PIREP Leg 58 Jinja(HUJI) to Juba(HSSJ)

[brett 2,284]

It has taken me awhile to get here from my last leg location, over three weeks of short hops in small planes, buses, river boats, hitchhiking and ultimately lots of walking. I am dirty, tired and loving  every minute of it. As I was getting closer, I had the opportunity to fly over Lake Victoria to the northern shores, landing in Kampala, fifty miles from the town of Jinja. Beautiful is a good way to describe the large lake and wildlife. After an hour wait there, then came a two hour, noisy, smelly and fully packed 1960's era bus, puttered an limped it's way east to finally land me in Jinja.

 

There was an exciting buzz about a rather large plane landing in at their local airport, north of the town, from the locals when I arrived. Meeting Rob at the local hotel bar, with everyone in the room staring at him, confirmed my suspicions that he had something to do with it. After a quick cold beverage, Rob handed over the baton and bid me farewell, he just got word that the plane was airworthy and the airport wanted him out, posthaste, since he was taking up half the parking area.

 

I paid for a room and took a much needed shower, changed into something clean. Walking the dusty afterward, I went off to find myself a plane to rent at the airport. As I was walking down the dusty road to the north, I heard a tremendous sound and saw the mighty silver Bear rise in the distance. No problem finding the airport now, just follow the large dust cloud rising above the jungle.

 

Atfter arriving at the airport I did find a guy willing to rent me a Piper Cherokee, that was in rather great shape, although a bit dusty, for leaving the next day. For some reason it had a UK tail number on it, when I inquired about it and a slightly unpleasant smell, the fellow gave me a menacing staredown, told me I was renting it starting now or never and threw me the keys at me with his hand out. Wow, what got into him. I started dropping money into his hand until he crushed them in his fist and stormed of. Oh well, luckily not my money.

 

Heading back toward the hotel, I met a nice lady backpacker that informed me that she was down on her luck, could I give her a ride to Juba and maybe crash in my room. Sounds good to me, we had a decent meal and checked out the area. It was late when we got back to the room, she fell asleep on the couch while I worked out my flight plan.

 

Couldn't fly straight to Juba because of a large restricted zone starting at HUGU and going east. I worked it out that I would fly north northwest on a 327* heading, using the (NN) NDB for a few checkpoints along the way, then using the intersections of two VOR's for my first and only waypoint. I had a good map, some POI's to keep me on track also. For my first and only waypoint, I will fly to the intersection of the 310* from SV and the 352* to the JUB VOR.

 

After a few hours sleep, I was awoken by a call on my satphone. It was JohnG, the transmission was garbled but I heard that I needed to be in Juba at 8:00am local time, something about trouble was all else I could make out. I quickly woke up Margaret and said that if you want a ride, we would have to leave now.

 

It was creepy quiet at the airport as I made my checks, I felt like someone was watching me but saw nothing. I was reminded of some fellow ATWC pilots that had some nasty spots of trouble and couldn't help but think it was not over. We stowed our gear and locked ourselves in the tiny cabin, the engine start was smooth and steady. The radio was silent as I made my calls and headed to the hold line, looking about and the static from the radio confirmed it was clear to line up.

 

At 5:17 I was up, the feel of flying left all other thoughts behind (except John of course  ).

 

The town looked beautiful at dusk with the Nile river flowing along side, wonder if I'll be back.

 

I make a lazy climb as I follow the river. I will follow it until I reach a large lake ahead and take my bearing from there. It is not far from my track and it looks wonderful, no sense in missing it, right?.

 

As I near Lake Kyoga, the river skirts to my right and the sun shows it's first rays.

 

The lake ahead shimmers with a blinding reflection as I head to the far side to resume my planned heading.

 

Reaching the point on the north side of the lake, I get a shot from my wingcam.

 

The river takes a wide sweeping turn to the west here so I will meet up with it later in my journey to save time, John might be in trouble.

 

.........And here it is, curling back my way, fighting it's way through desolate conditions.

 

Here is visual conformation I am on my correct heading, the Nile river as it wraps itself around the eastern edge of Kiryandongo National Park. On the upper left of the panel you can see that I am passing the 290* radial from the SV VOR, I haven't connected with the JUB VOR yet but hope to before the intersect point.

 

It truly is a beautiful day as I pass an unseen town of Gulu and the restricted area to my far east.

 

Oh well, lost the SV VOR but I am still on course, even with a stiff wind change from the southeast and with the slight hope I will pick the JUB VOR or even pass over my next POI, waypoint 1, two small airports the run parallel with each other. If the VOR is not working I will take a heading from there. 

 

It was only around seven minutes before I picked up the signal from Juba's VOR. Slight smile from me.

 

And it wasn't long after that, the two airports, HUOA and HUAJ, I have been looking for appear over my nose. If I planned it correctly, the 352* radial should fall as I pass overhead.

 

After my turn, it was only a short time before I met up with the playful Nile coming in from my left, it then cut under me,

 

and went off to my right side.

 

As it has before, the river once again settles under me and will now lead me directly to Juba, look Margaret, Is that farm land up ahead?

 

It is a pleasing site after all this desolation. At least Margaret has been good company and the trip has gone by faster than if I was alone.

 

Small areas grow to larger areas of farm land as the lands gets more fertile.

 

It wasn't long before the large city of Juba showed on the horizon and I began to descend. 

 

 

Given a right downwind rwy13 I use the, what else, Juba Bridge to align myself.

 

Making the turn downwind I spot the hill at the beginning of the runway I am about to use.

 

Turning off base to final, I eye the hill that suddenly seems bigger.

 

Once past the hill and above the runway, I calm myself and glide down easy as you please, the turnoff is way down toward the end so I'm in no hurry.

 

Down and letting the speed come off naturally to save the brakes.

 

Parked up at 7:52am and wondering what the trouble might be that caused John to make a frantic phone call in the early hours of that morning, this from a normally easy going guy.

 

As I get out to stretch my legs, I say goodbye to my travel companion and make weak plans to meet later, I begin to get that same uneasy feeling that I thought I left behind and decide to lay low until John shows his happy face.................

 

 

[J G 927]

Great PIREP Brett, thanks for the prompt arrival and delivery of the baton. Thanks for that! 

 

And some totty along for the ride. Luck you!

 

A nice little aircraft. I bet it cost a fortune to hire in this part of the world.     

[mutley 4,487]

 

Good work Brett, I didn't see anything there that was going to cost me money other than the hire and fuel! 

 

Thanks for getting the baton to Juba safely.

[brett 2,284]

Well, the guy was pretty intimidating and scary big, I think I paid him around 8,000. US for a two day rental and I'm not sure if I will be able to return the plane, so you might be getting a call. If it helps I left the guy Micke's business card.

[stu7708 244]

Good job Brett.. A cracker of a PIREP, and not a police officer in sight  

 

Good thing you had some NavAids to work with too.. I've understood they are few and far apart in this corner of the world..

 

My only issue is that I was planning to use the Cherokee on my leg, but now I think I need to re-think that.. can't have two legs in the same section with the same model can we  

[brett 2,284]

Thanks Micke, NAVAids were a little bit of a problem but not where I was. I noticed that the VOR's I did use, lost their range at about 125nm out. 8 to 15 knot winds and direction changes gave me the most problems with this light plane. For me, following the river was a lucky break on this trip.

 

I am loving this Cherokee and couldn't wait to use it in the challenge, sorry I undercut you. If it helps, I don't think the one I was flying was actually legal, must have been stolen and I did find a few bloodstains were they didn't clean up well. I left it at Juba if you want to grab it, the keys are in a lockbox stuck to the underside and we can bring it back to England. How much fun is stealing a stolen plane, we might even get a reward.  (or arrested for the murder of the original owners   )

[ddavid 149]

Thanks for an interesting ride, Brett - nice to see 'England's green and pleasant land' in sub-Saharan Africa! I guess the Nile helps... Oh, and the scenery!

Cheers - Dai.

[brett 2,284]

I think they learned everything they know about farming from you guys.  Thanks for the nice comments.

 

As a matter of fact, if you look at real world pictures of the area, a lot of the architecture looks either French or British, I haven't had a chance to read up on that yet.

 

Scenery is straight up FTXGlobal, hence much repetition but good textures and FTXVectors which perked up the river to something halfway decent looking.

 

 

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Superb shots and story there Brett!