Flight Day

It’s always fun when we have a flight day, whether it’s just to drop off supplies, go to town, or come back from town. There’s nothing like a nice flight over the jungle.

Recently, we were coming into the village and our pilot, Mr. Doug, asked me, “Do you want to try to lift us off?” I answered kind of nervously, “Ummm . . . sure, but I've never taken off before.” He then instructed me that once the speedometer read 45 knots I was to slowly pull up. I did as I was told and let’s just say it wasn’t the most beautiful takeoff I’ve ever seen, but we did get off the ground! Once we were on our way, I got to fly some more.

When you’re flying in the bush, you have to constantly adjust your direction because you fly relatively low. Some days you are always going through clouds and rain showers. Sometimes flights get delayed or you have to spend the night somewhere other than at home. One of the missionary’s top rules is always be flexible! In fact, we were supposed to get back to the tribe on a Wednesday instead of a Thursday, but our airstrip was all socked in with clouds. So we had to spend the night in another town with our pilot, Mr. Kevin Lynne and his wife, who were very nice and hospitable.

Almost a week ago, we had a big flight day. Some of our teachers from an outreach were coming back home, and my dad and Uncle Tim went to help check out an airstrip where another tribe outreach is taking place. Another little plane came in with supplies, and a helicopter came in to bring my dad and Uncle Tim back.

It was fun to see the planes but especially the helicopter, because now that we have an airstrip, we see the planes quite often but the helicopter doesn’t need to come in anymore. I was a little jealous that my dad got to ride in it again. Our pilots are some of the hardest workers in the mission field. They are constantly doing medical evacuations and unscheduled flights at the last minute. Without them, mission networks all over the world, including our organization, couldn’t operate. We are so very thankful that they are part of our team!