Travel by Edwin Davidson

Our GAMAS airplane was in Georgetown again with a maintenance issue. It was time for our flight back to the states. Now there are a couple of ways to get back to Georgetown when our plane is not available. The first is a village flight direct from Paruima. This flight is on an as needed basis and not  regularly scheduled. The Second is to catch the local “taxi”, a large dugout canoe with an outboard motor that will take us 3 hours downriver to a falls then we would have to hike around the falls for an hour then get in another dugout canoe“taxi” for another two hour ride to the village of Kamarong. Once there, try to catch the daily village flight from there to Georgetown. At church the Sabbath before we left Paruima, we found out that this year the Seventh Day Adventist church is celebrating 130 years of Adventism in Guyana. A large group would be traveling from Paruima to Georgetown for the celebrations. The Aracuna choir had prepared a song to sing for the president of Guyana.

The First Sabbath of the 130th Celebration Week in Georgetown

All of the flights leaving Kamarong were booked solid through to that Friday. We needed to get out to Georgetown by Thursday. “Well Lord what do you have in mind?” We prayed. Sometime Monday we heard from Steven that there miiiiiight be a flight into Paruima on Thursday and we could maaayyybe get a ride out then. Tuesday I drove the Jailing 125 motorbike into the village to meet with the gentleman that was arranging for the incoming flight to bring food goods and other supplies to the village shops. He said that he had our names on the list but, that he needed confirmation by Wednesday morning because there were plenty more people that wanted a ride out. James Ash had told us that there was a slim possibility that our GAMAS plane might be ready in time. The man agreed to let me check with James on the radio that night and verify whether our plane was coming or not. That night I spoke with James and the plane was not yet ready to fly since the parts that were on order from the USA had not arrived in time for a flight on Thursday. Wednesday morning, I quickly jumped on the motor bike and rode to the man’s house to confirm. Once all was confirmed for Thursday, I headed back to campus. I stopped by a friend’s house to inform him that we would indeed be leaving the next day and would be missing them, then headed on to the school. We needed to hurry and get the house packed up and everything stored to keep the bugs out until we can get back. With Laura being almost 32 weeks along in her pregnancy, she needed my help. Riding straight to the tractor shed where the motor bike is parked I shut down the engine and hopped off just as Steven bellowed from the second floor window of the ad building in a no nonsense tone that I have never heard from him, “Edwin get up here now!!!”

Now what do you suppose went through my mind??? Uh Oh… what did I do, or not do?? I ran, then bounded up the stairs as Steven pointed into their bedroom. “We have a problem” there was Alice leaning over a young girl in student uniform. “She was stung twice by a marabunta (which seems to be any number of flying stinging insect) just over her left ear about 10 minutes ago on her way to school this morning and now she is having a hard time breathing” Alice informed, “we have already radioed the clinic. They are out of Epinephrine and Adrenaline”. I tried to raise the clinic again on the radio. Joy Ash answered from the clinic in Kaikan. Meanwhile, Steven hopped on the motorbike, heading to the clinic to try to find someone with a 4-wheeler to be able to transport her to the clinic. Joy gave us some suggestions for alternatives, none of which we could find. “Lord help us now to save her life” we kept praying. Alice found an antihistamine. It‘s a start!!! The girl needed to use the restroom. Then she passed out. Alice and I carried her back to the bed. “Lord Help!” was all I could think. I went back to the medicine cupboard hoping to find something, anything that might work. “Wait…what’s that” I thought as I scanned the top shelf again, “there… in the back… is it?? Yes!!! Children’s liquid Benadryl”. “Thank you Lord” I breathed then hollered to Alice what I had found. I quickly read the concentration and dosed it out in a medicine cup. Alice put it in the girl’s cheek hoping enough would absorb that way. Then we sat back, praying “Lord, help it to work.”

Steven soon arrived with someone on the 4-wheeler, as she had started to come around and was trying to sit up. With Steven and I supporting her, she walked to the 4-wheeler. We went along to help keep her on the back while we rode to the clinic.

“Well, now I think I would like to stop for breakfast and calm my nerves….AND PRAISE GOD”

Cards made by the Students

The rest of the day was spent in packing and repacking suitcases and backpacks making sure we had what we needed and nothing that we didn’t need. We put our stuff out of the way in case others needed to stay there in our absence. We were grateful for Steven's help. At last everything was ready and we went to sleep.

Next morning Steven came down the hill to inform us that he had received confirmation that the plane would be here about 1:30 pm. We took the time to go up to the ad-building to have morning worship with the students. We were surprised and overcome with the outpouring of love, handmade cards, and well wishes that they

Airport Parking

Lumber for House and Hanger

showered on us. "Please come back soon!" they begged us. About 12:30 pm we loaded in the boat and Steven drove us down river to the airstrip. Alice and Grant came too. Since we arrived at the runway a good while early, Laura wanted to go and look at the building site at the far end of the runway that has been cleared for a hanger and house. There is a large pile of lumber there ready to go up as soon as all is ready. It was a nice little walk up to the end of the runway (though Laura, at almost 32 weeks pregnant, says is was not "nice", it was long and hot!) I kept an ear tuned to hear the plane coming, knowing that the Cessna Grand Caravan is fairly quiet on final approach. We didn’t want to miss it or get caught in the middle of the run way with a plane on final.

After we looked the site over and took some pictures we hurried back to the landing by the river bank. We found some good seating in the shade of a tree and waited with the others. They were waiting for the plane either because they had goods coming in or they had a ride out. We waited… and waaiiiittted. The Williams had to get back to the school to attend to their duties there, so we bid them farewell. We continued to wait. Finally, somebody came over from the clinic and told us that the plane had not even left Georgetown yet! Then about 45 minutes later they reported that they had heard on the radio that the plane was headed out to the runway for takeoff. It would take an hour from the time it took off until it would get to us. It came around 4:30. There was a rush to get the plane emptied of its cargo and then for us to load up and go.  

Introduction to the G1000 systems

The pilot was already aware that there was going to be a pilot and his family on the return trip. When I approached he asked if I was the pilot that would be riding back, I affirmed and asked if I might ride the controls with him. “Sure” he said. We loaded and took off. I was a little disappointed in what it means to ride the controls of a Cessna Grand Caravan.

The autopilot does it all, so I just sat back and watched while he made small adjustments with the autopilot. We arrived in Georgetown in good time. We got settled in to a small inn for the weekend. Sabbath we enjoyed the beginnings of the 130 year celebrations that were to continue for a week. James and Chris Eno were able to get one of our GAMAS planes in the air on Friday evening for some flight testing, and James made a run on Sunday. We did some nosing around in some shops on Monday and helped James get a load together. “Smokey” a taxi driver who has been very helpful to GAMAS came by about 1:30 Tuesday morning and drove us to the Cheddi Jaggan international airport about an hour drive South of Georgetown. We boarded the plane for a 5:35 am departure to Trinidad then on to Miami FL.

We are already missing Guyana and the friends we have made there. We are planning, Lord willing, to return as soon as we have the appropriate papers to travel with the new little one.

Is that Florida?

So a Plumber I will Be!!! By Edwin

It has been a while since our last blog post (1-2-2017).  So, let’s get caught up on what has been happening since then. To recap; we had decided that it would be best for me to fill the gap at Paruima Mission Academy and teach science for forms 1 & 2. Thankfully many of the kids are in Pathfinders so I could use the honors as teaching materials. As the quarter progressed I ended up taking on form 1 Bible as well. It took some getting used to, trying to figure out how to download information from my head in to theirs… I now have even more respect for those teachers who tried to teach me things in years past. It also gave me opportunity to interact with the kids at the school and learn of their troubles and their joys.

If you Look Closely you can see the pipes from the bathroom

About mid February the Ash family moved to Kaikan for Joy to work in the clinic there. That left the duplex empty at the lower end of campus. We moved out of our room in the girls’ dorm and into the duplex. It was really nice to have a small space that we could call “ours”.

Soon we discovered an issue. The bathroom is on the second floor over the kitchen. The drain pipes from the sink, toilet, and shower went straight through the floor and down through the kitchen counter to the ground. If any water dripped outside the sink it ended up running down and dripping on the kitchen counter. The shower had sun-rotted so just the basin was left. We started out doing bucket baths on the basin till we noticed that water leaked around the drain and dripped guess where, on the clean dishes drying next to the kitchen sink. Then we found out that the pipe from the toilet leaked

Rerouting pipes under the house

 aaannnnnd……. dripped…. we decided maybe it was time to overhaul the bathroom and make sure that “nasty” did not end up on the food prep surfaces. Basically we swapped Kathryn’s room and the bathroom. We reused the pipes and changed the seal on the toilet. YAY!!! No leaks!! And no “nasty” on the kitchen counter!!!! We sealed the seams in the “zinc” flooring so hopefully drips stay right there. The toilet and the sink are in place. Now we just need to get a new bathtub from Georgetown and adjust the walls. We will finish that when we return to Paruima.

Rerouting pipes under the "new" bathroom floor

While we were living in the girls’ dorm we noticed that on laundry days we almost always had trouble running out of water, even if the two 500-gallon water tanks were full. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense, given the respective elevations. Steven and I started looking over the water system and concluded that the outlets of the tanks were too small to supply the 2” line that supplies the campus. The outlets from the two tanks came together in a single ¾” pipe. Basically a ¾” pipe supplying a 2” pipe. When there is a high demand on the system, it pulls a vacuum on the upper part of campus. Steven and I set about to remedy the situation. We re-plumbed the tanks, each with a 1 ½” outlet. These come together in a 2” pipe. Now we no longer have issues with the water in the upper part of campus on laundry days when the water tanks are full.

It is nice to be able to step in and help with each of these projects and we praise the Lord for the abilities He has given each of us to do the job He places before us.

Temporary change of Job

I have been learning a lot under James' tutelage in regard to my flying. I have been enjoying the learning process although the learning curve is quite steep. It is a blessing that there are many people that are responding to the needs here in Guyana. We have 2 more pilots making a total of 4, working down here, however three of us are new in terms of flying here in Guyana and we each have to have a proficiency check out in the country with only one pilot (James) that can perform that proficiency check. That process may take 40+ hours in country. James needs one of us flying on our own as soon as possible.
It makes the most sense for James to focus on training one pilot, so it will take less time than to try and get all of us trained at the same time. Chris Eno is focusing on getting the maintenance program up and going in Bethany. Because Laura, Kathryn and I have our tickets to go back to the states in the middle of March it means that by the time I would be ready to take my proficancy test, and work on my own, it would be time for us to leave and James still wouldn't have the help he needs. We have opted for me to teach school for the next 3 months as Paruima Mission Academy is needing several teachers for this next semester, and that allows James to focus on training Lincoln. Lincoln is a Guyanese Amerindian who completed his Private Pilot's License and Instrument training in Bolivia with our missionaries serving there.

At this point it looks like I will be teaching science to Form I &II students. Form I is basically 7th Grade. I may be able to do some short shuttle flights now and then to keep up the skills. On days that I don't have to teach I'll be working on maintenance projects and working on the pilot house site at the north end of the runway.

We are definitely coveting your prayers as I try to learn how to teach 7th & 8th graders.

Life in Paruima. by Laura

"Daaaaddy! Daaaaaddy! Daaaaaaddy!" calls a small girl in her footie pajamas, as she stands on a bench to look out the open window, "Daaaaddy!!!! Daaaaddy!!! Where's my Daaaaddy?" she asks as she leans a little further out the second story window. I warn her to be careful, as I explain to her for the 4th or 5th time, that Daddy and Uncle James have landed at the airstrip, "We have to wait for them to park the airplane and walk all the way through the village. Daddy will be here soon!" I assure her. The hardest time for Kathryn is the time between when we see the airplane fly overhead, and when her Daddy walks in the door. There is always so much to try to take care of and get done while the pilots are in Georgetown, that the plane often arrives in Paruima about 5:15 or so, right before sunset. If there is not enough daylight left of the day, the plane is left to be unload the next day. The pilots make sure the plane is parked and secure for the night, then they walk down the new steps to the river. There are dugout canoes that are usually parked on both sides of the river as that is the main landing for the village of Paruima. Sometimes the pilots just borrow a boat to paddle across the river, and other times there is someone nearby that can go along and return the boat to it's original side of the river. Then they use their headlamps or the flashlight on their phones if they had forgotten their headlamps, to make their way the 15 min walk through the village, and out to the school. For a pregnant lady and a toddler, it takes a lot longer, but the pilots headed home at the end of the day can make it in 15 min. Soon Kathryn is shouting "My Daddy is here! My Daddy is here!" as Edwin scoops her up in a big hug.

I try to have Kathryn bathed, ready for bed, and supper on the table, when Edwin gets home so we can have supper worship and family time. In the upstairs of the girls dorm where we are staying, there are no outlets that I am aware of, and just one light bulb. When we turn out the light for Kathryn's bedtime, it's easy to just go to bed ourselves. I love waking up refreshed in the morning, and looking out the partially open shutter at the palm trees. There are two little birds that perch on the top of the shutter and peer in at us, chirping happily. Those two little birds have become very brave, when they think we are not looking, they hop right in and search the table for crumbs, or peruse my kitchen shelves. One day they helped themselves to a ripe plantain. We call them "our little birds" Kathryn gets so excited when they come to the windowsill to eat the bread crumbs that we leave there for them. I actually enjoy having the wildlife being able to come in, at night there is often a large bat that swoops through, eating mosquitoes. Other than the poop that they leave on my clean, drying, dishes, I enjoy the geckos and their chirping sounds. Several times a week we feel especially blessed when a hummingbird comes into our room for a visit. The biggest annoyance is each morning, seeing how much food the roaches have left us. We went through our first box of bread bags pretty quickly because the roaches bite right through and help themselves to CHUNKS of bread.

We just cut their bites off and eat the rest. But then we have to throw the bag away, rather then being able to re-use it. Roaches like to eat silicone(edges of spatulas, buttons on calculators and the GPS, razor handles etc), and bags too, they eat holes in the new baggies while they are still in the box! Thankfully, our sweet friends, the Williams. loaned us a barrel with a good seal on it, so we can now keep the most tasty delectables out of the roaches' reach! As we get more settled we will find ways to out-smart and or get rid of those BIG hungry roaches!!!

Having no refrigeration is definitely a challenge. We end up having some pretty interesting combinations for breakfast, just trying to eat up leftovers from the day before, so that they aren't wasted. I am so very thankful for the use of a stove and oven. I have been enjoying experimenting with the local foods. I used green papaya in place of pumpkin for "pumpkin cake" yum. I also tried using green papaya to make fajitas to eat with fresh made tortillas. I have discovered that we love ripe plantains cooked to a porridge, with a little cinnamon, cloves and all-spice added and eaten with pancakes and peanut butter. It reminds us of applesauce, (which is pretty much non-existent here) so delicious! Cook-up is a local dish of beans and rice cooked in coconut milk, that I am learning to make, it's so rewarding to make coconut milk from a coconut I found in the yard!

Tuesday is my laundry day. There is a washing machine at the duplex where the Ash family has been staying. Praise the Lord for a washer. Washing clothes in the utility sink isn't so bad, but the wrung out clothes take more then a day to dry. So on Tuesday we carry all our dirty clothes down to the washer. We fill the washer with a water hose coming in the window, when we have added the soap, we start the generator and turn on the machine. We listen for a change in the sound of the generator to indicate when the washer is draining and spinning. We turn off the generator while we fill the washer for the rinse cycle. Then we pull the rope on the generator again so the washer can rinse, drain and spin. There is a large west facing porch that gets the hot afternoon sun, that we all use to dry our clothes. Rainy season adds a challenge because it takes longer for our clothes to dry, but we all just do the best we can to share the line with the clothes that are still waiting to dry.

When we first arrived in Paruima we had a special treat. Humming birds had built a tiny nest, stuck to a splinter of wood on the ceiling where the washer is. While we would be there, the parents would cautiously fly into the room, then dart to the nest and feed the two baby hummingbirds. It was so amazing to see the parents stick their long beak down the small baby's throats! We have seen a sloth, and a group of monkeys swinging through the trees, a couple of times.I have also seen the macaws that live on Rain Mountain, flying over a few times, so majestic! I am really enjoying the birds and wildlife!

I am sorry that it has been so long since we have written a blog post! Getting communication out while we are in Paruima is next to impossible. There is not any internet at the school, there is an internet cafe in the village, but people don't use it much because it's expensive, you have to pay by the hour, and it's slow, like it might take two hours to send one email, type of slow!!! Edwin and others are doing research on possible internet options for the school there in Paruima. Pray that a doable solution is found, the school really needs internet and it would be really nice to have communication with family and friends.

Our initial stay here in Guyana is half over, last Tuesday Kathryn's and my visitor's visas ran out. We all came to Georgetown, because we would have had to take a bus trip over to Suriname if they hadn't been able to figure out our paper work at the Ministry of the Presidency office. Edwin had been there with what we thought was all the right copies, forms and ID photos, and they had said that that wouldn't work, that policies had changed and we needed to have applied before we entered the country..... We thought we would try again, and this time the lady was very helpful, and after looking over our paperwork very carefully, she patiently explained to us that we needed to fill out different forms, and change the wording in a few places to indicate that we are volunteers working with a non-profit organization. Last Friday (Dec 23) Edwin took in the new paperwork, they received it and said, "Come back in two weeks to pick up your new visas! Praise the Lord! We will have to pay $140 each for our 3 year visas, and $140 for Kathryn's visa even though they only give her one year. We trust that because the Lord answered our prayers for our visa application to be accepted, that He will also provide the needed $420 to pay for our visas when we pick them up.

God is so good, living as volunteer missionaries is definitely a faith building experience. When we wonder if we will have money for groceries, the Lord provides. You have no idea what a lifeline you are to us, it's because of your generous, donations and self sacrifice for us, that we are able to stay here and have food to eat, and pay for necessary expenses. Thank you so much for partnering with us in our mission service here in the interior of Guyana. We praise the Lord for you, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, we love you, and we ask that the Lord will give you a blessing here, and a reward in heaven for your part in this work.

Stuck In Kaikan!!!

Friday November 25-Most of the long flights have been made from Georgetown. James has made the last one and now I am flying with him for a couple of short flights from Paruima to Kaikan to shuttle some people in for the youth congress this weekend.I arrived here at the airstrip in Paruima about 12:30 to wait for James to get back from Georgetown...
James arrived in Paruima with conference officials about 2:30 pm. He had had some kind of problem with the plane and had had to turn back to Georgetown and at least figure out what the problem was. It looked like it was just a flapping/fluttering tach cable and would be fine. When he arrived in Paruima the mechanical tach was not working but the digital one was so James and I took off to Kaikan, a 15 minute hop. It turned out when we arrived in Kaikan there were about 15 people needing to get to Paruima for the congress. These people had been under the impression that we were going to be making 10-15 trips on Friday. (Found out that they had been waiting on another plane to take them since Sunday, and it never showed up so they were now hoping to be on the GAMAS plane) Oh boy!!! It was now 3pm no way we could do that many. So James asked me to stay in Kaikan so he could carry more people on each trip and would pick me up on the 3rd trip. I knew then that if everything didn't go according to plan I might have to spend the night. James took off with the first load while we all watched.
As I was standing there with the group of Pathfinders and musicians waiting and chatting someone hollered at me from a small government building by the runway "Captain someone radio for you from Paruima" "Huh-Oh" I thought as I climbed the stairs to the second floor where the Icom IC78 sat on a shelf about chest height. It was the health post in Paruima with a message from James. That there had been a problem with the plane and they were trying to fix it. A little while later they radioed again that he would not be making any more trips to Kaikan on Friday. There was discussion about some people taking a "village flight" in the morning but the transmission was hard to understand. Was I expected to be on board? Was this really an "ox in the ditch", or just a significant in convince? I did get across that I wanted to talk at 7 but wasn't sure if they got 7am or 7pm. The Trapeznikov family were very hospitable and gave me a room. At 7pm we tried and tried again at make radio contact but to no avail. They must have understood AM. I only had the clothes I had on, my flight gear and my water filter/hydration pack. No extras of anything, except batteries, I had batteries for my head light. This will change for future trips. We ate some kind of Russian fry bread stuffed with mashed potatoes. Wow that was delicious. They said the name several times but I still don't remember how to pronounce it.

Friday night as I was crawling into bed I met this little friend
 next to my pillow. He didn't seem too pleased about being evicted.

Sabbath morning(November 26) Alex and I hiked back up to the building with the radio next to the runway. A few minutes after 7:00 we got ahold of someone at the health post in Paruima. They gave a little more detail. James had departed Paruima for the second trip and had turned back. Something about loosing power. James had told them to tell me to stay put and he would try to come for me on Sunday morning. That made a lot more sense. I also was able to ask them to pass a message to Laura that I would be on the radio at 7:00pm and wanted to talk to her.We had a wonderful Sabbath with the Adventist believers here in Kaikan and many who had hiked for several days to get here in hopes of a flight to Paruima. There were several guest musicians that had been invited to the congress to share their talents, but they were stuck just like me. So we got to enjoy several special numbers for church and again for AY meeting in the afternoon. Since I didn't have my Trumpet I thought I was fairly safe. But nope... Alex informed them that I play trumpet and Sergio, a trumpet player from Venezuela offered to let me use his horn. So much for just sitting back...
I finally got to talk with Laura on the radio last night at 7:00.
I am heading out to the radio now to see if I can learn more of what they have found out or have decided to do.

Using the Radio at the Clinic

It was sooo good to hear her voice. Kathryn had a hard time Sabbath morning wondering where her daddy was. Laura also gave me more of the story, and the plan. James did not have the power he thought he should have and had turned back to the runway. They had been unable to determine the cause. This AM they were to try again. If it wasn't going to be an easy fix James will take a boat ride down river to Kamarong to catch a regular scheduled flight to Georgetown to come back with 8704T which seems to be old faithful. It may be Tuesday before I get back to Paruima.

Laura said that it was looking like bad gas, and they were going to drain the tanks and put in fresh gas. We should know in a few hours if this works.

I have not heard anything from Paruima since noon. We tried to contact around 3:30pm and again at 7:00pm. Nothing. I am guessing that the fuel swap didn't help and James is on his way to Kamarong. I have had reasonably good success at contacting the school there in Paruima (DIIC or Davis Indian Industrial College) at 7:00am. We will find out.

November 27
I found out what those stuffed fry bread things are called "pa-ROOSH-ki".

This AM I was able to talk with Chris Eno about the situation. It doesn't look good... so 9113M is grounded until appropriate repairs can be made. Chris and his family will be tied up until January with the building teams that are coming to the village of Bethany. Last they knew at DIIC was that James had gone to the river this AM at 5 or 5:30 to catch a boat to Kamarong, a trip of about 5hrs. From there hopefully he can catch a flight back to Georgetown. James is planning to put 8704T, a 1960 C-182 in service until Chris can fix 9113M. It is likely that it will be Tomorrow (Tuesday the 29th) before he can come and get me.

I got to talk with Laura and Kathryn on the radio this AM too, which was nice. They are doing well.

We set up another radio appointment for 4:00pm. So I can keep up with what is happening. It is hard being isolated and not able to make communication very easily.

Alex took me out to the Bible School that is nearly finished.
We now just need Teachers.

4:36 today
I just came back from the radio and they confirmed that James had made it to Kamarong but could not confirm if he had made it on a flight to Georgetown. Here at the internet café in Kaikan we tried to call James but no answer. Kamarong has cell service so I am hoping that means that he is out of reach because he is on that flight.

When we finally got up to the village health post and located a key it was about 7:20 this AM. We called for DIIC but James answered from the flight base in Georgetown. "It is good to hear from you" I said, "what is the situation?"
"How is your courage?"
"Not too bad."
After an update on the situation with 9113M, and discussing what tools were possibly needed. James gave me a run down of his intended plan to fly 8704T with supplies to the church building site at Wax Creek, then stop in Paruima to drop some supplies and pick up some things for the Trapeznikov family. His plan was to be here in Kaikan after 3:00PM. 

Well the plan changed a bit and he is now on his way from Wax Creek and according to ATC in Georgetown he will arrive in Kaikan first and then a 14 minute flight back to Paruima. Whew wow! What and adventure...

A plane For Edwin to Fly

In 2015 David Gates sent out letters to about 11,000 Cessna 182 owners  asking to see if they would be interested in donating their plane to GMI for use in mission service as is typically that case very few responded to the letters but some did. One such case was a Mormon family in Wyoming. They had just purchased a Cessna 210 Centurion and had this older Cessna 182, 2668G, which they were discussing what they should do with it. One day the wife came is waving the letter and showed it to her husband. It was David’s letter. They agreed that it just might be the best option for use of the plane.

After talking with David they invited him to come and see the plane. They also wanted to make sure that this was the right organization to donate to. After a very short time they were comfortably please with David as a Christian and knew that the plane would be put to very good use. In December of 2015 David flew the plane to Illinois and then after Christmas he flew it on down to Collegedale TN. I got to be there to help welcome them back, and put the plane in the hanger next to Todd Anderson’s plane, 9113M. The next day while I was helping clean up some seat frames for Todd Anderson, David came into the hanger and spoke with me. He offered to let me use this beautiful airplane in my training, to try and finish My instrument rating. He also offered to let me stay in one of the apartments they have at the GMI offices in Collegedale. Then one morning at breakfast not long after; he asked how I would like to continue flying 2668G in Guyana. WOW!!! How cool is that!!! I continued to fly the plane for about 15 hours there in January.

At the end of January the annual inspection was due. 

A mechanic started in on the inspection in February. Given the time that had transpired since the last time the engine was overhauled they decided to pull the cylinders and really look over the engine. During the process they discovered that major components like the cam shaft and timing gears were severely worn. The crank shaft had significant scoring on the rod journals and all the lifters were beyond repair. The new cylinders have already been purchased which is the biggest expense of an overhaul usually. The mechanic is looking for good used timing gears and a good used cam shaft. It is cheaper than buying factory new parts. We are estimating that finishing the engine will cost about $8000. There are also some modifications that need to happen in order to get the most use out of the airplane.

It needs a Sportsman’s STOL kit and wing extensions.

The Sportsman’s kit is about $1500 and the Wing X is also $1500.

We can delay a little on some of the other modifications like the larger nose fork and tires, but it would be good to get those done too. They can however be done here in Guyana. Now that 9113M is here and is working hard we want to turn our focus to getting N2668G ready to go. It is needed very soon as we now have 3 pilots and soon to have a fourth within the month. Here at the flight base the phone rings frequently, people asking “when is James going to be flying next?” “Is there space for me on the next flight?” “Is James back yet?” We need this plane in the very near future. Please pray with us as we shift our focus to getting this next plane ready to serve. If you choose to help financially with this project, please let me know that the money is specifically for 2668G so it doesn’t get incorporated into the normal operating fund

First Day Of Mission Flying!!!

Wednesday, October 26, was my first day flying in the interior of Guyana. It is a thrilling feeling to realize that this is what I’ve always dreamed of doing, and now here I am actually living my dream! We had 4 stops to make; Chenepau, Paramakatoi, Monkey Mountain, and Lethem, before heading back to Ogle airport in Georgetown.

Tuesday (the 25th) James and I had started out to fly this route. James had received word that Lincoln, with his family, had arrived in the town of Lethem after traveling through Brazil. Lincoln is an Amerindian (Guyanese Native American) from Paruima who received his pilot’s training in Bolivia. He and his family needed transportation up to Georgetown where they could get supplies together to go out to Paruima, where he will be training with James on the local runways as well.

We had the plane loaded up, fueled up, and ready to go. We said a prayer, and then fired up the engine. It did not want to run well. It was coughing and sputtering at idle and then it sputtered to a stop. We tried again. James pushed up the throttle a bit, then a little more. It ran smoother, however the manifold pressure didn’t look right, then he noticed that the manifold pressure was indicating inversely of what it should. When we pushed in on the throttle the numbers went down instead of up. Eh????  He shut it down. We climbed out and walked over to the hanger where they teach aviation mechanics. Fortunately, here at Ogle airport, the aviation mechanics' school does a lot of free labor; we just have to supply the parts. James asked the instructor about the odd engine behavior. The instructor suggested doing the full run up checklist. He thought that maybe too much water had made its way past the sumps, and into the carburetor, before we had done our pre-flight check. After the run up check the odd behavior was still very much present if not worse. We watched the engine monitor and noticed that the temps for cylinder number 5 were abnormally low. Cylinder Head Temperature (CHT) was less than 200F and Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) was also less than 200F. Normal CHT is about 300-425F and EGT is about 1000F or maybe a little hotter. We suspected a dead cylinder. Not a happy thought. We taxied back over to the hanger. 

With the students, we dove in, checking spark plugs and the cylinder compression. We checked the filter screens and drained the carburetor. EVERYTHING checked out perfect. Now what?!?!? As we were working on putting it all back in place and torquing bolts and plugs, one of the students reached up and touched an intake hose clamp…it moved. In fact it moved a lot. He also noted that another clamp was loose on the other side. Only those two clamps were loose, but we tightened all of them just to be safe. Something as simple as a hose clamp had allowed air to by-pass the carburetor and fuel. This was giving the odd readings on the manifold pressure, and a no fuel condition for cylinder number 5. We started the engine and it ran beautifully. The instructor also adjusted the idle a bit. He said that it is not uncommon for a new engine to have some issues pop up as it “wears in”, particularly in these few early hours. It was now too late in the afternoon to make the flight so we delayed until Wednesday.

Wednesday we got airborne and winged our way across the jungle. James is a great instructor; describing the processes of who you talk to on the radios at different points in the flight. Airspaces are not organized the same way as the airspaces in USA. In some ways it is easier because there are only 6-8 frequencies that are mostly used. In other ways it is more challenging in that there is little to no radar coverage. It is all based on reporting points. “Niner-1-1-3-Mike report crossing ____” “Niner-1-1-3-Mike what is your ETA at ____” It is also interesting that you need to know what all the other planes are doing in the area. IE: We have to take note that a Cessna Caravan “Tango-Kilo” just departed Paramakatoi 13 mins ago and headed for Eugene Correia (Ogle Airport) at 8,500'. Pilots are constantly relaying information for each other. If we are out of range of the main control area, but “Tango-Kilo” is in range, he forwards our flight plan information to air traffic control.

 We flew over Kaieteur Falls the world’s highest single drop waterfall, then on to Chenepau to leave some supplies for the church.

It was a little intimidating looking at the terrain coming up to meet us. As we neared Chenepau I noted mountains on the east side of the runway. We had to make the approach from the SE next to the mountain and skim the trees and try to touch down as close to the runway threshold as possible. WOW!!! Oh!! Wait, hit the brakes. Whew…. Up to this point the shortest runway I had ever used was the Dog Iron Ranch runway at Will Rodger’s birth place museum in Oklahoma. It was 1800’ and it had felt short. This was 1200’!

No time to waste. We unloaded and taxied back out and, HUMMM now to take off of this strip…
On the climb out we had to turn to avoid another mountain not far off the departure end of the runway. It was a short 15 minute hop to Paramakatoi (PK) which is nestled up even closer to the mountain. I had a hard time spotting the runway at first. At this one the mountain is on the south side with a smaller knoll almost in the approach path. Let’s just say I had to keep drying my palms as I worked my way down to set up a solid approach path; right turn to parallel the runway, then descending left turn around the knoll, and between the knoll and another hill. James said “this one is paved, careful of the ravine at the approach end.” As I surveyed the view out the front I thought “OH you mean AT the approach end. Don’t even think about touching down early…”  I was trying not to remember James Harris’ story about branches in the wheels as I skimmed over the tree tops. Touchdown!!!! Paved??? Well kinda… layers of tar and quarter sized gravel… at least the gravel isn’t going to get sucked up into the prop. PK’s runway is only 1100’, but being paved you can stop quicker. 

We off loaded a suitcase of Sabbath School felts to the church, and some clothes for distribution. Then out we rolled again. Off to Monkey Mountain, another 15 minutes or so.

This one wasn’t so bad. Again it was nestled against the mountains but nothing too crazy to have to dodge. The runway had an uphill component and… a bent up airplane parked off to the south side of the runway 2/3rds of the way down, offering a silent word of caution to the next pilot. We pulled off in the parking area and shut down the engine. Here we wanted to check on a Bible worker and leave some food supplies and some cash, as well as some Sabbath School felts for the local church. He and his wife were 
already at the airstrip with their backpacks and suit cases… eh? “We are here to get a plane ride to Georgetown. My eyes so bad I see doubles and triples, and this spot on my ear it no heal many months.” (That is the gist of what he said. I’m still trying to figure out the accents that are used here.) James was thinking that we could help him out with his ticket on one of the small commercially operated flights. As we were discussing it, another gentleman strode over and informed us that there were no further scheduled flights until Friday. We made room in the plane for the two passengers after delivering the non perishable food items to their house not too far distant.

We also had an extra can of gas. We put the gas in the wing to keep the weight somewhat forward. Otherwise the can full of gas would have ended up in the luggage compartment shifting the weight further aft. We would fly them to Lethem further south; to where there is a bus that could take them to Georgetown. We couldn’t take them to Georgetown ourselves because we already had Lincoln and his family that needed to go from Lethem to Georgetown and they were already waiting on us. We loaded up and taxied out. We made a quick check of the engine monitor and the related systems-everything was in the green. We lined up for takeoff from the 1200’ gravel uphill runway. There was that bent up airplane in the weeds again, silently reminding us…

James verbally walked me through the take off abort process, and helped me select a good go/no-go point on the runway. Off we went, easing the throttle forward so as to reduce the number of rocks and sand getting pulled into the prop. The numbers looked good well before the abort point and the 235 hp pulled us airborne. We worked our way south following Brazil’s eastern border. A direct route would have put us in Brazilian airspace, something we did not have clearance to do. Soon we were arriving in Lethem. WOW a beautiful paved runway of 3000’!!! Dirt taxi ways, but-hey I’ll take the paved runway.

Jacob is in the fore ground talking with me, and the Bible worker and his wife in the background

After we landed we were met by Jacob, a worker at our TV station in Lethem.

We had with us his long awaited trumpet that he was so anxious for. I don’t know the full story of how it came to be at the flight base in Georgetown, but now he has his very own trumpet. I was able to give him a few pointers on how to care for and play it, as he had only played one once. I will have another chance to work with him when he comes to Paruima in two weeks for the youth congress.

Lincoln, his wife, and their two boys, ages 6 months and 3 years, arrived and loaded up. Since Lincoln is also a pilot and needs to gain experience as a pilot in Guyana he flew the return trip. I hadn’t given much thought to the ride back. I just thought I would climb in the back seat and away we would go…

Whoever thought of putting a back window in the Cessna 182, was not thinking of tall people. I rode all the way back either resting my chin on my hands with my elbows on my knees or with the left ear of my headset on my shoulder…  (Sunday I climbed into the back seat of 8704T, the Cessna 182 that has been here working the last several years. It is 13 years older and does not have the back window. I have 3” above my head even while sitting up very straight.)

I spent the trip back either trying to nap a little or entertaining the 3 year old boy, Nathan.

We arrived in good time, and put the plane away. What adventures await with the next flight? Only God knows and He is the one that brought us here in the first place, we are here at His bidding. We have to learn to recognize His still small voice telling us how and when to go out and to come in. Pray for us as we have so much to learn.