Posts Tagged ‘work’

Dealing with Weather

Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Saturday, April 24th, 2010
No Joke. This was one of the better weather reports I could find for our flight yesterday. If you look close, you can see the yellow arrow points at our approximate route. They didn't waste any words!

No Joke. This was one of the better weather reports I could find for our flight yesterday. If you look close, you can see the yellow arrow points at our approximate route. They didn't waste any words!

Yesterday I soloed on the last airstrip  that we are currently using. It feels so good to be at this point, but I am realizing quickly that I find landing and taking off to be the easiest part. In fact, I feel a sense of relief when I circle to land at any of these airstrips because for me right now, that is the easy part. What is a challenge is flying in all the weather here. There is no real weather reporting between where we takeoff and where we land and all of our airstrips are located right in the middle of what our chief pilot calls “the weather factory.” It is always changing and keeps us on our toes.

Bailey is a big help in this area because she is now using the HF radio to call our missionaries and get weather reports. She then relays the weather to me in the airplane via the HF radio. Some days the HF works great, other days it is just a bunch of distracting static. However, it is the best thing we have right now so we are making it work for us. There is a lot for Bailey and I to learn these days about how to deal with all the radio calls and weather.

We recently had a flight planned to shuttle supplies between two locations, but when the rain came we had to throw off some extra weight and give up on our plans so that we could deliver the important cargo to the missionaries who were waiting for it at their airstrip. We took off in the rain and as you can see from the video, had a good time navigating around clouds to get to the most challenging airstrip I’ve ever experienced.

Flying to Set Up a New Program

Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Thursday, November 12th, 2009
We are tracking the plane as Garry flies it to across the Visayas to its new home in the South Eastern Philippines.

We are tracking the plane as Garry flies it across the Visayas region to its new home in the South Eastern Philippines.

For the last few weeks Brian and the other NTMA guys here have been working hard to get one of our Cessna 185s, “405″, ready for service in a new flight program in the Southern Philippines. As I write this, 405 is enroute to its new home where it will once again carry New Tribes Missionaries to and from their tribal works. It has not flown in a missionary capacity since 2003 so this is an exciting day for us. Many pilot/mechanic teams have had a hand in getting the plane ready for this flight, and it was great to join that effort. (more…)

A Day at the Shop

Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Friday, July 31st, 2009

Throughout my formal and informal aviation maintenance training, I have learned to respect gasoline. It can be a lot of fun when properly applied to a pile of furniture, or through a fuel injector into an engine. It can be absolutely deadly if not respected. Special care is always given when handling fuels to avoid fire hazards and explosions. (more…)

Preparing for the Next Move

Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Friday, June 12th, 2009

We plan to move to Mindanao at the end of September.

We arrived here in the Philippines last August and as we approach our one year anniversary our heads are already spinning with how much has changed since we first boarded a plane to come here. When we left California we had a set of plans that seemed like a very reasonable thing to shoot for. We decided to go with what seemed clear at the time and even signed a 14 month lease on our apartment. (more…)