Some of you may remember the story of my trip up the coast this summer to load supplies onto a helicopter for one of our tribal teams. Here’s a link to the story.
. It was quite an interesting trip, especially for the poor pig.
Earlier this week I was asked to meet the helicopter at the same place- about 3 hours up the coast. This time we would be sending in four 55 gallon drums of Jet A-1 fuel for future helicopter trips along with bottles of natural gas, plywood, mail, and a few supplies for the literacy program. So, we loaded up the truck with the supplies and left at 5 am. This time we were able to avoid wandering livestock, praise the Lord.
We arrived with time to spare, and were able to obtain permission to use the local school’s soccer field as a chopper pad- thus we didn’t need to get out the bush knives to cut out a landing pad. The weather was pretty nice- a bit of overcast to keep things cool, but no rain. The chopper arrived and we began the process of loading up. So far, so good- but a bit of a problem soon arose.
Sadly, when we went to refuel the chopper, it seems that when they loaded the pump they forgot the hose. So, the pilot and I had to run to the closest town to find something, anything that could be used. We found a small hose that would kind of fit on the inside of the pump. It was not the best of fits, and would spray fuel all over me as I had to hold the hose to keep it from popping out of the pump, which makes me glad Jet-A kerosene isn’t instantly flammable. We did that twice- load up the chopper, refuel it in a messy fashion, and wave it goodbye. After the second time we returned the hose to it’s rightful owner and headed home. On the way back we stopped by yet another school used for shuttles to a different tribal work (the Pal tribe this time) to pick up a few empty fuel drums from the chopper shuttles a few weeks ago.
Other than the hose, it was a good trip up the road. And, most importantly, no pigs were run over.
Note: Click the link for more photos.