Flying to bandung

   Bandung is famous as the city of Paris van Java since it becomes the center of mode of Indonesia. But only few Indonesians know Bandung as center of some maintenance depo of Indonesian Air Force. Several Indonesian Air Force aircrafts are doing their regular major maintenance program in Bandung such as C-130, CN-235, Boeing ,Puma as well as super Puma and training aircraft from Jogja like KT 1 B Woong Bee, T-34 Charlie and  AS 202 Bravo.
    On July 11th, one KT 1 B has just finished major maintenance program at 11th maintenance unit at Husein Sastranegara AFB.  The aircraft should be taken back to Adisutjipto AFB therefore Adisutjipto AFB commander sent two pilots to Bandung to take the Aircraft, They are Major Marcell "Liger" and Major Romas "condor".
   Both pilots took off from Jogja at around 10.30 AM local time using one KT 1 B Woong Bee registered LD 0117. The weather on route was quite good. They flew just above the cloud at 9000 ft. The flight time was about 55 minutes, they landed at Husein Sastranegara AFB at 11.25.
  It was not so long to wait the aircraft to be ready. LD 0108 only need to be ground checked just to make sure that every system working properly before it is flown to Jogja. At 15.32 Liger flight took off to Jogja. The weather was quite bad for ferry flight. The cloud was broken 10.000 ft above Malangbong, the city on radial 117 at about 25 miles from Bandung. Fortunately during that flight there were some holes in the sky , giving a safe road for Liger flight for going back to Jogja. The flight finally landed  safely at 16.30 at Adisutjipto AFB.

The Wingtip

     Three years old is too young for children. In United States the kids with that age are mandatory to be put at day care center. But for The world class Aerobatic Team like The Jupiters, that age is mature enough to perform an excellent maneuver

s. The team has been conducting some displays and shows at multiple places within country or abroad. Some international events have become a fixed display program for them such as Singapore Air Show in Singapore, Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) exhibition in Malaysia and BRIDEX in Brunei. The involvement at world class exhibitions have brought self confidence in The team. They believe that they can compete with other countries that have started establishing their team long before The Jupiters.

   The team realize that they should maintain this prestige  as the Indonesian ambassador in the sky by keeping the team quality. The biggest problem for the team is regeneration. Since the team is military, it is impossible to keep all the team members, all the members should be promoted for higher occupation and higher rank. They need to obtain further professional military educations which are needed for future military missions. It takes sometime to replace their position in the team with the new pilots. New pilots have to conduct long and hard training program using an established syllabus.

   The team does not have any other option and this become  preasure to the commander or team leader. New members should be ready before the next display. For the upcoming October 5th display that commemorate the Indonesian Armed Forces celebration, The Jupiters has prepared some replacement to the team. Noumber 2 position that previously flown by Capt Ripdho "Mohawk" will be replace by Capt Idham "Godam". Furthermore, Capt Made Yogi is going to replace Capt Apri "Cheetah" Afrianto as Number 3 pilot. Other than that, Maj Marcell "liger" has to go to China for obtaining Air Command and Staff  College therefore his position will be occupied by Maj Romas "Condor" who just come back from United States. These pilots should ready to perform at least in September 2014 in order to succeed the celebration.
   Another team's preparation is enhancing the smoke producer capability. During the previous display, the performance was not optimal because the smoke was not thick enough to attract the spectators. Now the maintanance line is trying to enhance the capability by making bigger compartement for the smoke oil and putting an additive chemical to color the smoke. Perhaps on the next display the performance would be more interesting. For all fans just wait and see their performance on 5th of October 2014 in Surabaya, don't miss it.