Big Shift of Gears

Our Bible translation colleagues in Tanzania have for some time been asking for JAARS' help in assessing their transportation issues and making recommendations.  Last year we sent someone to do a survey, and the upshot was the recommendation to bring in an aircraft in partnership with another mission aviation organization already in the country.  The next step is now to answer all the difficult questions that require aviation expertise.  Debbie and I were asked to come to Tanzania and quantify what it will take to accomplish this.  On March 20 we departed for Tanzania, and its industrial coastal city, Dar-es-Salaam.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, as we cross the Kenyan border and descend into Dar-es-Salaam

The "Dar" staff come from all points:  Europe, Canada, US, South Africa and of course Tanzania

We have met with the field administration of the "Uganda-Tanzania Branch" of SIL (Summer Institue of Linguistics) and talked to the team in "Dar," and have been getting a picture of their current situation. Our linguists are working in 26 language projects, with that many more still not yet begun.

Cessna Caravan going into the MAF hangar in Dodoma

We made a short trip by bus to the central town of Dodoma (technically the capital, and seat of Parliament) to visit with our colleagues of MAF, Mission Aviation Fellowship International (formerly known as "Euro MAF").  This branch of the MAF organizations is based in London and serves in many of the African countries.  Our linguist colleagues use MAF frequently, but there is a limit to how much service they can offer.  And our work is growing in Tanzania -- thirty new people arriving in the coming year, up from about a hundred and twenty presently.  So we visited with MAF in Dodoma to propose that we work in partnership.

Our next step will be to spend about a month in the town of Mbeya, in the southwest of Tanzania, to get to know our workers there and understand their need.  By the end of it all, we will hopefully have an idea of where to proceed from here.  Some of the key questions to answer are:  What exactly are the needs, for all the team, and what will they be in the future?  How can we improve the situation, and plan for future needs?  How can we adequately plan for the expense of air transport?  How, and how soon, can we implement the solutions?  As we progress through this three-month project, we will keep this site updated.

Soloy Cessna 207 Arrives at JAARS

  After many years of planning, on March 19 JAARS finally received its first 8-seat Cessna 207, coverted by the Soloy Corporation with a small 420 H.P. turbo-prop engine. The aviation program managers in Cameroon had asked for this special airplane because of the exhorbitant taxes there on aircraft the size of the Kodiak and larger.

The engine, a Rolls Royce Allison turbine, burns jet fuel which is readily available in Cameroon, and much cheaper then aviation gasoline ("AVGAS") which is actually hard to find at any price.  We have used aircraft with this engine before, including the Jet Ranger helicopters in Papua New Guinea.  The conversion involved extensive modification of the aircraft forward of the firewall.  We hope to see this aircraft in Cameroon by July, serving in that country as well as another five surrounding countries.  I was involved with this project for a long time, and we thought that we would be helping with its implementation, but we have been asked to step into another project on the other side of the African continent....

038 in Aiyura

On Friday 038 and 008 made the 75 minute flight to our aviation center in the central highlands of PNG.  Our aviation team there serves with seven airplanes and two helicopters, carrying personnel and supplies in and out of approximately the 400 airstrips sprinkled all over the mountains, lowlands and islands of that geographically and linguistically diverse country.

 

With nearly 800 distinct languages within its boundaries, PNG provides a very concentrated opportunity for the ministry of the Bible translators (expat and PNG citizens) who dedicate their efforts to providing the Word of God for this population.



Here are just a few more images of the aviation facilities at Aiyura.   The Kodiaks will be replacing the aging Cessna 206's, and our team has already sold the twin turbine Islander (pictured here with the two Kodiaks in Port Moresby).  As Quest produces more Kodiaks, we look forward to a fleet of four based out of Aiyura, besides the two Long Ranger helicopters.

038 Joins 008 in its New Home

On Sunday November 14 Leon made the final flight into Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, after 16,000 miles and twelve days of flying since leaving Moundridge, Kansas.

First Half of Day Eleven

Final Day into AYPY

Our team in PNG is wrapping up the details of re-registering it in its new country, with the tail number "P2-SIR."  Once the paper work is finished, and the new numbers are put on its tail and wings, 038 will join our first Kodiak in service to the people of PNG.  For images of the ferry of 008 across the Pacific last year, you can look back to entries in this blog from September '09, and for images of the environment in which these two planes operate, you can go to posts for October of last year.

Kodiak 038 Tonight in Colombo



Leon's been making good time, arriving in Sri Lanka around 9:00 p.m. local time.  As he heads further south, the winds will be less favorable, but each individual planned leg is easily within the range of #038 with its auxiliary ferry fuel tank.

For better detail, just click on the SPOT tracking image.  Here's a snapshot of #038's arrival in Europe:

038 Has Launched!

Tonight our newest Kodiak is sleeping in Santa Maria in the Azores on its way to Papua New Guinea.  Last night it was in St. Johns, Newfoundland.  These images are from our SPOT tracking site.  If you want to join the spectating fun, go to the JAARS tracking site.  You can watch up-to-date position information for 038 as it makes its way around the globe.

The week before, Mark Wuerffel and I had dropped 038 in Moundridge, Kansas, handing it over to the care of Carl Weaver, founder of Weaver Aero International.  Carl's company has already delivered four or five Kodiaks for different customers to SE Asia, Europe and South Africa.  Carl is a former MAF pilot, and intimately familiar with our type of flying.

 

The pilot is Leon Stoman, pictured here with 038.  Notice the Red-cowled Kodiak in the background -- MAF's next delivery to SE Asia.

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?).