Ndege Juu Part II/ Flight lesson

At the Kasese Airstrip, moments after landing. Eclipse is hidden behind the clouds

I returned from my trip to the Mgahinga mountains and to Bwindi Forest on an absolute high–I’d packed in an incredible amount of activity and had seen so many different parts of the country in four short days. We were in the car each day between 5 and 8 hours getting from mountains to forest to savannah, which made it seem even more surreal. When I finished tracking the gorillas in Bwindi we left immediately and drove through Queen Elizabeth National Park, past the Rwenzori Mountains, and on to Fort Portal to stay the night. I’d literally been around the entire western half of the country by the time I arrived back in Kampala.

I returned to stay with my friends who run Ndege Juu Ya Africa, the charter plane company at the Kajansi Airstrip just outside Kampala. By this point I’d been mulling this whole flying thing over quite a bit and told them that I’d be interested in flying lessons someday. Great! they said; I must go and do the rounds the following day, which would see us flying to Kasese, a town at the base of the Rwenzori’s, where I’d just driven through two days prior.

View from the plane

I awoke early the next day and prepared for the 7am departure to Kasese. In a surprise twist, a solar eclipse was due to occur over Uganda between 7:05 and 8:20am. As we took off and rose through the sky I looked out and had the most magnificent view of Kampala at sunrise, shrouded in a blanket of mist, it‘s famous hills barely poking their way through. Lake Victoria glittered below me as we banked around to head northwest. I watched as the moon slowly passed in front of the sun, cloaking it completely, giving the effect of a sunset first thing in the morning. I was literally in heaven.

It was my first flight in a small aircraft and to my great surprise, I wasn’t nervous at all. Far from being as bumpy as I thought would be likely, the small, 6 seater Cessna was an incredibly smooth ride. Emma, part owner and flight instructor at Ndege Juu, looked back every so often to catch me grinning as widely as the Cheshire Cat. I found that in hindsight, I was far more anxious driving along Uganda’s potholed roads, where cars would come speeding directly at you only to swerve at the last minute. Up here, there wasn’t even as much as a cloud in our flight path.

Crater lakes, at the base of the Rwenzori Mountains

We returned to Kajansi after flying over Queen Elizabeth National Park and the crater lakes that have formed at the base of the mountains. Once we landed Emma asked if I’d like to try my hand at flying. Yes please! I’d become incredibly intrigued by all the flying chat I’d been listening to and absolutely loved my maiden flight up to the northwest of the country.

Later in the afternoon I shadowed a lesson with one of Emma’s flight students. He was working on circuits; repeated takeoffs, touchdown landings, and immediate takeoffs. It seemed complicated, because he had to remember a 50 item checklist while working and watching a dozen different controls. I was then ready and semi-confident enough to hop in the pilot’s seat myself. Or so I hoped!

After explaining the physics and basic elements of flying a plane, Emma plunked me in the pilots seat. She took me through the checklist and told me I’d be doing the takeoff and entire flight myself (with her supervising closely, of course). She has been teaching for years and has over 6,000 flying hours under her belt, and her instruction inspired confidence in me. In spite of all the controls and gauges involved, flying itself is relatively straightforward; so much so that an amateur like me can hop behind the controls and give it a shot.

With an adventurous spirit, I found myself accelerating at full speed down the runway. Physics took over and we lifted off; I was actually flying a plane!! I followed Emma’s instructions closely and kept the horizon just above the windscreen; this meant I was climbing. At 4,000 feet we changed the flaps and I banked left. I’d only be doing one circuit–takeoff, short loop, and landing. I played around with the controls, looked around me to keep the runway in my field of vision, and kept the plane in the air. The plane, a small 4 seater, acrobatic Fuji was very responsive and required only a delicate hand at the controls.

I was having the time of my life. I was only flying for about 20 minutes but already I was beyond hooked. It’s funny–flying is something I’d never considered until I met these people; now I’m treating it as my new hobby. I love the idea of flying myself and several friends away on holiday for a weekend. The peace you find when you’re up at the controls is astonishing–no erratic taxis, no pedestrians, no motorcycles, no potholes or traffic lights, no exhaust fumes. Just open sky and marvelous views. These tiny planes may just be the most perfect, and fun, mode of transport I’ve ever taken. I can’t wait to do it again.

Yes, I actually flew this. Not scary at all.

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