A Day in the Life of a MAF Arnhem Land pilot. Part 1

Another very busy week so this is my first opportunity to write another blog.

As is has been so busy maybe I will do a post on what a day involves up here flying for MAF?

Here goes

0615 – Alarm goes off and struggle out of bed. Turn the aircon on in the lunge room because it’s already 26 deg and 90% humidity. Shower, shave, get dressed etc

View from where I eat breakfast. (and all my meals)

0645 – Sit down for breakfast and look at the view with my coffee (see pic). Wait for the bus

0710 – The Yirrkala bus arrives to take me into work after stopping at various yolgnu houses to pick up the first passengers of the day.

0730 – Arrive at the Laynha Air hangar. Get the weather for the day and prepare the aircraft, refuel, wash the aircraft etc

0815 – Weigh up the first passengers of the day. They are teachers from Laynha Homelands that are going out to the various schools in the remote homelands for the day. In this case, Birany Birany (pronounced Brang Brang) and Garrathalala. Weigh and load all their gear.

Buymarr airstrip. On the way to Birany Birany

0830 – Airborne for the first dropoff which is a 25 min flight. There is weather about so can’t really climb too high and we have to weave and dodge through showers and rain all the way down.

0900 – Land at Birany Birany. Unload all the gear and the teachers. Lots of Yolngu come up to me wanting to go places. There is a funeral (a yolngu funeral is a ceremony that can last between 3 days and 2 weeks) at Gurumuru and they want to travel there to be with their family. I can’t do it but tell them to ring the Laynha office as there may be a flight coming down yalala (Yolngu for later)

0920 – Airborne for the short 10 min hop across the bay to Garrathalala. Due to the weather and low cloud and rain, we are forced to go low level, 500ft above the ground. From this low height we spot herds of dugong, sharks and a large salt water crocodile sunning itself on the deserted beach.

Low cloud and rain make for an interesting days flying to say the least

0935 – Land at Garrathalala. With the wind around this landing is tricky. It has a pronounced upslope and it is very short. It is all dirt and now because of the rain, very muddy and slippery. There is a strong crosswind because of the line of showers and rain that are now coming across the airfield. It takes all my concentration to get on the ground safely.

This could go on forever. How about we have part 2 yalala?

Sharing the Gospel

I’m off and running. By that I mean that I am off the bench and in the starting line-up and am flying fulltime on my own just like everyone else.



Buymarr Airstrip and Community

It’s a great feeling to be doing exactly what I believe that God had made me for. However I have to keep remembering the real reason that God has enabled me to be a pilot, the large mass of humanity that doesn’t know Him.

I’m reminded of that every time I see the Yolngu (local aboriginal people, for those who have not read my previous blogs) drinking, smoking and slowly killing themselves from lack of any desire to live life. They are a very proud people with an extremely old and rich culture but years of balanda (white man) influence, among other things, has eroded their self respect and dignity.



Yirrkala Bible Study. (Photo from MAF website)

The MAF staff, here in Arnhem Land, is doing a sterling job of reaching the Yolngu for Jesus. They fly regular outreaches to the outlying homeland communities, lead bible studies here in Yirrkala, organise a kids club and help run the local the Yirrkala church on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings, to name just a few. The greatest thing they do however is help, as best as they can, to assist the local Yolngu Christian leaders to reach their own communities. They can do it so much better than we can.

The latest thing is to use technology to get the gospel across. Every Yolngu person over 14, and some under, carries a mobile phone. MAF have set up a Bluetooth texting system. Whenever a phone, with Bluetooth switched on, comes in range of a MAF mobile phone equipped with the program (which will soon be every MAF staff member) a text is automatically sent to that phone asking if they want to hear more about Jesus. Pretty Cool

If you want to hear more about all these things and more you can go to MAF Arnhem Land facebook page. Or click on the link below.

In the meantime, please pray for the Yolngu and the MAF staff up here, they are on the front line serving God.

MAF North Australia

Route Check (A fancy way of saying, are you good enough to fly up here?)

Ok, so last post I was doing restandardisation. Now I am in the middle of what is referred to as a ‘route check’.

Basically it involved the same very heavy workload of any other pilot but you have the chief pilot (big boss) sitting beside you pulling apart every action you do and every decision you make. But not only that he is firing questions at you all the time that you have to come up with a half intelligent sounding answer for. And to top it all off at any unexpected moment (usually when I’m thinking about how good that coffee is going to be at the end of the day) he pulls the power and simulates an engine failure which can and does happen at any time, after takeoff, in cruise, on climb etc.



Landing at Bremer Island

Not that I am at all complaining, the boss is one of the real nice guys and I’m having an absolute ball but oh boy what a steep learning curve it is.

The local language is slowly coming back to me. Yolngu Matha, which is translated as Yolngu speak. (Yolngu being the local aboriginal people) I have surprised not a few Yolngu when I turn up. They see me as the ‘newbie’ but can speak Yolnu matha better than some of the older pilots that are here. It always brings a big smile to their face when I ask a question like, “Nhamana Yolngu wawa?”, which means, "how many people are going on this flight my brother?". I’m really enjoying it to say the least.

Until next time.

Re-Standardisation (a fancy way to say, getting back on the horse)

Had it after a long day of flying

So I've just finished 2 full days of flying, trying to remember how to throw the C206 around the sky.

It's been so wonderful to get back into the air in an aircraft I've known so well in the past and am really enjoying reintroducing myself and renewing a very fulfilling relationship.

At first she wanted to get away from me and I was frustrated with her but we both remembered each other and before long we were enjoying each others company and reliving old joyous times.

Cessna 206

Plenty of circuits of all types, low level flight, every emergency imaginable, navigation and fighting weather had made the last couple of days a long, tiring and thoroughly satisfying experience.

Now onto the real work.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Well, I'm finally off.
After weeks of study, stress and all sorts of medical procedures I'm finally on my way back to MAF for a bit over a month of flying after 7 years away from full time flying.

Up early on the train for the trip to the airport and then airborne to cairns for the first stop. I was stuck in the middle seat with people on either side that both felt they had exclusive rights to the arm rest. I ended up sitting with both arms tucked in so close to my side I felt like I was having Christmas dinner with the Brady bunch at a table meant for six.

Cairns Airport

After two and a half very cramped hours I made it to cairns airport. I could really have used a bit of what is displayed in the photo. Unfortunately I don't feel like handing over 20 of my hard earned dollars so some large, hairy male can rub me all over!

A six hour layover now gives me the chance to read some MAF operation manuals and have a coffee (and maybe some Hungry Jacks)

I found a seat next to a power point. I don't care if it's meant for the vacuum cleaner, I'm plugging in my laptop.

Ok, back to reading. Next stop, Nhulunbuy.

Finally, I'm back

So, after 8 years away from full time flying, I'm back baby. Even if it is only for 5 weeks. I have been asked by MAF to return to Arnhem Land for a few weeks to fill in as they are a bit short of pilots.

Africa 2004

I have been madly trying to get my Class 1 medical up to date ($600 later) and eagerly awaiting some ops manuals and aircraft information to be sent to me so that i can swat up on the all the important bits i'll need to know, e.g. aircraft speeds etc.

I will be trying to post as much as I can on my time up there and will hopefully have some great photos to go along with it.