Yeah, for me, the problem was that I landed in a herd of gazelles. And that's all quite nice, it looks beautiful how they scatter like that. But when you land, you think to yourself, the first thing on my mind was lions. Oh my god, lions. Lions, buffaloes, elephants. And the other colleague, he landed about five kilometers away. And he kept receiving messages over the broken radio, saying he saw an elephant and was now hiding behind a tree. And oh god, he was scared for his life and so on.
Podz-Glidz, the Lu-Glidz podcast.
Stories from the cosmos of paragliding.
Today with...
Veit Kessen.
And Lucian Haas on the mic.
Kenya was a highly sought-after winter flight destination for the paragliding scene for many years. Every January, numerous long-distance-hungry pilots from Europe traveled to the so-called Kerio Valley to fly personal or even globally valid best performances in power-sawing mode along the nearly 100-kilometer-long cliff edge. Gregory Knudsen, for example, set the still-valid speed world record there on January 19, 2014, for a 200-kilometer round trip, with an average speed of over 36 km/h. However, it has quieted down in recent years. Flights from Kenya hardly appear in the XC databases anymore. One of the reasons for this is, among others, three deaths that occurred in Kerio in 2018.
They were apparently a deterrent for many pilots, but they were also a turning point for the local paragliding scene in Kenya. Because all of a sudden, paragliders were in the media—albeit with bad news—and thus on the radar of the Kenyan aviation authority. They were then intent on banning what they saw as the illegal activities of the paragliders. One person who did a lot to ensure things turned out differently is Veit Kessen. The 49-year-old with German-Indian roots was one of the driving forces behind the founding of the Kenyan Paragliding Association. Today, he is its chairman. In this episode number 77 of Podz-Glidz, Veit tells the story of that time. The wild years, Kyrgios, the sudden end, and the effort to steer paragliding in Kenya into more orderly channels ever since.
Nevertheless, paragliding in Kenya is and remains an adventure with its own unique risks. Anyone who drowns has to fear landing right next to an elephant. That actually happened to Falt. And it's not the only exciting bush pilot story he has in his repertoire. If you enjoy this podcast, please support my work as a patron. You can find out how to do that very easily on the "Support" page of my blog Looglights website.
Veit, we're at the beginning of February, right now as we're speaking, and as far as I know, that means it's the dry season in Kenya. Does that mean you can go flying every day?
First of all, thanks a lot for inviting me onto your podcast. I'd love to. It's currently the dry season. February is actually one of the hottest months until April. It's very, very dry. But since we're at the equator, the wind is primarily coming from the northeast right now. That's also called the Kaskasi wind. And since we're here near Nairobi on the east side of the East African Rift, we have the east wind here, and flying isn't as optimal as when the wind comes from the southeast. Okay, let me explain it like this: at the equator, the southeast wind is from May to October, and during this period, the flying conditions are better than in the season from December to April.
So it's not ideal, but it's flyable.
But if you look at it, January and February—if you look at the XContest and other things—they're actually always considered the months when Kenya is best to fly. Where we also always used to find that January was the month when Kenya suddenly always ranked at the top in the XContest, and so many people always flew to Kenya and said, I have to get into the air in the Kirio Valley and then really ride some big distances. But seen that way, I'd actually say it's not even the optimal time to go there?
Yes, absolutely. For Kirio Valley, January is the best time, definitely. I was just talking about my location near Nairobi. In Kirio Valley, the wind conditions in January are the best because the wind picks up. So, it's not too strong yet, and it's not too weak either. The northeast wind is just starting to pick up, so mid-January to the end of January is the optimal time to fly there.
But if you look at Kirio Valley now, it really experienced a boom, at least that was my impression. For years, it was always the destination in January, where the question was, where can you fly far. Everyone always said you have to go to Kirio and stuff like that. And that was for a few years and then it somehow just stopped. Stopped. What happened there?
I witnessed it firsthand. I mean, I went to Carrier Valley for the first time in 2013. Absolute beginner with my Ozone Bus. I went there with friends and the local pilots from Nairobi, who go there every year. We still do. So it's not a group, sometimes alone, sometimes with two or three people, and we camp there for one or two weeks, usually in mid-January. And it was an event. I mean, you could say intermediate pilots came there, and there were paraglider groups from Germany, Russia, I don't know, Czech Republic, USA, even Persians were there, so large groups.
And they flew actual record flights. It was quite an experience. Even finding a spot to lay out your glider at seven in the morning was difficult. There was so much going on. Yeah, yeah. We also had a colleague who had a midair collision with another paraglider and landed in a tree. There was really a lot going on. Also many tandem flights. There were three or four tandem pilots taking passengers up all day. I'd say there were about 50 to 100 gliders being laid out like that a day.
Okay. Kira Valley was mainly, I think, a launch site that was always used. There's a hotel right next to it, Kira View I think it's called. And then there was the launch site. Were all those foreign pilots who were there always staying in that hotel? And was that like a big paraglider community where people would always meet there in the evening? Or how was it there?
As far as I saw it, before 2018, the Curio View Hotel was always fully booked. But there's also another camp nearby called Lellin Camp. That's further down, so near the landing field, one level below the valley. That was also completely booked out. We had trouble finding a spot at the campsite. That was booked out, and then the Kilima Resort opened. They were also always fully booked. That came a bit later.
You just said until 2018. What happened in 2018 that caused such a break?
Yeah, the absolute shocker.
Up until that point, there had been repeated incidents of minor crashes. But as far as I've witnessed, it was never a fatality. A death has never happened out there. And the fatality then went straight through the media. And I didn't know anything about it either. From 2018 onwards, I was at home and then a colleague, a safari colleague, sent me a photo via WhatsApp of a newspaper article about a German pilot who crashed here at Torque Waterfall. And that was already a huge shock, because until then we had all believed, yeah, paragliding,
So sure, you can have an accident, but dying in the Kirio Valley, that doesn't happen. And that was, that was a difficult time, and then shortly after, the tandem pilot crashed. And that was, that got even closer because the tandem pilot was a good friend of friends, so of paragliding colleagues. And they had been paragliding with them in the Burana Conservancy a few nights before. With the whole family. And the pilot and the passenger then crashed shortly after. And she was also in this climbing club in Nairobi.
I believe she was the head of the climbing club. And that made it very personal; it hit very close to home.
And those were two, or rather three, deaths that occurred there in early 2018 within a month. And that caused paragliding in the Carrier Valley to really drop, so that people said, we're not coming anymore?
Yes, what was interesting—or rather, what was shocking about the whole thing—was also that the bodies of the deceased, that it was very difficult to find the bodies and then to recover the dead from there.
And you could already tell that Kirio Valley is very far out. Like, somehow, it's a very remote place. And then, we were there in 2019, in January, so a year later, empty. We were there this year in mid-January, so in mid-January we were there now, there were a few Czechs there. But at the beginning, so let's say from mid-January until January 20th, there were three paragliders in the air. So no bookings, nothing at all. And that's now four years later. There
Corona might also play a role, but still, it's really something like, okay, you didn't go from 100 down to zero, but from 100 paraglider pilots, where you say so many of them were launching at a launch site, it's really gone "whoosh" down to three, five, maybe ten people who then fly there. Back in 2018, I even wrote about these accidents on Looglights, my blog. It was titled Crash Site Kirio, and people wrote there, yeah, maybe it's a bit of a sensational title, but what I described then does correspond to the conditions there. Besides, what I also wrote there—I had read it in the media—was that there was also a discussion at the time about banning paragliding in Kenya.
So there were corresponding discussions there. How did those discussions go? Was it really a real danger that paragliding could have been banned in Kenya? Yes,
that was a very real danger. At that time, I worked as a bush pilot at Wilson Airport, or for a few years before that, and I had good contact with a colleague who wanted to introduce motorized paragliding. He was very active and was in a lot of contact with the aviation authority, and I attended a few meetings too. He had the plan to introduce paragliding into the aviation authority's regulations, into the legislation.
So that it gets legalized somehow, that you can fly there. Exactly,
that it gets legalized.
And he called me after he sent me the newspaper article about the three pilots and told me quite clearly that the aviation authority, that the head of the aviation authority, intends to completely ban paragliding in Kenya because, until that point, the aviation authority didn't know that so many tourists were flying in Kenyan airspace without a permit every year. And my colleague then told me that the aviation authority requested accident reports for the three fatalities. So they wanted someone to tell them exactly what happened, because at the time of the crash, few people knew, or the authorities didn't know, who the pilots were, who the passenger was, and because of that, a major investigation took place.
And the deadline from the aviation authority was the end of the week, which was Monday, when I got the call saying that I should write the accident reports or they would just ban the sport.
That was like a gun to the head. Either we provide the accident reports and they know what went down there, or you're not allowed to do it at all—or what it means is, you're not allowed to fly anymore. That means you actually had to write two accident reports about three deaths within a week.
Yes, I first showed my paragliding colleague the accident reports, they read through them and said, okay, that's fine, and then I forwarded them to my colleague who passed them on to the aviation authority. And the response was that okay, that's a good start, and you need to get organized by the end of the year. You have to somehow form an association to store the data of these flight tourists, so the aviation authorities know exactly who is flying in Kenyan airspace.
That means you have to, who are you now? Your paragliders in Kenya? Yes,
you're practically hippie paragliders. We should organize ourselves, start an association, and they were very firm about us designing a website where every pilot who enters Kenya and wants to fly enters their details. Tourist visa, their name, first and last name. Because they don't want any complications if an accident occurs. They don't want to be asked, who is this guy? And
then they have no idea, more or less, but then they can say, let's look at the list, who signed up there, and say, yes, that must be pilot XY from Germany, Switzerland, or whatever. That means you, a few of you paragliders from Kenya, you joined forces and actually founded an association? Yes,
At that time, I was genuinely terrified that the sport would be banned, because I love paragliding and Kenya is truly a paradise for paragliding. There are many paragliding spots and it's always such a beautiful safari adventure to fly a paraglider. And I was just scared that the sport would be banned and was practically the leader in founding the association. And that was very difficult, because you can either found an association in Kenya or a club. A sports club. And for a sports club, you have to go to the Ministry of Sport.
It is very difficult to register a sports club. There's a lot of paperwork, it takes years, and then you might have to pay one person or another. And I've already heard from many people that it's actually impossible if you don't have a lot of capital. And the other thing is just to found an association. But an association, an association in Kenya, is non-sporting. So it has nothing to do with sports. Okay. But it's very simple. So it costs around 30 euros to register, very little paperwork. They do a name search and then it goes quite quickly. And I had to first explain to the authorities what paragliding is. And I had to insist that we are not a sports club, but a group of people who discuss paragliding and so on.
Okay, so you officially have an association now, where flying isn't really the main focus, but rather something like the intellectual exchange about it.
No, well, as soon as we're registered, we can actually start our sporting activities. So we're practically an official association now. But for the registration, there were many who tried to block us. They said, no, no, no, and I was told I should form a club instead. And that's actually impossible in Kenya.
Kenya has around 20 to 25 active paragliders.
And to start a sports club, you need more than that.
That means you're now an association, in English then Association, probably Paragliding Association of Kenya or whatever. Exactly, exactly. And you have a website now, and if someone travels to Kenya now, you'll have, as required probably, this form where they should register? Exactly.
The website is paraglidingkenya.or.ke, or you can just type Paragliding Association of Kenya into Google and it will take you there. And there's a membership form where you enter your name, your contact email, next of kin, and very importantly, the color of your paraglider. The authorities told us that too. That means if there's an accident and they're looking for someone, they can look at the color of the paraglider to see roughly who the person might be. And the whole thing, I mean, to be a member of the association, costs 25 dollars a year.
So, if someone were to travel to Kenya now, they would have to get an annual membership from you, pay those 25 dollars, and then they'd be registered for Kenya and allowed to fly there. Exactly. How many—I mean, not that many tourists or paraglider tourists are coming into the country right now—but how many of them do you estimate actually know about this and really register with you, or is most of it still basically seen as black-market flying happening there?
it's still black-flying because the aviation authority hasn't given us any authority yet—meaning they haven't written us a letter saying we're actually authorized to manage ourselves, self-regulation. That hasn't been given to us yet. That means most pilots know nothing about it. What we do as an association is like in Curio Valley, like the Curio View Hotel owner, who knows about us. And the others in the various hotels also know about us and then point out to the pilots to become members. Most of them just don't. They just don't register.
Because they probably want to save those 25 dollars.
probably want to save.
Exactly, they want to save the 25 dollars. But if something happens to them—may nothing happen to them—but if something does happen, I would say as a club, as Chairman, well, if the aviation authority approaches me about it, I'd say, yes, this person didn't want to, and we also have no authority to practically force them to. Like for example with the DHV or in South Africa, if you go to different paragliding sites, you have to show that you are a member. Otherwise, you can't take off there.
You just said there are about 25 active paraglider pilots in Kenya. Are those mainly Kenyans? I mean, from a German perspective, are they all black pilots, or are they actually more like some experts, like white people who went to Kenya to do some business, envoys, or something, who say, "I learned paragliding in Europe and now I want to do it in Kenya too," and in the end, that's the group that makes up the active ones there.
Yes, absolutely. It's more European, American nationalities, so here, British in general. So Chinese, so Black, in that sense there are two, one man and one woman. But otherwise, most of them are white with Chinese citizenship. And
where did they learn paragliding then? I mean, is it even possible to learn paragliding in Kenya, or is it just learning by doing? Or do they go to Europe somehow and say, I'll do a course at some normal paragliding school over there somewhere?
Many of the active paragliding pilots just taught themselves. That includes the older ones from the 90s who basically just jumped off a mountain into the bush somewhere. And then there's the group of pilots who got their license in Europe, or many who got it in South Africa. There is no school in Kenya that officially teaches paragliding. However, we are working on it—well, the association is working on it—to issue a paragliding license. So, practically, to give a license to those who have been flying for a long time but didn't have the money or the time to go to an official school in Europe.
So, practically, we just assess their skills and a syllabus that we also submitted to the aviation authority to determine what level they are at. Whether they are IP, sometimes it's this IPPI system. So, are they IPPI 1, 2, 3,
4 or 5. Do you also plan to offer something as an association so that people could learn from you? Like, local people who say, "I'll sign up with the Paragliding Association, they're going to teach me." Would that be possible?
Yes, it's absolutely possible. So, myself and a few colleagues, we like to teach local Kenyans ground handling, using older gliders. But then we usually have a conflict because we have three of them who can now do ground handling very well and want to fly, but we don't have any flyable paragliders. And that's where it comes in—the pilot just has to invest money. So, spending 3,000 to 4,000 euros on a glider, I know. We can also order the equipment for him, but usually, they just give up, simply because it's just too expensive. I don't know, it's similar in Europe too.
Everyone wants to go paragliding, but few actually have the desire to then buy a paraglider and go flying. Those are special people who then...
invest money. Yes, it's money, but above all it's the time you invest, because you also have to stick with it.
You're in Nairobi now, if I see that correctly. How often do you usually go flying?
Actually every weekend. During the season, so the European summer from June to October, I'm out there basically every weekend. About two hours north of the Ruby, we have a home spot called Kijabe Hill. And that works basically all year round. But now, during the dry season, it's not relaxed paragliding, but more active, advanced paragliding. So that's real flatland cross-country weather.
That means there are also relatively strong, harsh thermals at times, partly because it's so dry and dry air is correspondingly more turbulent.
Definitely, and it can also develop very quickly within 10 or 20 minutes. I once took off in Kijabel at 10 a.m. during this time of year in good air—already in thermal air—and 20 minutes later I was pulled into a cloud over the mountain. So it happens very fast. In the season from June to October, you can enjoy paragliding more. More so with beginners, also with people who have less flight experience. But now, it's more the XContest guys who are out there, guys and girls, who are flying cross-country.
What's it like during this rainy season? Is flying not possible at all because it rains every day at 12 o'clock? Or would it be possible to say that you can get into the air somewhere in Kenya all year round?
No, it's quite difficult during the rainy season. It's the monsoon, so it just rains. And also, Kijabi is at 2,600 meters. That means Kijabi is normally in the clouds during the rainy season. So it's very foggy. And then there's the wind, the wind shifts during the rainy season. But always, in Kenya, the best time to fly is just after the rainy season. When everything is nice and calm, everything is nice and green, then it's
it's optimal to fly. That means the ground is still a bit damp, the thermals don't develop quite as quickly and aren't quite as violent, and so on. Looking at the spring, that would be early January, where you say it's still the best time?
Yes, early January or mid-January is good for the east side, for the west side of the East African Rift, so Kirio Valley and so on. Very good. But for the hotspot Kijabi Hill, the wind turns to the north, and then it's just cowboy flying.
Let's talk a bit more about Kirio. From your perspective, what is it that makes flying there so fascinating? Just describe the landscape there a little bit.
Have you ever been to Kirio?
No, unfortunately I haven't, I know pictures and stuff, but I haven't been there yet.
There are so many bucket lists, they're so long, and while Kyrio is on there, I don't know if I'll ever get around to crossing that off. But it would probably be interesting.
Yes, definitely. I mean, it's already a—I call it a magical place, one of many magical places, yeah, you could say, with so many possibilities. You have so many options there. Yes, you have many options. It's just a very defined ridge where the best wind conditions come from the east. And the ridge runs straight south and north. It goes about 50 to 100 kilometers south and north. That means you really have a
an incredibly long soaring ridge.
Exactly. And from the launch site, for example from the Kirio View Hotel or Kilima Resort, when you look into the valley, into the Kirio Valley, the altitude difference is sometimes even greater than a kilometer. So when you just look into the valley, it's practically as if you're looking into the deep sea. It's a huge valley, so it's just big. Just looking at it is an experience in itself. And then flying into this landscape and gliding along the slope is quite an experience. If you fly out towards the south or the north, you're often over very natural rainforest or over, yeah,
just beautiful scenery and a very vast landscape. So, every time I fly there, I feel very, very small. It's just... you're like a grain of dust in such a huge landscape. And you're also very exposed to the conditions, I'd say. The thermals are stronger, and you have a lot of unpredictability—the wind is sometimes unpredictable or the thermals are unpredictable. It's really exciting to fly there.
You also said earlier that, yeah, it's already full at the launch site at seven in the morning. Sometimes you have trouble finding your spot, or back then, when there were so many people flying there, you had your problems. At seven in the morning in the Alps, no one is going to get the idea to stand at a launch site with hundreds of people. Does that really happen as early as seven in the morning?
So at seven in the morning there are no thermals, there's just a very light or, okay, let's say, I don't know, five to ten kilometers per hour wind coming from the east, so an east wind normally comes up the slope. And since the slope is very steep, you don't actually need much wind to glide. But it does start at seven o'clock. So I usually land at half past ten, eleven o'clock, because then it gets really brutal,
then the brutal thermals kick in. So if you go out around noon, it'll already start pulling you up.
Okay, that means in the morning hours, Kirio is sort of even beginner-friendly, so to speak. You still have really relatively gentle conditions there and don't have any problems with them. And the stuff where it says, like, the crash site or whatever, because it's those strong thermals and turbulence, you can also avoid that if you start early and then land relatively early too, and say, okay, I'll just spare myself that heavy midday period.
Yeah, you could say that. I've had my best flights from 7 to 9, 9, 10 o'clock. It also depends on what you want. If I want calm air now, if I just want to watch the colobus monkeys basking on the rocks at sunrise, then it's 7 to 9, it's just absolutely magical. But that said, it also depends on where you fly, I mean where you fly along the slope. It's exactly the same as saying driving is safe, but if I close my eyes, I can also drive at 10 km/h and have an accident. And that's the same as in the Kirio Valley. I personally think that the site of the Torok Waterfall is where most of the accidents happen.
And those three accidents happened there. And that's simply because the slope is east-facing up to the Torok waterfall when you fly south. And then the slope cuts into a large basin. Like a cauldron. Exactly, a cauldron. And there, if the wind picks up a bit, there are rotors. And you have to either—I've never flown further—I always keep my distance. But many pilots tell me it's good to find a thermal, climb way up, and then over the water, over this cauldron
to fly across, probably.
Exactly, exactly.
Okay, those are the morning times where you say it's still calmer. However, you have to be careful with certain terrain features because the wind can still form rotors there. Then it becomes the afternoon, which also applies in the Alps, where you should avoid the midday, heavy thermals time as a beginner, and then in the afternoon, the calmer conditions return, or those with the larger thermals and such. Is that the case in the Kerio Valley too? Is there something like magical air towards the evening, or what does it look like there?
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. So from about 4 o'clock onwards, it's also magic air. Really pleasant soaring air. So when the thermals drop and the residual wind picks up, it's very, very magical. That is, until sunset.
That means all this warm air from that wide valley, which is 1,000 meters deeper, gets pushed over there, then pushed against this slope, and then probably releases over a very large area. Yeah,
Exactly, exactly, the residual thermals. But I have to say, what was shocking about that tandem accident was that the pilot was very experienced and that they took off early in the morning—I think it was before 9:00—and then something happened. That shocked me personally because I thought, I'm flying in here safely and I could die right now. And yes, something can happen even if you take off from the Kyrio early in the morning. But it also depends. I'm more of the opinion that if you don't want to fly in rotors, then you should stay away from this basin.
I heard, because we've been talking about Kyrio and this Kyrio Hotel all the time, about this overcrowded launch site, that this launch site is currently not launchable at all, meaning it's closed. Is there any truth to that?
Yes, there's some truth to that. That happened last year.
Somehow there was, or there was a dispute between the hotel owner and the landowner, the neighbor. Somehow they couldn't get along and the landowner then built a fence across the launch site and then plowed the entire land and even set up a hut there herself. The local pilots, the Kenyan pilots who fly there every day, they take off over the fence. It's still possible, but it's a safety risk. So the launch site is lost. They are currently in court and I hope that will be resolved soon.
will be. But for that, basically, both A, the fence, and B, the hut would have to be torn down so that you can take off from there properly again.
Exactly. There's another launch site at the Kilima Resort, a bit further south. That's also a very small hotel, run by a Dutch couple. Dutch, Kenyan couple, with three kids, very sweet. And they have a larger field next to their resort where you can also camp. And that's where we started from this year as well.
Can you still launch there even if you're not staying in a hotel? Like, do they say, "Yeah, yeah, just walk through, the launch site is there, go for it"? Or do you have to be booked into that hotel to be allowed to launch there?
As far as I know, you just have to enter the grounds, so through the gate, and then he asks for a small starting fee. But it's very small, yes. But
is that the only launch site left in the end?
Yes, there are still several wild launch sites. We've also been south of the Torok waterfall and taken off from there. But that's all a bit of a trek through the bush with a backpack to somehow find your launch site. There are multiple ones. But for a civilized launch site, Kilima Resort is the only one left on the edge.
That means, from that perspective, Kirio is also a bit limited in terms of what you could still fly there or the number of pilots the terrain might still handle in terms of launch sites.
Yes, well, Kirio View Hotel was the official launch site. There's even a sign that says Kirio View Hotel Paragliding, and it was a pretty large launch site. So Klima Resort isn't as accessible and also, yeah, it's just not the main launch site of the Kirio Valley.
Let's change the subject a bit and just talk about you. Tell me, how did you actually end up coming to Kenya?
Well, in short, my father is a development worker; he worked for the GDZ at the time, and I came to Kenya at the age of eight. Before that, we were in Tunisia for five years. My father is a civil engineer and also contributed to development aid here in Kenya. And yeah, I came to Kenya at eight and was enrolled in the German school in Nairobi, so I learned German in Kenya.
But mainly at school, or did your father probably always speak German with you too? Yes,
less, less. So the mother tongue was more English on my mother's side. But I then practically learned German properly here and I was here from 1980 to 1992, and I also did my Abitur here. A
German Abitur, but at the German school in Kenya, in Nairobi. Yes, exactly. And then you also studied in Germany? Exactly.
I studied, worked, and then came back in 2011.
Was that a coincidence, or did your heart belong to Kenya and you said, "That's actually my childhood country, my dream country, I have to go back there"? Yes,
It was more like my teenage sweetheart. She was still here and I came back for vacation and we got back together. And then I decided to move to Kenya and move in with her. A woman is to blame.
Yeah. But that's also a nice reason. If Kenya is your home now and your great love is there too, but what fascinates you about this country? To
Well, I grew up in Nairobi. That's why I know the city. As children and also as teenagers, I went on safari a lot. What keeps me in Kenya are the people and their warmth, and then also the freedom you have here. I mean, here, if you have some money, you have more freedom than in Europe. You can travel much further into the country, you can meet people. So you could explain it like this: it's very adventurous with very beautiful impressions that you get. You
You also briefly mentioned earlier that you worked as a bush pilot for a while. What does that actually mean, being a bush pilot?
So, I got my private pilot license in Tannheim, then went to the States and got my commercial license there. After that, I went to Kenya, and when I arrived, I converted my license to a Kenyan one and then also got a Cessna Caravan rating on top of that—so for the Cessna 208, the 14-seater. I planned to establish myself here as a bush pilot, and I've practically worked here as a bush pilot, but as a co-pilot, and I've flown hours, I've flown hours to get to the 1,000-hour mark.
What's the difference between...
Pilot and bush pilot?
So it was general aviation. I'm not an airline pilot, but more of a pilot who works for a charter company or for a company that you can book for ad-hoc flights. So practically, I flew in South Sudan for a company for six, for eight weeks out of Juba, and there we had every day or every other day, depending on how long the flights were, a customer would come and say, we have two coffins here now and we have to fly them out to a village for a funeral, or money for the soldiers at the front.
And because the road system isn't very well developed, there are many charter bush pilots who just fly from A to B. Practically, you're flying into the bush. That
That sounds very adventurous, even if you say it's like sending money to soldiers at the front and all that. Are you an adventure type? I mean, do you seek out adventure?
I'm looking for the experience. Yes, definitely. So, yeah, I seek out adventure. Yes, I found it very exciting, but I hung it up because it's very unfriendly to families and doesn't make that much money either. That was one thing. I put more money in than I somehow got out. But as an experience, an unforgettable experience. So it was very adventurous.
What was the most exciting story from your time as a bush pilot? The
The most exciting story, or the most intense story, was when we flew from Juba to a refugee camp and there were several times where people were asking for clothes, cigarettes, and alcohol, and some merchants hired us to fly goods into the refugee camp—so private goods.
one day we landed on an absolutely muddy bush strip that was also being monitored by the UN. So there were some UN soldiers standing around, peacekeepers, and on that one occasion we landed there, a child soldier came by with his platoon and they all looked like they were out of a movie—you know, with Ray-Bans, rubber boots, and trench coats, but with a pistol in their hand and they were only 14 years old. They were already very sketchy. And the captain told me not to look them in the eye. Then a UN soldier came over and said, watch out, it's been reported that an attack on the refugee camp is going to happen tonight.
And we have a group of people here who just want to get out with you. And they stormed the plane. Children, women, men—they did it as if it were a bus. We had to... we all got into the plane, I mean, we tried to get into the plane, and we kept them all out. And then we were only allowed to take people who had paid. And then two boys, about seven, eight years old, they sneaked in and hid under a seat. And after landing in Juba—yeah, it was a very bumpy start, the plane was completely overloaded on that mud track, we barely made it out, and then the captain told me over the headset that
the UN soldier also said that the rebels are down on the ground and they have anti-aircraft
Bazookas, I know, so we could be shot down right now. That was somehow... the whole experience was, for me, yeah.
Was that also one of the reasons why you said maybe I should hang it up? Yes, yes, among other things, yes. With your experience as a bush pilot, so also your experience with air masses and other things you do there, and because you fly around so wildly and probably also frequently relatively, maybe also low to the ground and stuff like that in certain areas. Is there any experience from that where you'd say you also benefit from it today as a paraglider pilot?
Yes, definitely. Because, you know...
not at all.
Or is it something else, because you're saying it's motorized, so in the end, you're dealing with a completely different beast?
So definitely, the physics of flying becomes clearer to you when you fly in different aircraft or with different gliders. Or even when you're sitting in a plane flying through air masses. I think flying has taught me something, even from a psychological side, about entering a state where, even if something gets out of control, you keep your cool and try to manage it in the air. We landed in Juba in a heavy thunderstorm and we were in a downdraft.
The plane practically went from horizontal flight into a dive of 45 degrees or even more. Okay. And I remember quite clearly how the captain told me I should just, you have the controls, so I held the controls and tried to keep the plane up, but in all of that, and we couldn't see anything, we were completely in the cloud and it was a intense experience, but in all of that, after this experience, I noticed that we stayed absolutely cool. There was no panic at all in the cockpit. It was just, we practically saved
saved, but through very clear instructions, which mostly came from the captain. He just told me exactly what I should do. And I just did it. I don't think my heart rate even went up. So I never panicked. And I sometimes do that when paragliding, when I get into a situation—like it happened to me last week on the mountain—I tried to find a thermal and nothing happened. And then I slowly got into a thermal and it then went up to four, five meters per second. Suddenly I was in the thermal and then I was standing in the thermal with the paraglider into the wind and was just pulled up. Four, five meters per second. And you already feel a bit out of control there.
So the glider was in the glide and I was just hanging there, looking up at the cloud, and the cloud was gray at the top. Yeah, and then I reset myself back to the state of, okay, this is a situation you've never been in. Just stay cool. Just stay cool, keep the glider above your head and it'll be fine. And it would be the same. I
I think in normal flying, there's that one motto, "fly the aircraft." So as a pilot, you always have to tell yourself, I'm continuing to fly now. And even if it looks like shit right now, I'm trying to at least do that and not give up at this point, but just stay with it. And that's probably one of the important things you learn. Are there also things like—I mean, when people learn those classic pilots, they also learn a lot of routines, where you say, like safety routines or check routines, where you say I'm really going through checklists and other stuff. Are those things where you say, I also transfer something like that to my paragliding, or are they ultimately felt to be different things, where you say, well, as soon as I get into a motorized aircraft, I go through my lists, but if I'm starting on a slope with a paraglider, that's a different thing for me?
Hmm, interesting.
So the first thing I think is, in the plane, I'm more certain—when flying, I'm more certain—that the checklist is going to save my life.
So, in general, I also look at the plane from the outside before starting, look at the engine, the prop, and everything, and physically touch it all to make sure it's all in one piece. With paragliding, it's a bit different because it's simply a simpler aircraft. But I do think I have more safety concerns, or I think very strongly about what I'm actually intending to do in that moment before I start. I mean, I know it's not like getting on a bike. I naturally think to myself, it's like in the plane, this is something serious. This could be your last flight, I think that every time. And that's why now, but now focus, that everything here... I mean, I do go through my five-point checklist, but I don't have it written down on a piece of paper now.
Where did you actually learn paragliding and when was that? So, did you learn it in Kenya like your other colleagues, who say they went wild bush flying there and then eventually could do it more or less?
No, no, no, I learned at the Wasserkuppe, at the Papillon paragliding school, yeah. And two years before that, I was at the Tegelberg, I did a basic course there. But the A-license I did at the Wasserkuppe was the real course. That was in 2008 or
so I did it in 2008 or 2007. That means you already learned paragliding before you got your private pilot license? Yes,
definitely, yes. But I only flew actively after getting my private pilot license, so properly, like now that I came to Kenya and so on.
So Kenya really only became your flight spot then, where you'd say, that was the exciting part. Yeah,
It was also interesting for the A-license, I never really understood that. In Germany, for the A-license, you only have to launch forward. You don't learn it at all, so I never learned how to launch backward. And when I teach someone ground handling, I tell them first to launch forward, forget about it. Launching backward is the most important thing of all because you have control at every moment of the launch. Whereas with a forward launch, you just run towards the slope like you're blind. That's my...
In my opinion. But maybe it also has to do with the fact that you probably have a lot of wind in Kenya and rarely have days where there's no wind at all. Yes.
Let's talk about the dangers of flying in Kenya, especially since we also had that discussion about the risks of flying and such. And with Kenya, we already had, okay, there's wind and especially this mix of strong thermals and turbulence and the different basin-shaped terrain features where there can also be those rotors. But especially when you imagine Kenya, wild land, you mentioned safari and stuff like that. What about dangers like, I land somewhere and there are wild animals or something? Is that a real danger or is it just a danger that you imagine from a European perspective? Yes,
there's a real danger to your life there. I'd say that where we fly, few people have flown there before. And that's one thing. But it's also an absolutely foreign place. It's practically like X-Alps. Starting somewhere where no one has ever flown before. Although, what's different for X-Alps is that in Kenya, it's just that you start in very remote locations. If something happens, it might take a day or two to somehow get out of there. And the other thing is, of course, you sneak up on a launch site where buffalo were just there five minutes before and
Yeah, he laughs a bit with his friend, like, hey, do you believe it? Do you think there are buffaloes here? Yeah, let's see. So that's how you start. That's one danger, and then there's also the other: landing is very interesting. We were flying in Loldeiges last year, and that's also a slope, and down in the valley is a park. There are lions, elephants, giraffes, or whatever. And our first rule was, okay, we do a top landing. We only do top landings, we don't land in the valley. And all three of us started with radios, super nice, and then at some point—I don't know what happened—but somehow I landed down in the valley, and then Sai shouted at me over the radio, "Where are you?" And I said, "I'm here and here," and he said, "I'm landing with you too."
But for me, the problem was that I landed over a herd of gazelles. And that's all very nice, it looks beautiful how they scatter. But when you land, you think to yourself, the first thing that came to my mind was lions. Oh my god, lions. Lions, buffaloes, elephants. And yeah, it took us three hours to get to the camp. So we walked back, and the other colleague landed about five kilometers away, and he kept receiving messages over the broken radio, saying, yeah, he saw an elephant and it was hiding behind a tree, and oh god, man, he was scared for his life and stuff like that. It was really intense.
Is there some kind of additional safety equipment you have to take with you when you're out there as a paraglider bush pilot? Like, do you all still carry a revolver for self-defense or something else? Or I don't know, what? Maybe an electric taser. I don't know if you could ward off a lion with that or I don't know what.
No, we don't. I have a whistle with me. I got that after that experience, just to have something to scare off a buffalo or an elephant. But I don't think if a buffalo charges at you, there's anything you can do. What we have here is insurance, a helicopter evacuation insurance. It's called Flying Doctors, where in an emergency, if you get injured out there, they come and pick you up by helicopter. It's a local service and every flight tourist should have it. That's the only safety measure that if something happens, like you break your leg, you'll be flown to a hospital pretty quickly.
But that's basically like a private club or something, these Flying Doctors you're talking about... It's
It's not a private club, it's an insurance company. It costs 25 dollars a year. Oh, that's cheap. And it can also be, yeah, or 16 dollars a month. And it's also very easy to register online. And you're insured immediately. You then provide your WhatsApp PIN or some kind of PIN. You call that place, give your PIN, and they pick you up. So either by ambulance or by plane or by helicopter. I
mine, but if you're out in the bush somewhere, because you also say, yeah, many of our launch sites are maybe a bit remote, do you have network coverage everywhere there?
No, no. For example, in the Chuluhills, you have no reception. It also happens quite often that you lose radio contact. So if you land somewhere in the thicket, you lose radio contact and you're completely on your own. That's happened to me before. It's an interesting experience.
That means, away from the cities, healthcare in Kenya is probably very precarious. You might not be reachable anymore, and other things. So, in a way, it's a bit of a gamble what you're getting into there. It's probably very beautiful, very adventurous, but also always something where you have to say, maybe not recommended for the very safety-conscious pilot.
I wouldn't put it that way. I mean, Kenya has a very developed infrastructure. The phone network is just like in Germany. But if you're flying in a national park where there's no signal, then you're on your own. But if you're not flying in a national park, there's normally radio reception. And the most important thing you should do, which I'd also recommend to every paraglider tourist, is that if you're doing cross-country, you should stay near a main road. Because if you land somewhere in the bush, it could be, I don't know, four, five hours or eight, or even a day to get out of there. So, fences, wild animals, that can actually happen.
But as long as you stick to the main arteries or land near them, you usually get a lift home or there are some very nice people around. You always manage to get some transport out of it.
But you don't always stick to those rules yourself, because, as you just described, Chiolo Hills—which I believe you said yourself is remote somewhere in the National Park—you have no cell service and stuff like that, and if you land there, you're standing somewhere in the bush and have to hike back to camp for three hours or something. That sounds more like, okay, I'm already looking for a bit of adventure then.
Yes, definitely.
Have you personally experienced any really critical situations during these flights or in your paragliding in Kenya in general? Or maybe critical situations during landing where you're like, crap, I'm looking the elephant right in the eyes or something?
Yes, that happened to me in the Burana Conservancy. I landed 20 meters from an elephant. It was at sunset, which is also very interesting. To get back to the car, I practically had to hike back up the slope. I landed and didn't see him at all. I landed and every time you land, it suddenly becomes deathly silent in the bush, and then I hear something chewing very loudly. Like, chewing on something, and I look around and see the elephant, and he was just comfortably having his supper on a bush there, looked over at me, and just kept going.
That means he wasn't bothered at all by the weird bird living there. Now you just said that when you land, it suddenly gets very quiet in the bush. Is that something where all the animals go silent because you've arrived as a large bird? Or does it just get quiet for you because you no longer have the flight noise?
Yeah, exactly. It's more the flight noises. I also landed in a forest clearing in the Churro Hills once. And it was all beautiful during the flight. The approach was perfect, and then I landed in the elephant grass and sank into it. And the elephant grass was like a meter, so 20 centimeters above me. And I couldn't see anything, just grass all around me.
And then it's like, you just stand there still for a second, like, oh shit.
And you couldn't see from above that it's a meter-high elephant grass.
No, you couldn't see it. It was a really nice forest clearing, a beautiful green forest clearing. I just sank right into it.
So, those are the little difficulties you experience there. Now, towards the end, tell me a particularly beautiful story from your flying in Kenya, where you say it's truly uplifting and that's why it's definitely worth going to Kenya sometime to have those experiences.
Oh yes, I've had many wonderful experiences. I imagine you've also had some very nice experiences with flying.
Yeah, just not in Kenya yet, I still have to do that. To start. Now tell me, where should I go or what kind of great experience could I basically get from you?
So Kijabe Hill is very easy to get to from Nairobi, and the most beautiful experience at Kijabe Hill was when I drove up alone two days before a competition I organized, and arrived up there at the launch site at 2,600 meters at sunset, while the valley floor is 600 meters lower. And it was sunset and three large Orge-Buzzards, those eagles, were standing in the air at three or four meters high at both launch sites. Just, they were just standing there. It was absolutely glassy air. It was incredible, it was so laminar. And I immediately dropped everything, took out the glider, and then took off.
and then, I spent an hour flying back and forth with these wild birds, just soaring around until the sun went down, and then I landed at the top. For me, that was a...
personal life experience. It was really very beautiful.
And the birds weren't afraid of you either? No,
no, no.
So, before your big glider? No, they
...flew off, they flew off a bit to the side and they're quite... they know us there too. So they... but they kept flying. So sometimes one would fly out or afterwards and then they'd play around a bit. I would highly recommend that if you come to Kenya. Welcome to Kijabu Hill.
But you just said more during the summer months, so that would be between June and September. The classics, where people normally say, "Okay, when is Kenya on the menu for a European from an aviation perspective?" Usually, I can maybe shorten the winter, and then you go in January. That was Kirinyaga. Is there another good destination besides Kirinyaga that you can explore in Kenya from an aviation perspective in January?
Not that I know of.
That
means, January already means Kenya,
Kirio. Yes.
I would also highly recommend it. Generally, just for the experience. Even if you're very conservative, you can do a glider at the beginning and then slowly get into the air
Is hike and fly in Kenya recommended, or should you already make sure that you always get to the launch site by car or that someone has who can drive you there?
Better to get to the launch site by car, yes.
Why? Because of the wild animals?
No, because the
paragliding spots are very far away. But you can, just like in the Chuluhills, you can practically camp and then do hike and flies. So you can stay at the base and then do hike and flies, definitely. Or Kijabihill, which I do often, I land at the bottom and hike up and then I fly down, fly around and land again at the car and drive home. So that works.
right. From some of the videos I've seen, like YouTube clips and Vimeo stuff from Kenya, you always see people landing and then you immediately have this huge crowd, mostly kids, hanging all over you. Is that actually a, in quotes, danger for the glider, or is it just for fun? Like, a danger in the sense that they push against it, trample on your glider or something? Yes,
You have to be a bit... well, on one hand, when the kids all arrive and are just happy and celebrating your landing, it's a really beautiful experience. They're very happy children. But you have to manage the kids immediately. You have to set rules right away, be a bit stricter and say, hey, don't touch, because they're immediately involved and looking at this magical piece of cloth that just flew in. They're just kids' hands. And you have to keep them back a bit, but it's not a danger to your equipment. They usually—or at least until now—they listen to you if you tell them to step back a bit. Although, I once landed in a group of drunks on a Sunday afternoon near some pub, and they were really hammered.
And they were already a bit aggressive. They were older, like teenagers and stuff. They kept getting more and more aggressive. A motorcyclist luckily rescued me there. He helped me pack up the paraglider. Then we drove off immediately. And they were already somehow aggressive. But that was the only aggressive or only dangerous experience I've had. Okay.
What's also nice is when you land in remote places, like in the Rift Valley, and sometimes you land near the Maasai Mara. It's very beautiful when the children run towards you, but they've never seen anything like this before and are completely surprised; they run up to you, stand in front of you, and duck their heads. And then, practically out of respect, they do the head nod, and you have to touch their head, and then they run away. So that is a very, very beautiful experience. That
is that also like a greeting routine of theirs? Yes,
That's a greeting out of respect. They show you respect like that. And after that, once the older gentleman has touched their head, they're released and can run off again.
But if you don't touch their heads, they stay standing with their heads bowed and you've got them there by the cheek.
So they ask for it a bit too. You touch them.
So, one more tip: if you're flying in the Kirio Valley, out into the Rift Valley, and you land somewhere and the Maasai come towards you. Look, kids, if they bow their heads and you touch them once, then they're basically released and you've given them the honor they need there. Veit, Kenya sounds very interesting. Thank you for the great stories about flying in Kenya. I wish you many more, very beautiful experiences that you can have there. Stay safe throughout the whole thing. Don't let any lions eat you or any elephants spear you. And if you ever want to fly in Europe again sometime or something, get in touch. Maybe we can go flying together somewhere here.
Yes, thank you very much Lucian Haas for letting me speak here. In any case, for all paraglider pilots, Kenya is an adventure. If you're adventurous, come and fly with us.
That was episode number 77 of Podz-Glidz, featuring Veit Kessen in conversation with Lucian Haas. In the show notes for this episode on Lu-Glidz, you can find some additional links regarding paragliding in Kerio and Kenya. The podcast Podz-Glidz is an offering of the paraglider blog Lu-Glidz. Lu-Glidz is completely ad-free online at www.Lu-Glidz.blogspot.com. Lu-Glidz is spelled L-U-G-L-I-D-Z. If you find Podz-Glidz valuable, then please recommend the podcast. For example, with a good rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a post on Facebook or Instagram, or best of all, simply in a direct conversation with your flying friends.
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