Day 1
After an early start I picked up a very sickly looking Ken in Kuala Lumpur and headed for Bernam River Airfield, (suitably nicknames “BRA” by its residents) a 1 hour drive north of KL.
We had a relatively easy flight planned for the first day of our 8 day trip to Clark airbase just outside Manila to join the 2011 Hot Air Balloon festival and airshow. A trip like this would only take around 3 hours by commercial jet however we planned to do it the hard way by single engined Cessna. A trip of around 13hours flight time each way at our typical cruise speed in our 1981 C182 Skylane 9M-TAR.
The trip was organized by the Wings Over Asia (WOA) club based in Singapore and it was planned for several aircraft to join up in Singapore and set off pretty much together thru East Malaysia and up thru the southern chain of islands that make up the gateway into the Philippines.
WOA have an excellent reputation for organizing aviation events around SE Asia and this was to be the first one we were going to join. Hence we set off with much confidence knowing WOA would likely have sorted out all the main issues and concerns with international GA flying in the region.
It was a perfect opportunity to just fly and let someone else worry about the paperwork. (Of course nothing ever happens like that does it)!!!
Arriving at the airfield Peter had thankfully fueled and pre-flighted TAR so we were immediately ready to load up and go.
The first 30 minute leg would be south to Subang airport in KL to clear customs and immigration (CIQ) and then continuing on southwards for 90mins to Singapore.
Recovering after his slight illness enroute, Ken wanted to fly the two legs today to get us to Singapore so I sat in right seat to do the radio with Peter relaxing in the back.
CIQ was simple in Subang and we met up with Les Vorosmarthy in Starbucks. Les was joining us on the trip in his Extra 300 aerobatic aircraft. He was scheduled to do several unlimited aerobatic displays each day at the festival however none of us envied him doing such a long trip in the tight confines of an Extra cockpit. Les had recruited a non pilot friend, Steven, from the Malaysia Lotus Car Club to join him for the trip so he would have company over the long hours as well as grooming him to be a useful autopilot to offload the monotony on the long legs. As it would turn out Steven proved himself to be a very quick learner and was soon earning his wings.
For this leg to Singapore we would fly in a two ship formation and we were soon back in the air. However after 20 minutes flying Ken was again looking decidedly unwell. Was a big surprise to have to use one of the several comfort bags so early into the flight. After a few minutes Ken had sealed the bag of used Starbucks coffee and sandwiches and was planning how to drop it from 1500ft without it either returning to the back seat over Peter, being hit by Les in the formated Extra or landing on some unsuspecting gardener in a back yard in Seremban. Thankfully for us we will never meet the gardener!!!
The rest of the flight was uneventful except to watch Les initiating his new passenger into some basic aerobatic maneuvers whilst in formation with us.
On the ground at Seletar we parked in our nominated slot and waited for the refueling truck to arrive.
The refueling area was fully utilized and we were advised that we would have to move the aircraft to the overnight GA parking area after refueling to make way for other aircraft. As we completed refueling Marcus Walther arrived in his Piper Lance and sat waiting for a parking slot. To help out we decided to push TAR forward to allow him space for parking. A big mistake indeed given the strict nature of Singaporean ATC. Peter climbed aboard TAR and called for startup clearance and was severely reprimanded for being out of position. Peters first radio call of the day and he was already in trouble. Amazingly ATC would not allow engine start and we were told to wait for a ground vehicle to come over. We were then instructed to push the aircraft several meters forward to a suitable startup position. Apparently people have suffered quite big fines at Seletar for menial issues like this. Well they do say Singapore is a fine city. Yeo Meng of WOA spent 10 mins on the phone apologizing. Who is the customer here??? For our first visit to Seletar we were not at all impressed with the extreme level of bureaucracy.
All these delays took their toll on Ken and he was looking decidedly unwell again. We had to get him inside, out of the heat and off to the hotel.
Paperwork was amazing. 5 copies of the General Declarations (GDs) were needed along with other commercial forms all having to be delivered to seemingly random offices.
Eventually we made it to the hotel which was the last we saw of Ken that day. Peter and I met up with Les and Steven in the bar for the first of many beers.
WOA had booked a great crab restaurant that evening as an ideal opportunity to meet up with all the other pilots that were to join the trip. The food was excellent (if you like crab that is) and the beer ensured a relaxed environment where old friends and new we reunited or introduced.
Day 2
Early next morning we arrived late at Seletar after getting lost in the taxi. Delivered another half dozen forms to several offices again and we headed out to our planes.
Todays leg was initially a 3 hour flight east over the ocean to Kuching in East Malaysia. Refuel and continue for another 3 hours North east to the beautiful Kota Kinabalu at the northern end of East Malaysia.
The plan was to fly as a formation of 3-4 planes however ATC would not allow this request and we had to fly alone. This was a concern as Marcus had the only life raft between us so we wanted to be as close to him as possible. Marcus advised he had stowed the life raft and two crates of Tiger beer together. Apparently the only thing you really need if you have to ditch!!! Marcus is a real boy scout!!
Fortunately we were the second aircraft to leave so with Peter flying and me on radio we were advised to climb to 4000ft overhead the airfield before setting course eastbound. This was to give suitable altitude clearance so we could cross the very busy Changi airport approach path. We continued climbing to 11500ft and settled down for the long sea crossing tightening the straps on our life jackets.
Les soon joined us at 7500ft. The weather was beautiful and we could easily see his red and white sports machine below us against the backdrop of miles of open blue sea. Given his limited cockpit space and instrumentation we did all we could to assist him in radio and navigation during the crossing as ATC demanded information from him that he could not give. Les suffers many frustrations with ATC due to his limited instrumentation and using an aircraft not best suited for long cross country flights. This was not to be the end of Les’s battles with Air Traffic. However it was a welcome entertainment for the rest of us to listen in.
The first sighting of the coastline of East Malaysia was indeed a welcome sight. When over huge stretches of water in a small single engine plane is doesn’t do any good to start thinking about how many moving parts there is in the engine and what could go wrong. Much better to distract yourself and fiddle with the GPS or read an interesting chart. Anything to keep your mind off all that water below.
Peter took us in for a nice approach to the Runway through some pretty heavy ground turbulence and we were soon parked on the ramp awaiting refueling. Before shutting down ATC advised they didn’t have our outbound flight plans, which was a surprise as we believed we had one plan for both legs and we had got to Kuching ok. Over the next 30 minutes the other aircraft all arrived.
Ground services did a good job of refueling us all and we called up after 45 mins for startup clearance. Sadly ATC had other plans and refused us all due to problems with the flightplans. This eventually required one of the WOA staff to walk to the tower and pay some navigation charges adding to a total of around USD15. For this we had been delayed over an hour already.
Once this had been resolved we requested again for startup clearance and were told to wait. Time was getting late and we were concerned that we may arrive at KK after sunset if we didn’t get away soon. Given the heat in the cockpits and batteries wearing down tempers were getting short. Eventually ATC cleared us all to start and then held us for another 30 minutes for no understandable reason. Les by this stage was getting very agitated due to cockpit heat, engine overheats and possibilities of landing after dark and in possible bad weather (neither of which he can do). Radio calls from Les to ATC were less than friendly and probably didn’t help the situation. We finally got cleared to taxi and we, in TAR, were first to go with everyone else trailing behind and clearly very keen to get in the air soonest.
ATC insisted in giving us an IFR departure clearance for which we kept telling them we were VFR. I was flying this leg with Peter on radio. In the rush to get off I had still not been given a VFR departure route and hence made up my own after takeoff. This didn’t please ATC as they had to vector a MAS 737 around us.
Well thats what happens when you stress out tired pilots I guess. Anyhow we were climbing and onto track for KK listening in on radio to hear the others behind us. After 30 mins we had still not heard anything and were becoming very concerned. We had no idea the chaos that had happened just after we left.
Apparently, after we departed, the next aircraft (Diamond DA40) took the runway with Les number two behind that in his Extra. After 5 minutes sat on the runway ATC told the DA40 to taxi off the runway to clear for other landing traffic. First time I have ever heard an instruction like this to an aircraft on the runway. Clearly ATC hadn’t finished their ridiculous handling of our troupe. Les had enough by this stage as there was now no way he would make KK in daylight. Hence he rightly called ATC advising he was returning to the ramp immediately (after chastising them for ruining the event for everyone by all the unnecessary delays). This return involved moving the other aircraft and an Air Asia A320 to clear a path for his return. Eventually the others got in the air and Les was left alone in Kuching to march up to the tower and explain some facts of life to their, likely deaf, ears.
We were so relieved to finally hear Marcus come on frequency 45 mins later and we immediately switched to our air to air frequency of 123.45 to get the story from him.
The rest of the flight was quiet and we could hear the others eventually checking in on frequency and asking us for weather reports ahead. Marcus caught up with us north of Brunei and we watched him sailing 2000ft above us as the sun was getting low in the sky.
KK assumed we were IFR traffic and cleared us for the ILS approach to the runway.
Well this would give me a chance to polish up on my instrument skills and I had the charts available so I accepted the approach. It was pretty dark by then but we could stay visual if necessary with Peter and Ken acting a safety pilots.
The approach was a beautiful picture apparently. I was watching the instruments all the way down so missed most of it but it worked out well and we touched down 3 hours after take off.
After refueling and clearing immigration (more GDs) we were soon in the bus to the hotel with Marcus and his crew (Kelly, his wife and Piers). I decided to call Les to check what happened but after 10 minutes of abuse on the phone I decided to hang up and call him next day. He was not a happy person and hadn’t calmed down by then.
We settled into the lovely Tanjong Aru resort for a well earned drink.
Day 3
It was planned to meet after breakfast for an early ride to the airport but as no-one else was there we went alone and did our CIQ quickly and walked back to TAR. The other aircraft were all scattered around the parking bay waiting for their crews so we prepped TAR and were ready to go by the time the others arrived.
Hence with Peter at the controls and me back on radio we were back in the air heading for a 2:30min flight to Puerto Princesa in the lower part of the Philippines. Ken seemed more than content to sit in the back as official photographer and manage all the paperwork. Sadly our Attitude Indicator decided this was a good time to stop working. That’s gonna make IFR flight much more interesting.
Just after we departed we heard Les calling inbound to KK. Seems he had a very early start from Kuching and was rapidly catching us up.
Back to 10,000ft we signed off from KK approach radio and sat in silence with no-one to talk to as we crossed the tip of east Malaysia back over the sea.
Very soon we could see the first islands of the Philippines. The beautiful azure blues around the eastern sides of the islands reminded me of an earlier trip around the Bahamas. It looked so inviting you just wanted to go land there and chill on those beautiful deserted beaches. It was a very quiet flight but eventually we started hearing the others behind us. Some were catching up due to their higher airspeeds. TAR is an excellent cruising long range aircraft but is not particularly fast .
Around 40 miles from Puerto Princesa we finally managed to make radio contact with their approach frequency. I always enjoy that first radio contact in a new country when you hear the different accents over the airwaves. Philippine ATC we found to be very casual and relaxing throughout the trip and their accents were very clear.
Around 20 miles out we heard Les calling a position report on frequency. His report being “I have just left Malaysia” was met with great mirth from the TAR crew. I didn’t feel it was worth forwarding that to PP approach for fear of too many confused questionsJ. We were busy setting up for the approach Well, at least Les was quickly catching us up!!!
We hugged the eastern side of the island chain and descended for an easy landing at PP to park up next to two other WOA planes that had arrived earlier from different origins.
We were met by very friendly ground staff and presented with garlands of beachshells and a big welcome. Had we known how much this was going to cost us we may not have enjoyed it so much but they had CIQ and transport waiting for us and we were at our hotel in no time. Arriving in our room Peter turned on the airband radio and immediately heard Les on frequency requesting to do some aerobatics over the field. Much to the consternation of the ATC staff who, I don’t think, had ever heard of aerobatics over their field. Les always has to make a memorable entrance ;-)
We declined the organized bus and boat trip to the caves to the north as it required 2 hours in a bus to get there (and 2 hours back). Those that went did say it was worth the trip but I personally enjoyed the rest in the hotel bar and a snooze later in the afternoon.
PP is not top of the holiday destinations and the town is nothing to write home about. Actually was a bit dull. WOA arranged a really nice dinner near the beach and we sat around eating, drinking and briefing for the trip to Clark the next day. Back at the hotel we took a walk to check out the nightlife which solely consisted of drinking beers at a roadside bar (with a few girls giving a fire dancing show right next to a petrol station). Yep, that was the summation of PP night activity.
Was later informed by WOA that PP handed a bill of USD900 per aircraft additional handling fee on top of what we had already paid. This was a big shock and was clearly a blatant rip off. No-one had that kind of money on them to pay the bill so PP kept one of the pilots back as hostage so WOA could pay when they returned in a few days.
WOA eventually negotiated it on return to USD500 per aircraft and paid it to release the poor guy. Awful rip off and pretty much ruined the trip for everyone when they found out.
Day 4
Early next morning we were back at the airport getting TAR ready for the last outbound leg. 3 hours north to Clark. We briefed to do a photo shoot with 4 aircraft enroute. I took the controls with Peter on radio and Ken again in the back.
Some miscommunication by the camera plane caused us to end up behind the others and it took us some time to catch up with them again. However once we did we got some amazing air to air shots of the other three aircraft in close formation at 10,000ft.
We separated about an hour away from Subic Bay and sat back to enjoy the view. I knew Marcus was very close to us but we couldn’t find him. Little did we know he was right behind us following in silence popping out ahead of us when least expected it. Gave me a shock to suddenly see another aircraft right on our wing out of nowhere. Thanks Marcus… Grrrr!!!
Over Subic Bay we had a beautiful view of the whole bay and the mountains behind it. We started a slow descent so as to avoid the turbulence around the hills as much as possible however it did get pretty bumpy once we were below 7000ft. Clark has two main runways 20L/20R and 02L/02R. We had been briefed to expect 02L which would be an almost straight in approach however the controller cleared us for 20L which meant crossing the approach path and a long downwind (and subsequent long taxi to the parking area). We were a bit confused and question this to be sure before setting up for a left downwind to 20L. On taxiing back we were about to cross 02L to get to the ramp when the DA40 behind us (also cleared for 20L) tried to land on 02L. ATC urgently called them to go around and we watched them sail over our heads and reposition for the correct runway. Glad that wasn’t us!!!
So we made it. 12.5 hours total flying. Now we could rest a few days before the reverse trip.
Didn’t take us long to get TAR wrapped up and a bus to the hotel. Was glad Les had booked us the hotel in town as the hotel WOA booked was on the airbase and a long way from anywhere.
Time for a long awaited drink!!
Angeles City is famous for its bar streets so we were not short of places to eat and drink. …and drink we did J
Day 5
Headache…. Early call around 7 am from Yeo Meng (The WOA organizer) asking if I could come to the airfield to fly TAR in a display. Am sure I had got back from the bar around 2:30am so didn’t think it wise to even consider going near a plane. Hence I politely declined.
Later the 3 of us went to airfield after a good breakfast to watch the show. WOA had arranged to visit a cultural event nearby. By the time we arrived the show had almost finished but they insisted we helped ourselves to the buffer lunch. After the large breakfast we had recently consumed it was not actually as welcome as it looked.
From there we went back to the WOA hotel for an excellent seminar with discussions on various interesting subjects. Well done WOA…More food laid on of course.
Not such a late night but drank plenty and Marcus made a name for himself for bringing a camera. A lot of people want to get that memory card off you Marcus.
Day 6
Another early call to do a display and was feeling much better so headed out to the field. Peter had arrived earlier and had pre-flighted TAR already in anticipation.
Ken wasn’t answering his phone.
We had 5 aircraft in our formation and all taxied out together. The plan was to take off behind each other and do three low level (100ft) approaches in front of the crowd one behind another. Was so glad to have Peter acting as spotter as it was so difficult to see the other aircraft and stay in position. Fortunately everyone called in with position reports so we could ensure we kept suitable separation. The display went well and we all came back and parked.
We requested fuelling up to full tanks as we were leaving the next day. The ground handlers only had 20 liter drums and a funnel so it was painfully slow work watching all the aircraft getting fueled up. In the end we left them with instructions on fuelling TAR and we went home. Just hope they fully refuel as we have a long trip tomorrow.
Peter and I returned to Angeles to find somewhere to eat and have a well deserved massage.
Day 7
Clark – KK
Long day ahead and both Peter and I woke in the middle of the night with food poisoning. It was not pretty and couldn’t have happened on a worse day.
Checking out the hotel we found a drugstore and dosed up on Imodium and stomach pills.
The event traffic to the airfield was gruesome. We were very late by the time we got to the plane and Peter and I were suffering badly. We left Ken to do all paperwork for us. Was annoyed to see TAR hadn’t been fully refueled so had to get them to come out again and top the tanks off. Also all the flight plans needed to be resubmitted so I sat under the wing of the DA40, baking in the heat and feeling worse by the minute, writing out a new international flight plan so we had some chance of getting out of there.
Most of the aircraft planned to track back to PP, refuel and CIQ there before continuing to KK. Due to the excellent range of TAR we had planned to go direct to KK without a fuel stop so we had to CIQ at Clark. This took an awful amount of time and I almost passed out twice in the customs area as I was still suffering badly. Peter didn’t look much better. We were aware that storms were forecast for KK in late afternoon so didn’t want to delay any more than necessary. As it was it was 1pm before we were cleared to start engines.
Ken was concerned about the forecast bad weather on arrival and with the AI not working asked if Peter and I would do the 5 hour flight. We agreed but knew we were not in a good state to fly.
As we had a long leg I requested 12,500ft which was the maximum we could get without oxygen and would assure us a good fuel burn. It was the highest we had ever taken TAR. The last 2000ft seemed to take forever to reach but we did eventually get there and leaning the engine gave us an amazing 9 gallons per hour. After what we had burnt getting to altitude our fuel computer showed we had enough fuel not just for KK but also to get to Kuching. A total of 8 hours flight time. Our bladders would give up first.
Neither of us felt very good throughout the flight and the thin air gave us light throbbing headaches to add to the bad stomachs. Given the surplus fuel we had it would have made sense to use a lower altitude but we weren’t making good decisions that day.
After a total of 5hours 5 mins we landed at KK and were glad to shutdown and get the refueling done. We were all exhausted and I just wanted to go to bed having eaten nothing all day. It was by far the hardest flight of the trip mainly because of our sorry states of health.
Day 8
KK – BRA
Woke next morning feeling much better. Even managing a light breakfast but wasn’t confident enough to eat anything too heavy at risk of reigniting the stomach problems.
We had the longest overall trip to do today so needed to be in good form.
This would involve a 3 hour trip to Kuching then a hopefully quick refueling before heading direct back to Bernam River. A 4hr 30min flight mainly over ocean.
We had several aircraft all calling up for startup clearance at the same time and KK tower decided to ignore us all completely by pretending they couldn’t hear our calls. Here we go again.
After around 30 mins waiting we finally got startup clearance and were then kept waiting again for another 20 mins. With such a long trip ahead and Kuching ATC to deal with later tempers were getting frayed again. Les complained to the tower several times as we all were. Les and Marcus were going to fly formation to Kuching. Once Marcus was released Les followed immediately and almost hit a taxiway lamp with his right gear fairing as he went round the corner. I really wish ATC would understand the pressures they add to GA pilots by acting this way. It is a serious flight safety hazard.
Ken agreed to fly this leg with me in my usual right seat position.
We finally got into the air over an hour after first requesting startup hoping for a quick turnaround in Kuching. Time was critical as we needed to arrive back in BRA before dark or we would need to divert to Subang.
Enroute over the island of Labuan we were disturbed to hear the Cirrus SR22 close behind us piloted by Yeo Meng call an emergency with engine problems. They advised they were descending with the intention of landing on the beach. We offered our assistance to return and follow them down but they said they could probably make the airport. As they descended thru 10000ft the engine problems settled down so they continued to Kuching behind us. Was a worrying moment but it was suspected to be a mixture problem which sorted itself out at a lower altitude. Panic over!!!
Otherwise the flight was uneventful and Ken safely delivered us to Kuching 3 hours later.
I was really concerned that we had to be in the air again with 90mins of landing to get to BRA before dark. After our previous problems at Kuching I wasn’t confident.
However arriving on the ramp I was pleased to see the ground services people ready to go with fuel pump and drum and they immediately sprung into action when we shut down.
I went into the terminal to buy some food and drinks expecting to come back and sit waiting for our departure clearance.
Was extremely surprised to see Peter and Ken waiting for me saying we are already cleared to start. Said our goodbyes to the other planes, leapt in quickly, started the engine and we were taxiing within 45mins of landing. Amazing!!
Last leg of the trip and we all felt pretty good. Peter was flying again and me in my usual position. We climbed out to 10000ft and settled down for another long sea crossing.
Marcus and Les went direct to Singapore whilst we went direct for Tioman (a small island on the east coast of peninsula Malaysia). We kept in contact with them for some time until our distances diverged enough that we lost contact.
After calling in a position report we were surprised to hear a female voice on frequency calling Ken's name. Ken immediately recognized it to be Kimberley, a friend based in Subang who flies a corporate LearJet. We switched to 123.45 and chatted for a while as Kim flew thousands of feet above us on basically the same track. Ken harboured a satisfied smug smile that even 200 miles out over the ocean at 10,000ft he could find one of his female friends… OK you win that one!!! After 20 mins Kim passed us the latest weather for Subang and signed off. Am sure she was on the ground and heading home before we even crossed the Malaysian coastline.
Tioman island was a welcome sight and the stormscope was, for the first time on the trip, showing storm activity ahead around KL and to the north. It was the last thing we wanted to see so late into the trip. I requested a direct track from Tioman to BRA and after a few minutes ATC cleared us direct. As we neared the mountain range that we needed to cross to get to BRA we could clearly see several storms in activity to the north and south of us but the path directly ahead happily was right in the gap between them. The stormscope showed more storms ahead near the coastline but they wouldn’t be a problem as were were already starting the descent. The visibility dropped dramatically once we descended after the mountains and we struggled to make out places on the ground below. However eventually our home airfield honed into sight and we signed off from ATC thanking them for their help. The airfield was very wet and it would seem we have arrived just after a storm had cleared the area. Perfect timing and we were on the ground and shutdown 4hr35mins after takeoff.
We sat for a moment listening to the relative silence only broken by the sound of the gyro instruments running down.
We had done it. 25hours of flight time and the only problem had been the AI failure. Amazingly we still felt quite refreshed and pretty pleased with ourselves.
It was just left to put TAR away for a well earned rest, load the car up with our bags and return to KL.
SMS messages passed around showed that everyone had arrived home safely. What an amazing feat given the 10 aircraft that joined in and the distances flown.
My hat goes off to the WOA staff for all their excellent organization. I really look forward to their next planned trip when this time we will not be the new boys and will have the chance to rejoin our new friends. The passion for GA that Yeo Meng and Siva showed was an inspiration. The dedication of all the other WOA staff to make everything as seamless as possible to the rest of us was truly amazing. Well done guys and girls and thank you. Also want to thank all the fliers and families that attended who showed us what GA is all about in SE Asia.
We vowed to return to East Malaysia to explore Mount Kinabalu from the air. Clearly ATC in East Malaysia struggles with VFR traffic. Everything seems much easier if you declare IFR.
The money incident at PP soured everyone’s feeling to visiting the Philippines again and put a cloud over the whole trip. Because of this I am not sure anyone will be so keen to return for another visit. So sad after all the lovely people we met there and the helpful ATC that assisted us.
I think the next planned WOA trip is to Bali in Indonesia. Am sure it will be a much easier trip and I will be going along for sure. Who wouldn’t…
I think we all walked away with a lot of lessons learnt so, for that alone, it was a very successful trip.
Graham Pritchard