Today we had fun taking Elise to get her hair trimmed and done by a children's hair-dresser.
Of course daddy was ready with the camera! I got another belly pic of Heather too. At this point, each belly pic could be the last belly pic!
Yesterday we spent a few hours washing the training airplanes to mark the end of our training. Heather and Elise came over, and Elise sure had fun watching. She even scrubbed a little bit. And she enjoyed calling out all the windsocks that she saw. She kind of has a wind sock fetish right now!
This is one of Elise's favorite bed-time books called "Goodnight Moon". She is starting to know her favorite books really well!
Friday, April 15, 2011
The other day it was a gorgeous, sunny morning and it WASN'T WINDY which made it a great day to go practice at some of the airstrips we have been wanting to go to. As we headed out, we had our vaccuum gauge go to zero. That means our vaccuum pump failed. This is actually a fairly common thing in small airplanes. It meant that two of our instruments, the attitude indicator and the heading indicator wouldn't work. So we had to turn around and head back to MAF to get it looked at. When we got back, the maintenance guys said it could be a couple hours before we were ready to go again. Drat!
Well here is the culprit. The vaccuum pump. As they were replacing it, Heather and Elise came over to check out the action. Elise was really excited about it. After hours, a lot of times I bring her over to the hangar. She talks about how there's the side with the training airplanes she calls the "fixed" airplanes. And then there's the maintenance hangar that has the "broken" airplanes. She was really excited to get to watch them actually fixing the airplane!
For some reason there's a golf cart parked in the hangar.
Thankfully the mechanics got the job done much faster than they had quoted us. My instructor pilot Scott and I were so glad about that that we bought them doughnuts.
My last day of flight training (for now) was today, April 14th. I put together a little photo album of some photos I took throughout the process, in case you're curious to see.
In the pictures there I mentioned an airstrip called West. Here's a little video I shot of a demo approach my instructor did into West. You get bonus points if you can actually spot the airstrip!
I said the flight training is over for now, because in late June I am coming back alone to do the one week back-country course. We will take our training airplanes to the mountains in north central idaho and practice on airstrips that are even more challenging than the ones we have been using.
So for now, flying is over, and we're waiting for a baby here in Idaho! I sure have enjoyed Standardization training here at MAF and have really been challenged and stretched, and have learned so much. Many of you have been praying for this time, thank you so much!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
A few recent pictures.....
I have one more week of flight training left. It has been a really awesome experience. The training that MAF has had the opportunity to refine over the last 50 years is very thorough and practical. It's also a ton of fun! I have never been more challenged in an airplane, and I feel like I'm learning tons of concepts.
Thanks to you who have been praying for what we should do about our four day mountain flying course coming up. This is a course where I go away for three nights to the central mountains of Idaho and practice on more challlenging airstrips there. The problem is it is right in the "red zone" of when our baby can arrive. Missing our baby's birth is not something I would ever want to happen. MAF has allowed me to sign up for the same course that is happening in June. So I will come back in June for a week (by myself) and complete the backcountry flying course. this won't delay our departure any, as our departure will be after that date anyways. We will still stay out here in Idaho to have the baby...due date is April 27th!
We have been really blessed by our friends Jason and Joselyn, Tim and Liz, (friends and fellow MAF'ers) and also the church we have been attending, who have provided us with more than we need for baby boy's short stay here in Idaho. It has been really touching to us to see people go out of their way like this to help us. It is really special to me to see the body of Christ in action like this.
Today was an educational day for both Heather and I! One of the ladies here at MAF taught Heather some principles for cooking from scratch for four hours....
And one great part about that was the food they practiced cooking, Heather brought home for dinner. And it was delicious! Chicken pot pie, rolls, and (exotic) fruit salad, all made from scratch as scratch can be! She said the rolls took four hours to make, and you would not believe how many pots and pans they used for everything. Cooking overseas is going to be a new challenge!
Today was our third day of flight training and it was a gorgeous day! Gorgeous days have been in short supply around here lately. We took full advantage and got lots of practice in. We started off the day by heading to a gravel strip to practice on called Duster East.
Duster East is perched right on the edge of a plateau. We flew around it a few times to gather information about it to see if it was suitable for us to land on. After we landed, my instructor Tim pointed out something I hadn't yet thought of....that was my first airstrip landing (not at an airport)! With MAF there will surely be many more of those!
After we landed there we got out of the airplane to walk the airstrip and measure some important points for the takeoff and landing practice we were about to do. The cool morning air, the low sun and the mountains made it gorgeous!
Here's my instructor Tim by the plane.
And me.
After our trip to Duster East, I had the chance to practice canyon turn-arounds and ridge crossings, another first for me! Definitely not something we did up in Michigan! After visiting a small paved airport for more practice, we went to another dirt airstrip called ZX ranch. Once again, we made a few passes to observe the airstrip and see if it was suitable to land. As we did that, my classmate Luke was on the ground with his instructor walking and measuring the airstrip. As soon as we landed, Luke and his instructor were back in their airplane and ready to do some takeoffs and landings. So as they did that, and while Tim and I walked the strip, I got some video.....
Luke lands at ZX ranch
And then takes off....
A little while later, we got in the airplane and did the same thing.
It was a very fun, challenging, tiring and very educational day.
