Today was looong.

Well another day done and a whole lot more hours added to the log book. Ron and I set off on what was going to be an extremely long day. We had plenty fuel ready for the weather, that did not look good, and set off on the first of 8 legs for the day. The first was to Nagan Raya then to Singkil and back. We had a little weather in Aceh, but with a bit of discussion made a decision to circle overhead until we knew we would clear all terrain and then only set course for Nagan. Once clear of the weather the flight was great, this was followed by another great flight to Singkil and all the way back to Aceh. Forecasts had shown that the weather would get better as the day went on, which was proving to be correct.

River close to Singkil

The next 4 legs would be to Blang Pidie, then to Simelue and then return. We set off again, with some extra fuel. The weather did look better, but younever know what it will be like in one hour.  I like to think that I could rely on forecasts, but unfortunately that is not the case.
The only thing that was against us now was time. 8 legs of 1 hour each, plus turn arounds, can add up pretty quickly. This is also assuming there will be no delays. So we were trying our best to be nice and fast.
Of course old Murphy reared his ugly head and we were met with to much load for our flight from Blang Pidie to Simelue, this was going to take some time. We were 50kg over and had to try figure out, along with pax, what we would do. In these cases we give a couple of options and let the pax decide which would suit them. Option 1 – 1 Pax cancel
Option 2 – 50 kg of baggage must be left behind
Well after 30 min it was decided that Option 2 would be taken. We loaded the rest up and set off on our way.

The next few legs went smoothly and we ended the day with 11.5 hours of duty and 8.3 hrs in the logbook. I am now at the house about to pass out.

Route: WITT to WITC to WIMI to WITC to WITT to WITO to WIML to WITO to WITT

Hours: 8.3 hrs

WITO (Blang Pidie)
Elevation: 30ft
Runway: 15/33
Length: 1200m

WITT (Banda Aceh)
Elevation: 65ft
Runway: 17/35
Length: 3000m

WIMI (Singkil)
Elevation: 20ft
Runway: 12/30
Length: 1200m

WITC (Nagan Raya)
Elevation: 10ft
Runway: 14/32
Length: 1800m

WIML (Simelue)
Elevation: 20ft
Runway: 07/25
Length: 1400m