Various...

• We canceled all of our flights today due to weather. By the time it improved in the afternoon, it was too late to do a whole lot.
• I did go on a short local training flight with our instructor. They want to get me approved to fly in instrument conditions, which will be really nice. I always write about the bad weather we have. It will really help to be able to fly through some of it from time to time.
• We did my training flight in Alas 10. It was my first flight in it since all the major upgrades. It was fun to fly, and noticeably "spunkier."
• Please continue joining us in prayer about our air ambulance flying. I reported a few weeks ago that our contract was signed, but we are yet to receive payment for outstanding flights. The bill it getting to be about half the price of a new Cessna, therefore we can't do anymore flights until payment is received. The decision to say no to people in need everyday is beginning to take it's toll on all of us. We feel like we have our hands tied in this situation, so we ask you to join us on your knees to ask our Father for a solution.
• Alas 11 is thoroughly torn apart now for it's makeover. As you can see in the pic below, the new engine is mounted, the belly pod is off, the landing gear are off for 1000 hour inspection (after approx. 3000 landings), and the inside of the cockpit it totally gutted for new radios.

Hungry anyone?

This week I am coordinating flights, therefore I may not fly very much. There are 3 of us that do the coordination which gives us two weeks on of flying and one of planning. Needless to say, we were really busy today. We got around 7 flights done by 3:30pm which is only possible with decent weather.

One of our pilots did bring back some pretty interesting cargo...



This is a Brocket deer, about the size of a large dog. Click here if you want to see what they look like alive. This one was smoked whole so that it would be preserved for a while, and enjoyed by many people. It's a shame I won't be one of those people. It looks a lot like pictures I have seen of mummies.

Yet again...

After being immersed in a Spanish speaking environment for more than 2 years now, Rebecca and I feel like our Spanish speaking abilities are constantly improving and growing. I know that I have a LOT more to learn, yet there aren't many situations that give me fear anymore simply because Spanish is being spoken. But, we still make some dumb mistakes, typically on a daily basis. The funny thing about this mistake it that is had my money involved.

Hopefully some of you as my readers have received postcards from us from time to time. Postcards are not expensive here but I found a way I could do it even cheaper, and use my own photos as well. One of our pilots knows a good print shop in Quito and he helped me get things going. In order for the print shop to make my order worth their time, they wanted to print 1000 postcards. I have six different photos, so I was getting a little under 200 postcards of each photo. This was many more than I needed, or ever could write, but I was still getting a better deal than paying the individual prices on postcards I have been paying from a store in nearby Puyo. Now, the part that was lost in translation...

A few weeks ago, my postcards arrived from the printer. They looked great! But, after reviewing my bill, I didn't have 1,000 postcards, I had 3,000! This is FAR more than I will ever need. So, we will continue to send these postcards, and hopefully some of you will be getting some as time goes on. But, what do I do with the other 2,900 postcards?! After talking with my boss, he is allowing me to sell some of them at our hangar. We always have groups passing through the hangar, and even people here in Shell that would like to use them as well. In the middle of last week I built my display and made it public. And wouldn't you know it, I am already selling them. So, I guess I could say that I am making money on my 3,000 postcards, but profit is a LONG way off!

Encuentro para jóvenes

Yesterday afternoon we were invited to go up to the mountains to see how things were going at a youth retreat for the young men of our church. We went with my boss, who also attends our church, and about 4 other women. All told we were 9 people loaded into a Ford Explorer. We arrived at out destination about 30 minutes later. We stayed about an hour or so and then came back to Shell.

Our church is really big into these weekend retreats. Last weekend it was for the young women of the church. We also have them for adult men and adult women. Our church is small, about 60 people, but healthy. Even since we started going last year, it seems like it has grown. The church building itself is pretty small, and it seems like every Sunday we are packed to the brim. There just isn't any more space for growth.

Here is the group of youth that were there playing some type of relay race. They are playing on a very typical soccer/volleyball court. They play a version of what we call volleyball, they call it simply volley. The net is a lot higher, and some of the rules are a little different. But, basically it is the same; get the ball over to the other side of the net in 3 hits or less without allowing it to touch the ground.

Here is Brooklyn crossing one of the bridges on the property. She had a good time, and always likes when we take a trip of any length. Madison did really well also. We always have fear when we take her out of her routine and schedule.

Thwarted again

When my alarm clock came and got me out of bed this morning at around 6:30 the sky was very clear, and yes the volcanoes were out. So, Brooklyn and I walked down to the corner of our street and took a few shots. I have been wanting to get these same volcanoes from a different perspective from a road east of Shell. Brooklyn and I quickly got in the Bronco with our dog and headed for this road to see what we could see from there...we didn't get too far...

El Altar Volcano looking as big as ever.

Sangay Volcano beaming in the morning sun.

Shortly after Brooklyn and I pulled out onto the main road en route to our destination, this is all we saw...dense fog. Maybe some other time we will be able to take that road and see what the volcanoes look like from there. Upon our return to the house, everything by then was covered in the dense fog also. At least we got to see them for a little while.

Picture time

We have been trying to get a good family pic for a while now. As anyone knows that has a family, it is no easy task. We are out of our MAF prayer cards and needed to get some new ones made, thus we needed a current family pic. After about 30 takes (thank goodness for digital photography) we finally got 1 usable one before both of our girls lost all sanity and patience. It never did stop raining today, therefore I didn't have any emergency flights to go on. So, we just did domestic chores around the house, and Brooklyn and I even watched a movie together and ate some popcorn while mommy took a nap.

Another day off

I have the day off again today. Today is a national holiday and therefore we all have it off. I am technically on call to do any emergency flights, but right now it is raining so hard I don't think I am going anywhere for a while.

For those of you who read my blog, you can see that I made some changes. After tweaking my HTML for a while, I finally got the results I wanted. Rebecca has made some neat changes to her blog as well, be sure to check it out.

It has been a few days since I have blogged. I have had things to say, but I haven't had time and energy both at the same time to do it. I have been flying my tail off. In the past week I have flown more than 15 hours and had around 35 landings. After a 10 landing day, my brain doesn't have much RAM left over to make simple decisions. Last night I went to bed at 8:30pm and didn't get up until my alarm clock came and got me, a.k.a. Brooklyn, at 6:30am.

Yesterday, one of my stops was Liquino. As I waited for my passengers to arrive, the village kids were hanging around. They allowed me to take their picture. They always think it is neat when they get to see their pic afterwards in the camera viewfinder. My airplane had definitely collected some mud yesterday. When I was through flying yesterday, I washed er' up, and she probably shed 10-20 pounds just in dirt.

From the logbook...On Call

It is my weekend to be on call. I had yesterday off, therefore we went on a shopping trip for groceries about 2 hours away Ambato. It turned into more than we bargained for. Hopefully Becca will write about it in her blog. She will do a better job telling about a "normal" grocery run.

Today, I had a lot to get done. I wasn't able to complete all that I had on my plate today due to weather. The weather chased me home in the afternoon and I will try to clean up tomorrow. Even still, I had 9 landings and 2.5 hours of flying. Here are a few pics from today...
This was taken just after landing in San Carlos. I got the airplane really muddy upon landing and thought it would be fun to take a pic. So, I asked everyone to pile around and get in on the picture. I was dropping off a team of Compassion International missionaries to work there for a few days.


While loading my cargo in Copataza, I saw an unusual movement in one of the sacks. After further inquiry into what I was unknowingly handling and putting into the belly pod, they told me it was a small alligator. Enough said, pull that thing out, I wanted to get a closer look. They said the gators get about as big as I am when they are fully grown. He was a pretty neat lil' fella.

Extreme Makeover...Airplane Edition

You may remember this picture from a few months ago. Well, Alas 10 is now out of the shop and ready to be put back on the flight line. It has been more than three months since she flew operationally. One of the reasons it took so long was the book our avionics guy had to write. The radios and navigation equipment that we put in are not anything new in the world of small airplanes. But, here in Ecuador they are. Therefore, we had to basically write the factory manuals and install manuals for the Ecuadorian FAA, in Spanish of course.

Below is what the cockpit looks like now. It may not look like much to the untrained eye, but we are all sure looking forward to flying Alas 10 with all of her new bells and whistles.

In addition to the cockpit upgrade, Alas 10 also has a new engine, and wingtip extensions that double as fuel tanks. She was a performer before the upgrades. We are all wondering how much better she will fly now with a new motor and more wing surface. I'll let you know. Now, Alas 11 is in the shop for the same work. Hopefully it won't take quite as long for it's makeover.

A days work...in pictures

Today we had great weather! I think I can count on one hand how many rain drops hit the window of my airplane. Because of our great weather, I flew 4.7 hours and had 12 landings.


Just another bug picture. This butterfly was just sitting on the hangar floor between my number 2 and 3 flights. He climbed right on my finger and let me get a few pics.



One of my stops today was Paandin (PAD). This was landing #10, and by then I was getting tired, especially from unloading and loading my airplane all day long in the jungle heat. Therefore, I let the folks in PAD help me get the 6 concrete sacks out of my airplane. We had to move the blue tubes out of the way first, they were for landing #11 in Yuvientza.


After I got my camera out in PAD, the momitas wanted their picture taken. They were a fun and helpful group in PAD today. There were a lot of momitas!


I took this from the cockpit like many photos before it. It was just a powerfull looking cloud as I broke out around the corner of some other clouds. It looked like the ground was on fire.

From the logbook...lots of legs

I thought it would be fun to tell about my day in a sequential way. It was very full, but also very fun...

1. I got to the hangar early so I could pre-flight Alas 14 without distraction. After our morning prayer time at 8:00am, I went across the street to the Nate Saint Memorial School. I was asked to speak at their weekly chapel. I went and participated and spoke at chapel, and then got back to the hangar around 9:00am.
2. I then went and did a "test" flight with 14. It just came out of maintenance and needed to be flown to verify all systems were a go.
3. When I got back to Shell after about a 20 minute test flight, I loaded up full with cargo and went to Mashient (MSH). I made the 30 minute flight to MSH and unloaded my cargo of building supplies.
   
4. Next, I went 10 minutes away to Capahuari (CAP). I picked up a nurse that works for Compassion Internatioinal. She had been wanting to be moved to MSH since last Wednesday. We finally had weather that cooperated.
5. I flew back to MSH and dropped off the C.I. nurse and her cargo.
   
6. Then I flew back to CAP because I forgot to leave some medicine there the first time I landed. In the words of Homer Simpson...DOH!
7. From CAP I set off for Masuramu (MSR) to pick up a patient with dengue fever. About 5 minutes from CAP I got a radio call asking me to go to Conambo (CON) first. Luckily, I put on extra gas in Shell.
8. I then "diverted" to CON and picked up the awaiting patient.
   
9. From CON I them set a course for MSR again. This time I landed and picked up the patient with dengue fever.
10. From MSR, I was finally on my way to Shell, where I picked up my new orders.
11. Upon landing in Shell, I was loaded completely full again with cargo. This time with tubing and concrete for a large water project by HCJB world radio in Yuvientza (YUV).
12. One of our other pilots was already in YUV unloading the same stuff I had.
13. After YUV, I flew back to Shell and made my last landing of the day. All told, 3.7 hours of flight time and 10 landings. It was a fun day!

Here is a look at our cargo loads into YUV. We are able to fit 7 of the big blue rolls of tubing, and 5, 110 pound sacks of concrete in a load. We have a total of 52 rolls of tubing and a lot of concrete just for YUV. There are other communities getting the same water projects as well. We might be busy flying this stuff for a while.


Here is one of our pilots taking off in YUV. He had just finished unloading his cargo and was en-route to Makuma to pick up a patient before heading back to Shell.
On my way home from YUV I was sans passengers. Therefore I did a few "lazy 8's" and had some fun. My job can't be all work! The Pastaza River is visible in the background.


Also on the way home from YUV, there was some mist falling in the area and it made a really bright rainbow. That is the Pastaza River again in the background.

Tragedy in Shell

All at once, a huge fire ball erupted. The flames were so large that you could feel the heat from our hangar. Not long after that, the airport fire truck raced by the hangar screaming with it's sirens blaring to begin putting out the large fire.

No, thankfully this ball of flame wasn't an aircraft, nor were any people involved. Every year or so the fire crews of the airport and nearby Puyo have test drills to put our fires. This time it was at the end of the runway. Airport workers were busy all morning preparing a pile of tires, wood, etc. to get the flames ablazin'. It was fun to watch.They were able to do this test because the airport was practically shut down all day due to poor weather. We have had 3 bad days in a row, which is unusual. We almost always have daily rain, but at least half of a day we can get something done. Luckily our flight schedule has been light, or we would really be drowning in backed up flights. As it stands now, we only have about 6 people stranded in the jungle that have been wanting to come out since Wednesday. Maybe tomorrow our on-call pilot can get the job done.

Evolution in action

Due to weather, we didn't get much accomplished today. After a lot of waiting we did get one flight into Makuma taking some bible translators home. One of the other missionary families that lives there also has an interest in the local wildlife. In fact, he has discovered a few new species of reptiles that were previously unknown to science.

Today, we had the privilege of bringing out another one of these first finds. This is the female version of this toad, and the male was in a sack. He was much smaller and less colorful. This photo isn't the best because Steve, the pilot that brought him out for transport to Quito, said he was a biter. I didn't want to prove him right because this toad had a huge mouth! It is funny sometimes to think of the various cargoes we haul. We were joking in the hangar that this toad and other species of reptiles are new to science because they hadn't evolved yet, and now they are ready to come out of the closet. I don't think I could ever muster up enough faith to believe in evolution.

Latest happenings...

• Nothing out of the "ordinary" has happened lately, thus I haven't had a lot to write about.
• Finally, our contract with the ministry of health was signed yesterday, after 4 months of not having it. Now, we still covet your prayers that the MoH will pay their outstanding $40,000 flight bill. Although the contract is now signed, we still cannot affort to continue flying for Air Ambulance requests without payment. We are "bleeding to death" financially as my boss put it.
• This week I am flight coordinating. Therefore, I haven't had any flights myself, although I have kept my other co-workers semi-busy keeping planes in the air.
  

More Volcanoes

This morning is a crystal clear "Colorado" morning. We don't see many of these, and when they do happen, it doesn't last for long. Therefore, I took some more shots of the volcanoes this morning with all their snow and glaciers beaming in the sunshine, without a cloud in the sky...for now.Here is what the whole range looks like in a panoramic view as seen from our hangar.

El Altar Volcano, 17,553 ft high. Although now "extinct," it is believed that this was once the tallest mountain in the world. There is evidence that El Altar blew BIG a long time ago. You can find rock chunks from this volcano hundreds of miles away in the Amazon Jungle. You could easily fit Sangay within the remaining caldera of El Altar. It's an interesting thought...

Sangay Volcano, 17,300 feet high, and still active!

Sangay in action

I shot some neat photos of Sangay Volcano today. See below...

In this shot, I was flying home to Shell at 6,500 feet in the late afternoon. Sangay popped out from the clouds for the first time in a few days. The clouds were still condensing on the snow covered portion of the volcano, pretty cool!

When I finally got home about on hour later, I noticed from my roof that Sangay was really clear and even had a small eruption. Look in the photos below and you can follow the lava flow down the mountain. These photos were taken in the span of about one minute. That is some fast lava!!!

From the logbook...Flood Relief

Today, I had two flights to a village called Moretecocha (MRT). I took a Compassion International couple and their little girl to visit the village and help with some flood relief. A few weeks ago, the nearby river flooded very badly. The river was so full it covered the airstrip and even washed away a few homes. In both of my flights to MRT I was full with cargo as well. I hauled things like pots and pans, cloth, clothing, rubber boots, machetes, axes, nails, food, etc. Needless to say I hauled a LOT of stuff to help out the community of MRT. These are the type of flights where loving what I do is pretty easy. It is easy to see the help and hope we bring with the airplane. Although, the weather made these flights a challenge today. See below...

This is a look out my front window. Despite the challenges of flying with rain on all sides, it is nonetheless beautiful.


This is looking out my right side passenger window towards the rear of the airplane. Again, I think it is so cool how God seemed to make all these bridal veils with various rain showers. Despite all the green in the jungle, there isn't a day that goes by when I am flying over it that I don't see something in a new perspective. It can be the way a ridge line looks, the way a river flows, or the various shades of green that the jungle canopy can make. I do have the best office view in the world!

Roofing Project

For the past week or so, we have had a project going on at our house. The plan was to put a covering over part of our rearward house connecting to the bodega. I have the day off today (Ecuadorian Labor Day) so Ron and I (our fixerupperdoeverything guy) went to work to finish things up. The framing was already up, so we just had to install the metal roofing. After about 2 hours, we were done. Now, we are waiting for the rain to see just how well it works. I'm sure we won't have to wait long. Ron sent the greenhorn onto the "scaffolding" to drill holes and put screws into the upper braces. It was a fun time, and I always learn something. I don't know a lot about carpentry/construction things, so I enjoy when I have times like this to soak up little tid bits.


Here Ron and I are on the roof of our house. Most roofs are flat here (ya, I don't understand why they build flat roofs in a place with 22 feet of annual rain either) and we are covering the section from our rear house door to our bodega. The bodega houses our washing and drying machines, and anything else that needs stored. The big blue tank under Ron's ladder is our water cistern which we use when the city water has problems. We are averaging having to use the aux. water system about once a week.

Crazy Aussies

From the logbook...Back in the Saddle

Yesterday was my first day flying again in 9 days. Honestly, it was a nice break. I love flying, and I will always love flying, but sometimes you just need a break. So after a good long rest from the cockpit it was nice to be back at it again yesterday. They had me flying hard too. I had 3.5 hours of flight time and 10 landings. When I got home, I think I fell asleep on the couch before 8pm. I didn't last very long. Part of this was due to an accidentally self-imposed, caffeine induced, hyperactivity disorder causing poor sleep (drinking coffee too late the previous night).

The emphasis of our flying yesterday was taking Compassion International kids back to their home villages. They had all been in the village of Santiak (STK) for a week long version of church camp, jungle style. I'm not sure how many dozens of kids we flew home, but it was a lot.

Here is a shot of Steve and I getting our passengers sorted out in STK. Chad was also involved in the STK flying, totaling 3 airplanes in "Operation-Get these kids home."

Here is my first load of happy campers. If you count closely, you will see 7 little faces, and 1 big one. I had a lot of souls on board, but not much weight. All together, those 7 kids weighed about 280 pounds. These kids were from San Carlos (SCL).

Here is Steve taking off from Santiak with a load of kids. We all had a lot of landings and takeoffs from STK yesterday.

This is Chad en-route to SCL after I was there with another load of 7 kids. As I was heading back to STK for another load of people we crossed paths. As you can tell from the picture, the jungle is REALLY big and our airplanes are REALLY small!