From the Logbook...Christmas in Naan (pt. 5)

Before we left the village of Naan and returned to PalangkaRaya, we took a quick 20 minute flight to an even more isolated village called Jujang Parit to check in with a pastor and his family that serve there.  He seemed surprised to see us and it was great to spend a few minutes catching up.

The river in Jujang was pretty full with a strong current.  It made the takeoff and landing easier due to the amount of water that covered many of the underwater obstacles.  Thanks to Isaac Rogers for letting me use all of his pictures to show what we were able to accomplish during our Christmas trip.

From the Logbook...Christmas in Naan (pt. 4)

Finally, after setting up a small sound system, getting the generator going, and having a quick dinner, we were ready for service to start.  The two guys on my sides above are pastors that serve in Naan and upriver in a village called Tohan.

A large amount of the community turned out and the church building was soon packed.  I'm not sure how many people were there, but it makes being 6 foot 3 inches tall kind of hard!

Here is the exterior of the small church building.  People were spilling out onto the porch and stairs for church service.  It was a pleasure to be able to serve this community in a simple, yet very powerful way.  Thanks for your prayers!

From the Logbook...Christmas in Naan (pt. 3)

Interior trips like the one we took to Naan always amaze me as I learn a little deeper how people really live interior.  Above, the days rice is being steamed over a wood fire.

In the house we stayed at, this was the kitchen.  The food was very simple yet delicious.  We ate fish, deer, veggies, wild pork, and of course rice.

We had many times where we just relaxed on the floating porch and drank coffee.  It was a great way to hear some awesome stories.

Here is what my bedroom looked like.  I was grateful to have a small pad to lay on.

And finally, here is what our lodging looked like from the river bank.  It was a paradigm shift to sleep, eat, and live on a floating house for a day.  River life in interior Borneo never ceases to amaze me.

From the Logbook...Christmas in Naan (pt. 2)

Merry CHRISTmas!!!

Before we took canoes from our airplane dock down to the village of Tubang Naan (see post below), we had to cool off after unloading all of our gear from the airplanes to the canoes.  Nothing like jumping off of the airplane wing into the refreshing river to take care of that!

Here is Abet Nego strutting his stuff as he goes airborne off of the airplane wing into the river.  Hoo Raa!

We had a super refreshing time as a team in Naan.  I serve alongside and amazing crew of Indonesians, whom without, we couldn't be here.

From the Logbook...Christmas in Naan (pt.1)

The first week of December we were invited as an MAF team to provide a Christmas service in the village on Tubang Naan.  We had been planning that service for weeks and we were able to take both airplanes and all of our Indonesian staff with us to serve together.  Check out that small rooster tail coming off of the right float above as I come around the corner on the river.  Watch out for the log in the river!  Flying float planes is fun!

After we arrived with a lot of gear and both airplanes, we took two small canoes and traveled about 10 minutes downstream to the village of Naan.  More pictures of our time in the village to follow...

From the Logbook...Overhead, #2 for Landing

I met our other airplane coincidentally at an interior location a few weeks ago.  It's always fun to see our other plane interior during the course of a day, each of us flying our own and very different route.  Note all of the wood in the river.  Heavy rains do a good job of washing dry season's accumulated junk from the edge of the river right into the middle of the river.  It can make landing challenging.

Wildlife at the Dock

This little guy was seen slithering along the handrail at our float plane base recently.  We've also had a large troop of macaque monkeys hanging around.  They are a little quicker and smarter than the snake, and I've not succeeded yet in getting a picture, even though they were only 5-20 feet away.  I'll keep trying though and post a picture as soon as I get a good one.  

A Different Kind of Birthday

Last week we held an informal "party" for all of our staff and the family members that could make it in order to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of our airplanes...PK-MCD.  Since leaving the factory in Wichita, Kansas 50 years ago in 1962, MCD has flown on floats and wheels, and lived on the Indonesian islands of Kalimantan and Papua.  This Cessna 185 has accumulated almost 24,000 flight hours and countless landings.  We even had  a cake made and found some special candles.

Of course, whenever we have a get together at our location, it is usually a good excuse to goof around a little bit.  We have plenty in our lives to worry and stress about, so we try to take advantage of the lighter moments and make sure we laugh together.  The cake was pretty good by the way.

From the Logbook...Chased by Rain

While taking a Swedish group from the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) to a remote area of Borneo, I once again got the privilege of flying over a previously unknown area to me.  The terrain was beautiful and the rain stayed at my six the whole time.  I love being able to watch the rain while I'm flying; it always gives such a unique perspective.

From the Logbook...Sunday Patient Pickup

A few weeks ago I was the on-call pilot and got a request to pick up a woman having trouble in child birth, about an hour from PalangkaRaya.  While waiting for the passengers to arrive at the airplane, I sat through a large rain shower and then noticed the town's big bridge appear in my wing mirror.  Flying float planes takes me to large "easy" rivers all the way down to VERY small more challenging rivers.  It is lots of fun!

From the Logbook...Jujang Parit

One of the other places we went to for my advanced checkout was called Jujang Parit.  Again, this location was challenging but a LOT of fun.  We are glad to have re-opened this water strip because a pastor and his family serve there.  The place is one of the most isolated we serve and it's surrounding mountains and hills are beautiful!  Wish you could see it.

From the Logbook...Marikoi

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Recently I was able to undergo some training to get me checked out into some of our smallest places.  We are glad to be able to serve Marikoi again because a pair of German nurses serve there and have for over 30 years!  Takeoff and landing there are what we call sporty, but it also translates into a lot of FUN!  I can't wait to go back.

Speaking of Thanksgiving...it's just a "normal" day at the office for me here in Indonesia.  However, we will celebrate with our friends this coming Saturday, complete with turkey!  Pictures to come.  Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  I know my family could be busy for a while describing all of the things we are thankful for.

From the Logbook...Flight of Two

We've had the opportunity again recently to do some formation flying while heading to the same destination.  Always fun to see thousands of pounds of aluminium, fuel, people and cargo break the rules of gravity and fly a mile over the surface of the earth.  Flying is awesome!

Flying float planes a mile over the surface of the Earth is even awesomer!

Birthday Party

Last week I was asked to speak at a birthday party for a local evangelist missionary/professor.  It's common here to have a small church type service for many different reasons, birthdays being one of them.  I'm defiantly out of my comfort zone to speak at that level in another language but I felt honored that I was asked.

Afterwards, we took a picture with some of the people at the party.  The man standing on my right side was the birthday boy.  He served 30 years in the Philippines as a missionary, has traveled the world speaking, and now at the young age of 75 years old is a professor at a small bible school.  What an example he is to use everyday of this short life for something (or Someone) much bigger than himself!

From the Logbook...Lawang Kama

I checked out our other pilot into a small village called Lawang Kama recently so we could pick up a patient.  While waiting for the patient to arrive at the airplane, I snapped a few pictures of the people in that village.  The woman above is wearing a skin whitening face mask that is very common here.  Ironically, most Asian cultures go to great lengths to look whiter...while my culture goes to great lengths to look more tan.

As usual in villages that we don't land in often, most of the village shows up on the river bank to see what all the excitement is about.  It amazes me how even school is temporarily put on hold while the airplane in in their village.  After we leave, I'm told the kids (and teachers) all return to class.

About 5-10 minutes after arriving at the dock in Lawang Kama, the patient was brought to us in another boat.  We made room for the boat between the airplane float and the dock and quickly put her, her husband, and another man on board.  She didn't look very well after giving birth just hours before.  But she was unable to deliver the placenta and it was obvious she didn't have a chance of recovery without being taken to a hospital.  We were grateful to be able to serve in that manner that day!

Road Trip...

A few weeks ago I had to travel to our other base in Kalimantan for a meeting.  The irony of that trip is our other MAF location is 400 miles away, but it takes a three commercial flights and a whole day to get there on the airlines.  Becca and I had been planning for a long time for me to bring Brooklyn.  She has a few good friends her same age at that MAF location that we knew she would enjoy seeing again.  She had a blast, and on the way home, we got to go to the cockpit for two of our three flights home.  The cockpit crews were all real nice and welcoming.  It was sure a different view in the cockpit of a Boeing 737-900ER at 36,000 feet from what I'm used to at 3,000-6,000 feet.  Either way, one thing is still the same...airplanes and flying are AWESOME!

From the Logbook...Long Bangun

A few weeks ago we received a call from the neighboring province asking if we could pick up a patient there.  After looking up the coordinates of the village, I realized it was far away; at the C185's maximum range.  But, thankfully the weather was good and I set off to a new place.  After landing in Long Bangun I took a boat ride up river about 5 minutes to see if the dock in front of the patients house would be suitable for the airplane.  It was.

So, we returned to the bigger dock where I had left the airplane and ferried it further upstream to make it easier to transport the patient from his house to the airplane.  After taking off from Long Bangun, we landed in PalangkaRaya two hours later where we took him straight to the hospital.

From the Logbook...Sunk by Children

This was the scene a while back when I finally found a suitable dock in the village of Dadahup.  Because the airplane hasn't been in this village for YEARS, many people dropped what they were doing and came to see what all of the noise was about.  When I opened the airplane door I was greeted by ONE adult and many children.

I didn't grasp how many children were actually coming to see the airplane until I climbed on top of the wing to take a picture.  WOW!  There were more than 60 kids, and they began pouring onto the little dock my airplane was tied up to.  So many kids showed up on the dock that it sunk about 1 foot under the water.  Needless to say, I got wet feet that day, and the relentless supply of curious kids never stopped.  It continues to amaze me how many different types of experiences I can have in this job.

Smoke Town

This was the scene a few weeks ago here in PalangkaRaya.  Very dense smoke, down to about 300-500 meters of visibility.  Due to this fact, flying was out of the question and I was able to accomplish some other tasks on my to-do list in the city.  The above photo is full color by the way.

Smokey season reaches it's zenith obviously due to lack of rain water.  The potential river water level is obvious when looking at these nearby buildings and seeing the huge stilts they are built on.

The smoke doesn't slow down boat commerce much, but the low river levels can.  Many boats were seen here at our main city dock awaiting their cargoes.

I always have a good time when I have a reason to enter the "bowels" of PalangkaRaya.  As I become more and more acquainted and familiar with our host city, I'm always reminded how little I still understand and know about how many, many people live their everyday lives.

From the Logbook...Naan Training (pt.4 of 4)

...continued from the previous post.

Because a float-plane's landing and takeoff environment is obviously water, it is hard to get good data on "runway" length, water depth, obstacle locations, and climb out angles.  So, we took the opportunity in Naan to obtain all of that data for future use, with the goal of operating safer in and out of places like Naan.  Above, I am measuring the angle to the trees at the end of the river.  We know that our airplanes climb at 1.5 degrees when fully loaded.  We need to ensure that the obstacles at the end of the river do not exceed that.

I also took the time to point out to Isaac obstacles in the water.  The things poking out of the surface are easy to see.  But, being able to read the water to see the obstacles just inches under the surface is important as well.

Sand and gravel bars are a continual challenge for us in float plane flying.  Knowing where they are located and how wide they are is always helpful to our continued safe operations.

I'm seen here with Pastor Nyunting.  He is a faithful servant of God and always ready to help us out.  It's a pleasure to get to know him deeper every time I'm in Naan and continue to partner together.  Thanks to Isaac Rogers for many of these photos in the previous 4 posts.  Having another "photo-dork" like me on the program has turned out to have some fun perks.

From the Logbook...Naan Training (pt.3 of 4)

...continued from the previous post.

Taking the boat ride to the village of Naan from the airplane dock is always a thrill.  I always just sit there in awe and remind myself that I call this my "job."  The forest is huge and the river is full of all kinds of fun kinks, bends, and obstacles.

The structure on the right is a gold mining outfit.  While totally illegal, gold mining like this is extremely popular, especially on the big rivers near my home in PalangkaRaya.  Despite the obvious environmental devastation that comes from this type of mining, I can also relate to the families trying to eek a living from this type of vocation.  There is little else to support them in these interior locations.  If I were faced with the decision to break the law and look for gold in order to feed my family, I think it would be an easy decision.

When we arrived at our hosts floating house, we opened up the buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pepsi that I had brought from PalangkaRaya.  KFC is really popular around the world.  We had a great time in fellowship and laughter while in Naan.  The pastors that serve there live a TOUGH life, and their dedication to God and to serving Him is admirable.  It's a pleasure to serve alongside them at their remote location.  (side note-KFC tastes really good when you have been working hard and sweating a lot while on the Equator)

After lunch, we still weren't done with training.  We were going to use our friends boat to survey the river, measuring it's length, look for obstacles, ect.  Above, I'm putting on my mean flight instructor face.  It's important to keep things real.  Stay tuned for the last post from our day in Naan...

From the Logbook...Naan Training (pt.2 of 4)

...continued from pt. 1

Have I ever mentioned that float-plane flying is awesome?!  After Isaac completed his solo takeoffs and landings in Naan, I needed to cool off.  What better way than to climb on top of the wing and jump in.  Yee haw!!!

Since I was already wet, I had to do it again.  There is just something special about jumping off of your airplane into a cool river nestled on the equator.

Flying float planes on equatorial rivers is the most challenging flying I have EVER done.  However, it comes with sweet perks as well.

After cooling off, we all loaded up in boats to drive 10 minutes downstream to the village of Naan to eat lunch with the guys we serve there.  Ogasto, seen in the blue shirt on the left, is carrying our picnic lunch.  I had previously arranged with the guys in Naan to do some training on that date, and then planned on eating together with them...I would bring the food and drinks.  More pictures in a few more days...