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Madagascar, Dakota Boneyard visited,
April 2008, Dakota Hunter visited the island of Madagascar, accompanied by two friends Bart and Axel, to negotiate the purchase of 5 derelict Douglas Dakota's / C-47's from the Malagasy Air Force. Most of those planes have a documented USAAF or RAF history from WW II.
We were invited to come and have a look at the local Air Force boneyard, where there are, next to the Dakota's, also Russian made MIG-21 fighters, Antonov 26 cargo planes and MI-8 helicopters, as left overs from the Cold War.
With Madagascar for long time in the 1970 and 1980-ies in the Socialist shpere, we see here a rather unique gathering of vintage planes from WW II, the French / US Vietnam wars and the Russian ex Air Force and Aeroflot Planes, the types that flew also in the Russian Afghanistan conflict.
Russian and American warplanes, resting peacefully together in one scrapyard, on a tropical paradise island, far away from the conflict zones from that era 1945-1985.... quite a scene, and rather overwhelming , not in size, but in the view over the site and the melting pot of derelict aviation icons of opponents of bygone times.
The Dakotas were donated by the French Forces in 1960, the year when the island became independent from colonial French rule. But their influence remains omnipresent until today, all military camps and installations we visited were built by them and still in use, apparently now with less military equipment. The Madagascar Air Force at the Ivato Air Force Base is currently not having any operational aircraft left, but considering the remote location of this huge island, more than 400 km from East African Mozambique shores, what threat should one anticipate, that justifies the existence of a Fighter squardron for the defense of this nation? The ( past) presence of the MIG's can probably be seen more as a show-off of Russian Influence, against the South African control of the Cape seaways, like a sting, as Sowjet supplied Cuba was in those days for the USA??
We were primarily interested in those 5 Dakotas and for six months, I had already been doing the diplomatic preliminary works for a deal with the Madagascar Military forces, via my local agent. The plan was to separate the cockpits from the fuselages, 4 museums had shown interest for the proven historical cockpits.Those cockpits were just the best and biggest part, that we could handle inside a container. All materials, that are bigger, are to be put on special deep loader trucks and as deckloads on boats, c.q. the transport of a total Dakota airframe is simply cost prohibitive from that place.
The Air Force Base is some 300 km away from trhe nearest -by sea port, the island is faraway from Europe, Asia and America, where our prospect museums are located.
With such handicap of transport over mountainous roads, and long seaways, we must forget to take anything bigger than what a 40 feet sea container can handle inside.
I left for the island with the idea to come to a final conclusion and, supported by my friends, start with the disassembly of the derelict planes right away after the negotiating.
Upon inspection on the site, it turned out that the Dakotas were in fairly good shape – despite of having been inoperative and standing in open field, exposed to the elements for over 14 years.
The only setback: local souvenir hunters had already snapped up some goodies from the interiors of the cockpits and cabins. Interiors were stripped to the bone, incl. floors.
One Dakota, in best condition, with both engines still in place, had, very remarkably, a missing Prop blade on the RH engine.
This blade was sawn off from the root of the blade, at its thickest stem !!. With no electricity around, that dismisses the use of powertools as reciprocal saws, you could wonder how did they do that and why ??? It was probably done by hands with a simple iron saw, that must have cost some sweat and blisters, and the wrongful idea that this blade was made of a precious metal, ??. Out there in Madagascar, one guy owns a single C-47 Prop blade , as his trophee of no-good-work.
In my enthusiasm to go and see this unreal boneyard, I apparently underestimated the sluggish bureaucracy, that seems to be around in any governmental organisation worldwide.I had nine meetings with the Ministry of Defense and five Colonels. All of them were giving me a sort of runaround, while I was trying to figure out the complicated web of relations in between fractions, ranks, links, and their personal interests and accountabilities:
Who is responsible for what ?, who can issue the decommission of the Military derelict planes ?. Who can I deal with , in order to settle one price and one contract?
On top of that, we also need an official invoice of the goods, because it will be impossible to get anything into a container to Holland, without the proper export documents.
I will not bother you with all the details of the diplomatic "Dance with the Colonels" over the six days of our stay.
But, we made lots of friends, we rode miles around over that beautiful island, we met very kind and cooperative people , but a deal???
Not one second I had the feeling that we came even close to that...
After we returned to Europe with no succes, I continued by email and telephone our contacts with all Colonels, they all saw the solution for our problem to be solved soonest.
Then, in 2009, there started a sort of revolt in the streets of the Capital Antananarivo, the President had to resign and a new intermediate regime took control of the country.According to what we hear in the press, it was the Military that took over and gained control over the government and will have a leading role in the organisation of new elections.
It is very unclear what will come out from all this, we can only wait and see, maybe one day, we are invited again to come over for a new round of negotiating a deal.
When that day comes, I do not know, but I will surely go out again, in order to finish the job that I started with friend Bart Nopper from Amsterdam, a "graduate" Dakota specialist .
In the mean time, I came into contact with another remarkable man from South Africa: He is in the Dakota Overhaul Business, he repairs with his magic mecanics team derelict Dakota's from weird places in Africa, and after that job, he flies them out to South Africa.
He approached me, as he was informed that I made it to the Madagascar Boneyard for a visit and a bid.
He tried that same trick a year or so earlier, but was denied access to the Boneyard, for reasons unknown, so, he proposed me to join forces for the purchase of those 5 Dakota's.
A special argument he brought in: to let him have that best Dakota with engines still on, to overhaul that one on the spot, and fly it out to SA.. !!
Flabbergasted at first, but on second thought, if he really can make that plane fly again, I would love to sit next to him , film and watch that spectacle.
We will keep you updated of the outcome, if ever there will be a second episode of this remarkable trip of the Dakota Hunter.
I am, as always , optimistic that everything will come to a good end; it would be a shame to leave those war veterans to be turned into scrap metal or rot away in the field.
Dakota Hunter
Hans Wiesman