June was a crazy month. I received information from the mission that plans for going to Bolivia would be moving a head. Basically this meant extending a one week vacation that I had planned in the USA for the last week of June and staying through the first week of August so I could spend time with family, friends, and supporters before heading straight to Bolivia.
Before leaving Peru I did have the change to work on a few more projects. The floatplane was looking a little worn out since we had finished working on the wheel plane. So I took a few days to do some 'wish list" things that the pilots has wanted to get done. I installed some headphone jacks for the middle and rear seat passengers. That involved some wiring and soldering.
Then it was on to an new engine gauge that had been donated by Electronics International. That also took some wiring and a few hours on my back behind the instrument panel getting all cramped and calling into question the genealogy of some engineers at Cessna. In the end it turned out very nice. Here are the BEFORE and AFTER shots.
A finishing touch was standardizing the Push-To-Talk radio switch and Flap Dump (retracts the flaps after landing) switch locations on the control yoke.
During this whole process the old Cessna boat anchor (aka Nav-0-matic 300 autopilot) was removed as well. We gained 4 more pounds of useful load!
My fellow pilots Nathan has begun his wheel plane checkout and standardization flying. I was able to shoot some pictures and even get a neat video shot as well from my motorcycle.
Since I will be taking over for another pilot in Bolivia for 12-16 months, I ended up selling quite a few things that I had at my house. A fellow missionary came over to help me make deliveries which was much appreciated. As poetic justice would have it, I sold my trusty Honda generator to my neighbor and the very next day after I left, the power went out. He wrote me saying it was the best purchase he made all year!
Traveling to the USA was an adventure, 23 hours without sleep and changed flight schedules had me spending hours on end in both the Miami and Chicago airports.
But, once I was back in Michigan I had the joy of being in my cousin's wedding.
I should be in the USA until the first week on August... then it will be time to change the to blog to SPEYERS IN BOLIVIA!
1 comment:
Great post, Dave! the video is awesome!
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