Mt. Hagen: Scary Landing

 

A scene from Mt. Hagen. Ladies selling string bags.

 After spending 4 nights in Port Moresby, on Tuesday we flew to Mt. Hagen. This was a main town in the highlands where we would do all of our shopping for the bush. Dale needed oil, fuel, tools and other supplies, and I was in charge of doing all the food and household shopping. We both had extensive lists.

The flight was going nicely, and we enjoyed the scenery as we flew. Leaving Port Moresby we saw the coastal area and then the mountains as we neared the highland areas. I was excited. This was one step closer to our arrival at Yehebi.

After about an hour,  the pilot comes on speaker telling us of our approach to Mt. Hagen. We heard the usual "Crew, prepare for landing." As we begin to approach the airstrip, we feel  the wheels touch the tarmac. Then the plane guns it, and we're in the air again.

What. Was. That?

A man to the left says, "Jesus, help us." He looked like he was praying. Actually, so was I!

Immediately, we see nervousness on board as we wonder what just happened.  Except for Louise, she had a calm expression on her face—like aborting a landing was what pilots did all the time. In all my years of flying, I had never had a pilot abandon a landing. Did we have a flat tire? Was a dog on the airstrip (that happens in PNG)? Did the pilot make an error? 

As we circled around, we landed safely the second time.

The man to the left says, "Thank you, Jesus!"

Phew. I still wanted to make it to Yehebi at least once more. Of course we never got an explanation as to the reason. But several watching the landing thought that the pilot touched down too far down the strip to make a safe landing.

After gathering our luggage and taking most of it to the Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) hanger, we were driven to town to our accommodation in town. There was confusion on our bookings, and we thought we weren't getting a room. However, they managed to give us two rooms.

We were pretty sorry they had rooms for us when we saw the place. Although the bed was nicely made and the room rather clean, the bathrooms were pathetic. Both showers were gross and moldy, and our soap dish caked with soap. Obviously, it hadn't been cleaned in a while. Our sink and counter had not been washed either.

Gross.

I experienced a little culture shock right then and there. I wanted to run to the store and grab some cleaning supplies. And, had we just paid $100 for this room?

That night I decided I wasn't taking a shower. Going to bed "dirty" seemed like a better option.

Our pilot friend, Vern Bell, came over later to take us out to dinner to a nice restaurant in town. It was fun to catch up with him and enjoy a meal together. Then, we were fortunate that he offered for us to stay in his house for the next two nights we were in town. We took him up on that offer. The next afternoon, we shifted to a very nice place for the remainder of our stay there. 

Vern was our MAF pilot for years while we lived at Yehebi.  Now, he was back in Mt. Hagen flying for Central Aviation and was a huge help to us for our visit back.

Our son with one of the pilots who let us invade his house for our stay.

 

While staying in the home of Central Aviation pilots, we were also given the use of their vehicle and their driver to take us around for our shopping (Many thanks to them for blessing us with their generosity). God was good to us in this provision. We were wondering how we would accomplish everything in three days, but God had already planned out even this detail.