From the Cockpit

The Sportsman is already at work

Greetings from Cameroon!

The last leg of the trip was the most challenging, exciting, and shortest leg of the trip. The morning that I left Lomé, Togo, there were some thunderstorms to the east along my route to Cameroon. I decided to wait one hour before leaving to see if the storm was going to move. After 40 minutes the storm had not moved but was decreasing in size, so I called Tom and said that I was leaving, hopped in the plane, and took off for Cameroon. I was in the air for about one hour and after my second waypoint I had to turn to the south to go around a very large storm. I did not have to divert very far before I could see a valley on the other side of the storm. There were storms on the lefthand and storms on the righthand, but the way that I needed to go was clear. Then I came to Malabo Island, and there was this even bigger storm over the Island. Well, God had prepared another corridor for me to go through. At Malabo Island I was to turn to the east and fly to Yaoundé. I looked to the east, and there was another valley to fly through with storms on the righthand and a 17,000 feet mountain on the lefthand.

I was 1 hour from Yaoundé when I crossed the coast of Cameroon on my way to land at Yaoundé. God opened up many doors to get this airplane here, and He has provided many people to help me along the way. I have heard about many who are following the progress on the blog, and it is encouraging to me.

When I called Yaoundé tower and reported that I had the field in sight, I heard Toms voice over the radio saying "Glory be to God!" Tom had come down in the Glastar to meet me.

We cleared customs and paid the landing fees and that was it. The aircraft was now in country. We stayed the night in Yaoundé and left the next morning for Tom's hometown of Sabga. We both landed at a airport near his house, and I went with Tom in the Glastar to make some practice landings at the mountain airstrip at his house. I am glad that we did since we had to land up hill and make the approach around a 6,000 feet hill just south east of his home. You can only land one way. I have some video of the landing, and I will put it on the blog when I get back to the States. We waited at his house for a while for some rain to pass before we took off to go and pick up the Sportsman for me to fly it to Tom's house. I made one fly-by and turned downwind. I turned base leg behind the hill, lined up for final, and saw the short narrow upsloping runway with no way out. Once turning on the base leg, I was committed to landing with no other choice. The first thought in my mind at the sight of the runway was "my God can help me do this." I set up the airspeed, made the approach, and touched down at the right spot. Just like that I was on the ground. There was a crowd of people that had gathered to see the airplane land. I did not hear them, but Tom said that when I touched down the people cheered.

What a great God that we serve! This aircraft has arrived at the place where it will be used to take the Gospel to places in Cameroon that cannot be reached readily by other means. God showed Himself mighty to me along the trip, and He will continue to show Himself to the people here in Cameroon.

I will try to write more as I get time. Thanks to all who prayed for the safe delivery of this plane.

John Douglas