I am pleased to say that we didn’t have another perfect storm this week.
After a lot of effort and fault-finding by our engineers it looks like the electrical fault on the Twin Otter has been solved. We’ve thought that in the past and it has recurred, so it’s not absolutely certain, but after several fault-free flying days we are optimistic.
One of the Caravans had a problem with an oil leak, which was finally tracked down to a propeller seal. Fortunately that didn’t take long to fix, but there was concern at one point that the aircraft could be out of the air for a while. Pilots don’t like oil leaks as they can lead to engine failures!
This was a highly social week …
Dave & Karina Mills (Dave is the doctor at Kompiam hospital) and three of their children stayed with us over Monday and Tuesday nights. They were flying to Australia on Wednesday and had planned to drive into Mount Hagen to catch their flight. However, torrential rain over several nights caused four landslides along the road which made it impassable. Last Sunday night Dave called asking what we could do to help. As there was a Twin Otter passing close to Kompiam with plenty of room on board on Monday, it was quite an easy programme change to fit the extra landing in to collect them.
On Tuesday Dave & Karina took us out for a meal at “The Sweet Spot”, a restaurant just up the road from us that opened earlier this year. Previously it was called, “The Curry House” but that business closed and was taken over by the present owner, whose mother runs a trout fish farm on the slopes of Mount Wilhelm. I enjoyed a very nice smoked trout omelette, Nicki enjoyed stir-fried vegetables with mushrooms.
It was our turn to be on hospitality for visitors on Wednesday and had four guests for the evening meal. Actually, two weren’t visitors, but were residents without their wives for different reasons and who were very happy to be fed and watered.
Tom & Salome Hoey, accompanied by Norm Turtle who used to work for CRMF and was our next-door neighbour when we lived in Goroka, came through Hagen on Thursday on their way back to Australia. The Cessna Caravan had been scheduled to collect them, but because of the oil leak, the flight I was doing was diverted to pick them up. In the three weeks or so they’d been at Mougolu they’d repaired the 31 year-old hydro-electric plant and had it operational for the first time in over a year.
As it was Tom’s 87th birthday, and Salome’s 81st was three days before, we had a party for them that evening which both surprised and delighted them. Tom said that the first time he flew with MAF was 51 years ago, which is a record I doubt that anybody else still regularly visiting PNG can beat.
Friday gave us a chance to accept an invitation to eat with VP and Nimmi, a new couple to join us from India. VP is giving direction and impetus to our strategic planning. Both are doctors, but VP has been involved in the management of a large group of hospitals before he came to MAF. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised knowing the sort of work VP was doing, but he knows Kim Tan, a friend of mine from school days. Small world!
I should explain that VP is short for Varghese Philip, but he’s always called, VP. I should also add that it was a very nice meal, genuinely Indian.
Yesterday, to recover from the social whirl, I did a 10km run, cut down and cut up a tree, trimmed the hedge and cut some timber for packing crates. Following all this physical exertion I collapsed into bed early with shoulders and upper arms complaining of abuse. Today has been rather gentler.
Another task we did yesterday was to put our Christmas tree up, though haven’t bothered with other decorations. It does at least remind us of the time of year even if the other cues are absent.
After a lot of effort and fault-finding by our engineers it looks like the electrical fault on the Twin Otter has been solved. We’ve thought that in the past and it has recurred, so it’s not absolutely certain, but after several fault-free flying days we are optimistic.
One of the Caravans had a problem with an oil leak, which was finally tracked down to a propeller seal. Fortunately that didn’t take long to fix, but there was concern at one point that the aircraft could be out of the air for a while. Pilots don’t like oil leaks as they can lead to engine failures!
**********
This was a highly social week …
Dave & Karina Mills (Dave is the doctor at Kompiam hospital) and three of their children stayed with us over Monday and Tuesday nights. They were flying to Australia on Wednesday and had planned to drive into Mount Hagen to catch their flight. However, torrential rain over several nights caused four landslides along the road which made it impassable. Last Sunday night Dave called asking what we could do to help. As there was a Twin Otter passing close to Kompiam with plenty of room on board on Monday, it was quite an easy programme change to fit the extra landing in to collect them.
On Tuesday Dave & Karina took us out for a meal at “The Sweet Spot”, a restaurant just up the road from us that opened earlier this year. Previously it was called, “The Curry House” but that business closed and was taken over by the present owner, whose mother runs a trout fish farm on the slopes of Mount Wilhelm. I enjoyed a very nice smoked trout omelette, Nicki enjoyed stir-fried vegetables with mushrooms.
It was our turn to be on hospitality for visitors on Wednesday and had four guests for the evening meal. Actually, two weren’t visitors, but were residents without their wives for different reasons and who were very happy to be fed and watered.
Tom & Salome Hoey, accompanied by Norm Turtle who used to work for CRMF and was our next-door neighbour when we lived in Goroka, came through Hagen on Thursday on their way back to Australia. The Cessna Caravan had been scheduled to collect them, but because of the oil leak, the flight I was doing was diverted to pick them up. In the three weeks or so they’d been at Mougolu they’d repaired the 31 year-old hydro-electric plant and had it operational for the first time in over a year.
As it was Tom’s 87th birthday, and Salome’s 81st was three days before, we had a party for them that evening which both surprised and delighted them. Tom said that the first time he flew with MAF was 51 years ago, which is a record I doubt that anybody else still regularly visiting PNG can beat.
Friday gave us a chance to accept an invitation to eat with VP and Nimmi, a new couple to join us from India. VP is giving direction and impetus to our strategic planning. Both are doctors, but VP has been involved in the management of a large group of hospitals before he came to MAF. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised knowing the sort of work VP was doing, but he knows Kim Tan, a friend of mine from school days. Small world!
I should explain that VP is short for Varghese Philip, but he’s always called, VP. I should also add that it was a very nice meal, genuinely Indian.
**********
Yesterday, to recover from the social whirl, I did a 10km run, cut down and cut up a tree, trimmed the hedge and cut some timber for packing crates. Following all this physical exertion I collapsed into bed early with shoulders and upper arms complaining of abuse. Today has been rather gentler.
Another task we did yesterday was to put our Christmas tree up, though haven’t bothered with other decorations. It does at least remind us of the time of year even if the other cues are absent.
