Guam - Cebu 30.05.2010
Guam is a strategic island for the americans. It was an important military base during the war. Today, despite a strong military presence, it has become a holiday spot for many japanese and korean people who come here to relax and enjoy the nice beaches surrounding the island.Our stay takes place under the sunshine. Unfortunately, we are stuck in our rooms as we need to prepare the next flight. We must pay a visit to the airport in order to refuel our planes. This process will take us 3 hours… In this region of the world, AVGAS is only delivered in 50 USG drums and we need to empty them with a small pump.
10 hours before our departure, we are still waiting on the flight permit for the Philippines. It is frustrating because the request was done a long time ago. Apparently these documents are processed through different offices and need to be approved and signed by different persons. We are using our patience to its best… Finally, just a few minutes before we go to bed, we receive the approval : HB-WYA & HB-WYB are cleared to enter the Philippines airspace and land in Cebu ! This permit will allow us to have a few good hours sleep before we get picked up from the hotel at 04:30AM. Freedom Air (our handling agent) is efficient and 3 members of their team did wake up very early to help and assist us for the departure. At 05:50AM, we takeoff and set a westerly course to our first navigation point (N13°00.0 E140°00.0). Rapidly, we realise that the easterly winds we had on the previous sectors have been replaced by headwinds which slow down our progress..
It’s now 10 days that we are flying over the Pacific. It is amazing how humans can quickly adapt to new situations. We tend not to think about an engine failure.. but we still look at the Ocean with total respect. This time, we are not so succesful with our position reports. Therefore the airliners (which are flying some 30'000 ft above us) will make the relay with the control centers. The weather is good but as usual we need to circumnavigate around the clouds that are present along our route. After 12 hours of flight we start to see the coast line of the Philippines. The radio-communications are better and the controllers are guiding us to Lapu-Lapu, this is the name of Cebu Airport, our final destination today. As soon as the wheels touch the runway surface, we start to feel the heat and humidity entering the cockpit. The temperature outside is 35°C. We look forward to a shower and a cold beer !
Francisco
