Background
Last year, MAF purchased six brand new Cessna Caravans for
our Papua New Guinea program. This was made possible by the sale of our
residence compound in the center of Nairobi, Kenya. By selling this compound
MAF could buy another compound further out of Nairobi, build the needed houses,
and buy six brand new aircraft for another program where they were needed. I
think this is an example of good stewardship of our resources.
I am so privileged to fly one of these aircraft from Wichita,
Kansas to our Australia base in Cairns. The first three were flown over in
November 2018 and my colleague Hansjoerg Schlatter and I are now flying another
two. The final sixth caravan will be flown over later this month.
Getting ready
The route is Wichita, KS – Santa Maria, CA – Hilo, HI –
Majuro, Marshall Islands – Cairns, Australia and covers 13,600km. Total flight
time is close to 50 hours.
We arrived in Kansas Sunday February 10th. The
airplanes were parked at Southwind Global in Moundridge where they had fitted
the three ferry tanks. We have 2 x 204 US gal tanks in the forward section of
the cabin and a third 110 US gal tank in the rear section of the cabin. The aft
tank we only partially fill as our overweight exemption from the FAA is limited
to 30% over max takeoff weight. That might not sound a lot but it is 1,138kg
over the normal max takeoff weight. The guys at Southwind Global briefed us on
how to use the tanks and operate the transfer pumps. They also did a test
flight on each plane for us to test the fuel transfer system. All the fuel
needs to be pumped into the right main wing tank.
In Moundridge we made the final preparations and went
through our equipment. When crossing the Pacific in a single engine aircraft
you need to be prepared for a number of scenarios. Even more so when you do it
single pilot. If we would have to land in the ocean we want to be as prepared
as possible. So we spent this time to inspect and learn to use our raft,
immersion suit, life vests, flares, satellite tracker and phone, desalination
equipment, flares, spare oxygen bottle etc. One thing is to bring all this with
you, but you also need to think through how you place them and secure them in
the cockpit. You also drill what you do in the case of a water landing and go
through a procedure on how to exit the airplane with all your gear in order to
survive on the ocean until you’re picked up.
The last part of our preparation was to reposition our
airplanes down to Wichita airport. As there is no fuel in Moundridge, and the
runway is rather short for a 30% overweight departure, we flew down to Wichita
in the afternoon of Tuesday February 12th to refuel the airplanes.
Last I flew in the US was March 2014, 5 years ago. And coming from a rather
empty Ugandan airspace it somehow felt a little intimidating to suddenly fly into
the busy US airspace. But as soon you’re in touch with air traffic control it
all comes back to you and you realize how much you have missed proper professional ATC.
We landed in Wichita 2:39pm local time after the short 20 minute flight over from
Moundridge. Next morning we will depart for the 1,182nm flight to Santa Maria,
California.
Flying for Christ 