May 4

Well this day certainly did not turn out the way we had planned.

We were up, packed, breakfasted, and at the airport by 9:15 a.m.  The plane came in at about 9:50 a.m.  We took off a little late, because off loading and on loading the plane took too much time.  It is fun to take off in a plane that takes a while to get up high.  One sees so much.  The plane took of and shortly after take off, banked to the left.  Funny I thought; this pilot is in a hurry to get home.  Soon I noticed that we were not climbing as we should, but it was just a passing thought as I was enthralled with my last view of the island of Taveuni.  Just as we were passing the beginning of the runway the pilot banked left again, and I realized we were going to land.  When I told Scott, he was a little sceptical until he noticed that the propeller out our window was just feathering.  "The engine on our side of the plane is not working."  he said.   Sure enough, we landed in a really steep descent.  After we had taxied back to the terminal, the pilot turned around to the passengers and said, "Well, that was interesting."  And then he explained that almost immediately after we were off the ground the engine on the port side of the plane quit working which, as an aside, caused the first banking to the left.  Because of the engine failure, he was forced to return to the Matei Airport.

This could have been a pretty dangerous situation.  Had the engine quit on take off we would have been in real trouble.  I was never nervous even when we realized that the engine had quit working.  I am not sure if it was that I just knew Heavenly Father would take care of us, or that He sent the Holy Ghost to whisper peace to my soul.  Whichever it was I am grateful.

We all deplaned after he told us that an mechanic would come in from Nadi to see about fixing the plane.  We decided to go back to the resort.  They allowed us to wait in our bungalow and fed us lunch which we feel was so nice.  We called the airport and were told to be back at 2:30.  Unbeknownst to us the plane that brought the mechanic flew anyone who was still at the terminal back to Nadi earlier.   We flew back on the regularly scheduled plane that comes in at 3:00 and leaves at 4:00.

I am surprised that I was not nervous when we took off. We had smooth flying all the way to Nadi, and although we had missed our original flight to Suva, the airlines had rebooked us on a later flight.

All's well that ends well is certainly true for us today.