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.

Fuel Spill

April has been a busy month.  As I turned the corner to come into our MAF dock location earlier this month, this was the challenge awaiting me.  Our fuel shipment of 5,000+ gallons of AvGas had arrived in remarkable fashion.  While the truck backed into the driveway at 6am, the sidewall collapsed and over it went, including our liquid gold.

Thankfully, no one got hurt; but we had a potentially VERY dangerous situation on our hands.  How to salvage our AvGas quickly and safely, while also planning on getting the truck and tank out of the swamp.

We rigged up a makeshift pneumatic pump to begin draining the tank into 55 gallon fuel drums.  The process worked well, but it was slow.  It took over 11 hours to pump the tank dry.

Thankfully, I work with an amazing team of very talented and ingenious men.  With a lot of teamwork, a Caterpillar excavator, and lots of sweat, we had the tank sitting back on top of the truck and they drove off about 36 hours after first arriving. Normally the process takes less than three hours to offload the fuel.  Now, we still have a huge hole to repair in our driveway, but that will get addressed when the dry season comes in a few more months.

From the Logbook...Video Time!

We have been collecting HD video footage over the past few months with a few GoPro Hero2 cameras.  One of my colleagues recently put some of our footage together into a short video.  We hope to publish a few more videos over the next few months to reach some different audiences.  The clips above represent only a small portion of all of the video we have collected up to this point.  Make sure you have good speakers and view the video in full HD for the best results.  Good job to my colleague Isaac for doing a great job with the editing!!!  Flying floatplanes is AWESOME!!!

From the Logbook...On Call Weekend

When I received a call a few weekends ago as the on-call pilot, I decided to bring one of my little girls with me.  We had a good time.  "Roller coasters" may or may not have been involved in the flight!

The above and below pictures are from my GoPro camera.  The above picture was taken just seconds before touchdown on the river.  

After we landed, the hard work wasn't over yet.  Getting our airplanes to the dock is sometimes the hardest and most dangerous part of the whole flight.  Thankfully, we were able to get tied up to the dock without any problems, and shortly thereafter we were airborne again with a little 5 year old girl that had been hit by a scooter and suffered major head trauma.

From the Logbook...Joloi and Jujang Parit

I was crossing the Equator (see previous post) in order to pick up some of my MAF colleagues that had been ministering interior at a VERY isolated village called Jujuang Parit.  Due to the small size of the river where they were ministering, I had to make a few ferry flights to the nearby village of Muara Joloi to get them out since the small river in Jujang Parit is takeoff weight restricted.

The above picture was taken in the little village of Jujang Parit shortly after I landed to pick up my colleagues.

It was a good time to hear the stories from my colleagues.  The three of them are seen on the float and serve at our other base in Kalimantan called Tarakan.

Children always turn out to see what all of the action is about.  Being that I was so far away from "civilized" life, the people of Jujang Parit live a VERY different life than mine.  It was a pleasure to be able to serve my colleagues and the village of Jujang Parit.  

From the Logbook...Crossing Middle Earth

On the way to pick up some fellow MAF colleagues at an interior village, I was able to document crossing the Equator.  I live 2 degrees south of the Equator in the southern hemisphere and traveling north above the Equator doesn't happen that often for us.  It is always fun to watch the GPS document its crossing.

From the Logbook...Difficult Child Delivery

I was called to the village above to pick up a woman that had been pregnant with twins.  One of the babies was born without problems but unfortunately, she was unable to deliver the other baby.

The second baby had died in utero and required emergency surgery in order to save the mother.  This type of operation is unavailable in her village and we were able to pick her up with her family and bring her to PalangkaRaya where she received the treatment she needed.

From the Logbook...A New Type of Flat Tire

As much as we try to avoid underwater obstacles as we operate float planes, occasionally you still come into contact with  something.  A few weeks ago one of our floatplanes impacted a rock at slow speed and the results required a repair.  Thankfully, our floats are made of fiberglass and the repairs are usually pretty simple.

After jacking the airplane onto the table, we evaluated the damage and went to work.  By the end of the day, the float was repaired and ready to fly the next day.

From the Logbook...PK-MCD Aerial

We have been having a lot of requests recently to a village called Puruk Cahu, and often times it justifies taking two airplanes.  My colleague took this picture of me flying PK-MCD up among the clouds.  Flying float planes is awesome!!!

From the Logbook...Marikoi

After a long hiatus of not blogging, I have returned to getting some pictures going again.  Due to our lives being busier than ever, something had to take a back seat and in this case it has been the blog.  I hope to be able to consistently be posting again...

These next pictures I got from my GoPro camera attached to the tail of the airplane.  I am having a blast learning what the little GoPro can do.  It's a wonderful product!  The above photo is final approach into the village of Marikoi.  It is one of our most challenging waterstrips.

Here is my abort point.  After a blind final approach, this is the first view of the landing area.  If everything in the cockpit is precise and the river is still obstruction free you continue to a landing.  If not, you pour on the coals and go around.

Thankfully, the river was still clear and I was able to touch down uneventfully and drop off my passengers that were going to be performing a week long theology class.

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.