Our guide, Jose Ika, picked us up at 8:45 and we drove to the edge of a eucalyptus plantation to start our walk to Easter Island’s highest point. Jose is a native Rapa Nui and he regaled us with tales of Polynesian settlement, mythology, archeology, history and culture. He is mostly self taught, and speaks Spanish, English and Japanese in addition to his native language. He met his Japanese wife when they were both 18. She had visited Easter Island several times and always signed up for his Japanese language tours. Because all the Rapa Nui are basically cousins, they are forbidden from marrying another islander. So, it worked out well to fall in love with a foreigner. They have two children and have lived all over the world, but it’s clear that Jose is happiest being a guide in his home country.
It was (thankfully) very overcast and windy as we worked our way uphill through the forest and pastures. Easter Island evolved from a series of three primary volcanoes at the corners of a triangle with lots of smaller volcanoes filling in between. All are completely dormant now after sliding off the hot spot. The craters have historically been wetlands and most today are still filled with reeds or trees.
All the trees, essentially all the plant life on Easter Island, has been introduced. Easter Island is the most remote inhabited place on the planet, some 1,500 miles from the nearest inhabited neighbor, Pitcairn Island. Polynesian explorers would have brought manioc and sweet potatoes and coconuts. There was once a native nut palm and tomomiro tree, but they are now extinct due to over harvesting and rats that arrived with the Polynesians. The cultural battles in the late 18th century and the introduction of large scale sheep farming left most of the island bare and susceptible to erosion. Twentieth century restoration efforts include the planting of many species of trees which has served to increase condensation and rainfall. Kew Botanical garden is working to reintroduce the tomomiro tree.
We made it to the top just as the clouds turned into rain, but it didn’t last long and we had great views of the town of Hanga Roa as we walked down the other side.
On top of Terevaka, the highest point on Easter Island. 1,500 feet
The town of Hanga Roa
Flame Tree - erythrina flabelliformis
Our last stop was Ahu Akivi, where there are seven Moai representing seven kings...and the only Moai that face the sea.
Ahu A Kivi
Jose dropped us off for lunch at a restaurant directly under the final approach to the airport and we were lucky enough to watch an airliner land.
After a siesta during the hottest part of the day, Becky had arranged a pelagic tour for the two birdwatchers. We met Sebastian and the boat captain and motored around the southwestern tip of the island to a set of rocky rookeries, home to frigate birds, various petrals, masked boobies and a lone brown booby.
The seas were “sporty”, and I was reminded again that I’m prone to motion sickness. Just as we were about to leave, Sebastian spotted a dead booby on the rock. Well, he just had to have it...loco, as the captain said! He managed to leap off the heaving boat, climb up and over the cliff, and descend the vicious surface to photograph and retrieve the carcass. Repeat in reverse and voila! Back on the boat with a dead bird. It’s something biologists live for I guess, because now he’ll have a stomach to dissect looking for micro plastics!
Just a quick note to say we arrived Easter Island (SCIP) uneventfully yesterday. Although one of the most logistically challenging legs of the trip, everything went almost perfectly. Weather and winds were great and the all important refueling at Robinson Crusoe Island (SCIR) worked as planned. Josh worked very diligently to get fuel shipped in barrels to Robinson Crusoe and it all worked well. The long flight to Easter Island (about eight hours) from Robinson Crusoe went just about exactly as planned taking just a few minutes longer than the flight plan with beautiful weather and smooth air the whole way. Landed with more than 2.5 hours of reserve fuel. Many thanks to friend Giuseppe for acting as dispatcher for the flight by sending us regular wind forecast and weather updates via our satellite messaging service.
Internet on Easter Island is very slow, so I will post a more complete update with all the gory aviation details and photos when we get to faster internet.
Next flight is from Easter Island to Tahiti scheduled for next Monday (Dec 3).
This is a special place. I remember reading Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl in the 70’s. I never dreamed I would actually visit Easter Island. It’s both bigger and greener than I had expected, which probably makes sense if you think about the specialization and complex society that was able to create the massive monuments (Moai) which make this small island so special.
Arrival!
Unfortunately, that society was beginning to cave in on itself shortly before European discovery by the Dutch in 1722 on Easter Sunday. Ecological disaster is suspected as the main culprit, but other causes...too many people and too few resources, shifts in weather patterns, suspicion between the classes, civil war, decline of traditional knowledge contributed to a lawless and starving culture. Warriors gained more power and the Ancestor Cult (an hereditary power structure) was replaced by the Bird Man Cult (power gained through individual competition, specifically finding the first sooty tern egg). The Spanish visited in 1770, bringing Europeans diseases, slave trading, and more civil war, further reducing the population. Something was to blame and the venerated statues seemed a good place to start. If your reincarnated stone ancestors, custom made from the likeness of human sacrifices, weren’t doing their job protecting you, just tear them down. Eventually all were toppled and none were standing by the time French missionaries arrived in 1860. They remained face down until restoration efforts in the mid to late twentieth century re-erected 50 Moai to guard the island. Forgiveness for details omitted....I’ve tried to summarize over 1000 years of history and culture into one paragraph!
Moai numbers:
887 total Moai
288 moved and erected on a platform (ahu)
397 Moai remaining at the quarry
92 Moai dropped on route to an ahu
110 Moai fragments or museum pieces
Average Moai is 12 feet tall and weighs 12.5 metric tons
Today, we explored the western end of the island, visiting the Reno Kau crater and 50+ reconstructed circular stone homes used by the high society members of the Bird Man Cult. These homes were damaged and plundered for their frescos by various modern era sailors, including Americans and British. There are now efforts by the Rapa Nui people to reclaim treasures scattered in museums around the world.
View from Orango to Motu Iti and Moto Nui, where Bird Man contestants would swim
Collapsed coffered roof of stone dwellings, amazingly similar to structures in Scotland's Orkney Island
The largest crater, Rano Kau, full of reeds and freshwater
Since we had a rental car, we drove to several other ahu (platforms) including Vinapu (where the Moai are still face down, Hana Kio’e, and Tahai, with several lone statues and an ahu holding five upright Moai. We caught the museum 45 minutes before it closed.
Partially restored Ahu at Vinapu. Note the incredible precision with these stones, similar to Inca projects in Peru.
Most Moai today are still on the ground.
Ahu Tahai
This Moai has been restored with red scoria top knot and shell eyes
I inadvertently published "Part Three" of the November 28 flight to Easter Island before finishing the story. Here is "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say.
Most of the cruise flight time on the flight to Easter Island was uneventful and Josh and I stretched our legs in the back regularly and I even took a few "power naps." Some scenes of life in the plane. Jack and Josh in their office...
Josh taking a break in the crew rest seat...
As I mentioned previously, for my breaks I tended to stretch out on the floor, do a few legs exercises to keep the blood flowing, and take a short nap.
About 7+45 into the flight it was finally time to start the descent to Easter Island. We were running a few minutes behind schedule as the winds were as bit stronger than forecast, but nothing significant. We would still land with substantially more than two hours of fuel reserve (based cruise level fuel burn) and the weather remained fantastic.
Santiago Oceanic told us (on HF) to contact the Easter Island tower on VHF. We were glad to get back to reliable and static free communications. The Easter Island tower immediately responded and told us to expect runway 10 which is almost always the active based on consistent southeast winds. We descended through a scattered layer of clouds and about 40 NM way our objective came into view. It was a wonderful sight...
The tower offered us a visual approach for runway 10 rather than the ILS which we readily accepted as it would save several minutes and the weather was great. We entered left downwind and overflew the island before turning left base (airport is just behind the wingtip)...
Turning final it was fairly bumpy and I had to "man handle" the plane a bit, but managed to get it on the ground in one piece.
The second half of Josh and Becky's video captures the approach and landing...
We parked on the "military" ramp where our handlers met us to escort us through the imigration and customs formalities. They told us the Chilean military "fleet" there consisted of one Cessna 337 Skymaster (which we later saw in flight) and one Piper Seminole. A fairly eclectic set of planes for such a remote location. Neither would have the range to go to any other island or the mainland.
On the military ramp at Easter Island (we were the only plane there)...
The military hangar....
A view of the airport with our trusty (and lonesome) bird in the foreground taken the next day...
The handlers said they get about two GA (general aviation) flights per month. Our handlers alsp were very efficient in getting us through customs and immigration quickly and we were greeted with traditional flower lei before going to our accommodations for the next five days just a few blocks form the airport...
The next four days were touring the island and learning about the unique cultural history of Easter Island which Carolyn has covered well in her posts so I will not duplicate. From an aviation perspective, the biggest excitement was having lunch at a restaurant directly under the final approach of runway 10 and watching one of the 2-3 daily LATAM 787 flights arrive.
Carolyn got a picture of me getting a picture of the 78 on short final...
She said something about me having a one-track mind...I can't imagine what she is talking about.
The other big aviation excitement was the Australian Prime Minister's plane (a Boeing Business Jet, a 737 version we were told) making a "technical" (fuel) stop late one evening on the way to the G20 conference in Argentina.
So, that is the story of flying an unmodified general aviation plane to Easter Island. It required a lot of planning, but the planning paid off with a safe and "no drama" flight...the only kind of flight I like.
I'll pick-up the aviation story in a couple of days with the flight from Easter Island to Tahiti/NTAA with a fuel stop on the tiny island of Tureia/NTGY. I'll also tell the tale of the email we got after arriving in Santiago on Nov 26 that almost brought the whole trip to a grinding halt.
With clearance in-hand and topped-off with fuel at Robinson Crusoe Island/SCIR, we were ready to depart for Easter Island around 0900 local. We taxied to the end of runway 14 and blasted off the mesa. I wasn't watching the radar altimeter, but Josh said it was pretty impressive to see it jump from about 100 FT to 500 FT in an instant as were cleared the cliff at the end of the runway.
Thanks to Josh and Becky for putting together this video...the first 1:30 is the departure from Robinson Crusoe Island.
Some photos of the departure...dramatic scenery as we departed to the southeast and made the full turn around to our west/northwest on course heading...
We had brief VHF contact with Santiago Oceanic (they have a remote VHF outlet on Robinson Crusoe) and then changed to HF and were able to maintain contact. But there was not much to say. "Maintain flight level 300 and report the next fix."
We were quickly on top of all the clouds and the air was completely smooth. For about 1,000 NM this was all we saw...
And occasionally this...
And occasionally big excitement with this view....
Our dear friend and co-captain on prior RTW flights, Giuseppe (aka, G-man), generously agreed to act as our dispatcher for this flight sending us regular updates on forecasted winds (very important to determine fuel reserves upon arrival at Easter Island) an weather updates. He had a small command center set-up at his office in Montana and communicated with us using the satellite text messaging feature of our Garmin InReach device (a very useful tool)...
We also asked G-man to use a ship tracking service (www.marinetraffic.com) to locate ships along our route in the very unlikely event that we would need to conduct a water landing, aka "ditching." After some time he send us this message back...
Not many! We entered the coordinates of the ones he found (none very close to our route) anyway...
About an hour into the flight into the flight we saw a plane! The plane, the plane! It was the first LATAM (#841) flight of the day from Santiago to Easter Island (normally there are 2-3 flights a day)...
We tried to call them just for fun on "five fingers" (123.45 Mhz) the air-to-air frequency most planes monitor when oceanic, but evidently they were not listening as we did not get a response. I wonder if they thought there was no way there would be another plane out in this part of the world and thus dispensed with the normal procedure of monitoring five fingers.
About six hours later, we saw the same plane coming the other way on the return flight!
OK, so our bird isn't the fastest in the sky, but she gets the job done!
Our communications with Santiago Oceanic had been fairly good on HF. We had to revert to sat phone a few times, but not too often. Without much else to do, making position reports was at least a little distraction.
On a long flight like this one, it is important that the crew stretch regularly, stay well hydrated, and eat normally. Josh and I regularly take turns leaving the cockpit and going to the back to flirt with our two very attractive female passengers and stretch out. Since we only have four people on this trip, we removed three of the six passenger compartment which leaves lots of room to stretch out. Here is a typical scene in the back...
It can't be seen very well in the photo above, but behind the seats the ladies are using is one crew rest seat with about four feet of leg room and next to it an area of flat floor of about 3x6 feet. I think Josh tended to recline in the crew rest seat for his "off" periods while I usually stretched out on the floor with pillows and a blanket and took a "power nap." While too much detail is probably not needed, suffice it to say we all stayed well hydrated and used the potty as needed to compensate.
By Monday evening, November 26, we had our permits in hand for the "big" Santiago/SCEL to Easter Island/SCIP flight with a fuel stop at Robinson Crusoe Island/SCIR (2,030 NM or 2,340 SM). The wind and weather forecast for Wednesday, November 28 looked ideal.
We got very lucky with the winds as the forecast for November 28 was essentially net zero wind component at FL300 (30,000 FT, our planned cruise altitude). Based on historical data, the 80% worst case value for that day is a 34 KT headwind, average is 25 KT headwind, and 80% best case is a 14 KT headwind. So having zero wind was a real outlier on the good side. We had allocated four days to just sit and wait for an acceptable wind forecast (more if needed), but got lucky and had excellent winds the first day of our window. So, Tuesday morning (November 27), Josh and I started working on the final details assuming an early Wednesday (November 28) morning launch.
After sleeping in a bit on Tuesday morning, Josh and I headed over to the dispatch/operations office at Aerocardal FBO where Jose G was helping us get all the details finalized. He double checked our flight plan reminding us the the special procedures for a flight to Easter Island requires computation of a "critical point" and inclusion of that in both in terms of elapsed flight time and latitude/longitude coordinates in the remarks section of the flight plan. It was not clear to us if the "critical point" was the Equal Time Point (ETP) or the Point of Safe Return (PSR). We calculated both and decided to include the ETP in the flight plan and got no questions from ATC.
Hanging out in the Aerocardal operations office for most of the afternoon also allowed us to chat with several Aerocardal pilots that operate to Robinson Crusoe Island regularly. Aerocardal has a small tourist business flying people to Robinson Crusoe Island in Dornier 228 aircraft and organizing several days of touring the island. The pilots that had experience at Robinson Crusoe gave us good advice, although nothing significant that we did not expect from our prior research. But, it is comforting to know you did not miss anything. We even talked to one "elder statesman" Aerocardal pilot (must have been in is 80s) that said he first landed at Robinson Crusoe in 1973 before there was an airport! He just landed on the flattest looking field he could find. Obviously he was in a plane designed for rough and short field operations (although I don't recall the exact type he mentioned).
Confident that all the details had been handled and we were well briefed, Josh and I headed back to the airport hotel for a good night's rest in preparation for an early departure the next day.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
We arrived at the Aerocardal FBO before sunrise and got the plane ready for departure.
We had had the plane fueled to maximum capacity the afternoon prior, but fuel expands and contracts with temperature. The energy content of the fuel is based on the mass, not the volume. Although our fuel tanks have a fixed volumetric capacity of 403 gallons, if fueled in warm temperatures, the tanks will hold less mass of fuel than at cooler temperatures. Practically speaking this means if you fuel a plane to the absolute top of the tanks at, say, a 30C OAT (outside air temperature) and then look into the tanks the next morning at a 15C OAT, you will find the tanks are no longer completely full and a few more gallons can be added. Given the criticality of fuel on the trip to Easter Island, we asked the ramp folks to top-off the tanks again this morning in the cooler temperatures. They got about seven more gallons in which is only about 12 minutes more flying time, but on a trip like this one you want every small advantage you can get.
The all important ATC approved flight plan from Santiago to Robinson Crusoe Island...
And the equally important approved flight plan from Robinson Crusoe Island to Easter Island (recived before departing Santiago)...
After getting our clearance and final pre-flight checks, we started-up and taxied to the runway. We were hoping for a quick taxi and immediate take-off to conserve fuel, but the morning airline departures from Santiago had already commenced and we arrived at the end of the runway #3 behind several big jets for take-off. After about a 10 minute wait we were cleared for take-off on a beautiful clear morning just after sunrise...
Leaving the Chilean coast we were told to contact Santiago center on HF frequency 10024 (Khz).
HF frequencies (generally 5-30 Mhz) have the big advantage of being able to reach long ranges (sometimes more than 1,000 NM) as compared to the VHF communications frequencies (120-135 Mhz) we typically use at home. HF can attain those great communication distances because the signal can "bounce" off layers of ionized atoms in the ionosphere (more detail here). VHF is strictly line-of-sight which means ranges of around 100-150 NM at the altitudes we use in cruise. However, HF has the big disadvantages of: 1.) lots of static; and 2.) inconsistent reception quality. VHF is essentially static free and if you are in range is usually rock-solid reliable. HF always has static and sometimes it takes multiple attempts to establish communications. In some cases HF communications can't be established at all and one has to revert to back-up plans (trying different frequencies, relaying through other higher flying airplanes, or using a satellite phone) or you just wait a try again every few minutes.
HF is also sensitive to the position of the sun in the sky with higher frequencies working better when the sun is high in the sky and lower frequencies working better at dusk/dawn and at night. In most parts of the world we have traversed using HF, the ATC centers vary the frequencies they use based on the time of day. For some reason Santiago seems to use 10024 Khz all the time. Knowing this might be an issue, before being transferred from HF from the VHF frequency, we asked for a back-up direct dial phone number for Santiago Oceanic and it turns out we used it for the whole trip to Robinson Crusoe Island (although that amounted to only a couple of phone calls).
Our preflight weather analysis (with the help of weather guru Jerry S) indicated we'd have about a 2,500 FT broken ceiling at Robinson Crusoe Island with winds of 15-20 KTS almost right down runway 14. Once we got close to our TOD (top-of-descent) approaching Robinson Crusoe, we called Santiago Oceanic (on the sat phone) and told them we were ready for descent. They told us to descend to 5,000 FT and that our flight plan was cancelled below 6,000 FT (the floor of controlled airspace). We started the descent from FL300 (30,000 FT) and once through 6,000 FT we were in the clouds and on our own. No ATC looking over our shoulder.
We continued the descent planning to go no lower than 1,000 FT over the ocean which we could verify using the radar altimeter (since we did not yet have an altimeter setting for the area). Around the predicted 2,500 FT we broke out of the clouds and saw Robinson Crusoe Island right in front of us. It was a nice sight.
Thanks to Becky and Josh for this video of the arrival into Robinson Crusoe Island...
Carolyn made a video of the landing and taxiing-in out the right side window. You can see how the runway goes right to the edge of the 400 FT cliff over the ocean...
While there was no glideslope (visual or electronic) for this runway, I made a list of altitudes and distances to the runway that would keep us on a four degree glideslope to the landing zone. The end of the runway is more than 400 FT above the ocean and thus the opportunity for a visual illusion if just "eye-balling" the approach is significant. Thus I wanted the back-up with the altitude checks. The Aerocardal pilots that operated at Robinson Crusoe suggested a slightly steeper than normal approach to help reduce the impact of turbulence that can be created by the winds flowing off the mesa over the cliff to the ocean. Thus, the four degree glide slope rather than the more common three degree.
By some stroke of luck the landing worked-out pretty well. You know the old saying about blind squirrels and nuts.
Once parked on the small ramp at Robinson Crusoe, Marcelo, the person coordinating delivery of fuel on the island, immediately appeared in his truck with the two precious barrels of fuel. There were some initial problems getting their electric fuel pump to work properly, but after about 15 minutes that problem was solved and the fueling went quickly. Just to make sure we were absolutely full before departing for Easter Island, we carried two five gallon cans of fuel with us in the plane. After emptying the drums, Josh and Marcelo's crew put every last drop they could from the cans into the tanks using almost all of it. By luck or good planning one, we had just about the perfect amount of fuel on-hand.
Some photos of the fueling process with Josh carefully monitoring everything while I went to the "tower" (AFIS office) to get the flight plan for the next leg to Easter Island...
Some general scenes around this most unusual airport. The airport area also served as an entrance to a national park. Our flight was quite a curiosity for the small group of people that live there...
The small terminal building was fairly new and had all the basics to handle the tourists flights that arrive there a few times a week...
I went up to the "tower" (the AFIS office) which was fairly well equipped for such a low volume airport...
The AFIS person on-duty put me on a direct line to Santiago Oceanic to get our clearance for the flight to Easter Island. The controller first wanted to confirm we had an HF radio and were RVSM approved. I responded affirmatively to both and then he wanted to give me a second phone number to reach them in case we could not reach them on HF. Evidently the have a landline phone (the number we used enroute from Santiago to Robinson Crusoe), but they also have a battery powered sat phone for additional back-up. Good idea. He gave me the second phone number and asked me to test it prior to departure from the plane which I did successfully.
As the Santiago Oceanic controller seemed to be wrapping-up our phone call I asked about our IFR clearance to Easter Island. He said something along the lines of "Oh yea, cleared as filed maintain FL300." I read that back and then asked for the "void time.' Back home when getting an IFR clearance from an uncontrolled airport they always give you a void time which means if you are not airborne by that time your clearance is void and you cannot depart. ATC keeps all the airspace around your departure airport clear of other traffic and they don't want to do that indefinitely, so they give you a time limit.
After I asked for the void time, the controller paused and then said "Are you leaving sometime today?" I said, "yes" and he said "That is fine...there is no one out there on your route anywhere near your altitude all day, so depart whenever you like."
A clear reminder that we were headed off into some remote territory.
I thought I could get this story into two reasonable length posts, but this one is already too long so I will finish with the story of the flight from Robinson Crusoe to Easter Island in a few days. Tomorrow (Monday, December 10), we depart French Polynesia for New Zealand with an overnight stop in the small island nation of Niue.
