I'm coming home right n....oh wait...when?

Sitting in my own little, hot, stinky, dry, and often times bug infested world, (Chad that is, not my room, though some times those particular adjectives may apply quite nicely) I forgot what it was like to work in the ‘Aviation Business’. What do I mean? A lot of things, but mainly the whole “HURRY UP!….and wait” side of aviation, that anyone who has ever worked in the industry can relate to.

I’m pulling out whatever hair I have left, down here in South Africa. I really shouldn’t be because I’m being treated quite well, but, honestly, I am very homesick. I miss someone beyond belief and I really just want to go home. I sound like a complete baby, I know, but, well….ummm…

For those of you who I haven’t informed yet, I left AirServ about 2 ½ weeks ago and took a job with a South African operator called Solenta Aviation. I have been contracted to fly the Beechcraft 1900D, again, up in lovely….(drum roll please!)….

ALGERIA!

Yes, Algeria. Or as my poetic brother says, ‘Aaaah fuck Jess, Algeria?’. Yes Nick, Algeria.

But for now I sit on my hands in South Africa waiting to ferry an airplane up the lengthy longitudinal axis of the Dark Continent any day now. Tomorrow we will finalize the flight planning but it looks like the trip will have me going from South Africa to Namibia, to Angola to Gabon, to maybe N’djamena-Chad, to Niger and then up over the Sahara to Hassi Messaoud, Algeria. We will take three days to do the trip, sleeping in Luanda, Angola and Agadez, Niger. And then…I get to go home to see a beautiful girl.

The problem is that the airplane I am supposed to fly all the way up there is in major surgery right now. I would rather, and I’m sure many other pilots would agree, fly an airplane to a maintenance facility so that needed work can be done, than to fly one fresh out of a (AFRICAN) maintenance facility over some of the most inhospitable territory on the face of the earth. I’d rather not make a sat phone call from the middle of the Angolan bush saying ‘hey guys…do you happen to see some left over parts hanging around the hangar anywhere, because it seems we were missing something!’

My other problem is my worry that Elizabeth will divorce me before even saying, “I do”. Every other day –and I never quite seem to learn- I phone her to tell her I’m coming home in two days. The following day finds me calling and saying ‘umm, honey…maybe 5 more…?’ Yet if anyone can understand the frivolities of working in Africa it would surely be her. Right honey?