Originally Posted by bertos
...is the VHF radio ok ur I need a HF in the aircraft to listen to the frequencies if I manage to get there passing through Sudan?
I did the whole trip from Sharm-el-Sheik to Djibouti at altitudes between 11,000 feet and 9,000 feet, and did not need a HF radio at any time. I either had VHF contact with everyone I needed to talk to, or, the controllers just said "goodbye, when you are 70 miles from XXX, call them on 119.8".
I had a HF radio, but didn't bother using it on that sector. The HF radio was useful on the Djibouti to Nairobi sector, but I could have lived without it.
Originally Posted by Agaricus bisporus
...You'll be outside VHF coverage for large parts of those routes. I'd consider HF essential. (at that altitude on the 4-5 hr leg Addis - Nairobi you'll be out of VHF coverage for 3-4 hrs...minimum)
Uh, I'm not so sure that HF is "essential" on that route. I kept getting handed off from one little enroute VHF tower frequency to another when I flew Djibouti to Wilson. There was about an hour when I didn't talk to anyone, but I don't think it is really necessary to talk to people all the time, as long as you have filed a flight plan and you know that the last controller has passed your estimates up the line for you. I tried using HF during one of the 'big quiet spaces' prior to making VHF contact with Kenya, but it was full of people calling Khartoum, etc., so I gave up. When I finally made contact with Kenya by VHF, prior to entering their FIR, the controller was quite nonplussed about the fact that I had not talked to anyone for an hour - she just said "hello", gave me a new transponder code, that that was it.
HF would be helpful, for sure, but I don't think I would call it 'essential'.
Michael