Back to Indonesia in the rainy season

After our stops in Indonesia on the way down didn’t quite work as we had hoped for – due to the lack of Avgas in Jakarta – we at least could source fuel in Surabaya and Jakarta on the way up. There would have been many other interesting islands we would have stoped at, but no way to get Avgas there.

Anyway, we would have done that in October or November, as February is the peak of the monsoon season in most of Indonesia. Thunderstorms are common year-round on these islands, however as a general pattern, in the dry season they may occur in the afternoon while the mornings are usually sunny. In the rainy season mornings may be dry, but storms are almost guaranteed in the afternoon. Moreover, convective activity is common over land during the day and moves out to the sea at nite, again as a general pattern only.

Of course we tried to depart early as usual and planned our routes along the coast where possible. What makes things complicated is the lack of flexibility – permits are valid for a specific date and have to be obtained well in advance. Schedule changes on short notice are very complicated. In the end we were really lucky with the weather.

Across Indonesia on the way back

We left Broome, YBRM for Surabaya, WARR before sunrise for what would be the longest overwater leg of our journey. Cyclones are possible in the region in February, but none was around that day. We could enjoy quite a bit of tailwind and there were almost no clouds for most of the flight.

We don’t have HF, but we do have a panel-mount Iridium phone, which is really nice. Unfortunately it had developed an intermittent fault on this trip. The system consists of the actual phone, mounted in the tail cone and the head unit mounted in the panel. It worked reliably on the ground, but usually some time into the flight the head unit would lose contact to the phone. This is most probably a loose contact, of course, but I was not able to reproduce it on the ground. I’ll have to track this down back home.

Once we were in the air in Broome and ATC asked for HF we didn’t want to mention our sat phone, even though they asked for that as well. Obviously it would have got complicated if ATC weren’t able to reach us. However, Australian ATC proved to be very pragmatic once again, and asked if we could send text messages in flight. We could do that with our Golze ADL – poor men’s CPDLC. After they had provided us with a phone number and we had exchanged test messages, they asked us to send our position, flight level and estimate for the next intersection every half hour. We were told that they had to put an uncertainty phase on us, as this was not an officially acceptable means of communication, but they would remove it once we were in radio contact with Bali.

It took us just over four hours to reach Bali, about the same as the NAT legs. Indonesian ATC was also good, they gave us a few vectors south of Bali’s busy airport and then sent us directly to our destination. Weather wasn’t an issue, even over higher ground.

After we had landed and reached our parking position we met the friendly handling crew again that we already knew from our first visit. This time Avgas was delivered shortly after our arrival. We were taken throughout C&I and we were good to go after an hour or so.

After take-off at YBRM

Sunrise

Nothing to see for four hours

Crew disguised again

Communication with Brisbane via ADL

Cargo ships probably bound to Port Headland

Bali’s Mount Agung between the clouds

Over East Java

Short final 28 at WARR

Refueling at WARR

Reunited with our friendly handling crew

We stayed at the airport hotel, which is located in the terminal building. This must have been the smallest hotel room we ever had in our lives. Anyway, it did the trick – it had two comfy beds, a good aircon and was reasonably clean. And our room had a window directly facing the apron.

I didn’t have many nice memories of Surabaya from previous visits and this wouldn’t change much. We took a grab (asian Uber) to the center, but this city is really nothing to write home about. At least we could get some passable Indonesian food we love so much. We went back to our hotel before the afternoon thunderstorm hit.

Surabaya

Nasi Rames (mixed rice), Soto Ayam (chicken soup) and Indonesian tea (acquired taste)

The weather on the next day for our flight to Jakarta Halim, WIHH, along Java’s north coast wasn’t perfect. The storms had been active till well into the nite and still were over the sea in the morning.

The route we had to file would have taken us well offshore where the satellite image and later the storm scope showed a lot of activity. Again Indonesian ATC was very good and professional. We explained the situation and requested to fly along the north coast, way south of our filed route, what was immediately approved in very good English.

We had a flight in relatively calm air along the coast with all the convection to our right. In fact flying in the rainy season has also advantages: visibly is often quite good in the morning.

To our great relief fuel arrived shortly after we were parked on the main apron at Halim. We had to taxi to a stand on the other side of the runway for parking once we had the Avgas, but that was OK for us.

Holding short 28 at WARR

Surabaya

The tallest to the left is Mount Arjuna

Mount Sumbing and Mount Sundoro near Semarang

Mount Slamet

Mount Ciremai near Cirebon

Final 24 at WIHH

Everybody seems very happy while refueling

Jakarta doesn’t have the best reputation as a tourist destination and it isn’t New York for sure. Therefore someone called it the Big Durian and in fact it can be stinky sometimes. However, for some reason I always liked the city ever since my first visit in 1988. One obvious thing is the good and varied Indonesian food that’s available everywhere, but I also like the atmosphere.

The city used to have many residential neighborhoods where people would sit in front of their modest houses after dark and chat with each other and every second stranger coming along. It was these neighborhoods where locals would rent out a room to backpackers and where I used to stay many years ago. Unfortunately these areas are rare these days.

We had been to Jakarta at least ten times, so there was no touristic program to be completed, we just strolled around a few quarters we knew and liked, mainly to fill the time between meals. For example we had an excellent Padang Food for lunch right after arrival. Padang is the capital of the province of West Sumatra which is renowned for its cuisine. Padang places are as ubiquitous in Indonesia as pizza joints are in the west. Not only is the food tasty (and very spicy), the way it is served is special: you sit down at a table and tell the staff that you want to eat rice. They will start to cluster the table with ten, sometimes twenty small bowls with different curries and other dishes as well as a plate with rice for each patron. You are expected to eat with your right hand – no cutlery provided. In the end you pay only what you have touched. The other bowls will go back and will be served to other guests – not up to western standards, but the food is delicious and the experience is unforgettable.

Jakarta’s Kota (Town) Station

Padang Food for lunch

Street market in Jakarta

Sate (skewers with mutton or chicken) at a nite market

Residential area after dark

In Glodok, Jakarta’s China Town

Old Dutch Governor’s House

A stall selling Indonesia’s most famous dish: Nasi Goreng (fried rice)

A little more up-marked traditional Indonesian food: Sate and Nasi Campur (mixed rice)

Skyline from a rooftop bar in the early evening

After two nites in Jakarta we left for Singapore Seletar, WSSL. This time weather in the early morning was not an issue at all and we could enjoy a beautiful flight over West Java and South Sumatra.

A lot of man power is required to handle a little Mooney

Jakarta is a vast metropolis

Downtown

Already over rural western Java

Jakarta can still be seen when looking back

Over Sumatra, the Bukit Barisan mountain range in the background

Shortly before reaching Singapore, we crossed the Equator once again. On the way down we didn’t even notice, but now watched closely. It was interesting to see the SBAS satellites lined up in a row above us. They don’t contribute to the solution here. IIRC WAAS satellites do.

Crossing the Equator south to north