I love lots of fuel

                                                          By Dan Wise

May 30 2003

  Sand storms in Algeria could get pretty bad some times. Strong winds with reduced visibility. The night before a storm was predicted (by a falling QNH), a group of pilots sat around drinking smuggled whiskey. (Note: A group of pilots together is usually referred to as a 'winge') We had been talking about aircraft and fuel and decided that the phrase "excess fuel" was an oxymoron. There were 4 of us sitting together, with just under 40,000 hours combined flight time, most of it in the African bush, and never had any of us, ever, had to much fuel in a airplane. This just meant none of us had ever had an inflight wing fire, because that is about the only time you can have to much fuel.

 The next afternoon my co-pilot and I were at a drilling rig camp in the middle of the Sahara with our trusty Beechcraft 1900, trying to get to Hassi Messaoud in the predicted sand storm. It was an hour flight there, but we were 2 hours from dark. Naturally the clients were desperate to get back to Hassi so as not to have an unscheduled night stop at a drilling rig camp. Drilling rigs camps aren't very luxurious, especially in sand storms.
 With wind 20 gusting 40 knots and less than a kilometer visibility, I was reluctant to launch out of there because we may not be able to get back in if we have a problem after take off. But... if you happen to have a lot of faith in Pratt and Whitney and you bump off some passengers to take full fuel, you could go to Hassi Messaoud, and if you can't land, then you still have fuel to get to many alternates in Europe.  Somehow, no matter how bad the sand storm is, if you’re in Algeria, and you have fuel to take you to Barcelona Spain, it all seems better.

 However, I was a bit reluctant to waste the client’s money on a trip to Spain, so I telephoned the tower at Hassi Messaoud, and asked the controller for the actual weather observation from the tower. In a panicky voice the controller squeaked "You can't come!! The visibility is too bad because I can't even see the ground from the tower. We have negative visibility. I repeat, Negative visibility." 
 Wow!...  Negative visibility sounds pretty bad. Is that the inverse of visibility? Does that mean if you look to the north you can see to the south?. Or that he can't see far enough to tell how far he can't see? Anyway I told the passengers we could either wait for tomorrow, or leave now and probably end up in Majorca or Barcelona.
 I heard quiet, and saw lots of grins, and more than a little thinking going on, then they all started chatting.
  But finally common sense won, and we spent the night at the rig. The next morning was a glorious desert day with 100 KM visibility and air smooth as glass.
 Well worth the wait.