It was a very good day.....

It was a very good day.  It's only my second day back in country, I had covered SAR standby yesterday and got caught up on paperwork, but today, today we broke the base record for hours flown on a shift.  Up just after four, a quick breakfast of mangoes, scrambled eggs and instant coffee, we looked over the aircraft as the sun slowly crept into the East African sky.  It was quite the show.  After last night's booming thunderstorms and flashes of light, the greens were deep and lush, the earth a deep red, and the sky....the sky....we'd soon be pulling pitch and spending our day playing in that spectacular East African sky.

Considering we are well into summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and the lack of air conditioning on our particular AW139, the muggy 36 degree Celsius heat did not deter our spirits in the slightest.  Dark build-ups littered our path painting angry red and yellow figures all over our weather radar, cropping up everywhere as we flew, but one could easily see the tops, the moisture being pushed ever upwards and upwards and building until it was no longer sustainable, until lightning and thunder and heavy squalls and strong downdrafts fell to the earth's surface.  Best to steer clear.

From the Southern Tanzanian border up into Dar es Salaam, then heading well out into the Indian Ocean for a couple of trips to the rigs, we were often put into holds as Tanzania took delivery of it's latest military purchase; Chinese-made Chengdu J-7G jets, blasting around the muggy air space in tight formation.  We didn't mind.  Those boys looked to be having as much fun as we were.  Much later, back at base with over eight hours of flying and significantly more on duty under our sweat soaked belts, I was already looking forward to the next shift......