The Smythes @ MAF

MAF Airvan - P2-MEW, Papua New Guinea

MAF has been flying into remote jungle areas of Papua New Guinea for 60 years. P2-MEW is one of MAF’s GA8 Airvans based in Papua New Guinea. It is the newest aircraft – a turbo charged airvan – to be based in PNG.

These were the first 4 days of MEW’s service in the Western Province in Papua New Guinea. Not all days are quite this action packed, but you can see that in the course of only 4 days with MEW we were able to provide an invaluable ministry to national pastors, teachers, and health workers, missionaries, and save the lives 4 four people in serious need. Thank you for your gift of P2-MEW it has already made a difference in the lives of many here in PNG and will serve countless more through the course of its life here in PNG.

18/06/11

Loaded up all of my family in MEW and headed to Rumginae to provide a week of coverage in the area for a pilot on leave. After the trip to Rumginae I headed back to Muluma airstrip to bring another mother with a retained placenta to the Rumginae hospital. This young mom had had and lost the baby 3 days earlier and was still bleeding. She had been carried for 4 hours to get to the airstrip that afternoon. As we loaded her on the aircraft we noted that in addition to the problem of blood loss she also had a fever from the toxins in her body. I flew her and her husband 55 minutes to Rumginae Hospital. The doctors at Rumginae commented to me that they were glad I had brought her in she was in very bad shape and would probably not have lasted much more than another day in the bush. The trip to the hospital by ground would have required over a week of trekking and crossed two major rivers that terrify even able body travelers. It was a relief to see her husband at the aircraft a few days later reporting that she was well and looking for a flight home.

19/06/11

Matthew Scheurich was speared in the chest by two arrows after stepping in to protect his girlfriend from a tribesman

Enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon at Rumginae when a radio call came in for a medivac from at Suabi. A French anthropologist and her boyfriend from New Zealand were studying in the area and he had been attacked. The initial report was that he had been stabbed, had lost a lot of blood and was having a lot of trouble breathing. I readied the aircraft for the 45 minute flight as Dr Daniel and Dr Sharon from the Rumginae Mission Hospital boarded the aircraft with their medical equipment. Upon arrival at Suabi we found the young man had been speared in both lungs and in the stomach as well as having been beaten in the head with a rock. As the doctors assessed him and stabilized him for the flight I provided the aircraft oxygen tank and pilots oxygen mask from the plane to help him breath for the 50 minute flight to the Kiunga Hospital. We left Suabi with two doctors, the anthropologist, the patient on a stretcher and one more empty seat to spare, had we needed it. By Gods grace there were doctors, surgeons, a pilot, and a capable aircraft all in the right place to save this young man’s life that day. The doctors commented on the way home that evening that, had we been an hour or two later he would likely not have been alive.

20/06/11

I flew 3 pastors and their wives from Rumginae to Obo, the pastors and their wives had just completed a course on marriage with about 50 other couples. At Obo there was another patient in bad shape. The day before this young mother who lived about 5 hours up river from Obo had successfully delivered a baby, but it’s twin was still stuck inside and refused to come out. With no other options she canoed 5 hrs down river to the Obo aid post. The community health workers at the Obo aid post could do little to help her, so called for the aircraft to take her to Rumginae Hospital for surgery. Upon arriving at Rumginae doctors spent over seven hours in surgery to remove the unborn baby and repair the damage inside.

Drs Daniel Priest and Sharon Brandon from Rumginae tend to Matthew Scheurich

As the doctors worked on her I flew another plane load of pastors and their wives (who had completed the same course at Rumginae) to their villages at Suabi and Hesalibi. As I left Rumginae I was advised by the doctor that a lady had been bit by a death adder (snake) at Hesalibi. As he had been unable to get radio contact with the community since the initial report that morning, Doctor Daniel said “examine the patient when you get there and if she shows any signs of envenomation bring her in”. As I flew from Suabi to Hesalibi I was relieved to hear via radio from Rumginae that the patient was doing much better and I would not be required to bring her into the hospital, or examine her for symptoms of envenomation.

After Hesalibi I picked up Sr. Missionaries Tom and Salome Howey from Mogalu to Kiunga where they would depart on an international flight for Australia the next morning. With them I also carried 4 Papua New Guinean teachers and health workers who were headed out to Kiunga for supplies for the next term at the remote school at Mogulu.

Nick Swalm

MAF Pilot – Papua New Guinea

When I travel to Papua New Guinea areas where malaria is known to be present, I always take up a supply of the right pills so I dont fall victim to malaria. I just read this blog post from the guys flying around the world in an Australian GA8 Airvan, the same plane used in some of the MAF programs:

Read more…

Two men from Bendigo (Vic) are preparing for a world-first circumnavigation of the globe in an aircraft totally designed and manufactured in Australia.

And MAF will be one of only two organisations to benefit from funds raised by the epic journey.

Ken Evers 33 and Tim Pryse 51, will depart from Bendigo Aerodrome on a day to be determined in May bound for Norfolk Island.

Tim Pryse and Ken Evers

They will continue their journey across the Pacific to California via Hawaii then on to Arizona and New Orleans. From there they will touch down to refuel in Jamaica and Barbados before heading south to Brazil, then due east across the Atlantic to Africa, on to India, Vietnam, the Philippines, PNG and back to Australia.

GA8 Flight Plan

The history-making flight commemorates Australia’s Centenary of Flight when the famous contortionist Harry Houdini conducted Australia’s first controlled, powered flight in March 1910, changing the landscape of flying in this country forever.

GA8 TC Airvan

Ken and Tim will fly a GA8-TC Airvan over 26,740 nautical miles in 230 flight hours. The eight-seat Airvan is manufactured by Gippsland Aeronautics in Morwell (Vic).

The flight aims to draw attention to malaria, the world’s most common infectious, mosquito-borne disease, claiming over a million lives annually. Most victims are those least able to afford preventative drugs or treatments.

The pilots hope to raise one million dollars

to combat the global impact of malaria by inviting donations via the millionsagainstmalaria.com website to two nominated charities – Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and the Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia and Pacific (AFAP).

People in many of the tropical and sub-tropical areas the pair will fly across suffer from malaria including Papua New Guinea where Ken Evers grew up as a teenager and was deeply impacted by the Work of MAF.

“MAF pilots are my heroes”

“For me, MAF was the epitome of aviation. MAF pilots are my heroes,” he said.

“Living in PNG and watching the work of MAF taught me the lesson that you can use the gifts you have been given to do the right thing. And of course in the case of MAF it is using the gift of flight to help people.

“I watched what MAF did in PNG. I saw my friend’s life saved (by a MAF flight) and now I want to offer my support. I think MAF is such an unsung group. People fail to see that MAF is saving countless lives every year. ”

For further details about Ken and Tim’s epic journey and an opportunity to donate online to MAF, go to �www.millionsagainstmalaria.com

Delivery of a new GA8 turbo-charged Airvan to MAF in Papua New Guinea adds much-needed power for highlands flying. �MAF’s first turbo-charged GA8 Airvan was flown to Papua New Guinea in April to work with remote communities across the highlands.

GA8 Turbo with pilot Nick Swalm in PNG

The brand new 8-seat aircraft left Mareeba bound for PNG on April 21 following a ferry flight up from Victoria. MAF took delivery of the plane in February but the actual handover was delayed by certification approvals and modifications.

By all outward appearances, the turbo-charged (TC) Airvan is identical to its normally aspirated cousins, 11 of which are currently operating with MAF in the PNG lowlands, Arnhem Land, Cambodia and East Timor.

The big – or little – difference only becomes apparent when the engine cowling is removed to reveal the addition of a TC converter about the size of a 2-litre soft drink bottle tucked away neatly and almost out of sight.�But big things can often be achieved by small objects. That small device will allow PNG pilots to soar with ease over mountain ranges and greatly reduce flight times between highlands airstrips. It will give them additional power for rapid climbing through breaks in the cloud.

Aviation Resources Manager, Stephen Charlesworth, explains that it is all about the ability of the TC Airvan to convert or compress – via the turbo-charger – the thinner air taken into the engine at altitude. �”To date, (non-TC) Airvans have been particularly useful in the lowlands of PNG, Indonesia, Cambodia and East Timor where MAF has a number of Airvans operating,” he said.

GA8 Turbo Airvan in flight, PNG Highlands

“But they have been less successful in the PNG highlands. As you go higher, air pressure reduces and the air is less dense. Therefore, the higher the altitude, the less power becomes available to a normally aspirated aircraft. There is less energy for the engine to burn.�”The turbo-charger or compressor overcomes that problem by compressing the air prior to it entering the engine enabling more power for greater rates of climb. As a result, the aircraft is better able to move from valley to valley in the PNG highlands.”

Mr Charlesworth said the new Airvan would readily climb to heights of 10,000 feet and above, had a greater load-carrying capacity than the Cessna 206 and required less maintenance. The Airvan GA8-TC 320 is powered by a Lycoming turbo-charged fuel injection engine turning a Hartzell three-blade propeller.

Worldwide, 135 of the Victorian-manufactured Airvans are flying in 32 countries. MAF has the second largest fleet of Airvans after the USAF Civil Air Patrol.

MAF Australia – www.maf.org.au