Flights 29 & 30 : Banda Aceh, Indonesia to Bangkok, Thailand

Date: Sunday November 30, 2008
Departure: 10:40 AM
Routing: Northeast to Phuket
Aircraft: LIAT Caribbean Airways
Altitude: The whole flight will be over water, 10,000 feet
Miles: Straight shot, 232 miles

Arrival Stats: 11:45 AM, 1.1 hours or 211 mph
Notes: The last short leg into Phuket in the LIAT Dash-8. Not in a steaming hurry to leave Banda Aceh ... smooth but windy flight over the sea to Phuket. Video of the landing ....

Date: Sunday November 30, 2008
Departure: 16:00
Routing: North into Bangkok
Aircraft: AirEx Q400
Altitude: A popular domestic route this afternoon, 16,000 feet.
Miles: 374 miles
Arrival Stats: 17:15 means a very quick flight, 1.25 hours or nearly 300 mph - The Q400 really cooks!
Notes: Sunset flight, arrival over the city just after sunset. I'll plan to be here for at least a week or so.

Cheers,

Flights 27 & 28 : Bandar Lampung to Banda Aceh via Aek Godang

Date: Friday November 28, 2008
Departure: 2:00 PM
Routing: Continuing my zig-zag course up Sumatra
Aircraft: LIAT Caribbean Airways
Altitude: 6,000 feet until just before Aek Godang when I had to climb up to 9,000 feet to clear the mountains.
Miles: The first three-quarters of the afternoon's flying totaled 592 miles
Arrival Stats: 15:22 for a very quick gas-and-go. That's 2.4 hours or 246 mph
Notes: I had hoped to make it all the way to Banda Aceh (Famous for the profound destruction following an earthquake and tsunami three years ago) but with fuel running a bit low I opted to take a quick gas-and-go pit stop in Aek Godang.

Date: Friday November 28, 2008
Departure: 15:45 PM
Routing: Over to the eastern coast of Sumatra and up to the northern tip.
Aircraft: LIAT Caribbean Airways
Altitude: 6,500 feet
Miles: 374 miles for this last bit, 1.75 hours which equals 213 mph
Arrival Stats: Immediately after sunset, 17:27 PM
Notes: After a very brief pit stop in Aek Godang I continued up to my goal for the weekend, Banda Aceh. Our January 2006 Feature Flight of the Month at http://www.toomuchfs.com/ was here - written just weeks before the terrible earthquake and tsunami that struck the end of December 2005. Even three years later the destruction here is very notable and since I never fly on Saturdays I spent the day distributing goods I had packed along in the little Dash-8.

Flight 26 : Malang to Bandar Lampung, Indonesia

Date: Friday November 28th, 2008
Departure: 8:50 AM
Routing: Zig-Zag to the northwest up the islands of Java and Sumatra
Aircraft: LIAT Caribbean
Altitude: 9,000 feet
Miles: Total for this leg is 478 miles
Arrival Stats: Arrived at 11 AM, 2.2 hours or 217 mph average (with wind)
Notes: After a couple of short days in Malang I was ready to head on through Indonesia - the people here have been nothing less than great hosts but time was marching on. I headed out just a bit before 9 AM on Friday with the following waypoints:
Semarang
Penggung
Tangerang (Near Jakarta)
Bandar Lampung
This flight included hills, mountains, water, clouds and a bit of wind but I arrived before lunch with no worries.

Flight 25 : Ruteng to Malang Indonesia

Date: Thursday November 27, 2008

Departure: 09:40 AM

Routing: Continuing west across Indonesia to Bali, then a bit northwest.

Aircraft: LIAT Carribean Airlines - I know, Indonesia is nowhere NEAR the Carribean but I have other aircraft to fly in that area and looking at the sea and islands and mountains the plane sorta fits the scenery so don't e-mail me with your concerns, just enjoy the flight this morning.

Altitude: 6,000 feet to Bali, then up to 11,000 feet into Malang

Miles: 467 total

Arrival Stats: Just under two hours or 246 mph

Notes: The next morning I depart Ruteng and have several short waypoints on the way to Bali. We pass over Bima, Sumbawa, Mataramand Bali on the way into Malang which sets up in the central hills of Java, 154 miles from Despansur.

Again, nothing but great scenery along here including a lake far up in the top of a volcano! It's all great stuff and I'll be working up a feature Flight of the Month for 2010!
While you all are getting ready for Thanksgiving in the USA, I'm loading up for my next legs from Java up to Sumatra -- can you say, "Smell the Coffee" ?

Flights 23 & 24 : Darwin, Australia to Ruteng, Indonesia

Date: Wednesday November 26, 2008

Departure: 10:00 AM

Routing: Northwest over Timor then west across Indonesia.

Aircraft: Pacific Airways Islands Livery

Altitude: 4,000 feet to Timor then up to 5,000 feet

Miles: 566 miles

Arrival Stats: Arrived at 12:27 PM which is average of 226 mph

Notes: After nearly a week touring the far northern areas of Australia and the Timor Sea I was back into the Pacific Islands livery Dash-8 to head into Indonesia. There was a bit of wind in Darwin but then I had smooth sailing. The first 380 miles is over water until landfall again where Indonesia and Timor boarder each other. At that point I had to climb up to 5,000 feet to clear the local volcanos and I continued another 186 miles to Wai Oti where I stopped off for lunch.

Date: Wednesday November 26, 2008
Departure: 15:00 PMRouting: Continuing West across Indonesia
Aircraft: Pacific Airways Islands Livery
Altitude: 4,000 feet
Miles: 103 miles

Arrival Stats: This was a very short hop to Ruteng - an airport on a plateau.

Notes:Man! This is really a beautiful area! A great place for www.toomuchfs.com to host a future feature "Flight of the Month"! I had thought about continuing on from here, only another 30 minutes to the larger town of Bima but I had also planned a change of aircraft here so ended up spending the night.

Flight 22 : Alice Springs to Darwin

Date: Thursday November 21, 2008

Departure: 04:00 local

Routing: Northwest to the coast and then northeast into Darwin

Aircraft: Flight Club International - Alice Springs livery

Altitude: 3,500 but after an hour of buzzing the bushes I got bored and climbed to 10,000.

Miles: 871

Arrival Stats: Arrived at 07:23 AM, 264 mph average

Notes: With "nothing" going on in Alice Springs I was ready to move onto something more scenic. I left just before "dawn" and scudded along the ground for awhile, then climbed on up to 10,000 feet. The "green" finally fades in a hundred miles or so from the Oceanand despite ATCs instruction to land to the north I took the crossing runway from the southwest.

Weekend weather for Darwin looks AWESOME! See ya next week ....

Flight 21 : Mackay to Alice Springs

Date: Tuesday November 18, 2008

Departure: 10:15 local

Routing: Roughly west across the vastness of Australia

Aircraft: Flight Club Alice Springs Q400

Altitude: 5,000 feet

Miles: 879

Arrival Stats: 12:35 with the time zone change is 3.3 hours or 266 mph

Notes: Not too much to share on this flight ... I was back into a Q400 this time, to the Alice Springs Hub of Flight Club International Airways. (Available on YahooGroups)Real weather was just hazy the whole way, very little to see even over the waypoints. I'm sure there is more around here in real life but I found myself thinking, "Why would anyone live out here in the middle of nowhere?"

Flight 20 : Cairns to Mackay

Date: Monday November 17, 2008

Departure: 10:00

Routing: South along the coast

Aircraft: Pacific Airways Island livery

Altitude: 3,500

Miles: 345

Arrival Stats: Arrived at 11:45 which is about 200 mph

Note: Low and slow over a very scenic eastern Australian coastline. Started foggy but cleared about half-way along.Points along the way included Townsville and Hamilton Island.

Flight 19 : Port Moresby to Cairns, Australia

Date: Sunday November 16, 2008

Departure: 04:30 local time PNG

Routing: Southwest to Weipa, then south to Cairns

Aircraft: Pacific Airways Island livery

Altitude: 4,000 feet (briefly to 6,000 coming into Cairns)

Miles: 733 total

Arrival Stats: Arrived at 07:15, 267 mph

Notes: Very early Sunday I fired up the "little Dash" and headed south, back onto my "planned" RTW route. (Not that I'm all planned out, but I hadn't thought I'd see Port Moresby ...)

There are some surprising mountains along eastern Australia but once over those there was some low-lying fog this morning. That's what I get for flying early I guess.

Flight 18 : Sorong, Indonesia to ... a little problem

Date: Friday November 14, 2008

Departure: 15:20

Routing: Continueing southeast to the island of New Guinea. (Planned on landing on the Indonesia side of things.)

Aircraft: Pacific Airways Q400

Altitude: 4,000 feet but eventually had to climb up to 13,000 feet over New Guinea

Miles: Total today ended up at 1,000

Arrival Stats: Well ... it was 19:42 when I finally parked which meant 3.25 hours or 307 mph

Notes: I left Sorong in the mid afternoon, really not calculating that half of my route was heading east - away from the sun! I crossed Timika, Indonesia and noted that it was getting dark out. But I had had such a wonderful day in Sorong I wasn't ready to land yet so set my sights on Merauke Indonesia.

This is on the island of New Guinea where we (http://www.toomuchfs.com/) have flown before and certainly fuel on board was not a problem - yet. I had to climb to 13,000 feet to clear the amazing mountains here! As I set up for landing I couldn't help but notice how amazingly DARK the world was. This is, after all, New Guinea! "Drat!" I had been foiled again! Immediately I entered coordinates for Port Morseby, PNG into the GPS and continued there - to the lighted and more civilized airport. Weather, landing and facilities were all more then adequate for my needs.