My First Solo Flight and Urgent Prayer Request

No, the two are not connected, fortunately!

I did get to do my first operational solo flight yesterday. In fact, I did two of them. I didn´t even know that I would be flying, but Chad, my boss, told me to get my plane ready as soon as I got to work in the morning! The strip where I was headed was fogged in for a little while, so I waited it out. Then, another pilot went there first and told me the weather was fine. So I got my passengers ready and off we went!

As is usually the case, it was a bit anti-clamactic. Because of the excellent training and preparation, the flight went without a hitch. I returned to Shell to worsening weather and then waited for the weather to clear on this end and made another flight to the same strip in the afternoon.

Apparently, there is a tradition here that the solo pilot gets a "bath" by the other staff upon his completion of his first solo flight. They at least waited until my last flight of the day to soak me!

Also, upon putting the airplane away, I was told that there was a restriction on our newly issued operations permit to only permit Ecuadorian national pilots to fly. Since my status is Resident, I don´t quite qualify; at least that is what they are saying for now.

So, for the time being, we have 5 airplanes and only 2 pilots to fly them. Our staff is busy working with the DGAC (Ecuadorian equivilant to the FAA) to try to change the ops permit and/or convince them to let me fly as an Ecuadorian. We have 3 pilots here that are on loan from MAF that are also unable to fly.

God is in control of this and is allowing this for a reason. We have to trust him to work this out for HIS own good and HIS glory. We are his servants, committed to his work and we don´t always know the WHY of things, but we trust him to allow things to work out.

Please pray for these things specifically:

1. That the DGAC will allow us to operate with a full staff of pilots (both US and Ecuadorian).
2. In the absence of a full permit, to allow me to fly as a Resident.
3. That Richard, our flight coordinator who is an Ecuadorian commercial pilot, will be able to complete MAF flight training quickly to be added to our operations here as a pilot.
4. That we will accept whatever decision the Lord allows and have good attitudes and be flexible to the changes.

The outcome of this decision will dramatically affect many lives here. But we know whatever the outcome, God will have something better for each one who no longer will be working here.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Shuar Artifact Photos

Clicking on the link below will take you to pictures of the crafts the Shuar people are trying to sell to raise funds for their self sustaining farming project.

Photos and Descriptions

Jan 3

I got to do a little flying in the last few weeks, but not much. I got to do the first flight in "Alas 10" after the engine was changed out. That entailed going up with Fred Schmidt, my instructor and I handled the controls while he wrote down all the numbers for about an hour.

I then flew some strictly training flights with Fred. We flew up some valleys to practice "Terrain Flying". That essentially means flying safely when manuevering in valleys and other mountanous territory.

Today, Fred and I flew into a community called Kapawi to take some health department workers who specialize in Malaria prevention and treatement. Learn more about Kapawi by clicking on this link. See a Google Map of the area by clicking on this link. You can barely make out the airstrip if you zoom in. We then flew to a community called Numbaimi to pick up a passenger returning to Shell. Our next stop was to pick up another snake bite patient in Kuankua. The lady had been bitten earlier in the morning and was convulsing and mostly unconsious when we arrived. Fortunately, we were able to radio ahead for an ambulance was waiting to take her to the hospital.

The Ecuadorian government pays for all the type of flights that I did today and it is really neat to see, despite all its shortfalls, how they take care of the people living in the jungle by providing for these types of flights.