Yeah Baby!

Look what we finally got in hand today! Now, if I could just get that darn pilot's license.

Airstrips

For those of you who like maps and Google Earth, here is a shot of some of the airstrips we use. I overlaid it with the lat./long. grid if you want to find the actual strips and see them in 3D. That will of course show you the ruggedness of the strips we fly into and their surrounding terrain. If there is a better/easier way to do this with Google Earth, let me know. (Click on the image to see a larger view)

A few sights from today

Nope...still nothing new. No visas either. Yeah, it's discouraging, but ALL things work in God's perfect timing. So, when there is news...I'll report it.

But, we have been loving this park near the airport. We just keep finding neat little trails and nooks that hide such neat natural treasures. I've always loved what life the desert holds, and the biodiversity here is no disappointment. If you like that kind of thing...I do!

With the rains slowly arriving, things are turning green and budding with a vengeance. As the rains become more faithful there are sure to be more natural treasures that pop out of the ground heavenward.

The cacti are all just ready to bloom. I think a few more weeks and some more rain and they will really be putting on a show.

No Need for a License

There are a lot of very beautiful birds here in Oaxaca, including parrots, which surprised me since we are not in the jungle anymore. I shot this raptor on the way home from work today. Looks like he had a nice lunch.

License News - Nothing new to report really. The Mexican FAA has already used up it's alloted 5 days to issue my license. After making some phone calls yesterday, it could be up to 10 days now. Until you have something in hand...there is just no use getting your hopes and expectations up.

Visa News - As Becca stated yesterday, we signed a bunch of papers and made fingerprints at the immigration offices. They said this Wednesday (tomorrow) they should be ready. Again, until it is in my hand...no expectations here.

Look Who the Cat Drug Home!

Yeah...that's right, you are seeing one of my old Ecuador planes here with me in Oaxaca, Mexico. Alas 12 is being ferried by two of my MAF friends from Ecuador to Idaho. It has been rode hard and put away wet. It has over 12,000 hours on it (I think) and probably around 30,000 landings. It will be refurbished and then sent to Lesotho, Africa. It was great to have some old friends here on my turf. They left today and made their way to Texas. Tomorrow night they should be in Colorado, staying the night at my homebase where I laid the foundation of what I know, flight and maintenance. Great to see you guys...God Speed!

From the Logbook...Premature Baby

A common type of emergency flight that is made worldwide in the MAF world is for complicated pregnancies. They seem to occur with women at all stages of pregnancy, from the first weeks to the last few days. Unfortunately a common age of these women seems to be between the ages of 13-18 years old. To me, the problems they are having are obvious...they are way to young to be giving birth. Their bodies are not ready. But, that is one of the reasons we are here. To help those that live in unfortunate circumstances.

The girl above is 16 years old and in her 32nd week of pregnancy. We brought her out because she was in labor and couldn't deliver the baby. The baby is two months premature, and she still had trouble. We pray that we see her again in a few days to take her back with her baby. I'll keep you updated if we see her again.

A Little Closer

Man, what a week. As Becca described so beautifully in her blog what this last week has been, we finally began to receive some good news towards the end of this week.

VISAS-Supposedly we are going to receive a call on Monday to tell us what time we are going to be fingerprinted and sign some paperwork on Tuesday to receive our visas. I was a little unclear as to whether or not we are going to actually walk out the door with them on Tuesday, but I think that is the case...let's hope so. Guess what I get to do after we get our visas? I get to start the driver's license process....hurray!

Pilot's License- As far as I can tell...I cannot do anything now other than wait. Finally, the special paperwork that I was waiting for since Monday, arrived yesterday, Friday. It was the orders from the aviation officials in Mexico City authorizing the officials in Oaxaca to do my check ride. I delivered the papers to the officials here in Oaxaca and 2 hours later I was in the airplane doing my check ride. WOW! Things are definetly easier here in little Oaxaca. I had no expectation of doing my check ride yesterday. I thought perhaps early next week. But, the "examiner" here is very nice and flexible and we decided to go for it. Did I mention the fact that I hadn't flown in two weeks, and that almost all of my check ride consisted of two instrument approaches, neither of which I had ever performed? But, PTL, the examiner isn't even a pilot and it was obvious he didn't know much about what I was doing. So, after flying for about an hour, the examiner approved me and went to his office to do his paperwork for me. Another hour later and I was on my way to put the official documents in a next day air envelope to Mexico City with DHL. When I was in Mexico City, they told me it would be a week from the time they received my results until they issued my license. Let's pray that that holds true. I am anxious to be turned loose, but everything happens in God's perfect timing.

Details

Well, after taking a day off to re-coup from my Mexico City expedition, I am feeling human again. Long story short...my trip was a success and I passed my course. Now, for some of the finer points from the trip...

• Upon arriving at my location I was informed that my course wasn't a day long...it was four days long. I thought I was merely going to do an altitude chamber (which never happened) and come back home...nope. It was a 4 day course about the physical and medical effects of flight...in Spanish of course.
• Once I got over the initial disbelief from this most peculiar turn of events...I quickly had to make a new battle plan. I only had one extra shirt and a pair of socks. Luckily I had brought my deodorant and toothpaste and toothbrush.
• While walking back to my hotel the first night, I saw two cars pass me in the opposite direction. One passenger was obviously very angry at the driver of the other car. Both cars were soon stopped, blocking both lanes, while the one passenger got out of his car and walked over to the other car were he proceeded to beat the snot out of the other guy in his car. Not more than a minute later, and a lot of honking cars, both vehicles were on their way as though nothing had ever happened. It is a good thing I had my traveling hat on...thanks dad!
• My first night I stayed in a kind of shady place. While it seemed clean enough, it still left a lot of questions unanswered as to what kind of clientèle frequented the place. I checked out in the morning for good and found another hotel.
  
• Thankfully, the two instructors of my course, who were also doctors, pushed the class along and we got 3 days worth of lecture material done in 2, and we took the test the morning of the third day. I had to pass the test with a minimum of an 80%, which is exactly what I got. I was the only one in the class to pass...at least officially. Two of my fellow classmates were given an 80% as well, after some very vulgar rebuking from the instructor and a little help erasing their answers and putting the right ones down.
  
• After taking a verbal beating myself for being a know it all American that barely passed with the minimum grade, we were finally dismissed and told to come back later to pick up our official paperwork. I returned a few hours later to thankfully find the paperwork ready upon which I went to the licensing department and talked with the "big chief."
• "Mr. Big Chief" was a nice guy, and said I still need to do my check ride, but he said I could do in here in Oaxaca. This is a huge praise! I an do it in an aircraft I am familiar with, in an environment that I am familiar with. Hopefully this next week I will have my check ride scheduled. After I pass that, it should be about another week until my actual license is issued. I am getting closer, but still no cigar.
  

It's been a while since I have been in such an unwelcoming and vulgar environment. In some ways I am glad that this vulgar course was given in Spanish. While I know intellectually what a lot of the vulgarities mean that were spoken in the class, I still cannot grasp the emotional meaning of the words. Learning a language is always an interesting thing. When you start learning enough of the language to hear and understand cussing and vulgarity...you realize how much you still don't know, the heart of the words. My class would have been "R" rated simply because of the language from the two "professional medical doctors" that taught it. Thankfully vulgarity and cussing haven't crossed into the emotional realm of my Spanish yet. As my father-in-law says..."it was a character building experience."

Home...Finally!

I'm back from Mexico City...recovering...tired...whooped...more later.

On the Road Again

Tonight, I will be Mexico City bound once again to continue the licensing process in order to legally fly solo here. I leave at 11pm and should arrive around 5am. This should put me with plenty of time to find my testing place, and then some. Traveling through the night is a little bizaar, but it is common here when going to Mexico City. Being that MC is one of the largest cities in the world, avoiding any traffic and stress possible is usually worth the trouble of traveling throught the night. Assuming I come out of my altitude chamber course tomorrow with an approval rating (I should) I only lack one more thing...a check ride.

It seems I am getting a whole new set of requirements to obtain a pilot's license here in Mexico than what was required even a few months ago. They appear to be a lot more labor and time consuming, although not impossible. Once I have turned in my altitude chamber course paperwork to the aviation authority here, I should be able to get an appointment to take my check ride (flight test). This, I am now told, will be in Mexico City in a rented aircraft. Presumably the aircraft and the flying environment will be new to me, but I will investigate all the particulars when they actually give me an appointment. Best case scenario would be that I could stay in Mexico City a few days while I wait to take my check ride, but I doubt things will move that fast. I have a feeling I will be making yet another trip to Mexico City in the near future. The light seems to be growing at the end of the tunnel, but my chickens haven't hatched yet. Keep praying with us as we complete all the paperwork processes here...licenses, visas, etc.

Monte Alban

May 1rst...an international holiday...May day, as it is called here; basically an international Labor Day. Mexico celebrates this day, and therefore I had the day off. Wanting to make the most of the day, we headed out to Monte Alban to take in the sights. We didn't get to see many of the sights as our trip was cut a little short, but hopefully Becca will talk about why in her blog...she writes better than I do.

This is a panaromic taken from the ball court, just as you enter the main complex. The size of the grounds are VERY impressive. I forgot to adjust my camera settings to make a good photo merge, therefore you can see the picture lines in this one. The picture below I set right though.

Taken from the South Court, this view sure makes the mind wonder what used to occur here all those years ago. Although our trip was cut short, we will no dought be returning many times to take in all that there is to see. This site is set up high on a small mountain which makes the view of Oaxaca very impressive as well.