Paraparam 'Touch and Go' event

Last weekend MAF held a 'Touch and Go' event at Paraparam - my home aerodrome. Mark Fox, CEO of MAF NZ, came down for the weekend and it was great to catch up with him and work together promoting MAF to those who visited. I did quite a bit of flying on Friday and Saturday, taking local pastors and supporters for short scenic flights. It was great to connect with people and show them a tangible bit of MAF! On Sunday we had an open time for the public to come and look at the plane and talk to us, and probably had about 40-50 people come to visit. I really enjoyed it!

I have been borrowing the 206 for the past two weeks and have taken 80 people for flights in that time

Getting out of the plane after a flight

Mark and I talking with supporters after a flight

Minnie Kendon visited on Sunday afternoon

Hawkes Bay weekend

I'll be honest, when the invitation came to take part in a missions conference in Hawkes Bay for the weekend I had the 206 in Paraparam, I didn't really want to go. I'd waited for months to have the plane available to take my Wellington-based supporters for flights that weekend! But after discussing with my home support team, I reluctantly agreed to accept. However, it turned out to be an awesome time of connecting with people, and I'm really glad I went. When I was flying back on Sunday afternoon and reflecting on everything that had taken place, it didn't take much to see God's hand at work in the background bringing everything together in a way that far surpassed my original intentions. As always, His plan is the best and we would be wise to seek it out!

I want to thank everyone who hosted me - Paul and Elaine for their hospitality, the Women in Missions Hawkes Bay committee for inviting me to speak at their conference, and Riverbend Bible Church for allowing me to speak and arranging to meet with the missions committee over lunch. Everyone gave me a very warm welcome and I was greatly encouraged by the different conversations I had with a number of people.

Here are a few photos to sum up the various events:

Ready with a banner at the Women in Missions conference

Speaking at the Women in Missions conference

A quickly organised 'show and tell' with the plane

Giving a presentation at Riverbend Bible Church

Out and about in Hawkes Bay

This weekend I'm in Hawkes Bay for several events. The weather forecast for the Wellington-Kapiti region was pretty bad today and even worse tomorrow, but after the low cloud cleared this morning and before the wind got really strong (forecast 50 kts at 3000 ft), I managed to take off, headed up towards Palmerston North, shot over the Manawatu gorge, and got slightly pummelled in the lee of the ranges getting to Hastings.

The 206 safely on the ground at Hastings

Tomorrow (Friday) Mandy from the MAF office will arrive and between us we'll be holding an open time at the aero club for people to come and talk to us and look at the plane. There is also the possibility of taking some people for a scenic flight, but it will depend on the weather conditions - if it's too lumpy (like it was today) then we might call it off.

On Saturday I'm speaking at the Women in Mission Hawkes Bay conference. This event is held every year and features a range of presenters, both veteran missionaries and newbies like me.

Finally, on Sunday I'll be giving a short presentation at Riverbend Bible Church, before flying back to Paraparam in the afternoon.

Raewyn from my home support team is being my taxi driver/tour guide/personal assistant :) I really appreciate her willingness to help and her local knowledge - it means I can focus on the presentations and not have to worry about all the logistics as well.

It's 206 time!

This weekend we had our church retreat at Waikanae, about 10 minutes' drive north of Paraparam. Last Friday I got a lift down to Blenheim to collect the MAF Cessna 206 and fly it back across Cook Strait so that I can show friends, people from church and local supporters the plane and take those who are interested for short flights. I'll have exclusive use of the plane for nearly the next two weeks, culminating in an 'official' MAF promotional event from 16-18 November.

It's here! ZK-MAF at Paraparam airport

Friends from church checking out the plane - unfortunately it was too windy to go for a flight today.

VOR/DME, ILS, RNAV - tick!

I sat (and passed) my instrument renewal flight test today. Thankfully the weather co-operated - the last few days have been unsuitable with a low freezing level and extensive cloud and rain. It's always best to avoid turning your plane into a popsicle! Today the freezing level was high enough - about 4000 ft according to the forecast (but actually about 6000 ft) and there was no cloud along our intended track. There was a pretty stiff southeasterly though (about 30 kts at 3000 ft), which made for plenty of bumps getting in and out of Paraparam, but apart from that it all went pretty well. I also enjoyed flying with Paul and getting feedback from an 'external' person on how I'm doing.

For those who care about the details... I opted to do the VOR/DME approach at Ohakea, followed by the ILS, then came back to Paraparam for the RNAV. These use three different instrument systems on the aircraft. The VOR and ILS use signals from radio transmitters on the ground, while the RNAV uses GPS. ILS (instrument landing system) is a precision approach and this was the first time I had been tested on it. Being at Paraparam we are quite fortunate to have two aerodromes nearby that are equipped with ILS: Wellington and Ohakea. I had done two ILS training flights into Wellington a couple of months ago, and both times we had to land and then hold on the ground for half an hour for a departure clearance (which is an eternity when you're sitting there with the prop running, watching the $$ mount up...). To use Ohakea at the weekend I had to ask the air force for permission, which was granted without too much fuss. One of the conditions was that I phone them on the day to advise my intentions, and they even offered to ensure the tower was on watch for while I was there, which was a pleasant surprise since normally they are off watch on Sundays.

Below is my GPS track for the entire flight - the logbook entry for what we did reads:
PP AGAXA3 KAMET H467 FOXTN H313 OH VOR/DME 09 via arc, miss app, vectors ILS/DME 09 miss app, H313 FOXTN H467 KAMET 1H RNAV 16 PP

Ten minutes at TradeMe

On Friday I had the opportunity to give a ten minute talk about MAF at the TradeMe head office in Wellington. This was organised in next to no time at all thanks to a friend from my badminton team who works there. People seemed to be engaged and there were quite a few questions afterwards.

My calendar is looking pretty full for the next few weeks! Between now and the end of November I'll be giving talks at the following places:
- Maungaraki Baptist, Lower Hutt, 21 Oct
- Women in Mission conference, Napier, 10 Nov
- Riverbend Bible Church, Havelock North, 11 Nov
- Olive Tree Church, Lower Hutt, 18 Nov
- An over 50s home group, Upper Hutt, 24 Nov

Plus a few more with dates to be confirmed:
- Home school family group, Lower Hutt
- Queen Street Chapel, Levin

I will also be attending my school's centenary celebrations on 26-27 October, and am planning to take plenty of information sheets to give to people.

Finally, MAF is organising a 'Touch and Go' promotional event at Paraparam from 16-18 November. They're in the process of contacting local churches and supporters to invite them to hear more about MAF and also to have the opportunity to go for a flight in the 206. I'm looking forward to meeting people with an active interest in MAF and also getting to be the pilot for some of the flights!

TSCF

Recently I was sorting through some emails to get an idea of how long, on average, each presentation takes to organise, from making first contact to actually giving it. So far, the average is around 6-8 weeks. But averages are just that - some are longer, others are shorter. In some cases, much shorter!

This week I gave a talk at TSCF (Tertiary Students' Christian Fellowship) at Victoria University of Wellington. It was great to see their enthusiasm and to be able to encourage them in their faith.

I had sent a cold-call email to the group back in July, but on 18 September when I realised that their semester finished in mid-October, I sent a quick follow-up email. Things swung into gear really quickly after that, and I actually ended up giving two talks on consecutive weeks - the first on 27 September discussing 'the conflict between science and faith' as part of an outreach event to non-Christians, and the second on 4 October sharing about MAF and my journey to get there. Both were great events - about 40 people came to the first and I am told there were lots of good discussions that ensued. About 20 people came to the second and most of them signed up for my newsletter - definitely the highest proportion so far! To any TSCF people who are reading this, a big thank you for having me and welcome to my network of supporters!

I thought 9 days was pretty quick to organise a talk, but another group has outdone that already - a string of emails today was all that was needed to arrange for me to give a presentation in exactly a week's time, on 12 October! All will be revealed as to where it is... and I'll try and remember to take some photos this time (something I forgot to do at the TSCF talks).