Ingo and Saddiq after Tioman Checkout

Pulau Tioman was the last island with a usable airfield around the Malaysian peninsula I hadn’t been to.  One reason is that I was busy exploring the other places along the East and West coast, and the other reason is that you need to get checked out by a flight instructor first before you can fly there on your own.  The FRAS checkout consists of three successful landings with a flight instructor.

My first attempt failed.  Last weekend, I stayed a couple of hours at the club hoping that the weather would clear enough to have a good chance to return to Johor, but no such luck.  This weekend, the weather was better.  Lots of CB with a base of about 2000 feet and nice blue sky in between.  On Saturday, I practices a couple of landings and on Sunday Saddiq was available and the weather still held, so we took off at around 13:00.  With a tail wind of 10 to 12 kts, we arrived at Tioman a bit after 14:00.  Saddiq did a good job briefing me about the approach and I managed to slam the piper into the runway with lots of room to spare.  I had the same problems as in Pangkor – too slow on approach and not enough flare.  Nevertheless, I did two more landings to satisfy the club requirements and we went back with no drama.  Now I am signed off for Tioman and hope to get back there on my own soon.

For the readers of my blog, I have drawn a little map and provide a couple of notes on the procedures to approach and land in Tioman.  You can download the Tioman map here.

I am not going to say much about the flight from Johor to Tioman, because it is the standard cross-country flight to Mersing with an additional leg of about 30 nm to get to Tioman.  At Sidilli Besar I usually report an estimated arrival time for Mersing and Tioman, because there is a good chance that I will lose contact with Johor shortly after Sidilli.  As the turning point towards Tioman I use the Mersing airfield, because that is a well-defined point.  That means the course to Tioman will be slightly more Northerly than what the flight log says.  From Sidilli, you can ask for higher altitude if the cloud base allows it.  Johor usually gives you 1,500 feet till Sidilli and might be inclined to allow higher afterwards.  The switch over from Johor to Tioman radio will usually take place at Mersing.  It is unlikely that you will have contact with Johor tower at Mersing, so submit blind once and switch over to Tioman Info.  Tioman Info will clear you to the island and ask you to report sighting of the island.   If Tioman is not visible from Mersing, you can aim for Pulau Rawa, which is almost on a straight line from Mersing airfield to Tioman.  Tioman will appear bigger than you expect, so watch out for that dark “cloud” at the horizon, it might just be Tioman.

Tioman runway (from Wikipedia)

My procedure for the approach and landings looks like this:

1. Course from Mersing airfield should be around 034°
2. Langkawi will likely ask you to report sighting of the island (not the airfield!)
3. Once you report sighting you may be cleared to join the circuit
4. Likely next report is Runway 02 Right downwind or base
5. From the direction of Mersing, Tioman has two distinct mountain tops
6. Initially aim a bit to the left of the left mountain
7. Look out for Berjaya Resort with red roof tops
8. Aim to arrive at 1000 feet abeam the resort
9. Now look out of the jetty, marina and tower
10. The tower should be visible before you see the runway
11. Call downwind if previously asked to do so
12. Establish stable approach configuration (70 kts), keep descending and lower flaps to stage one
13. Look for the threshold, it should be visible now
14. Look for a large sign at the side of the mountain (to the left of the threshold)
15. Turn towards the sign
16. The turn should be done at 500 feet
17. Fly towards the sign, lower flaps to stage 2
18. Call tower if previously asked to do so
19. Turn into final
20. The turn should be done at around 300 to 350 feet
21. Decide whether you are too high – initiate a go around early!
22. (Go around by turning early to the right)
23. If height is ok, continue approach and lower flaps to maximum if necessary
24. Look out for some high trees and a fence just before the threshold
25. Aim a bit further into the runway (but not too much)
26. Taxi into apron or ask for backtrack (there is a turn pad at the end of rwy 02)

Tioman Approach and landing procedure