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No planes flying in

No planes flying in Ecuador today. We call the planes by number here more than we do by call sign. So, 08 is the plane in Sucua and it's down for maintenance. Planes from Shell and Quito couldn't fly because of poor weather.

I came in this

I came in this morning through the hangar door I usually use--the one that takes me through the office of the flight scheduler, Tomas. When I asked how he was this morning, he said he was frustrated. I talked with him for a minute and found out he's felt that way all week. He feels a lot of pressure right now, since many people are wanting flights out to the jungle, but we are short on planes and pilots. As it is right now, we have two out of four planes operational here in Shell. We have one full-time pilot and two other half-time pilots. That's just not enough.

Wrote this last night

Wrote this last night but couldn't get to Blogger.

Putting Taylor to bed tonight, the poor guy was trying to remember what our house in Oakhurst is like. He was trying to remember what his room was like, and which was his room when he was a baby. And where was the study? Where was the dining room table? After all, that was over three years ago when he was five. He's eight now. I didn't think he'd forgotten that much, but I guess he has.

I had a school board meeting today (again). We had our September meeting on Tuesday, but the agenda was long and we didn't get through it. So we had a second meeting today and managed to finish everything up.

There was something else I wanted to tell you, but I can't remember what it was. I'm laying on the bed with the iBook watching The Amazing Race with Ellyn. Guess I'm a bit distracted. Anyway, more later.

Well, three days of

Well, three days of awesome weather have given way to a more typical scenario. Low clouds and lots of rain. No flights happening so far today. Bruce and Robert are out in Makuma waiting to fly in to Shell this afternoon. They've been out installing the generator at Makuma. They and both halfs of the power plant were flown out yesterday.

MAF member Susan Weatherstone

MAF member Susan Weatherstone wrote the following on September 24 prior to the rescue:
The news from the boarding school is not good. Though yesterday, Monday, was
calm, just after supper last night a big battle took place, with one side shooting over the school grounds. Praise God no one was hurt, but it was very loud and very scary. Machine guns were involved and tracers passed right over the school. The director says he does not understand why they were shooting over the school, when the school has been assured that all will be done to protect it. The e-mail has gone down and Esther called last night at 10:15. She was pretty shaken and just wanted to hear our voices. This morning, September 24, we heard that another battle was taking place near the school and that everyone was again in lock-down mode. In our daughter Esther's dorm, this means that everyone goes into the bathroom and waits, where they are surrounded by cement on all sides. I am convinced that the school is doing all it can."

Here's an update on

Here's an update on the situation inÝBouake U.S. forces landed in Ivory Coast on Wednesday, September 25, and French soldiers secured the International Christian Academy campus there. All 200 people on the campus, including more than 100 students including three MAF MKs are safe.

By the way, the

By the way, the International Christian Academy is a sister school to the Alliance Academy in Quito. Both are operated by the Christian & Missionary Alliance.

There's trouble around the

There's trouble around the world, and it's all too easy to forget it here in Shell. The other week MAF had to evacuate their staff from Nyankunde in the Congo. One of the pilots was out with the 206 when the fighting broke out, and he was able to start evacuating people. But he lost contact with his family and he had to spend the night away from them--his wife and two small kids. The next day he and another pilot who had come over from Kenya were able to evacuate the MAF family and other missionary personnel from Nyankunde.

Right now something is going on in the Ivory Coast. The International Christian Academy inÝBouake is surrounded by some sort of military action. Can you imagine having your kids at this boarding school in a different country and knowing that the school is in such danger. They certainly need our prayers this morning! There was a military uprising that has left rebels in control in Bouake and the school is trapped in the situation. A Reuters story says the US is sending in special forces.

The first load to

The first load to Makuma is almost ready. The generator is in the plane. Bruce took the base off, which consists mostly of the fuel tank. The generator part weighs over 500 pounds.

And now Tungarahua just

And now Tungarahua just belched a huge hiccup! (By the way, Altar, the peak on the left, is 17,000'. Gives you an idea of just how tall that cloud of ash is!) A couple people here in the hangar have commented on just how unusual this day is. One guy who grew up here says that today is something he's never seen. Still no clouds on the ridge between Altar and Sangay. The shuttle from Quito flew in with Mike and Brian. Mike had a great view all the way down, but Brian had to fly under the foggles and work on instrument flying for an hour. Bummer!

It's an absolutely gorgeous

It's an absolutely gorgeous morning in Shell! It's 10:15 AM and still not a cloud in the sky. Anywhere. That's so unusual. Here's a shot of the hangar with Sangay and Altar in the background. You get an idea of the view we have from the open hangar doors. Actually, from my desk, if I turn around I can look directly at Altar.

Ron, Dave, Bruce, and

Ron, Dave, Bruce, and John are out on the hangar floor discussing a problem. Or, some might see it as a challenge. Maybe even an opportunity. The GMU folks out in Makuma need us to fly a generator in to them. It's heavy and large. About 850 pounds, and will just barely fit into the plane. There's a lot of talk and ideas going around. I tend to see things more negatively, so when I look at the generator, I think there's no way it will fit into the plane. But others see the possibilities and are up for the challenge. But these guys are can-do people who are used to solving these kinds of problems. I'll get a picture up here in an hour or two.

A photo from my

A photo from my ride on Friday afternoon. Proved to be a fun time. A bit like a ride at the fair. Fifty-five degree banks in the turns. Diving for the ground with the power off. Slowing to at stall at less than 40 knots. A very interesting ride, and I now have a better idea what the guys do on their proficiendy checks.

Again. I'm restless. And

Again. I'm restless. And irritable. Maybe I need some more sleep. Well, that's probably obvious. I always need more sleep. I should have taken a nap this afternoon. Instead I took the boys down to the Finca Pigual, to swim in the pool. It was warm today, and the pool sounded good to them. They invited a couple friends to go along. After a half hour, my two boys were ready to go home. I was a bit surprised. I wasn't swimming, but had taken along a Peretti book, The Visitation. Once back home again I popped a video tape in the TV, and watched the end of the LiËge-Bastogne-LiËge bicycle race and the start of the Vuelta. I ended this afternoon taking the fork off my bike. I need to put a couple new bearing races in. I hope I have the right size. I have a new headset, but don't have the right tools to change the headset. I need to get riding!!

It's late Saturday afternoon.

It's late Saturday afternoon. I've felt a bit discontent today because I'm not able to get much done. I felt that way last Saturday too. What I'm really wanting to do is get some work done on my bicycle and get the go-kart engine running. I've had to hold of on working on the bike because I was putting together a bike stand. Ron has the part that clamps to the bike, and I made a base for it this past week. Filled a bucket with cement and put a pipe in that. I let the cement dry all week, and finally hung the bike on it today, and it looks like it will work well. Now I just need some time.

One thing I did do was take the boys to the river. They took three other friends with them. We had a good time, but with a cloudy afternoon it seemed even that much colder in the water. We took an old wire brush with us. It's election time here in Ecuador and somebody thought it would be a good idea to paint campaign slogans on rocks in the river. About ten rocks on each side of the bridge. Last week we were there and tried to take off some of the paint with rocks and sand. The wire brush works better. We'll have to buy a couple new brushes and go up there again some time. The MKs were really upset that someone would do that in their favorite swimming hole. So was I. And I'm an MK too. We were all upset. Speaking of elections, I saw a car driving down the street this afternoon that had signs on it for Fidel Castro. No, not the one of Cuban fame, but some local with the same name. One of the ways they campaign around here is to put big flags on their vehicle that promote their candidate. They also put large speakers on their car and drive around blaring information about their candidate.

Looks like I'm going

Looks like I'm going to go for a ride with Fred and Brian. Should prove to be fun, with stalls and steep turns, and several landings. More later.

Looks like I lost

Looks like I lost all my passwords for servers, e-mail accounts, bank accounts, everything. I'm trying to put that back together again, but it's going to take me some time. I realized too late that I had made a mistake in one of my choices yesterday morning as I was working with my Palm. I should have slowed down, thought about the process, and even gone back to the directions. But I thought I knew what I was doing. Now I've lost a very important data file. Hate it when that happens!

Here's a good example

Here's a good example of why the MAF pilots go through so much training. This sort of things can happen to just about anyone. But MAF goes to great lengths to train their guys so this won't happen. This pilot didn't give himself enough margin, and landed short of the airstrip. His gear hit a tree stump that was hidden in the weeds. This operator has two planes here in Shell and has only been operating here for a couple months. This was the accident that I wrote about the other day, I think on Monday.

My mom and dad

My mom and dad are coming to visit us for Christmas! Woo hoo!!

I tried to post

I tried to post here the other day just before 5 PM. Guess that was Tuesday. But didn't have any success. Anyway, I was excited 'cause I'd just received my copy of Mac OS X version 10.2. It's installed now and everything seems to be working just great. Whew! I always hold my breath through upgrades.

On a different note, I experienced some problems with my Palm organizer this morning, and ended up losing everything. I did a quick Hotsync with my laptop, and it looks like I have all my data and applications back again. All except for my database with all my passwords. I'm still digging around for it, and I sure hope I didn't lose it!!

A plane from an

A plane from an operator here in Shell had an accident on landing today. I don't know all the details, but it sounds like they took out the nose gear and ended up about 20 meters from the end of the runway. The company wanted MAF to take a couple folks out there, but it turned out they couldn't do anything until DAC (Ecuador's civil aviation authority) gave them the go ahead.

Chad has been telling

Chad has been telling me of their problems with bats in Sucua. All three MAF families there are having problems with bats. Darryl Holland has put live wires up in his attic space to deal with the problem. Apparently that's not enough. The families were havine a monthly 'base' meeting last Friday night at the Holland's house when a bat got into the house. Chad was able to take it out with a tennis raquet. Got it with a forehand!

When I read the

When I read the e-mail from Rick, I figured the other villages didn't want the people at Chiarentza to nogotiate with the oil company because they didn't want the oil company coming into their area. Rick offered a different take on it when I talked to him today. He wonders if the other villages are holding out for more money from the oil company. Maybe they don't want Chiarentza to make a deal now because it will mean less money than if they all stand firm together and wait for a bigger, better offer. Could be true.

This bit of news

This bit of news from Brother Rick LeBouef, a missionary here in Shell with Christians in Action:

"Two national Pastors and I just got back from Chiarentza where we spent, Wednesday, Thursday and most of Friday morning.(11th, 12th and 13th of Sept.) We were teaching and preaching in an Evangelistic Conference/Campaign which had been planned for some time.

This mid-size Shuar village is located near Taisha in the disputed, oil rich section known as "Block 24". Chiarentza has elected to enter into dialogue with the oil company, contrary to the Shuar-Achuar nation's decision not to do so. The villagers told us that several months ago about 500 armed men (Shuar and Achuar) invaded their village, Chiarentza, and forced their leaders to sign a document stating
they would abide by the general body's decision to NOT enter into any kind of accord with the oil co. It was reported to us, that just prior to our arrival this week on Wednesday, they had received another letter from the group of leaders that was meeting at that very time in Shingiatam, 4 hours (walking) to the South. The letter reportedly said that a large group of Indians would soon be sent from all over the region to wipe out Chiarentza due to it's violation of the agreement.

From the moment we arrived on Wednesday, the men of the village remained armed in 24 hour alert. Those who came to our meetings, came with their guns. Thursday we received a message, on the village's newly acquired radio, from Edison Rueda who works at the TAO air taxi company in Shell. Edison was considering sending a flight and asked for my evaluation as to the danger level of the situation. A plane did arrive Thursday, but it came from ATUR carrying about 500 lbs of food supplies. The shipment was a gift to the village, from a source unknown to us, and apparently contained some explosives, which the villagers decided to shoot off during the night. On Friday morning, at the last meeting of our Evangelistic Conference/Campaign, where most of the village was present, I pled with the group to be in serious prayer about any decision they might make with regard to the oil company. I also encouraged them to abide by the larger body's decision, unless they were absolutely sure that God would have them to do otherwise.

On our way back to Shell on Friday we had occasion to land in Campo Ayui and Tinche where we observed the mobilization of a group of angry Shuar heading to Yampuna for a concentration to further plan the attack against Chiarentza. Please pray for this developing situation. I plan to translate a copy of this report for the Army and the Civil Aviation Authorities. Es todo lo que puedo decir en honor a la verdad."

Sometimes I just don't

Sometimes I just don't understand. It's 10:37 and the first plane of the day is leaving. Well, it's the only plane, as we only have one Shell pilot flying today. Chad is up from Sucua to help out with the flights. They've had to work up a plan that will work to get the teachers into the villages. Reason that it's a bit complicated is that Chad still isn't checked out on all the airs. The checkout of a new pilot is slow, deliberate, and methodical. Works best that way. He gradually get checked out on the more difficult s after he's had some time on the easier ones and has built up some time and experience. Anyway, sometimes flights don't leave here until this time because the weather is bad at the destination, or the passengers haven't showed up on time.

It's a rainy Saturday

It's a rainy Saturday afternoon. Ellyn has gone down to Puyo for lunch with several other MAF ladies. Tay is over watching a movie at a friends, and Dustin is out bouncing on the trampoline with Kyle in the rain. It's been a really good move for the boys to come over to the MAF base. Our old place was in 'no-man's land", between the two areas where all the other kids live. Now they have playmates all around them. We were wondering how they'd fit into this new neighborhood, and they've done great.

Our puppy is finally becoming more like a dog. Less hyperactivity and less biting. She's a bit more than three months old, and we're ready for this. Right now she's taking a nap on a pair of my jeans laying on the floor.

Friday afternoon! Funny, but

Friday afternoon! Funny, but with my current job, I like it so much, I don't care what day of the week it is.

A sad day yesterday.

A sad day yesterday. Fred flew a 14 month old baby up to Quito yesterday so it could receive treatment at a hospital there. The baby didn't make it, and died a couple hours after arriving in Quito. I wonder how often altitude complicates things. Can you imagine being deathly ill, and being sent to a hospital at almost 10,000 feet?

Another thing to pray about. There is a young girl here in Shell, I believe eleven years old, who is in the HCJB hospital right now. Back in early May her crazy brother attacked her with a machete, slashing her arm. MAF initially flew her in for medical treatment. A while ago she came out of the jungle again because the arm wasn't healing. She had been seeing doctors in the Puyo hospital, and I don't think the treatment was very good. Finally someone in her family decided to get a second opinion, and brought her to the HCJB hospital. The doctors were concerned about how bad the arm was. The bone was infected and still hadn't healed from way back in May. They operated yesterday and put some pins in her arm. Pray for a complete recovery for her. Having a son who had a bone infection just ten months ago, I can relate to what it's like for her family.

It's a beautiful morning.

It's a beautiful morning. Reminds me of a spring day in the States. All blue sky, only a few clouds, cool, and breezy. The two pilots, radio tech, and mechanics are holding a maintenance meeting behind me here in the Pilots Office.

Daniel Chu, President of

Daniel Chu, President of the Shuar Church Association, visited with us for about 30 minutes. The Shuar Church Association is a product of the Gospel Missionary Union's work here in the Oriente. The Shuar Church Association depends on MAF to get the leaders to hard-to-reach locations. Actually, we found that Daniel has a good understanding of the 'need' to fly. He realizes that there are some situations where it's better to walk or take a canoe to get to a village. He knows that flights cost money, and someone is paying for those flights. One of the GMU missionaries that works with the Shuar walks days and days in his ministry, just for that reason. To show the church that you don't have to fly in a plane to do mission work. You can walk, too. Wow! Can you imagine walking a couple days to get to a church you need to visit to do some leadership training?

Recently Daniel flew on an MAF plane to a community, then went by foot to five more communities. Along the way he visited the local church leaders and talked about church growth, and also held evangelistic meetings. One village was very small, and had no air. There is no money there to build an air. The way of life for the indians there is so very different than for the people here in Shell. Different way of making a living, more like hand to mouth. Different kind of food. But the church is growing, and the Christians there are looking forward to the day when they will be in the Lord's presence.

He also talked about some of the division that can occur when outsiders come in and try to work with the church. The Shuar have the Bible in their own language, and have an established church association. He said it's best if the Shuar work with the Shuar. They know themselves the best, and how to encourage their own people. If they need help, they'll ask. That was encouraging to hear, as it means they aren't reliant on missionaries for their spiritual and church growth. The seed has been planted, taken root, and is growing!

Just about time to

Just about time to run across the street for lunch. Yesterday I subbed for Randy, the 7/8 grade teacher. He had some sort of 24-hour bug, and is back in the classroom today. What an easy class to sub in. Four kids. Two seventh grade, two eighth. One girl, three boys. All great kids and well behaved.

Last night we had our monthly MAF meeting. It was at our house this month. Dave McCleery, the program manager, took the opportunity to invite one of the Shuar church leaders to come and share with us. It was a very interesting time. I'll try to tell you a bit about it after I get back from lunch.

Wow. We've got a

Wow. We've got a lot of maintenance needs on planes. HC-BZE is staying here and the Quito pilots are flying HC-BMO back to Quito. The reason is that at the beginning of the day HC-BZE only had 1.9 hours left before a 50-hour inspection. Not enough time to even bother taking it back to Quito. The mechanics started into the inspection right away. Did a compression check on all six cylinders. 80 psi is max. One of the cylinders is at 24 psi, which is way too low. It's going to have to be pulled. That means a lot of work and time.

HC-BZE, the Quito based

HC-BZE, the Quito based plane, arrived a half-hour ago. Brian Behal and Mike Ross flew it down. Mike is our Quito base manager and only Quito based pilot. Until Brian gets up and going again. Brian was a pilot with MAF both in Mexico, and then here in Ecuador. About a year ago he stopped flying and started working for MAF's Operation Access program. With the Ecuador program so short of pilots, Brian has agreed to fly for us again until January 2003 when Dan Rogers returns from furlough. Brian needs to get up to speed again on the flying, and get his medical. Hopefully he'll be flying the three-day-a-week Quito to Shell shuttle on a regular basis by the end of this month.

This from the last

This from the last memo our program manager sent out. It certainly is an item for prayer. We bring people in from the jungle on an almost daily basis under the air ambulance program.
"AA is still significantly behind in paying - $65,000 through
the end of August. Please pray for them to find some money
and pay. If no payment by the end of this week, we'll have
to stop flying AA almost entirely. Our financial situation
won't permit us to continue. We really had to scrape the
bottom of the barrel to come up with enough cash to buy our
last fuel shipment for Shell."

It's been a long

It's been a long time since I seriously rode my bike. I had a goal for my second year here, and that never happened. I think I'm going to start working towards that again. So today I got started. Up a bit before 6 AM to go for a ride. Of course it was raining. What else can you expect in a place where it rains more than twenty feet a year? But the rain was't hard enought to keep me inside. I looked west, then east, and decided I'd head east. Less rain that way. And it worked out that way, as after a few miles the rain was gone. The ride was good, and I was back by 7 PM. I've got a long way to go to get back into riding shape.

Found out more about

Found out more about the plane accident. Apparently it was a student from the flight school here in Shell. He was doing some commercial work for the school, and I think was taking a load of fish. Don't know yet why he crashed. Apparently suffered a broken collar bone and broken leg(s). Not sure why it was so urget he get to Quito with two night flights. Or if he was given preferential treatment by pilots because he is a pilot?

Sigh. The weekend has

Sigh. The weekend has gone by too quickly. Never seems to be enough time to do it all. Took a couple photos. Saturday one of the things I did was to cut some balsa wood with Dustin. He picked up a piece of balsa the other week from the balsa factory. Cost him a whole dollar. Yesterday we used a table saw to cut it up. He wants to make an airplane kite with the wood.

Today Taylor wanted to go to the Finca to swim. Instead of driving to Puyo and paying to swim in a pool, I told him we ought to go up to the river. Surprisingly, he agreed. The sky was blue and sunny in the morning, but by the time we headed to the river at 1:30 PM, it was cloudy. But still not a bad day to swim. He wanted to bring Lou, Dustin wanted to go, and Ellyn figured she might as well join the family and tag along. They boys had a good time, both swimming and playing in the sand. Dustin brought an inner tube along because he wanted to try the rapids. He managed to shoot the rapids both in a tube and without a tube.

I realized that I

I realized that I forgot to mention that I finally did get both the school and the MAF hangar connected to the internet. Can't tell you what the problem was, but with a little tinkering and switching of connections, we're all happy. Finally. I downloaded a large file for one of our families in Sucua that needs a printer driver. They pay for their phone calls by the minute. Here we have a flat fee that we pay the ISP for the month. So I downloaded the file for them. I'll put it on a CD and send it down on a flight next week. Anyway, the point of the story--a 23MB file took an hour and fifty-one minutes. That might sound slow to you, but with this new computer that we connect to, our download times are faster than they used to be.

And now a plane

And now a plane just took off. Sounded like the Cessna Caravan 210. I can only speculate as to what is going on. Probably there wasn't anything that the HCJB doctors here could do for the injured, so they've been taken up to Quito. It'll be interesting to find out tomorrow what happened. At least the runway at Quito is lit and open until 1 AM.

Just witnessed a plane

Just witnessed a plane land at night here in Shell. Took place about 8:45 PM. Planes don't land here in Shell after sunset, which is typically about 6:15 PM. I don't know many details, but obviously someone survived the plane crash and was hurt badly enough to be brought back in tonight. It was a twin engine plane called an Araba, an Israeli made plane. The military had small fires lit up and down the length of the runway, as well as some guys holding strobes at the beginning of the runway. There was a small group of MAF people over at our hangar watching the plane come in. The MAF hanger is at the end of the runway, so we had a perfect spot to watch the plane come in. Dave McCleery mentioned that it looked like he was coming in very low. He said his heart rate was up. I think we were all very nervous for the crew, and we all clapped and cheered when we knew they were safely on the ground.

I did play soccer,

I did play soccer, but didn't touch the ball very much. The action was fast and furious, as we played on a basketball court. I heard part way through the game of a plane accident. The doctors and our MAF program manager talked for a bit, but it was too far away to send a plane out tonight. Over an hour away, and only a half hour before dark. I think someone may have gone out, because it's well after dark, and the fire truck is still waiting out on the runway.

I'm outa' here in

I'm outa' here in a few minutes. Going to go over to the court by the hospital to play a bit of soccer with the guys. The hangar guys are playing a couple teams from the hospital. A bit of intramural fun you might say. A bit of this and I'll know just how bad my physical conditioning is. I haven't done too much in the way of anything since the start of the summer.

Rick just brought a

Rick just brought a guy in from the jungle who's been bitten by a snake. Rick LeBouef is with Christians in Action and flies his own plane to do that ministry among the churches in the jungle.

Ellyn is home sick

Ellyn is home sick in bed today. She has a combination of a cold and allergies. She didn't sleep well at all last night, so she's been sleeping a lot today. She took over the cold from Taylor, since he just finished with it.

I finally got a

I finally got a computer put in place at the ISP that will handle the MAF connection and the connection for the school. So the school is finally online again. And now the MAF connection won't work! Arrghhhh! Sometimes I really hate computers!

By the way, I

By the way, I mentioned Nate Saint below. If you don't know about him, take a look at these pages.

I love history. Last

I love history. Last night I was at a mini-retreat for the missionaries here in Shell. One of the people present was Dr. Swanson. He was a doctor here in Shell back in the '60s for a total of eight years. He came in 1961. One of the doctors here now, Dr. Smalligan, was born that year. Dr. Swanson's wife is the woman who started a school in her home that became know as the Nate Saint Memorial School. Our mini-retreat was held in the HCJB guest house. Originally that building was a hospital, something that was built because of the vision of Nate Saint. Last night we met in what was once the operating room and the birthing room. Dr. Swanson performed many surgeries in that operating room, and now it's the guest house dining room. Fred Schmidt, one of our current MAF pilots here in Shell, had Mrs. Swanson as his second grade teacher. Fred's brother was born in the old hospital birthing room, which is now the living room of the guest house. Randy Umble, the grade 7/8 teacher this year, was sitting there last night. His wife, Melanie, was also born in that very spot. Wow! What history!

I love the power of God's love. We start each day with prayer. Usually in spanish. Yesterday I prayed, in English. Today, Elsa prayed. In Shuar. How neat to hear her pray in her own tongue. Knowing that the New Testament has been translated into her language. And that right now GMU missionaries as well as Shuar indians are working on an Old Testament synopsis translation. It wasn't that many years ago that the Shuar were feared for the fact that they would shrink the heads of their slain enemies. Now MAF flies Shuar pastors and church workers around the jungle. Wow! What love!

It was a beautiful

It was a beautiful morning here. As I woke up and looked out the window, all I could see was blue sky. That doesn't happen very often, and when it does, it's a real treat. The weather is still good, and our one pilot for the day is off on his first flight. That would be Dave McCleery, our program manager. He's flying Tuesdays and Thursdays, and spending the other three days in the office. He also takes is turn covering the emergency flights on the weekends.

Yesterday both pilots from Sucua were up here. That would be Darryl and Chad. They flew back to Sucua in separate planes, the plan being to have two planes in Sucua until the end of the year. We just don't have enough pilots here in Shell to keep four planes here.

We've finally got some

We've finally got some sunshine this afternoon. Been a bit rainy the past few days. Chad flew in from Macas with John just after lunch. John went down that way yesterday to get HC-BQV, which was stuck in Macas.

I found out that Fred had decided to land there on Monday when he realized that something was wrong with the engine. Turns out that a cylinder head was lose, and about ready to come off! That cylinder had absolutely no compression, and Fred was wise to have landed when he did. It cylinder head probably wouldn't have lasted another five minutes.

Last night Dave squeezed

Last night Dave squeezed under the clouds to land just before sunset. Fred didn't make it back. Not sure if it was because of weather, or because he wanted to spend the night in Sucua so he could bring Darryl back up here today. The Sucua plane is still stuck in Macas with a cylinder problem. If Darryl comes up here to Shell, he can fly one of the Shell planes. If you've been following along, you know that we are woefully short of pilots in Ecuador right now. We've got two new guys slated to arrive in the next year, and that's not too soon. Or should I say, that's not soon enough.

I was born 39

I was born 39 years ago today, in the town of Longview, Texas. My dad was attending LeTourneau University at the time.

I neglected to mention

I neglected to mention that Ellyn took photos at a wedding on Saturday. The bride forgot about a photographer, and came to the house on Friday afternoon to ask if Ellyn would take pictures! Ellyn said it was the prettiest wedding she has been to down here. Ellyn took photos at the wedding as well as at the reception.

Dave McCleery and Fred

Dave McCleery and Fred Schmidt both flew yesterday. On Sundays the pilots only fly medical emergencies. Both of them were kept quite busy. Dave went out to pick up three babies who were in bad shape. He also had an emergency down on the Peru border, but wasn't able to make it there. Not sure, but he might have run out of time or had bad weather. Fred flew up to Quito with a medical transfer, then off to Coca and and back before coming back to Shell. Coca is up near the Colombian border, and not a place that most of the guys are comfortable flying to.

Things are looking up.

Things are looking up. A bit. Our internet connection is back to normal. The problem usually lies with the satellite connection between Shell and Quito. I still haven't found a replacement for the hub that went bad, but do have an option or two that will work until I can get something new to replace it.

Whoa! This morning is

Whoa! This morning is off to a bad start. Came in to find out that our 24-port hub went belly up. I have an 8 port hub, and can use that for a backup, but it's not ideal. There is a BNC port on the 24 port hub that I don't have on the 8 port hub. I'm going to have to try and get one from Quito, but have no word yet on whether they are available or not. The BNC port may be hard to get.

Then, on top of that, the satellite connection through the HCJB system to Quito is barely working. When that happens, the e-mail can usually get through, but we can't get much in the way of web pages or downloads. I've been trying to get to the HCJB Informations System Department in Quito, but haven't been able to get through this morning.

I can't believe it's already 10:30 AM! I feel like I haven't done much this morning, other than discover problems. Oh, I just found out our maintenance specialist is taking a bus down to Macas, where one of our planes is stranded with a bad cylinder. And also that the wife of our radio tech missed a stair in her home and has hurt her ankle. Don't know yet how bad the damage is, but in any case, it's not good, as she has a couple young children.

Dustin came to the front door to find this caterpillar yesterday. Good thing he didn't touch it. Caterpillars around here are poisenous. They say the grow to about four inches long in the jungle, and are one of the few things that can bring an indian man to tears.