Off to DAOO with some mail. The gross weight is now 4690 lbs. vs the usual 4490 lbs.

After careful consideration and all things being taken into account, I believe I’ll, take to the sky less traveled by and haul some mail down to Dakar. Besides, it’s more scenic than flying for hours over sand dunes, camels and banditos. I’d venture to guess that an emergency landing along the coasts of the Med. or Atlantic Ocean would be much safer than one beside a dessert tent or an oasis in the Sahara.


First on the list of stops is a nice flight across the MediterraneanSea to DAOO – Oran, Algeria. I have a friend who is from near there and we cansit and talk old stories over a couple of brewskis or so.


I need to keep the flight legs rather short in the Gamma as she’sa bit like a dragster…………fast off the line, eats a lot of fuel, and is hard to stop. In her defense, she trims nicely, except in turbulence and around mountain ridges. When the wind (breeze) is steady she’ll climb for a hundred feet than descend for a hundred feet then climb for 200 feet and descent 200 feet. Slowly the oscillations increase until such time that you need to calm her down and start all over again...........plenty of time to grab a cup of Joe or a sarsaparilla.

Starting the flights at dawn and hope to get the mail to Dakar by dark. We have a lot of express (one day delivery) mail on board.......kind of like the today's modern era service........not!
Hope to see everyone in Léopoldville for some VFR flights over the Congo.