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!