The Mountain Flying

I wanted to share the pictures I took last month at my Mountain Flying Training in Idaho, also known as the Back Country Course. The first group of pictures are flying related, as we trained each day on the nearby airstrips. Then the last group of pictures are all related to the fabulous place we stayed, called Allison Ranch. Myself and two other students, Aaron and John, and two instructors, Tim and Scott, set off for northern Idaho one Sunday. We stayed three nights at Allison Ranch, heading out each day to practice on challenging airstrips down the Salmon River gorge from Allison Ranch. There are no roads into Allison Ranch, just a (very challenging) airstrip. The care takers Jim and Gloria made our stay wonderful with good conversation, good food, and amazing stories of the many bears that Jim has encountered in the area and the harrowing adventures he has had navigating the Salmon river by boat. The majestic roar of the Salmon River, the breathtaking pine covered mountain sides, and the amazing tranquility were not captured on camera but they were captured in my mind! The lessons learned in the airplane were intense as I experienced the types of extreme approaches and airstrips I will face in Indonesia. When flying, Aaron and I split time flying and observing/taking pictures. We had a blast. Some of these pictures are me photographing Aaron, and vise versa.

Back in the saddle

Day three of ten days away from my bride and kiddos! I am back at MAF headquarters in Idaho for the culmination of my flight training that came to a hault when our little Ian came into the world a couple months ago! I was bummed to realized when I got out here that I didn't bring any pictures of Heather or the kids, nor did I bring my computer (im borrowing my neighbor Aaron's right now). I was delighted to see that Heather had taken my camera the night before I left and took a few videos of Elise and Ian. It just warms my heart to watch those! Here's two of my faves.....Heather even appears in the second one which made me happy.




So I flew into Boise tuesday morning, and we hit the ground running Tuesday afternoon with a refresher flight. Wednesday and Thursday (today) we had two great days of practice on some really challenging and beautiful airstrips a little North and East of Boise. Here's a few pics.

A gorgeous morning, ready for a beautiful day of flying on Wednesday. It was a little hot in Boise (90 plus) but up in the mountain air-strips not so hot! The plane sure performs differently when it's so hot.

After landing at an airstrip, we shut down the airplane and had lunch on a hill on the side of the strip. The river ran by, and this was our view across the river. Beautiful! The sound of the river, the wind, and the birds was so peaceful.

My fellow trainee/new friend Aaron approaching this airstrip after we already flew in. This airstrip was quite a challenge, at 1500 feet in length and rather narrow between the pine trees with an 8 percent uphill slope.

Aaron took this video of me taking off.


These three days of practice are preparing for the big trip to the "back country". Technically, these airstrips we've done the last few days are part of the back country. But Sunday we are going to depart for a place further north in Idaho called Allison Ranch. We'll there three nights, and every day practice some of the airstrips in that area that are just a little more challenging than what we've already done. Great practice! I am soaking it in, because I know as I become more proficient and safe, myself and the Lord's precious servants I will fly in Indonesia will be safer for it.

I was excited to see this news clip today and hear about the big strides my old school is making. It's called the School of Mission Aviation Technology and it's located in Ionia, Michigan.

Mission aviators open new Ionia school: woodtv.com

Yesterday Ian set a new P.R. by sleeping from 11 until 6 am! That's definitely not the norm, but it felt nice for both of us.

A couple weeks back the crates that we're going to pack up our lives into for Indonesia showed up. We had them built by a company in Kansas City.

Those crates will have goods for our house in Papua Indonesia when we arrive there. First we have 11 months of language school! So we will be packing the stuff we will need for the first year into the suitcases we will take with us to language school in Java Indonesia. That's a lot more logistics than we're used to! A good project for sure to determine what to pack where, and what to buy here and pack that we might have trouble getting over there.

To take a break from the usual photo slide show I share photos with, I just put a bunch below:

Ian is really good at getting that one arm out of his swaddle. Hmm. He also got one arm on top of his head during childbirth which triggered the C-section. Little stinker!

He's been smiling a little bit here and there lately. Heather and her mom have succeeded in catching a few photos.

Elise just being her cute self. This time she wanted to play hide and seek.

Trying to capture the shirt on Ian that says "Daddy's little Wingman." My good friend Jeffrey got us that shirt for Elise (they just didn't have a "wing-girl" shirt).

A budding musician? This little instrument fits her perfectly wouldn't you say?

Elise definitely gets anxious when Ian cries. Sometimes when we're driving home and Ian's crying in his carseat, she will try to comfort him by telling him "Ian, don't worry, we're almost home."

How on earth he manages to sleep in these positions escapes us.

Elise enjoying her kid's cone at Mc D's.