June 14-16 Manado, Indonesia

An overnight stop for rest has turned into a two delay due to weather. A tropical depression, which was upgraded to a cyclone, is preventing us moving onwards to Manila. Cyclone Soudelor is expected to track coastal offshore of the Philippines and continue northeast to Japan. We are keeping a close eye its movements and hope to get back in the air on Monday 16 June.

Prior to arrival in Manado we were advised to check the availability of Avgas as the information in our Jeppesen documents is only as accurate as the data they get from the airports. We were assured from our agent in Jakarta that fuel was available. On arrival we were informed that avgas is only available on request and it was three months ago since fuel was last available here. With only 34 gallons on board we would have to look at alternatives as we had insufficient fuel to get to another airport that could supply avgas . A few phone calls were made to friends back home to discuss the pros and cons of using motor fuel in PH-SMD. The advice was that is was possible with some operating limitations because mogas is more volatile and prone to detonation and vaporisation. Local phone calls to the NTM mission, which operate Cessna 185 to remote destinations in mountainous areas. They would supply us two barrels of avgas. Scott Meyer who has been working in Indonesia for ten years and in Manado for the last two and a half years came to meet us at the airport and assist in the refueling. Many thanks to Scott for all his help in getting us back in the air.

The extra time we have here has allowed us to catch up on website updates, flight planning and rest. We also took a tour of the radio centre and control tower at Manado. Excellent facilities with all the equipment in service for only two years or so. We hope to get underway tomorrow, Monday but will sit it out if the situation doesn't improve.