Flight Log: Dakar GOOY -- Natal SBSG 28.11.2015 / Gran Canaria GCLP 29.11.2015

Distance: 820 NM
scheduled Flying time: 6:10 hrs
Filed Route:
ATIS Dakar:
Clearance:
Take Off Time: 07:15h
ATIS Gran Canaria:
Landing Time: 13:25h
28.11.2015 Dakar/Natal:
Today our destination was Brazil and you have to be up in the air early for a 13-hour flight. We got up at 4.30 a.m., the taxi driver was booked for 5.00 a.m. and we'd arranged to meet the handling agent at 5.30 a.m. so that we could go to the DEMCA at 6.00 a.m. At 6.30 a.m. we had changed, checked the plane and were ready for take-off.

We contacted the tower after we’d paid the handling agent and got everything organised. In a confident mood we waited for permission to start the engine and for the flight route, or approval of the flight route. At 6.45 the air-traffic controller in the tower asked us whether we had a high-frequency radio on board. These high-frequency radios have a much lower frequency and bigger wavelength, so they have a much wider range. They are installed in every airliner, but not usually in planes in the Cessna 206 category. We said no, but that we had a satellite phone instead on board. We asked the air-traffic controller to give us the phone number of Atlantic, the relevant ATC or air traffic control. He asked us to wait. After a further ten minutes the tower told us that we couldn’t take off without a high-frequency radio. That was of course a bitter disappointment that we weren't prepared to accept.

A few frantic phone calls were made. To start with we phoned our Flight Service Worldwide in Karlsruhe and asked Mr Graumann to obtain permission for us. After all he was the one who assured us at the beginning of the trip that we wouldn’t need a high-frequency device to cross the Atlantic. We then also informed our handling agent and asked him to intervene on our behalf and obtain a permit. After three quarters of an hour the tower called us and said they would try and issue us with special permission. However, someone higher up in the hierarchy would have to take the decision. After another half an hour they told us that the civil aviation authority might be able to give us permission and told us to keep the engine running. We were really relieved because we thought we would now actually be able to take off. Once the engine had been running for another quarter of an hour, we contacted the tower again. They informed us that without a high-frequency device it wasn't possible to give permission to take off after all. We then asked the tower to give us Atlantic ATC’s phone number so that we could ask them directly to give us permission. After the call we were told that the supervisor would have to decide whether we could take off just with a satellite phone and no high-frequency device. An hour later we were told that we were not allowed to take off without a high-frequency device. We had literally been grounded.

Our Flight Service Worldwide manager Mr Graumann couldn’t understand this at all and wanted to call Atlantic himself again. After over 3 ½ hours in the cockpit we decided to switch off the plane and get out, take off our survival suits and work out what we were going to do next. We also wondered whether we should talk to the handling agent and see whether he could obtain a hand-held, high-frequency device for us in Dakar. We did ask him but weren’t particularly hopeful that this would work out. We wondered what we should do. Before we had arrived at a final decision, the handling agent told us that he had spoken to his provider and that he could get us a high-frequency device that afternoon for about 1,200 euros. This news seemed too good to be true and we were of course somewhat wary. We arranged to meet him at 4 p.m. to see whether this device really did meet all aviation requirements, or in other words had the right frequency.

We decided we'd be flying the next day whatever happened. We'd be heading for Natal, or two hours later back to Gran Canaria and then to Hanover. This project would then have failed, for 2015 at least. But you can't have everything. With hindsight we have to say that we really underestimated the problem with the high-frequency radio because I never needed a high-frequency device, either on my round-the-world flight or when crossing the North Atlantic. We’ll see what happens this afternoon and tomorrow morning.

What are two pilots expected to do between 6.30 to about 11 a.m. in full gear in a Cessna 206 with the temperature steadily rising to about 30 degrees? Quite apart from the fact that there were frantic phone calls with all sorts of people and of course with the ATC, the tower, the handling agent and some of Martin’s flying friends, we pilots had to eat something! So what did we do after going without breakfast that morning? We ate up all the breakfast we’d brought with us in Marie between 6.30 and 11 a.m. I admit it looks a bit odd when two pilots get into a Cessna 206 at half past six in the morning with survival suits on and then take 3 ½ hours to eat up their breakfast and allow themselves a ten-minute nap in between. But we thought that whether the Cessna was on the ground or in the air it wouldn’t make any difference. It’s still just as cramped and of course you can spend four hours in the Cessna with your survival suit on and eat breakfast that was really destined to be consumed in the air. So despite all the bad news we didn’t forget to fill our stomachs and still kept our sense of humour.

On the one hand it’s usually the case that any problems planes experience either start after landing or before take-off. It's unusual for them to occur after taking off or before landing. But problems that begin in the air are undeniably harder to solve and much more dangerous than any that arise on the ground before take-off or after landing. So after removing our survival suits we left the airstrip in good moods and went back to the hotel.

29.11.2015 Dakar/Natal:
Today we knew we had to get up at 4.15, pay our bills at 4.45 and purchase a bag with our breakfast in. The same, consistently friendly taxi driver said hello to us and stowed away our luggage. On the way to the airport, we passed through the neighbourhood where all the clubs were located. Similarly to the previous morning there was a traffic jam as a lot of taxis were on the road and people were pouring out of the clubs and getting into and out of the vehicles, causing a tailback in the dark.

We reached the airport shortly before half past five, took our luggage and were asked to wait for the handling agent. After 20 minutes we started wondering whether we'd been forgotten. This time it was the handling agent who was nowhere to be seen. Martin grabbed his phone and was assured that a handling agent would be coming. However, the person who gave us the information sounded very sleepy and we thought that somebody must have overslept. After another 15 minutes, someone did come who didn't know his way around the airport. So we had to tell him where to go and what he had to do.

A vast airport bus took us and our luggage to the DEMCA. We were then able to start our preparations. Apart from checking the plan we had to put on our survival suits, freshen up and make a few calls. Because similarly to the morning before, Mr Graumann couldn’t confirm that the flight had now been approved, but that he would have to hold more discussions with Atlantic Air Traffic Control. It was suggested that we should try to talk to the tower and discuss allowing the flight again. As we had received a final refusal from Atlantic at 6.45 a.m., it was obvious what we had to do. We would have to follow the other flight plan that would take us back to Gran Canaria. But Mr Graumann had to organise this because the system wouldn’t accept two flight plans for one plane at the same time. So we had to wait another quarter of an hour. Shortly after 7 a.m. we got into contact with the tower and Martin was again asked whether we had an HF radio. Martin explained in detail that we were no longer heading for Brazil, but for Gran Canaria and that the tower should have a flight plan for Gran Canaria.

The obligatory stand-by mode told us that the air-traffic controller in the tower had to check his papers again. After another ten minutes we asked whether we could start the plane. The air-traffic controller said no because something wasn’t right with the payment of the landing and take-off fees. He told us to contact our handling agent. Absolutely aghast, we contacted our handling agent by radio. We suspected that the handling agent had not passed on the €300 he had received that morning to the tower, or had not forwarded the whole amount that the tower required. I was quite shocked to discover that I hadn’t got a receipt for the €300. So all we could do was speculate whether this money had been used at all to settle the airport’s bill. You could say that we were pretty peeved. After roughly another ten minutes the handling agent drew up in his car and assured us that everything was OK. He said that he’d talked to the tower, that everything was fine and that we could contact the tower again.

29.11.2015 Dakar/Gran Canaria:
At last we were allowed to taxi to runway 36. We were told that we would receive a flight plan once we’d come to the taxi-holding position. We didn’t mind whether we took off for Natal or Gran Canaria. At the back of the plan we had an extra tank with 450 litres of fuel. When we took off we really had to watch out because it was already 25 degrees Celsius so early in the morning. So we taxied to almost the end of the runway to make use of its full length when the DEMCA took off. There was one scary moment when Martin suddenly remarked that the speed was far too low. I couldn't pull up the plane and take off. However, he was looking at the wrong gauge. The airfield is at an elevation of 40 ft. but the speed during taxing for take-off was already approaching 70 kt. which allowed us to take off. After another panicky moment, Martin also realised that everything was fine.

At crawl speed we slowly rose at 200 ft. per minute from the runway. The plane then has the same characteristics as a goose whose wings have been greased and who hardly gains any height however hard it tries. But the engine was functioning perfectly and so we started our ascent to 11,000 ft. We looked at all our instruments distrustfully and Martin debated the take-off regulations with the tower. We were in the air and after three-quarters of an hour we had reached our cruising altitude so that we could finish having our breakfast. Our route took us along the coast of Africa which we had now flown over several times.

That morning something caught Martin's eye: a goods train several kilometres long in the middle of the desert. This train was probably transporting ore deposits to the coast. There was also a lot of flight traffic in the shape of air force no. 2, air force no. 3 etc. Military exercises were obviously being held early that morning by the air force in Senegal or Mauretania. They could also have been English military aircraft. Two hours later heavy rain started to come down and we risked ice forming on the Cessna’s wings along the desert coast to the Atlantic. But despite the heavy rain there was no ice. This was good news for the windscreen which was covered in splashes of oil that we hadn't had time to remove the last time the oil was changed.

So the seven-hour flight to Gran Canaria was mostly spent over the sea with one hour over the desert sand. It was very important to manage the fuel precisely. Every half an hour, fuel from the rear tank had to be pumped into the tank on the left-hand side at the front so that the additional tank at the back could be emptied gradually. It’s vital to log this procedure properly to ascertain how much fuel is available for the flight, how much has already been used and how much is in each of the tanks. As the fuel was enough for the leg to Natal in Brazil, on the leg to Gran Canaria that was half as long we wouldn’t be able to empty the whole extra tank. When landing in Gran Canaria about 120 to 150 litres were left in it.

At an altitude of 4,000 ft. the airstrip in Gran Canaria was covered in clouds. During landing, the auto pilot failed for inexplicable reasons. So we had to land manually from 4,000 ft. just by using our instruments. Up in the clouds the flight was a bit rough because there was a lot of turbulence in the cumulus clouds. After about seven hours we landed safely on Gran Canaria only to discover that Mr Graumann had clearly forgotten to instruct the handling agent. We had to wait for half an hour on the airstrip before someone came and told us that the handling agent hadn’t been informed as to when our plane was due to arrive or fly out again. But these small hiccups aren’t anything unusual and after a short space of time a friendly, female handling agent took us to our taxi.