From the logbook...stranded

In the flight plan today I had two long flights to get done...but you never know what a day may bring.

En-route to my first stop of Mashient (MSH) flying Alas 14, I began to feel an erratic thumping from my engine. I was almost to my destination, and everything seemed fine from the gauges, so I just kept going. After I landed in MSH, I tested some things with the engine still running before shutting down. Sure enough, I had problems with my left magneto. After unloading my over 900 pounds of sheet metal roofing (WEAR gloves!) and concrete, I took the cowling off and tried to figure out what was giving me problems.

Some may remember the problems we had with Alas 14 in out ferry flight from the USA. Long story short, it was the same problem today. So, after diagnosing that the problem I had could not be fixed with my simple tool kit, I was destined to wait in MSH until parts could be brought to me. The part I needed was a magneto harness. This is the thing that has all the wires that send the spark to the spark plugs. At about 3 in the afternoon, (6 hours after I got there) my boss Dan landed and helped me put the harness on, and sure enough after start up the problem was gone.

I was soon on my way back to Shell after a quick stop to pick up a passenger in Copataza. I didn't have enough daylight left to get my other stops or flights done. I guess that is why God invented tomorrow.


As with most big white pilot guys that have to spend unplanned time in a jungle community, you quickly develop a following. The people of MSH, including the adults, are great. I was shown around the whole community, and even sat in for about 30 minutes on a highly competitive game of high school soccer. For having to get stuck in the jungle with maintenance problems, I really had a great time. The weather was great (I am sunburned now), the people very welcoming, and the parts fixed my problem. Most important, I had my lunch with me. An older pilot told me once; "never get separated from your lunch!"
Here is Dan taking off after helping me get things up and running again.

It's always interesting the pets people pull out when I'm in their communities...literally. This monkey is the pet of the teacher in MSH, and he literally hangs out inside her shirt. He didn't like me too much.

"The throat of fire"

Tungurahua Volcano has been at it again. In the Quichua language Tungurahua means throat of fire. When we woke up this morning, it was clear without much wind. After I got to work, I took a picture real quick of the ash plume raising before the clouds came in and covered it up, which they did about 20 minutes later. You still cannot see the actual volcano from Shell, just the ash plumes it sends up.

Little house in the jungle

A while back I talked of how I built Brooklyn a playhouse from our old shipping crates. I was done mostly with my part, and Becca wanted to add a little bit to it, to help make it "homey." We are finally done with it. It is no masterpiece by any means, but Brooklyn likes having it. All told I think I have spent less than $10 putting it together and making it "nice."

Dad...Look what mommy caught!!!

When I came home tonight, Becca was excited (and proud) of what she caught in the house today. Supposedly our dog Maya was chasing this lizard and it found the nearest escape, which was under our door and into the house. Good catch Becca! This particular species of lizard is VERY fast and they can jump a few feet. How she caught it I don't know. I have seen many of these and I haven't been able to get my hands on one. Guess you have to leave some things for the wife to get done.

From the logbook...

I always say this, but we were really busy today flying. Here are some of the things I did...

• My first leg I flew a Compassion International team of 4 and their cargo into a village called Chinkianentza.
• Then I went and picked up 2 guys with HCJB World Radio that are working on some water projects in the jungle. I moved them from Taisha to Makuma
• In Makuma I loaded up a dead woman and 3 of her family members and flew them 10 minutes away to Ayuy. The customs they have of mourning the dead are very interesting. I wish I could think of a respectful way to record it and show everyone, but I can't think of it. I guess I'll just keep it saved in my mental hard drive.
• From Ayuy, I flew back to Shell and loaded up my next flight. I ate my lunch en-route. Best cafe I know of, and it always has a great view.
• I took 2 Compassion International workers to the village of Quewadiono (QWE). They took a ton of stuff. My airplane was literally full to the ceiling with their things.
  
• After landing and unloading in QWE, I flew 10 minutes to Damointaro to pick up another Compassion worker and I took him to QWE as well.
  
• I had some medicine on board as well for a patient in Quenahueno (QNO). From QWE I flew to QNO and dropped off the medicine. I had hoped to simply hand the medicine out the window and be on my way back to Shell, but I learned after landing in QNO that Shell was shut down with heavy rain. After waiting a while in QNO, things cleared up in Shell and I was back on my way.
• After 10 landings, over 4 hours of flying, and hauling everything from concrete, dead people, living people, dogs, chickens, backpacks, clothes, medicine, mail, money, food, propane, gasoline, foam pads, school materials, a stereo, 100's of lemons, a broken radio, and some fresh bread I am thankfully home. All in a day's work. Looks like it will be the same tomorrow.
• A missionary living in the jungle once told me that for every minute we fly, it would have taken him an hour on the ground hiking. Therefore, I flew roughly 252 minutes today. With more figuring, the same goods and services I flew today would have taken 21 days to accomplish, hiking 12 hours a day. That is impressive, and a good reminder of why we are here doing what we are doing. Praise God for this opportunity to serve, and thanks to all of you who support us in your prayers and with your pocketbooks. Together we are making an eternal difference.
  

This is a pic of some of the villagers that came and hung out with me in QNO while a waited for the weather to clear up 50 miles away in Shell. We sure weren't worried about the weather or the rain in QNO. It was HOT!!!

Another blogger

Just wanted everyone to know that Becca started her own blog. You can all go there and read why. For those of you who enjoy reading a well written article, then that is the place to go. I can be a good writer if I take my time, but I usually take 5-10 minutes and whatever comes out great. I don't have any college profs grading my writing, although we have some in our reading audience that occasionally give me a hard time as though they were grammar teachers. I don't need no stinkin' gramer and speling.

Click here for Becca's new blog.

From the logbook...Maintenance

This morning I had one flight to get done. It only had 5 stops on it, although it took me about an hour from Shell at it's farthest point. I was mostly taking returning patients to their homes, and bringing a few folks out. It was pretty non-eventful, which was nice.

Later in the afternoon I was asked to do another flight. I quickly prepared the airplane and myself, and I was quickly on my way. But I didn't make it to far. I noticed in my taxi to the runway that my starter was still on. I quickly taxied back to the hangar and shut everything down. By the time I had the motor off, it was too late. The starter was fried, and smelled like it too. So, I canceled my flight until tomorrow, and put a new starter on the engine. I thought the reason my starter never went off was because the ignition key stayed in the start position, instead of returning to the run position. We have had problems with this ignition switch ever since I flew Alas 14 down from the States. So, I threw on a new ignition switch for good measure also.

It was a good thing things didn't work out to go flying anyway. While I was in the middle of fixing things, it started to rain. And when I say rain, I mean POURRRR!!! It was the hardest rain I have ever seen in my whole life. That is saying a lot after living in the tropics the past few years where rain can get really serious. After things settled down a bit, people were discovering that parts of their roofs were missing, trees were blown down, etc. It really rained hard. I probably wouldn't have made it home had I gone flying. So, I just chalk up another one to Providence, and gave God thanks that all things work out to the good of those who love Him.

An unexpected day...

When I got to the hangar today, Steve and I were looking at our flight schedule and determined that maybe I could take the day off due to a "light" number of flights. Usually when you are on call like I was this past weekend you take off Friday for sure, and then the following Monday if you ended up flying on Sunday. Well, due to the large amount of flight to get done last Friday, and the fact that it is just me and Steve as pilots at the time being, I couldn't take Friday off. So, without much convincing I ended up coming back home today with the whole day ahead of us to do something fun!

Becca and I hadn't had a good day to just goof off and just see where the day takes us for a while. After we ran a few errands, we jumped in the Bronco and headed for the mountains. Becca doesn't usually know what she is in for when she gets in the car with me on my "let the car take you where it wants to" expeditions. We ended up covering a lot of country today, and seeing some awesome things. We only had to put the Bronco into 4 wheel drive once. We didn't see much pavement, and we saw a lot of country roads, Ecuadorian style.

I have been eyeing a bunch of side roads on the road to Quito for some time. Today was our chance to start taking some of those that started about an hours drive from our house. We saw some of the most stunning scenery and people that we have encountered thus far living here in Ecuador. We got to drive across a few streams, a few bridges the width of my Bronco, and even stopped once and got our feet wet.

I was able to get some more ideas for some great photo locales for some great shots of volcanoes when the weather is good. We even gave one woman and her two girls a ride up one of the mountains as the girls were getting out of school. It was the steepest road I have even driven on, and these girls walk it to and from school everyday. The mom told us that it is 1 hour to school, and 2 hours home walking uphill. Needless to say they were skinny. There is a reason America is fat and unhealthy, and it is because we don't walk anywhere anymore. That is the one thing that continues to amaze me living overseas. We have two legs, and the people I live around actually use them to walk from point A to B. Novel concept!

The fun thing about exporing like this, is that it just continues to open up your curiousity. So, rather that be satisfied now that I know where all these road lead, and to what, I have seen even more roads and pueblos that I want to explore and drive to. Good thing I have this coming weekend off too. Maybe another spur of the moment road trip will be in order.

Here are a few shots from today's wanderings....a great day off work indeed...
Mommy took a picture of Brooklyn and me as we were goofing off in one of the mountain streams. It was some pretty cold water, and Brooklyn wasn't to thrilled about getting n too deep.
This is the road that we gave the mom and her two girls a ride up. Pictures always do a bad job of showing steepness, but we were in STEEP country! Although it was in the clouds, Tungurahua volcano is also directly in the center of this pic. Hopefully one evening I will go back up on a clear night and get some cool lava shots. Once again, the volcano is getting very active, with large plumes of smoke and ash burping out. Although this latest stint of activity hasn't produced any lava flows, they could begin again without warning.

The legacy lives on...

Yesterday as planned I had a lot of flying to do. Most of my flying had to do with bringing an American work team out of Makuma. It took me three flights to get them and all their gear out. They were in Makuma since last Tuesday putting a roof on the village church. It sounds like they all had a great time, and they all got sunburned. My loads going into the jungle entailed returning patients to their villages, and also hauling two full 55 gallon barrels of fuel on my last flight. As anticipated, I was pooped when I got home.

Below you will see the newest airplane in Shell. As with most communities in Latin America, everything in the town is centered around a town plaza, or square. Shell is no different, and ever since we got here last year they have been sprucing up the plaza, and really making it nice. The centerpiece for the plaza just arrived this past week. It represents the two things that have developed the province of Pastaza and made it known, perhaps around the world. The two things are oil and aviation. It was pretty neat when the truck pulled into town with the little yellow Piper Cruiser replica on it's flatbed. It is a 1:1 scale model of the airplane that Nate Saint was flying when he served here. Surprisingly, many locals do not know the history of the little yellow airplane, but word is spreading fast. They even equipped the airplane with functioning nav lights and strobe lights on the wingtips. It's pretty cool.

I mentioned earlier that I was to lead worship today. I didn't have any emergency flying to do today, so thankfully I was able to make church, and help out. It was my first time leading worship on this scale since we left Costa Rica almost a year ago. It was also my first time leading in Spanish. It went pretty well, although the English wanted to come out a few times. I had a great time leading worship again, and I'm sure I will be helping more in the future.

Life in the fast lane

These past few days, the whole week in fact, seem like a blur. The past two nights we have had guests over for dinner. Since Wednesday, we have been only 2 pilots at work, myself included. Two of our pilots are in Costa Rica at some MAF regional meetings. Yesterday, we were rained out ALL day, as well as Monday. Therefore, today we had a lot to get done between Steve and I. We didn't get it all done, but the most important flights were done. I am also on call this weekend. Usually when you are on call you show up at the hangar on Saturday morning and see if there are any flights to do. I already know I have at least 3 flights for tomorrow, perhaps more if we get our usual emergency calls. Then, tomorrow evening I have worship practice at church. I am leading worship at church this Sunday. Hopefully I won't have any emergencies Sunday morning to go fly and pick up, or I will have to miss church, and I don't know what will happen. I do know life will go on. Amidst all the craziness lately, we are taking it easy tonight. Brooklyn is watching one of her new Barbie movies, which she loves. I will probably try to watch with her, but I might have to use it as an excuse to fall asleep early.

This morning I caught a good sunrise when I woke up. Living on the equator we don't see many "good" sunrises or sunsets. The sun comes right up, and goes right down. It isn't like in the lower or higher latitudes where the light lingers for "X" amount of minutes before the sunrise or sunset. But this morning with the way the clouds were, it looked pretty neat. The antenna in the middle of the picture is from our other pilot Chad's house. We actually share internet with his family, and the square thing on the antenna beams our signals back and forth.

From the logbook...first experiences

When you begin to fly on whatever kind of level, personal, military, airline, bush, etc, you begin to hear of certain encounters or experiences that you know some day will be yours as well. These can be good things, and bad things. This week, I have had the "opportunity" to cut out a few more notches on my experience tree.

The first one happened as I was leaving the hangar in Shell. You have all no dought seen the funny looking pod on the belly of our airplanes. We use these to carry a lot of different things. On our pre-engine start checklist, one of the items requires that that the pod door is closed. Well, you guessed it, I begin to taxi away for takeoff with my pod door open. Luckily I was stopped before I did anything real stupid like trying to go flying with it open. Leaving the pod door open is maybe the equivalent to leaving your zipper down. It's not the end of the world, but it sure is embarrassing.

My second experience that I can now "chalk up," has to do with the pictures below. While not a common problem to the ordinary pilot, ALL of our pilots have been stuck at one point or another. This is usually due to mud, lots of grass, whatever. My case was a little different today.

I was turning around preparing for takeoff when all of a sudden my left main landing gear sunk into the dirt big time, and I immediately shut everything down including the engine. After my passengers and I climbed out, we began to dig out my wheel and try and figure out why a seemingly smooth surface would suddenly swallow my wheel. It turns out that the end of the airstrip that I was using for takeoff is new, that's to say less than two years old. When we were digging, we found bits of burned tree stump, indicating the presence of a tree in that exact spot. The stump was covered over, and over time rotted, leaving a void in the earth, which I happened to taxi over today, and sink into. Praise the Lord it wasn't my nose wheel that went into that hole. I still might be in the jungle if that happened. That propeller likely would have contacted the ground, which opens up a whole new can of worms. Needless to say, after a little digging, my passengers helping by pushing the airplane, and myself inside giving it full throttle, we were out of the hole 5 minutes later and shortly thereafter airborne.



This is at another airstrip that I went to to bring out a patient. I was about 5 minute flight from the Peruvian border at this strip called Wachirpas. I just always think it is neat to see what the villagers use as pets.

Las parasitas

I have been having some weird gut problems for about 2 months. When you live in a tropical third world country like us, you expect that eventually the little critters are going to find a way into your digestive system, no matter what lengths you go to in order to prevent it.

The doctors here recommend that every 6 months you take a de-wormer and anti-amoeba medicine, regardless of how you feel. We have lived here 11 months now and we haven't done anything...until now. Yesterday I started on my intestinal Drano medicine, and finished it today at lunch. Time will tell if it is effective, which I am sure it will be. I am just glad that we have medicine for such things. Parasites can really reek havoc in the long term, and can even cause death if not taken seriously. Luckily at my stage, they are more of a discomfort and inconvenience than anything. Hopefully after all this medicine takes effect, they won't be anything but dead and eliminated!

Playhouse

While my girls were gone in the States, I wanted to build Brooklyn a playhouse to surprise her for when she got back. When we moved down here we used 4 big crates to ship our big things. Since unpacking them, they have just been sitting around waiting for the termites to find them. Rather than wait for that day, I thought I could put something simple together with the wood and make a simple playhouse. I got most of it done while the girls were away, but I ran out of time to complete it. This weekend we went ahead and finished it. We put hinges on the door and shutters, put a roof on it, and painted it. At first it looked pretty awful. Brooklyn thought it was our dog's house when she first saw it. I'll be the first to admit that is isn't a wooden marvel, but it will work for who it's for. And after we got done painting it, it looked so much better. Just like someone told me once, "paint can cover a multitude of sins." We moved a plastic table and chairs inside, and Brooklyn was really happy with it. She even told me thanks for working so hard and making her a house. How cool!
Here is my little helper painting. She really pitched in, and she helped me paint the whole thing until we were finished. Usually she does something for a while like any 3 year old, and then looses interest. But, she stayed the course with me until it was all done. I think Mommy is going to make it even a little more personal with some other painted pictures and maybe some real flowers. After it is all done we will put a picture of the final result.

From the logbook...fish anyone?

VERY early this morning my previous lunch from yesterday came a calling. I was out of commission if you know what I mean for quite a while, and didn't even think I would make it into work today. I did eventually go to work, albeit a little late. When I got there I had two short flights bringing out Compassion International teams, and I was done flying at around 1 pm, or so I thought.

At around 4 pm we got a radio call saying that there was an emergency in a village called San Juan, where a 7 month old boy had eaten a lot of caustic dish soap. So, we pulled the airplane back out, and about 15 minutes later I was airborne. The flight was thankfully a non-event, and a little over an hour later I was back in Shell, and the little boy and his mom were on their way to the hospital.

Steve was the only other pilot flying with me today. He brought back some interesting cargo on his last flight...

This is called a "Bagre" or jungle catfish. They can get huge, even bigger than this one. There are actually two fish on the hand truck. The bigger fish was put on our scales and topped out at 120 pounds. That's a lot of fish! The woman standing next to the fish for scale perception is our secretary Elsa.

From the logbook

Today I was once again moving around a lot of Compassion International people throughout the jungle. At my last stop on my first flight, I landed in Copataza around lunch time and had an invite to join one of the villagers for lunch. I always try to accept these kinds of invitations, and today I had no reason why I could not. As I sat down with the village leader to eat lunch his wife soon put a bowl of "soup" in front of me along with a plate full of boiled eggs and jungle potatoes. The soup was good and had some meat in it. After asking what kind of meat it was I deduced that it was none other than the world's largest rodent. Click here for more info. The food was good, and so was the company. Earlier in the week I was in Copataza dropping off a dental team and I was able to get a fun picture of my host in front of our airplane.
Later in the day I was basically the flying ambulance again. I had a few returning patients to take home, and them I made the rounds and filled up my airplane with patients to take back to Shell. We fought weather most of the day, and finally I landed back in Shell just before the airport closed at sunset.


Here is the view from the cockpit on the way back towards Shell. The Pastaza River is on the right.

New pics

This past weekend when I went to pick up my girls at the airport, of course I goofed off the whole way up to Quito taking pictures and doing some light off road exploring. I ended up at our hangar at the Quito International airport trying to get some fun shots. I did get some neat shots of departing and arriving aircraft from our hangar apron, before security came by and told me I couldn't be there. Oh well, I guess next time...Here are a few that I took on my drive. Be sure to check the web album every once in a while for new "exclusive" photos of more than just airplanes.


An American registered Boeing 747 prepares for takeoff. If you have never seen one of these, regardless of the model, up close and personal, you will never understand it's size, and marvel at the power of aerodynamics that enable thousands of pounds of metal to cheat gravity and soar skyward. I assume this "freight-dog" is carrying roses for export.


Here is the nose of the big boy as he taxied by our ramp. Ginormous!!


Here is another freight-dog coming in for landing. Another impressive aircraft, the MD-11.

From the logbook

I have been at it again flying a lot. I haven't written much because I have been too tired. I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday, and the first day of March. Today I flew with our instructor pilot Chad to begin my instrument checkout. We have this process to enable our pilots to fly when the weather might be bad. What it enables us to do is safely fly within clouds and be able to navigate to our destination safely and also land the airplane. I have legally had this capability for years in the USA, and from the day I received my license in Ecuador as well. MAF had put a "restriction" on my instrument flying until I flew "X" amount of hours, while learning the weather patterns, terrain, communications in Spanish, etc. I am grateful for this "restriction," because at times the workload has been high enough. Now, I do feel ready to take the next training challenge and begin the checkout to fly in instrument conditions. This process doesn't take as long as the airstrip checkout, of which I am probably %80 done. The remaining %20 of our over 200 airstrips will take some time due to varying factors like location, use, and of course...more experience.

Of my flights today, I pulled many missionaries working in the jungle out so they could attend a conference. Along with these missionaries, I did some more airstrip checkout with Chad, and flew out some critically ill patients totaling 3.5 hours of flight time and 10 landings. The rain and challenges of flying are beginning to return after 4 weeks of dry weather. Good thing I am beginning my instrument checkout!

Featured

Finally Dad and Mom made it in the papers. Here they are featured in our small town newspaper the "Valley Courier" for the awesome accomplishment of 40 years of marriage. I'm proud of them...and I know the majority of our blog readers are family members that would love to see this too, so I'm posting the article on our blog.

Don't know if you can read the article so here is what it says:

Ecords mark 40th anniversary
Monte Vista - Ron and Vicki Ecord of Monte Vista celebrated their 40th anniversary on February 19, 2007. Ron and Vicki were married in Centroplis, Kans. Feb. 19, 1967. They've been residents of the San Luis Valley for 26 years. Ron and Vicki are owners of Mountain View Aeromotive in Alamosa. They have three children: David (1973-1979), Carrie (Steve) Howard and Rebecca (Sean) Cannon. They also have four granddaughters: Catie, Brooklyn, Audrey, and Madison. The Ecords celebrated with family.

Rebecca's Random Ramblings

• It is good to be home. We made it into Quito Saturday night. The trip down didn't seem as long as the trip up and the girls were great travelers. I'm not saying I'd like to do that again without Sean any time soon (if ever again) but God really gave me the strength, grace and patience to deal with all that came our way. There were two out of my three flights that I was a bit worried about missing - all due to terrible airline check-in service and bad connection times but we made it! The luggage on the other hand...
• My bags finally made it to Quito Sunday night and are now waiting at our MAF hangar in Quito for a flight or drive down to Shell. I'm not expecting to see them until next Monday when a coworker will be coming back down from Quito - unless the rare Quito flight comes up. I know I shouldn't be too hopeful.
  
• The drive down from Quito with Sean was great. My husband is just too wonderful for words. We missed him something terrible and to have 5 solid hours to catch-up was a treat. The views on that drive are some of my favorite and I enjoyed the ride down immensely.
  
• We girls slept in until nearly 9:00 Monday morning. Can't imagine why...
  
• My first day "back to work" was a rude awakening. The fridge was empty and I had lots of cooking to do, not to mention organizing and cleaning. Actually, Sean kept the house nice and clean but then we came home.... Brooklyn was busy pulling out every one of her toys that she hadn't seen for 10 days or outside rolling in the dirt and mud...or in the shower emptying Dad's brand new bottle of shampoo. I was spoiled when we were in the U.S. I didn't do many dishes, never once cooked, and had more than enough hands willing to help with the girls. So you can imagine the shock I felt when I had to get back to reality. Well, at least I didn't have a lot of unpacking to do yet.
• Once again, I just praise God for the awesome opportunity to make this trip. He provided the money for the tickets, the grace to make the trip alone with two babies, and incredible times with family. I had a grand time experiencing all those things from my own culture that I used to take for granted and I was able to pick up lots of treats to bring back home with us (they'll get here eventually). I went on this trip to bless and honor my parents for their 40 years of marriage - which I believe is no small thing - but I was definetely the one who was blessed the most! Anyway, it was a fun surprise to pull off and the memories we'll have will always bring a smile to our faces!
  

They're coming home

In just a few hours I am going to head up into the mountains to pick up my girls who are flying home tonight from Colorado. I have missed them intensely, but I have kept myself busy enough that it has gone by fast. We will be coming home tomorrow assuming all things arrive intact, my girls included. From talking with Becca it sounds like her time with family has been great, and I'm sure I will get an earful of stories tomorrow on our drive home.

Random Ramblings

• With Becca gone, my mental routine of who has what keys, where, finally caught up to me today. First thing this morning I walked out the back door, and as it closed I realized I just locked myself out of the house. Nothing like a swift foot to the door to break it down. Needless to say I had to fix our door this morning. It's not perfect, but we'll get er' fixed a little better later.
• Because of my key fiasco, I organized all of our keys. Ever since we moved into this house, there has been about 3 million keys hanging on our key hanger that go to something. I got all those sorted out, and hopefully I won't be locking myself out anytime soon.
  
• I had today off from work. Most of Latin America is celebrating Carnival. Yesterday I was the only pilot on call while everyone else had Carnival off. I flew almost 4.5 hours, and came home wiped out.
  
• Tomorrow begins Ash Wednesday. The reason for Carnival dates back hundreds of years, and originated as a Catholic "celebration." Because of the various fastings, and things abstained from during the season of Catholic lent, the tradition has been to "let loose" one last time before you celebrate the Lent season which terminates at Easter, 40 days later. In the Spanish language (and most Latin based languages) the word "carne" means meat or flesh. Therefore, Carnival (carneval) is a celebration of imbibing of all pleasurable things of the flesh. Mardi Gras in New Orleans is basically an American version of Carnival for those of you like me that might need a mental picture to understand the large amount of partying going on.
  
• After picking my fruit trees of practically every piece of fruit about 3 weeks ago, I still managed to pick a 5 gallon bucked again this evening, full of lemons, limes, and oranges. I will give it to our maid.
• Since Becca has been gone, my diet has really been great. Yesterday I had bread and yogurt all day. Tonite for dinner I walked into town and bought a piece of cake and some coke. For lunch I had good ol' macaroni and cheese.
  
• Tomorrow we will be busy flying. The president of Compassion International is flying into the jungle with us to see some of the work first hand that his organization is part of.
• Our dog Maya has been wondering into the house a little bit lately as I leave the doors open as I walk in and out. I heard her barking inside this afternoon, and upon further investigation found her in front of the hall mirror wondering where that other dog was at. It was pretty funny!

Brrrrr.....

No, Ecuador isn't experiencing record temperature lows but the Cannon girls are! This is Becca. Sean mentioned that I took our girls on a little trip, here's some news from me!

Madison in her carseat wearing the new stocking hat Aunt Carrie had waiting for us at the airport in Colorado Springs....she looks like she's in a bit of a shock, don't you think?

Brooklyn enjoying Grandpa Ecord's horses. The best part about going out in the cold to feed the horses with Grandpa is the reward of riding one of the horses for a little bit. Brooklyn was about a year and a half old when we left Colorado so everything here is a novelty - snow, horses, chores outside in the cold, grandparents' old and new toys, new dogs to meet and big, fast cars!!

It is hard to believe we are really here in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. In many ways it feels as though we never left...and yet so much has changed in the two years we've been gone! There are new stores, restaurants, and buildings and yet so many things are unchanged that I somehow expected to be different. What has changed the most? Me! Guess living outside your home country will do that sort of thing to you.

Things I've noticed:

• Space! Even in the city, things don't seem nearly so crammed together. And there isn't a jungle blocking my view of anything for miles and miles around.
• HUGE parking lots for GINORMOUS vehicles! WIDE highways with lines painted on them! Police officers and State Patrol....
• Speed. You people drive way too fast. I got up to just past 65 mph and about passed out for fear...of course, there weren't any potholes or even any stretches of road where a landslide or lava flow took out the road. No overloaded trucks wobbling their way around tight curves trying to pass a slower wobbly, overloaded truck. Nice!
• Blue skies...Colorado and especially the SLV are famous for that. We don't see so much sky in Shell, even on a "clear" day.
• Options. Most of the gas stations here have more available than the best little grocery store in Shell. And Target....oh, my. Super Wal-mart? Don't get me started.
• Sniffles, sneezes, stuffy noses, fevers, dry, scaly skin. Oops. We hit Colorado right during cold season. Brooklyn's already been down with a fever and I've been stubbornly battling the beginnings of a cold. Maddie's nose is stuffed just from the dryness of the air.
• Quiet. Aaaaaaaaaah.
• Cold. We were getting quite adjusted to the warmer weather in Shell. I love the snow but the cold is just so...well, COLD.
• Time. I have to admit, I prefer Latin time - late is right on time! Seems people go much more by their watches here in the States - had to buy a watch first thing!
• Strangers. They don't talk to you here or say something kind in passing or admire your kids or ask you why you are here. It can be annoying at times to be so conspicuous in Ecuador but here, I feel invisible. Don't know which I prefer - maybe a little of both in the perfect balance?!
• Milk in a jug, dishwashers, hot water in every sink, Mountain Dew, Sun Chips, Salad-in-a-bag, laws that I understand, bathtubs and bubble bath, manageable hair, watching KU basketball games with my Dad, the comfort of relaxing in the house I grew up in...

And the number one thing I've noticed about this trip...

• I love Ecuador. I love what we are doing there and the life that we live there. I am completely content in the calling that God has on our lives. I know that our time in Ecuador will not last forever...and what will happen after that or where we will go is a mystery but there is just nothing like being smack-dab in the center of God's will for your life. Yes, this visit to the States has been a HUGE blessing and I praise God for the opportunity to come like this but this little trip has only confirmed for me that we are right where God wants us (and right where I want to be), rather than make me desire "what used to be" or "what could be" here in America. LOOKOUT SEAN I'M COMING HOME!

Ecuador weather

For those of you with an interest in weather, I've added the link we use to see the radar picture in Ecuador. Besides this, radio reports and looking out the window are the only things we have to use before we set off on a flight. The American government has those satellites watching Ecuador to help monitor the volcanoes, not the weather. But, thankfully we can use it for both reasons. Shell is located about a finger's width to the east of Tungurahua.

Immigrants

Finally...I can tell you the covert ops we have been part of, now that the grandparents all know about it. What am I talking about? This past week I blogged about my trip through the Andes, and how beautiful they were with all the snow capped peaks. What was I doing in the Andes in the first place when Shell is in the jungle? I was on my way home from Quito, after dropping off Rebecca, Brooklyn, and Madison at the airport.

Wednesday morning they started an epic, yet successful, journey to Colorado. Currently, my 3 girls are at Becca's parents house. The purpose of the trip was to surprise Ron and Vicki (and everyone else involved) for their 40th wedding anniversary. It sounds like everyone was more than surprised. Of course, we couldn't have pulled off this kind of secret operation without some trained help. Many thanks to the Howard's for their role in providing a transport mobilization unit, encrypted communications, and some good ol' bluffing. Thanks to Anita, Richard, and Steve as well for keeping things on the down low.

Total, my girls will be in the good ol' USA 10 days. I will leave next weekend to go to Quito and pick them up at the airport.

I'll leave it up to Becca, if she desires, to share what she is feeling, seeing, smelling, etc, after being gone from our homeland for more than two years.

Now, if I could just remember how to run the washing machine!

Smokey!

Today was the worst haze/smoke I have seen. I had one flight in the afternoon, but I had to let another pilot do it, since he is approved to fly IFR and I am not. The smoke had reduced visibility to about 3 miles at one point. It really made for some weird looking daylight. I need a little more field experience before MAF will turn me loose to do IFR flights. (IFR meaning control of the airplane solely by reference to the instruments)
This is what it looked like when Steve took off on what was going to be my flight, in the middle of the day. Looks like sunset!

From the logbook...First landing in Nemonpade

This past Tuesday I made my first landing in a Huarani village called Nemonpade (NEM). I was there to pick up a Compassion International team and move them to the village of Tiwaeno. It was a fun little strip, and the people just the same. I have mentioned before the different atmospheres that each village has in the jungle. Some are very nice, happy, and excited that you are there. Then, you fly 5 miles away and feel like you are getting the cold shoulder. Of all the Huarani villages I have been going into lately, it has been a nice change of atmosphere. In all the villages the people just seem generally happy and excited to live. It is fun to land in their villages and enjoy their sense of humor, and the ability they have to laugh easily.

Here is a group shot of some of the people that were at the airstrip the other day in NEM.

For those of you who have seen "Beyond the Gates of Splendor" you may recognize the guy on my left. That is Mencaye, who played a large role in that documentary. This was my first time meeting him, and he was just as nice in person as he seems in the documentary.

I should be going back into NEM today. Hopefully I can find it. We have been covered in smoke here in Shell. So bad in fact, that they have almost closed the airport because the visibility is too bad. I'm not sure where the smoke/haze is from but I have heard it is from cane fields that are burning in Colombia and Brazil. Regardless of where it has it's beginnings, it sure makes the flying interesting here. We haven't had much rain for 3 weeks now, so instead, something had to come and make the flying a challenge, this time it is dense smoke instead of rain and clouds.

The volcano strip

I was driving through the Andes recently and had one of the most beautiful drives I have ever seen. It was definitely the clearest morning I have experienced here in Ecuador while being in the Andes. Below are some of the pictures I was fortunate enough to take before clouds came in and began their daily covering of the awesome peaks.This is Tungurahua Volcano(16,596 ft.) and El Altar Volcano (17,553 ft.) in the background. They are about 40 miles off in the distance in this pic, thus explaining the lack of clarity. A little steam can be seen exiting the vent of Tungurahua.


This is Corazón Volcano. It is 15,800 feet high, and dormant. It can be seen just south of Quito from the Pan-American highway.


This is Chimborazo Volcano. If you were to stand on the top, which many people do, you are closer to the sun than on any other point on earth, including Mount Everest. Chimborazo is the tallest volcano in Ecuador, at 20,823 feet, and the highest active volcano in the world. Because of it's proximity to the equator along with it's altitude, you are at the point closest to the sun on planet earth.


This is Illiniza Sur (south). Many people climb this 17,318 foot peak before they climb some of the higher volcanoes in order to acclimate themselves.


This is both Illiniza Sur and Norte. I drove a little off the beaten path getting these photos, but that was half the fun. Being able to take side roads, and see parts of the country that are lost at the high speeds of a highway is an integral part in developing a feel of the people you live with, and how they feel attached to the land they live in.

Hangar Happenings

Recently Alas 10 went into maintenance for many reasons. First of all, it is getting a new engine. Hopefully we will get it soon. Right now it awaits in customs in Quito.

Secondly, we are doing some airframe modifications. We will be "retiring" Alas 12 this Spring, therefore we are "robbing" some modifications like wingtip extentions and putting them on Alas 10 since it will be staying in the fleet. Alas 12 will probably make it's voyage to the States sometime in April or May. Any buyers?

Thirdly, all of our airplanes are getting major instrument and navigation equipment upgrades. This process is very time consuming, and as you can tell labor intensive. Our radio technicians have torn into the cockpit and about cleaned it out, preparing for the new instrumentation that will be installed. "After" pictures will be sure to follow, although it might be 6-8 weeks before Alas 10 is online again. Once Alas 10 is done, Alas 11 and 13 will be following to receive their new engines and avionics. Alas 14 already had the equipment and airframe upgrades before it left the States, therefore it will just keep flying along keeping the rest of the fleet afloat while they are undergoing reconstructive surgery.

From the logbook...

The past 2 days I have been able to fly Alas 14. Yesterday was my first operational flight in it since I last flew it in July, after flying it down from Kansas. We haven't had hardly 10 minutes of rain in the past 2 weeks (it's a nice thing), therefore the villagers have been hauling out a lot of fish as personal cargo, since the rivers are so low. The fish you see below was a unique one.
This is Ron our base maintenance manager. He flew out with me today to pick up a snake bite patient. As stated, one of the cargo items was fish. I don't know the proper name of this fish, but we call it an armor fish. It was really weird.

Here he is laid out on our cargo cart. After our 45 minute flight from Conambo, and who knows how long out of the water, he was still alive. They say the fish will live sometimes a few days outside of water if the conditions are right. When you tapped on the fish, it was as though you were hitting a coconut. He really had a hard "shell." His scales were REALLY rough as well. Notice how deeply set his eyes are into his sockets.

And of course, what is a good gross picture without a good gross mouth. Wouldn't want to be on the kissing end of those lips.

From the logbook...

We have been really busy flying this week. It seems like I always say it is busy, but I guess it's true. The other great (and unusual) thing is that we haven't had hardly a drop of rain in over a week. This doesn't make conditions conducive to growing a jungle, but the flying has been easy. Because of this, I was able to fly over 4 hours yesterday and I made 13 landings. Most of my flying entailed moving people from Compassion International around to some extent or another. Some went with me from one community to another, while others came out of the jungle altogether. It was neat to realize again as I was flying yesterday that the folks we fly for Compassion could not do their work without someone flying an airplane. They do awesome work, and very effective work as well. To be part of their team is a good reminder of how we all fit into the body of Christ. Some are feet, others arms, but we all come together under the head of Christ.

From the Homefront...

Becca, here, with a little news from the Homefront. We've had a great weekend as a family. Sean spent most of his time outside "piddling" - his favorite! Our yard looks great and he spent lots of time pruning the citrus trees so that now there is lots of light in the front yard. It has been downright HOT lately - no rain in several days! We hardly know what to do with ourselves. It's nice for a change...but I'm starting to want that rain back to cool things off again! I'm making a chocolate cake today and we're going to grab some Chinese for dinner before watching the Superbowl!!! What a treat.

Okay, so here's a couple of pictures you might enjoy...no airplanes or bugs today!

Maddie is getting to be such a joy! Here she is in her Sunday outfit, happy and smiling. We've seen more and more of her smiles lately. She'll often wake us up in the early morning with happy coos and giggles. She seems to have adjusted more to life and is becoming much easier to keep content....her newfound interest in toys and using her hands has caused her (and us) much delight!

Brooklyn loves to pose for pictures, as you can tell! Here she is in our orange tree just being a princess! I'm amazed every day with how much she is learning - she colors in the lines, recognizes a good 80% of the letters of the Alphabet, counts to 10, and is becoming quite the little communicator. She's a big help around the house now and even does her own chores in the morning (making her bed and feeding the dog and cat).

From the logbook...14 getting it's feet wet (or muddy)

We began using Alas de Socorro 14 this week. This is the C-206 that I helped fly down to Ecuador from Kansas last July. Just this past week it finally cleared all the hurdles of government red tape, and is officially usable.
One of the flights it had today was bringing out...you guessed it, a patient. This guy looked really bad. Somehow while he was cutting down a tree, he got walloped in the head, and it didn't look to good. Our hangar doctor said he may have a fractured skull, definitely a fractured cheekbone.

Cannon Web Album

If you look to the side of our blog, you will notice a new feature. I am working on starting a web album, which will take a few days since I have a lot of pictures I want to get on there. I will still be putting pictures on the blog, but now there will be a place to see more pictures of a wider variety of things than I put on the blog, for those of you who like pictures.

From the logbook...

Today we had a busy day flying, and once again we had great weather. I sure hope the past few days indicate that a change has occurred in the season, giving more good weather than bad. Our main objective today was transporting various pastors from all corners of the jungle, and bringing them to Makuma. You may have read about something like this we already did this week. These flights were different, as another missionary/pastor is holding a conference with some of these pastors. It was a neat thing once again to be bringing all of these kingdom workers to one place for a long weekend of encouragement and teaching.

MAF is paying for the majority of these flights that we did today, although it was asked of the pastors that we flew that they pay $10 towards their flight. I received money from some of my passengers, and then the last pastor I picked up told me he would pay me when we got to Makuma, since his money was in his bag, which was in the belly pod. When we arrived in Makuma, he was prompt to give me his money which, it turned out, was 3.5 grams of gold. He comes from a part of the jungle where gold is found, and he was paying me with it. I hadn't a clue on what to do with it, so I told him to keep his "money" and pay the host in Makuma that was holding the conference. We had heard of people getting paid with gold from people of this sector of the jungle, but I think I was the first to ever get paid firsthand with the real thing.

Later, for my return flight to Shell, I had a not so happy flight. I landed in a village called Chumbi, to bring out 3 teachers and their families. What makes it sad, is the government, along with Compassion International, decided to close this school. I don't know all the reasons, other than they aren't good. So, this community will be given another chance at a school this fall, but for the time being, due to their behavior and choices, they had lost their privilege of having their own school staffed with teachers.


On my flight to Makuma, I met up with Chad en-route, also flying to Makuma. He was making the rounds as well picking up pastors, and we just happened to be coming from the same direction and had the same ETA for Makuma. We flew in "formation" for about 30 miles, which was a lot of fun, and I got some good air-to-air photos, which we don't get a lot of.

Fernando Update

Yesterday morning Fernando was able to leave the hospital. He hasn't been back to work yet, and I think he was told to come back when he was good and ready. Thanks for all of your prayers to help him get out of the hospital. I would expect him to be back to work next Monday.

Spider link

Below you will find a link to read about the spider that bit our pilot Fernando yesterday. Read for yourself...it is a nasty one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_wandering_spider

Prayer request

Today when I was leaving a village called Makuma, I was given an empty propane tank so that we could get it filled and take it back out to the jungle. We do this all the time. I loaded it up, later flew to Shell and didn't think anything about it.

Later, as one of my co-workers was helping unload my airplane, (our newest Ecuadorian pilot) he lifted out the propane tank, and then dropped it saying something bit him. Making a long story short, he was bitten by a tarantula type spider and had a very serious reaction. He is in ICU at the moment in the local mission hospital. The doctors are unable to give him any medicine because of the type of venom the spider has. Instead, they are just watching his vital signs and progress. It appears that Fernando will be fine with time, although he is in a lot of pain, and in a general state of discomfort. Please pray with us that his recovery will be quick.

I often write about the patients we fly and help, and it is weird that something so serious happened to one of our own, in our own hangar. Praise God it didn't happen to me while I was in the jungle loading that propane tank! If it would have happened to me (or anyone) out in the bush, I would have been unable to fly, and would have had to be flown out myself. Fernando quickly went to hospital after receiving the bite, which was a God thing. I'll let you know more tomorrow about his progress.

From the logbook...

I had two flights today, my first being several patient returns. It took about 1.5 hours and 5 landings and I was back in Shell. We had great weather again today, which helped us all get a lot done in an efficient manner.

My second flight we went to a village called Tiwaeno. It is inhabited by the same Indians that killed the 5 missionaries in the 50's and made international news. Many of you have seen the recent documentaries and movies about them. A member of the spearing party named Dewy is still living. Every time we land in TIW he prays with the pilot. I was able to enjoy this blessing today. It was a powerful experience as he prayed in his native tongue, of which I don't understand a word. We often use Spanish as a bridge with the many languages we encounter every day. I went with our instructor pilot Chad to TIW as he wanted me to get some more experience into this part of the jungle.
This is a typical house for these Indians. They construct their houses differently than the rest of the Indian tribes, although I'm sure it all works the same in the end.
This is the "owner" of the house above. He is seen here demonstrating how his blow guns work that he made. It was pretty neat.

This is a little parrot that I saw as we walked through the village. He is a pet they told me, but really mean. Therefore I didn't get to close, but he was colorful.

Our little cutie...

We were given this little "stander-upper-helper-walker" thing this weekend by some friends. Becca got some fun out of it today. Maddie is still a bit to young for it, but Becca found some smiles before Madison got too frustrated. (Notice by her cheeks she isn't starving)

From the logbook...

Today was the nicest day I have seen since Halloween. It was awesome. I didn't think once about fighting weather, where I could divert, etc. That was a good thing, because we were busy as always. One of the main things on the agenda today was hauling various church leaders into Makuma from various villages throughout the jungle. I flew south about an hour from Shell to the border of Peru to bring some Atchuar leaders from a village called Mashumarentza as well as some from Copataza. One of the missionaries that lives in Makuma works with the Atchuar Indians. Every once in a while he holds a large conference for his top leaders to encourage them and teach them more about the Bible.

It was a cool thing to be flying those indigenous leaders today. When MAF started our work here in Ecuador over 60 years ago, we were strictly flying western missionaries. Now, when ever we fly missionaries, or Christian workers, the majority of the time it is with national workers. There is still sooooo much work to be done for the kingdom, but this is a huge step that we are now flying the nationals to minister to each other.

The weekend...

I was on call this weekend which always makes things interesting in order to plan anything. Here are a few things that we did over the past few days...

• Our German Shepherd became an "it" on Friday. She (it) seems to be recovering nicely
• Our favorite Mexican food place opened back up in Puyo...Hooray Ernesto!
• Yesterday while taking a drive with the fam, Becca said "Sean, should the hood be sticking up like that?" Sure enough, one of our hinges had broken off and the spring was lifting the right rear corner up pretty far. I removed it today and my co-worker Mateo welded it for me. Now she shuts real nice!
• I was going to fly yesterday, but was delayed in getting my flight off because of rain. When the weather finally cleared enough to leave Shell, the village called us and said the patient I was going to bring out had died. It was a 3 year old with pneumonia. The realities of life are hard sometimes.
• Today I had another emergency flight. This time I was bringing out a 9 month old boy who had been stung by a deadly scorpion. The last time this happened we weren't able to get there soon enough because of weather, and the patient died. Luckily, today the weather was great, and hopefully this little boy will survive. Pray with us that his parents will come to Christ as well through this ordeal.
• Brooklyn and I gave away a lot of oranges, limes, and lemons today. We have 1 tree of each in our frontyard. Every week or two we like to just pick as much as we can and give it to our neighbors and the kids that come up to the gate. It is an easy way to meet our neighbors.
• I did some "gardening" by removing a palm tree in our front yard and transplanting it to the side of our house. It sure looks nicer over there, time will tell if it likes it's new spot.
• Becca made a pumpkin pie this past Friday. I somehow missed out on a piece of pumpkin pie during the holidays, so she made me one. It is already gone...darn!
• We received Madison's American passport. She is now totally "paperworked" and official in both Ecuador and the good ol' USA!
• Despite the lack of schedule, I still managed a nap everyday...ahhh nice!
• I tried to play printer fixer also and failed miserably. Brooklyn threw a corn kernel from some pop-corn into our printer a few days ago. Ever since it wouldn't print right. I was able to get our other printer to work that had some problems, but this one now sits in my trash barrel out front. It makes me sick to see such a nice, and expensive, piece of equipment thrown away like that, but I couldn't fix it. Reminds me of what my dad used to say, and I'm sure every other dad for that matter. "Sean, why do I even bother getting anything nice and new around here, all you kids do is break stuff." Now I am beginning to understand that is what kids do, sometimes on purpose, but mostly from just being kids.
  

More bugs...

Becca and I were outside this afternoon and all of a sudden she let out that shriek that only a woman can make. Those of you who have heard it know what I am talking about. It just about sends a man into cardiac arrest. The first time I heard Becca do it was when we were driving home to Alamosa from Creede, Colorado at night, and I about crashed. Becca saw a large herd of elk crossing the road and it scared her, and I experienced true startlement (is that a word?) for the first time. I didn't mention that I was driving with my headlights off just to see what it was like, but that's a whole other story.

Now, back to our backyard. As you can tell from our photo below we found another bug. Just another grasshopper. But, this is no ordinary grasshopper. Obviously it has an awesome disguise pattern looking like a leaf. But he was unique enough that he made me put on pink dish washing gloves just to get his picture. When a grasshopper is as large as this one was, you can see it's teeth very well. Later the gloves proved worthwhile as he tried to chomp right through the gloves. I know it sounds funny to receive a bite from a grasshopper, but things come big in the jungle, and you don't leave much to chance.

Old town Quito

Quito, for those that don't know, is a very old city. It dates back to Inca times, and once the Spanish arrived in the 1500's, they began to build as well. Below is an evening picture of one of the Catholic cathedrals in the city. Quito has a very unique colonial district where you can see really neat architecture and design. Most of it dates back to the 15-1700's, making you wonder who has wondered those streets. One of the neat things about this cathedral is that you can tour it. It has the largest golden altar in all of South America, and you can freely and easily climb into both bell towers, all for free. We haven't done it yet, but it is on the "to-do-list."

From the logbook...

Yesterday after waiting about two hours for weather I finally launched for my flight. As things would have it, my flight yesterday was purely Flight for Life. I took two returning patients back home to their villages, and then picked up 4 more to bring out to Shell. The patients I brought out ranged from a guy that got hit in the face with a log and knocked out his teeth, another with an overly infected arm, and another gal with advanced stages of what we would call bone cancer.

Our flight for life flights are a lot different than the ones I saw when working in Alamosa. My patients are never sterile. They almost always stink, and are filthy. And, I don't have a medical flight crew that goes with me. I am the nurse/doctor trying to tell everyone to hang on until we get to Shell.

Yesterday when I was landing in Shell, I found out I had another passenger. On final approach to land, I heard a loud chirping right behind me head. Upon landing, I discovered that one of my patients had stuffed a baby monkey in his shirt. I am not sure if it was a pet, or for sale, but he unbuttoned his shirt and searched for a strip of cloth. He began pulling it out and lo and behold, there was a baby monkey attached to the other end. It always amazes me what happens flying here. Most of the time it is very routine and ordinary, but then things happen like this stowaway that I have never even heard of before. It makes for interesting days indeed.

Today, I have the day off since I am on call this weekend. We hope to get some errands done, one of which entails converting our German Shepherd puppy into an "it," if you know what I mean.

From the Logbook...Jungle touring 101

I haven't written a lot lately about my flying adventures because there hasn't been any. I have been flight coordinating this week, therefore I try to keep myself on terra firma to aid in the logistical process of keeping everyone else going. But, yesterday I did join up with Chad to do a flight to some new places I had never been. Our first stop was 50 minutes away. The weather in Shell was questionable, but reports that I had from the sector we would be flying into reported "strong sun." We entered the clouds shortly after leaving Shell, and got out to our destination still in the clouds. All our other alternates were closed down as well, which gave us the only option of turning around and coming back to Shell. So, I got to log some good training time in the clouds with Chad, but as far as entering some new airstrips, that will have to be another day.

Today I have a flight to do as well. We'll see what happens with the weather. It's always a tossup. There is no predicting equatorial weather. It isn't like in the northern or southern latitudes where you see a storm system develop days, sometimes weeks, before it arrives and affects you. Although I wouldn't call our weather severe, it is most definitely extreme in its unpredictability and movement.