Here is Mike's take on the flight between Accra and Praia.
Quite descriptive of the enornous challenge, as well of the awesome priviledge that such a venture offers.
“The flight from Accra to Praia in the Cape Verde Islands took
us 15 hours. The tailwinds we expected didn't really happen, and the massive
storms we thought might turn us back didn't scare us too much. We dodged a few
nasty looking CB's and had to deal with cloud and rain and junk, but it wasn't
too bad. Patrick was pretty nonchalant about it all so he still has to have a
few scary moments to make him more aware that the junk contains horror movies
right in the middle with real monsters.
I read my book that my son Greg recommended. A Game of
Thrones. Woaawh, it's well written if you like heroic fantasy. That is always a
good time to read a book. If you are up at 8,500ft and there is cloud about,
and you can't see much because of the haze, and if you are in love with your
auto-pilot and engine and your quantity of fuel, then read away I say. Listen
to music and read. It's like reading a book, listening to good music while in a
great 3D movie.
Oh yes, our HF radio is working well enough. We spoke to
Accra from 800 km away and the same for Dakar.
F radion radio
It was dark for the last hour. The ATC kept us too high too
close so I had to dive us down for the finals … also because he had an Air
Kenya heavy flight as number 2 just 5 minutes behind us. That scared me more
that the EFIS going all red as we went through Vne (by mistake) for a few
seconds.
OK, here is great news – Praia is good stop. There is no
Avgas so you have to run backwards and forwards to the fuel station for mogas
but the customs, immigration and ground handlers are super helpful and friendly
and understanding. And it's quite inexpensive. This has been a good stop.
We take off tonight at 2 UTC for the 19 hour flight to
Barbados. I am going to have a few hours' sleep now. The weather looks good and
we are supposed to have good tailwinds – we are in the Trade Winds band that
stretches right around the world.”
