Nova informacija o prihodu. Žal so se vremenske razmere poslabšale in mu onemogočile polet preko Alp v Friedrichshafen. Izboljšanja ne bo še nekaj dni in zaradi tega se je Matevž odločil, da svojo pot zaključi ŽE DANES. Kot je navedeno bo zadnja etapa potekala iz Malte do Brnika, kjer Matevža pričakujemo okoli 16.00 ure. Hvala za razumevanje. Ekipa GLWF

New information regarding arrival. Unfortunately, the weather conditions are worse and preventing him from flying over the Alps to Friedrichshafen. The weather forecast shows that weather will not improve for several days. Matevz decided to end his journey TODAY. As already mentioned the last stage will take place from Malta International Airport to Brnik, where Matevž is expected around 16:00. Thank you for understanding. GLWF team

Today’s flight was straight in heading north. At the beginning the plan was to reach Tunisia. After a half way across the Libya, the calculation of the fuel showed, that it is safer to divert to Malta, which was alternate destination. Today’s stage was 10 and a half hours long, the weather conditions were very good, except the wind was blowing strong from the west...

GLWF team

It is about time to go home. :-)
Yesterday Matevz started his long flight towards the north of Africa. He landed at the airport Pointe Noire in Congo. Julien Benatouil, Pipistrel's promotor for Africa, together with his wife Catrine who is a pilot too, and with the president of Aeroclub  Point Noire, assure that landing in Congo was extremly efficient and that there were no, really, no problems at all. Almost hard to believe! Julien, again, thank you so much for everything. 
Today Matevz continued his flight towards Chad where he successfully landed after 8h and 30 minutes of flying. Congratulations again. It was 40 degrees Celzius in Chad, very hot, but Matevž was kindly greated by mrs. Viviane and her friend who know local scene very well. Thank you, too, Viviane.
Today Matevz  will keep flying again. Most likely towards Tunis, depending on availability of fuel. It is going to be again a long leg, about 2650 km and more than 10 h of flying.
But home is coming in sight.
Good luck and safe flying!

GLWF team

Matevz has finished another African stage. He landed at the airport Pointe Noire in Congo. Today weather was on his side. It was expected that he will spent more flight hours to reach the destination, but the wind wasn’t so bad. The flight was 8 hours and 36 minutes long.

Tomorrow morning he will start early. The plan is to continue across the Congo, Central African Rep., to the Tchad (FTTJ). Planned time for tomorrow’s flight is 10 hours and 30 minutes.

GLWF team

 A general inspection of the engine was carried out and focused in order the TCU was downloaded and it was indicated that the air box pressure was low. A compression test was done and all four cylinders found good (11 bar). The oil filter was removed and an oil filter inspection was done and found no particals. The turbo was inspected and more than standard play was found on the compressor side. Replacement of the turbo was carried out and the return line to oil pump from turbo was cleaned after carbon deposits were found inside the pipe. Turbo inspection indicates carbon build-up on the turbine side of the turbo and carbon contamination in the return line from turbo to oil pump caused the turbo to build-up oil in the sump and was not able to scavenge the oil back to the oil tank, causing the turbo to flood and blow oil out of the exhaust system.

Glen Meyer

After whole day work under the hot sun and strong wind Glen Meyer managed to repair the engine. The main cause of engine failure was blocked (by black carbon) oil return line from turbo. The problem most probably persist for a longer period, but at the moment no clear answer whay and how black carbon came into this tube.

Late afternoon I made a test flight and everything looked normal, so hope to get off tomorrow morning for Walvis Bay.

Although I am grounded in one of most beautiful countries in the world my days are quite frustrated as information I am receiving are changing frequently. But it looks now the pieces are coming together. The last information I have got from Kobus are that somebody will fly Pipistrel Virus tomorrow as soon as possible from Lanseria airport (near Johannesburg) to Keetmanshoop with qualified Rotax mechanic Glen Meyer and reconditioned turbo charger. Rotax is unfortunately not able to provide new one as all turbo chargers have been blocked at Rotax due endurance tests. I would like to thank everyone involved in huge logistical problem from Leon at Pipistrel to James from Airplane Factory, Glen Meyer, and finally to Kobus who make everything possible with getting his Virus, pilot, spare parts ready. I just pray for good weather tomorrow.

Yesterday afternoon I spent at the airport to check other system of the aircraft, just to be ready to fly as soon as engine repair. I checked also magnetic plug for steel chips which could indicate internal engine damage, sent pictures to Leon and soon got answer that it looks engine should be fine. Also turbo is freely turning what might indicate that only a gap in oil return line caused the failure. 

Keetmanshoop is very quiet airport, today landed only two small aircrafts what is average daily traffic. All are very friendly. Mr. Sheehama from Immigration help me out with visa and prolonged my transit visa for another two weeks. Airport manager who was on radio when I made forced landing and helped me with transfer to Keetmanshoop agreed: "Mathew you were very lucky, it looks angels are flying with you."

Although the country is very beautiful, has good climate, nice weather, however  there is not much time for seeing the surrounding as the problems are waiting to be solved. Easter holidays makes this also impossible but Leon and Kobus from Pipistrel and James from Airplane Factory are trying their best to find solution. It looks there is no new turbocharger around so James found refurbished one which could be send here rather quickly. Kobus offered his Virus SW for transfer from Johannesburg, but Rotax mechanic can come here only on wednesday. I just hope for good weather.

Good side of the forced stop is that we get some additional time to solve fuel problem in Chad. Andrew Rudd from Flight Service International managed to get all permissions even for overflying Libya, mr. Julien Benatouil, Pipistrel representative from Congo is waiting with some good fuel in Pointe Noire, but we can't get confirmation about fuel in N'djamena, capital of Chad. Domen is working hard, but so far no green light. We might have to go around and reroute the flight via Nigeria, Niger, Algeria and Tunisia.

Matevz

After landed at windy and remote Calvinia airfield, Kobus and two of his friends took me 60 km west to Nieuwoudtville, which is Kobus's pure Africaan home  where I was greeted by his big family. Another two pilots came with Virus and Taurus but unfortunately I was busy with onward planning, permissions, fuel etc, so this time there was not much opportunity for pilots talking about "glory days". The cold front was coming from SW, so we had cloudy and cold weather in the morning when Kobus and Martin (Taurus pilot) took me back to Calvinia airfield. Kobus brought some car fuel and after a while I was airbone againe with some good luck wishes from my South African friends waving to me. I flew around mountain ridge to avoid downdrafts and after above the cloud towards Upington which was covered with moderate northerly wind. After refueling and easy custom procedure I was soon back up in turbulent air and faced with strong NW wind with speed up to 60 KTS what reduced my ground speed to 80 KTS. I tried several altitudes to get more speed but low level the turbulence was strong what reduced my IAS (indicated airspeed), so I decided to stay high with better IAS and stronger headwind what gave me about the same ground speed but more comfortable flying.

Close to Keetmanshoop, small village with airfield, I noticed drop of airspeed so checked instruments. Manifold pressure went down what indicated turbocharger problem. No big worries as the engine could work without but with less power. Than the oil pressure dropped as well what was strange but still keep me positive as it happened quite often that indicator failed. After engine lost all power  I just called Tower and requested descending and landing due to engine problem. Thanks to Virus excellent gliding capabilities I landed safely although I got very strong cross wind. I have to be thankful for this, it looks somebody is taking care of me. If this would have happened just minutes before or later I would have landed in the desert and most probably ended  the GreenLight WorldFlight story in Namibia. So the light is still in front of us. Kobus organized guys from Road Service. They looked at engine, spark plugs, compression and all looked pretty much normal, so most probably failed only turbo charger which burned out all engine oil. We put fresh oil into engine and made a test run. Engine sound looked normal. For me is very important now to detect all possible engine damage, get as soon as possible somebody to repair it and be back on course. Leon from Pipistrel is trying his best to organize everything most probably through Airplane Factory in Johannesburg, Kobus as well, also James offered all help. The problem are Easter holidays so nothing is going to happen till Tuesday. I would stay away from discussion about who is responsible for incident as most probably nobody is. Sometimes things just happened. We must not forget that this airplane and engine went through some very difficult situations, extreme cold, extreme heat, extreme hight, extreme rain, extreme dust, running almost 400 hours covered more than 82 000 km. So we should all keep positive, we are still strong, engine is going to be repaired soon and GreenLight WorldFlight adventure will be completed shortly.

Greetings from Namibia!

Matevz