Part II The return Flight, Port Gen til, Gabon to Sao Tomé Island
00:23.0S 006:43.0E Day 9, Saturday 25JUL Pointe Noire/Congo – Port Gentil/Gabon – Sao Tomé (03:30H)
Before departing we had to put
on our life
jackets, as the next 180 miles we would be over open water, heading
towards
today’s Crossing the equator in the
sun, on top of
cloud layers, about 80 miles out of our destination, I established
contact with
Sao Tomé We were looking forward to this stop, as it would be a welcome break from the long daily flying. Sao Tomé and Principe are a
former
Portuguese colony, consisting of four islands and is an independent
republic
today. We were cordially welcomed at
the wonderful
hotel-club, which belongs to a French oil millionaire. This place was
recently
built The next two days we explored
parts of the
volcanic Island. With Mario, the manager of the club, we got a chance
to see
some of
This place is a real paradise and the surprise highlight of all our touring. This Antonov, two Super Constellations and an old DC3 had seen better times Leaving Sao Tomé for Lomé in Togo was planned for Tuesday. Departure routine: Meteo check,
control
tower, filing of our flight plan, unwrap the plane, repack. This take
off,
wearing life Moving right along our
checklist. What?
Some 60 items to check down, I realized that my electrical fuel pump
did not
work.
Simple equation: No fuel
pump = no flying! A new pump flown in from the US
by DHL or
FedEx would have taken a week, if not two. Long story here, which
turned out
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