Posted: 24 Nov 2008 08:04 PM CST
Maybe you have seen the photo which has circulated on the internet of the pride of lions basking in the shade beneath the wings of a twin engine airplane in a Kenyan game park. Well today, fellow AIM AIR pilot John McNeely and I have our own version of the tale (tail) to tell; this is the scene which awaited us when we returned in another plane to retrieve 5Y-BLG which had been left overnight at a game strip. These two husky brutes seemed nonplussed as we approached in our large Caravan plane and were only persuaded to move off after I turned my prop blast on them and kicked sand in their faces. Even at that, they only waddled off about 30 meters and plopped down again to stare lazily at us and our now arrived passengers. The local tour drivers explained that they had seen these guys earlier in the day feasting on a hippo carcass, which would explain their sated behavior. Fortunately they only used the convenient shade of the plane to cool themselves under and didn't gnaw on the tires or try to play on top of it like Pride Rock. The whole drama provided some comic relief to the team of visiting ENT doctors who we picked up and flew back to work at Kijabe hospital.—Andy Keller (AIM AIR pilot)
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