Piloten zonder Grenzen in de Centraal Afrikaanse Republiek

Since I flew for AsF (Aviation sans Frontieres) in the Central African Republic in 2005/2006, AsF has occasionally asked if I would like to fly for them again. By then, I had a well-paid job in the aviation industry and I wanted to put myself first at this point in my life, so I declined each time. I was fired in 2022 and therefore had the opportunity to work for AsF again. It appeared that AsF had turned into a real airline since I left: no more cowboys. That implied I had to jump through quite a few hoops, before I qualified to fly for them. So I started with the first one: a mandatory week in Orly, France for newcomers wishing to fly for AsF. On my motorcycle attacking the “peripherique” around Paris was quite a challenge! It was fun to meet like minded people and it was a very interesting week. At the end we had a clear picture of what was required of us to become fully fledged AsF pilots. I had to undergo a medical test (check blood) and a psychological test (fill out questionnaires and talk to a shrink). I would have to attend another week in Orly and I would have to make a check flight in Lille. To top it all, I had to follow an MCC course. The MCC was the most difficult obstacle. MCC means “multiple crew coordination”. It’s about proper communication in the cockpit. All airlines require it. So - besides a theoretical course - it is done in a simulator of an airliner. And that – of course – is quite costly: 5500 euro’s to be precise. I pleaded and AsF payed the money up front. I’ll have to pay it back flying for them. It was not easy to find a provider, but in the end I did. The theoretical part is not difficult to schedule. The difficulty lies in scheduling the practical part: 20 hours of flight in a Boeing 737! First of all I needed a partner, who – just like me – needed only the basic MCC and the accompanying sign-off. Then the simulator had to be available and we both had to be available as well. Finally all things came together and I arrived at the simulator. Turned out my partner had chickened out at the last moment. So the process of finding a partner started again. Once that was done the flying could start. Now, I have a fear of “too many buttons and switches” and you can imagine the 737 is just a nightmare. In the end I got used to it pretty quickly and efforts of the instructor to send us into the boondocks started failing. In the last session we had some time left and I asked if I could barrel-roll the 737. It actually handles the barrel-roll quite smoothly. I passed the medical test alright and the psycholical one – to the amazement of many – as well. That left the mandatory course in Orly and the flight in Lille. Which was obviously a walk in the park. As this is a voluntary job I could give my availability and I opted for august to start with. Due to communication issues this fell through. My new availability became between half november and end of april. The main characters are Eric Majou. He is a former real estate agent with a love for aviation. Spent most of his life as a fun pilot. Got his commercial pilot’s license 12 years ago and wanted to do something useful with it. He is now chief pilot AsF. Jean Gilbert is a very funny guy, an ex-airline pilot and too old to continue flying for AsF (65 years is the max unfortunately). He answers all my questions and even bought my book “Mission in Central Africa”. Didi is an African lady who takes care of all the daily issues, like visa, tickets, flying schedule and anything else that needs taking care of. Actually the departure date of 6 november came a bit late. Applying for a visum normally takes three weeks and we had one week. So Didi suggested to apply for an electronic visum, which would be available in a couple of days. It is only valid for seven days, but at least I would be in the country and an extension would be taken care of by Dieudonée (the local logistical man in Bunia). So she sent me the link to apply for the e-visum. I tried three times and three times it fell through. I asked Didi to try and she finally succeeded. She sent me the link to pay the required $250, which again didn’t work for me. So again she tried and succeeded in the end. By now the departure date was less than a week away and things became very real. Finally on the road After jumping through many hoops, the time has finally come: all boxes have been checked. I got my MCC. I followed two compulsory course weeks in Orly. I did a mandatory check flight in Lille. I have a visum for Congo. I have a plane ticket to Congo. And I am só relieved that it is possible to travel via Entebbe. The original route was via Kinshasa – Goma – Bunia. I've been told that's a route with many hurdles. You arrive in Kinshasa in the evening and you will be picked up by a local AsF employee (Constant), heading straight for a nearby hotel. There you lay your tired head on the pillow at midnight. At 4:00 AM you get up again to take a UN flight to Goma. In Goma you will transfer to another UN flight for Bunia. The two UN flights do not connect, so you may have to wait 7 hours at Goma. All in all, about three days on the road. It is so much easier through Entebbe. Getting to Entebbe is standard. Entebbe itself is a neat airport in an normal country without violence. And then the last part – about an hour's flight – with the MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship). Ideal! However, I realized that I would need a visum for Uganda. Didi would arrange it. On Monday, 6 november, I was checking in my suitcase at Schiphol at 13:00. At that time there was no visum yet. Didi advised I should go anyway. The flight to Cairo was beautiful and took 4:10 hrs. I spent a lot of time looking outside. The hot meal - at 17:00 - was plentiful and delicious. The transfer in Cairo was easy. The flight to Entebbe was via Kigali, Rwanda. Still a 5:30 hrs flight….. I didn't look outside much because it was dark. But when I did look outside, everything was black, except for a small moon. Usually you see some light here and there on the ground of a village or town. But here it was, hour after hour: pitch-black. There was some light again near Kigali, but not near the exuberant festival of lights of Cairo. On the way we had another copious hot meal around midnight. It tasted great. From Kigali to Entebbe it is a 50 minute hop and we arrived at daybreak. At Entebbe, customs had some difficulty with my lack of visum. I had to hand in my passport and in the meantime I was allowed to get my suitcase. While I was waiting for my suitcase, customs came to me. He would give me a one day transit visa. He had been working all night and wanted to get rid of me: fine! After that, I waited until I weighed an ounce, but my suitcase never came. So on to the lost and found. It turned out that I was not the only one who was missing his luggage ....... In the meantime it had started to thunder and rain. Once outside there was no one to meet me, but a few phone calls later Mike – the AsF contact in Entebbe - came to pick me up. Three meters further on there appeared to be a tent with seating, where we could wait. Because – it turned out – Eric came as well, with Kenyan Airways via Nairobi and then we would continue to Bunia together. I arrived at 06:00 and Eric was scheduled for 09:00. So just wait. When 09:00 arrived Eric didn’t, due to the persistent thunderstorm. And so uncertainty reigned again. It later turned out that the plane had returned to Nairobi. There they refueled and waited for better weather. That came soon. In the meantime I was checked in for the MAF flight. Very official. Things were quite different in Bangui. Once in the waiting area, I spent my time reading and dozing off. The WiFi at the airport was reasonable, so I was informed a while later that Eric would try again at 12:00. And indeed, an hour later Eric suddenly appeared in front of me: a cheerful reunion. This did not end the uncertainties however, as the MAF had not even left Bunia - due to bad weather in Bunia... It took another few hours before we received a message that the MAF had taken off enroute to Entebbe. And indeed – quite a while later – a MAF employee came to pick us up to board the plane. It was very nice to be a passenger with the MAF, an organization that I hold in high esteem. In exactly the same type of plane as the two we operate. The flight itself was wonderful: beautiful landscapes and a feast of recognition (I flew there for three months in 2008). At Bunia we were cheerfully welcomed by many of Eric's acquaintances. Of course, I immediately start comparing it to what I've seen before. Bunia is a big, spread out town. The buildings are modern and in good condition. Not one clay hut, as was the standard in Bangui at the time. No traces of violence, as are visible everywhere in Sarajevo. During the flight I had my headset on and could listen to the pilots. Apparently there was a massacre in Bunia in 2002. Thanks to the arrival of the blue helmets of MONUSCO (Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en République démocratique du Congo), there has been peace in the area. There will be elections soon and in the run-up to it, it has already been decided that MONUSCO must go. They leave December 31, 2023. The pilots expect another massacre will become a real possibility again after that. The AsF house is a large walled house. It is not only used by AsF. We are on the ground floor. According to Eric, there are Ukrainian pilots on the first floor. And Russian pilots on the second floor. I haven't seen them yet. There are three bedrooms and - because Inas and Gilles (a veteran AsF pilot) - are already there and Eric is moving into number three, I will go to the hotel on the other side of the road (although it consists of sand as it is not a main road). After my installation in the hotel (looks beautiful from the outside, but is a bit basic on the inside) I cross back to AsF for dinner, this time prepared by Dieudonnée. Deliciously barbecued goat with surprisingly tasty fries and avocadoes. Sprinkled with beer and a sip of whiskey, a royal meal. After a nice afterdinner discussion about life, the universe and everything, it's high time for bed around 8:30 am. Eric and I are dropping off anyway, but it seems to be customary to go to bed early and get up early. When they say, they usually get up at 05:30 and leave at 06:30, I blanch. But apparently everyone wakes up at 04:30 naturally, so what's the problem? I fall asleep like a log and wake up at 06:00. Life is already in full swing on the streets and it is already light. I turn over again and wake up again at 08:00. I quickly crawl out from under my mosquito net, get dressed and head to the hotel breakfast. That turns out to be less than expected. I am led into a completely blacked-out room with black walls and disco lighting. And all this while the sun is shining cheerfully outside. The food offered is limited and there is tea and instant coffee. Anyway, I take care of the inner human being and get out. Eric and Gilles left early this morning for eight flights. I get to do the last two. Before I can fly, I first have to attend a UN security briefing. That was supposed to happen this morning, but – you guessed it – it's been postponed until tomorrow. So: patience is tested once again. Luckily I have plenty of entertainment. Inas had to wait 10 days before she could fly, so a day's wait is nothing. Electricity is fickle. So we have a generator to support us. But there is a remarkable innovation: solar power stored in batteries, converted in 220 Volt AC. The house is built like that. So you have two switches everywhere: one for regular electricity and one for solar power! Apprehention about becoming airborne. Inas is a Danish woman of around 30 years old. Her address is in Sweden. She is dropping skydivers in Slovenia. She has a Bosnian mother from Banja Luka and an Ethiopian father. She has also experience flying in the Central African Republic on a Cessna 206. And yes, it turns out she has been flying the same plane as I. What a coincidence. When I arrive in Bunia, she is there as well. I met her before, on my flight check in Lille. She has been quite frustrated as she was not allowed to fly during the first ten days. Apparently some experience was lacking, so in the end she had to fly ten empty legs, before she was allowed to fly with passengers. In the end she flew six days. All this to indicate my apprehension about my process here. However, it turns out I just have to get the UN safety briefing. It is done via zoom and several people enlighten me about the do’s and don’t’s during one hour. It’s all quite straightforward and not too threatening as the fighting is not very close to Bunia. However we do fly to hotspots, like Mambasa. The Ugandan airforce – which works together with the Congolese army – has just made three airstrikes on rebel positions close to Mambasa. The concern is not so much the threat of being attacked, while on the ground in Mambasa. The concern is about getting in-flight conflicts. So things like this will be coordinated between the fighting parties and the UN. The UN will have to give us the green light, when we fly to a hotspot. Other than that there is a large restricted area where the fighting is more intense, but we do not come near to that area, so: no worries. The safety briefing was postponed one day and then – yesterday – I could start flying. First flight to Mambasa. It is only a thirty minutes flight. First the luggage arrives and then the passengers. We have eight passengers today. They have to identify their luggage in order to prevent us taking along stuff that doesn’t belong to anybody. They themselves have passed the usual metal detector. Then Eric – our chief pilot and my personal mentor – invites the passengers to board. After that he enters the cabin to make sure everybody is strapped in correctly and he finalises his act with a beautiful safety briefing in French. I am not sure I will ever be able to deliver that speech. I asked him to write it down for me, as this is really the task of the co-pilot. The weather is a bit shaky as we are still in the raining season and we have to wait a bit for the weather to clear up. Finally Bunia is OK and from Mambasa we receive pictures trying to indicate it is OK at their end as well. Although not very convincing we give it a try. There is plenty of cloud to prevent us enjoying the pretty view, but there is a lot to do in only thirty minutes, so I don’t mind. This is pretty much a brand new airplane with a level of automation, which at this point, is beyond my level of comprehension. For instance – for flight following purposes – we send an SMS to a multitude of people and agencies, letting them know when we departed, when we estimate to arrive at which destination with how many people. We can also make the airplane calculate a comfortable descent path and then fly it. We also have to talk to flight following – situated in Goma – via the HF with pretty much the same message as the one sent by SMS. Then we have to report “ops normal” every thirty minutes, which turns out to be a bit much for a thirty minute flight. Mambasa is a strip with a bit of a slope. Altogether it averages 2%, but there is a very steep bit in the beginning. We fly by to check it out first. There is a guy with a yellow vest in the middle of the strip, but he will probably go to the side when we arrive. As the trees are very tall you really descent and fly under the canopy for a while, which is impressive. The sides of the strip appears lined with Congolese soldiers. At the very end there is the reception committee. We disembark the passengers and receive new passengers and their luggage. Obviously no metal detector here, so there is a guy with a handheld metal detector who “swipes” all passengers. It beeps a lot, but they make sure it’s buckles and stuff like that and nothing more. Although the strip is a seemingly comfortable 900 meters long, we are still limited in weight for take off. All these strips are high and – with a high temperature – the performance of the engine is much less than on sea level with 10 degrees Centigrade. The take off is interesting too. It is not a flat surface, so we become airborne and then land again, while gathering speed. Then the steep bit comes along and we plunge among the high trees until we become properly airborne and lift into the still grey skies. The return is uneventful. Upon landing we are number three behind two others. Tower doesn’t have radar, but we do have TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System), so we can see them and we slow down some to avoid having to make a go-around. There is only the runway and no taxiway, so landed airplanes have to backtrack on the runway to vacate the runway, which may take some time. In the meantime the weather is clearing up more and more. Next we will fly to Mahagi. A strip situated north of Bunia, close to lake Albert. Bordering this huge lake – which is called the “rift valley” – a result of tectonic plates drifting away from each other, is a pretty mountain range along which we fly the whole way. Ground visibility is now quite good and – comparing with the Central African Republic – this is still a pretty well developed country. Not many clay, straw covered huts. Instead, many proper houses with shining corrugated iron roofs and proper roads. A shame that rebels hinder progress. You can see lots of agricultural terrasses, which are no longer tended ..... Mahagi itself is an easy, flat strip and the process is identical to Mambasa. The return is uneventful. Upon arrival I hear that my suitcase has been found in Entebbe! Besides, we had one airplane in Entebbe, which had maintenance and now will return to Bunia!! One and one is still two and later on this day I finally get to wear some clean clothes! We make one more trip up and down to Mambasa and then we can almost relax. Almost, because obviously we have to fill out all the paperwork. In the meantime – besides the pilot (Frederique) returning from Entebbe – Jean and Patrick arrive. Next week we will have an audit by the French Cicil Aviation Authority and they are going to show him around. Obviously that makes for a nice evening with beer and conversation. We eat out at MONUSCO. They have a walled place where you can eat, relax (ping pong and snooker) and sport at a walking distance from our place. The Saturday was a standby day, in case there was a medevac, and Sunday was just off. But you can imagine I have to learn a lot, so I was busy catching up with a lot of stuff. Today 13-11 we were supposed to fly from Bunia to Aru, From Aru to Mahagi and then return to Bunia. Then, we were supposed to do a return flight to Mambassa. Initially the weather was really bad with thunderstorms and lots of rain. But it miraculously cleared up and with a minimum of delay we could fly the triangle. I have progressed beyond last Friday, as I can now board the passengers, close the doors and check / help the passengers with their seatbelts. However, the speech to the passengers – obviously in French – I don’t feel up to yet. So Eric did it. But I can see that tomorrow or the day after, he is going to ask me to do it ...... After our return to Bunia, the return flight to Mambasa was cancelled as there is too much violence there now. Yesterday evening a 10 year old child was killed by a Congolese soldier. He was arrested, but obviously the people were upset, so today there was a protest and an 18 year old kid was killed by the police. In all this violence, the rebels haven’t even been active. As this all happened on the road to the airfield it was decided to cancel the flight. There is still a challenge to document the flight correctly and to prepare the flights for tomorrow. Dieudonnée is material in all this as he is doing a lot of work, which I don’t have to do, but at least I followed what he did to end the day and to start the next day. He is a very kind and capable man. He was a pilot as well, until he crashed in 2013 with a Piper Cherokee. They had changed the engine and put in a Mercedes car diesel engine. It failed on approach and he ended up in the trees with shattered left thigh. Small detail: they were carrying gold. Driving through town is still exciting and there is a lot to see. For instance there is a carpenter and he makes only beds. So you see him working and by the side of the road there is a stack of 15 ready-to-go beds. Next to him is a carpenter who builds coffins. So you see him at work and next to the road, there is a stack of very pretty, identical coffins. It is extremely busy on the road with many motorcycles. In Egypt and Kathmandu people are honking ALL the time. Over here they honk only when necessary. Very pleasant. In all this chaos I only saw one minor mishap, which I find amazing. 14-11-23 Last night I could hardly sleep because of the briefing I will have to deliver to the passengers in French. However, this morning we started with only one passenger and I decided this was the moment to go ahead and overcome my fear. I did it three times and I cannot say I am now comfortable with it, but I certainly killed the fear. We did a quick return flight to Mahagi and then we did a triangle via Dungu and Aru. Usually we fly half an hour to our destination, but this was twice an hour. Dungu we never do and it wasn’t even in the GPS. We did have the coordinates, so in the end we arrived alright. Dieudonnée got all excited as there is supposed to be a castle – built by a wealthy Belgium guy – way back when. I didn’t see it, but I took pictures of the supposed location and later on – back home – we did identify the ruins of what once must have been a castle. Aru was covered in a heavy rainshower and we were just unable to see the runway on the first try. The second try was successful. Here we got a jerrycan of wild honey. It tastes very nice. Tomorrow is going to be six legs, four of which are to the – by now – dreaded Mambasa. In the evening it got cancelled. The village is in mourning, meaning that nobody leaves the house, shops are closed and so a trip to – or from – the airport is a no-no. The aftermath and preparation for the next day is quite complex, but I am getting the hang of it. All these strips have limitations weight wise. And we have to give the UN the amount of kilo’s we can take with us. It leaves me time for a quick check for private messages and then we move out for dinner, which is really nice. It is the time to hear all the good stories of yesteryear and the projects to come. Tomorrow just leaves us with a quick return flight to Mahagi, which is also good. It doesn’t have to be intense every day. 16 nov 23 Today we went to Epulu three times to get the people – who were stuck in Mambasa – out of the jungle. Epulu is in the middle of a natural reserve, especially for the Okapi. But there are other animals as well, like Monkeys, Antilopes, Elephants, Leopards en a lot of snakes. Apparently the biggest threat here are not the rebels, but the gold diggers.You don’t need mercury to extract the gold. Just put a spade in the ground and the stuff appears. This happens on a very small scale, but a lot, so the animals are disturbed. The first two times, things go as expected. The take off is a bit tricky as the strip is a bit moist, which is slowing down acceleration. The third time the strip is enveloped in a huge downpour. We have to wait a while and I take the opportunity to wash the aircraft to a mint condition. We don’t have to very long and so I start with the final approach. The landing turns out to be very, very wet. The braking action of the reversing propeller enlarges the effects. We are simply enveloped in water and mud. When we stop and I get out, the grass and the mud is everywhere. On the fuselage, but also on the wings. The people on the ground were sure we would go home. The landing was obviously the fun part. The takeoff was another story. Luckily we have only 5 people, so not too heavy (earlier we had 8 people). We wait for an hour to get rid of the worst , but there are still puddles ... The acceleration is pretty bad. We have decided if we don’t reach 60 knots mid runway, we stop. And we reach 60 knots exactly midway. The fact that I am writing this means we made it. But is was an interesting experience all the same.