Floatplanes on African Lakes

[Bla Bla Bla]

I just wanted to know if there are either now or have been in the past any float operations on any of the African great lakes as they look ideal. Any info would be great.

Thanks

[MetoPower]

Wasnt'it banned by some of the countries??

[surfbeach]

I've had a post on this forum for several weeks re: any float operators in Africa. There's been some 200 views but not 1 single reply.

Guess we can rule it out.

[Carrier]

A missionary group used to operate a float plane on Lake Victoria. I believe the aircraft had a dud landing a year or two ago and ended up upside down in the water. Perhaps some of the East African members can advise if this plane or a replacement is operating.

[reinbobber]

The only commercial seaplane ops I know of is/was a C208 amphib operated out of Lagos, Nigeria to the delta in support of oil companies. I had a friend who flew there about 2 yrs ago.

[BB954]

A guy by the name of Peter Anderson used to operate a Cessna 185 on floats on Lake Kariba for a number of years in the late 70's / early 80's. This was mainly used to ferry tourists from Kariba town to the various game lodges scattered around the lake. It had non-amphib floats so had to be flown to lake McIlwaine then transported by truck (wings detached!!) to Charles Prince airport in Harare for maintanance. Expensive business!!

[Pow-wow]

Dont know of any services now...but these guys certainly had guts...and landed/watered on some lakes in Africa...

http://www.jstor.org/pss/160987

:ok:

[Carrier]

Here's the thread:

http://www.pprune.org/african-aviation/359366-aircraft-crash-lake-victoria.html

[BarnacleBill]

I know of at least 2 185s on L Vic. MAF had one based out of Kajjansi but they sold it a few years ago and then there was the unfortunate AIM Air plane.

I helped repair the MAF plane when it drifted onto some rocks at Jana Island. The funny thing was that there were a couple of pax. I pitched up in a boat and brought them back to my island - Bulago - where a 210 from KAFTC was supposed to pick them up the next day.... The journey was very rough and the poor buggers were v sick.

I'd just finished building the strip on Bulago (which is very soft, even to this day). The 210 arrived, the pax got on, the 210 dropped its nose in a termite hole.... 2 "crashes" in 2 days was quite enough for them so they chartered my boat back to Kampala.

My better half wants to operate an amphib now..... as if Ndege wasn't already eccentric enough.....

[smallfry]

A company flew a Catalina about 15 years ago, landing on lake Baringo, Lake Naivasha, and Lake Victoria... And I have to assume many of the other lakes up and down the rift... Somebody else tried a Lake 270 (?) a while back, but was a bit underpowered for Naivasha.
Of Course the Olb Imperial Airways used to fly London to Cape town in the Empire Flying Boats, the Shorts Sunderland etc, Using The Nile, Lake Kisumu, Lake Naivasha, etc...

Nothing recent that I am aware off, although a Caravan on floats or the Twin otter on floats would be suitable and fun!

[Nightfire]

Yeah, I do confirm that. In 1992 and 1993 I saw a Catalina PBY (I think it even had the "goldfish-bowl"-windows) at Wilson.
I didn't know who owned it or what it did; now I wonder what happened to it. For sure it wasn't 5Y-registered, because the kenyan roll of that tine doesn't show any such plane.

Up until the early 1950's, seaplanes were a very common sight allover Africa. They were only gradually replaced by airliners after WW-2. I saw a photograph of a DC-3 on floats on lake Tanganyika, dated 1968, only recently.

Nowadays there may be the occasional Cessna on floats somewhere, but certainly not on a big scale.

[NZFlyingKiwi]

There is a Catalina now flying in New Zealand that was based in (I think) Zimbabwe about 20 years ago, operating flights between Zimbabwe and Egypt, I don't know whether that would be the same on as you people above are referring to. (don't know how common Catalinas were in Africa 15-20 years ago!)

Edit - Here's the website: Home Page (http://www.catalina.org.nz/)

Quoted from the front page:

In 1988 the aircraft was purchased by French entrepreneur Pierre Jaunet. Jaunet operated the aircraft in Africa as Z-CAT, where the aircraft transported up to 16 passengers (+ 4 crew) between Egypt and Zimbabwe with 'The African Safari Company'. It was hired by the Peter Stuyvesant organisation in 1993 to fly an 'Odyssey' across the Atlantic and back.

[smallfry]

That is the one...

[BB954]

Yeah!

It was based at Harare International airport in those day's and the registration was indeed Z-CAT. It had bench seating in the rear and two large blister type windows for sightseeing. I believe engine reliability was a problem though.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

I flew two different Cats in Africa during the period of 1996 to 1999, one was flying for French TV ( FT1 ) on a contract that involved flying around the continent. After we finished that contract we used that machine in air shows in Europe and in 1998 we flew the Aeropostale mail route from Toulouse to Santiago and we also flew it out of Sao Paulo during the winter of 99/200.

The second one was owned by an airplane collector and I finally flew it from J-Berg to England and where we did some flying for Miramax and finally in 2003 I flew it to Suffolk Virginia to its new owner " The Fighter Factory ".

There is a very detailed history of this airplane on the web site of The Fighter Factory if you wish to google it and click on the Catalina in their web site.

[nyathi]

There was/is an outfit that operates a C208B on float in Cape Town from the V&A Waterfront.

[skyloone]

I belive there was a company operating a C206 in zim but had an accident along the Zambezi with all on board killed. Cannot remember the guys name.

[kevinsky18]

If one had a float plane they wanted to put to work, what would it take to get an OC in one of the countries boardering Lake Victoria?

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Money will usually do the trick in most of Africa..

[james ozzie]

I enjoyed a jolly ride on the Cat when it was based in Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls to Lake Kariba & return). What a great experience. Blister windows allow fabulous views. The pax were given a go sitting in the RHS seat, gripping the weird cross bar control yoke (like a hang glider...)

Curiously, the A/C has no flaps - seemed to be something to do with retaining a nose up attitude when landing on water? Can anyone comment on this?

I watched the ground landing from the blister and was surprised by the spray of trapped water out of the main wheels as they touched down.

And of course, on start up in the water, it twirls in circles between starting No1 & No 2 and creeps forward under idle thrust.

And I found myself wondering about some hapless pilot selecting the tip floats down instead of the gear down in a land landing (or vice versa on the water).

[Chuck Ellsworth]

The Cat has no flaps because it will lose altitude quite fast if you close the throttles, if you are to high on an approach to a runway with the gear down all you need do is stuff the nose down and you can lose altitude real fast, once you raise the nose to the normal approach attitude the speed bleeds back real fast.

As to selecting floats down instead of the wheels that would be difficult to do as the float up down switch is on the control collum and the gear selector is at the bottom of the instrument panel between the two pilots and before you can select gear down you must pull a knob to unlock the gear handle.

[BarnacleBill]

Kevinsky, you would talk to us at Ndege in Uganda, I hope!