Weather Briefing

Updated March 23, 2002.

Hajj News

Makassar football game of The Sahid vs Britannia ends in a noble 4-3 defeat of Britannia and included the stretchering-off of one of the opposition. There was an excellent attendance and many substitutions were available from the squad of 22. Chris Turner injured himself in a last minute heroic defensive slide tackle. Roger Young fell over a tuft of grass and scraped his head.

Balikpapan beach soccer game ends in glorious victory for the Britannia team of 2 engineers, 1 pilot, 3 girls from reception, the hotel manager and the barman. The unfortunate Garuda team were played off the sand with a dazzling show of skill from the Britannia chaps.

Dusit Balikpapan fun-run 2002 staged in blistering heat sees excellent attendance by Britannia pilots and engineers with an equally impressive turnout from Garuda crew. The men's winner was Paul Rafferty, with Duncan Graham coming a close third and the ladies winner was Neneng Armaningsigh from Garuda. 

Colin Sharples and Chris Turner arrive to fly Hajj rotations.

YF suffers engine surge on departure from Jeddah. Power reduced to idle, fuel dumped and aircraft returned to Jeddah. Boroscope examination showed that a fifth stage compressor blade had been released (including the root) and had caused further damage forward of the fifth stage. The engine change has taken far longer than expected due to problems with the cargo aircraft and it's clearance into Jeddah.

Delays in Jeddah. Some of our flights have suffered heavy delays due to problems with passenger processing in Jeddah. There are less check-in staff this year. It was suggested that 6000 passengers had been processed through one check-in in a single day. It has been a difficult time but things are set to improve since some airlines have now completed their Hajj programmes.

Rain falls in Balikpapan fairly often.

Phase two begins with slight hiccup. YB has a sticking thrust reverser at BTH. This is one of the first rotations into UPG with VIPs on-board. YA was the spare aircraft and was conveniently at BTH. No major delays to the programme.

Two rotations lost at end of phase one. Explained by lack of balance between the flying hours of various Hajj lease airlines. Airtours "graced" the apron of UPG to fly two rotations (unconnectedly).

Aircraft runs off runway at UPG. A Pelita Airways Fokker 50 overran UPG in heavy rain in early February. The runway was blocked for a time but caused no problems to the Britannia Hajj programme.

JMC have had problems with their single A330, based in Solo, going tech due to a pneumatic/air conditioning ducting problem. Airbus chartered a 757 to fly to Jakarta via Hamburg bringing the spares. We picked up two extra rotations out of Solo and crewing jiggled the programme to fit the extra work in. More wonga for the wheelchair.

Much rain in the first few weeks of the Hajj in UPG. Almost completely dry in BPN. 

Kevin Hatton and Maurice Boyle travelled out on one of the positioning aircraft. Kevin also addressed the UPG pilots at an informal gathering (free beer) and stated that he "was quietly confident of our future business". He also mentioned, to confirm his confidence, that the Thomson booking system had failed on the previous weekend due to the volume of bookings being processed.

Email ed@tenkotimes.flyer.co.uk with content or articles.