EPOCH 2017 Botswana Okavango Delta Vacation

DAY 2

"So You Want To Be A Bush Pilot"

This Vacation Day has two main components to it, like the rest of the days. Each has a balanced adventure with at least one major flying opportunity and at least one major scenery feature to enjoy.

The premise of this Vacation is that you are presenting yourself for a week to the principals (notably the CEO and Chief Pilot) of OK Delta Air, a fictional air charter service modeled much like the other dozen flight services available to the Okavango Delta and flying primarily out of Maun, Botswana, where you have taken up temporary residence in a tent!

Today the Chief Pilot of OKD Air is going to see what you're made of, seeing as how you have come to Botswana as a highly respected Alaskan Bush Pilot amongst other aircrew in Maun. There is going to be some work to do in the practice area to the southeast of FBMN as well as in the pattern. Once that has been successfully completed, you will go on the first revenue flight which could also be considered route familiarization and a line check with the CP. This will get us into the close-by safari camps at Santawani and the ever-lovely Nxabega-Kanana as we move 4 passengers around as they wish. Here's what that all looks like in overview map form:

The hops today are being set up to depart Maun at 4 pm. local time, a couple of hours before the sun drops behind the sparse trees of the Botswana landscape. In keeping with the way the weather typically is, and manufacturing that due to the Real Metar being 7 hours out of sync with Eastern Standard Time, which many of our pilots fly in, we have a few late afternoon thunderstorms around the area to be watchful of, especially as we fly strictly VFR Daylight! No night flying and 500 feet away from cloud and needless to say, no flying under a storm cell due to up and downdrafts with the potential to wreak havoc with your craft.

The Cessna 206/207

The correct aircraft for today's missions, and subsequent times when you'll need to use the 'bush standard in Botswana' aircraft, is the Cessna 206. If you need to, you can substitute the 207 non-turbine model, thus allowing you one of the many similar aircraft available to you as payware or freeware. You could even, in a pinch, use the C182 although there are differences which limit its usefullness to the sim purists here.

For the starting pilots at OK Delta and other charter operators, the C206 is the first craft they will fly. Commercial license required of course. Also, be sure to spend some time reviewing the performance data for the aircraft, remembering that you are already at about 3,000' ASL and the temperatures in Botswana during your regular flying day hover between about 25 and 40 degrees Celcius. Anything less than a 2,500' strip with any kind of a load is problematic, so be mindful of what this aircraft is and is not capable of!

So, let's get the weather set up for your V10 simulator shall we?

TODAY'S FLIGHTS:

#1:

You shall depart FBMN Maun with Chief Pilot Kathy Munari in the right seat and fly to the Maun Practice area (FBT), seen in the map photo above and also in the following SkyVector VNC snippet:

Built Weather   Co-Pilot (150#)    Today's Date Time = 1600 Local

Departing FBMN   Arriving Maun FBT   Departing Maun FBT   Arriving FBMN

Altitude (see below) VFR

Once you have arrived in the Maun Fixed Base Training Area, you are expected to practise and show proficiency in the following:

NOTE - The Hard Deck (lowest altitude) for these procedures is set at 5,500' ASL. Hard Ceiling is set at 8,000' ASL. Flight to the FBT Practice area shall be done at 2,500' AGL, ± 100' altitude.

1. Power-On Stall starting at 6,000' ASL and full recovery back to same altitude.

2. Steep 180° turn with no more than 100' change in altitude.

3. At 7,500' ASL, kill engine, turn 180° and then restart and be fully flying again before you reach 6,500' ASL.

4. Reduce speed to allowable for full flaps. Engage full flaps. Turn at a 45° bank angle all the way back to 360°.

    Stay at the same altitude ± 100'.

5. Retrim aircraft to cruise and return to the pattern (left) at FBMN Maun.

Once in the pattern, do 2 touch 'n' go's and on the third entrance to finals, land as close to threshold as possible and then perform a full stop landing in the shortest distance possible. Review the distance you travelled. Return aircraft to the ramp and shut down for now. Leave doors open ready for a revenue flight walking out to the aircraft now.

#2:

Off for some revenue flying. You will have an experienced line pilot, Joey Smallton, in the right seat for route familiarization as you fly the following hops.

Built Weather   Co-Pilot (170#)   Today's Date   Time = 10 minutes after you landed from the first mission.

Departing FBMN   Arriving FB66 Santawani    Load = 3 pax (550#) + luggage/cargo (160#)

Altitude ~ 2,500' AGL VFR

Once you have unloaded at Santawani, fly the next hop.

Built Weather   Co-Pilot (170#)    Today's Date    Time = 10 minutes after you landed from the last mission.

Departing FB66   Arriving FB57 Nxabega-Kanana   Load =1 pax (175#) + luggage/cargo (80#)

Altitude ~ 2,500' AGL VFR

Once you have unloaded at Nxabega-Kanana, you and your co-pilot shall head back in the darkening sky for Maun.

SCENERY Link for uX-Pa Custom Botswana Okavango Delta scenery pack for X-P V10.51:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvuR5GhL2HjzgkucNpKk0WConMez

Cheers and I trust you had a pleasant time flying the area and are invited back by OK Delta Air tomorrow for more great Delta flying in this lovely part of the world!

bc

A long flight for the NightFliers. We've been at it for almost 4 hours, but the fun factor was through the roof, so we just kept on flying until we finished the whole Vacation Day.

Thanks to CptTroll and his 206, 43 Bravo and gofigure with his C207 Turbo #598. I had a 207 Turbo as well, TN 4049 with a lovely tiger stripe livery .

Fantastic time and y'all just have to give this one a go!

Also note that we had a case of our pilots not having an updated library which created interesting replacement objects at a couple of locations. Please make sure that you have updated libraries, as per the Introduction post (linked in News)!

Cheers and I look forward to hearing about Your experiences with this flight sequence.

bc

I took my C207 and got as far as FB57. Nice trip and enjoyed the greeting at FB57 by the little lady in scantily clad green.

Great first day of maneuvers!  White knuckles all the way!  Flew the turbine powered 206.

Had the closest lightning strike I ever want to experience.  Knocked out a couple of secondary instrument arrays, but luckily had enough control not to have to turn back.

SCARY!!!!

The WIND was the other wild factor.  On my power-on stall, a huge gust took us by surprise and blew me off course, at first.  I recovered admirably, and received a relieved "attaboy" from the CEO. 

Below are screens of the patterns and cockpit.

Power OFF stall................

Full flaps and a 45 degree bank angle, holding 7,000  MSL.

After all of that, we headed back through the weather for the touch and go exercise.

Suffice it to say the wind and weather are going to be the main challenges out here. Sure we have the same in Alaska and the Inside Passage, but the Day 2 wx scenario is a BEAST for doing the pattern flying required for the checkride!!

Not sure if I flew the pattern correctly, but the CEO stayed quiet, and I managed to "stick it" at approximately 1/6th of the runway length--approximately 2023 feet.  Should be good for most strips out here. 

Handling the wind gusts from all 4 directions really holds your attention!!

I left the doors open for the pax and luggage to be loaded while I went inside and took a dramamine!!

Very nice and different Africa scenery. Thanks bc for all you do for us!!

This first pic is what you get with scenery libraries that need updating.

Updated Cami's library to fix scenery things.

Come hear kitty, leave those goats alone.

More birds near the runway.

Some music to listen to while flying vaca Africa if your able.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgL3puDfuRg

@JetJerry:

Hey, that scantily clad lass managed to horse the ol' Landrover all the way from Maun up to there. Mighty tough for someone who looks so petite, yes? . Glad you enjoyed the hop!

@MarvH:

What an amazing and comprehensive after-action report. Thank you very much for sharing it. It seems a few of us managed, by the way, to land and stop right about where you are in the screenie. Given that the runways were damp, I suspect one couldn't do much better with a 206/207.

@gofigure:

Ah, I see the fruit stand now and can see why all of the confusion as we sat on TS at oh dark 30 trying to discuss this

Thanks for that video. Man, that made me smile and I have to admit that the thought of visiting Africa never really appealed to me until I did research on this Vacation, watched the bush flying videos and now watched your linked video. Now I'm thinking that a week in the Okavango or the Caprivi Strip might be the perfect way to celebrate something like retirement, which isn't all that bloody far away . Helluva video nonetheless. Thanks again.

Cheers,

bc

Part 1 of the day took about 1:12, so I waited until 17:22 to get my dramamine down while the pax and CP got on board.

Took off for FB66 - Santawani  (Santa wanni what?) at 17:22. Flew at 5600' MSL. Storms all around  The CP was helpful in spotting the runway for me, but on short final we had a bird strike that knocked out the turbine and made a very bad smell,...........as did the CP!    

We were close enough to the rr to make the landing, but some of the "bird parts" had also gotten into the brake gear and we didn't come to a full stop until about 50' past the end of the runway.  So while the CP went inside to change his (ahem) "clothing", I had to spend an extra 20 minutes picking roasted goonie bird out of the turbine and landing gear. The following picture was taken after everything (and everybody) was clean again!.

I was more than a little concerned about the lost time, and getting back to Maun before sunset.

Took off at 17:59 for Nxabega-Kanana.

Fought the crosswinds over to FB57.  The CP suggested using PomPom as a reference point for the approach to Nxabega. Doing so lined us up nicely for the descent into 33.  But the approaching storm cell and crosswinds made the landing "interesting". To his credit the CP remained calm this time.

Dropped off the 1 pax there, but had to wait a few extra minutes to depart, as we were under a pretty violent storm cell at the time.  So we waited under the canopy, and chatted with the young lady who also came over  to get out of the storm.

On take-off we narrowly missed a herd of water buffalo (I think?)  who were standing dangerously close to the runway.

Arrived back at Maun at 18:50.  Still plenty of daylight left, but with the storms passing through, one can't be too careful, I guess. 

The CP called for maintenance to come and clean up the turbine engine, and get the smell of toasted bird out of the cabin.  I pledged never to reveal his indiscretion.

Haha. Good one Marv!

Must be one mighty good seperator on that turbine to keep your engine alive, not to mention continuing flight without a full check. Nonetheless, 'tis the bush eh, and the rules are jes' tools for fools

Wasn't water buffalo, just straight up bison. Quite a few of them in the Delta apparently!

btw... not that you lose any points or anything but I'm pretty sure that I haven't found any turbine powered 206s in Maun, just a couple of turbos and straight-up natural carb jobs. So for maximum realism, you might consider it. Although, there are some other turbine aircraft flying the Delta for sure. Just noting it...

Cheers,

bc

Hey, no big deal sir. Just pointing it out fyi.

The weather build seems to have accomplished what it was supposed to... I sure hope the next release has a similar blend of immersion given the limitations of the X-P weather engine.

Here's an interesting factoid...

Price of AvGas (100LL) in Maun = $1.69/litre ( $6.40/USG)

Price of Jet A1 in Maun = $1.03/litre ($3.90/USG)

-------------------------

Price of AvGas (100LL) in Houston, Texas =  $5.00/USG)

Price of Jet A1 in Houston, Texas = $4.75/USG

You'd think there would be a bit more of a difference eh?

Cheers,

bc

I couldn't attend this NF last Saturday, as I was out-of-town attending a wedding. But, I'm back and rarin' to go.

Here is my steed, the C207 by Alabeo...

At 1600 sharp, with the OK Delta Air Chief Pilot on my right, I taxi out to Runway 8...

At cruising altitude, the weather was threatening, but never delivered more than distant lightning and light rain. The four flight-check maneuvers went very well (I do say, and so did Ms. Munari)...

Approaching FBMN Maun, I was sure to stay clear of the wind generator and inbound traffic...

The touch 'n go's were smooth, and the short-stop was a good one (mainly because the plane is just awesome to fly)...

The revenue flight to FB66 Santawani was uneventful, but I had a heck of a time orienting the airfield.
Yeah, I know ...forgot to retract the flaps.

On our way to FB57 Nxabega-Kanana, the sun is sinking fast. Do we have enough time to get home?

I drifted off the runway at FB57 to avoid the ire of the locals...

I will graciously accept the label of "coward" for hiding behind my aircraft...

Loosing the Sun, but we're making good time heading back to FBMN Maun...

Short final to Runway 8 with a rain shower to greet us...

Another shortfield landing attempt ...I think I did a little better...

G'night "Three Three". Hope to fly you again soon.

A nice lengthy challenge flight! It always feels good to pass a Check ride. The lack of the third dimension in the terrain out here does not diminish the challenge of finding and landing at these bush strips.

Great report and might I say, great looking Cessna too. Alabeo + Dan K. sure do come up with nice craft.

So, good to stay well back from the bison. Apparently they can get it in their heads that a person is a predator (think we as a race have pretty much proven that eh?) and the male's job is to dispense with any formalities whilst dispensing with you !!!

You made it in a bit quicker than the NFers did on Saturday, mostly due to the usual ramp delays as we wait and always go off together from each exercise. But it was neat to finally get my timing right so we could end up in Maun just before dark - no flights allowed into the bush after dark!

Since the 206/207 is a mainstay here, I guarantee there are more opportunities to use the craft, even if it's not the focus of any particular Vacation Day. You surely get the bragging rights for shortest landing methinks. Way To Go!

Cheers, and good to see you back (hoping you had a great time away).

bc