Ferry to SA. how best to do it?

[WX Man]

I have been asked to examine the possibility of taking our PA31 Chieftain to South Africa for aerial survey work at some point in the not too distant future.

Assuming it gets flown from Oxford to Joburg, what's the best way to go? What would I need to look out for on the way?

Seeing as I've never planned a flight THAT long before, I might need some help. What is the consensus about just getting Jepp to sort it all out for us?

[Old Smokey]

Jepp do a marvellous job, not just the technical aspects, but right down to catering arrangements, ground transport, hotel arrangements etc. I highly recommend them.

If only they could produce charts as well as they offer mission support.....:O

Regards,

Old Smokey

[smallfry]

Sounds like a fun trip. I cannot remember the range on a chieftan, but from memory you would be best off going down the east East of Africa, Ie Cairo, Luxor / Aswan, Addis (if you can get clearance) Nairobi, Dar, and then J'burg (Lanseria).

There are so many guys in the Africa forum who would help you out ask there.

Jepp do flight planning, as do Base Ops, both of which are good, and arrange clearances etc.

Don't do it till you have all the clearances as you can get into serious trouble crossing borders in Africa. An HF would be helpful and someone to keep you company. There are some long legs there.

Have fun.:ok:

[BoeingMEL]

Agree with the previous posts.. I've done Cape Town a couple of times in singles. Not too much over-water of course BUT get absolutely everything sorted (especially clearances) before you leave. Get Jepp on your side and take photo-copies of every clearance, certificate etc...plus a few $$$ to oil the wheels when you get to Nairobi.... or you could be there for days. Very important too to ensure avgas available where and when you need it... and make sure you have the means to pay for it by way of cash (£ or $US, or acceptable carnet, credit card etc). Oh, and expect to get quite warm! Good luck...proper planning prevents pi55-poor performance! bm

[stiknruda]

As someone who operated in sub-Sahaan Africa for many years - I urge you to contact the major oil companies, tell them yr plan and timings and then have them confirm that Avgas will be available FOR YOU!

Many places will not have Avgas availabile all year round.

Many places will have Avgas but will not release it to you as they have gone below their strategic stock level - ie, the local governor has decreed in 1964 that he needs 1000 lts for his personal aircraft. That the same machine was written-of in '65 does not change the decree!

It'll be fun, it'll be a challenge, it'll be 'kin frustrating!

Stik

[FullyFlapped]

Guys,

Which part of Jeppesen does the flight planning/catering/hotel/etc arrangements for private GA flights ?

I am planning to do something next year which will take a huge amount of knowledgable organisation - does (whichever part of) Jepp offer this as a standard service ?

FF :ok:

Edited to say I've now found the website !

[cambioso]

All of the above is great and knowledgable advice BUT.....
Make sure that you get an accurate estimate from Jepp of ALL of their costs and then add 20% to that for your budget. Everything but everything is charged for by Jepp and one area forgotten (or assumed) could send one overbudget by 100s if not 1000s of £s.
Don't get me wrong, they give a superb, and essential service (I have used them many times around the world) and are always on the end of the phone, but it all costs and should be taken into account when planning the viability of such a trip.
Enjoy!!

Camb.

[psmd0311]

I did a flight in a C206 from Miami to Tanzania in May. The main problem with planning the flight is where to get av gas. There are very few places available in North Africa.

We had a company called overflight help us with finding the availability of fuel and getting us clearances. They were so helpful with everything. I had some planning questions as I had never done anything like this. The bloke who owns overflight helped me out loads. and you can contact them around the clock. Their web site is www.overflight.co.uk I cant remember the name of the bloke who helped out.

We didn’t need their help until we got to Africa. Then we needed to get the clearances. they needed to know when we were going to be going through the different countries to organise the 48 hour windows. i think some were 36 hour windows of when we could pass through.

The planning was easy in the end. I got the jep charts that were bloody expensive and then went to places that had cheap fuel. We went to Guernsey to fill up. Then on to Dubrovnik. Then to Luxor. I think Luxor was the only place with av gas in Egypt. and they knew it, as it was expensive. That flight was about 10.5 hours long. The next place with fuel was Djibouti. So it was another long flight. Djibouti is an awful place, hot humid and filthy. Then we went on to Nairobi, where the plane got re registered, then down to TZ. I don’t know about av gas in the rest of Africa.

We were flying IFR for all of the legs. Made things a lot easier. We had HF but it packed up. and in the end we were ok without it. We lost contact plenty of times. And even entered Sudan without being in contact with anyone. There weren’t even airliners flying about who could relay. I was worried about getting shot down at first but in the end no one seemed to care. We had a GPS, and without it navigation would have been a nightmare. Distances between nav aids were huge.

I hope some of that info might be helpful. At first I thought I was in way to deep having never done anything like that, but in the end it was quite easy.

If you have any other questions I will be happy to help,

Good luck

[jimpearce]

The chap you want at Overflight is Paul Portnoi
01403 275835 or 07814698367
He's a star and made my flying in Africa in 2003 so much easier.
Regards,
Jim
www.microlightadventures.co.uk

[MTSkull]

Try White Rose Aviation, they should be able to sort everything out for you.

Tel: 01943 839500 (Fax 839501)

email: [email protected]