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Old 1st Jul 2008, 21:17
  #82 (permalink)  
chuks
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Germany
Age: 76
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African ATC!

I was going into Sokoto, Nigeria one afternoon, the only airplane within 100 miles, I think.

I had called within range and passed my estimates. Then I called again ten miles out and again on short final. About then the tower lost power and went onto some crummy little battery-powered radio, so that the controller couldn't really make out much except that some airplane was calling on the tower frequency. Now who might that be?

Sherlock there was shouting down his radio insisting that the mystery aircraft identify itself when all he would have had to do was to look out the big windows to see my Cessna there all lit up on final, right on ETA!

Another time we were waiting in the VIP waiting room there for our passengers, when my Nigerian co-pilot decided to use the toilet. Unfortunately for him, he chose the one that was reserved for the VVIP, the Sultan or Emir or Sardauna or whatever he was called, so that the surly custodian locked the door while he was in there!

Some time later I wondered what had become of him, so that I went looking, when I heard muffled cries of distress emanating from the V.V.I.P. B.O.G. Once we had negotiated his release a heated discussion ensued between the custodian and the co-pilot, who happened to be a minor prince from Yorubaland. That cut no ice with this fellow from Sokoto, of course, when it came to defiling the holy of holies at the airport!
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