Leslie coached the girls team and they came in third. All the kids had a wonderful time and are already talking about coming back next year for a shot at the title.

It was a triumphant Saturday for the T&T boys of Fourth Memorial Church at the Awana Games. It was a nail-biter all the way to the final event. But my boys pulled through to victory as the 2006 Awana Games Champions (at least for our circle, there were three other cricles with champions as well). The guys had a great time.

Well, it may not look like much, but this is the future of fuel injector nozzle spray testing�at least as far as my school is concerned. It is a device to test the spray pattern of fuel injector nozzles at various constant pressures. I have been working on it for the past few days with two other guys from school. We needed a way to test fuel nozzles in our small jet engine we were overhauling. The school had no way of doing it so they gave us a $100 budget and sent us shopping. We are pleased to announce we came in under budget (Which is quite a bargain considering the other options on the market for fuel nozzle testing apparatus) and best of all, it Works!

Winter is just not quite ready to give us up here in Spokane. The snow has not been sticking long, but it continues to fall. (This is just outside our hangar with the runway a little beyond us.)

The terrain is extremely rough in Papua and can be seen clearly here as bumps in the earth. It makes me think the land has goosebumps. These bumps are actually sharp limestone hills that are covered by the dense jungle. This area, now high in the mountains was once covered by the ocean, as sea fosils can still be found in very high elevations in Papua. This type of terrain is why aviation is so important, allowing transportation in minutes to places that would otherwise take weeks of trecking. (Photo Neil and Carol Anderson)

These are some of the Fotoba people and their rather dilapidated windsock. The windsocks belong to the government and are supposed to be maintained by the same. (Photo Neil and Carol Anderson)

This is a picture looking towards the runway from the village as a plane takes off. (Photo Neil and Carol Anderson)

The other night Leslie and I had dinner with Neil and Carol Anderson. They have been translators with Wycliffe for over 30 years in Papua New Guinea living with the Fotoba people. This is a picture of their village. The village stretches along the peak of the ridge and the runway is at the far end. (Photo Neil and Carol Anderson)

Awana games training is in full swing and a bit of a blur. We will keep you posted with more pictures as we move our teams from practice to the main Awana Games at Whitworth on the 18th. Tons of kids will gather to throw beanbags, run in circles and gather pins. It should be very exciting.

The Ten Commandments of Aviation
1. Maintain thy airspeed lest the earth rise up and smite thee.
2. Comply with the incantations of the tower priests, lest chaos reign in thy traffic pattern.
3. Observe thy birds of thy kingdom; they let not ice be upon their wings.
4. Landeth not with the wind at thy back, for thou shalt dash thy machine against a stone.
5. He who inspecteth not his flying machine giveth angels cause to concern him.
6. Always check thy liquid propellant, for it is surely the staff of life.
7. Sample not the fruit of thy grape unless thy sandals are planted firmly on the ground, or verily, you will be planted into the ground.
8. Thou shalt not journey in thy flying machine without consultation of thy atmospheric prophet, and if thy weather be evil, forsake thy journey.
9. Check thy radiance of thy gear light, for thou knowest not the hour disaster cometh.
10. Let infinite wisdom govern thy movement near the earth, for vast is the area of destruction.

It ran! Well not exactly. It spun, coughed, lurched, whirled ... yeah, that was about it. But we are undeterred. Instead of the bright sunshine we enjoyed yesterday, we faced a blizzard and spent the day troubleshooting indoors. We determined that it was not getting enough fuel. We have an IO-470 that is carbureted instead of injected and was lacking in the fuel delivery and priming department. We will give it another shot when it is not snowing so hard and I will post a truly spinning propeller.

The final adjustments and a happy shot of the team just prior to "running" the engine.

Another day at the office. Well not yet, but some day soon. We are cruising along through powerplant and have just wrapped up our section on reciprocating engines and started Turbines today. Turbines are rapidly replacing recips around the world as fuel is more readily available and less expensive. The neat thing about aircraft like the Kodiak is that we will still be able to land at the same strips serviced by 206's and helio's (pictured above).

Arial perspective of a typical airstrip in Papua New Guinea. Stay clear of the giant Broccoli.

Bloomsday

Bloomsday is coming!! We have paid our fee and are in training now. It will be a blast. For a preview video, click Here.