Recently I met Jim Le Huray MAF's newest Bush Pilot

Just before Christmas last year I was excited to meet our latest new MAF pilot fresh out from our training course in Nampa Idaho. He is working with MAF in Uganda, at Kajjansi our airstrip there, his name was Jim Le Huray and he has recently come out from Guernsey (land of the Guernsey Cow and the book Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Society) . He is a very popular pilot both with Local and International staff in Uganda and the Congo but he is a particular favourite  with our passengers, it was found by our Operations Manager Dave (who is from MAF US) that when Jim was operating single crew (as most of our aircraft are) due to his unusually light body weight we could load an extra 80kg of passengers and/or freight on to every flight which he flew. 

He was quite a character and on a number of occasions when he tangled with the military his sense of humour soon solved a tricky situation. 

He had a particular heart to work with very young people, perhaps because he is altitudinaly challenged himself. Also he was eager to do a bit of filming with me the results of which we made into a short film which was shown on a couple occasion earlier in the year and the results were well received and Jim felt we could perhaps make a couple of films that might appeal to younger folk. When we did some editing together we found quite amazingly that on film our voices sound remarkably similar. 

Well my son Jonathan offered to be the main editor of the first of two versions of the first film of The Adventures of Jim Le Huray and it is called Jim Le Huray Bush Pilot. Which we find attached below. There is also an 8 minute version which is very different. Enjoy ... do contact me on bryan.pill@maf-europe.org

Training ...Training ...Training

The powerful growl of the Cirrus's 310HP engine was a delight to the ears, as we climbed through 1500 feet out of Guernsey Airport, we were cleared just below the clouds to 3000ft, ...... "OK," I said, "I want you to imagine, wisps of white smoke in the cockpit, that seems to be coming from behind the radio stack, definitely an electrical fire, you can smell the burning plastic." What do you do? Easy perhaps sitting at your desk but hurtling through the sky doing 140kts, having to conform to Air Traffic Control and carry on climbing on track and answer the question ummmmm..........
Last week I had the chance of flying with an experienced private pilot and putting him though his paces for his American Flight Review, a flight which he has to do every 2 years with a Flight Instructor, to be successful Barry had to show/demonstrate to me competency at the level of his licence. The flights are usually good fun, well for me as the instructor but hot, hard and intense work for the pilot under check, as the pressure is on for him to show me what he knows and to demonstrate what he can do. I give him various scenarios, for example..... "now I want you to land at Cherbourg, there is an obstruction on the runway, so land in the minimum distance possible, imagine the airfield is now short and starts at the first runway markings or perhaps the air speed indicator failed on take-off ( I shall cover it up - helps the imagination part, so you cannot see it but I can), now fly the pattern safely? Guess the airspeed when I ask you and land the aircraft normally."  Demonstration of a skill successfully, especially under a tad of duress shows you have reached the required standard and it will mean they will get my signature in their log-book. What I love about flight reviews is the chance to add in personal experiences, look at ways perhaps a task could be could be done differently and/or better. To-gether we work at not only demonstrating to a standard - to tick a box but encouraging greater skills acquisition.  One of the saddest things I sometimes meet especially outside of the cockpit is folk who feel they know it all and/or are not prepared to listen and learn.  I remember being a new flying instructor, ink on the licence barely dry and the 'student assigned to me for teaching was the Chief Instructor - who trained military Flight Instructors, he flew the impressive Apache attack helicopters - of 101st airborne.  My job was to teach him how to fly a fixed wing aircraft to commercial standards. He was way above me in experience and flying hours but I knew how to fly a light aircraft to commercial standards and he did not but he wanted to learn how to do it. He listened and learnt and so did I. It was two way experience and it was fun.
So one of the things we need to do till the day we die is regularly go and take 'flight reviews' in all areas of our lives, demonstrate competency but also listen, learn & perhaps teach, as well as be taught.
I believe you can teach an old dog new tricks......