During this week I achieved what I set out
to do in Telefomin, which was to finish the training of Richie Axon, the DHC6
captain based there, as a Supervisory Pilot, or SP for short. A SP is
authorised to check other pilots into airstrips they’ve not been to before and
over routes they’re not familiar with. They also take on the line training of
new First Officers once they’ve been checked to line operations by a training
captain.
Richie had done the theory part of
instructing in Mareeba, where instructor training is centred. Very deliberately
training of trainers is now done at one centralised, specialist location in
order to ensure that standards are set, taught and passed on to those going
into various MAF programmes. However, there still needs to be in-country
contextualisation, and that is what Richie and I were working at.
The weather wasn’t entirely cooperative! I
want to let Richie land at a few of our more challenging airstrips from the
right-hand seat, the instructor’s seat, but for much of the week these
airstrips were closed by cloud and rain. It’s the south-east season still, where
south-east trade winds blow across the hot and humid Western Province lowlands
until they hit the mountains, and in west Papua New Guinea that is the
Hindenberg Wall, in places about 2,000 feet of almost sheer rock cliffs. Pushed
suddenly upwards the water vapour condenses rapidly into clouds which envelope
the mountains and the airstrips among them.
Tabubil is located in a v-shaped valley
that runs from north-west to south-east, so as the major airport in the area it
has some of the worst, if not the worst, weather in the country. For two days
we weren’t able to land there at all to pick up loads to the destinations I
want to go to with Richie, so we’ll have to wait until Nicki and I go to
Telefomin again at the end of September.
Further to the south is Kiunga, about 20
minutes flight time from Tabubil, and we heard aircraft from other operators
and airlines diverting there when they were unable to land at Tabubil. When you
hear that happening over the radio it’s a good indication that you can save
time and fuel and money by not even trying to go to Tabubil yourself!
One day we did a flight to Kiunga from
Telefomin, descending through a solid layer of cloud but becoming visual a
couple of thousand feet above the ground. Flying from there to Tari, 40 minutes
flight time, about 100 miles east, we were on top of the clouds at only about
7,000’, but they formed an unbroken, dazzlingly bright layer as far as the eyes
could see until the tops of the mountains in the distance to the north, behind
and surrounding Telefomin, could just be seen.
*************
After arriving back in Hagen at about 3 o’clock
on Friday, Nicki drove straight home while I tackled some tasks in the office.
Intending to finish writing up Richie’s training report a number of other jobs
came up demanding attention, so I’ll have to do that on Monday, hoping that the
same thing doesn’t happen before I’m due to fly, supervising Brad Venter
conduct a flight test with somebody else as part of Brad’s check pilot
training. The majority of my flying these days is training or checking others.
From Friday evening, through Saturday and
into this morning was very busy as we did shopping and preparing food for while
Nicki is away. Nicki did a lot of cooking so I won’t have to do too much over
the next couple of weeks, which is very much appreciated.
At exactly the time when nothing extra to
do was needed, our sink blocked up yesterday evening. Although the waste trap
wasn’t the exactly unhindered, it wasn’t obstructed. After cleaning that out
the sink would still only empty slowly, so in the absence of caustic soda or
drain cleaner, most of a bottle of bleach went down the plughole, followed this
morning by boiling water.
It seems to have done the trick, at least
for the moment, but I’ll try to find some caustic soda tomorrow (Monday). The
kitchen waste pipe has a very shallow fall once it goes outside and runs just
under the joists to the main waste pipe, so I suspect the blockage was along
that section.
*************
Nicki is off on her world circumnavigation.
As I write at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon she is about 30 minutes into her
flight between Port Moresby and Sydney. In Sydney she’s staying with friends
overnight before the real long haul sector from Sydney to Dallas Fort Worth
tomorrow, which at 15 hours non-stop is, I believe, the longest sector by any
airline.
Once when we were travelling from the east
coast of the USA, probably it was at Raleigh-Durham, I overheard some excited
passengers saying how this was their first long haul flight. Raleigh to
Heathrow, somewhere between 7 and 8 hours, that doesn’t quite live up to the
long-haul flights we are used to! Dallas to Heathrow at 10 hours is getting up
there, which Nicki will have when she leaves Andrew and the family on September
6th.
*************
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have three
check flights to do this week, and also to prepare the crew resource management
course I’m running on Monday to Wednesday next week, just before leaving to
meet Ithaka Grace myself. I’ve run CRM courses many times before but the
material needs updating and upgrading, so every free moment this week will be
spent working at that.
I’m expecting that a couple of Nepalese
pilots will be joining us for the course. MAF has had a presence in Nepal since
the major earthquake a few years ago, not flying, but working primarily with
one of the local air operators. We’re hoping that this will be a good
opportunity for interaction, and to widen the experience of the two pilots.
*************
Thunder is beginning to rattle around, but
still at a distance. There’s been a lot of heavy rain recently, especially
while we were in Telefomin. Tropical heavy rain is in a different league,
except on rare occasions, with what’s called heavy rain in the UK. South Texas
at the moment will be in a different league again with Hurricane Harvey bashing
his way along the coast.
Nicki and I saw what we both think was the
most vivid rainbow we’ve ever seen in Telefomin. The picture, as is so often
the case, doesn’t do it full justice.
And to the sound of U2’s Joshua Tree album,
I’ll sign off.
