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Hazy Hardware Bicycle

All of this week the sky has been very hazy. The story goes that it's because the sugar cane fields are being burned in Colombia. Apparently, the way they harvest sugar cane is different there, and it involves burning. Not sure 'bout that, but either way, it sure is hazy, and the guys have had to do more than the usual amount of instrument flying. Fred and Steve came back from a flight to Quito on Tuesday, and said that the layer of hazy skies extended all the way up to 12,500 feet. At any rate, yesterday a huge storm came through in the afternoon, and left some clear skies. We're having another storm this afternoon, almost at the same time, but not quite as intense.

Fred and Steve went to Quito on a check ride, and now Steve has completed his instrument check ride. That's a real plus for him, to be able to fly instruments. They brought back to Shell with them, Dan Smith, a UPS mechanic who has made some trips down here before. He was able to bring with him three hundred pounds of aircraft parts, tools, and other supplies, which is quite a bit for one person. You could never bring that much alone on an airline, but working for UPS means he can do that. UPS flies in and out of Ecuador daily. I'm going to include a photo of Dan and me. He's a reader of this web log, and I think it's about time to start putting up photos of readers who come to Shell! He's not the first, but he's the first with his picture here, I think.

I'm still working on the project to get a wireless connection from the hangar to a home a half mile across town. Getting a wireless access point and power up to the top of a fifty foot tower has proved a bit of a challenge. But, slowly it's coming together. Yesterday I made a trip to the hardware store to get twenty-eight meters of electrical wire. In the States, you'd see a bunch of pickup trucks in front of the hardwares store. Here, you see a bunch of bicycles.