In mid-April we were able to watch the third member of our PalangkaRaya team return from his first solo flight as an MAF pilot. After three months of on and off flight training with me, Aaron was finally ready.
After Aaron returned I "pinned on his bars." Officially putting the 4 stripes on his shoulders welcomes Aaron into the ranks of Captain. Pretty cool!
With those 4 bars comes some other fun traditions. After shaking Aaron's hand, a preset plan was initiated...Aaron's floatplane baptism.
My celebratory handshake quickly turned into a full on assault as our Indonesian staff and I scooped him up and took him to the river.
Thankfully, we work with an amazing group of men, and they were all instrumental in helping Aaron reach this milestone as well. Convincing them to help was easy.
We took Aaron to our small launching dock, normally used to dispatch the airplane...this time we had other intentions.
And just like that, Aaron entered the Kahayan River, full water emersion float plane pilot baptism. Welcome to the club Aaron.
He popped up and floated to our other dock, where all of these pictures were taken by our other pilot, Isaac Rogers. Great pics Isaac!
Aaron's baptism and solo represent YEARS of preparation and training to reach this point for him. It's a huge sacrifice to fly in the mission field and it's not always easy. Congrats Aaron!!!
Afterwards, everyone was feeling a little spunky and thought they would try to throw the boss in the river. I'm happy to report that I remained dry. Guess you'll have to try again some other day little boys!
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