RHODESIA: Sanction-Busting Cessnas

[RegentFalke4131]

The Rhodesian white supremacy regime of the 1970s was banned from weapon imports - so it had to resort to smuggling.
In Jan. 1976, 16 Cessna 337s (french license builds) were transferred from Reims-France to Salisbury (i.e. today Harare-Zimbabwe)
These “Milliroles” were disguised as civilian “Fishery Control Planes” and had internal long-range tanks (to reduce the number of stopovers).
Navigation was mainly Dead Reckoning with some help of VHF, NDB and VORs.

A first batch of 8 flew the 12000 km in 5 stages/days:

1. Reims (departing at night) to Agadir
   Fuel up in La Palma, then over the snowy Atlas mountains
   RHODES_lynx_w_1.PLN (3.4 KB)
   

   

2. along the Sahara to Dakar-Senegal
   a test of bladders - and not necessarily fuel ones…
   RHODES_lynx_w_2.PLN (2.3 KB)
   

   

3. via the Sahel, Mali, River Niger, B.Faso to Cotonou, a revolution had just changed the latter country’s name from Dahomey to Benin:
   RHODES_lynx_w_3.PLN (2.2 KB)

4. over the Bay of Bengal in brutal thunderstorms south to Port Gentil in Gabon
   RHODES_lynx_w_4.PLN (2.1 KB)

5. cruising along the Angola coast to the Namibian Caprivi-Strip and the final destination, passing Vic Falls at sunset, landing in the dark.
   RHODES_lynx_w_5.PLN (2.6 KB)
   
   

The Cessnas were immediately whisked away into hiding in a hangar: camouflaged, armed and soon put into action as “Lynx”.

Because their “fishy” cover story was blown finally, the next batch of 8 had to take a totally different ferry route - stay tuned.

[Lochboisdale]

@RegentFalke4131

over the Bay of Bengal

Interesting history and flights, over the Gulf of Guinea though.

[SuperSonicDodo]

I love these historical aviation adventures! Too far to fly by oneself, unfortunately, but a fascinating piece of history.

[RegentFalke4131]

One week later the second flight of 8 Cessnas followed an easterly route: 11.000km in 4 days, 7 fuel-stops.

1. Reims to Crete:
   island hopping via Mallorca, Sardinia and Sicily (Mt Etna, pic). Fuel-efficient cuise level @ 11.500ft.
   RHODES_lynx_e_1.PLN (4.6 KB)

2. on to Djibouti
   via the Egyptian deserts, the Red Sea Coast and the wild Afar Region.
   RHODES_lynx_e_2.PLN (4.3 KB)

3. to the Comoros Islands
   through Ethiopia to the Kenyia coast, avoiding Somalia
   I made some changes here to have a more visual interesting PLN in the sim.
   RHODES_lynx_e_3.PLN (2.7 KB)
   

   

4. through Mozambique to the destination
   first along the coast, then making landfall: at tree-top level over this enemy territory.
   One 337 (luckily the only one with french pilots…) had to make an emergency landing there: could be repaired & recovered by sticking to the new cover story (private plane en route to Madagascar…)
   RHODES_lynx_e_4.PLN (2.6 KB)
   

   

All infos from the book “A Pride of Eagles: A History of the Rhodesian Air Force”:

The Lynx were probably the most cost-efficient COIN planes ever devised and later used by Zimbabwe in the Congo Wars, some apparently soldier on with the ZAF until today - half a century later…