The drop on our side of the river was about 3 1/2 feet. That was before we crossed the river and went 15 feet up the other side.

Matt and I send along the pictures above of the bucket and blade finally arriving at Kotidanga on Tuesday, April 21, 2008. The series of pictures show the bucket and blade being loaded onto the MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) airplane, flown to the airstrip in Kanabea and offloaded. Then it was carried in by the tractor from the Catholic Mission at the Kanabea airstrip (after we spent a couple days helping them fix it); then we slid it off the trailer; then we put wood poles under it and carried it down the hill, across the Wenna River, and up the steep bank on the other side (the bridge washed out months ago, and the Bobcat and the airstrip are on the other side of the river). From Kanabea to our station is a two hour hike, and it took the tractor one hour fifteen minutes over the muddy “road”.

Tags: airplane, Airstrip, Aviation, bobcat, loader, Missionary Matt Allen, Papua New Guinea, Short Take-Off and Landing, STOL