Flight 19 Across the Sandbox

[Taco]

hiya!

Hey! The mighty Flight 19 took off from Geneina (HSGN) and onwards towards EL Fashir, (HSFS) the El is sometimes mentioned as AL, all in the country of Sudan, Old Dudley said we just might expect some trouble from some of the local clans. Knowing Dudley would sure like to have a problem or two with the local. Then he could dig out his machine guns from our smuggling hiding place. Now me, no way Jose! The ATC mentioned that 7,000 feet altitude until we cross over this here mountain range I guess. Our Texas buddy Moses called us and said he was going in at 6,000 feet. Of course we mentioned that we sure would like to see all the dents and scratch's on his belly, I think are meaning was the planes bottom. hehe. I'll be darn he made it to HSFS without a ding or anything. Our next flight will be HSFS to HSNH. So we will see you there.

Picture: Showing the DC-6A and the Douglas C-117, I think Moses was a little camera shy! Missed him in the picture.

 

[Taco]

Howdy, The flight from HSFS to HSNH was kind of uneventful with the exception of the airport at El Nahud, HSNH. It is short around 3600 feet and made up of gravel, so this is going to be very interesting for the DC-6. Tried to bring her in short or close to the end of the runway, hit the runway and threw on the reverse and held on. Wow! everything is cool we made it. To make thing a little worst we needed to dump some fuel in order to get down to our landing weight. Now the idea it to be able to fly out, just hopping these here folks don't have so much stuff that it would again place us on weight.


Pictures: I caught our wild friend from the big state of Texas with the camera and finally got his picture. hehe. The next picture is of all of us at the airport HDNH.

 

[Taco]

Hi Folks,

Well hehe, back for some R/L issues, and hoping this was it for some time to come. Now with the story, Right or wrong I believe Flight 19 will be heading from El Nagud to Renk, both in the Sudan. Should have a takeoff on Monday. Hope to see you there.

 

[Taco]

Hello! All.

Flight 19 finally got to take off, after a long wait in order to get our travel papers in order, and believe me these folks work on a time frame that is hard to believe, hehe, from us folks from around the Southwest in the good old USA it wou would be called working on Navajo time which there isn't to bad. It was still a good time to do some TLC on the aircraft. when the paper work finally came we sure didn't let any grass grow under foot and got the heck into the air from El Nahud, and headed towards Renk. Now both aircraft were carrying some funny cargo! Hehe, in essence, we needed to hire some fellows to wash out parts of the cargo area with the water from the White Nile, and after the wash out we left the Plane's doors open in order to get rid of the bloody smell. Hehe, enough of our problems flying across the big sand box, Here we go, we should be leaving Renk, Sudan and heading towards, and hopefully we make it, Mendi, Ethiopia. Just where old Dudley may get his wish and mix it up with some of the bad guys, me a nice room, good food and no problems for a change! Lots of luck on that one. See you later, we hope!

 

[Taco]

Well Howdy!

Flight 19 was preparing for our flight to Mendi, Ethiopia, and it started raining cats and dogs here at Renk, Sudan. Now the problem, Mendi has a dirt runway around 4000 feet, and if it is raining there the landings may get a little spooky, hehe slip and slide off of the runway. We kept track of the weather all the way, and hoping that Mendi runway is dry! The overall weather was head wings, bouncing in all directions, boy, sure glad we didn't have on board the cargo like we had going into Renk, shucks, we just got rid of all the nasty flumes, and don't really feel like cleaning the bloody thing again. To our well deserved surprise the runway was pretty close to be dried harder than concrete. Well, we all made it and thanks for this plane having a reverse in order to slow down, now for the unloading and reloading we should be on our way to HAGN.

Please note in the picture that there is green grass instead of the brown sand. hehe luck was with us again

 

[Taco]

Me Uncle Sam!

Hi there!

We being of flight 19 prepared and finally got clearance to depart Mendi, and blast off to Gonder. Now if you have told me, before we ended up in Ethiopia, that they had a lot of rain I would told you you were smoking the wrong cigarettes. On our flight to Mendi we had some rain, no biggie, but going to Gonder It rained like heck, and ground control told before landing that very heavy rains were over the Airport. Quoting flight 19 famous words, "what the heck lets do it." Things on this junket actually been fair compared to some of our flight, but here at Gonder the wind flew in the wrong direction! Word came through that we needed to set-up new flight plans for some major changes that have occurred. Here we go again, we more than likely are being ordered to fly some special cargo to someone who doesn't want to be known. So boys, get your weapons ready may end up in a small war. Hehe, just guessing on changes.

Met a few Yankees here and we decided to have a little party to celebrate the USA 4th of July, So don't wake me early, I may have a bad hangover and wake up in a bad mood! hehe

 

[Taco]

Oops, forgot we will be down until Friday, you all have a nice holiday.

Flight 19

 

[srgalahad]

Finally, the lab in Addis Ababa got around to processing the film I dropped off, but they were nice enough to send the results by courier (pidgeon?).
It seems that the further east we go, the higher the ground rises, making for some interesting arrivals and departures in weary aircraft.

The C-74 finally ran out of hours but it worked out well. After dropping some strange boxes in a far corner of the Sudan, we launched for Addis Ababa in a well-kept surplus L-749 although the EAL crews kept eyeing it and muttering about aircraft shortages...

Amazing to thing of this much rain in sub-Saharan Africa but we've been dodging cloud and showers for the last few days.

 

[Taco]

Hey There! We have just been bouncing along over the eastern part of Africa. Yesterday we left Dire Daua, Sudan and end up in Berbera, Somalia. I sure thought we made a wrong turn along somewhere, maybe oh you know. This coming flight is, of course leaving Berbera, Somalia and pointing the noses 82 degrees toward Erigaro (HCMU) again in Somalia. As far as I am concern the sooner we get out of Dodge the better, these folks are still shooting all kinds of folks. Ah....Shucks, I forgot we have one more flight here in Somalia. Then me and Dudley are going to bogie out of here!

 

[Moses03]

Northern Somalia. Lots of desolation.

 

[Taco]

Hi folks,

No pictures! Some dirty bugger decided they needed the camera more than Dudley and I. I sure hope they have a heck of a time to find film. hehe. With any kind of luck we should be out of Somalia some time tomorrow, at least we are hoping so. As soon as the cargo that is suppose to be here arrives we should be able to load up and get the heck out of Dodge, Oh, I said that before! OK the next and last flight for us is as follows. HCMU Erigavo to HCMC Candala, Somalia.


Hehe, so far we haven't been bother by any of the Bad Guys, thankfully! See you all later.

 

[Taco]

Howdy all!

Yesterday was the last cargo flight into Somalia, thank goodness! The flight between Erigavo to Candala was uneventful with the exception of the weather, rather the wind kept the 6 bouncing up and then down, but even with the bouncing we had a nice tail wind and in order to hold our chosen GS we actually ran a wee bit under the normal numbers which was nice for a change. Now here is something, we are carrying a very large amount of farm equipment, hehe, our landing airport was way out in the bonnie which was mostly desert. I'll bet a few bucks that we were really carrying certain things that would help their rebellion, and sure isn't farm equipment. I had problem seeing the runway which was shot sort of and dirt. I finally made it in OK locked the brakes and opened all the cargo doors as fast as possible in order to get these fellows to unload in a hurry! Closed up everything and rush up to the cockpit and put some fire in the engine and got the heck out of here fast. The most fun thing was we were able to blow dust all over the folks from the prop wash. hehe Have enough fuel to get into the Sudan and refuel, get some chow, coffee and what ever, and head for home. We of Flight 19 have had some narrow escape on our adventure, but this one was a pistol. Stay tuned for more of the famous Fiight 19,

Picture, the DC6A with the balls to the wall!

 

[srgalahad]

Ahhh.. scenic Somalia... desert dust blowing out to sea, high cliffs overlooking the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, sandy beaches ideal for launching RIB speedboats...

Candala could be a site for a great resort, but unfortunately investment has been limited by certain unpleasantnesses. Maybe some of the 'pirates' could be hired to provide the tourists with watersports and security for the resort. Maybe I'll call my banker if I get out in one piece.

Meanwhile, a load of cargo to deliver.