Ryan’s First Day Solo Ops!
Friday was Ryan’s first day flying solo ops out of Mt Hagen! No more training pilots checking up on him, at least for now…
On Wednesday he will have training in how to do Airstrip surveys, then, if all is as we expect, we should be able to return home to Telefomin on Thursday!
Mushrooms!!!
Simple pleasures can be a huge blessing!
Our friend, Glenys who is a pilot based in Goroka, kindly arranged to send some locally grown Oyster Mushrooms on the MAF plane to some of us in Mt Hagen (My friend, Mandy is pictured with me). This is only the third time I have seen fresh mushrooms in my 6.5 years in PNG! Usually we just use tinned ones, so this is a lovely treat.
Flying for Life!
On Ryan’s first operational flying day on Monday he was able to do a Medical Evacuation (Medevac) Flight to get a teenage boy with an infected foot from Fuma to Rumginae Hospital. He was also in the right place at the right time to do another Medevac on Tuesday to help a woman having birthing difficulties to get from Suabi to Daru.
Almost 8 months after we left PNG to go on Home Assignment, Ryan is really grateful to get back in the cockpit and be useful for the people of PNG!
Sunday Afternoon Games!
I (Shiv) had a very fun and relaxing Sunday afternoon playing our new board game, “Palace”, with my dear friend, Sharlene. However, she beat me in both games! ;-D
We’re only in Mt Hagen for the next 10 days, so I’m making the most of spending time with friends here!
Meeting my old Guard, James!
When I (Shiv) lived on Kum Road in my single days, James was our compound day guard who would also keep the garden tidy and even wash my car on occasion. His smiling face greeted me when the work bus returned to our compound at the end of the day.
When Ryan & I got engaged his wife very sweetly made me a Hagen-style bilum (string Bag) saying “I (heart) PNG” and she made Ryan a Hagen-style wool hat. These gifts are very traditionally part of PNG wedding ceremonies, know as the “Bride Price”, so we were honoured and blessed to receive them.
Since we moved out of Mt Hagen, James left one security company and went to work for another one, so we haven’t seen him much. It was lovely to see his smiling face again!
Ryan’s First Day of Operational Flying!
Today Ryan is off to the Western Province with training pilot, Mathias for 2 overnights. They will be taking someone from the Rural Airstrip Agency (RAA) to do minor repairs on lawn mowers, deliver fuel for those mowers and pay the locals who work for them at various bush airstrips which they support.
As a part of this routine operational flying, Mathias will be checking Ryan into some of the airstrips in the North Fly part of Western Province, and conducting Ryan’s Line Check. Once Ryan passes his Line Check he will then be clear to fly solo on the C208 Caravan again. After that he will only need one more day of training on the ground next week then we can go home to Telefomin!
We’ve both been in the office this week!
In between his pilot studies, Ryan has been answering Shiv’s questions about the pilot sections of the manual she is writing.
“It’s been very useful having Ryan around to help me with the pilot technical bits.”
Ryan Passed his Base Check!
I (Ryan) did quite a lot of flying on Monday. The picture was taken from v2track, our aircraft tracking software, which showed everywhere I flew in P2-MAK in the morning, only half the day! This is not a normal route for MAF PNG aircraft, it’s all over the place because I had to do lots of drills to prove I can fly safely and deal with any situation which might arise during normal operations. Flying in PNG is some of the most challenging flying in the world, so ensuring all our pilots are safe and know all their procedures is extremely important and prioritized by Operations.
Saturday fun with friends…
Most of the MAF ladies currently in Mt Hagen spent Saturday morning glass painting, thanks to Fiona, who brought all the glass painting pens with her from the UK last year.
It was a fun time to spend together and rather novel to do a different activity whilst sharing a cuppa!
As we will only be in Mt Hagen for a couple more weeks, I (Shiv) am trying to make the most of these lovely social opportunities.
Ray the working Puppy
Ray has been coming into the office with Shiv once a week. He really enjoys seeing all the PNG staff and wondering from office to office. He’s very well behaved but sometimes he gets in the way of the door and has been bashed a few times.
Simulator Flight Training
This week Ryan is doing flight training in the new Red Bird C208 Caravan simulator with fellow pilot, Corné, from the Netherlands. Because of COVID, the MAF trainer based in Cairns isn’t able to come to do the training in person, so a couple of the pilots have managed to rig up cameras, speakers and a microphone. It’s a great set-up, until power or the internet goes wonky, as it is often inclined to do in PNG. But the training is progressing and Ryan should be back in a real cockpit at the start of next week!
Sunday Service at KBBN
We visited KBBN Church with some friends on Sunday, where several MAF families attend regularly. It was not your standard PNG Church, they had a projector which displayed words to the songs, until the power sadly went off. The Pastor gave a really well structured talk and we enjoyed being at a Church outside of town, in the fresh air.
I (Shiv) especially enjoyed singing some older hymns which I haven’t heard in a while! I’ve included a little clip in this post…
Manual Writing
Whilst we may be stuck in Mt Hagen for longer than we wanted, this is giving me (Shiv) the opportunity to work closely with some of the Mt Hagen Ground Operations team to get some headway in writing the manual I’ve been working on for far too long!
Pictured are Levis (left), a Senior Traffic Officer, and John, the Cargo Officer, who have kindly given up some of their time to measure the C208 Caravan for me so I know the maximum dimensions of cargo that we can carry, and they explained the cargo registers, which they are holding up.
Back at Church in Mt Hagen
Today we had the privilege of singing praises to God in the local language, Tok Pisin, at Kiminga Baptist Church in Mt Hagen. We were the only expats in the congregation, but it felt so comfortable and familiar.
Family Afternoon Out
On Saturday afternoon we borrowed a MAF vehicle (ours is waiting for a part) and drove up to Ronden Ridge, about half an hour outside of Mt Hagen. There are beautiful views of Hagen and it’s very peaceful up there. But our main reason for going was to visit the spot where we first said “I love you” about 4 years ago. 😍 The rock in the stream where we had a picnic is still there, pictured just over Ryan’s right shoulder! Happy memories!
Ray the dog seemed a little confused with his new backpack, but he’s an old man now, he can’t keep up with us on walks like he used to. The backpack means he can still come with us for a bit of fresh air and exercise!
Ryan also found an empty Cicada shell, click below to see the pics.
Brief Update for RBC
Attached is a brief update we wrote specifically for our family at Ruislip Baptist Church, but we thought we’d put it on our blog in case others find it useful. It includes some prayer points.
First visit back to Telefomin!
Ryan got to visit our home and friends in Telefomin yesterday, as part of his observer flying before he gets back in the Captain’s chair.
Sadly, he couldn’t stay, he only got an hour on the ground, just long enough to pop to our house and pick up a few things to bring back to Mt Hagen, but he was so encouraged to be able to see the village which we call home!
Shiv has to wait until October to see Telefomin again.
First day back in the “office”
Today was our first day at the base & HQ in Mt Hagen. Ryan spent the day studying and Shiv had several meetings with Ground Operations staff to work on her manual.
There were 3 MAF C208s sitting on the tarmac waiting for a pilot! We hope to be able to take one back with us to Telefomin before the middle of October!?
Catching up with PNG Friends!
To celebrate our release from quarantine (and Mandy’s birthday, pictured right, centre) we went out for dinner on Wednesday evening with some very dear PNG friends.
At the top of the table are pictured Brandon & Sharlene who have been looking after our dog, Ray, for 5 months!!!
Quarantine is Over!
On 1st Sept, 14 days after starting our quarantine, we received official notification from Port Moresby, that we were allowed to be released from quarantine! We have kept a record of our temperatures whilst in quarantine, we’ve had no fevers and shown no symptoms of COVID-19 so we are now allowed to move around as normal, whilst observing social distancing, of course.
We’ve also been reunited with our dog, Ray who is going to be spoilt so much over the next few days!
We’ve moved out of the MAF quarantine accommodation to make space for another Canadian family who will be returning to PNG next week. They got stuck on holiday in Australia when the borders closed.
Click on the picture, left, to watch a video of our friend, Nurse Rhema, one of the local health care workers who MAF supports and we fly out of Telefomin.