PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Maurice Kirk is in Africa
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Old 14th Dec 2016, 11:55
  #313 (permalink)  
9 lives
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Canada
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Yes, Jetblu, I flew as second pilot (though happily mostly left seat) Rotterdam to Maseru in a Twin Otter years back, so I have an idea about flying in Africa. I did much of the flight planning, and local negotiations for fuel, parking, and getting our bags to the hotel.

I am also extremely experienced in getting damaged planes back to civilization, as in Canada, when you crash a plane, it is required that the wreckage be removed (no littering), so I have ferried out, or carried out a number of planes which had been damaged in remote areas - usually floatplanes with water landing damage. When I have ferried damaged planes out, I have usually had the advantage of fellow pilots flying nearby as I do it, and many landing choices along the way if things change for the worse. We used to recover aircraft for their scrap value, with the insurance company paying us to go in and clean up the mess, and keep the scrap. Otherwise they would receive a bigger bill from the government doing it for them.

Judging from the photo, that Cub is not safe to be ferry flown anywhere. Unlike Canada, I expect that if Mr. Kirk simply abandons it where it is, no one will care. I suspect that if he attempts to fly it, he will do so with much too little support to be safe.

As unkind a thing as it is to state, Mr. Kirk will be most safe, if he returns to his Cub to find it stripped to a skeleton. He can then go home safely, knowing that he had done his best against insurmountable odds.
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