Yesterday I flew a charter for Tearfund to Motot and Mabior. The flight out from Juba was freight only, mostly steel water pipes, and then I collected three pax in Motot, one to go to Mabior and the other two for Juba.
 |
| The team loading Tearfund freight in Juba |
The flight was quite uneventful until we arrived at Mabior where there was a high concentration of large birds. The visibility at this time of year is very bad with smoke haze covering most of the country and in many places there are large numbers of kites, storks and vultures, particularly in the vicinity of large towns.
On short final approach into Mabior I hit a large Marabou Stork just before touching down. Fortunately the bird only hit the main gear leg and although it caused a fairly large dent, no structural damage was done (well, not to the aeroplane anyway, the bird might not agree!) and I was able to continue with the planned flight back to Juba.
 |
| The unfortunate Marabou Stork |
 |
| The unfortunate gear leg |
