And so to Bath

Our last weekend away before Christmas was a trip to Bath to visit good friends that we've known since attending St John’s church 10 years ago. It was exactly 5 years ago this weekend that we were married there and had our reception at Emmanuel church so it was nice to go back and speak at both churches on Sunday.

Rev. Clive and Jenny were kind enough to let us stay when we asked if there was “any room at the inn” and couldn't do enough for us. We spent Saturday catching up with friends and timed our visit to Colin and Fiona’s house perfectly as Ruth arrived from Leeds and being a fellow Saints supporter, Colin kept me up to date with the score against Man City! Every week is a new discovery for Bethan, as she wakes up from her sleep in the car at yet another house. She takes it all in her stride, quickly setting about discovering her new environment. This weekend she enjoyed playing with a marble run, watching a cuckoo clock and discovered a passion for buttons!

We were privileged to witness Erica’s full immersion baptism at St Johns on Sunday and Becki spoke about our MAF plans. Many of the congregation will remember Becki telling them many years ago of her plans to fly with MAF and we enjoyed going back to Bath with that about to become a reality. The rest of Sunday was spent enjoying the company of friends we know well enough that they didn’t mind us inviting ourselves over for the day! Bethan made us laugh with her unsubtle flirting with Ben (aged 11) who amazingly put up with her constant stroking of his hair and requests for drawing rabbits!

Bethan loved meeting the Guinea Pigs

Our planned visit to the Bath Christmas market on Monday morning turned into a quick stop at the Royal Crescent when we realised time was against us. This was a blessing as we had a lovely walk around the most beautiful city we've ever been to. We both feel a strong bond with our university city and always want to stay longer.

Looking down Malborough Lane.

Splashing in the Royal Crescent.

Merrily running along Gay Street after a visit to The Circus.

The Royal Victoria Park Lion looked magnificent in the winter sun.

Alas we had to leave Bath, as we were on our way to Trowbridge to see Dr Andrew Steele who speaks about MAF in this part of the country. We had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon with him and his wife and we were all impressed by their garden. Bethan's Teddy actually enjoyed it so much he decided to stay the night!

Bethan playing in Andrew's garden

We now have a rough departure date from MAF of around the beginning of April 2014. We will be going to Kenya for 6 months and then onto South Sudan. We look forward to sharing our adventures with you in this blog next year. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. 

Busy but lovely weekend

So we are now into week 7 of our 12 weeks of support raising, over 50% supported and have got used to being away from home! This weekend saw us pop up the M5 to Weston-Super-Mare, with a detour to Stroud.

We had a great afternoon with Becky, a friend from university and got to meet her delightful 3 month old daughter Amelia. Bethan was very taken with her and enjoyed giving her kisses and cuddles (although I failed to actually capture any cute moments!). Becky also made us the world's biggest cake - yum yum! 

We had a family day on Saturday in Weston, in that we visited a lot of family! We stayed with my (Becki's) second cousins for the weekend and took the opportunity to visit my Aunt and Great Aunt (Bethan's Great Great Aunt!). There was a lot of laughter, especially when Uncle Ricky recounted tales of accidentally shooting a basket full of racing pigeons.

Four generations of Skidmore's 

Sunday morning saw us at Bristol Road Baptist Church where we were privileged to have the entire service to talk about the work of MAF and what we will be doing when we go overseas. We enjoyed the service and meeting the very friendly congregation. We were also interested to hear that long serving MAF pilot Max Gove is the son of one of their previous vicar's.

After having lunch back at the house we'd been staying in we made our way back down the M5 to our second service of the day at the very lively Living Waters Church in Paignton. The service started with worship music, which Bethan danced her heart out to (wish we'd been able to video her). There was then a time of testimony where members of the congregation shared what God has done in their lives recently. We then shared about our work with MAF before Misheck (the youth leader) gave an amazing talk on obediance. We really enjoyed spending time at Living Waters and can't wait for the next time we get to go to a service there!

29% Raised!

I realise 30% raised would be a nice round number but 29% is factually accurate! We get a report every Wednesday as to how much support has come in that week and after 4 weeks we are delighted to be over 1/4 of the way towards raising the funds we need to go to Africa.

We have been travelling round the country and this will continue for the next few months, starting when Ruth came to visit (and we used her as a guinea pig for our presentations) then moving onto London and Dorset over the past weekends we have been able to visit a few old friends and meet new people.

Playing in the park in Wembley, Matt enjoyed catching up with an old uni friend on the swings! 

On the slide with Uncle Sam in Weybridge

Meeting Felicitie's dogs, lots of fun playing in their bed!

We have also been invited to speak at 2 churches this month, we spent a lovely morning at Bovey Baptist Church speaking to the children and adults about the work we will be doing, and Bethan decided to join us on stage. We also went along to St Martin's Church in Liskeard to speak at the 9.30am cafe church and 11am communion service. 

So Becki did lots of exciting flying in America...

....... what did Matt and Bethan get up to you might (but probably won't) be wondering?

Our first 2 weeks were spent staying with my uncle Kit, Angie, Joe, Ivan and Katherine, plus Trapper the dog and Juliette the cat. Being school holidays it was great to spend time with them. Bethan and I took trips down-town on the bus, visited a water park, children's museum and fairground among many other adventures. We loved Portland and had great fun seeing family and meeting new people there.

A short flight over to Nampa in Idaho and we settled into our MAF studio appartment, which would be home for 4 weeks. Becki had a busy schedule of groundschool and flying but we weren't allowed to be passengers (something about making the aircraft too heavy to take off again from the short strips) so Bethan and I made a 4-week plan. I found the only 2 places of interest in Nampa to visit (children's play centre and the most awesome water park) while Bethan thought time would be best spent in the sandpit or being pushed around the block on a variety of toddler-sized vehicles by her Dad.

So week 1 in Nampa meant I finally had to get behind the wheel of the car (smallest available was a 7-seater), which was a scary experience. It probably didn't help that the road I chose to drive on (Happy Valley road) was used by Becki's flying instructor to illustrate how we have to manage risk in everyday life. Anyway, Bethan and I did successfully get to our destination and I'm glad we did as it was a toddler paradise with a race track, pretend shopping and slide, which we went on again and again...and again!

Lakeview water park was going to be our second home as far as I was concerned, with the temperature in Idaho being consistently in the 30's. Exact temperature unknown as the Americans use Fahrenheit, which I believed (and taught Holsworthy students) to be extinct nowadays! Unfortunately, mid-August signalled the end of summer season and a few days into our stay the pool closed so that was a blow! Our studio appartment had a sink however, so Bethan did get to do plenty of splashing around!

Fortunately, Bethan didn't just have me for company, she made great friends with Adah and Laron and looked up to the older kids with awe. Many an hour was spent in the paddling pool, giant sandpit, on a trike or running away, squealing in delight when an older child came round on a scooter who was (albeit unknowingly) chasing Bethan! Usually tired out after lunch (or on one occasion during - photo below), Bethan would have a nap and I would hone my domestic skills ready for being a house-husband in Africa. Cooking was a bit hit and miss, with the rice pudding hitting the floor and smashing its glass bowl being a low-point. After that I gave it a miss and made myself useful by catching up on the new football season via the web!

Living next to the airfield meant that Bethan quickly developed a love of aeroplanes. We went to the hanger to watch Becki take-off one morning and from then on, Becki was told in no-uncertain (sign-language) terms, that she should (at all times) go up in the air. Equally, all overhead aircraft were told to land at Bethan's feet so she could have a go. Being co-pilot in the simulator wasn't enough to satisfy her!

We were kindly taken out to Snake river by Becki's instructor, Tim and his family for a lovely evening. I was glad to see a little more of Idaho than Nampa, which was a very disappointing city compared to Portland! We spent a few hours one day hopelessly looking for an interesting feature of the city but alas, it hasn't yet been built!

One thing that Idaho does well is rain, it didn't happen often but for a couple of days we had fantastic storms, giant raindrops, hail and the most beautiful double rainbow I've ever seen. We watched this unfold from our apartment, another downpour coincided with our visit to Jump Creek to see a waterfall. It was great fun but we all got soaked.

All too quickly, our time in Nampa came to an end and we said farewell to our MAF neighbours. We felt that it certainly wouldn't be the last time we saw most of them even though they are now travelling all over the world to begin life as missionary families. Before travelling back to England, we took a few days to visit some of Becki's friends in Vancouver, stopping in Seattle on the way. We had a great few days socialising, relaxing and sight-seeing in a beautiful city.

Bethan slept for most of the 6 hour drive back to Portland, clearly worn out from all the excitement of her American adventure.

MAF Standardization

What does 4 weeks of MAF flight training in Nampa, Idaho look like? The answer is this:

To start with, we spent a week in the classroom:

We covered aerodynamics of flight, which wasn't just restricted to aeroplanes, we also learnt how to fly a screwdriver! We also went on to learn how to safely load and tie down cargo into the aircraft and how to make an air drop so packages can be safely delivered without landing if needs be. Most excitingly we were taught how to safely fly through valleys and over mountain ridges in bad weather.
Week two and I got to go in the aircraft. This first week was spent putting in to practice everything we had learnt in the classroom without being sent anywhere too challenging. First a thorough pre-check of the aircraft (which Bethan came over to help with one day)

I spent a few days doing 'Airstrip Evaluations' which involves assessing a landing area from the air to determine if it is safe to land. First you fly over the area at 1000' and decide which direction the wind is from and look for any obstacles (such as trees/mountains/buildings).
Next you fly at 50' above the ground and calculate the length of the runway and the height of the ground above sea level (as well as checking for any obstacles)
Finally you fly 5' above the ground and check the condition of the landing surface and whether there is any slope.

Having established a length, altitude, wind direction, slope and if it is safe to land - you land! 

Safely on the ground at Duster East after my first Airstrip Evaluation

This airstrip definitely has an obstacle at one end! A mountain at the end of the runway means you can only land in one direction and take off in the opposite direction.

Week 3 and the airstrips got more challenging. Below is Johnstone, which has a curved runway. In the far left you can just see my aircraft parked in front of a hanger at the start of the runway!

I also got to practice flying the aircraft with various amounts of cargo to see how the weight affected the aeroplane's performance. To make sure it's safe to take off from a short airstrip you have to calculate the 'weight and balance' to make sure you can take off with the amount of cargo and fuel on board without running out of runway! 

Here I am calculating our weight and balance before departing from Owhyee Bend Airstrip which is 1200' long and surrounded by mountains.

The flight training ended with a cross country flight where I got to put all my newly learnt skills into practice, flying along narrow valleys into challenging airstrips. It was fun to put everything into practice. 

Above is Deadwood Airstrip, it is surrounded by trees, has an 8% slope and is only 20' wider than the aircraft's wingspan. To add to the challenges, the road to the lake crosses the top of the runway so you need to check for cars before going over to the parking area!

Learning the Ropes at Servants Wings

Following our acceptance with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) I was required to complete the standardization course to give me the tools I will need as a bush pilot serving with MAF. However after 3 years on the ground, mostly chasing after our daughter Bethan, I was a little rusty to say the least. I felt very blessed that Stu at MAF UK suggested a 2 week stint at Servants Wings beforehand. They are a Christian charity who allow potential pilots to train for mission flying at a considerably cheaper price than at a flying school.

My instructor Craig was very kind and let me get the hang of flying in America in a Cessna 172 before moving onto the Cessna 206 (which runs up the training bill a lot faster!). I was amazed how alien it felt to fly in America, everything seemed wrong. The radio calls are made at different places, the joins to the circuit (or pattern in the USA) are completely different - rather than a standard overhead join or a direct join the favoured approach is a 45 degree intercept to halfway along downwind. After a couple of hours I was getting the hang of the US differences and the local area so we moved onto learning the 206.

Over the next 2 weeks I flew into smaller and more challenging strips, like Lenhardt which is 3200ft long but has tall pine trees at either end which make it a difficult approach to land, and Becksfield which is literally someone's field (presumably Beck's!). We mostly flew within 10 minutes of Aurora Airport (where Servants Wings are based) but we did spend one lovely morning doing a cross-country to the base of Mt Hood, landing at Sandy River (pictured below) and Estacada.

We were also fortunate that Matt has family who live in Portland, 30 minutes drive from Aurora so Matt and Bethan got to explore Portland and spend time with family while I was up in the air everyday. I also got to drive his uncles MG to work which was great on the drive back each day when it was nice and sunny and the roof was down. As you can see, Bethan also loved driving the MG!