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From Trevor:
December 12, 2006
Hi Jack,
Hope things are going well your end. Am down
loading emails now and will read your mail
shortly. I really enjoyed the trip to Vanimo.
Lorretta found it pretty hot but was adjusting
better by the time we left Monday. There is a
nice breeze which blows from the ocean from
about 10 each morning. The water is so nice to
swim in. The Hotel was right across the road
from the nicest beach in town and we really
enjoyed swimming there. The people were real
nice. Everyone told us it was safe to walk
around and we did. One of the MAF ladies told
Lorretta this morning she really enjoyed living
there it was so peaceful.
Anyway I had a look at the hangar. It’s a great
hangar with good office facilities. The cargo
and passenger handling area needs some work.
And guess what! Garamut happened to have a
house that had just become vacant which the
owner is willing to work a deal on so we rent
both the hangar and the house. It is a really
nice little house. Only 2 bedroom but has
everything we will need. It will be fine for us
all until we can find a second house. It is
fully furnished so we don’t have to find
furniture etc which would be hard in
Vanimo.
I ran into Silas. He is the guy who used to
manage the Vanimo Beach Hotel. He has recently
moved back to Vanimo. A real live wire and is
interested in a senior position with the
Aviation company. I guess you and he could work
together and then as other interests take your
time Jack he would be capable of managing the
mundane side of the ground operations. He is a
share holder in another building on the airport
too. It has more cargo handling space but no
hangar. I feel the hangar is important as it
has the trolleys and some tooling and spares
etc which will be helpful when we get to the
point where we want to set up a work shop later
on.
The other hangar that I looked at has great
potential and would be better than Garamut's in
a number of ways. A lot more space. It is two
levels on the office side and has accommodation
built in to it. But it is terribly run down and
would take a lot of cash and effort to make the
whole thing into what it needs to be. I feel if
we were to obtain it, it would be a long term
project. Possibly we would buy it in its run
down condition and slowly do it up as we have
the cash and the time and materials. Will get
you to look at it and tell me what you think
when you come.
The people in Madang have agreed to help us
with their workshop for maintenance. I had a
long chat with the engineer and the boss there
yesterday afternoon and Simon followed up with
phone calls today talking over the legal stuff
with the plane being Australian registered and
all. The engineer there is willing to help us
out with things that crop up between Simons
visits which is really great.
Now I just have to chase things along in
Moresby when the boss at NAS comes back from
overseas tomorrow. We need to get some paper
work done and the aircraft needs to go down
there for them to see and for the chief pilot
to fly with me. There is only 18 hours left on
the plane now. Simon will be up here January 1
to do the next inspection. I was wondering
whether we would do all the hours before hand
but now I think we will be finished the 100
hours before January. So that works out well
for everyone concerned.
I met up with a guy who is into buying Vanilla
and other spices and bush produce while in
Vanimo. He has a few tons of Vanilla stranded
out at Edwaki. Looks like we may get that as
back loading for some of the flights we do out
that way with people and goods from Vanimo. I
was told that Frieda River mine is still
operating and that there is work in and out of
there too.
Francis, the elder I have been talking to on
the phone up there, was kind enough to run me
out to Warastone to where the District Director
lives. He just stood there in disbelief as I
told him what we were wanting to do to help
him. He has some layman a few days walk into
the interior but there are big centers beyond
that where he knows there are church members
but has never been able to go. He has to
charter an aircraft to get there and does not
have anywhere near the money in his budget to
do that. We explained to him that we would be
passing by those places often and that he would
be welcome to just hop on the plane when ever
he needs to, to go supervise the laymen out
there and run nurturing programs to strengthen
the church and prepare it for evangelism.
The pastor at town church in Vanimo is Pr. Vai.
I first met him down South west Papua where he
was ministering a few years back. He is a very
lively guy and is excited about the possibility
of getting some of the town lay people out into
the bush to run programs and help move the work
forward in those unreachable places where we
will be going.
I will need to get a fuel trolley made. Two
would be very useful. There is not much in the
way of materials up there for doing that sort
of work. We may have to get it made elsewhere
and ship it in. The plane will be going over to
Madang every 100 hours for inspections so will
try and combine that kind of shopping with
those trips.
Over all I feel pretty excited about the
possibilities up at Vanimo. I am very thankful
to God for His untiring providence and the way
he has opened the doors we have needed to get
us to this point. It has been a long road with
some interesting twists and turns. It looks
like we will get the maintenance done on the
aircraft the first week of January and then I
will head up to Goroka, pack my stuff in the
plane and head down to Vanimo second week of
January to get organized there and start
work.
Thanks for the newsletter. That should
stimulate some dormant interest among people
who have been supportive over the years. Keep
up the good work with the web site. I really
appreciate it.
God bless
Regards
Trevor
Glossary of terms and
abbreviations:
AAS - Adventist Aviation
Services
DD - District Director
Omaura - Bible College in the Highlands
ADRA - Adventist Development and Relief
Agency
MSA - Mission Support Aviation - That is
us!
AOC - Air Operators Certificate - needed for
commercial operations
CAA - Civil Aviation Authority
MAF - Mission Aviation Fellowship
SPD - South Pacific Division of Seventh-day
Adventists
NAS - National Air Service (Moresby business
that is helping us with the AOC)
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