How to save a life.

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!

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

Thankful for... Meijer?

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?

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

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

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

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

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.