Our first and most important mission is to fix our magneto problem. There are people in our group who know everything about our Gipsy engine as it is also found on the Tiger Moths. After a bit of investigation, we decide to replace the complete magneto by a new one in order to gain time. John B very kindly gives us one of the spares he is carrying in his plane. We refuel, perform an engine run, everything is ok ! The Stampe is ready to go. In the mean time, most of the planes and helicopters have already left Loki for Eldoret.

A 233 nautical mile stretch for a mandatory stop on our way to Nairobi to refuel is ahead of us. We depart as number 2 of a formation of 4 aircraft. We still have no radio communication. Even our handheld radio doesn’t seem to work. Luckily the weather is fine and the wind is calm. The cruise is done at low level to enjoy beautiful sceneries. We overfly some villages. People wave their hands at us. Some high grounds prevent us from staying on the Kenyan side if the border. We have to fly a few miles within Uganda airspace. Nobody will ever know about it…

As we approach Eldoret, the ground elevation gets higher and higher. The airport is situated at 7.000 feet above sea level! It is around noon now and the temperature will contribute to creating very high density altitude conditions. I expect the landing distance to be extremely long compared to what we are used to. Luckily, it is a nice 3.000 meter concrete runway, so we can afford to have poor landing performances… Clouds around us are getting thicker and darker, and we observe some spots of rain intensifying progressively. Airfield in sight. We are following Nick and Lita. I let the distance between us increase before hitting the final. We are at 8.500 feet with an Outside Air Temperature of +28°C. The landing is gonna be very long, and I don’t want to go around with such a poor engine performance. We are now on final, and the preceding Travelair is vacating the runway at about 1.500 m from the threshold! Our controls feel very sloppy and I can tell that our true airspeed is pretty high. Maximum concentration. Flare, idle, touch and hold the tail up as long as possible. We get to a stop at the middle of the runway. Landing was good, but I’d rather not do that again with this type of aircraft. On the ground during the refuelling, we discuss with the other teams and find out that all the landings were not necessarily great. We all agree that these conditions are at the edge of our aircraft capabilities. But we still need to take-off from here in order to reach Nairobi before sunset…

The weather is now terrible. A thunderstorm is just passing overhead the airport. The wind is gusting and rain is pouring. The airplanes must be secured and open cockpits must be covered. The pilots are running around trying to get this done as soon as possible. We all end up completely soaked. The temperature has dropped significantly. It’s the very first time that I am shivering since the start of the rally…

The next leg will not be an easy one. The combination of high grounds and bad weather can be very tricky, especially since we cannot afford to fuel up completely due to weight and performance limitations. Just before departing, we get some terrible news: Team Eagle in their Boeing Stearman suffered a complete engine failure in flight and crashed about 80 miles north or Nairobi!!! The airplane is destroyed, but both occupants survived without being injured! John and Bella are safe, thanks God!!!! We have to continue, but these terrible news do not contribute to make us feel confident before departure.

Take-off run is terribly long. The airspeed doesn’t seem to build. We are rolling at full power but it feels like the propeller has no grip. More than half the runway length will be required to get airborne. The climb slope is probably less than 2%. It is difficult to maintain the airspeed. Impossible to pull the nose up. We need to gain a little height before we accept to turn right to our destination. The climb to 9.600 feet to clear the grounds on our way to Nairobi takes more than half an hour. Some low and dark clouds do not facilitate the process. We have no radio and do not know if the 3 Travelairs are safely airborne behind us, we can only see one… We decide to do a three-sixty to the right to wait for the 2 other teams. No contact… No contact… Here they are! We are now all visual on each other, we will remain in a formation until Nairobi. Frog is my touristic guide during this flight. She recognises many places that she visited with her friend Laure 6 years ago. Lake Naivasha, lake Nakuru, the lodge in which they spent two nights… A bit of adverse weather here and there, we hit a few showers of rain. One last ridge of high grounds ahead of us and behind is Nairobi.

Here we are! The city is in sight. A beautiful sunshine lights the city, but a pretty frightening thunderstorm seems to be approaching too. We are following Team Canada. We are approaching Wilson airport, said to be the busiest general aviation airport in Africa. We are still at 8.500 feet and the airport is now just below us !?!? It seems like Pedro is aiming for the wrong airport, Nairobi International. We can’t tell him, we have no radio, and it was agreed that we would just simply follow him into the final approach leg. All at once, Pedro dives down in a sharp right turn. We follow. Steep right turn, steep left turn, steep dive, and here we are, on final runway 07 with a pretty strong right hand crosswind coming down from a cumulonimbus cloud just a mile away…

Landing completed. We have made it!!! We have landed in the Southern Hemisphere!!! We taxi to Amref, a local company who offered hangar space for the vintage biplanes. All airplanes are secured in the hangar. The weather outside is stormy.

Tomorrow is a “rest day”. Most of the teams will work on their airplane as we have completed approximately 50% of the trip in 45 hours of flight. My goal is to fix the radio. Aircraft and engine servicing will be done by Raymond in Zanzibar…