June Jobs Jaunts and Jingles

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!

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!

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?

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!

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

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.