We have been without an airplane since August and it has had a drastic affect on everyone in our region. Every tribal team that we serve with the airplane is currently in a bind waiting to see when the airplane will be able to fly again. They all had plans for translation checks, deadlines, furloughs, construction projects and moves in mind when the plane was grounded and all of those have come to a screeching halt. Not a day goes by that we don’t feel the burden of these folks who are stranded without a good line of transportation to and from their tribal homes.
In an effort to speed the process of getting the airplane back in the air, we determined it would be safe to fly the airplane out of the tribal airstrip where it has been sitting if we could borrow and install an airworthy propeller on it. This would allow us to transport the airplane to our hangar where we could remove and replace the engine in a much more sterile environment. The question was, “how do we transport a 3 bladed, 80″ diameter x 21″ tall, 250 pound propeller and crate across the Philippines to our island, then North on a 4×4 trail and then straight down the slippery, muddy tribal trail and across the river to the airplane?” Then of course, we’d have to get the old propeller back out again.
Through a concerted team effort we were able to remove the airworthy propeller from our other airplane during a lull in the Palawan flight schedule. The guys in Palawan made a crate for it and shipped it to us. In preparation for it we took the cargo rack on our truck apart and made a special wood rack that would allow us to rigidly anchor the crate to the roof and position the propeller so as to minimize how much it hung off the sides of the truck. The roads are narrow going into the tribe with lots of busses and logging trucks. It would be catastrophic to have the propeller swiped by a passing truck!
Once we loaded the propeller we drove into the tribe and took the 4×4 section very, very slow. We were thankful for the ultra low range gearbox and diff locks on the truck that allowed us to travel at a speed just over a baby crawl without slipping on the wet rocks and roots thus causing extra jarring on our precious cargo. It goes without saying that the truck was a bit top heavy so slower was safer.
There is even a section of the 4×4 trail that is so narrow you have to B.Y.O.B. (bring your own bridge). The road is on the crest of a ridge and washed out on both sides. It is only wide enough for a motorcycle to drive over. So we placed a plank over the washout and drove with two wheels on the trail, and two wheels hanging over the cliff riding on the board.
Once we got to the end of the 4×4 trail our stress really began because now it was time to hike the propeller from the top of the ridge where we parked down to the river where the airplane was sitting on the airstrip. For a job like this you want to have the best men for the job so we hired some of the guys from the tribe to carry it. They are amazingly sure-footed and able to carry extreme loads. That’s a lot more than I can say for myself!
We unloaded the propeller from the truck and they took a quick look at it and had a discussion about how to carry it. Then a couple of them went off and scavenged a couple of wood poles and borrowed some rope. After a short while they were on their way with four of them carrying the propeller on their shoulders. The four of them grunted, yelled, laughed and sighed as they fought the awkwardness of that propeller all the way down the mountain. It was amazing to watch them work together.
Once we had the propeller at the airplane it was “go-time”…and afternoon thunderstorm time. We could see the rain in the distance-devouring one mountain at a time as it worked its way closer and closer to us. The missionaries living in the tribe helped us open the crate while we quickly removed the old propeller from the plane. We prepped the new one for the engine and put it on in the rain. It was quite the operation with a huge audience of tribal folks who enjoyed the spectacle and had a good time discussing the probabilities of making a propeller out of wood if this one didn’t work.
We got the propeller back on, test ran the engine just as it was getting dark and determined we had a “flyable” airplane. We got an early start the next morning, did a couple more tests and flew it away. Garry flew it back to our hangar by himself according to our protocol and I got ready to do the trip in reverse.
By the time I had gathered my things and hiked from the airstrip to the missionaries’ houses (about 25 minutes) we heard that Garry was “overhead and landing” at our hangar. Never before has the efficiency of that red and white airplane been so clear as it was that morning. I still had a solid 11 hours of misery and treacherous roads to go with the most awkward load imaginable strapped to the roof…but we were one huge step closer to repairing the plane and helping get work back into full swing here for the missionaries.