SIL Aviation from Aiyura

Aviation PNG style

My Uncle Bev's 'Office'  -  more like playground  :)

Today I had the pleasure of tagging along with my Uncle Bev to his workplace.  Picture a ‘take your kid to work’ day unlike any other.  Uncle Bev is a helicopter pilot, with over 36 years experience on the job having trained & worked in Newforundland, British Columbia, Northern Canada & Ontario.  With JAARS training behind his belt he & my Aunt Donna joined the SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) & he has been flying & fixing helicopters & small fixed wing airplanes with SIL here in Ukarumpa for the last 20 years.  He is a pro, to say the least, & is training one of the younger guys at the moment.  ‘Our’ job today was to empty & clean the P2- SIH (Sierra India Hotel for all those radio savvy people) that he just returned yesterday from a sling work project in & around the northern Indonesian border taking school building materials supplied by AusAid from point A to point B (that makes it sound way easier than it is!.  We were all happy that the trip was shorter than first thought & he was able to come home early.  Needless to say the helicopter still needed cleaning.  Uncle Bev put me to work with taking out rope baskets used to load & lift goods & materials & laying them out to dry on the hangar cement in the sun, hanging rope ties in the hangar & vaccumming out the interior of the helicopter.  Must say a pretty cool thing to be in & around, with huge tail & head rotors.  Also enjoyed coffee break with all the pilots & maintenance crew, definitely the men zone, before being offered to go out on a flight!!………..

When opportunities arise, go for it!  What that included today was taking an hour & a half flight in the new P2-SIR, the Kodiak fixed wing small engine plane, up through the highlands to the village of Ananabi.  My pilots Jon & David, with radio coordinator Hebrew + Noah & Alex, two boys from the Centre that joined their parents who are translators in the village, took us up, up & away into the clouds of the highlands and on into the Western province.  This plane is amazing, with GPS, a control panel with every gadget you can think and it was so cool to be right behind these 2 men with my headset on listening, watching & learning what so many gadgets & instruments did as well as the radio contacts.  Down the long well maintained dirt landing strip & up we were, over green hills that looked like arched backs of hands with the fingers of hills stretching into each other.  Rainforest trees, with areas burned off some fires burning along the way, & sections cut up for growing different things, especially coffee beans.  As Aunt Donna explains, PNGs have an old garden, a current use garden and a still growing will be used in the future garden.  Smart folk if you ask me!!!  Papua New Guinea has some of the best coffee in the world, & I would agree with that.  Back to the plane ride….   Looking out being surrounded with mountains, it was interesting to pick out the karst limestone areas that look almost like egg craters with meandering brown, muddy rivers with huts along them in spots.  David was great at pointing out the landing strips, some longer & wider than others, the ones still in use and the ones that have not been used in years as they need a burnoff and to be mowed before reinspecting the possibility of landing safely there.  He also mentioned how those regions where the airstrips were maintained were more likely to have tin roofs as it is easily portable into those particular zones.  This is in comparison to the thatched roofs built on stilts, like our final destination Ananabi.  This is where we dropped off Noah & Alex to join their parents in the village for the holidays.  We were given the tour of the translation office, a large thatched roof & walls & floor built on stilts nearly 1 ½ meters off the ground.  This is after our smooth landing down the sometimes mowed landing strip.  Maintaining the airstrips is a major concern in being able to bring the translators, cargo, supplies, etc. to & from the village.  So many things I had not thought of nor experienced before.  It was a quick hop on and off visit and wished I would have been able to visit the village more and unfortunately did not have my camera along for the ride either haha. 

Trip to Henangave

P2-SIH with Uncle Bev to Henangave

Today was a fun, new, exciting experience to fly with Uncle Bev in the P2-SIH as his ‘co-pilot’ (okay, not quite haha) to Henangave, Mr. Liaw’s village. How many people can say they have done that in their lives…… not only going for a helicopter ride… up to 8000ft……. but sitting beside their Uncle & listening to the cockpit & radio contacts on your own headset!! Pretty cool! This particular village that we went to is about an hour in the helicopter, northwest of Madang along the northeast coast. There are no roads to this village, only by helicopter. Similar to the Kodiak plane ride but this time closer to the ground, seeing the land up close & making out the thatched roofs of the villages, the sections of land used for different produce & having Uncle Bev’s commentary the whole time was awesome. The brown muddy rivers lazily cut into the green valleys inbetween mountain ranges reaching 13000ft. We could see all the way to Mt Wilhelm encased in clouds out to the north of the island of Kar Kar, a volcanic island that last erupted 40 years ago. Upon some of the smaller mountain ranges, the ridges are scattered with ‘houses’. This is where we found Henangave.

We left Aiyura airstrip a little delayed due to the dense 200ft fog but soon enough we were up in the pockets of scattered clouds. Making our near an hour trip northwest. Uncle Bev’s office is pretty neat! Altitude gauges, fuel meters, GPS tracking, radio signals, throttles, joystick controls, and I really don’t know what all but boy he knows that helicopter better than the back of his hand. Not only that the land, ridges & valleys, weather patterns, wind patterns & how it all effects the helicopter and its flight path. I am not sure if the translators and other passengers truly understand how it all comes together to get them out to their villages safely. It is a science in itself!

Much like my flight to Ananabi, approaching the village & circling around you could see amongst the many large thatched roofed buildings that what seemed like the whole village, over a hundred people, had turned up to watch the excitement of the helicopter. Ian later told me that some of the villagers had come in from their gardens for the past couple days just so they would not miss this. I took it all in as best I could with all the villagers waving frantically to us as Uncle Bev gently placed the helicopter down. They knew not to approach the helicopter until the rotors were off but once Mr. Liaw & Ian brought their belongings & cargo over, everyone rushed to check out Uncle Bev & myself. They were just as mesmerized with me as I was with them . There were a couple little boys that looped around me & I got them smiling back at me. It is not too many times they would see ‘whiteskin’ let alone a whiteskin female with red hair!! I only wish I could have stayed longer to really see the village and the people, the women & girls in particular did not approach. Needless to say this brief encounter with the village was amazing!

We picked up Mr. Liaw, the translator, & Ian Tupper, a translator working on his PhD out of Australia. Ian had been in the village for 8 weeks assisting Mr. Liaw with grammatical analysis & aspects of the village’s language. We returned back to Aiyura with the clouds have been burned off by the rising sun. Along the way back Uncle Bev pointed out the gold mine areas, the sugar cane fields & palm oil regions and the road & route we will drive to Madang on Boxing day.

Just a small glimpse of the wonderful world I am in right now

Nankina

 

White skin redheaded female  -  definitely draws some onlookers  :)

Nankina

This morning’s adventure gets me up before the birds start singing as Aunt Donna would say. But Uncle Bev was already up and testing the ‘birds’. Oh yeah I am cool enough now to know the aviation lingo, right! I get the P2bus pickup to head out to Aiyura. Waiting for the clouds and fog to clear to allow for takeoff, I chat up Barbara, the woman’s village that we will be visiting and dropping her off at. She has not been there in over a year and is anxious and excited to return and do God’s work.

So we load the SIL (Sierra India Lima) helicopter and head off to Nankina. The SIJ (Sierra India Julia) small fixed wing plane takes off after us to bring cargo up and assist in bringing a couple men back from Barbara’s village. I am just along for the wonderful experience. I cannot get over the mountains, one range being the Finney Stairs (which are higher than the Rockies and yet still remain covered in trees except for the very top and the cliff faces). These mountains can create strong drafts, which I feel a little of as we cross over but not the severe downdrafts which can be experienced. Since Uncle Bev knows these mountains so well he knows just the right approach, altitude and escape route per se needed if such an incidence occurs. We fly over the road to Madang, again clearly laying out the Ramu river and valley below. As we climb into and above the Finney Range I can see small clouds literally burning off in front of my eyes. With it being only a 30-40 minute trip, the way out is not a long ride yet still I find myself listening with amazement at how Uncle Bev not only clearly communicates his end but somehow understands the other end of the radio communication, I sure couldn’t and I know it was English. We also spot above us SIJ at roughly 11000ft compared with our steady at 9500ft. From this setup I am able to see the clear approach into the Nankina landing strip that SIJ makes a smooth descent and taxis to the end as we approach. As always the whole village turns out!! The men and young boys come to approach quickly but are called off by James the SIJ pilot explaining with large hand gestures how the helicopter is running no going to it. No words needed, they got it! I jump out and ‘hang out’ with the village boys and men and James as Uncle Bev takes Barbara and 2 local village men on to her village, another 15 min heli ride away. In this time I took photos of the village, groups photos of the villagers, been given fresh oranges, nuts and smile and make faces with the young boys. I walk over to the women and girls along the bushline who do not approach but smile and are less bashful or outgoing as the boys. The most fun of taking photos is then showing them what they look like, with no mirrors it is the first time that some of them have seen themselves and it leads to great laughter and horseplay. As we are around the village, the clouds settle in at the end of the airstrip, a common concern Uncle Bev later tells me, meaning that James and his 3 passengers have to settle in until it clears. Not a rare occurrence and James is ready with Bible in hand to share the scriptures with the locals if that is what the afternoon calls for. I laugh with the older boys who have brought their bow and arrows, saying that if I am to stay long that they could teach me how to use them……………. Perhaps not the greatest suggestion in hindsight. I picture the plane with arrows in it or having to provide first aid. 

But Uncle Bev and I are off and on our way to Barbara’s village with an extra barrel of fuel under us. James with his rope line attached to the fuel barrel waits for us to return, to hover and attaches to the bottom of the heli. Must admit that would not be my favourite job, as the helicopter hovers above us. James’s safety briefing included that if it was to go silent (as in rotors stop), run to the right as Uncle Bev would try to aim us to the left. None of it meant to scare, just be fully informed. With fuel barrel slinging underneath, we safely lower it to Barbara’s village, I noticed that her whole village has come to greet her, with lots of the young ones hiding and climbing up in the trees to avoid the rotor wind and blowing debris. Uncle Bev mentions jokingly to me in the heli that he is so thankful for the burnoff of grass on the helipad yesterday. This sarcasm is directed at the increased about of ash and debris that is flying in the air potentially causing damage to the engine and rotors. In this case, long grass is better than burnoff. None the less, we are up off and away, on to the New Tribes village of Mibu to refuel. We land on this small ridge, where no one is expecting us so you see adults and kids running up the hills in order to meet and see the helicopter land. I hop out to allow Uncle Bev to refuel and I meet the family of Jeff, Shannon parents of 3 girls Skylar (7), Madeline (4) and Abbigail (5months). I was treated to a tour of the chicken coop and their house with Madeline showing me her and her sister’s bunkbeds and the map of the U.S. that their Dad drew on the floor. Like any good dad he also pointed out that in relation to the map on the floor in their bedroom that PNG would equal the stairs outside (dad’s think of everything, don’t they?!) And with treats of chocolate chip cookies, I watched as Skylar showed me how she liked to play with her Polly Pocket dolls in water in the sink (yes, Mom, even little girls in the Eastern Highlands of PNG like to do this!!) All this and Uncle Bev has refueled the helicopter and we are off and waving goodbye to this quick drop in on this family and surrounding Mibu village. We again passed back to Nankina to assess the cloud coverage for James’s departure. Pretty clear except for a decent sized cloud sitting at the end of the runway. James was ready and settled in for at least a touch more of the afternoon. All in a day’s work, Uncle Bev says, with somedays having this drop and load scheme for several more families and drop-offs. I can understand why he gets up and off so early in the morning to accomplish so much in one day.

As we flew back over the rugged Finney mountains, amongst the cloud and sun beaming down, over the green hills, brown zigzagging rivers and valleys, it continues to amaze me at what wonderful places the earth holds tucked away from most people’s reach and grasp. Such pristine land, with little human impact on it is rare to say the least these days. I am oh so thankful to have been blessed with this opportunity, not only out with my Uncle Bev today, but also to have come to Papua New Guinea and experience this world that my family has ‘storied’ of for nearly all my life. This was truly meant to be.