Hello's and Goodbye's......What a week!

Eilidh meeting her cousin Hannah.

My brother Kenny wiith Eilidh.

Abi and Auntie Hayley

Last Monday my brother Kenny, his wiife Hayley and their daughter Hannah, were able to come to Ohio for a flying visit! I have not seen them for two years so it was lovely to catch up with them.  They used to live in North Carolina and for the last few years they have been living in Isreal.  Eilidh has now met all her Uncles,  Aunts and Cousins! It felt very wierd saying goodbye when we have no idea when we will see each other again.  






The Beckwith's and the Linkletter's and Abi and Matthew

After they left mid morning,  it was time to get ready for a special MAF dinner party! Mark and Jenny Beckwith and their two daughters Abigail and Naomi are also with MAF UK and have now completed their training and are due to return to the UK on the 18th of December.  They will spend a few months in the UK before going to serve in a MAF programme in Tanzania.   Geoff and Celia Linkletter and their daughter Miriam are from Newcastle and are also with MAF UK, training at MMS.  Andy will be finished next year and Geoff will be finished in two years so it was wonderful to all be together for a meal before the Beckwith's start the next chapter in their MAF adventure!  We had cottage pie,  and rice pudding for desert.  It is not every day three Brittish families can all get together in the middle of small town America - Abi had the strongest American accent in the house that night :0)  The most humourous part when Jenny and I get together is when we come across words where I have to ask her to repeat what she is saying as I can't understand her accent! I don't struggle with the American accent here in Ohio,  only the English ones ;0)

We have enjoyed living in the country here in Coshocton and being close to Abigail's school is always a bonus.  We are blessed with wonderful land-lords also. This year they are trying to sell their house and wish to move back into the house we are living in at some point.  We were no longer in any contract and it was a little unsettling to know that we may have to move out some time in the year before Andy is finished his exams.  Even after his exams are over we will have lots to sort out in preperation for the next big move.  We felt we needed to look for another house to rent for our last year so we could guarantee we would be settled through this important year. On Wednesday we went to look at three properties and were about to sign a lease for one of them yesterday.  After telling our land-lords about it they have decided to offer us another years contract so we do not have to move after all.   With so many other big things happening in this next year we are so thankful we do not have to think about yet another move during this year.  

Thinking we may have had a possible move in the next few weeks we knew we would need to pursue a second car more urgently.  Andy's jeep is away to the scrap yard and he has been surviving on lifts part of the week and I have been home bound when he has the car the other days. Thursday and Friday evening we were looking at cars! Thankfully we were not due to pay for one un-till Monday.  Now that we are not moving it is not so urgent.  At least now he will still be able to get lifts from our neighbour but we are hoping to have another car for him to drive in January some time.   The lack of public transport makes it impossible to go anywhere without a car and the roads are not geared up for walkers.  There are no wide grass verges to move over to if a car is coming,  you would have to jump into the ditches at either side of the road!  There are no pavements (side-walks) expect those in the town - if we had a field with the house then a horse and cart would be an attractive alternative. lol!
Also this week on Friday evening we had the MMS Christmas get together. There was around 80 people there.  About six families are leaving soon to go to new mission organisations,  return back to their mission in Brazil and other places.   This was the third MMS Christmas get together we have been to and the biggest yet! There must have been about 13 children under the age of 6! Hats off to Dale and Deborah Coats for hosting 80 people at their house!


Some face painting fun on Saturday.

 On Saturday,  Andy took Abi and Matthew to an Amish store in Kidron,  about half an hours drive. The kids had great fun decorating biscuits and getting their face painted (all for free!). 






Today the children led the service at Church.   Kaylee, Abi's friend,  comes to church with us every Sunday morning and her Mum and little sister also came for the first time to hear them play the hand bells.   On a Sunday afternoon we try and rest and after such a hectic week which included three migranes for me and Andy still battling with a cough, as well as all of the above, we enjoyed a much needed nap!



Home Sweet Home!

Our three weeks in Scotland flew past so quickly.  It was great to see so many people and we are so thankful to God for the safe travels and good health he has given us throughout the whole time!  Thanks to those who made the effort to meet with us at the open day and other meetings,  and to all those who have hosted us either for meals, or accommodation or both! Thank you especially for your prayers! Although exhausting traveling with three children, we had a wonderful trip.  There were so many supporters and relatives that we would have loved to have visited but we just couldn't fit it all in. 

Playing in the leaves!

Meeting Granda for the first time!

Great-Auntie Christine traveled up to Pitlochry for a visit.

Our time in London was a little bit different this year.  Not only did we renew the visa, but we visited the staff at the MAF office in Folkestone, Kent.  We were also able to give a little presentation about life at MMS in Ohio.  It was exciting to begin talks about what is going to be happening over the next year and beyond.  I can hardly believe we only have one year left in the states, then after a few months in Scotland, we will be heading off to a MAF programme somewhere in the world! In about six months time we will start serious talks about where we will be placed.  So from here on,  there will be many 'lasts' as we enter in to a transition phase again.
We couldn't have arrived back at a better time!
Andy just had a few days back at work before MMS closed for 2 days for Thanksgiving.  These few days of rest were just what we needed to catch up on the jet lag and to 're-charge the batteries!'  We opted for a more quiet thanksgiving this year and had a lovely meal with our pastor and family.  Our pastor was raised in Haiti and it was lovely hearing their stories of growing up as missionary kids in Haiti.   We enjoyed some shopping in the sales,  and we were able to get Eilidh a booster high chair and a very long stair gate in preparation for things to come!
Abi missed her American friends a lot and was keen to get back to school.  This meant that she was up at five thirty in the morning ready on her first day back - the joys of jet lag! She is over that now and is back to her usual 6am rise ;0).   I have enjoyed going in to Abi's school to read the "Gruffalo" and the "Gruffalo's Child" to her class.  The school are looking for more involvement from parents and I am thinking and praying about volunteering to teach music in the school for a few hours each week.   At present the music education at the most elementary schools is purely vocal and the children don't get to touch an instrument until they are much older.   The school actually has a good supply of percussion instruments but they share a music teacher with many schools and he does not have time to do instruments with the classes.  I will let you know how things progress.  
Matthew is back at preschool and loving it.  He is able to read five books at home now in the "Biff and  Kipper" series,  and has been given his first reading book at pre-school which he is so excited about!  He adores Eilidh and is continually keeping her happy with cars and airplanes flying over her head.  Matthew has always loved rubbing his face against anything soft and his favourite soft place at the moment is the top of Eilidh's head! Her hair sticks up with about 2 inches of fluff at the moment and you will often find Matthew with his cheek buried in her hair - very sweet!
Eilidh is doing great and just had her 4 month doctor check.  Apparently she is very long (hence we are filling out 6-9 month clothes!)  She is doing great though and two teeth are not far away!  It was great introducing her to everyone in Scotland.  
Mother and Toddler's is going well and is was lovely to see the regular ladies there on Wednesday.  I was able to do some music and puppets with the tiny tots: 0)
Andy is back at work although he is feeling a little under the weather with a cold and sore throat at the moment.  He is persevering on with it, but would appreciate your prayers (and that the rest of the family don't get it!).
He has moved off the MAF 206 project that he has been working on for the last few months, and is now in the engine shop rebuilding 2 engines for 2 different mission planes. It is a very different kind of work from what he has been doing for the last few months, but a great way to learn ahead of his exams!

Back on familiar soil!

Just a quick update from the British side of the Atlantic!!
All our travels went to plan last Friday and we arrived in one piece (or should that be 5 pieces?!?)
We have had a good weekend catching up with family and spending a bit of time at Kirkintilloch Baptist church yesterday.
Today heather, Eilidh and I head south for our visa appointment in London.
We managed to get ourselves sorted out with a mobile phone this weekend, so if you need to get ahold of us, you can give us a call on 07833 691 659.

October's blog!

Once again a whole month has gone by and we haven’t managed to post a blog… sorry!

Things have been pretty crazy here. Since Eilidh arrived it seems like we have been playing catch up continually! This time of the year is always busy anyway, as we prepare to go back to the UK to renew our visa’s. As well as our interview at the US embassy, we are trying to catch up with as many of our friends, family and supporters as we can while we are home. We are all really looking forward to our trip back home, but there is a lot of work to be done before we head off. We had a newsletter to go out telling people of our plans, visa interview applications to complete for everyone, garden’s and small-holding’s to look after for friends who have been on vacation and on Rapid Response trips, and as a result the blog posts have taken a bit of a back seat!!

Things at the hangar have been busy; I had a two week break from the 206 project while GCI’s King Air was in for its phase inspection. That was good experience of the kind of routine maintenance that will be more normal when I join an MAF programme. Working through the phase inspection checklist, changing time limited parts and inspecting ll the many systems is very different from the work I have been involved in on the 206, and although I enjoy the more in depth restoration type work that the 206 brings, it was nice to have a couple of weeks of something different!

Shooting paint...

The last two weeks have seen me back on the 206, this time in the paint booth with Josh. It has been great experience working on a big paint job rather than just little bits here and there. Painting is definitely 30% science and 70% art, and the best way to learn is just to do it! For the most part everything went to plan with just a couple of “learning opportunities” to make sure I didn’t get too cocky!

Freshly painted and ready for fitting out!

Next week is going to be a bit different; Monday I will be in the hangar finishing off a few of the little things I have been working on with the 206. Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be spent working at http://www.preferredairparts.com/ about an hour from here. One of http://www.missionaryflights.org/ DC-3’s is flying into Ohio this weekend, and one of the jobs it is having done is to have it’s 2 turbine engines removed and packaged for shipping out to a specialist for overhaul. I am scheduled to go up with 3 others from MMS to help with that job. Again, this is all great experience working on different aircraft, with different staff and in a different work environment from the norm. That job should keep us busy for Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving just Thursday to gather our thoughts (and pack our bags!!) for our trip east on Friday morning.

We have quite a long layover in New York on the way home. Thankfully there is a shopping mall just a few minutes from the airport, and if we have time to kill while passing through, we usually end up there! Hopefully the mall will be able to keep all 5 of us sane for the 9 or 10 hours we have there!! There are decent kids play areas, and a Starbucks with wi-fi, so it is actually a really good place to escape from the airport to!! (It is actually my favourite shopping mall to take Heather to, as baggage limits ensure that window shopping means window shopping!! J )

We would appreciate your prayers as we finish things up here in Ohio this week coming, and prepare for Eilidh’s first big journey. For the most part Eilidh is a contented wee girl, but the thought of travelling as a family of five is a bit intimidating for me and Heather!!! Looking forward to seeing some of you when we are home. In case you don’t get our newsletter, here are thing things we have scheduled while we are back in the uk.

We leave Columbus, Ohio, early on the morning of Friday 26th October and have a nine hour layover in Newark, New Jersey before our flight to Scotland. We arrive in Glasgow on the morning of 27thOct. Andy, Heather & Eilidh will travel to London on Monday 29th for our appointment at the American Embassy, then travel on to Folkestone to visit the MAF office. We return to Scotland on Thursday 1st November. On Saturday the 3rd we will travel to Dunoon to spend time with family, then catch up with friends at Dunoon Baptist Church on Sunday 4th November. We will return to Glasgow on Tuesday 6th Nov.

On Wednesday 7th November we are having an open house in Moodiesburn from 2pm – 8pm. We will be at the Moodiesburn Coffee House from 2pm until 4pm – feel free to stop by for a chat. From 4pm until 8pm we will be at Heather’s parent’s house at 2 Harwood Gardens, Moodiesburn. If you are able to pop in we would love to catch up with you. (If you are planning on stopping at the house, please could you call or email us and let us know just in case everyone arrives at once! Tel: 01236 879 637 or email andyswansonmaf@gmail.com)  

We are hoping to have a wee break from all the travelling and plan to spend five nights in Pitlochry from 8th to 13^th November. Andy will be speaking at a MAF conference in Perth on the Saturday, then we will all be visiting Pitlochry Baptist Church on the Sunday. We plan to travel up to Aberdeenshire on the 13th to visit family and friends before we return to Glasgow on the 14th. That will give us a day to pack before we fly back to Ohio on the 16th Nov. It would be great to catch up with you while we are home; we look forward to seeing you somewhere around the country!

Farewell Summer of 2012!

Greetings! The school year has started! After a three month summer break it is time to get back to work.  Abigail is really glad to be in first grade and is enjoying her new class.  The two kindergarten classes last  have been mixed up for first grade so she is getting to know her new classmates better and can play with her old friends at play time.  

Miriam, Matthew and Abigail

Matthew is back at pre-school.  There are only four children in his class from last year and the rest of the children are all new.  His best friend Miriam is now in kindergarten so he is having to make new friends. He is really enjoying it and I haven’t had any tears when it’s time to go.  His new pre-school bag has hand prints all over it, so he likes to call it his “hand-bag”.  Thankfully a hand-bag is more commonly referred to as a “purse” in America so it only makes Andy and I cringe! Lol!

Parent and toddlers started again last week and it was great to catch up with the mum’s and grandma’s after three months.  Yesterday we had a new mum with her five week old boy and 2 year old girl.  It’s is always exciting each week to see who is going to walk through the door.

Sam and Sommer with 20 month old Savannah
 

We enjoyed our friends from Florida last week for three days.  Sam is a pilot so he gets to fly for free.  They flew to Ohio last Tuesday and stayed till Friday.  I knew Sommer when she was just six years old when her family lived in Dunoon.  Her father was in the navy.  We have kept in touch since and it was so nice to see them and meet Savannah for the first time.  Sam is Puerto Rican so we had three different accents going on - fun!

Eilidh 10 weeks old.

Eilidh is growing fast and is starting to giggle which has all of us laughing as we listen to her.   She is in 3-6 month clothes a month early!   I am just up once through the night usually for an hour or so with her.   It is still like being pregnant in some ways with the disturbed sleep and trying to take naps in the afternoon to make up it.  It is certainly a challenge getting three children out the door for 8.45am and punctuality has gone from my vocabulary! House work is in the distance and there is a bag of paperwork needing urgent attention.  If I manage to get the washing done and the meals and dishes done then it has been a very successful day.:0) I’m blogging with one hand while putting Eilidh to sleep in the other arm – mum’s you will understand completely!:0)

 

Andy is busy as always in the hanger and preparing a few presentations for our return to the UK.   His jeep died a few weeks ago.  The breaks have been dangerously worn and the floor has rusted out so much that the front passenger chair has come loose from its bolts.  He could no longer take anyone for lifts or put any of the children in it as he only had one seat belt working.   A few weeks ago it broke down a few miles from home.  We only have one mobile which I had so he had to walk two miles home after a day’s work, part of which was in a thunderstorm.  Some of our MMS friends helped tow it back to our house where it is awaiting a further adventure to the scrap yard!  I am home bound for part of the week and Andy is relying on lifts for the other half when I have to take Matthew to preschool .  We have a loan of a car for a month during September while Jeff (another MAF apprentice) is away to Zambia.  He is going with our neighbour (who has been giving Andy the lifts) for the month on a rapid response trip.  We are so thankful Andy will have transport while our neighbour is away.

We're still here!!!

As I flick through some of our old blogs, there are more than a few that start something like “Sorry it has been such a long time since our last post…” This time we can literally say that it has been a lifetime since our last post!!

When we last blogged, Eilidh was less than 24hrs old, and we were down in North Carolina after her adventurous arrival into the world! (See our last newsletter for the whole story; if you want to receive it but don’t yet, drop me a line and we can add you to the list!) Now she is a happy healthy 6 week old bundle of joy!

We're getting used to having another tiny little person around the house again!

It is fair to say that much of what we’ve been up to for the last month and a half has revolved around Eilidh. The day after we got back to Ohio, I took Abi and Matthew through to Columbus to collect Heather’s mum and dad from the airport. It was good to have them with us as we all adjusted to life as a family of five. My paternity leave lasted until the end of that week, so having another couple of pairs of hands to help with housework and looking after Abi and Matthew was a huge blessing. They enjoyed spending time with Abi and Matthew, and the rest of us, as well as getting to know Eilidh, and hopefully having a bit of a break as well!!

After Eilidh's dedication service.

One highlight of their time here was having Eilidh dedicated at our church here in Coshocton. It was good to be able to have that service here with our church family, and to have a connection with Scotland through having Heather’s parents join us. I put a little slide show together from the dedication...

Through the summer Abi and Matthew have been able to get involved in some different activities that have been running around the area. Most of the local churches run week long Vacation Bible School’s during the holidays, and Abi and Matthew have both been able to attend a few of these. Some of their friends have joined them at our church’s VBS, and they have gone to VBS at some friend’s churches. These have been a really good time for the kids, as well as giving mum a little bit of quiet time in the house to deal with Eilidh! It has also introduced a whole new repertoire of sing-along songs for our car journeys!!

They have also been to a couple of “camps” this summer as well. Abi attended an art camp at a local theatre, where they were involved in designing and decorating the set for a youth production of Jungle Book, and Matthew spent a week at soccer camp becoming a better footballer than his dad (not too tough a challenge!!)

Our little footballer!

Back at the hangar I have mostly been carrying on with work on the MAF Cessna 206. We are making good progress and now we have started building things back up, having spent the first part of the project dismantling the plane and dealing with corrosion and other issues. While I was off on paternity leave Phil and Jake had removed a damaged skin from the tail-cone and fabricated a new skin ready for installation. My first job back was to help Phil with riveting the new skin in place; we have also been busy rebuilding the landing gear box, reinstalling the main landing gear legs, installing new windows, reinstalling the cargo doors, finishing off some paint stripping detail work, and rebuilding the nose gear strut ready to be installed next week. After the nose gear goes on, we should be ready to wheel the fuselage to the paint booth, and move on to working on the wings!

Re-assembling the fuselage, ready for painting.

Thanks for your patience with our lack of posts, and for your thoughts and prayers as we serve with MAF here in Ohio.

It's a girl!!

Heather and I are thrilled to let you all know of the safe arrival of the latest little Swanson!!! As with most things, there is a bit of a story to tell, but that can come later!

We thought we were ready to have the baby on the due date (24^th June), but God’s timing is always perfect, and Eilidh Rose Swanson (pronounced like Hayley, but without the H) arrived exactly when she was meant to! 4^th July is a big day in America, and now our family really have something special to celebrate on 4^th July also!

Eilidh weighed in at 7lb 15oz, and both mother and baby are well.

Once things have calmed down a bit, we will get some pictures posted and tell some more of the story, but in the meantime, thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

God is good!

A

Still waiting!!

Little Swanson number 3 was due on Sunday, but as you might expect with someone who shares my genetics, he or she is a wee bit late! Abi was 8 days past her due date, and Matthew came the day after his date, so we're not too concerned by going  a little over with this one too. The biggest hardship is with the weather; the first two were both born in Tummel Bridge, where the weather wasn't quite so much of a chore as it is here! This afternoon saw the temperatures hitting 99 degF (37 degC) so Heather is understandably keen to not be pregnant anymore! We will keep you all posted when he or she makes a grand appearance!

Hopefully the last pregnant Heather picture!

Life in the hangar is carrying on as usual. The summer months see quite a few people disappearing from the hangar for a week or two at a time, taking vacation time to visit friends and family, time to help with some of the many "Vacation Bible School" programmes run by churches across the States through the summer, or making "deputation" trips to share about what they are doing with supporters and at their home churches.
The 206 project has still been moving on though, and the last few weeks have seen me focussing on more of the painting related jobs. I have had good opportunity to spend some time in the paint booth painting the many small parts that have been removed from the plane over the last few months. Painting is one of those things that is 25% science, and 75% art, so once Josh had spent a bit of time going over the theory of it all, the best way to learn is just to do it! It is also one of those things that is incredibly satisfying when it all works out, so the last couple of weeks have been good fun for me!

Painting the 206's engine cowls

Wire brushing one of the rivet heads!

With painting, one of the key things to getting a good finish is to start with a good base. We are now coming close to getting the fuselage rolled into the paint booth for painting, so this week has seen me spend quite a bit of time "detailing" in preparation for paint. The majority of the old paint was stripped with a chemical stripper a few weeks ago, but there are still little flecks of paint stuck in nooks and cranny's and around every rivet head on the surface of the plane. My job this week has been to spray thinners onto every rivet head  and rub it all down with a wire brush! I have to admit I am starting to go a bit cross eyed focusing on one rivet at a time, sitting a few inches from the side of the plane, but it has to be done, and it is a good job for someone who is hoping at any minute to drop everything and rush home for the birth!!


Thanks for all your prayers for the safe arrival of the baby - we will let you know when it comes!!

Tick -Tock.......

On June the 2^nd some of the women at our church along with myself organised a family fun day at a local park near our church.   Some people from the church have had a youth outreach programme going on there for a while building relationships with children who live around the park.  Our goal was to try and reach the parents as well and get to know them a little more.  We had super weather – not too hot!  Lots of volunteers from the church helped with the BBQ and with crafts and games and face painting etc.   The children enjoyed games like watermelon rolling, ( which Andy tried to duct tape together after it became a “watermelon throwing contest” :0).  Lots of local children came by themselves to the park and we were able to meet some parents who ventured out for a free hot dog.  It was a super success and the committee are planning another one in August.  

Rolling a duct-taped watermellon...

The next thing I had planned after the park party was to play at an outdoor wedding last Saturday.  Although 39 weeks pregnant, the wedding was in the morning and I was in the shade at the keyboard and all went well.  Our Pastor’s eldest daughter was getting married and it was a privilege to be a part of the wedding.   The ceremony was over in an hour and we did not stay for the reception as the temperature was getting up to around 85 degrees F.   I came home and Andy and I took the kids swimming.  It was so nice to get into some deep water to take the weight of the baby and feel lighter again!   There is no indoor public swimming pool near here, the public pools are outdoor and just opened at the end of May. 

A week ago Debbie Baisley arrived from North Carolina to stay with us until after the baby is born.  Abi and Matthew are loving having their American “mimi” to stay  and needless to say – so are we!  I am able to get more sleep in the mornings and uninterrupted afternoon naps and the house has never looked so good! : 0) Debbie is a home birth midwife and has known me since I was 10 years old.  I am really excited that she will be here to help deliver our new arrival when the time comes.   I have another midwife who is local who will assist Debbie with the birth.   After having two home water births with Abi and Matthew I am not too worried about having a third.  The major difference this time is the lack of gas and air for pain relief.   It is not standard in America and not available for births anywhere here.  I never used much at all with Matthew as it was quite a quick birth so I am hoping for another one like that!  Whatever happens I know God is always in control.   

Abi and Matthew have been quite humourous trying to make sense of all that’s going on.  After watching a facebook video of my sister’s dog licking her new born puppies, Abi asked Debbie “will mummy have to lick the baby’s eyes to get them to open?” lol! Matthew knew that the baby was going to come out when Debbie arrived so he is a little confused as to why it is not out yet and Debbie has been here a week.  He asked me again today if it was coming in June or July – I think he is getting a little impatient ;0).   Last week they both went to a local vacation bible school based on Ken Ham’s "Answer’s in Genesis".  They really enjoyed it and Matthew informed me on the second day that “if the bible says it, then that settle’s it”!  This week Abi is away every morning to an art class.  They are designing the set for a local Jungle book production in July.  I think she struggled today as there was a lot of talking and planning and she likes to be busy with her hands.  Hopefully they will get painting soon and she will settle into it.   Next week is vacation bible school at our own church.  As they get three months of a summer holiday it is nice to have a few things organised to keep them busy.

Andy is still busy working on the MAF 206 from Haiti.  They are starting the process of painting the plane and Andy is busy painting landing gear parts.  He is awaiting the call home any moment for the birth.  He is looking after another MMS'ers garden and animals while they are away for a week, and got a call at the hangar today to say that their cow gave birth to a calf... not the delivery he was hoping for!! He will get two weeks off when the baby is born which we are all excited about.

My parents are due to arrive in Ohio on the 10^th of July for a month so I am feeling very blessed to have so much help around this time and in the coming months.   The baby is due on Sunday 24th of June so I am counting the days! Health-wise, myself and the baby are doing fine although I am getting very uncomfortable and probably a lot more short tempered than usual.  The weather has been very hot and I am preferring to stay indoors and so thankful for our big old air conditioning window unit in our living room.  It spouts out black dirt which we can't seem to find the source of, but that's a small price to pay for the relief of some cooler air!   Our next blog post will hopefully be about our exciting news! God bless x

Not quite retired....

Although we work with MAF, while I am training at MMS I spend most of my time working on aircraft that serve with other organisations. For the last wee while though, we have had an MAF plane in the hangar, and I’ve enjoyed working with Chuck and Phil on this project for the last couple of weeks.

Hard at work in Haiti

N-6MF is a Cessna 206 that came back to the States at the end of 2010 after a busy missionary career. It started with MAF in the 80’s, and served in Nicaragua and Venezuela before spending four years between 2006 and 2010 flying as HH-PTL in Haiti. It looked like it might be retired from MAF work, but it was decided to give it a bit of a make-over, fix a few problems and return it to MAF’s fleet. It will be used in America as a training aircraft for pilots looking to serve overseas, and also as a demo plane that will be seen at air-shows across the country promoting the work that MAF do.  

Most of the work that needs to be done to this plane while it is here in Ohio is just the result of being a 31 year old plane which spent its last few years by the sea. There have been quite a lot of little bits of corrosion that we have been dealing with, and lots of parts that are just worn and tired.

Since I started working on this project I have been involved in a few different jobs on it. I disassembled the landing gear legs and the nose gear strut, then stripped them of the old paint and inspected them to ensure that they are in an airworthy state and good to be reinstalled. They are now ready to be repainted when we get to that phase of the project.

I then moved onto the gear box for the main landing gear. This was the same area as I was working on this time last year, on the Gabon 207, but this time the only damage that needed attention was one cracked casting that we have to replace after the years of landing on rough grass strips had taken their toll. I removed the old casting, leaving the rest of the gearbox in place, and cleaned up the corrosion that was underneath it. We are now just about ready to get the new casting prepped and installed.

Repairing rivets on the engine mounts

Another issue that had to be addressed was in the engine bay. Over the years some of the rivets that hold the engine mounts in place had started to work loose, and had to be replaced. As with many areas on aircraft, a lot of rivets are in awkward places, and give a bit of a challenge in getting them drilled out and then driven again. Also with “working rivets” like these, the holes that they are in have worn that little bit bigger, which gives its own set of problems when you are installing new rivets. Some of the holes we had here were ok and could be filled with the same size rivets as before, but some holes were a bit too worn and had to be filled with rivets of the next size bigger.

Bucking rivets for Phil

In between times, I helped Phil when he needed another pair of hands for some riveting jobs. He has been kept busy replacing a stringer in the cabin roof and the pilot’s door sill, among other things. In the picture above I am bucking rivets in the pilot’s foot-well as Phil drives them from the outside.

Last week had me working on the side skin below the co-pilot’s window. When the plane first arrived at the hangar it had been decided to pull that skin off to attend to some corrosion beneath the frames below it. When we pulled it off we found a section of channel that had quite a bit of damage, as well as some corrosion on the skin itself. We managed to source a new channel for a reasonable price, and I set to work fabricating a new skin.

Starting the skin removal...

Skin removed!

I used the old skin as a template to work from and drilled all the rivet holes to match where they fit on the plane. Then I cut the skin to the size of the original, dressed the edges, primed the inside surface (the outside will get painted with the rest of the plane) and checked to make sure it all fit together properly! 

Transfering rivet holes into the new aluminium sheet

Dressing the edges of the new skin ready for installation.

Last Friday, Chuck and I got started on riveting it in place, and by the end of the day on Monday we had pretty much finished installing the new skin on the plane.

I thought you might like to see this video of one of the more unusual flights this plane was involved in while it worked in Haiti.

  

Thanks for your interest and support as we train here in the States on planes that are having a real impact around the world. 

(The video link for those who get this blog-post by email is http://youtu.be/Fk_ls9WNpwM )

First visitors of the year!

It’s hard to believe how fast the time seems to be going by just now! I had planned to write another blog-post weeks ago, but between working to finish my theory chapter tests, getting ready for the arrival of “Little Swanson #3” and hosting our first visitors of 2012, time has just run away on me!

The first visitors we had this year were my mum and dad, who have never been to the States before. As this was their first trip across the Atlantic, they were keen to check off as much “tourist stuff” as possible, as well as seeing our home here in Coshocton, spending time with the kids (and me and Heather!) and visiting the hangar to see what we are actually doing here in Ohio!

Their tourist trail started in New York, where they spent the weekend while we were driving back from North Carolina (see the last blog post!). After a few days in the Big Apple, they flew to Columbus, where Matthew and I met them at the airport. Dad had planned on doing some driving while here, but when they saw the traffic on the Interstate I think they were glad that they had their own team of chauffeurs for their stay with us!! It was good to be able to give them their first taste of American life, and Abi and Matthew enjoyed showing their Granny and Granda around our home here. (Think demonstrations of “The Pledge of Allegiance”, “bug tour’s” of the garden, peanut butter milkshakes from “Earl’s”, and reading bedtime stories at the end of the day.) A great time was had by all!

Bedtime stories

The other tourist thing on the list was a visit to Washington DC. As most of the things to see in DC weren’t really of interest to Abi and Matthew, and a 7 month pregnant Heather didn’t fancy another 6 hour car drive, we decided that I would drive with my folks to the capital, and get my fix of museums and memorials without the rest of the family! We had a great weekend there checking off as many of the iconic landmarks as we could in the short time we were there! We also managed to squeeze in a Gettysburg battlefield tour visiting one of the most important Civil War sites in America, and learning a bit more about what happened there.

Climbing the steps outside the Jefferson Memorial with my mum.

When we got back to Coshocton, we had a few days to relax here; I was back at work, and my mum and dad were able to visit Abi at her school. They had lunch in her class room, saw some of the work she has been doing, enjoyed some “recess” time in the play ground, and met the rest of Abi’s class. We were also able to give Heather a “home day” to herself when the kids and I took granny and granda through to the zoo in Columbus. As it is still off-season not all of the displays were open, but it was also much quieter and we were able to have a good look around the zoo at our own pace.

Abi showing off her classroom

Abi and Granny meeting the shark at Columbus zoo

Matthew helps with some shopping at Miller's Bakery

Mum and dad went back home at the end of April, and then I had just enough time to finish off all my chapter tests before our next visitors arrived! The chapter tests are done to ensure we cover all the theory we need to know before sitting our FAA exams; even though I have finished those now, they did a great job of confirming how much I still need to learn, so the studies will continue!!

Last week we had our good friends Mitch and Elizabeth, and their wee boy Robert, visiting us here in the “north”. Although Elizabeth has been here before, Mitch hadn’t, so it was good to be able to spend time with them here, and show them around the hangar. They had a great time exploring Amish country, letting Robert have some time playing with his “Scottish cousins” and sampling the compulsory cheese tarts from Miller’s Bakery! It was also a good chance for them to relax away from their daily routine’s as Elizabeth is expecting their second child in August.

Mitch, Elizabeth and little Robert.

Thanks for your patience since the last post – we really appreciate your interest and support as we train here in Ohio. Up at the hangar I am working on a MAF Cessna 206 just now, and will hopefully have a post about that coming up soon!

Vacation time!

Andy has kept you well up to date with the PNG trip and a few of you have been asking what myself and the kids have been up to lately. I am almost seven months pregnant now and my days are a lot shorter. Sleep/rest takes up part of my afternoon and early to bed is also high on the list of priorities. I am managing to keep on top of life here but definitely more tired in this pregnancy and yes, I am feeling a lot older! : 0) Everything seems to be going well with the baby and my focus is trying to make sure the baby is in the right position towards the end to allow for a straightforward home birth. Having a summer baby here in Ohio means a lot of the clothes i.e. long sleeved new born vests etc. will not really be needed. Abigail was born in October and Matthew was April in Scotland so they were well equipped with thermals! I have been trawling through second hand shops looking for bargains and purchased a few very light items in pink and a few in blue. Andy and I have decided on possible names and everything seems to be falling into place with the midwives and prenatal care.

The parent and toddler group is going well and I am really enjoying meeting the new mom's. Each week brings a different group of mothers/grandmothers/children. I am also co-leader of the women's ministries commitee in our church and we are at present organising a fun day for local families in a nearby park for the 2nd of June. I have also been busy helping with events such as "party like a princess". Our Church organised an event for over 250 girls teaching them about the meaning of real beauty from within. I was incharge of eight girls for the night and it was busy but fun.

Abi and I recently attended our first bridal shower - our pastor's eldest daughter is getting married in June. Abi was thrilled to have yet another 'ladies only' event and the chocolate dipped strawberries were the highlight for her!

Last week we went to North Carolina to see our friends and then on to South Carolina for a few days at Myrtle beach. We had signed up to a time share deal where we got a fantastic price and accomodation and only had to attend a 2 hour presentation on why we need to purchase a time share! The presentation was gruesome and lasted three hours but we survived, managed to avoid buying a time share, and did not let it spoil our little break away. We spent two afternoons at the beach where the kids had tons of fun in the sand and in the Atlantic Ocean. Matthew turned 4 years old on the 11th so we let him choose a special trip out and off we went to the Aquarium. He was able to spend his birthday money on a collection of sharks (attached to a truck) and these little toy sharks have kept him entertained ever since. He loves to talk you through all the different types of sharks and the great white is the current favourite! He is enthralled by any documetary on sharks on the TV. It makes a nice change from monster trucks - which we have had for many months.

We returned from North Carolina last Friday and experienced our first flat tyre ever two hours into our journey! I am so blessed to have a practical husband who managed to sort it all out and it was great we were only ten minutes away from a garage to enable us to get the wheel fixed before we drove for another six hours.

Abi is back at school this week and is loving her extra homework she has to do to make up for the four days she missed of school! Matthew and I have been unpacking like crazy in order to get ready for Andy's parents who arrived yesterday. This is their first visit to the USA so they have been in New York for a few days before arriving in Coshocton. Andy is driving them to Washington DC on Thursday for a four day trip. Then they will spend some more time here in Coshocton before flying back to Scotland in a few weeks time.

Springtime, annual inspections and helicopter flights

We are enjoying an early taste of summer this year - the last week or so has seen us digging out our shorts again, the birds are singing and the grass is growing.

Since I got back from PNG I have been working on an annual inspection on a local plane that has been a regular at MMS for quite a few years. It is a 1959 Piper Comanche, and although it is in pretty good shape, it is still 18 years older than me, so it has a few wee jobs that are needing attention. Part of any annual inspection is a documentation review. This is where we make sure that airworthiness certificates and registration documents are valid, and that the Airworthiness Directives that are applicable to the plane are being dealt with. Airworthiness directives are mandatory requirements issued by the FAA to ensure that specific issues on airframes, engines, or accessories are handled correctly, so that they remain airworthy. These can be for anything from checking a specific part of structure every year for cracks, to ensuring that a particular engine component is changed within a certain time-frame. At the moment we have the plane up on jacks; we had an AD to work through on the landing gear, which involved checking tolerances on the bushings that the landing gear pivot on as they fold into the aircraft, measuring the “over centre” dimensions that lock the landing gear down, and replacing some time-limited parts. The main gear is all now back together, but the nose gear had some parts that had to be sent out to a specialist for repair. Once the parts come back, we’ll reassemble the nose gear and the plane should be just about ready to be returned to it’s owner.

The Comanche on jacks waiting for it's nose gear.

While I have been getting back into the swing of life here in Ohio, I’ve finally managed to pull together some of the video I took in PNG. While we were there we were able to take a short helicopter flight out to a village in the Finisterre mountains, where a Swedish Bible translator was working on translating the Bible into the local language. I thought you might like to see a bit of the kind of terrain around where we were. It really shows how much aviation is relied on for accessing remote parts of this difficult countryside.

(If you get this blog by email, here is the link to the video.)

http://youtu.be/B3zGtZChsak

One more PNG Post!

I’ve now been back in Ohio for 2 1/2 weeks since my PNG trip. I am getting back into a routine working at the hangar here in Coshocton, but I thought you might like one more PNG blog-post!

One of the things that impressed us about our time in PNG were all the cultural differences we saw. Ukarumpa is a real melting pot! We were staying in the “village” of Ukarumpa, which is an SIL centre in Papua New Guinea’s eastern highlands. It was built back in the fifties for the purpose of housing missionary support staff, and to provide a base for SIL’s Bible translation activities throughout PNG. As a result it is called Little America by most people who know of it! We felt like it was very much Papua New Guinea when we flew in from an Ohio winter at the start of our trip, but after a few days there we felt very comfortable and able to easily see how “American” it all was. Even though it has a very obvious American influence, it does have a really interesting dynamic, with many different nationalities represented there. It was always good talking to the kids of some of the families we spent time with, and hearing how easily they accepted the fact that their school classes were often made up of Indians, Koreans, Europeans, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, as well as PNG Nationals and a host of others. This mix of so many cultures in such a small area makes for a very interesting place!

Ukaumpa from the air

As much as we were able to, we made the effort to venture out of the base and explore the beautiful countryside around Ukarumpa. Tyler was fantastic, taking us on guided tours every weekend we were there! There were some fantastic reminders that PNG is a tropical island,
probably my favourite being the amazing fruit that grows all over the country.
The Weaver’s (like many) have a pineapple patch at the bottom of their garden, and it was absolutely the best tasting pineapple I have ever had! I think if there had been nothing else to eat I still wouldn’t have tired of it! But beyond the “tropical island reminders” I saw some amazing similarities with Scotland, and I really felt at home as we explored the Highlands.

Pineapple's growing at the bottom of Tyler's garden

It was good to experience the roads in that area of the country as well! Some of the pot holes we had to drive through were way bigger than anything you could tackle with an Astra estate!

Many of the rural communities we saw still have a very strong tribal tradition, and they operate much as they have for hundreds of years. The family unit is very strong, and words like “orphan” or “retirement home” are unheard of – the family looks after itself, caring for their old and young when they aren’t able to care for themselves. This type of society has a very strong appeal for many, and we often heard stories of people who had left for the city to study and work, then had come back home and were happy to live a subsistence based lifestyle in their village.

Agiann's grand-daughter running by the fish-pond

Often subsistence farming provides the majority of the food used by villages, and we were really blessed to be able to spend time in Aggian’s village (no idea if that’s spelt right, but his name is pronounced “Agg-ee-ann”) not far from Ukarumpa one Sunday afternoon. We had a guided tour of his small-holding, where he showed us his rice fields, corn, peanuts, squash, pineapple, banana, ginger, sweet potato, sugar cane and a host of other crops, as well as his goats and the fish pond he dug by hand and stocked with a tilapia type fish that his family enjoy for dinner! It was impressive to see how self sufficient he was from a relatively small piece of ground, and it was even more impressive when we found out that all his crop tending is done by hand without a John Deere in sight!

Rice growing in Agiann's field

After our tour we were treated to a Mu-Mu; a mu-mu is a traditional meal often cooked as a celebration or for a big family gathering; we were honoured that Agianne and his family would go to such an effort for us, and it was a real treat to be able to eat with them outside his meeting house.
The mu-mu is basically a big slow cooker; a pit is dug, and stones are heated on the fire until they are hot. They then go into the hole, are covered by banana leaves, all the food is added, and more
banana leaves cover the top. Soil is piled over it to seal everything in, and a couple of hours later you have a feast ready to be dug up! We had brought meat (some chicken, lamb, and sausages) for them to cook, but other than the meat, everything we ate was from their garden; rice that had been milled that weekend, corn that was picked then put straight into the “oven”, and cooking
bananas picked just for us.

The Mu-mu is opened!!

Thank you so much for all your prayers and concern while I was away from Heather and the kids; we really appreciated the support we had from so many people. Thanks also for your interest in PNG, the people there, and the work that MAF and other organisations are involved in – please keep them in your prayers.

What do the planes do?

While we were in PNG it was a real privilege to be able to spend lots of time with people who are the “end users” of so much of what we do. All too often at MMS (or for anyone in any “support” role) we work hard on a project, and then see little or nothing of what happens after the plane flies off. It was great to be able to spend time talking to people who rely heavily on aircraft, so I thought I would share some of this with you.

One of SIL's Kodiaks takes off on a trip into a remote part of PNG

Tommy and Connie Logan have been bible translators in PNG for the last 22 years, and have spent much of that time living in a remote village that might be accessible by foot… if you fancied spending days hacking through dense forest and travelling on tracks and trails that would challenge even the fittest. The only practical way for them to get to their village is by air, and it is fair to say that the Bible translation work they have accomplished over the last 2 and a bit decades, just wouldn’t have even been started if aircraft hadn’t been available to fly them in and out. The task they started out on all those years ago is almost mind-blowing to think about. They didn’t have Rosetta Stone to help them out; they had to learn the language from scratch, documenting everything from the alphabet they use, the grammar system they use, how words are spelt, how sentences are structured; all this before they could even think about translating anything into the Kasua tongue. It was a privilege to hear them talk about their work in such a humble way, and to hear of the deep bond they have with “their village”.

Tommy & Connie Logan, Bible translators with the Kasua tribe in Papua New Guinea.

We were also blessed to be able to go on a short helicopter flight with a Finnish translator who works in a village high in the Finisterre mountains in eastern Papua New Guinea. It only took us around 20 minutes to fly there from Ukarumpa, but as we flew over steep ridges, dense forest and flooded rivers, it was obvious that her work would have some serious obstacles if it weren’t for the helicopters and planes that SIL use to transport their translators around.

A Bible translator is dropped off by helicopter at the start of a 7 week spell in a remote village.

As well as spending time with the SIL missionaries who we were living with at Ukarumpa, it was great for Mark and me to spend time with some of the MAF families who work in PNG. As well as traditional “mission aviation” operations like supporting bible translation and church planting, and providing emergency support to missionaries, MAF have evolved along with the changing situation in PNG over the last few years. More and more churches are becoming self-supporting within their communities, and local people are taking on church leadership roles; this has brought about a shift away from traditional “missionary” roles in many situations. Remote communities and limited access make it very difficult for these communities to support themselves. MAF are heavily involved in providing support in a very holistic way, by helping ferry coffee and other local produce out of these communities to be sold. This help lets villages raise the money needed to provide schooling and care for the next generations. As a coffee drinker it was also great for me to see how much hard work, by so many people, goes into every cup I drink!

Coffee being loaded in MAF's Twin Otter at Appa, PNG.

It was great for us to get such an amazing opportunity to see first-hand how the work we do in aircraft maintenance plays a part in so much varied mission work around the world. Thank you for the support you give us, and the way you play a part in this “big picture”.