Oldpropfan C2C - Southbound again

[oldpropfan]

After some quick local tours to enjoy the food and wine it's time to mount up again and head off to Bolzano, another hand flying leg.

[oldpropfan]

After a nice sunrise departure and a quick cruise through the foothills made it into Bolzano. Not much weather to speak of, some scattered clouds here and there but good vis during the whole trip. Started my descent a little late and had to do a little slipping to get into the airfield. The Beech slips pretty nicely, 1000 fpm descent with a 85 knot IAS, kick it back out and you're at 500 fpm and 90 knts over the fence. Still makes my palms sweaty every time I have to do it though, means I messed up on the approach to start with and this valley doesn't leave much room for go arounds.

2 hr bonus for landing at Bolzano + 15 min for coming in from a fuel stop.

FlightLog_23-56-50.TXT

Going to take a quick break and then try a quick return to Interlaken while the weather seems to be holding.

[oldpropfan]

Quick refuel and freshen up the coffee and it's time to head back to Interlaken, see if we can get that 2nd bonus for staying under 10000 ft. Will have to come back to Bolzano sometime when we can stay longer, looks like a nice place.

[oldpropfan]

I think that was fun, got kind of lost, even with the maps that we made before hand. Or maybe it was because of the maps. I'm sure I was holding them right side up. Anyway, only almost soiled myself 2 or 3 times as I had to throw the Beech on it's wingtip to slide between peaks, and now we're safe and sound at Interlaken again. Think we might take a little rest here and see a nice doctor about some more of those happy pills.

15 min bonus for flight from LIPB to LSMI plus 15 min for staying under 10000 ft.

FlightLog_02-02-21.TXT

It's been an enjoyable tour through the Alps but it's definitely time to be heading south again.

[Moses03]

Well, the bonus was for staying under 12,000', not 10,000'. Maybe you should qualify for an extra bonus. Nice job regardless.

[oldpropfan]

12000 ft? That's ok, it made for some fun flight planning and interesting flying to try and stay under 10000 ft. Don't know how I got locked on the lower altitude. Good doctor has us all set and it's time to leave Interlaken and head back to Lyon for one last short hand flown flight.

[oldpropfan]

Fairly quick and painless flight and we're back in Lyon. Don't know what it is about this place but it has the worst turbulence and gusty winds I've run into yet, same thing first time I came through here. Quick break to load up on coffee and jabon beurre baguettes then we head on to Marseille to pickup the mail bags before we hit Africa.

FlightLog_23-28-03.TXT

Already flew this route in the opposite direction so I don't know if I get to bonus again for flying it back out of Interlaken. Won't claim one till I hear the commitee's decision.

[oldpropfan]

And we are down in Marseille, head winds are getting worse, hit up to approx 35 knt on the way down. While the people at the Poste get their act together it's time to get out and enjoy everything the town has to offer, then hope we can find our way back to the airfield to sleep it off.

FlightLog_01-15-00.TXT

The mysteries and legends of the dark continent are singing their songs, drawing us onward, next stop will be in Algeria.

[oldpropfan]

Time to wrap up the fun in Marseille and make the hop across the pond. Departing for Oran, Algeria. Africa here we come. Carrying 400 lbs mail for the nice people at the Poste, going to go around the long way.

[oldpropfan]

An uneventful flight, only light headwinds this time out. Plotted to make landfall east of Oran so I could follow the coast in and it worked as planned.

FlightLog_03-30-13.TXT

[oldpropfan]

Time to move on after volunteering to do some relief work running refugees from a not to named wartorn country. Departing Oran, with mail still safely on board, for Casablanca.

[oldpropfan]

Had to descend through the soup but finally broke through about 1800 ft, turned out over the Med and back around for a straight in approach. Off to see a certain expat about a bar and something about a falcon.

FlightLog_00-27-28.TXT

[oldpropfan]

Ending our wonderful visit to Casablanca and moving on to GMMH in the Spanish Sahara.

[oldpropfan]

Made it in in one piece although we almost missed the airfield. Was almost on top of it and had to make a spiralling descent from 10000 ft. Wind shifts here on the coast are crazy, makes it hard to line up good approach. A quick break and then it's on to Dakar.

FlightLog_18-37-57.TXT

[oldpropfan]

Arrived in Dakar, nice flight on the way down but not much to see, blue out one side and tan out the other. Decided to stay lower than normal and think I actually found tailwinds, it's about time. Going to offload the mail for the Poste people, find a cantina, then hit the rack. Tomorrow we figure out our plan from here, maybe see how long a leg we can stretch out before we get down to fumes in the tanks. Four hour bonus for running mail from Marseille to Dakar.

FlightLog_23-46-17.TXT