Being posted to Yaunde, the capital of Cameroon, Thomas has decided to bring
his "Flying Carpet" into
African environment.
A German will ask: "why in the middle of winter ?", well, the answer is simple.
There will be long legs, passing the North African desert,
and at present the temperature is rather low there.
This time the challenges are threefold - alpine, oceanic and desert flights must
be prepared
and adequate
equipment must be onboard.
for life tracking click
HERE
(select display period at the bottom of the tracking page)
*** For the upcoming week, please follow up the verbal log here:: ***
Tuesday, January 24th. 2012 / 13:50 UTC
The eagle has landed ... Finally, after another 355nm N81EU has reached her
destination.
Thomas landed at Yaounde / FKYS at 13:38 UTC. After 45h airtime plane and pilot are in good
condition.
This time the 3500nm route covered Germany, Austria, Italy, France, the Mediteranian
Sea, Algeria, Niger
and after crossing Nigeria, the new home for the next 2,5 years is now Cameroon.
The list of continents also has increased, beside America, Asia and Europe,
Africa is now on the records.
For me it's time again to say "Good Bye" and return this page to
the pilot for more data and pictures to come.
Thanks for being with me throughout all the Orbits and the last 11 days.
Happy Landings !
Monday, January 23rd. 2012 / 17:45
After crossing Nigeria, N81EU has finally reached Cameroon. Touch down was
16:29 UTC at Garoua.
The plane performed perfect. One more leg of about 4:30 hours remains for
tomorrow to reach Jaunde.
Monday, January 23rd. 2012 / 13:45 UTC
The modification of the oil cooling system went well. So did todays test
flight in the morning. As one can follow
now on the life tracking, since 10:00 UTC Thomas is on his way towards Cameroon.
At the moment, it is not clear
whether he will have a stopover at Garoua / FKKR or turning straigt down to
Yaunde / FKYS in favour of reaching
"home" as fast as possible. Well, SatPro will tell us ... keep tracking ...
Sunday, January 22nd. 2012 / 15:45 UTC
another trial to leave in the afternoon just gave proof, that the previous
conditions are still prevailing.
Later today an additional oil cooler, which happens to be onboard, will be
integrated into the system.
Not an easy job to do at the present environment. But it opens a better chance
for continuing the trip,
preferably tomorrow early morning, as the present weather is a little bit
reluctant to change to our favour.
Sunday, January 22nd. 2012 / 10:11 UTC
latest news via telephone: the sandstorm has calmed down a
little. Visbility is now at about 1100m, but ...
When he tried to leave Zinder this morning at 07:05 UTC by climbing through the
clouds, hoping to find some
nice cool air on top, the oil temperature of the engine reached the limit. So he
had to return. The measurment of the outside temperature
brought the truth, inversion. This means, warm air on top of cold air. Cold
at this place means, about 25° centigrade on the ground
and even more at several hundred feet above ground.
So for the time being, Thomas has to wait further on for WX improvement.
The chances of being able to reach Yaunde within
today are more or less gone by now. So are the chances to meet his desk at the
office tomorrow morning.
As airport officials had been talking about the next three days showing the same
conditions, we will try to establish another telephone
contact in about 5 hours to learn, how Thomas will proceed. Let's wait & see ...
Saturday, January 21st. 2012 / 11:30 UTC
All the paperwork is done, but today's takeoff, planned at 07:00 UTC was
disabled by low visibility and a lot of sand in the air.
According to airport officials at Zinder, a rather rare WX condition, but this
doesn't help N81EU at all.
Let's wait for improvement. It might cause an extreme long flight for tomorrow,
trying to reach Jaunde in an one day trip.
Friday, January 20th. 2012 / 12:30 UTC
Time is escaping and the bird is grounded while waiting for permission to
enter Cameroon airspace ... Africa ...
Thanks to the Embassy, the question of entry & stay is now settled and the minor
obstacles are hopefully solved until
tomorrow morning. There will at least two more days, until N81EU will reach
her new home.
Thursday, January 19th. 2012 / 12:30 UTC
Another leg done. N81EU touched Zinder airfield at 12:10 UTC. Now we have to
wait for the final clearance for
tomorrows flight, enabling the jump over Nigeria straight to the city of
Garoua /FKKR in Cameroon.
Thursday, January 19th. 2012 / 10:45 UTC
since 09:20 UTC this morning, N81EU is on her way from Agades / DRZA to
Zinder / DRZR, both in Niger.
It took three hours yesterday night before the final confirmation, regarding the
safe touch down, reached old Germany.
According to the Pilot, the flight was fun, although he had to choose high
altitude to keep the engine cool.
So no real chance to have a "close inspection" of the dunes in the desert.
Wednesday, January 18th. 2012 / 15:40 UTC
Today it was a long ride, trying to get back to the original schedule. N81EU
left DAUI early in the morning at 0715 UTC, got back to the
old track at Tamanrasset / DAAT and continued straight without any stop-over
into Niger, the neighbour of Algeria.
Touch down at the city of Agades / DRZA at 15:20 UTC closed todays
leg. In opposition to the last two days, todays trip seem
to have been running smooth and perfect,. Let's wait for the pilot's comments.
Tuesday, January 17th. 2012 / 15:25 UTC
The duty started with taking off from DAUG at 09:55 UTC this morning. It
turned out to become a short flight today.
The
weather, rain in the Sahara, strong wind and rising oil temperature forced
N81EU to an unexpected landing at InSalah / DAUI
at 15:08 UTC this
afternoon.
It is about half the distance which was scheduled for today. Out of unknown
reasons so far,
the satellite tracking was interrupted about an hour before arrival and triggered
some excitement on the ground.
Monday, January 16th. 2012 / 19:10 UTC
Taking off at 09:40 UTC this morning from Ajaccio / LFKJ, the plane headed
South towards the continent of Africa.
But first there was another flight over open water of the Mediteranian Sea to be
carried out. Reaching the coastline of Sardinia,
while climbing as requested, the engine suffered from carb icing in the clouds
but came safely back to life at a lower altitude.
It also looks as if the small computer, running FlightMap for navigation,
doesn't like big altitudes.
At about 13:43 UTC Thomas
reached the coastline of Northern Africa.
The simple looking straight flight
down to Ghardaia / DAUG developed into another weather driven action in the
mountain
area of Northern Algeria. Todays final destination was reached at 19:00 UTC
, which means real night in Africa,
after a long flight with no fun.
Sunday, January 15th. 2012 / 14:57 UTC
N81EU has landed at 14:50 UTC at LFKJ. Pilot and plane are fine. Today four
countries on the list, Germany, Austria, Italia and France.
Yes, Corsica is a part of France. On the way he passed the Alps, the Northern Abruzzies
and after a short jump over the Mediterranian
Sea channel
between Italy and Corsica again some high, snow covered mountains on the island.
(pictures showing Innsbruck and Pisa)
Sunday, January 15th. 2012 / 14:35 UTC
This morning at 09:58 UTC N81EU left Landshut / EDML, accompanied by
Christian & Florian in a Cessna, to take some pictures
on the way to the Alps. Inbetween Thomas is close to todays harbour Ajaccio /
LFKJ on the beautiful island of Corsica.
Saturday, January 14th. 2012 / 14:55 UTC
Due to todays WX conditions , crossing of the Alps has been postponed to
tomorrow. The bird is topped up and waiting in a
comfortably heated hangar.
Friday, January 13th. 2012 / 16:44 UTC
Finally the bird went up into the foggy and rainy air at 11:20 UTC.
It took 1h33' to reach todays
destination Landshut / EDML. The plane did a flawless job, but the WX conditions
had been rather poor and the forecast might
change tomorrows flight path down to Korsika.
Friday, January 13th. 2012 / 11:00 UTC
Present weather conditions seem to postpone the planned takeoff
from Mosbach / EDGM ...
Friday, January 13th. 2012 / 10:00 UTC
Hi folks, this is Dietmar again, taking over this web page for another week
to let you participate in
the transfer flight of Thomas on board his Europa trigear. This times task is to
move the bird from Germany
"down" to Jaunde, the capital of Cameroon.