Just before writing this week’s news I was arranging payment for our flights to visit Andrew et al in June. Everything progressed all the way through to the press “Confirm” to complete the deal. Then the internet dropped out.
No doubt it’ll come back in due course, and hopefully sufficiently well for me to send out this email, but I expect I’ll have to go through the entire process of entering the transaction details all over again. Ggrrr! I do look forward to reliable high-speed broadband when we’re in the UK.
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All this week was spent in Goroka; I flew down first thing on Monday morning, and returned around lunch time on Friday. It was a satisfying week. The CRM course I mentioned last week seemed to go well and there was good interaction with the two pilots doing it. From my perspective the course was much more practical and relevant to our type of flying than more theoretical courses I’ve run in the past.
On Thursday and Friday I flew with Glenys to do her Twin Otter type rating training. She did well and it is always really nice as a trainer to have a good student. Next week she’ll have her official type rating flight test with an examiner from CASA PNG, after which she’ll be able to start her line training and going out on ‘real’ flights.
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After a week away it was obviously nice to get back home, but it has also been nice to catch up with the families in Goroka, having a meal each evening with four of them.
One evening I had a game of squash, my first in about four years, with Brad Venter. He thrashed me, unfortunately! Even allowing for not having played recently, I did notice that I simply cannot run as fast as I used to, though I’m still searching for some underlying reason as to why this might be. I have been a bit stiff afterwards, though not as bad as I could have been, but my legs were still protesting when I went for a run this morning.
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The new CEO for MAF International, Dave Fyock, is visiting PNG for the first time at the moment. It’s something of a lightning tour, taking advantage of his being on this side of the globe for some meetings, so I expect that he’ll do a longer visit at some stage.
During yesterday afternoon there was an Australia Day celebration at the Kagamuga compound near the airport, an opportunity for our Australian colleagues to demonstrate their Ozzie-ness, which some of them did magnificently. There were certainly some aspects of Ozzie culture Dave hadn’t experienced before, and he joined in very well.
In the evening he joined Nicki and me for a light meal, and we greatly appreciated the opportunity to get to know him a bit and to chat through some issues MAF PNG is dealing with. It was a good evening.
So, all in all, it’s been a good week.
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I have my own periodic instrument rating flight test on Wednesday, so I’ll need to do a bit of preparation for that. I’m flying Dave and Todd (Country Director) to Goroka tomorrow morning, but will work in the office there while they go about their business, and then bring them back to Hagen in the afternoon. I have a normal operational day of flying on Friday if I remember my roster correctly, so the other days will be office time, which I will not have any difficulty filling up.
Have a great week.
No doubt it’ll come back in due course, and hopefully sufficiently well for me to send out this email, but I expect I’ll have to go through the entire process of entering the transaction details all over again. Ggrrr! I do look forward to reliable high-speed broadband when we’re in the UK.
**************
All this week was spent in Goroka; I flew down first thing on Monday morning, and returned around lunch time on Friday. It was a satisfying week. The CRM course I mentioned last week seemed to go well and there was good interaction with the two pilots doing it. From my perspective the course was much more practical and relevant to our type of flying than more theoretical courses I’ve run in the past.
On Thursday and Friday I flew with Glenys to do her Twin Otter type rating training. She did well and it is always really nice as a trainer to have a good student. Next week she’ll have her official type rating flight test with an examiner from CASA PNG, after which she’ll be able to start her line training and going out on ‘real’ flights.
**************
After a week away it was obviously nice to get back home, but it has also been nice to catch up with the families in Goroka, having a meal each evening with four of them.
One evening I had a game of squash, my first in about four years, with Brad Venter. He thrashed me, unfortunately! Even allowing for not having played recently, I did notice that I simply cannot run as fast as I used to, though I’m still searching for some underlying reason as to why this might be. I have been a bit stiff afterwards, though not as bad as I could have been, but my legs were still protesting when I went for a run this morning.
**************
The new CEO for MAF International, Dave Fyock, is visiting PNG for the first time at the moment. It’s something of a lightning tour, taking advantage of his being on this side of the globe for some meetings, so I expect that he’ll do a longer visit at some stage.
During yesterday afternoon there was an Australia Day celebration at the Kagamuga compound near the airport, an opportunity for our Australian colleagues to demonstrate their Ozzie-ness, which some of them did magnificently. There were certainly some aspects of Ozzie culture Dave hadn’t experienced before, and he joined in very well.
In the evening he joined Nicki and me for a light meal, and we greatly appreciated the opportunity to get to know him a bit and to chat through some issues MAF PNG is dealing with. It was a good evening.
So, all in all, it’s been a good week.
**************
I have my own periodic instrument rating flight test on Wednesday, so I’ll need to do a bit of preparation for that. I’m flying Dave and Todd (Country Director) to Goroka tomorrow morning, but will work in the office there while they go about their business, and then bring them back to Hagen in the afternoon. I have a normal operational day of flying on Friday if I remember my roster correctly, so the other days will be office time, which I will not have any difficulty filling up.
Have a great week.
