THE CRISP temperature of the morning has brightened the sky in the Serengeti and left the air calm. The airstrip is vacant of animals and any other planes.
“Perfect flying conditions,” remarked Felix Borner, pilot for Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) as he walked around the Cessna 182, pre-flighting the aircraft in the hangar, the roof of which is adorned with acacia thorn bushes strategically hung to deter birds from nesting.
Felix Borner.
Likewise, acacia bushes are gently placed atop each of the aircraft’s three tyres to prevent hyenas from using the rubber as a chew toy. Without these preventative measures, the windscreen would be covered with droppings and the tyres would be rubber shreds. Though it can be a struggle to keep the acacias intact, it is one of the many tasks that come with maintaining an aircraft in the bush.
“We are required to provide our own fuel which we keep in 200-litre drums. The demand for a fuel bowser is not high enough in the Serengeti,” Felix said while raising his eyebrows in high hopes that one day fuelling will be simpler here. “It is often necessary, especially during the dry season, to do an airstrip inspection on all of the bush strips,” he explained. “Quite frequently animals enjoy grazing on them and, even after an inspection, sometimes force me to initiate a goaround or land half way down the runway. Birds, of course, are a great hazard as well, especially vultures.
“Without air traffic control, pilots rely heavily on each other for position reports and timing. It can get very busy in the air and around many of the small airstrips,” he added. After spending a year and half acquiring his Commercial Pilot’s Licence from Progress Flight Academy, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Felix returned to his home in the Serengeti. He found the theoretical studies to be tough and had other challenges with speaking English as a second language. However, making friends at the school was not difficult and he claims the “braais” and nights out on the weekends made up for the examinations during the week.
Progress Flight Academy has the luxury of having its own airfield, allowing students to get plenty of experience on very short, grass runways. Felix enjoyed flying the Piper Warriors and Piper Seminole during training at the school, but is now happy to sit behind the controls of the C-182 and occasionally FZS’s Congo-based Cessna 206.
Having lived in the park for the first half of his life, he saw no better way to view it than from the air. “The studies were well worth it. There is no feeling comparable to flying,” Felix confirmed. Frankfurt Zoological Society owns three other aircraft in Africa that aid in its conservation efforts across the continent. The C-206 based at Goma in the DRC, is primarily used for the transport of people and cargo as the Congo has very few roads. Another C-182 is stationed in Zambia’s North Luangwa National Park and a C-185 is stationed in Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park. Both of these aircraft aid in antipoaching, transport and radio tracking. The C-182 that Felix flies in Tanzania is based in the Serengeti and is used for a variety of initiatives supported by FZS across the country, namely animal counts, anti-poaching flights and radio tracking.
Felix spends a great deal of his time flying for such initiatives, but also visits numerous FZS project sites aiding in transportation. The society has remote projects in Tanzania that necessitate his assistance, such as Mahale National Park on Lake Tanganyika. Without an aircraft, the journey to Mahale requires the use of several different modes of transport and long travel time. For similar reasons, Felix often finds himself flying to faraway project sites in Zimbabwe, Zambia and the DRC. The combined travel time of flying commercially and driving would need much greater travel times. Using the aircraft for transport provides a time-saving and cost-efficient solution to reaching these remote areas.
5H-ZGF, the Cessna 182 that Felix flies.
ANIMAL CENSUS FLIGHTS
“Time for a game flight!” Felix said as he primed the engine. While tourists and other park visitors climbed into their cars for game drives, Felix prepared for a game flight. The staff of Frankfurt Zoological Society, Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) and Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) work together in support of the Tanzania Government’s Wildlife Division three times a year to compile a various counts of wild animals in the park.
The team flies six hours each day for ten days, canvassing the entire Serengeti ecosystem in parallel transects. The task requires the use of two C-182s chosen mainly for their slow flying ability and manoeuvrability. “A typical census flight is flown at around 100 knots,” Felix noted, revealing a speed slightly slower than the average cruising speed of 125 knots.
“We have three types of animal census counts. The two we are doing during these ten days are to gather a total count of all elephant and buffalo in the park, and then a strip count aiming to estimate several other animals such as large birds, various antelope species, and large predators.” He further explained that the “total count” required two passengers to sit in the back seat of the aircraft and tally every elephant and buffalo they saw out the window of the aircraft. The transects for this count are quite narrow, and photos are often taken and used later to identify the number of animals bunched up in large groups. The strip counts are flown in wider transects and tally animals within a set distance from the plane.
Streamers are attached to the wing struts providing the frame of view used by the observer when counting. Only animals lying within that frame are counted. In order to gain clear sight of the animals the pilot must fly a mere 300 feet above ground level. The task can seem daunting but the results are imperative for furthering the knowledge of migratory routes, dispersal of animals and trends in illnesses, disease and poaching. “It is hard work and takes a lot of concentration to fly for six hours at low level,” Felix said.
Counting the animals in the park dates back to the 1950s when the director of Tanganyika National Parks, Peter Molley, asked Bernhard Grzimek and his son, Michael, to help estimate the number of animals and their migratory routes. The data they gathered helped to widen the park borders and incorporate boundaries naturally set by the animals. Their task was difficult, especially in the 1950s, and required both men to attain pilot’s licences and purchase an aircraft. Together they bought a Dornier Do 27, more commonly used by European nations as a military transport aircraft after World War II. The Dornier Do 27 was one of the only aircraft available in Germany at that time for general aviation that would work well in the bush.
Michael and Bernhard Grzimek with their Dornier Do 27.
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