From the Archives

I'm often being asked by various MAF communications staff to dig up photos from a few weeks, or months, or years ago. Last week I was pulling out some shots, which included a handful from my time in Kalimantan, and I thought it would be fun to share a few of those again. Here's a classic--the Kodiak departing from Long Metun. 

But before we take a look at a few more shots from the 'old days' in Kalimantan, here's a few current shots from this past week...

On Monday I had the privilege of flying two friends from our home church in Oregon, Pastor Jonathan and Pastor Drew. That was fun! Also pictured is my friend Dr. Moses, a veterinarian serving in Karamoja.

On Wednesday I had another flight to Moroto, and upon arriving I needed to add a drum of Jet Fuel. We use a hand pump to transfer the fuel from the drums to the overhead wing tanks. But this time the pump totally jammed up and the handle wouldn't turn at all. Sometimes you have to get creative with your problem solving when you fly in places like this...

My good friend, Simon, was along--he was giving me an annual route check, which is one of the proficiency flight reviews that all the MAF pilots do on a regular basis. That's him up on the wing helping to hold the Mr. Funnel, while the other Simon, the local CAA representative, carefully pours the Jet Fuel from a metal bucket (no, we don't have any jerry cans there in Moroto) into the funnel. So, yes, we fueled the entire drum by carefully pouring it into a bucket (we only had one bucket), then lifting the bucket up to the wing, and then slowly pouring it into the funnel--one bucket at a time.

Here's a shot of a nice little rain shower in Northwestern Uganda last week.

A few weeks ago, while flying between Kotido and Adjumani, we looked down and saw several large herds of elephant. This is an area that is far from any national parks. But, although it's one of the largest, undeveloped areas in Uganda (no visible roads, or houses, or agriculture for many square miles) I've never seen any elephants, or any other large wildlife in this area. In Uganda, the large animals tend to stick pretty close to the parks. But there's been a lot of rain this year, and the herds are venturing out much further than normal. I mentioned this to a park ranger at Kidepo National Park the next week, and he said that there were rangers following the elephants closely, to "make sure nothing happens to them." I counted almost 100 in the groups that I photographed. This is just one of them. I imagine this is what it must have been like a hundred years or more ago--large herds of elephants and every other kind of large African mammal, roaming freely across the grasslands.

Ok, back to the archives. I leave you with four more shots from the Kalimantan archives. I think all of these have probably already appeared on my blog a number of years ago, but in case you missed them...