A pilot learns the wind

The Kenya Meteorological Department publishes a forecast every morning at 04:00. We read it. Then we argue about it, because it's almost always slightly wrong at 600 feet, and the way it's wrong depends on the season.

In July, the surface wind is typically 6 knots from the southeast, but the 1,000-foot wind is 14 knots from the east-northeast. In January, the two winds are almost identical. In April — the long rains — there is no pattern; each morning is its own private negotiation with the sky.

Flying the Mara is not about reading the weather. It is about knowing which part of the weather to ignore.

The rear edge of the Mara basin has a microclimate problem. Cold air pools on the Oloololo Escarpment and drains down into the valley at about 05:10, creating a brief counter-current at 200-400 feet. You can feel it in the burner — the flame behaves differently. If you don't know it's coming, you'll fly five minutes farther south than you meant to.

This is not knowledge you can learn in a week. The junior pilots fly with us for eighteen months before they take a basket alone. It is probably the thing we are most proud of.