Caz Bar, snorkelling, and first PIC ops

Here are some photos from the past week. I've decided to stop numbering the weeks and come up with more interesting post titles!

Typical traffic in Dili

Sunset from Caz Bar, Dili, where Marcus, Andy
and I went for dinner with a local expat couple

Marcus departed Dili on Monday morning. He flew our second
aircraft (pictured) to Mareeba for maintenance. Now we have
two pilots and one plane in Timor, until it can be flown back.

I don't have any photos from the flights I did - just trying to settle into the workload before I take my camera along! But I can tell you that I did 7 medevacs and 1 charter flight. Lots of children this week... two babies from Baucau and two girls from Atauro as medevac patients on Thursday; two babies and two toddlers on a charter flight to Atauro today.

I also don't have any photos from the snorkelling, because, well, it was under water and my camera wouldn't have survived. But I can tell you it was amazing! I went last weekend with the expat couple who came with us to Caz Bar. They often go out to the reef at Tasi tolu (just west of the airport). If I'm able to find a cheap camera that I can put in a ziplock bag - or even better, a waterproof one - I'll take some pictures next time for sure!

Week 2 in Timor-Leste

Marcus and I finished visiting all the airstrips and then consolidated my training by flying whatever medevac requests came along and revisiting other places. All up we went to each airstrip at least twice. On Thursday 23 July I had my line check, which was a real medevac from Suai, a small town on the south coast.

On Friday I acted as host for a group of homeschooling families who came for a visit, and later that day got to fly my first medevac as pilot-in-command.

The hot water system still hasn't been fixed but I'm not feeling too stressed about it. Not too long ago there were people in New Zealand - and there probably still are today - who didn't have hot water on tap. I can still make hot water for washing by boiling the kettle and mixing it with cold water which is on tap... (After the missionary training course I went on in Melbourne, I did a bit of self-conditioning at home by showering out of a bucket for a month. So it's really not a big deal, and now it's just become one of the many quirks of living in this house.)

In other news I am out of quarantine! My first trip to the supermarket on Wednesday was less of a shock than I was expecting, so that was good.

Line check flight with Marcus (before collecting our passengers at Suai)

The obligatory handshake photo following a successful check

Showing homeschool kids one of our planes

With Aldo, one of our local Timorese staff, on my first medevac as PIC

Week 1 in Timor-Leste

When any MAF pilot starts in a programme they start with CARA - country, area, route and airstrip - training. This usually comprises a week or two of observational flying in the right-hand seat, followed by any number of dual flights with a training pilot to learn the intricacies of each of the different airstrips. The Timor-Leste programme is quite small and so after a week I am nearly finished; there is only one airstrip that we haven't been to yet. This is just as well as the chief pilot who is training me, Marcus, is on a fairly tight timeframe to get back to Australia for various flight tests at the FTC (he is also a CASA examiner).

I'll write more about the airstrips themselves in a later post, but as far as a summary goes, here is what we did:

Monday - Two training flights to Baucau (circuits and GA8 airwork) and Atauro Island

Tuesday - Training flight to Lospalos which turned into a medevac back to Dili

Wednesday - Training flight to Viqueque which turned into a double medevac (two patients) back to Dili. Then a second training flight to Same

Thursday - Training flight to Suai, from where we were called to a medevac at Lospalos and then a second medevac at Atauro Island

Friday - Charter flight to Oecusse

As you can see, in addition to our training flights we also did 4 medevacs! While it was a little frustrating to keep getting interrupted, there were some major benefits: (a) getting to do some 'real' operational flying, (b) experience flying the aircraft when it is close to maximum weight, (c) cost saving for MAF as both legs of a medevac flight are paid by the Ministry of Health, even in the cases where we were already at the airstrip doing training.

Here are some pictures from the week.

Marcus smiling through his mask
(We have to wear these in the plane while I am in quarantine)

Making the aeroplane dirty at Lospalos

Flying past Mt Ramelau (highest peak in Timor-Leste at 9800 ft) on the way to Suai

Neighbourhood roosters

South Korean C130 offloading cargo at Dili

Hot water system problems = bucket shower time

My new home

In Dili, MAF rents a number of houses. They aren't in a compound, like some of the other programmes; nor are they particularly close to each other, but they are all within 5-10 minutes' drive of the airport.

The house I've been assigned to is a 4-bedroom Timorese style house. It would normally be occupied by the programme manager* and their family. However, the outgoing programme manager left in June and the incoming one won't be arriving in country until January.

It's located directly behind the American embassy and is one block from the beach. However since my quarantine restrictions say I must stay at the house any time I am not at the airport receiving training, I haven't ventured past the front gate yet!

As one would say in Tetun, 'Hau nia uma' - this is my house.


*In MAF terminology 'programme manager' is changing to 'country director'.

Front porch

Driveway, viewed from the back of the property

Entrance/lounge

Dining room. The three closed doors lead to a guest bedroom,
office, and storage room

Master bedroom. I brought the mosquito net with me from
Mareeba; $26 is a small price to pay for peace of mind!

Ensuite off master bedroom

Hallway to kitchen, laundry and guest bathroom

Kitchen

Pantry room

Guest bathroom

Laundry, through to back door

Guest bedroom

From Mareeba to Darwin to Dili

VH-MFM, one of the GA8s flying in Timor Leste, has been in Mareeba for 4 weeks or so having an engine change. Since it was due to be flown back around the same time that I was supposed to fly in, I was able to hitch a ride, gain some experience, and save MAF about $1000 on an airline ticket.

We ended up spending two nights in Darwin in a quarantine hotel at the airport - waiting for additional permissions to get sorted at the Timor end for us to bring the aircraft in. Thankfully they came through on a day when the weather was good enough to get across the Timor Sea.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Not too many pictures from Mareeba to Normanton to Burketown,
but at Borroloola we saw two brolgas (or should that be brolgae?)

Arnhem Land escarpment, Kakadu National Park
(where I would be on holiday right now if it were not for Covid...)

Maintenance check on arrival in Darwin

Last view of Darwin

First view of Timor Leste (after 2.5 hrs of flying over water)

Viqueque airstrip - one of our regular destinations

Flying into Dili from the east

MAF Timor Leste's newest relief pilot

Settling into the new digs with a cook-up
(makes a change from room service!)

Two big rocks

As a farewell to Mareeba (for now) I went for two final bush walks, both at Davies Creek. Both involved a rock!

Turtle Rock

A good walk if you've got half a day, which I did last Sunday afternoon. You can either walk up to the top and back the same way, or do the loop which is a bit longer. I did the latter and it took about 2.5 hrs, including about half an hour at the top taking photos and enjoying the views.

It never ceases to amaze me how such big granite boulders can be found at the top of a hill!

View back towards Davies Creek

The aptly named 'Turtle Rock'

View of Kahlpahlim Rock from Turtle Rock

Kahlpahlim Rock

Yes, I have done this walk before, but I have decided it is my favourite out of all the walks I have done on the Tablelands. Yesterday it was very popular as well - I must have encountered over a dozen people on the track (mostly at the top). I started at 9:30, had lunch at the top, and was back at the car by 2:00.

Steep part of the track through open eucalypt forest

View over Lake Morris and the coast (including Cairns city)

View over the Tablelands north of Mareeba

Arty shot of the day (cell tower solar panel installation)

Heading back down

Kahlpahlim Rock and skyline from Mareeba

New assignment

On Monday 6 July I am leaving Mareeba for 6 months to take up a relief pilot role in Timor Leste.

This has come about rather quickly: I was only asked on 3 June, i.e. exactly one month ago today!

The MAF Timor Leste programme normally has three expat pilots and one expat programme manager (aka country director), but due to uncertainties around Covid some of them were evacuated to their home countries - and now are having difficulty getting back in. Apparently none of the pilots in the Arnhem Land programme were keen to go, so MAFI Asia-Pacific then asked if anyone at the Mareeba flight training centre would be able and willing to go. Since we have a reduced student roll at the moment (again, due to Covid) we agreed to send one of our instructors until January, when we will have our next student intake.

MAF is contracted to provide air transport for the national ambulance service in Timor Leste. That means that we fly a lot of medevacs there - an average of about 6 a week. The remainder of the flying is primarily charter flights for the government and the many NGOs operating in the country. I will be flying a GA8, which is the same type of aircraft we used for line pilot standardisation and that I recently ferried back from Arnhem Land.

I don't know entirely what to expect, only that God has already prepared the way for me. The opportunity has His fingerprints all over it - the timing, the duration, the relatively small size and low complexity of the flying programme... It will be extremely useful experience for wherever I end up going after my time in Mareeba comes to an end.

A couple of photos from pilot maintenance training earlier this week: