SPEYERS IN BOLIVIA

Spreading Christmas Cheer

2011-12-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

This morning, Tom, the SAMAIR program manager and I, spent the morning delivering a little bit of Christmas Cheer. During this past year, there have been many people and organizations that have helped SAMAIR either with paperwork, licenses, maintenance, hanger space, and government paperwork. To show our appreciate, we set off like Santa's elves to make our rounds.

It is cultural at Christmas time to give gifts of appreciation such as a "Paneton". This is a bread which has raisins and little chewy gummy bear bits inside of it and seems to have an indefinite shelf life. At every stop we were well received and of course spent additional time "hamming it up".

"Paneton" is the gift that keeps on giving! Notice the fancy red bags with Christmas trees on them with snow. Quite a contrast to beads of sweat forming on our brows in the 95 degree weather!

There's your problem!

2011-12-08T15:11:00.000-08:00

Rainy season has started here in Bolivia and that means water and mud on the roads. Since I do not have a vehicle here, I have been bumming rides with my roommate, Greg. He has a 1987 Dodge Raider which is a small 2 door SUV, also known as a "JEEP". Pretty much anything that has 2 doors and is a truck they call a Jeep. Anyways, we had noticed that there was some daylight coming through the area over the rear wheel well. Upon further investigation we found a LARGE hole where the top of the wheel well used to be.

After removing the carpeting the damage was obvious.

An angle grinder with a thin cutting disk made quick work of removing the damage.

A paper template made from a manila folder was used as a pattern for the steel patch.

Aviation clecoes were used to hold everything in place while drilling the holes for pop rivets.

Some silicon under the patch and black uncoating were brush on for "corrosion protection".

With the carpet re-installed I pronounced it road worthy for the next 24 years.

Fruit vs. Tupperware

2011-11-12T05:29:00.000-08:00

Thought it would be interesting to visually show how far $8 goes here in Bolivia. Each Tupperware costs about $4. The Pineapple, bananas, apples, peaches, and passion fruit can also be purchased for $8. I know which one I would rather eat...

More than just fixing airplanes.

2011-11-12T05:18:00.001-08:00

This past month at the hanger has been slow from a flying perspective, but the SAMAIR team has repaired 4 cars for other missionaries. Be it automatic door locks, leaking shocks, worn out universal joints, mushy brakes, or radio installations, we have done them all over the past few weeks. It is hard to finding a good mechanic who is not only trust worthy but actually knows what he is doing. Not sure if us SAMAIR guys are any better but our price is definetly right... FREE!

Wiring that was previously "fixed" with electrical tape.

Worn out roller bearing from a universal joint. (they are not supposed to be broken into tiny pieces!)

Repair job.

2011-10-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

The Cessna 206, while a great airplane, does seem to have a couple of week spots. Yes I know, let the jokes begin... The cylinders, nose wheel drag link, gear boxes, horizontal attach, door switch, and slow flap motor are all gripes of mechanics and pilots to one degree or another. Add to that list, exhaust hangers on the firewall. This is the third airplane that I have worked on fixing this problem. For those who want to look at the pictures and don't care about the details, skip the next paragraphs.

The exhaust tube is supported by a hanger which attaches to the firewall. Vibration is transferred from the engine, to the exhaust, to the hanger and to two small AN365-1032 screw which are held in by nutplates and 2 small AN426-3 rivets through the firewall and a .040 bulkhead. The vibration causes everything to flex which eventually creates cracks in the firewall and bulkhead. The material is not strong enough to take the vibration. Interestingly enough, I have only over seen cracks on the pilot side, although I know cracks have been found on the co-pilot side exhaust hanger as well. This airplane had a patch at one time, but it was not enough to transfer the loads and vibration without failing.

The repair one can effect, is to either replace the bulkhead or make a sandwich patch. Since a bulkhead is $400 and a long ways away in the USA, we decided to make a patch. I cut out the damage with a cut-off wheel, stop drilled one crack that went even farther outside of the affected area, and began working on making a patch.

Some .030 stainless was used on the firewall, then a smaller piece of stainless and a piece of .040 aluminum were used to "fill the hole", then on the backside of everything (inside of the airplane, behind the rudder pedals) another piece of .032 aluminum was used for the back of the sandwich patch. A 90 degree angle drill comes in real handy for drilling out rivets and making new holes for the patch.

Some fuel tank sealer goes behind the stainless patch and is riveted "wet" so that a good seal is made and no exhaust gasses would have the chance to enter the cabin area. The rivet spacing was as close to uniform as could be, given the other ribs, nut plates, and form of the bulkhead. Also the front patch is slightly larger than the rear patch to help eliminate stress points. Total time spent on this repair was about 3-4 days. Just getting at the area can be a chore as it involved removing the rudder pedals, brake master cylinders, and also bleeding the brakes once completed. I was quite happy how it came out in the end.

Its what's for dinner.

2011-10-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

No, not beef, chicken! While on a two day trip in eastern Bolivia, we were vising a pastor and his wife who run an after school program for the kids of a small community called Santo Corazon. Every school day, after morning classes, about 30 kids spend 1-2 hours memorizing bible verses, singing, learning about hygene, and sharing a meal together.

As "honored guests" pilots are always given the best portions of the meal, in this case chicken soup. As you can see, my soup truly was extra special. I was gracious and offer the chewy appendage to one of the kids who accepted the delicacy and wolfed it down with aplomb.

Installing things.

2011-09-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

Being relatively mechanically inclined, I find that my mechanical skills are put to use quite often in areas other than aviation. On one 3 day trip to far eastern part of Bolivia, I helped to install a screen door on a church. The hardest part of getting the sun to come out and recharge our drill batteries via the solar panels.

More recently, I completed my 3rd air conditioner installation. Living in the tropics has made me an expert, along with moving every year, I am averaging one installation per year! As I joked with some of my friends, my life motto should be, Making the world a cooler place, one A/C at a time.

The truck.

2011-09-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

While spending the night in a remote town in Bolivia last week, some fellow North Americans let us borrow their "truck" for the afternoon. I think it used to be a Suzuki Samari, but its hard to say. The gas tank is a 3 gallon plastic jug which as on the floor, there are not doors, no exhaust, and no brakes. Stopping was accomplished by turning off the ignition and letting the clutch out in first gear. Needless to say, neither OSHA nor the DOT are know entities in these parts of Bolivia.

Medical Evacuation from a ranch?

2011-08-31T10:57:00.001-07:00

Over the past two weeks, I have had the chance to accompany the other SAMAIR pilot on five flights. The last one was quite interesting as we received a call from the owner of a cattle ranch to come and pickup his elderly wife who had fallen and hurt her hip quite severely. The ranch was only 55 miles away from the SAMAIR airstrip, but the idea of riding for 3 hours on rough roads between the city and the ranch made flying the best transportation option. Like many of the ranches around Santa Cruz, this ranch has a 1,800 foot airstrip which made for easy transport between the house and the airplane.

While we were at the ranch, I took a few pictures of the ranch house architecture and a tree that had very large thorns growing on it. Both were strange sights for someone who is used to flying in the jungles of Peru.

The owners of the ranch are originally from England, 27 years ago they came for a short visit and never left! One of the ranch hands, along with his son, came to help load up the wheel chair and bags inside of the Cessna 206.

Thirty minutes after takeoff, we were back in Santa Cruz where the couple was whisked away to the hospital. I am thankful for the opportunity to use something I enjoy (flying), to serve people in such a tangible way.

Bolivia

2011-08-25T18:07:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Bolivia! I have been in country for almost one week and am finally getting some things under control. My first taste of Bolivia was walking off the plane in Santa Cruz, my new home, and being greeted by winds of 40 miles per hour and a temperature of 50 degrees! Evidently a southern cold front, from Antarctica, had arrived just before me and brought with with rain, wind, and cold air. This phenomenon of a "sur" happens occasionally during the "winter" down here and lasts for about 3-4 days. Since I was hot and sticky at the hanger today, I officially pronounced the "sur" to have ended.

Speaking of the hanger, I wasted no time in showing up for work on Monday. I have already had the chance to go on 3 flights and am beginning to get "checked out" on some of the flight routes and airstrips. I guess I have been to busy flying because I was only able to take a few pictures of the SAMAIR hanger before an early morning flight. Stay tuned for more pictures and updates coming shortly.

June Jobs Jaunts and Jingles

2011-07-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

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!

It flies!

2011-06-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

After installing the final screw and completing the last inspection on our Cessna 206 aircraft, we pronounced the project DONE on May 20th!

Well, then we went and weighed the airplane, did more paperwork and tried to find the Registration and Airworthiness certificates that we misplaced!

The first flight went very well. There were no major squawks from the Chief Pilot, a testament to the care and diligence of the mechanics and everyone else involved in the project. OB-1671 is back to serving the missionaries to and peoples of Peru!

Hail to the Victors!

2011-05-20T04:57:00.000-07:00

Being from Michigan, I have a large portion of Michigan related clothing. The most impressive though is my collection of MICHIGAN t-shirts. Most of these are gifts from my aunt and uncle who live in Michigan and keep we well supplied. In case you are wondering, VAMOS AZUL means GO BLUE in Spanish... I get a lot of weird looks when I wear that one, but such is the price for supporting the Maze and Blue!

Flaps, bolts, and grinders?

2011-05-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

For those of you who wonder what makes the flaps go up and down on small airplanes, here is a picture of the flap motor and transmission assembly. The electric motor provides the force and the transmission converts the spinning motion of the motor into horizontal movement which pushes the flaps either up or down.

Here is a picture of one of three bolts which connects the wing to the airplane. This one happens to be installed backwards which puts the tail of the bolt and the nut to close to control cables!

After turning the bolt around this is the end you should see, the head of the bolt.

But if the tail of a bolt is to long and gets in the way of things like the flap follow-up cable, you can take a grinder and cut it off.

But sometimes its the other kind of heads, the goofy ones, that you have to worry about the most!

New Paint!

2011-05-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

The project Cessna 206 has new paint! We have painted it to look like our other wheel plane so that as we blaze through the skies at 140 miles per hour out planes will be a blur of white and red!

It came out really well without any runs in the paint. I leaned that in Spanish the work for "paint run" is a word the use that means "curtain". Which is pretty accurate!

Now if we could just get people to take their job seriously and get back to work we would be done soon!

Three wheeled tractor

2011-05-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of the 3 wheeled motocars which are so prevalent here in Pucallpa. I took some pictures of our three wheeled Massey Ferguson tractor. This the work horse that keeps our runways and taxi ways mowed.

Unfortunately there were were brakes on the left side so stopping was getting pretty exciting. Its back in service as of this blog post. Although now the PTO (power take off) clutch is not releasing... that means splinting the tractor in half to get at that thing. Anybody know a good tractor mechanic that wants to come down and work on it?

Hot Water

2011-04-23T06:18:00.000-07:00

This past week, my parents have been visiting me from the States. After 4 years in Peru, the timing was finally right for them to make a trip "down south". We spent a few days in the city of Arequipa, where I studied Spanish when I first came to Peru. The family I lived with during that time has a son that is my age. It was a pleasure to attend his wedding while we were there as I know the grooms parents and the bride is a friend of mine as well.

Upon returning to Pucallpa, dad and I got busy installing a hot water heater for my shower. Until this time I have not had any hot water in the house. In typical Peruvian ingenuity, we used a towel drying rack, mounted to the ceiling, to support the shower head as it would sag under the weight of the water in the head unit.

This type of water heater is not like the kind you find in the USA, it is a glorified shower head that takes the place of a "normal" shower head. There is a metal coil or resistor inside of the head which, when connected to 220 volts of electricity, heats up and glows cherry red. Water is then passed over the coil and the heat is transfered to the water making it warm instead of cold. Due to the fact that water is a conductor of electricity and the coil/heater is electrically energized there is the potential for getting an electric shock. Thus the term "widow maker" is affectionately used to describe this kind of water heater.

I still have to clean up some of the wiring and install a grounding rod, but I did take my first warm shower at the house last night. Something I have not been able to do since I moved in two years ago! Now if worse does come to worse, at least it wont be a cold demise...

Bolivia Visa and other things.

2011-04-02T13:38:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, I have been asked by my mission to leave Peru, and work in Bolivia for one year while the only pilot there goes on furlough. As part of this process I went to Lima, Peru to begin working on a Missionary Visa for Bolivia. I spend the whole week gathering paperwork, police reports, and passport pictures to turn into the Bolivia Consulate for my Visa application. After 4 additional days I was told by the Consulate that my request was denied because my mission was not up to date on some government reporting from 2008 and 2009.

What that meant for me was a return trip to Pucallpa while I wait for the folks in Bolivia to get things squared away. At the moment it is any bodies guess how long that could take. We are, after all, in South America. For the time being I will continue to work at SAMAIR here in Pucallpa and hang out in a state of "limbo" until I receive further information.

A silver lining was seeing some nice sunsets while in Lima.

I hope to be posting some rebuilt project pictures soon of the Cessna 206. This past week we painted the airplane! That was a big moral boost as it looks "new" once again.

On the home front, I have been trying to solve a power steering problem on my vehicle. The mechanic shop in town told me the problem was the pump, but after taking it off and sending it to a repair shop in Lima, they told me that there was no problem with the pump! So now I am back to chasing down the issue again. If there is no obstruction in the lines then I am afraid it might be the rack and pinion. Pray for wisdom in finding the solution. Thankfully the motorcycle is running well right now. It has become the daily driver as of late.

The Jonah

2011-03-10T15:18:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have seen the movie Master and Commander you will remember that "the Jonah" was the term used to describe someone who brought bad luck. In the case of the movie the bad luck was a spell of no wind, which is important for a large vessel that only has sails as its form of locomotion, which lasted until the "Jonah" jumped overboard with a cannon ball in his back pocket. While I neither endorse "luck" or swimming with cannon balls in your back pocket, I will take this opportunity to thank a volunteer named Terry who worked at SAMAIR for 3 weeks and at the same poke fun at the weather which coincided with his visit.

Terry came to us from Atlanta, Georgia. A pilot and mechanic, he spent his whole time working on the wiring and instrument panel of our rebuild aircraft. A master electron chaser, Terry was able to install all of the radios, instruments, and wiring in our panel without letting any of the smoke out of the wires!

Being rainy season, there was plenty of rain just about every day. I had the chance to take Terry on two flights where he got to see first hand what a day in the life of a missionary pilot was like. We saw a fair amount of rain, the inside of clouds, rain showers not 1 mile from our jungle landing sites, rain, soak-your-tennis-shoes-wet airstrips, more rain, and even a little blue sky.

Of course the moment that Terry left not only did the rain stop, but nothing else got done on the airplane because he was the only person who was not being interrupted all of the time by phone calls, meetings, or flights. Terry, thanks for coming and working along side us in Peru! You are welcome anytime, just don't bring the rain.

Cracked Bulkhead

2011-03-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

One of the major problems we found during the rebuild project was a cracked landing gear bulkhead. Its hard to say how long this had been cracked, but given its location, hidden behind the landing gear, it would have been close to impossible spotting it during an inspection. Here is a close up picture.

This is the new bulkhead after trial fitting it and back drilling the holes for the bolts and rivets that hold it in place.

Mechanic Dave uses a "specialty tool" to install the bulkhead in place.

Any guess at how much this part cost? $1000!

Dave is all smiles despite the fact that this was a two week setback.

Monkey Meat

2011-02-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I had the chance to bring some elderly missionaries back to the village where they had lived and worked for 10 years back in the 60's. Yes, that would be the 1960's! There has been an evangelical church for many years in the village of Caimito, but this was a special occasion as we were attending the dedication of a new church building.

As these types of things seem to go, there was plenty of pomp as prayers of dedication were held, ribbins were cut and we all filled in to sit on wood benchs in the first row while scores of villagers stood in the back listening to the Word preached for the first time in their new church building. After the service, as guests of honor (pilots are always included even though all we do is fly the airplane) we were served the first portions of a late lunch. Noodles with monkey meat!

The elder missionary that was with us made sure that I received the good parts, like the hand, to pick at. What did it taste like? Beef. Really salty beef. Since there is no refrigeration in the village, salt is used to help preserve the meat. It was like chewing on a dear lick. In the words of an old time JAARS pilot, "where He leads me I will follow, what He feeds me I will swallow."

High flying and jammed controls

2011-02-16T16:58:00.000-08:00

Right now Peru is in the middle of rainy season. We have been getting some pretty good rains off and on the past few weeks. This has made flying a challenge, to the point where flights have been postponed or we have sat around for a few hours waiting for the rains to stop or the weather to improve. I was coming back form a flight at a location 2 hours away. There were many rain shower in the area so I climbed up to 14'500 feet, turned on the oxygen and enjoyed the increased airspeed! In pilot school we learn that the higher you go, the colder it is.

This was very true as it was 80 degrees on the ground and below 40 up at altitude. Also as you go higher up there is less oxygen. This is both good and bad for flying. Its good because there is lest resistance or drag on the airplane so you can fly faster (given the same engine horsepower) at a higher altitude.

The bad part is that unless you have a turbo charged engine, the result of having less air means not being able to produce as much horsepower and you also have to wear this funny oxygen canula which is like a colonoscopy for your nose!

While taxing out for takeoff, I felt limited rudder travel in the foot pedals. I shut down the engine, got out and found a static wick stuck in a hole which was preventing the rudder from moving! I'm pretty sure one of the village kids did that while I was not paying attention. Good thing it was found before takeoff! Thank you Lord!

Wing Work

2011-02-05T17:32:00.000-08:00

The last couple of week have found the SAMAIR team busy working on the wings of our Cessna 206. Not only have we resealed both wings tanks, but we have also been replacing rivets that have loosened up. We also accomplished some minor sheet metal repairs to cracks in the wing skin. The load bearing portions (spars) were A-OK!

Some places are VERY difficult to get to, so the person with long and skinny arms is the one who usually gets the job of bucking rivets.

In the last two weeks I have stayed late three times and worked until 10pm. Its amazing how much more you can accomplish without interruptions!

I prefer to say the the airplane leaves its mark on us... not the other way around.

Do you have your tickets... to the GUN SHOW! Bonus points for telling who has the "massive muscles".

One wing completed and ready to begin paint stripping. Dave K. really enjoys this part of the job!

Hot Springs

2011-01-29T11:25:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, on a Saturday, I had the chance to visit some hot springs near Pucallpa. My friends from the Swiss Mission were the organizers of the outing.

Half the group drove 90 minutes and then took a 20 minute boat ride to arrive at the mouth of the river where the hot springs mixed in with the main river. I flew the other part of the group in the float plane 18 minutes and landed on the river where we all met up.

It was then an hour hike to arrive at the place where the water came out of the mountain side. Yes, I realize the irony of visiting a hot spring when its already 90 degrees out... but in Pucallpa there is not a whole lot to do.

I particular enjoyed swimming back and forth between the hot and cold water at the mouth of the big river. Its definitely a unique experience to swim in a river that becomes part of the Amazon!

Interior pieces

2011-01-29T11:11:00.000-08:00

On Friday I finished a mini-milestone on the 206 rebuild project. I have been working for the past two week off and on trying to fit the new interior. The new beige plastic pieces needed to be trimmed and installed. One would think that this process would be easy, but many pieced needed some "persuasion" to fit well around windows and where they mated up with adjoining pieces. I made judicious use of a heat gun that helped me to mold the plastics so a good fit could be obtained.

My friend Nathan finished repairing the horizontal stablizer. There were numerous dents that needed to be filled and then sanded down. The protective rubber boot on the leading edge was also coming unglued so some industrial super glue was used to keep it attached for the next 10,000 hours of flight time.

Project update.

2011-01-08T18:02:00.001-08:00

One of the big jobs for the re-build project is resealing the wing tanks. This model of Cessna 206 has "wet wings", basically a section of the wing is put together with sealant and is used to hold the fuel inside of the wing. This is different than a car which has the fuel in a separate purpose built tank. Other options on airplanes are "bladder" tanks made of rubber.

Almost all airplanes, including airliners, have the fuel tanks in the wings. Really small airplanes like Aeronca 7AC Champs have a tank right behind the instrument planel. But those airplanes don't have a second engine, flaps, a nose wheel, starter, or an electrical system... that is why they are much fun to fly.

After cleaning out all the fuel tank sealant, new sealant must be applied along every seam and over every rivet. (Its the dark grey stuff) Let me tell you, this stuff is SUPER sticky! Once we get done with this wing, there is one more to go!

Dave and Nathan have been painting control surfaces. Hot and humid weather can make it a challenge to get the paint to come out right. It takes a full day just to spray the primer and then the white top coat after that. Having worked in a paint shop, I know that prep work is 95% of a good paint job... but the last 5% can still ruin a good paint job.

Reflections

2011-01-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

Playing with the camera while flying on a beautiful sunny day.

Birthday Flying

2011-01-07T19:06:00.001-08:00

On my birthday, December 27th, I celebrated by getting checked out into a new airstrip. This one is called Santa Rosa de Serejal. This is a community where we pick up people who are working on translating the Bible into their own language. They come Pucallpa where they work for 2 weeks and then go back to their village.

The interesting thing about this one was that after Craig (the other pilot) and I landed, we found a number of holes is in the runway! They keep cows on the airstrip and sometimes they make holes in soft areas after it rains. Thankfully we stopped about 20 feet before one of these holes (which we could not see until we walked the airstrip)!

The villagers filled the holes in with dirt and I got the chance to do 3 takeoffs and landings. They went well and I am officially checked out in one more place. As my friend Dave K. says, I am 93% of a SAMAIR pilot.

End of 2010

2010-12-31T09:11:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day of 2010. At the end of the year I know many of us take time to reflect and think back upon the last year, considering what happened, what goals we achieved, and how God continued to work in our lives.

In January I had the Chicken pox, a very miserable time for a number of reasons. This was compounded by the fact that I had accidentally reported I had Small Pox, which caused mild manic until I finally stopped hallucinating and got my facts straight.

I enjoyed new friendships this year with other Missionaries from Switzerland and Germany. Proving that ethnicity is not that really important when you are chasing after a soccer ball or eating Swiss chocolate!

Two months in the USA during the summer spent visiting supporter and friends was encouraging and refreshing. The annual Oshkosh Airventure Fly-In was a highlight, as well as giving airplanes rides.

The challenge of living by myself after my house mate got married forced me to become more outgoing and pursue relationships with Peruvians and missionaries from other missions.

American Football games during the past 3 months have been a highlight and the impetus for gatherings at my house. This was made even sweater by the Detroit Lions winning more than 1 game during the 16 game season!

Finally, increased confidence and skill in my job as both a pilot and flight coordinator with SAMAIR has been satisfying. Of particular note were emergency flights which saved the lives of at least 3 people!

Thank you to the countless people who have made it possible for me to be serving in Peru this past year. Without your prayers and financial giving, it would not be possible for me to be here. For those of you wishing to make and end-of-the-year donation to this work, you may give online through the website www.southamericamission.org. On the homepage, click "Donate Now", and then select the pop-up menu on the left that allows you to choose a missionary and/or ministry to give to. Have a blessed New Year.

Christmas Flowers

2010-12-24T06:24:00.001-08:00

Flowers I found within 100 yards of my house.

Merry Christmas!

Fill 'er up!

2010-12-24T06:09:00.000-08:00

There is only one distributor of aviation fuel here in Peru. I am told that every year one tanker ship comes from either Houston or Venezuela with enough fuel for the 40 piston powered airplanes that fly in Peru. At the SAMAIR hanger we have a 9000 gallons storage tank for aviation fuel, however our permit only allows us to buy 3000 gallons at a time. That is enough fuel to keep us flying for almost 2 months.

Fuel arrives from Lima, an 18 hour drive, by tanker truck. We then hook the truck up to our tank and using the electric pump that is used for filling up the airplanes, we throw some valves and are able to pump it off the big truck and into our 9000 gallon tank. It takes about an hour to offload all 3000 gallons at a time.

After checking the fuel level and making sure we did receive a full load, its time to drain a sample and check for water. If everything is ok, we are good to go for another 2 months.

Bits and Pieces

2010-12-09T10:33:00.000-08:00

The rebuild project on our 1980 Cessna 206, OB-1671, continues to move forward. This past week work was completed on a number of bits and pieces. The complete rudder pedal system was stripped of paint, repaired where needed, primed and painted a gloss black. All of the push rods and bell cranks for the aileron and flap systems were bead blasted to remove the old paint, had new bearing installed and shot with a green primer. they will be ready for installation with new hardware once the work on the wings has been completed.

Even the program manager, Craig, visited the bowels of the shop to check out the cowl flap I had just finished riveting together.

At the moment we are anxiously waiting for out latest parts shipment to arrive. It had been in Peru for a month now, but problems with some paint thinner have kept things from moving forward. In the end, we had to send the thinner back to the USA and are looking for other options! Scheduled completion time frame is April or May of 2011.

How to save a life.

2010-12-04T12:31:00.000-08:00

This is a short story, one where God was the author, and I was his instrument.

On Thursday, I took off in the morning with a full load of cargo and roofing tin that was destined for the village community of Tsoroja. After dropping of the cargo, I had a short 20 minute flight to a city so that I could pick up a drum of fuel and bring that to the community as well. While in the air, I recieved a call from home base about a request for an emergency flight. I was told the patient was a child and would be at the very city I was landing at to pick up the fuel drum. Upon landing I coordinated with the people to have the child brought to the airport at 1pm so I could pick him up on the way back to Pucallpa.

After making the 20 minute flight back to Tsoroja and dropping off the fuel, my passengers from the Pioneer mission climbed aboard and we were on our way. Ten minutes after takeoff, home base called and said the weather was terrible back at home base! Winds of 30 mph and heavy rain had reduced visibility and the clouds we in the tops of the trees! I told home base to give me a call again in 20 minutes once I was on the ground picking up the sick boy.

Upon landing, I was very surprised to see a grown man with an IV waiting to get on the airplane! All 5 of my seats were already full! I had been planning on having the "child" share a seat with one of the children of the missionaries. After much discussion, we agreed to have one of the missionaries give up their seat for the sick patient. A second flight would have to be done the following day to pick up the missionary who stayed behind.

During this time I was also in contact with home base and was able to check the satilite imagery as well. We had to leave by 4pm or else plan on spending the night and risk not being able to evacuate the sick man. At 3:30, home base informed me that the weather was looking better, I could see there were still large rain showers but there appeared to be away around them. We loaded up and took off just before 4pm. The hour and 20 minute flight to Pucallpa was bumpy and rainy, but the weather held out and I was able to make a landing at the Pucallpa airport in the rain a little after 5pm.

The next morning I called a friend of a patient to inquire about his condition. He informed me that at 10:30pm the previous night, they had operated on the patient for appendicitis. He was in stable condition and recovering just fine. The friend of the patient thanked me up and down for doing the flight and getting him to the Hospital in time. It was a privilege to be part of God's perfect plan on a day when a flight "just happened" to be in the area and to when the weather was "just good enough" to get back home as well. To my supporters and pray partners, I in turn would like to that you for your support and prayers. It would not be possible without you behind me.

Nice wheels!

2010-12-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

Wheel barrow wheel as spotted in a village community. Who needs an innner tube or spokes, just cut down a tree!

Thankful for... Meijer?

2010-11-26T07:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a rainy Thanksgiving day. It almost felt like fall temperatures as 2-3 inches came down during the afternoon and evening hours. I was celebrating out in Cashibo, with some friends from the mission. When it came time to go home, we all piled into our vehicles and headed back into town. That is where the fun started. My friend, Randall, managed to get stuck in the mud along the road. I whipped out my $20 tow strap that I had purchased from Meijer, and withing 5 minutes we were both slogging through the mud once again.

In the USA it would have been a classic, "Ford pulling Chevy" kind of thing, but in Peru it was "Kia pulling Toyota". In all fairness, the 4 wheel drive on the Toyota was not working as it should. Nonetheless, 4LOW in 1st gear was enough to liberate the Land Cruiser.

The soil here is namely clay. That makes for some VERY slippery traction. It also fills in the treads on even the most aggressive tires, and stick to shoes really well!. While driving, the key is to stay on the crown of the road and keep the momentum up!

This morning, my friend Randall called me and said that he was stuck yet again! This time it was off a side street in Pucallpa. The Landcruiser was buried up the axles and I was not sure if we were going to be able to free it from the clay ruts. Out came the Meijer tow strap as we first tried going forward, then backwards. All we managed was 2 feet of rearward progress. We then put rocks and chunks of cement in front of at the tires and tried one more time going forward. Sure enough, it came right out and I kept pulling until we were on solid ground! So this year Randall and I are thankful for 4 wheel drive... and a $20 tow strap from Meijer.

(Meijer is store just like Wal-Mart... only better)

Why Rebuild?

2010-11-17T18:58:00.001-08:00

In a recent e-mail from one of my friends and supporters, this question was fielded...

It seems it would be less expensive to buy a whole new one considering how many man hours you're spending. There's no part of the plane you won't know intimately by the time your done.

The simple answer to that question is basically that it is cheaper to rebuild our airplane than buy a new one. For those of you who want the details, keep reading.

This Cessna is a model 206, it was built in 1980... a great year to be born as well. =) Back then, the airplane cost $75,000 new from the factory. Now a days you can pick up a 1980 Cessna 206 for $130,000 to $180,000 depending on condition, hours flown, etc. A brand new Cessna 206 costs about $570,000. If we were to sell our airplane, we would have to come up with an additional $400,000 of capital! Not only that, but we would need to modify the airplane for bush use. A list of some of the options would be, cargo belly pod $3000, crash-worthy seats with 4 point safety belts $2000, auxiliary fuel tanks $5000 and Short take-off and landing kit $8000, float plane reinforcement kits $2000. (Roughly $20,000 total, and that does not include labor!). Even if we purchased a used airplane, we would not come our ahead because of the cost of modifying it. So buying a new airplane, or a used one, and modifying it would not be the wisest use of the funds which God has given us at SAMAIR.

The complete budget for the rebuild project of our "old" airplane is $20,000. Since we are not paying for labor, all the mechanics and pilot/mechanics (like me) are supported by a whole host of churches and individuals, the only cost we have is for parts and shipping. Parts being $15,000 and shipping/import taxes making up the remaining $5000. Since aluminum structures (like airplanes) can continue to be built and repaired, there is no reason to believe that in another 30 years the same thing might take place again!

Oh Pete, your right, we really are getting to know the airplane very well!

Small places

2010-11-13T17:01:00.000-08:00

This past week I was worked on fixing damage to the firewall of the airplane. The firewall is a piece of stainless steel that is designed to protect the cabin area from the engine compartment in case of an engine fire. Where the hangers (supports) for the exhaust stacks attached to the firewall and there were cracks in the firewall from the constant vibration. I stop drilled the cracks so that they would not continue to get longer, and then made a patch which was riveted to the firewall to give the strength and integrity back to that area.

To buck the rivets, I had to crawl into a small place which is normally where the pilots put their feet, on the rudder pedals. Of course the pedals have been taken out, but it was still hot (with a shop light right next to my head), loud, and camped working in that small space for 2 hours! But, the damage is fixed and now it is ready for another 10,000 hours.

Bucking rivets

2010-11-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

After removing all the paint from the airplane, we were able to begin with the major work of replacing some of the aluminum skins. In the rear of the cabin, we knew there was a problem with corrosion. Battery acid, soda pop, and other unmentionable fluids had found their way below the floor and into the belly of the aircraft. After drilling out the rivets that held the aluminum sheets in, we took a new sheet of 2024 T3 aluminum of the same thickness (0.032) and used the old skin as a pattern for holes, drilling and clecoing it to a table. The outline was then traced and cut with tin snips. After a phosphoric acid etch and a conversion coat of Alodine, all skins received a covering of green zinc chromate primer. Then they were fit into place on the airplane, and riveted back on. The same process was used for the flooring from the rear of the baggage compartment to under the pilot/copilot seats.

All of this took about 3 weeks of work but went quite smoothly as we had the help of Don, an aviation mechanic on loan from JAARS for three weeks. Don is a sheet metal wizard! I learned some new techniques working with him for a week. Nathan got in on the act as well helping to buck rivets. Those long arms come in handy! He may not be Rosie the riveter, but his wife thinks he is just as cute.

Removing Paint

2010-10-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

After removing the wings, landing gear, engine, and tail feathers, the paint was the next thing to come off! Be careful, contact with bare skin really burns!

This plane was a wheel plane from the factory back in 1980. This there was no corrosion proofing (standard with the factory float plane) under the original paint! The only good thing about it was that is came off really easily! Not like the epoxy primer and Imron that will be going back on when we are finished.

The windshield was replaced withing a year, thus we are trying to save it. All other windows are being replaced. Which is good because you could not see a thing out the rear! (That is the window we look out of to avoid for bird strikes... thats a pilot joke)

Power Play part 2

2010-10-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

When I got back to Peru a month ago, it did not take long before I experienced a power outage. It was a sunday morning and the last thing I wanted was to hear the sound of the fan coasting to a dead stop at 6am. Sure enough, it was another morning of for a "forced" green action day. However, I had an ace up my sleeve. The red Honda generator! Back in March I had hinted at getting one and since the purchase it has definitely paid for itself. Most notably on the day the World Cup Final was on, the power was out for that whole day!

I wired in a outlet box and made a "suicide" cord, with male terminals on both ends, and have the system down pat for switching between city and generator power. Sorry for not having any pictures but it seems as though in the shuffle of coming back to Peru my camera has disappeared. I know I had it in Peru because I took it on a flight, but unfortunately I have not seen it since then. =(

Anyways, part of the original plan was to put the Detroit Red Wings sticker on the generator... but it is pretty large and red on red just didn't go well. So I put the sticker on my flight knee board. I have my aviation charts, passenger manifest, calculator and E6B in one nice and tidy place. Guess it would work in the USA as well for those pilots out there, I am using the Redi-Rite model by Saunders. Some pieces of Velcro hold everything in place.

Wacky Week

2010-09-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

The week at SAMAIR started off just like most weeks. A Monday morning meeting that I manged to miss yet again. Believe it or not, I might be one of the only people who enjoys these team meetings on Mondays. I like getting a feel for the week ahead and we always close with prayer for each other. The reason I was not able to attend was because I was out flying.

Regional elections are taking place on October 3rd and we had been asked to fly a group of people who were trying to get a particular candidate elected. All of the commercial flights were sold out as a result of foul play by the other candidates There are 7 people running for governor of this one province! Unlike the USA that has a two party system, there are many political parties in Peru. This particular candidate we were helping is an Indigenious man who is known and respected by the missionaries who work in this area. That flight was almost 5 hours total but at the end of the day SAMAIR had help to bring about a little more democracy to the jungles of Peru!

On Tuesday we responded to an emergency flight request for a lady who was having complications with her pregnancy. One again SAMAIR was able to deliver (not in the airplane thankfully) and 2 hours later the lady was in the Pucallpa Hospital.

Thursday morning had me flying 1.5 hours out to the community of Tsoroja with 1000 pounds of roofing tin in the airplane. The weather was so hazy I was on instruments for almost the whole flight even though there were no clouds! Arriving at the village, I was invited to stay for lunch by the missionaries who work there. So, in the middle of the jungle, we had a nice lunch and I got to hear about their recent trip to Israel.

Friday was a flight in the float plane to bring two mechanics to the aid of a broken down logging tractor. The team of workers had been trying to fix an exhaust leak and even had resorted to making a gasket out of tin cans that were hammered flat! We were on the ground for 3 hours while the mechanics did their work and I enjoyed sitting on the river bank 50 feet above the river watching the occasional boat pass by on the brown and muddy waters of the Ucayali river.

Saturday was fun day. I was invited over to some friends house to pick mangos and grill chicken wings. We picked over 140 mangos, with me climbing the tree and doing my best impression of a monkey. The wings tasted great and the "special" hot wings sauce from the USA made it even better!

I was the official SAMAIR representative on Sunday for a special church service commemorating 8 years of work performed by nation Peruvians who are translating the Bible into their tribal languages. The service was 3 hours long and I even helped contribute to that length by speaking for 4 minutes on behalf of SAMAIR. During the closing song, I was one of a couple missionaries who were singled out to join in a Shipibo Indian dance! Thankfully no cameras were on scene to capture the moment.

All in all, it was a wacky week with many different experiences! I continue to be amazed at how the airplane can transport me to such far off places and then bring me back again the same day to the very house I left that morning.

Road trip

2010-09-04T07:26:00.000-07:00

After 6 weeks in Michigan, I left the comforts of my aunt and uncles house in exchange for 7 different beds in 10 days worth of traveling. Indiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama are all on the list of stopping points... although I never knew I was really so close to Peru!

While traveling between Nashville, TN and Charlotte, NC I took a scenic route through the Appalachian mountains. If you have ever hear of a road called "Tail of the Dragon" (see youtube for video) this scenic route was similar to that.

Being an expert packer for my day job of moving missionaries and their stuff around, I managed to fit an 8 foot counter top inside the car to bring down for a project my dad was working on in Tennessee.

This Piper J-3 Cub models get a lot of attention. While in aviation school, I made this from welding rod and to much extra time in the welding lab. It sits in the back window and makes it easy to find the car.

Trust

2010-08-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you who do not know, I have been back in the USA for the past month an a short two month furlough. Basically enough time to have some vacation and touch base with supporting churches and individuals in the West Michigan area.

While back in the USA I have been taking care of some things that I can only do while here in the states, like changing the address on my drivers license. I went down to the DMV in Hudsonville, MI and the whole operation took 8 minutes.

When I was getting my drivers license in Peru, the whole process took 6 months! Having gone through both systems, in the USA and in Peru, I notice that the USA system is based on trust.

For example, I did not have to show proof of my changed address. I did not have to prove that I was who I said I was by having a 2nd piece of identification. The sticker that went on the back of my license is a simple affair, and if i wanted to I am sure I could peal it off and put something else on in its place. But the whole system is based on trust.

In Peru, I had to prove that I was a Peruvian Resident before applying for my license. I had to make 2 copies of my resident card, go to a Notary and have them stamp is saying that my copies were legitimate. I had to prove that I was medically fit to drive a car by going to the hospital and taking a vision, hearing, and psychological test. Legalized copies of those test results also had to be made. All of these things are in place because there is not a basis of trust within the government.

So the next time you are stuck in line at the DMV, just be thankful, it could be taking a whole lot longer... trust me!

Transformers

2010-07-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

I have this desk lamp that was given to me by a missionary leaving the field. Unfortunately it was not working. In the USA I imagine this would just be thrown out and you could pick up another one at Meijer or Ditto (its a Michigan thing). But in Peru, they fix things like this! Upon taking it apart, I discovered that the transformers was bad. No problem, I'll just go to the electronics store and buy another one. But I found out they don't sell transformers. However, they do REWIND them! This is a very slow process and something we would NEVER do in the USA, but in Peru labor is cheap. So I had a shop rewind the transformer for me. A couple solder joints later and now I have a working desk lamp!

10,000 KM report

2010-06-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

In November of 2008, due to numberious gifts and the support of my home Church (Park CRC) in Holland, Michgan, I was able to purchase a vehicle. Just yesterday I turned over 10'000 kilometers, roughly 6,250 miles, so I thought would give a report about my impressions and maintenance history over the past year and a half of my 2003 Kia Sorento ownership.

The diesel engine does not have the immediate response of a gas engine, however for a 2.5 liter engine, is has really good low end torque. Gas mileage is about 18-20 MPG which is about half highway (50 mph) and half city driving. Gas continues to hover around $3.50 for diesel. Interior comfort is pretty high and I find that all 5 seats are usually full when I offer to drive to Orlando's (restaurant) for a weekly dose of the best grilled chicken this side of the equator.

I installed a 2 inch lift kit from Daystar, that helped a bit more with some of the pot holes and gives a little more aggresive stance. Also put on All Terrain tires which I purchased in Lima and had "shipped" on a bus to Pucallpa. The tires are GREAT in the mud and in 4 wheel drive I have never been stuck yet!

For as few miles as I put on the car, I have fixed a number of things. Parking brake, rear differential, air conditioning system (twice), power steering line, brake pads all around, ground 2 rotors, fixed leaky radiator (twice), and induction air box. Although I try to do most everything myself, but I did have to punt when it came to the air conditioning system. The rear differential was actually kind of fun to fix, I replaced two very large bearings what were starting to fail (loud humming coming from the rear of the vehicle).

I have done all the routine maintenance such as oil and air filter changes. It takes 8 quarts to fill the engine up! Most cars take just 4. Also have been changing the fuel filter on a yearly basis, important to do on a diesel. Some ongoing items that still need to be addressed are a slow leak from the real main seal. I am loosing about a quart every 4 months... so its not serious but I just have not had the desire to drop the transmission to get at the seal. I do have the parts though along with a new clutch to go in at the same time. One of those "while your in there you may as well..." type deals.

Overall, the Sorento has been a little bit heavy on the maintenance side, but the comfortable interior, Air Conditioning, and 4 wheel drive have made up for that. Thanks again to those who gave towards the vehicle, it has been a blessing to me... if not an occasional trial helping along the process of sanctification!

Fuel Tanker

2010-06-12T08:57:00.000-07:00

The average leg length for our flights here in Peru is 1 hour. That means we average one takeoff and one landing per hour, however the average flight is longer than 1 hour as all of our flights are round trip, and roughly 30% of the time they are multiple stop as well. Since here are no airports in the whole Peruvian jungle that sell aviation fuel, we have two options. Carry round trip fuel for our flights (plus 1 hour of reserve) or store fuel in strategic locations for refueling. We take advantage of both these options as dictated by the total flight time and needs of our users. Carrying more fuel on board equates to less weight available for people and cargo. For example, 3 hours of fuel (48 gallons) in the wheel plane gives you 500 kilos or 1100 pounds or useful load. Full fuel (116 gallons) only leaves 315 kilos or 700 pounds of useful load. In the float plane, it is even less because the floats weight almost 300 pounds!

When we do flights over 4 hours in the float plane, we are almost always refueling, some times twice during the same trip. At the remote fuel storage areas, we syphon fuel from 55 gallons drums into 5 gallon plastic containers. These are then carried to the plane and poured through a filter. The 55 gallon drums are usually transported to various locations by boat or by road. The cost to transport fuel like this and stock it in remote locations adds roughly $2-3 dollars more to the price per gallon. When we have the opportunity, we transport the 55 gallons drums inside the airplane. However this is never done when there are passengers onboard. We also have the option of carrying extra fuel in the wings and shyphoning fuel out when we land at the remote location for use at a later time. I have done this a couple of times now, but it is not very common.

For syphoning, we usually use a 1 1/2 inch hose as the flow rate is very quick. Getting the flow started is the hard part, this done by sucking on the hose to get the flow of gas going. It works pretty good most of the time, but once and a while not so much. The worst is getting gas in your mouth. I have had this happen twice, and let me tell you, that was two times to many! We have found some little rattle syphons that use a 1/2 inch hose, they work great and don't require any sucking at all! The only down side is that it takes 3 times as long to fill up the tanks with the smaller hose.

Photo courtesy of Aircraft Spruce.

Convertable

2010-06-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school, I had a job washing corporate cars for a large auto design business in Holland, Michigan. We used to reposition cars between the local airport and many industrial plants. Occasionally we would reposition a REALLY NICE car that belonged to a company executive or vice president. One particular time I remember driving a green BMW M3 convertible. With the top down, the roar of the straight 6 engine, and wind in my (very short) hair, I thought I had the world by the tail!

Just a few weeks ago, I turned the trusty SAMAIR float plane in a convertible as well! Some of our passengers wanted to do a short 15 minute flight taking pictures and shooting video. Since the 206 is approved for flight with the rear cargo doors off, it was a simple matter of pulling 4 pins and installing the "deflector". The deflector attached to the front door hinges and deflects the wind from the propeller and slip stream so that it does not enter the cabin area.

The video shots turned out great and nobody fell out of the airplane so it was a success all the way around. For a brief moment, I was back in high school... only this time the doors were off, the roar was from a flat 6 cylinder engine, and I could feel the wind through my still very short hair.

Aerial Casualties

2010-05-23T15:11:00.001-07:00

While doing a preflight inspection this week I came across an aerial casualty! Stuck to the oil cooler of our IO-550 engine was a butterfly. While flying I occasionally see buzzards and white egrets. By the way, there is just something about flying at 3000 feet and looking down at a group of 10 white egrets flying over the jungle! AMAZING!

Anyways, I carefully removed it and brought it back to my toolbox for photographing. There are some places that I fly to where I see many butterflies, Tsoroja being one of those places. I would love to get a picture of the blue morpho butterfly that I sometimes see in Cashibo. Anybody know what type this one is?

Cooking

2010-05-15T05:40:00.000-07:00

From time to time people will ask me if I can or if I do cook. The answer is usually something along the lines of, "Sort of, but not usually". I think the main reason I don't cook very much is that it just takes so much time and does not seem like its worth it just for one person to eat. One of the missionaries down here, Minori, taught me how to make Granola. She maybe did not realize it but that has taken care of 33% of my meals right there!

However, not wanting to subsist on fruit and macaroni for the remaining 66%, I decided to try my hand at the Peruvian classic Salchi-Papa (sausage and French fries). I was quickly reminded why I don't cook very often but here is how my latest cooking experience went.

- Went to corner store on motorcycle and purchased potatoes and of course more fruit. (15 min)

- Peeled and cut potatoes (5 min)

- Went back to the store to buy hotdogs to use as Sausage substitutes (10 min)

- Heated up oil to fry potato strips (10 min)

- Cut up sausage and fried it while waiting to oil to heat up. (10 min)

- Tested oil hotness by dropping some water in the pan (a hint or more likely practical joke I had heard about somewhere). Spent next 5 minutes cleaning up oil splatter on floor and stove, decided the oil indeed was hot enough. Fried potato strips. (20 min)

- Mixed equal parts Ketchup and Mayonnaise for French fry dipping sauce. (3 min)

Finally, an hour after starting, ate meal. (15 min)

- Washed dishes (10 min)

- Considered if it were worth the effort to cook something or if just fruit and macaroni were a less time involved process. (10 min)

- Decided that Orlando's Restaurant was the best alternative for the same about of time and money. Celebrated decision by eating a Popsicle. (5 min)

More checkout flying

2010-05-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

Seems as though the only time I get some good pictures of flying is when there are two pilots in the airplane. A few weeks ago that was the case as I got checked out and approved to go into 4 new airstrips.

We also gave a rides to a few people as we did takeoffs and landings at each location. For the kids I am sure it was a thrill of a lifetime!

Tsoroja

2010-04-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I spent 3 days and 2 nights in the village community of Tsoroja. I was helping my friend and fellow Moody grad Dan May to install a satellite dish in the community where he works with the Pioneer Mission organization.

On friday morning we met at the SAMAIR hanger and flew the hour and twenty minutes down to Tsoroja. Dan recieved a little flying lesson about straight and level flight, turns, and climbs and descents. Just 50 more hours and he can get his pilot license. Arriving at the community, we quickly got to work digging holes for posts. Tsoroja is a very rocky place so we had to try a number of holes and remove many rocks before we had two 3 foot holes for our posts. The wood we used is very hard so holes must be pre-drilled before nailing. We did not have a drill so I used a piece of wood, vice grips, and a drill bit to "make my own drill". Shortly after that the other missionary in the village came by with his cordless drill! What a blessing! By the end of the first day the platform was built.

On day two we installed the dish and Dan began to run through the setup procedure. I went off the end of the airstrip with an axe and machete to chop down some treas and bushes that had grown up at the end of the airstrip. The taller they got the less runway we could use. After three hours I was COMPLETELY wet, my boots even had standing water inside of them! Yuck. At lunch time we had a nice swim in the very cool rocky mountain river stream! Dan continued to fight with the setup procedures for the internet and I took a nap.

On the final day I flew back to Cashibo while Dan stayed on for another three days trying to get the system on line. However despited his best efforts, he was not able to complete the task. So, like many things in Peru, it will just have to wait.

For me, it was a good experience to be in the community and see how the missionaries, who we fly for, live and work. I got to kill a few bats inside of their house yet ate much better food than I have in Cashibo thanks to the Swift family. I appreciate the work the missionaries do and being a part of this work project makes me hold them in even higher regard.

Big Walking Stick

2010-04-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

On Friday I was in a community called, Tsoroja. There are a couple of missionary families that work there and I always enjoy flying into that location as the landing is quite challenging. While getting ready to leave, one of the missionaries pointed out a Walking Stick that was on the airplane. We all agreed that it was the largest one we had ever seen! Their camouflage is really good, but they don't blend in with the airplane at all!

Easter Drama

2010-04-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

No pictures to go with this one, but it was so good I have to write about it anyways. This evening my church, Mil Palmeras, but on an Easter drama. They started out by briefly reviewing the creation and the fall of man and his need for a savior. Then they acted out how man has turned from God and pursued his own things and how that sin separates him from God. They showed the trial and flogging of Christ and then they took one of the people who had been acting as a sinner and started nailing him to the cross. That is when the Christ figure, played by a man named Issak, told the solders to stop, and took the place of the sinner. For me it was quite powerful because I knew that I was that sinner and it was Christ taking my place for the punishment I deserved. It was quite special as Issak used to be a terrorist and was a member of the Shining Path before he became a Christian. To see his changed life reminded me that that is what a relationship with the King of Kings will do to people! Have a great Easter, He is Risen!

Working in the hanger.

2010-03-31T20:53:00.000-07:00

Nathan and I pause for a photo while performing "light maintenance" on OB-1671.

The sign of yet another very good day at the hanger.

Clouds

2010-03-31T20:41:00.001-07:00

People ask sometimes what I do while flying for hours on end. Well, I look at clouds of course! These pictures were all taken the same day, its amazing to see how fast things change and how varied the clouds can be from one area to the next. Each cloud tells a story. Thunderstorms in development, rain showers, high sun blocking clouds for shade, and post rain ground scud that looks like God's fingerprint. Can you name any of these cloud types?

Soccer

2010-03-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

Every tuesday afternoon after work I hurry over to the SAM center where we play soccer. Lately there have been 12-18 people coming, that means 3 teams with one rotating out every 10-15 minutes. The field is not regulation size by any means but it is close to level and has real grass/weeds growing on it.

It it usually a mix of people from the Mil Palmeras church (Thousand Palms Church) and other mission organizations that come to play. I had been playing offense but started to play more defense recently. I like heading the ball out of the zone and trying to stop the attackers. Since my footwork is not the best playing in the back suits me better. I get to kick more people in the shins that way...

Power Play

2010-03-20T09:51:00.001-07:00

No, this post is not about hockey... although I do love the game and miss being able to watch The coolest game on ice, this post is about power outages.

Last night it cooled down to about 80 degrees, with a fan running and the windows open I am able to sleep OK. However, at 6am on Saturday morning we lost power for the day. Power outages are fairly common, I would say the power goes out at least once a week. At the hanger we have a backup generator with an automatic switch that will restore power within 8 seconds! At home... the ice cream just melts.

This has been quite frustrating for me, especially on the weekends when I am at home. So I decided to pull my own ¨power play¨ thanks to Uncle Sam. Part of this years tax return will be going to a beautiful red Honda generator. 2000 watts is enough to run the fridge, TV, and lights. I´ll be sure to post a picture once I pick it up. Hopefully within 2 weeks (it needs to come from Lima). Now all I need is a big Detroit Red Wings sticker to put on the side of the generator...

Ice Pilots

2010-02-27T09:42:00.000-08:00

Ice Pilots NWT is a reality tv show that has aviation as its main theme. I heard about this particular show from one of my favorite aviation podcasts, Uncontrolled Airspace, since then I have been watching the episodes online and enjoying every minute of it.

The basic story follows a company called Buffalo Airways as they fly cargo and people out of the town of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories of Canada. They operate a fleat of World War II vintage airplanes with big beutiful round radial engines.

Visit the show site at www.icepilots.com and watch episodes from the first season at www.willflyforfree.com Follow the link at the bottom of the right hand side.

Table Talk

2010-02-25T19:15:00.000-08:00

The goal was to make a table where we would be able to wash of grease parts at the hanger. Normally you can buy a parts washer at Home Despot or Grainger... but in Pucallpa you just have to make your own. So that is what we did.

Here is the table, anchored to the wall and ready for the metal covering.

They don't sell dowels here so I had to turn down a square piece of wood on a lathe to make my own...

Dave Kooistra makes quick work with the jig saw and cuts a hole for the drain.

Bang in the dowel and cut it off flush with a hacksaw blade.

Dave Kooistra had had the genius idea to but a funnel below the table to help catch all the solvent that drains off.

All done, one parts washing table at our service. Now if we could just find some solvent... they don't sell that in Pucallpa either.

Pit Stop

2010-02-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

In NASCAR racing, a good pit stop will only take 12 seconds! But when we need to stop and refuel the float plane, a good pit stop takes 25 minutes. We store aviation fuel in 55 gallon drums at a number of places. When I land and tie the airplane up, I have to syphon out 30-40 gallons of aviation fuel into 5 gallon plastic jerry cans. Hauling them down the river bank and climbing up onto the wing to pour in 5 gallons at a time keeps all of us SAM AIR pilots in good shape. I usually am drenched with sweat by the time I am done refueling. Relief comes after taking off and getting up to cruise altitude, the air is 60 up at 5500 feet!

The need for SPEED

2010-02-13T16:12:00.000-08:00

The main reason we use airplanes to transport missionaries in the jungle is because they fly

quickly! Traveling by river is about 15 miles per hour. Walking is maybe 3 mph. But flying, that is much quicker. We usually flight plan for 120 mph in the float plane and 135 mph in the wheel plane. However, just like like a boat traveling on a river, there are air currents and winds which help speed up or slow down the speed of the airplane over the ground. Here are a few shots during flight. Notice the airspeed indicator reads the same, about 110 (its in the top right hand corner, with the green arc). The ground speed on the GPS units tells a very different story!

Sometimes we can use the winds to our advantage. Down low there is usually less wind so if we are flying against the wind we will try to stay low. But up higher the winds are stronger so if we are going with the wind it saves times to climb higher and get the extra "push". The passengers never notice but I am happy if I can save them 10 minutes on a flight. Thats just 10 more minutes of flying they don't have to pay for.

Pilot Food

2010-02-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

Pilots are not usually known for eating good healthy meals. Oh sure, if your flying the heavy iron across the Atlantic with the autopilot on and have a full complement of flight attendants with a well stocked galley all things are possible. Many charter pilots consider Granola bars, Snickers, and a can of Red Bull to be the perfect on the go lunch. But flying small single engine airplanes over the Peruvian Amazon requires some planning ahead. Here is a sample of my lunch on a flight just last week. Not to shabby if I say so myself.

On the mend.

2010-01-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

Well, almost two weeks after my episode with the Chicken Pox started, things are winding down. On Sunday the last new sore appeared and since then all of the sores have been healing up and one by one going away. I was finally able to go back into work on Wednesday and spent the rest of the week in the office and shop floor doing aircraft maintenance. Thankfully I felt good enough to work because I was starting to go crazy staying at home all day long.
This next Tuesday I will begin flying again. I am looking forward to flying the friendly skies and am very thankful that by that time, my face wont scare any of the passengers. Thank you to those who prayed and dropped me some line of encouragement. To the best of my knowledge there was not a single picture that was taken over the past two weeks. Thus there will be no evidence and the memory of this episode can quietly fade away. It sure is one memory that I wish to never repeat!

Chicken Pox

2010-01-08T05:31:00.001-08:00

Its been almost a month since my last post. But, this once sure is a doosie! On Monday and Tuesday of this week I had a roaring headache and fever. I thought it was from being overly tired and not getting enough sleep but on Wedneday I noticed some small red spots on my body as well. I went to the Doctor here in Pucallpa in the afternoon and sure enough, he confirmed that I had Chicken Pox. He was pretty excited as he even called in the secretary to show her what he called a "classic case". Guess they dont get it down here that often.
Never having had the vacine, and never having had the virus either, I guess it was just my time to get it. So I have been strickly ordered to stay in the house and limit my contact with other people. Not only is that a bit boring, but it makes it lonely as well.
From what I hear, the sores continue to come out for 4-5 days and then they start healing up which could take up to an additional week or more. Today, Friday, is the second full day of the sores coming out. As anyone who has had it before can attest, it does itch and your head feels like a pin cushion and looks like one as well!
So I am keeping a low profile, taking naps, reading, updating the blog, etc. One thing I am not doing is posting anypictures. I'm pretty sure NOBODY wants to see that...

Good Ice Cream

2009-12-11T15:10:00.001-08:00

After my last Ice Cream disaster, I decided to share with all of you just what it is I'm talking about. I would like to present: Donofrio Ice Cream. This is the most common brand of ice cream in Peru, a spin off of the Nestle company, Donofrio can be found all over Peru. This particular flavor is new, and I think it is my favorite. Vanalla ice cream with fudge and pieces of an ice cream sandwhich (the chocolate waffer). 1 quart sells for $4.

Living Water

2009-12-11T14:56:00.000-08:00

One of the mission organizations that SAMAIR flies for is Living Water. They drill and install wells in villages where there is no source of clean water. Since many communites are located close to rivers, the villagers are used to bathing, drinking, and washing clothes with the nasty brown river water.

The wells that Living Water puts in are usually about 30 meters deep and pump out clean water, are enclosed so no comtaminates can enter them, use a simple hand pump, and the well heads last for over 20 years with no maintenance. I think this is a great technology as it fills an obvious need for the villages yet is simple and reliable.

I flew in part of a team that came down from the USA to visit and work for a week. It was a wet and rainy day which left tracks in the soft grass runway.

Down and Out

2009-11-29T19:27:00.001-08:00

On Saturday the Internet was down all day. Couldn't load a single page and no combination of resetting all the resettables and re-plugging all the pluggables would bring it back.
On Sunday the power went out for almost 12 hours. The ice cream melted, soccer games went un-watched, and the water pressure petered out.
On weekends like this I think about the life of a missionary. Many times I think that I'm here to help people out and "save the world" (or jungle). Thats what my supporters sent me out here to do right? But when the internet goes down and the power goes off, I find my attitude is quite sour.
Its then that I remember that it does not matter how many hours I fly, sick people I bring to hospitals or engines I fix. God is more concerened about me being his disciple. That includes, as hard as it is to admit, my attitude. So while it may be very true that God is using me in my "job", He also is taking the daily challenges and giving me opportunites to grow.

So Lord, thanks for yesterday, thanks for today. Thanks for giving me opportunities to grow. Give me patience and help me choose to rejoice in You, regardless of my circumstances.

Comments on Comments

2009-11-08T16:38:00.001-08:00

Flap Switch. Yes, the normal Cessna flap switch has been removed and new switch has been installed. Not only is the location different, but the switch is momentary in both the up and down position, you have to hold it in that position to acctuate the flaps, releasing it stops the flap motor from running. There is also a "flap dump" switch on the yoke. Pressing this button runs the motor to bring the flaps up. The motor only runs when the button it depressed, so you "bump" the flaps up slowly. Advantage? Flaps can be deployed in the pattern with out having to take your hand off of the throttle. A normal pattern in a stock airplane would mean taking your hand off the throttle 3-4 times. Not so with the flap switch right at your fingertips (litterally). This allows you to keep the eyes outside (where they should be) with out having to look inside the cockpit during the landing phase. The flap dump (retract) switch on the yoke allows you to retract the flaps on climb out. Also a very important time to have the eyes outside and the hand on the throttle. The flap indicator system is still the same, but the microswitches with the stock Cessna flap selector are removed. This system was installed under a field approval that was developed by JAARS.

23 Squared and Lean of peak. Yes, we do fly at 23 squared (23 inched manifold pressure (or full throttle if not able to get 23 inches) and 2300 RPM. We shoot for around 65% power. Increasing RPM if MAP drops below 22 inches usually. All climbs are always (and should) be made at full throttle. In cruise we lean to 25-50 lean of peak. The leanest cylinder is about 50 LOP and the "richest" is 25 LOP. Only possible with GAMI injectors or newer Continental "tuned" injectors. As a side note, thank you to GAMI for helping us tune one of our engines to have closer matching EGT spreads on all 6 cylinders. As far as 23 squared goes, the only thing that would be better is wide open throttle (WOT) all the time even at altitudes where this would exceed 23 inches. 65% power could still be maintained by having a lower and quiter RPM setting such as 25 inches 2200 RPM. Still working on getting that one passed. The old habits and old guard die hard. More info at http://www.avweb.com/news/pelican/ Picture form article #18 by John Deakin, "Mixture Magic" This is very brief as I could go on for hours (days perhaps) about engine opperation. Right Nathan? =)

The View. The view is quite awesome. Its amazing to see the jungle and God's creation from the air.

Front office

2009-11-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

For the pilots, here is a shot of the panel from one of the wheel planes. All three airplanes are identical, except for GPS units. Took this shot as it was the few times I'm actually on altitude and heading. =)

Mango Shooting

2009-11-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

Cant get clay pidgeons down here in Pucallpa. So the next best thing is mangos. We have a tree in our yard so my friend Paul and I decided to just use the mangos instead! They are free, easy to throw, and give a nice juicy pop when you hit them.

Happy Passengers

2009-11-07T10:55:00.001-08:00

Some shots of some of the passengers I fly. All very content they dont have to be travling by road or by boat. Note also the very interesting cloud pattern. Just like corn rows back in Michigan.

Rainy Season

2009-11-07T10:41:00.001-08:00

Rain season is upon us here in Pucallpa. We average about 90 inches a year and as they say, when it rains it pours. Here are some shots from around the hanger during a rain storm. Note the plant/fungus growing from the rafter right by the down spout!

Cloud dancing

2009-10-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

Another hot, humid, and sunny day in the jungle. Not quite rainy season yet so most of the puffy clouds are harmless to fly though. The only reason you wouldn't is because the "ride" can be a bumpy. Since there is pleny of sun and humidty in the jungle, as the day goes on puffy clouds billow up and shoot skyward, leaving white towers to fly around. Here is some video for today shot at 5'500 feet on the way back to Cashibo.

The glory of float plane flying.

2009-10-06T19:28:00.000-07:00

You know, many times float plane flying is pretty glorious. I mean, who gets to take off and land on small rivers and worry about hitting logs, dugout canoes, or other floating objects during their day to day job?

However, come dry season, the game changes. Just this past week I brought a medical team to a Shipibo indian village called Caimeto, about 25 minutes away. Caimito is a lake and the water lever rises and fall just like it does in the rivers. So in dry season the lake is lower than it is during rainy season. All that to say, sometimes you run aground before getting to dry land. And sometimes you have to get wet! I had to get into the water and push the plane around for both docking and undocking.

My shoes did stay dry though as I took them off before jumping into the water. A few small kids tried to help push as well, expending more effort making faces than pushing I think...

So, here is a parting shot of the "glorious" float plane pilot, barefoot and wet from the waist down, flying back to base.

Ingenuity

2009-10-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Peruvian are pretty good at being ingenious. They rarely throw anything away and find unique ways to recycle and reuse things that otherwise would discarded back in the States. One example of this is with vehicle. In the city of Pucallpa, there is not a single junk yard. Granted, some of the maintenance garages LOOK like junk yards, but even the oldest beater is made to run here. Looks are definitely secondary while reliability and easy to fix are held in very high esteem.
I had some shocks that were worn out on my vehicle. One of the results of driving on a dirt and potholed road. In the states I would have to buy a complete shock assembly because the bottom rubber bushing was worn out. Here they just press the old one out, reuse the metal insert bushing, and pressing a "new" rubber bushing that is made from 3 inch thick tractor tire rubber! The price was only $3.

Around the house I have used a little of my own "ingenuity". The showers here are made for Peruvian size people and six foot tall Americans get the shower head right in the chest. So a trip the the plumbing store resulted in an ingenious modification to my shower head. Now I can actually get in UNDER the shower head. What a remarkable concept.
There was also a problem with critters entering the bathroom due to gaps between the mason work and screens. A can of spray foam (from the USA) took care of the holes!

Mazamari

2009-09-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

Mazamari is located in a mountainous region of Peru, about 200 miles south of Pucallpa. While the scenery if beautiful to look at with many waterfalls and mile after mile of virgin jungle, the terrain can create challenges as clouds can obscure mountain peaks and haze limits visibility to 3-4 miles. One of the tools we use to avoid the cumulous granite is topographical information that is displayed on our GPS units. This is backed up with charts that have predetermined routes with known altitudes for crossing passes and entering valleys.

The day we returned to Pucallpa, the haze was thick and I had to fly half of the flight solely with reference to the flight instruments. Thankfully I had just finished some Instrument training when I was in the USA over the summer so the skills were fresh in my mind. By the way, the color GPS is so easy to use even a pilot can figure it out. The red shows terrain that is above your present altitude and the yellow is anything with in a 1000 feet below you. Dont fly in the RED and be very careful in the YELLOW.

Back in the saddle

2009-09-03T07:05:00.000-07:00

Greetings once again from the hot and humid jungles of Peru. Since being back over the last three weeks I have been flying quite a bit. After a brief few days in Lima getting my pilot license squared away, I was able to do some recurrency training in the SAMAIR floatplane. The following week I already had three flights.
One of the flights was the pick up two missionaries that were preparing for a visit by a medical team in late September. Since there was extra room on the flight, I took along another SAM missionary who works in Pucallpa. He was surprised at how smooth the air was and at how cool and refeshing it was up at 6500 feet. 65 degrees and 140 miles per hour for one hour sure is nice compared to 95 degrees at 15 miles per hour for a whole day in a small boat!

Special thanks to Tim for the use of his pictures.

Oshkosh

2009-08-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of this past summer for me was the annual EAA (Experimental Aviation Association) fly-in and airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconson. When I am in the states, I usually try to go and the last few times have spent the whole week there. For an airplane nut there is plenty to see and do.

I had the chance to go to some aviation forums and learn about different topics that ranged from GPS units to fabric covering of airplanes. Some of my favorite things were walking the grounds talking with all the vendors, looking at airplanes, and sitting on the edge of a runway with my dad watching airplanes takeoff and land.

When I am in Peru, where there are only 50 airplanes in the whole country, I think about Oshkosh and how for one week every year over 10,000 airplanes are on location at Oshkosh. I think the only bad part of the whole week is that it ends all to quickly. But, there is always next year!

P.S. Sorry Uncle Mike, I will try better next time in my T-shirt selection.

Podcast

2009-06-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

When I am down in Peru, riding the tractor cutting our grass runway, I usually listen to some Podcasts. For those of you who are not familiar, a Podcast is an audio program that can be downloaded from the internet or through other pod catchers such as iTunes. Anyways, I thought I would share some of the podcasts that I listen to from time to time. The first is my favorite. It is called Uncontrolled Airspace, and is about aviation. I also listen to Airspeed, Airplane Geeks, and The Pilot Flight Podlog. As you can guess, all of these are also about aviation.

However, I and a little more cultured than that so I also listen to, High Speed Stuff, 60 Minutes, This American Life, Truth For Life, Car Talk, and NPR's Technology Podcast. This is a great way to pass long hours on the tractor and keeps me reasonably up to date with things that are happening back in the USA.

If you find yourself with time to listen while you work, try some of these Podcast. You might enjoy them just like I do.

Finding Money

2009-05-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

Today I became 20 dollars richer! Well, I guess I was already that rich but I just did not know where the money was... Two years ago, when I first left for Peru, I had a fair amount of clothing, namely long pants and coats, that I left in Michigan. I knew I would not need any of that in Peru as where I live and fly, it is always hot and humid! This morning when I was getting ready for Church I found a 20 dollar bill in my pant pocket. I also found a note that I had writting to myself over two years ago!
Later on in the afternoon, I put on some shorts that I brought with me from Peru, and I found 20 soles (Peruvian money) in the front pocket of those as well! Not really sure what I am going to do with that for the next few months, but I did think about trying on the rest of my cloths to see what other "economic stimulus" I could find. Now if I could just figure out who took in the waist on all my pants that I left here two years ago...

Trip to California

2009-05-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

This past week I took an 8 day trip to California to see some friends and supporters. I was in the Los Angeles basin for 5 days and spend the rest of my time in San Diego.

Two of my friends are fellow pilots and I was able to visit both of them and see that type of flying that they do day to day. One friend works as a pilot and mechanic for a company that sprays for fruit flies. Since fruit flies can damage crops, my friends job is to fly over the LA basin "spraying" sterile fruit flies that have been exposed to radiation. When the sterile flies mate with the normal flies, the result is no offspring and a decreased fruit fly population. I thought it was a pretty neat to see how aviation was used to do a needed task.

My other friend is a flight instructor and flies everything from small single engine airplanes, up to helicopters! I had the opportunity to fly with him in a helicopter and he even let me try my hand at flying! Although some things are similar to airplanes, it was still very challenging although I was able to manage a drunken looking ten foot hover all by myself. A third friend, living is San Diego, has know me since first grade! Needless to say, there was plenty of reminiscing. I also showed everyone pictures of video of my work in Peru with SAM AIR.

Other highlights included flying to Catalina Island for lunch, going to an Air Force Museum, watching the Red Bull Air Races, and of course spending lots of time getting caught up on over two years worth of experiences. Overall, I enjoyed my time very much and better understand why so many people live in Southern California. There certainly is much to do an see.

Legal!

2009-04-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

I received an e-mail from our secretary at SAMAIR in Peru and she told me that I am legal to fly in Peru again! That is a big answer to prayer and I am very thankful for all of you who were praying about.

Looks like the Peruvian Aviation Authorities (DGAC) will not be fining me for flying with an illegal certificate. Thankfully SAMAIR has a very good relationship with the DGAC. Once return to Peru I will have to present some more paper work that documents any flying that I have done here in the USA, but I have learned that papers are something all 3rd world governments love!

In other news, it has been confirmed that once I move back to Peru in August, I will be living in a new (to me) house. The good news is that it is only 100 yards away from my old house so moving will be a snap! Also, while I am gone, high speed internet is supposedly being installed! This would be a HUGE impovement over dial-up and I would even get to post pictures on the blog with our having to go to an Internet Cafe every time I wanted to do that. As they say in Peru, vamos a ver... (we shall see)

Furlough

2009-04-12T06:08:00.000-07:00

I never have understood the word furlough. In the airline industry, being "furloughed" means you are laid off until business picks up again and you can start flying at your old job. In missions, nobody gets laid off and there is never a shortage of people but I guess you do leave your work for a while. All that is to say, for the next 4 months I will be on "furlough" in the USA!
Having been in Peru for 2 years, it was coming close to the time when I would be going back to the USA to reconnect and visit supporting churches, individuals, family and friends. Due to the fact that there is only a limited number of pilots at SAMAIR, we always have to coordinate our coming and going with each other. For me, it worked out that mid April though the first week of August would be best. I had less that 3 weeks to buy my tickets, pack my bags, and box up all my household items (I will be living in yet ANOTHER house when I return to Peru) before coming to the USA.
I will be stationed out of Michigan for the next 4 months visiting and getting reacquainted with friends and family. I will also be traveling out to California, North Carolina, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail regarding getting together this summer! It could be another two years before we have the change again!
dspeyers"at"southamericamission.org

Maybe Legal?

2009-04-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is right, I might not be illegal with my pilot certificate anymore... but I am still not sure!

I presented all the paperwork that the Aviation Authorities said I needed present, however a week later they came back and said I was STILL lacking proper documentation! So this past week I was in Lima and went down to the Licenseing Department and talked with them directly. They in turn gave me a new list of paperwork they needed and I set about once again to comply with their instructions. Interestingly enough, one of the things they wanted was a simple cover letter from the mission say that I wanted to renew my pilot certificate and was presenting the following documents to do that. I ended up sending legalized copies of my Pilot Log Book, Annual checkride from SAM AIR, my Resident Visa, and my Pilot Medical certificate. So hopefully in a week I will hear back and see if my Pilot Certificate is valid once again.

Illegal!

2009-03-23T18:38:00.000-07:00

Today I found out that I have been flying illegaly in Peru since October!
I was looking into the requirements for renewing my pilot licence in Peru and found out that the Peruvian Aviation Authrities (DGAC) had me down for an expired pilot license due to a Medical certificate that was not filed properly with them. Back in October I recieved a second class medical certificate which I dutifully took to the DGAC. They accepted the medical certificate, making a copy for their records and I went back to Pucallpa task completed.
However, it appears as though the DGAC is putting up a fuss now and are requiring me to ¨validate¨my medical certificate. That means taking it to the U.S. Embassy in Lima, having them stamp it for $40 validity that it is a ¨real¨medical certificate. Then, it has to be translated into spanish, brough to the Ministry of Forgien relations, where they have to stamp is saying that ¨yes, the US Embassy stamp is valid and approved¨. Then I have to take the medical certificate with those two stamps to the DGAC where they in turn will stamp it a third time accepting the validating from the Ministry of Forgien relations which accepted the validity from the US Embassy which accepted the validity that my medical certificate really is real and valid in the first place!
Does anybody else think this is just crazy! Anyways, until that happens I am effectively grounded and can not fly. I am hoping to have this all worked out by the end of this week... I´ll be sure to keep you posted!

Conference

2009-03-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

This past week was the South America Mission annual conference. All the SAM missionaries in Peru got together for the week and had a time of prayer, teaching, and fellowship. Yours truly was on the planning committee and oversaw the volleyball tournament, photo scavenger hunt, and was the co-MC for our daily teaching and worship sessions.

It was a great time of fellowship and a chance to redirect our focus on the topic of "Christian Worldview" and how that impacts our actions with the community around us, our ministries, and also, how we in turn, pray. I was personally renewed and very much enjoyed the Bible teaching that was in English for a change!

Here is a picture of all the people who attended. Can you spot me? =)

Middle on the Jungle!

2009-02-27T16:55:00.000-08:00

Hello from the deep jungle of Peru! As I sit here over 300 miles away from my home base of Cashibo, I am amazed at the computer that sits before me in this small Peruvian town. Today was a long day of flying the float plane and in the end, due to bad weather, I was not able to get back home! The small town that I am staying in is build arond an oil drilling rig that us just a few miles away. We keep fuel in 55 gallon drums here and although I have been many times to this location, this is the first time I will be spending the night.
I was VERY supprised to find a place that had internet access! I am actually sitting next to a bare foot kid of 10 years of age who is playing Counter Strike! The small hostal I am staying in is spartian but it does have a bathroom, shower, and a sink that are all in the same 5 by 3 foot space. A very interesting idea as it saves on space and still fits into the principal room that is 10 by 15 feet. I had supper from a street vendor and it seems as though EVERYONE in town knows that there is a white, american, pilot who is in town for the night.
Hopefully tomorrow morning I will be able to have good enough weather to fly back to Cashibo. The tenative plan is to pick up two people at a destination about 45 minutes away. The only catch is that their exact location is not know, only that they are at an intersection of two rivers. So that should be a challenge to find tomorrow. Thanks to eveyone who has been praying for safetly while flying. The Lord continues to grant safety.

For the Pilots

2009-02-12T17:08:00.000-08:00

This post is for the pilots. Just to give you an idea of what a day flying in Peru is like. Granted, this is one of the longer days, but it just did happen today and here is the story!The alarm goes off at 5am. I get ready for the day with breakfast and am out the door and driving to Cashibo, where the airplanes are, before 6. Get to the hanger, file a flight plan, check the NASA satellite for South America grab my gear and head down to the float plane. At 7am the passengers are there and Pablo helps me load and tie down the cargo. We pray as a group and are off the water at 7:30. It is two hours to my first fuel stop, but today there is a 15 knot headwind and I sadly watch the GPS dance between 99 and 102 knots. High overcast for the first hour until a lower layer develops and meets me at my cruising altitude of 4,500. Another cloud layer is up ahead but I see a space where I can duck under it and find that it is clear below with just a light rain falling.I manage to get back to 4,500 still under the overcast and land at the first fuel stop in Industrial. After docking next to the bank. I unload five 5-gallon plastic jerry cans and walk over to a shed that is locked up. This is where we keep fuel in 55 gallon drums. I siphon out almost 40 gallons and fuel by hand through a funnel and filter on top of the wing.After being on the ground/water for 40 minutes, I am back in the air. Just one hour now to Galilea, but there are clouds all along the ridge line between me and the destination. I talk via HF radio with the community and they report light rain with low clouds. Not good. I make a course change and head for the place in the ridge where a river cuts through. I decent to 700 feet above the water and follow the river through the gorge. Just below the clouds, I have about 5-7 miles of visibility but there is still light rain. I follow the river for 20 minutes and arrive at the village location. Ceiling is now 500 feel but there are breaks in the overcast. I land against the current and dock where a group of 30 people and kids are waiting for us.After unloading a couple, their 3 children, and all their baggage I quickly climb up on the wing and check my fuel in the left and right tanks. Good, 40 gallons for an estimated 1.5 hours of flying plus 1 hour of reserve fuel at 16 gallons per hour. I write own the tach time on my flight ticket and quickly weight and load more cargo. Two missionaries are returning to Pucallpa after 3 weeks out in the jungle visiting many of the churches along this particular river. They are happy to see me!Off the water and the cloud are definitely broken now, I climb on top and can see a low spot in the ridge at 3,500 feet, I cross at 5000 and start my decent to the next location of Boca Chivasa. I have never been here before but I have a drawing from our chief pilot. As I arrive over head I immediately see two canoes tied up at my docking location. I perform 3 full circles over the landing sight evaluating the current, approach path, and takeoff path. I also look for boat or logs that may be float in the river. I elect to land into the current again and have to modify my final approach leg as there is a slight bend in the river. I touch down on one float in a turn and smoothly set the other float down as I power back to idle, drop the water rudders and send a message over the HF radio saying I am safely on the water. Two more passengers get on and I weigh their cargo and check fuel levels gain. Perfect, we are within the weight limit by 30 kilos and I can tell by how the float are sitting in the water that C.G. is at the aft end to give me a little more cruise speed but the water line is still 2 inches below the back of the floats so I know I am fine.After casting off I open the throttle half way with mixture in ICO. Master on bust pump on. Wait till I hear the tone change that the pump is circulating fuel and there are no more air bubbles, mixture rich momentarily to clear the distributor line and give a small prime. Clear prop! One, two, thee, four blades go by and the engine catches. Mixture rich and quickly retard the throttle, 1000 RPM. I love that hot start technique on the Continentals! I go through my ¨P´s¨ Power (alternator) Power (ammeter showing charge) Pump (boost pump off) Pump (vac pump indication) Pressure (oil pressure indication).It is 1 hour back to Industrial and by now the cloud base is 1500 agl with tops of the broken layer at 5000. I pick my way through holes and corridors up to 5,500 where I am above it all. I clean my hands with some hand sanitizer and eat an apple and grapes as I watch the clouds float by. Lunch to go!Now with 4 people aboard, I realize yet again what a privilege I have to transport there people in Peru! They are all older than me but have seen fit to put their confidence and safety in my hands... something I do not take lightly. I ask the front seat passenger if he is anxious to see his wife and two kids. He nods and smiles!After refueling again by hand, I takeoff for the tow hour leg back to Cashibo. On the way back almost everyone takes a nap, except for the pilot. The morning overcast is still there, I estimate bases to be at 10´000 msl. I fly back at 5,500 in perfectly smooth conditions and enjoy a tailwind as I see 125 knots of ground speed. After an hour and 15 minutes I switch tanks and note that I should have 8 gallons left in that tank if I need it. By the time I get back to Cashibo I am down to 20 gallons total fuel. A smooth landing back at Cashibo in spite of the quartering crosswind. I unload the cargo and fill out the paperwork. It is 4:30 in the afternoon and I head up to the office where I spend another 20 minute figuring out the billing for the flight and completing my flight ticket, 7.1 hours today, 5 landings, and 1 tired pilot!Hope this give you a small glimpse into what flying in Peru is like. There is so much more like how you load chickens and lawnmower engines into the airplane, or communicating with ATC in Spanish. But maybe that is for some other time.

Jungle Flights

2009-01-26T18:14:00.000-08:00

In December, I had a flight for a missionary family that was going back to their village location about an hour flight away. It was a sad occasion because the family was leaving Peru and was returning to the USA after over 6 years of ministry in Peru and Brazil. I stayed with them for a night in the village as they said goodbye, then they left in a boat to travel 45 minutes down steam to where there is a rare straight part in the river long enough to take off from. I flew the 3 minutes to the location as taking off from right in front of the village is marginal and only ever done with one person and a very low fuel load. After securing all the cargo, we were off the water for the last time. It was a quiet ride back to Pucallpa.

Fortunately, I found out just this month that there is a new missionary family that will be taking over the work out in this community! So, I am happy that SAMAIR will get to keep serving the people and missionaries in that location.

Not again!

2009-01-17T10:32:00.000-08:00

Well the on going saga continues with my motorcycle. I finally put all the pieces together and took my motorcycle out on a trip this past weekend. We crossed over a nice little river with a log spit in two to walk your bike across. There was also a fair amount of mud which always makes for a messy ride.

Needless to say, we were off the beaten trail by a good ways and two hours into the ride found us lugging our bikes over logs 18 inches in diameter. It was a tight jungle trail that were were on and my engine had started making a ticking sound. I hoped that it would not give out on my and we presed on! An hour later we were wet, filthy, but out of the jungle! That is when my bike broke down. Again. I was unserimoniously pulled back to Cashibo where I systematicly checked out every system. When the easy things such as fuel, air, and spark were ruled out I knew it had to be bad. And yes it was, a valve keeper had broken and allowed the valve to fall into the cyclinder. The piston bent it, broke the guide, and that was all she wrote.

So once again my bike is in 100 parts and I am waiting for some parts to come from the USA. maybe by the middle of Febuary I will have it working again...

Moving again.

2009-01-04T14:48:00.000-08:00

With a New Year comes a new place to live again for me. When I first got to Pucallpa last spring, I lived with another single missionary for 2 months until he left for the USA. Then I moved to another house and lived with two single missionary guys. Now, after 6 months, all three of us have moved again and are living in a third house while the previous occupants are in the USA for a six month furlough. However, once they get back... you got it, we will be moving yet again.

Needless to say I have gotten good at packing and unpacking all my things, and it has motivated me to keep the amount of "junk" that I have down to a minimum. It also got me thinking about "home" and the things I associate with that word. Having moved around a lot the past two years, I have found that I can live just about anywhere. However every place I have been, I have known that it was not my true home because I would move on from there eventually. To a larger extent, even being in Peru is not my home because I will one day leave here as well. Thus I realize that my true home is the place that is being prepared for me right now. The place where there is no suffering, no pain, no good bye's, and where every tear is whiped away. I look forward to that home!

One piece!

2009-01-04T05:22:00.000-08:00

During the New Years holiday, I had a couple of days to work on my motorcycle. I had assembled all the parts and pieces to the point where I would be able to ride it once again! After starting it up I put it in first gear and it pronptly stalled. Eveidently there was a problem with the clutch and it was not free wheeling. So, I took the clutch cover off and started rooting around in there looking for the problem. Thankfully I found a washer that had not been placed in the correct location and was causing the clutch basket to bind. Anyways, after putting the washing in the correct location everything was free to spin again! Now, I have a working motorcyle again and it only took 5 months to get it to that point. I'll be able to return a friends motorcycle that I was borrowing and start using my own. It was nice to finish my New Year's resolution so quickly and have my bike all in one piece again!

We have a winner!

2008-12-06T08:48:00.001-08:00

The day before thanksgiving I purchased a vehicle! I had been in Lima, Peru for about a week and had a number of vehicles that I was looking at. Finally, It came down to a 2003 Kia Sorento that I got a good deal on! Purchased from the original owner, this vehicle, has 60,000 miles on it and was manufactured specifically for the forgien market which makes it a little different than the other Kia that I had been looking at.

I was very pleased to say under my budget, and had money left over to recharge the airconditioning, replace a broken window (that broke on thanksgiving day!) and transfer paperwork which is different here in Peru versus the USA.

It took two days to drive from Lima to Pucallpa. The journey is only 500 miles but it takes 16 hours. Some fellow SAM co-workers came over from Pucallpa and spent a day with me in Lima before we headed back together. We tested all systems on the car as we went from sea level to over 16'000 feet! Speeds ranged from 5 to 75 miles per hour and I got 25-27 MPG! I have been very happy with the diesel engine and here in Pucallpa, diesel is cheaper than regular gas by 10%.

Finally, as I was driving to work this week it started to rain. I thought about what it would have been like on my motorcycle and was very thankful to be dry and comfortable inside my vehicle! Thank you so much to the many people who gave to this project. It truely is a wonderful blessing for me!

Looking for a vehicle

2008-11-21T13:47:00.000-08:00

Right now I am in Lima, looking for a vehicle to purchase and drive back over to Pucallpa. Thus I have been looking though the newspaper classifieds, and stopping at many of the used car lots. There are a number of options out there but I am looking closely at the Kia Sorento. With a 2.5 liter Turbo Diesel, it gets very good mileage and with diesel fuel being cheaper than regular gas, it is also more economical.
Here is a sample of that I looked at today. This is a 2002 model that was imported from Korea 2 years ago. It has 110,000 miles on it, leather, and even seat warmers... which I'm sure I would use all the time in Pucallpa.

This sunday the paper will come out and I will be looking it over for some more vehicles to check out, I already have a couple appointments for monday morning. Unfortunately the last 2 days have been holidays here in Lima, so many people are taking a 4 day weekend and most of the used car places are closed. I will be posting more updates throughout the week.

50 Pieces

2008-11-21T12:56:00.000-08:00

After taking apart my motorcycle motor, and finally receiving a new engine case, I was finally able to start putting things back together. However, there were a couple of seals and 2 bearings that I was not able to save from the old engine case. So I had to order parts again from the USA and wait another 3 weeks for them to come.
They did finally come last week, and so I stayed late after hours a couple of days putting the engine back together. I honed the cylinder, installed new rings, lapped the valves, installed new valve guide seals, and even had time to but on a new rear tire with plenty of tread. That will come in handy for the rainy season which is just starting now.
So hopefully I will have a running motorcycle again some time after thanksgiving! More pictures to come.

100 Pieces

2008-10-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

About 2 months ago, I lent my motorcycle out to someone who was going on a four day trip with some other missionaries. On the last day of the trip, he had an accident and ended up breaking his foot and banging up the motorcycle pretty good as well. In fact, the engine case was damaged and it would leak about a quart of oil every week. I finally was able to receive a new case which I ordered from the USA. It was back ordered for a month so but I was able to keep the bike going by using a trick a friend had taught me with his 1966 Ford Galaxy. Whenever you stop, fill up the oil and check the gas.

I started working on the engine once I received the new case, but once everything was in about 100 parts, I found out that I needed a couple new bearings and oil seals. So my motocycle is in 100 pieces while I wait again for 3-4 weeks as my parts come from the USA. I have been able to borrow a friends motorcycle during this time and am taking every caution to make sure I don't damage his bike!

My room

2008-10-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Some people have been curious and have been asking for a peak inside my room at home. Nothing special here, but you can see the new air conditioner that was installed this past week! We had the initial test trial by have a bunch of people over and watching a movie in there with a projector.

You might also note there are some airplane pictures on the wall, those are some pics. that I took and then had printed out in 12x18. I went to a glass worker and he framed them for me.

A view outside my window shows a lot of green. Where I live there are 6 houses connected with an large outer wall but the yards are all shared. A nice place for the kids to play and run around.

Found!

2008-10-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

About 4 weeks ago, I was on a two day check out flight with my Chief pilot. We stopped in at 15 different places in the float plane so that I could see them first hand. I had my camera along with me during the trip but after about ten shots, the batteries died. Then on the second day I lost my camera all together.

I had just about committed it's electronic circuits it to the vast jungle of Peru, and finally come to peace with loosing my digital camera of 3 years, when it made an amazing appearance! Off all places, it was found in amongst my Chief pilot's laundry! Well, it somehow grew some type of jungle virus legs and wondered into the survival gear of my fellow pilot. There is stayed for the last 4 months contemplating it's next fiendish move when unexpectedly his daughter found the offending camera and asked me if I knew whose it was.

So now I have a camera again and maybe can post some current pictures instead of digging through the archives. Maybe the camera knew it would be best not to have pictures of my motorcycle incident because it would just scare my mom...

Motorcycle accident!

2008-10-05T20:13:00.001-07:00

Good, now that I have you attention with the vital of this post, I can let you know that my motorcycle is just fine and only came away with a few scraps. Still 100% ridable and no worse for the incident, the Yellow noise machine is still going.

I was returning from the SAM AIR hanger, as I do every day on a dirt and gravel road. I was going about 40 mph when all of a sudden I found myself sliding along the ground wondering what had just happend. I remember the distinct feeling of rocks underneath my chest slowed down and finally came to a stop. I sat up, moving my arms and legs to check for damage. No sharp shooting pain and nothing sticking out of my long pants or riding jersey. Somehow gravel hand managed to get inside of my gloves as I was sliding backwards along the road but none of my clothing was ripped. Pulled my bike out the of ditch, which had somehow managed to get turn around and was standing up right as if mocking me and wondering why I had taken a tumble. Upon returning home, I accessed the damages further and found a few scratches on my right leg along with a 4 inch scrap on my right fore arm. Thankfully I was still able to play soccer twice last week and one week after the accident, I am almost back all healed.

I was very thankful for my pants, long sleeve jersey, gloves, and helmet which kept me from any serious injuries. Also since the road was private, there was no traffic which could have compounded the situation. Thanks for your prayers for safety, they are being answered.

Cookies at Twelve-Five

2008-09-21T12:57:00.000-07:00

On a recent flight in our wheel plane Cessna 206. I was trying to find some tailwind and since I was light and had a 3 hour flight, I went up to 12,500 feet. I did find some still air which was better than 20 knots on the nose down low. It was cold up there, around 50 degrees but I did have some snacks with me to pass the time. So I enjoyed a cookie that my family sent me all the way from Michigan. Cheers!