Nicki is rejoicing because her computer is up and running again, and she even managed to retrieve the data files between now and when she last backed everything up.
Great thanks and credit to the Apple support team, especially the supervisor, who spent hours, literally, on the phone at their expense talking Nicki through various processes to try and get it working.
Apart from a flight in the C172, bringing it back from Goroka to Mount Hagen on Friday, all this week has been spent in the office.
The C172 flight turned out to be more interesting than anticipated. We have a young PNGian, Ricky, working in Flight Ops as a sort of executive secretary for Todd Aebischer, the Country Director (previously known as Programme Manager). Ricky is a licensed pilot but with not much flight experience, so when we have need to shuttle the C172, we try to give him the opportunity to fly under supervision.
All the way down to Goroka in the back of a Twin Otter I was looking at the mountain ranges to the north, and yes, it was lovely blue sky with the ridge lines clear. Rather than return by the most direct route I thought I’d give Ricky some experience navigating to the north of Mount Wilhelm and back to Hagen via the Jimi Valley.
That is what we did, but Ricky didn’t see many of the landmarks! By the time we’d done the daily inspection of the aircraft and left, the weather had changed remarkably and it wasn’t really ideal for a little underpowered Cessna 172.
We were able to work our way around the clouds without too much trouble, and weren’t even relying on the GPS, but Ricky was certainly out of his experience level and I was reminded of why I like IFR Twin Otters rather than VFR aircraft. Anyway, we arrived back without scaring me, but Ricky admitted he’d been a bit tense with his first encounter of having to work weather. While it wasn’t the navigation exercise and route familiarisation I’d planned, it was nonetheless a valuable lesson for him to see how not such good weather can be worked safely with options available the whole time.
I can remember when I was new in PNG being told by the then Chief Pilot that while you never like having to work weather, you do reach a stage where you know how to do it safely. Hopefully Ricky has taken his first step towards that, and I’ve been reminded that I still don’t like doing it, but can do it safely!
One of the Otters has been grounded this week. During a routine inspection it was discovered that one of the engines had what is called Foreign Object Damage (FOD) in the first stage of the compressor. When a bit of stone (that’s what it usually is, though there was no debris this time to confirm) hits the compressor disk which is spinning at tens of thousands of times per minute, it doesn’t do much good! All credit to the engine manufacturers that it withstood the damage and the pilots had no idea it had happened!
The risk of FOD is one of those things pilots have to live with. Probably the most famous example in recent years was when a flock of Canada geese went through the engines of an Airbus A320 and Sully, the Captain, and his First Officer, put the aircraft down safely in the Manhattan River. Fortunately events like that are extremely rare; in fact that’s the only one I can recall. Most often damage is picked up, like ours was, on a routine inspection.
At one stage we thought the whole engine may have to be sent away for repair, but a specialist from the overhaul facility’s mobile repair team came up on Friday and has been able to dress out the damage and the compressor blades are still within acceptable limits. All being well the aircraft will be back in the air on Tuesday.
Other news:
I’ve been navigating MAF long enough to be able to see clouds like this coming up on the horizon. They don’t surprise me and I know I can navigate around them, but I still don’t have to particularly like doing so!
May you have a cloud free week, or if clouds do appear, may you safely and comfortably navigate your way around them.
Great thanks and credit to the Apple support team, especially the supervisor, who spent hours, literally, on the phone at their expense talking Nicki through various processes to try and get it working.
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Apart from a flight in the C172, bringing it back from Goroka to Mount Hagen on Friday, all this week has been spent in the office.
The C172 flight turned out to be more interesting than anticipated. We have a young PNGian, Ricky, working in Flight Ops as a sort of executive secretary for Todd Aebischer, the Country Director (previously known as Programme Manager). Ricky is a licensed pilot but with not much flight experience, so when we have need to shuttle the C172, we try to give him the opportunity to fly under supervision.
All the way down to Goroka in the back of a Twin Otter I was looking at the mountain ranges to the north, and yes, it was lovely blue sky with the ridge lines clear. Rather than return by the most direct route I thought I’d give Ricky some experience navigating to the north of Mount Wilhelm and back to Hagen via the Jimi Valley.
That is what we did, but Ricky didn’t see many of the landmarks! By the time we’d done the daily inspection of the aircraft and left, the weather had changed remarkably and it wasn’t really ideal for a little underpowered Cessna 172.
We were able to work our way around the clouds without too much trouble, and weren’t even relying on the GPS, but Ricky was certainly out of his experience level and I was reminded of why I like IFR Twin Otters rather than VFR aircraft. Anyway, we arrived back without scaring me, but Ricky admitted he’d been a bit tense with his first encounter of having to work weather. While it wasn’t the navigation exercise and route familiarisation I’d planned, it was nonetheless a valuable lesson for him to see how not such good weather can be worked safely with options available the whole time.
I can remember when I was new in PNG being told by the then Chief Pilot that while you never like having to work weather, you do reach a stage where you know how to do it safely. Hopefully Ricky has taken his first step towards that, and I’ve been reminded that I still don’t like doing it, but can do it safely!
**********
One of the Otters has been grounded this week. During a routine inspection it was discovered that one of the engines had what is called Foreign Object Damage (FOD) in the first stage of the compressor. When a bit of stone (that’s what it usually is, though there was no debris this time to confirm) hits the compressor disk which is spinning at tens of thousands of times per minute, it doesn’t do much good! All credit to the engine manufacturers that it withstood the damage and the pilots had no idea it had happened!
The risk of FOD is one of those things pilots have to live with. Probably the most famous example in recent years was when a flock of Canada geese went through the engines of an Airbus A320 and Sully, the Captain, and his First Officer, put the aircraft down safely in the Manhattan River. Fortunately events like that are extremely rare; in fact that’s the only one I can recall. Most often damage is picked up, like ours was, on a routine inspection.
At one stage we thought the whole engine may have to be sent away for repair, but a specialist from the overhaul facility’s mobile repair team came up on Friday and has been able to dress out the damage and the compressor blades are still within acceptable limits. All being well the aircraft will be back in the air on Tuesday.
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- The tomatoes I planted some weeks back look as though they are infected with blight. They’re the same family as potatoes and prone to the same diseases. Hopefully a few will be rescuable, though they’ll need to ripen from green on the window sill away from the infected plants.
- More progress has been made with the packing up. Our coffee table is now wrapped in cardboard for protection and in the first crate to be properly packed. The for sale list of everything we can think of at the moment that isn’t coming home will go out on Monday.
- Having expected to have the best part of two months to catch up on emails (I have made good progress this week) and to make major progress on two major projects, a cloud has come up over the horizon. I wasn’t totally surprised when Doug Miles asked if I could cover for him while he’s on leave over Christmas and through January. I suspect my inbox will soon have lots of emails again, just when I was getting it under control.
I’ve been navigating MAF long enough to be able to see clouds like this coming up on the horizon. They don’t surprise me and I know I can navigate around them, but I still don’t have to particularly like doing so!
May you have a cloud free week, or if clouds do appear, may you safely and comfortably navigate your way around them.
