Relief Mission In Africa

[jastheace]

well here i am in Sudan wondering why it decided to persist down on my first day of the job


anyway lets back track a little. this job came about through a contact i knew, the company that leases aircraft to the United Nations were looking for pilots and this is how i got the job, after going through the necessary paper work, signing a waiver(i guess in case i get shot down!) and being trained in how to operate small arms i was off from New Zealand to africa to take up my assignment. this is how i got to be looking at my new bird in this weather.



well time to meet my co-pilot and crew, Stan is my co-pilot, an English man of 32, nice bloke seems to know the a/c well and he is going to be giving me my introduction flight. i have Sam who is the load master and Nigel who helps out around the a/c, basically where ever he is needed (officially he is the engineer).

My intro flight is to Bor - Sudan, a little grass strip in the middle of no where, i will soon learn that all the strips are in the middle of no where. Stan gets the bird in to a nice climb and we settle for a nice flight.


By the time we land the weather has cleared and we are bathing in hot sunshine, very humid though.



Unloading is done in what seems to be minutes, with the freight loaded on to trucks and the trucks disappearing into the jungle surrounding the strip. we are given a warning that there are militia on their way to us. One of the many perils Stan informs me, at this time he also tells me that i have the return leg. He had left two engines running just as a precaution in case something went wrong, apparently Stan leaves all the engines running when in hostile areas like this, but we have a company director overseeing my first flight so everything is done by his book, rightly or wrongly!



Right in to the hot seat, i fire up the remaining two engines, Sam closes the doors and gives us the ok for take off. I power up the engines, checking the temps and so on, all are stable so off we go, just in time too, as Sam informs us on the intercom that the militia have just arrived. we get into the air just as the bullets start flying our way.

i get the bird in to a max angle climb, but they have brought the big guns out and we get hit a few times, nothing too major, apart from the fuel leaking out of our tanks

just as we level out number 1 engine decides that it doesn't want to run smooth, turns out we got hit in that engine on climb out. so i shut it down and feather the prop just as a precaution.


once reaching cruise and out of the way of those nasty bullets, a quick check reveals that the crew is fine, the company director has gone white as a ghost and the fuel situation is ok, even with the tanks leaking, it has only been the reserves that have been hit,


Our cruise is only short lived and then it is time to descend , the nasty buggers must have informed their colleges that we were on our way back as there was a welcoming committee waiting for us in the jungle. they got a few more shots on to us, that was before the UN troops on the ground got to them. the few shots they got off takes out our hydraulics



on finals we informed Juba control that we would be landing on three and that we had lost hydraulics (must have got them with their last volley), luckily i had lowered the gear and some flaps before the hydraulics were taken out.

WE got the bird on the ground quite safely, apart from running over the end of the runway as the brakes decided that it was a good time to go on holiday. no damage done to the a/c, well no more that what was done by gun fire, opened everything up and got out of there as quick as we could.



post flight briefing was held, the company director gave a warm review of our flight crew performance, and said he would be more than happy to fly with us again, Sam had been given a report by the ground engineer, basically it read like this:

Engine one hit by ground fire, oil lines damaged, no visible damage to engine, but will require replacement, just to be sure, both left and right fuel tanks had been hit, with fuel leaking from aux tanks, will be patched on site, hydraulics was hit once, which rendered them inoperative, he reckoned he could fix it here. there were a few big holes in the r/h rear of the a/c, nothing a bit of sheet metal and paint wouldn't fix he reckoned. i saw the holes and thought that they would require more than that, but hey, I'm new here!!

Once briefing was complete, it was off to Sam's for a quite beer to unwind.

looks like the a/c will be out of action for a day or two, or at least until they get a new engine in, so looks like i will be flying a different bird for a day. and so ends the first day of my new job, not exactly boring!!

[ZK-Brock]

Very cool bruv These are much more action-packed that I anticipated, nice one

[Naki]

Nice shots, storey & editing - Captain Sim Herc?

[Alex]

Hey, nice stuff!

Alex

[jastheace]

yup, got it given to me for my b/day next week, very nice a/c i have to say

[Ian Warren]

Hey Jas ,

will be patched on site, hydraulics was hit once, which rendered them inoperative, he reckoned he could fix it here. there were a few big holes in the r/h rear of the a/c, nothing a bit of sheet metal and paint wouldn't fix he reckoned. i saw the holes and thought that they would require more than that, but hey, I'm new here!!

On the ramp at Christchurch late 80s , an Il76 Armenia earthquake relief flight , happen to get a stray forklift in the side of fuselage , No hold ups here , and real Macgyver fix ....Dut taped up and off they went maybe the same for ya Herc .......... hecks looks like a 23mm got there real fuse , lucky it missed the control cables

Great pics

[creator2003]

keep it rolling mate ,kept me reading till the end
the pics and and story line are awesome keep it up ,,and cant wait for a day or so

[jastheace]

Well day two started at 0400, shower, shave and a quick breakfast, if that is what you call breakfast in this part of the world, some what i think was meant to be milk, in with what i think was porridge, but combined looked more like concrete, needless to say i passed on this and made some toast for myself. Caught a cab to the airport with one hand constantly near my berretta that had been issued to me when i arrived to company H.Q. I meet Stan at the tower, he had already got the flight plan filed and checked the weather, Basically we were in for some overcast conditions with no rain but high temps and humidity.



This is the Beast, and i use Beast in the best way, that we will be flying, while Stan and i are doing our walk around, a very cheerful Sam and Nigel turn up and give us one of those "wish you were with us last night" grins. Stan looked at me and said i had better not ask what the grins were for!!



Thank goodness i learned a little Russian before i left, and with Stan's help i managed to figure out what all the buttons and switches meant, i will have a word with the engineers in Bole to see if we can get some English instruments put in. Got the APU fired up and some heat built up in the cabin, this a/c had been configured as a passenger transport for this flight and we had 120 refugees flying out with us to Bole international, our return flight will be bringing back some supplies and a new engine for our herc. Apparently it will take 30mins to convert the a/c back to a freight when we land in Bole.





Nigel took these shot for me while he was inspecting the oil and so on.

Everyone on board and stowed reports Sam, with what sounds like a huge grin on his face, with that report i fire up the engines and request clearance to taxi, which we get straight away, not much flying in this area or at this time of the day





"United Nations 1, cleared to position and hold" calls ATC, so we line up the beast on r/w 13



i look at Stan and say lets hope that those mongrels that shot up our herc aren't around, which Stan just gives me a big grin in reply i get the felling he likes a little excitement in his life.



I was determined not to let them shoot up this bird so on rotate set a blistering 2500fpm until about 4000ft, i have to say this thing climbed like it was empty, i was told later by Stan that this bird just loves to fly, no matter what weight or weather.



it was a very uneventful take off, who ever shot up our herc must have gone bush as the UN forces said they found no one, and we weren't shot at. Lets hope it stays that way for the return leg









It was a beautiful morning for flying great sunrise, even if we were flying into the sun.



Half way to Bole Stan said to me " the bloody weather service said nothing about bloody thunder storms" "will this be a problem" i asked, "nah" said Stan, " This old bird has handled worse, but some of our fare paying clients might not be too happy"



About 100nm out we got hammered by the storms, tried to go around the worst but we still got thrown around alot, "there are some very unhappy client's back here" came over the intercom, from a very cheerful Sam, he seemed to love this rough and ready life.







"Woa that was a bit close" said Nigel pointing out a lightening bolt that shot past us, " better get used to it" i said we gotta go though this to get to our new engine.





Visibility improved for the approach, we were almost visual the whole way, must have got a break in the weather. i was surprised just how well this old bird handled the weather and it always responded well to the controls, bit like driving a nice ford mondeo, dependable and goes where you point it.



Seconds before touchdown we got hit by a small downward gust, which made my nice smooth landing in to a bit of a bone jarrer, hey any landing you can walk away from and use the a/c again is a good one!!



Taxing in i was surprised to see the number of nice looking GA A/c around on the tarmac, Stan told me that allot of rich warlords use this airport to store their private a/c, so long as you don't touch them you are ok he informed me.



parked up and shut down the engines, i expected a bigger welcoming commitee, but nope, the refugees almost seemed to know which way to go and the disappeared into the storm. the one thing that i was amazed at was just how high most of the airports are, here i was flying approach with 500 feet above th ground and the altimeter is reading 9000ft!!! i guess it will become second nature by the time i leave, i have been contracted to 30 flights, so 2 down 28 to go. Stan and i sneak off to the cafe to grab a coffee while the ground crew remove the seats and load the new herc engine and a few general supplies, depending on the weather we may fly out today, or it may have to wait until the weather breaks. which could be a while Stan informs me, by this time Nigel and Sam have joined us, still with their big grins plastered all over heir faces

[Mattnz]

Cool shots, and a great story to go with it. Look forward to the next instalment

[scon]

Cool, yet another good story to follow

[Stanel]

jastheace, concerning your first story, it's unbielevable. My first name is Stan and once I made such a video:
http://www.simtube.com/view_video.php?v ... ategory=tr

[jastheace]

jastheace, concerning your first story, it's unbielevable. My first name is Stan and  once I made such a video:
http://www.simtube.com/view_video.php?v ... ategory=tr

in a good way or a bad way?, nice video by the way

[jastheace]

Well we ended up overnighting for a few nights, turns out there was a bit of an issue with one of the engine, nothing life threating, but they decided to fix it none the less, the engine for the herc hadn't arrived by the time we left, but i have been promised a few different birds for our next few missions.

So our Antonov was converted back to passenger transport, and we loaded up with un peace keepers and journos to report on all the bad stuff going on


was a nice and uneventful flight, another great day for flying with no wind worth mentioning and all the crew enjoyed the flight.









Descent saw us get hit a couple of times, much to the disgust of some of our passengers, i got the feeling they would have liked to shoot back, but due to FAA regulations, no one was allowed!!!





Taxiing in Stan and i got the feeling that our peace keepers were going to kick some butt, unofficially of course, they took exception at being shot at.

overall not much damage was done to the a/c only a couple of very minor fuel leaks which Nigel had fixed up in a flash.



It looks like this is the last i will see of this a/c, she was a dependable beast, but didn't have the super short field performance required for the rest of our stay here, i have been told that if the violence keeps up here, this base is going to be abandoned for humanitarian efforts and the un miltary force are going to take over, we will have to wait and see, i guess it will depend on how many a/c get shot up around here. right off for a quick coffee and a pee before our next mission!

[jastheace]

Ahhh that feels better, nothing like a good coffee i said to Stan and the guys who were looking over our new bird for the day,



Turns out that these antonovs are quite popular with our company, stan reckons it has got a lot to do with being so bloody cheap that if it gets shot up they scavange the parts and leave the fuselage to the locals,

lets not find out i said





it's all russian to me, luckily i can understand all of it, and what i don't get stan covers for me.



Loaded up and ready to go



our destination is to a little gravel strip, i am told it has some rather "interesting" approaches and departures. all the flight crew have big grins when they tell me this, but they also say it is nothing that i can't handle, just get used to the gpws yelling at you.



Taxing out i am told that these beast isn't the fastest spooling engine wise but once they are going full tit they get you moving fast, good i say as i think we may need it



take off was nothing much to worry about until i heard a dull thump followed by an immediate increase in oil temp for the number 2 engine



Stan then informs me that he thinks he saw a rather large bird as we took off, perhaps we sucked it in Nigel said.



the oil temp was still going up so Stan shut the engine down and i let Sam know that we were going to be doing a 1 engine landing and to let our small contingent of passengers know what was happening.



on final everything was cleared out of our way and in we went, landing went very well, i was surprised how well the a/c stopped under brakes alone





everyone out the back yelled Sam as we came to a stop, everyone vacated the a/c, Stan, Nigel and i went to inspect the engine sure enough we had ingested a rather hawk like bird, will have to wait and see what the engineers come back with.

looks like another new a/c!!!

[jastheace]

well heres hoping this bird gets us there and back, a rather rueful nigel says, i think he was getting fed up with moving his lunch!!



well now, i said to Stan, this is an interesting looking beast. don't let the looks fool you, Stan said, she flies like she belongs in the sky.



Shall we try again gentleman Sam said over the intercom, oh by the way everyone is on board and tucked in safely. Sam's humor again, always a little warped!



I decided to see what this bird could do, and after take off set a max angle departure, after all we had been taken out by a bird and those nasty shooters were still around some where..



we leveled off at about 8000ft, it was only a very short hop, a total flight time of about 15 to 20 minutes, plus approach time.



no sooner than we had got up there, than we were on our way down.



where is this bloody strip i said to Stan, oh don't worry you will see it in a miniute or two, just keep looking he said.



and then sure enough in a rather nasty looking valley there is was, we did a fly past to ensure it was clear and ready to take an a/c, made for a rather interesting and unortherdox approach










well this was the point that the flight crew started going wild, with hoops and hollars, i am sure i heard a yeee haaa coming form the back, i guess they enjoy this strip!!







I was a little high, i said to stan i should go around, to this he answered, don't be silly, and he lowered another notch of flaps, the airspeed dropped and the bird glided down to a nice short, short stop







a/c safely on the ground Sam got busy unloading, we had nothing mush going back, just a few refugees and they seem pretty relaxed

[Alex]

You have a great way of making it sound relaxed and casual, as a person who was doing that regularly might. Great stuff.

Alex

[jastheace]

well we decided to fly low and fast on the way back, as Stan said, so long as you don't get taken out by a tree or line you can go as low as you want, i will let the pictures do the talking on this return flight.














































it was fun flying just above the tree tops, really enjoyed it, i am thinking of making a video of it if interested.

that was out day, got three flights in and alot of near misses, i have heard that we maybe moving base as it is getting to dangerous to be based here the rebels are getting more organized and the UN ground forces are hampered by not having any air support, so it looks like we well be based somewhere else, yet to be disclosed!!

[chopper_nut]

Ha, I would be seriously worried about the size of the holes in the Herc, look about 30mm cannon size. Lucky you didnt loose the whole tail section.

[jastheace]

Yes we were told it was very lucky where they hit us, and that we had no one near the area, could have been very messy .

We have been very busy with flights the last few days, and so have the rebels, shooting at anything that takes off or lands. we have been given the official word that we pull out today, so we have a could of more flights to get in the day before, i managed to get some good shots of a few strips we went to.

the departure was uneventful and so was the flight, we had 30tons of food to drop off, 20 at our fist drop and 10 at our second.

this is our first strip that we dropped of the 20tons too, if you can call it a strip



it looks to me like they laid some gravel on the ground and said here you go land on this. and it felt like it too on landing and departure, it was very rough!!





it was weird weather, there was snow in the sky and on the ground, shouldn't really be surprised though, we are at almost 8000ft. it just seems to me that you shouldn't have snow in Africa!!!



i am always wary of flying near towns, big guns and nasty men are known to hide here, but looks like luck is on our side today, as no mean men and no big guns greet us on approach to our next stop, a sealed strip that looks to be about the width of our front gear!!





Turns out i am not far wrong, the runway, if you can call it that, is just wider than the main gear.



we decided to do a bit of low level flying on departure, just to scare the local wild life!!





oh well enough of that, there are to many a/c around at the moment clearing out the base of operations and moving it to Bole International, this is where we will be based, the locals are a little friendlier and don't take pot shots at our a/c.

Downside to being higher is it give the rebels a bit more time to shoot you, that why we like it low and fast, harder to get a bead on us







Sure enough, no sooner than we climbed than the shots started coming our way, you would think they would have better things to do on a Saturday Stan said.


We got hit real hard, lost an engine and most of our fuel, i guess we won't be flying this a/c out here i said to a rather rueful Nigel, it seemed a few of those shots got a little close to him



on finals i didn't think we were going to make it, they were making a greater out of our plane,





it was an interesting landing, as most of the atc equipment was taken out, and thye gave us no weather warnings, which was a slight problem, a nice cross wind and only one engine never make for easy landings!!.

got to the ground in one piece and taxied to the ramp, spoke to the boss who told the crew that we were abandoning the a/c as there was no time to fix it and they couldn't risk flying it out with one engine, just in case it got hit and we crashed.

we were then told what a/c we were flying out, it was an older 767 leased to the un, we were going to be the last flight out with the remaining ground crew and operational personal, we would be flying out at first light the next day.

i had my doubts as to the length of the runway but we will give it a go, after all it got in here all right. off to bed 0400 start in the morning.

[jastheace]

a shot we got on saturday of the 767 departing, on it's second run of the day, it had arrived back when we came in in our busted up antonov.

So here i am looking at my bird for the day, really don't like these early starts, espicaly when the weather is so bloody changeable, the snow that we had yesterday has gone, made way fro rain and storms, hoping we don't get thrown around to much, you can hear gun fire in the distance, obviously the rebels want us out of here.



i meet Stan, Nigel and Sam on the flight deck, had to kick a rather sleepy Sam out of my seat, he seemed to like that seat, it turns out Sam has spent most of the night at the Airport as they wouldn't let him go to his hotel as it was to close to the front line, so the poor bugger had to sleep in the airport, never a nice thing to do at the best of times!!



despite it's hours , she is a nice tidy bird, it seems that the company looks after all it's aircraft, i like companies like this.



With the last of the personnel on board, the tower is empty, so no clearances are issued, nor any contact received for them, so we fire up and taxi to 31 and get ready for take off.







"To the aircraft on the runway, you are not cleared to take off, you must hold your position and be prepare to be boarded!!!!" come of the tower frequency in very broken English, i look at Stan and Nigel, and they have a very worried look on there face," they don't sound like nice friendly UN forces now do they" i said to Stan, He agreed "what say we get the hell out of here" to which both Stan and Nigel agree fully.


I give it full power and let her rip, "i guess we will see if we get outa here in one piece" Nigel said, to which i pulled back and started the climb, just skipping over the top of some jeeps and truck that were coming down the runway at us, as we flew over them we heard and saw the bullets rip past us. " #2 ENGINE OUT" Stan shouted at me, " damn it all" i exclaim, the must have got it at point blank range, " yeah and they got out left fuel tanks too" said Nigel. "transfer all fuel that you can to the right and center tanks, i guess we can't turn around, unless you want to be rebel fodder" I said.



We decided to push on for Bole and hope our plane and our luck held, after all we couldn't land were we had came from and that was the closest airport that we could land at.



needless to say it was a tense flight, all of us were willing the other engine to keep turning, we managed to save enough fuel to get us to Bole.









it would hav been a nice day for flying if it weren't for the problems.

Bole cleared all traffic for us and we had a straight in approach, once we got around the hill of course, it was a very interesting landing, the torque effects on this were amazing, it felt like we were flying at 45o most of the time









we had a nice welcome with fire crews and ambos everywhere, got off and found that the right engine had been peppered with .50cal shots, must have had a big gun mounted to one of those jeeps. well looks like our mission is over for a while, and we will be heading to India with the returning peace keepers, we have several legs to fly, we are overnighting in India, and then to Australia then back home, we are coming home as there is no work for us at the moment, with the area swarming in rebels the UN has put troops on the ground and are using the military to fly in supplies, so back to regular life when we get back, at least i get to fly all the way home!!!