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Indonesia Tour 2 2014

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START  OF  TOUR  2

July - September 2014 ....81 days

The second half of the dry season : 🌞34°C  / 🌒29°C with good visibility, light winds
and few clouds while the thunderstorm and wind build-up starts around 1300L


Admiring the aquarium in the Dubai Mall during a stop-over in the UAE on the way to Jakarta
( see Post Sat16Aug14 Disturbed in Dubai)

Dubai Mall - The Waterfall


Gifts from Scotland for Clan MacNabire
Asian One Air ground crew with bagpipes and Jimmy hats


Nabire - Engineer Marsel striking a Highland Pose as he marshals us on to the stand


Nabire ground crew

Gifts from Scotland - our Engineers Marsel, Jefri and Meli

Jimmy Bagpipes - sound ON if you dare

Nabire - abandoned aircraft being reclaimed by the jungle

Nabire - apron light losing its battle with the jungle

The often-mentioned "Freeway" - the main route through the western Maoke Mountain range.
At some point in 2025 I hope to have a full description and explanation

Dragonfly

Cruising the Freeway at altitude 9500 ft 2900 m enroute to Mulia,
surrounded by 13000 ft 3900 m terrain

Poor pic...but it gives an idea of scale :
MAF Quest Kodiak manoeuvring below into Mokndoma airstrip
GoogleMaps  MAF Video YouTube

Descending into Mulia - giving the Gunung Mondu a wide berth to avoid getting shot at from this Independence movement stronghold GoogleMaps

Unloading 1200 kg of frozen chickens in Mulia
GoogleMaps

Westbound heading back to Nabire in a cloudy Freeway at 10500 ft 3200 m  - Lake Paniai and Gunung Deiyei in the distance

This time it was our turn for the luck to run out,
ending in the soft ground in Bilogai after blowing a tyre during landing.
Happily no injuries nor real damage ( and for the record ...I was not PF )

Papua airstrips are rough on tyres but this was aggravated by a bad inner tube
which had been shipped to us from Jakarta already fitted to a new wheel.
The wheel, tube and tyre were packaged as factory-new with false documentation.
The wheel and tyre (the visible bits) were fine but the inner tube was badly worn and patched in several places.
After this all components we received were disassembled and checked

Even the Beast of Bilogai walked off in disgust


Although we blocked the airstrip for most of the day, our friends from AMA were able to bring in spares, tools and engineers using their STOL PC6 Porter 

AMA to the rescue

Bilogai - replacing the wheel, tube and tyre following a blow out during landing.
After inspection, the wheel was returned to service.


Engineer Jefri
GloStix from Glasgow found favour
Engineer Marsel



Sling load under Ukraine crewed, Moldova registered Mil8

Our Avionics Engineer Jefri's birthday - post-soaking/spraying

Birthday-boy Jefri contemplating life as a helicopter flies into his ear

Jefri (soaked, sprayed and flour-ed) beckoning me closer before unleashing shaving foam

This time it is my turn...

The traditional Birthday Soaking





Any excuse to head off to the beach after work....

Pantai Budi - see Lesson of the Day


Budi Beach GoogleMaps

Crossing the bridge over the Kali Sanoba on the way back to town GoogleMaps


Car wash - Papua style in the Kali Sanoba

Upstream from the car wash is the laundromat

Heading home to Scotland
Dubai-Glasgow routing via Iran and Russia to avoid Ukraine during 2014 invasion of Crimea 
( mountains near Tehran)

Dubai-Glasgow in the Emirates routing via Iran and Russia to avoid Crimea in 2014 ...mountains north-east of Tehran
( Mount Damavand just under the wing ? GoogleMaps )

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END OF TOUR 2




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