Flying in PNG

While it is not the main reason I am here, flying is of course a very big part of my trip. It is a lot different flying here in PNG for multiple reasons. One is, of course, the mountains. Mountain flying is quite a bit more dangerous than regular flying due to the fact that wind currents are sporadic and gust can vary by 50 mph. Rain and clouds tend to obscure the mountains and can "sock in" a runway for days. High altitudes make it harder on the aircraft to perform and climb which is never a good thing but especially with jagged rocks hanging around. (Maybe I shouldn't be telling everybody all of the cons). Jungles never do make for soft landings, especially dense, wooded rainforest. To fly over here alone, you have to take an orientation class in the same aircraft you plan on flying in. In this class, a veteran jungle pilot will be instructing on the right (and life extending) way to fly in the jungle.

Ok, now on to stuff y'all actually care about! Everyday we fly we try to be at the runway prior to sunrise so we can preflight the plane and be ready to go on first light. Depending on the weather, we try to fly up to about 11:30 or so. Then the clouds just become to unpredictable and we don't want to be sleeping somewhere else so we call it a day.  Bro. Matt plans on taking me with him every time he can on a flight. During these flights I am just watching, listening, and jotting any question down mentally for later. I haven't flown for any substantial amount of time yet simply because the longest leg of we have flown, save the trip from Morseby, was 15 minutes. On one of the "flights" we made we took off, climbed 100 feet, and set up for landing!!! It lasted 4 minutes just be cause we had to circle around down to the grass strip. So right now, I'm not really flying, just getting to fly! But tomorrow Bro. Matt has to make some trips and I think one of them is fairly long. On longer flights I will sometimes have the chance of doing all the hands on stuff after leveling from takeoff. I don't really get to log any of this time sense I am not a PNG pilot but just Matt's letting me fly and showing me some different things in PNG is awesome! I am okay to fly here only in the sense that on paper, Matt is the one who is flying. He is the pilot in command yet I am allowed to pilot the plane. So many things work differently over here than I was expecting, but I am already picking up on them, with Bro. Matt's help!

The airstrips here are relatively short compared to runways in the states, but when Matt took me to the "shortest" runway I was a little ticked. It was only about 1,000 feet long which is 200 shorter than my grass strip. I told Bro. Matt about it and he said that it sounded like perfect practice for PNG. 

Well, I gotta run now. We have a pretty full schedule of flying today including picking up Connor and Jason from their place as well as some others. I am sure Connor will have plenty to write about as soon as he gets the chance! Today is Hannah Allen's birthday, so this afternoon when we get back, the TTMK team is gonna get together for a little party thing. Hope y'all are having a great afternoon.

-Collin