THC 006 - Cessna Conquest I
"Grass hopper"
(Home base: LSZB, Switzerland. Chief pilot: Sir Hak "the seagul")

Out of service

It was 5 o' clock in the morning, the nightly silence still covered the scenery and a flock of mist was hoovering over Lake Tana. I hadn't had a sleep last night. The whole night I was starring at the night skies and the moonlight that made the waters of Lake Tana sparkling like it was made of diamants.

I was thinking about the message I received on my VHF-receiver/transmitter a couple of hours before. I accidentaly received a desperate message from a man who called himself Abdul al Dschador as Sabal. He said he was taken prisoner in Ad Dhamir, a city located in Sudan, where the Atbara dn the Nil were joining.

He had not much time to explain his situation, bu asked me to contact Immam Amal as Bhakir in Gorgora. Because Gorgora lies just on the other side of Lake Tana, I felt responsible to at least verify the story with Amal as Bhakir.

I had no flights assigned from my company, the Aeroflot CrasahAir, so I could move my Beaver Floats out and take a short trip to Gorgora. In Gorgora, I met Immam Amal and he was very happy to hear news from Abdul. he told me that Abdul has been captured because he was fighting and argueing for a small group of eco-activists who were trying to stop a devasting, landkilling dam project. Abdul is one of the biggest land owner in the Sudan, so his voice has weight - and as he did not cooperate, he was captured by agents of the multinational company "Mextex Oil & Waters".

Amal explained me that Abdul has no big chances to survive and the only hope he (Amal) has is that a fearless and goodhearted pilot would fly to Ad Dhamir, where a troup of guerillas was waiting to liberate Abdul. Not much time was left, as Abdul will be shot within two days. There was only one way out of Ad Dhamir: through the skies. The Mextex Oil & Water company was controlling all the roads and paths, except the sky.

After we were tlaking for an hour or two, and after we emptied a couple of those lovely water pipes, I was ready to take the job. I needed $50'000 to pay my fines to the CrasahAir, and return home to europe. Amal promised me the money if I could fly Abdul to Alexandria. Early next morning I was preparing my Beaver Floats. I covered all signs with sand colored painting. My boss would have shot me if he had known...

Bahr Dar; 21.7.91; 01:38 local time, I took off from Lake Tanam, flying a heading of 28° at 500 ft. agl, crossing the Lake Tana. Over Amals house, I wiggled with the wings to signalise Amal that the operation has started. After climbing northwards up the valley, I saw the side streams of the Atbara river flowing gently towards the Nil. Crossing Metemma I had to dive to not be painted by the sudanese radar. Flying 100-150 ft agl. I was following the river Atbara. At Chashm I noticed a sudanese Mig-29 cruising at hight altitude. Instinctively I moved my aircraft from over the Atbara to the left river border, where my plane was harder to detect from above.

Without any problems and surprises I flew past Ragab. The time was 03:02, and the sun was still way down the horizon. At 03:26 I prepared for a water approach. Position lights have been off all the time. Now I was approaching at 110 ktas, flaps set to two notches down. Just over the meeting of Atbara and the Nil I turned sharply to 312° and managed the Bayb to be in a good shape for the landing.

30 seconds before estimated water contact, I contacted the guerillas at 118.875 and registered my presence with them. While my Beaver was still slowing down on the water, heading next to the big building next to the Nil river border a big flash, followed by a deafening "BOOOOOMMMMMM" shaked me and my plane. I saw that the buildings north wall was destroyed and a few men were running towards my position.

When they were only a few feets away, the leader shouted "Peace for the nature and Abdul" - our pass phrase. I singalised them to enter the aircraft, took place myself and began the take off check. Three men entered my aircraft and the last one entering told me hastily "Go! Go! for the faith in Allah, GO!"

Doors closed, I applied full throttle, keeping flaps up to gain speed faster. At 100 kts, I droped the flaps to 3 nothes, pulled the stick hard and lifted of the Beaver into the
red skies, lightened by the fire in the prison. it was a dangerous take off, and I kept the flight level to less than 120 ft agl during the whole first 5 minutes. Once we had left Ad Dhamir , I felt reliefed, and began to set the Beaver for a long, low level flight. We passed the cities Atbara, Barbar and after a few minutes Scharaik, heading towards Abu Hamad at full speed.

The three mens were argueing heavily in arab and we exchanged only a few words like "all's running fine". Once we reached Abu hamad, it became too dangerous to keep flying along the Nil. My plan was to cross the nubian desert, as I expected no ground
troops there. The flight was quiet, no interceptors visible, and we proceeded to Al Kusair, leaving enough space between Luxor and Theben and us. We reached the entrance of the gulf of Suez, the most dangerous part of the trip began.

We wanted to reach Alexandria, and this meant to fly past Kairo... I flew full throttle at 100 ft. agl max on the right shore of the gulf. Shortly before we reached Suez, I catched a message from the Mextex Oil&Water headquarters, alarming their soldiers (anti aircraft gun troups) around Suez and Kairo. So the firy ride was about to begin...
Time: 08:48, and bright enough to make me a good target, even in my camouflaged and highly tuned beaver.

The very moment we passed the city of suez, the first projectiles from ground-air-guns exploded in our vicinity. I was pulling and pushing the stick like crazy to avoid catching shots right now. We were still far away from our destination and since I feared the attack of fighters, I really nedded all the manoeuverability of my aircraft for that happening. As the fire came closer our last chance was to dive into the canal of Suez. Pushing hard and lowering the nose to -20° brought us down 50ft into the canal, so we were save from gun fire. But there was very little space left between the walls and my Beaver's wings. Our luck was that we had only about 5 kts face winds. I was almost standing on the rudders to keep the Beaver in the middle of the canal. A snap more turbulency and we wouldn't have been flying for long... Finally, we reached
Ishmailjja, where we would turn and head towards Tanta, Damanhur and finally, Alexandria. In the very moment that I initiated the turn, we heard the "POK" "POK"
of projectile impacts in the left wings. When the Beavers tail was hit, we were shaken and the Beaver began to float and drift, I almost lost the controll. The 50 ft. height we lost in this manoeuvres saved our lifes - we were out of the reach of the gunners in Ismailijja. But the Beaver was wounded too much, and I had no choice than to fly at 10-15 ft agl., full flaps, 80 ktas, AOA of 8°. That way i could have put the Beaver down on the floats in five seconds, in case of an engine failure or a probable lost of the controll. Heading for Port Said, I had to land/water the Beaver, about 20 miles away from Port Said, as the controlls were getting sluggisher from minute to minute.
We landed more or less safely, and made our way to Port Said "per pedes".

In Port Said, Abdul al Dschador had a friend where we could hide and get some rest. While we enjoyed the simple meal and some rest, Abdul told me his story and promised a gift to me, besides the cash I was promised as a reward to my services.

Seven days later, he took me to the airport near the sea and gave me a key, pointing with his hand towards a brand new Cessna Conquest I. The aircraft has golden panels, silver radio stack with golden knobs, finest silk, leather and chrome everywhere. The Cessna is equiped with the newest, best tools and toys - everything you can dream of.
The engine is tuned and optimised, and the structural design is fortified to allow for special ops under extreme conditions. Just perfect fo my purposes!

It was - and is - a jewel. Abdul finally won the battle, and now, whenever I fly the THC 006, I think of the rescue mission in Sudan...

Captain Habakuk
Hak the seagul