It's Gonna Go Wrong & Machineguns
The best way to stay calm here is to realize that it it's gonna go wrong; somewhere, sometime, somehow, it will go wrong, always.
Today's flight was normal in that respect. We were to depart Ndolo at 0700 for Bukavu. We took off at 0720 because the employee who takes care of our flight plans was late for work. Our one passenger was a doctor who had to deliver some 500 kilos of medicines. The trip was uneventful.
We landed at Bukavu, dropped off the medicine and refueled the airplane. We waited after refueling because the fuel guy forgot his receipt book in town and had to go back and get it.
Then we went to Vanga and landed after detouring 150 miles around various thunderstorms. We dropped the doctor off (there is a residency program for doctors there and he goes once a month to teach, never on a Saturday though because that is when we play softball in Kinshasa) and flew back to Kinshasa.
We landed at Ndolo just before 1700. We begged the fuel truck to stay to fuel us and they did. Then their truck ran out of fuel. (this next part I forgot about so am adding it a few days later)
The guy who was late in the morning said, "Hey, we can refuel it from the drums of fuel we have stored." Great idea, except the pump we had had been arcing and sparking for a week and we couldn't use it. So we gave up and went home. Tomorrow's flight will be at least 2 hours late taking off because the fuel truck doesn't arrive until 0930 or 1000. And you know what, that will only be the beginning.
So we accept it as it is and are thankful that we have hot and cold running water, enough food to eat, a dry place to sleep and nobody is shooting at us. I read that in book called The Marauders by Charles Ogburn and it has always stuck with me. Good book, you should read it.
Speaking of shooting, there is an airport north of Kisangani I land at where they always train a machine gun on me when I taxi in. There is a chair and a table on top of the control tower. A soldier sits on the chair and a PK machine gun sits on the table. The soldier trains the gun on me as I taxi in, as I move it moves. All he has to do is lower the muzzle and I'm in the sights. He is polite enough not to do that when I am looking. He continues this until he sees it is me getting out of the plane and not a squad of commandos. Then he gets off his chair and goes back to sleep.
When I take off, I am too busy to see if he is tracking me with the gun. If I was him, I know what I would do. I would track the plane and think to myself "I sure would like to rip off a few rounds....just to see if I could hit him."
Today's flight was normal in that respect. We were to depart Ndolo at 0700 for Bukavu. We took off at 0720 because the employee who takes care of our flight plans was late for work. Our one passenger was a doctor who had to deliver some 500 kilos of medicines. The trip was uneventful.
We landed at Bukavu, dropped off the medicine and refueled the airplane. We waited after refueling because the fuel guy forgot his receipt book in town and had to go back and get it.
Then we went to Vanga and landed after detouring 150 miles around various thunderstorms. We dropped the doctor off (there is a residency program for doctors there and he goes once a month to teach, never on a Saturday though because that is when we play softball in Kinshasa) and flew back to Kinshasa.
We landed at Ndolo just before 1700. We begged the fuel truck to stay to fuel us and they did. Then their truck ran out of fuel. (this next part I forgot about so am adding it a few days later)
The guy who was late in the morning said, "Hey, we can refuel it from the drums of fuel we have stored." Great idea, except the pump we had had been arcing and sparking for a week and we couldn't use it. So we gave up and went home. Tomorrow's flight will be at least 2 hours late taking off because the fuel truck doesn't arrive until 0930 or 1000. And you know what, that will only be the beginning.
So we accept it as it is and are thankful that we have hot and cold running water, enough food to eat, a dry place to sleep and nobody is shooting at us. I read that in book called The Marauders by Charles Ogburn and it has always stuck with me. Good book, you should read it.
Speaking of shooting, there is an airport north of Kisangani I land at where they always train a machine gun on me when I taxi in. There is a chair and a table on top of the control tower. A soldier sits on the chair and a PK machine gun sits on the table. The soldier trains the gun on me as I taxi in, as I move it moves. All he has to do is lower the muzzle and I'm in the sights. He is polite enough not to do that when I am looking. He continues this until he sees it is me getting out of the plane and not a squad of commandos. Then he gets off his chair and goes back to sleep.
When I take off, I am too busy to see if he is tracking me with the gun. If I was him, I know what I would do. I would track the plane and think to myself "I sure would like to rip off a few rounds....just to see if I could hit him."
posted by Carl at 12:49 PM
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