Out of the Office

Tomorrow morning we are flying one of our airplanes to "Puerto." Be back Monday.

From the Logbook...The Small Things

I had another flight taking a load of workers into the Sierra today. I seemed to fill the airplane up with workers returning to Oaxaca as well. One thing that is fun to do is joke with the people of the various communities we go to. They all recognize me as new, and therefore I get asked questions like "how long you been flying?" "have you landed/taken off from X before?" "is this your first flight?" etc, etc. It is a lot of fun to play on their ignorance and tell them that yes it is my first landing...not just into their community, but my first landing EVER! Quickly they see that I am just joking, and although I am the new pilot on the block, I do know what I am doing.

I have posted a few pics recently on my Flickr site with some of the wildflowers coming up. Above is another (I think an Indian Paintbrush) that I found while hiking around the other day. They are a great lesson relating to how short Jesus says our lives are...blooming one day and gone the next. A great to reminder to live every day to it's fullest, never knowing when we will be face to face with our Creator.

From the Logbook...A Little of Everything

We've been shut down with weather again for the past two days here in Oaxaca. But it is a far cry from the kind of bad weather we had in Ecuador. The sky couldn't have been more blue today. The kind of weather that shuts us down here in Mexico is wind. I'm not talking about a lot of wind either. It was maybe blowing 10-12 MPH, but that is to much for us to safely operate into and out of our airstrips. So, no operational flying.

But, I did make three flights today. One was to our mantenance hangar to pick up "GGU" that was there and work on a few things with "HYK." We got both airplanes running and operating in tip top shape, and by late afternoon we were heading back with two airplanes to Oaxaca. We did a little formation flying on the way back to Oaxaca and of course I took pictures. It was really hard to take pictures and fly the airplane because it was very turbulent from all the wind and convective heating. I few turned out ok though.

From the Logbook...A Little Spare Time

I had two flights today, mostly taking people into the mountains. It seems like Mondays we take a lot of people into the mountains and Friday's they are ready to come out.

While in Amoltepec (above picture) on my second flight, I had great weather and no reason to hurry back to Oaxaca so I explored for around 30 minutes seeing what was around the runway. As seen by the picture above, the views were sweet and vast. I love being in mountains and you are definetly in them while flying to the strips here in Mexico. The wind was a little strong today which made for interesting and VERY challenging landings. On my first approach into AMO I had to go around due to a big horse I saw at the last moment before landing. The horse owner was thankfully there for my second attempt holding the horse well out of the way from the runway. Airplanes and horses don't mix well I suppose and I don't ever want to find out.

The Xoo

Becca talks about our time at the zoo yesterday in her blog. It was indeed a fun time, especially for the girls. We were taken aback by some of the animals we saw. Almost all of the animals there are NOT from Mexico which added a little interest to an already interesting zoo.

The giraffe seen above was busy eating his breakfast of alfalfa hay. It seemed like all the animals were fed well, but the large predators all seemed to have at least a nervous tick, if not worse. Being a large and intelligent carnivore like the bears, lions, tigers, and leopards we saw must really make them go crazy with only a small patch of earth to occupy day after day, without any use of those powerful instincts and cunning they have in order to survive in the wild. I know I would go crazy!

Sunday Driving

We went out this eavening to see if the light would be right to take some cool shots of an old church, but it never developed well. So, we just drive around the long way home through little farm roads and pueblos. We did come across this procession coming at us which forced us to take even more side roads being that the road was blocked. This is something that we have seen all over Latin America, but even more so here in Mexico. They are much more common and seem to involve more people. I have no idea what they were celebrating. Due to the fact that is was getting dark, the picture is a bit out of focus since I had to use a very long focal length.

From the Logbook...All Ready to Go!

Finally after a lot of troubleshooting and repairing we have one of our two airplanes ready to fly. It took us a while to track down a sneeky oil leak, but we finally succeded in finding and reparing it this afternoon. Things don't happen fast here in Mexico, and it is even slower when you don't have simple parts like washers and gaskets. You have to be creative sometimes. We had to make our gasket today, which thankfully worked. Late this afternoon I flew "HYK" back to Oaxaca from our maintenance base in Mitla.

When we first arrived at the hangar this morning to get things going, I saw a very peculiar sight. First, a mother donkey (burro) walked by with a long rope attached to her neck. Not far behind, was her cute little colt. After I pursued them a little bit, I was able to snag the rope on the mother and pet her. After a while the colt thought that I must have been ok and allowed me to come close and pet it as well. I have always thought that baby "farm animals" are always so cute, and this little burrito was no exception. When I walked back to the hangar to get airplanes fixed, the colt began to follow me until it realized that it might be a little safer with mommy. It was sure funny to just see a "stray" burro and her colt walk by the hangar this morning. Things are very rural and relaxed in the small town of Mitla.

From the Logbook...Still A.O.G.

We still don't have any airplanes to put into the air yet after another full day of trying to repair them and wait for parts. Our parts did arrive, which, if they work, we should have an airplane flying by tomorrow morning.

As you can see in the photo above, it's tough work fixing airplanes! I had to hold up the whole aircraft with my foot while the nose gear assembly was out to be worked on. Not really. We are just getting ready to put it back in in the photo. The tail is connected to the floor, which keeps the nose in the air so we can work on it. We'll see what happens tomorrow, but we may have a two working airplanes by the end of the day.

From the Logbook...A.O.G.

Aircraft on the Ground. It is supposed to be a fearful three letter acronym that connotes despair and stress. In this case, aircraft should be thought of in the plural sense. I have been turning wrenches all week (which has been a lot of fun) trying to get our airplanes airborne again. Last week I flew one of our aircraft in for a routine inspection. We are still in the midst of completing it, hopefully we will be done tomorrow. The pesky problem in the nose gear I that mentioned before we found easy enough, but fixing it has been slow and hard.

This past weekend, our other aircraft developed an oil leak, a small one. After we investigated it a little bit, we determined it needed to be fixed until further operational flights. So, we flew it out to our maintenance base in Mitla only to find that the .50 cent part that we need, a brass crush washer, is not in stock. So, for fault of a simple a cheap part, our other aircraft is on the ground until fresh parts arrive, hopefully tomorrow as well.

So, I will head back out to our maintenance base again in the morning for another round of wrench turning. It has been fun to be back at it in the maintenance department. I hope to be able to test fly at least one airplane tomorrow, maybe both.

Fresh Pictures

For those of you who like to see more pictures of some of the things we see, be sure to check out my Flickr album. I have been keeping it updated with photos that I don't always put in the blog.

I Really Love Technology

Yeah, we bought a brand new fire breathing computer a few months ago after arriving here in Mexico. Well...it's dead! Sounds like I get to send it off so it can receive a heart and brain transplant. I still have to remind myself...computers are machines, they break. Although after only 2.5 months of use, I would expect more. Luckily we saw it coming and got most things backed up, and luckily the computer company (Gateway Mexico) has good customer service and guarantees. It was ironic though as I talked to the customer service specialist yesterday. I don't know what's easier, talking to a service rep in Spanish, or in English with a heavy Indian accent. I think it is easier talking in Spanish. So, we are stuck with our old faithful laptop at the moment until things get up and running again.

By the way, happy fathers day!!!

The Call of the Road

It's no secret for those of you who know Rebecca and I that we like to go for drives simply for the joy of it. We like taking roads we have never been on, and may never use again. I feel like this has always helped us to see aspects of the cultures were are living with that otherwise we might have missed.

Yesterday, we headed south and then east on a loop that I had been pondering for a while. Simply put, the drive was increadible. Most of the loop was through very rural and very poor Mexico, a far cry from the modern city of Oaxaca that we live in. Most people that know us also know that we love the country. We are not city folk, we are country bumkins. Therefore drives like this through the country are really special.

Now that the rains have been falling in a consistent basis, farmers were out in force yesterday tilling their lands. Most of them were actually preparing their land for planting, with a family member like the wife or children dropping seeds in by hand right behind the plow. It looked like this farmer already put his corn seed in a few weeks earlier. Needless to say, we had never seen so many ox drawn plows in our lives. It was very surreal. (BTW, we only saw two small tractors)

The one thing that has amazed me in all the places I have seen in Mexico is the presence of the Catholic Church. Wether I am flying over the remote mountains, or driving through very rural country side, it seems like EVERY pueblo has it's own cathedral, most of which are very ornate and large.

From the Logbook...A Little of Everything

Friday's flights were a lot of fun, and a little different from what I am used to. I took off on my first flight deadheading (empty) to the Sierra to pick up passengers at two airstrips. After fighting a little weather to get there, the sky broke wide open and the flight was gorgeous over the ponderosa pine covered mountains. Both landings were uneventful and I was soon on my way back to Oaxaca to get ready for my next flight.

(Blue skies calling me heavenward as I waited for fuel on the Oaxaca ramp)

My second flight consisted of flying the aircraft to our hangar in Mitla, about 25 miles away, so that we could perform a 100 hour maintenance inspection on the aircraft. It was fun to get my hands a little greasy again, as I didn't do a lot of maintenance in Ecuador. We didn't do a whole lot. We got the oil changed, put in some new fuel injectors, and opened up the inspection panels. I will be driving out to Mitla this Monday to help finish the inspection. We have found a weird creaking noise in the nose gear area that needs to be dealt with. Hopefully we can track it down and easily fix it. But my experience is that these things are hard to find and fix. We'll see.

Hang Time

The last few days while walking at the park, there has been several people practicing for an upcoming race on their motorcycles. It sure looks like fun!

From the Logbook...Breaking Bread Together

After I returned yesterday for my coworkers installing the radio, we had one more stop to make in a nearby pueblo. We took off and flew the 4 minutes from San Mateo to Barranca Honda. Our director needed to meet with a leader in the community about a breakfast program that he is leading with some help from members of the Oaxaca community.

As seen above, soon after we arrived we were sat down to a very simple and very typical meal, tortillas, beans, salsa, pumpkin seeds, and fresh cheese. Despite it's simplicity, it was VERY good! The tortillas were AWESOME, taken right off of the comal, hot and fresh. About and hour later we were done with our "meeting" and were back on our way to Oaxaca. It was a very memorable lunch, one in which I hope to replicate many times!

From the Logbook...McCoys and Hatfields

Some of you may remember the incredible story of the McCoys and Hatfields. Read the link to find out more. I bring it up to say that this is still a very common occurance here in Southern Mexico. People in the southern Sierra are known for their fueding lifestyles. I was able to see this first hand yesterday during one of my flights. I flew to San Mateo with three of my coworkers to install an HF radio so that the community could communicate better with us in Oaxaca. After landing we learned that there was more to do than just hang an antenna and plug in a radio.

The town nurse came and found us and said there was a 12 year old boy that needed to be taken to a hospital in Oaxaca after being severely beaten during school. Supposedly some rivals from another pueblo came into the school and performed their "duty" for their family. They beat the poor boy up bad, so much so that (pardon my frankness) his scrotum burst and his testicles came out. He was in bad shape, and I pray that he is able to recover quickly. Sorry if my bluntness in what happened to the boy offends or startles you. Just like in the jungles of Ecuador, life is very raw here, and sometimes there is no way to put a sugar coating on it. I left with the patient while the rest of my coworkers stayed and installed the radio. I returned later to pick them up.

Join us in prayer for these isolated communities of Mexico. Due to their remoteness, the arm of the law cannot really reach these communities, therefore feuds, fights, and scuffles are common and rarely punished. These cycles continue from before the time of Cortez's arrival into Mexico. ONLY the power of Jesus can break these cycles and set the people free!

From the Logbook...Great Weather

We woke up yesterday to an awesome day. Still some lingering clouds and moisture, but just enough to make things look beautiful. Because of our canceled flights the previous days, we had a pile of people waiting to go home via airplane. We got things ready and I was soon airborne with a plane load of people returning home. Two were old women, grandma types. One just behind me was praying the whole time until we landed. I'm sure she was thanking the Lord that she got to fly with the most awesome pilot around, and not just asking for safety and strength.

This is a shot from my first landing of the day into El Carrisal. The pueblo is off of the departure end of the airstrip. Things had really greened up here. Last time I was in Carrisal the grass was all dead and very dusty. It looks like a golf course from this picture, but the strip is VERY rough. It's a good thing landing gear cannot talk. This is one of our longest airstrips at around 1500ft and 4000 feet elevation.

From the Logbook...Shut Down

Well...just like life. After a long and tiring fight to get my pilot's license I still cannot fly. This time it is due to the weather. We have had a week very similar to what we always had during our time in Shell, Ecuador. It has been very rainy with low cloud decks. Due to the very rugged terrain and mountains where all of our airstrips are, we just cannot safely reach our airstrips. Therefore we have been twiddling our thumbs with little tasks around the office until the weather breaks.

Here is a look from near the Oaxaca airport showing just where we need to go. Right up that pass is the route to most of our airstrips. Although we have been "grounded" for about 4 days, it has been nice to have all the rain and cool weather. I even put on a sweater last night to which Brooklyn asked me "Dad, what iS that, like a coat thing or sumthun?" Poor girl doesn't even know what a sweater is. Wait till she sees winter in Colorado!

From the Logbook...Solo Flight!

I finally made my first solo flight here in Mexico today. It was great to be turned loose! The weather was definitely a fight though. With the terrain we fly into here, it can be even more challenging. Weather and terrain don't mix. The terrain ALWAYS wins. But, after taking some detours I finally made it to my first landing at Amoltepec. Training never stops in the aviation world, but for now, it is nice to be able to put into practice all that I have been learning during my pilot career.

These were my first passengers. They were a nice grandparent type couple. They look a lot meaner and unhappy in this picture than they really were. Little did they know until we landed that they were my first "victims."

After fighting a little bit of weather to make it back to Oaxaca, I flew right over Monte Alban as I entered the traffic pattern for landing. It's quite a sight to see from the air. The recent rains have really greened it up as well since the last time we visited the place a few weeks ago.

When It Rains, It Pours

Didn't think I would be getting this today...my drivers license. When I woke up, it hadn't even crossed my mind. Then, my boss suggested we investigate it, and an hour later after arriving at the DMV, I walked out with my license. All I can say is miracle! Waiting an hour, after we waited more than a year in Ecuador seemed very surreal.

Ready to Launch Baby!

I now have it in hand. The coveted Mexican Pilot's License. I should be flying solo this week. I'll be sure to let you know when that happens. Thanks for your prayers to obtain this. No doubt there was yet another spiritual battle making this process particularly slow.