Mike Miller: no worries. You will not have this problem on any of the normal major airports that you will pass when flying through Africa. I am in Africa now at the moment after just completing a trip through South Africa, Namibia and Botswana of 4 weeks. There were maybe only one or 2 airfields in the bush where we needed to protect the aircraft with thorn bushes against damage done by hyenas. Greetings from South Africa. If you need any help in your preparations don’t hesitate to contact me.
am starting to get worried with all these hyena damage photos!
Make sure you bring food for those animals !
It was „repaired“ in situ on the same day…
boscomantico wrote:
A similar thing happened on the PuF trip. A hyena went for the prop of a Malibu (I believe) and damaged it seriously.
How did you manage to solve this? That seems like a bad issue to have in the bush! I’m planning a trip through Africa in my DA42 and am starting to get worried with all these hyena damage photos!
WhiskeyPapa wrote:
What causes them to chew like that? They have to know it’s not food!
It happens everywhere. The local marten repeatedly ate rubber tubes and electrical and thermal insulation on my Ducato van – none of which are really edible – and must have done the same very actively to the neighbours’ cars, too.
boscomantico wrote:
A hyena went for the prop of a Malibu (I believe)
With that leading edge it looks like a Jetprop, you wouldn’t repair that with Duct tape!
They just don’t like the noise of those damn planes???
What causes them to chew like that? They have to know it’s not food!
Any soft wood or plastic surface seems to be of interest. So, from now on, I will be installing an electric fence around the aircraft. That seems to work well against hyenas as well as elephants. They move their trunk close to the wire and they sense that is it electrified, so stay away.
A similar thing happened on the PuF trip. A hyena went for the prop of a Malibu (I believe) and damaged it seriously.
It’s clearly not just the tyres and hoses they are going for…
Yes, he flew back to Nelspruit with Duck/Duct Tape. The owner was not very happy :-(
