Special Flights

December was a month filled with mostly hanger duties for me (Greg) however as the Christmas season approached we were able to get a couple planes back online.  Which meant I got to put my captain shirt on for a couple days.  I may not have gotten a lot of flying done this month but the flights are ones that I will not soon forget.

1 - RTS (return to service) test flight after an inspection.  This particular flight lasted about 45 mins longer than it needed to as we circled on downwind waiting our turn to land.

2 - Double Wamena run.  We don't do Wamena runs regularly because there are big commercial operators making the run several times a day so to have two in a week is not normal. So to do two in in one day was very strange.  The second run was special in that it was to move friends of ours to their new home in Wamena.  Landing time 16:10 in Sentani, the latest to-date not to stand in the record books long thou.  That being said I'm typically at the flight line at 05:00 for those thinking must be nice to be done work in the early afternoons, also not looking for sympathy I enjoy my early mornings ya I'm strange ;-).

3 - Standard ops flight with some visitors from America along for the ride.  This flight involved a diversion due to weather and then later another diversion of another aircraft to pick up my passengers after I discovered my plane had a cut tire that was serious enough that I would need to ferry the plane back empty or wait for a tire to be brought out. Thankful for the Lord's extra protection for my passengers and I.  Detailed inspection of the tire after it was removed found that the tire had been cut through into and left a small mark on the inner tube.

4 - Sunday night I was contacted by another MAF pilot asking if I could adjust my Monday schedule to meet in Mulia for a patience/passenger transfer unto Sentani.  Departed with a good weather report from my first planned destination, arrived to find it fogged in.  Diverted to Wamena for more fuel and wait out the fog.  Fog lifted and I carried on to back to Mamit to drop my load then continued on to Mulia and picked up the patience and missionary family from the patience's village.  I arrived about an hour before the other plane that was shuttling everyone out of their village.  It's a very short and flat runway and even the Kodiak has a large load cut for take-off which meant he needed to make two trips to get everyone out.  After getting everyone one on board, back to Sentani we go.  Upon arrival there was a pretty good traffic jam over the "Toare" (navigational fix off the end of runway 30).  We had to fly almost to Toare before I was cleared for the visual approach.  The day is already getting a bit long.  One more flight on the schedule to Bokondini delivering solar panels equipment to a missionary family there.  Also a long for the ride an MAF school teacher and his wife, wanting to see some of the interior.  All went as planned until the trip home. Apparently the traffic jam over "Toare" never cleared or something.  So off to "Toare" we go to join the stack of airplanes all waiting their turn to land.  Apparently there was 7 of us stacked one above each other.  The weather was pretty good so we could see some of the planes above and below us.   With all the waiting and unexpected delays landed shortly before 17:00 making this now my longest day.  But a special one which I will explain later.

5 - This day I also had another HIS (International School here in Sentani) school teacher and her mother along to see Papua.  And of course this day again was filled with weather diversion to Wamena, pressures of impending Wamena airport closure due to the President coming for a visit.  On the way back to Senatani an unexpected closure there due to a demonstration on the runway which required a second diversion for the day, then an hour wait in Senggi for the demonstrations to end and the airport to reopen.  Needless to say I cancelled my second outbound flight that day, I was done by the time we got home.

6 - Almost an uneventful day of flying my schedule, no weather diversions, no riots on the runways, no Presidential visits, last day of 2015 no problem right. Last outbound for the day/month/year, I had a young Indonesia freshly minted private pilot on board wanting to get a taste of what we do.  Seems pretty harmless, getting in the airplane he pulled his seat up close to the controls, still not to unusual as it was conveyed to him that once things get under way and we are at a safe altitude and I'm not crazy busy with radio communications he will likely get to do some flying.    Well on take off just after I had set the power to take off power and removed my hand off the power lever and placed it in position just above it without having contact with it (normal ops) my passenger felt it necessary to help by reaching over and further adding power.  Which is a big problem, to avoid getting too technical any additional power above take off power for any length of time ie 2 seconds or less depending on the amount of additional power requires the engine to be removed and sent off for overhaul.  Thankfully this all happened on the large runway of Sentani and it was early in  the roll before the ram air effect added to his addition of power.  No exceedance were experienced for the engine, maybe some blood pressure exceedance in me though.  After getting away from the airport and the radio less busy I did let him do some flying and we had a discussion on the differences between training aircraft and larger aircraft power management and availability.  One thing I forgot and should have mentioned thou was cockpit respect in that you don't touch anything unless you have been given permission by the PIC or are the PIC (pilot in command).  A conversation for next time.

Thankful for the safety and many memorable experiences these past couple weeks.  And in closing I want to finish the story about the patience I helped pick up during #4.  The patience turned out to be a young mother to be.  Her water had broke 2 days prior with no labour at this point, which for those that are unaware me include, this is a bad situation that could lead to infections and death of the child and mother if not treated.  We arrived safely in Sentani Monday early afternoon, I continued on with my schedule not knowing the outcome, which is quite typical.  Sunday morning (yesterday) I got an early birthday present.  During the service I notice a Papuan mother feeding her child sitting next to the missionary family that had come out with the patience.  Not knowing for sure I approached the family and confirmed that yes this was the mother and child that had come out on the flight on Monday.  The baby boy was a bit premature but healthy none the less.  His name is Mike pronounced "Mik-eh" in the local language.  Not everyday you get to look a wonderful blessing from the Lord in the eyes like that and know that you had a small special part in that blessing.

Thank you all for your prayers and support so that our family can continue to serve in this way.

May you experience many new blessings from our Lord and Saviour this new year.

The Dole Clan

Wrapping up Another Year

     As we welcome in another year I feel so blessed by God for all the adventures, lessons, fun surprises, and growing times that He has placed in front of our family this past year. I am always in amazement when I take a moment and look back to see what God has brought us through. I am thankful for His leading hand, His wisdom, and His great love that has been guiding our family as we serve here in Papua.
      Our family has had a very busy month here in Papua as we packed our sea container and sent it; helped send two families to there new bases; tackled homeschooling with our three children; Greg spent many hours working in the hanger this month and helping on the flight line; attended a wonderful MAF Christmas party; and was able to also attend a wonderful Christmas Eve service with our church family here. This was the first time in about six years that we actually got to celebrate Christmas in the same city (not the same house though) two years in a row. It was a wonderful day filled with special moments and fun family time along with talking to family and friends back home.
      Our family would like to say thank for all your wonderful support and prayers through out this past year. We feel so blessed to have you all walking this journey with us and could not imagine doing this without you all. God Bless and Happy New Year!!!!

A Season of Thankfulness

     Like most people around the world that have children, their lives can sometimes be over run with just trying to keep up with all of our daily task that demand our attention. I sometimes find the task of keeping everyone fed (especially if you have one or more children in the middle of a growth spurt), staying on top of the laundry (getting the clothes folded before they become too wrinkled), and making sure school work is not forgotten can sometimes overwhelm me before getting out of bed. And then there always seems to be that invisible list of things that I can make in my mind of all those little things that need to be done each day or I feel like I am falling behind. I am sure that there have been many days when God would just shake his head at me and say, "If you would just take a moment and slow down, and allow Me to write out your list your day would be a whole lot better and more manageable."

     So I have found myself learning step by step to slow down and have those still small moments with God everyday before I start to make my daily list. I am not saying that it is an easy thing to do everyday yet but I am finding myself yearning now for those moments alone with my Lord. And sometimes words can not express how FAITHFUL our Lord can be when we pause and take time with Him.  Now when I say faithful I don't mean that my life has all of a sudden become easy but He is teaching me that I can find thankfulness during the hard times, during the stressful moments, during the confusion and hurtful times there is always something to be thankful for.

     So as our family has spent the last few weeks finalizing our stuff and putting it into a sea container (which is now on its way to our new home). I was trying to remember to be thankful for all the amazing places I have gotten to live in and the people who have touched my life. It did not make packing in the heat any easier but I was able to rejoice in the fact that God has never taken us to a place that He has already not gone ahead of us to. I think of Greg and the guys in the hanger who have a few planes down with some serious maintenance problems. And they are struggling to find the parts and figure out the best and safest ways to fix them for they understand how much these planes mean to the people here. Our God is faithful and will provide down to the last bolt or screw we just have to be patient and wait sometimes. And even as I write this we have three people (myself included) down with a flu bug that is pretty nasty. However, I am thankful for the rest that I am getting and for those moments when my kids come for a cuddle or two.

     As the Christmas season is upon us all remember to be thankful for those daily blessing that God is putting at our feet. My prayer for myself, my family, and for you all is that God will continue to remind us to slow down so that we can see and feel what HE is trying to give us through out the day.

Julie

Alberta Bikers

 I found some more biking pictures from our time in Alberta.  So for fun here is the not so dangerous Dole clan biker gang.  Look out Merauke tidak lama lagi kami akan pindah ke sana.  (not long again we will move to there)

Settling In Once Again

   We are very thankful for all the prayers and support that keep us moving forward.  We've been back in Papua for a week now and are getting settled into our temporary place of residence.  It looks like the plan will be for  us to move sometime mid-late January to Merauke.  I just recently got back from a quick trip to Merauke, getting to see a bit of the town and our future home.

   I also logged my first flight in PK-MAO to meet an Indonesian requirement for validation of my FAA pilot certificate.  The flight went well, not that I don't have a lot yet to learn but I can say that I wasn't as overwhelmed as I thought I might have been flying PK-MAO.

  Kids are doing well enjoying base life again with lots of friends close at hand.  I think our neighbourhood in Merauke will be a good fit for the kids too as the street is quite enough that I think we will be able to let them ride their bikes freely around the neighbourhood.  I didn't see many other kids during my visit but I wasn't really looking either at the time,  Time will tell if there will be kids to play with.  If not in our neighbourhood there are lots of kids in the area.  Julie started school again today with the kids as all our bags have rejoined us here in Papua. It looks like we are only short some empty dvd cases as far as we can tell.  Sorry to the person who was hoping for some free videos, their excitement would have been short lived once they discovered we carried the dvds themselves separate from their respective cases.

Travelling Mercies Abound

Well this fresh Monday morning I find myself blurry eyed, and tried but very thankful for the journey mercies we have received.  Our travels back to Indonesia went well despite a couple tense and scary moments.  We left the house @ 6:00am Saturday morning and all went smoothly as we got to the airport, checked our luggage, and waited for our first of three flights.  The flight to Vancouver went well even though there was a few bumps and some strong head winds but nothing really to bring about anxiety or high blood pressure. Once arriving in Vancouver we had about 4 hours to relax find some food etc.  Julie, Franklin, & Jaclynn got their last Canadian Subway fix and Isaac, & I enjoyed a good hearty A&W breakfast.  The first 8ish hours of the 11 hour flight went well with the kids enjoying the movies and games provided. However, our Isaac started to became airsick and not realizing what was going on we didn't get him a sick sack soon enough. Unfortunately they had just served us food again so we found ourselves juggling trays, moving into different seats, and finding ways to clean up the floor and Isaac with the help of wonderful flight attendants.  However this was just the first round for Isaac.  For about 45 mins later while I was engrossed in a video on the TV Isaac had lost track of his sick sack and was using the floor again before I knew what was going on.  Once again I cleaned the floor best I could and got another sick sack into Isaac's hands and took better care that it didn't get dropped again.  Now with this behind us I was looking at the Seoul terminal map trying to figure out how the transfer to our next flight would be and was assured by the flight attendant that our next flight would wait for us if needed.  The two gates couldn't have been much further apart from each other.  There was also a security check point that was painfully slow at getting people through the line.  Finally after getting to our gate Isaac needed the bathroom so not thinking clearly I sent him off to find one. With the boarding line up gone and final boarding call made Isaac still had not returned.  I had already sent Julie and the the other two on through.  It would be an understatement to say I was a little anxious and the blood pressure was likely a little higher than normal too.  He did finally saunter back to the gate but not after Julie and I lost a couple years off our lives or at least a few more grey hairs.  Once boarded and seated the only thing of slight concern was if our baggage had enough time to make the transfer and this there was nothing we could do except wait for our arrival in Jakarta.  All the kids slept well for this flight and no more airsickness which we were very thankful for.  Arriving in Jakarta the immigration went really smoothly by simply passing the officer our passports, no questions no digging out other documentation. And all our bags arrived which was a special treat as well and we arrived safe and sound at the CMA guesthouse @ 12:00pm Sunday afternoon (MST Alberta time) or 2:00am Local time. So all in all we were 30 hours door to door which made for a nice shortish, smooth and successful trip around the globe.  We are very grateful for all those that were praying for us as we travelled, your prayers were indeed answered with a trip filled with His mercies and blessings.

Only took a couple pictures in Vancouver sorry. 

Mika Medevac

Mika Medevac from Greg on Vimeo.


One of the great joys of serving with MAF in Papua, Indonesia.