Dear Friends, below is a letter I have sent out to friends along with one I had prepared as a report on our trip to PNG.  In the midst of my tears I must pause and remember my only sister who passed away this week.  Ruth Ottaviano Morarie, only 53 years old, less than two years younger than I.

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We are sorry this is getting out so late, but at least those of you who get it by email will not have to sort through your Christmas mail like those getting it by paper mail.

It was ready to go last week when I got an unexpected phone call from my nephew Desmond in Dallas -- his mother, and my younger sister Ruth passed away unexpectedly in her home. That was Thursday the 10th.

Debbie and I got a plane to Dallas that afternoon, and my two brothers came from Houston and Arkansas with their families. It has been a very difficult four days, mixed with Christmas and family reunion.

But above it all is the incredible realization that I have heard other friends in Christ say -- it never really hits you until a loved one goes -- that Ruth is truly, presently and completely with Jesus. Right this moment! Completely full of His beauty, and wrapped in His love. Oh yes, it hurts to have her taken away like this, in a way no one can understand unless they've gone through this themselves. But there is also all that the Lord said to us through His disciple John centuries ago, and what Pastor Keith said at Ruth's memorial last night: "Let not your heart be troubled...."

I wish I could attach the DVD my brother Mike put together with memories of Ruth. But for you who know how to get there, it's posted on our Facebook site (our account is "Debbie-Steve Ottaviano").

So, attached here is the OttaviaNOTES report we prepared to send you after our return from Papua New Guinea, with a few pictures and narrative. We attach it here simply because it was ready to go. But after the loss of this week I must say that it seems such paltry news.

We pray you will have a blessed Christmas, and rejoice with us in the gift God sent into this world, His Son, who is now comforting my little sis in His arms. It is this message of hope that we continue to strive to share with this lost world. And some day I'll get to see her again and let her show me firsthand what it's all about.

Training, Next Phase

Less than a week after getting back to the United States, I headed to Spokane, WA to join up with two of our pilots from PNG, David Barton and Christopher Clark.  They were finishing two weeks of Kodiak training at the Spokane Turbine Center, and were our first two candidates to send through that course.  (See my blog posting "A Week in August" for a description of our part in developing this course for mission pilots.)

David and Christopher are veteran pilots in PNG, and have prior turbine aircraft experience, so this course was more of a "transition" course than much of an "initial" for them.  I showed up on Friday to fly with them in STC's airplane to put the JAARS finishing touches on their skills.  Flying in the mountains of the Northwest is a lot like in PNG, except for the traces of snow on the peaks this time of year.  And of course, the runways here are a lot more friendly!

Once back home they will begin their flying under supervision of Rick Nachtigal with whom I flew last month (see my preceding posts).  In the coming year we hope to send more of our PNG program pilots through STC in their transition to flying the Kodiak.  We also plan to have two more of these aircraft in PNG by the middle of next year, and eventually a total of four.

Once again I enjoyed flying in the beautiful Northwest.  These pictures are from some of our activities in the Priest Lake and Lake Couer D'Alene, Idaho areas.  These two guys soaked up the information on this new airplane, and did a great job learning the Kodiak's particular handling characteristics.  Like Rick before them, they will easily adapt it to the context in PNG that they're so familiar with.

Final Look at 008

I'm now back at home in North Carolina, but thought I would leave you with a few more images of 008 in its new environment.  Besides some trial flights in to some local mountain airstrips, we were able to do several operational flights in the three weeks I was there.  Currently the plane is in maintenance, and will emerge in several weeks with a new tail number -- "P2-SIB" of Papua New Guinean registration.  So, a farewell to N498KQ!

008 In the Village

On Wednesday we took 008 to some nearby villages (Obura, Gema and Owena) and got a preliminary look at how it will perform on the sloped, mountain airstrips. On this first time out, we kept the plane light – just three of us on board, and a light fuel load. Mark Wuerffel had joined us from JAARS a few days earlier, and he occupied the cockpit with Rick. I sat in a passenger seat behind and left the flying to them, since together they both have nearly thirty years of experience in PNG, and have flown into these three airstrips many times in other aircraft.

The village folk turned out as they usually do. Airplanes visit here frequently (it's a coffee producing area, and aircraft are the main mode of export).  Their arrival is often a source of entertainment, but a new airplane is especially noteworthy for them. In the years to come, Kodiaks will become a normal sight here, providing service to these communities, transporting church people, missionaries, medical teams, educators and a myriad of other types of passengers and cargo.

As time passes, our aviation staff will develop a set of standards for each of the several hundred airstrips in PNG with the Kodiak, for things like takeoff and landing weights, surface conditions, wind and weather minima. These will vary from site to site, based on the surrounding terrain, runway slope, length and typical wind patterns at each place. What we are learning about the Kodiak’s specific characteristics will be applied to each airstrip. Of course, the goal is to safely carry as large a load as possible in and out of these sites.

008 Settles in to its New Surroundings

It didn't take long for the PNG staff to get 008 up and running in the country.   Having begun Rick Nachtigal's Kodiak training in North Caroling in July, we resumed with a review, then continued with his "Instructor Pilot Standardization," enabling him to be the first Kodiak instructor on our PNG staff.  The nearby runway of Gusap, an old WWII air base located nearby in the Markham Valley at 1,500 feet above sea level, provided a nice long, level practice strip.  The Markham Valley almost always enjoys better weather than around Aiyura at 5,100 feet above sea level where the planes are based.

We've also had a few opportunities to provide service to the Wycliffe/SIL missionaries at the larger airports.  For example we gave one gal a lift down to Nadzab where she connected with our helicopter that took her back into her village in the hills where she is working on her Bible translation project.

Some training has focused on instrument procedures, such as this instrument approach into the coastal city of Madang.  The Garmin G1000 Primary Flight Display shows the runway ahead as Rick approaches at the minimum descent altitude to runway 25.

Then, as we flew back to Aiyura, the view out the windshield showed little but clouds and rain, but the PFD's "synthetic vision" again gave us a picture of the terrain ahead.  Note the inset map on the bottom left with the red and yellow blocks, indicating terrain ahead and to the left that is at the same altitude or even higher than our current altitude.

Back at Gusap on a later day, we did some testing of the Kodiak's takeoff and landing performance against the charts given by the manufacturer Quest Aircraft Company, and the performance charts we're working on for approval from the PNG Civil Aviation authorities.  Of course, this needed to be done at various weights, so sandbags provided the necessary ballast.

008's Final Hop to its New Home

Friday, Sept. 25: After a night at the Mapang mission guest house in Pt. Moresby it was time for our final leg of the journey to the Ukarumpa mission station in the highlands. Brian caught an airliner back to the States, unfortunately unable to go on to Ukarumpa, since he had pressing commitments back home.

Rick Nachtigal and I took 008 on the final hour and a quarter flight along the mountainous spine of the island.

A good number of the Wycliffe/SIL staff had come out to the airstrip at Aiyura to greet us. The Kodiak had been many years coming, and expectations ran high for this day.

Several leaders made some comments and led the group in thanksgiving to God for His bringing this first Kodiak to its place of service.

Most of our greeters were veteran passengers of our air service to the many airstrips in PNG, and were eager to take a close look at the new airplane and imagine what it would be like to finally be transported in it.

The mechanics at our facility wasted no time in  taking a first close-up look at their new machine and getting the tanks out of the airplane.

Day 5: Majuro to Pt. Moresby

The hotel restaurant was on “island time,” and the promised breakfast appeared to be still only a promise by 7:00 a.m., so we headed for the door to get our promised ride to the airport (a ways down and around the atoll from downtown Majuro). Our apparent determination to get to the airport on time finally got some results and the driver showed up only fifteen minutes late. We were met at the airport by our handler who gave us our flight plan and weather paperwork. Breakfast was going to have to be more of what we had been munching along the way – several types of trail mix and granola bars. We also broke out the loaf of bread, peanut butter and jam my wife had sent with us, and would fix our breakfast after getting airborne. We wanted nor more delays.

Amazingly, we were airborne almost on time for the shortest of our three over-water legs of this journey – only 1,745 nautical miles from Majuro to Pt. Moresby. The last third of the flight was also going to be close to multiple islands and alternate landing sites at Bougainville, New Ireland and New Britain Islands, all territories of Papua New Guinea.

The area of monsoon weather whipping the Pacific into whitecaps below had remained stationary around the Marshalls, and after a couple hours we had dodged our last thunderstorm and were breaking into the familiar calm and sunny skies that we had seen earlier on the trip.

We made our first landfall in PNG as we approached Buka on Bougainville Island.

But the “mainland” was still hours away, and our destination lay on the far side of a 12,000’ ridge of mountains.

These Garmin screen shots show the MFD and PFD views of the terrain as we approached the main island and crossed the ridge before our final descent into Pt. Moresby. 

We were met by Rick Nachtigal, one of our pilots in PNG, and our student in the Kodiak back at JAARS in July.  He ushered us through the Customs and Immigration process and we were officially in the country.