Post 16: The Main feature. True grit, airmanship of the highest quality and a dose of luck.

Downtown Ad Damazin, capital of the Blue Nile State

The turn around at Ad Damazin on the border between Sudan and Ethiopia was unusually swift and smooth. That should have set alarm bells ringing. The formation rule is :fastest off first. He reports back on the chat frequency: weather, airfields, frequencies for the tail-end charlies. Fox formation aircraft 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, refuelled and took off for the climb up and over into Ethiopia without incident. Gruppenfuhrer Sam and William in the whisk had already gone ahead.

That left David, the Wing Commander, in Fox 1, the Cessna 303 twin, and Richard in Fox 7, the Grumman AA5 Traveller. Fox 1 was carrying Richard wife's Wendy, struck by Mubarak's Revenge in Khartoum. She was feeling grim - in an understated, Yorkshire sort of way. Adam, Sam's, Kiwi sidekick, had swapped places with Wendy and was now flying with Richard in the Grumman. He takes up the story: "We were at the runway threshold ready to line up and take off. David is cleared to enter the runway. He backtracks to the top, does a 180degree turn, full throttle and starts his take-off roll. Just as he passes us his nose-wheel collapses. It was like watching a slow-motion accident. He continued for about 1500 feet down the runway on his nose, tail high, the propellors and engines scraping the ground." Richard, in the Grumman, knows Wendy,his wife, is in there. The fire engine whines its way to the stricken aicraft and sprays it with foam. " We've got to get out. Now." says David"  Before she goes up". Wendy, Angela and David are helped out quickly by a swam of Sudanese airport workers and police. At the terminal, kind Sudanese women ply them with mint tea and towels. " Everybody was crying" says Wendy" more of out of relief than anything else. They were all so kind."

News is quickly relayed by the Tower to Sam in helicopter G-DKNY which turns back to Ad Damazin. Foxes 2,3,4,5 and 6 are asked to continue to Addis Ababa. The runway is blocked. A white UN, twin-engined turbo-prop is waiting to go back to Khartoum. It had brought - yes, you guessed it- HE the British Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary. He was somewhere in Damazin winning hearts and minds. 

The dazed group set off to a heavily-fortified, barbed -wire compound to try and find somewhere to stay. No luck. The group then sets off to the Police Guest House where the British Ambassador was staying. The genial Major-General, previously Sudanese military-attache in London, now the local chief of police, offered to put them up in his own guest house. Beds are found. Sam goes out to get grilled chicken. Everyone collapses. At 10pm HMG's Ambassador and his close protection squad ( Sudan is one of Al Qaeda's favourite playgrounds and scene of horrific atrocities against western interests) turns up. "What can I do to help?"

Next morning Wendy, Angela and David travel in the Ambassador's 4 x 4 motorcade - with outriders- on the 9-hour road trip back to Khartoum. David has to contact the UK Civil Aviation Authority about the accident. By this act of kindness HMG's ambassador in Khartoum makes up for the infifference of hs consular staff on the previous day.

Later that night Steve - who had flown over the mountains into Ethiopia- calls from Addis to say the mountain waves were too tough for the auto-pilot to handle. So he hand flies Alpa Charlie at FL110 with full power for over 2 hours. " It was like a roller-coaster" says Steve. Quite a feat of flying. See: http://www.pilotfriend.com/safe/safety/mountain_wave.htm

David and Angela are in Khartoum deciding what to do next. Steve and Alastair and Charly along with Bernard and Derek ( who leads flying tours in Africa), takes over leadership of the stragglers in Addis. The plan is to fuel up - somewhere- and be in Wilson, Nairobi tMonday night where Ken's engineering outfit CMC will carry out the obligatory ( sand necessary)  50-hour check on Alpha Charlie. The hope is that we then set off for Zanzibar on Tuesday.  

Tomorrow's blog: Wilson Airport Nairobi and the legendary East African Flying Club. Famous members, icons ( for once the noun is justified) include: Tom Campbell Black, Malcolm Gladwell, Florence Wilson, Denys Finch-Hatton ( Robert Redford in Out of Africa) and Beryl Markham whose West with the Night is one of the classic flying biographies. We are treading on hallowed ground.

Let's have a song: the Senaa Band, Sunday lunch at the East African Aero Club, Wilson Airport, Nairobi. It's leader does a terrific impression of Louis Armstrong singing Hello Dolly!