To fly in the Highlands is challenging. For a Lowlander like me, at any rate. And especially, if you have an aversion for towering cumulus. In the Highlands, they are everywhere and usually they settle exactly where you were supposed to go, covering up all the terrain (peaks and ridges), that are found on your flight from A to B.
Therefore, it came as quite a surprise when I realised that a wall of towering cumulus usually is not a wall of towering cumulus. What from a distance looks like an impenetrable obstacle turns out to be individual clouds that can be circumnavigated in any of the three dimensions quite easily. You only have to have the courage to get close and look at everything from different angles.
As a Lowlander I'm not used to land on steep airstrips, either. In the Highlands, however, there is hardly anything else. Circuits are flown in narrow valleys, over ridges and gorges, then directly towards a steep cliff, until you turn final in the last minute. First you think you are too low, then too high, then you think you are going to hit a wall until, finally, you touch down on a slope that is steeper than most of the roads leading over Swiss alpine passes. No wonder I constantly feel a knot in the pit of my stomach.
All in all the Highlands offer more challenges and therefore more interesting flying – at least after you get used to it.
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| Strip in Agali (6% slope) |
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| Strip in Yenkisa (9% slope) |
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| Strip in Labalama (11% slope), at the end of the valley is Kompiam |
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| Airvan Cockpit |
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| Strip in Dusin (8% slope) |
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| Bushmen in Megamanau |
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| Strip in Mengamanau (14% slope) |
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| Markus and the men of Mengamanau |
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| Unloading medical supplies from the EU |
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| Patient from Iropena, her child got stuck in the birth channel and unfortunately died as we were unable to medivac her for two days due weather |
