Reunited with PK-VVW after nine years

2016 – Papua, Indonesia

… The survey aircraft was still awaiting parts before it could fly but our latest Porter, PK-VVW, had much bigger problems. It had just arrived from Pilatus in Switzerland but soon afterwards it was grounded pending investigation due to a batch of faulty rivets used at the time it was constructed. It turned out that over half of them were not of the correct specification. This was a big problem as it was now not allowed to fly again until Pilatus had sent engineers out to investigate. Upon investigating, it was decided they would change out all the rivets as necessary and rebuild the aircraft in our maintenance facility in Biak. 

The facility in Biak was basically a large, open-air hangar dating back to World War II. Being based on a tropical island, it was always hot and humid, which is not ideal if you’re trying to rebuild an aeroplane. It’s a testament to the 1950s design of the Porter that the Pilatus engineers were able build up wooden jigs and frames to hold the dismantled wings and most of the fuselage whilst they drilled out thousands of rivets before redoing them. Everyone was convinced the aircraft would never fly straight and throughout the rebuild it had the nickname Victor Victor Wonky. 

It ended up taking many months before PK-VVW was to fly again and I ended up being the lucky pilot tasked with seeing if it would fly straight. All Pilatus Porters are hand-built so they are all a little different to each other. Each pilot had their favourite aircraft and the scheduling tended to keep each Porter at the same base so that the pilot on that base was used to how that aircraft flew. Whilst each Porter would still perform to the specification it was designed for, some would climb a bit faster than others, some were heavier than others, some had better beta pitch on the propeller and some just flew straighter than others, requiring less trim. PK-VVW soon became my favourite Porter. Whilst it was a little heavier than some of the others due to it having dual controls, it was ironically the straightest flyer of the fleet. It also had great beta pitch on the propeller and a strong engine that didn’t reach maximum continual temperatures or torque limitations as quickly as some of the others. As well as flying truer than the others, it just seemed to handle nicer than the rest too. I loved flying it and also loved the fact that it was the only aircraft of the entire Susi Air fleet that could claim to have been built in Papua. That was both a terrifying and fun fact…

… At least I only had to spend a week in Timika before heading back home to Wamena. All the Wamena staff were also in Timika, so I had to fly everyone and all their stuff in the back of a Porter; if it fits, it flies! I was grateful my last few weeks would be both in Wamena and also with my favourite Porter, PK-VVW…

… Just before I departed Dekai for the last time, all the Susi Air guys and airport staff posed with me in front of PK-VVW for some photos. We all shook hands and said our goodbyes and I gave them all a little wing wave as I took off from Dekai for the last time…

… The two main wheels kissed the runway, barely signalling we were on the ground. I checked forward on the control stick to keep the tailwheel in the air and continued to roll along the runway. Just before the exit onto the apron, I eased the tail onto the runway and taxied onto the apron. Gathered there waiting for me were the entire Susi Air staff of our Wamena base. I parked up and again paused before shutting the engine down. This was it. I kept it together and, for the very last time, pulled the engine shutoff lever. I hopped out and gave the big nose section of the Porter a big hug, much to the amusement of everyone watching. But I wasn’t laughing. I was going to miss it. A lot. 

2025 – Stans, Switzerland

That was 2016 and what I thought would be the very last time I’d see PK-VVW again. Especially as in 2018 it skidded off Binuang airstrip in Kalimantan, causing significant damage to the wings. As you can tell from the above extracts from my book, this particular aircraft holds a special place in my heart. The photo of me hugging a Porter is of PK-VVW, my book cover also features that aircraft and even my campervan I use for days away rock climbing, has the same registration. It was the Porter I enjoyed flying the most and is still the last one I’ve flown.

However, following that accident, the future was unclear for PK-VVW until it was eventually shipped to the Pilatus factory in Stans, Switzerland in 2022 to be repaired. It took until summer 2025 before it was finished under the watchful eyes of Ueli, a fellow Porter aficionado and one of the few people still able and willing to work on these 1950s designed airframes.

I was unaware of any of this until this September when someone who follows me on social media mentioned that PK-VVW was at the Pilatus factory. Coincidentally, I was scheduled to collect the PC-12 I currently fly from its 300 hour inspection in early October. I was hopeful that PK-VVW might still be there but as it was ready to be ferried back to Indonesia, there was no guarantee. My contact at Pilatus, Jérôme, very kindly offered to arrange a reunion should it still be there. The clock was ticking.

Two weeks flew by and thanks to some paperwork induced delays, PK-VVW was still in Stans as myself and my PC-12 copilot Niall boarded an evening commercial flight from London to Zurich. After a restless sleep at an airport hotel, we boarded the first of three Swiss trains for the two hour journey to the Pilatus factory. This nearly didn’t work out as planned as the train from Zurich central to Luzern was running a few minutes late and we had to run to catch the final connecting train from there to Stans. So much for precision Swiss timing!

Jérôme had kindly arranged for a colleague to meet us at the station and bring us to the factory. I didn’t know what Robin looked like so we wandered about Stans station until I spotted him standing next to a Pilatus branded VW electric car and introduced myself. Robin explained that because PK-VVW was due to fly back to Indonesia later that day, it was best if we started our factory tour there, which was fine by me.

The Pilatus factory is nestled in the Swiss Alps next to Buochs airfield with their new maintenance hangar on the opposite side to the main factory. This is both where the PC-12 we were due to collect was, and PK-VVW. It was a bit of a blur from arriving at the hangar to seeing my old friend parked up in the far corner. I barely registered the various people I shook hands with to gain access and before I knew it, I was sitting back up in the cockpit of my old steed, some nine years since I last sat there. People were talking outside but I wasn’t listening. I was back in Indonesia. The tactile control stick in my left hand and the stubby throttle lever in my right hand. The familiar switches and Garmin G950 screens surrounding me, and that long nose stretching out in front of me. I took it all in and soaked it all up.

After I’d had my moment, I hopped out and met Ueli who had been instrumental in getting PK-VVW repaired and airworthy again. Immediately I could tell he shared the same passion for the PC-6 as I did. We chatted about the various quirks and how Pilatus are finding it harder and harder to get younger people interested in working on these older aircraft types. Compared to modern, computer designed airframes, the Porter is much more traditional with no modern manuals for maintenance procedures. This makes it more time consuming to repair and work on, hence why most people prefer to work on the more modern stuff with easy to understand manuals and repair procedures. I’m very thankful for people like Ueli who help keep these old birds flying.

But the day didn’t finish there as there was another surprise to come. As PK-VVW is on the Indonesian register it requires pilots with an Indonesian licence to fly it which begged the question, who was going to do the ferry flight? Ueli was in contact with the two pilots who’d come over from Indonesia and I immediately recognised one of the names. I last flew with Wilson in 2014 when I was guiding him around the various airstrips Susi Air flew to from our Timika base.

As we had some time before Wilson and fellow PC-6 pilot Callum were due to arrive, Robin took Niall and I on a quick tour around the factory followed by lunch in Pilatus’s fabulous canteen where I was able to briefly catch up with Jérôme who’d I’d been in contact with during and since my time at Susi Air. It was great to be able to present him with a signed copy of my book which I’m told will be stored in Pilatus’s archives for anyone at the factory to read.

After lunch, Robin whisked Niall and I back to the maintenance hangar where Wilson and Callum were now waiting with PK-VVW. I think Wilson was as surprised as I to be reunited after so many years. It was great to meet Callum too and hear all about how things were going at Susi Air since I’d left. Sadly two of the nine Porters that remained when I had left had been written off. One of those was burnt to the ground following the kidnapping of fellow Susi pilot, Phil Mehrtens a few years ago and the other had crashed near Duma airstrip; thankfully there were no fatalities. It was nice to hear that, despite all the changes and how things weren’t the same as when I was there, pilots seeking adventure can still find it out in the jungles and mountains of Indonesia whilst flying the world’s greatest bush plane.

I chatted with Wilson, Callum and Ueli for far too long as despite their ferry flight being postponed yet again, Niall and I still had to fly our PC-12 back to London. We ended up delaying our departure a bit as I’d lost track of time. Niall commented afterwards he could see the bond we bush pilots have and that even though Wilson and I don’t really do it much these days, that background will always be with us. According to Wilson, Susi Air has only ever had fifty Porter pilots to this day which in the context of the hundreds of thousands of pilots in the world, puts us in a very small privileged minority.

I left with mixed emotions. Part of me wanted to tag along with Wilson and Callum and head back to Indonesia for “one last time”. However I know it will never be the same and I’d rather continue to have new adventures in this life rather than revisit old ones and dilute their value. As I say in my book, to enjoy life you need to keep seeking new challenges and that’s just what I’ll keep on doing.

If you want to track PK-VVW’s journey back to Indonesia, you can on FlightRadar24 here. It left Stans on Friday 17th October and the trip is expected to take around a week to get to Jakarta.