Post 38: Algiers to Ibiza, the last flight of Los Zorros (The Foxes) before we each head home at the end of the Transafrica

April 1, 2011
Algiers (DAAG) to Ibiza (LEIB)
169nm seas-crossing
Flying time : 1 hour and 39 minutes




Africa passes underneath Alpha Charlie's left wing for the last time
as we head into the Mediterranean and Ibiza


 Alpha Charlie has missed her take-off slot at Algiers. Alpha Charlie doesn't do slots. She wouldn't know one if it rose up and tweaked her prop nose. This is the trouble with grown up airports. They're stuffed full, not to put too fine a point on it, of planes. These in turn are crammed with pilots with big watches waiting to push the autopilot at 300ft. Plus a hierarchy of Air Traffic Controllers trying to stop the organsied chaos in the air, on the runways, the taxiways and the apron from turning into a pile-up. Actually, they do a competent job with good humour.

The Foxes lift for Ibiza- the last flight as a loose formation at 5 minute intervals. We are ahead of a what looks like a maroon Very Light Jet. We take off into a sparkling blue sky on Runway 27 and head out over the Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands. The last time my wife, Victoria, and I were there we stayed in Deia, Majorca at the Virgin-owned hotel. Bob Geldof and Paula Yates, his then wife now deceased, and their children( Fifi Trixablle, Peaches, Pixi and Tigerlilly by Paula's second marriage)  were mooching by the pool.

Alpha Charlie has a slightly low reading on her fuel pressure gauge. Low blood pressure as we approach the end of a long trek. A quick boost of the pump and she's fine. Once level in the cruise at FL080 ( 8000ft) she is humming along in her usual contented way.

The landscape contrast over two days is memorable: swirling desert sand, high mountains edged in winter snow and swathed in dark thunderous cloud, lush, green valleys with pink roofs by the Mediteranean, the sprawling elegance of Algiers, site of one of the bloodiest revolutions in hisory.

ALGIERS: Algeria was liberated from the French in 1961. It was fiercely fought. No quarter asked for. No quarter given, The French, fresh from their humiliating rout by the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, felt they had something to prove. Torture was widely used by both sides. Perhaps one million Algerians died. In his memorable film, the Battle of Algiers, director Gillo Pontecorvo concentrates on the years 1954 and 1957 when the freedom fighters regrouped and expanded into the casbah, only to face a systematic attempt by French paratroopers to wipe them out. We forget, but the loss of Algeria as a colony had a profound impact on France. It brought down six Prime Ministers and nearly plunged France into civil conflict. The French Algerian settlers fought bitterly against independence, tried several times to assassinate General De Gaule, France's President  and very nearly engineered a military coup in France to topple De Gaulle and seize power.

Alpha Charlie starts a slow descent into Ibiza which we see from 72nm out. As we approach we are eneveloped in sparkling Balearic sunshine and an impossibly blue sea. We have cancelled our IFR flight plan and are landing VFR.We are asked to report at Sierra point not above 1000ft on the QNH to avoid the endless stream of Ryanair jets coming and going. This is flying at its most pleasurable. The swirling sands of the desert seem a world away. Just ahead: a San Miguel beer and grilled fish.



Downwind for Runway 24 Ibiza







Ole! Viva Espana!! Y viva Los Zorros ( that's Foxes in Spanish)

 Fancy a beer mate? TIC - Tigger in Command G-VAAC and his buddy
BIC - Bear in Command G-GOSL

Alistair"Chopper" Moon ( FP-SCB) says it all

 TONIGHT a dinner party to celebrate and thank and remember the achievement and the team work. And perhaps reflect quietly on what could have been done better, what we've learnt about flying, about each other and about ourselves. Back soon.