You Know You Are In Africa When.....
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Sydney, Australia
Age: 55
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avfactor
Seeing that name (Charles Viviers) reminded me of stories I heard from my step father - Robert "Bob" Brannon. He mentioned "old Charlie" in numerous anecdotes of his time in Africa. Bob flew B26 and T28s and then with Charlie flying the mighty BN2A Islander fish spotting. Thousands of hours at 500 feet over the sea. At night. Amazing stuff. Bob passed away a couple of years ago.
Seeing that name (Charles Viviers) reminded me of stories I heard from my step father - Robert "Bob" Brannon. He mentioned "old Charlie" in numerous anecdotes of his time in Africa. Bob flew B26 and T28s and then with Charlie flying the mighty BN2A Islander fish spotting. Thousands of hours at 500 feet over the sea. At night. Amazing stuff. Bob passed away a couple of years ago.
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: A little south of the "Black Sheep" brewery
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A delightful story that I heard about Charlie from an 'old and bold' DC3 pilot who had flown Constellations from Sao Tome into Biafra during that war. All their ops were at night to avoid interception as the Nigerians had very poor, or non-existent, night interception capabilities. (Limited runway lights in Biafra would be turned on when they were on short final and turned off on touchdown.) Charlie was then on the Nigerian side flying MiGs and was one of the few who flew (or could fly?) at night, so he would be sent of to 'patrol' to intercept air traffic going into Biafra. He always flew with his nav lights on. 'Behind the scenes' a common frequency had been passed on between him and that Constellation pilots (who were largely his ex-colleagues from the SAAF). When any of the Constellation pilots saw nav lights above, they would quickly call on that frequency "**ck Off, Charlie" and then watch the nav lights turn away from them...
The Dutch pilot of your (Cessna 210) charter from Khartoum to Nyala, 30 minutes out of Khartoum, sets the auto pilot, pushes his seat back, puts his feet up on the instrument panel coaming and says “wake me in a couple of hours”!
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Netherlands
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NBO – HRE KQ flight as a passenger about a decade ago. Felt a soft but clear push in my back at rotation so I explained my neighbor (US Marine) that we were going back. After circling for about 20 minutes around town and being catered for a couple of more hours at the ground we boarded the same 737-800 again. Of course some passengers were a little stressed and exited. During taxiing out I suddenly heard a sharp hissing sound and was starting to accept that I might have to stay overnight. It appeared that a couple of rows away from us two smartly dressed middle-aged gentlemen were standing, both with yellow life-jackets on, one inflated. The purser came to them and calmly explained that it was not necessary to rehearse the in-flight safety demonstration.
