The below is written by a former Captain of Air Lanka who was once a Cabin Crew Safety Instructor. He also flew as a Captain for SIA. By Capt Elmo Jayawardena The eastern sky is becoming bright with shades of grey and tangerine turning to pastels of blue as the sun paints a new day. The aeroplane looks like a bird wearing over-sized shoes, the floats hang low appearing as if someone fixed torpedoes on the amphibian. Shes taken off from the Mawella Lagoon in Dickwella and flown 15 minutes and is now making an approach to land on the picturesque Koggala Lake that is still asleep. Cinnamon Air Caravan is on final approach and makes a slight left bank to line up on the water runway. She comes in low, almost parallel to the surface and lifts her nose up like a wings-spread pelican and touches the surface with a splash of spray which itself is a transient decoration. The water plane taxies to the wooden jetty by the Koggala runway to pick up passengersflying to Katunayake to connect to flights that take them out to the world. Amphibian aeroplanes are the latest to embrace the Sri Lankan sky. This is a much-needed mode of transportwhen we talk of increased tourist arrivals and the need to move fast, safely and conveniently to our vastly-spread multi-dozen paradise locations. The concept is not new, it is a born again saga from a long forgotten adventure that took place seven decades ago and went on to make an unbreakable world record in commercial aviation. On 29th June 1943, Capt Russell Tapp of Qantas Imperial Airways flew from Perth to Koggala Lake a distance of 6,630 KM in 28 hours of non-stop flying. He would have banked his wings the same as the Cinnamon Caravan did and lined up on the water runway and sprayed the lake as he touched down.CaptTapp was the first to fly passengers in a float plane in Sri Lanka. That was the famed Flight of the Double Sunrise.For one-and-a-half years there were 5 Catalinasnamed after stars, Antares,Rigel, Spica, Vega and Altair that did these record breaking sectors. The longest was an astounding non-stop 33 hour flight. There wasnt a single incident in the 271 times they flew between Perth and Koggala. That was 1943. The safety record of the float planes was magnificent. Now it is Cinnamon Air of a consortium led by John Keels and its a Cessna Caravan fleet of two with floats and one a fixed-wheel aeroplane. The amphibians are following in the footsteps of CaptTapp and the war-time Catalinas and landing in the same water runway at Koggala. Cinnamon flies daily to Kandy, Sigiriya, Bentota, Dickwellaand to Koggala and allocated days to other places. They do charters too along with scenic flights for pleasure seekers. The two amphibians land on many water runways that have been approved by the Civil Aviation Authority and the fixed-wheel can go to any of the sixteen airports that dot the Lankan map. The aeroplanes depart from Katunayake or from Waters Edge (for Colombo convenience) and can fly you to any place of choice and that includes the high terrain approaches to Lake Gregory to reach NuwaraEliya which has daily flights during the April holiday season. Flying around mountainous terrain and in all kinds of weather needs reliable well-equipped aeroplanes and experienced pilots. The Cinnamon Cessnas carry twin GPS for navigation, weather RADAR to detect thunderstorms and most importantly radio altimeters and a ground proximity warning system (GPWS) to avoid smashing inadvertently into a hill. They are the same safety guaranteed equipment I had when flying 747saround the world. The GPWS and the Radio Altimeter are the best safety measures to have when operating to high altitude aerodromes. On that count I cast my safety vote on Cinnamon Air. The engines too are not the normal Pratt and Whitney, but 900 HP Honeywells that give extra power to escape wind-shears and have higher climb gradients to climb out of valleys surrounded by mountains.It is indeed a safe operation and the Canadian Chief Pilot counts 8500 hours of flight time which is a very high experience level when considering how many the 30 minute flights he would have flown to accumulate such. The aeroplane is safe, the pilots competent and where do they go? Other than the destinations mentioned before they do fly to Trinco, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Castlereagh Reservoir, Arugam Bay and Kalpitiya. New destinations will be added as the fleet increases and I personally would like to see Cinnamon landing on the waters of the Buduruwagala Tank to take passengers to Ella or going to Kala Wewa where one will be able to walk from the plane to Aukana. The time taken could be one tenth of what it is to travel by road. Cinnamon came to life in 2012 and had the maiden flight in the July of 2013. So far more than 4000 passengers have enjoyed its comfort and convenience and safety. The planes are flown by 10 pilots of whom 7 are home bred. That number will increase as float-fancy takes hold of young wanna be local pilots. As for fares, the cost factor is affordable to those who prefer the air to road travel. One can fly off to Kandy after landing in Katunayake for USD 172.How convenient is this to a passenger travelling from London? After more than 10 hours in a plane, instead of trudging by road for at least another 3 hours, one can disembark, clear customs and immigration and go Cinnamon. They have their own private terminal. Greeted by courteous staff and having refreshed, the passenger steps into a Caravan and flies to Kandy in 25 minutes. Passengers are given 23 kgsof checked-in luggage plus a cabin-bagallowance. To someone flying business class on long haul flights Cinnamon is simply the icing on the cake. True, it may not apply to the budget traveller, just like the 200 rupee hoppers at Arcade or fine dining at the Hilton. But the internal air travellers are gathering and there is a market that is emerging for the future. Cinnamon Air currently may not be catering to the majority but is definitely paving the way for a new kind of tourist travel with easy reach to destinations that are becoming extremely popular. One company in Male has 41 float planes to take passengers island hopping. Visitors fly in these, and pay top dollar. Why not in Sri Lanka? It is high time we had more general aviation and a lot more small aeroplanes taking people to the far corners of the island. To do that nothing serves better than an amphibian, able to land or take off on hard runways or an obstacle free sheet of water, they could operate making safety a paramount parameter. That is the future. I have flown all over Sri Lanka in light aeroplanes and I cannot think of any other sky over any other country that has more beauty than what we have here. Unfortunately, the war eradicated most of general aviation and even now the restrictions are many for little aeroplanes to fly. This is certainly killing the golden goose. Things ought to change and they will change and it is great that Cinnamon Air is paving the way for others to follow. A million more tourists are expected and they are all not going to run and jump into the Yaal Devi or Udarata Menike to reach their final destination. Batticaloa on Cinnamon Air is only one flight over the hills and amere 50 minutes against a nine hour drive across the island. People pay 23,000 dollars to travel from New York to Singapore in Star Class SIA. Such passengers will certainly pay 250 dollars to fly from Katunayake to PassiKudah. The float planes are here to stay. Sri Lanka has so many tanks, lakes and rivers that it is a shame not to use them. Water runways are the cheapest to maintain as there is nothing to maintain in places float planes land and take-off. Just find a 700 meter water pathor in high elevations double that distance and that is all you need to operate an amphibian Cessna Caravan. Next time you see a new bird in the sky with over-sized shoes, remember it is Cinnamon Air. Maybe she is taking some tourist somewhere or running a charter for someone in a hurry. Or could even be just loafing in the sky on a scenic flight showing off from a birds eye view the breath-taking beauty of our paradise. Capt Russell Tapp brought the first float plane and passengers to Koggala in 1943 You can book your amphibian experience through SriLankan Airlines by dialling 1979. (Extract is from the Island news paper)
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 02:26:28 +0000