Three months ago I flew a single engine small aircraft from Melbourne in Southern
Australia via fuel stops in Lee Creek tenant Creek Catherine then in Darwin
where I picked up my friend Michael hi Michael greetings Champs and flew
the last overseas Lake from Darwin into Delhi International Airport
I spent two days exploring East Timor a country that I've never been to before bye guys thank you
hello before jumping back into my aircraft taken off from Dilly and retracing my steps through
Darwin through the middle of Australia all the way down to here in Melbourne my hometown this
is Echo Yankee Zulu the Cirrus SR-22 I did that flight in and since posting the videos on YouTube
I've had a lot of questions mainly around how I actually pulled off a trip like that and a
lot of you wanting to know how much it costs so consider this a bit of a how-to guide if you're
interested in pulling off a similar trip yourself now if you just want to cut to the Chase and know
how much it cost this is how much it costs if you want to know what that actually involved and what
they the breakdown if that cost actually was then listen on because I'm going to be very open about
exactly how I did it and exactly how much it cost me first day and a half of the trip was flying
across Australia a lot of airports and procedures that if you fly in Australia or if you've watched
my channel before you'll kind of be familiar with but the interesting part of this whole journey
I think is the international leg between Darwin and East Timor and then the return Lake from East
Timor back into Australia again so let's pick up the journey from Darwin how exactly do you fly an
aircraft that you either own yourself or you're hiring privately from one country into another
[Music] foreign so the first thing you need to do when you want to leave your home country is you
need to clear yourself through customs as you can imagine there's a few forms you need to fill out
one of them is what's called a general declaration or sometimes abbreviated to a Gen Dec and that is
simply a declaration form for the Customs team to let them know what your airport of origin is what
your destination is your aircraft type and several other bits of information about the flight that
you're about to undertake depending on the country of departure and the country of destination there
can be other forms that you need to fill in for me for example with Australia I was handed another
form called a disinfection form which I'll come to in a second but that was one I had to fill
out to say that I had sprayed my aircraft with insecticide before my return leg to Australia
it can be a bit overwhelming and there can be a lot of form so what I did is I used an FBO
or a fixed-based operator in my case it was Pearl flight center at Darwin International Airport they
organized all the forms for me they basically handed me a packet with the forms that I would
need they even organized the spray the insecticide spray that I'd need to spray the aircraft with
before it's turning they also organize for Customs to do an on-ramp check or basically come and talk
to me at the point of where my aircraft was rather than me having to go into the public terminal and
go through customs and come back again so that's all good yep thanks very much thanks for making it
easy okay I've got a quick breakdown of the two main costs then on the ground the first is paid
to the airport it's the airport movement charge so this goes directly to Darwin airport The Operators
that was 330 dollars for this aircraft and then handling from Pearl flight center on the ground
which covered everything that was the customs declaration forms that we had the insecticide
spray that we had organizing Customs to come down the use of their FBO so all the drinks and
everything we had on the ground and the food packs that they gave us as well we got some sandwiches I
got vegan ones Michael had his own sandwiches all of that together was 233.95 fuel at the airport
was done individually through a separate refueler but again organized by Pearl flight center and for
me that was 2.40 per liter so that's Australian dollars you can work it out in your own currencies
there and that was the total cost of getting the aircraft out of Darwin right change of
airport change off scenery let's go over here getting into East Timor then what do you need
to do well to get into the new country first of all you need to clear Customs at the airport of
arrival exactly the same as if you were flying on like a regular passenger commercial aircraft
but slightly different to Darwin we didn't have customs in Immigration meetings at the aircraft
we exited the aircraft and they drove us around well actually our Handler and I'll talk about
that in a second but I Handler drove us around to customs and immigration where we went through the
main airport terminal and we cleared customs and immigration we filled in the Declaration forms and
again it was the process was exactly the same as if you're getting off a regular commercial
airline now the Handler is an important one and in a lot of countries you need a Handler that's
someone on the ground who basically meets you and organizes all of this for you on your behalf
it's not required everywhere but even if it's not required I would say if you're not very familiar
with the country getting yourself a Handler on the ground it's really really important and it
takes out so much of the stress let's do costs again then for Delhi so getting into East team
or the fuel that we used on the way there so refueling what's going on with this wind
refueling in East Timor was 662 US Dollars the handling fee so Alex who is our Handler he was
220 US Dollars The Landing fees at Dilly were 415 US Dollars then two nights parking was a hundred
and ten dollars that's a total cost to get in park and get everything done in East Timor off
1407 US Dollars which roughly works out to be just over 2 000 Australian dollars thank you [Music]
now this aircraft takes AB Gas for its fuel but Dilly only has jet A1 in the fuel tanks and on the
pump so what do you do when you want to refuel well we had to pre-order Avgas in barrels now
this is by no means an advert and this is not a sponsored video in any way but my friend Michael
does organize those services in his team or he's who I used when I took Echo Yankee Zulu over
there so he organized the Handler he basically pre-organized the Avgas to be available there
in barrels for us to refuel he worked with the refueling teams made sure all the equipment was
there kind of again took all the stresses out of having to do that yourself and I will put links to
Michael's web page all about Aviation down below where you can find out more if you are doing a
similar trip but irrespective of where you're going I definitely recommend having a Handler
on the ground if it's not already required by the country you fly to and check obviously about your
refill building requirements and whether they have the right fuel for you because if they don't
you'll have to do what I did which is ordering in barrels so when you're actually there on the
ground well what do you do well the first thing you do is you've got access to your own aircraft
so go and do some Scenic flights have a flight around the local area talk to some of the pilots
there at the airports and find out what they actually recommend you do I was lucky enough to
spark up a conversation with the MAF when I was down there again through my friend Michael and
they offered to take me on a flight to one of the local Islands go on tours sightsee kick back on
the beach whatever you want to do but eventually you're going to need to fly home so how exactly do
you fly from East Timor back into Australia and is it as difficult as a lot of people say to get into
Australia in your own plane because of all the border patrol and custom systems we have in place
a little bit so what do you do when you're ready to leave East Timor and you want to
fly back home to Australia well remember all those forms they gave me in Darwin [Music]
it's the night before departure and I'm just filling out a couple of additional forms that I'll
need for Customs when I get into Darwin tomorrow the first one is this the Australian Border Force
crew declaration form you know when you come in on an international flight to Australia and you
have to fill out that arrivals card with are you carrying any tobacco wooden items animal products
ten thousand dollars worth of cats same thing just in a slightly different format the other document
I'm preparing but I can't fill out entirely is my basically a declaration that I have sprayed the
interior off the cockpit with the insecticide spray that they gave me when I left Darwin and
I filled out what I can but obviously I can't sign it yet because well I haven't sprayed the
cockpit yet but once I have this is ready to go and I need to show that to the immigration and
border patrol people at Darwin airport before they'll let me open the aircraft doors so I
have to have this and kind of hold it up to the window then the documents I need for Customs I've
got this General declaration or gen deck which is a templated document that Michael actually
gave me that's why it's got the southern sun on the top I'm just borrowing his format for it
which is just a declaration of the crew on board and the aircraft registration
the time of departure as well as some health information on there as well just relating
to covert so I'll have this to give to the immigration team at Delhi but I've also got
another copy of this which I'll need to give to the Customs team when I arrive at Darwin
as well I seem like a lot of documentation but it's actually pretty straightforward but again
if you're doing this with people like with pearl flight center that I've got in Darwin
with my friend Michael here who's helping me out in Delhi with the handlers down here
they give you these forms and you basically just fill them out and give them back again
foreign what is what is making all that noise [Music]
I mean I love a king here but I'll just wait for that to finish [Music]
peace and quiet okay once you've filled out your forms you've cleared customs in the airport and
you're ready to take off and flight home if you are flying to Australia this is where we
go back to that can of insect spray that they gave me in Darwin see you in Melbourne foreign
I have to spray this and fill the cockpit here we go
[Music]
I had to close the doors spray the whole aircraft but it's not just the cockpit area that's the
baggage compartment as well now I was told you don't need to empty the entire can I think I did
about half of it I don't think I need to do quite as much so there was quite a fog and a lingering
Taste of insecticide in my mouth as I did depart daily that is one thing that you do need to do
with the doors closed and when you land at the other end just skipping ahead to Darwin for a
second you can't open the doors of the aircraft until you've shown the can of spray and shown that
you've filled the insecticide spray form as well thank you once the border patrol team have seen it
then you can open the doors and then you can exit the aircraft then once you're out of the aircraft
you will meet the Customs team and again exactly the same as your customs declaration when you're
flying on a commercial jet I was given a form it just looks slightly different but the questions
were basically the same if you've got anything to declare you declare it to customs if not sometimes
they'll take a quick look at the aircraft or through some of your bags exactly in the same
way that they can do at a commercial airport but once you've done that you're in all right
so final costs there and what did it cost to come back through Darwin well again I use Pearl flight
center the same team I used in the way out and again there were three main costs the first one
was the aircraft movement charge again Darwin airport charged me 330 dollars to land and use
Darwin airport then Pearl flight center this was the food they gave me more sandwiches on
the leg down to uh Alice Springs I was going to afterwards thank you very much I got sandwiches
handling the Customs at plane organizing border patrol the use of their FBO and everything cost
me 114 and the fuel that I use from Dilly again I was charged 2.40 per liter so in my case it came
to 464 dollars you may think if it's your home country do I need to use an FBO like Pearl or
like any of the other operators out there well no you don't have to but my recommendation unless you
do this a lot and unless you know exactly what forms you need to fill out it really
is worth the cost of knowing that you've done everything that you need to do because for me I
just wanted to focus on flying in new airspace and unfamiliar territories rather than worrying about
the logistics and the paperwork and the red tape associated with this so from my point of view and
of course if it's not cost prohibitive then yeah I absolutely would recommend using an FBO like the
guys at Pearl flight center this is absolutely not sponsored by Pearl flight center in any sort of
way I just want to make that clear as well I paid for every single one of those costs uh that's how
I know how much it cost me because they're now on my credit card bill if you want to know exactly
what it's like flying a small aircraft all the way to East Timor and Back Again here's the playlist
of the videos I made flying over five days from Melbourne to Delhi and back again otherwise thank
you as always for watching I hope you found this information useful and I'll see in the next video