From the Logbook...Kuala Kapuas

Late last month, we were contacted to provide transportation to a high ranking government official that had a meeting in a far away town.  His role is called the Bu-pati, something we would consider almost like a vice-governor.  We have flown Pak Willy on countless flights.

But, this was a new one for me.  Although the passengers were familiar, I took him to a new location called Kuala Kapuas that I had never been to before.  Because there are no suitable docks at this community and the river is HUGE, I shut the airplane down in the middle of the river and was met by a boat that picked up the Bu-Pati and his colleague.  It was a fun experience.

Because the float plane doesn't visit this community very often, we had a few onlookers paddle over to investigate what was going on.

These boys were fun to chat with.  I tried to invite them to return to PalangkaRaya with me since the airplane would be empty, but they declined.

On the way home, I flew over Sabangau National Park.  Due to the high water right now, the swamp looks really beautiful from the air.  In the distance you can see a small rain shower adding to the swamps already full ecosystem.

From the Logbook...Jujang Parit

After visiting the village of Tumbang Olong (see previous post), we made the short flight the the village of Jujang Parit.  Even though the communities are only separated by a 15 minute flight, the two communities couldn't be more different.  After landing and finding a suitable dock, we had to use a boat to cross the river to the side where the majority of the community lived.

While crossing the river, we saw some boys enjoying a snagged tree on the river bank.  Any excuse to jump off of something high into water is good enough for me.

We made a short walk to Pastor Wilson's house in order to look at his HF radio.  We knew it had some problems and we brought some parts with us hoping to be able to fix it.

Thankfully, after changing a few connections, and plugging the radio into a battery, we were able to communicate with our office in PalangkaRaya, some 150 miles away!  Pretty cool.  Now, this VERY isolated community can contact us for any reason.

From the Logbook...Tumbang Olong

Earlier in April, all three of us pilots went to a village called Tumbang Olong with the purpose of inspecting the river and meeting with the community to consider opening the village on a regular basis to air service.  While I did some takeoff and landing testing, Issac and Aaron went in a canoe measuring lengths, widths, climb out angles, etc.

Issac was able to get some fun pictures of me flying the takeoff and landing approaches into and out of Tumbang Olong.  I'd be lying if I said it wasn't fun!

I was surprised that the river was positioned just right so that we could actually operate both ways on it with lots of safety and margin; two things that we build into everything we do in MAF.

The community was very receptive to our arrival and the kids were a highlight.  Usually kids scamper off with shyness when asked to take a group picture.  Not these kids.  They were practically sinking the right float on the airplane.  Lots of fun to make them smile!

No meeting with a community is complete unless you gather in the "mayor's" house and drink tea and eat snacks.  We enjoyed sitting around for about an hour meeting with the community leaders and asking them various questions about how we may be able to serve them in the future.  We may be able to open up some type of regular air service to this community in the near future, we'll see.

From the Logbook...Indo Checkride

In mid-April I was suddenly given the chance to have an inspector come and fly with Aaron and me for the issuance of our Indonesian pilots licenses.  I jumped on the chance to schedule the inspector because I know that they are very busy and our schedule usually revolves around theirs.  Pak Ali was our inspector and it was my third checkride with him.  In Indonesia we have to take checkrides every two years to re-new our licenses.  Due to some interesting circumstances this was my fourth Indonesian checkride in about 2 years.  Thankfully, Aaron and I passed easily and we are now legal to fly in Indonesia.

From the Logbook...More Training

One of the fun things that we get to do in training is to visit new places under the premise of training but with the ulterior motive of meeting new people and communities.  Most times, people are very receptive to being visited by the float plane and considering the different ways that we could serve their community through med-evac flights, or even just plain old transportation from point A to point B.

From the Logbook...Training Time

We have finally become a fully staffed base in PalangkaRaya for the first time in a LONG time.  Aaron and his family arrived in mid-February and we have been trying to focus hard on training when we can.

We have been having a good time flying together and Aaron is making nice progress.  There is a lot to learn to operate airplanes the way we do, and usually the flying is the easiest part.  The logistics of tickets, money, baggage, and weather take a lot of time to learn how to manage safely and efficiently.

We've been fortunate to cross paths with our other airplane (and it's pilot, thanks Isaac for the pictures) a few times during our training days.  It's always fun to see two floatplanes at one location, it's something that isn't that common in our line of work.  We sure fly to some beautiful places!

A Fun Visitor

Not only was April busy with some unexpected challenges (see previous post) we also hosted a lot of visitors.  We were blessed to be visited by Pastor Matt Hannon from New Heights Church in Vancouver, Washington   His stay was very short, but we all enjoyed our time with him and his contagious energy for serving Jesus and the His people.