PRB C2C Southbound

Headed down the coast to Libreville (FOOL). It would be pretty hard to screw up the navigation on this one. I could probably manage it, if I tried real hard. Thunderstoms haven't let up much from when we landed here for gas.
 
Stormy along the coast between Douala and Libreville. Biggish thunderstorms. Didn't Henshaw mention this? You don't suppose it's same storm, do you? Like the "Great Red Spot" on Jupiter, it never goes away?
 
Down and safe at Kinshasa (FZAB). What a trip. About 45 minutes out from the coast the thunder-bangers eased up and I figured I was done with that stuff for the leg. I figured wrong. About 30 miles from Kinshasa, more thunder-boomer activity. And I almost landed at Brazzaville too, but then checked the map and realized I needed to be on the other side of the river... On top of all that, I went into the hangar to ckeck in, and when I returned to my plane noticed that Miss Nellie's minions had already removed my ADF receiver, since, as they said, I "wouldn't be needing it for the next segment". Very efficient, Miss Nellie's minions. Kodaks to follow.
 
Thanks Mike. Here's a couple pics from the flight to Kinshasa. I tried to get a shot of a lightning bolt, but failed. There sure were lots of them.
 
This was an interesting leg. I thought it would be easy, but a 530 mile DR leg is never easy. By the time I hit the “Big River”, I was 60 miles east of track. I don't understand how this could have happened, since I was taking regular “DR plots” with the E-6B, and carefully calculating drift angle. It worked perfectly on the 700 mile leg to GAGO. Maybe I was getting cocky. That will get you every time. In any case, when I hit the Congo, I noticed the tributary coming from the north,which should have been near FZFC. That didn't make any sense, but soon enough I spotted that airport, and then FZFU at Bumba. So there was no longer any question where I was. I turned west, and found FZGA right where it was supposed to be. At least the weather was nice.

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?detail=flight&value=5YhOZBfTAMdMbxusmz6e6k4EqmQ

 
Headed for HKKI to end the second DR segment. Lake Victoria is pretty big. One would have to work pretty hard to miss that, right?
 
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=68IlEmW7O2Zx0gbe96XCK7tX8E
 
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.
 
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/ShowFlight.php?detail=flight&value=lpSISlHWt7YKH5zSizftFDusUI


 
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.
 
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