African Air Safari

[henkhout]

Hello All,

I'm in the early stages of planning an Air Safari starting in nairobi and do a loop going through east africa, kenya->uganda>congo->rwanda->burundi->-tanzania-> back to nairobi.

My friend has been working in Uganda for the past 5 years and recently relocated Nairobi. He knows africa well and came up with this idea.

anyone done anything like this? what should i expect to be the biggest hurdles?

is this even possible? any help would be great appreciated!

i have an FAA commercial license CFII/MEI and currently working as an FO in the MAldives flying twin otters on floats.

[The Ancient Geek]

Your first two problems will be fuel and permissions.

Avgas supply in Africa is very unreliable and expensive when you can find it so if you are hiring an aircraft rather go for a turbine type such as a Caravan or maybe one of the Diamond variants with a diesel engine. This will save you a lot of problems. You will also need licence validations for whatever jurisdiction the aircraft is registered in.

There are agencies which can sort out the planning and permissions issues but you need to give them as much time as possible. There are several references to these in various threads here in the last few months.

Some places in Africa are safer than others, countries such as the DRC are best avoided, be prepared to change your plans when the conflict of the week flares up just about anywhere in Africa.

With proper planning you can look forward to having a wonderful experience.

[capt.m]

Are you planning on flying into the national parks or just the international airports?
If you decide to fly into the bush than obviously you will first have to clear customs and imigration for the respective countries than charter a locally registered aircraft.

[gerpols]

Henk, I can provide you with the phone numbers of each H&H in all those countries, will that make you happy maybe ??
I can also recommand to do a safari in Hoogkarspel and surroundings, also very adventureous !!
Good luck and dont drink alcohol within a 50 feet range of the airplane whatever you do.