Papua. The Best Place to be a Sim Pilot
For Saturday, February 3, 2024

Ten years ago we were treated to an engaging 4-part documentary Worst Place to Be a Pilot (2014). Those young Susi Air pilots braved the challenges of flying into high mountain villages with eye-popping terrain and changeable weather. They loved the experience but understood the danger. Nowadays, the hazards include being targets of the rising insurgency – pilots have been shot and kidnapped. Today we return to Papua, the Indonesian provinces on the western side of New Guinea. We capture some of the Susi Air pilots airmanship experiences when we fly from Nabire to a number of remote mountain village air strips through Centra Papua and then climb up to the top of Puncak Jaya for a look. We finish at Timika in the lowlands south of the mountain ranges.


Bugalaga ... Runway clear for takeoff

We depart from Nabire [WABI], using the “old” airport. The new one, with the same name and ICAO, opened in December 2023. It lies 6nm to the west in Wanggar, the recently-designated administrative capital of Central Papua province. Nabire is a good sized-town, with a district population of 98,000. It is an underdeveloped tourist center with the chief international attraction being the opportunity to swim with the whale sharks. These are the worlds largest fish, and third largest species, with an average length of about 30 feet and reports of 50-60 feet and a weight of 47,000 pounds ... bigger than a school bus. They consume vast quantities of small fish but seem uninterested in the human dining experience.

We leave in early morning to reach Idedua (Bonomani) Airstrip [WACV], perched on a narrow ridgeline high above the valleys below. “It doesn’t get more dramatic than this ... Idedua doesn’t disappoint on crazy places to put a runway,” writes Matt Dearden – one of the Susi Air pilots featured in Worst Place.  We proceed a few miles further to fly “possibly the shortest commercial flight in the world.” We land at Kegata [WZ38] ... and then fly about a minute and land at Apowo [WX15]. Locals save a day’s journey between villages and, more importantly, travel to and from Nabire city and the outside world. Frequently there are not enough seats to accommodate the demand. You might like Dearden’s Worlds Shortest Commercial Flight?   

We head east to Timepa [WACF]. Then north, over the high foothills of the Weyland mountain range to land at Dadou (Monemani) Airstrip – made interesting by its being tucked away in a corner of the ridgeline. Then a jaunt over the hills and a descent into the large densely-populated agricultural valley surrounding the Paniai (previously Wissel) Lakes. We land first at Obano (WAOA), a fair-sized village scattered along the lowlands near the lake’s southwestern shore. Then a short flight over Lake Paniai to the long paved runway at Enarotali [WABT/WABE]. The region was unknown by non-Papuans until a Dutch naval aviator "discovered" it in 1937. In 1938 the Dutch established the town, along with a Christian mission and a government radio post, to assert "control" over the area. This vanished with the Japanese invasion in 1942. The town was reestablished and has grown as the capital of the Paniai Regency. With a constant military presence, it is also a central Indonesian government outpost in the continuing conflict with the separatists.

We depart to the north back into the rugged country to Bugalaga [WX53]. This is one of the region's more interesting mountainside airstrips. A number of pilots have featured it in their videos and Microsoft/Asobo have chosen it as a "featured airport." Getting to the top of the sharply inclined surface, and then stopping quickly, takes some attention to the management of speed and momentum ... and brakes and reverse thrust. To depart, one lines up on the right heading, locks the tailwheel, notes the lack of vision over the nose, anticipates a swing to the left, pushes forward, quells the heartbeat, and expects that a little adrenaline will handle any surprises.

Then east to stop at Mbugulo (Bilogai) Airport [WACY], a sloped grass field for another hillside village. Our next landing is at more famous Pogapa [WW68], a substantially-sized village of the Moni people. (For a weekend visitor's view, you can read Kristi Rose's charming 2015 description of Pogapa Village. The first thing you see on final approach is an aircraft wreck. And another arriving plane, a Kodiak, crash-landed on site that weekend. A more recent (2019) visitor indicates that there is now solar-powered internet access!) Our final eastward village is Hitadipa [WABJ]. This strip requires a careful approach down into a steep valley, setting up for a controlled short finals ... and then suddenly spotting the field and landing in one motion. (Worth a look at Matt Dearden’s annotated approach. “It’s a hell of an approach, this one. You have to wonder sometimes, why did you build an airstrip in this position.”)

Next, we head south climbing to [15500] where we turn onto a shoulder of the Sudirman Range marked by the highest peaks in Oceania. Reaching [16000], we circle back west to see the summit Puncak Jaya, or Carstensz Pyramid, [PJCP] at the highest point on the sharp ridge to our left. At 16,024 ft, this is the tallest mountain peak between the Himalayas and the Andes. Mountaineers still call this Carstensz Pyramid and include it as one of the Seven Summits. You can see the lakes below that mark the Carstensz Pyramid Base Camp from which they climb up the sheer north face of the peak.


Circling over Puncak Jaya

We may optionally stop at the (possibly fictional) Puncak Jaya Mining Airstrip [WXPJ]. This short field may take some care. Just over the edge lies the enormous Grasberg Mine – the largest gold mine in the world. The 19,000 person enterprise (with a very deep pit and underground mines and processing plants) is now jointly owned by Freeport and the Indonesian government. Quite a feat to engineer and build such a massive mine on the top of this very remote mountain. It has been a great success for both the mining company and for the Indonesian nation – at one time the mine provided half of the government’s annual budget. Worth a look.

We descend over the mining operations and, for an interesting experience, stop at the beautifully situated Tsinga Mulu (Beoga) Airstrip [WACZ]. Some mountaineers fly up to this strip for its relatively easy access to the base camp and the technical climb to the summit. To cap off the trip, we fly down to our final destination Timika Mozes Kilangin Airport [WAYY]. Timika is the province’s largest and most prosperous city – thanks to the mining operation that uses the city as a port and as a support base.

Documentation
The flightplan can be found here. Included in the package is an updated Flying Operations in Papua. Videos v2.1 that adds coverage for this week’s flight.

Aircraft
This flight emphasizes air service to small remote mountain villages and requires an aircraft of STOL capabilities. At the end we climb up to the summit of Puncak Jaya, so a turboprop seems a good choice. The aircraft most often flown here are the Pilatus PC-6 Porter, Cessna 208B Caravan, PAC P-750 XTOL, and Daher Kodiak. For sentimental reasons, I’ll start with the Blackbird Pilatus P-6 Porter in the kcgb Susi Air livery. You should, of course, fly what you like.

Additional Scenery
All the airports are included in the default but many lack features. I recommend that you install several addon airports to improve the airfields. The packages will be used in later flights.

You want the package from last week:
Fixes for 95 western New Guinea airstrips. wantok
Highlands Papua Airstrip Collection. Photosbykev
HaveDoughnut’s PNG/WNG Airstrips and Flags. Bush_Drivers
Ilaga [WAYL]. Beowulf99x
Wamena [WAVV]. capungflightTV

In addition you want a second package:
Nabire [WABI]. LataVoadora
Idedua (Pass Valley) [WA0B]. LataVoadora
Apowo [WX15]. LataVoadora
Kegata [WZ38]. LataVoadora
Bilai Boruku [WABX]. LataVoadora
Pogapa [WW68]. LataVoadora
Puncak Jaya Mining Airstrip [WXPJ]. LataVoadora
Timika Moses Kilangin [WAYY]. Vulfilla

Temporarily, you can obtain the first package here. And the second package here. (Our recent experience indicates that you want to check for duplicates with already-existing sceneries.)

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 7:00 am local for February 3, 2024.
We typically prefer real weather and will follow form if the weather is good. If not, I recommend the "High Clouds" or "Few Clouds" preset. This is very much a high mountain flying operation that requires VFR conditions for safety.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, February 3, 2024. 1900 UTC
AVSIM Discord Server: https://discord.gg/K5Vy6UxWNm  - AVSIM GROUP EVENTS-SAT. COM1
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server.

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Please be kind enough to enter the title exactly as it stands in the title=”xxx” line of the aircraft.cfg file. Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

As someone who used to fly the Pilatus Porter for Susi Air from Nabire (and other parts of Papua), this post has bought back some happy memories! 

Cheers

Matt Dearden

Hello Matt,

Surprised and delighted to hear from you. Over the years, your commentary on flying the Porter in Papua has provided onlookers with a sense of the real world challenges and rewards involved in your adventure. And congratulations on now publishing your book Flying from Shangri-La. Your life experiences, powers of observation, and wry sense of humor make for a lovely read.

Happy to see that you have continued your career in aviation. And best wishes personally.

Mike

Thanks Mike! I'm always delighted to connect with fans of the awesome Pilatus Porter 😎 Glad you enjoyed the book; it was super fun to write with so many crazy stories to tell. 

Cheers

Matt Dearden