Two Porters in Malinau

This month we’ve been pretty lucky to have two Pilatus Porters based out of Malinau to help catch up on the subsidy schedule flights that we’re behind on. It’s great for the local people here and great for the pilots who always love to go flying!

PK-VVK and PK-VVP on the apron in Malinau

It also means that occasionally both Porters end up going to the same airstrips at the same time which allows for some extra photo opportunities that are rarely available most of the time.

Pilatus Porter on approach into Data Dian

The disadvantage of running two aircraft from the remote base of Malinau is that we never seem to have enough fuel for both of them and we keep running out. All our fuel is normally delivered via 50 gallon drums from either nearby Tarakan or slightly further afield from Tanjung Selor. The trip is done by a mixture of river barge and trucks. However, I guess someone didn’t consider the logistics when using double the amount of fuel and we don’t quite have enough stock of drums to keep the supply up. Hopefully that’ll be resolved this week with the purchase of some new drums.

Two Porters at Data Dian

However, when things are going well it’s fantastic to have two Porters flying into and out of a tiny airstrip in the middle of the jungles of Borneo. It simply doesn’t get better!