A Day in the Life of a Training Pilot – A Story from Kenya
By Danny Gill and Christiaan Haak
From Danny:
I’ve been training for 6 months in Kenya, getting through a license conversion, renewing my IFR (Instrument rating) and doing an aircraft type endorsement on the C208 Caravan.
This was the Marsabit shuttle on a Friday. I was in a stage nearing the end of my orientation flight training. I’d had two flights earlier in the week and had been planning to get my check ride (so I can progress to solo flying) done before I went back to the UK for my grandmother’s funeral, which would allow me to head straight to Juba when I returned from the UK.
However, I had been feeling uncomfortable with the busy Nairobi setting and weather, so we had decided to delay the flight check till I could return and be more focused. This allowed me to relax more in the training flights, having things on your mind while flying can be a real risk so it was great to work with the training team to find ways to help me concentrate on the task at hand.
It was an interesting day with lots of different aspects to it. We left Wilson in showery cloudy conditions, it was a true instrument departure going into cloud about 500 feet above the ground. I was under training so my instructor, Christiaan, told me that for the departure I wasn’t allowed to use the autopilot and I had to hand fly it all.
We were in cloud right up to about 10,000′, that was a solid 4000 feet of clouds. Once on top of the cloud, I was busy setting up radios and navigation checks, with the route we take we go quite close to Mt Kenya, but as we’re actually lower than it at 13,000′ I have to maintain visual contact with it to ensure we have the appropriate terrain clearance.
Our first stop was Log Logo where Melvin Peters and the C206 are based. He’d had a tyre go flat overnight so we brought an engineer and spare tyre with us. While the Engineer and Melvin changed the tyre I got the bags out for passengers and got the paperwork ready for the next flight then had time to chat to the three ladies we’d brought from Nairobi. Two were German volunteers who were going out to rural Ileret for 3 weeks to train teachers, they came out several times a year for this. One of the ladies had grown up in Kenya and loved getting back to her childhood home while for the other it was an exciting opportunity to see part of her friend’s childhood.
The third lady was a Kenyan working in training also (can’t remember exactly what) and she was being taken to Marsabit although usually worked in a remote north eastern part of Kenya.
Once the wheel was on and paperwork signed we left Log logo for the 10-minute trip to Marsabit, I stayed at 5,500 feet to get great views of the rainforests and craters around the hill on which Marsabit sits.
We had a quick turn around and picked up some more regulars from Marsabit. Our next stop was going to be at Korr A, which was a category C strip. This means a Pilot needs a certain amount of experience and training to Land there, so Christiaan took over and flew the 18-minute leg there. We did a low pass on arrival, noting the hill near the start, dogleg in the runway, rough surface and goats to the side!
Then came around and made a real approach and landing, stopping at the end of the runway where our passengers were already waiting.
As we hadn’t been to this runway in a Caravan for some time Christiaan and I walked the length of the strip. We measured the runway and picked out notable features we could use on a runway diagram that would help future Pilots in their landing and takeoff planning. We measured it to be 760 meters and thankfully somebody drove to the end to take us back to the plane in the 35C temps.
There are two runways at Korr. We were going to this strip as the other one had some washouts on it and large thornbushes which had punctured the tyres on another aircraft, the chief Pilot who I was with, and who had been in Kenya 6 years had never landed at this strip also.
I was allowed to take off out of Korr so we briefed on the ground what we were going to do and ensured we knew our critical points before getting on the plane. The training process includes aiming to land accurately on specific points, being able to take off in Short field requirements and generally operating to a high level of competency and accuracy so it was great to then put all those things to use in effecting a safe take off out of a challenging runway.
On the way home, we faced the regular biggest challenges of flying life in places like Kenya. Weather, terrain and traffic.
After reaching a cruising altitude of 12,000′ out of Korr I noticed some traffic on our TAS (Traffic advisory system) It was several thousand feet above me, so I wasn’t too worried about it. However not long after I noticed it start to descend, its rate of descent was quite high also. I tried calling the aircraft on three different radio channels to let him now our proximity was within 5 miles, reducing down to about 3, but could not get in contact with him. The plane proceeded to descend about 5000 feet below me and seemingly follow a ridge line before shooting up through my level again very quickly. If it wasn’t for the TAS I wouldn’t have known he was there as even though I tried my best, I never visually spotted him outside. The aircraft also has weather radar and TAWS (terrain awareness and warning system). These three tools are invaluable in navigating safely through those challenges we face. Before we take off we look at our maps to know where terrain is, check the weather for info on that, but plans can always change in the air, so those systems provide great awareness for safe flying.
Coming into Nairobi there is still some terrain around which requires planning of descents and appropriate tracking to maintain safe distances at all times. Earlier in the week, we had had the sobering reminder of how dangerous terrain and bad weather can be when another company had lost an aircraft in a fatal accident to the very terrain I was flying near.
I had been flying on that day also in the tricky conditions and had been working hard to maintain all our safety standards while staying ahead of the aircraft and communicating well with a busy air traffic controller. Thankfully today the weather wasn’t as bad, although still with plenty of cloud about. The controller was vectoring aircraft onto the main approach for the international airport Jomo Kenyata and I actually got slotted in behind another MAF aircraft that was returning from Lokichoggio. I was given clearance to leave the approach early and had to make my over to Wilson, where we are based, which also has a busy traffic area with lots of student pilots and other charter operators coming in and out in a variety of aircraft from, the C206, and Caravans right up to large 78-seater Dash-8’s.
At the end of the day we usually brief with the instructors and gain tips, advice, and wisdom from what they’ve observed. I was encouraged by having performed better on this day and grateful for the encouraging feedback from my instructor on my progress. The training can be grueling, and I find it’s always playing on my mind, that I never truly stop thinking about the standards and requirements to be met. But as we’d seen from that week’s events, there is a reason we aim high and when we walk away at the end of the day we can be confident in our credibility.
From Christiaan:
Yesterday we had to go to LogLogo to change the wheel on the C206 because the tire had a flat. Rodgers, our engineer, was able to change it out within half an hour and we could continue our flight. The C206 was also able to leave with Melvin to an outstation with some passengers we had brought to LogLogo from Nairobi. Later in the day, we landed at an airstrip where we hadn’t been for some time with the Caravan, only the C206 had been in there. We had to do a proper assessment of the airstrip to determine how much our takeoff weight can be for the condition of the runway surface and length. We thank God that it all worked out and that it all fitted in a day’s work.
