Equatorial Calm Down Under at our First Antipode
We arrive at our first antipode, Palembang, Indonesia 🇮🇩! Our routing to Palembang was fairly straight forward, out over Port Klang, 240 degrees, over the Malacca Straits and through the flat lands of Sumatra. The winds were with us and calm. The calm winds however do lead to another problem, cloud, mist and the possibility of fog. The temperature and dew point at Palembang are equal as we set off and we can see low lying clouds ahead of us.
Initially we are good at 1,000 ft but soon over northern Sumatra we have to descend to just below 500ft. The ground is flat but it is jungle with large crops of palm oil. In fact it is probably about 50/50 on our journey through Sumatra. Palm oil is pretty much the scourge of this part of Asia, due to the deforestation that it causes.
The jungle is pretty much our enemy, it has it own micro climate and mist and low cloud are common. If we went down here it would probably be worse than in the ocean. Here we have to drop into the canopy below, it we survive the canopy landing, we have to drop 40ft to the ground and then survive a rescue in the jungle. It is a dense jungle below, no-one is finding us down there, except maybe the snakes, bugs, and Sumatran Tigers 🐯.
At N000 035.00 our HELI SAS packs up in Navigation mode, why we we are not sure but for some three or more flights now it has acted badly in this mode, so we leave it on heading and plough on with the dense green jungle beneath us. We check our fuel gauges, all appears normal, but can we be sure. During our preflight, it was discovered that during our last fuelling the duellers had knocked one of our sensors and this had to be repaired. Was the sensor now working correctly. It not we would be ditching in the jungle, forever to be missed.
Such an event appears to have happened to my computer which was sent via TNT to Subang. It looks as if it will never be seen again, oh why was it sent? This was not agreed by myself, will we ever see it again?
The jungle dissipated, turned to Palm oil and then evolved into Palembang. We were in instructs to land on the no existent runway 17 so headed for the taxi way instead, Harrison Ford style.
Handling was generally pretty good, except we were ripped off with our taxi to the hotel. With this part I cannot be 100% sure since the money here is nuts, 13,500 Indonesian Rupiah to the Dollar. We paid 150,000 rupiah but looking at Uber is should have been 18,000. It does not help that we were told 100 rupiahs. We quickly found out that they do not bother with the thousand element of the currency som100 is actually 100,000.
Hotel is 40 mins away and by a mall. We seem to be a curiosity to the locals, look, laugh and call out to us. I order a freshly brewed oolong tea, which is actually, cold, sweet and I guess iced. I opt for an vanilla ice cream 🍦 cone instead.
The hotel has a pool 🏊 but my is it colder than expected. Here in Palembang the sunsets early so it is an early night for us after dinner. Let us see what dinner brings.
Tomorrow we had back north to the Equatorial city of Pontianak. Hopefully we get a chance to stand on the equator.
Initially we are good at 1,000 ft but soon over northern Sumatra we have to descend to just below 500ft. The ground is flat but it is jungle with large crops of palm oil. In fact it is probably about 50/50 on our journey through Sumatra. Palm oil is pretty much the scourge of this part of Asia, due to the deforestation that it causes.
The jungle is pretty much our enemy, it has it own micro climate and mist and low cloud are common. If we went down here it would probably be worse than in the ocean. Here we have to drop into the canopy below, it we survive the canopy landing, we have to drop 40ft to the ground and then survive a rescue in the jungle. It is a dense jungle below, no-one is finding us down there, except maybe the snakes, bugs, and Sumatran Tigers 🐯.
At N000 035.00 our HELI SAS packs up in Navigation mode, why we we are not sure but for some three or more flights now it has acted badly in this mode, so we leave it on heading and plough on with the dense green jungle beneath us. We check our fuel gauges, all appears normal, but can we be sure. During our preflight, it was discovered that during our last fuelling the duellers had knocked one of our sensors and this had to be repaired. Was the sensor now working correctly. It not we would be ditching in the jungle, forever to be missed.
Such an event appears to have happened to my computer which was sent via TNT to Subang. It looks as if it will never be seen again, oh why was it sent? This was not agreed by myself, will we ever see it again?
The jungle dissipated, turned to Palm oil and then evolved into Palembang. We were in instructs to land on the no existent runway 17 so headed for the taxi way instead, Harrison Ford style.
Handling was generally pretty good, except we were ripped off with our taxi to the hotel. With this part I cannot be 100% sure since the money here is nuts, 13,500 Indonesian Rupiah to the Dollar. We paid 150,000 rupiah but looking at Uber is should have been 18,000. It does not help that we were told 100 rupiahs. We quickly found out that they do not bother with the thousand element of the currency som100 is actually 100,000.
Hotel is 40 mins away and by a mall. We seem to be a curiosity to the locals, look, laugh and call out to us. I order a freshly brewed oolong tea, which is actually, cold, sweet and I guess iced. I opt for an vanilla ice cream 🍦 cone instead.
The hotel has a pool 🏊 but my is it colder than expected. Here in Palembang the sunsets early so it is an early night for us after dinner. Let us see what dinner brings.
Tomorrow we had back north to the Equatorial city of Pontianak. Hopefully we get a chance to stand on the equator.
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