CWW Student reports
We had a good time with MAF and I was the only one of four that passed the technical, it went well, I was ready for it because of the training you gave me.
MAF is interested in you to send future students there, they were asking me today by e-mail about you.
Good to hear about the IA-test, Egmonts training and Greg's decision. Did Marco give any feedback about his time in Redlands? If not: he did very well and was 'recommended for field service'. From what I've heard from him as well as from the other two Dutch guys who did the same course, most of the stuff was already familiar to him. The other two had some more difficulties, 'in spite of' their two weeks preparation at (XX) on a C206 prior to the course.
Quote (translated):
I'm very glad I did Lionel's training. The way of flying in Missouri was the same as is taught here. They (MAF) use the same principles with e.g. an approach (aiming point, compensate up and downdrafts with throttle, etc.) He (Lionel) won't be pleased with using the first 100 feet of the runway as safety margin, so no touch down on the edge of the runway! They are using considerable margins with everything. It's exactly as described in the MAF-checklists. 4P's before take off, call abortpoint, powercheck, speedcheck and abortpoint check during take off, and retracting the flaps in ground effect.
I've had my field orientation last week ('checkout') by a MAF-US checkpilot, Dan Carlson. Since you've managed to get me on a decent level, I'll enclose his report as an attached file. How is life up there in Missouri ? At the moment we are in Redlands-California for my pre-field orientation course. As you know I came to Missouri to prepare specific for this course, and I thought you might apreciate it if I give you some update information, wich I hope will be helpfull for your ministry. I am here with two other dutch pilots, wich have a good flying background, and went to (XX) for 206-training. I can make a good comparison with them to see what a difference the CWW course makes. During the course here I told my wife over and over again how thankfull I am I did your course, it is so relevant here, and you really learnt me the "right" stuff. It makes the course here much easier. The other guys have much more work, although they went to (XX) and had 206 experience. They use roughly the same method here for setting up the approach, entering with the famous 80kts-20 flaps, and controling the glideslope with power, taking a spot on the window, just like you thaught me. This week we did practice T.O. aborts, using the hard braking, wich will use for landing in the coming lessons. The instructor was suprised by my good braking control, and balancing of the plane. I told him about your course, and about doing this in the 180.
Also very good is the low level flying we did, esspecially because they teach here for a normal T.O to retract flaps in ground effect, something that might be good to include in your training.
We haven't done the short strips, but from what I heard now it won't be much of a problem after your course. I can't remember properly, but how long was Keaster strip?? (I thought 700 or 900 ft) That was the shortest we've been to I believe. I'm sure they don't use strips that short here. As you said flying the 206(turbo) is not a problem after the 180/185. The instructor said I flew it better than some guys with 206 experience. As I can see now your course have been a much better preparation for here than going to (xx), or trying to get 206 experience.
How are you doing? I hope you, your family and your ministry are doing well.... I was really encouraged by Marco Koffeman's story about his time with you and by reading the CWW home page!
I received the enveloppe you send me. I'm doing very well, I'm learning a lot every day again. This Christian Wings to the World is really a great place, having a christian as an instructor is great, and as an instructor Lionel Smith is really good. I'll see you next week thursday.
We had a good time with MAF and I was the only one of four that passed the technical, it went well, I was ready for it because of the training you gave me.
MAF is interested in you to send future students there, they were asking me today by e-mail about you.
We had a visit lately from the MAF-Europe CEO. He was very pleased with the Chad programme. Afterwards I heard that he mentioned that from all the new pilots that entered MAF-Europe lately, "Marco Koffeman and Marc Koelewijn in particular are two young old time pilots". Guess where these two guys have been trained in 1998.
Dear Lionel,
We've got an American pilot, Frank Toews, who's planning to come to Irian Jaya in October. In light of the good training you gave to Kris, we'd like to ask if you'd be able to give a pre-field orientation with an evaluation report to us with the following emphasis:
Dear Lionel,
Greetings from Sentani. As I was reading your email, Kris was just
departing on a flight with a load of people and cargo to a small lowlands
strip about 80 miles south of here. He is doing a good job of flying for us
and now has about 900 hours of flight time. One thing I've really
appreciated about his training at CWW is his good rudder/tailwheel steering
control. I spite of some very rough strips, sideslopes, etc, he does a
great job of keeping it down the centerline.