DAY 16, LEG 78 - Puerto Montt to Santiago
This leg is the last one of the day and at the end of it we will deliver "SPC" to the LAN hangar at Santiago international airport for maintenance and the fitting of a ferry fuel tank. The specialist Beechcraft maintenance facility in South America is in Maiquieta, Venezuela but the parts and some specialists have been flown down to Santiago to fit the aircraft with the extra fuel tank, saving a diversion for the aircraft of several days. The extra cost of the work being done in Chile was outweighed by the cost of carrying the extra fuel tank weight over the thousands of miles of our trip around South America. After the Pacific crossing the use of the tank will be reviewed and a decision made whether it should be removed in Australia or kept in the aircraft for the longer legs in Asia. The tank has a capacity of 600kgs of fuel, approximately 90 minutes of extra range for the aircraft. We will be operating at a heavier weight, but still 50kgs under the Maximum Take Off Weight. Only 100kgs of fuel will need to be used before we are under Max Landing Weight so there will not be any overweight landing issues unless we need an immediate return to the departure airport in the case of an emergency.
As the temperature cooled into the evening at Puerto Montt, the visibility had dropped very quickly to 250m as fog rolled in. Thankfully we had made it in before this otherwise it would have been below our landing limits. It does mean we need to select a departure alternate so Balmaceda Airport is used as we have already passed over it and seen the weather forecast to be good.
Foggy conditions.
IFR departure from Puerto Montt.
About to start descent into Santiago.
Final approach to Santiago.
SCTE - SCEL stats
Takeoff time: 1724
Landing time: 1939
Flight time: 02:15
Fuel used: 996kgs / 2191lbs
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