Bush Pilot Lost In
Central Congo
I had been flying to the North East of our Mission to
Kasongo over the large Lualaba [or Congo] River. I had asked Andrew Ramsey with
a UK PPL if he would like to fly from the right hand seat on our return from
Kasongo. About half an hour into the one and a half hour flight a radio message
came from Ed Psalm that the Methodist pilot was lost trying to fly from Kananga
to Bukavu in very bad weather. He was to the north of us and had been trying to
penetrate a huge Equatorial storm
system.
I said that I would
land at Lubao and wait till he came into range as he was equipped with a
direction finder that worked of the VHF Frequency transmission of the approaching aircraft .
Andrew was hesitant to try to land our Cessna 206 9Q-CPA in
a crosswind on an unfamiliar strip
so I did from the right hand seat. The approach to landing was between the
government buildings of Lubao so I did a combination crab/sideslip approach. We
arrived but the final stall was a little high.
 |
| Mission Cessna 206 9Q-CPA |
After about ten
minutes I called to see if the other Aircraft was in range as the VHF transmissions work on
line of sight, i.e. directly from transmitter to receiver. He soon picked up my
call and got his bearing from there and recognised that he was about twenty
minutes to the north of me. Dennis was in completely unfamiliar territory and
when I suggested he fly directly into Kipushya Mission he declined saying that
from this direction and late in the afternoon he would not find it. He said he
would make contact then follow me in.
We took-off from Lubao when he was nearly five minutes away
and then waited till he had us in sight before heading home. It was just a 45
minute flight. They stayed the night with his four Peace Corp Passengers. They
were not happy as they had wished to get to see their friends for Christmas.
The Methodist pilot had used up a lot of his fuel trying to
penetrate the very heavy rain. It was so heavy that it had stripped the paint
from the propeller and also along the leading edge of the wings and struts of
the Cessna. he would go into the heavy rain and then have to back out as it was so heavy.They were lucky to be alive.
They borrowed some fuel from us then headed back to Kananga
to refuel and try again another day. They did finally reach Bukavu even if they
were late. Never be in such a hurry that you actually risk your life. This is
especially true in Central Africa where mostly things don’t go exactly to plan.
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