More Missionary Flights Sunrise preflight inspection, a frequent occurrence when there is a busy flight  schedule. Flying, Flying! For the last three weeks of June and the first week of July I was busy flying while Herman took a break while their daughter was born. We flew about 60 hours in about four weeks. The 60 hours includes the flights that we told about in the "Medevacs and Missionaries" post. The following pictures are a selection of pictures from some of the flights we made after the flights that were included in the "Medevacs and Missionaries" post. We made a multipule stop, overnight flight for the ADVenir TV network. We took engineers to towns and cities in the lowlands of Bolivia so that they could do some technical studies for the TV network.    Heading north from Santa Cruz we passed over much jungle. Nearing our first stop we passed over a large area of swamp. For about ten minutes we were flying  over swamp as far as you could see. The TV engineers with the Mooney on the ramp of the first airport where we stopped. This is what these dirt runways look like. The runway centerline more or less follows the cow path. The next stop was a larger airport. It has a gravel runway instead of a dirt runway. This is the arrivals door to the terminal where arriving passengers enter the terminal from the airplanes. The next picture is a closer shot of what is says on the glass of the door. It says that it is prohibited to enter the terminal riding a motorcycle. Here the airport was located inside the town so the engineers performed their work in the terminal, analyzing radio emissions in frequency spectrums. At the next stop the airport was a grass runway that often floods, so they built a concrete ramp to park on. However, they built it a bit elevated above the taxiway from the runway. The little 200 horse Mooney did not  have the guts to make it all the up on the ramp with four people in the plane, but  with only one person it hopped up on the platform. Our next stop was next to the  mountains on the horizon.   Chinese Hunda, not to be confused with Japanese Honda. The Atlanta native Coca Cola meets the South American native Coka Quina. Some of these places had slim pickings for vegetarians. If you don't mind fried  carbohydrates then you may not go hungry. Our next stop was a paved airport with potholes in Rurrenabaque, and another sunrise preflight inspection. This is why a Mooney is so good for this type of flying between airports with no fuel. 4.9 gallons per hour is not bad. This is the second day of flying and we have 32 gallons left onboard. We made two more stops at airports with dirt runways. At the second stop, an active TV transmitter was repaired and was able to be put back on the air. We ended up making a fuel stop at the city named Trinidad that is 200 nautical miles north of Santa Cruz, because I was too yellow bellied to try a 300 nautical mile flight with only 20 gallons onboard even though the plane could have covered the distance in three hours burning four gallons per hour. We arrived in Santa Cruz with about a 50 gallon reserve rather than a five gallon reserve.   The TV network was awarded broadcasting licences in most of the towns and cities that we flew the engineers to. Praise the Lord. Next follows a few pictures of mission flights and another medevac flight. A picture of a flight moving volunteers to help build the new boys dorm at the school in Guayaramerin. A picture of Wes and Patty on the way to Rurrenabaque. They were on the way to join a mission trip up the river from Rurrenabaque in the mountains in a native village. We also flew a couple who were a doctor and nurse who were going on the same mission trip. This is another sunrise preflight inspection for a medevac flight I made to Rurrenabaque. The rising sun hitting the mountains after taking off from the TV station runway in Santa Cruz. The local news reports in Rurrenabaque interviewing the mother of the boy that we flew. The news channel was fundraising for the boy's medical expenses in Santa Cruz. They thought that the boy had a deformed hip bone that was causing his hip to be dislocated. They believed that he would need surgery to correct it. The boy was in very much pain and the only other option was a one or two day trip over very rough roads to either La Paz or Santa Cruz. The boy after we landed in Santa Cruz. They gave him pain medications when he got in the plane, that is why he was smiling for the picture. I want to thank all those who support us so we can do this work. This is made possible by people like you. I want to thank those who support us in prayer and financially. Thank you for being a blessing to these people. God bless, Steven, Helen, Timothy, and James Wilson We are volunteer missionaries entirely funded by donations. 100% of your donations go directly to us and our project in Bolivia. If you'd like to be a part, we accept tax-deductible donations through Gospel Ministries International, Inc. Donate via: 1.  PayPal  (timt@gospelministry.org) 2.  Check:  P.O. Box 506, Collegedale, TN 37315 With either method, please include a note stating:  "Bolivia Aviation Services - Wilson" Thanks for your support!

Finally Moving! Finally Moving! Greetings from Bolivia. We were at the school outside of Guayaramerin Bolivia for about three weeks. This is why you have not heard from us for a while. The internet at the school is very slow and poor, so it makes communicating more difficult. The other reason, as you have seen in our other emails, is that we have been very busy. I made a second flight for the TV network with the same engineers as before. This time one of our stops was the city of Riberalta. There I met the owner of this C-47. He offered to trade the C-47 for the Mooney. I knew him from when I had been flying out of Riberalta in 2009 and 2010. I learned that he has a flight school at the airport in Riberalta. The city of Riberalta is a small city half an hour from the school and about an hour from Guayarmerin. There are only two airline flights a day into Riberalta and the weather is much better than in Santa Cruz for flight training. Often the guys doing flight training in Santa Cruz go to the airport only to find that the wind is too strong for them to fly. Thirth trips to town might get them ten hours flying time. I thought that half an hour driving through the country to go to a flight school to get a Bolivian pilot's license would be much better than driving in an hour and half of stop and go traffic in the city. The airport in Santa Cruz is so busy that you sometimes spend half an hour waiting in line for fuel, and then you spend half an hour waiting to take off at the end of the runway. This is the Rio Yata. We crossed it heading to Riberalta. The school is located a few kilometers from this river. This is a picture of the Rio Yata about 100 miles south of the school. This is what it looks like as you near Riberalta. Trees as far as you can see. After getting back from Riberalta Jeff Sutton asked me if I could do some work on his airplane, which was at the airport. I needed to fuel the Mooney anyways, so it was an excuse to fly the Mooney from the property to the airport to work on his plane, and avoid driving in the city traffic. His plane is the twin engine plane in this picture. It is an Aerostar, a Piper Aerostar to be exact, not to be confused with a Ford Aerostar. I did an oil change on his plane, but did not have time to fix some small things that I noticed, nor look at a few other things he wanted me to look at. Helen, Timothy, and James came with me to work on Jeff's plane. Timothy strapped in the pilot's seat. To head back to the TV station we had to wait to back taxi behind two Boeing 737's, one of which is outside the little window. During this time we were getting very worn out. Also, at the same, time all the dogs on the TV station campus were exposed to rabies. All the dogs on the campus, except one, were put down even if they were vaccinated. That is a precaution that is done due to the deadly nature of Rabies because the vaccine is not always effective. Our dog had not been vaccinated yet to Rabies, so she had to be put down before she became contagious. Herman said he was available to fly, so we decided to go somewhere else, take a break and let things blow over. Here is our stuff packed and ready to go into the Mooney. We flew the Mooney over to the airport to finish the few things on Jeff's airplane. We finished working on Jeff's plane. We loaded and fueled both planes. We left the Mooney fueled on the ramp for Herman. We got in Jeff's plane and went with him to Guayaramerin. The view out of Jeff's plane on the way to Guayaramerin. The best way for me to take a break was to be left were there were no airplanes. This is where we stayed at the school temporarily. Ironically this was where Helen lived when I first met Helen in 2009. This is where we were offered to stay last year when we first started making plans to move. This is the old church at the school. It is a roof with a floor and three half walls. It would require some improvement to work as a house, but this is what our house was like in Santa Cruz when we moved in. Timothy is learning to be a country boy. This is where the laundry is washed. The first thing Timothy did was fall in the water, but his life jacket worked and we pulled him out. Since then his sense of balance and respect for water has improved. Soon after arriving, two lambs were born. Timothy just had to climb in and meet them. I took the boys for a walk to let Helen take a nap. That dog is the mother of our dog. Testing the inflatable boat that I flew to the school a few years ago. It needs some patches due to rats chewing holes in to compartments, but it is fixable and we can buy the materials on the internet. This boat is for medical missionary work on the rivers near the school, or not so near the school. It is very transportable. Here is a change of scenery for the airplane mechanic, an electronic fuel injected outboard boat motor. This is the motor for the inflatable boat. We plan on using this to get to remote places near rivers where there is no airstrip. You can put the boat in the airplane and fly to the nearest airstrip and then take the boat out of the airplane. I changed the oil and cleaned the filters on the motor. The motor had been stored in a way that the cylinders had filled with oil. I took the spark plugs out and pulled the motor through a couple times to clear the oil out of the cylinders. Then I put the engine on the boat and the motor ran fine. The oil in the cylinders kept the insides of the engine from rusting while it was stored. This is the airstrip that is under construction at the school. It still needs some work, but it is coming along. The picture does not show how rough the far end is. I think that in an emergency an empty Cessna 182 could land and take off on it, but it would be difficult due to obstacles not in the picture. This is what it looks like beside the airstrip where we plan on building a house and a hangar. This is the building methods that we plan to use to build a house for the aviation project at the school. The estimated cost for the structure is about $5,500. That includes floor, walls, and roof. This is the new boy's dormitory that is being built. Our house will also be made of concrete block, made right there at the school. The estimated cost for a cement floor and block for walls for the house  aviation house is about $3,000. This is the school's block machine that they use to make concrete blocks. The materials for each block costs $1 US. This includes fuel to run the machine, materials, and the transportation of the materials. For sale externally, the blocks are sold for more so they can make a profit. The school has a backhoe for the heavy work. This is the construction method used in the roof of the new church at the school. They plan to use the same materials  to build the roof of the new boys dormitory. We hope to build the roof of the aviation project house with the same method. The expected cost for the roof of the house will be about $2,500. This is where it gets interesting. The steel and the better quality sheets of roofing are not locally available. The school is planning on sending it's truck to Santa Cruz in one week to take a group of students to help with construction at the TV station in Santa Cruz for two weeks. They then plan on buying the roofing materials in Santa Cruz and taking it back with them to the school with the truck. We hope to buy roofing materials as well, so that it can be sent on the truck, but don't have enough funds. By taking advantage of this opportunity we can cut down the overall cost of the roof. Please pray with us that God provides money in the next week and a half for the roofing materials. We are planning on sending our things with the truck, and that will complete our move to Guayara.  I want to thank every one who supports us with prayers and financially. This is made possible by people like you. Thank you for being a blessing to the people here. God bless, Steven, Helen, Timothy, and James Wilson We are volunteer missionaries entirely funded by donations. 100% of your donations go directly to us and our project in Bolivia. If you'd like to be a part, we accept tax-deductible donations through Gospel Ministries International, Inc. Donate via: 1.  PayPal  (timt@gospelministry.org) 2.  Check:  P.O. Box 506, Collegedale, TN 37315 With either method, please include a note stating:  "Bolivia Aviation Services - Wilson" Thanks for your support!

T182 Annual Inspection Annual Inspection Of The T182, It's That Time Of Year Again It was that time of year again. Then annual inspection of the turbo charged Cessna 182 was due at the end of June. After finishing the work painting the Mooney we started working on the inspection of the turbocharged Cessna 182. The T182 was what I was working on over the end of June and into July while I was not flying. The inspectors most commonly used tools, flashlight and mirrors. The maintenance crew from right to left; Johannes, Gadiel, Timothy, Wes, and Arthur. The supervisor with his screw driver at work. "Stuck!!" One of Timothy's favorite adjectives. Aircraft maintenance has been what I have spent most of the time doing over the past year. I have made some flights, but just keeping the planes going keeps this crew busy, and keeping this crew busy has kept me busy. There are still some unairworthy defects with this plane that need to be corrected so that this plane can fly again.   I am currently working on finishing correcting the last unairworthy defects that this plane has. We are then planning on flying this plane to Miami for engine overhaul and an inspection that is required for it to become a Bolivian registered airplane. We hope to have the last defects corrected this week and we hope to be flying this plane to Miami the following week. We will be at least visiting the Atlanta, GA and Collegedale, TN areas during this trip. We are not sure yet how long we will be in the US. We will be in the US  while waiting for this airplane to be ready to be flown back to Bolivia. I want to thank every one who supports us so we can do this work. Thank you every one who supports us financially and those who support us in prayer. God bless, Steven, Helen, Timothy, and James. We are volunteer missionaries entirely funded by donations. 100% of your donations go directly to us and our project in Bolivia. If you'd like to be a part, we accept tax-deductible donations through Gospel Ministries International, Inc. Donate via: 1.  PayPal  (timt@gospelministry.org) 2.  Check:  P.O. Box 506, Collegedale, TN 37315 With either method, please include a note stating:  "Bolivia Aviation Services - Wilson" Thanks for your support!