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Indonesia Tour 6 2015

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START  OF  TOUR  6

October - December 2015 ....79 days

Wet season Part 1 (Oct-Nov) : 🌞38°C  / 🌒32°C.
Although days can start with clear skies and good visibility, heavy rain is
always nearby with huge thunderstorms and high winds appearing by 1100L.

Wet season break (Dec) : 🌞44°C  / 🌒37°C, temps hitting 🌞50°C in high humidity.
Mostly rain starts in the afternoon and lasts until early the next day. Sunrise with low cloud
in the highlands clearing by 0900L but the dangerous build-up still starts by 1100L.





START  OF  TOUR 6


You may remember from Tour 4 that we often carry fighting cocks to/from matches.
Our Ground Crew, not knowing the English words, called it a 'Battle Chicken'
....and I dubbed one of our regulars BattleChicken Galactica

In Memory of BCG   See Post Mon19Oct15

There are enormous forest fires on Sumatra and Kalimantan, on the worst days emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the entire USA.
The smoke haze affects the whole of Indonesia, neighbouring countries and reaching us in Papua 2100 NM 4000 km away. Wikipedia

Entering the Freeway into the highlands in - comparatively - good visibility

....but it got worse

The vague white dot below the first ridge is another pilot who dropped down to see if the visibility was any better at low level ...it was not


Leaving the highlands at the same spot where we entered.
By the end of the day both aircraft and pilot smelled of smoke

....and a week later we see this

Papua Freeway rainbow

Papua is always humid, but during the rains it nudges 100% all day
....any drop in pressure and temperature, like at a prop tip, will leave a vapour trail


Prop tip vortex in rainy season high humidity

Another special lunch prepared by engineer Meli's Mum

A walkaround is done after every landing to check for damage caused by the rough airstrips,
leakages and - given the recent political tensions - bullet holes

Back in the mountains a few days later, the after-landing check found a separated brake line and all our hydraulic fluid pooled on the apron, leaving us completely without brakes.

This was problematic.  We use the brakes to hold the tight turns needed on mountain airstrips.
Brakes are also helpful with stopping after landing.

In Europe this would mean an automatic grounding of the aircraft, for good reason.
However, at an airstrip in Papua on a day where long-simmering tribal trouble
is about to erupt into violence, I was motivated to fly back to Nabire.

We still had the nose wheel steering for the turns ....but it responds slowly at low speed resulting in wide turns, resulting in us falling off a cliff.   This was solved by volunteers hanging off the wing strut pulling on the side in which we wanted to turn.
( I say 'volunteers' but it cost me my entire supply of lollipops and cakes )

Back in Nabire coming to a standstill on the [long] runway was not an issue with reverse thrust, but the 90° right turn needed to exit onto the narrow taxiway onto the busy apron was safer with a tow.

Check ride with DGCA (Indonesia Civil Aviation Authority) -
pretending to 'train' the Examiner to get signed off as a Cessna Caravan rating Instructor

Figuring out how to attach the GoPro under the wing without a ladder....

As usual, Ramli has an idea....

Continuing the motorbike theme....
I have to give this biker credit for not trying to race me along Nabire's runway

Always nice to have a ground crew ride along ....especially one that appreciates my coffee
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An amazing day in Teluk Cenderawasih [Bay] with a bunch of tuna and 4 whale sharks
...all feeding on a sardine ball GoogleMaps

It was an overcast, windy and rainy day with murky water and swells.
I had also not fitted the GoPro correctly to the stick so the pics are far from the best.
( BTW ....never knew you could get seasick just floating )

First time in the water with 4 whale sharks
( No. 4 is there but hidden behind the 23 ft 7m one in the centre )

As the whale sharks move away the tuna streak in


Neither the movie nor photos have been zoomed in
...this 23 ft 7 m beauty whose tail is bigger than I am glided in for a closer look ...as some baitfish escaped from its mouth
Whale sharks are incredibly gentle and aware of your presence, coming very close but rarely touching you.  This huge tail never touched me as it circled back for another mouthful



....then the tuna come racing in.
Like the whale sharks, they rarely come in contact with you
( but a 3 ft 1 m tuna shooting past your head, or between your legs, does take a few years off your life )

World's loneliest sardine.....


Seems to be the season for brake issues.
Arriving a few minutes before us this Caravan suffered a brake failure and ended up in a ditch and partially thru the fence ....see Post Thu10Dec15

Fortunately no injures nor leakages from the cargo ( 1500 litres of gasoline )

In Europe the runway would be closed until the wreckage had been removed.
In Papua normal operations resumed after 10 minutes.

Circling Ilaga at 9500 ft 2900 m altitude - which is only 1500 ft 460 m above the ground.
We were waiting for 1) the cloud to clear and 2) a parking spot opening on the apron.

The small cloudbank sat almost to ground level right on top of the airstrip,
temporarily stopping all arrivals and departures.

There was also construction work renewing the concrete parking apron,
leaving only the tiny asphalt area beside runway for 2 aircraft to park
....one of which has to park in the actual runway


GoogleMaps   By 2025 a second, larger concrete apron had been added.
Note the wreckages still laying beside the smaller 2015 apron.   Ilaga was a heavily used, extremely challenging airstrip with one of the highest accident rates in Papua

As the cloud lifted the aircraft we were holding for took off, reporting that our
parking spot was open and the cloud was clear at the approach end of the runway

Ilaga - reduced apron space means aircraft are parked on the [600 m] runway.
In Europe a photo like this would create a major incident.
In Papua it is not worth even a mention.


Business as usual....


[Happy] to oblige a Control Tower request for a tight approach for RWY16 in Nabire

Sometimes called the Nabire River and fed from streams to the East,
it is actually a tidal estuary with sea water going a mile or more inland. GoogleMaps
Although polluted, the sandbank is an interesting place to visit as long as you remain clear of the water.   The area is rife with Bull Sharks  ...during the time I was in Nabire at least 3 people did not survive an attack in those murky waters Wikipedia


The same area at high tide seen as we depart RWY 34 (opposite of RWY 16)
....those Bull Sharks ever-present in the back of your mind.
As soon as you are high enough to see the sea you start choosing a boat or bagan (fishing platform) to ditch beside in an emergency


Landslides ....new, old and ancient

As the 2016 deadline approaches, these were the last times we carried passengers without seats - a rule much welcomed by most pilots

Our Caravan joined another in the 'naughty corner',
Nabire Airport's impound apron where aircraft stay until a dispute is resolved
(in our case unpaid landing and parking fees).

Although occasionally it really does involve actual unpaid bills, normally it is just a way to apply pressure within the region's endemic corruption.

Once the required payments have been made everybody is happy and life returns back to normal.  Unfortunately, it takes weeks with a lot of shouting, emails, lawyers' letters, accusations and counter-accusations, cheque-in-the-mail, etc before all parties can walk away without a loss of face.

This time the root cause was our Jakarta Office Manager making an 'error',
with invoices being lodged and funds leaving the Company account
....yet never reaching Nabire.

With our aircraft in the Naughty Corner for a few weeks, I had time for another trip to Pulau Ahe GoogleMaps
 
This trip was significant for some corals and fish I had not seen before,
all the while keeping a respectful distance from the Maroon clownfish that bit me during Tour 5.

Pulau Ahe Blue Green Chromis Wikipedia
Very nervous fish who dive for cover at the slightest disturbance


Sea Cucumber Wikipedia



Moray eel ....about to have lunch but was distracted when I placed the camera Wikipedia
( every year I get a Christmas card from the one that got away )

Tuan [Mr] Eel was still furious when I tried to retrieve the GoPro a few minutes later,
inflating and moving towards me.   Not wanting the deep lacerations and profuse bleeding on offer I dropped the GoPro and swam away.
Had to wait 45 minutes for him to calm down before returning.







Pulau Ahe - clams living in a brain coral



Retrieving my beloved GoPro from Pulau Ahe reef

I am sure this is the same Maroon clownfish that bit me during Tour 5

Large polyp feeding in the current

Christmas pics on Pulau Ahe in 32°C with the December afternoon thunderstorms



I hope that is not the Ghost of Christmas Past coming our way....
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At the time I did not realize this was my last visit to Pulau Ahe
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A wet day in Bilogai but Airport Manager Ramli was still able to get some great frames
( note the white-shirted pilot on the right and the fuzzy pic and story below )

     


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Staying properly hydrated is a constant problem 200 NM 370 km below the Equator,
even more so in the extreme temperatures 🌞44°C  / 🌒37°C
we get in December during the break between wet seasons.

Before each flight the on-board supply of [sterile] 500 ml water bottles is checked.
Although our sectors are usually short - 45 to 70 minutes - the pilot should drink at least two bottles (1 litre) before landing.    On the really hot days I would easily drink 4 litres (8 bottles) of water during a run into the highlands and back.

The measuring stick is that if you land and do not need to pee, you had not drunk enough water in flight and were on the edge of serious dehydration.


 
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Another fatal accident this tour, and it was a friend.

The other two accidents on the top row were also friends - 
experienced, professional, very careful and well trained pilots whose luck ran out.

The bottom row starts with a random Cessna Caravan incident while taxying,
but the 737s deserve a special mention.

The one was incorrectly loaded and tipped. Still tipped, people were loaded in the front until she tipped back onto her nosewheel - the cargo load was redistributed and up-up-and-away they flew without further checks or worries.

This particular aircraft became notorious for an incident in
Bhutan in 2021 and was destroyed in Sudan in 2023.

The other 737 completed a bad approach with a spectacular hard landing, breaking off both the main wheels ...and slid the length of the runway on its engines.

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END OF TOUR 6






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