Expedition Day 46 With 23 million annual visitors arriving by air, Bali air traffic control really "pushes tin" at Ngurah Rai International Airport (WADD). As I taxied towards the active runway, the sound of the huge jets taking off with full power, vibrated my plane and body like a tuning fork. It was unbelievably loud, even when wearing active noise cancelling headphones. The tower directed me to hold short on the active runway into a cloud of jet fumes. I grinned and tightened my shoulder harnesses in anticipation of another epic flight. Behind N944JK, I counted seven jets queued on the main taxiway. Once released, I climbed at 90 knots to 3,000 ft through the low-level clouds before given an immediate southerly vector towards Australia. The clouds eventually dissipated to reveal the most incredibly green-blue water over the Timor sea. See below. The approach to Broome International airport was visually stunning as brilliant sand beaches and turquoise waters welcome you to Australia. The strikingly red outback soil and clear skies of Western Australia After flying over pink sand beaches, I landed at Broome International airport in the northwestern corner of Australia. I was directed to taxi to the foreign aircraft quarantine area, next to a plain, single story immigration building. The youthful immigration/agriculture officer on duty ran up to my plane and handed me a small spray can of floral scent insecticide. After shutting down the motor, I activated the insecticide can, which stuck in the on position and filled the cockpit with a choking fog in about 1 second. I suspect the can had the fogging volume for a cabin class aircraft and overkill. The can was tossed tossed outside, still ejecting insecticide at full throttle and spinning in a circle on the red earth. I was warned to remain inside the cockpit for the next 5 minutes (required to kill insect stowaways). Temperatures in the bubble canopy during the mid-day sun reached (130f/55c?). Given a thumbs up from the officer, I quickly opened the bubble canopy for fresh air. I was drenched in sweat, so the officer pointed me to the quarantine hut for shade and to hydrate (I was handed a cold bottle of water) before we resumed the paperwork. A month after the completion of the RTW trip, Australia billed me $200 for the small can of insecticide spray. Necessary aircraft maintenance at Broom airport.
My last oil change was in Italy, 8000nm ago. Since then, I had flown through a light dust/sand storm over Saudi Arabia and near volcanic plumes in Indonesia. It was absolutely necessary to perform another oil change and firewall forward inspection in one of the maintenance hangers at the Broome International Airport. I was told to "just pump the oil from the 200 liter drums out back , mate". A few aircraft waited to be serviced outside, so I was given about two hours to complete my work. The mechanics were constantly doing fleet maintenance and did 3 oil changes for my one. I was grateful for access to a covered space out of the blistering sun, few tools to work on my plane, but it was accelerated work. After the oil change, I moved the plane outside for thorough inspection of the firewall forward before re-installing the engine cowl. I felt pretty weak after the maintenance work and headed back to the hotel. For the past three weeks, I had been battling with rather severe digestive issues ever since Pakistan. Tech notes: Oil used on the RTW flight "May's" 400 hr experimental Lycoming YIO-320 engine consumed about 1-2 quarts per 65 hours of operation. I started the trip using Phillips 66 20W-50 in the USA, then switched to Aeroshell 100W in Italy, and Aeroshell 20W-50 in Australia. I filled an extra 4 quart bottles for the last 8000 nm back to California. Since I built the RV-9A, I had high confidence in the airworthiness of the aircraft. Photo Credit: Orbx Comments are closed.
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