Flight Log: Ilheus SBIL -- Rio de Janeiro SBRJ 20.01.2018/21.01.2018/22.01.2018

20 January 2018 Ilheus — Rio de Janeiro:

We bought some coconut milk to sustain us during our flight to Rio de Janeiro. Apparently, it’s supposed to sharpen the senses. A taxi driver from the Ilheus resort picked us up early in morning, in other words at a quarter past six, and took us to the airfield. All in all, this small airfield is very unbureaucratic, because although our handling agents hadn’t yet arrived, we pilots were already being directed through the barriers until we reached our plane. The handling agents tracked us down a quarter of an hour later. Everything seemed to run smoothly. The weather reports indicated that the first thunderstorms would pass over Rio from about 2 p.m. local time. So we were in rather a hurry to keep to our flight plan. However, a computer again put the spanner in the works. The airport official couldn’t boot his PC and it took a whole 45 minutes before it was possible to work out the landing and parking fees of about $150. I gave the handling agent the cash and asked if we could now set off. We already had radio contact with the relevant controller who told us that we couldn’t unfortunately take off yet because the airport needed a signature on a form. He said that a follow-me vehicle would be heading directly for the plane to fetch the signature. Oh great. Another 10 minutes. Be that as is may, there would be no flight without all the red tape being completed. We were then guided to runway 11 and we could actually take off following a lengthy discussion about the departure route. What was so complicated about the departure route was that military exercises were being carried out and we therefore had to give this area a wide berth. It wasn’t until we’d reached an altitude of about 1,200 m that we were able to follow our route to Rio. After that, everything was all peace and harmony.

The controllers asked us every 20 to 30 minutes if everything was OK, told us what the next station was and we were able to stare out of the window to our heart’s content. Kurt discovered Recife’s reservoir and we saw Monteverde airfield near the coffee plantations. Kurt once landed on this airfield with the owner of the coffee plantation.

We spent the flight waiting until we could ascend to 15,000 feet as specified in the flight plan. After all, that’s over 4,000 m and we’d organised a supply of oxygen via tubes for the event. But nobody told us to ascend to this altitude. As we had visual flight conditions, we didn’t need to worry about crashing into the very high mountains. We continued the flight at an altitude of about 3,000 m. I stood somewhat in awe of the approach to Santos Dumont Airport directly on Sugar Loaf Mountain. There were more than 10 standard arrival routes and about 20 different ways of tackling the approach directly at the airport. Thanks to meticulous preparations, I had a rough idea of the standard arrival route I could expect and of the conditions that would prevail over this enormous city and its six to seven airports when approaching Santos Dumont. In fact, I then pursued an arrival route that the air traffic controller was happy with and she kept relatively quiet during the process. So I was able to follow a standard arrival route and a standard approach while constantly observing the changing altitude regulations indicated by the Jeppesen charts.

Eventually we had a wonderful approach to Santos Dumont. During the final approach, Kurt recognised the immigration office that he’d had to deal with during his time here in Rio. The landing with a view of Sugar Loaf Mountain was fantastic. You have to keep all your wits about you, fly the plane properly and carry out a safe landing. That wasn’t too difficult a task at headwind of 10 knots. After landing, we said hello to the handling agents who were happy to see us. We refuelled the plane and prepared everything else. Now we were looking forward to the Copacabana Palace, the big hotel in front of the world-famous beach.

Bye for now.