[We are in New Zealand until the RTW resumes January 2, but I am getting caught up on the last two aviation geek posts regarding the flights from Tahiti/NTAA/NTTB-Niue/NIUE-Auckland/NZAA.]
After six wonderful days in Bora Bora, French Polynesia (well described by Carolyn in other posts), on the morning of December 10 it was time to leave our island paradise. While Bora Bora is gets a lot of "hype," I must say much of it is deserved just in terms of breathing-taking beauty.
A short ten-minute boat ride from the dock at our hotel to a dock at the Bora Bora/NTTB airport and a 30 second golf cart ride and we were at the plane. Josh and Becky had stayed on the main island of Tahiti, so it was just me and Carolyn for the short flight (~45 minutes) from Bora Bora/NTTB to Papeete, Tahiti/NTAA.
Our ride waiting for us at the Bora Bora airport. We were the only GA (general aviation) aircraft on the ramp which surprised me...
There was a short delay getting our flight plan filed, but then we were off for a beautiful departure to the west (runway 29) with a sweeping left turn back to the south. It was a great view of the island from the opposite side from our arrival...
A video of departing Bora Bora on December 10...
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/QTPaa5nR0kU
Weather on the short flight to Papeete, Tahiti was excellent with some great views of other islands along the way...
Josh and Becky were waiting for us at Papeete, Tahiti and got a photo of us landing...
Carolyn captured the landing out the side window with her narration that I love...
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/SAgY3b9a0Ms
Reunited with Josh and Becky at Papeete, Tahiti we did a quick refueling before departing for Niue/NIUE. We encountered a problem on the ramp I had never had before...crabs...
For the flight from Papeete, Tahiti to Niue the forecast was we would encounter the first significant weather of the entire trip. There was a weak cold front just below the equator between Tahiti to Niue which is kicking-up some tall cumulus clouds and a few thunderstorms.
This was the satellite and lightning photo with the most direct plotted the morning before departure or about six hours before we would reach that area...
The high altitude significant weather forecast for approximately the same time showed a line of scattered and isolated thunderstorms, but not the solid line you might expect from the satellite image. While I am not an expert on oceanic equatorial weather, my experience is you will often see tall cumulus clouds in the equatorial region over the ocean that may contain rain showers but are not necessarily convective (thunderstorms). For instance, this line of tall clouds showed no lightening (the hallmark of a fully developed thunderstorm). Some are convective, of course, and must be avoided. But it isn't like Texas where any 30,000 FT cumulus is almost certainly a thunderstorm.
Regardless, we decided to change our flight plan to go around the north end of the line of clouds because we had a good "out" to divert further north to very clear air. Like is often the case, an indirect route that looks large on the map is only a few minutes in reality. For example, we modified our flight plan before departing Papeete/Tahiti to a more northern route around the send of the system...
The idea is with some further deviations, if needed, we could stay completely clear of any precipitation or icing.
With the flight plan filed (with the modification above which Tahiti clearance delivery quickly and easily accommodated), we called for push-back. Once again we had to do push-back the old-fashioned way with manpower and the senior captain steering via the nose wheel due to a lack of a towbar to fit a PC-12...
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/d-Y1gg2v5iA
An easy departure from runway 04 and a left turn to the northwest and we were on our way to Niue...
The original flight plan was about 5+50 at max cruise power with an alternate of Vavaʻu, Tonga/NFTV.
The less direct flight plan only added about 10 minutes to the flight plan still leaving plenty of reserve fuel. Unlike Easter Island, there were several alternate airport option along this route including the filed alternate of Tonga/NFTV, Aitutaki, Cook Islands/NCAI, Atiu, Cook Islands/NCAT, Rarotonga, Cook Islands/NCRG, and Pago Pago, Somoa/NSTU among others.
About two hours into the flight at FL300 (30,000 FT) clouds appeared ahead and we turned-on the onboard weather radar which was an essential tool for this flight. Unlike back home, there is no NEXRAD radar downloaded via satellite to consult, so the onboard weather radar is the primary tool for weather avoidance along with your eyeballs when not in cloud.
Although we were IMC (in the clouds) for about two hours, by zigzagging using the weather radar we were able to safely navigate around all the precipitation. We were talking to Auckland Radio on HF (which was very clear) and they gave us approval to deviate up to 50 NM (later 60 NM) left or right of "track" which gave us all the flexibility we needed to avoid any bad weather.
Back home, I normally do not use the onboard radar at a range of more than about 40 NM because downloaded NEXRAD is available for the "bigger picture" of weather. But, in this situation, we used primarily the 80 NM range and occasionally 160 NM. At the longer ranges one must be careful because the radar energy is dispersed over a much larger area and thus it has less resolution and is more susceptible to "shadowing," but so long as one is aware of those limitations and keeps scanning up-and-down and at a variety of ranges, it is not difficult to navigate around the weather that is likely to be turbulent.
A typical weather radar depiction on this flight showing us deviating right of track...
While we did a lot of zigging and zagging along the route, it all worked well as we avoided all precipitation and encountered no icing. Mainly a smooth ride with occasional light turbulence.
While it is generally a bad idea to second guess weather decisions after landing, I could not resist looking at the satellite images once we were on the ground and back at the hotel. Turns out the weather along the more direct route did dissipate and we likely could have had a smooth ride on that route as well.
The satellite image about an hour after landing...
Oh well, we had a safe and comfortable ride with several easy "outs" if the weather had been worse than expected. It only cost us a few minutes of flying time and some attention to the weather radar, so I was still happy with our routing choice.
Once behind the cold front the skies cleared and Auckland Radio (on HF) told us to descend "when ready" ("pilot's discretion" in the US) to FL240 (24,000 FT) which is just below the floor of Class A airspace in the area. Class A airspace is where an IFR flight plan and communication with ATC is required. Outside of Class A airspace, you can fly VFR if weather conditions permit. Auckland Radio told us to contact Niue Radio on VHF 118.1 when reaching FL240.
We started our descent in good weather and contacted Niue Radio as instructed. Niue Radio is an AFIS and thus is not a formal air traffic control facility. Their main job is just to provide information, but they do not provide clearances to land, take-off, etc. We contact Niue Radio and the person in the "tower" (such as it is) was very casual and not very easy to understand. We asked him to repeat until we understood, but he was basically gave us current weather conditions and said "you are on your own."
Niue is a tiny island nation (population 1600) loosely affiliated with New Zealand. They have a once-a-week Air New Zealand flight from Auckland which is the main excitement at the airport. By odd coincidence, the weekly Air New Zealand departed just before we arrived and we heard them on the Niue Radio VHF frequency saying they had established contact with Auckland Radio on HF and thanking Niue for their help (Kiwis are very friendly people).
Based on the weather conditions (which were very good), we told Niue Radio we would use runway 28 via the GPS approach (just used for situational awareness as the weather was good VFR)...
Some scenes of this very sparsely populated and remote island on the approach...
After landing, the handler and airport crew were efficient in getting us refueled...
When we asked how many GA (general aviation or private aircraft) they handle, they said we were the second GA aircraft in 2018! So, were were definitely an unusual event for Niue International Airport...
After clearing customs (a lady hanging out in the now empty terminal building) and getting what I think is a rare Niue passport stamp, we retired to our hotel (which was very nice) for a good night's rest before heading on to Auckland the next day (December 11).
Niue passport stamp...
I'll pick-up with the Niue-Auckland flight story with the next post and then we will be on "sabbatical" until January 2, 2019.
