Gallery - Skydive Jurien Bay Caravan over Western Australia

Caravan over Western Australia. #caravanpilot #aviation #avgeek #cessnacaravan #jumpplane #skydiverdriver #instaplane #gopro #wingcam #wingmount #amazing #islandlife #pt6nation #ocean #australia Photo by @l.sax

A photo posted by Chris (@caravanpilot) on Jan 24, 2016 at 10:31pm PST

Gallery - Occasional Lions on or in vicinity of runway

Welcome to Africa 🙋 #africa #safari #flight #surprise #amazing #nature #wild #wildlife #animal #lion #cat #bigcat #whyiloveafrica #aviation #avgeek #especiallyafrica #cessna #letsgotoafrica #bushpilot #pilotlife Photo by @especiallyafrica

A photo posted by Chris (@caravanpilot) on Jan 14, 2016 at 10:00pm PST

Gallery - Blessing of a MAF Grand Caravan

MAF Caravan #caravanpilot #flyingforlife #pilot #flying4life #aviation #avgeek #missionaviation #cessnacaravan #igaviation Photo by @mafnorge

A photo posted by Chris (@caravanpilot) on Jan 16, 2016 at 8:11pm PST

Article - Stories from a Night Express Caravan Cargo Pilot - Romance by Bob Tilden

Stories from a Night Express Caravan Cargo Pilot

Romance

by Bob Tilden

I walked through shallow puddles of water as I made my way to the airplane. The sky was dull but not at all disagreeable, with passable visibility under a low overcast. For the first time in almost a month the temperature was above freezing, but a barely perceptible drizzle dampened the thrill. I regarded our two airplanes as I walked towards them in the fading light of late afternoon, and thought "there is no romance today".

The morning had dawned with the same gray sky that now hovered overhead, but the morning's drizzle froze to the airplanes and the taxiways. For the second time in the week, I had been stranded in Rochester for the day because of freezing rain, and that fact alone had made me a bit grumpy.

Sunset view from the cargo Caravan

I don't know if I subconsciously edited my thoughts about romance, but after the thought had passed through my mind, I was glad that I hadn't thought "the romance is gone". The thought of "gone" would have been ominous, but a temporary loss is understandable. Still, it was an alarming thought.

It had been a long time since a flight had made me feel like a little kid at Disneyland. It seemed that there had been an unending string of days where the earth disappeared shortly after takeoff and reappeared only a few minutes prior to landing. Some of those flights had been on top of the clouds, in starlight or bright sunlight, but maybe just a few minutes a day of sunshine aren't enough to keep my batteries charged.

This was sort of an unusual flight because we would be flying our planes empty, back to Elmira to pick up the evening load and return to Rochester with it. I thought that it was kind of neat to be able to jump into the plane and go, without waiting for loading or paperwork. It was almost as though I was in my own plane.

The last light of day had all but faded into night as I left the ground and climbed into the clouds. There was no romance; I just sat there doing some paperwork and watching the temperature drop as I gained altitude, expecting icing temperatures at any moment. After climbing through a mile of murky gray, just as the temperature dropped to freezing, I broke through the tops into a clear sky.

I had climbed from night into twilight. Above the layer of clouds was the last few minutes of the day's sunset, orange and red along the horizon and fading rapidly through the blues into black. To my left, a big orange moon had just cleared the cloud deck, and shined its light across the gleaming ocean of white below me. Orion the hunter, an evening constellation in the early fall, but a sunset constellation in the late spring, was almost overhead.

The sight of the day's last colors is something that we start to see in April, with our usual eight o'clock departure times. This evening was sort of an early preview, a reassurance that winter is not forever.. With Orion overhead at sunset, there was no mistaking February for April, but perhaps the spirits were sending me a small morsel to tide me until spring.

The seasons and their weather are a continuous ebb and flow, but the worst is past. The days are starting to gain strength and the force of each new winter blast will be dulled and shortened. Grass will green, birds will sing, and flowers will bloom. The world will be a safer place for romance.

*The author Bob Tilden flew a Caravan for a Night Express cargo company for 10 years and has also written a book, Gone Flyin'. To order it, visit goneflyin.com or search Gone Flyin' on ebay.com

- CaravanNation.com

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Morning's Glories, Evening's Worries by Bob Tilden

Stories from a Night Express Caravan Cargo Pilot

Morning's Glories, Evening's Worries

By Bob Tilden

Each morning as I climb away from Newark, I wonder what sort of glory will be provided by the coming dawn. By the time that the sun actually rises I will be 150 miles away, but still I look at the day's first light in the northeast to see if the sky offers a hint. I watch, wait, and anticipate while daybreak moves into dawn.

As the sky brightened last Wednesday morning, I could see a cloud bank in the distant right. It was unusual in that it was a fairly regular deck of tightly grouped puffy clouds with a jagged ...almost saw-toothed... ridge of clouds at its far edge. The ridge contained small clouds that were profoundly vertical in nature; almost like miniature thunderheads. It became apparent that I was gradually converging with these clouds as I traveled northwest.

The sun makes a bright spot on the horizon as I cruise above puffy clouds at 8000ft.

I took several pictures as I flew along in the brightening sky, and by the time that I was crossing Canandaigua Lake, the cloud deck had melted into a thick haze below my altitude. The vertical clouds had crumbled too, but their remnants cast long shadows into the golden sunlight that had set the haze aglow. It was a fascinating sight, like pillared ruins standing in desert sands.

I knew that I was looking at the pretty side of bad news, but that was OK. There was talk of thunderstorms for that evening, and the sight of small clouds able to blow straight up at dawn is a confirmation that the atmosphere was becoming unstable. Wednesday was hazy, hot, and humid, and it was no surprise to see thunderstorms erupt in the late afternoon.

I had an uneventful 8 PM trip from Elmira to Rochester, but my 10 PM departure from Rochester was made in rain that was flanking a thunderstorm. I paralleled the easterly track of the storm until I could cut in front of it, and thought that my worries were over. The controller called to say that "the computer" had re-routed my flight over the Catskills rather than the Poconos, but that the storms in that area were dissipating rapidly. I flew on happily, with the assurance given by the controller.

As I crossed Hancock, I passed into the next control sector, and things were different. This was a more easterly sector, closer to the action around the City. It was apparent that this sector was the twilight zone, where the Computer's projections were met by the facts of the weather. Some poor guy in a business turboprop wanted to turn right, around a storm, but the controller couldn't let him. Other planes were being given holding instructions.

I realized that the rest of this flight would be busy, because once planes start to hold, there is no guarantee of anything. Arrival could be delayed minutes or hours, and the hold could last so long that the plane would have to go someplace else for fuel before resuming the trip. Once you are given a hold, you have to know what sort of weather is around, what airports are available for refueling, and how long you can stay in the hold before you must break away.

I was just entering the sector, and as soon as the controller got the other planes settled into holds, he told me to return to Hancock and hold there. For the next half hour I flew race- track ovals ten miles on a side while I figured my options and listened to what was going on ahead of me. When I was released from the hold I was told that there would be no further delays, but shortly I was put into a stack of other company Caravans in a holding pattern near Port Jervis.

After fifteen minutes we were sent on our way one by one, a caravan of Caravans in a line heading for Newark's short runway. We landed, and the first guys helped the later arrivals tie their planes down, so that we could make the long walk to the freight terminal together. We laughed about the evening, exchanged the last 24 hours of Company gossip, and told the usual sorts of jokes on the way in.

We walked in long purposeful strides, anxious to close out the flights and sit down for a quick nap. After all, it was only three hours before time to take off and wonder what sort of glories will be provided by the coming dawn.

*The author Bob Tilden flew a Caravan for a Night Express cargo company for 10 years and has also written a book, Gone Flyin'. To order it, visit goneflyin.com or search Gone Flyin' on ebay.com

- CaravanNation.com

Update: Wasaya Airways Grand Caravan cargo airplane was found

*Update - Wasaya Airways has issued this statement: Wasaya Airways has learned Search And Rescue (SARs) ground crews have reached the aircraft site of Wasaya flight 127.

Upon arrival, crews found the lone occupant of the aircraft, our Captain Nick Little, not responsive and he could not be resuscitated. Rescue crews are on site now and will remain on site through the night awaiting additional resources to airlift our fallen crew member home.

Rescue efforts were hindered by poor weather conditions in the area. A helicopter dispatched was unable to reach the site due to heavy icing. The Ontario Provincial Police, together with SARs technicians, launched a ground rescue initiative at approximately 3:51 PM when it was clear the helicopter was unable to reach the site. The SARs Techs arrived at the aircraft site on foot at approximately 10:50 PM.

Michael Rodyniuk, President and CEO of Wasaya Airways said, “We are devastated by the loss of Captain Little. We have lost a dear friend and valued colleague. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nick’s family.”

More information will be released as soon as it becomes available.

December 11, 2015

Wasaya Airways has issued a statement at 9:21 am. that it has received information that Flight 127 was "overdue and no longer in radio contact."

The airplane of concern is a Cessna Grand Caravan. It was carrying cargo from Pickle Lake, ON Canada (CYPL) to Wapekeka First Nation, ON. (CKB6).

The flight distance of 166.5mi (268km) should have taken about an hour.

It is believed that there is only one person on-board, the pilot.

Search and Rescue personnel are actively searching along the flight path.

Caravan Flying for MAF by Jim Vanderburg

Caravan Flying for MAF
by Jim Vanderburg

MAF Caravan 9Q-CAU in Zaire (DR Congo) photo by Jim Vanderburg

In the early 90’s I had the pleasure of flying a Cessna Caravan around the country of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). I was there to support the many humanitarian, medical and missionary efforts in the eastern region of the country. The Caravan I flew was 9Q-CAU, serial number 10.

Our home base was the village of Nyankude, located about 1000nm from the country's capital, Kinshasa and around 400nm from Nairobi Kenya. Nyankude was a prime location, with a fully equipped hospital and two hangers to service and repair the aircraft based there. We had a fleet of around three 206’s and the one Cessna Caravan.

MAF C206s in Zaire (DR Congo) photo by Jim Vanderburg

Around once a week I would make the trip to Nairobi in the Caravan to pick up the mail for everyone in our village. We worked over there before either telephones or the Internet were accessible. Mail usually took about four weeks for it to be delivered or received. If there was ever and emergency we had the option of using an HF radio in the Caravan to patch a call to the United States via Switzerland.

Many hours were spent flying over the Ituri rain forest, where the upper canopies would reach heights of 200ft. In the event an airplane did go down out in the rain forest; there would be little to no chance of it ever being found. Although I avoided thinking about it too much, looking back I realize how much my life and the lives of everyone I flew depended on the reliability and safety of the Caravan and PT-6.

MAF Caravan 9Q-CAU serial number 10 photo by Jim Vanderburg

Occasionally I would make the trip to the country's capital of Kinshasa. I could usually make the trip to Kinshasa non-stop due to the winds being out of the east; but on the return trip I would have to stop for fuel. The fuel stop would depend on the route taken, it would sometimes be a city like Kisangani, or at a remote out-station we had set up with stockpiles of fuel barrels.

I recall a particular incident on this route when I was to deliver a family with all of their belongings from Kinshasa to a remote village on the eastern side of the country. The trip would require a fuel stop at an outstation that was carved out of the forest. We arrived at the outstation without incident, and I started the tedious task of refueling the Caravan at the fuel stockpile. It required filling 5 gallon jerry cans from barrels using a hand pump, I then had to stand on the wing while someone passed me the can and I would poor it into the fuel tank with a funnel.

After successfully refueling the plane, seating the family back in the plane and preforming the pre-flight, I went to crank the PT-6. To my dismay there was no light off. I realized that the familiar ticking of the igniter, that we take for granted, wasn’t there. After checking and re-checking, sure enough the igniter box had failed, and in the worst place. I succeeded in contacting our base in Nyankunde on the HF radio, and unfortunately we didn’t have another box in stock. The closest one they could locate was at Wilson Field in Nairobi.

We then made ourselves comfortable in a couple of vacant homes in a nearby village, while waiting for help. I have memories of eating lots of bananas during those days, as well as taking tour on the river in a dug-out canoe. Two days later, one of our 206’s arrived with a new igniter box and I proceeded with the simple installation of bolting the new one in place. Since that time, I believe that Cessna has added a second igniter box for just that type of circumstance.

MAF Caravan in Zaire photo by Jim Vanderburg

The Caravan was an amazing plane to be able to, not only work on as an A&P but also, fly as a pilot. I am grateful for the opportunities that I had at that time to use it to its full potential serving the people in Congo.



For more information about MAF, please visit their site www.maf.org


- CaravanPilot.com

Fly the Whale is back in South Florida

N208JP at Volo Aviation

Fly the Whale is back in South Florida for the 2015/2016 season. Flying to beautiful destinations that are only accessible by boat or floatplane. 

Their Grand Caravan Amphibian (Whale Force One) is getting their passengers from Fort Lauderdale to Bimini in only 20 minutes and Eleuthera Island or Harbour Island (Bahamas) in only 1 hour 15 minutes. They also fly to Nassau, Cat Island, Marsh Harbor, Key West, Spanish Cay and many other destinations.

For more information about this company and their land and sea based charter flights, visit their site flythewhale.com

- CaravanPilot.com

Featured Caravan Operator - Air Juan

This featured Caravan operator is Air Juan, a charter airline based in the Philippines. They fly to 11 destinations from 3 bases, with plans to add 10 more destinations soon.

Grand Caravan Amphibian owned by Air Juan

The company was founded in 2012, "with a commitment to Philippine progress by making business and leisure destinations easily accessible by air". 

Along with its fleet of Cessna Grand Caravans and Grand Caravan Amphibians, it also operates a couple of Bell Helicopters and a Citation jet.

A couple Grand Caravan Amphibians at Manila Bay

Air Juan, with its private docks, is the best answer to avoid the country's over congested and poorly managed airports. Their Sea planes fly to the most beautiful island destinations that the Philippines have to offer. Check them out at AirJuan.com

- CaravanNation.com