Gaborone livingstone

[mkenya]

Am planning a flight in a south african registered C 172 Tdi over the weekend from Gaborone direct to Livingstone Zambia.
I would really appreciate any useful information. What are the landing and approach fees I should expect to pay. And any backpacker lodges I can stay in there?
Any contact numbers I can use to request the entry clearance to zambia?
One more question. When crossing the border from Botswana To Zambia. Can I overfly Zim directly due south of livingstone or I have to fly west to kasane then approach the airport from the west?
My return flight on sunday will take me via Maun then gaborone then finally to lanseria.
Any useful info much appreciated.

[126,7]

You want to fly this weekend and have not yet applied for a clearance for Zambian airspace and don't know who to contact for a clearance either? Thats pretty good pre planning on your side! If you want to fly directly to Livingstone over Zimbabwe, then you need a clearance for Zimbabwe as well.

[mkenya]

I need to apply at least 24 hours before entry.
Go check your notes again. Any one with useful info?
I've decided not to overfly zim. Aint contributing any revenue to uncle Bob's coffers

[126,7]

I need to apply at least 24 hours before entry.

Ok, so go and apply on Friday some time and see how far you get. Who is going to issue your permit after office hours on Friday afternoon? You might get lucky if you can get your application in early in the morning. Now your 24 hour prior departure equates to an 8 hour working day. Subtract lunch and tea and you have 6 hours in which to get the permit. That is if you want to fly this weekend.
Good luck with that, seeing that you don't even know where to start.

PS. I have done A LOT of permits in my time. If you want somebody professional to do your permit, expect to pay around US$100. There are a multitude of companies who perform these services. Can't help you with approach, navigation, landing or parking fees or accommodation. You should've checked that out before the trip too, not while you're doing the walk around.

[kingofbotswana]

Geez

126,7 , you are such a tosser.

All the oke wants is some help.

[cavortingcheetah]

Although one might dream of being quite as rude to someone on Pprune as that; it is to be hoped that good manners would always prevent such an outrageous, defamatory and probably totally unjustified comment.
It might also have been more judicious, given that the weekend in question has passed, to see whether the intrepid aviator himself returned to these pages to regale us with the ease of his exploits. Such a short history of flight would have been a far more gentle reminder to other writers that some flight planning pilot did check the notes beforehand than the aforementioned dastardly comment which in the days of not so very long ago would have lead to pistols at dawn.
In the reference to pistols, one is of course referring to hand tooled ones made of metal, propelling from their muzzles solid projectiles rather than any other type of duelling weapon of, generally at the least, a softer material, which the rambling imaginations of a deranged aviator might conjure up on an otherwise quite boring afternoon.

[Farrell]

I can't wait to get a job flying in Africa!

[126,7]

Botking
You just joined pprune to give me some lip with your first post? Nobody has ever done that before.

To get back to our mkenya friend: I did help him. Read my post again. The chap was planning a short notice hop into Zambian sovereign airspace and had just now thought of getting the permit. My tone might have been a little brusque, but his lack of planning, the belief that he had enough time to get the permit and of course his telling me to check my notes again, was the catalyst.

Thanks again for joining pprune.

[Farrell]

I have to agree with our "freqy friend" here.

If people put the same amount of time into properly planning flights, as they do fantasising about them and bumbling into the sky, then they'd be a lot safer.

Well, at least he asked......better than getting shot down or going on CNN for spying on Robert.

[cavortingcheetah]

Poor chap hasn't reported back in yet and would appear to be somewhat overdue? Let us hope that he has not come to a sticky end in the crocodile pool.
On reflection, it occurs to one that it is rather bad manners to seek advice and then to disdain such as comes one's way if it is either not to one's liking or if one feels somewhat slighted thereby.
But then again, not all of us had the advantages in life that come from having flown in an era when we were polite to air traffic controllers.