Easy with King Air (Avatar for the Avro Ansons), OK with C-47, difficult (start) to impossible (land) with DC-6 due to the huts on the side.
As in real life fly low, in bad weather and/or at night/dusk/dawn. Nonsense-MSFS-street-lights simulate the runway illumination at the time:
Two historic PLNs:
they go right into Uli (the two WPs delineate strip ends) and end in Enugu Airport (base for Biafras B-25 and B-26 bombers).
Biafra1.PLN (4.0 KB)
from the south - pick up medicines at various strips (which were all used at the time) before going in from the sea. Biafra2.PLN (2.9 KB)
western approach from Cotonou over jungle
Well, some new historic PLNs into Uli for them old props, the challenge is to use them in the context of the time:
no GPS, no Navaids for long stretches, dead reconning via compass, pen&paper , going low to avoid detection, engine troubles.
Choose your timing wisely to make most of day/night/moon periods.
France was secretly supporting the rebels to get access to their oil-fields. Not all african countries allowed overflights, so here you have to stage from Corsica thru Morroco, Mali (with an arranged under-cover fuel stop in Tessalit) and then go low level in Niger (that sided with Nigeria) to Uli. Biafra3.PLN (3.6 KB)
Portugal was giving massive support - and not only food: via stops in its colonies Cape Verde and Bissao plus the Ivory Coast. Biafra4.PLN (3.4 KB)
Many flights came from Petersburg SA, via secret stopovers in the Kalahari Desert, (Portugese-at-the time) Angola and then Gabon. Biafra5.PLN (2.6 KB)
From France again, avoiding once more unsympathetic Algeria: in uncontrolled airspace over the Sahara to Chad (clandestine re-fuelling there), finally going x-low before the MSFS-Hippos (see them?) at Lake Chad to avoid the prowling MiGs over Nigeria proper. Biafra6.PLN (2.7 KB)
The Biafrans operated some of the smallest airplanes ever used in combat, imported and commanded by a colourful Swedish figure:
Here you fly the NXCub (substitute for the Saabs) along their ultra-short satellite airfields - which were in fact just dusty village roads or rural soccer fields (try the Asobo T-6…).
Start in Auli - Annabelle (from the .to, see upper post) and proceed at treetop height, try to spot even more possible landing sites. Biafra_Babies.PLN (2.8 KB)
As an extra challenge -like the good Count did on many ocassions- try to land a humanitarian airlift DC-6 (Biafran Airlift DC-6B Fragtflug Iceland TF-OAB | 1970 » Microsoft Flight Simulator , painted green for a reason…)
on the Umuahia-City-Main-Road covert strip (5,533003, 7,493652) - because the regular Airports Enugu, Calabar, Uli and Harcourt are all under MiG bombardment…
For french speakers interested by the subject, the magazine Icare currently available is filled with reports by french airline pilots that flew these terribly dangerous missions.
