Civil Airliners - or Now for Something Completely Different

SimonT

Western Thunderer
A friend of mine used to 'drive' the VC10 tankers; always said it was the best plane he'd ever flown; till he came on the 747!!!
Well they both cracked on! Beats M0.55 in Billy Bob's Airiecraft Factoree's Finest!!
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
I came across this photo the other day, taken in 1911 in West Africa:

IMGP0689.jpg

I worked in the oil industry for 43 years and this was one of the last flights I made to a drilling location. In a remote location the cost of drilling is not the rig time, it's all the logistics and in this case, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the location was definitely remote. There were no roads in the area, in fact the fastest way to get around was on a small motor bike, small because of the poor quality of the "bridges". But once the decision was made to drill in 2011, out came the cheque book.

The company built a base, a runway, an airport building (to house immigration officials) and hired Kin Avia to run flights in from Pointe Noire, in the "other" Congo. The 'plane, need I tell you (?), is a Let L-410, made in Czechoslovakia at Russia's request for extreme weather dirt runway operations. Quite a few found their way to Africa.

Because of the sort of terrain they flew in it is said (on Wikipedia) that the 'plane had a very high accident rate. The times I flew in it it seemed to be an airworthy design but later, in heavy rain, it slid off the laterite strip. It was quickly fixed and no one was hurt.

Unfortunately the drilling campaign was not successful and it is very likely that the airstrip has succumbed back to nature as many projects do in some parts of the world.
 
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