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”.

What were we doing in PNG?

So for the last 3 weeks myself, Mark Beckwith and Jim Newman have been working with SIL Aviation. Mark is another of the MAF / MMS apprentices going through the programme just now – he is about a year ahead of me and is expecting to be sitting his exams towards the end of the summer. Jim is an experienced mechanic and one of the training staff at MMS where he has been serving for a couple of years. Before that he served in Bolivia with World Gospel Missions, looking after their Cessna 206. Jim and his family are from Texas originally, so he also fulfilled the role of our “token American” on the trip!! It just doesn’t seem right for two Brits to be telling people that we are from Ohio without having an American accent somewhere in the mix!!

Last post I mentioned that the plane we were to work on was a Beechcraft King Air 200, which has been part of the SIL Papua New Guinea fleet for the last few years. One of the advantages of having the King Air is that it’s pressurized cabin and twin turbine engines make the trip to Cairns, Australia much quicker more comfortable. Often this trip has to be made for Medevac flights when someone falls ill in the more inaccessible parts of PNG, where medical help can be difficult to come by. (While we were in Ukarumpa, two aircraft had to be sent on separate medevac trips to Cairns from the SIL Ukarumpa base, and aircraft were put on standby to do the trip a couple of times as well).

The King Air showing off it's collapsed landing gear.

Last April the plane was on a training flight when the pilots realised they had developed a fault with their landing gear. After going through all the procedures they have for this kind of situation, they came in to land with the gear in as secure a position as they could make it. The landing was successful, but on taxiing back to the hangar the main gear collapsed. As far as landing gear failures go, it doesn’t get much better, with such slow speeds and a nice soft grass strip! It did manage to do a fair bit of damage to three or four of the frames that make up the skeleton of the fuselage just beside the door at the rear of the plane however. It also damaged the two skins that cover this area. This was the project we travelled out to work on, and the first week and a half were spent preparing for and then rebuilding this structure.

The damaged area we were to repair; you cn see the space where 3 damaged frames have been removed from the belly.

The two skins had to be specially made by Beechcraft for us, and although they had been ordered last autumn, they still hadn’t made it to PNG by the time we arrived. One skin arrived shortly after us, and we were able to do the prep-work on it ready for installation. Unfortunately the other skin was the one that had to be installed first, so when it didn’t show up until 2 ½ days before we were due to leave, we were under a bit of pressure to get as much done as possible while we could. The other factor that slowed us up with installation was the sealant – because the King Air is a pressurized aircraft, every seam has to be buttered up with sealant, and every rivet has to be driven with a dod of sealant on it to ensure that the plane stays airtight, and doesn’t leak when it is pressurised.

In front of our handiwork...

As it was, we managed to get all the structural work done, both skins installed with sealant, and enough rivets to hold it in place on the aircraft. We were a little disappointed that we were having to leave Tyler with 1500 or so rivets still to drive, but pleased that we were able to do 400 or so man/hours of work that the SIL Aviation guys would otherwise have had to fit in around their day to day responsibilities.

Home from Papua New Guinea!

Well it has been nearly 6 weeks since my last blog post; since then I have covered 9000 miles there and back, 15 time zones, 2 equator crossings and two date line crossings, and have had three weeks of fantastic experiences in Papua New Guinea.

Most of the work that MMS does happens here in the hangar in Coshocton Ohio, but from time to time a mission agency will get in touch and ask for help working on an aircraft that is unable to come here. Last year the King Air 200 operated by SIL Aviation (part of the Wycliffe family) suffered a landing gear collapse shortly after landing. Thankfully no one was injured and the damage was much less severe than it could have been, but it was still bad enough that quite a bit of work had to be done repairing the landing gear (which was the root of the problem) as well as the rear fuselage which took much of the weight of the aircraft when it went down. Tyler Weaver, one of the engineers at the SIL base in Ukarumpa, had completed his training at MMS some years ago, so he saw an opportunity for a rapid response trip and contacted us with the request.

Mark, myself and Jim having a look at the job in hand when we arrived in PNG

There are a couple of reasons why Rapid Responses are good experience for the apprentices at MMS; obviously the work that is being done on the aircraft is good training for us as we prepare for our FAA exams, and the broader the experiences we get, the better for us. Another reason why it is good to go on rapid response trips is that it gives us experience of working in an operational “field” environment. There are many different Christian missions operating aircraft and each one has a different way of doing things, a different fleet to operate, a different approach to the kind of flying they are involved in, and a different set of environmental challenges to be tackled. The third reason why it is so beneficial to go on RR trips, is that often they take place in areas away from what we are used to and the experience of living and working in a different culture, climate and situation is really valuable, as many of us prepare to serve with mission organisations around the world.

A MAF caravan lands behind the SIL Kodiak that flew us into Ukarumpa.

I am just home a few hours ago, still jet-lagged from my 45hr journey and am enjoying catching up with Heather and the kids after just over 3 weeks apart, so I won’t be telling all in this blog post, but hopefully over the next wee while I will be able to fill you in on some of the details and tell you a bit more about the work we were doing, some of the different ways we saw aircraft being used, and some of the cultural differences we were blessed to experience while we were in PNG!

Thanks for checking in!!

A quick update from the Swanson's.

Andy, Jim and Mark are getting on really well in Papua New Guinea. Repairs on the airplane are going well however, some of the parts they need are still in the USA so they may not get it completely finished by the time they leave but they are working hard regardless. Andy has been posting some pictures on facebook and I have selected four that you might like to see. A little of the scenery where they are, a nearby village, the King Air they are repairing, and the guest house where they are staying. They may be in a random order but I am sure you can work out which description goes with each picture. We are managing to communicate through email and try to "facetime" ( a new way of communicating via apple technology ; 0) every four or five days. Time on the Internet is very expensive for them so communication is limited but definitely much better that it would have been in the past.

Life here in Ohio is continuing on. The weather here is so variable. Yesterday was freezing and today has been a taste of summer and I went out without a jacket! The first of February (tomorrow) is the start of my Parent and Toddler group so I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as this new adventure begins. We are meeting in our church hall and I have spent most of the afternoon today moving chairs and tables to set up. I really should be in my bed now so I am as fresh as a daisy in the morning LOL! The children are coping well considering Andy is away. Matthew has been displaying a lot more challenging behaviour this week compared to last and is keeping me on my toes! Abi has managed to pull the toilet roll holder off the bathroom wall and has left two rather large holes - Andy will have a little jobs list when he gets home I think!

I hope you are all keeping warm this cold winter. I believe temperatures are set to plummet again here in Ohio tomorrow.

Love in Christ

Heatherx

"We Miss You Daddy!"

Andy left yesterday at 6.30am in very snowy conditions, heading for a three week trip to Papua New Guinea. Andy was with Mark Beckwith who is another MAF UK apprentice and Jim Newman who is leading the trip. They will be staying in Ukarumpa at a JAARS base (Jungle Aviation And Radio Services). There they will help a former MMS graduate restore a plane as quick as possible.

After a flight delay at Columbus airport, it was a mad dash to reach their connection in Chicago to Tokyo, Japan. I believe they were the final passengers on a very tightly packed airplane. From Japan they had another six and a half hour flight to Papua New Guinea. I had a quick email from him tonight to say they, and all their luggage arrived no problem and they were at the guest house awaiting a bed for sleeping! I believe they are approximately 15 hours ahead of us here in the Ohio, so they arrived early Sunday morning. On Monday they will get a flight to their final destination - Ukarumpa.

The rest of the Swanson's have been pretty much homeward bound due to snow and ice. Abi's school was cancelled on Friday due to snow. It did improve towards the afternoon and we were ale to get out to an MMS farewell dinner at a church in town. There were weather warnings about freezing rain later that evening but when we arrived at the church around 6pm everything looked okay. A little snowy but the main roads were clear. Two hours later, as we left the church we could hear the freezing rain hitting our car and I crawled home for twenty minutes at 25 mph in darkness (no street lights) ice and snow covered roads. I was thankful when myself and the kids got back home safely! It truly is amazing how fast the weather can change here. Overnight there was another four inches of snow so needless to say, we had another day in the house. Please pray I get out to church tomorrow as the children (and I) are very much needing a change of scenery :0) I had a few little surprises up my sleeve to entertain the children while Andy was away in the odd chance of a snow day - I was not planning on using all my surprises within the first two days! : 0)

We did lots of crafts today which was fun, and I managed to make a big pot of soup, dinner for tonight and tomorrow. While getting the children ready for bed I had a surprise call from my landlords who had acquired a second hand cooker for us and they would like to come by and deliver it in ten minutes. A few hours later ( and some paracetamol! ) the children were in bed, the new cooker was in, the snow was dried from the kitchen floor, the new cooker wiped down and the dinner dishes washed. A bit of a hectic evening but feeling very blessed. Most of our fellow Brits will be used to a ceramic hob, as we were in Scotland. I have hardly seen any over here. Most of the cookers I have seen in Ohio have the old fashioned rings, as did ours earlier! We are very fortunate to have such good landlords and I am looking forward to trying out this new stove tomorrow!

As many of you will know, I am trying to set up a parent and toddler group in Coshocton. Unfortunately it is not going to be allowed to operate out of the Family Services department as it is not linked to a government project. I have since been to my church and we have a large room attached to a kitchen and have also managed to locate some storage space to store the toys etc. It does mean that I have to build up the toys from scratch so I have been busy trying to get donations for this. I have filed the appropriate paper work for the church and just need the leadership to approve and we are good to go!

Please keep praying for Andy and the team that they will have good health and safety as they work out there. I am thankful the pregnancy is going well and nausea has gone. Continue to pray for us and Mark and Jim's families who are all coping with the demands of children and winter weather and the rest.

Thank you for your support.

Heatherx

2012!!

We're in 2012!! Happy new year to you all!

We drove home from North Carolina last Saturday, in time to see in the new year at home here in Coshocton. We got back here around 7:00pm (midnight back in Scotland), and decided we were happy to call it 2012, and have an early night instead of waiting up a few more hours for the EST midnight to strike!

As always, we had a great time in North Carolina, catching up with our friends and relaxing in a wee break from the normal routine. The kids had a great time catching up with their "American cousins", and the weather stayed nice enough for them to get plenty of time outside. We stayed around the house for most of the week, only venturing out for one day trip. We went to Charlotte and had our first visit to an American Ikea since we got here! You will be pleased to know that the meatballs here taste exactly the same, and the bookcases all have the same strange names!

The Christmas gathering!

Monday saw me back at work for the annual inventory check - you might remember the blog post from this time last year. My first job when I started in the hangar in 2011 was the stock-take, so it really felt like a full circle, and the start of my second year here. Unfortunately my week went downhill after that! I have been nursing a cold for the Christmas week, and it got the better of me yesterday morning - hopefully I'll be back to work tomorrow, but I have needed the last couple of days to get myself back to better health.

Gabon 207

Those of you who followed all the work we did last year on the Gabon 207 will be pleased to know it has now made it "home" to Gabon, where it will soon be back in service with the Bongolo Hospital! It left Coshocton last November, and spent December at Weaver Aero, in Kansas being fitted out with auxilliary fuel tanks. These tanks extend the plane's endurance to 15hrs, giving it the range needed to complete the journey across the Atlantic to Africa. Even in this day and age, when flights between Europe and America are as easy as catching a bus (if a little bit more expensive!), the flight this little plane was taken on was quite an expedition! It was a big enough deal loading our wee family into the car for the 8hr journey down to NC, without thinking about climbing into a little plane (with a huge tank of fuel behind you!) and setting off alone out over the Atlantic in the middle of winter!! John from Weaver is a brave man!

John is greeted in Libreville by Steve Straw. (The big silver box in the plane is the extra fuel tank!)

You can look back over the journey on Steve's blog at http://gabonpilot.blogspot.com/ from when it left to Coshocton to arriving in Gabon, and I am sure he will be updating it over the weeks ahead as the 207 gets back to doing what it is intended for. Thank you for all your prayers as we worked on this aircraft last year, and as it returns to service in Africa.

As I said in my last post, January should be bringing a trip to Papua New Guinea for me and two of my coleagues here. We are waiting for our passports to come back to us from the PNG embassy with our newly issued visa's, then we will be ready to book flights, pack bags and head off to the other side of the world for 3 or 4 weeks. I am really looking forward to it, but as you can imagine it is a big deal to leave a pregnant wife and two kids at home while I jet off, so we would really appreciate your prayers on this.

Thanks again for all your support, messages, & prayers - they are really appreciated!

Rapid Responses!

When we came back from Scotland in October, I had some really good intentions of keeping the blog posts regular… It seems like the last couple of months have flown by, so my apologies for turning regular into “once a month”.
As Heather said a week-an-a-bit ago, I had a fantastic opportunity to spend the first couple of weeks of December down in Florida on a “Rapid Response” trip. MMS’s mission statement is to “prepare people and planes for worldwide mission service”, and for the most part, that means having apprentices work on mission aircraft at our hangar here in Ohio. The training is fantastic, but if it lacks one thing it is the chance to work in an “operational” environment, maintaining planes that are being used on a daily basis. Sometimes it isn’t possible to have aircraft transported to Ohio, and the opportunity comes along for apprentices and staff to travel to the plane to carry out the work needed. This kills two birds with one stone, giving mission organisations an opportunity to benefit from MMS’s service, whilst giving apprentices valuable experience working in other “field” environments.

One of MFI's DC-3's prepares to leave the hangar

Missionary Flights International have been offering a regular service to missionaries operating in Haiti and the West Indies since the 60’s. As well as a Cessna 310, the MFI fleet is made up of 4 DC-3 aircraft. These planes were built from the 30’s through to the end of WWII, and as you can imagine for aircraft that are in their 70’s, they take a lot of looking after. Of the 4 planes MFI operate, 2 are turbine powered and 2 have the original type radial engines. The turbine planes are more powerful, able to carry more payload, faster and more economical to run, so it makes sense that they are the ones normally flown. When the opportunity came up to sell one of the radial engine planes, the need to carry out some major maintenance became a bit more urgent. As MMS have a long history with MFI, we were asked to go down and help out with this work.

Old engine on the right, new engine on the left, and 400MF behind.

Myself and Chuck flew down the Monday after Thanksgiving, and got stuck straight into removing the engine from the left wing of N400MF. Most of our fortnight was spent on transferring brackets, hoses and accessories onto the new engine, and getting the new engine ready to hang on the wing. When we run out of parts, there were lots of other jobs to do, with some airframe repairs underway in the tail of the plane. On our last day there I was able to get involved in a 100hr service on one of the turbine planes, then help out with an oil change on the Asas de Socorro float plane which stopped off in Florida while on it’s flight to Brasil from MMS in Ohio. (See below for Keith's video on that)

It was a busy two weeks, but a fantastic opportunity to get a taste of another organisation’s ministry, and the way they operate. Working on these old aircraft was made even more special when I discovered that one of our good friends from Pitlochry Baptist Church (and one of the people who first got me interested in MAF) was one of the pilots who ferried N300MF to Florida from England in the early 80’s!

N300MF

The New Year will probably be bringing another Rapid Response trip, provided all the visa applications currently in progress go to plan. JAARS http://www.jaars.org/ have a large base in Papua New Guinea, where they operate a variety of aircraft in support of Bible translators and other missionaries who serve in that part of the world. They recently had one of their aircraft damaged, and myself, another MAF apprentice, and one of the MMS Staff, have been asked to go and help them carry out the repairs needed to get the plane back into service. That will be a slightly longer trip (3 or 4 weeks), and the internet won’t be as “high speed” as it was in Florida. Please pray that Heather and the kids will be well while I am away from home. Abi and Matthew were a bit out of sorts while I was gone earlier this month, not understanding why dad was working “at the hangar” but not coming home at night. I will be literally on the other side of the world this time away, so having the kids settle well while I am gone will be a real blessing to Heather, and a reassurance to me. I can’t even imagine still being in my old job on the ships with my wee family left at home!!
Right now we are busy getting packed up for our Christmas holiday. We are going to visit our good friends in North Carolina for the week, returning next Saturday. We’re all looking forward to catching up with them again, and to celebrate the birth of Christ together.
Wishing you all a happy Christmas, and all the very best for 2012.