Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 1st trip to Africa, I'm scared.

Lol, I'm scared someone like this will be sitting beside me for the 18hr flight that I'm already not looking forward to.

Any bad experience's in flight to Africa?

This is not good...

Well, if that happens, it's gonna suck to be you.....


maddog

I make this trip every year and have three words for you.
Ambien, Ambien, Ambien.

I'll take an 18hour dump before being squashed.

I am a large man, and tried to upgrade to 1st class but it was not available. My wifw and I bought three coach to keep impact on other travelers to a minimum. Do not for a minute think we don't feel bad.

I'm just the opposite....next time I'll buy half and split it with you.

When I'm flying it's to do a hunt and am so jacked up I don't notice the flight there; but I don't mind coming home either. One hour or 18; it's all good to me.

In 1982 (I was 21) I flew to Brazzaville, Congo.

The first leg of the flight was from Wash DC to Paris. That was pretty normal.

From Paris I boarded an Air Afrique plane, destination Brazzaville, with stops along the way in Ndjamena, Chad, and Bangui, Central African Republic.

It was a bit of an adventure. I was the only white person on the plane, and the flight attendant barely spoke any english, I didn't speak a word of French.

We deplaned at Ndjamena to refuel, and let off some passengers and baggage. Chad was in some kind of civil conflict at the time, and the airport was full of soldiers, in various degrees of uniform, and weaponry. There must have been some fighting at the airport because the place was a little bit shot up.

Eventually we re-boarded and flew to Bangui. our stop there was a short refueling stop, and we stayed on the plane. The airfield was fairly primitive, the jungle grew right up to the runway, and the refueling team was a bunch of guys with 5 gal cans passing them up to the wing. I kept thinking we should not be on the plane during this refueling in case of fire, but it went ok.

Eventually we made it to Brazzaville. It was dark. I deplaned and was routed into a small booth with a couple smelly uniformed agents and asked questions I didn't even understand. After a few minutes of looking at my Diplomatic Passport, and handbag, they gestured me out through another door where I was in a sea of local faces, and the sights, sounds, and smells of a place far different than anything I had experienced previously. Making their way to the front was three short haired white men who I knew were Marines. It was very comforting to see them.

So began my 15 month tour at the U.S. Embassy, Brazzaville. 12 Americans, 6 of which were the Marine Detachment. A very unique tour of duty.

Holy $hit, wheres the rest of that arm rest?

Its worth it Stoney....you'll see.......drink the free booze, watch a couple of movies, read a book, and then.......you will only have 8 hrs to go!

Hopefully he just stepped up to have a conversation with his buddy, and in fact has the seat(s) just behind where he's 'spanning the arm rest'.

FWIW, I have the same 'fear'.

TFF!

My friend I have a story for you. On my first trip to africa I had everything planned like a mission, down to the exact seat I wanted on the 747, all the way aft, port side next to the heads where there are only two side by side seats. It was a full flight and to my horror, here comes this lumbering female preacher that I swear if she was a foot taller she would have been round! Well she poured herself into the aisle seat and naturally a tsunami of lard washed over the arm rest and onto my seat. So after spending about five minutes trying to pry myself between her seat and her rolls, I flagged down a stewardess and politely told her either find me another seat or refund me half the fare as I only half half a seat. THANKFULLY a very nice couple, she South African and he American that traveled the route a lot told me they would gladly share the third seat they bought (they would buy three seats across) with me and gave me the aisle seat. It was a close run thing, I mean God bless fat chicks, but this one was wayyyy out of tolerance. From then on I don't go very often but when I go I pay for First Class!

Just got back from a 22 hour evolution from the land of far far way and it's worth a lot to see those young guys on their post while I was over there.

I don't want to sound like an ass and rag on extremely over weight people, but I don't think someone like that would even be allowed on anymore with a normal coach seat.

The irony of this post is the girl I've been seeing has a co-worker that's just as big as the guy in the picture. She's 5'8" and a 120lbs soaking wet, former model and still would turn anyone's head male/female. I just met him last night face to face for the first time.

This co-worker of hers is in love with her and obviously doesn't see the dynamics of why it wouldn't work. She's the sweetest thing and doesn't have the heart to tell him she's not interested. I'm sure he's a nice guy as well, but has no desire to loose weight either. Needless to say he wasn't to thrilled to meet me, being the competition that is.

A couple of Jack & Cokes and you should be good to go!!

My first safari to Africa was flown in coach class.

Second was flown half coach, half business.

Next will be all business class. I've finally had enough of the no leg room, cough and hack, fat guys sweating all over me routine. Sure it costs more, but I just see it as part of the cost of the hunt, and plan accordingly.

I'm not a drinking man, but after some of these horror stories I think I'd have a jack&coke in each hand were I to go. I once flew Vancouver-Amsterdam and nothing went wrong but I was crazier than a pet coon when I finally got off that plane.

Give me your tickets and stay home in mamby pamby land! I will endure just about anything to spend another week in Africa.

Could be worse, you could have the person sitting next to you trying to detonate his/her underwear or shoe. lol

...............look at it this way.....If someone that big farts, the fart`s source will be at least another foot away from you!!