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...
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Damdx0z3bYE?t=95
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.
