Scenery From Aloft: East Africa

[billstack]

While most sceneries focus on airports and cities, scenery viewed from aloft reveals features that are often overlooked.  

Africa is usually depicted as deserts and tropical forests, but it is geologically diverse. Its most active tectonic feature is the Eastern Rift System that forms lakes and mountains extending thousands of kilometers from Lebanon in the Middle East to Mozambique in southern Africa.

Africa's Rift Valley from FL300

 

Two plates have broken from the main African plate. One has become Madagascar, an island off Africa’s east coast. More of eastern Africa is expected to break away eventually like Madagascar did millions of years ago.

Mozambique volcanoes from 5,000 feet

 

The Western Rift is bordered by some of Africa’s highest mountains. The Virunga Mountains is a chain of volcanoes where Rwanda, Congo, and Uganda meet. Its peaks are among Africa’s highest: The highest is Karisimbi at 14,7897 feet (4,507 meters). Nyiragongo is 11,358 feet (3,462 meters), and Nyamuragira is 1,049 feet (3.063 meters), and Sabyinyo is 11,923 feet.

Zimbabwe from 15,000 feet

 

Mount Kilimanjaro of Hemingway fame is Africa’s highest peak at 19,341 feet (5,895 meters). It is a dormant volcano with three distinct cones. Its youngest rocks are almost half a million years old. Its height gives it five climatic zones from bush lands, through rain forests, to arctic.

Mount Kilimanjaro from FL350

 

Rift Valley has some of the world’s largest inland waters: Lake Tanganyika is 4,820 feet (1,470 meters) deep. It is also the world’s longest fresh-water lake.

Lake Tanganyika from above Bujumbura Burindi

 

The prominence of these features is readily visible in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.

Bill Stack is a flight-sim expert and author of <a href="https://store.flightsim.com/search.asp?keyword=topskills">tutorial books and videos</a> for flight simmers who want truly realist simulations.