Close to Ready

Kodiak 038 has been in the JAARS hangar for the past six weeks, undergoing final touches before its trip to Papua New Guinea where it will join Kodiak 008 that has flown over 500 hours in service to missionaries and villages.  Our team in PNG is eager to get their second one.

"Why does a new airplane need to sit in the shop for six weeks?" you might ask.  There are a few modifications that we must do to it here before it's ready to enter service.  One is the installation of a high frequency "HF" radio.  Another is the installation of an engine fire detection system.  Neither of these are offered by Quest as options yet.  So our engineer and maintenance team here has designed these installations, and must get FAA approval before the airplane is returned to airworthiness.  Add all the other minor additions, and six weeks goes by pretty fast.

Here you can take a look at what's behind those pretty screens -- just a collection of boxes creatively called "LRU's" by Garmin -- "Line Replaceable Units."  Perhaps that gives you an idea of how maintainable these boxes are on the field -- not!  Basically they're "remove and replace" maintenance items for the avionics technicians.

Lloyd Marsden is one of our technicians from PNG who was in the States and came to JAARS to get in on the fun.

What's in a Garmin 1000?

Well, lots of stuff, if you consider billions of electronic imprints "stuff."  But it's amazing what you can do with those electrons.  For example, here is a graphic depiction over Google Earth of our final leg on Thursday between Council Bluffs, Iowa and JAARS at Waxhaw, North Carolina.  Each entire flight is recorded on a second-by-second basis, with over 50 parameters.  The entire route looks like a simple blue line from this perspective.  (To better see these images, click on them to get a full screen view, then click on your browser back-arrow to return to this page.)

If you zoom in, you can see the one-second samplings marked with vertical lines.  Here we're cruising past Evansville, Indiana and the Ohio River at 11,000 feet. 

This graphic only uses altitude and GPS position, but the Garmin is also continuously taking "snapshots" of things like temperature, heading, track, navigation fixes and radio frequencies selected, engine parameters, and autopilot mode. This can be data "overload" in normal circumstances, but it enables support staff to get a good look at how the aircraft, and particularly the engine, are performing. I won't even attempt to discuss the issue of pilot performance "snitching," which this will no doubt introduce. And in the unfortunate event of an incident or accident, it will provide an objective look at the flight during the critical times (provided the SD card can be retrieved afterwards).

Here you can see the approach and landing pattern we made into JAARS, recorded in minute detail.  This capability will be useable anywhere on the face of the globe.

Kodiak 038 On Its Way

We were thrilled once again to take delivery of a new Kodiak 100, serial number 038, at the Quest factory in Sandpoint, Idaho last week, a year and a half after our first, number 008.

This one is also slated to go to Papua New Guinea (see previous posts from September and October 2009).  It's nearly identical to our first, with a few minor improvements Quest has made.  Our pilots and mechanics in PNG are telling us that the first Kodiak is proving to be a very efficient and reliable tool (see "008 In the Village," October 2009).  They're extremely anxious to see this one arrive, besides two more, for a total of four Kodiaks slated to serve in that country.

After I departed by airline from Waxhaw, there were some minor glitches in the FAA certification of the airplane, so I had some time to "kill" in the Northwest.  Such a deal.  So I found my way to one of my favorite places on earth, Clydehurst Christian Ranch, a few miles south of Big Timber, Montana.  It's the current work and passion of my brother and sister-in-law, Wayne and Judy Brownson.  Even four months after my week-long hospitalization upon returning from Haiti, I have still been struggling with the effects of some as-yet undiagnosed malady.  Four days at Clydehurst were just the "medicine" I needed, and I think from these pictures you will agree.

Finally we were able to spend a day looking over and flying the new Kodiak, and on Wednesday August 11 we departed for JAARS.  My fellow pilot was Gerry Gardner who I had trained in the Kodiak for service in Haiti with Samaritan's Purse.  We took off from Sandpoint, Idaho and skirted north of the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, right over Clydehurst and the Boulder River valley.

After a fuel stop in Powell, Wyoming to visit my friends Bill and Mary Beth Keil, and Orville Moore, we were dodging the summer storms across Nebraska.  We made an overnight stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and made it to Waxhaw, North Carolina on the second day, after a total of about thirteen hours of flight.

Kodiak N497KQ now sits in its new (temporary) home where we will begin installation of a few more modifications such as an HF radio.  This airplane is on an accellerated track, and it is our hope to have it on its way to PNG by October.

Pooling Resources

The mission aviation effort in Haiti continues with MAF as the host and principle player.  Their Kodiak was brought down to help the existing program with three Cessnas.  The Samaritan's Purse Kodiak is also helping, crewed by us JAARS pilots.  I've been here two weeks of my rotation, and have a little less than two to go.  Occassionally several planes go to the same place, as pictured here, at Mole St. Nicolas on the northwest coast.  Some parts of Haiti's north coast are desert, complete with cactus.

The loads vary, but often we're carrying MRE's - meals ready to eat - from the UN's World Food Program.  Depending on the type of MRE, we can carry between 1,000 and 1,300 MRE's per flight.  The food is going to help the displaced people who have fled Port Au Prince, and are on their families' doorsteps back in their home villages.  One town 50 miles from Port Au Prince has around 100,000 displaced people in and around it.

Often we're carrying teams, mostly from the U.S, of medical workers and other mission workers.  Here a load of riders gets a briefing on the operation of the passenger door in the Kodiak.

MAF's Kodiak N103MF on the roll from Hinche, central Haiti.  This airplane is actually slated to join two other Kodiaks already in Southeast Asia, but it was temporarily diverted here to help in the relief effort.

Back to My Other Job

Meanwhile, our own Kodiak program development must continue, so Mark and I found ourselves back in Spokane to wrap up the Kodiak training of two more of our pilots from Papua New Guinea, Jonathan Federwitz and Remi Vanwereskerken.

As before, the Spokane Turbine Center course had given them excellent transition into the airplane, and our week with them was a pleasure.  STC gave us free use of their facilities, and had the airplane and simulator reserved for our use as well. Since we don't have a full-time airplane at JAARS in Waxhaw, STC provides us with a very valuable resource for projects like this.

The simulator offers an incredibly realistic Kodiak cockpit in which to perform operations and emergency procedures that would be too hazardous in the actual airplane.  It even has a database that "covers the world," offering acurate terrain visuals as well as a complete aviation facitilies database.  The two trainees were able to conduct most of their simulator training in the familiar terrain and environment of Papua New Guinea.  Here you can see them on a road in a valley in PNG after a simulated emergency landing (see the car on the road?).

A Moment to Reflect

Of course you have seen the images coming from Haiti.  On Sunday we spent a bit of time being shown around by Haitian friends of the MAF staff.  Here are a few images of my own.  They require little comment.

Life on the streets continues.  Food is available, if you have money to buy it.  But that's the problem.  Normal sources of income, as meager as they were before, have been disrupted.  Port Au Prince is in a "slow burn" as the secondary crisis mounts.  Rainy season will begin in weeks.  Disease will become public enemy number one, but security will also decline as people get more desperate.  I was impressed with how well-mannered the Haitian people were, considering what they've been through, but how far will their tolerance stretch?

We attended an English service church on Sunday.   The pastor reflected the soul-searching that all Haitians are going through.  And he called for a renewed commitment to obedience to God and a seeking of His will for Haiti in this catastrophe.

Next week Mark Wuerffel and I will be in Spokane, finishing off the training of our latest two Kodiak pilots from Papua New Guinea.  Then Mark will take a turn in Haiti, and I will probably follow him for the last two or three weeks of March.  Where is the end of all this?  How will the city ever be rebuilt?  Answers to those questions seem like a luxury right now as we work on the immediate goals of  relieving the suffering and averting a secondary disaster, while in the process try to demonstrate God's love and His story of redemption.

Down to Business

Friday, February 5

We  began the task of fitting into the team already working in high gear.  Below is a letter I wrote to friends not long after getting back home this week:

There I was again this morning, shoveling the cold white stuff off my driveway, not even one day after getting back home from Haiti. This time I didn’t need to speculate about how it would compare to the heat in Port Au Prince.


7:00 a.m. The pilots and mechanics would be gathering outside the residences of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) families to get into their Land Cruisers for the twenty minute ride to the airport where another day would begin.

Hundreds of personnel and tons of food and medical supplies have been pouring in via Missionary Flights International (“MFI”) of Ft. Pierce, FL. The material has to be sorted and stashed, then made into loads (about 1,800 lb.) that can be put into the Kodiaks for their quick flights to the outlying towns for delivery to relief workers, missionaries, orphanages, hospitals and “IDP” (internally displaces persons) camps that are growing as people flee Port Au Prince.

MAF has worked in Haiti for decades, and knows the country and people. The wives and kids have all been sent home, and in their place a team of about 30 pilots, mechanics, coordinators and logistics personnel (mostly men) have moved in, some sleeping at the airport in tents and in the hangar. The rest drive through town every night to “batch it” in the former residences of the MAF families. Electricity for the team is provided by solar power, batteries, and a few diesel generators. Water comes from rain cisterns. Internet comes via satellite. Phone service comes via a Voice-over Internet Protocol (VOIP) at the airport. The homes even have satellite TV which works on the available power.

In spite of all these essential logistical assets, the work is grueling and the hours long. Dust coats everything, including computers, airplanes (inside and out) and clothes. It creates a brown pall that hangs thousands of feet over the valley. But it will soon be replaced by mud as the rains begin, probably in a few weeks.

The staff from MAF, Samaritan’s Purse, JAARS, Missionary Flights International and others all work as one team. The two Kodiaks (one from MAF, the other from Samaritan’s Purse) sit on the ramp awaiting their next mission.

I was only there a week, and felt a little guilty leaving so soon, since the typical rotation is 3-4 weeks. But I accomplished the mission I was sent to do – fly down the Samaritan’s Purse Kodiak, and complete the training of the other JAARS pilot, Gerry Gardner, who will remain there another ten days.

My other responsibilities at JAARS remain. Bible translation goes on around the world, and requires our service. Two of our pilots from Papua new Guinea are at Spokane Turbine Center getting their Kodiak initial training. After a short week here, I will head up to Spokane with one of our fresh Kodiak instructors, Mark Wuerffel, and together we will finish the training of our pilots from PNG before they return to the field. Not only will we be finishing their training, but I will be using the process to polish Mark as a Kodiak instructor. That week will be followed by a week’s missions conference at our church here in Charlotte, and in early March I may be heading back to Haiti for a longer stint. Our next Kodiak is scheduled to be picked up at the factory the end of March.

This spring and summer suddenly got very complicated, but like I’ve said, the quake in Haiti wasn’t on anyone’s schedule.

Pray for the team there as they work to meet the overwhelming needs. Pray for good communication, extra measures of grace, and wisdom in evaluating the need. Pray for safety, good health and mechanical reliability of the equipment. Pray for workers and resources to continue coming. Pray for the people of Haiti as the medical needs change to disease control and treatment and as Port Au Prince’s squalor worsens and peoples’ living situation improves little. Pray for God to be manifestly glorified by what seems to be an impossible situation.

Thank you for your prayers to date.

MAF has served in Haiti for decades, and their hangar and the surrounding turf hosts the hub for processing and forwarding the material arriving from Ft. Pierce.  Their office is a finished (and air conditioned) shipping container.

Every day began with a quick meeting with a short meditation followed by announcements and flight schedule information.

The aircraft from the US arrived continually, bringing tons of food and medical supplies to be carried out to the surrounding towns and villages by the two Kodiaks and the other smaller MAF Cessnas.