Catching Up

Climbing out of YPPD in poor visibility.
















Descending into Perth
On the ground at YPPH.

...and I thought we'd seen a lot of water on the way to Bali!

The flight out of Bali was almost entirely over water. The two airfields (Denpasar and Port Hedland) are both near the water, and in between...more water. Three-and-a-half hours of water, to be exact.

With just over 2,000 pounds of fuel aboard, we taxied out to the active, past the commercial terminal. We'd been all the way down at the end of the ramp, near the military parking.

We didn't have to wait long for departure clearance, and turning south immediately after we got the gear up, we started the long climb to our familiar cruise altitude of FL270.
The weather was initially perfect, winds pretty much as forcast, and no clouds to speak of. But, as we approached the halfway point, we found ourselves looking down at a fairly solid undercast.

Surprisingly, the undercast didn't last long, and we found ourselves descending through clear skies to a hazy Australian coastline. Once the descent began, I started to get excited. This is my first trip to Australia since 1998, when I spent a week in Bunbury. We'll be headed to Bunbury later on this trip.


We landed just about three minutes ahead of schedule...not bad. All our navigation was with the GPS, the first leg of the trip since we began that used no ground-based radio navigation. We'll stay at Port Hedland for a day and then push on to Perth.

Out of Borneo, At Last

My last entry involved having been introduced to a rather stern local aviation official, who took my paperwork and told me I wouldn't be needing them for a while. More than a month, it turns out. I'll just say that there were bribes involved, and leave it at that.

Here's the track of our flight to Bali:
The flight plan takes us south out of Kuching, then southeast across Borneo and a long leg over the Java Sea. As I was doing the planning for this leg, I really wished I could have taken the time to visit all these places I've heard of: Sumatra, Jakarta, Surabaya. One place I'd never heard of that I'd have liked to visit just because it has a cool name: Kota Kinabalu. It's pronounced "KOH-tah Kee-nah-bah-loo." I spent a good portion of today's flight just saying it. "Kota Kinabalu Control, King Air 8AF..." I stayed off the radio as much as possible, but for a while, I was tempted to call ATC just to hear them say it.

Once I'd gotten my release by the authorities, I decided not to wait around...I started pre-flighting the aircraft at 0530. Let me tell you, Kuching International Airport is a lonely place that early in the morning. There don't appear to be any flights that terminate there overnight, so there were only a few general aviation aircraft on the ramp. Oddly, as I positioned on the runway for takeoff, a Beech Baron rolled up to the hold short line to take off behind me. It's plenty dark at 0615, too. I'd have thought the sun would be up sooner, but no...we didn't see the sun until we climbed out of the clouds.

I'm pretty fond of flying at sunrise and sunset...which is odd, since I hate driving a car at those hours.

I couldn't resist taking a few pictures from the front seat.

Sunrise at FL270 is just beautiful.

I was amazed at how fast we climbed to our cruising altitude. Granted, with 2600 pounds of fuel aboard, we were a little heavy, but we made it up to FL270 pretty easily, taking only 21 minutes.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now entering the Southern Hemisphere:

By 0700, we were almost feet-wet over the Java Sea. At this point, we haven't heard any other aircraft on the radio in almost an hour. That Baron was apparently headed in another direction, and in any case, he's not going to be up in the rare air with us. Considering how elaborate the network of airways are in this part of the world, there is surprisingly little air traffic. Or, there was at that hour of the day.

Aside from the long over-water leg and the almost complete lack of other air traffic, the only other remarkable thing about the cruise phase of the flight was how smooth it was. We encountered absolutely no turbulence on this flight...solid as a rock.

Landfall...that's Indonesia off to starboard. It won't be long before we start our descent. I know that compared to the long crossing after we leave Hawaii, this over-water flight is nothing, but it's still a relief to raise the land right when we expected to.

At about 0910, Bali Control starts us down with an initial descent to FL240. We're still 125 miles out, but it's nice to have a gentle descent. I leave the throttles where they are and the speed creeps up to around 220 KIAS, which will put us a bit ahead of schedule. We're already ahead by about 8 minutes...thanks in large part to the speedy climb out of Kuching.

Settling in at FL100, I look off to starboard again...somewhere under the clouds is Denpasar International Airport at Bali. The only other traffic I hear on approach are a Mooney and a 737...it's not crowded at all.

I wanted to take a picture of the final approach into Bali, but there turned out to be not much to see until we were so low, I had to focus on flying the plane. The weather was nothing spectacular...I've heard about Bali being a paradise, but this morning the visibility was 4 miles in haze with broken clouds from 700 to 5,000 feet. So, we took the approach to runway 27 and set her down gently, but a little long. Time from chocks to chocks was 3.8 hours, and our flying time (at 3 hours, 36 minutes) was just 5 minutes shorter than planned.

Welcome to Bali...temperature is a pleasant 25 degrees, and we hope you enjoy your stay.

If you've been wondering what I've been doing after such a flurry of activity...this is it. V2 is coming.

A Thunderous End to the Day

Here's our rough track from Siem Reap to Kuching, Malaysia.

By the time we'd completed fueling and were ready to get airborne again, the rain had stopped. That's pretty typical of other tropical locations I've been to, with partly cloudy skies and a good deal of sunshine accompanied by spotty rain showers. In Hawaii, they call them "mauka showers", if I remember right. Weather along the whole route was forecast for mostly cloudy, with overcast and rain over Kuching.

Siem Reap ATIS had winds out of the southwest at 4 knots, 19 mile visibility and broken clouds. Siem Reap is a sleepy little place, and there was no other traffic at all when we started engines and taxied out to runway 23. This is another field that has the taxi way connect to the runway at mid field, meaning that you have to taxi along the runway to the departure end. This always makes me nervous; I don't like being on the runway any longer than necessary.

Our clearance allows us to climb to 3,000 feet, and the tower tells us to turn to 210 after takeoff. 18AF pretty well leaps into the air, and while I am cleaning things up, the tower reminds me to make the turn to 210. That done, I pull the pitch back to 1900 rpm, set the climb to 1500 fpm and take the handoff to departure. We're immediately cleared to FL150, and before we get that high, we're handed off again to Phnom Penh Control for the rest of our climb to FL270.

We leveled off at FL270 in unbelievably blue skies.

I really wish this weather had lasted!

The climb took 20 minutes, and we topped out with 2,300 pounds of fuel aboard. Once again, pulling the power back to keep the ITT below 750 affected our performance. For most of the first two legs of the trip, we managed just 237 knots ground speed, more than 50 knots less than planned!

It seemed a little odd, flying over the Mekong River Delta. I'd grown up during the Vietnam War, and when joined the Navy in the late 70s, some of my leaders had served in the riverine forces, so I'd heard much about this area. These days, of course, Vietnam is trying very hard to normalize relations with the US, so I would imagine that in real life, I'd find folks here very friendly.

We crossed the Vietnamese coast and went feet wet at 1604, having set the clock ahead once again.

The clouds are building over the South China Sea, and at this point, it started getting a little bumpy. I wasn't terribly concerned about light chop, and because of the building clouds, didn't think an altitude change would make much of a difference, so I just gutted it out.

The clouds over the South China Sea are still building, but at this point, it still looks like it'll be an easy approach.

Just before we pass KAMIN intersection, Kota Kinabalu Control starts us down, pilot's discretion to FL240. A few moments later, I see lightning ahead. We're going to have to fly through this storm to get to Kuching.

Into the weather...

Just after passing KAMIN, we're vectored to the right for traffic, then brought back on course as the turbulence gets severe. I tighten my harness and make sure everything is secure. A glance at the OAT shows that we're still in danger of icing, so I deploy the ice vanes, and switch on the auto ignition. Turbulent air penetration speed is 170 KIAS, so we need to slow down. We're still descending at pilot's discretion, so I consider leveling off for a minute to slow down before resuming the descent. I pull the power to 80% N1, push the prop pitch full forward to slow us down some more, and that does the trick...we're going down at 1,000 fpm and 160 KIAS.

ATC has us continue our descent to FL100, and wants us down in 30 miles or less, so I go to approach flaps and increase the descent rate to 1,200 fpm, adding some power to keep us at 160 KIAS.

Visibility drops to zero in heavy rain at FL100, and lightning is everywhere around us. We're given clearance to descend to FL060, and the vectors take us west of the field...the wrong end for an ILS RWY 25 approach. That's a little worrisome, but ATC is apparently just vectoring us onto a sort of downwind.

You can see here that it's gotten a bit dark. Periodically, lightning flashes blind me for a moment, and the thunder following immediately behind...we're in the thick of the storm.

Once we're far enough out east of the field, ATC turns us to 160, and clears us to descend another thousand feet to FL050. As I pull the power back to slow us down to 140 KIAS and complete the turn, ATC clears us down to 3,000 feet and vectors us to intercept the localizer. Aside from the bumps, this is a textbook approach. At half a tick below the glideslope, I lower the landing gear, getting three green lights just as we intercept the glideslope and start down again. 18AF tracks the localizer and glideslope beautifully, in spite of the turbulence.

Passing through 900 feet, I see the approach lights ahead, call the field in sight and get clearance to land. I go to full flaps, and start the visual part of our final approach, when I hear this:

"18AF go around...231T, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU WERE TOLD TO HOLD SHORT!"

I can see the runway numbers, and I don't see another aircraft pulling onto the runway, but I push the power levers all the way forward, pull the nose up about ten degrees above level, verify positive climb rate, raise the flaps a notch and slap the gear lever up.

Once established in the climb, I switch on the autopilot again, and give it control of the climb, as we're handed off to approach control again and cleared to FL060 for another go at the landing.

I never heard from 231T at all, and never saw him.

I check the fuel state, and we've got plenty of gas, but I have now been in the air for over 4 hours and flying in this thunderstorm for an hour of it. I'm not exactly anxious, but I am definitely jonesin' for the ground. It occurs to me that if we have to make a third pass, I'll have to declare an emergency: there isn't enough for a fourth pass.

Approach vectors us back around for another go, and once again, we fly a textbook approach. Field in sight, flaps full, autopilot disengaged and off, and I'm scanning both sides of the approach end of the runway, looking for departing aircraft. I see nothing.

Then, as I pass 400 feet, "18AF go around..."

What the hell? I don't see anyone, and this time I can see down the runway to the second intersection...this guy must be at the far end of the field.

I don't relish the idea of flying into an emergency in a thunderstorm, and since I can see that the runway is clear, I press on. In hindsight, this might have been stupid, but at this point, either option would have been dangerous and stupid.

As soon as the wheels touch down, I go to full reverse and get on the brakes as hard as I can...I'm determined to make that second turnoff. We make it easily, but there's a note of disgust in the tower's voice as he hands me off to Ground. Ground is polite and routes me in to a good spot close to the international terminal. By the time I get there, I'm faced not just with the usual customs folks, but also a representative from their local civil aviation authority. He's polite, but not happy at being called out of his air conditioned office to meet me in the pouring down rain.

I invite him aboard so we can get out of the rain, and we take a couple passenger seats so that he can review my paperwork and use a tray table to take some notes. He is Chinese, but speaks English very well, and is quiet as I outline my view of the sequence of events. I answer his questions directly and honestly. After a few minutes, he asks to see how much fuel I have on board, so I lead him to the cockpit and show him the fuel gauges. They show that I've got about 530 pounds of fuel aboard, and I explain again that we would have used another 250 pounds of fuel to go around again. He seems to accept this, but nonetheless, he takes my license and passport with him when he leaves.

Bali next, but I have no idea when I'll get there.

A Short Hop To Kampuchea

I wasn't able to locate much information about Siem Reap airport on the Internet, but the database in the Garmin 530 GPS unit shows that the only instrument approach is the VOR 23. I'm not terribly experienced at VOR approaches, but the weather is forecast to be reasonably good, so I figure that between the ATC vectors and the GPS, we'll get there just fine.

The extra fuel we carried from Kolkata means that we won't have to refuel at Bangkok before we start this leg. While I'm setting up the GPS and running through the checklists, I keep an eye out the window at the traffic. Bangkok has two parallel runways that are in use simultaneously, and there is a great deal of commercial air traffic here.

We fire up the engines and have to spend several minutes fiddling with the rudder trim. (Actually, it was the sim...and I was able to recenter the rudder using FSUIPC.) Coming from the ramp on the other side of the airfield from the terminal, we don't have to deal with other taxiing aircraft, but we do have a several minute wait for a break in the incoming traffic before we can take off.

Lining up on runway 21L, we're asked to hold for three or four more minutes before we're cleared to take off.

Climbing out of Bangkok, the visibility is pretty good...about what you'd expect for a humid day in Southeast Asia. Lots of white puffy clouds up to about 5,000 feet, but a stunning blue sky above that.

I find that I've gotten rusty, and it takes me a little longer to get things cleaned up in the cockpit after takeoff than it used to. I manage to keep ATC happy, and get the props set to climb pitch, turn off the autofeather and select prop sync as we're passing through 5,000 feet.

ATC sends us in stages up to our filed cruising altitude, but they're so efficient that we basically maintain a continuous climb all the way to FL250. The climb takes 19 minutes, partly because we kept the ITTs at around 740 degrees C. By keeping the nose down, we hold our airspeed pretty well, all the way to the top of the climb.

We don't spend long at cruise before ATC has us descending into Kampuchea. I make it a leisurely descent with cruise power set, and that shortens the flight by about fourteen minutes. I know, bad planning on my part, but in my defense, ATC started me down earlier than I'd planned.

Siem Reap weather turns out to be 10 miles visibility in broken clouds with bases at around 2100 feet, so I'm relaxed about the visual approach. ATC vectors us well north of the field and lines us up for a straight in approach, which I fly by hand. I keep one eye on the GPS, and the other out the windscreen, and before long, we have the field in sight.

ATC had cleared me to descend to 2,000 feet, and then is late in letting me down, so I'm stuck with a steepish approach. One of the quirks of this airplane is that the flap motor circuit breakers will pop if you lower the flaps above 185 KIAS (as opposed to 200 KIAS by the book). I must have been a tad premature in lowering the flaps to the first notch, because when I select full flaps on final, they stay put. I put the nose a little lower, pull the throttles all the way off, prop pitch full forward and use the props as brakes to keep our speed down. I push the nose a little lower than normal, to steepen the initial part of my final approach, and I'll finish up with a shallow descent over the threshold, which will slow us down for a good landing. It's not pretty, but it works; we squeak the tires onto the concrete at 91 KIAS.

This is really only a fueling stop, as it's on to Kuching, Malaysia this afternoon. Just as we roll clear of the runway, it starts raining. Nice.

One Flight to Bangkok

I finally managed to put together a map, and I'll try to do this for each subsequent flight.

I'm actually writing this a month and a half after completing the flight. As I think I've mentioned, life events have been getting in the way of hobbying, but I'm now feeling that urge to continue with the quest.

If you've been following this, you know that my fuel planning has been pretty conservative, and I've generally been loading more fuel than I need for each leg of the trip. I do this mainly because I can afford to...flying solo, I'm not pressed up against any weight limits...and because it keeps my options open as long as possible. Air in the cabin is good; air in the fuel tanks is bad. (And I'm reminded again of the old saying among pilots: "The only time you have too much fuel on board is when you're on fire.")

Since I don't feel particularly rushed at this point in the trip, I took my time with the last-minute planning. When I finally settled into my seat at around 12:40, I had just over 3,000 pounds of fuel aboard, about 1,200 pounds more than I expect to need.

I started engines at 12:44, and sat for nine minutes waiting for clearance, and didn't roll out of the parking spot until 12:57. It was a short trip to the runway from where we were parked, and because there was so little traffic, we received immediate clearance for takeoff. Check flaps set, anti-icing set, engine auto-ignition on, advance the throttles, check the annunciators and power, release the brakes and we're rolling.

We level off at FL270, having taken 25 minutes to climb. ATC had held us level at FL010 for a minute or two before sending us up higher. By 13:35, we're out over the Bay of Bengal, and bidding farewell to India. I mark the moment by setting the clock ahead an hour to Bangkok time.

Winds are out of the west at 44 knots, and I hope this holds. We're expecting a three and a half hour flight today, and I appreciate anything Nature can do to help us along. It's warm (for this altitude, at least), -29 degrees Celsius, so I keep the power pulled back so that the ITT stays below 740. As a result, we're only making 252 KTAS, another reason to be grateful for the tailwind.

Fifty minutes later, we're feet dry over Myanmar, and it's getting warmer as we head south. The winds have slacked off a good fifteen knots, too. Our path takes us pretty well straight across Myanmar, and north of Yangon, which is also known as Rangoon. I can't help but think of Mike Myers as Dr. Evil (...summers in Rangoon, luge lessons...).

Two hours into the flight, we dogleg a little south to line us up with Bangkok, which is still an hour away. Traffic is a factor now, and ATC vectors us several times to avoid other aircraft. It's also gotten a little choppy, and we bounce along for about twenty minutes.

At 17:09, Bangkok Center clears us to descend at our discretion to FL170, so I pull the power back and settle into an easy 1,000 fpm descent. After we've been at FL170 for a minute or so, Center starts us down to 4,000 feet and wants us down in 30 miles or less, so I steepen the descent a bit.

Bangkok weather is reported to be scattered clouds and 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) which is as warm as we've seen it this trip. Winds are out of the southwest at 7.

We take vectors for the ILS 21L approach, and fly it pretty much by the numbers. I kill the autopilot as we cross the middle marker with the field in sight at 100 KIAS and full flaps. We touch down at 17:43, another nice landing.

All in all, a pretty good flight. While we're here, we might as well enjoy some of the legendary sights!