The rear engine and propeller were due for overhaul. We had Firewall Forward in Ft. Collins, CO do the overhaul. Harvest Aviation in Wauchula, Florida was kind enough to donate their time and talent to take out the old engine and install the newly overhauled one.
A number of outstanding issues related to the annual for the Cessna 337, N6CV, needed to be addressed, including the need to overhaul both front and rear props, in addition to a number of other somewhat expensive maintenance issues.
We were able to attend the annual GCA Auction Fundraiser, held this year in Ann Arbor, MI and to re-connect with family, friends and supporters of GCA in this area.
David (Ezra) Jay came to us in Guatemala in 2005 where I spent over 40 hours training him for flight operations there. For the last several years, he has been working with the Flying Medical Service in Tanzania. He recently extended an invitation to visit. With our aircraft down for maintenance and with the help of a kind donation for the trip from a family that has been supporting GCA, I decided it would be a good time to go.
Once my student, Ezra Jay becomes my teacher while I have been here, the guest of FMS and Fr. Pat Patton. I am very happy to say the Ezra has followed the path of the true Humanitarian Missionary Pilot and shows the love of God to the people in this difficult land.
What follows are a few photos and brief descriptions of medical clinics that I have accompanied Ezra on.
We departed Arusha, Tanzania for a three day clinic in which we would visit four villages each day. At the end of each day, we overnighted at a hospital near the center of this service area. The next day, another four villages and the next... At each village, we saw and vaccinated an average of about 30 babies and recorded their growth statistics. Adults were also treated. Daily average of about 100 people. We always returned late and tired. These three-day rotations occur every two weeks so that about 25 villages are served. In addition, FMS provides emergency medical flights in and out of these same villages, much like Great Commission Air does in the Ixcan. For three days, we traveled all over northern Tanzania visiting small Masai villages where Tanzanian medical service providers treat the patients. The pilot(s) also help by loading syringes, administering vaccinations, weighting new babies and recording weights.
This photo shows us as we typically eat lunch on a folding table in the shade of the Cessna 206 wing. It is fascinating to hear Ezra speak fluently in Swahili with the villagers and medical staff.
This photo show Lake Nanton, a caustic soda lake that is so alkali that it causes burns on the skin. One of our clinics was in a Masai village near the shores of this lake. Though it looks like glassy water, the surface is actually a thin layer of salt crystals, about one-eighth of an inch thick.
In this photo, Ezra examines one of thousands of flamingo eggs that litter the salt covered shores of the lake. Apparently, this is a very big nesting area and thousands upon thousands of flamingos lost or abandoned their eggs here recently.
After completing a clinic at one of the many Masai villages, Ezra socializes with his friends, the Masai warriors (all holding spears and carrying other weapons). Ezra was invited to the wedding of the fellow in the center and asked me if I wanted to come along. He suggested we walk there from Arusha, a distance of about 100 miles.
I agreed that it would be fun. We might actually do it.
The Flying Medical Service aircraft, a stout Cessna 206 stands on the airstrip as we assist with the medical clinic under the shade of a nearby Acacia tree. The spears of the three Masai warriors, stuck in the dirt by he plane, can be seen in the foreground.
Ezra stands outside a mud and stick hut used as the clinic in this village, trying to keep the women from pushing their way into the six by eight foot room. The Clinician and I are inside. He examines the patients while I count out and package the medications he needs for them.
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