Pilot September 2017

missiles. So we devised our own anti-
missile approach that we hoped would
take advantage of the threshold of the
3.6km Runway 05 that jutted into the sea.
It would be better, we decided, to descend
from our high altitude cruise to a right
base turn located twenty miles out at
sea−well out of missile range. The right
base would then be flown low and fast
and, at the end of the run-in, the PC-12
would be hooked in onto a very short final
with the aircraft comfortably in sight of the
sand dunes on the landward side of the
runway which were in friendly hands.
The approach was exciting and
disorienting. After cruising sedately for
three plus hours at FL290, aim for a spot in
the middle of the sea and descend briskly
to 200 feet or lower. Then, carrying a
ground speed of around 230 knots for four
minutes, drop the gear, slow down to Vfe,
slow down some more, extend flaps some
more and turn onto final, all the while
watching out for any incoming attack, and
not forgetting to stop the roll-out before the
Tower taxiway halfway down the
runway−the far end of the runway being
in Al Shebab’s purview. The sharp contrast
between the high level cruise and the low
level approach with no ground references

African Skies | Going Solo

http://www.pilotweb.aero Pilot September 2017 | 75

Refuelling from drums using a

rackety petrol-driven water pump

We devised our own anti-missile approach...

exciting and disorienting

always mesmerised me−and I was just

looking out of the window!

Departure was a reverse of this process

but far less disorienting−though passengers

were nervous when a sultry and rather sexy

voice in the cockpit urgently commanded

“Don’t Sink! Don’t Sink!” while the pilot

determinedly kept the nose down for fifteen

miles over the sea.

The idea behind our fairground ride

procedure was that hostile MANPADs

(man portable air defence missiles) are not