Tanzania - Zanzibar Flights

jillktheo

Are both flights within the tour on small planes? Have someone that is a little nervous about flying.

AlanS

jillktheo wrote:

Are both flights within the tour on small planes? Have someone that is a little nervous about flying.

British or someone who has taken this tour will need to confirm and it depends on what you mean by small planes. Based on what we flew on K&T they could be anything from a 12 passenger single engine turboprop Cessna Caravan, a 20 passenger, two engine turboprop de Havilland/Bombardier Twin Otter (DHC-6 referred to as Dash 6), the much larger, 50+ passenger, four engine turboprop Dash 7 or twin engine Dash 8. Google them to see the size. Here are a few shots I took on K&T. We saw or flew in the first 3 during K&T.

Smallest aircraft- Cessna Caravan in the background (Arusha, Tanzania Airport) (FYI, those are the Tauck duffels being loaded on the cart)



Caravan at Seronera Airstrip, Tanzania in the Serengeti



Twin Otter/Dash 6 at Ngerende airstrip in the Maasai Mara, Kenya

British

The plane was not that small, but small as I recall. It was unpressurized and flew over 10,000 feet and it actually made me breathless as it did the tour guide, but. I think the plane was just flying higher than usual and I live to tell the tale. I have literally just returned from an Africa trip----look for my long review coming soon..... we literally flew one of the smallest planes ever for us on one of the transfers, a six seater including the pilot .... my husband sat in the co-pilot seat and I was in the back sitting next to all the hand baggage in the empty seat, so only five of us on the flight. The area of Africa we were in can be quite turbulent for flying due to going over mountain ranges especially during later times of the day. The pillots in Africa appear all to be the same sort, young, handsome, or pretty, confident and passionate about flying from a young age. The Africa flying is a great way to rack up miles on the way to becoming a pilot on the large commercial airlines in the future.I just enjoyed the scenery below and pretended I was a movie star and I was flying to my private island. It was one and a half hours too.

AlanS

British wrote:

.... my husband sat in the co-pilot seat . . . . The pilots in Africa appear all to be the same sort, young, handsome, or pretty, confident and passionate about flying from a young age.

Yup, some of us have been lucky like that- best seat in the house! : ). Our pilot was from Portugal and young as well. I probably had more flight hours than he did! Since there really wasn't any air traffic control at our aircraft's low altitude (10K' MSL which was only 5K' or 6K' above the ground) and few other aircraft during our flight from Seronara air strip in the Serengeti to Arusha, and it was too noisy to converse with me, our pilot plugged his headset into an iPod and bopped along listening to tunes (and basically twiddled with stuff on the instrument panel just to keep busy.) He disconnected the iPod just a few minutes before landing so he could talk to the Arusha control tower!