After the initial offer to join the Pilatus Porter fleet in August 2011, I was told I needed to get a tailwheel endorsement. To jump straight onto a Porter as a first tailwheel type would require a lot more additional training than Susi Air was willing to front. So I booked myself a Supercub course at Clacton Aero Club in Clacton-on-Sea in the UK who were fantastic and got me flying the Cub in no time. If you’ve never flown a Cub, add it to your list. It really is a wonderful aircraft to fly and these days I’m lucky enough to own a share of one in near my home in the UK.
Upon returning to Indonesia I went back out to Papua to learn to fly the Pilatus Porter with our in-house instructor and resident Pilatus Porter instructor, Sven Imsand. It took about a week and a lot of touch and goes to get confident in flying it, including landing on a few of the mountain strips of Papua which was a real privilege and finished with a DGCA (Indonesian CAA) check-ride to get the rating put on my licence.
Once I had the Porter rating on my licence I was sent up to a little village called Malinau in Northern Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) where I then did some further strip training into the various airstrips up there. It was around about this time that I started this blog. If you’d like to read from the very beginning, I suggest you start with this post here on the Wet Season. Otherwise, please have a browse around my website and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Thanks for these posts, Matt. I’ve been hemming and hawing about my career in the IT world and have been bitten by aviation for 11 years. With my IFR rating here in the states well under my belt, owning my own Piper Warrior and having flown across the US, I knew I had to do more. I’m not far from my commercial license and will be using your blog for motivation to pursue this further. I’ve never been to that part of the world, but have traveled to Asia and Europe (mainly in the Air Force, but not as a pilot).
The scenery you provide is incredible. As a native New Englander, it spoke to me somehow and now I know that I could combine a dream to go to that area AND possibly fly around there AND live there!? Sign me up!
Good luck to you over there.
Thanks for the blog! I left aviation behind about 5 years ago when my third child was born. It was too much time away for too little pay. But if I’d known about Susi Air before I met my wife, she never would have found me! I would have been in Indonesia as well!
All the best mate!