Seriously, you're going to land there?

Last week we completed our flight portion of standardization training with MAF.  The pinnacle was three days in the Idaho back country along the Salmon River.  Some folks that live out there have no access to home by road, only by river or air.  The U.S. Postal Service still runs a mail route by small plane.

Salmon River by Allison Ranch

Our Cabin at Allison Ranch

We stayed at a small retreat center called Allison Ranch.  The airstrip on the ranch is one of the most challenging, so I shot a video so you all could experience it.  For the non-pilot types out there, here is a comparison of a normal landing approach to that of Allison Ranch:

Normally, we fly a box pattern around an airstrip at about 1,000 ft above the runway. Being routine, and always maintaining sight of the runway, we get very good at judging our distance, altitude, and alignment with runways. When we make the final turn, we have almost one minute to make final adjustments to descend that last 500 ft of altitude and touch down where we plan, at the speed we plan, and aligned with the center of the runway.

Allison Ranch from the air.

At Allison Ranch, you can only fly the landing approach down the river valley with no view of the runway.  Since the runway is not in sight until the last few seconds, there are aiming points on the mountains to judge decent angle and speed.  When the runway comes into view, we start our turn to align with center.  When the turn is started, we are about 100 ft above the touchdown spot, and only have about 7 seconds to decide if we are at the proper speed, decent angle, and alignment with center (and that there are no deer, elk, bear, etc.. on the runway).  After that 7 seconds, it is no longer possible to turn up river and climb out.  With another 7 seconds we descend to touchdown and make sure the brakes are working (we use up that 1,400 ft of airstrip fairly quickly)!

The takeoff isn't too abnormal, but that turn to climb out down the river sure is exciting!  I also tossed in a video of a landing at Deadwood airstrip in Idaho.  It is pretty exciting landing on a 10% upslope.  A steep grade on a road is rarely more than 10% slope.  I'm the guy on the left and Jill shot the video from the back (great day for her to ride along).

Sloped runway at Deadwood

This past week we have been training on how to stay physically, emotionally, and spiritually fit in a cross cultural situation where these things become quite a challenge.  It is easy to wrap our head around the idea of not having the conveniences we are use to, but it isn't so tangible to think about how the stress of living in such a "strange" environment will affect us.  We got some good lessons on how to prevent many of the common diseases that we will be exposed to (I know Mozambique could use some more missionary Doctors - hint hint).

We have one more week of training here in Idaho, then we head back to Texas for a couple of weeks.  We haven't nailed down a specific departure date, but the Mozambique team has advised that it would be best to get there after Christmas.  That is right around the corner!!