It is an early morning start as we prepare to take off in a Cessna 206, Australia bound. This flight is a little bit of MAF history as the 206's are retired from service in PNG and ferried south to be sold off to be used else where. This morning three of the six aircraft that have been serving in PNG are headed south. We take off out of Mt Hagen with pilot Rick Velvin at the controls and follow the other two aircraft as they turn back to do a farewell fly over the MAF Hanger. There are a few die hards who are on the ground to wave the planes off. They have served well, flying thousands of flights into some of the most remote corners of Papua New Guinea.
Myself (Melanie), Kaleb and Carter are on a journey down to Australia to meet up with Jason following a surgery to repair the tendon in his arm. It has been nearly two years for me since I have been in an MAF plane and it was really good to get back up in the air and witness once again what a beautiful country we are living in. It is truly rugged and still amazing for me to see villages doted out in the middle of the jungle. However I must say the wonder wears off after the first few hours and the gravol needs to kick in. Even though it was a pretty smooth flight 6 hrs in a small plane is really pushing the limits of my stomach.
P2-MAI was one of the other planes accompanying us down to Australia and it was really cool to be sharing the skies. These are not the typical MAF colours, but they used to be. That just shows how many years it has been at work in PNG.