Still couldn't catch a lightning bolt on the camera. Kodaks: 1: This was Bangoka International (FZIC), just a couple of minutes after departure from FZIA. I thought it looked cool. 2: Mt. Speke looms. 3: Entebbe! 4: Over Lake Victoria. That's one big friggin lake. Got my ADF receiver back from Miss Nellie's minions too...

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?detail=flight&value=68IlEmW7O2Zx0gb e96XCK7tX8E

[Dil52]

Nice job Paul, your description brought back all the memories of that particular DR flight.

I've also wasted a lot of film attempting to catch a lightening bolt.

[PRB]

Thanks Fred! I've managed to get one good lightning bolt shot since FS2004 was released!

Made this flight yesterday, when the SOH servers were down for maintenance. A fun and interesting flight to Nairobi. The terrain is pretty darned high around there. I was up to 11,500 to keep a comfortable distance away from “the edge of the air.” On final approach I got a good shot of Ol Doninyo Lengai, or, “The Mountain of God” in the langauge of the Maasai. It's an odd volcano that erupts roofing tar instead of lava, if you can believe that. That's what my National Geographic magazine said. The one with the map I'm using to get around these parts.

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFli...H5zSizftFDusUI

[Willy]

National Geographic! In the Tillman book on the SBD Dauntless, he describes the planning for an attack on Tulagi just day or so before the battle of Coral Sea. They didn't have a map or any info on it until someone found a copy of National Geographic onboard with a map and pictures. They found Tulagi and successfully attacked it.

[PRB]

I remember reading an account of that someplace. Wasn't Tillman's book, which I think I have but haven't read. Amazing how little we knew of the places we had to fight over in 1942! I hope to finish off this HooHaa this weekend. BBQ will probably be all gone by the time I arrive. Beer too...

[PRB]

HTMB!

[PRB]

This was a fun flight. Right up until the wheels touched down on the grass runway out there at Mbeya, but I'll get to that in a minute. Once again there were large terrain features to navigate by, giant lakes and huge volcanoes. This plane seems to track right of selected course for some reason. Not sure what that's about. Probably my mediocre navigation gonculation skills have more to do with this phenomenon than a bent rudder or some such. The ADF station at HTMB must be a very long range one because I picked it out 20-30 minutes out. However, the grass runway was difficult to pick out and I flew right over it without seeing it. Only knew I was “there” when the ADF needle spun around suddenly. I banked the Lockheed into a steep left turn, opened the window, saw the runway down there, chopped power, slowed to gear and flap speed, hung the junk out, dived and turned for a down wind leg and left hand pattern. I was still high when I came over the fence, and I was probably getting a bit cocky after all these successful legs with no crashes. One thing about the Lockheed 12, she will treat you right if you respect her. If not, well, she'll try to kill you. I hit hard, bouncing back high into the air. Goosed the power in an attempt to “soften” the inevitable second blow, and it worked, sort of. Enough to avoid a serious mishap anyway. We made it.

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFli...jqiTYrQLIjSwFU

[PRB]

Going to FLKW.

[PRB]

An uneventful flight across Zambia to the airport at Kabwe, sight of the old Broken Hill mine. There isn't a lot going on at the field, a small gravel strip outside of town. I parked under a big tree. Got the camp fire going for the night. Hope there's no lions about...

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFli...SZGutYfht7InoQ

[PRB]

To FAGM.

[PRB]

Down safe at FAGM. One leg to go.

[PRB]

Headed for the Cape.

[Willy]

Good Luck Paul! I'm on my way to the finish line on the other end.

[PRB]

Thanks Willy. I think I got blowed off course a bit. Was watching the Indy-500 and came back to a 24 knot cross wind. Oops. At least this leg is to the coast, so I should be able to figure where I'm at. Still got my National Geographic map with me...