Remote Runways: Missionary Aviation from a Pilot’s Perspective

By Yayeri van Baarsen

Where they fly, there is often no go-around, extremely sloped landing strips consist of nothing more than dirt road, and runways might double as the town’s main street. Meet the hardcore heroes of jungle flying: bush pilots.

Papua New Guinea, Honduras, and the Philippines are just three of the more than 40 countries Joe Hopkins, founder of Mission Safety International, has flown in. With decades of experience, he has also trained many other pilots in jungle and bush flying, where morning dew can make the already short landing strips as slippery as ice, and the sudden drop off in the ravine might be only a couple of hundred feet away.

“I’ve landed in humid areas in Honduras where when putting on the brakes, it felt like I was speeding up. Pumping the brakes and having crosshatched tires helps, but the most consequential instrument is a pilot’s state of mind and good judgment,” Joe said. Pre-planning and keeping contact with the missionary in the village about the state of the runway are also of vital importance. “If there’s just one inch of standing water, it’ll be all over your windshields, obscuring your vision, but you can probably still land relatively safely–I’ve done so. However, if the water is two to three inches deep, which looks the same from the air, there will be too much drag on the wheels, causing a tailwheel to easily tip over,” he explained. Being a missionary pilot is not for the fainthearted.

From Missionary to Air Taxi

Over the decades, missionary aviation has changed from using aircraft to spread the gospel (as the first organizations planned just after the Second World War), to mainly transport supplies to remote communities in need and assist in disaster relief work, such as with the recent Ebola outbreak. Although priests are still flown in, and churches are still planted, the pilots see themselves more as an air taxi out of necessity.

“On a daily basis we transport doctors, nurses, and teachers. We also deliver supplies, such as a computer that runs on satellite with DVDs explaining how to purify water by boiling it,” said Joe Hopkins. “We try to limit ourselves to places where there are no roads or cars, whether it’s mountain, jungle, desert, or on the water. We don’t fly into established airports but instead visit areas where people can’t get to unless they fly, as another form of travel is either impossible or unsafe.” John Hook, missionary and recruiter at Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), described MAF as “A service organization for the needy, the hungry, the sick, the ill, and the church.” “But,” he added, “We also do a lot of aid work in Muslim countries, such as drilling water wells.”

While the mission may have slightly changed, the flying environment hasn’t. Pilots still have to always carry survival equipment (such as radio, first aid kit, and gear to make a fire and build a shelter) in case of a forced landing. This survival kit, also standard, includes ropes to lower yourself down if you need to land in the trees. “While flying, you’re always on the lookout for alternative landing areas,” Joe explained. The areas where missions operate are not that isolated. Joe once visited four villages on different sides of the same valley and found out they each had their own language.

The fact is that people there are not used to aircraft, and their operation makes for potentially hairy situations. “One time in Honduras, I was about to make a straight approach and was already lined up when I saw what looked like a cloud of smoke on the end of the runway,” Joe revealed. “By that time, I was a couple of hundred feet off the ground, about 300m out horizontally and just ready to land. I decided against it and did another turn around. It appeared to be the right decision, as the smoke came from a burning fuse––they’d lit the fuse on some dynamite to get rid of the hills at the end of the airstrip. Had I landed, it would have blown up on my touchdown…”

Pigs On the Runway

Apart from over-eager, dynamite-using builders, there are other runway-related risks. In remote areas, airstrips are hard to build, making a long, flat, and level strip a rarity. According to Captain John Hook, who has served with MAF for more than 30 years and spent 20 of those flying in Indonesia, Haiti, Africa, and South America, the really sloped runways are the most challenging. “I’ve landed and taken off on airstrips with a grade of more 19 percent. You land uphill and take off downhill. The minute you release the brakes and go over the edge, that’s your abort point over and gone. If something would happen then, you make the decision to either try to fly or to try and drive into a ditch off the side of the runway. But make it quickly.”

Sloped or flat, on nearly every runway, the pilot has to avoid people, dogs, and pigs that are running around. In one case, the village youth thought it a good idea to put soccer goal posts on the airstrip because it was the most levelled field in the area… The weather, especially in combination with the high terrain, which causes up and downdrafts, plays a huge role too. Most bush flying is done in the morning because the afternoons are often filled with thunderstorms. Getting across ridges early in the day is an issue though: with mountains going up to 13,000 ft when the sun has just popped over the peaks, blinding the pilot but leaving the landing strip in the shadow, it’s nearly impossible to land.

John Hook stated, “The basics of flying don’t change, but there’s a higher degree of difficulty in the jungle. On the job, every day is a risk, but you accept those risks, and there’s a lot that you can do to minimize them such as training, doing check flights, and making sure the airstrips are as well-maintained as possible.” Nowadays, navigation isn’t an issue, but before GPS, there were charts that had huge areas of white: unknown territory. “If you needed to get to a little village that was on a river, you’d deliberately fly off course, and if you came to the river, you’d know whether to go left or right,” Joe explained. This was the way it was done in the old days.

The risks involved aren’t only aviation-related. Joe once was stopped in El Salvador and placed under house arrest for two nights until he was allowed on his way. In 1985, American missionary pilot Paul Dye got captured by rebels while flying for New Tribes Mission in Colombia. He was hijacked and kept for several days until he managed to escape with his single-engine Cessna 185 (of which he had hidden the key in his shoe), in the middle of the night. Nowadays there are still hazards which, according to Joe, depend on the country and can change over the years with the political situation. “In Venezuela for example, when Chávez got the power he shut down all the missionary aviation, creating a hostile atmosphere.”

DIY

It’s clear that not anyone is suitable for this job. “Some years ago, we looked into getting ultra-lights, as we wanted to train the preachers to obtain their licenses and be able to fly to the remote villages themselves. That didn’t work though. In these areas you’re not only the pilot, you’re your own everything. If anything is wrong with the aircraft, you need to be able to fix it, and for that, you need a professional. All pilots need to do their own aircraft maintenance,” explained Joe Hopkins.

Captain John Hook, who has flown for MAF for 39 years and who has more than 18,000 flight hours in fixed- wing aircraft and 4,600 in helicopters, agrees: “The environment is so remote, each pilot is also a mechanic–more than 95 percent of our pilots have their mechanical license.” When flying in the U.S. or Europe, people on the radio are constantly looking out for you, but in the bush, you’re on your own.

“Sometimes I did 15 to 20 landings a day, and all decisions were mine,” said John Hook. “You’ll have to decide about weather, airstrips, and how to figure out the loads all by yourself. You’re always thinking ahead: for example, about the amount of fuel you need. It’s so much more than just flying the aircraft––and it’s definitely not for everybody. I’ve had airline pilots with thousands of hours of experience who do a few landings with me and then say: ‘Noooooo, this is definitely not for me.’”

So what makes a good bush pilot? “We used to say: ‘a farm boy,’” answered Joe. “Because they knew what hard work is. In any case, it has to be someone with responsibility and common sense.” At Mission Safety International, during a weeklong evaluation camp, the “bricks” were separated from the “sponges” and the latter, keen to learn and motivated, got through. Naturally, successful candidates were also independent workers and good decision makers.

Pilots who want to fly for MAF need to have an FAA commercial, instrument, and mechanical license. Then they follow a one-year training course STOL–and mountain flying training course. After that, it’s survival training, orientation, and language course, all in the country in which they plan to work. From application, it takes three years to enter the flying field.

A time of service as an MAF pilot lasts four years. Of those, 3.5 are spent flying in a remote location. The second half of the last year, you’re back in the States, “eating hamburgers and ice cream instead of snake and chicken,” laughed John Hook. He stresses the fact that mission aviation involves the pilot’s family, who also moves into the developing country. “It’s important for the entire family to learn the culture of the country they’re flying in––otherwise, it’s just frustrating. Everyone gets involved. Pilots’ partners, for example, do flight following or give baby training clinics.”

All In a Day’s Work

Those who aren’t put off by the long training and make it through the course are in for an exciting time. John Hook has transported dead snakes, live pigs, and dead bodies in his aircraft–obviously not all on the same flight. “The snakes are seen as food and the dead bodies people wanted to bury. As for the pigs, we had to tie up their feet so that they couldn’t run around–they get all excited on takeoff. Every day is different,” he explains.

On a regular day in the jungle, a pilot would wake up early in the morning and walk to his aircraft and hangar, based right outside the house like a car in a garage. He’d do his pre-flight checks, load the cargo, and make sure it’s all securely tied down. Then he’d schedule his flights according to the weather, bringing food to a village, dropping a doctor off at his clinic, and picking up a teacher after class. However, “schedule all you like,” said John, “but there’s bound to be a medical emergency in the middle of it, which will alter your plans.”

“I like the challenge,” he continued. “It’s me against nature: I’m fighting the weather, dealing with ever-changing runways, adjusting my flying to the conditions, and deciding whether it’s safe to land or not. I also like that I get to interact with my passengers: people’s lives change because of what I do with the aircraft, which is very rewarding. During my time flying for MAF, 16 children were born in my plane.” Because sometimes these children are named after the pilots, Captain Hook once asked a mum if she’d name her newborn son ‘John.’ ‘No,’ was the reply, ‘his name will be ‘airplane.’ “It’s a hot, dirty, long, and hard day job, but bringing sick people to a hospital and seeing them get out healthy makes it all worthwhile,” he smiles.

Although hard and difficult at times, this job gets you to places not everyone gets to see. John Hook explained: “Indonesia is my favorite country to fly in because of its diverseness: there are more than 15,000 different islands––one hour you’re deep in the jungle, the other you’re somewhere between the mountains. I’ve also flown over the Sahara Desert, jungle canopies, and snowcapped mountains. I’ve been flying in terrain where my wingtip was less than 10 feet from the mountain side, as I needed all the room there was to make a turn. The environment is what makes the difference. One time I was flying a chopper, returning to a family who lived 7,000 ft up on a mountain ledge, to their home: I’d put half my skids up and they’d hop out.”

To the average pilot, a bush pilot’s job might seem ridiculously risky. However, the two missionary aviation veterans contradict this. “If you recognize the changing situations and conditions and adapt to them, you’ve got a fair chance to stay safe,” said Joe Hopkins. John Hook adds: “Continuous training makes all the difference. We train like they do in the military: with a high degree of professionalism. We’re not bush pilots; we’re highly professional pilots flying in the bush.”

The Aircraft:

For decades, the six-seat Cessna 206 has been the workhorse used for the majority of bush flying. Nowadays, it’s more and more replaced by its bigger brother, the Cessna 208 Caravan that sits 10 to 12 people. But according to the two veteran bush pilots, the aircraft best suited for missionary aviation would either be the Mahindra Airvan or the Kodiak Quest. “They got the mission groups together and asked them what they needed from an aircraft,” Joe explained about the Kodiak. “For example, we wanted one with a turbine engine as Avgas is scarce and expensive where we fly.”

The Kodiak is capable of working off floats (which were designed by Aerocet’s Tom Hamilton especially for missionary aviation), without structural upgrades. It can take off in under 1,000 feet at full gross takeoff weight of 7,255 lbs and climb at over 1,300 feet per minute. A three-panel Garmin G1000 integrated avionics suite including Synthetic Vision Technology is standard equipment.

John Hook predicts that soon MAF’s whole fleet will consist of Kodiak Quests. “They’re ideal for short fields: their STOL wing lets it fly really slow, they have brakes on the wheels, and you can reverse the prop so the propeller pushes the air and slows you down. It also carries really heavy loads and has pods for stuff you don’t want in your cabin, like spears. It’s a very modern plane with a big door for large cargo, which comes in handy if you need to drill water wells. Last but not least, it has sturdy landing gear and is built like a tank: it even has wheel flaps to keep kicked up dirt and rocks from tearing up the tail.