BinouZe, pilot.

Surfin with kids on a plank of wood

2012-12-01T04:54:00.002-05:00

The tools, the grab and diner is served...

2012-11-22T17:28:00.005-05:00

Papua Lifestyle as a pilot

2012-11-22T04:03:00.000-05:00

Living in Papua is not as bad as it seems... We are remote, indeed, but life is real sweet.
Manokwari being a "dry town" (can't buy alcohol), we barely drink any beers, and since our day usually finishes by 1300 about, we can do anything we want in the afternoon.
We find ourselves living here in the best physical form we've ever been. Everyday we exercise, either running, swimming, surfing or going to the local gym. The latest hobby being freediving and spearfishing... Beautiful coral reefs are home to an incredible diversity of marine life, and we often come home with some fish or lobsters :D
I will post below the photos of the latest catch... B E A uuuutiful !!!!
Fishes and tropical fruits making the most of our diet here, with our sporty lifestyle, pilots here are all turning into bloody hard core athletes. What a cool job I have :D

Gangnam style !

2012-10-24T08:16:00.002-04:00

I didnt post for a while, but this is not some random post ...
Check out that video in Nabire ! It's gold !
( parody from the "gangnam style" viral video )

Going to the beach in style

2012-08-28T05:43:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, the chopper needed a test flight. What better test ride than taking us along and dropping us on a deserted island beach for a snorkel session and a swim and then fly back to base :)

the pictures

2012-08-02T04:16:00.000-04:00

A320 TR

2012-07-26T13:54:00.002-04:00

After a long pause in posting anything here (well not that flying in Indo has become uninteresting, but more like I have a more established routine being based in the same place for good as a captain, I didnt feel like I had much new stories to tell that I haven't told already, Or maybe I way just plain lazy...)
Anyway,
Big news : I just completed a type rating for Airbus A320 and I hope I'll make my way to a new cockpit very soon :)
few photos soon !

Work, Malaria and holidays

2012-03-26T00:01:00.011-04:00

Last post is from december, its time i give some news i guess...

So since then I've been kept pretty busy, went back to France for almost a month holidays and back for work in Papua Manokwari. It's been quite busy as at the beginning of last month we were short of captains here... Then just about 2 weeks ago, I had to stop flying coz of malaria. It's not a pleasant few days, with chills and cold sweats, diarrhea and no energy at all. Medication seemed to work well though and now i'm back on my feet and on holidays in Bali to fully recover :)

Pictures bellow are from my holidays in Bali...

Merry christmas and happy new year !

2011-12-24T01:56:00.001-05:00

For me, the second year in a raw in Papua for christmas and new year :)

Papua crash...

2011-09-17T02:15:00.004-04:00

We unfortunately just had a couple weeks ago our first crash in Papua...

Two of my friends died there, both were amongst the best pilots I've met and fly with and very good friends too.

We're all going to miss Dave and Tomas deeply.

Below is me and Tomas on a Tarakan tour a few weeks ago... Farewell my friend !

Papua

2011-09-08T00:24:00.003-04:00

I recently upgraded as Papua captain, its great flying here, real bush flying, as you can figure out from some of the pictures below...

Left : New Papua captain, been just issued my rifle...

Right : Papua, challenging mountain strips, kids carrying machetes and mud... Lots of mud !

Weird bug on the throttle lever. Probably can project acid or some nasty stuff, better not touch...

2011-07-25T21:31:00.003-04:00

I recently bought myself a GoPro camera... Here are the results of first shots (a bit of editing on the pictures )

2011-06-19T23:33:00.008-04:00

Left : Waiting for my schedule in Samarinda...

Right : The bull, the pilot and his ride. Data Dawai.

Still in Data Dawai.

2011-06-06T09:40:00.004-04:00

VIP protection detail in Tarakan... Probably a Russian made Mi-17. I like !

Plane Wash :)

Malinau, Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia

2011-05-28T09:14:00.001-04:00

2011-04-07T00:03:00.003-04:00

So... In the last few weeks, since my last base Medan, lots of things happened : I upgraded to the left seat of the C208. I had a week conversion course to captain in Pangandaran (west Java), where our company training center is located. Now I'm beginning first flights with passengers in my new base Balikpapan (East Borneo).

Below are a few of the pictures I took last few weeks...

Left and Right : Susi Air Piaggio Avanti in Pangandaran Nusawiru airport.

Left and Right : En route Pangandaran to Jakarta...

Left : Taking off from Pangandaran "beach strip".

Right : Company restaurant in Pangandaran.

Left and Right : Aerial views in the vicinity of Pangandaran Nusawiru Airport.

Left : My days as cojo are over, now you can call me "captain" loool.

Right : PK-VVH, the VIP config C208 in Nusawiru. Like out of a comic book :)

2011-03-03T01:14:00.000-05:00

Some extra picts from this morning ...

2011-03-02T04:44:00.003-05:00

2011-03-01T06:41:00.015-05:00

I'm now back where it all started, my first base as copilot and my last as well... : Medan.

Here are the result of a day of flying (never without my camera) :

"Otto" best pilot of the three ... Glass cockpit, its shiny, we like it !

She's seen better days ... PK-BVA's butt, she knows she's hot !

Night Vision Google Ops ... Early Departure ...

2011-02-20T12:12:00.010-05:00

This blog is not dead... Well it is almost I admit. Posting is a lot of work for a lazy pilot. Sorry.

So I post here and now a few pictures just so that I can repeat myself : " this blog isn't dead".

Pictures below were taken during my last Papua tour about a month and a half ago :

Ilaga (Papua) local dudes posing for me. Sister and brother or ... ?

Refueling (Kupang, Timor) Still refueling, same place.

Another Ilaga dude...

And some picts from my last one month holidays in France (ending now, I'm taking off from Paris tomorrow afternoon):

Capitainerie St-Tropez. Balise entree port St-Tropez.

Yachts in St-Tropez... Winchs on a yacht.

Yachts in St-Tropez.

Hope you enjoy these picts, using my brand new camera and learning to use photoshop, I'm proud of some of those picts :D lol

2010-10-16T22:30:00.008-04:00

So just 10 more days in Papua before my holidays.

I've been flying all over the place in Papua, it's has been very nice, I've been sharpening my pilot skills a lot, flying in that very challenging environment; It's has also been a very good opportunity to discover people, tribes and places that I would have never been visiting otherwise.

I feel so fortunate to be here.

We commonly fly to remote mountain places where no roads go and where a bush plane is the only way to transport there food, hardware and materials. These people are barely civilized, still half naked, wearing bow and arrows and living a very simple bush/jungle/mountain style life. Some of these tribes have been reached by civilization just a few years ago, they probably are one of the few last people on earth discovered very recently and still living the ancient way... But not for long as we fly them cement bags, corrugated iron, power-tools, generators and fuel, canned food and lots of "civilized" stuff. Some places we even fly huge caterpillar bulldozers piece by piece, in many flights as our typical load is usually limited to around a ton or less(the caravan could load almost 2 tons in the optimum conditions). They're going to lose their tribal ways soon for sure sooner or later. I am happy to witness them and their ancient way of life, before its gone.

Otherwise, I had some adventures coming my way in Wamena lately : first a battery blew up on the fuel cart while refueling... It's so noisy I actually thought the fuel exploded at first ! a bit scary. About a week later, same place, a gunfight took place a few meters away from the apron and us : Local people attacking the police station (which is very much located on the edge of our apron) to free one member of their tribe. Scary as well, police were shooting their big ass automatic rifle in front of us, protecting us and the plane as well as their police station and eventually they made us take off in a hurry as it was becoming really unsafe. Last Wamena adventure was a flat tire upon landing there (on the pict it's completely flat but we landed with still some air in it) ...

Enjoy these pictures, I hope to share a bit of my adventures and experiences with you this way.

Left & Right : Derakma airstrip, very high, remote, extreme changes in slope runway, high mountains on all sides : very challenging ! People there are the kind of tribal people I was speaking of.

Left : Old, broken looking woman.

Right : Rainbow in Wamena & Deraya traffic landing

Left : Bad luck... Wamena

Right : Singing and dancing women in Kwijawagi (8700ft high airstrip by the way)

Left : No comments...

Right : Under protection of the police !

Left : My good friends :)

Right : I've got a fan in the bush (note the France Tshirt)

Left : People actually staring at me !

Right : Antonov 12. And inside 5 russians to pilot it. When that thing takes off it leaves behind an eco-friendly looking trail of black smoke... Russian style !

Some more picts

2010-09-21T09:30:00.007-04:00

Looks like internet works a bit better than usual tonight, so I'll add the latest pictures I took today !
Two of these pictures below were taken at some place named Batom (the pictures with all these people around the aircraft), quite remote but not in the mountains this time, easy strip about 700m long on flat land : piece of cake ;) I would have considered this a challenging strip a few months ago probably ... Hahaha ... not any more !
The other 2 pictures are : One from our base's apron in Jayapura-Sentani airport, the other from a mountain strip named Sinak.
The people over there are typical Papuans, Tribal look, kids running around the aircraft, so excited about all that food being dropped the the "bird made out of steel" driven by the white people ^^
That is amazing how for a few minutes 2 worlds completely different coexist on that small runway : state of the art technology and civilization versus people from the bush living so simply !
I love that feeling of adventure, feeling a bit privileged to be able to go to these places that so few people go to, in the middle of the jungle, and in the same day fly back to base with all the comfort we like. I love my job !

2010-09-17T01:12:00.005-04:00

Sorry to all the people that used to follow this blog, I received complaints from several friends that my blog is rotting, which is actually true...
So My last post was in may, at that time I was at my first base after the training : Medan(Sumatra).
Since then, I've been based successively in Balikpapan(Borneo), Jakarta(Java), Nabire(Papua) and Jayapura(Papua) where I am right now, with hyper slow internet so I hope I can post this :)
To Make things short, I've been flying now over most of Indonesia, accumulating more than 300 hours on the Caravan which I have to say is a real good airplane !
Papua where I'm flying now is very interesting. I love it here ! It is considered by many as beeing the "most challenging bush flying in the world" and it is not that far from the truth ! I have to deal with high altitude, short gravel/dirt strips, 10+% upslope, one way in, no go around, tropical hot air and tropical thunderstorms and weather, nasty windshears and a few 200liters fuel barrels in the back to make things funnier in case of a forced landing :) Well, might be a bit scary at first, but guess what ? I LOVE IT !!!!
Papua people also look a bit more uncivilized, I mean tribal kinda type, which make the Papuan experience even more looking like an adventure. This is great.

I post some pictures of Papua here, sorry for all the sceneries of Indo you didnt get to see because I didnt post... At least you'll see the most interesting part so far : Papua !

Nice video. Bandah Aceh landing

2010-05-26T04:08:00.004-04:00

VIP flight, Medan, Bandah Aceh, Kutacane, Medan

2010-05-22T04:12:00.005-04:00

This morning, we did a charter flight... We had to get our VIP passengers in Bandah Aceh, and get them to Kutacane. Then back to Medan.
We had to wake up really early, like 0330, as the VIP were expected to board at 0700 in Bandah Aceh, 01h30 flight away from Medan...
So We took off empty from Medan, which was sweet as we can relax a bit, take pictures, try the O2 mask, Have a bit of fun... It was quite nice as we were flying almost formation with another company caravan and a Casa from another company (We all carry the same VIP group to Kutacane).
Then Bandah Aceh and the VIPs, Scenic flight, flying over lakes and volcanos and finaly landing at Kutacane. Lots of people were waiting for our VIPs, folkloric welcome party, military and police security (swat mean looking type of guys, back strategic outfit and M4 rifle...)...
Some pictures here :