long time no post!

Hey guys and gals, what up?
So lets play catchup, well i'm still living in Arnhem Land, and loving it. I'm still flying, single, restless, sober, sad, happy, and missing you.
I don't get life. Where is all this heading? I mean in YWAM life seemed very simple. It was awseome. I had purpose, friends, and love (or a convincing imitation). I dunno what it's been like for the rest of you who have left YWAM, but for me it's been a shock, that i'm still reeling from. I found in YWAM that we were all together, united. Life was about what we were doing, now that i'm out, i'm all alone. Not in a feel sorry for me way, but in a ; shit, better start making decisions way. What i'm trying to say is that i miss that community we had. I've found that since leaving life has been all about me. What do i want to do? Instead of what do we want to do? Does this dribble make sense to anyone else. Also a lot of this thought could be brought on by living in a remote Aboriginal community where they don't speak English, without a car, single friends, and nothing good on tv. But there is the possibility that others of you have had similar experiences. If you have let me know that i'm not going crazy.
Anyway that was a bit of a downer, the next one will be all surface smiles, and cheer.

Big shout out to my old roomy, and best buddy Nick. I love you man, and i'm thinking about you. Your pain is my pain. 'I have your back' like you and Leigh had mine in Winkler, remember?

My new office!

So that is the last time i write about leaving messages on other peoples blogs, geeez i'm sorry! Anyway you forgive me cause you love me, and if you don't, well...piss off! Wow calm down, it's just the roids.
Yeah so i got a new office recently. To understand why a new office is so good you would have to understand the old office. The old office was built in the 70's, and it shows. It's old and crappy. I mean it still works, and it is familiar which is nice. But the new one is clean and easy to work in as you can probably tell by the pics.
Yeah so i'm now flying a bigger, easier to fly, load, and land plane! It's still a single engine, but it's bigger inside than most light twins. It's the all new Australian made GA8 Airvan. It's really nice compared to the old Cessna 206's i was on. The airvan weighs like 50 kgs more, but has a maximum take off weight (MTOW) nealy 200 kgs higher than the 206. It's far less painful than a 206, with considerably less things to bump your head on or slam your back into. It's also freakin easy to land, compared to the 206 which can be quite a dog. I mean this plane is eeeeeasy to land. The 206 is good though because it makes you a good pilot. The 206 gives you nothing, so if you do a nice landing it's cause you worked for it. However, i'm lazy, and am really loving just crusin in the Airvan. The best thing about the airvan, and unfortunatley i don't have a pic, is the overhead panel. You feel (and look) like a real pilot when you reach above your head to flick switches, and check circuit brakers. Damn it's like the sweetest thing.
Well thats it for now, as this is my last day off for a while. My roster is okay, but i get only 1 day of in the next 10.
Luv yous.
Oh yeah the first one is the 206 the next one is the airvan. Oh yeah and the 3rd one is me at work, taken by our Saftey Officer, who i flew around for a bit.

Hi JL! Just finished this...

Okay so some of you may have noticed that i left a lot of comments on people s blogs today, Ralph i couldn't for yours it said page not found. Whatever i just wanted to tell you to ask leigh about getting a paypal account and to ask you about thet chick. The reason i had that much time to read everyones blog is this. Today i was rostered to fly the closed charter to Numbulwar. Its one of two routes that MAF flies up here on a regular basis. The cool part is that i get to sit in the airconditioned office down here in boring numbulwar and use the high speed internet to check out your blogs. I know most of you have access to high speed all the time but i don't so this is a big deal. Anyway the most awesome part about this is that i get to relax today. I only have two flights today! Normally i do about ten so this is a breezy day. Numbulwar and i go way back to when i was in Bible college. Part of my course was to fly up from Melbourne to Arnhem land, to practice remote area navigation, and to check out the MAF ops up here. Well i only made it as far as Numbulwar because my plane was running out of hours before it had to go into maintenance. Anyway that was when i decided not to come to MAF single, as Numbulwar is a hole, and it's boring. If i was here on my own i would go nuts. there is only like two sealed roads here, and no one really speaks English, which is wierd cause it's still technically a part of Australia. Anyway here's a map of Arnhem land. I live in Yirrkala, up the top, and i'm in Numbulwar, down the bottom. Anyway i want to write about my new office soon.
Cheers,
Benjamin

New office!!!!

Now that title could be in referance to two things. I could be talking about how YWAM Vancouver has moved out of their offices that they've had for years. Or it might be about my new office.
I remember the smell of coffee you would get as you walked upstairs after class.
I remember Wade and Mike's plants slowly dying.
I remember looking out the window towards the mountains, in summer, winter, spring, and autumn.
I remember having to be quiet for the IWA.
I remember being in the office late for 'roses'.
I remember the many stains on the carpet, and remenising how they got there.
I remember days of crap all over the floor down stairs.
I remember Jamies freudian cactus.
I remember 'ben is good staff'
Now it's over i feel very far away, as another one of my safe places disappears. However YWAM is people not buildings, and my biggest hope is that the people of YWAM Van don't forget their heritage in YWAM Canada. That pioneering spirit. If we are back in the wilderness, so to speak, then great! It was in the wilderness that God appeared daily to Israel, and gave them direction. Therefore pray for your "Moses" and "Joshua" as you enter this time of change, and never forget where you came from.
Umm I was gunna write about me new office, but I'll do that later today as i thing is might be enought for now.
Cheers.

I beat you this time you stupid blogthing

okay so serioulsy pissed the freak off! Last week anyway, not now, now i'm calm cool and collected. I wrote this great blog about life and what the hell the deal is with it, go to load a photo, right, then freakin bam no more blog. Ever happened to you? so freakin ticked. Anyway heaps has been happening. Last week i hit 500 hours! Yeah, it's not much, but's the first career milestone. I got checked to Line on the new GA8 Airvan. Its this sweet Aussie built plane. It's nicer to fly than the old crappy C-206. My contract got renewed for another 6 months. So i will be able to get a whole year's worth of experience out of this place. I'm still moving bases a fair bit, but thats coming to an end soon...i think.
Anyway so i've told you i live in paradise right? Well i do. Last weekend we flew up to Cape Wessel Island, for a bit of a camping trip. This island is like out there in the international shipping lanes. It's like a long way north. There is nothing there, but a beach, a light house, and something that resembles an airstrip. I love my job. Yep we just took the plane up to a remote tropical island for fun. How great is this job!
Yesterday i finished early, which is nice cause it was a big week. Ben, my other housemate had the day off. So we walked up the beach had a fire and did a bit of fishing of the beach. Caught a shark - check, lit a bushfire - check, flew planes - check, well that concludes another week in paradise. Actually the only thing that would make this place better would be some girls. I mean seriously there are no available white women on the island, none, zip, zero, you get it right? There are aboriginal women, cough, but, well lets just say deodorant would be a start.
Anyway this is, if it freakin works, the plane at the Wessel's. I slept in the swag under the wing. Oh and check out the size of this stick insect i found!

A huge congrats to Jessie and Mike. Miss you guys.

Hangar Dayz

So was up peeps? I'm chillin out on my day off and thought i'd write you a bog to read so you don't have to do work at your legitimate jobs. I'm only flying three days this week, which i good, and bad. Good because i get to hang out, and bad because i don't get to go flying, and i need those hours. I need to get about 1000 hrs by the time i leave here. If i get that i can get a better job, and so on. I've been thinking a lot lately about where i'm heading in aviation. I had a chat with an old friend from Bible college. He gave me some good advice on my career, i just needed a bit of focus you know? Anyway i had an interesting flight this week. I was on my way back to base from dropping of school kids at their homeland, when i got a call on the radio to pick up a sick kid and fly him into hospital. I had to land on this dodgy strip that i've never been to before. It was this sick little baby that must have been under one year old, and his mother. He was so cute. He had a real bad cough, but other than that he didn't cry or anything. It's those sort of flights that i like. I feel like more than just a taxi driver. We have more pilots than planes at the moment so i got to work in the hangar and help the engineers a bit yesterday. I don't know if i help them or just get in there way. It's interesteing working with them. There is a whole other side to this industry that i know very little about. One good thing about hangar dayz is the breaks. Engineers have breaks like clock work. One minute they are all buzzing around, the next minute you stick your head outside the plane you're working on and bam they're all just gone. It's amazing. We don't get that as pilots. In fact lunch time is prviliedge. But still i'd rather be flying!

Hey wus up Rachy? As this blog has not been going for very long my dear, adopted little sister is the only one that knows about it. Well anyway i wanted to show you all a picture of my sweet 'Lester the Molester' moustache. Problem is i think my camera is broken. Which is a real bummer on more than one level. You see I only bought this camera last year and it's a really good camera (when it works), and it's taken me like a full month to grow this mo. Those of you who know me know that i can't really grow facial hair. So this has been a big commitment for me and i wanted to show you it before i get rid of it. Which will be as soon as i get my camera working, hmmm, damn stupid camera, piece of crap, damn it. Okay, whoa, Ben calm down...okay i'm back sorry bout that. Did i mention i've also been taking steroids? Nah not really, i'm naturally this fit. Wait a second! Oh mate that is sweet. My camera started working, so how sweet is this mo huh? Moustaches make you a better pilot as well!