Red Lake, Ont. Canada, 22.3.2005
From Goma to Red Lake, the journey back
After a lenghty stay in Africa; with some periods of more action and some of less activity, we received word from the company telling us to make preparations for leaving the continent and move back to 'Canuck country' for slightly different work...
Anyway, most of the charters into Sudan and within the Rwanda and DRC area are being operated by the UN and other companies again. The past months conditions in the area have improved and there is a safer enviroment for this operations.
A few days ago I finally got to do some planning and start flying out of Africa. After a number of flights and some stopovers, I arrived safe and sound at CYRL yesterday.
No, there's not much to say about these flights, they were quite uneventful and some were even spent as a passenger on normal commercial flights.
So, instead of supplying full PIREPs for this flights, I will just give some 'com channel transcripts and a number of photos that I took while enroute.
In short, the flown route and schedule looked like this:
- 16.3 Goma - FZNA to Nairobi Wilson - HKNW flying as PIC on one of the BYRD-leased Twin Otters.
- 18.3 Flying as a passenger on the British Airways BA0088 morning flight from Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta Int. to London Heathrow .
- 18.3 In the evening, from London Heathrow - EGLL to Sixtus B. - DFSB, back home on the Archipelago Esperides, as guest PIC on a Klunk Cargo Fokker F27.
- 19.3 From Sixtus B. to Amsterdam Schiphol - EHAM, again as guest PIC but this time on the AeroPedro CargoLease MD82.
- 20.3 As a passenger on the KLM KL671 afternoon flight from Amsterdam to Montreal.
- 21.3 In the very early morning, with seat booked for Air Canada flight from Montreal to Toronto and a connecting flight from Toronto to Thunder Bay.
- 21.3 Flying as PIC on a RLBA-chartered Shorts 330 (ex-Thunder Airways), with cargo for Red Lake - CYRL.
Transcript of e-mail traffic 18.3.2005:
"Gentlemen,
Believe it or not, I'm finally on my way to Red Lake ... though I'm not there yet :-)
Last wednesday, the 16 th, I left Goma and flew to Nairobi, Kenya ...
Taking one of the BYRD Twin Otters (Air Rwanda) to Nairobi Wilson for a scheduled overhaul.
No, that's not traveling in the wrong direction; it is from Nairobi that I get a commercial flight straight to Europe. That was today (18/3), the BA0088 from Jomo Kenyatta Intl to London Heathrow; departure 09.25 local and arrival ± 16.45 London time.
Right now I'm at yoke myself. Joined a scheduled Klunk Cargo flight from Heathrow to Sixtus B. (Esperides); we're at the moment just North of Ameland (Holland) flying over the North Sea and heading for the archipelago ... e.t.a. ±30 min ...
Have a good night's sleep and tomorrow take care of some business back home -ah, feels good, by the way-
Later tomorrow, or at the latest on sunday morning, I'll have to find me a flight (fly myself) down to Amsterdam Schiphol.
Next I have a seat booked on KL671, leaving Schiphol on sunday 20/3 at 14.20 local for a direct flight to Montreal Dorval Intl.
At this moment I still don't have a fixed planning for my journey out of Montreal. I'll probably take a commuter flight (or combination of commuters) straight over to Red Lake ... We'll see about that later.
Cheers,
Brick"
FZNA - HKNW 16.3.2005 >Flightno.998
(click on the snapshots to enlarge)
starting up at Goma | ready for take
off | leaving FZNA
enroute to Kigali | near Kigali | over Lake Victoria
close to Nairobi | appproach to Nairobi Wilson | on final to HKNW 14
parked at Wilson
enroute to Kigali | near Kigali | over Lake Victoria
close to Nairobi | appproach to Nairobi Wilson | on final to HKNW 14
parked at Wilson
EGLL - DFSB 18.3.2005 >Flightno.999
(click on the snapshots to enlarge)
starting engines at EGLL | take off EGLL 27R | leaving Heathrow
leaving the British coast | approaching the Archipelago | Paradise Beach
on ILS approach DFSB 27 | high on final rwy27 | taxiing to platform
at cargo terminal Sixtus B.
start from cargo platform DFSB <- -> take off DFSB 09 in rain | leaving Sixtus B.
over the cloud cover | ILS approach EHAM | parked at Schiphol
Transcript of e-mail traffic 22.3.2005:
"Gentlemen,
At this moment I'm happy to announce that sir Brick has arrived sound and safe at Red Lake...
well, not so 'sound and safe'; I had some trouble while landing, the rudders on the SD330 were not working good enough and we skidded off the runway.
We had call in for a truck to tow us back on the runway, before we could finally taxi to the ramp.
No worries, damage to the plane and cargo is only light. Man, you'd better not get into the cargo hold; what a smell!
This thing was kind of a 'flying chicken coop' and you know, chickens are not meant to fly... so, they can even get airsick :-)
I guess you can imagine the situation with a load of 148 live chicken, 2 pallets of fresh salmon (a bit less fresh by now), 2 pallets of beer (one tray of sixpacks fell off and some cans ruptured) and a few crates of groceries -I guess some has planned a hefty dinner-
Cheers,
Brick"
CYQT - CYRL 21.3.2005 >Flightno.1003
(click on the snapshots to enlarge)
start at Thunder Bay | take off CYQT | leaving Thunder Bay
enroute | enroute, snow front | near Ear Falls
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