We headed south and flew over amazing vast brown and grassy plains with interesting shaped land masses jutting up in the horizon. We flew low enough over thatched Masai villages to bring the inhabitants out to look up at us in wonder, long dark arms and hands shielding their eyes from the bright sun. Some waved as we waved enthusiastically at them. I yelled back at Nick - "This is so much fun!!" He rocked the wings of our plane at them in salutation and on we went.
We saw a small herd of elephants near scrubby thorn trees and a few giraffe beyond them a mile or two. The terrain started to rise gradually and we got closer to developed farm land. The terrain turned greener and more lush the closer to Eldoret we got. On our iPad navigation aids, we could see the 6000' ridges ahead. The field elevation at the Eldoret airport is 6,945' which means we had to approach it and enter the pattern at about 7,800'. This was going to be interesting as "Smuggler" did not like climbing in those altitudes. On the radio, we could hear John Baxter up ahead in his Tiger Moth talking to one of the other Moth pilots about the problem he was having getting his plane up to altitude. The radio chatter turned to tips and suggestions of routing that might help get us over the ridges. Pixie's distinctive voice was easy to hear on the radio and I always enjoyed her updates or making sure those of us bringing up the rear were catching all the messages from the lead plane.
My job while Nick looked closely at the navigation map and flying the plane with an encouraging hand on the controls ("Come on, Smuggler, you can do this") was to keep a close eye out for power lines - that's how close we were to the terrain. The farm land was beautiful and I could see cows and pigs in pens. In the distance we could see Team Barnstormers Keith and Colin, Team SoCal Pedro, and Team Frog and Kiwi Cedric and Alexandra doing their best to watch what everybody else was doing to maintain and gain altitude.
Eldoret was just ahead and we still had another 1000' to climb. Our gal 'Smuggler' literally rose to the occasion and got us over the last ridge with about a hundred feet between us and the crest, and headed towards the field with yet another 700' to climb to be at pattern altitude.
Landing at Eldoret took every bit of skill Nick had to keep the airspeed up in the thinner air while getting the plane to land where he wanted it to knowing that Keith was just behind us and we wouldn't have a lot of time to back taxi to clear the active runway so landing near an "off ramp" to the taxiway was important. It was a tricky landing and not without some chagrin but it worked and we cleared the runway.
The airport staff were so delighted to see us. They all wanted their pictures taken in front of our planes. Cell phones were out in abundance and photos were snapping click, click, click. We were told a possible shower was coming so we all wanted to refuel as quickly as possible and get on our way to Nairobi - our destination for the next two nights.
The terminal was very nice and not too busy. Small aircraft including light commuter carriers flew into this airport. It had a nice coffee shop, restrooms, and security screening. We took the time to have some coffee and snacks. The fueling was taking a long time. The aircraft who landed ahead of us were done with fueling and some had taken off already for the last leg of the day. As we tended to be among the two or three aircraft that pulled up the rear, we were generally the last to get fuel. Forty five minutes had gone by and Beatrice, Sam Rutherford's wife, came up to us with a serious look on her face. She said, "We just got word that the Stearman has crashed in a field about 60 miles out. John and Bella are okay, but it's a total wreck. The helicopter is circling back to pick them up." Our jaws dropped. First, just hearing the opening words, "the Stearman has crashed" was horrible. Immediately, we thought of John and his lovely, young daughter Bella. That they were okay was an incredible relief to us and John Baxter and Norman, Keith and Colin, Cedric and Alexandra. As soon as our fueling was done, we were eager to get out of Eldoret and catch up with the others and eager to hear more word about the crash.
Again, density altitude made its mark on our take-off performances. John and Norman took off first and we watched as they took up practically the whole runway to get airborne. Their Moth lingered at takeoff altitude for what seemed like a long time before they could accelerate their climb and get more altitude. Next, Cedric and Alexandra took off and again, they needed every inch of runway to get their bird to fly. This didn't look so fun to me, but Nick was confident we could get our gal to do what she was designed to do. We too needed most of the runway to get airborne. It's a thrill to look ahead and see the end of the runway approaching and we're still not in the air! But when it counted, we got 'Smuggler' to indeed do what she was designed to do.
Enroute to Nairobi, we could hear the chatter on the radio between the helicopter flown by Boris and Yulia, and John using a hand held radio giving them directions on how to locate the Stearman wreckage.
Nairobi is a big city and wouldn't you know it, they have skyscrapers right near the approach end of one of the runways. A storm cell was moving fast over the city and this caused a sudden change in the wind direction. The tower had given us clearance to land on runway 07, but Nick could see the wind was stronger out of the south so asked for runway 14 which the tower approved. We landed and then heard on the radio that one of our members who landed just ahead of us had a tough time and nearly went off the runway because of the wind shift. Fortunately for all of us, we had hangar space for the night before the rain came.
The next day was a free day. Nick got up earlier than I to get back out to the airport for an airshow. I had plans to meet with a local chapter of women who are active in a cause I care about. Down in the dining room for breakfast, I was so thrilled to see John and Bella in the dining room having breakfast. I hugged them both and said how happy I was to see them both so unscathed. It was a very frightening experience for them, of course. They shared their story with me. The Stearman engine suffered a failure and John broadcasted a mayday over the radio and aimed for a field to land in. Just close to landing, he suddenly saw a bunch of farmers stand up in the field where they had not been clearly visible before. They were looking at him approaching. John quickly maneuvered the plane to an adjacent field with moments to spare. Unfortunately, a hard to see wire fence caught the plane and upended it as it crashed into the ground. John got himself out of his cockpit and immediately feared for Bella who was hanging upside down in her harness and perfectly still. His panic swelled as he reached through wreckage for her, then he heard Bella say, "Dad, are you gonna get me out of here?" When we hear of airplane accidents, it's easy sometimes to fear and assume the worst because fatalities do happen. I remembered, though, the accidents in Alaska bush flying where many pilots and passengers got out okay. Well, John and Bella's trip in the rally was over now as it was going to be anyway. The owner of the Stearman, a gentleman from Israel was arriving the next day to retrieve his plane and continue the rally to Cape Town. John and Bella flew it across Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia --countries Aharon and his co-pilot preferred to cautiously avoid. They learned of the crash when they arrived in Nairobi but were very grateful and relieved that John and Bella were spared injury or worse.
At the airshow, Nick, like several other pilots, took some people up for rides. On one flight, he flew over a game preserve near Nairobi. Johannes in the Waco flying behind Nick noticed a black rhino that didn't care for Nick's flying and tried to "chase" the plane. Nick was low for his passenger to get some good photos, but was unaware of the rhino!
The next morning we were up early to begin our next journey into Tanzania with high hopes of seeing Mount Kilimanjaro.
Approaching a Masai village in the Kenyan wilderness.
Beautiful, wild Kenya. Enroute to Eldoret.
Getting into rural farming areas at higher elevations as we approach Eldoret.
Happy Eldoret ground crews wanting to get acquainted with us but mostly "Smuggler".
Enroute to Nairobi, passed this remnant of a volcano crater.
Beatrice, Nick, Keith, and Bob and aircraft getting tucked away for night in Nairobi.
Tired Travel Air pilots Pedro and Keith taking it easy at the famous and historic Aero Club of East Africa near the Nairobi airport before we all headed to the hotel. The early aviators in Africa came here regularly for 'libation' and socializing.
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| The Aero Club walls are covered with great vintage photos of early aviators in East Africa. |
At a luncheon with new friends in Nairobi.
The happiest picture I've taken on the trip - A very safe and unhurt John and daughter Bella.
