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Here's an AP story

Here's an AP story about the protest in Quito.

Was walking across the

Was walking across the street to the hangar (on my 1 minute commute) and passed by an old Fort Pinto. Didn't have all it's windows (wonder what he does when it rains?) and looked very shabby. But it get's the guy around and I'm sure he's proud of it. If you tried to drive that car in California you'd get yelled at to "Get that piece of junk off the road!" by the first snobby driver you offended by driving too slowly. I like the laid back attitudes here in Shell. They also show some respect for bike riders, and I really like that.

Today is Halloween. My boys haven't said one word about it. I don't even think they've remembered what today is. I'm so glad. And besides, Taylor gets enough candy all year round that he really doesn't need an excuse to eat more. I think he thinks the five food groups are lollipops, gum, soda, chocolate bars, and candy. The church in town is putting on a concert for the young people. The idea is to give them a place to go and something to do on Halloween. There are satanic groups around Shell and Puyo and tonight is a night when they will be more active.

I heard something about some political unrest in Quito today along with some paros, or strikes. Something about a free trade agreement. University students are protesting and there are no classes until Monday.

Cool! Mateo and Oscar

Cool! Mateo and Oscar went out to Makuma this morning to work on HC-BXB. When they got there they found that the turbo was OK after all. That is really good news. The problem was with a waste gate that controls the turbo. They were able to fix things so that the engine runs with normal power. As soon as Dave can get a ride out there with Bruce he'll go pick the plane and the guys up.

Ahhh. Two cups of

Ahhh. Two cups of coffee later and I'm finally waking up. I've stayed up late for three nights and it's catching up with me. I got a nice, but short ride in yesterday. I didn't have a lot of energy, but spinning in middle ring was just right.

More mechanical problems. Mike was getting ready to do a flight to the jungle before heading up to Quito. Passengers were all loaded, and then he found out the vacuum pump wasn't working. That's an important part, as it is needed to run some of the instruments. We don't have an extra one in stock, so they took one off of HC-BXK. Mike won't do the flight down here now, and instead will only work on getting back to Quito. The other thing that needs to be done today is get a couple guys out to Makuma to replace the turbo on HC-BXB. Again, no new turbo in stock, so they took the turbo off of HC-BXK. Think of that plane as a parts plane. It's not easy keep our parts room supplied here in Ecuador. In addition to regular shipments, we're always looking for a traveller who can carry a part or two in their luggage.

Guess what? Mike is

Guess what? Mike is spending the night with us again. He got about forty minutes out (it's a fifty-five minute flight) and had to turn around since the weather in Quito had closed down.

Mike is on his

Mike is on his way back to Quito. He spent the night with us last night. He got back from Makuma with Dave too late to get back up to Quito, and besides that, he had no plane to fly anyway. He could have taken the bus, but he spent the night and then worked today on HC-BQV to get it out of inspection. After doing the RTS (return to service) flight around 3 PM, he was off to Quito by 4:15. Hopefully he'll have good weather and won't have to turn around. That happened to him a couple weeks ago. I'm sure his wife and son will be happy to see him home. Besides the fact that he only had one change of clothing with him. The pilots always carry a toothbrush and change of clothes with them. Never know when bad weather will force an overnight somewhere.

Edit that. It's Bruce

Edit that. It's Bruce who was stuck. And as I thought, the smaller tires are on HC-BMO. At any rate, he made it out of that and will actually get home to Shell tonight.

Darryl is stuck out

Darryl is stuck out at one of our worst s. He has made a couple take-off runs and has aborted each. Too much mud on the plus he's got smaller tires on HC-BLP. It's an experiment to use the smaller tires. Not sure about the details, but apparently we might have to go with the smaller mains as the larger ones we use aren't approved. Right now he's got guys with shovels taking the mud off the part of the that is bad.

The Makuma server just

The Makuma server just connected. I know the Holmes are glad they have e-mail out there in the jungle. I'm really thankful that server works day after day. They have a generator out there, and when things don't go smoothly I know that the server gets shut down improperly. But it just keeps cranking along. (For those interested, on the left is the power supply. On the right, the HF transceiver is below, and the HF data modem is sitting on that.)

Just went out and

Just went out and took a photo. Bruce and Robert have been working for a week now to get an HF radio re-installed back into HC-BXK. I think they had to re-do the mount. You can see the radio on the left side of the photo. Also notice on the right the ELT. Probably most importantly, the piece of foam and the pillow in the foreground. That is one cramped and awkward place to work!

We really need that

We really need that engine that was sent to Singapore by mistake. I found out the rest of the story. MAF had two engines in Redlands. One for the Ecuador program, and one for the Indonesia program. Here in Ecuador we complete some paperwork that allows the engine to be imported as a donation, and therefore don't have to pay the import tax. The tax of 20% on $35,000 is a chunk of change. The paperwork that was filled out includes the serial number of the engine. The engine with the serial number that is on our paperwork went to Singapore, and the other engine with the wrong serial number is headed our way. We won't be able to get that engine in without paying the import tax since the serial number doesn't match the paperwork. So what to do? Not sure. We're praying for the process to be expedited in whatever way possible.

More bad news. Mike

More bad news. Mike flew HC-BZE down to Shell today. The plan was to leave it here and take HC-BXB back up to Quito. BZE only has seven or so hours on it before the engine must be changed. So he made a flight to the jungle with BXB first and was then going to take it up to Quito. But he's just called in from Makuma and is having turbo problems. So, Dave is on his way out there to work on it with him and bring him back if they can't fly BXB back to Shell today. We have so few pilots right now, and on top of that have been having all sorts of unusual maintenance problems.

Got the after lunch

Got the after lunch on Monday afternoon blahs. Need to go for a ride this afternoon at 5, but don't have the energy to do it. Need to cut the lawn, but that might have to wait until tomorrow.

Just finished configuring a

Just finished configuring a new IM client called Proteus for OS X. I'm trying to find just the right one. Being able to IM with other MAF staff around the world has become very important to my and the work I do. If you want to IM with me, I'm 'adavidhoffman' on Yahoo! or 'dhoffmanSHL' on AOL Instant Messenger.

The pancake breakfast and

The pancake breakfast and carnival was a success this year. The kids made a good amount of money and everyone had a great time. Dustin enjoyed helping at the face painting booth, especially when Taylor asked him to paint a spider's web on his face. He also worked several other booths. We had lots of leftover pancakes, and gave them away afterwards. I'll bet the gringos around Shell are enjoying more pancakes than usual this week. After lunch I enjoyed a short nap and then a ride around what I used to call the Dog Loop. It's an hour long ride, mostly on dirt roads, that goes through a couple small communities before ending up in Puyo. Only this time not a single dog chased me. I can handle that.

Sunday afternoon I took the boys and Danica and Kyle up to the Alpayacua for a swim. The river was so high that we couldn't get in. The current was muddy and swift, and I don't think I've ever seen it so high. That was a disappointment.

Taylor is home from school this morning. He went and then came home. He's been having trouble with an upset stomach this weekend, and I think he must have eaten something bad.

This is too early!

This is too early! I'm off to make pancakes for the grades 5-8 fundraiser. Each year those classes to go Quito for a fieldtrip, and throughout the year they do several fundraisers. I'm going to flip pancakes over at the Edward's house. Dustin was up before six; he's so excited. Even Taylor was up at 6:15. These guys normally sleep in 'till at least 8:00 on a Saturday morning. Anyway, the whole missionary community will be there and it will be a fun time.

Woo hoo! I get

Woo hoo! I get to end the week on a great note. I was finally able to get the second hard drive back in the server around 5 PM this afternoon and get the RAID going again. (If you don't really want to read that last link, RAID is a way to use two drives so that they both mirror each other. If one becomes unusable, there is still one other drive with good data on it.) It feels good to have the server at one hundred percent again. I've learned a lot about RAID and the server this week, and I have even that much more confidence in it now. Sure am glad we're using http://www.thehoffmanfamily.com/ for our e-mail server.

The other challenge this week was to get the Schmidt's computer up and running again. They've been plagued with hard disk problems over that past few years. After putting yet another new drive in last week, it seemed the drive was bad again. Turns out it was the second drive in the machine that had gone bad. That's good news, as Fred leaves tomorrow for Venezuela for two weeks, and his wife really needs to have e-mail access while he's gone. Fred is the regional chief pilot and travels to the Latin America countries where MAF has programs so he can complete check rides with the pilots.

Anybody ever read this

Anybody ever read this thing? Just wondering.

I did go for

I did go for a ride yesterday. Started off going to the southeast like I wanted to, but then met some guys riding up the road in the other direction. I turned around and chased them for over a mile before I caught up with them, and then rode with them for about ten miles--in the direction of the rain. I got totally drenched on the last couple miles coming home. But it was good to ride with others, and it really made me push.

We're waiting for a

We're waiting for a new engine to be shipped into the country for HC-BZE. We need it soon as the old engine is quickly running out of hours. Unfortunately, the engine was sent to Singapore by mistake. I didn't catch all of this, as is was explained to me in Spanish. I think maybe it was confused with a motor that was to be sent to our Indonesia program. But it has to come to Ecuador and it has something to do with the serial number on the engine. I'm not too aware of it, but I heard just this morning something about troubles at West Coast shipping ports. Looks like the lockout that ended last week really put a backlog on things. And then on top of that, yesterday's news stories say that port employees are deliberately working slowly. That will not help our situation.

Painting job is done.

Painting job is done. I was so tired when I went home for lunch. I ended up going home late for lunch as I had to clean the paint roller and bucket. Then after lunch I barely made it to the couch for a thirty minute nap. I feel a lot better now. Maybe I'll even go for a ride at 5 PM. Earlier I felt too tired to even consider that. It's really dark to the west and I can see it's raining, so if I ride I'll need to go to the southeast.

I've spent some time today working on repairing my server. I'm at another block, but at least I have a plan now. I'm also working on setting up a couple web calendars for the Ecuador program. One will have the master schedule of who is on-call on the weekends, dates when guys are travelling, on vacation, and that sort of thing. It will be accessible on the hangar local area network as well as from our homes here in Shell. And I've also got it set up so our MAF staff in Quito and Sucua can access when they are online. I'm working on a second calendar that will contain all of the hospitality events, like when visitors come and go and at which house they are scheduled to stay or have meals. I think it will be really useful.

And today I'm a

And today I'm a painter. Ron needs an extra hand with a painting job, so I said I'd do it. I started the job on Monday, but had to stop so I could get the server running again.

Sunday was election day

Sunday was election day here in Ecuador. I haven't heard of any results yet. Actually, I don't know how it will affect us either way who is elected president. It was a peaceful day in Shell, but the week leading up to it was full of political rallys and parades. It's really nice and quiet now that people aren't driving around Shell blaring campaign messages through large speakers on the top of vehicles.

I took the boys swimming at the Alpayacu on Sunday afternoon. This time we went on a different road and end up much farther up the river than usual. It was a deserted spot really. The swimming wasn't that great, but it was fun to explore a different place and play in the current and on the rocks. Taylor came across a really big spider. I think those are baby spiders that you can see in that close-up photo.

I'm really happy that the e-mail server is up and running again. I still need to work on it, but for now it will do. Eventually I may need to replace one of the three hard drives. I have been helping the HCJB folks down here in Shell get a web site going for the hospital. We're at the point where we want the site listed with the search engines. I did a search for 'shell ecuador hospital' and came up with nothing for the hospital site, but quite a few pages from my web site. And then there was also this one. I have now idea just yet where they got that info from, but it's mostly true. I didn't set up the connection to HCJB for internet. That was already done when I got here.

The server is up

The server is up and running again. Things aren't 100% yet, but at least we're exchanging mail with our relay server in Redlands, California.

More server woes today.

More server woes today. I've just restored internet access to the local area network, but that's it for now. No e-mail server yet. I haven't lost everything, but am having trouble getting the backup disk to work properly.

A quick check this

A quick check this morning revealed that the http://www.thehoffmanfamily.com/ server crashed. Worse than that, I can't get it to boot yet. I going to have to work on that, but don't feel like I really need to do it on a Sunday. We'll all have to do without e-mail until Monday. I can't believe it, but nobody has called me yet to find out why they can't get their mail. I like that. Not sure why, but I guess I take it that they trust me and know I'm probably aware of the situation and am working on it.

On a different note, as we were listening to our church service tape from Sierra Vista Presbyterian Church in Oakhurst, I found myself feeling homesick. Some of it was missing people, but most of it was missing the Sierra National Forest, the Ansel Adams Wilderness, Yosemite National Park, and the coming snow which ultimately means skiing. I'm really not looking forward to missing my third skiing season. Even though I didn't go that often, it is one of those things I miss.

I just went out

I just went out and met a couple from the States who are flying up to Quito. They are tourists who were involved in a terrible bus accident on Monday. Early in the morning on Monday a bus was five miles out outside of Shell, flying down the hill towards the the bridge over the Alpayacu river. Just before the bridge, the right front tire blew and the bus smashed into the reinforced guardrail on the bridge. A lot of debris and glass was thrown into the river (the MKs favorite swimming hole) as the bus came to an abrupt stop. There were many tourists on the bus, both from the US and Europe, as well as Ecuadorians. About ten or twelve of them were brought to the Hospital Vozandes del Oriente, the HCJB hospital in Shell. Because of the way the bus hit the guardrail, almost every one of the injuries were to the lower extremities. One man from Europe needed to have his leg amputated below the knee, and was then flown up to Quito that afternoon on an MAF plane. Because they still couldn't stablize him at the hospital there, they had to amputate his leg above the knee. Can you imagine coming to Ecuador on a three week vacation and leaving without your right leg!? What a terrible thing to have happen. The lady going on the flight to Quito today had surgery on her lower leg and has an external and internal apparatus holding the bones together. Her travelling companion was unhurt. There are quite a few of us here who regularly ride the inter-provincial buses. I've known all along that they aren't the safest way to travel, and now I'm sure of it. The bus drivers are crazy, the way they drive on these roads. I heard some people say the bus driver from Monday's accident fled the scene. Apparently that's not all that uncommon, since if they stick around they are likely to get beaten.

The day just changed

The day just changed for Dave McCleery, the program manager. He was off the ground at 7:45 AM for a flight to Damointaro and back. That's a Waorani village where a Bible Institute has been training young Waorani men for the past two years. He's only flying two days a week, but flew this extra flight today before putting some time in at his desk. But, when the chief pilot found out where our newest pilot, Bruce, was going, he decided it wouldn't happen. Bruce isn't checked out on that , so Dave will make the flight. I know he's got a ton of other administrative things he needs to do, and that will be weighing on his mind while he's gone. Apparently the is short with a difficult approach. So Bruce punched out and will save some hours for another day.

It's a warm one

It's a warm one today--if you're standing out in the sun. Get in the shade and feel the breeze and it's nice. The equatorial sun can really get to you. I can only imagine what it's like out in the jungle. If I was a pilot I know I'd come home drenched every afternoon after loading and unloading my plane. Mike just flew in with a patient on his way to HCJB's hospital. He'd been using a chain saw and it kicked back and cut him across his shoulder and neck.

I posted something in here yesterday that I just noticed isn't here. Wonder what happened? Anyway, the Health Ministry pays for the Air Ambulance flights. As of a couple weeks ago they were almost $30,000 behind in payments to MAF. They said they had exhausted their budget, so we weren't sure when we'd see the money. Thankfully they managed to get some money from another source and write MAF a couple checks. We're praying they'll have money for the AA flights for the remainder of the year. Much of MAF's ministry in Ecuador revolves around these flights of mercy.

You've probably noticed a

You've probably noticed a lack of photos here lately. Not sure whether that's due to a lack of time or a lack of good photo ops. At any rate, here's a couple.

They weighed HC-BMO this morning. MAF has been running planes here in Ecuador with larger main tires than the nose wheel. It looks like now they might be going back to the smaller mains, so they were weighing the plane to see how the CG (center of gravity) is affected with the larger tires. The pilots like the larger mains because they get better take-off speed on wet and soft s.

Besides wet and soft s, the pilots have to contend with grass s. Often the grass is long, and when the guys get back to Shell it's easy to see when they've 'mowed the grass' with the prop. You can't see it in this photo, but even the bottom of the struts were stained green.

It's a full house

It's a full house this morning. We had five planes in the hangar last night. Lately it's been just three, as one has been in Sucua and two up in Quito. Brian is down from Quito for the week to fly out of Shell. Darryl came up from Sucua yesterday to do some flying here. Today he's going out with Brian to get him up to speed on some of the s. Dave is flying and so is Bruce, so that give us three planes in the air today. On top of that, the weather is great. Mike pulled in from Quito at 8:30 AM, so that meant he left by 7:30, with passengers. That's an early start. We've actually got all six Ecuador planes on the ground in Shell right now. Make that five--Bruce just lifted off. We've got two planes in the hangar right now. One just had an oil change and should be out of here today. The other is waiting for a prop.

It was neat to stand in the circle and pray. It was a big group, and Elsa prayed in her native Shuar tongue. Listening to her pray brought to mind that MAF has been flying missionaries to work with her tribe for over fifty years. They now have the New Testament in their language, and an Old Testament synopsis is in the works. MAF regularly flies Shuar translators to Makuma so they can work together on this translation.

Just checked the calendar.

Just checked the calendar. The school is taking Monday off for Canadian Thanksgiving. Not sure what the holiday was for on Wednesday. Since I live here maybe I should find out, uh?

It's been raining steadily

It's been raining steadily all morning, and that's too bad. It's bad because Taylor's class had a field trip planned for today. They were to go to the Fatima Zoo outside of Puyo. The kids were all out in the cars when they decided not to go because of the rain. It was only drizzling at that point, but it picked up since then, so it was a good decision. I was going to go since I have the day off. Maybe I'll still try to go when the go next week since I've never been there.

This holiday thing is crazy. Wednesday was the Ecuadorian holiday, but MAF is taking it off on Friday, and the school is taking it on Monday.

I guess I'm not

I guess I'm not going to have Spanish class today. Yesterday was an Ecuadorian holiday, so my teacher cancelled class. But she's twenty minutes late today. I've found a couple programs for my Palm that I think I need to get. I already use one for flashcards. It's called QuizWiz and it's a great program. Think of it as power flashcards. Verb conjugations are always a challenge. Yesterday I came across Conjugator at PalmGear. I can really use that! And the last program is the Collins Spanish-English dictionary with over 110,000 words. All that in the palm of my hand!

Power went out at

Power went out at 8 AM this morning. We've got a new generator in the hangar that we're running for the second time now. It supports all we do here, but is closer than the old one, so it's noisy here. We have to keep the larger hangar door on the north-west end closed while we are using it. The generator across the street is on now too, and that's keeping things in all our freezers from thawing out. The generator is running over at the Nate Saint school so the kids have light to work by. And the generator is running out in Makuma. Right now the e-smith http://www.thehoffmanfamily.com/ server is connected to our server here using the HF radio and modem. It's a slow connection, but it does bring them e-mail out in the middle of the jungle.

Just before school this

Just before school this AM I went over with the boys to say goodbye to the Wynias. They still don't have a visa for Susanna, the little Ecuadorian baby they've adopted, but they're on their way to Quito to try and get it all wrapped up. It was good for the boys to go over and say this final goodbye, and I know it was good for the Wynia kids too.

Dustin got an A+

Dustin got an A+ on his Spanish test yesterday! That was a huge milestone for him. His attitude is better about Spanish over the past two weeks, and with this grade he's feeling a lot better about that class. I'm excited too, because I really want him to learn some basic Spanish.

We're back to the

We're back to the Shell we all know and love! It's raining this morning. Started last night before midnight and has been raining off and on since. That's good news, because we've had a very dry two weeks, and we really need the rain. Actually others who collect rainwater for home use need it more than we do at our house. I know Bruce, sitting across the office from me, is really glad for the rain. He can't fly with the 0/0 weather, and that means he has some time to get caught up on paperwork. For each full day of flying, he's got about an hour of paperwork. On days when he gets back to Shell at 5 or 6 PM after being gone all day, an hour of paperwork isn't always easy to grind out. Dave is out preflighting his plane. Actually he's doing it in the hangar where it's dry. As soon as the weather clears, if it does, he'll be ready to head for the skies.

Just wish there was

Just wish there was more time to write things in here. I write it so friends and family can get a glimpse of what goes on down here. But I'm also wanting to keep these pages so I can look back on them after I leave Ecuador. I was really disappointed last week because it looks like I've lost my posts from September this year. The company that hosts my web site was bought out by another company, and it looks like somewhere in the transition I lost some files. For any of my other pages on the web site, it's not a big deal as I have copies on my laptop. But on these Shell Thoughts pages the original is on the server and I have to download backup copies every once in a while.

We had a base meeting tonight. It was a good time of sharing, some food, and some praying. What was good was to hear stories from three of the pilots. Most of us who aren't pilots don't really know all that goes on in the day to day job of flying in the jungle. It's good to get a look into what goes on. Dave told us of a lady who was sick and flown in to Shell for medical treatment at the hospital. Her husband was flown in with her. They both were prayed with on a daily basis by the doctors and staff of the HCJB hospital. Just a couple days they became Christians. Yesterday the chaplain from the hospital took them down to the river behind the hospital and baptized them. Bruce told of a village where the people asked him to send them a missionary. They want Bibles too. Who will go to work with these people? Maybe Dwain Holmes, a GMU missionary based in Macuma, can help them. I think Bruce will see what Dwain knows about this village.

I went out for a ride after work. I've been wanting to hook up with some guys I've seen riding lately. Today I did meet them at the end of my ride. I'm going to try and ride with them this Friday again. That will be good to have someone to ride with, but also hard because I have so little Spanish. It should prove a good way to practice though.

My heart is sad

My heart is sad today. The Wynia family will be leaving this week. They've been here just over three years now, working with HCJB. Ken has worked in the maintenance department at the hospital, and Mary is mom to five kids. The fifth is Susanna, a little Ecuadorian baby they are adopting. They had hoped to be in the States a month ago, but the adoption process is slow and not always easy to figure out. It finally looks like they'll be leaving Shell tomorrow. It's a day we all knew was going to come sooner or later, but it's hard to take no matter how much time you have to prepare. Craig, their only son, is in Dustin's class and has been his best friend this past year. I know he'll miss Craig. We had Craig over for lunch one last time today. Yesterday I took the four oldest Wynia kids and my two up to the river. We had good time, hanging out and swimming, like we always do.

As an MK myself, I know how hard it is for these kids to say goodbye to what has become their home.

Oh, sorry about using

Oh, sorry about using that fancy word. For those of you who don't know, preterite tense is past tense.

Sigh. It's Friday

Sigh. It's Friday. I feel like I'm just one more rat in the rat race. Something's got to give. I'm sitting here trying to get my spanish homework done before my lesson at 10:30 AM. I'm enjoying it, and wish I could go off and study Spanish full time for six months. I never have time to do my homework in the evening. Dinner, dishes, playing with the boys, reading to them, catching up on e-mail, and trying to get to the end of my never-ending to-do list always bumps spanish study out of the picture.

I'm really wanting to ride more. I finished some maintenance on my bike yesterday (finally) and now I need to ride. I just get so bored riding by myself. I may not be much of a talker, but get me on a bike and I'll probably talk too much for your liking as you struggle for air up a long hill. Maybe that's why I don't like to sit still and talk. I always have something I want to do. But when I'm riding on a bike I'm doing something, and there's also nothing else to do but talk. I saw a group of about seven guys riding fast towards Puyo the other evening about 6 PM. I'd like to find out how to ride with them. It would be good for me. Also would be a way to use some Spanish.

OK, back to the preterite tense of regular -ir and -er verbs.

Had my spanish lesson

Had my spanish lesson today. A bit later than usual because my teacher had to run her young daughter to the doctor. After class I was working on a page of homework and Salame was working in the kitchen. Salame is a lady who works for us one day a week, doing things like cleaning, cooking, and ironing. She's a Quichua indian, and she was telling me that she to had to learn spanish once. When she was six she really wanted to go to school. But her parents wouldn't send her. They wanted her to stay at home. Then when she was ten she when to live with some missionaries and go to school and work for them. She said it was harder for her to learn spanish because she didn't go to school until she was ten, and that it would have been easier to learn if she went to school when she was six years old. I told her I'm 39, and that's why it's so hard for me to learn spanish!

Been too long since

Been too long since I wrote anything in here. Thought about it several times yesterday, but it never happened. I still trying to figure out why my life is so much busier at the start of this third year here in Shell. I think a lot of it boils down to being in the 'new' house and having a puppy. We all are waiting for the day when the puppy is out of Lou. It can't come soon enough!

We now have three planes down for maintenance in Shell. And the Sucua plane is not flying due to maintenance. The one plane here in Shell that we can fly is being flown quite a bit. MAF just ended a fiscal year. It was a good year, and the reason doesn't have anything to do with money. The organization had an entire fiscal year of accident free operations. That's only happened four times since 1964. The MAF fleet of planes flew over 20,000 hours and had 40,000 takeoff and landings this past year. That's a lot of flying time, and a lot of opportunities for accidents. What a great accomplishment.