Three wheeled tractor

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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!