Leicester to the Gambia in an Ikarus C42 Microlight Malcolm Stewart
Dimensions Wingspan 31 ft Length 20 ft 6 in Height 7 ft 7 in Weights & loadings Empty, equipped 268 kg MTOW 450 kg Fuel, usable 65 litres (see below) Performance Vne 121 kt Max level speed 103 kt Normal/Economic Cruise 80 kt Fuel burn 13/ltrs/hr Stall, full flap 33 kt Take-off run 100 metres Max climb 1,050 fpm Range 400 nm Engine & propeller Rotax 912 UL, 80 hp. Propeller: Ecoprop The Aeroplane Ikarus C42 Modifications: Fitted twin tanks to give 110 litres fuel = approx 9 hours duration / 800 miles+ Transponder Mode C Survival equipment Satellite phone, Handheld ELT, Lifejackets & 2 litres water
The route Leicester, Le Touquet, Champ, Mazamet, Carcassonne, Ampuribrava, Reqena, Almeria, Tangiers, Agadir, Layounne, Dakhla, Nouadibou, St Louis, Banjul-Gambia
Day One Leicester to Champ via Le Touquet 340 miles
Day 2 Chartres/Champ to Carcassonne but with a weather divert to Castres-Mazamet 341 miles
Day 3 Castres-Mazamet to Carcassonne 41 miles Low cloud rolling off the Pyrenees caused a 2 day delay
Days 4 & 5 Medieval Carcassonne Nice place, but I d rather be flying!!
Day 6 Carcassonne to Requena via Ampuribrava 410 miles
I would be lost without it? Well not really, but it was a seriously useful piece of kit with the built in airport database compensating for the lack of information on the only charts available for Morocco & onwards.
Almeria Spain No 1 to a 737 - so approaching at 95 knots (normally 52knots) and landed very, very long
Day 6 Requena to Tangiers via Almeria 423 miles
Tangier Departure Nadir was a very helpful ground controller, and gave us a lot of good advice which came in handy later to avoid Rabat Palace which has a large no fly zone around it - rigidly enforced by Moroccan Air Force F16 s!
Day 7 Tangiers to Agadir 501 miles
Agidir at dusk The Thomson 737 flight crew thought we were crazy. We agreed, but they did admit they were envious of our trip and admired our sense of adventure.
Day 8 Agadir to Layounne (El Aaiun) 348 miles
Day 9 Layounne to Nouadhibou via Dakhla 519 miles
Dakhla - UN Airport But for the airport manager I could have almost flown in through the door of the Antonov and landed inside - Absolutely enormous
Shipwreck One of dozens along the Sahara coastline
Ooops - Wrong country We thought Nouadhibou was still in Morocco as special permission is needed to fly in Mauritania. Costly error with large landing fee and even larger take off and passport return fee the next morning as ours were confiscated on arrival. Several hundred US dollars - cash only & no receipts!!
Same view for over 80 miles Did I hear the engine miss a beat? Saloum delta in Senegal White is dried salt Very inhospitable and desolate. No sign of life for over an hour and out of normal VHF radio range for over 2 hours as we had no long range HF radio, much to the surprise of Senegal ATC
Day 10 and we made it Nouadibou to the Gambia via St Louis 572miles our longest of the trip After all the problems in Nouadibou then St Louis in Senegal could not have been better with a very helpful ground crew and the all children from the local junior school coming out to the airport wanting to meet 2 crazy Englishmen and wish us Bon Voyage
Banjul Airport and a VIP welcome Now where did I put my white shirt with the 4 gold bars?
Floating hotel rooms in the Gambian jungle Time to relax in the hot sun for a few days to plan the next adventure
Some facts and figures Total distance 3490 miles Total flying time logged 41.5 hours (15 T/O and landings) Total time taken 10 days (7 days actually flying = 5.92hrs/day Average ground speed 75.5 knots Fuel used 540 litres Average fuel burn 13.1 litres/hr (2.9 galls/hr) Would I do it again YES absolutely, without hesitation Downside of the trip was actually getting there, as it was all over, with just a few days relaxing before a scheduled flight home, and back to the daily 9 to 5 routine. I could have carried on for a long time - Anyone like a plane delivered to Cape Town or Australia?
2015 C42 C Model Faster, longer and with aerodynamic, mechanical & comfort refinements or the latest CS model with low drag main landing gear and is faster still Available in the rest Europe and other countries world-wide, but sadly not in the UK as, unlike the rest of Europe, our national regulator - the CAA - do not recognise the German LTF-UL design and flight test certification this model already has. UK approval is too expensive and lengthy a process to justify an application