From the Logbook...Supang

A few weekends ago I was the on call pilot.  Sure enough, I was called to pick up a woman having trouble while in child labor.  Due to the difficult stretch of river that she lived on, she actually took a boat downstream to meet me at another community.  40 minutes after leaving PalangkaRaya, I landed in the village of Supang and docked up next to the boat that transported her.  The above photo is three pictures stitched together.

It never ceases to amaze me how tough interior women are!  When we arrived in PalangkaRaya, the woman walked off of the airplane and into an awaiting car where she was driven to the hospital.  

Wind Sock Replacement

Recently, our windsock was needing replacement.  We currently have it installed in a tall tree, which is about 50+ feet tall.  You can see the battered windsock in the top-middle of the above photo and two of our national staff climbing the tree.

Thankfully we have great Indonesian staff that are not fearful of climbing trees.  We did make sure they used ropes, harnesses, and a third person at the bottom to belay them safely.  When they were all done, the new windsock looked great and did just want it is supposed to do.  

Local Pastors Gathering

Recently, we invited a large group of local pastors from nearby churches to our river location for a time of fellowship and lunch.  It seemed like a good turnout of about 60+ pastors and I got the impression they were honored to be invited to our location and learn a little more about MAF.

From the Logbook...An MAF Passenger

A few weeks back, I had the privilege of bringing MAF pilot Dave Forney along with me for a full day of flying.  He was visiting us in PalangkaRaya for a few days, since he serves at our other base in Borneo called Tarakan.  He is a talented photographer in his own right and it was fun to see my world through his lens.  Above, I am trying to make sense of all the different flight requests and put it together in a logical manner.  Sometimes it takes a while.

Unloading cargo...thankfully, as a floatplane pilot, we don't deal with a lot of cargo simply due the the nature of our landing environment.  But, when there is cargo, it usually fits into the float lockers just fine.

Nothing like taking a few minutes on one of the cool rivers to refresh myself with some water on the face after sweating profusely as I fly around Central Borneo.  Have I mentioned it is hot here?!

One of the things that makes me sweat a lot is the refueling we do while interior.  We have fuel "stashed" at about 4 villages that we regularly use.  In the course of a full day, I might put 10-12 jerry cans of fuel on board like in the photo above.  That's about a full drum...one jerry can at a time.  Thankfully we have really good dock help at the locations where we store fuel.  

From the Logbook...Ade Rai

Every once in a while, someone of high social status or political importance comes to us at MAF for transportation.  A  few weeks ago, Ade Rai and his crew showed up for a ride to a river about 50 minutes from PalangkaRaya.  Ade Rai is the Indonesian equivelent of Arnold Shwartzeneger in the body building world.  He was going to be filming a commercial at the river destination for one of his main sponsors, Kuku Bima.  One of the nicest surprises of having such an Indonesian Mega Star at our facility was getting to know Ade Rai a little bit and realizing he was one of the most humble and friendly people I have met in a LONG time!   

Backyard Animals

My girls are always keen on alerting me to the natural happenings going on right outside of our door.  The above spider was smaller than a shirt button but that didn't stop him from claiming a nice lunch.  God's design in all of Creation never ceases to amaze me.  

From the Logbook...Melak

A few weeks ago I took a long flight to Eastern Borneo to transport two Dutch gentleman that have been funding and helping to develop some schools in the community of Melak.  I always enjoy going to new destinations and seeing the differences in the way the people look and even speak Indonesian.  The following day I picked the two men back up after they completed the survey of the school project and we flew 1 hour and 40 minutes back to PalangkaRaya.  It would have taken them a week to get to their destination without the MAF airplane.  I love my job!

From the Logbook...Coal Mining

As we fly over the vast stretches of Borneo jungle, some people have discovered that there are vast natural resources under all that green.

A few times a week, we fly near this huge coal mine.  The coal is sent to the nearby river by trucks and then put on barges where it makes it's way to fuel power plants making the majority of all electricity for Borneo.

From the Logbook...Chased by Rain pt.2

Due to the fact that we live in the jungle, rain cannot stop all aspects of life.  While the downpour fed the surrounding jungle with it's life giving moisture, this woman was dicing up the trunk of a banana plant in order to feed it to her cows.

About an hour after landing in the community, the rain cleared and the clear skies beckoned us home again.  We quickly prepared our two aircraft to continue to our destination of PalangkaRaya...only 9 minutes away!

Thankfully, when we landed there were lots of docking options to choose from.  That is not always the case.

Nine minutes after taking off, we were safely docked at home base, just as the sun was setting.  Flying float planes is fun!!!

From the Logbook...Chased by Rain pt.1

A few weeks ago while trying to make it home in the late afternoon a huge thunderstorm was drenching PalangkaRaya and all parts north...just where I wanted to go.  I tried to find a way around, but it didn't work.  Eventually I gave up and landed at a new village, just as the heavens cut loose.  Our other program aircraft was already there, waiting the storm out as well.

Thankfully, me and my passengers were invited into a nearby home right on the bank of the river.  We enjoyed getting to know the people and they served us some awesome vanilla tea...an Indonesian specialty!

Life moved a lot slower in the community that we weathered the storm out in.  The local economy is driven by rubber production, and when its raining cats and dogs, everyone seeks shelter.

See my next post in a few days for more pictures of the day the rain chased me around Borneo...

From the Logbook...

In the photo above, the two boxes are full or bottled battery acid.  I had just flown in about 300 pounds of batteries, battery acid, food, medicine, and other items to aid a pair of German Nurses that we serve interior.  After my load of cargo was unloaded, one of the nurses, her guest, and a sick man flew back with me to PalangkaRaya to take care of some business in the city and visit the hospital.  

From the Logbook...Dock Help

Because of the unique challenges of flying a float plane on rivers, any help we can get to safely approach and depart a dock is greatly appreciated...usually.  In the photo above, the gentleman from the community of Miri is holding on to my float rope until I am ready to start the engine and pull away. Miri is a challenging landing/docking river and I was grateful for his help

Dock Life

The river level has been really high lately at our office/hangar location.  Our local staff are really excited about it because of the good fishing opportunities literally out of the front door.  In their free time, they even bring their families to the office to enjoy all the fishing.  It's fun to watch.

From the Logbook...

One of the funnest aspects of flying float planes is the takeoff.  Look at that cool trail of water spray from the prop blast!

Once flying speed is nearly achieved, you can lift off one float to accelerate faster and then off she comes.  Flying float planes is fun!

From the Logbook...Sunny Rain

Often times in the jungle, I encounter heavy rain while at the same time being in the sunshine.  It can feel a little weird.  In the above photo I was in the rain for only about 30 seconds during takeoff and then I flew through the last of it into bright, sunny, dry skies.

From the Logbook...Rice Paddy

Compared to the island of Java, where we went to language school, Central Borneo doesn't have as many rice paddies.  But, where they do exist they are still pretty to look at.

From the Logbook...Hauling the Mail

One of the important items that I find myself transporting daily is mail.  Often the contents of various mail items can mean a lot to the person that it is sent to.  The envelope in the picture above has over $600 in it which is more than a months salary for the average Indonesian.  No doubt that it was important that I transported that little envelope to the middle of Borneo.  Mail is so important to what we do, we even include it in part of our pre-takeoff checklist to make sure we don't forget it.  

An Office Visitor

While taking care of office work this past week, I was visited by this little beetle.  He wasn't very dangerous, he just looks that way.

Longnecks and Other Interesting Things

On our way back to the airport in Denver to begin our long trip back to Borneo, we decided to break the trip up with a trip to the museum.  It was a great time, and Paige even got to try on a pair of Mule Deer ears.

The highlight was definitely seeing all of the dinosaur bones, complete with longnecks and meateaters.  Paige started in this picture but quickly fell backwards off of the railing and began crying.  Saying "we told you so" didn't seem to help, but it was still pretty funny.

Helping with the Chores

Our girls always like helping grandpa Ron feed his steers, chickens, horses, mules, and dogs.  It's always good to see my girls getting their hands dirty with things outside.

Madison's addition to the feed pile isn't as big as grandpa's but it was still put there with love.  Those steers make good steaks!!!

A Fun Joyride

Shortly before we left the USA to return to Borneo, me and my girls took a short flight around my old stomping grounds.  We had to make an unplanned stop at the strip above in order to rearrange how the girls were sitting.  My youngest didn't like sitting in the back.  What's amazing is the 7700ft. altitude of the airstrip above, an altitude that I very rarely see flying the Cessna 185 floatplane here in the swamps and small mountains of Borneo.

Southern Colorado Safari

Over the next few days, I 'll be showing a few pictures from our time in the USA.  Above, we came across a herd of about 300+ elk crossing the road.  This group of young bulls looked like a bunch of lost teenage boys.

 While visiting the local wildlife refuge, we weren't disappointed.  At sunset, thousands of geese, ducks, and sandhill cranes took to the air almost simultaneously.  It was a special thing to see and hear.

What would a trip to our home state be without a picture of the glorious Rocky Mountains?  Now that we are back in Borneo, it seems like a dream that only a few weeks ago we were freezing, wearing jackets, and looking at snow.

From the Logbook...Finally Back

After a wonderful and long 6 weeks in the USA for training and vacation, we arrived back in Central Borneo a week ago.  After a little bit of flying, it was already time to perform a 50 hour inspection on MCD.

Before we take an aircraft back into the air after a maintenance inspection, we test everything first on the water.  But, since we don't have brakes, we can get going pretty fast on the water as we test the engine.  It's pretty fun, but the airplane looks kinda funny without it's cowling.

IPS 2012

IPS-Instructor Pilot Seminar.  We finished our two week IPS course last Friday.  What a great group of men from all parts of the globe to learn from and get to know.  Today starts my last seminar called CP/COM.  It stands for Chief Pilot/Chief of Maintenance.  I will be here in Idaho a few more days and then I'll be reunited with my family in Colorado for a little bit of vacation...I can't wait!

A Few Old Friends

One of my favorite things about serving with MAF is the great people we serve with.  Pictured above is Mateo.  He was also in Nampa a few weeks ago.  He has served at the MAF Ecuador program for the past 25 years.  It was great to chat with him and have some good laughs, especially since my Spanish is far from fluent anymore, and several times he gave me funny looks because I was unknowingly speaking Indonesian.

I accompanied a few other ex-Ecuador colleagues to a local ski area.  Fernando, second from the left, had never even seen snow first hand let alone skied on top of it.  Once again, lots of laughs were had watching him slip and slide all over the mountain.  Did I mention it was night skiing?  We serve with great people!

A Big Trip

(flying float planes is FUN!)

As you're reading this, we should be on the first of five jet planes that will be taking us back to America.  I will be attending a flight instructor seminar at our MAF HQ.  Hopefully I can remember how to land an airplane with wheels! Stay tuned for pictures and news from the homeland...

From the Logbook...A Tight Fit

Last week Jason and I both actually went to the same place and we were there at the same time.  This isn't all that common at a small base like ours.  It always makes things complicated too because there usually isn't enough room for two airplanes at the dock.  I was flying MCB and it was a tight fit to dock it with my wing hanging only 12 inches above the little "waiting room" area.  If a large wave came by, my wing would surely have impacted the roof.  Due to this fact, I didn't stay around too long and quickly loaded my passengers and got out of there.

Another Chance

Last week my colleague Jason went to a community upstream to pick up a sick baby.  This 6 month old had been sick for while and continued to deteriorate.  By bringing him to the local hospital he has another chance at getting healthy quicker.

Not a Bad Place to Work

It's not uncommon to see any number of fish catching tools in use at our dock at any given time, night or day.  All of our national staff grew up in interior villages and fishing is in their blood.

But it makes me laugh when I go to wash my hands at the sink and I am unable to because today's catch is floating in it.  How many job environments can you get some fishing done while at the same time flying airplanes?  There are some fun perks to working in an aquatic environment.

From the Logbook...Patient Flight

Mid-last week we were called about the possibility of transporting a patient to the nearby coastal town of Banjarmasin, about 40 minutes away.  Banjar is much larger than PalangkaRaya and supposedly the medical care is better.

This poor guy was already in the hospital in PalangkaRaya and then took a nasty fall, causing all kinds of new problems.  He was too unstable to be taken overland, so air transport was really his only option.

Forty minutes after taking off we landed on one of the large rivers near Banjarmasin.  On final approach you can see the Ocean and the river is big enough at that point that I can probably land and take off width-wise. But, despite the river's huge size, it throws at us a lot of challenges like tidal currents, river currents, strong wind, and a tough dock.