Quite a day....

**  Long blog post warning**

Last Friday was quite a day.  The day started off with an awesome privilege.  Our brand new airplane that has taken more than four months to run the customs/licensing gauntlet here in Indonesia, just became fully operational.  And I and my instructor pilot got to fly it on it's very first operational day!  It was just sort of luck of the draw that we got to be the first ones.  But how neat!  And yes, it definitely has a "new airplane smell."  So where did we go?  We took two trips out to a place called Mulia, carrying people and cargo there and back.

Here's David and I after our first stop.  The passengers were pretty excited to be the first passengers!  They were all grins.  Below is a picture from the parking area of the strip at Mulia.  Yes, it is paved.  Don't ask me how they pulled off paving it, being it way out in the middle of no-where.

If you look close enough in that picture above you can see another airplane coming right over the ridge (you may have to click on it and see the big version of the picture...its just left of the road that winds over the ridge).  That was Dennis flying one of our MAF Caravans from another base in Papua, called Timika.  Amazingly, planes from four different MAF bases in Papua all flew into Mulia that day.  It is a sort of cross roads of Papua, and I was really amazed how big a town it is for being in the middle of no-where.  David gave me a  little history about Mulia, and apparently it is a place with an amazing past.  It is a place where the good news of Christ found fertile soil among the people there quite some time ago, and the people that lived there began a huge missions movement to neighboring areas.  I'm sure it's in a book somehwere, and I hope to read it someday soon!

So above is aforementioned new airplane MAX after we got back from our first run to Mulia, preparing for our second run out there.  It's getting fueled up, checked over, loaded up, etc.  Looking at this picture it makes me think of a boxer in the corner between rounds, with his crew squirting water in his mouth, barking words of encouragement or advice, and taping up its wounds.  Okay maybe not that intense but I thought it was a funny mental picture.

One reason MAX has been so highly anticipated is because it has a "belly pod" to put cargo in down below the airplane.  You can see what I mean above, in the foreground is a Kodiak without a pod, and in the background is MAX sporting its pod down underneath.  This will not only make loading the airplane much simpler, but more importantly help us stay within center of gravity of loading limits when we have passengers plus cargo on board.

So the second thing that made Friday a big day was our friends and neighbors, the Perezes, moved away to Wamena, another MAF base in Papua.  Daniel is also a new pilot here in Papua, and he just completed the process of checkout that I am in the beginning stages of.  Here they are on the MAF Caravan, loaded up and ready to move.  We will miss them around here!

One of their kids (not pictured above) is Elise's good friend Reece.  Below is Elise playing with Reece and Joe a couple weeks ago.  

The third and final thing that made Friday a big day....was the MAF Christmas party in the hangar! We dressed the kids up Christmas-y for the event.  Couldnt help but take a few pics.....

Like normal, it was Elise trying to help get Ian to look at the camera.  He was too busy looking at the little flowers he just picked off the bush behind him.  That is one of his favorite things to do in our yard!

Elise has been doing this head tilt thing for pictures lately....where did she learn that?!

So over to the MAF Sentani Christmas party.  The crew decorated the hangar very well!  The little manger scene and Christmas tree were a nice touch!

Here's everybody.  We have many "expat" families, and also many local Indonesian workers and their families that help make it all happen.  There's crews to schedule flights, manage finance, manage the "wearhouse" for storing and loading stuff that goes on the plane, help passengers, etc.  

While we sang "silent night" they turned out the lights and lit candles.  

One thing we were un-prepared for was the Indonesian-ness of the Christmas party.  Meaning, we came expecting a few songs, skits, then food!  Instead, it was a 2 and a half hour program, not un-like a church service, followed by food!  It was all good, but our kids were going bonkers and almost past their bedtime by the time we ate dinner!

This little girl loves to hold Ian every chance she gets.  She is one of the few people he lets hold him!

And now the random picture part of the blog post!

Elise working on her Christmas carols.

Its always cute when they ride the cart together!

To wrap up this marathon post....a few days ago we had a photo session with the hangar/office workers.  I joined them in their group photo.  One of the awesome things about working in the hangar for a few months before starting flying is I got to know the guys on our maintenance staff, both Indonesian and expat folks.  

Here's one of our Indonesian maintenance guys, Gasko.  On monday mornings we have a quick chapel service before starting work.  Sometimes Gasko plays the guitar for the songs while I play the djembei drum.

And here's the big group shot.  

Marathon post complete!

Elise's Heart Party

This morning Elise had her much anticipated fourth birthday party.

We can't believe our little girl is turning four already!  Elise loves birthday parties, so she was really excited for her own.  Can you tell?  She isn't actually four yet, she turns four on December 11.  But we wanted two of her best friends to be there, Reece and Joe, who are moving  to Wamena this week.

Heather did a great job getting fun things ready for the kids.  My job mostly was to go get the stuff...then watch the kids while Heather worked her magic getting everything ready.  And she did a great job, the kids had a blast....especially Elise.  Here's what they did...not necessarily in order....

Of course, they sang happy birthday and had cake and ice cream, and some other snacks.  Elise really wanted a "heart" birthday.  So Heather made her a heart shaped cake, and heart cupcakes, with some killer good frosting :<)  This morning when Elise saw her cake in the fridge for the first time, she had a huge smile and she started clapping she was so happy!

There they are, eating out on the porch.  Elise had some friends from here on base, as well as some that live around town.

And the boys on the bench....

In keeping with the heart theme, the kids made heart shaped Christmas ornaments.....

After that the kids all went outside and painted.  Heather hung up sheets of paper on the fence, and put "smocks" on them....(old shirts of ours).  The kids thought it was so funny wearing shirts that were so big on them!  

Elise hard at work....

Here's Elise in her smock with her masterpiece!

 There was collateral damage from the painting.  Ian managed to paint on the neighbor's cat before we could stop him!  Poor Squeakers.

Fortunately the paint came out just fine.

The last activity was opening gifts....Elise got some nice gifts...and some very thoughtful cards from her friends.  Some of them worked very hard and drew and wrote very thoughtful things for Elise.  

Of course...every kid got a goody bag on the way out!   Elise spent the rest of the day playing with Reese and Joe, while their parents, our friends Daniel and Becky prepare for the big move.  In fact, as I write this, they are decorating this room for Christmas, the Elise, Reese and Joe way!

First day of flying!

A couple thursdays ago was very exciting for me....my first day of flying here in Papua! The first few flights for new guys like me are "ride-alongs" with an experienced pilot. That means my job for the day was to soak up the "big picture" of what a day in the life of an MAF pilot is like. I was encouraged to take lots of pictures (and if you know me, you don't have to twist my arm to get me to do that!) I picked out quite a few pictures to share.....and because there were so many I sorted them into three albums.....and I also included some video from the day at the end.....

 The People Album

The Flight(s) album....pictures I took while en route....some beautiful scenery here in Papua, the awesome central mountain range, and beautiful (and challenging) weather.

Airstrips Album....I was very surprised at how many airstrips could be spotted just on one flight. They are all over! There are many that look like they are either under construction, or not kept up any more. I lumped them into their own album....

The Video.....including one takeoff from a village

The flying part was definitely fun and the scenery was amazing. I was a little bit like a kid with his face stuck against the window of an airliner (without my face stuck against the window though.....trying to maintain some dignity here!) I was glad that they advised me on these first flights not to get too absorbed in the technical details of the flights but soak up the big picture. I couldnt help but notice some technical details. But I also was amazed at the scenery...the dense mountains....big rivers and waterfalls everywhere, and an amazing amount of "houses", huts and small villages in the middle of no-where!

 The moment I will never forget from this day....is by no means the flying part. It's when David and I landed in our very first airstrip, a place called Kiwi, and there surrounding the parking area were well over 100 Papuans who lived on that mountainside. When we got out of the plane, I felt a sense of awe to finally see them, and to be in their village.  It was also a wierd feeling having 150 people staring at you, watching your every move!  Some of them approached the plane and talked to us in Indonesian. One said he was the town pastor. One wore a winter jacket that looked like something you would wear in Detroit in January, and it was a very nice 75 degrees outside.

 We were greeted by a missionary from Illinois named Jack who has been there for fourty years. He greeted us with coffe cake and instant coffee. The coffe cake was very good....and amazingly one ingredient he uses to make it is "powdered eggs" that are fourty years old! You would never know from the taste. Jack has seen the Gospel flourish in his area in his time there. He and his wife are finished and heading back to America in the next couple weeks. Their village is planning a big going away celebration for them. The village pastor said to me that they were sad to see them go but they needed to be independant.

 I've said enough, I hope you enjoyed the pictures! As I write this, a couple weeks after the fact, I have almost ten hours of training time in the Kodiak, learning the procedures and how to fly the airplane. It's definitely a lot to learn, and it's a lot of fun!  Pretty soon the focus of my flight checkout will be going along on these flights to interior villages and learning the specifics.

Some recent photos.....including some mealtime antics!

Link to album (for ipad users)

Hangar Action!

So today as I was working in the hangar, I had a few special visitors pop by.....

A pleasant surprise indeed.  They caught us wrapping up the inspection on our float plane.....it's a huge Caravan on floats that normally resides in south Papua.  It was a fun afternoon for a few reasons (more on that in a minute)....but it was exciting not only to have the big float plane in the hangar, but also to have a Kodiak nosed in for a little maintenance.....

So there's the float plane (Cessna Caravan) on the left, and the Kodiak on the right.  The Kodiak is the plane I will be starting my flight training/check-out in here in about a month.

So a little more about that float plane, it is our only airplane here in Papua on floats (we have about a dozen total airplanes).  It fills a really neat role in South Papua, based out of the city of Meraukee.  The south side of Papua is very flat and wet, full of lots of large rivers, and this plane is very useful there.  From time to time they take the airplane to other parts of the island to access places that have large lakes or rivers.  It is neat because airstrips don't need to be constructed to land this airplane, you just have to find a big patch of water!

So while useful in lowland areas that have big rivers and lakes, it's not so useful in the mountainous areas where we do the majority of our flying.  Notice it has wheels that pop out so you can land on runways too...neat ha?!  I heard that just a few weeks ago this plane was used to carry some folks in to get to a community of people that is almost completely un-known to the outside world.  The pilot who flew in there, Tom, has been working with us on the inspection and it was really neat to talk to him about that.  Here is a picture of the float plane in action.....

The other reason it was an exciting day, is because Indonesia's import customs cleared these two Kodiaks (below) for us to use!  They have been parked here for two months (since before we got here) awaiting release by the government.  It can be a long process here!  They looked kind of pitiful over there with the grass starting to grow long around them.  So today was an exciting day....instead of sitting there, they can be put to good use.  If I have the story right, these two airplanes were provided by two generous donors in the US.....each of them purchased one for MAF.  Amazing!  One of them will stay here, becoming our fourth Kodiak, and the other will be flown to Kalimantan Indonesia for use there.

Elise shares the excitement about the customs release!  (below)  The hardest part is over, but now we must get the airplanes approved as airworthy by the Indonesian government, please pray for no delays in that process.

Here's the setting of our MAF hanger here....beautiful!

Back to the Caravan on floats....we are on the tail end of the inspection, which takes about 2 weeks!  Each time the plane comes in for a major inspection like this (every 2 to 3 months) there are different things that are emphasized and looked at more closely.  This time it was the cabin.  So all of the inside of the cabin was removed so every part of the structure can be looked over very closely.  So here's the guys (including my friend Daniel on the right) putting the cabin interior back in earlier today.

Ian's determined spirit.....

Just before heading off to church today I decided to try to take a picture of the kiddos, since they were looking cute.  It ended up being a well photographed and pretty humorous example of an aspect of our little boy Ian's personality.

So right when we got out the door and I tried to get Elise and Ian to stand there for a photo, Ian caught a glimpse of the playground and that was it.  He decided he was going there, and nobody was going to stop him!  Definitely not big sis.

There he is charging off to the playground.

Oh well, so I will just take a picture of Elise.  Good job, Elise!

His mood while he was marching and drawing near to the playground was remarkably opposite from his mood a few seconds ago when we were trying to get him to stand there for a picture.

Yep, happy to reach that playground.  And he always enjoys a ride on the swing!  Too bad we had to leave for church like three minutes later!

Earlier in the morning, Elise and I made french toast (Granny Robin french toast to be exact).  It is sort of a weekend tradition.  Elise loves to help make it, and we all enjoy eating it!  Sometimes its the little things that make life fun!