dodgy-alan 1,587 Posted October 11, 2012 Report Share Posted October 11, 2012 Boeing 747-400BCF belonging to Martinair loading at East Midlands Airport on a relief flight to Africa. It's almost 23:00 and the final containers are being loaded. All closed up, Pushback approved as she starts her engines. Taxying out, Its quiet tonight. Mike Papa Romeo rolling..pre-setting the AP to save time. lifting off into the darkness gear up as she climbs away less than an hour later and shes crossing the Sussex coast a few hours later shes over the Mediterranean Sea By 5:30 she's running down the Red Sea, passing the port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia as the sun rises so does the heat, especially in the tail where the APU seems to have developed a problem! The APU fire is quickly dealt with and as the aircraft is in no immediate danger the crew press on. slowing down as she briefly crosses the coast of Eritrea, gear going down Lining up for Ambouli Airport. Djibouti is a very small independant state sandwiched between Eritrea and Somalia, It was originally known as the Independant State of Affars and Issas ! No wonder they changed the name! over the threshold rollout taxying in Journeys end, on the ramp at Ambouli, when you open the doors the first thing that hits you is the heat....and then the smell! A strange scent of herbs and spices mixed with aviation fuel and pollution! thanks for viewing, comments welcome. I only ever went to Djibouti once, and as we sailed into the port it became apparent that there was some sort of civil war going on as the ship was shot at a few times by snipers in the hills! we had to moor aout of rifle range in the middle of the harbour and douse or shield all lights at night! (something I thought was a bit daft as they knew where we were anyway!) when we finally were allowed to dock it had calmed down, the port was a dump as far as we were concerned and you had to watch out for pickpockets and thieves at every corner! personally I was glad to leave the place. Link to post Share on other sites
jaydor 345 Posted October 11, 2012 Report Share Posted October 11, 2012 Brilliant Alan, I enjoyed the trip with you. Affars and Issas, glad they changed those names as there would have been a lot of sniggering in the UN! They do have a prize in the tour operators planning department as to who can send trippers to the worst place on earth. Looks like you lost out but the winner in the department slipped on a bannana skin and fell on Issas.. Link to post Share on other sites
hurricanemk1c 195 Posted October 12, 2012 Report Share Posted October 12, 2012 Great shots and history there Alan! Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,316 Posted October 12, 2012 Report Share Posted October 12, 2012 Ewww...you stepped in Djibouti, hope you wiped your feet before getting back on the ship. Haha, good story and pics Alan. Thanks for the flight. Link to post Share on other sites
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