Through The Delta And On To Victoria Falls
We have now left the Okavanga Delta. But not before a rather incredible stay at the Shinde Lodge. This lodge is run by the Ker & Downey Group, which is a very large safari tour operator in Botswana. It is a an amazing five star lodge that is right in the middle of the delta. We […]
Off To The Okavango Delta
We are about to leave the Haina Kalahari Lodge. We have had a wonderful 2 days here with lots of animal sightings, such as impalas, kudus, warthogs, etc. Tons of pictures as you can imagine, such as this one:This lodge really surprised me. Despite being in a very remote area, the lodge was “very comfortable”, as […]
Into the Kalahari Desert
The first leg of our journey was from Lanseria airport near Johannesburg, South Africa to Gabarone, Botswana. As you can see, Paul and I were dressed for the occasion and ready to go: We had 4 planes in our convoy and we flew in a loose formation the whole way. The lead plane did the […]
Final Departure Briefing
Today was our final briefing prior to departure for Botswana tomorrow morning! First, we did a paperwork check including, waivers, agreements, insurance, etc. As you can see below, everyone was excited to finally have their South African Licenses physically in hand! After the paperwork, we reviewed the entire proposed route, which as you can see […]
Checkride Day in South Africa
Our entire group of pilots has now arrived and yesterday morning we all gathered for an ATC briefing. Here is a pic of our group: The briefing was conducted by Andre (standing in the picture), who is the head of the local ATC facility. While everyone in the room was a seasoned pilot, most more […]
First Flight in South Africa
After all the studying and preparations that I have done over the past 6 months, today was the day for my first flight in South Africa! This was a training/familiarization flight in my new chariot for the next 2 weeks, which you can see below: This is a 1975 Cessna 182. While it is very […]
14 Hour Layover in Mumbai
Today I began my journey towards Africa for the Hanks Aero Adventures, “Self Fly Safari”. As I was preparing for departure from Singapore, I reviewed my itinerary and realized that I had a 14+ hour layover in Mumbai on the way to Johannesburg 🙁 I decided to make the most of it. So I booked […]
Formation Flying (Part 2)
I finally found time to finish the part 2 video on the Formation Flight Training. Actually, I was on a Newark to Hong Kong flight that was 15.5 hours and I had already finished my email + dinner + a movie and still wasn’t sleepy… So I finished this video … Hope you enjoy it as […]
Formation Flying (Part 1)
With only a week before my Singapore adventures begin, I had to squeeze in one last US flight adventure. So this weekend, a fellow Cirrus pilot (David) and I did Cirrus formation flight training @ McCollum field with a couple of former US Air Force pilots(Rich & Stan), who are pictured below during our pre-flight […]
Home Just in Time for Maintenance
After the return trip from Palm Springs, I realized I had reached home “just in time” for some critical maintenance. My final round trip journey was in excess of 4000 nm, as you can see below: Before the trip I made sure all the maintenance was current and even had my mechanic go over the […]