Flying Easter Island to Papeete, French Polynesia, Part Two

By Jack

[I made a previous post about this part of the flight that was mainly photos, so some of this may be redundant, but there also are some additional flying geek details here.]

On December 3, the weather and winds looked great for the long (and recently revised) flight from Easter Island/SCIP to Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia/NTAA with a fuel stop on the tiny  Tureia/NTGY atoll. It would be a long day right at our flight and duty time limits for a crew of two, but the weather forecast was great for the whole trip and we were well rested after five days on Easter Island.

The Easter Island airport does not normally open until 0900 local on Mondays and we wanted to be wheels-up by 0915 in order to arrive Papeete/Tahiti comfortably before dark. In order to allow time for clearing outbound customs and preflight, we requested that the airport open 30 minutes early. Of course, there was a substantial cost associated with that as they bring all the airport employees in early...ATC, customs, security, fire fighting, etc. But, we want this flight to go smoothly with plenty of room for any unplanned delays.

This was the planned route...

Our handlers picked us up at our accommodations and whisked us through customs and security quickly. We even got to start customs a little earlier than 0830 local and thus were to the plane by 0835. 

We had fueled the plane the day before in the afternoon with an OAT (outside air temperature) of 27 C. Given the max range flight ahead, we also had two five gallon cans of fuel filled in order to "top-off" the tanks in the cooler morning temperatures. We only got about five extra gallons in the tanks from the cans, but felt good that we had done everything possible to depart with maximum fuel.

Fueling on the military ramp at Easter Island...

By 0900 local we were ready to start and depart for the planned 8+30 flight to Tureia atoll.

Carolyn captured the departure from Easter Island with some pretty spectacular views of the island (including a nice view of the crater of the Rano Kau volcano) as we completed the almost 180 degree turn after departing on runway 10...

YouTube video: https://youtu.be/58qRb4m5amk

The flight to Tureia was about five hours of nothing but ocean and then scattered uninhabited islands and atolls as described in this previous post. As someone who finds very remote places lightly touched by humans fascinating, coming back to this part of the world in a boat and visiting some of these mysterious bits of land in the middle of such vast nothingness is compelling.

HF communications with Tahiti Oceanic along the route from the border of their FIR (flight information region) started very poorly and we mainly used the sat phone with the direct dial phone number we asked for prior to departing Easter Island. It appears from the Totegegie airport chart that Tahiti Oceanic has a remote HF outlet on Totegegie Island...

We suspect Tahiti Oceanic was using their HF outlet on the main island of Tahiti which is 900 NM north of Totegegie. In any event, the sat phone backup worked.

Note the "SELCAL" notation on the chart above. More about SELCAL later, but the teaser is SELCAL rocks!

For any other aviators planning a flight along this route, here are the phone numbers for reference:

• Easter Island/SCIP ATC control tower: +8816 2348 9658
• Santiago Oceanic FIR: +8816 2348 9497
• Tahiti Oceanic FIR: +8707 7660 3277

I posted previously (here) photos of some of the interesting and uninhabited islands and atoll along our 8+30 flight from Easter Island to Tureia as well as a video of the approach and landing. Here are a couple more photos from Becky arriving Tureia.

Crosswind for runway 36...

Wide downwind for runway 36...

Winds were light and the landing was uneventful. The airport fire truck greeted us along with the folks that would provide us fuel from four 55 gallon barrels.

A quick video tour of the Tureia...

YouTube video:  https://youtu.be/gzbdMTj-UWo

The very careful process of checking fuel quality from each barrel...

YouTube: https://youtu.be/wU1FocxpS2A

After the relatively quick and efficient refueling, we contacted Tahiti Oceanic on the ground using HF (it was crystal clear) to get our IFR clearance for the 3+05 planned flight to Papeete/Tahiti. Weather was great for the departure (although hot in the cabin) as we bid the folks that had helped us goodbye. They only spoke French and we only spoke English, but communication was made.

Enroute to Papeete/Tahiti the weather reports (METARs) indicate some passing rain showers, but nothing significant in terms of being able to land.

We got the RNAV approach to runway 22...

One note about RNAV/GPS outside the US. Although this approach had minimums for LNAV/VNAV, none of the LNAV/VNAV approaches we have used so far on this trip outside the US actually had the advisory glideslope (VNAV).  Not sure if that is a Garmin or Jeppesen issue, but evidently the advisory glideslope is not coded into the database.

Our descent clearance from FL300 (30,000 FT) came a little late and we had to do a 360 degree turn to lose altitude before finishing the approach, but it all worked out fine.  We saw the airport more than 10 NM out on final and made a normal landing on the wet runway.

As sometimes happens at airports without much transient GA (general aviation) traffic, they parked us on a "stand" normally used by the airlines...

After the painless clearing of customs (with our Air Tahiti handler walking us through the whole process), we went to a nearby airport hotel, had a room service dinner, and went to sleep early. Josh and Becky were staying in Papeete/Tahiti, but the next morning Carolyn and I would make the short flight to beautiful Bora Bora/NTTB. The scenery on that short flight was fantastic (see this previous post for photos and a video of landing at the incredible Bora Bora airport).

We had a six day break in Bora Bora before heading to Auckland, New Zealand/NZAA via the tiny island of NiUe/NIUE on December 10. I'll pick-up the aviation part of the story from there in the next post.

Flying Easter Island to Papeete, French Polynesia, Part One

By Jack

The Email

Stepping back in the story a few days.

We flew from Austin, Texas/KAUS to Santiago, Chile/SCEL on November 25-26.  It was a long two days of flying, but all worked out fine arriving in Santiago late on November 26.

One of the two most complex logistical challenges of this trip was to get fuel and permission to make a fuel stop on our way from Easter Island/SCIP to Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia/NTAA.  The non-stop distance from Easter Island to Papeete is almost 2,300 NM and there is typically a small headwind, so that is much farther than our unmodified plane can fly without a fuel stop.

Josh worked for many weeks with our Air Tahiti handler and the French Polynesian Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to work out a fuel stop at Totegegie Island/NTGJ which farthest south airport in French Polynesia and the most equidistant between Easter Island to Papeete at 1,405 NM or about 61% of the non-stop distance. Totegegie Island also has an AFIS (Aerodrome Flight Information Service) service and instrument approaches which is rare for the outlying French Polynesian Islands.

But there were multiple logistical challenges to making the stop at Totegegie Island.

First, the French Polynesian customs and immigration service made it clear we could not stay on the island (actually, the nearby village of Rikitea) overnight as there are no customs or immigration officers on the island. However, they would allow a quick fuel stop with proper documentation provided in advance. We would have preferred to spend the night to break-up a long day of flying, but the duty and flight time for the entire trip from Easter Island to Papeete was within our limits and the weather is usually excellent along this route in December. So, we accepted the offer of a quick fuel stop at Totegegie and then continuing on to Papeete. So that problem was addressed.

The second challenge was the AFIS staff at Totegegie only speak French. At any airport classified as "international" the air traffic control staff must speak English, but Totegegie is not an international airport and thus English is not required. While AFIS is not a formal air traffic control operation, communication is required. Thus, the French Polynesian CAA requires a French speaker onboard any aircraft operating at Totegegie. None of us are fluent in French. Josh knows a little French and did some brushing-up on "aviation French," but the French Polynesian CAA required that he call them and demonstrate his Frencg language skills. Evidently just aviation French was not enough - they said they wanted a fluent Frencg speaker on-board. Ugh. We started a frantic search for a French speaker that could join us for the flight and had some pretty good options. Fortunately, the CAA folks finally relented and said they would develop some special procedures for us to use at Totegegie and would waive the French speaking required. Problem number two solved.

The final problem was fuel. Totegegie does not normally offer fuel service to transient aircraft. Air Tahiti operates a once-a-week flight there in an ATR-42 and keeps their on private fuel supply for that flight, but one must make special arrangements with them to gain access to that fuel. Fortunately, Air Tahiti agreed several weeks before we launched from Austin to sell us some of their fuel at Totegegie. Whew, another problem solved. Without fuel between Easter Island to Papeete/Tahiti the whole trip would not work. So, we confidently departed Austin on November 25 believing all the logistical hurdles had been cleared.

Then I checked my email in the van between the Aerocardal FBO and airport hotel after landing in Santiago late on November 26 and read this from our handler at Air Tahiti...

Our hearts sank.  Without a fuel stop between Easter Island and Papeete the whole trip was a no-go. Waiting two weeks for fuel at Totegegie would have required a massive rearrangement of our schedule.

Tureia/NTGY

But, the handler offered the option of stopping at Tureia/NTGY for fuel. Would that work?

We had not even considered Tureia because it had no services at all (no AFIS), no instrument approaches, and was farther from Easter Island than Totegegie and thus less equidistant (1,642 NM to Tureia versus 1,405 NM for Totegegie. Could we even reach Tureia from Easter Island non-stop?

We quickly started "doing the numbers." It turns out that with light winds and operating at long range cruise power rather than maximum cruise power, we could reach Tureia with about two hours fuel reserve. We had three hours reserve planned for Easter Island, but Tureia has the advantage of a couple emergency diversion airports short of Tureia including our originally intended destination of Totegegie and Marutea Atoll/NTGS. If we had to divert to one of those airports we would be stuck there for a while waiting for a special delivery of barrels of fuel, but it would be safe.

However, reducing to long range range cruise power for the flight to Tureia would add about 45 minutes of flight time to an already long flight day. So we crunched the numbers closely and determined that we could - just barely - conduct the Easter Island-Tureia-Papeete/Tahiti within our flight and duty time limits for a crew of two pilots in all daylight operations and good weather (12 flight hours and 14 "duty" time hours).

After triple checking everything, Josh and I decided we  could do the flight with adequate safety margins assuming we conducted the flight on a day with appropriate winds forecast (to assure adequate fuel reserve at Tureia) and good weather at Tureia and Papeete/Tahiti.

December 3 was our scheduled flight day from Easter Island to Papeete/Tahiti, so we started watching the wind and weather forecasts closely for that day while relaxing in Easter Island. If the forecasts looked good a day or two before or after December 3, we would change our schedule. However, long term forecasts (which can be unreliable) were looking good for December 3 during our stay on Easter Island. So, assuming no significant change in the forecasts, we planned to launch on the long Easter Island-Tureia-Papeete/Tahiti flight on Monday, December 3.

I'll pick-up with the story of the actual flight day in the next post.

Easter Island to Tahiti

By Jack

The longest day of flying (Monday, December 3) is complete and it was a big success. We flew form Easter Island/SCIP to Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia/NTAA with a fuel stop at tiny Tureia, French Polynesia/NTGY. The total trip is 2,350 NM or 2,705 SM. It was a long day (11.6 hrs flying and 13.8 hrs "duty" time), but not too difficult as the weather was almost perfect, all in good daylight, and the logistics went smoothly.

Today (Tuesday, December 4), we made the short hop (45 minutes) from Papeete/NTAA to Bora Bora/NTTB and it was spectacular.

Truly one of the best two days of aviation in my 40 years of flying experience.

I'll work on some nitty-gritty technical flying oriented posts for each leg of the trip over the next few days as we have six days "off" in Bora Bora to relax. But for now I will just post some photos of the last two days without a lot of commentary.

Departing Easter Island/SCIP...

South Pacific nothingness for the first five hours of flight from Easter Island...

Then the first view of land for almost 1,000 miles...the mysterious and uninhabited Henderson Island...

After Henderson Island, several small atolls and islands pass by. All are uninhabited. Oeno Island....

Ducie Island...also uninhabited...

An atoll I cannot find named on any map (22 00.90S 136 11.47W)...

[Edited to add that my #1 son identified the atoll above as Maria Est atoll.)

Although all these islands are uninhabited, it is nice to see land.

After a couple more hours we pass our originally intended refueling stop of Totegegie Island/NTGJ and continue on to Tureia Island/NTGY which has fuel. Landing at Tureia Island/NTGY...

On the ground at Tureia Island/NTGY...

The fueling rig at Tureia Island/NTGY...

Josh and Jack at Tureia Island/NTGY after completing the refueling....

Final approach to Papeete (Tahiti)/NTAA with a few rain showers about...

Parked at Papeete (Tahiti)/NTAA with the "big guys"...

After a good night's rest, we depart Tuesday morning, Dec 04, 2018 for the short flight (45 mins) from Papeete (Tahiti)/NTAA to Bora Bora/NTTB. They don't have a tow bar for the PC-12 (not sure they had ever seen one), so I called tower for pushback approval and then we did it the old fashioned way with manpower. The captain steers, of course...

Some great scenery enroute to Bora Bora...

Saw a rainbow enroute to Bora Bora/NTTB which I took as a good sign for our trip....

Approaching Bora Bora which James Michener called the most beautiful island in the world while he was writing South Pacific...

Left downwind for a visual approach to runway 11 at Bora Bora/NTTB (airport built by US during WWII)...

Final approach to Bora Bora...

Parked at Bora Bora/NTTB and ready to go to the hotel for six "off" days...

Probably the most efficient airport to hotel transportation in the world. A one hundred yard golf cart ride from the plane to a private dock for our hotel and then a 15 minute boat ride to the hotel with some magnificent scenery along the way.

That's all for now. Geeky pilot details to come.

Off to Tahiti

By Jack

Another quick note to say we blast-off on the longest leg of the trip tomorrow (Monday, December 3)...Easter Island/SCIP to Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia/NTAA with a fuel stop at tiny Tureia, French Polynesia/NTGY. The total trip is 2,350 NM or 2,705 SM.

Our original plan for the fuel stop was Totegegie, French Polynesia/NTGJ, but the ship delivering fuel to Totegegie was delayed by 10 days and they could not spare enough fuel for us. Tureia is a nice runway, but a little less equidistant between Easter Island and Tahiti (1,645 NM) which requires us to do that first leg at the slower (but more fuel efficient) long range cruise power setting in order to maintain our desired two hours of fuel reserve. This means adding about one hour to the total trip time, but it is still within our flight and duty time limits for a crew of two pilots. Plus, the weather is forecast to be about as good as it gets and the whole flight will be comfortably within daylight hours (there is a five hour time zone change between Easter Island and Tahiti).

Tureia (population 250) should be an interesting stop...

After an overnight in Papeete, we leave Tuesday morning (December 4) for the short but spectacular flight to Bora Bora where we will have six days “off.” I will get caught up on describing the technical flying stuff while there.

Taking it easy on Easter Island December 2

by Carolyn

Jack was in flight planning mode, and sadly the botanical garden was closed. It was a quiet morning for reading, and I recommend A Companion to Easter Island by James Grant-Peterkin. I will paraphrase his excellent observation: when the islanders set up their Moai over 1000 years ago, it was to secure favor from the gods and to be provided security, success and wealth. Ten centuries later, that’s what tourism has brought to Easter Island, which enjoys one of the highest standards of living anywhere in the Pacific.

Another great read is Easter Island: A Novel by Jennifer Vanderbes. It tells multiple stories and loosely follows historical events/persons, including the work of Katherine Routledge in 1914, the appearance Graf von Spee, vice admiral of Germany's World War I East Asiatic fleet, and Dr. John Flenley, whose work on the Easter Island pollen provided evidence of the extinct palm trees.

We took a walk into town and bought a souvenir, stepped into the cathedral, and found the town square. It features a hibiscus collection, busts of the two signatories to the agreement which united Easter Island with Chile, and free WiFi.

Cathedral

Soccer game with world's coolest uniforms

Wifi hotspot...free!!

Easter Island was annexed by Chile in 1888

Our cottage at Marae Cabanas

Next stop, Tureia!

Interesting trivia...Easter Island is in the same time zone as New York City. There are only five species of land birds and 14 sea birds. 

Rano Raraku and Tongariki Saturday December 1

by Carolyn
Rano Raraku (quarry) and Tongariki

Jose, back for more, met us for today’s journey to the quarry, which consumed about 1/4 of the Rano Raraku volcanic cone. We beat most of the tourists and once again learned more about the design, manufacture and mythology of these statues. These particular Moai were in much better shape, because they were younger, many had been protected underground until excavated in the 1900’s, and they were relatively far from the corrosive effects of the sea air. We saw where they were carved out of the mother stone of the cliff, and it was explained that if a Moai fell during transport, they would be left along the trail. Legend and (some twentieth century recreations) say the statues were transported upright, “walking”, via ropes and a crane made from tall poles lashed together.

The Quarry consumed almost 1/4 of the volcanic cinder cone

Works in progress

Can you find the face?

(Jose has interviewed and recorded various families’ versions of legends associated with the Moai. Who is to say your truth is less true than someone else’s? One particular family claims each Moai is patterned from the individual’s penis...they didn’t exactly wear a lot of clothes in the classical period.)

Eye sockets are added only when the Moai are erected onto a platform (ahu)

Different statues sport different decorations, including elongated or stretched earlobes, tattoos, pockmarks, etc. All the final details such as eye sockets and paint would be added once the statue made it to an ahu. I think Jose told us it would take a year to carve a Moai from the quarry, but several generations to move it. Somehow, the way they viewed time is very different from how we view it...they didn’t see a person’s death as the end, merely a transition.

This guy had tattoos under his chin and on his left shoulder.

The only kneeling Moai

Excavations in the 1950's showed that 2/3 of a quarry Moai statues is buried under accumulated silt

From the quarry we hopped over to the Ahu Tongariki, with 15 Moai, it is the largest ceremonial structure in all of Polynesia. These Moai, too, were face down by the time Captain Cook stumbled across the island in 1774. It was further destroyed by tsunami in 1960. Restoration efforts began in 1992 which raised the foundation platform several feet. We met the Traveller - a Moai that was in Osaka, Japan, for one year. In exchange, the Japanese funded the restoration we enjoy today. They used cranes and it went much faster.

The Traveller

We decided to cook dinner ourselves tonight and visited a local grocery store. For a country where every conceivable tropical or subtropical fruit could be grown, fruit is absent in stores and restaurants. Vegetables are almost as scarce, but we found fresh onions, zucchini and tomatoes so we fixed a nice diversion from our fish, sweet potatoes and rice meals.

 Jack, Carolyn, Becky and Josh...fearless foursome!