I recently got back from Tanzania and aside from almost getting killed by a lion, the domestic air travel was some of the craziest (and admittedly most exciting) stuff I experienced over there.

The only way you can get around the interior of the country is with small Cessnas and the runways are literally just bumpy dust roads without as much as a fence. Before you take off somebody has to drive a jeep back and forth a few times to scare off animals, or you might have a herd of friggin giraffes blocking your way when you're at full throttle.

The first flight I had scheduled was from Mikumi national park and after a half hour wait in the scorching heat a 12-seated Cessna came bouncing along the runway. The pilot turned out to be a Canadian guy in his mid thirties and he seemed incredibly grumpy since he didn't even greet those of us who were waiting there for him. When he turned away to instead talk to the jeep drivers I noticed that half his face was covered in blood! Turns out that he'd just recently been in a car accident but decided to fly the plane anyway. The standard procedure is that the pilot packs the bags into the plane so they can distribute the weight properly but this guy couldn't because - as he said - he couldn't move his head...

Needless to say I decided to wait for the second (and last) Cessna instead. Merely a few minutes later it arrived and the pilot was an Argentinian woman so tiny that she didn't even reach my armpit. She had a baseball cap and huge aviator sunglasses on, a military shirt and about a dozen bracelets. In broken English she asked if anybody wanted to ride shotgun and I volunteered since I figured it would give me more sense of control and thereby soothe my nerves. The flight actually went really well and we touched down in Ruaha with some slight turbulence as the only hiccup on the way.

When it was time to go back to Dar-Es-Salaam I requested to go with Soqui (that was her name) again since I thought she'd done a good job, and besides - she was going straight to Dar without stopovers and that appealed to me as well. But halfway there she got word from her employers that she has to pick up two people on the way, so she found the location with a simple car GPS she'd attached to the top of the control panel and we landed on the tiniest, bumpiest air strip anybody's ever seen. Two fat Germans got on and insisted that we do a huge detour to Zanzibar before heading to Dar-Es Salaam. By the time we got there we had almost zero fuel!

After refuelling we headed off again and a few minutes into the flight, Soqui suddenly turned to me and said "I need to do some paperwork, could you take over for a while?". I don't think my jaw literally dropped but it sure felt that way. I nodded though, and after being shown the controls and a few gauges, I took over the controls and flew the plane for a good while! There was a constant side wind that I had to battle but it didn't go too bad. There I was, flying a dozen passengers between Zanzibar and Dar-Es-Salaam with friggin Marion Ravenwood by my side. I was so excited and absent-minded by the time we reached our goal that I totally forgot my bag on the plane, and when I later rushed back to get it (just in time), Soqui gave me her business card so I've since e-mailed her some pictures of the flight.

Man, even just writing about it all gives me goosebumps, in a good way.

Please share your own stories/anecdotes about interesting/odd/scary air travel experiences.

retina said:

I recently got back from Tanzania and aside from almost getting killed by a lion, the domestic air travel was some of the craziest (and admittedly most exciting) stuff I experienced over there.

The only way you can get around the interior of the country is with small Cessnas and the runways are literally just bumpy dust roads without as much as a fence. Before you take off somebody has to drive a jeep back and forth a few times to scare off animals, or you might have a herd of friggin giraffes blocking your way when you're at full throttle.

The first flight I had scheduled was from Mikumi national park and after a half hour wait in the scorching heat a 12-seated Cessna came bouncing along the runway. The pilot turned out to be a Canadian guy in his mid thirties and he seemed incredibly grumpy since he didn't even greet those of us who were waiting there for him. When he turned away to instead talk to the jeep drivers I noticed that half his face was covered in blood! Turns out that he'd just recently been in a car accident but decided to fly the plane anyway. The standard procedure is that the pilot packs the bags into the plane so they can distribute the weight properly but this guy couldn't because - as he said - he couldn't move his head...

Needless to say I decided to wait for the second (and last) Cessna instead. Merely a few minutes later it arrived and the pilot was an Argentinian woman so tiny that she didn't even reach my armpit. She had a baseball cap and huge aviator sunglasses on, a military shirt and about a dozen bracelets. In broken English she asked if anybody wanted to ride shotgun and I volunteered since I figured it would give me more sense of control and thereby soothe my nerves. The flight actually went really well and we touched down in Ruaha with some slight turbulence as the only hiccup on the way.

When it was time to go back to Dar-Es-Salaam I requested to go with Soqui (that was her name) again since I thought she'd done a good job, and besides - she was going straight to Dar without stopovers and that appealed to me as well. But halfway there she got word from her employers that she has to pick up two people on the way, so she found the location with a simple car GPS she'd attached to the top of the control panel and we landed on the tiniest, bumpiest air strip anybody's ever seen. Two fat Germans got on and insisted that we do a huge detour to Zanzibar before heading to Dar-Es Salaam. By the time we got there we had almost zero fuel!

After refuelling we headed off again and a few minutes into the flight, Soqui suddenly turned to me and said "I need to do some paperwork, could you take over for a while?". I don't think my jaw literally dropped but it sure felt that way. I nodded though, and after being shown the controls and a few gauges, I took over the controls and flew the plane for a good while! There was a constant side wind that I had to battle but it didn't go too bad. There I was, flying a dozen passengers between Zanzibar and Dar-Es-Salaam with friggin Marion Ravenwood by my side. I was so excited and absent-minded by the time we reached our goal that I totally forgot my bag on the plane, and when I later rushed back to get it (just in time), Soqui gave me her business card so I've since e-mailed her some pictures of the flight.

Man, even just writing about it all gives me goosebumps, in a good way.

Please share your own stories/anecdotes about interesting/odd/scary air travel experiences.

tanzania! way cool. i dunno about flying the plane while the pilot does paperwork though

do you have pictures? cool story

Holy Crap!! Thats so Indiana Jones!!!

XxAxX said:

tanzania! way cool. i dunno about flying the plane while the pilot does paperwork though

do you have pictures? cool story

Thanks! I know it sounds crazy that she let me fly the plane and it probably was, but I was incredibly grateful for that amazing experience. It's the kind of unique opportunity that makes life worth living!

I'd love to post pictures (I have lots of them) but nearly all of them feature people's faces and since I haven't asked their permission, I don't feel at liberty to post any.

Here's one through the front window as we were coming in for landing though:

tinaz said:

Holy Crap!! Thats so Indiana Jones!!!

That's what I thought too (hence the Marion Ravenwood reference)! I love that sense of adventure where you feel like anything could happen at any time. And it wasn't just the air travel either. Every day featured something magical, or life-threatening or both. I really want to go back to Africa when I get a chance.

retina said:

tinaz said:

Holy Crap!! Thats so Indiana Jones!!!

That's what I thought too (hence the Marion Ravenwood reference)! I love that sense of adventure where you feel like anything could happen at any time. And it wasn't just the air travel either. Every day featured something magical, or life-threatening or both. I really want to go back to Africa when I get a chance.

I didnt know who Marion was

Sounds like this was an experience you will never forget!! you should write it in a journal so you can relive it over and over!! You speak about it with great passion, you can tell the whole experience touched your soul!

Wow. I just got back from O'ahu and was embarrassed that folk on my plane were staring at me because my entire face is tanned except for where my sunglasses were. I look like a friggin' idiot.

Your story beats mine, you got to fly a plane and you retained some dignity.

I hate you.

...But more pics please! (Can't you blot out faces with Photoshop?)

[Edited 12/15/10 16:34pm]

Oh, and do tell that lion story!

tinaz said:

retina said:

That's what I thought too (hence the Marion Ravenwood reference)! I love that sense of adventure where you feel like anything could happen at any time. And it wasn't just the air travel either. Every day featured something magical, or life-threatening or both. I really want to go back to Africa when I get a chance.

I didnt know who Marion was

Sounds like this was an experience you will never forget!! you should write it in a journal so you can relive it over and over!! You speak about it with great passion, you can tell the whole experience touched your soul!

Yeah, thanks for sharing my excitement! It had been a while since I felt all giddy over something but the Tanzanian adventures really did the trick. Air adventures, lion attacks, midnight boat rides, Maasai with spears escorting you through hostile territory etc etc. I'm still smiling.

retina said:

tinaz said:

I didnt know who Marion was

Sounds like this was an experience you will never forget!! you should write it in a journal so you can relive it over and over!! You speak about it with great passion, you can tell the whole experience touched your soul!

Yeah, thanks for sharing my excitement! It had been a while since I felt all giddy over something but the Tanzanian adventures really did the trick. Air adventures, lion attacks, midnight boat rides, Maasai with spears escorting you through hostile territory etc etc. I'm still smiling.

I was on a Southwest Airlines flight into New Orleans and the pilot missed the runway. We came out of the low-lying clouds and there was the runway - out of my right window! The pilot pulled up, hit the juice, and then came on to say he didn't have enough fuel to circle until the cloudcover left, so he was going on to Birmingham. That was OK with me, because Birmingham was where I wanted to be.

Another time, we were flying into Oklahoma City in a Lear Jet. The soup was REAL thick, and I'm not into bad weather. So I sat on me knees between the pilot and co-pilot and watched them approach through the clouds.

The co-pilot counted down the altitude - "1,000 feet, 900 feet, 800 feet" etc. Right when he got to (I think) 300 feet, we broke through the clouds and the runway was right in front of us. We landed, taxied to the end of the runway, and then the pilot and co-pilot high-fived each other.

I wanted to kill them! It was like they were super-fired-up that they'd just cheated death. I told them that if they ever tried to land in minimums that low, or high-fived each other in front of me again, I would fire them.

We've been buzzed by military jets a few times. They always ask first, and the pilot tells us where to look. That is freaking AWESOME.

Lammastide said:

Wow. I just got back from O'ahu and was embarrassed that folk on my plane were staring at me because my entire face is tanned except for where my sunglasses were. I look like a friggin' idiot.

Your story beats mine, you got to fly a plane and you retained some dignity.

I hate you.

...But more pics please! (Can't you blot out faces with Photoshop?)

[Edited 12/15/10 16:34pm]

Gosh, I hope my story didn't come across like an attempt to show off. There's such a fine line between sharing something exciting and bragging sometimes. Not in the intention but in how it comes across to others. I assure you though that I didn't have any intention to brag and besides, I don't know if my dignity was all that intact anyway. I have horrific tan lines just like you and probably looked like a terrfied deer in headlights when I was trying to manoever that plane. lol

Go ahead and tell whatever stories you have! It's totally not a competition. I'm just interested in hearing people's experiences.

As for the pictures I'm honestly not good with Photoshop and since I'm paranoid about my own picture being online somewhere I really don't want to put others in that situation either, blotted out or not. I'll see what I can dig up though. If nothing else, I have a gazillion non-flight related pics from Tanzania that I could share.

retina said:

tinaz said:

I didnt know who Marion was

Sounds like this was an experience you will never forget!! you should write it in a journal so you can relive it over and over!! You speak about it with great passion, you can tell the whole experience touched your soul!

Yeah, thanks for sharing my excitement! It had been a while since I felt all giddy over something but the Tanzanian adventures really did the trick. Air adventures, lion attacks, midnight boat rides, Maasai with spears escorting you through hostile territory etc etc. I'm still smiling.

Retina's Most Excellent Adventures. you could write a photo blog thing. bet it would rock

retina said:

Lammastide said:

Wow. I just got back from O'ahu and was embarrassed that folk on my plane were staring at me because my entire face is tanned except for where my sunglasses were. I look like a friggin' idiot.

Your story beats mine, you got to fly a plane and you retained some dignity.

I hate you.

...But more pics please! (Can't you blot out faces with Photoshop?)

[Edited 12/15/10 16:34pm]

Gosh, I hope my story didn't come across like an attempt to show off. There's such a fine line between sharing something exciting and bragging sometimes. Not in the intention but in how it comes across to others. I assure you though that I didn't have any intention to brag and besides, I don't know if my dignity was all that intact anyway. I have horrific tan lines just like you and probably looked like a terrfied deer in headlights when I was trying to manoever that plane. lol

Go ahead and tell whatever stories you have! It's totally not a competition. I'm just interested in hearing people's experiences.

As for the pictures I'm honestly not good with Photoshop and since I'm paranoid about my own picture being online somewhere I really don't want to put others in that situation either, blotted out or not. I'll see what I can dig up though. If nothing else, I have a gazillion non-flight related pics from Tanzania that I could share.

Don't worry about showing off. I'm just messing with you, and your trip sounds AMAZING! What were you doing in Tanzania again? And will you have the chance to go back?

Also, don't worry about posting airplane pics. It'd be great to see any of your trip!

[Edited 12/15/10 17:07pm]

Lammastide said:

Oh, and do tell that lion story!

Well it's not that much of a story but I was on a safari, riding on the back of a jeep that was totally open on the sides. We had been trying to find lions for a long time and eventually came across two couples (two lions with their lionesses) that were spending the day doing what couples do. The crazy driver pulled up right between them and stopped there. At that point we were only about 20 feet away from each of the couples. As we were watching the ones that seemed most likely to start to mate, we suddenly heard a loud roar from the other side. I turned around and the lion was thundering right towards me with its mouth wide open. As a reflex action I tried to slide away on the seat and raised my camera in the air so I could try to strike him with it if he jumped into the jeep. Luckily though he suddenly stopped, literally two feet from the jeep and roared while treading air with his front paws. If he hadn't stopped, I wouldn't have stood a chance.

The guides later admitted that they'd never seen anything like it. They tried to assure me that since he was mating he hadn't eaten for a week and therefore was too weakened to want to complete the attack, but my answer to that was "you think a starving lion is more safe than a well-fed lion???" lol.

retina said:

Lammastide said:

Oh, and do tell that lion story!

Well it's not that much of a story but I was on a safari, riding on the back of a jeep that was totally open on the sides. We had been trying to find lions for a long time and eventually came across two couples (two lions with their lionesses) that were spending the day doing what couples do. The crazy driver pulled up right between them and stopped there. At that point we were only about 20 feet away from each of the couples. As we were watching the ones that seemed most likely to start to mate, we suddenly heard a loud roar from the other side. I turned around and the lion was thundering right towards me with its mouth wide open. As a reflex action I tried to slide away on the seat and raised my camera in the air so I could try to strike him with it if he jumped into the jeep. Luckily though he suddenly stopped, literally two feet from the jeep and roared while treading air with his front paws. If he hadn't stopped, I wouldn't have stood a chance.

The guides later admitted that they'd never seen anything like it. They tried to assure me that since he was mating he hadn't eaten for a week and therefore was too weakened to want to complete the attack, but my answer to that was "you think a starving lion is more safe than a well-fed lion???" lol.

...Ya know, if you were American, you'd be figuring out how to turn this harrowing experience into a rewarding lawsuit.

RodeoSchro said:

I was on a Southwest Airlines flight into New Orleans and the pilot missed the runway. We came out of the low-lying clouds and there was the runway - out of my right window! The pilot pulled up, hit the juice, and then came on to say he didn't have enough fuel to circle until the cloudcover left, so he was going on to Birmingham. That was OK with me, because Birmingham was where I wanted to be.

Another time, we were flying into Oklahoma City in a Lear Jet. The soup was REAL thick, and I'm not into bad weather. So I sat on me knees between the pilot and co-pilot and watched them approach through the clouds.

The co-pilot counted down the altitude - "1,000 feet, 900 feet, 800 feet" etc. Right when he got to (I think) 300 feet, we broke through the clouds and the runway was right in front of us. We landed, taxied to the end of the runway, and then the pilot and co-pilot high-fived each other.

I wanted to kill them! It was like they were super-fired-up that they'd just cheated death. I told them that if they ever tried to land in minimums that low, or high-fived each other in front of me again, I would fire them.

We've been buzzed by military jets a few times. They always ask first, and the pilot tells us where to look. That is freaking AWESOME.

Gosh. Sometimes I wonder how many times air travellers are close to death without even knowing it. Probably when routine sets in for these major airline pilots they start to get unattentive or even careless. And I think it's weird in a way that we entrust our lives with people we usually don't even get a glimpse of. Maybe if they did come by and say hello before takeoff we would smell the alcohol in their breath or notice their bloodshot eyes and never want to fly again, lol.

XxAxX said:

retina said:

Yeah, thanks for sharing my excitement! It had been a while since I felt all giddy over something but the Tanzanian adventures really did the trick. Air adventures, lion attacks, midnight boat rides, Maasai with spears escorting you through hostile territory etc etc. I'm still smiling.

Retina's Most Excellent Adventures. you could write a photo blog thing. bet it would rock

Aw, that's sweet of you. I express myself a lot better in my own language but it's still fun to try to tell stories in English. I wouldn't be able to write a whole book in English though, as certain others have.

Lammastide said:

retina said:

Well it's not that much of a story but I was on a safari, riding on the back of a jeep that was totally open on the sides. We had been trying to find lions for a long time and eventually came across two couples (two lions with their lionesses) that were spending the day doing what couples do. The crazy driver pulled up right between them and stopped there. At that point we were only about 20 feet away from each of the couples. As we were watching the ones that seemed most likely to start to mate, we suddenly heard a loud roar from the other side. I turned around and the lion was thundering right towards me with its mouth wide open. As a reflex action I tried to slide away on the seat and raised my camera in the air so I could try to strike him with it if he jumped into the jeep. Luckily though he suddenly stopped, literally two feet from the jeep and roared while treading air with his front paws. If he hadn't stopped, I wouldn't have stood a chance.

The guides later admitted that they'd never seen anything like it. They tried to assure me that since he was mating he hadn't eaten for a week and therefore was too weakened to want to complete the attack, but my answer to that was "you think a starving lion is more safe than a well-fed lion???" lol.

...Ya know, if you were American, you'd be figuring out how to turn this harrowing experience into a rewarding lawsuit.

Yeah probably. But in Tanzania that doesn't even cross your mind. You're just happy if you still have all your limbs. lol

Here's a picture just to show how close the lion was before the attack. Then when he attacked, he rushed all the way up to the jeep right where I was sitting.

Here's another lion picture I took.

Like I said I have a lot of other pictures that are better than these ones, but I'm a bit too tired to upload them at the moment. Maybe later.

Great shots.

i could go on about flying in crappy outdated aircraft over the Sahara or weaving around mountains above Pakistan, but you'd quickly get bored.

The flight I took from stockholm to amsterdam this year was the roughest most puke-worthy ride I ever had in a plane.

Apart from that, no cessna rides since I was a little kid.

my mile high club story comes no where as exciting as yours Retina

BlackAdder7 said:

my mile high club story comes no where as exciting as yours Retina

omg, you just reminded me of a flight a few weeks ago

BlackAdder7 said:

my mile high club story comes no where as exciting as yours Retina

Well thank you guys for letting us know what you apparently won't tell us about. lol

Hershe said:

Are you a pilot?? No way!! Glad you're safely back. You'll have a friend let us know if you're ever eaten by one of those, yes?

No that's the thing - I'm not a pilot but she let me fly the plane anyway! Crazy woman, lol...

I have to say though that I was amazed how similar the control panel was to some of the flight simulator games I'd played when I was a kid. I recognized maybe 70% of the levers and gauges and dials. I was also familiar with the main controls so the only thing that was completely new to me were the foot pedals. Still, it was of course daunting to say the least to get all of it handed over to you mid flight with barely a moment's notice... And if she'd asked me to land the plane then there would have been way too many parameters to handle. I was happy to be able to deal with the side winds and the turbulence though, and stay reasonably well on course. It definitely made me want to try it again some day.

back at ya

retina said:

retina said:

Hershe said:

Are you a pilot?? No way!! Glad you're safely back. You'll have a friend let us know if you're ever eaten by one of those, yes?

No that's the thing - I'm not a pilot but she let me fly the plane anyway! Crazy woman, lol...

I have to say though that I was amazed how similar the control panel was to some of the flight simulator games I'd played when I was a kid. I recognized maybe 70% of the levers and gauges and dials. I was also familiar with the main controls so the only thing that was completely new to me were the foot pedals. Still, it was of course daunting to say the least to get all of it handed over to you mid flight with barely a moment's notice... And if she'd asked me to land the plane then there would have been way too many parameters to handle. I was happy to be able to deal with the side winds and the turbulence though, and stay reasonably well on course. It definitely made me want to try it again some day.

back at ya

years ago my music professor took me gliding, basically sailing in a light craft without an engine. it's where a small plane 'tows' the glider up into the air.

once we were up at cloud level he chose that particular moment to remind me that he was seventy-something years old and could die at any moment. then he suggested i best learn to fly the glider. right then and there.

i was like "dude, i'll revive you if anything happens, i'm a first responder! i'll do CPR! please just keep flying this thing!!!!"

he was a really cool guy. still miss him

[Edited 12/17/10 9:49am]