Thanks for the compliments, guys!
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So there we were, the city lights of Lanseria overpowering the twinkle of the stars. We were cleared for a straight-in approach, runway 07.
The instruments were set, I had an idea of where the runway was relative to us, and we were to report "runway in sight". Only, I couldn't see it. And at only about 5nm away, you kind of what to know where you're going to be planting the tin can.
Fortunately my co-pilot had been to Lanseria at night before, and knew what to look for. Turns out I was looking way too far ahead.
Runway in sight, I got us on the PAPI's (they give vertical guidance and keep you on the glide slope) and followed them down. We crossed the approach lights, then the runway threshold. And the runway just kept flashing by...
Landing downhill, the runway was falling away from us. Rapidly. I hadn't realised just how hectic the slope was! So we floated like a lilo for a while before I managed to get the wheels on the ground ballerina-style - nice light tippy toe touchdown.
We were given progressive taxi instructions to our parking, as a FlySafair B737 taxi'd out. Turns out the person who taught me to fly was Captain on that B737, so we had a quick exchange of hello's on the radio, and then shut down to wait for the ambulance.
If I had a Rand for every minute spent waiting for ambulances... turns out they were on the other side of the airport, and had to drive around.
Patient offloaded, we filled the tanks for the return flight, and whilst the paramedics were at the hospital, set off in search of coffee. At like, 10pm. Needless to say, there was no coffee. Could be worse - there were people waiting for friends and family off a Kulula flight. Spectacularly late as usual (most likely. I have only known Kulula to be late, lately. As the airport had pretty much closed, I can only assume that flight was probably meant to be there over an hour ago).
But, the hospital was nearby and it was a speedy hand over, so we were on our way before our bodies could melt into the squishy Kauai seats in the terminal.
The weather reports showed the thunderstorms had intensified, with cloud tops at over 40 000ft. The weather-man we phoned didn't sound too certain, so we opted to go with Windy's forecast which showed the storms moving south- we would go north if we had to get around anything.
It was my leg to monitor i.e. do the radio work and paperwork. Normally by now on a night flight I'd be tired, but the fact that we spent 3.5hrs actively monitoring weather meant I was alert (on clear nights you sit there and it's very easy to zone out). We blasted off runway 07, with an early left turn to stay well clear of terra firma. Handed over to... eish... JHB radar I think, we cleared direct to GETEN, a waypoint before our destination. This cut out about 6 other way points and must have shaved off a good few nm's! Lekker.
We skimmed the cloud tops once again, and then entered the clag. Everything that could be hot was hot - it's better to be safe than sorry - and we kept an eye on the weather radar. Which, apart from two spots of yellow, remained green- rain but no turbulence. So much for intensifying storms.
The flight back was a lot more straight forward, with only a bit of lightning on the horizon near Beaufort West.
We got back to Cape Town around 3am. With paperwork done and aerie tucked in, I opted to stay awake until 5am- I had to go into the city and wanted to beat traffic. I'd rather sleep in my car for an hour or two than sit in traffic. Which is exactly what I did; found a quiet street near where I had to be and passed out
A good 6.8hrs in the bag, and an incredible experience!
Topic: My African Dream (Read 227881 times)
