Goodbye Tanzania!

Was it really 5 months ago that we were packing up our final boxes and saying our goodbye's back in Tanzania?! With all that that entailed and the settling in process at this end, these next few updates might be a little overdue! 

The end of the first term in Dodoma and the girls last day at CAMS was Sports Day. Abigail had lots of fun competing and Naomi's class came along to watch. For the first time in years and years, the yellow team won (spot the colour of Abigail's t-shirt), so it was a perfect end to our time as a family at CAMS!

It was also probably one of the hardest days in the way of goodbye's as well, even though by this point we had already said goodbye to the majority of our MAF friends. Teachers and friends at CAMS, made up a large part of our Dodoma life, both Tanzanian and Ex-pat and there were lots of them to say goodbye to and tears on all sides! 

When we got home after Sports Day, we had to say one of the hardest goodbye's ... to our House Mama, Maria. She was most definitely part of our family and with her limited education and no means to travel, one of the hardest people to keep in touch with. For Jenny, it was the second time she has had to say goodbye to her and it didn't get any easier.

The following day all we had to achieve was the safe collection of our belongings and the final few goodbye's. In true Tanzanian style this did not go off as planned. In fact, at an already extremely stressful time for us, it probably couldn't have got any worse. Instead of a 9am pick-up, the team and truck didn't arrive until 5pm. The truck was too small and there wasn't another one available. 

A good friend had to frogmarch the driver to their local depot and proceeded to sit on a pile to tyres while waiting for them to sort it all out! The new truck had no breaks or fuel so had to be fitted with both and so in the dark and after the girls were in bed, they finally loaded our belongings onto the truck below. Having driven through the previous night and then seeming to be extremely spaced out, we confiscated the keys from the driver until the following morning. Driving on the Dar road is dangerous enough without them having to drive through the night once again.

As we had spent so much time waiting and on the phone trying to sort out the collection of our stuff, unfortunately the final goodbye's that we had planned for that last day never had came about and there were some really lovely friends that we never had the opportunity to farewell as a result. 

However, the end was inevitable and very early on the Sunday morning we slipped out of town almost unnoticed, except for one of our favourite guards who came to say goodbye. Having lived at the bottom of Lion Rock for so long we drove by it for the last time.

Before the mammoth trip across the world to Australia we took a few, much needed, days out at the beach in Dar Es Salaam. Having some time to take stock as a family and also just have some fun after such an emotional roller coastal of the previous weeks and months.

We visited some of our favourite spots one last time and then just concentrated on having fun ahead of the hard work that we knew was to come, settling in Australia. As you can see we definitely succeeded with the latter!

On Wednesday 8th October, we bid farewell to Tanzania and all the work, memories and friendships ... ready for the next adventure!

Choices, choices, choices!!!??!!??

Being a missionary and have also been to All Nations Christian College (for those not in the know, it is a Bible College with mission as the main focus), we have heard many a story about missionary life abroad, what to expect during transition and how things will change when you finally go back to your passport culture.

One of the examples that we have been told, by lecturers, mission sending agents and missionaries who have come back home, is the culture shock of walking into a supermarket after years of buying your food from a market stall or a small corner shop. Your choice was limited to what they had in stock that day/week/month. For a lot of missionaries, things like butter, cheese, bacon and chocolate are luxuries that, either you can't buy or were just too expensive on such a limited wage. Then, on returning to a 'First World Culture', you are faced with SO much choice. 

Have you ever counted how many different brands of butter/margarine there are in your local store? Now imagine that your only choice for the last X number of years was a margarine that is so nasty, even the ants won't go near it, and now you find yourself faced with a chiller full of choice and you are left trying to remember what it was you had all those years ago. Then you still have the rest of the supermarket to look through. We have heard of people just standing in front of the chiller section crying or they have had to walk out with nothing before they have a panic attack.

This was not the case for me (Mark) when we moved from Tanzania to Australia. Even though we are still on the 'mission field' and are in a different culture, I found that food shopping at the local supermarket has not been too bad, even a pleasure to have access to different options again. So why am I writing this? As a bloke, my panic attack happened when I went to the local hardware store (which isn't big by any stretch of the imagination!) to buy a few things to work on the house we are renting. It was just simple things like a padlock, some screws, nuts & bolts, a few tools (to replace those that I had left behind or were still in transit) and a garden sprinkler. Simple yes ... no. 

There was just too much choice. So many brands (most of which I didn't recognise) with so many variations, that it got too much. In the end I left with only half of the things on my list and most of those had to be taken back because they ended up being the wrong anyway.

Things have now calmed down a bit since we first arrived, but I still feel a lot of pressure often when purchasing something quite simple. So I just want to finish off by saying ... be aware of those who are returning from the mission field (either short term or for good), that sometimes the choices that you find so simple and easy, could possibly be the 'straw-that-breaks-the-camels-back' for them. Help them out, recommend things or brands that you use and just be there for them when it all gets a bit too much.

Avionics Upgrade

Because of moving from Tanzania to Australia and everything that that involves, our blogging has been quiet for some time. So time to try and catch up a little with things that have happened between our last blog (back in October I think) and now ...

So, I thought that it was time for me (Mark) to write something about the work I had been busy doing in the hangar the first part of 2014. MAF have decided to upgrade the avionics in all of the C208/B Caravan/Grand Caravan aircraft in Africa. This means that all the old dial indicators will be removed and be replaced by multi touch screen displays.

OLD AND NEW DISPLAY

Tanzania were very fortunate to have been selected to do the very first installation on their aircraft 5H-ZBZ, and I have been the lead mechanical engineer on this whole job. There are many different parts to this project and being the very first aircraft, a lot of lessons to learn.

Sitting on top of ZBZ installing antennas

The circuit breaker panel had to be re-done for al the new avionics units. Which also meant that we could clear out a load of redundant wires at the same time. (It's amazing how many redundant wires there are in aircraft, and the weight gain that can be achieved by removing these from the airframe).

 

As the new system has many new avionics boxes, I had to design, fabricate and install new avionics shelves that would be strong enough to pass the critical 'G' load (simulated G-force to prove the shelf will not fail in crash).

The next set of photos shows a shelf that was already installed with a KN-63 DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) unit, and what I did to modify it to hold the new GTX-33 Transponder unit as well as the original DME.

Original Tray and DME Unit

New Transponder and Original DME Unit with the new tray

The next tray to be fabricated was installed below the DME/Transponder tray and holds the new GAD 43e Adaptor and the GDC 74A Air Data Computer. The old tray had to be removed and then remade from a thicker material to meet the Garmin requirements.

The next unit, the GRS 77 AHRS (Attitude and Heading Reference System) unit. This unit has to be installed so that it is zero degrees in both latitude and longitude during level flight. This meant that we had to install a fake floor underneath the floor below the co-pilot seat. It was a challenge to get it fit right, but as you can see from the digital protractor, I got it right.

At the back of the aircraft, we had to install the units for the GRA 5500 Rad Alt (Radar Altimeter) and the GTS 800 TAS (Traffic Advisory System) along side the existing WX-500 Stormscope unit. I created a new shelf for the very heavy TAS unit, and the Rad Alt fitted next to the Stormscope.

One other unit to be installed was the GMU 44 Magnetometer in the right wing. There was already a mount for the old unit in the wing. MAF US had created a jigging tool that helps convert from the old style unit to the new which helped a lot.

Then there were all the new antennas that needed to be installed all over the aircraft (as well as existing ones that had to move location because of proximity to other antennas. I installed at least eight new doublers and antennas as well as moving two to new locations.

Lastly, but definitely not least, the change of the instrument panels and radio stack to install the GDU 620 Display Units, GTN 750/650 Touchscreen GPS/Nav/Comm/MFD units, GMA 35 Audio Panel, IndigoOne Satellite Tracking, EFD1000 Display and the ESI-1000 Emergency Standby Instrument. New panels were cut in Australia by a water-jet cutter. Once they arrived, there were a few minor adjustments, then the instruments were installed and connected to the newly installed wire looms.

In the end, we got everything installed and after a few issues with the avionics not talking to each other, and doing the configuration set ups, it all worked perfectly. As you can see it was quite an involved process, which we repeated on another aircraft in Dodoma (5H-OPE), before MAF started the upgrades in Kampala, Uganda.

The team with the finished avionics behind
(A mix of English, Australian, Swedish and Tanzanian)

As a testament to the amazing new avionics, this aircraft has just made a nine day journey from Uganda to Australia (via Ethiopia, Djibouti, Oman, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia). Very soon, this Cessna 208 Caravan will be serving MAF in Arnhem Land.