Rural Airports in Africa ; Unseen Videos
What does it look like to take off from Mansa’s airport in a small charter in rural Zambia? This. You can hear the stall alarm go off as the pilot clears the runway, which he was anything but concerned about but which definitely made sure we were paying attention. Not the world’s most well maintained piece of tarmac, but it accurately reflected the roads in the area.
All in all, great experience and a very pleasant flight. I suppose you should never judge a book by its cover!
This airport has no runway or apron. It is really just a road. First landed plane will depart behind, because only one direction in use. When there are no flights, cars use the road normally
Walikale is in the north-east portion of Congo, roughly 75 nm west of the city of Goma. At its narrowest, the trees are probably close to 5 to 7 ft from the wing tips of the Cessna Grand Caravan. Notice a couple of things: One, the wreckages of a couple planes that didnt quite make it which now serve as a threshold marking and reminder to stay on centerline and Two, the 30 degree bend in the road to the right.
After landing, everybody and everything gets unloaded and we have to turn the plane around by hand with the help of the locals. Then its load back up and takeoff in the opposite direction that we landed in. Because there isnt enough distance from where we park at the end to the bend that you can see when on final, we taxi close to the turn.
We end up going around the bend on the ground at around 30-40 knots, making sure to use rudder only and no brakes, and takeoff only once we get straightened out again. It can make for a few tense moments because until we get to the turn theres no way of knowing if theres any oncoming traffic (people, trucks, goats, whatever) and could leave us little time to react and get stopped. Overall though, a lot of fun and keeps things a little interesting here in Africa.
