Lessons From the Mission Field

Jay Hopkins

Monday, March 05, 2007 at 10:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Missionary pilots operate in exceptionally challenging environments, characterized by primitive airstrips, unreliable weather data, and incomplete aeronautical charts.
Their success and safety are attributed to strict adherence to procedures, conservative decision-making (the "Conservative Response Rule"), and robust communication and collaboration among pilots, including reliance on real-time pilot reports.
Key practices observed include meticulous pre-flight checks, conservative fueling, specific low-visibility procedures, and prioritizing safety over pressure to complete trips.
The author emphasizes that these lessons, especially conservative decision-making and valuing pilot reports, are vital safety takeaways for all general aviation pilots, regardless of available technological resources.

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When I wrote “Hazardous Duty” (Flying, May 2005), I was learning about missionary aviation but had never actually been to the mission field. Everything I wrote came from descriptions and accident reports written by others. That has all changed. Last month I had a chance to travel to Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Papua, Indonesia, to give my Preventing Human Error seminar to missionary pilots, mechanics and other personnel serving in that area. While I was there, I had an opportunity to fly along with missionary pilots on typical missions.

I flew in a King Air from Port Moresby to Goroka, PNG, and then on to Vanimo, followed by a short trip in a Cessna Caravan to Sentani, in Indonesia. I flew in a Bell Jet Ranger from the Interface education center near Goroka to the Aiyura strip serving the Ukarumpa missionary center. A flight in a Cessna 206 out of Aiyura gave me a chance to see some of the mountain airstrips in that area. At one point we landed at Owena at an elevation of 5,200 feet. It was a rough 1,200-foot strip with a 15-degree slope located on the side of a mountain with a vertical cliff at the top of the strip. The strip chart noted that it is “slippery when wet.”