Current News

For the latest info on where we are at and what we are up to with MAF, check out my other blog by clicking here, thanks for stopping by.

Speaking Engagement

We have been off and on busy these last few weeks as we get closer to our departure date this coming Monday. Now, it seems a lot easier as our "big" household shipment finally made it out the door yesterday. The only thing left to pack is our airline baggage, which shouldn't be to hard.

A few nights ago, I went out for coffee...(no not at Starbucks)...with a friend from language school. We met and enjoyed classes together while in Costa Rica. It was fun to finally sit with him and see what has been happening in each others lives since we all left Costa Rica a few years ago.

After talking with me, he realized that I know some of the Waorani Indians in Ecuador that are mentioned and even shown in the movie End of the Spear and the documentary Beyond the Gates of Splendor. My friend works at the local Baptist Seminary with Mexican church planters. They were all inspired by the account of the 5 missionaries in Ecuador, but were left wondering how things are going now with the Waorani people.

I was able to fill in the gaps last night. After we all watched either the documentary or the movie, I spoke and answered questions to a group of around 45 people for around 30 minutes. It was a fun time to be able to encourage these young Mexican church planters with some of the stories from Ecuador. Some time around 11pm I finally made it back home and fell into bed...dead tired.

Just About There

We are still here....and doing just fine. We have exactly one week left here in Oaxaca. We leave for the USA next Monday. Our packing is going well, as well as our plans to get everything else sold. Nothing much to report...just checking in.

Backyard Critters

Walking past our sunflowers this morning I saw that someone had already made their breakfast. I guess having a stinger on your tailpipe doesn't make you invulnerable to the predator world. Just check out those spider legs...sexy eh?

From the Logbook...Last MAF Flight?

Being that we are fast approaching our "two weeks left in Oaxaca" mark, today was my last day of planned flying. We are going to work hard next week getting things ready once again for an international move. It was a very bittersweet feeling to be "hanging up my hat" today, but it only means we are that much closer to our next season in life as well.

The photo above is from Wednesday when we had two airplanes in Amoltepec. I had landed first and about 15 minutes later our other airplane was landing. I was thankful to be able to get some shots of an airplane landing while in Mexico. As I stated earlier, we usually don't have two airplanes in the same place here in Oaxaca, so it was special to have experienced it right before we leave.

From the Logbook...Interesting Cargo

(Due to very poor internet this week, I have been unable to post very much. Keep scrolling down to see what we have been up to this week. Don't worry...I am still here!)


While in Ecuador I had the opportunity to fly a few cadavers, and today was the first time I have seen it here in Mexico. I was going to fly this young man of 19 years back to his village be buried. At the last second, I asked a co-worker to do this flight for me because of some things I had to take care of in the office.

Supposedly, the young man left his home in the Sierra to come and work in Oaxaca just one week ago. This morning, his photo turned up on the front page of the newspaper in a very gruesome way. According to the news account, he was stabbed to death. Without being crude, remember that in most countries embalming a body is either impossible or too costly. Therefore bodies are usually in the ground less than 24 hours after the persons death. This is a good thing, because this poor young man was starting to "smell of death." Not something I recommend experiencing.

From the Logbook...Another neat experience

Yesterday, I was able to see a small glimpse of something special. I was waiting in Amoltepec for some passengers to complete some work in the pueblo. Every Wednesday the pueblo has a mid-week church service. I was able to accompany my Mexican boss, another pilot and his family, as well as our visitor from Texas to the church service. I was unable to stay for much of the service due to my previous comitments to my passengers but it was neat to see this small group of Christians in a VERY hostile community. This is the same community where the pastor was murdered over a land dispute just a few weeks ago.

While walking back to the plane, I returned to one of my favorite photo spots to see the airstrip with the both airplanes on it. It is rare to have both airplanes on one airstrip at the same time in Mexico, so it was fun to be able to take a picture of it. Because there isn't much room to turn around in Amoltepec, I flew the most uphill airplane into AMO, and flew the other one out while my co-workers stayed for the church service and returned in the airplane I flew in. Confused? Just think musical airplanes.

From the Logbook...A Special Passenger

Finally, this past Tuesday, I had the chance to take along my most favoritest passenger...my wife. After all these years of flying a little Cessna to Latin America's remotest places, she was finally able to come along just because. It was a fun time to be able to show her where we go and what my "job" looks like on a daily basis.

From the Logbook...Plauged by the Wind

The mountain airstrips that we fly into are already challenging enough, but when the wind sock looks like the picture above, it can make for an interesting approach. Thankfully, it was right down the runway today blowing from north to south in San Mateo. If it would have been south to north, I might not have been able to land due to some very mean terrain in the vicinity.


While waiting for a wind report from my next destination of Amoltepec, I just sat around near the airstrip to see what was happening. In most places, the airstrip is also a multi use road, for cars, animals, and of course airplanes. About 45 minutes later, I received a call from AMO saying that the wind was calm enough to attempt an approach to land. We made the landing there just fine, where I boarded 5 teenagers coming out to attend a Christian conference.

From the Logbook...How Many?

That was the question as I took off from Amoltepec yesterday and reported my ETA, amount of fuel, altitude and people aboard on my way back to Oaxaca. I anticipated having 3-4 people to pick up upon landing, but it was 3 adults...and 6 kids...and 1 in the hopper. All told, including the pilot, we were 10.5 (remember the hopper) people in a six seat aircraft. It made for a fun flight with a lot of laughs. Obviously this would not be possible with adults. Because of the size and weight of the children, I was able to bring out a lot more people than a typical flight, and I was still under my maximum takeoff weight.

Date Pics

I finally posted some pics here and here from our date. Great day!

From the Logbook...More Bad News

Earlier last week I had the privilege of taking 4 Germans into the community of Amoltepec. One is a bible translator, another was his young son, and two other were visiting from Germany. The plan was to be in the area of AMO for a few days and I would pick them up Saturday morning.

Yesterday morning I took off into crystal clear skies en route to AMO. On final approach to landing I almost aborted due to the wind but was able to still make it in safely. After shutting down and opening the door, I was once again greeted by hysteria, just like the previous night with the 3 patients. Now that I was back on the ground, all those family members of the 3 patients wanted to leave still, at least 8-10 people, or two flights worth. This wasn't even including the 4 Germans I was there to pick up.

As I looked around at the mob of people, I realized only 3 of the 4 Germans were there. Standing right next to me was the German missionaries son. Luckily he speaks English (as well as German, Spanish, Mixtec, and who knows what else). I asked him where his dad was and he began to tell me that "he would be coming out Monday now because the pastor of the community was murdered last night and he wanted to go to the funeral." This blew me away! I don't even know the pastor. All this killing and fighting is so normal to these people. It really shook me that one of our own was murdered. I don't think it was related to what happened with the three patients from the previous night, and I don't think it was directly related to his faith, but once again I didn't ask questions.

Because of the squirly winds I had on final approach to land, I anticipated takeoff being the same and it basically "closing" the airstrip for the day. I didn't want to tell the mob of people while still on the ground that I didn't think I would come back. Also, due to the fact that they had homes to go to, and the 3 Germans did not, I told everyone that the 3 Germans were leaving with me and 2 more people of their choosing. They sorted 2 more out from amongst themselves and soon we were finally loaded up and ready to takeoff.

Sure enough, the takeoff was a right at my limit for fun and I called the community back on the radio and told them it was too windy to return. I assume most of the people that thought they would leave by airplane soon left over land...arriving in Oaxaca some 12 hours later instead of 27 minutes.

The fact that the pastor of the community was murdered really got me thinking on the flight home. You don't read about martyrs in Mexico very much, although they are VERY common. It makes you dig deep to question yourself whether you would really die for your faith if it came to that. I don't know that anyone can answer that until the moment is right in their face. It also reminded me to pray for those that are persecuted for their faith around the world, at whatever level. We are definetly fighting a war against "this present darkness."

From the Logbook...At War Again

Although I am the on call pilot this weekend, I thought things would be a little more relaxed this weekend. Around 5pm Friday night our secretary called and informed me that there were 3 severely injured people in Amoltepec. I have blogged before about the ongoing feuds and lack of forgiveness in this community. I quickly changed gears from winding down on a Friday night to spooling up to do a flight.

The surrounding weather was threatening with thunderstorms and by the time I took off at around 6pm things were looking dark. Thankfully the mountian passes and valleys were mostly open, and I made my way to AMO quickly with little in the way of diversions.

As I overflew the airfield for landing I could tell a mob of people awaited the airplane. Sure enough, as I turned the airplane around and shut the engine down, I opened the door to hysteria. There were 3 patients and at least double that in family members that wanted to go to the hospital. I only had 5 open seats and due to the tailwind I would have for takeoff from the already marginal airstrip I told them I could take 4 people...period. They all complained about how mean I was, but I told them I had a family that I wanted to see again as well. Finally, they renigged after I told them I was about ready to leave with or without my 4 people. That seemed to get there attention and soon we were boarding patients.

The first patient was a 14 year old girl with a severe gash below her left buttock. Blood everywhere! The second was a 20 something guy with a huge gash in his leg which left it inmobile...blood everywhere! The third was a 42 year old woman with a huge gash in her right ribcage, right below the armpit...blood everywhere!

I didn't ask about the details of who was mad at who, why it all happened, etc, etc. I know it would be the same old story, one that only the power of Christ can change.

When we arrived in OAX it was a little unnerving to imagine this tiny little Cessna parking on the ramp to the awaiting THREE ambulances...lights ablazing. Only two ended up being used as the blue one was for reserve and is meant for the airport. The ramp was just as crazy as the scene in Amoltepec. There were at least 5 policemen, a reporter, 6-7 medics, and our secretary. Everyone was asking names, what happened, how old they were etc... It was a proud feeling to be able to help these people late Friday evening, despite my disgust for why I was helping them. I guess that is part of the job.

Happenings

• I have been a little wiped out these last 5 days or so with a severe case of Montezuma's Revenge. For those of you who know what that is...enough said! For those of you that don't, that's why there is Google.
• Finally found tickets to a sweet event for next week that I am taking my wife to. It's going to be a date. It's going to be sweet!
• We do have some big news. Most may already know. Read Rebecca's blog to read it for your self.
• I haven't been flying for a while due to my "problem." Now that things are on the mend hopefully tomorrow will see me boring holes in the sky.
  

From the Logbook...More "Welfare" Flying

I had two flights today, the second of which took me to a "new to me" airstrip. I had never been on the ground in Tlacotepec but I had seen it from the air numerous times. Because I had never been there, I flew there with our instructor pilot. We dropped off the two government "welfare" workers and their 150 lbs of money. We were both too afraid to ask how much money we were really carrying.

While it may not appear like it in the picture above, this airstrip poses many challenges like rising terrain in the vicinity, a large and hard to see antenna right off the runway, and of course...slope. Thankfully, the wind was really calm and the weather was beautiful, although the morning started out with a lot of clouds and moisture in the state of Oaxaca. Some of it was due to the current Pacific hurricane that eventually made a more northern course thus avoiding landfall with us.

From the Logbook...A Little Exploring

Yesterday, I had a mid-day flight to take a few people back into the Sierra and then bring a few government workers out. We had taken the government folks in a few days before with boxes full of Pesos in order to distribute to the communities, kind of a welfare type program. They had forgotten some important paperwork which I delivered. While they drove into the community to have they papers signed and finish their work, I had about an hour to explore around the airstrip as I waited for them.

Looking to the North in San Mateo you'll see a huge valley with an impressive plateau on the other side. Taking off that way is usually dramatic as well due to the way the ground falls away from you as you fly over the drop off seen in the picture.

While climbing a nearby hill, I came across the community graveyard. Cemeteries have always been of special interest to me. No, I am not morbid. I have just always found it interesting how quickly they remind you of how mortal we are, and that life is truly short. That regardless of beliefs, race, nationality, gender, age, etc; we all share the same destiny. It is also interesting to read the epitaph on some of the headstones. Most that I saw yesterday were very simple, but occasionally you will find some very interesting poetry, and I don't like poetry.

Another Photo Collection

I have debated for a while whether or not I should put up pictures of my "job" on my Flickr album. I finally decided to go ahead and do it and put a little over 100 photos showing what it is to be a "missionary pilot." For those of you who follow this blog some, you will recognize a lot of the photos. Regardless, you can get a big picture idea of what my everyday life entails while at the "office" by clicking here.

As Requested...

Que Rico!

A few weeks back we found this great restaurant about a 30 minute drive from our house out in the country. Their food is awesome! The have an incredible menu for very cheap prices. Most of the things on the menu we don't recognize, but everything we have had has been very good. I'm not one for caring much how my food is presented, but yesterday I couldn't help but take a picture of my dish. It was a stuffed poblano pepper topped with cream, minced nuts, and pomegranite seeds. It tasted as good as it looks, and it sure made us already want to go back.

Flight School Crash Update

The following day after the flight crashed their Cessna 152 due to running out of fuel, the airplane was back on the ramp, but in a sad state of affairs. As a coworker and I walked around the thing it is definitely totalled for all but the most experienced sheet metal shops.

An interesting thing did happen that same afternoon. As I went to go turn in my flight plan, the gentleman said there was an ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) broadcasting on the emergency frequency. Due to it's strength, it sounded like it might possibly be on the ramp. Everyone's first thought was the newly placed and totalled flight school airplane, but the signal was just now being received. The crash happened the day earlier. Regardless, I told the guys in operations that I could take a look and see if it was the ELT from the flight school, they are easy to access in a C152 and easy to disactivate as well. Sure enough, after opening the access panel for the ELT, it was the C152's ELT broadcasting. It doesn't make sense that it only began to sound more than 24 hours after the crash. What makes matters worse is that the ELT was installed TOTALLY WRONG! ELT's are not rocket science, nor is their installation. It just gives me that much more "confidence" in the maintenance of the flight school. I wonder if they sell Cracker Jack here in Mexico?

From the Logbook...On Call Weekend

I finally have to "blessing" of being the on call pilot this weekend. It has been several months since I have had to spend a Saturday flying. I'm not complaining, I cannot think of many things more fun than flying. Thankfully, I was able to get a flight done this morning. Clouds were lingering on the ridges making our passes all but impassible. We had good reports from the airstrips, making me think that if I could work my way through one of the passes, I would be able to get to the airstrips. Sure enough, after working up into some terrain, I found a way to get through and it broke wide open, at least in front of me. The cloud deck never did get very high, but the scenery once again was beautiful and stunning.

On my return flight to Oaxaca, I did have a "puker." Poor little guy, he just couldn't hold down his cookies. I prided myself in Ecuador for never having a "puker" but here in the mountains of Mexico, there is just too much wind and turbulence to make every ride smooth and soft. At least his mom helped him use the sick sack!

From the Logbook...Do you see what I see?!

It was an interesting day of flying for me here in Oaxaca, Mexico. I took off soon after I got to the airport this morning only to turn around 7 miles later because I received bad weather reports from the Sierra. After waiting a few hours, the clouds had lifted enough to make the valleys and passes operable and off I went.


This time I was successful in reaching my destinations. Can you see the airstrip that serves the community of El Carrisal in the photo above? If it doesn't jump out at you, look just about in the middle of the picture and there she is! That was my first landing.


Just before my second flight something happened at the airport that we as pilots read about all too often. The picture above isn't that great because it was bumpy and I was trying to get ready to land, talk to the control tower (in Spanish), and focus a camera at the same time. (It doesn't really work) That said, I didn't want to be joining my buddy in the corn field down below so I counted my "losses" and made a greaser of a landing instead.

That is a Cessna 152 being hauled out of the dirt after it lost power on takeoff and crashed. Thankfully everyone walked away. Most times crashes like this result in fire and there is nothing to see afterwards. But, there wasn't any gas in the tanks to fuel the fire, thus the flight school instructor (who doesn't have an instructor's license) and his student just about bought the farm today...literally. Rule #1- Always know your fuel situation!!!

From the Logbook...

I had two flights today, both dead heading to the Sierra and bringing people out. The weather was great this morning which always makes flying a joy. On the way out on my second flight a little deviation from my normal route by the control tower had me flying almost right over El Convento de Cuilapan. I blogged about this place a while back, and it is impressive from the air as well. It is about a 30 minute drive from the house, or a 3 minute flight from the airport.

Back in the Office

We made it back yesterday afternoon after a great time at the beach. We are always in awe of the beach, since we don't have a great understanding of it or it's ways. The waves at Puerto Escondido were absolutely HUGE all day and and all night long. It didn't take long to see why the surfers converge on this place. I am working on putting a bunch of pictures of our trip on my Flickr site. My internet has been funny, so it might be tomorrow by the time they all make it there.

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.

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!