MAF NZ recruitment retreat

In February MAF NZ held a weekend retreat in Tauranga for people interested in finding out more about working for MAF. It was great to hear about how MAF is organised and how it operates internationally, as well as to hear personal stories from a number of people who have served with MAF in different parts of the world. Throughout the weekend my sense of peace that this is what God is calling me to just grew and grew. It was humbling to share my own journey with other people and see them encouraged by my testimony.

A highlight of the weekend was getting to fly ZK-MAF again. As it turned out, Kapiti aero club decided to organise a multi-day trip to the Bay of Plenty on the exact same weekend. They arrived at Tauranga on the Saturday afternoon, at the same time our group was there for trial flights. Since I had been signed off with a type rating when I did the flight assessment a month earlier, I was allowed to go by myself with some aero club passengers.

Although it was only a short flight - about half an hour - it is one that will always bring a big smile to my face, because one of those passengers was my instructor Ben. It wasn't so much to impress him with the aircraft (although he was impressed), but to share a tangible bit of MAF with him as a thank-you.

The preparation

(Start here: The beginning)

This part is perhaps best told in pictures!

My first step was to get my PPL current again. I had my first refresher lesson in May 2016.

Taking part in a forced landing competition, June 2016

By November I felt I was ready - technically and spiritually - to take the next step of faith and ask my instructor about doing a CPL.

Cue another 6 theory exams and another 100 hrs of flying, including 20 hours of rather long cross-countries. I'm not complaining; it was a great way to see the country!

On the ground at the Porangahau airstrip as part of my CPL cross country flight test, May 2017

Next was the CPL flight test...

... then single engine instrument rating (which involved another 30 hours flying and three more theory exams).

From here my plan was to prepare myself as best I could for the MAF flight assessment, which was to be conducted in a C206. This was a scary prospect, as up to that time most of my flying had been in either a C152 or C172.

For those who aren't familiar with the different aircraft types, here is a quick run-down:

Aircraft

# seats

Engine power

Cruise speed

C152

2

100 bhp

95 kts

C172

4

180 bhp

110 kts

(C182

4

230 bhp

135 kts)

C206

6

300 bhp

120 kts

As you can see, the C206 would be the largest aircraft I had flown, both in terms of physical size and engine power.
On top of that, I had been told to expect some MAF-style components to the assessment, including navigation and landing on tight airstrips.

The first box to tick off was to get some experience flying an aircraft with a bigger engine. One of the Kapiti aero club members made his C182 available for hire in Nov 2017, so I got a type rating straightaway and took it for a few cross-country flights, clocking up about 10 hours in the process.

Taking some colleagues to New Plymouth, Dec 2017

I also went down to Blenheim to learn some strip flying at Marlborough Aero Club in their C172.

On the ground at an airstrip in the Awatere Valley, Dec 2017

Finally, there was nothing more that could be done to prepare. It was time to meet the 206.

ZK-MAF is the only MAF aircraft operating in New Zealand. It's mostly used for promotional flights and flight assessments, having been retired from over 12,000 hours of active service for MAF in Cambodia, Arnhem Land, and other places.
MAF pilot applicants have the option of doing a quick familiarisation flight (e.g. 1 hr) and then getting straight into the assessment, or having a few lessons and completing a formal type rating before being put through their paces. I chose to do the latter.

I arranged with the MAF instructor/assessor to spend two days learning the ropes before sitting the flight assessment on the morning of the third day. We had two short flights on the first day (general handling, and circuits), then after some dual check circuits on day two he allowed me to go out for some solo practise. After the first solo flight, I was struggling to come to grips with this enormous, powerful aircraft - with the gliding performance of a fridge - and was having serious doubts about my ability to fly it for an assessment. When I got back on the ground, I sat in it for a while and vented to God. He had brought me this far and I had done everything I could to prepare, but I didn't feel ready. Maybe I should just ask to finish the type rating and then go home, come back in a few months and try again? No, the Holy Spirit said, just go out after lunch for one more flight. I did that and felt a little better, but I knew that if I passed the assessment it would only be because God enabled me to.

I was given the assessment scenario that night, planned a couple of different routes, and committed the whole thing to God in prayer. The next morning I chose to begin the assessment by praying for our flight. As I started the engine I was filled with peace about what lay ahead, and as we were en route to our first location I actually felt like this was a real MAF flight and I was a real MAF pilot. A couple of hours later when we arrived back, I was almost sad that it had to end - I had enjoyed it that much!

What a lesson in doing things in God's strength (and not our own), using the abilities He has given us, in faith.
Oh, and by the way, I passed.

With ZK-MAF after passing the flight assessment

The call

(Start here: The beginning)

By the time 2012 rolled around, life was pretty settled. I was enjoying my work and had many opportunities to travel; I was involved at church and had a good network of friends there. Then late that year a couple from our church - Ken and Erica Mathews - announced that they were going out as missionaries to work with MAF. At their farewell service, Ken spoke about the work of MAF and I felt an intense burning in my spirit that I should be following. The dream of being a pilot and Mum's suggestion about flying for MAF bubbled to the surface. I asked Ken whether it would be possible for someone with a private pilot's license to get involved in short term mission trips, his response was, 'You'd need at least a CPL' (i.e. commercial pilot's license). That put a dampener on that idea, but the sense stayed with me.

In early 2013 the research institution where I was working went through a major restructure and change of direction. There was significant upheaval throughout the organisation, with various research teams being transferred to universities. The group of 11 that I was part of saw five people leave. Out of those who were left, I drew the short straw of the acting team leader role, even though I too was in negotiations to move to another research institution. What a joke.

Except it wasn't a joke. 9 months of uncertainty took its toll on my mental state. Eventually things got sorted out and I ended up moving to another team within the same organisation. But God taught me many things during that time, not least of which was that I had been holding on too tightly to my job. I finally came to the point where I could say regarding it, 'The Lord gave, and if the Lord wants to take away, blessed be the name of the Lord.'

There was no doubt in my mind that God had given me this job. The sequence of events were one 'coincidence' after another. I acknowledged this in my journal at the time, that if He now wanted to take it away, it was only because He had something better in mind.

Fast forward with me to early 2016. I was on a work trip in Melbourne, Australia and was lying in bed reflecting on my life. I had one more mortgage payment to make on my house. What would I do with all the extra cash that would be available to me? I knew I needed to use it for God's glory, but how? What was my life all about anyway? Why had God blessed me with so many talents and opportunities? I was using them individually, but surely He had a plan that would see them combined. And what about the dream of being a pilot, and the burning I felt in my spirit when Ken spoke about MAF?
Then the Holy Spirit challenged me about I'd been telling people for years, 'Once I pay off the mortgage, I can get back into flying.' Was I prepared to follow through with that?
What if I was able to get a CPL... what else did MAF want in their pilots?

I sat up and reached for my computer. 'MAF pilots', I typed into Google. As I read through the list of qualifications for pilots, I was able to check off every box in the list. I felt my spirit soaring as I could finally see, for the first time ever, how everything in my life fitted together:

• CPL with 200 hours flight time, 100 hours pilot-in-command, 10 hours night flying experience (all of these are needed for a CPL issue anyway)
  
• Single engine instrument rating

Ok, let's assume I can get those. What else?

• Agree with MAF's vision, purpose and values (no problem there)
  
• Committed Christian (absolutely)
  
• Willingness to live and work in basic conditions (no problem given the amount of hiking I do - we call it 'tramping' in NZ)
  
• Good physical fitness (I enjoy mountain biking, ran a marathon in 2015, and play badminton for the Hutt Valley division 4 reps team. So it's a 'yes' to that)
  
• Experience travelling and/or living overseas and in other cultures desirable (another yes; lived in the UK and USA for a year each, and travelled to over 30 different countries, including Kenya and Nepal)
  
• A one-year or equivalent Bible college qualification

This last one made me smile. Back in 2001 I entered a Bible trivia competition on our local radio station where the prize was an all expenses paid 'Certificate in Christian Ministry' 1 year course by distance learning. I won the competition and completed the course for fun. But it turned out that even that was part of God's plan.

I think the last point kind of clinched it for me. I started praying. 'Ok, Lord, You've got my attention. Thank You for showing me Your plan and how literally everything in my life fits together for becoming an MAF pilot. I get that my intellect will be used in doing mental arithmetic on the fly - sorry about the pun. And I'm sure the musical abilities You've given me will fit in with missions work. But where does being a research scientist fit in?'
He answered me straight away. It's for the money.

Instantly a weight lifted from my shoulders. All that angst from the previous year; I needn't have worried. A good paying job, to fund the rest of my flight training for CPL, instrument rating, and whatever else might be needed.

The next thing I Googled was the Kapiti aero club. According to their website, they offer flight training up to CPL and even C-cat instructor ratings. Of course, I would have to get up to speed again at private pilot's license level before embarking on CPL training. It was 11 years since I had last flown any kind of powered aircraft. I wasn't sure how much I would remember. But there was only one way to find out.

Next: The preparation

The opportunities

(Start here: The beginning)

1998 was my first year at university, studying physics and mathematics as double majors for a Bachelor of Science. I quit ATC not long after after coming home from the ATC power flying course, but one day a few months later I was tidying my room and came across my notes. Reading through them I noticed that a few of them, with my instructor's name as an author, were subtitled 'Welair Aviation Ltd. Paraparaumu'. Paraparaumu (or Paraparam as known locally) is about 45 minutes' drive away from Lower Hutt. Wouldn't it be great to keep having lessons with the same instructor! So I found a phone number and called them. Sure enough, my instructor was working there, and was happy to take me on for more lessons. Over the course of the next year we covered the syllabus for the private pilot's license. I sat and passed my flight test on 30 June 1999, a few weeks after I turned 19.

Taking some Sunday school kids for a flight, 2003

For the next few years as I worked through my university degrees - bachelors, honours, then PhD - I would go flying once or twice a month. I learned how to fly a bigger plane so I could take three passengers at a time instead of one. I pretty much stuck to the local area, mainly because I was terrified of talking to air traffic control.

In 2005 I completed a PhD in physics and had been given a 2-year fixed term post-doctoral job virtually on a platter about six months before (another story which was completely God's doing). One important thing to note: it was based in London at Imperial College.

When I arrived at Imperial it was orientation week. I went to check out whether there were any Christian groups on campus that I felt were worth joining. Imagine my surprise to see a glider on display in the quad! I signed up without hesitation and didn't mind the 6 a.m. starts on Saturday mornings to be picked up for the drive to Lasham aerodrome.

I had just under 9 hours' gliding experience from my ATC days, but all of that bar two short flights was from an aero tow. At Lasham they use a winch for launching, which takes quite a bit of getting used to. Although I clocked up another 9 flights during the year I was there, still to this day I have not flown solo in a glider. But being part of the club allowed me to get my aviation 'fix'.

Feeling excited about flying in a glider again, Oct 2005

After a year at Imperial, an opportunity arose that was too good to turn down - moving to Stanford University in California to continue the rest of my post-doc there. That was a great experience in terms of what I was able to learn, but it came at a cost of personal sanity. At one point I had the choice of extending my stay for another 12 months, and was seriously considering it. But after a five-month period where I had maybe 3 weekends off, I decided enough was enough and that I would go home to New Zealand. Again, God had paved the way well in advance for me to transition seamlessly into a permanent job as a research scientist when I arrived back in August 2007.

Within a couple of months of getting back home, Mum had convinced me that buying a house was a better option than renting, and I had found a place that I quite liked. The sale went through and by October I had a house, complete with a brand new mortgage. Financially it made sense to try to pay that off as quickly as I could, so I let my pilot's license lapse (since I was overdue for a medical and a biennial flight review anyway).

Over the next few years occasionally the topic would come up in conversation. 'Yeah, I've got my private pilot's license,' I'd say.
The response would usually be, 'Wow, cool!' Oh yeah, ten points to me on the awesomeness scale.
Then, 'So how often do you go flying?' Ba-dum! Minus five.
'Well I've let things lapse while I pay off the mortgage. But once that's gone I can always get back into it.'

Next: The call

The beginning

"'Begin at the beginning,' the King said, very gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'" 
(Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland)


I don't know where or when the end of this story will be, but I can tell you how it began.

I grew up in a Christian family in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, with my mum, dad, and two younger brothers. Like most kids I went through phases of wanting to be different things when I grew up. But when I was 11 years old (pictured below) God planted the desire in my heart to be a pilot.

Me, age 11-ish

Now when you hear the word 'pilot', most people think of airline pilots. That wasn't the type of pilot I wanted to be. I had dreams - literally - of being at the controls of a small plane, flying around. This was in spite of having never been in a small plane, not having any relatives who were pilots, all the usual things that trigger such a thought in a child's mind.

I told my mum about this. She said, 'Maybe you could fly for MAF one day.'
'What's that?'
'Mission Aviation Fellowship, they fly missionaries around, that sort of thing.'
Sounds pretty boring, I thought, and left it at that.

In my early teens I found out about the Air Training Corps (ATC). Established during the second world war for boys who were too young to enlist, it taught them military discipline and basic airmanship in preparation for joining the Air Force when they were old enough. These days it's more like Scouts with an Air Force flavour. I had some great times during my 5 years at ATC, but the highlight would have to be getting selected for the National Power Flying course, held annually at RNZAF Base Woodbourne in Blenheim. About 30 cadets from all over the country were treated to a 10 day intensive flying programme, where one of the aims is for everyone to fly their first solo - a major milestone for any pilot. I flew mine at the age of 17, on 20 April 1998. The dream was alive.

Me with instructor John after flying my first solo

Next: The opportunities