February 14, 2023 – Kasane to Chitabe, Botswana
Antoinette (travel agent extraordinaire) made a request on my behalf, to sit in the co-pilot’s seat of the Cessna Caravan that would transport us from Kasane, to Chitabe Camp in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. It was a long shot, but I really wanted to tick “fly an airplane in Africa” off my bucket list.
I try to keep my primitive patriarchal tendencies in check. Some days it works, some days it doesn’t. Today it didn‘t.
A uniformed young lady approached us as we were about to board a small plane for a flight into Botswana. She walked us through safety procedures, luggage storage, and other service items. The flight attendant got us seated, then walked around the front of the plane, hopped in the cockpit, and flew us to Chitabe.
A very qualified pilot, seen here with a caveman.
The pilot, Tswelelo invited me into the right seat and for the next hour and a half I was living the dream. We stopped once along the way to pick up additional passengers, so I participated in two take-offs and two African landings.
My Cessna 182 doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as a Caravan, but the panel looked familiar. What was not familiar was the terrain, and the white earth landing strips. I also don’t remember seeing any roaming elephants on any of my Canadian excursions.
Lelo guided us to two perfect landings on airstrips that could easily be mistaken for wildlife trails.
Cessna Caravan A2-LEO on Final, Chitabe Airport.
In fact, the runways were wildlife trails. When we were on the ground in Chitabe, our safari guide OD (full name), threw our luggage in his Land Cruiser, and informed us that we would be driving down the runway ahead of the departing airplane “to scatter the Impalas”.
I never actually touched the controls while we were in the air. With passengers on board there are limits to what I could do in the copilot’s seat, but I followed Lelo through all the departure, transit, and landing procedures. In my mind (and in my logbook when I get home), I was …
… Flying in Africa
When you go to Africa, I highly recommend that you contact Antoinette Mackenzie at Explorations Africa. She makes all things possible, and easy.
Patricia Arbique
So exciting, I thought we did well with doing a hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara…I got goose bumps just reading and imagining the thrill of that airplane ride.
Gervais
How lucky are you?
That’s a big aeroplane for just 1 propeller.
Russ
Yup! So much fun!