Yes, we just came back. It was awsome!
I kept a diary of the flight and I'll post something here once it's finalised.
For a start, many thanks to all the Ppruners who gave me tips, sent me plates (ATAR), etc.
In a nutshell - 14 of us in 5 aircrafts (3 DR400, 2 HR200). experience: from the 20 hour student to the 5000 hour chief pilot. Most people in the 200 hour range. All PPLs or students. No IR rated pilots
Day 1: LFPD to Perpignan. We "visited" the Loire Chateaux on the way.
Much talk and jokes on our "company" frequency: 123.45
Day 2: Perpignan - Almeria (fuel stop). No problem flying down Spain. The controlers don't want to talk to you unless you are 50nm from a major airport.
One of the DR400 lands in Almeria without clearance. Big bollocking!
Take off to Tanger. No Problem
Breakfast in France, lunch in Spain, Dinner in Morocco!!
Day 3: Tanger - Agadir (fuel stop)
We fly the VFR route around Rabat. One of the HR100 misses one of the reporting points and gets too close to Mohammed V airport for confort. Another bollocking and 123.45 gets very quiet!
We cannot raise Casa Radar. Our calls are relayed by an Air France flight
Agadir - Laayoune (2 hour flight)
Bummer. A temporary military restricted area put in place above Tan Tan. Would mean going far out at sea. Low ceiling.
We take off and follow the coast. the ceiling comes down to the top of the hills. We cannot go inland. We decide to fly the leg all the way at 500ft along the coast. Straight through the P zone, no radio, no transponder, etc. (they must have been wondering what those 5 low flying aircrafts were up to!)
We fly past Cap Juby (where St Exupery was Aeropostale's representative. No wonder he wrote all these books. There is not much to do there). We look for the Tarfaya airfield, we cannot find it.
We get to Laayoune (south Morocco) without problems. Laayoune is full of UN troops - they all drive brand new huge 4X4. Waste of money these people!
3 russian UN Antonovs on the tarmac.
Day 4: Laayoune - Nouhadibou (fuel stop)
Flight over desert. really beautifull. It gets quite hot in the planes
Nouhadibou - St Louis
Great flight over flamingoes and other wildlife.
We stay at the hotel de la poste in St louis (aeropostale hotel). Pictures of planes, signed pictures of Mermoz and St Exupery everywhere in the hotel. Pilot's paradise.
Day 5: St Louis - Dakar
That morning, Senegal won the World cup match. Madness to get to the airport.
One hour flight to Dakar. We decide to fly in lose formation along the coats at 500 ft. Great flight over fishermen's villages, etc.
On arrival in Dakar I realise I nearly ran a fuel tank dry. Would have been quite a show running out of fuel on finals after having come all this way!!
We taxi out of the runway and the ATC asks us to "hold position". Half an hour later we are still there: the President is boarding his plane to go to Korea for his team's next World Cup match.
Day 6: rest day
Day 7: Dakar - ATAR
Atar is in the middle of the Mauritanian desert. No following the coast there. The weather gets a bit freaky (hot, foggy). The viz gets pretty bad. ATAR is a military airport in a valley beetwen two rather tall mountains! Instrument flying for the last hour. I think this is the most difficult flight I ever did. I did not know what was coming.
The heat outside is crazy (45 to 50 Degrees C)
We end the day refuelling from 200 litter drums with a ridiculous little pumpt
Day 8: ATAR - Laayoune
The viz is real bad. We cannot see the mountains. We had soldiers guarding the planes. We will realise upon arrival in Laayoune that thoses bastards siphoned fuel out of the planes. This could have been disastrous.
The air force pilot do not think we should take off in this poor viz. I have mixed feelings.
We take off and decide to circle up into the overhead to clear the mountains. 5 a/c doing this is a bit crazy but we do it anyway.
We are stuck at FL95 with no viz. Sand storm below, heat fog above, no clouds on top. No bloody visual references. Two hours on the Artificial Horizon. This is no practice with an instructor sitting next to me and this is the worse flight in my life. The heat is almost unbearable. I am woundering why the hell I got involved in this trip!!
Two hours later the weather clears out. I give controls to the right seat chap ... and I fall asleep in the P1 seat. Never happened to me before!
Land in Laayoune without problems. We get shredded that evening!!
Day 9: Laayoune - Essaouira ( lunch, fuel stop)
Nice flight. airliners keep asking Agadir if there is and air race, because of the 5 F reg a/c coming on the frequency.
Essaouira - Marrakech
No problem except with these idiots in Marakech who won't take dollars or Euros in exchange of fuel. We waste two hours there.
Day 10: rest day
Day 11: Marrakech - Almeria
The controler ask 3 of us to line up. An airliner who is still a bit far complains and says that he thought landing A/c had priority over departing ones. The controler tells him to shut up, to take up the hold and wait. He did wait for a while!!!
FL85 over Malaga with lots of departing heavy iron passing underneath.
Almeria - Ampuria Brava (north Spain)
Boring flight. We chat to Barcelona control about the football.
Day 12: Ampuria Brava - LFPD
at FL110 on top. Thank god it clears up befor we get to LFPD.
Conclusion:
Too amazing and great to describe. 50hours in the log book over 12 days. How am I going to have fun now doing the 100£ run? I am going to have to take up aerobatics or something