Another week has come and gone

Now I am amazed at how short a full-length week can be. I know, I need to just make up my mind already and be normal. But then, since when has there been anything normal about me?

This week has been good, and quite productive. I finished up (again) on the Islander, helped out with some turbine compressor rinses on both P2-SIA (the King Air) and P2-SIB (the Kodiak), sat in on run-ups for both of them, and did some work on P2-SIT (one of the 206's). I got to actually do the full engine run-up and then taxi over to the hangar in Tango (P2-SIT) - my supervisor was sitting right seat as I did all of that of course, but it felt good to be running an aircraft and even just taxiing around on the ground with it. Makes me miss when I was flying. Tango is now in for its 1000 hour inspection (an inspection that has to be done every 1000 hours of flight time) which has been going on for most of this week and is expected to take about another two weeks. One at a time, I pulled all of the wheels off of it, checked the brakes on the main gear, replaced the pads on one of them, and cleaned, inspected, re-packed with grease, and reinstalled both sets of bearings on each of the three wheels, re-installing the wheels when I was done. I was also tasked with removing the "Kodiak" decals from the front of the Kodiak, as they were both peeling off.

We also had a bit of excitement this week. Wednesday morning we got to work and we were informed that we were in the middle of a medevac - the patient was expected to arrive at 9:00 to fly to Australia in the King Air for further medical treatment than is available here in Ukarumpa. That was all that pretty much any of us knew. Flights were busily being shuffled, as the King Air was supposed to make two other flights on Wednesday, and both of those had to be taken care of by our other aircraft; annoying because the King Air has a high capacity than anything else we have. The aircraft was ready, and at about 9:00, Lee (the clinic manager) drove out on the ramp and parked next to the King Air. As several of us watched from the hangar, we say Tyler Weaver, an aviation employee, his wife and one of his sons, Addison, get out of Lee's car. I noticed that the other three kids weren't there, but, along with several of the others, was trying to figure out who was the patient, as nobody was unable to walk or anything. They took off for Australia, and then we found out that Addison had fallen off of his top bunk at about 3:00 AM. He apparently landed on his head, and he had a concussion. So they took him down to Cairns, Australia, to have a scan done to check for damage. Cairns is far enough away that the two pilots, and the medical staff overnighted, planning to fly back the next day. Usually this is what is done in a medevac, and then the family being medevaced has to pay to fly back commercially to PNG. Well, Addison's scan showed that everything was fine, and the Weavers were able to fly back on the King Air on Thursday, which was a blessing as that meant they were just coming back on the flight already covered by medevac insurance, and didn't have to pay out of pocket to get back. Most important, though, is the fact that young Addison is okay - Praise the Lord for that!

This week we also made plans for a group of us to go to Madang for a long weekend next month and see the city and do some snorkeling. We talked about riding up there on a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle) but decided that we probably won't, since it's about a 4 hour drive each way, plus the hour or so you can expect to wait in the PMV as they're driving around trying to get a full load. Instead we will probably fill up one of the 206's (they hold 6 people, counting pilot) and fly up there for the weekend, with the pilot staying up there, too. This would make the trip pretty affordable, and a 30 minute flight each way with friends sounds much more pleasant than 4 hours each way in a vehicle full of strangers. I'll report more about that after it has happened.

I am thoroughly enjoying my time here; the work is good, and the people are a lot of fun.

I have been hearing from some of you, but would love to hear from more of you and find out what's going on in your lives.

God bless, and may you have a great week.