Bush pilots in Botswana

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Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

Interesting series most nights on Dave (19) at 8.0pm. Young pilots coping with all sorts of dramas flying around the game parks in Botswana.

John Green

Original post

Member for

18 years 11 months

Posts: 8,847

That would be UK? :confused:

Why do posters need to keep their location secret? :confused:

Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

No matey - Australia.

John Green

One of the medevac flights I did in Botswana was selected for 999, but then they dropped it because they reckoned it was too difficult to reconstruct :(

Member for

15 years 3 months

Posts: 201

All those reconstructions make for fantastic viewing. Blurry out of focus shots, people who look nothing like those involved. Much drama and "What if's?", urgent voice overs building the tension. I rooly like fake cockpits with curtains and lampshades sometimes used on "Air crash investigation", as with most of these progarms now though I find it distressing they interupt perfectly good advertising with program content now and again.

John, what part of OZ yoo in? Must be the Yoorapeen outpost? That's the only place ov seen Dave TV or as most know it "24 hour topgear repeats".

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 527

All those reconstructions make for fantastic viewing. Blurry out of focus shots, people who look nothing like those involved. Much drama and "What if's?", urgent voice overs building the tension.

A bit OT, but it seems like there's a lot of that going around on Discovery, National Geographic Channel, History Channel (?), Animal Planet etc. nowadays (regarding TV documentaries in general). I did see something on Animal Planet resembling quality the other day, though. It had some nice filming and a narrator who seemed calm and normal for once. A bit comforting to see that all isn't lost quite yet. Then again perhaps it was archive material.

BBC Nature and David Attenborough are still top notch and I wish to salute you (the British) for that. Please keep it up! I wish other documentary makes would be more inspired by such.

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12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

Re 2 & 5

Newforest & Student Pilot

The clue to this weeks geography quiz is in the description: "Game parks"

John Green

Member for

17 years 10 months

Posts: 877

I enjoyed watching the two weeks of nightly viewing on Dave of Bush Pilots.
Much of the flying emergencies ie bad weather or wild animals on the runway were a bit over dramatic.the best bits was seeing the rookie pilots journey to a piloting job or not. Some nice footage of the various aircraft being flown around Maunn and the delta.
I followed it with a viewing of National Geo's Congo Bush Flying. A more harrowing tale of flying in the congo. There is a segment where a DC-9 crashes on take off and hits the local shops.A few survivors but most of the aircraft is burnt out with rescuers desperatly throwing dirt on the wreckage to put it out.There was practically no isolation of the wreckage until it is moved to a hanger to join the long list of crashed aircraft to be 'investigated'
Apparently the Cong o has the worst afety record .Lots of shots of Cessna Caravans and Antonovs of various sizes.

Many guys did/do their hour building in the Okavango. Before the days of GPS navigation sepasrated the men from the boys as there are no navaids, and many small airstrips "one so like the other that they could only be told apart by their names"! :D

Here is a photo of the Okavango delta from 30,000'. 'scuse the quality.

http://i49.servimg.com/u/f49/17/29/29/41/img_0018.jpg

Member for

12 years 9 months

Posts: 378

I didnt visit the okavango when i was there :(

Member for

15 years 3 months

Posts: 201

Re 2 & 5

Newforest & Student Pilot

The clue to this weeks geography quiz is in the description: "Game parks"

John Green

You mean those places that gamers go to do battle on the net with other nerds? :D

I don't have many pictures of those days, but here is one regular charter flight I did in the region. I used to take the regional magistrate, prosecutor and customs man to various towns and villages. In the picture are the passengers having a bite before takeoff to the next village.

http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/17/29/29/41/charte10.jpg

Member for

12 years 9 months

Posts: 378

Nandos takeaway? :)

Haha not likely, our ops manager was a real stingy old git. We had soggy sandwiches and cold coffee made at the airport kiosk. I once asked the ops manager if we could have an extra sandwich. These were his exact words which I have never forgotten : "No no no no, you get a £2 breakfast allowance. The only reason we give the pilot a sandwich is because of humanitarian reasons." :eek:

Member for

12 years 9 months

Posts: 378

Bwahahahahahahaha... LMFAO.

Funniest thing i heard all day.

Really stingy guy.