“Phew, what a long, but wonderful day. We’re safely ensconced in the Continental Hotel in Luanda, about to turn in. But it turns out that our Accra landing permit is not through and will take another day. So frustrating – we’re fuelled and ready to leave. Chalkie – you’re 100% right – the only really difficult stuff is the beaurocracy – the flying is such a pleasure.
So, we’re very unlikely to get out of Luanda tomorrow morning, unless the permits were to come through very first thing. More likely we’ll be back in our beds here tomorrow night to leave for Accra early Tuesday, then we hope on to Cape Verde Wednesday, Barbados Thursday or Friday. It does all feel like quite a long way!
The tailwinds today were magnificent, though – it reminded me of 2009 when Mike and I flew to Oshkosh with tailwinds from start to finish! We laughed a lot, had conversations over the radio, listened to lots of music, had to fix a broken brake line on landing in Luanda and paid a LOT of money to refuel. Eina.
Too late to write more, but here are some photos of the day.
The journey is the destination (I hope!)”
– James
Early morning send-off party.
Start of a big journey.
Gorgeous hills just south of Botswana.
Further north and hotter.
What happens to your nuts at 12,500 feet.
Three Sling HW’s over Southern Angola.
What it looked like most of the day – 136 KTAS, 17 KTAS from behind.
Luanda – while holding for IF traffic.
Replacing a brake line.
James, Mike and Matt celebrating a fixed brake line.
Getting avgas in Luanda.
This many liters of avgas costs $5,138.
