A delightful dance!

An explosion of thunder bounces around the hanger walls, an approaching storm has obviously failed totally in it's efforts to creep quietly in upon on us. Already the light is starting to fade as the dark grey clouds rush in across the lake shore obscuring the African sun.

An hour ago, great excitement as we watched Leader 2 (5X-LDR) a Cessna 208 Grand Caravan depart for it's first operational flight to Bundibugiyo to pick up a team of mission personnel from World harvest Mission in western Uganda.

But today I am hitting the books for my Base Check tomorrow a routine 6 monthly practical exam that all our pilots have to take and of course pass. But I am quite distracted by our engineers.

It really is a pleasure to watch...

as the engineers put their aircraft back together again watch them put the finishing touches to their work after maintenance is a real joy. There are five engineers in this sequence sorting out MAF Congo's 206 9Q-CUI, they dance around the aircraft with a vitality and passion, a real mixture of expressions on their faces; concentration, laughter, thoughtfulness, each seems to know his part well, 5 solo acts turning, moving, spinning yet they dance as one as they rebuild their 206, the land rover of the skies.  Then the heavens open and rain on the roof is deafening.

Behind the main program there  is a more sedate waltz going on as two other engineers fix the elevator on 5X-SCO a Grand Caravan and in the background the Chief Engineer runs familiarly through his routines as he builds some scaffolding! Then he to is called in to offer advice and lend a hand and so joins the dance.

 Then it is time for an engine run to see if all is well...

Martha Graham (1894-1991) said

“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.” but when you see these guys in action you realise they have great technique as well.

Engineers are remarkable people!

    WATCH      

‘How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.’ Psalm 119:9-11 (ESV) 

The Manual Part 1, is 60 thoughts most written by Carl Beech but here is one of mine which fits well with Kees interview. Thought for the day Number 21 of 60.

MAF pilots, have a great working relationship with our engineers! On a recent operational assignment covering a crew shortage in Uganda the Chief Engineer showed me some cracks, he had found on two tiny little compressor blades from the turbine of one of our large single engine Cessna 208 Caravans. Almost impossible to see with the naked eye, and if the component had failed almost certainly catastrophic to the engine and not great news for the rest of the flight!

Ignorance can appear to be bliss; if the cracks had not been spotted I would have continued hauling passengers and cargo into and out of rough, short bush airstrips, in South Sudan and Eastern Congo, ‘blissfully unaware’ that these tiny cracks, which had developed slowly over time were there. Their presence meant the engine might failed just when I needed it’s maximum performance.

As soon as the engineer knew there were cracked blades in the engine - his inspections are designed to hunt down such things, the aircraft had to be grounded, as he knew what these tiny cracks were capable of causing. I could have protested and said ‘the aircraft is needed for another urgent flight, MAF could not afford the repair.’ Perhaps I could have tried to persuade him,  ‘come on, fix it later, after all the cracks are only on a couple of blades, the rest are perfect.’

No, only a fool would ignore the promptings of a Chief Engineer! It is amazing how we sometimes fail to sort out cracks in our lives, even after they have been shown to us, so advice for today is ground yourself and get them sorted, it may be ‘expensive’ and uncomfortable but if we want to be a disciple of the King you owe it to yourself and those around you to be fully operational, so you are always ready to give of your best when the time is needed.

Prayer: Lord please reveal to me an area in my life that is failing.  Let me be brave enough to get it sorted out with Your guidance and help. Amen

AVAILABLE from CVM or AMAZON. In fact there are now 4 books in the series all recently written and launched!

Father Christmas explains why he flies with MAF in the off season

You may well have read this blog earlier in the year, it seems only 66 of you did so I felt it was worthy of a release at a more seasonal time.

Greasing a sled onto a steeply pitched roof top with 35kts of cross wind, at night, in driving snow would make even Biggles blanche but it  is all part of one evenings work for this man commonly called Father Christmas, St Nick or Santa Claus by his friends and followers. But what about the 'day job'? I had often wondered what it was that  he did during the other 364 days of the year. Some would say he spent his time  repairing and making new toys, others until they saw these remarkable photo's suggested that he spent time at his local Greenlandic Health spa, not so, whilst he looks pretty trim and sprightly for a man of his years, he assured me that it was the cut of his shirt and the sky blue that has always made him look thin. 

Well what about the day job? Here is the answer...

It was over a year ago that I met what I consider must surely be the world's most experienced pilot ever, this bush pilot extrordinaire then it was in an undisclosed part of Africa. So it was to my amazement that I have for the 2nd time met my child hood hero, only this time in an environment even more bizarre, one of  Harmittan's, dust storms, heat, rainy seasons that even Noah would have enjoyed and scorching sun that will boil an egg before you can say 'Bob's your Uncle! Well this world is all part of FC's day time employment. 

'So you work for MAF,' I asked, 'Sure do, Mission Aviation Fellowship, greatest flying job in the world,' his voice roared back at me, eyes grinned with a sparkle from under bushy eyebrows, his weather beaten bronzed skin, all seemed at odds with his some what full snowy white beard! "Well we fly these small aircraft, there are about 135 of them, based in over 30 different countries, each able to bring help hope and healing to some of the remotest communities  in the world, we partner with lots of organsations and it is great getting to know some remarkable people and supporting them in their work. Sometimes it feels like Christmas Eve every day." he laughed loud and long as if this comment touched a memory. 

The Final despatch from 12°6′N 15°2′E.

Well my next assignment is back to Uganda at the week-end. So I thought I would get my Final Despatch from 12°6′N 15°2′E, aka N'djamena in Chad, down onto paper. 

Here in Guernsey we are having our runway re-surfaced and I guess they may being doing a few other things to the tune of £80+million and in Alderney there is debate about whether to keep their grass runway operational - my answer is; when there are minimal sea links the answer this is a no brainer, keep it open!

In MAF we have some interesting rwy surfaces! Actually before landing we run through a little mnemonic. 

WIND LASSO

Wind direction, strength. Is it gusty, what about the x-wind, tailwind.

Length - but can you use it all? Any new ant hills, heavy rain, unexpected pond on left side, can all
               shorten it and make it seem some what shorter thn the last time you came!

Altitude - If it is hotter than 'normal' it's as if the airstrip is now higher than it was and therefore you 
               need more rwy. So a cold morning arrival can mean the airstrip seems to have shrunk 
               somewhat when it comes to a noon departure at 45C!

Surface - dry season nice.  Wet season, soggy, slippery and unusable! Watch out black cotton soil can 

              catch out the unwarry, as it has a crust that you can break through. Is the sand carved up by
              big aircraft bad news!

Slope - are you landing up hill, down hill or with gentle side slope?

Obstacles - In the tropic things grow ever so fast, holes appear - caused by wart hogs, ants, termites. 

              There may be some animals crossing, thinking of crossing and those who are not thinking 

              about crossing but will anyway!

Rather nice Congo airstrip

Don't assume, check it out. Not a bad attitude to life really.

Here sand is the surface of choice and the golden vista can make even finding the airstrip tricky and after a few heavy lift transports have been in and out the surface resembles a soft beach and great care must be taken ideally to find the firm stuff and not to come to a halt on the soft sand as hauling it the out, is really hard work. Here I am pulling the aircraft, off the strip onto a harder rocky surface for overnight parking. 

In the south the rains have been very good and grass is appearing all over the place. After rain the top cm can be very slick and can involve quite alot of dancing on the rudder pedals to hold the aircraft in a straight line when landing. Even areas that are rarely green this have a verdant tinge and rivers start to flow and over flow making drivable tracks and roads unpassable, cutting off communities. 

The rains keeps the frangipani, donkies and crimson breasted bee-eaters happy though!

Sand causes some wear and tear on the paint work and here the Caravan is getting a check out. Note the oil cooler on the left. The rains keep the aircraft clean!

Jim's Film, Jim Le Huray Bush Pilot, just the thing to inspire little people into the world of aviation!

There is nothing, absolutly nothing quite like the whine of a PT-6 turbine coming to life, propellor spooling up,  a whiff of turbine fuel & exhaust carried through the vents, a couple of Ugandan Cranes (national bird) pause their courtship as the prop noise distracts them but for a moment. My eyes are fixed on engine instruments, poised to disable the start-up if all is not well but all is well...So let's go fly. I'm Jim Le Huray Bush Pilot.

Why not share my tweaked version of Jim Le Huray Bush Pilot to some of the young people you know. It might help inspire them to become the Bush Pilots, Engineers, Managers, Learning Technology and IT staff of the future for MAF or for many of the other amazing flying and mission organisations operating around the world.
So why not give them a glimpse of my world.  

I  have been flying in Uganda and working alongside the MAF Congo programe as well as flying into South Sudan, as well as in Chad since I joined MAF at the start of 2011. I am one of the newer MAF pilots and certainly the lightest. I am based in the Island of Guernsey (land of the Guernsey Cow and the book Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Society) and I generally end up flying alongside another MAF pilot Capt Bryan Pill. 

I am very popular pilot  mainly as I only weigh about 3kg so there is room for an extra 80kg on any flight that I fly!'

So if you want to know more about MAF whay not E -mail me on jim.lehuray@maf.org

This is  a lovely story Fred van Gorkum told me.
Alas I call Fred, Frank!
                                              .

What on earth are Plumpey Nuts?

This blog is in answer to the question, What on earth are Plumpy Nuts? So this is a re-edited blog that only 31of you read from last year so 'tuck-in'. 

However I will be back in Uganda on assignment in November 

so stand by for some fresh blogs from the Equator.

Plumpy Nuts what a wonderful name for a food...

"Ok I will take 9 boxes in pod B, 8 in Pod C and the other 45 in the cabin,"  each weighs 14kg so sweat soon trickles off, tickling my nose as I do my 32nd twist and turn, great for the waste line but doubt I'll never be able to limbo dance again! Loading Plumpy Nuts in the Juba heat, South Sudan's capitol  where we have our south Sudan base is hard graft but we soon have them on board and they are strapped down.

The refuelling truck pulls up take on board 512 litres of Juba's best Jet A-1. Once the fuel is signed for I double check the weight and balance, as whilst the aircraft looks empty with all the seats out we have a  ton of 'peanut butter' on board; not a kg more can it lift.

I am about to move about 5 tonnes of these boxes and other assorted medicines and supplies up to northern Southern Sudan for SCF over the next four days as well as pick up an AID Sudan team now Every Village http://www.everyvillage.org. The plumpy nuts (what a great name) in particular will save countless lives and make a real difference to many, particularly children in extremis.

Jim Le Huray (check out Jim's film)
supervising the unloading

I spot the airstrip 15 miles out, a khaki patch standing out as clear as a bell, against the sea of waving green, as despite the lack of rain, the grasslands look surprisingly lush from the air. The first trip takes me up to Waat over 200nm north of Juba, it is a new strip for me and as it is a freight flight, I bank hard over the black cotton soil airfield, getting a good look at the land below me. Boxes seldom complain about such manoevers. 

I can see the airstrip is a pleasant place for some of the locals today! However despite passing very low over the cattle, they barely raise an eyebrow today but they do take the hint and 'push off.' It also gives me a chance to look out for any standing water or any other obvious hazards that might be there to trip me up but it has not rained for a few days so there is only one area about 200m long that I had best avoid.  The cattle having ambled off, noses in the air, somewhat irritated by this giant fly that  zipped past their 'horn tops' at 110kts disappear into the bush. Another couple of hard banks keeping the circuit really tight and I am lined up again on the field, to the right of where I guess the runways centre line should be,  best avoid the muddy areas that would definately ruin my day if I landed on them, a rattle of wheels as I apply reverse thrust and brake hard and my shoulders push against my harness. Scotty alias 5X-SCO stops in no time at all as the tyres grip terra firma bringing me rapidly to walking speed, I then taxi to the far end to where I think the runway ends!

                                         

A few reports from 12°6′N 15°2′E. Mentioned in dispatches 1.

Over the next couple of weeks I thought I would blogg a few notes that I jotted on my kneeboard somewhere within 500nm of 12°6′N 15°2′E the capitol of Chad N'djamena. 

It is hard to imagine that when I was here in April I was frying in the day time and simmering at night. One dreamt of cool breezes & cooling rains. 
Now the rainy season is upon us flash follows flash, like a mighty artillery barrage, truly spectacular, as the skies open fire followed by the thunderous explosions of battered clouds overhead, reverberating off the tin rooves and the MAF compound is awash in the deluge. Another  wave of flashes illuminate the compound, trees thrash in the winds, a stack of small branches break off crackling like pistol fire as they are hurled to the ground...
Parts of the country in the south are cut off as roads become impassable and MAF comes into it's own. 

Decided to skip the instrument approach that I was planning, as the storm whilst seemingly far off when it seemed a good idea, was moving in very fast. If I do not switch to a visual approach I will be extremely lucky to complete a full instrument procedure  before the rather solid looking lump of water  hits the airfield. So wisdom says beat the rain and get on the ground fast. The storm is steaming relentlessly onward like a huge battlecruiser, N'djamena bound. The curtain of water is at first transparent, very quickly builds up fold on fold of white, grey, greyer then blackly impenetrable, a solid wall of water.

Pushing, shoving, pulling, squishing the freight is finally  in, it  is hot work in what is quite a humid day. I seem to be getting quite adept at fitting a quart into a pint pot, still I guess as I have flown with MAF now for 20 years that is to be expected. Only 8 passengers  today but I am saving them perhaps a 10-14 day road trip if they were to go by public transport. Mother & 7 children weighing in at a somewhat feather like 250kg, which is exactly the same weight as the freight, and whilst I could have put 100kg more on board the only place left for anything is on my lap! Every cubic inch is taken up, as there seems to be rather a lot of mattresses board, as well as some essential supplies for the work up north, so we are  as they say well and truly full up to the gunnels.

Heading for Bardi (kind of near Aozou on the map above) with the family of one of Mark's co-worker's. Mark had taken only 7 days 6 nights to drive the 1700km steaming across the desert to hit reach their destination, a mere 5hours for me, though a leg stretch and refuelling at Faya Largeau will mean we'll make it for a late lunch. Think he'll be happy, along with his team, to catch the flight back.

Sitting on the sand at Faya, resting in the sun, under azure skies, rainy season? Seemingly little chance here a cloudless sky, a golden carpet lay, before me  rocky outcrops stand aloof, guardians of the silence, broken only by the abrasive whisper of sand upon sand, as it swirls around rocky outcrops like children playing chase, barely leaving their footprints in the sand.  

The race is on! I am cleared for start up by the Tower but a couple of French Military Mirages have already gained the upper hand by dashing onto the runway ahead of me and before you know it, they  crisp the air into submission as they launch, tail pipes aglow as they roar skward. Alas that delay makes it to late for me, the clouds sliding in rapidly, the blue skies vanish, the cloud ceiling comes lower and lower and the bright morning turns to gloom, the wind picks up knot by knot, second by second. The skies have darkened as the jets crackle into the distance making their noisy and rapid escape, the race is lost and the door of escape has well and truly shut for me, as the first drops bounce on the faded apron. Control locks go into place, extra chocks under the wheels, hatches battened down,  sunglasses back in their case. My wife and a Dr, passengers for the two hour flight to Am Timan in the south East along with a mound of freight are boarded and tied down respectively! The storm hits with total enthusiam... 
Am Timan is a  small town is already pretty cut off by the rains, one of the quirks is the stack of huge 'mines' guarded in an out building just where we park!the aircraft. We wait it out for 90 minutes passengers lulled gently to sleep by the rocking slush of rain on tarmac, the rainy season in a dry and desert land!  

Remarkable Interview .... Father Christmas parks up his sled for the year

Greasing a sled onto a steeply pitched roof top with 35kts of cross wind, at night, in driving snow would make even Biggles blanche but it  is all part of one evenings work for this man commonly called Father Christmas, St Nick or Santa Claus by his friends and followers. But what about the 'day job'? I had often wondered what it was that  he did during the other 364 days of the year. Some would say he spent his time  repairing and making new toys, others until they saw these remarkable photo's suggested that he spent time at his local Greenlandic Health spa, not so, whilst he looks pretty trim and sprightly for a man of his years, he assured me that it was the cut of his shirt and the sky blue that always made him look thin. 

Well what about the day job? Here is the answer...

It was over a year ago that I met what I consider must surely be the world's most experienced pilot ever, this bush pilot extrordinaire then it was in an undisclosed part of Africa. So it was to my amazement that I have for the 2nd time met my child hood hero, only this time in an environment even more bizarre, one of  Harmittan's, dust storms, heat, rainy seasons that even Noah would have enjoyed and scorching sun that will boil an egg before you can say 'Bob's your Uncle! Well this world is all part of FC's day time employment. 

'So you work for MAF,' I asked, 'Sure do, Mission Aviation Fellowship, greatest flying job in the world,' his voice roared back at me, eyes grinned with a sparkle from under bushy eyebrows, his weather beaten bronzed skin, all seemed at odds with his some what full snowy white beard! "Well we fly these small aircraft, there are about 135 of them, based in over 30 different countries, each able to bring help hope and healing to some of the remotest communities  in the world, we partner with lots of organsations and it is great getting to know some remarkable people and supporting them in their work. Sometimes it feels like Christmas Eve every day." he laughed loud and long as if this comment touched a memory. 

So check out what he had to say...

So there you have it from the horses mouth. Good ol' FC seemed pretty enthusiastic about his work and it was a pleasure to meet a man who felt at home doing what he obviously enjoys, who would argue that when his trade mark call is Ho! Ho ! Ho!

Posing whilst taking a break, against a somewhat battered scout car

Above and below Enjoying meeting some students at the Teda
language and library centre in Bardi

FC teaching one of the locals how to read his new written language 

            Years ago the environment in Northern Chad was very different to what it is now.
Here some really old rock carvings that show there were once ostriches,
cattle , elephants and leopards in this area.

                                             

Standing next to his mount,
the start of the Tibesti mountains in the background.
Below Bardi At a view point

Shaking hands with South Korean Peter down in Bailli

Lending a hand in Zakouma National Park

Grabbing 40 winks on a passing elephant!

The Bush Pilot by John Carre Buchanan

I rather liked this short poem that John Carre Buchanan, that he did for me about a bush pilot working with MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship), so I have added some of my photo's from Chad where I am on assignment at them moment, a little known but a remarkable nation where the jungles of Africa meet the deserts of Arabia, south of Libya, west of The Sudan and north of the Cameroons and CAR with Nigeria and Niger to the west.  I have to confess the silhouette is reflected over a river in the Northern Congo!

There is a real sense of privilege, working as a Bush Pilot and I thought these words catch the moment. 

The Bush Pilot

They wait
Keen eyes search the horizon
hoping for a glint of reflected sunlight.

Sharp ears filter the sounds of the bush

listening for the distant drone -

that heralds his coming.

This lifeline,

remains open where others have failed.

Some barred by conflict

others closed by weather, disasters or just – too far from wealth

and so he comes.                                                          

Transforming lives.

Bringing help, hope and love.

Flying people to safety.

Delivering food, medicine, equipment,

insight and encouragement

to those that need it.

a silvery light in the heavens,

approaches like an angel.

Dust, hopes and cheers rise

as the wheels touch the red earth

and the bush pilot steps down.

Excitement soars                           
John Carré Buchanan        24 May 2012

 PS John Buchanan has some excellent poems on his site Poet at Jaybern and it is worth checking the link on the right side of this page. 
John also has the poem on his site as http://johncbuchanan.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/bush-pilot.html