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Papua pictures

My family lived in Papua, Indonesia from 1992 till 2011 where I flew as a missionary pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship. I got my "back country" training with MAF in 1991 flying in the Idaho back country. Because of great training with MAF, working with the best group of co-workers and God's help I was able to fly safely in Papua for 20 years flying almost 9000 hours.
  1. Me and my family in 2010 standing by a Kodiak.
  2. Here I am at Pamek. I'm the white guy on the left. The local people were so excited to have the Kodiak come in for the first time and came out in...
  3. Another picture at Saman with the amphib Caravan. My wife was asked to come there and speak at a women's Christmas program. I was her chauffeur.
  4. Every day I flew the amphib Caravan I had to do a compressor rinse on the PT6 engine at the end of the day.
  5. On the ground at Anggruk. This was probably my most challenging strip out of hundreds.  
 
On landing you had about 150' at the beginning of the...
  6. Here I am during a turn around with he Caravan. That means offloading over a ton of cargo or 10+ passengers and then possibly loading the same amount...
  7. Short final at Okbab with a crosswind (the windsock is at the bottom left side of the strip). This is a challenging airstrip; touchdown is 11% slope...
  8. Here is Okbab looking downslope. At brake release you were instantly going downslope 22% and there was no stopping the plane. At the end of the strip...
  9. PK-MAO, the float plane I had the privilege to fly for 4 years. 
 
I spent 7 of my 20 years flying floatplanes. The rest of my float time was in a...
  10. Me landing the Kodiak during a self checkout at Pagai. This was an easy strip; flat, 1800' long, the elevation was near sea level. We used this as a...
  11. Final approach into Pamek. This strip was about 1600' long with about 15% slope and a little side slope. It was narrow with a rock wall on the left...
  12. Me and some of my Papuan friends at Eipomek. I was flying the Kodiak that day. The strip is only 1200' long with an average of 7% slope.
  13. This is at the village of Saman on the South Coast of Papua. It was very remote. I flew there with the float plane.
  14. This is the village of Kamur during rainy season. The airstrip is mostly submerged in water. Good thing I was flying a float plane.
  15. This is the day that PK-MAO (a Cessna Caravan amphib) arrived in Merauke in 2005. I flew it from 2005 to 2008. I had been flying an amphib TU206...
  16. A beautiful tropical sunset in Merauke.
  17. I also flew RC planes with my Indonesian friends.
  18. This is at Smiley Creek, Idaho during my Kodiak checkout in 2009.
  19. Final approach with the Kodiak to a 1100' strip in the Owyhee area of Idaho. MAF's standard is to stop in 60% of the strip's length and we give away...
  20. Thus was my longest flight ever, 10.3 hours non-stop. We ferried a brand new Kodiak from Malaysia to Sentani, Papua, Indonesia. With the ferry tank...
  21. Sunset from a Kodiak while ferrying it from Malaysia.
  22. Kodiak at Bime.
  23. An MAF Kodiak at the village of Bime. The strip isn't visible because of the slope of 7-10%.
  24. Landing the 208 amphib at Boma.
  25. PK-MAO: the amphib Caravan that I flew.
  26. Long boats on a river on the south coast of Papua where I flew the float planes.
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