From the logbook..."Stuck like a pig on a spit"

Today I had a full flight schedule. I had 10 landings and about 3.5 hours. Once again the weather was beautiful, and I was able to keep moving right along. All of my flying today was air ambulance/medical flying.

This photo was from stop #5 to pick up a medical team in Sharamentza and move them to Santiak. The airstrip at SHA isn't all that technical, and I love the view from this end of the strip. The runway stops at the Pastaza River and drops off about 100 feet.

This is the photo that warranted the title. This was my first time into Llanchamacocha (LLA), and I made it real obvious to the villagers. Unbeknown to me, this end of the airstrip is unusable. As I taxied for takeoff and tried to turn around, the soft ground just swallowed me up. I had all 3 tires buried up to the axles. By the time I took this picture I had got the nose out, and was working on the main gear. It didn't help that the airplane thermometer said 100 degrees, and I imagine the humidity was close to 100 percent as well. Needless to say, about 20 minutes after my "incident" and with a lot of help from the community, I was airborne again en route to Molino.

Molino is a fun airstrip, and the approaches are really fun. I was filming them today, and hope to post some video of my flying in the near future. In Molino I picked up a patient, an 82 year old man and his wife. You don't meet many people in their 80's that live in the jungle. And, (speaking very bluntly but with all respect) this was the smelliest person I have ever encountered in my life...EVER! It wasn't until mid flight back to Shell that it finally dawned on me what this poor old man smelled like...a rotting cow. I guess it took me a long time to make that conclusion, because the only time I had ever smelled that smell was from dead things, and animals at that. I don't know what was wrong with the man, but he was in pretty bad shape. Did I mention he smelled bad? I'm just glad the air vent in the cockpit is adjustable, because it didn't stop blowing air on my nose for the entire 30 minute flight home to Shell.

From the logbook...

Our good weather has still continued so far this week. It sure makes the flying less stressful when you don't have to think about what mother nature is doing between you and the destination. I have also had the privilege of going into some "new to me" airstrips the past few days. The airstrip conditions are excellent right now with our lack of rain, and these new airstrips have been non-events.

I forgot to mention a few weeks ago that things got resolved with our air ambulance flying. The outstanding flight bill was finally paid, and we are now resuming air ambulance service. It is structured a little different than before, and we are still working out the kinks, but overall I think it will work fine. Because of our renewed air ambulance flying, I have been hauling a few patients this week.

This afternoon as I was getting ready to leave San Carlos for Shell, our flight coordinator told me via radio that there was a snake bite patient in nearby Washintza (WAS). I could fly over there and get the woman because I had plenty of gas, but I couldn't take the current load of 2 people and about 300 pounds of cargo and still make it our of WAS with the patient. So, I unloaded everything in San Carlos, flew 2 minutes over to WAS and picked up the patient. I then returned to San Carlos and put my original load of cargo and people on, and then we were on our way back to Shell. San Carlos is a longer strip that WAS and has better climb out angles, thus I could take off with three people and a lot of cargo.
I took this photo yesterday in Karink, which was a new airstrip for me. I ended up spending a few extra minutes there because I had some parts for their radio to install. The install went quick and everything worked, and I was shortly on my way to pick up a TB patient waiting across the Pastaza River in Chumbi, also new to me.

Full to the brim

Today we got an early start because we had 9 flights planned. Seven of these flights were sent to get out a team that was helping extend the runway in Mashient. It was a group of 25 people from the USA and a LOT of cargo. We had great weather this morning and we had all 9 flights done by 1:30pm. The other two flights were to take in a medical team, bring one out, and pick up a missionary in the community of Cumai.

One of our flights coming from Mashient was pure cargo. Every square inch of space in the cabin was taken up with cargo, including the copilots seat. The cart in the picture above is everything that was in Alas 10. There wasn't room to fit one more thing.

From the logbook...Volcanoes

Being that I am flight coordinating this week, I haven't flown much. But, I was able to make a once in a lifetime flight today. These are the kind of out of the ordinary flights that as a pilot you try to store away so that you always remember them. You may have read some of my posts describing our volcano flying. There are a group of vulcanologists that like to fly with us to take thermal pictures of the active volcanoes in Ecuador. They asked for a flight and I was able to do it. Lets just say it was AWESOME! As you will see below the scenery was nothing short of spectacular. Several times during my flight I had to remind myself that this was my job. How cool!Here is the tallest point on planet Earth. This is Chimborazo volcano. The funny cloud that is seen midway up the summit is an ash cloud from nearby Tungurahua.

Here is Sangay. It is active right now as well and after seeing the top we discovered there are 3 craters right now that are active in the cone. To top Sangay we climbed to 20,000 feet. Yes, the window of the airplane is fully open, and yes it was cold. But, it was worth the view.

Here is El Altar in all of her gleaming majesty. The pure white color of El Altar was stunning. As I have written before, experts think that this may have been the tallest mountain in the world, dwarfing even Everest, before it blew it's top a long time ago. Now the only thing in it is a gorgeous lake.

Here we are circling overhead Tungurahua volcano at 18,500 feet. It has been very active lately, and during our flight it was belching smoke and ash like an old wood stove on steroids. Very cool!

This is Cotopaxi on the left and Antisana on the right. At the moment these are both dormant volcanoes, but they make for great photos. We were en route to Tungurahua when I took this pic.

This volcano was the whole reason for the flight. It was the lowest of all the volcanoes we saw today at around 11,500 feet. Reventador is HIGHLY active right now and even has some flowing lava streams running down it. I was flying under a cloud deck when we were at Reventador so I had to be careful with the whole terrain/weather combo.

Here you can get a glimpse of the scope of the volcanoes in Ecuador. Their base may start in the jungle and climb right up through several climactic zones until the summit. This is another perspective of Antisana. Beautiful!

Flight Command

This week I am on coordinating duties. Probably means I won't fly much, but the way the schedule looks nobody is going to be flying much. Looking forward to Friday we will be slammed with flights, but between here and there, we are pretty light. I may do a post maintenance flight with Alas 10 today, but that is about it.

This past weekend we also welcomed back some of our teammates. If you remember when we first arrived in Ecuador we were house sitting for an MAF couple that went to help in Suriname. After almost a year and a half they finally came back. After a few days of settling back in they will probably be back into the swing of things.

We (MAF-Ecuador)just got a new car. We have had MAF cars in the past, but recently a man came to visit us and heard of our need to buy a car. He basically said "OK, lets go by it." So, a few weeks later we have a brand new van that staff can use for Quito trips, vacations, airport shuttles, etc. We were and still are very grateful for the generosity of this man.

I began to update my photo albums this weekend for those of you who look. I had to back up photos and I had 8 Cd's worth of photos to store. It took a while, as is my updating to the web album, but by the end of the week I should be done.

From the logbook...weather delays

Today we had a full flight schedule but bad weather. It seems typical that right after I get done blogging about how great the weather has been we have a poor day. We didn't start setting off for our flights until just before 3:00pm. I had time for only a short flight, and luckily there was a large hole right over my destination through the clouds because the jungle was covered in a 1000ft thick blanket of clouds, with about a 400-500ft. ceiling beneath.Here the 3 of us are all lined up like toy soldiers getting ready to blast off for a days work in about 2-3 hours time.
On my way home I decided to fly under the clouds instead of climbing above them. My flight home was short, about 20 minutes, and I knew the weather underneath was fine since I had just come from that direction. The bridge in this picture is spanned over the Pastaza River and connects the provinces of Pastaza (where we live) to Morona Santiago to the south. When we arrived here a year and a half ago, this bridge was nearing completion, and has since been finished.

Various...

• Plenty to write about this week, just not the energy. If figured I would just highlight a few of the latest happenings.
• Our visitor from Africa had to leave yesterday afternoon. He should be somewhere over the Atlantic right now on his way back to Zambia. Happy traveling Nate!
• Our air ambulance contract was finally paid in full after more than 7 months. We are beginning to fly for emergencies again, but with caution.
• I have been busy flying this week. Today I was moving a government medical team. Yesterday it was taking a huge work team of 25 people to help improve an airstrip.
• We have had great weather lately. In fact, many of our airstrips have dust on them. You don't see much dust in the jungle.

• I took this sunrise the other morning as I was getting my coffee ready.

Pailón de Diablo

Yesterday we had a great time visiting Pailón de Diablo, a waterfall about a 35 minute drive from our house. We had previously hiked into this waterfall when we first got here just over a year ago. Yesterday was one of the nicest days I have seen in a long time, so it was fitting that we were outside enjoying the fresh air.

FAA Cerified

It's finally FAA certified. The Quest Kodiak received it's official stamp of approval from the FAA earlier this week. While I don't know when, where, etc. as to when my first chance at flying one of these will be, I do know that our program in Kalimantan, Indonesia is slated to get the first one the first part of next year. Lucky fellas!

Happenins'

• I was working a lot out of my toolbox instead of the cockpit this week. This week we needed to put new rings on Alas 14's pistons. We started Wednesday and I finished yesterday with the test flight in the afternoon. Everything seemed to check out fine, and 14 is now back on the flight line.
• Last night we had 2 other MAF families over for dinner. It is always fun to get together with them and have some good laughs.
• Today our visitor, Brooklyn, and I are going to go to a waterfall up the road. It should be a good time, and the weather looks great!
• We got robbed again the other day. I hate robbery! We had recently planted some flowers in the planters of the entrance to our house. A few mornings later as I walked out to work, I realized someone had reached through our fence and pulled some of our new stuff right up by the roots. While loosing a few flowers is no big deal, the violation that comes as a result of being robbed on any level, whether it is a flower or a car, is infuriating to me.
  
• Speaking of walking to work, I have walked a lot this week because my faithful bike is temporarily out of commission. While riding home last week for lunch, my tire suddenly blew up. So, I finished my trip home by walking and later inspection revealed the wire bead of the tire coming apart. It is an easy fix, I just need to get a new tire, but I haven't had time to go to the bike shop.
  

Oops!

For the past week or so the army has been conducting a lot of exercises. They have included hauling weird things slung beneath their helicopters, bombs and explosives going off shaking all the windows in Shell, men repelling out of helicopters, and a lot of para jumpers. The funny thing about the parachuters is that they are simply jumping out about 1000 feet above the ground with unstearable chutes. They are being dropped over the runway and then are at the mercy of where mother nature takes them. As you can see below this guy was taken to an interesting place. I was later told that they have even landed in power lines and been killed. Doesn't sound like any fun to me.

From the logbook...Back in command

I was put back into the flight schedule today before I jump back into the maintenance side of things again later this week. It was a lot of fun, but very tiring as well. I had 4.7 hours of flight time, 9 landings, and1 instrument approach back into Shell.

Most of my flights had me going to Tiweano (TIW) today to bring out a work team of 20 people that went in last week. By the time I had made my 4 flights into TIW and another pilot made one, the airstrip was becoming hard to operate in. TIW is notorious for being awful when wet, or after a rain, and we definitely had that today.

During my third trip into TIW it began to rain shortly after I landed. You can tell by the tire tracks that it was beginning to look like a cattle drive had just gone through. If you saw a picture of me, you would think I was one of the cattle because I came home pretty muddy today.
Here is looking north as I waited for the rain to pass. About 10-15 minutes later it had subsided leaving me and the airstrip really wet.

One of the kids in TIW caught this neat butterfly. I had never seen this type, so of course I took a picture. It is amazing how many different kinds of butterflies there are in the jungle.

Up the road...

As Becca mentioned in her blog we went up the mountain yesterday to the town of Baños. I always enjoy going there, as the people, land, weather, etc. are so different than what we are used to in Shell. As the crow flies Baños is only about 30 miles away, or about a 50 minute drive. The topography never disappoints, and the Andes Mountains are always so fun to look at. Both of these pictures are taken from the same spot. The one above looking east towards lowering terrain and Shell, the one below looking west towards Baños towards rising terrain. Note how the picture above is slowly becoming jungly and the picture below is loosing it's jungle look for more of a typical Andean grassland. We always enjoy the various zones of flora that we drive through as we drive up or down in elevation here in Ecuador.

Gremlins...

Last week when I returned from Quito to work (that was the 5th of July) I was asked to help with some issues with our new engine on Alas 10. Really long story short, over a week later and without any success in diagnosing the problem exactly, we decided to pull the engine that has only 75 hours on it and put another new engine in it's place. Our need for airplanes because of high demand and other future maintenance on Alas 14 negated that we do this engine change. We still have some very probable ideas to look into, but in order to prove them wrong or right we had to pull the engine off of the airplane anyhow, so why not put another engine on Alas 10 in the meantime.

Yesterday morning we had the engine off of Alas 10 by 10:00am and the new one set back in by 12:30pm. After lunch we came back and finished hooking everything up and just before 5pm we started the engine. Our pre-flight engine tests went very well, and if the weather holds up today, Alas 10 will be airborne for an engine break-in test flight. I don't think our mechanics had ever seen an engine change in one day. I knew we could do it if we didn't have any significant unknowns.

I have been absolutely fried when I have come home this week. I have had plenty to share and show, but lack of energy to post it. The brainpower and problem solving that we put into figuring out this problem revealed a mind that isn't accustomed to thinking like this. It has been a long time since I have been involved at this level of maintenance and diagnosis. Several times we even had to cry "uncle" and call MAF headquarters and another special guy that I know that happens to know something about airplanes and their powerplants.

I have been asked to stay in the maintenance side of things next week as well to help get Alas 14 in and out. It has been burning about a quart of oil an hour so we are going to put new rings on the pistons. This should take a maximum of 3 days for us. Assuming all things go well with Alas 10 and 14, we are going to open up the engine we pulled off of 10 and see if we can find something wrong. Then, after that, probably the end of next week, I will be put back on the flight line and see if I can still land an airplane.

Beauty in the sky

This evening things really cleared up and the sky and mountains were crystal clear. It is always a joy to have such clarity in the weather, because it never lasts for very long. Living on the equator we don't have sunsets that are very good, but tonight the colors in the sky were very striking. I know not everyone has interest in the created world, but I am continually in awe of the art that God makes every moment of every day in the ordinary mundane around us. Whether it is something like a sunset or the way light glimmers off of leaves, I feel God does this almost as a gift to us. He doesn't need to do it to impress himself, he is trying to capture our attention and admiration.

From the logbook...on call weekend

This weekend was a light day for flying. I had to go to one place called Cuyacocha (CUY) to pick up a government medical team and then bring them back to Shell. I was done by mid morning. We have had great weather lately which also helps flights to get done quickly. This was my first time into CUY, and because of that, I didn't take the kid staying at our house with me. I had room, but I don't like to be a test pilot when I don't have to be. That is to say, I don't want to go into a new, technical airstrip and be at the maximum possible takeoff weight and hope it all works out okay. Having been in there now, I would take off with more weight than what I came out of there with, which will help me next time as I decide what goes and what stays.
This is the aerial view of CUY. Because of the dry conditions we have had lately, the brakes actually did something when I landed. It has been nice to have the airstrips be in "decent' condition although we all know it is temporary.


There was more nakedness than what is "typical" in CUY. The medical team was there to help get a dengue fever epidemic under control.

Quito trip

This past Sunday we made our way to Quito for a few reasons...

• I had to get my flight medical. These are done yearly, and I passed. It is a very different process than I am used to in the States.
• Brooklyn had a dentist appointment
• We picked up a kid from Zambia, Africa. He wants to be a missionary pilot when he gets older and has always wanted to visit the famous Shell, Ecuador mission community. His parents are missionaries also. He is staying with us for the next few weeks.

Because of the huge landslid that wiped out our normal route to Quito we took the alternate route. Let me just say awful is an understatement. The road was so bad that when we got to Quito I found out that my front bumper was barely hanging on. Who knows what else will need tightened up.

We returned yesterday via the "normal' route. Praise God is was open! The land slide was so huge, the simply made a road out of it, and now we just drive over it and back onto the paved road.

Today at the hangar I was helping chase maintenance gremlins all day. I have to admit they won, but tomorrow I am going to win, and get Alas 10 flying again!

La Basílica

We had one free afternoon to do some touring in Quito earlier this week. We have always wanted to make it to La Basílica, an early 1900's Catholic cathedral. We had a great time and were in awe of the construction, and the heights. We were able to climb into the one of the towers in the front, and also the one in the rear. While I felt they were safe, my legs still felt a little uneasy at times.

More later...

We are back from Quito, tired, lots of news, lots of pictures, no energy...will write more later.

ps-happy 4th of July!!!

A view from the front patio

The electricity was off all day today so we spent a lot of time out on the front patio of our house. From there you can see our front yard and the street. It is always interesting even after a year of living here in Ecuador to see what passes by on our street and who lives next to us and across the way.
One thing that does take us by surprise after living here a year is the poverty we live right next door to. It doesn't take long to become "comfortable" with your surroundings and forget that the people living literally next door don't have everything you have, and they probably never will. This house is right across the street from ours.

This is a shot of some of our oranges coming into season. We have 3 citrus trees in our front yard, a lemon tree, a lime tree, and an orange tree. The fruit that is produced is still not the quality that we are used to, but it is fun for a bunch of Coloradoans to have some fruit grown in their yard. About the only thing we had growing up was rhubarb growing in the yard.

This little finch has a nest in our orange tree. I'm pretty sure it is the parent of the young birds that fell out of the nest a few weeks ago that Becca tried to save and Maya licked to death.

Tomorrow we are also going to Quito in order to get my flight medical done. We are coming back Wednesday, so we might be a while before our next blog. Also, we are leaving early in the morning because the main road to Quito was washed away with a landslide last week. It might be interesting taking "the other way..."

This is a shot of the closed road from a Quito flight we had today. You can see how the slide covered about 300 meters of the road. It is literally tons of material that needs to be moved and blasted away. It might be a few more days until it is fixed, or a few months...you never know.