Once again, another good day of flying, although the weather sure gave us fits. I was to have a decently long flight with several stops, but some of my patient returns never showed up (very common) and so I just reduced my total number of stops to 1, planning to take the bible translators back to Makuma, with about 600 pounds of cargo.
This prop is from a C-130 Hercules that was in Makuma a long time ago. From the picture you can tell that things didn't go to well. It's original intention was to bring a hydro-electric power plant into Makuma, which it did with no problem. Any military operator of the aircraft will tell you of it's short field capability. The problem that this airplane had, occured on taxi. The pilots were taxiing to the end of the runway (it's a "long" runway, about 2400 ft long) in order to take off. Due to the large size of the C-130, the aircraft began to sink into the soft dirt-mud, and became stuck. The pilots tried to use the extra power of the 4 engines to try and get er' unstuck, but what they accomplished instead is kinda funny, in hindsight anyway. At full power trying to turn around, the aircraft wouldn't budge. What happened instead was the hot exhaust from the engines caught the nearby grass on fire, which in turn caught the airplane on fire, and burned it to the ground. No one was hurt, I don't think. I was told that most of the airplane simply melted, and what remained they just hauled off into the nearby jungle, which is where this prop now lies. I had to stomp down a lot of 6 foot tall grass in order to clear the area a bit to get a picture. All of the work in Makuma, including the story of the C-130, is told in a book called "Mission to the headhunters." I have yet to read it myself, although I want to. I have been told it is awesome. (If anyone has read it, let me know what you thought) Makuma is a bible translation hub so to speak, and is one of the oldest airstrips that exist in the jungle.
Dan was also flying today, and landed at Makuma bringing in Shuar Bible translators from the distant jungle. I was waiting in Makuma, because Shell was shut down with heavy rain. I was on the ground there about an hour and a half. Once I finally did get a good report from Shell, I still had to divert a long way around a storm cell before turning on course to Shell. Weather is definetly a factor EVERY day here in Ecuador. It isn't like flying in the desert southwest of Colorado.
This prop is from a C-130 Hercules that was in Makuma a long time ago. From the picture you can tell that things didn't go to well. It's original intention was to bring a hydro-electric power plant into Makuma, which it did with no problem. Any military operator of the aircraft will tell you of it's short field capability. The problem that this airplane had, occured on taxi. The pilots were taxiing to the end of the runway (it's a "long" runway, about 2400 ft long) in order to take off. Due to the large size of the C-130, the aircraft began to sink into the soft dirt-mud, and became stuck. The pilots tried to use the extra power of the 4 engines to try and get er' unstuck, but what they accomplished instead is kinda funny, in hindsight anyway. At full power trying to turn around, the aircraft wouldn't budge. What happened instead was the hot exhaust from the engines caught the nearby grass on fire, which in turn caught the airplane on fire, and burned it to the ground. No one was hurt, I don't think. I was told that most of the airplane simply melted, and what remained they just hauled off into the nearby jungle, which is where this prop now lies. I had to stomp down a lot of 6 foot tall grass in order to clear the area a bit to get a picture. All of the work in Makuma, including the story of the C-130, is told in a book called "Mission to the headhunters." I have yet to read it myself, although I want to. I have been told it is awesome. (If anyone has read it, let me know what you thought) Makuma is a bible translation hub so to speak, and is one of the oldest airstrips that exist in the jungle. 
Dan was also flying today, and landed at Makuma bringing in Shuar Bible translators from the distant jungle. I was waiting in Makuma, because Shell was shut down with heavy rain. I was on the ground there about an hour and a half. Once I finally did get a good report from Shell, I still had to divert a long way around a storm cell before turning on course to Shell. Weather is definetly a factor EVERY day here in Ecuador. It isn't like flying in the desert southwest of Colorado.
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