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!