He's there for protection. The DRC is a total hellhole. Murder, rape and kidnapping are the order of the day. You stateside pilots have no idea what that place is like.
Yup. No exaggeration needed. The wild west of aviation. You can get shot here very quickly....While taxing, taking off or landing...possibly all three.
Africa is a different world where the normal rules don't exist. You do what you gotta do to get the job done. What is considered unusual in the states and Europe is the ordinary, particularly in places like the DRC where the rule of law has never really exited. You are just lucky if some guy doesn't come running out of the bush and shoot up your airplane (and you) with an AK just for the hell of it. I've seen it happen.
Hope they aren't going far or short on dutytime (har,har). Had a quick turn like this in Aspen once. Three hour wait for a fuel truck, but at least it was a truck.
no stactic leads on buckets ,no saftey glasses[one splash of fuel in the eyes you can go blind if alot goes in] with that fuel.i hope the fuel had being tested.
Agreed, they certainly were NOT fueling the aircraft 5 gallons at a time, these AN-26's hold between 1500 and 1900 gallons of jet fuel so even a light load of 500 gallons would take a hundred trips at 5 gallons per climb, and at that pace it would equate to a week and a half before the plane was ready to taxi out.
Look at the mobile stairway they are using, it appears to be too high quality for an operation that doesn't have a ground support fuel pump. This is probably a temporary work around because they have a malfunctioning fuel pump.
How do you think refueling was done back in the great age of flying. This is how Wilbur and the boys filled their tanks. Of course they had much smaller tanks to fill.
I don't think grounding would be needed as the person fueling the plane - and the fuel itself - are not in contact with the ground during the fueling process.
I've been in and out of Africa many times in years past criss-crossing the length and breadth of the continent in heavy DC-8s including stops at such "tourist attractions" as Chad, Angola, Morroco, Senegal, South Africa and Namibia (civilization), et. al. Was in Angola where the airport operations terminal still bore the bullet holes from the Israeli rescue at Entebbe. Looked very similar to the airport at Kuwait City right after it reopened and was still being smothered by black smoke from the multitude of gas pressurized burning oil wells dotting the landscape. At Entebbe airport it's easy to see how Lake Victoria could be mistaken for the ocean at ground level. It's also easy to see how Dr. Livingston could have disappeared for so many years without a trace. In any case, single point refueling was available on every stop. I gotta believe the title is a mistake. This was likely a case of some fuel additive, maybe anti-icing fluid, being added to the fuel after single point pressurized refueling had been completed?
The only problem I ever had traveling through Africa was "negotiating" with the airport authorities on the price of their ground services which always started on the moon or beyond but after repeatedly offering them the airplane as payment, they would eventually come down to earth and we'd settle on a mutually agreeable price. They wanted the green stuff, U.S. dollars. Didn't need no stinking airplane! The locals had to figure in their cut while the remainder was passed up the chain. Graft and corruption is a way of life there, kinda like it is in American politics. I always had to pay in CASH so you can imagine my concern knowing that they knew the Captain was carrying a bank roll. On layovers I slept with one eye open and always carried the bank roll with me when leaving the hotel room. And no I didn't carry a personal firearm. That would have been a guarantee of trouble. There was some security in the fact that the locals didn't want to let the goose that laid the golden egg to get harmed.
The other problem was communications with what passed as their version of ATC or diplomatic clearance to enter the various sovereign country's airspace. It was normal for the guy on the other end to either be asleep at his post or absent requiring endless "wakeup calls." When he finally did answer it was often as we were exiting his airspace. I was always relieved to have Africa in the rear view. You have to feel sorry for those trapped in that existence as is true of so much of the world. Makes you appreciate home, the USA.
Bahahaa! No way!?! It has to be something else like the fuel truck is broke during refueling or it's some kind of additive? I love the single point refueling subtitle! Too funny!
WOW , how long does this take ? Hope the crew does not have to supervise fueling, they will exceed their duty day , before he gets the right side topped off
I believe the fossil record shows that each and every one of us has our "first generation roots" on that "3rd world dung heap". And what does that have to do with the post at hand? Bad form, sir. Very bad form.
I apologize if I offended your Marxist Messiah and his homeland an area of the Earth that produces more famine,disease,wars and illiteracy than anywhere on Earth. I am not from Africa, I do not believe in the fantasy called evolution and I am not brainwashed by the American media that Barry is the best thing since sliced bread. Sorry.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana That 1 little sentence explains a whole lot, but to a closed minded person it's just words.
Oh, I know damn well he isn't the best thing since sliced bread - since I'm a fed, I haven't had a raise in two years, but my cost of living has steadily climbed. But your comments have no place on a forum like this.
And if you don't believe in the "fantasy" called evolution, that must mean you believe that some invisible man snapped his fingers and created everything in the span of six days only about 5000 years ago. I'm done here.
Off topic for sure. I was kind of waiting for preacher1 to reply but since he didn't I have a question. I haven't studied evolution since school, decades ago. I certainly believe there is evolution and Darwin had lots figured out. I'm not so sure it all started on the continent in question and that it's the only cradle of civilization. Assuming it is,, why did that continent basically stop evolving as the rest of the world evolved by leaps and bounds? Just wondering as I always like to hear different opinions on all subject matter.
I'm getting into this late but since my name was mentioned, I'll put in my 2cts worth. Some of ya'll are far to the left and far to the right. Evolution is a THEORY, meaning it can't be proven. Religion and belief in God is based on FAITH. As freee moral agents, we have a choice of believing or not and it is progressing to the point that there are a lot not believing in God these days. Some are going to really lambast and decry those that don't believe. That is NOT the message of love & Christian Felloeship that the Bible teaches. That said, the Bible has 2 clear paths; 1 that outlines a path of Christian living and a way to Heaven/Eternal Life. To ig nore these is a sure path to Hell and Eternal Damnation. Choice is yours. You want to talk about Jesus, I'll talk with you. If not, just go ahead as you are doing. One of us will be right and one will be wrong. That's a 50-50 chance and better odds than we have on a lot of stuff these days.
Just like the theory of gravity... I think most people in aviation know about that theory.
BTW, the definition of theory (as applied to gravity AND evolution): 1. a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena: Einstein's theory of relativity. Synonyms: principle, law, doctrine.
You are very correct and I respect the fact that you have offered a differing opinion with out lambasting mine. that puts us in the adult class, meaning that we can agree to disagree while still respecting the other.
BTW, just to clarify, I said I believe there is evolution, I did not say I believe in the theory of evolution as relates to the origin of man. But, even if one accepts the theory of evolution would it not be naive to think that the african continent is the only place on earth that this evolution took place?