Luanda Airport and hell...
 

...............

First time in Africa then...?:E

TIA.......(This is Africa)
 

They call it AFRICA MENTALITY...........:ugh::ugh::ugh:

Well, points for consistency (consistently idiotic at least) - it hasn't changed over the last four years then....

Your perfectly logical point about presidential idiocy, money, fixing NAV aids etc is irrelevant, because this is Africa.

This thing happens all over west africa. You'll soon start to carry extra fuel for the wife and kids. :}

Why does every tin-pot African leader do this? George W Bush closes airports everywhere he goes, but at least he is the Leader of the "free world".

Not true - I flew out of Heathrow when Bush was there and the airport remained open. Likewise when the British PM travels, Heathrow doesn't close.
Unlike in Africa where the problem is twofold. 1) African leaders have an inflated opinion of their importance in the world and 2) They don't give a rats @#$% about who they inconveniance, the financial cost, or how their actions impact on flight safety.
These little tin pot dictators seemingly have no concept of how stupid their actions appear to the civilised world.
The concept of 'embarassment' for ones idiotic actions or utterances doesn't seem to feature in African culture. Why is that?

The problem for these dictators is that very few of them are actually elected and thus fear for their lives and so proceed to close off every highway within a 20 mile radius of their convoy and the airport. They must sleep very well at night knowing that the population adores them!!! Oh no wait, they don't give a rats ass, cause the only people they think about are themselves.The worst I ever saw was Sam Nojomo at a small little airfield in Namibia. He must have had a convoy of about 20 black mercs preceded and followed by I don't know how many Gun laden pick ups. I must emphasise that this was a little airfield in the middle of nowhere.

Forget logic on this continent. Just look at SA. There the "people" voted for a corrupt, philandering rapist who takes a shower to cure the AIDS after sex as their next party president!

Luanda
 

The best thing about operating out of Luanda as always is V1 and hope you don't lose a donkey!

not the first time..
 

..............

What most people don't know is that these african state presidents all learned their habits of closing the airport 30 min before dep until airborne, from the british rulers during colonial times.
Granted the movements were not quite the same, and holding a piston vs a jet uses way more fuel.

Now if we can only un-learn them something.
Atleast mdeki hasn't picked up on that trick!

Povlov comes to mind

In Harare, 3 a/c put in hold, by app, at the same time at the same alt (below MSA) due to VIP traffic??? :mad:

By the way did I mention ZS reg a/c low on fuel trying to land at the same time??:confused:

Aha, well then.......nothing has changed since 1995.... Eish.

Snotneus- That's rubbish about the British colonials. They did not close airports for VIP movements. There were no VIP aircraft and Governors travelled on scheduled flights or the occasional DC 3 type domestic charter with the minimum of formality.

congoman,

I flew out of Heathrow (my home base) a few days ago and ALL traffic on the ground was stopped from moving for nearly an hour until Air Force One and its chimp of a passenger ('Jawge Dubbya Bush') had actually landed and shutdown. Bush, too, is a tin-pot dictator who rigged the elections to get into the ****ehou ......., sorry, Whitehouse, like most African despots.

I think airports being shut down is a mark of a dictator :-)

Who cares about the SLF and the freight dogs with deadlines... I AM THE PRESIDENT *said in a bad accent* :-)

Someone else expressed a lot of surprise that certain European countries send their senior officials on scheduled flights in F or C and I know that one of the African royals caused a stink on an AF flight nine years ago because they demanded to fly in F or C and all people with those tickets got bumped.

It's not unusual.

S.

deeceethree

Virtually ALL politicians are scumbags INMHO. But at least George dubja has a functional economy. More than what can be said for Mugabe's Zimbabwe and many other countries in Africa isn't it? :yuk: And maybe Heathrow delayed a few departures but how many aircraft were refused to land? Much safer having a delay on the ground than in the air! :ok:
When last did you chew your fingernails in the hold over Harare, Gaberones, Luanda, Lusaka, Maputo or Entebe? Over the years I've sat in the hold over all of them, waiting for some banana republic goon while he waves goodbye to his "rent a crowd."
Democracy isn't perfect but at least in the west and in europe there's an electorate that gets rid of bad performers - unlike in Africa where they consistantly vote them back in. :uhoh:
Viva democracy viva! but only God will remove me from power...

Congoman,

Whilst I might be at LHR now, I was born and raised in the wilds of Africa and have experience of flying around some of the s4iteholes you mention .....:rolleyes:

Well then, you would know that an African Tin Pot Dictator is in a vastly different league to dictators in other parts of the world. A fact that I doubt the die-hard liberals of the world realised a few years ago. Hope they're happy now...:yuk:

Hey deeceethree - I'm in DR Congo right now, and have been for the last 2.5 years. Tell me why, if America is such a dictatorship, how virtually every Congolese person would love a US passport. You really don't know fortunate we are in the west until you have lived amidst the filth/unemployment/mininal life improvement hope that makes up the country that these unfortunate people call home.
Double shame on you as since you claim to have lived in challenging parts of Africa, you should understand that better. Oh yes - you were probably part of the elite colonial upper-class, who dined on $25 filet mignon entrees while the waiter who served you didn't even have running water at home. You probably had about 15 servants at home, lived a life of leisure, playing tennis at the Belgian club, and you parents probably had lucrative jobs from foreign resource exploiting firms or the colonial government. Now, when you're not flying your B747 -licences paid for by Daddy- out of LHR, you probably sip lattes with your flaming liberal friends, talking about how evil GWB or whatever right wing western ruler-du-jour is, blissfully ignorant of so much in this world and how good we in America really have it. I'd take Bush, Bush Sr, or Reagan, over whatever tinpot dictator is ruling Angola. In America - you have a chance in life to do whatever you want. Or, you can preach what you practice and go fly a B727 for Hewa Bora or TAAG or whatever craphole airline du jour is flying around Nigeria. They might even take you as a DEC :-)

Bush
 

Must agree with JTrain. Even if you think Bush is a chimpanzee (which I don't), he is about 1000% better than any African head of state in every aspect.

Tips for the hold or ground(ed) "en Afrique" ..
 

If you enter the hold or are held up on departure on account of one of these ludicrous harambees (and to be fair Bush does'nt close the airport, I understand the Secret Service do this based on local intelligence - although Clinton did once shut LAX down for 45 mins on the pretence of a haircut while in fact filming a wedding message for a White House aide):

1/ Have a pair of bino's handy to watch the send off - in Africa they have this habit of enormous vile hags jiggiling about in "traditional garb" - some have the incumbents face printed on their gear and enevitably one or two have it slap bang on a butt cheek or two - where it belongs !.

2/ Occassionally the band belts out quite a good verision of something - keep the door open and the windows too - not just because of the band mind you, but certain self loading stuff beyond row 6 may have been "a long time out of water" (and allergic soap).

3/ Take along a few "bored" games or a pack of cards - if you know the other crews around you could start a game of poker on 123.45

4/ Keep a good book in your flight bag or get to know your crew (yawn)

5/ Use the binos to avoid the idiots with no TCAS flying a perfect hold but using imperial and aviating in completely the opposite direction (seen it, more than once)

...MOST OF ALL:

6/ Don't be under any impression that this will change for at least the next 20 years or that any of these people give a damn about any money you or anybody else might be bringing to their country - your stupid government has probably let them steal enough of theirs already !.

Rigged elections?
 

While I am no fan of President Bush, and voted for Mr. Kerry in the 2004 election, I feel compelled to correct your claim that Bush was elected through manipulation.
In the 2000 election, it was clear in at least three re-counts that Al Gore could not have hoped to win Florida, and could therefore not have won the election.
In the 2004 election, my own state, Ohio, was the subject of similar speculation. A review of the supposed undercount, as well as a look at the likely (Democratic) votes of those who were unable to vote, indicate that John Kerry could not have won Ohio, and therefore the election.
The mystery is not that George Bush was elected POTUS in 2000. Rather, many of us wonder how it can be that Mr. Bush was actually re-elected in 2004.

Airport Closures
 

I have not had too many holds due to "VIP" movements but what i did have a number of years ago in Kilimanjaro was an event i will never forget. After landing with a VIP and parking with other VIP bearing aircraft i was told by US Secret service personnel to move the aircraft or it will be bulldozed off the apron (to make space for Air Force 1). The US had taken over control of the airport including controlling and made the Air Tanzania passengers sit under trents about 1Km away , in summer.

So you cannot say it is only the dictators from outr beloved continent. Oh by the way is it not easier to nail the only aircraft flying during a VIP movement:confused:

Congoman said: "Virtually ALL politicians are scumbags INMHO. But at least George dubja has a functional economy."

Ever stopped to think how the rest of the world pays to make this possible? Ever noticed how the oil price is always quoted in US$'s? This being that, back in the 1940's, the yanks managed to persuade the oil producing countries to always sell their oil in US$'s. This forces every country in the world to buy US$'s if they want to buy oil. This means that America can do the same as Mugabe, i.e. if they need more money they just print more! Unlike Mugabe, however, there is always a demand for US$'s, as every one needs to buy oil! Beautiful system if you're an American! The stuff-up occurs, however, when you get a moron of note who comes out of the oil industry who then becomes president and he obviously favours his oil buddies and the speculators. The system is, America needs to fund all their international adventures (Afghanistan, Iraq) so they print more dollars. This would eventually de-valuate the dollar too much, especially when a couple of banks collapse due to overdoing their property market portfolios. So then you simply increase the price of the commodity everybody needs (oil) and the dollars are sold and the dollar retains its value. Not only that, you rape the world while the world thinks you are The Great Benefactor! Adds a new spin to the word Diplomacy! By the way, I'm not anti-American, just anti-Bush.

Gentlemen

A practical word of advise, if you get tight on gas, ask if they can take you out of the sequence, land and wait in one of the loops on rwy23. Happend to me once 13yrs ago during non-peak hours, took a bit of pursuading, but it worked.

Cheers

World dollar float
 

It isn't just oil that is sold in dollars on world markets, but Airbuses, grain, salmon, and virtually every other product you might name.
The US dollar became the defacto world reserve currency simply because the US economy was (and is) so large. The Euro was (and is) an effort to create a second world reserve currency, by pooling the economies of the Euro zone states.
One of the features of dollar dominance is that the US is able to export its own inflation. We don't see this at the moment, largely because others have been far more inclined to preserve the values of their currencies, while our own Federal Reserve has allowed the dollar to depreciate sharply, as a way of staving off a serious recession. So far, this tactic has worked, with the resulting low US dollar interest rates causing the dollar to lose value against most other currencies, ranging from the Euro to the Canadian dollar, while preventing serious economic decline in the US.
The result has been, however, that the US has suffered a greater increase in nominal local currency fuel prices than has the Euro zone, or, indeed, Canada or the UK.