Indo Tour 3

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PHOTOS BY TOUR : Tour 8 Tour 7-5 Tour 4 Tour 3 Tour 2-1

Heading home after Tour 3....transiting through picturesque Pattimura Airport on Ambon

0550 local time and already a monster CB heading our way

Indonesian flavour combos never cease to amaze : green beans baked into a sweet bun

Sugapa MEDEVAC patient being handed over to ambulance crews in Nabire

Me and my new Batik Formal Shirt posing with our Engineers Marsel and Melli

Batik and Sunset

Crew night out at the Moon Beach Resort north of Nabire

Moon Beach Resort pier

Beetle leaving the party early at the Moon Beach Resort

Entering the Freeway - wind flowing around the northern boundary range

Early morning Freeway - cloudpour

Ilaga WABL - unloading a personal record-to-date 277 kg pig

Taking advantage of an unusually clear and calm day - the altimeter indicates 12,500 ft as we fly along the northern plateau bordering the Puncak Jaya

Passing over the plateau north of Puncak Jaya at 12,500 ft above sea level

Puncak Jaya Indonesia's highest mountain at 16,024 ft above sea level with Carstensz Glacier just visible

Carstensz Glacier visible east of the Puncak Jaya with the northern plateau in the foreground

Pulau Nuburi coral reef

Pulau Nuburi coral reef - predator starfish inching in for the kill

Pulau Nuburi coral reef

Chief of Security for Highland Airports - employed to keep people off the runways

A gift from one of our colleagues returning from holiday : Javanese 'Blangkon' headdress which we honoured with a traditional dance

Unloading emergency building supplies in Sugapa ...urgently required after the recent unrest

Not my best pic, but not bad for through the window from 5 miles away : AMA Pilatus Porter passing low over the jungle below us in the Freeway

Eastbound at 11,500 ft through the Beoga Pass enroute to Ilaga. The Pass directly below us lies at 9300 ft and the ridge on the wingtip reaches 13,000+ and extends for 30 NM

Unloading a 180 kg pig at Ilaga WABL

CSI:Papua - the spot on the Ilaga apron where a woman walked into a TwinOtter prop two weeks previously

To prevent further tragedies, a crowd control fence has been installed

Rushhour at Ilaga WABL

AMA PAC750 PK-RCE rolling on Runway 07

PAC750 climbing away from Ilaga WABL - runway length 603 m and threshold elevation 7500 ft

Previously mentioned 'Church of the Guiding Light' seen from 53 NM out

Visit to the 'Church of the Guiding Light' started with a wrong turn and getting stuck

The 'Church of the Guiding Light', actually called Ecclesia in Kali Merah village

The current church/villlage hall in Kali Merah with a curious congregation. The villagers have been solely funding the building of the new church hall themselves, starting in 2009

Work in progress on the new church/village hall of Kali Merah

New church/village hall under construction in Kali Merah

SusiAir Pilatus PC6 Porter on the ground at Hitadipa

Durian fruit - enthusiastically welcomed when in season for its flavour and mild alcoholic/hallucinogenic qualities

Bilogai Tutup = Sugapa's airstrip is closed due to rioting (difficult to see, but there is a lot of debris on the runway)

Unusual sight of gold mine helicopters PK-USA and PK-USS both under cover at the fire station for maintenance

We will be going into rough airstrips in the new year - gravel deflectors

New Year's Eve : Swiss-Serge and French-Claude as we crossed the runway to the Company fireworks party

Dutch-Remco and French-Claude on Nabire's runway heading for the Company New Year's party

Christmas [ Palm ] Tree

Our Company fireworks street party

GloStix from Glasgow are always popular

Wheelbarrow BBQ with Rapster Chef and his fish

Enjoying the fireworks while sheltering from the rain - which reduced the fire hazard to the town. The lens is not foggy - that's smoke.

The Freeway, Papua

Highland jungle in the clouds at 7000 ft elevation

Another Christmas Load

On the apron at Nabire WABI waiting for the rains to clear

Christmas Eve sunset

The white dot above the ridge at 11 O'clock is the Church of the Guiding Light, visible from 40+ NM out

The yellow dot is helicopter PK-USS heading for the Bayabiru gold mine

GoPro looking down - Nabire town

Ruslan's first marshalling - close enough for a lollipop prize

GoPro looking down - Siriwo gold mine

Unloading a very large, very smelly dog

Nabire - our hotel 'Mahavira 2' is the L shaped yellow building. 'Mahavira 1' is the L shaped tin roof in front.

AMA Pilatus PC6 Porter on the ground at Bilai

Pogapa - adorned with the wrecks of two Caravans

CB with cap

Landslide - scale not obvious but that is a drop of at least 2000 ft

GoPro looking straight down - Papua jungle

GoPro looking down - Bumi river gold mines

GoPro looking down - Papua jungle

GoPro attached to the tailcone, looking down - posing with Ramli, our man in Bilogai

Freeway waterfall - seen from 3 NM and falling at least 300 ft

Freeway waterfall seen from 2 NM distance - a huge volume of water dropping at least 800 ft

Waterfall in the Freeway

Loading construction materials

Early morning insect on the apron

First thing in the morning the aircraft is always covered with insects

Early morning insect

Early morning insect - this one got under my seat, was released and then nearly got eaten by a passing bird

Unloading pipes at Sugapa

A special lunch prepared by Engineer Melli's Mum

Our aircraft seen in a cloudy Freeway at 10,500 ft

Checking the load

Papua - landslides old and new

Entering the Freeway

Bugalaga

To give a sense of scale - that dot is the AMA Porter going towards Bugalaga

Loading 700 chickens (and, unwittingly, 1000s of ants)

Escaped chicken and its owner in flight

A few of the 1000s of ants which ended up crawling all over the aircraft and pilot

Entering the Freeway heading East with the coast in the distance

Passing another aircraft in the Freeway - it gives a sense of the unbelievable size of the mountains

The airport staff were otherwise engaged....so we used our propwash to remove this FOD from the centre of the runway

Passing Mil-8 ER-MGX in the Freeway at 8500 ft

Finally some pics of our aircraft in flight : Asian One Air C208B PK-LTF in the Freeway

Asian One Air C208B PK-LTF in the Freeway at 10,500 ft

Asian One Air C208B PK-LTF in the Freeway

Asian One Air C208B PK-LTF in the Freeway at 8500 ft

Missionary John Cutts from Pogapa www.villageheartbeat.org who has served Papua for 60 years and featured on the TV Series "Worst Place to be a Pilot"

Papua - bridge under construction

Fresh lemur anyone ?

Our Engineer Marsel in a rice paddy getting us a sample

What rice really looks like - the black and white varieties

Rushhour at WABI Nabire

The jungle - some of these trees are 150 ft tall

Missionary Aviation Fellowship MAF Grand Caravan in the Freeway

MAF Grand Caravan PK-MAE in the Freeway

MAF C208B PK-MAE

Cloud pouring off the jungle plateau east of Nabire

Cloud pouring westwards at the entrance to the Freeway

A welcoming 'bagan' fishing platform under which two Whale sharks were feeding

Whale shark wikipedia

Whale shark - the 'small' one 4.5 metres

Whale shark

Curious Whale shark gliding in to have a close look at me

What a guy looks like while he get's run over by a Whale shark

Whale shark - no enlargement...they come that close !

Whale shark

Curious, gentle Whale shark

Whale shark

Around midday, as the surface water warmed, they just glided away into the depths

Approaching Pulau Nuburi

Pulau Nuburi

Pulau Pepaya seen from Nuburi

Pulau Nuburi - a 150 metre circle of paradise

Pulau Nuburi - fish congregating in the surf

Pulau Nuburi coral reef

Pulau Nuburi reef

Departing Pulau Nuburi

Associated Mission Aviation Pilatus PC6 Porter in the Freeway

Sling load being lifted to a remote site

Nabire, Papua, Indonesia

FOD on the strip at Bilogai. The fate of the owner remains unknown.

Fuzzy pic of a beautiful bug who got up my trouser leg. Normally this would result in a girlie scream, a leap, leg shaking and a summary execution - but the offender was too stunning for that.