Botswana adventure days 1 - 3

The first three days of our Sling Africa Tour 2014 have been incredible... scary weather at the beginning, especially leaving Tedderfield and over the Pilanesberg mountains, followed by storms en route to Maun, Botswana. We made it into Nguma Island in the Okavango Delta ahead of a squall which then got the last three planes in as darkness was setting in. Great bunch of guys (and Sandy) and amazing scenery in the Okavango, so much water, few places to land and now we have reached Kasane at the conjunction of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe where we landed yesterday afternoon.

Our growing collection of decals for the countries visited in our plane - clockwise Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana, although we also briefly flew over Namibia and Zimbabwe and next year should be able to add Madagascar

Llewellyn and Lee at Pilanesberg where we went through Customs and Immigration to leave South Africa for Botswana

James Pitman (left above) Director of The Airplane Factory and manufacturer of our Sling Aircraft with his Sling 4 ZU-TAF in which he and his co-directors flew around the world

Dats me with ZDL at Pilanesberg International Airport ready for our next leg to Maun and Nguma Island lodge, Botswana

5 of the 6 Slings and their crew at Pilanesberg International

Sandy, Marc, Lees and Llewellyn, part of the 12-member group in the tour

Llewellyn (Left) and myself in ZDL

Cloudy weather and storms over the Kalahari routing for Maun - see the sheets of rain up ahead

Do Eagles Dare is the name of the blog, and one poor Eagle, turkey or vulture guy met his match against the wing of ZDL at 4500 ft which unfortunately is now in for another insurance claim - they are hating us.

Arriving at the International Arrivals of Maun, Botswana, to clear customs and passport control

From Maun, we enter the Okavango Delta.. the swamps that cover a huge area up to Guma near the top of the Delta where we have booked our first 2 nights accommodation in the swampland.

We landed in Maun (pronounced mow, like now) at the bottom of the Delta to clear customs and immigration into Botswana then flew 1 hour up north to Guma, not far from the Seronga airfield shown on the map for our 2 night stay

Huge rainstorms dotted the landscape as we picked our way north.. sometimes up to 5 storms could be seen at a time and we got drenched just after landing as a squall hit the airfield.

Tents on stilts kept us out of the water, the crocodiles and hippos

A boat cruise along the waterways - Marc as usual trying to get signal on his cellphone

Sandy's toes make for a great picture as we cruise between the papyrus reeds that line the waterways that link the many tributaries to the main river through the Delta

James from The Airplane Factory, shortly before jumping into the crocodile waters for an quick adventure swim

The Slingers group with Bashi our guide (I took the photo)

Beautiful Fish Eagle we disturbed

Beautiful cloud developments the day after our stormy arrival

James, Lee and Marc

We all ate together at a long table with Willie and Pierre in the foreground

Our first sunrise in the Delta at Nguma Island Lodge 

A comfortable tent, although my toes stretched a bit longer than the bed would allow

After a 2-night stay and unwind from the harrowing cloudy trip in, we get set to leave for our second stayover in Botswana - northwards to Kasane at the conjunction of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Repacking the plane with our meagre  belongings - 35kgs is the recommended maximum luggage weight, although the Sling has proven it can perform well even with heavier loads.

We head north up the Delta to near the Namibia border (white lines are the Caprivi strip of Namibia), then head east/north-east along the border until we get to Kasane, the northern border post of Botswana

The light green area is the swampy river covered in Papyrus reeds, with more solid ground marked by the darker green line going diagonally across the photo

We have left the Delta heading for Kasane and the groundcover has changed to trees

iPad in the cockpit showing our destination Kasane (FBKE) and the conjunction of Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe

The Slings line up for refuelling at Kasane International Airport and our parking spot for the next 2 days

Big construction was under way for a new Airport Terminal Building, which from the promo-pics we saw looked like it would be a stunning new airport when completed.

The best place after a sweaty hot trip was the pool and poolside bar at the Thebe River Safaris lodge we stayed at

St Louis beer - cheers mates!

Sunset over the Chobe River with elephants crossing the road and warthogs nibbling grass and bits alongside the road in the village as we walk home after an Indian meal in the town.

The Tour has begun

Track our flights live on The Airplane Factory's website using the username and password given there.. they have installed a satellite tracking system in Jean's plane TAF - the Sling 4 that flew around the world accompanying us on our adventure.

We met this afternoon at Tedderfield Aeropark, home of The Airplane Facrtory and birthplace of our slings for the start of the Sling Africa Tour 2014 which sees us depart for Botswana at dawn in the morning.

Marc owner of Sling SAA with my co-pilot Llewellyn in ZDL as we apply the decals ahead of our morning departure for the Okavango Delta in Botswana on our second international trip together.

Over the Kalahari Desert

Our trip through Botswana this week takes us of course over the Kalahari Desert - you remember the words of the song... Ver in die Ou Kalahari tot daar in die Molopo; Gee ons die Ou Kalahari die Ou Kalahari bo..

So if we have to make an emergency landing in the desert, here's a way to make water...

On the way back from Victoria Falls flying over Botswana we fly over the Makgadikgadi Pan - see pic below, one of the world's largest salt flats.

The Makgadikgadi salt pan in the Kalahari Desert in central Botswana

The Kalahari Desert with the famous Gemsbok - beautiful buck with long straight horns

Gonna get there

Well it looks like the weather is improving over Botswana, so with a bit of rain here and there we should make it to Gabarone for an overnight on Wednesday, then on to Maun, Nguma island lodge in the Okavango Delta on Thursday, Kasane on Saturday and Victoria Falls on Monday...

Here is the weather report for Kasane. We will get there on Saturday morning showing high clouds and a few scattered low clouds which will be perfect for flying with light wind from the east so not a headwind. Kasane is going to be interesting.. it's at the conjunction / borders of Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe - all 4 countries share a border point.

Kasane is quite "large" with a population of 7 600 and is the northern-most point of Botswana on the Chobe River.

Weather for Kasane showing Sat 15th when we arrive

Weather bedevils

Our Sling Africa Tour 2014 kicks off this week coming if the weather will allow it.

Already it looks like we will have to move our departure forward to Wednesday due to clouds and rain and will have to fly up to Johannesburg with Mango or Kulula on Tuesday to pick up our plane as it is still in Johannesburg for the accident repairs.

If you look at the first grid of green/red zones I prepared for the route forward we will have to pick a route where there are no clouds or rain which is proving difficult and looks like we will have to overnight in Gabarone which was not on the original itinerary. We are checking the weather forecasts several times a day as they only get more accurate as we get closer to our departure.

Mishap on Runway 16 Pietermaritzburg

It is never pleasant to report a mishap.. fortunately not me, but unfortunately in our jointly owned Sling ZDL... Llewellyn on his first solo cross-country training flight to Pietermaritzburg as PIC.

From the pics it appears that there was a harder than normal touchdown on the nosewheel which collapsed, letting the plane grind to a halt on the propellers in the middle of runway 16. Eye-witness reports however was that there appeared to be nothing unusual about the landing which looked perfectly within all limits, but that the nosewheel had collapsed. Chatting to the insurance assessor, he is of the opinion that the high incidence of nose-wheel collapses on the Sling Aircraft, compared to other aircraft, indicates that the design of the wheel could be improved and that the margin for landing deviations from normal is too narrow. So perhaps this is something for The Airplane Factory to react on.

In the meantime, timing is very bad as we are due to leave on our Sling Africa Tour to Botswana and Vic Falls in 10 days and this is leaving little time for repairs. Andrew from The Airplane Factory has been marvellous in getting spares down to Pmb within a day or so and whilst the plane has been temporarily repaired it needs to get a special permit to fly it back to Johannesburg for full tolerances testing and clearance from the CAA to fly. It also means we have to fly to Bots with a temporary fixed propeller until we can get a new constant-speed hub and propellers ordered. Damn!!

Collapsed nosewheel of ZDL

Oops, luckily didn't flip over and the props kept the fusilage off the deck. This also shows where the centre of gravity is and why it's important even when taxiing and after landing to hold the stick back to keep pressure off the nose-wheel.