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.
