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Flying GA through Africa - what countries?

I’m planning my round the world trip (in my JET-A powered DA42) in a few months. I have my route roughly set:

Puerto Rico
US mainland
Canada
Greenland
Iceland
Europe
??
South Africa
Seychelles
Maldives
??
?
Australia
New Zealand
????
Taiwan
Japan
Alaska (Adak)
US Mainland
Back home

There are a few unknowns, but the biggest ones that are worrying me are the legs to get from Europe to Southern Africa. Probably a long shot, but does anyone have rough guidance on the most GA friendly / safest countries to transit in Africa?

Last Edited by mike_miller at 11 May 19:26

Safety wise, see https://safeairspace.net/
It won’t tell you about GA friendliness.

ELLX

Burning Jet-A you’ve already eliminated a big problem of flying in Africa.

There are a few people on here who have extensive experience and I’m sure someone will be along shortly. Personally I can only speak for Namibia, South Africa and Morocco and, to a lesser extent, Kenya and Tanzania. I don’t know if your trip is to simply fly around the world (great as that is!), but if you want to some touring and enjoy the trip I would suggest going down via Eastern Africa and definitely visit Namibia on the way. Africa is not the easiest part of the world to travel in, but it is absolutely fascinating.

While I never did, many people say you should fly in uniform. I’m sure it helps. As do some well-placed crisp dollar bills.

https://www.gasupportegypt.com/

Talk to these guys. They’re fantastic, far cheaper than they should be, and know everything you might want to know about flying GA through Africa.

Kent, UK

172driver wrote:

if you want to some touring and enjoy the trip I would suggest going down via Eastern Africa and definitely visit Namibia on the way. Africa is not the easiest part of the world to travel in, but it is absolutely fascinating.

Absolutely, my goal is to spend time enjoying the sights around the world. Taking off 9 months to do the trip as a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Any other specific countries/cities would be great. I’ve never been outside North America / Europe / Japan / China before, so there will be lots new for me to see.

I’ve done two roundtrip crossings to Europe before (via Iqaluit, Kangerlussuaq, Reykjavik, Wick) which got me hooked. If the rest of the world is half as good, the trip will be amazing.

Katamarino wrote:

https://www.gasupportegypt.com/

Talk to these guys. They’re fantastic, far cheaper than they should be, and know everything you might want to know about flying GA through Africa.

Yep, I’ve heard LOTS of people rave about them. Trying to do the planning myself, just to “immerse” myself in the etiquette for CAA communication, but will likely end up falling back on them when I can’t communicate with the CAA.

@mike.miller, btw, if you do search under ‘Africa’ that brings up a few threads and also some people who are knowledgeable but infrequent posters here.

Mike – you might like to add that you are (if you are) in Puerto Rico, to your profile

I have never done a trip like yours but AFAICT almost everybody who has, did it with heavy support from overflight agents, and they mostly don’t mention that in articles they write afterwards I did once plan a flight down to Luxor, Egypt, and after months of attempted comms with the Egyptian CAA gave up. Then discovered that an agent can get you the paperwork, including visas, in 24hrs, for a few hundred $. Now Egypt has that new GA agent near Cairo which gets great reports.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

BA used to return fuel for flights to Abuja, Accra & Lagos because of concerns over JetA1. Used to be fun going down the runway and getting airborne at MTOW.

Not sure how you’d get a quality check but, but try find out.

Qualified PPL with IR SP/SE PBN
EGSG, United Kingdom

Of course Flying in Pilot Uniform will make many things Easier

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