Back Country Trip

 This first picture is of Allison Ranch's airstrip, which is 1475' ish long.  It was fairly flat in the touch down zone 1-2% and 10% in the last 150' or so.  It was also a blind approach which meant that you couldn't see the runway until you were turning to line up for the runway which was about 10 seconds or so before you landed.  Which gave very little time to decide to land or go around.  This was also a Go Critical strip which means that a go around must be decided prior to landing because once past the abort point one had to land regardless because the airplane could no longer out climb terrain and obstructions.  So for here the abort point was just over the river which was just after the runway comes into view one has to either commit to land or go around.

 This is the cabin we stayed in.  There were four of us being introduced to Idaho's back-country and we enjoyed a very comfortable cabin together with a beautiful view of the Salmon river.

This was a very common view mornings and evenings, we also found a herd of elk on the runway the last morning we were at Allison.

This picture and the next one are of one of the simpler runways we worked.  "Reed Ranch"  It is a US Forest service strip 2200' long and fairly flat only about 1% slope up both sides to the middle.  It had almost a typical pattern to landing and takeoff but there where still a couple mountains in the way to make it a standard pattern that we would find at a typical NA airport.

This was just a neat picture I thought of the airplane's shadow on the rock next to us as we approached Mackey Bar for landing.

Enjoying Lunch, the tail makes a pretty good dinner table and flight planning table when out in the wilderness.

This and the next couple pictures are of probably what could be the most difficult runway we used.  "White Water" was 1050' long 10% slope.  Normally 1050' would be to short for us to operate out of and maintain MAF's margins that we have been learning.  However with a 10% slope it drastically helps with slowing down on the landing and acceleration for take off which allows us to adjust the performance numbers and gives us the margins we need to operate safely.  The pictures don't really do a very good job as showing the slope but if you have ever drove in the mountains I think most of those steep sections of roads only get up to 6-7%.  Basically the touch down end of the runway is 100' lower then the top of the strip.

We landed at a number of other strips as well along the Salmon and South Fork rivers.  Reed Ranch, Mackey Bar, Allison Ranch, Yellow Pine Bar, Wilson Bar, and White Water.  At many of these places we were met by those that live and here year round and it was very encouraging to meet and greet these individuals that receive their mail by airplane once a week.  On our trip home we also had the privilege of visiting with Ray Arnold a back country pilot legend who also is the mail man for the back country of central Idaho.  It was something to sit and listen to the stories and hardships Ray faced and lived through over the 50+ years as he has been and continues to fly serving the people in these remote parts of Idaho.

The day after my return home we where granted permission to barrow the plane I had been training in and I took the whole family together to Murphy, ID for a Murphy Burger for lunch.  The nice thing about a Cessna  206 is that we all fit in at once. This was the first time in our family's history that we all got to go flying together.  Lord willing it won't be the last time, it was a lot of fun even with the rough ride with convective and mechanical turbulence.

At the end of the day I ended with my debriefing from the flight portion of standardization and was presented with a safety plaque that for every year of safe flight operations I will add a decal to as a reminder of God's blessings in the area of safety.  And I also had to get one more picture of the standardization mustache and beard before it came off later that night to my wife's excitement.

PS: For the scenery pictures the detail is easier to see if you click on the picture to in large them.

Packing/Paperwork Update

Update on the paperwork first, yesterday marked a day for celebration.  Our long awaited day of turning in our visa applications was completed.  We had been waiting since January for a couple passports that praise the Lord finally came this past week which allowed us to finish up our Indonesia visa paperwork.  The best part is now we can rest in God's timing as we no longer play a personal role in acquiring these needed documents for travel.  Hopefully come August I can still remain at rest if they have not arrived and continue to trust in God's timing.

Crate # 2

The packing is going, ahead I think?  We still are living in what seems kaos but that is okay.  We are making progress.  Crate 1 is almost full and crate 2 has a start.  Crate 3 remains un-assembled and crate 4 has been disassembled and the mods are in progress to attach and secure our tool box in place for the journey.  Hopefully next week the final mods can be completed and crate 4 can be reassembled and maybe crate 3 will be needed and assembled as well.

Quality Control Manager

Assessing Mod Progress

Crate # 1

Report Time

Not to Far off Now!

Pics from day 4 of flying

Working on Aborts and Airdrops at an old abandoned DC3 WWII training strip on an old lava bed in eastern Oregon.

Owyhee Reservoir Looking North

Owyhee Reservoir Looking South

Day 3 of Flight Training

This first picture was taken during the last portion of the maintenance standardization which went pretty good.  We were working through phase 3 of MAF's inspections for this particular aircraft.  Each aircraft is inspected every 50 hours and each time we focus on a different area of the aircraft so that in a cycle of 200 hours the plane has been gone through from front to back.  This inspection's focus was landing gear and wings with a light inspection on the rest of the aircraft as well.  Phase 2 which I helped with just before Christmas on this particular plane was  focused on the engine and tail with light inspection on the rest.  So it seems to work well having this inspection system in place allowing us to inspect the aircraft thoroughly with in the 200 hours yet while breaking the heavy inspection items allows for a quicker turn around.

These two pictures are from our stop over at Owyhee Reservoir State Airport as the sign indicates.  En-route we practiced working in terrain and then practiced the MAF airstrip evaluation procedure.  This procedure is not to different from that used for a precautionary landing, but it does a few variations and specifics to what we are looking for.  High pass looking for general slope of the area, obstructions, wind direction and then need to confirm that we have earned the right to go lower.  This is done between 500'-1000'.  The mid pass is next which is again to look for obstructions that may have been missed the first pass, then as well an estimation of touch down elevation and the other main thing we look for is length of the field which is done by timing the length and then converting ground speed and time into a length. Thankfully I have wiz wheel flight calculator to help with that.  This pass is done at 50'-100' and then the final pass if it is safe to go lower is done at 5'-10' off the deck,  We are checking the slope of the runway by taking readings off the altimeter at both ends of the runway, as well we are looking at the surface condition, and again looking for obstructions.  Lots going on and it has been a challenge to keep it all together these first couple times doing a full eval.  Once on the field we probably won't need to preform all the above passes but we do need to answer all the questions that where asked for every landing.  It's our Wind LASSO check that is part of our pre-landing checklist.
Wind - Direction and Strength
Length - Length and width of the strip
Altitude - Altitude at the touch down point
Slope - What is the slope we are dealing with
Surface - Pavement, grass, gravel, wet, dry ect...
Obstructions - What if any are the obstructions on the approach path or departure path.
A lot of things to pack in but once I'm more familiar with the aircraft and the procedure it will become second nature.

The family is doing well and we had a wonderful Easter weekend.  The kids were able to participate in a couple  Easter egg hunts one on Saturday with our fellow MAF families here working through standardization as well. And then again on Sunday where we were invited to a retired MAF families home for Easter dinner and fellowship.  All in all a wonderful weekend of celebrating Christ's death and resurrection to bring the free gift of salvation to His creation.