Beaver Creek Sledding

After a snowstorm this past March, we took the Grandma's and headed to the mountains for a bit of sledding.  It was great!  Brooklyn is taking a spill in the photo above.

My mom has never been shy in participating in activities that make you holler.  She lived up to her reputation and showed that sledding hill who was boss!  Way to go Grandma!

If there are actual talents in sledding, Madison definitely possesses them.  She only got dumped off of the sled once and all the other times she held on like a pro bull rider.  There wasn't no bucking that little girl off of her plastic rocket.

Even mommy got in on the action and let out her famous screams.  I love it when Becca has her "I think I'm having fun but this is scary" screams.  So awesome!

Brooklyn is getting going from the top of the hill.  The nice part about sledding this time as compared with a few years ago was that the girls could carry their own sleds up the hill...yes!

Brooklyn was the master of tumbles.  She took some great ones, and always came up with a smile wanting to sled some more.

Grandma and Brooklyn doubled up for extra fun.  They definitely went zipping down the hill faster and had a great tumble at the bottom!

Paige makes the best faces when she is hurtling down something uncontrollably.  She didn't always know what to think about the whole sledding experience, but she wasn't going to be left out by her big sisters.

Becca and I had a great run together...only one though.  Becca hates the feeling of uncontrollability that comes with sledding, and adding my extra mass to the scenario only adds to that feeling.  We did great though, although we were a little big for the sled.

Paige is seen cutting a new trail though the fresh powder.  It made her go a little slower that way, which I think she liked.

Grandma had to get a run in with me, so we gave it a shot.  Once again, two adults on a children's sled was a little much, but it worked out.

Poor little Paigey did have some epic crashes.  It was so fun to see her go flying through the air and wonder what had just happened.

Despite her unsettled condition, she still kept climbing back up the hill for more not to be outdone by everyone else.

Home away from Home

Since we are Stateside currently enjoying our furlough, we need a place to stay while we are here.  Thankfully, we have great accommodations with Rebecca's parents, with lots to see and do.  These pictures are all from early February when we first got here.  Thankfully, most of the snow is gone now and Spring is trying to make an appearance...of course it is snowing as I type this.

This mule named Kitty (actually his name is Rio) is about the friendliest mule we've ever met.  He loves attention and my girls have made great friends with him.

It was fun to see a few mornings of Jack Frost when we got here.  Our girls thought that Jack Frost was only a fictional cartoon character, not an actual occurrence in Nature.  It's so fun to teach the girls things that seem so normal to us since we grew up in Colorado and nor Borneo.

The girls have had a blast climbing around all of the numerous vehicles and farm machinery around the place.  After a few attempts at starting some of his machinery, Grandpa had to remove all of his keys because the girls had left the ignitions on, draining the batteries.

Lots of neat and interesting things to be seen in the barn.  From barn cats, to numerous antlers and horse gear, lots of stories have already been created in the barn.

It's been tradition over the past several years to have a pair of steers in the corrals for future use in filing the freezers with meat.  There is no beef that tastes as good as these guys!

Of course, the mountains have been wonderful to enjoy.  As the snows come and go, we are continually treated to amazing views of God's splendor in His creation.

Road-trip to Taos, NM.

About a month ago, Becca and I enjoyed an afternoon getaway and headed south to Taos, New Mexico for lunch at one of our favorite places and a bit of soaking up the southwestern sunshine.

There are numerous adobe buildings in Taos, and it's always fun to wonder around and see things that you've never seen before.

Ristras, or dried chili bundles, are abundant in Taos and make for great decoration.  Of course, only a dry climate can accommodate such a decoration, as these ristras would quickly rot in hot and humid Indonesia.

The drive home is beautiful, and we enjoy taking different ways to and from Taos when possible.  It's always neat to see the Sangre de Cristo mountains awaiting us as we head north to Colorado.

Zapata Falls

Yes...it HAS been a long time since I have made time to blog.  We have already been in the USA for 2 months and we are immensely enjoying our time here and re-connecting with family and friends.  Even though Spring is trying to come to those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, I have been taking pictures of our time stateside since we got here...most of them are a Winter theme...a big difference from the tropical jungle we were used to just a few months ago.  Here we go...

Not long after we arrived, we took a family hike to a place called Zapata Falls.  It was rockin!  The falls were all frozen although the ice was beginning to rot.  I didn't have the correct lens to capture the whole falls in the camera frame.  It was a hard place to photograph.

This is a photo of my side of the family.  So great to see them all and enjoy the great outdoors together!

My Sister, her child (dog), my dad, and me, all climbed up a little higher.  It would have been nice to have some crampons, but we made it. Going down was a little slippery though.

A hundred yards down from the waterfall the creek had made a fun slide.  We all gave it a try.  Nothing like hurtling out of control on a surface as hard as concrete.  Thankfully, no one broke their coccyx.
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Aunt Rachael needed some extra speed, so she put a jacket under her bottom and flew down even faster!

Little Paigey wasn't going to be left behind.  She got in there with the big people and had a great time...although the sudden impact after a small drop-off made her question that decision.

The hike out from Zapata Falls gave us numerous views to enjoy the Sangre de Cristo Range with Sand Dunes National Park right below them.  Being in nature and hiking around is such good therapy for us!

On the drive home, we took the road less traveled and came across this old barn as the sun was setting.  The colors were a little flat, but the ruggedness of the country was still captured.  What a tough place to live.

Stay tuned for more blogs of our adventures...

From the Logbook...Jujang Parit (GoPro Pictures)

 Last week I had the opportunity to go into a village called Jujang Parit.  It's a tiny little place about an hour and a half from PalangkaRaya.  All of these photos were taken from my GoPro camera mounted on the wing.  The above photo shows me circling the village a few times.  It's important to gather enough data to make a safe landing, docking, un-docking, and takeoff while circling the village.  If I can't gather enough data while I'm overhead to ensure a safe outcome of all of those categories, I simply won't land.  It's not worth it.

 After I determined that it would be safe to operate in Jujang Parit that day, I decided to make the landing.  The river can just be seen on the left side of the photo above.

This is the abort point at Jujang Parit.  If something is wrong with my flying technique, something comes onto the river, etc. this is the last point at which I can safely go-around and out-climb the terrain in front of me.  After the abort point, regardless of what happens, I am committed to land.

 Everything looked good at my abort point, so I elected to "commit" to the landing.  In the above photo you can see the airplane shadow becoming closer and closer until the shadow actually touches the airplane; a landing has just occurred.

After touchdown I retracted flaps and reduced power to idle.  The river current was very strong that particular day due to recent rains.

As I transitioned off of the "step" and into "boat-mode" I approached the right side of the river in order to turn around 180 degrees to the left and drive to our dock.

Just as I cut the power to the engine I jumped out of the airplane in order to make sure the airplane was going to get tied up correctly.  Our normal helper wasn't there and I wanted to quickly confirm that my airplane wasn't going to go anywhere.  Like I mentioned before...the current was ripping!  Notice the two guys on the right float pulling against the rope as they prepare to tie the airplane off.

After I confirmed the airplane was securely attached to the dock, my passengers could deplane and I began to prepare to gather more passengers and get ready to takeoff.  Flying float planes is fun!

From the Logbook...Landing in the Curve

One of the things we all enjoy as float plane pilots is when we get to land or takeoff around a curve in the river.  Isaac took this shot of me as I made a landing coming around a corner at an interior village.  Flying float planes is so fun, and there is always something to become better and more precise at...like landing around a corner on one float!

From the Logbook...Runway Obstacles

Flying float planes is such a unique and diverse type of aviation.  I had to laugh a few days ago though as I was rounding a corner for landing in the village of Tumbang Kunyi when there was a house floating right down the middle of the river.  I know past MAF pilots have experienced this, but this was a first for me.  In the wheel plane world of MAF, runway obstacles can mean pigs, horses, cows, dogs, chickens, people, motorcycles, rough terrain, and sometimes cars.  But with the float plane, we frequently deal with floating debris, large and small wood, boats of all shapes and sizes, cables and ropes crossing the rivers, and swimmers.  It's never a dull moment flying float planes!  The above photo is a still shot from my GoPro camera.  Thanks for your prayers for safety!

From the Logbook...Late Afternoon Arrival

We have been really busy lately, sometimes having both airplanes out flying all day long.  Last week, I found myself and one of our other pilots arriving home at the same time as me.  We joined up and flew a loose formation the rest of the way home.  The photo above looks like we are much closer than we really are.  That's the beauty of telephoto photography.

After over flying the hangar in formation, we broke off and I came around to land.  I always like how our landing lights can shine off of the water!

As I'm pulling into the hangar, you can see our other airplane getting ready to touch down about 500 meters behind me.  Thank you to my teammate Isaac Rogers for taking and sharing these unique pictures with me.  He took them all from the roof of our hangar.

After I pulled into our hangar slip, we quickly deplaned the passengers and hoisted the airplane onto the hangar floor, thus making room for PK-MCB to pull into the slip, and also be pulled out of the water and onto the hangar floor.  Flying float planes is awesome!

From the Logbook...Teamwork

Happy New Year to everyone!  2014 has a lot of unique potential for this ministry and we're excited to see how it all unfolds this year.  With the Holidays over, we have been really busy flying, sometimes using two airplanes to one destination simply because our little airplanes can't carry all of the passengers in one load. Above, Aaron is seen flying over the Kahayan river as we make our way an hour interior to the village of Puruk Cahu.

After Aaron and I arrived at Puruk Cahu, we had the priveledge of sharing the dock together; not something that happens all that frequently.  That same day, it seemed Aaron and I were chasing each other in and out of interior villages.  It was a fun orchestra  making sure we weren't flying on top of each other.  Often, as one of us was leaving the dock departing to our destination, the other was just arriving in order pick up passengers going to another destination.

We really had to squeeze the airplanes close at the dock in Tumbang Kunyi.  There really isn't room for two airplanes, but we made it work.  One of the things I enjoy about float plane flying is that EVERY day there is something or some situation that I have never experienced.  It takes dedication and a desire to continually be learning to be a good float plane pilot, and thankfully, I always have something to re-think or re-evaluate in order to do it better, more efficiently, and safer.