Mission Update from the Hollanders

Dear Friends,

So far, 2010 has been another one of those years: lots of changes – some great, some not so great. There’ve been changes in the weather, changes in our team, and changes in our equipment. But there’s been no change in the great need for MAF’s service here or our eagerness to help where we can.
The weather:
Our mini dry season has passed, and we’ve been getting a lot of rain lately (almost 10 inches in the last 48 hours), mostly at night. We even saw a tornado just off the end of the runway in Tarakan one morning! That obviously put a damper on the day’s flight schedule. We also felt a small earthquake in April (not really weather, I realize, but it’s still interesting). And cobra season may be back—our friend Tim drove over a big one in his driveway last week.

The team:
Our Canadian mechanic, Karl, just came back after a five month furlough. He will be a great help to us once again. Unfortunately, for various reasons, we have 6 airplanes in the hangar but only three pilots (including me)! Chronic staff shortages have always been one of our biggest problems. People will begin filtering back to Tarakan later this month. However, we’ll permanently lose our Chief Pilot in June, and our own family will be headed back to the USA for a six month furlough in October, so please continue to pray that the Lord would send us more workers.

The equipment:
The most exciting thing to happen so far this year has been the arrival of our first brand new aircraft ever—a Kodiak 100! Manufactured by Quest Aircraft Corporation in Idaho during the second half of 2009, donated by AFD Software on the Isle of Man (UK), and delivered to Tarakan on Christmas Eve, this awesome airplane (serial number 20) then sat under Customs lock and key for more than three months (ughh!). It was hard to watch that beautiful new plane sit there collecting dust and bird droppings in the hangar when it could have been benefiting so many needy people living in the jungle.

But that’s water under the bridge now. Since early April, the Chief Pilot and I have been flying the Kodiak into many of our two dozen airstrips and testing it under varying load and surface conditions. For example, can we really land the Kodiak at its maximum weight on a 420-meter wet grass airstrip with 4% upslope and still get stopped in less than 60%? Let’s try it and see! (The answer is “yes,” by the way.) Or can we really take off at maximum weight from a muddy, 580-meter airstrip with no slope, with a left crosswind, and still clear those houses right off the end of the runway, even at the reduced torque setting required by the high ambient temperature and inertial separator usage? (“Yes” again.)

Here are some of the things we love about the Kodiak:

• Burns readily available and relatively cheap jet fuel
• Holds nine passengers, twice our normal load
• Short field takeoff and landing capability
• Can carry 750 kg of payload (twice our normal load) with a range of almost 400 miles, plus IFR reserve fuel
• Still requires only one pilot (remember the staff shortage?)
• Climbs at twice the vertical speed of our other airplanes (good for avoiding trees and mountains)
• Flies 33% faster than our smaller planes (cruise ≈185 mph)
• Has Garmin G1000 “glass cockpit” instrumentation (very helpful and cool!)
• And it has that “new plane” smell!

Here are a few drawbacks:

• Some spare parts are hard to get
• Has some “new vehicle” quirks
• A cargo pod hasn’t been FAA-approved for installation
• Without a pod, it’s nearly impossible to carry nine passengers and still stay within center-of gravity limits.  This is the major drawback for us right now.

But even without a cargo pod (ETA early 2011?), we’re still able to use the airplane for some great ministry. In the last month of flying, this has included carrying over 10,000 pounds of much-needed cargo, as well as hundreds of passengers, among them emergency medical evacuees, government officials, and even a team of pastors to a very remote, distant outpost.

We’re coming home!
Hard to believe, but we’ve been gone for more than 3 years already! This means we’ll be headed back to the USA sometime mid-October for our second six month furlough. (MAF’s normal schedule is to spend 3½ years overseas and then come home for six months of furlough to be spent visiting supporters, vacation, and continuing education.) We hope to see you while we’re back.  Please contact us anytime, using the info at the bottom of this page, to see when we might be coming to your area, especially if you live outside our “home” area of central California. Thanks for your continuing love and support for us and this vital ministry!

Craig Hollander