Orientation Training...Ethnic Church Visit

One of our assignments for Orientation Training was to visit a church of a different culture and language from us, and of a different culture than one we had visited, or will serve in. The idea was for us to get out of our comfort zone so we turn to God and reflect on any feelings, good, bad or indifferent about being in a new environment. And also to challenge our view of what "church" is and what part it plays in feeding us spiritually. It is an excellent project! I would even recommend for you to stretch yourself and try and find an ethnic church in your area.

Anyway, we chose to go to the Maranatha Romanian Church of God. Just as a precaution, I looked up some information on the Romanian culture. It was suggested that a woman not reach out to shake a man's hand, but to wait for him to extend his hand first; when in a private conversation, it is considered rude to place your hands in your pockets; and women typically wear a head scarf while in a church building and make certain their legs are covered underneath their skirts. I was very glad I had read this information prior to our visit!

Upon arriving at the church, I noticed that the congregation was segregated by gender. The women and children were on the right side and the men were on the left. After mentioning this to Kevin (who was initially oblivious to this), we parted ways. Adah and I took a seat and had almost a whole row of chairs to ourselves. After a few minutes, I noticed a young man speaking to Kevin. A few more minutes later, the young man handed Kevin an electronic device. Then, a young lady brought me one as well. It was a small receiver with some headphones. As I put the headphones in my ears, I heard English! I was so excited to hear the meaning of what they were singing. They had the songs on Power point, and we did notice quite a few similarities when compared to French, but the perfect translations were much better!

The service began with a song. After the song, we all prayed, with everyone kneeling on the ground, the women facing forward, and the men facing backward. The only exceptions were the elderly who just sat in their chairs. When everyone prayed, the prayed aloud. You could hear so much passion in their voices. This lasted about 10 minutes before everyone stood up again and sang another song. Once the song was over, we all sat down and a man walked up to the front and said a few words and invited us to all kneel again for prayer. This was repeated several times, only to be broken by a young woman singing, then later, some of the children played musical instruments. It was so beautiful to see and hear so many prayers. I only wish each prayer could have been translated.

After the first hour, Adah began to grow weary of her own toys and not being permitted to roam the aisles.  I got up and took her to the bathroom to check her diaper and give her a minute to stretch. During this time, people were walking in and filling more and more seats. What started as a room of about 20 people slowly filled to around 60 people. As more people entered, the prayers became more fervent and more loud. Unfortunately, Adah became more anxious and more tired. During the next hour, I had to walk out one more time to allow her to burn off some energy. I could only hold her still for so long while trying to enjoy everything going on around me, and unfortunately Kevin couldn't do much to help out this time.

Then one of the men came forward and began to preach about the things God had laid on his heart. I didn't get to enjoy the sermon since Adah decided that throwing her toys to the toy-less children behind her was much more fun and had long since ripped out the headphones. Unfortunately, the grandmother behind us did not appreciate that and admonished me and Adah in Romanian and sat Adah's toys in her bag at the end of the aisle. Oops!

Overall, I enjoyed the three hour service that took me out of my usual comfort zone. The music touched my heart and the prayers filled my soul. Even though the only person who spoke English was the translator, many people shook our hands and greeted us afterwards. They were very polite and glad we came.

The Second Week of Training

Photo courtesy of MAF

My (Kevin) second week of training has already come to a close. Here is what I have been doing all week.

On Monday, all of us missionary pilot mechanics gathered together in the training lab with both maintenance instructors. They went over all the general maintenance practices of MAF. This is more like an orientation to learning the guidelines, or as we say in the south, they were fixin' to get ready for somethin' else. They continued through the entire day and most of Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, they split us up into two groups. One group had guys that will be serving at a base with only turboprop aircraft, so they went with their instructor to another training lab. For the most part, they  studied about one engine the whole week, called the PT-6, made by Pratt and Whitney. Even though they operate aircraft made by a two or three different companies (Quest, Cessna, Pilatus), they still use the same engine.

The other instructor worked with mechanic and I, who are going to bases with the Cessna 206. So they started reviewing the maintenance manual chapter by chapter, looking at all the different breakdowns for systems, parts and maintenance. The instructor provided information based on what MAF has learned in  their nearly 35 years operating these planes in the field. In general, they displayed things that typically break (often with the actual piece that broke and was removed from service) and examples of places to look for cracks and wear caused by hundreds upon hundreds of landings in the bush and rugged, short airstrips. What is great, is that we get a jump start on learning the idiosyncrasies of the airplane, when normally it would take years to learn all this. Let's face it, we have operated at least 30 or more Cessna 206's for up to 600 flight hours each per year, for 30+ years. I would be concerned if we didn't learn a thing or two...hundred...

Unfortunately, there are two issues with the Cessna maintenance manuals. The first issue is the print date of the manual. Cessna created the maintenance manual the same time the aircraft was designed in the early to mid 70's. Even then, they borrowed information from other similar and older aircraft and the book has had only a handful of revisions since then. Sometimes, the data is flat out wrong, or will reference other sources that are now out of date as well (amazingly the Federal Aviation Regulations and other FAA approved data is constantly being updated and dare I say... improved?).

Think of it this way. When the first iPad was created, it came out with a user manual. What if Apple happened to borrow some info from the iPad or  iPod? After the product was used by consumers for a few months, they found they could do more things with the product than the manufacturer mentioned in the manual. But consumers also found problems that were not mentioned when purchased. After Apple discovered both the problems and benefits, they used that to make a new and improved product. This leads us to the second issue.

The manufacturer of the aircraft publishes service information (called Service Bullitens, or Service Instruction Letters) to help mechanics with ongoing and common problems. But because MAF constantly operates so close to the edge of the aircraft's performance, while still being within the safety margins, our aircraft experience stresses and forces which cause the aircraft to break and wear in ways that Cessna is not even aware of.

MAF is always trying to stay one step ahead when it comes to safety. They publish their own internal "maintenance advisories" to increase awareness and safety of the aircraft we use in the field. Part of my training has been going through the Cessna manual, page by page, chapter by chapter, with advisory additions/notes made where needed. This way, when  I'm out in the field, I will have notes providing me with additional things to look for or possible "modifications" that might be needed to improve the reliability of the aircraft.

So, Wednesday through Friday was a continued thorough study of the 206, which has some systems with more than a striking resemblance to those of the Cessna 182. I will be flying both the 206 and the 182. Also, some of the very basic information learned this week can be carried over to the Cessna Caravan.

And there you have it - week two of training! Next week, we get to fire up the engines and start doing checklists... and FLYING. Hopefully we can post some videos, too!!

Safety Philosophy

Today, the spouses were asked to attend a training. It was the training for MAF's safety philosophy. As a matter of fact, this is what standardization is- we are here, in Idaho, because they are serious about teaching and applying their safety philosophy. They are teaching us how to fly very safely in a very demanding environment.

Have you ever stopped to think that there is a risk involved with any and every job out there. Don't believe me? Have you ever tripped at work? Have you ever hurt your back lifting up something too heavy? Have you ever been shocked plugging something in? It doesn't matter where you work or what you do, there is always a risk involved.

What people do on a daily basis is weigh their risks versus the possible benifits. The risk of tripping over my own two feet on a daily basis is so minimal, that I take that risk and continue to walk. But the risk of being stabbed by a pair of scissors is much higher when running, therefore, I do not take that risk and will walk with the blades safely turned down. Most people do not allow their daily risks to influence their day to day lives and go about their business without even stopping to access any possible dangers! Just look at how many people cross the street in an area that is not a crosswalk!

Well, lucky for us, MAF has is an entire department devoted just for safety, and their goal is to minimize the risks involved with our jobs. The department does things like training, flight reviews, in-field safety audits, and runway checks every three years.

So, let's use a real world example of a common risk and how MAF would respond. how are risks and hazards minimized?

Let's say you have to walk up these stairs everyday for work. Well, MAF would perform a standard safety audit with three goals in mind: identify, access, and reduce. First, the problem(s) must be identified. These stairs are missing guardrails, each step is uneven, and their height difference is mismatched. All of these factors are risky and could cause a fall. Then, the situation is accessed for its level of hazard based on surrounding factors (like accessibility to others, hazards found around it, how often the stairs are used, etc.). So if the stairs are used frequently by workers, then I would guess the level to be a medium level of danger. Finally, the hazard is reduced. Perhaps a guardrail is added and maybe a few steps are replaced. The goal is to reduce as many risks as possible, since it is impossible to remove all risks in life.

The same example can easily be applied to flying. MAF has a trend monitoring program in place that allows the safety department to track deviations from our standard operating procedure. For example, let's say every Monday of every week I will fly a certain group on a certain route, and someone else will fly the same group on the same route on Friday of every week. During the dry season, we can make it back fine by one hour before sunset. But once rainy season begins, we begin to struggle to arrive before sunset because of bad weather. The safety department notices an increased frequency of late arrivals, after sunset, and they start helping us look for ways to get us back on time during the rainy season. One way would be to shorten the route, or another would be to add some training so we could modify our standard procedure to help meet this need.

Here is another real world example: At MAF bases all over the world, we use the very popular Cessna Turbo Cessna 206. Let's say one of the 206's in Indonesia has a certain part break.We have an identical plane in Congo and the same part breaks on ours, and also on the 206 in Lesotho. Because we are not in contact with the Indonesia or Lesotho bases, we would not notice the trend, but because of MAF's safety system in place, they do, and they can publish a Standardized Maintenance Procedure to alert us to a common issue.

There you have it! A basic idea of our safety policy in place. We have heard that "our overall goal is not to arrive at the destination, our goal is to have safe landings. Arriving at the desired destination is just gravy." We are so very blessed to be a part of an organization who has developed a system to keep us as safe as possible.

The First Week of Training

Kevin studying for class

Kevin has been hard at work this week with ground school training. Classes begin everyday at 8 AM and end around 5 PM. The only exception is a late start on Wednesday for Chapel, which is from 8 AM - 9 AM. He is allotted a 30 minute break at 12. This is only the first week of training.

MAF has been around since 1946 and has the experience that only comes with years of learning and growing. This week of training is filled with ground school for all pilots. It is one of the most important weeks, building a foundation of information.

Kevin has classes on Aerodynamics; use of flaps at high altitudes; abort procedures; air strip evaluations; emergencies; SOP (standard operating procedures) & checklists; take-offs, landings, and approaches to name about a third. Well, what does this mean in Layman's terms? Let's say you want to be a brain surgeon (yes I am totally comparing ground school to medical school!). You don't just take lessons from some Joe with equipment. You go to school. You learn about anatomy and physiology (aerodynamics). You learn about how the electrical circuits in the brain change with age (use of flaps at high altitudes). You learn about risk factors such as blood clotting and tumors (abort procedures). You learn about the importance of performing a complete medical physical on a patient (air strip evaluations). You learn what to do if a patient experiences a life threatening emergency (emergencies). You learn about how external factors like nutrition and exercise affect your overall health (SOP). You learn you job from the inside out.

In other words, Kevin is "drinking from a fire hose" with information chocked FULL to the brim on how an airplane operates, including the physics behind it. He is learning about how MAF operates, each of their procedures and why they operate that way (based on experiences). He is learning all the parameters needed to know for standard operations, including all the rules and regulations.

For instance, just to take off, he has to calculate many things: the weight and center of gravity of the airplane, passengers and cargo; factor in where all of his stops and navigation checkpoints along the way will be; determine how much fuel he will need to carry everything and everyone; determine how long that fuel supply will last and add at least a one hour reserve; make certain he will have time to return to base by a minimum of one hour before sunset; calculate how long the take off roll will be on that particular day; calculate how far down the runway he will be when he reaches 75% of his takeoff speed; calculate if he will be airborne by 75% of the runways length; determine if the runway is soft, firm, slick, wet or dry and then figure out how far he can go on the takeoff run and then stop without hitting something if there is a problem. THEN, he must complete the pre-flight checklist, tie down his cargo with ratchet straps and netting as appropriate so it doesn't shift in flight, the before entry checklist, greet and brief his passengers ( in French) complete the before start checklist the start checklist (memorized), the after start checklist, the before takeoff checklist, the immediately before takeoff checklist (memorized), start the takeoff and check the power, the speed and turbocharger, check the abort point, decide whether to stop the takeoff or continue before reaching the abort point, then actually take off. Then, starts a whole other slew of checklists and calculations to do. Are you confused yet?

Homework for "Weight & Balance"

And that is what he has learned up to this point. Ground training isn't even half over yet! It is amazing how structured and safety oriented MAF is, and yet, we are still able to very safely fly into some VERY unforgiving areas, with bad weather, heavily loaded and still have plenty of margin of safety. This is yet another purpose of standardized training. The flight instructors here have a combined total of over 100 years of flight experience with MAF. They safely help us learn to have confidence in our aircraft and our ability, first on the ground, then demonstrate it in the air.

Travel Update

To bring you up to speed, we traveled to Nampa, Idaho for our final training on Saturday, August 10th. We awoke bright and early at 5 AM, just so we could hit the snooze button and wake up again at 5:15 (we had to start the day off right!) We loaded up Kevin's dad's truck with our 4 pieces of checked baggage, 2 carry-on's, a back-pack, and a diaper bag...plus a baby! After an uneventful drive, we brought all our luggage in to check in for the flight, only to find a 1.5 hour delay. That delay would bring us into our next airport 30 minutes late for our next flight. So our ticket agent, who was from Mali, Africa, worked hard to get us into Boise as soon as possible. For those who don't know, they speak French in Mali. So once we got done with our introductions, asking about family, etc (as is the typical African custom), we completed the rest of our business in French. That was a nice surprise and gave us some encouragement.

Our original flight plan was Knoxville to Detroit to Minneapolis/St. Paul, to arrive in Boise at 1:50 Mountain time. We were still travelling to Detroit but with a longer lay over, and the next connection was in Salt Lake City with another longer layover. This would put us into Boise at 6:30 (Mountain time). Dealing with the delay for two adults is no problem, with a kiddo however, that is another story. We were hoping to arrive in time for an afternoon nap, instead, we were to arrive for a late bedtime. But we arrived with all of our bags in one place and we were together and safe, so we were grateful.

Adah did AMAZING during the first flight, even getting in an early morning nap. She did FANTASTIC during the first layover, playing with her toys and charming bystanders. We ate an early lunch/late brunch thanks to Delta and she stuffed her face! She did SUPERB during the second flight, inching her way into first class by being her adorable little self!

She was OUTSTANDING during our second layover. We enjoyed a nice little dinner together and played with other waiting children. Unfortunately, our tired little monkey was just about over it during the last flight, that was only 47 minutes long. Luckily, we were in the back of the plane as she fussed. We were simply glad she didn't have a major meltdown.

After arriving in Boise, we met our ride and drove the 30 minutes to Nampa. Adah resumed with her cuteness and entertained everyone in the car now that she had room to stretch her legs. We unloaded and unpacked while Adah attempted to unwind.

We were all asleep by 10 PM (12 EST) and were ready to go the next day again.