Singapore to Gold Coast day 4

Its a cool breezy morning in Emerald.  I had a great sleep in and have a quick breakfast and make my way to the airport about 9am.  I have scheduled my departure for 10:15am, so I plan to start-up at 10am on the dot.  I get a cab to the airport, and when at the airport have to contact the airport manger for permission to get into the airport.  All Australian airports are secure facilities and require that you show your crew pass or other security credentials.

I pull the aircraft over the the fuel pump and the friendly Shell guy gives me a hand and even makes me a cup of coffee and invites me into his little office.  Very friendly chap.

At the fuel pump Emerald

At 10am I am ready to get going.  Many of these remote tower-less airports in Australia have the ability to contact Brisbane Center while on the ground.  The procedure is to call in "Taxi IFR" before getting going.  That way they can advise of any other traffic in the area.  The wind is a brisk 15-20 knots at 170 degrees, pretty much blowing across the main runway 06-24.

Fortunately there is a small cross runway 15-33 which is plenty long enough for my expected less than 1000 foot take-off roll.  I call out my local advisories, have a brief exchange with a departing Cessna C414 twin, and am soon taking off on runway 15.  The strong headwind gets me airborne in no-time and climbing briskly to the South East more or less on course.

The short 410nm leg 7 would be pretty straight forward.  The advantage of flying IFR is ATC should keep me out of trouble navigating the busy controlled airspace around Brisbane, Amberly Air-force Base and The Gold Coast.

Planned route YEML to YBCG

 As I get closer to the busy Brisbane airspace I am also now being tracked on radar.

Radar track from FlightAware

West of Brisbane

A short 2 hours later (I now have a 24 knot tail wind) and I am being cleared to descend to pick up the VOR runway 14 approach into the Gold Coast. I track directly to way-point IGOMU, which as it turns out is directly above one of the large high-rise buildings in Surfers Paradise.

Traking direct to IGOMU for the VOR 14 approach at YBCG

Its with a big grin on my face that I am now descending on the approach and going to land at my old home town. I land and make the quick taxi over to Gold Coast Air and park to hook up with my ground handler. I had made it!

Safe and sounds on the ground Gold Coast

I give John a quick call and let him know his bird has safely arrived. I am so satisfied with the whole journey and look forward to many more. A big thanks to John for entrusted me with the last 3 legs of the trip! It once again proved to me the reliability and utility of the Cirrus aircraft.

Singapore to Gold Coast day 3

The Hilton Double Tree features a full breakfast starting from 3:30am each day. Wow so early! They cater for flight crews and a large contingent of mining workers that clearly like getting an early start. So we enjoyed a full on cooked breakfast to get the day started.

John accompanied me to the airport to make sure I got away without any issues.  We arrived back at the Pearl Aviation hanger at 6:30am.  I prepared for the flight, got clearance to startup and was on my way shortly after 7am.  Today's flight, leg 5, was from Darwin, directly tracking to the South East over the Northern Territory, then tracking parallel to the Gulf of Carpentaria and then just across the State border into the beautiful state of Queensland, hopefully arriving at the town of Burketown about 615nm later.

I was soon leveled out at 9000 ft listening intently to the other aircraft ATC calls. After I was out of Darwin Tower's airspace, I was in touch with Brisbane Centre.  From Brisbane Centre, Airservices Australia manages the airspace over the northern half of Australia and asjacent Oceans, representing around five per cent of the world’s total airspace. The system in Australia is quite different to other parts of the world I have flown in. Due to the extreme remoteness of the country, there is a strong emphasis on timing over way-points. It's somewhat similar in South-East Asia, but the controllers in Australia are a lot more concise and very pro-active in chasing you if you miss any expecting timings. This is definitely a good thing, but also requires a disciplined approach to planning and thinking ahead.

The flight to Burketown was slow due to a strong 20 knot headwind. I was only tracking about 145 knots over the ground, which meant my morning leg ended up taking a total time of 4 hours and 45 minutes from start-up to shut-down. The weather was clear but hot and windy.  There was occasional clear air turbulence, especially as I approached the gulf. At once point I hit a strong wind-sheer and the aircraft leaped and the autopilot disengaged. Fortunately it soon subsided and I was promptly overflying the YARDD waypoint and preparing for my descent.

I listened to the advisory frequency just in time to hear another Cirrus departing to the South. Before I landed I was advised by Brisbane Centre to cancel my SAR-time at 4000 feet and nominate an approximate time I would be airborne again.  I landed on runway 21 and backtracked to the apron.  I had never been to such a remote airport before.

I looked up Burketown on Wikipedia the night before: "Burketown is an isolated town and locality in the far north-western Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia.^[3][4] It is located 898km west of Cairns on the Albert River and Savannah Way in the area known as the Gulf Savannah.^[5] The town is the administrative centre of the vast Burke Shire Council. In the 2011 census, Burketown had a population of 201 people."

On the ramp at Burketown

None of the 201 folks of Burketown were there to greet me.  I parked at the indicated park line for the refueling station.  I walked up to the pump and inserted my credit card into the self service pump.  Error.  Tried again, another error.  What to do?  I turned on my cell phone, no signal (I figured out later my roaming accout was looking for the Optus network.  Note to self, next time flying in remote Australia get a Telstra sim card).  I walked around a bit, looking for any signs of life.  I was impressed with the luxurious facilities at the terminal building.

Burketown airport terminal

I admired a splendid looking Royal Flying Doctor Service King Air parked on the other side of the ramp.  These aircraft are the lifeline to lots of folks living in remote parts of Australia.

RFDS King Air

Just when I was about to break out the sat phone and call the number on the fuel pump, a women drove past and parked at the gate. I asked her is she knew who to contact for fuel. She said: "You're the second bloke today who's had problems with refueling. Don't worry, my partner takes care of the pump.  I'll give him a call." She quickly pulls out her cell phone, which has a signal (she must be with Telstra), and calls her partner.  "Hi love .... yes there's another chap out here with a plane that needs fuel ... yes ... ok ... bye.  He'll be out here shortly.".  I thank her and start to breathe easy again.

Ten minutes later the guy turns up and walks over to the pump. He over-rides the credit card system and helps me fill up.  We just process the payment manually with a paper receipt system. Turns out his Mrs works at the local council and he works at the petrol station in town and takes care of fuel at the airport. I was very fortunate to have 1% of the town to turn up and help me out.

Now for leg 6, Burketown to Emerald.  I'm now about 30 minutes behind schedule, and make a swift departure out of Burketown, calling out position reports on the advisory frequency.  Once again I start climbing up to 9000 feet.  Once I get above 4000 feet I switch frequency and contact Brisbane Centre.  As I tune in I hear the controller speaking with an overflying airliner asking if they had heard N238JG on frequency.  I immediately butted in and explained I was late departing sue to fuel pump issue and all was well again.  Talk about pro-active search and rescue!

The gulf country is a vast wetland, full of rivers and swamps (and crocodiles, gulp!). I am keen to get to my next way-point overhead Normanton and turn to the Southeast towards my intended overnight destination of Emerald.  I am also keen to get there before sunset and make a daylight landing.  I am currently not current for night-time landings.

Leichhardt River

The afternoon heat across Central Queensland has started to form a thin layer of scattered cumulus clouds on my route which I can see looming ahead.  By Singapore/Malaysia standards there are nothing to be concerned about.  But as I get closer, they are larger then they look and I soon start bumping in and out of cloud constantly, which begins to become a little annoying.

A line of cumulus cloud over Central Queensland

Bouncing through the clouds at 9000 feet

So I request a higher altitude and am cleared to climb to FL120.  This solves my problem for about an hour, but eventually the cloud tops are high enough for me to have to start weaving a track through the bumps.  Due to my unfamiliarity with the oxygen system and with John not in the aircraft I am reluctant to climb any higher and request to descent to 8000 feet.  Now I am clear of cloud but its still a bit bumpy passing through the afternoon thermals. 

At a point about 2 hours out of Burketown I loose Brisbane Centre.  Another aircraft contacts me and relays a message from Brisbane Centre that advises that I am now out of contact and I cannot be offered IFR services at this altitude.  So I request to climb again to FL120 and will deal with the occasional bumps.  Back at FL120 I am back in contact with Brisbane Centre and it somehow feels comforting to be in radio contact in this vast remote area of Australia.  The bumps are manageable for about another hour, but are starting to get worse, and at one point I get a free windscreen wash and elevator ride and up to 12,500 feet by a rain cloud.

I am now less than 100nm from Emerald and advise ATC that I'd like to cancel IFR and descent down to 6500 feet and fly the rest of the leg VFR. The rest of the flight into Emerald is uneventful and I switch to the advisory frequency.  A departing aircraft is calling its departure so I coordinate with the other pilot and arrange to do an overhead arrival to join the left-hand downwind for runway 24. I arrive about 30 minutes before sunset and park at the GA bay in-between a couple of old Cessna 182's.

Parked at Emerald, departing Qantas Link in background

I am pretty knackered and decide to leave the refueling until morning. The last leg of the journey tomorrow will be nice and short and not require such an early start. I strike up a conversation with another pilot on the ramp, Tom, who flies an Aero Commander twin for freight services to remote parts of Queensland. He kindly offers to give me a ride into my hotel, the luxuriously named Emerald Maraboon Motor Inn. I find a local pub and have a delicious chicken and avocado salad washed down by some Fifty Lashes Pale Ale.

That was a tough day, but hugely satisfying. I'm excited to be heading to my old home town in the morning and have a very restful long sleep that night.

For all the action from day 4, click here.

Singapore to Gold Coast day 2

It's day 2 and we are ready for legs 3 and 4, and if all goes to plan, we'll be sleeping in Australia tonight. A quick cupa and toast, then we meet the IndoAsia chap at the lobby at 6:30am. A quick drive to the airport and through the security check, and quickly on the tarmac. As we walk to our aircraft, the morning flights to Jakarta and beyond are boarding.

Lion Air departing for Jakarta

The early morning tropical air coats the aircraft with a thin layer of dew. Our aircraft looks serene, parked next to the grass, with the very cool retro looking control tower in the background.

On the ramp at Lombok

We were cleared to taxi behind a departing Lion Air 737, and made our departure on runway 13 from intersection A. We did this for 2 reasons, a) its quicker, requiring no back taxi, and b) we made sure we rotated past the 737's takeoff point to avoid any wake turbulence. With a 9000 foot runway, even from intersection A, we still had almost 5000 feet takeoff run available. We made our on-time departure at 7am local and we climbed out to an initial altitude of 7000 feet before being cleared to our final altitude of 9000 feet.

I was flying this leg with John working the radios. The 350HP engine has us easily climbing at 1000 fpm in the cool morning air. The visibility is much better this morning and we can see the green country-side.  Our flight today takes us across Pulau Lombok, Pulau Sumbawa, Pulau Sumba and to the Western tip of West Timor. West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara are two provinces in Indonesia, also known as the Lesser Sunda Islands. The planned routing is WADL-GOMAT-W33-KPG-WATT.

Lombok to West Timor

As with many parts of Indonesia, these Islands are all formed by subduction along the Sunda Trench in the Java Sea.  

At various parts along our route today we are outside of ATC radio range. Of course it goes without saying there is no radar coverage in this part of the world. So we carefully monitor our frequencies, including the emergency frequency 121.5 MHz. In some cases ATC may use a airliner at high altitude to try to contact us and relay a message on 121.5.

The 450nm leg took us about 3 and a half hours. As we approached Kupang, we contacted the tower, which uses the name "El Tari", and were cleared for the Waingapu standard arrival and the RNAV Runway 7 approach. We used the decent planning feature of the GPS and made our planned descent into an initial altitude of 4500 feet to join the final approach course. We were soon on the GPS generated glide-path and heading for a smooth touchdown at El Tari Airport.

The refueling ritual soon began again. This time the crew was a little less experienced and John had to lend a hand getting the caps off.

John taking charge

Refueling at El Tari Airport

We had a quick comfort break and managed to find a mini-mart to get some iced tea and a couple of packets of chips. I had heard that if you eat salty snacks it can help you retain water and need less bathroom breaks. Not sure if its scientific, but it seemed to work.

Adjacent to the Lion Air and Batik Air on the ramp at El Tari Airport

Now onto leg 4.  This one would be a challenge.  We are about to go across the open ocean, 450nm straight across the Timor Sea to Darwin. Due to the lack of radio coverage, John has planned this leg at 14,000 ft, and will fly with Oxygen. All flights in N-registered aircraft above 12,500 feet for more than 30 minutes, requires the pilot to use supplemental oxygen.  The higher altitude will give us less time out of radio coverage.

We depart El Tari and turn to track more or less directly to Darwin. One of the other risks of flying in this part of the world is the lack of options if you encounter weather.  Fortunately today we are clear of any significant weather and track to my country of birth, Australia.  It dawns upon me that this would be the first time I am crewing an aircraft into an Australian airport.

Flight plan route WATT to YPDN

As part of this flight, we have to follow the Australian Department of Agriculture's cabin de-insecting procedure (Biosecurity Act 2015) which we do once en-route and again at top of descent.

Cabin Sprays

Three and a half hours later and the are on final to Darwin International runway 11.  We land a bit ahead of schedule and have to wait for the handler from Pearl Aviation and the customs and quarantine folks to arrive.  We have actually arrived on Anzac day, the commemoration of the Australian and New Zealand forces served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations.  So its a relatively quiet day, and the formalities are completed in short order.

On final Darwin

Darwin city off the right wing

The luxury of a fuel truck at Darwin

John had an urgent business matter to attend to back in Singapore, so the decision was made that I would continue the flight solo from Darwin to The Gold Coast tomorrow. So while we were enroute to Darwin John had briefed me on the planned routing and I had time to brush up on my Avidyne cockpit and S-tec autopilot skills.  I am more familiar with the G1000 and GFC-700 autopilot, but the Garmin menu's are very much the same on both.

We head into Darwin, staying at the Hilton Double Tree.  We walk into town and find a good old Aussie pub for a much appreciated good feed and a couple of Great Northern lagers.  Over dinner we went over the flight plans and I submitted my plan through the OzRunways app, the first time I had ever used it.  Hopefully when I show up at Darwin airport in the morning the flight plans will exist.

John and I walked back to the hotel, and observed some Aussies who enjoyed the Anzac Day public holiday and long pub opening hours a bit too much.  I think there may have been a few sore heads in the morning.

For all the action from day 3, click here.

Singapore to Gold Coast day 1

My mate John has a Cirrus SR22 which is coming up to being 10 years old. He has planned it's 10 year anniversary trip touring around Australia. He would fly it down to the Australia and then another member of our Singapore based flying club, Alex, would fly it back to Singapore via some other interesting Australian sites. When John mentioned the first stage of the trip was to the Gold Coast, my very own Australian Kampong, I immediately volunteered to come along for the ride.

John is an experienced hand, having originally flown this Cirrus from the US factory to Singapore when it was new 10 years ago. He has also done many cross continental trips in his TBMs including a full circumnavigation of the earth! It has always been my intention to do cross continent flying one day, so what better way then to learn from a master.

This is John telling me to hurry up

We set out from Seletar, the General Aviation hub in Singapore, on Monday the 24th April. The smooth handling of the Wings Over Asia (WOA) folks made the departure from Singapore swift and effortless. We rocked up to the terminal at 6:30am, did a quick customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) clearance, then a short drive in the WOA minivan to the aircraft. Our 4 days of flying consists of 7 legs, each about 500-600nm (approximately 1000-1200km). The Cirrus is capable of up to 1000nm in one flight, but that means you're in the air for about 7 hours, which means less fuel when you near your destination, which gives you less time if you have weather or traffic, and no toilet breaks. So the usual strategy is to break it up into 500nm-600nm legs.

Our planned flight route to Australia

The first flight today is Seletar (WSSL) to Halim (WIHH), just slightly over 500nm. We departed at 7am, behind a Canadian registered Pilatus (he's a long was from home), on runway 21, into a very hazy, humid morning Singapore sky.

Canadian Pilatus departing WSSL

Sunrise in the haze just before departing WSSL

The instrument departure has us initially fly out over the southern tip of Malaysia, then right turn back directly overhead Singapore's Changi International airport.  We initially fly SSE over Bintan Island and then turn directly South on the W24 airway, cruising at 150 kts, at 9000 ft. The morning sun beams low across the sky, limiting visibility. We are flying on an IFR flight plan, so no drama, and guided by our GPS nav systems and the calm voice of the Singapore controllers. We are comforted by the fact we have the full aircraft parachute recovery system and a life raft, life jackets, survival kit and iridium sat phone on the back seat.

Departing Singapore

We are now about to cross the equator, then fly over the Southern capital of Sumatra, Palembang.  The massive rivers in Southern Sumatra are busy thoroughfares, busy with barges towing coal and timber.  Road highways in this part of Indonesia don't exist.

Crossing the equator

About 3 hours and 45 minutes later we are landing at Halim, which is Jakarta's General Aviation airport. If you've flown into Jakarta before, then you'll be familiar with the site of haze and low visibility. We are less than 3 miles final before we can see the runway.

Typical visibility landing in Jakarta

Its a busy little airport with corporate jets, some commercial A320's and a variety of military aircraft. We land with an Indonesian Air Force Hercules C130 patiently waiting at the takeoff holding point. We taxi over to be greeted by a full complement of 6 handlers, and get waved onto the ramp by a fellow holding two ping pong bats. We're greeted with welcoming smiles by the people from IndoAsia. John had hired IndoAsia to do all the handing, permits and various paperwork and fees required to fly through Indonesia.  Its a lot of bureaucracy for such a small plane and two crew.

IndoAsia welcoming committee at Halim

They brought over the 44 gallon drum of Avgas (44 imperial gallons is equivalent to 52 US gallons which is equivalent to 200 litres) on the back of their pickup truck. The small army of helpers backed up the truck, popped open the pristine sealed drum and inserted the hand pump into the drum and the hose into the aircraft's left wing to top us off.  It probably took less than 20 minutes to hand pump the fuel into our two wings tanks.

Refueling 44 Gallon Drum Style

After refuel we had time to go to the IndoAsia office, grab a kopi-o and a toilet break. Back to the aircraft with passports already processed and waiting for us in the aircraft. We were on the ground for less than an hour, very good for this part of the world. Now onto leg 2, destination Lombok.

John taxiing for takeoff at Halim

We climbed out behind another C130, and tracked over Java Island to the North of Bandung on airway W45, joining the coast line for a while, then tracking parallel to the Northern Java Coast to Surabaya, then parallel the coast all the way to off the Northern tip of Bali.  I was jet lagged since I had arrived from the US at midnight the night before, so took the opportunity to take a snooze and dreamed of the life of a ferry pilot.

The scenery flying through Indonesia is quite spectacular. We passed several impressive volcanoes with craters higher than 10,000 ft.

Gunung Arjuna

 One of the reasons we avoided landing in Bali is its now so busy, you have to reserve a slot time.  As we listened in on the Bali approach controller, he had airliners stacked up 10 deep for landing.  So our 2nd leg was slightly longer in distance, 600nm, and an unfavorable head wind made this a fairly long flight.  Total time from engine start to shutdown was almost 4 hours 45 minutes.

Short final at Lombok

Once again we were greeted by the friending smiling folks from IndoAsia to help us refuel and transport to the hotel.  They were waiting for at at the ramp with the fuel, and we topped off the tanks ready for the morning departure.

Lombok Refueling

Lombok Ground Crew

There were a few airliners departing for the last flights of the day.   Once the last Air Asia and Lion Air aircraft departed we were the only aircraft down the Eastern end of the ramp.  At the other end were 3 Cessna 172's and 1 Liberty X2, parked in front of an abandoned, wheel-less old 737 from Batavia Air, an Indonesian Airline that went bankrupt a few years back.

Lombok Ramp

Since this was a purely domestic leg, there we no CIQ formalities, so a quick drive straight from the plane to the hotel had us checking in at the D'Max convention hotel in 10 minutes.  This was not the Four Seasons, but its close proximity to the airport, and nice clean rooms with large beds made for a comfortable stay.   For those folks planning a proper holiday to Lombok, obviously the place to head would be to the beach resorts.  The area around the airport is quite rural, looks a bit like Langkawi which the padi fields and Lembu.  We decided to be adventurous and take the 10 minute cab ride into Praya, the closest town for dinner.  The Chicken Satay and Nasi Goreng were edible, but let's just leave it at that.  The hotel bar Bintang Beer did the job of washing it down and we retired early for the early start on day 2.

For all the action from day 2, click here.