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TBMs to Timbuktu: Mission Progress |
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| Joe Robbins at Rice Lake Air Center provided a pre-trip inspection for N731TM. |
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| Prior to our arrival, Medicine for Mali filled bags of medicine and medical supplies for us to carry to Mali. Here are some of the supplies being unloaded from the truck. |
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| Here are the supplies waiting to be loaded into our plane. We were a bit surprised that volume was more of an issue than weight. |
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| Mel is giving a pre-flight briefing for tomorrow's flights to Timmins and Iqaluit. |
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| Last night a massive cold front moved east past Ankeny. This is the weather we woke up to. Fortunately, Exec 1 Aviation put our planes in hangars last night as a courtesy. The weather appeared impenatrable, but once we were airborne, we were able to go direct right through it. We sure do appreciate having on-board live weather radar. |
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| Our first leg was plagued with avionics difficulties. One plane's transponder failed an hour out of Ankeny. Another plane lost its primary GPS receiver and had to divert to Minneapolis then Chicago to obtain a replacement before continuing on. A third plane was delayed due to a delivery failure - survival suits which weren't in Ankeny as expected. Here are the three that made it to Timmins this afternoon. The other two arrived after we took off. |
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| Air Creebeque offered to help fix the transponder failure but wasn't able to correct the problem. A replacement transponder is on its way via the plane that had to divert to Chicago. |
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| Yes, Timmins does exist and this is our proof that at least three of the five planes have made it this far. |
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| Iqaluit is the capital of Canada's newest territory, Nunavut. It is situated on Frobisher Bay, an inlet on Baffin Island. |
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| After a long day of flying. We are anticipating the arrival of four more before midnight. |
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| Mr. GUMBY |
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| A fjord in Greenland on the way into Kangerlussuaq. |
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| Four planes made a fuel stop in Greenland. Paul and Barb flew by us overhead without a stop since we had very strong tailwinds. |
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| Four TBMs lined up nose to tail on the ramp at Reykjavik. |
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| The whole gang with some new friends from Iceland. |
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| Lori at Gullfoss, Iceland's largest waterfall. |
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| The beginning of an eruption of a geyser in the town of Geysir (hence the English name - trust the Brits to always change the spelling just a bit!) |
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| George at the rim of a small volcano with a lake inside. |
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| Ralf at Blue Lagoon near Keflavik, Iceland. |
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| Tom with some new friends at Blue Lagoon. |
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| On our arrival yesterday we saw yet another TBM on the ramp. It was being ferried to the US by our good friend Marc Mossier. Marc was the lead pilot for the first TBM group crossing of the North Atlantic in 2001. Here he is on the left with Paul at breakfast at the Loftleidir Hotel in Reykjavik. |
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| In spite of an outdoor temperature of +2 Centigrade, the wings were covered with ice. We started out by pouring hot water on the wings, but it proved to be too slow so a garden hose was used instead. I am pretty sure that when we first arrived at the airport, the water on the wings was not frozen, but when we returned from breakfast, everything had frozen. In the background is the TBM Marc was ferrying. |
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| A view back to Reykjavik shortly after we took off. |
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| The moving map display of our Garmin 530 GPS showing us about halfway from Reykjavik to Wick. |
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| There is a magnificent castle on the shore just outside Wick. |
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| We stop at Wick for fuel and lunch. |
Tour of the Socata Factory, Tarbes, France |
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| Ray and Les flew from Cambridge to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam to pick up medicine from IDA. Here is the truck load of supplies that they will carry to Mali. |
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| After the tour and a wonderful lunch courtesy of Socata, Socata CEO, Stéphane Mayer presented a check from Socata to Medicine for Mali. Mel received the check for Medicine for Mali and then presented it to David, Medicine for Mali's Treasurer at dinner in Bamako on Monday evening. |
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| We then returned to the ramp for refueling. Here is George digesting his lunch while waiting ever so patiently for the fueling to be completed. |
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| Here we are on Socata's ramp with EADS Socata CEO, Stéphane Mayer and our five TBM700 aircraft. Mike, with TBM N700CL, stopped off in Scotland for a couple rounds of golf and will join us on Saturday. |
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| On arrival in Bamako, we were greeted by our handler, Mariama, of West African Air Services and one of her assistants. |
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| After refueling at the main ramp, we repositioned the aircraft to a remote ramp where we were greeted by children from the SOS orphanage. The orphanage will receive some of the medicine which we have carried to Mali. |
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| Ralf was not able to get a Mali visa prior to the trip, but was able to get a 5-day visa at the airport with the help of Prof. Cherif Keita and Miriama's assistants. |
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| A group of the Malian greeters in front Jay's plane. |
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| Here are the medical supplies that Ray brought from IDA in Amsterdam. |
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| A couple 4x4s loaded down with medicine and medical supplies which we had picked up from Medicine for Mali in Des Moines and delivered to them in Bamako, Mali. |
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| Ray & Les with Medicine for Mali volunteers Dra, Doc, Jill, Dr. B., Lanceni and... |
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| Medicine for Mali treated us to dinner at a restaurant a few kilometers outside Bamako on the Niger River. |
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| The restaurant had some interesting animals on site - none appeared on the menu. Here are a couple porcupine. |
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| After dinner, Mel presented Socata's check to Dave, Medicine for Mali's treasurer. |
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| Timbuktu's geographical setting made it a natural meeting point for nearby African populations and nomadic Berber and Arab peoples from the north. Its long history as a trading outpost that linked west Africa with Berber and Islamic traders throughout north Africa, and thereby indirectly with traders from Europe, has given it a fabled status, and in the West it was for long a metaphor for exotic, distant lands: "from here to Timbuktu". Timbuktu's most long-lasting contribution to Islamic and world civilization is scholarship. By at least the fourteenth century, important books were written and copied in Timbuktu, establishing the city as the center of a significant written tradition in Africa. This is a picture of its largest mud mosque, the Sankoré Mosque. |
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| Here are Barb and their 4 x 4 driver, Abdul, in front of an oven used for baking bread. |
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| Boys playing in the street--the rainy season was just over. |
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| Barb with her new boyfriends. |
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| Jay and George investigate Buctu's Tim. "Tim" is the word for "well", and Buctu was the name of the old lady who tended the original well. |
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| When he first arrived in Timbuktu, Mel was greeted by Abdoulaye, who wrapped Mel in the traditional Tuareg headgear. |
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| Our first stop was an overlook of the city of Bamako. |
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| We met Jara, our guide for the day, last year on our cultural tour of Mali with Carleton College's Alumni Adventures group. |
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| We visited the recycling market where everything you can imagine is re-worked for a new purpose. Here a man is punching slots in a grate to be used in a peanut sheller. In a roll reversal of what we saw in our last visit to Mali, the woman is watching as the man is working! |
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| Here is finished product at the recycle market. This shop specializes in remanufactured cookstoves and kitchen utensils. |
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| The traffic in Bamako was most amazing. The green busses form a psuedo-public transportation system. Very few people rode bicycles, though given the traffic congestion, I would fear for my life on a bicycle here. |
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| Medicine for Mali arranged a reception with Mali's First Lady, Madame Touré Lobbo Traoré. |
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| While the others were inside meeting with the First Lady, some of us had the opportunity to chat with her office manager, Mme. Bah Fatimata Aw. |