I am guessing that this question is on the lips of most mountainbikers on the east coast of Australia at the moment. The amount of rain and almost unprecedented flooding is great news for the health of our river systems, but bad news for the plucky MTBer. Trail damage, component damage and fungal growths from being constantly wet have all conspired to keep a lot of us sitting on our backsides for far too long now! There is going to be an explosion of trail shredding once the rain decides to stay away.
Work has also been playing a hand in sidelining me lately. The bi-annual simulator session had been looming in my near future and finally materialised.
Much refresher study and contemplation has paid off. I am through for another six months. This time around day one consisted of a flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Perth, Western Australia. A Volcanic ash encounter about one hundred nautical miles south of Soekarno-Hatta International airport caused multiple malfunctions on the aircraft. There was an
actual happening in the 1980s that raises the hair on the back of your neck when reading the report. The upshot for us was an immediate turn back to Jakarta with one engine failed due to pyroclastic adhesion inside the engine and the unknown life expectancy of our still running engine. The engine very kindly held on until we made it back to Jakarta safely.
Day two is the fairly standard base check with an engine failure on takeoff in 125 metre visibility, a single engine hand flown approach. No runway sighting, so go around and try a different approach with a single engine landing and an emergency culminating in a passenger evacuation. Easy peasy!
I need a good ride, so please, no more rain for a week or so.
