Back at work again after a nice relaxing holiday. I spent the week in Padang with my GF for her birthday and did a few things for the Kuda Laut. Very convenient having both there:)

This week in numbers:
12.3 hrs
14 legs
14 landings
1386 nm (Roughly)
1955 L of Fuel (Roughly)

Merauke Map

So am now back in Papua again for the next month. I really enjoy being able to change things up every tour, it really helps keep things nice and exciting. The flying here, like I have said in previous posts, is not all that exciting, but the views make up for it.

I started off the week on Monday with 6 flights. It took the first one to get used to flying the plane again, but after that it was all back to normal. The plane I am flying here is a little more nose heavy than the others I have been flying, it makes quite a difference in handling. When I have a full load it is really nice and easy, but if it is only me I struggle to flare the plane properly. But I just need to get used to that again.

Locals Watch in Suru-Suru

The weather has been less than ideal the whole week, with strong winds and quite a lot of cloud. My first day I had to deal with pretty low cloud and wet conditions in Suru-Suru. Suru-Suru can get very slippery and has a crowning runway, so it can be pretty treacherous if you are not careful. I managed to bring the plane in without incident after I did a go around on the first approach. I have learnt that if I am not comfortable with the approach, this time I was not stable and too fast, that I should just go around and try again.

The rest of the flights for the week went pretty well, no serious issues at all. It is just nice getting back into the routine of flying again. On that note it is pretty hard getting used to the 0530 wake up time again, and what makes it even harder is that I am only doing 3 days of work a week. So I either just have to carry on waking up at 0530 every day or just suck it up on the 3 days I have to work. Will see how it goes for the next few weeks.

Caravan Landing Kepi

Anyway that is all for this week.

Cheers