Travelling Home... The last time I (Shiv) was in Hagen, Ryan flew me and another pilot, Markus, direct to Hagen on a Monday morning with the intention of swapping his plane and returning back to Telefomin before the end of the day. Unfortunately, the plane he was swapping for was a little bit more broken than the poor, hard-working Engineers realised and Ryan ended up getting stuck in Hagen with me for 2 nights. Iâm sorry for all the people who couldnât fly because the plane was broken, but Iâm awfully glad because it meant we only spent 1 night apart in the end! It was the Hagen C208 Caravan, flown by Mathias and Luke (who was checking Mathias into an airstrip which he hadnât been into in the Caravan before), who flew me home on the Thursday. However, Iâm not the queen and so I donât get to fly direct unless the plane happens to be going direct, which is rare as Telefomin is approx. a 1.5 hoursâ flight from Mt Hagen. So I had the fun (?) of flying through 4 other airstrips before being dropped home in Telefomin. First stop was Wanakipa, a bush airstrip, which was actually the first bush strip in PNG I ever flew into more than 4 years ago. I remember then feeling very intimidated by the hundred or so people lined up along the edge of the runway, just staring at us. I didnât know what to do and back then I couldnât speak a word of âTok Pisinâ the PNG trade language, so I just awkwardly stayed under the shadow of the wing, feeling unworthy and like an animal at a safari park. This time, with 4 years of experience and a little bit of the language, I walked amongst the people, shaking hands with some of the women and talking to whoever would look me in the eye without running away. I even spotted someone with a t-shirt that read âI Need A Hugâ and insisted that I do as her t-shirt said and give her a hug, which she allowed, much to the amusement of everyone watching! The second stop was Tekin, one of our more tricky strips to land at and the location of a successful High School which was founded by a single missionary lady who still works at the school, training the teachers. Here we met Paul flying the C208 Caravan based in Wewak and the 3 pilots started talking about their beloved aircraft whilst the agent, Patrick, ran around really busy, arranging the different passengers for both planes. The third stop was Rumginae, which is a base where we have two pilot families living, the Neufeld and the Eatwells. Both wereaway at the time, the Eatwells because their C208 Caravan was in Maintenance in Australia, and the Neufelds on sick-leave, but weâre looking forward to both families returning within the next week or so. As they were away, Rick had been covering for a few weeks, but his GA8 Airvan had a maintenance issue. We had to drop off an Engineer to fix the Airvan so Rick could fly it back to Hagen before he left the country the very next day! Itâs very unusual for Hagen aircraft to go all the way out to Rumginae, but I made the most of the opportunity by using the bathroom in the Neufeldâs house! The fourth stop was Tabubil, the MAF base closest to Telefomin and which Ryan flies out of several days each week. The staff there are used to me visiting from Telefomin, so they were very surprised to find me on the Hagen plane! Eventually, after a very long day of flying (for me) we reached Telefomin and I was very pleased to be going home, especially as Ryan was off sick that day with a bad cold. It was much more of an adventure than Iâd expected, but it got me home to our little house in the mountains and gave me the opportunity to appreciate this beautiful country in which we have the privilege of working, and to meet some of the people who we have the privilege to serve.
