This is a flying trip of a lifetime. I’ve been invited by Jim to ride along as his guest on the delivery flight of his brand new Airbus built Eurocopter EC130-B4. This is a 7 seater state of the art machine and is piloted by company pilot Ian for the duration of the trip. It’s life will be spent in Kenya and surrounding countries, chartered to tourists and government alike. It also joins his other fleet already in operation. This is also a first for Jim and his wife Lori, and Mindy. They’ve never joined previous delivery flights.
There will be 4 of us, plus Ian the pilot. When we get to Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, we will meet up with Caroline, a journalist writing for Spier travel magazine. She will accompany us to Kenya. I’m not a huge fan of helicopters, which probably stems from my first ever ride, a cheek clenching, nail biting sightseeing ride over the Hoover Dam in Nevada back in the early 80’s, piloted by a Vietnam veteran who clearly thought he was still back out there.
Ian, a far more relaxed pilot, completed a test flight on it in Johannesburg the day before we set off, which reassured me no end, but other than that, it’s a brand new machine. It was assembled by Eurocopter Southern Africa Ltd (ESAL) at their Lanseria airport headquarters in Johannesburg. This is where we departed from.
We flew overhead Sun City (South Africa’s Las Vegas) on our first day to Botswana, stopping at Maun airport to refuel before heading to Seba Camp in the Okavango Delta. Then across the Zambezi into Livingstone in Zambia, staying at the Royal Livingstone Victoria Falls hotel. I discovered that Ian actually got most of his flying experience doing Vic Falls sightseeing flights. No wonder he’s so good at take offs and landings, he probably did a dozen a day. Jim went up in a microlight, I declined. He pilots his own anyway so he’s comfortable hanging in a strap, or however you manage to stay in it.
We then crossed to Tanzania staying at different lodges there, one being right on Lake Tanganyika. We got treated to a sunset cruise by the manager of the lodge and the helicopter was parked just a hundred metres away from our cottages.
It was an incredible experience, especially as we flew over a lot of the ground I covered earlier in 2009 on my overland trip from Cape Town to Kenya. We would land on day 6 at the same spot in Nanyuki that I arrived at 8 months earlier, which took 33 days by road. We flew at 1000’ altitude (300metres) except when flying over game parks where we were required to fly at 2000’. Crossing Lake Victoria from Tanzania to Kenya on the last day was a wonderful experience, as was touching down at Mount Kenya Safari Lodge in Nanyuki, nestled in the foothills of Mount Kenya, on the equator. The early part of the lodge was the creation of Hollywood actor William Holden. Here’s some photos from the trip, and as you’ll see, the first one is of a partially assembled EC-130.
Every day we flew, we had our on board bar at hand. Jim and I were rum and coke boys, and the girls enjoyed white wine. Obviously, it begged the question from me as to how we would manage any personal needs in flight. This wasn’t exactly a 747 with rest rooms available. Jim merely replied that if we needed to, we would just land at any available clearing. Well, glad to say we never needed to, probably because the range of the helicopter itself necessitated fuel stops or else we just had short flying days. I enjoyed rum and cokes with Jim that progressively started earlier each day and we never even ran out of ice. On one day, we made the mistake of having a wine bottle with a cork so after much effort, we eventually removed it with some shape object or other. Thankfully if all else failed, there was a corkscrew in the baggage hold but that was not in the cabin.
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The assembly line 
Write up and photo of elephant in reception borrowed from Mfuwe lodge website......... Each year at Mfuwe Lodge we have some very special guests that pay us a visit. Whole families of elephants have been regular guests at the lodge for a number of years, visiting between October and December to feast on the fallen fruit from the large wild mango tree. The elephants have become accustomed to walking the same path they’ve always walked, irrespective of the fact the reception is now in their way.
It is Africa after all, so they don’t do dramas
Last refuelling stop before the long haul to and across Lake Victoria.
Regretfully, 5Y-RWR met a sad and extremely premature end in August 2010 at Lake Turkana in Kenya. Fortunately, a low height, manoeuvring accident, and might I add, not flown by Ian, and no casualties.
I am deeply indebted to Jim and Lori for inviting me to share this incredible journey with them. It was fun all the way, and I wouldn’t even try and recreate it here. This is but a brief snapshot for my own blog. It’s probably not even the sort of trip a huge lottery winner would contemplate, so I know how fortunate I’ve been. I’ve also been invited to accompany them on another adventure, closer to home for me next time. More to follow later.
