Heavy Hauler and Carrier operations.



With a pod on the bottom and lots of room, the Cavavan is a heavy hauler



Saturday I was able to sleep in.   This is my day to fly around with Phil in the Cessna Caravan, the heavy hauler of the interior.  For runways that are long enough and have a large enough turn around area, the Cessna Caravan is the much preferred aircraft by the people we support.  The Kodiak is the sports car of the mission field, powerful and decked out with the latest technology and perfect for the short, marginal airstrips.  However the Caravan is the pickup truck, and where the conditions allow, the preferred aircraft due to its cargo carrying capacity.   Weighing nearly 3000lbs more than a Kodiak with less horsepower, it does not perform as nearly well as the Kodiak and prudence is needed.   Airstrips that can accept the Caravan are clearly defined and in some cases there are restrictions in load and times of day it can operate.   Today there is a 0730 a.m. limit on the first airstrip we are going to, we cannot land until after 0730 due to mountain shadow in the runway.  That translates into another hour of sleep before we need to depart.  Todays destination is Angguruk, a challenging runway for the Caravan.  While the approach looks fun, the excitment really begins after touch down.  The runway surface is fairly slick with slime and there is a 24% grade to climb before we reach the  tight turn around spot at the top.  Its touch down, check the brakes, get the speed conrolled then lots of power to climb the hill.  As soon as we reach the top, chop the power and make the turn.

 

MAF has been supporting the work of the Dutch missionaries on this airstrip since 1961!  The work of the expatriate missionaries is now complete and the national church is taking the lead.  While we are not flying passengers from the west this morning, we still need to remind passengers to turn the cell phones off.  A lot has changed since 1961, but some things have not, the take-off will be as interesting as ever.



Reading the strip chart, the take-off is one of the more challenging that I have seen.  The APE-3 conversion on the Caravan allows for up to 9062lbs take-off weight.  That’s a lot for us back country airplane drivers and it means we need to have careful concern for our airspeed.   The take off is; checklist complete, abort procedures reviewed, power set for take-off, “committed”  Vr, after rotation pitch DOWN and descend with terrain to accelerate to Vy and a 45 degree bank on turn out to clear the ridge line, then climb at Vy.   Looks fun!   Here it is on video.

Flying constant powered glide path to a confined runway and touching down consistently on speed and in the zone sounds to me a lot like landing on an aircraft carrier.  While I have never done that for real, in some ways I believe what MAF pilots do here every day is more challenging, as most of the time we cannot “bolter” or go around, the wind is rarely down the runway and there is no electronic guidance.  Of course, we in MAF don’t have to do this at night or with people shooting at us, as our true tail-hook pilots have to.

This is about as close to a catapult launch as we get, and just like a carrier take-off, once you bring the power up and go, there is no stopping without serious implications, you’re committed.



Me and the boys