Inspections!!!

It’s been a busy month in the hangar here in Ohio. The Cessna 210 that we had in for an annual was returned to service and it’s owner flew back it to Minnesota last month. Since then I have spent a couple of weeks working with Mike on an avionics installation of Gospel Carrier’s International’s Cessna 172. It is being upgraded with a new audio panel (intercom) and an engine monitoring system which will give much more accurate information to the pilot and help him operate the plane in a much more efficient way. I don’t have much experience with electrics and electronics, so being involved in the installation of a whole variety of sensors and wiring, in preparation for the installation of the processor and display unit, was good experience. I also had the experience of putting together the wiring harness for the audio panel. We tailored the harness exactly to the plane we are working on, running all the cables from the connector at the back of the audio panel, in the stack in the centre of the instrument panel, to the various headset jacks, and speakers around the cabin.

The following week saw me working with Tim on an annual inspection on a Diamond DA40. This plane is owned by a local guy, and although it is not a “mission aircraft”, we agreed to doing it’s annual inspection. The valuable inspection experience that we can get from doing annual inspections, means that MMS will take on a few annual inspections on local aeroplanes that aren’t operated by mission organisations. It has been good experience, and a good preparation for the practical exam which will be coming in a few months’ time. The Diamond was collected by its owner today, and has now been tucked up, back in its own hangar.  The space it left in hangar A has already been filled by Pfeiffer Evangelical’s Piper Aztec. Yesterday we started on it’s annual inspection, and the next few weeks will probably see me working on this plane again.

I have also spent a bit of time in the last few evenings putting together our latest newsletter. We took the time to update our email list a bit, and if you would like to be added to that list we would love to keep you up to date! Drop me an email at andyswansonmaf@gmail.com, and I will add you to our mailing list!

One of the things I enjoyed most when we moved to Ohio, was showing our visitors round the hangar and explaining to them a bit about how planes can be used as missionary tools, and let them actually sit in the planes that are used all around the world. Unfortunately I can’t give hangar tours here in Ohio to all of our supporters, but if you can make it to Cumbernauld airport on June 29^th, you will be able to see the new Cessna 182 that MAF are sending to South Sudan. Cumbernauld airport is also where Revival Radio have their studios, and as a wee bonus, if you come and see the 182 you can get a tour of the Revival Radio studio as well!

Thanks again for checking in and keeping up to date with what we are doing over here in Ohio!

Plenty of variety...

This week has seen us working on a Cessna 210 which regularly comes to us for it’s annual inspection from it’s home in Minnesota. This plane is operated by a gentleman who retired a few years ago, and volunteers his time and resources to Angel Flight.

Cessna 210

As you have heard me say before, you can’t have ‘too much’ when it comes to building experience of routine service and inspection work, so spending the week doing this kind of work is well worthwhile! It was also a good opportunity for some multi-national operations; working on this project we had a supervisor who was born in England then spent many years in Zimbabwe, and 4 apprentices – one from California, one from Missouri, one from Newcastle, et moi! The other thing that gave us an international flavour was the back ground music for at least some of the time while we worked. Often we will have someone playing a bit of music while we work, but this week we tuned in to BBC Radio 2 online, and myself and Geoff had a taste of home listening to “Steve Wright in the Afternoon”… albeit in the morning with the 5hr time difference! It is true that instant communications and the internet have shrunk the world, but that was really apparent to me as we heard “Sally Traffic” telling of the tailbacks on the A82, while we worked in the hangar here in Ohio. It made for an interesting contrast as we worked on aircraft that are used to reach people who are just beyond the end of the road.

The last few weeks have seen me get a good variety of experiences on aircraft big and small, all providing a service that high speed internet just can’t. My time in Florida mostly involved working on DC-3’s, where I spent some time on airframe repairs but more often worked on pre-flight checklists,  and phase inspections ensuring that MFI’s aircraft are able to carry on their twice weekly service to Haiti from the USA.

Matthew helping with an inspection of the landing gear on a DC-3

The week after my spell in Florida, I was on a training course in North Carolina. The course was on PT-6 turbine maintenance, and gave a good understanding of a turbine engine that will definitely feature in the rest of my time with MAF – the Cessna Caravan which MAF operate in many of it's programmes has a PT6 turbine as it’s powerplant, so the likelihood of working on them in the future is pretty high. The course was run at JAARS' base at Waxhaw, where we were able to train on the demonstration turbine that was brought in for the course, as well as seeing the turbine installed on two of the JAARS planes that were in the hangar – a Pilatus Porter, and a Quest Kodiak.

Checking out the PT-6 on a Pilatus Porter at JAARS

Back in Ohio, my first job was to travel up to Kidron, about an hour north of here, where MFI have one of their planes going through a major overhaul. You might remember last year (Last Year's blog) when I went up to Kidron for a few days to remove the engines from this plane. Well the overhauled engines had been sent back to Ohio, so one of the jobs we were involved in was hanging the engines back on the wings. That plane should soon be ready to return to Florida to pick up duties on the Haiti run again.

Prepping the engine before we hang it back on the wing

Since then I have been back in the hangar working on a few different projects. First I worked on an engine monitoring system installation on a Cessna 172 operated by Gospel Carriers International, then I worked on re-skinning a horizontal stabilizer for a Cessna 206 that Mission Air Group will use in central America.

That whistle-stop tour of the last month-and-a-half’s job list, brings me back to the 210’s annual, and Radio 2. It is exciting to be able to so easily share this blog around the world with a fast internet connection, telling you about our work. And it’s exciting to work on aircraft that are used where the physical barriers mean that flying is the best way to overcome them, and share the good news of the Gospel in such a practical way. 

Thank you for checking in, and for your prayers and support as we work here in Ohio.

We are still here, though not in Ohio ; 0)

Eilidh's first trip to the beach.

Four weeks ago we left the bitter temperatures of winter in Ohio and made the 17 hour road trip to sunny warm Florida.  You may or may not recall that Andy went to Florida in November 2011 for a rapid response trip to Missionary Flights International in Fort Pierce.   MMS now send their apprentices in their final year, to work with MFI for three weeks to gain experience on turbine engines and line maintenance.   Andy has really enjoyed his time at the MFI hanger and was able to cycle to work each day (Florida is very flat : 0).   This has been the first trip away that myself and the children have been able to tag along!  MFI has a trailer that visitors can stay in and there was enough room to accommodate us all.  Kirsten, my niece, was able to fly out for our first two weeks and keep me company.  We were very sad to see her go.  It was great to have another pair of hands to play with Matthew and Eilidh while I home school Abi.  Abi was able to link our sightseeing with a few school projects such as the Manatee,  Citrus Farms, and obviously ‘The Beach’.   The wild-life here is amazing and we have seen Manatees, dolphins,  wild alligators,  pelicans and many other beautiful birds.  We have been looking at space also and enjoyed a super day out to the Kennedy Space centre.   

Enjoying the Kennedy Space Centre with Kirsten.

This July,  Andy and I will have been married ten years so we had planned a special family  trip to Disney World in our final year of being in America.  We had no idea when we planned it two years ago, that part of Andy’s training would involve him going to Florida so it worked out great.  Our friends Sam and Sommer Morel  live in Orlando and we were able to spend lots of time with them while we were in Florida.   Matthew also enjoyed his fifth birthday in Florida.  Making a cake was not really an option (the trailer was not equipped for baking), and we would never finish a store bought one as we were leaving Florida the next day.  Instead he had five candles on a birthday bagel for breakfast and we all went out for a slice of cake at a bakery that evening.  We plan to have a little party when we return to Ohio.

 

We are now in North Carolina where Andy is completing a weeks training course at JAARS (Jungle Aviation and Radio Services).   Myself and the children are staying with the Baisley’s for the week in NC (at last we have the internet : 0). JAARS is about an hour and a half’s drive away.  We will all be returning to Ohio on Saturday.  I can hardly believe we will have been gone from Ohio for five weeks.  Abi and Matthew and Eilidh are doing an amazing job with all the changes that have been going on.  Eilidh has just begun to crawl forwards, thankfully she is still a little wobbly and slow but I have a feeling that as soon as we get back to Ohio the stair gates/ socket covers etc. will be out.  Although it has been an amazing experience,  I am looking forward to putting the suitcases away for a little while and getting into some sort of normality again. 

Abi getting a peek inside a DC-3

Please pray for Andy as he completes this week’s course. Please also pray for my dad in Scotland who has liver cancer.  He was due to get out of hospital last Friday after a small procedure but has still not been released due to abnormal blood test results.   We thank God for His protection on the roads and for the way he has kept our car going so smoothly. Thank you all for your support.  We would not be here if it was not for our amazing team of supporters.  

Heatherx  

Snow, Snow, Snow!

As I write this I am back home in Ohio, watching a few flakes of snow drift down, and lie in a light dusting on the grass. The weather here just now is getting to that slippery “around-about-freezing” part of the season that has everything melting during the day, then freezing up again overnight.  In the more temperate parts of the world the arrival of snow and ice usually means travel chaos, and everything grinding to a halt. As they say in Glasgow, ‘s naw nice, snaw ‘n ice … (It’s not nice, snow and ice, if you need the English translation!!) Last weekend a group of the people we had been working and living with at Northern Youth Programs in Dryden had set off on a trip that was only happening because of the arrival of colder weather and snow. The community of Poplar Hill is a First Nation Reserve 6 hrs drive north of where we were working. During the winter months this community is more connected with the outside world than any other time of the year, as the last 2 or 3 hours of the journey to Poplar Hill are made on an ice road that will have completely disappeared and turned back into open countryside in the next month or two. Some of the staff at NYP were making the trip up there to spend the weekend working with kids from that community. They had a programme prepared including drama sketches, games and local radio appearances, and they were keen to spend time getting to know the children in the village and share Jesus’ love with them. There is an air strip where bush planes can get in and out with supplies and medical help, and between the air strip and the ice road, this makes up all the transport links that Poplar Hill has with the rest of Canada. This situation is one that is repeated all over the north of this continent. It really shows how vitally important aircraft are in accessing the First Nations communities with practical help, teaching and support for the churches who would otherwise feel incredibly isolated.

Working with "First Nation" kids

Northern Youth Programs are a mission organisation with a calling to serve the “First Nation” or aboriginal people across the northern part of the world. Their ministry is very focused on counselling and as an organisation they have been able to bring the hope of the gospel message to many people who might never have heard it before. While we were in Dryden the founder of the organisation was in Greenland running training seminars in conjunction with some of the local churches in that area. They also work right across Canada, although most of their service is in NW Ontario and eastern Manitoba. As is often the case with indigenous groups around the world, people in the far north can be vulnerable to alcohol and drug abuse, domestic troubles and depression. There are very real identity issues that come from being part of a group of people from a very different cultural background to that of those living around them. As well as courses, counselling and summer camps that are run at “Beaver Camp”, in Dryden, they also run summer camps, training courses and mission trips out into many villages across the country. To allow this outreach work to continue, the planes are a well-used tool, spending many hours in the air over the summer months especially.

The plane we were working on while we were there was a Cessna 206. It is a pretty common work-horse across the mission aviation world, and is well thought of for flying people and cargo into rough bush strips around the world (in fact we are currently working on two 206’s in the hangar here in Ohio). Many years of flying into interesting airstrips takes it’s toll on a plane, and the one we were working on had developed some cracks in the skins that make up the wings. Two mechanics had previously been up in Canada to help repairing the first wing, and completed the work on the left wing before they had to return south. NYP have only one full time mechanic in the organisation, and even though he is very capable, it is just physically impossible to drive and buck the rivets that hold the structure together with only one pair of hands.  

Getting ready to rivet the new leading edge skin in place.

MMS were asked if we could help with some man power to rebuild the right wing, and so myself and Bob traveled up to help out. Other work commitments meant that the hangar space was needed by the weekend of 23^rd Feb, so by the time we had organised ourselves, and driven 1200 miles to Dryden we had only 8 or 9 work days to get things put back together.

We easily managed, with a day to spare, and on Friday 22^nd, we were able to carry the wing over to a storage hangar and leave the heated hangar ready for the Piper Cheyenne’s 100hr inspection. Jordan will be able to get both wings scuffed and painted when the hangar space is free again, and with a couple of days work reattaching the wings and hooking everything back up, their Cessna 206 will be back in the air serving those in NW Ontario.

Myself, Bob and Jordan behind our completed wing.

One of the things that I loved about growing up in Scotland and now living in Ohio is seeing the changing seasons. Of all the things I might miss when we move on at the end of this year, I think snow has to rate pretty highly. I have spent lots of time appreciating the winter this year, (even when trying to get our car back out of a snow covered ditch!) and am glad that we will be able to spend a couple of months over Christmas 2013 in one of Scotland’s snowier areas. Being a cold weather creature, I was excited about this trip to the frozen north! Bob is from northern Minnesota, and so he is used to having everything buried under lots of snow; it was good to be able to travel to Canada with him and his family, and have his “insider knowledge” on living and working in the cold. As well as working hard and finishing the task we had set out to do, I was able to check off a load of things on my “bucket list”! I had a great time; I had my first experiences on a snow mobile, sat in an ice fishing hut, watched my first ice hockey match, and spent quite a bit of time just being out in the snow! Unfortunately I didn’t get to see any of the Northern Lights, but standing out on a frozen lake, late at night, looking up at a clear sky and wall-to-wall stars is a fantastic experience. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. It was definitely an extra blessing for me getting this unexpected little trip up north!

Snow mobile fun!

"To tell you the tooth..."

It has been two weeks since Andy left to go to Ontario, Canada along with Bob and Lisa Swartz and their teenage son David. Andy and Bob have completed the job they set out to do. They left Canada today and Andy will be back in Ohio on Tuesday sometime. During the last two rapid response trips Andy has been on, I was pregnant with Eilidh and I can happily say this was the easiest one of the lot! Eilidh is a very contented and easy going baby and a great distraction for Abi and Matthew who both love to play with her and give her cuddles and kisses. I am not so exausted and although being pregnant has it's perks, it's great to be able to sit that extra weight on the floor for a time:0)

Exploring the new playpark.

Fun at The Works with the magnetic coloured shapes.

Life has been very busy as you can imagine and I have enjoyed planning fun activities for the children to take their mind off missing daddy. We have explored Newark which is about fifty minutes drive from our house. There is a little science centre and museum there which also has a glass blowing workshop attached. Matthew has been particularly fascinated with this and enjoyed seeing the exact same demonstration twice so far. We found the ice skating rink in Newark and they were able to let Abi and Matthew and their friend Miriam join in for the last lesson of an eight week block today. This was Abi and Matthew's first time on the ice and I was amazed at how the instructer enabled them to have such confidence on the ice in thirty minutes! Abi's first words when she came off the ice was that she no longer needs any more lessons, she can skate just fine now. I wonder how many lesson's she will need before she thinks she has mastered the piano someday. Lol! We also found a fabulous play park near the skating rink and thankfully the weather today did not stopped us enjoying the outdoors.

Although Andy has only been gone a few weeks, things are a little different around here. Abi is looking a little weird with one big front tooth missing. It fell out over lunch and as we could not find it anywhere, she must have swallowed it. A little worried that the tooth fairy might not bring her some money as there was no tooth, she began looking into Plan B and asked if I would kindly give her a dollar should the tooth fairy decide not leave anything. Thankfully, she did not need Plan B as there was a dollar under her pillow by the morning. When she remarked the next morning, ( a little disappointed) that their was no letter with the dollar this time, I informed her the tooth fairy that likes to write letters in the middle of the night was currently on "vacation" in Canada! Secretly,the fact that I had suddenly remembered and dragged myself out of bed at 11pm when almost asleep to put the dollar there was enough - never mind a letter! ;0) My child-hood toothfairy was far to busy to write letters.

As fast as Abi's are disappearing, Eilidh has cut her first tooth and in a few weeks will be meeting her first toothbrush. She is pretty much weaning herself off milk and is loving real food far more. When Matthew was eight months old he decided he did not want milk anymore and I was really concerned. Eilidh is showing the same behaviour and I am not in the least bit phased this time. We arrived home late from our busy day in Newark today and I put a pizza in the oven to feed us all before bed. Eilidh had her first taste of pizza crust and she was clinging to it tightly. I took it off her once to take some of the crusty cheese away from the top fearing she might choke and she burst out in tears - definitely a true Swanson - "Don't mess with my food!"

Matthew never ceases to amaze me and although I have not deliberatly tried to teach him to read, He is able to read many books that we own and I love watching him sit on the couch reading through several books one after the other. He often takes books into the car so he can read to me as we travel. I am so thankful he is a quick learner as his first year of Kindergarten (P1) will involve three different schools, in three different countries - USA, Scotland and possibly Africa.
Matthew also has a great love of anything soft. When he was two, he got his first fleece dressing-gown and he would keep rubbing his face all over it. Eilidh has really fluffy hair that sticks straight up and he is forever kissing her head and trying to bury his face in her fluffy hair! It makes me laugh when he is kissing her head for the tenth time in a row just to feel her fluffy hair with his face! I see God's sense of humour when he gave Eilidh her wild hairstyle. Someone commented to me recently "aww, is she having a bad hair day today?", Little did they know this was what her hair was like every day : 0)

Last week at mother and toddler's, there were two new mother's (one with twins) there for the first time. As part of the Women's Ministries Team I have been organising events in the church for women to get together. We are having a movie and game night this Friday. Anita Refroe is a great Christian comedian and we plan to watch her dvd. She is on you tube if any ladies feel like they need a laugh! I am also enjoying teaching music to Kindergarten and First Grade at Abi's school every Friday morning. So far the children seem to understand my accent, and I am able to introduce them to a few scottish songs - the next one is going to be curtousy of the "Singing Kettle - Apples and Bananas".

Our Church are also putting on an Easter musical. I have been commisioned to write two songs. I am still working on the second as time allows! The musical is about six weeks so I really need to get it finished. Unfortunately we are going to miss the production as we are all heading to Florida on the 16th of March. We will be away for five weeks as Andy will be working with Missionary Flights International in Fort Pierce and then on to North Carolina to complete a training course. MMS like their apprentices to spend a chunk of time working at MFI to gain more experience on a different type of engine. We are really excited that we will be able to go with him this time. I am really looking forward to feeling the warm sun again. It has been a little weird sorting out all the kids summer clothes while there is snow on the ground here in Ohio. The next blog post will be when we are all reunited again, We made a paper chain for the number of days daddy will be gone. There are only three chains left!!! Some very excited little people (and one big one) longing for Tuesday to come! : 0)

Saying goodbye to Daddy two weeks ago.

Off to the frozen north!

In the grand scheme of things, Scotland is just a little place really. Pretty much as far as you can drive in Scotland is 6 ½ hrs from the very north of the mainland to the English border, and if you just want to go east to west, you can dip your toe in the Forth, then have that same toe in the Clyde with 1 ½ hrs. It took us a while to get used to driving for 8 hours to see our friends in North Carolina when we first moved over here, but you quickly adjust and now we don’t think too much of getting in the car to make that trip. The next few months are going to see a couple of journey’s that are definitely the longest road trips the Swanson clan has ever made!

Missionary Flights International, Florida

In mid March we will be travelling down to Florida to work with MFI for 3 weeks. That will help me get a few week’s worth of experience on the kind of routine “line maintenance” work that will be more in keeping with what I’ll be doing for MAF in a year’s time. We are planning on taking a bit of vacation time while we are in Florida, and then on the way back North I have a turbine engine course to attend in North Carolina, so we will have a stop-over there for a week or so on our way home. All that said, the trip to Ft Pierce, FL is over 1000 miles and will take us 15 or 16 hrs of driving each way.

Before we make the family trip south next month I have been asked to go on another Rapid Response trip to help with some repairs to the wings of a Cessna 206. This particular plane is used by Northern Youth Programs as part of their ministry reaching into the remotest parts of north western Ontario. 

To give you an idea of the size of Ontario, when we visited Niagara Falls in our first year here, we drove north-east-ish for 4 ½ hrs from Coshocton and spent a couple of days in the south east corner of the province. To get to Dryden (which is only a couple of hundred miles inside Canada, in the south western corner of the Ontario) we will have to drive for 20 hours from here! It is a big place! Aircraft are really a valuable tool where the distances travelled are so big, and so the little bit of help we can give to get the plane back in service as soon as possible is really appreciated. NYP have one full time mechanic working on their aircraft, so having volunteer’s helping out on major projects like this is a big help to them. The repairs have been made to one of the wings after a group of volunteer mechanics recently went up to spend some time there, so we are going to do the same work on the other wing. Hopefully we will be able to help them put the plane back in service in the next few weeks, so that NYP can continue to serve in the way God has called them to.

View Larger Map

Our route up to Canada...

Later today I will be setting off with Bob Schwartz (the training director and a qualified mechanic) and his family for probably the longest road trip of my time in America. We are planning on leaving Coshocton around 15:00 this afternoon, then drive as far as we can through Indiana before finding a motel. Then we’ll be carrying on to the north end of Minnesota on Monday and finally the last few hundred miles up to Dryden on Tuesday.

I will post another blog sometime with a bit more about what I’m up to, but right now I need to go and pack…

Speaking the lingo...

Even though we have always really enjoyed coming to America, and we have loved living here for the last 2 years as we train at MMS, it is not without its challenges.

For me, the biggest challenge has to be communication. I am quite a quiet person anyway, so when you add in the language barrier (I seem to be the only person on this continent who can speak proper English!! J ) getting your message across isn’t always easy!!! 

It’s not uncommon for someone at a check-out in Walmart to comment on how they could “listen to that accent all day”! I get a chuckle from that, when I think of how someone could happily listen to me all day, but hardly understand any of it!

A few weeks ago Heather led worship at our church, and as our pastor took over the service, he made a comment about how he hoped he would get a Scottish accent when he gets to heaven! I’m probably biased, but I agree with him! I do like the Scottish twang!! That said, it can be really frustrating trying to make myself understood, and seeming to make no progress! Around the hangar most of the other guys have become used to my accent, and for the most part, people understand more or less what I am trying to say. It is interesting to see what happens when someone who isn’t familiar with how I talk, appears in the hangar though. Even when I think I am speaking slowly and deliberately, and other MMS’ers are clearly following what I am saying, the glazed over eyes are obvious in some of the people who I haven’t met before!!

My biggest communication faux-pas happened last year. In my defence, I had had a rough weekend with a long drive, broken down cars and late nights, so by the time my phone rang on that Monday night I was not firing on all cylinders! (I’ve changed all the names below to protect the innocent!!!)

We have a “prayer chain” network at MMS, where any urgent prayer requests can be circulated round those on the phone list, quickly sharing the burden and giving friends the opportunity to help each other in this way. At the end of the week before, we had had an email to tell us that one of the ladies from MMS had become quite ill and was in hospital. I had been away for the weekend, so when my phone rang to give me an update I saw the email, followed by phone call, as an escalation in urgency, and that things must have taken a turn for the worse.

“Andy, it’s Dave here. I’ve never done this before, but I am calling on behalf of the prayer chain”. I later found out that what Dave “had never done before” was call the next person on the list – it was usually his wife who did the calling… in my half asleep state, I thought Dave had never delivered bad news like this…

“I’m just calling to give you an update on Sally. She’s gone home. Mark wants everyone to know that all is well, she is in a much better place now, very comfortable and not in any of the pain she had been in last week”. I was overwhelmed with emotions. I was shocked, at hearing of the loss of someone we all love so much. I was blown away by how composed everyone seemed to be, and how everyone was able to see past the immediate pain of loss, to the eternal benefit of Sally’s salvation. I had all these things going through my mind, but all that actually came out of my mouth was “Thanks Dave, I’ll get that passed along”.

Naturally I called the next person on the list to share the bad news, who made sure they clarified that Sally had actually passed on. When I had confirmed the news, I hung up, sat down, and started thinking over the night’s news. The fog slowly started to lift and I realised that I really had to call Dave back and double check I had passed the right message on. Well, I hadn’t! Sally hadn’t gone home… she had come home!! There then followed a frantic 10 minutes of calling my way through the MMS phone list trying to catch up with my misinformation!! After three or four rounds of “Have you passed it on?” “Yes…” “OK, don't worry,  everyone’s alive! I need to go!”, I finally managed to catch up with my message and stop it going any further!

After we finish here in Ohio we have committed to at least another 8 years serving overseas with MAF. We won’t know exactly where that will be until much later this year, but no doubt wherever we go, there will be a fine mix of accents and languages to deal with! I am sure we will manage to communicate just fine, but I for one am looking forward to the day Zephaniah talks about in chapter 3 verse 9 - “In the end I will turn things around for the people. I’ll give them a language undistorted, unpolluted; Words to address God in worship and, united, to serve me with their shoulders to the wheel.”