LH594 from Frankfurt EDDF to Abuja DNAA and on to Port Harcourt DNPO in the Niger Delta!
I last flew this route in P3D – most recently on 29 December 2021, when I was still flying the Aerosoft A330. Yes, it was straight out of the box in P3D; the sceneries back then were by Raheem Adeleke. Ah well, times change.
Now that a good scenery pack for DNPO was released at the start of the year, I was able to fly the route in January using the iniBuilds A340!
So the day before, I shuttled from my home base, MUC, to Frankfurt. Yes, for me, FRA is simply a necessary evil. But hey, there’s nothing for it.
Then the time had come: flight booked, flight plan drawn up. And loading up in Frankfurt!
Quite a bit of cargo, 215 passengers. The pusher’s already standing by – that’s the way to do it.
After we’ve been pushed back and struggled through the queue at the holding point for Runway 07C, we’re immediately given clearance to take off from Runway 18. We head straight for the ANEKI departure.
No sooner are we in the air than we emerge from the perpetual grey into the sunrise:
After five hours in the air, there isn’t much of the sandy desert to be seen anymore. Instead: dry savannah.
And then the time has slowly come to bring the first leg to a close:
Here we go, on the final approach to misty, 37°C, hazy Abuja!
We’ll leave the Usuma Reservoir to our left and lock onto the localiser.
After a wonderful landing and a long roll-out – we want to keep the brakes cool, after all; we don’t have anything like brake fans, and we’re due to head on to PHC soon – we’ve arrived at our gate, C2. Passengers off, passengers on, a little more fuel added – we don’t need much for the roughly 45-minute flight to Port Harcourt.
Nevertheless, we take off from Abuja on time once again.
On our way to the runway, we have to taxi behind a Heston A320 – we’d seen one of those in service for Condor last year too. Funny!
The flight to Port Harcourt is an entertaining one. We’ve barely taken off before we have to start planning the approach, and shortly afterwards begin the descent. We spent a whole five minutes at our cruising altitude of FL320, as recommended by SimBrief.
No wonder, then, that we’re already on approach to Port Harcourt again shortly afterwards.
The approach is via RNAV to Runway 21 – why didn’t we get an ILS signal? Perhaps it’s out of order.
The weather radar shows us a few showers in the area. A glance out of the window confirms this.
During the approach, we fly over the town of Obukwu; a little further on are large oil palm plantations.
After a quiet landing, we first have to find our gate – well, there isn’t much choice anyway.
A shower has just passed through, but at least our passengers will be able to leave the plane with dry feet.
And we’ve arrived in Port Harcourt – a major city with a population of over 3 million.
Originally, the coal trade was an important source of income – but now oil and gas are gushing from the ground, making Port Harcourt something of a hub for the Nigerian oil industry. As a result, the port is used primarily to ship palm oil, crude oil and timber – as well as some coal – to destinations around the world.
And although Port Harcourt was long one of Nigeria’s richest cities, it is considered rather unsafe, which is why many international companies have kept their staff in strictly secure compounds.
By
MatthiasKNU ·
