Tari Base Visit

Flying

20 Oct

It’s a 1 hour & 15 minute direct flight from Telefomin to Mt Hagen where MAF PNG’s HQ & Engineering facility is. This is a waste when the plane is empty, so whenever we need one of our Telefomin planes to go to Mt Hagen, whether it’s for scheduled maintenance, pilot training, or whatever reason, we try very hard to get as much loading as possible, which often means stopping somewhere on the way. I (Shiv) quite like to jump on board when the plane is going through our base at Tari as this enables me to visit the team there. A visit to Tari before we went on holiday was necessary because they had a few maintenance issues which needed to be prioritized, like a radio that wasn’t working and a hole in the roof above where the store cargo.

I was really glad that one of our night guards, Henry, was able to come to the Base to see me. He had a very serious motorcycle accident back in early August and we were very afraid for his life. He was in hospital for over a week, but is out now, gradually on the mend. We think he may have had some swelling in his brain as he was still a little slow to respond when I spoke with him. Please join us in praying for a total recovery for Henry so he can return to work soon. There is no health insurance in PNG, so he needs to work to be able to provide for his family.