Greetings once again from the opposite side of the planet.
Jet lag is being unusually persistent this time. By now both mental and physical adjustment would normally be nearing completion but I have yet to have a decent night’s sleep. Nicki, by contrast, has got back in zone rather better.
The first week has been inevitably busy catching up and getting an idea of what has been going on. An Operations Team meeting on Tuesday was followed by a Leadership Team meeting on Wednesday, for both of which, I’m glad to say, I didn’t fall asleep. Thursday and Friday were more enjoyable as I went out to Telefomin for a couple of nights so that I could get my flying current again.
Pilot currency means a certain number of take offs and landings and instrument approaches within 90 days. Since we’d been in the UK more than 90 days, I had to meet these requirements before doing any commercial flights.
The plan was for me to return to Hagen yesterday with PNG Airlines from Kiunga, having been flown there from Telefomin first thing. The aircraft arrived very late because, we were told, it hadn’t been able to land at Mount Hagen because of weather, diverted to Nadzab (Lae) to refuel, before returning to Hagen and then heading out to Kiunga. Passengers for both Hagen and Port Moresby had boarded when the ground crew had a message that all Hagen passengers had to be disembarked due to “operational requirements”.
I’d done some sums in my head already and thought that the crew would be close to their duty time limits, and this was apparently the case. As a result I spent Saturday night in the Kiunga Guest House, a vastly over-priced place to sleep in the middle of the town. Kiunga is in the lowlands (though fortunately it was nowhere near as hot and sticky as it sometimes is) at the head of the navigable part of the Fly River. Barges come up the tortuous and meandering river bringing all the supplies for the Ok Tedi mine, as well as for other businesses and including drums of aviation fuel for MAF.
Although I slept well the first part of the night, I woke at about 1:00 a.m., and then slept intermittently until 3 something, after which the noise of an air-conditioning unit in the room above reverberating down the wall of my room prevented any further sleep. I did see Novak Djokovic beat Kyle Edmunds and the highlights of the England-Sweden and Russia-Croatia matches since they were on TV at the time.
I’m back home now and will have to take tomorrow off so that I can fly again on Tuesday. After 3 months away our hedge is in urgent need of a trim.
So there’s a quick catch up on the week. Hopefully by next week my body’s time zone will finally be UTC+10, i.e. 9 hours ahead of British Summer Time.
Jet lag is being unusually persistent this time. By now both mental and physical adjustment would normally be nearing completion but I have yet to have a decent night’s sleep. Nicki, by contrast, has got back in zone rather better.
The first week has been inevitably busy catching up and getting an idea of what has been going on. An Operations Team meeting on Tuesday was followed by a Leadership Team meeting on Wednesday, for both of which, I’m glad to say, I didn’t fall asleep. Thursday and Friday were more enjoyable as I went out to Telefomin for a couple of nights so that I could get my flying current again.
Pilot currency means a certain number of take offs and landings and instrument approaches within 90 days. Since we’d been in the UK more than 90 days, I had to meet these requirements before doing any commercial flights.
The plan was for me to return to Hagen yesterday with PNG Airlines from Kiunga, having been flown there from Telefomin first thing. The aircraft arrived very late because, we were told, it hadn’t been able to land at Mount Hagen because of weather, diverted to Nadzab (Lae) to refuel, before returning to Hagen and then heading out to Kiunga. Passengers for both Hagen and Port Moresby had boarded when the ground crew had a message that all Hagen passengers had to be disembarked due to “operational requirements”.
I’d done some sums in my head already and thought that the crew would be close to their duty time limits, and this was apparently the case. As a result I spent Saturday night in the Kiunga Guest House, a vastly over-priced place to sleep in the middle of the town. Kiunga is in the lowlands (though fortunately it was nowhere near as hot and sticky as it sometimes is) at the head of the navigable part of the Fly River. Barges come up the tortuous and meandering river bringing all the supplies for the Ok Tedi mine, as well as for other businesses and including drums of aviation fuel for MAF.
Although I slept well the first part of the night, I woke at about 1:00 a.m., and then slept intermittently until 3 something, after which the noise of an air-conditioning unit in the room above reverberating down the wall of my room prevented any further sleep. I did see Novak Djokovic beat Kyle Edmunds and the highlights of the England-Sweden and Russia-Croatia matches since they were on TV at the time.
I’m back home now and will have to take tomorrow off so that I can fly again on Tuesday. After 3 months away our hedge is in urgent need of a trim.
So there’s a quick catch up on the week. Hopefully by next week my body’s time zone will finally be UTC+10, i.e. 9 hours ahead of British Summer Time.
