Budiarto Airport Interlude
On Saturday morning sometime after 4 am we stood on the airstrip looking at the great blanket of stars above us and waited for the dawn. Aircraft checks, last minute briefing, weather, and coordination of ground crew movements, checking, checking.
Our route was to be west going across a saddle on the southern flank of Gunung Salak and then straight for the distant coast. The first three or four hours after first light are the best for flying as it is usually smooth air, our trip would take 1 hour 50 minutes. We would have mountains to our south but for most of our flight we would be over terrain where we thought we might find somewhere to land. For those who fly trikes in regions where there are plenty of fields, heath or clear bush Indonesia would scare the daylights out of them. Java is either mountainous or intensively used by agriculture and industry. Landing sites are few and far between.
Just before 6 am we took off. The last weather report was OK for the route. But, almost immediately, with altitude, we could see a large series of cloud masses on our direct route and to the south. Not expected but not a total surprise, we are at the end of the rainy season and major rain systems can spring up; indeed the season seemed to be lingering. We climbed and went north of Gunung Salak and went on to our first alternate route still heading west and north of the cloud systems. Clear air but we had a strong headwind. Ground speed was down to 10 miles an hour at times.
An hour into the journey we were not making any good time and decided to divert to Budiarto, a large airfield south and west of Jakarta, used by the civil airlines for training pilots. As it was the weekend and no training, only one runway was active. We were told to come in on Runway 30 and that would have been fine if the wind was from the north. Since the wind was coming in from the west it made that approach a real worrisome crosswind landing. Clearly the tower did not know what trikes were and what their flight characteristics demanded. Some of the pilots ignored the instruction and came in on other appropriately oriented taxi-ways and grass. It was seven something in the morning and we were the only traffic. I came in on Runway 30, the runway was wide so I could come in slantwise and thus minimize the crosswind element.
I remember I was listening to the Dire Straits' "Walk of Love" on my Sony Walkman that was plugged into the intercom system. The music was good and at one time the beat of the music was roughly the same tempo as my movements fighting to keep the aircraft on trim for landing. So, I had rhythm. The landing was a little difficult but done well.
We taxied in and parked. The airport staff had never seen anything like our trikes. We were taken to the canteen where we had breakfast and looked at an assortment of ATC maps, some photocopied. A couple of guys took the airport's four plastic jerry-cans and went off to find petrol. The golden rule is to be fully fueled at all times. With the head winds looking to be a permanent feature, we needed that fuel.
I recall being impatient and wanting to get off. The wind was stiff and steady but quite flyable and the skies were generally clear, we could see a major cloud system off on the southern horizon. We were leisurely; it is the Indonesian way. Finally, we got gassed up and took off.
Enroute Budiarto