Advice on Flying a Jet Through Africa

[RandomPerson8008]

Hi,

I'm about to embark on my first trip to Africa, from the middle east with stops in South Africa (JNB) and Uganda (EBB). This will be done in a large transport for a scheduled operator, but the company's guidance is *ahem* minimal. I was wondering if anyone has any nuggets of wisdom for the African novice; obviously I've been reviewing the Jeppessen enroute charts, nav data for applicable countries and IATA broadcast procedures in addition to the charts for the terminal areas I've been assigned to stop at. Are there any other tips or techniques that could be helpful? (Lights on, route/altitude offsets, etc etc).


Thanks.

[Meikleour]

Pay everything in cash (including bribes) and try to arrange all your transits during nighttime!................................

[FLEXPWR]

As previously mentioned, South Africa is real good, ATC, airspace, etc. For the rest... don't rely too much on services (or lack of...) make sure you know where the other traffic is at all times even when under control, don't expect ground navaids to work, be smart with fuel, and then add another 1000 kg! Check and crosscheck payload, as many ended up taking off with much more than they would have hoped.

If you make stops at secondary airports, you might want to call first, just to be sure they have fuel... :}

Bring a whole bag of pens, pencils, key chains, stickers, pins, whatever, it's always nice for people on some hard places to get a little present, it may come handy if you stop at numerous places.

And smile! I spent many years in Central and West Africa, things get always easier with a smile and a nice word. :ok:

Flex

[Dani]

Read through those two papers and you know most you have to know en route:

IFBP (http://www.ipaorg.it/attachments/221_101200-IFALPA-11ATSBL03-In%20Flight%20Broadcast%20proc%20in%20Africa%20Rev%205.1.pdf )

and

SLOP (http://www.ifalpa.org/downloads/Level1/Briefing%20Leaflets/Air%20Traffic%20Services/11ATSBL02%20-%20Strategic%20Lateral%20Offset%20Procedure.pdf)

[RandomPerson8008]

Thanks. The flights went well and were really no big deal, granted the rest of the crew had been to Africa many times before. Overall the ATS seemed on par with Latin America and South Asia, granted there may have been less going on behind the scenes. The one thing I found interesting was the lack of a squawk code assignment prior to departure from Entebbe.

The only dilemma seemed to be whether to monitor 121.5 or 126.9 on the right VHF. I favored 126.9 but am not in command so I did as the captain wished.

Interestingly, one of the ATS facilities where broadcasts are not recommended probably had the worst the communication capability I've experienced so far in 10 years of flying (Lilongwe). Luckily we only transited their airspace for a few hundred NM.