Irian Jaya airstrip info

[Eggman]

Does anyone have any photos of airstrips in Irian Jaya / West Papua?

Where can airstrip info (elevation, length, slope, etc.) be obtained?

[Ttree Ttrimmer]

Try

http://www.homepages.mcb.net/bones/06airfields/ICAO-VW.htm

WA, WI and WR identifiers are Indonesian. Much info is incomplete on these fields as the people that fly to them don't really care about that stuff as they have normally been there before or if they haven't they'll find out when they get there. What problems can you encounter at 80kts?:)

[Seaeagle109]

Eggman,

Sorry, I can't help you myself but check the threads on Dunnunda & Godzone about PNG airstrips, they make interesting reading and there seems to be a wealth of experience to call on from guys/girls that'll probably be only too glad to help.

[excrab]

What problems can you have at 80kts ?

I once had to do a go around from about 30 feet above the threshold at Abmisibil (6000ft ASL 20% upslope) because two enormous pigs ran out onto the runway in front of me. Impossible to outclimb the slope so had to go down into the valley alongside the strip and do a 180 degree turn to fly out the other way - everyone, including me, thought I was dead until I reapeared in the climb. Full load but only freight, fortunately.

We used to carry a kind of home made jeppersens, I think prepared by MAF, which detailed all the strips in Irian with runway slope, length, elevation, lat long and a neat little picture of the layout and obstacles - the last being very important when operating at density altitudes of 8000 feet but with peaks around you up to 14000. This was very useful as there are, from memory, about 350 strips in Irian ranging from bad to appalling and very often not only had you not been into one of them but you could find no one else who had and there was no radio contact with the village that the strip served.

A couple of examples from memory - Kiwirock (WAJK) was at about 6000ft AMSL, with a 20-25% upslope in the touch down zone and a bend in it which meant that on take-off and hurtling down the hill even with the tail up you couldn't see the end of the strip until you had ruddered around the corner. After that Oxibil (WAJO) which was level, 1900ft of grass, well drained although at 5000 feet seemed like Heathrow.

Unfortunately I left two years ago and came back home to get my UK licences ( My Indonesian license was based on an FAA commercial ), so some of this is a bit out of date. You might get some info from MAF in the states as a lot of their pilots are out there (WWW.MAF.org I think) but the Indonesians are a bit sensitive about the strips near the border with PNG so they may not be able to give you much information.

Anyway - good luck if you're flying there, the scenery is stunning and the flying is amazing.