Where's Waldo (and Where's Rob)

The map on the left is generated by a service we use called Find-Me-Spot.

The service helps us keep track of where our aircraft (and pilot and passengers) are. When the "OK" button is pressed on our unit, an email is sent to Jennifer along with the coordinates of the plane allowing her to do flight following without the problematic HF radios we used to use.

The map is available on the web to the public, so even YOU can see where I am at any moment!

To see the map, updated in real-time, click here.
The URL is too long to list, but once you have viewed it, you might wish to save the URL address in your favorites list for later viewing.

If you click on the above link, you will see points of on my flights during the last 24 hours. The map is updated automatically when I press the check-in button. It will be different every day.

What follows is a description of what happened during my flights on Tuesday, the 22nd. A more or less typical day:

The Flight Plan (before reality set in):

Flight Leg 1: Pick-up Medical Missionaries
I had a scheduled flight to pick-up two medical missionaries from Barillas, a mountain town about 30 miles west of our base in Mayalan, who were working with Peggy Tuttle of Good Samaritan International.

Flight Leg 2: Pick up sick Mayan woman and accompanier
Last night, a missionary in the small village of La Gloria about 30 miles South, called me pleaded with me to pick-up a Mayan woman that was critically ill.

Flight Leg 3: Pick-up terminally ill grandmother for flight home
Last night, and this morning, a woman in Huehuetenango (waywaytenango) called and begged me to pick up her and her mother, who was terminally ill, to take her home to die in Barillas.

What Really Happened
I departed our base in the village of Mayalan at about 8:52, as the clouds were breaking up.
See my first check-in, #1 on the map. My first stop was Barillas to pick up the missionary women but my check-in did not register on the map. Barillas is about 25 miles West of Mayalan.

Barillas has a rough airstrip along the top of a ridge at an altitude of about 5,000´.

Rock Hits Propeller!
While landing, a rock was kicked up and put a big nick on one end of my newly overhauled rear propeller. I was genuinely unhappy about that. While I waited for my passengers, I filed the nick down into something that looked less like a bullet hole.

Two Women, Many Bags:
With the two women and their many bags loaded, we departed and made a course for La Gloria where the seriously ill woman was waiting for me on the airstrip.

La Gloria is on the map at the #3 point.

Mud, lots of mud, medical patient, more mud:
In La Gloria, we loaded the sick Mayan woman, lying down on the floor behind the co-pilot seat. I used some of the missionaries' bags to cushion her head, and put some others under her feet. I put others on the lap of her brother-in-law, whom was accompanying her, and some more on the lap of the missionary lady in the seat behind me. I put one or two more of the bags on top of my patient, in a way as to not cause discomfort. Needless to say, there were lots of bags.

With all the passengers, the patients and bags on board, we had a full house.

We took off from La Gloria, spewing mud as we lurched down the steeply sloped, no-go-around strip, and climbed above the clouds shrouding the ridges and headed to Guatemala City.

Guatemala City is #5 and #6 on the map.

Ask for an ambulance and get a crash truck:
I asked the approach controller to call for an ambulance and they reported that they had called one. Upon landing, we found that the airport's volunteer firemen had actually been summoned and were waiting for us with their small crash truck (not an ambulance). They eventually did call the actual ambulance for us and we all waited together for it to arrive.

Tried to buy fuel but VISA card declined!
After the ambulance arrived and picked-up our patient, the ride for our medical missionary ladies came and picked them up too. Being low on fuel and making a point to fill my tanks whenever in Guatemala City, I purchased 100 gallons of fuel, at a cost of nearly $7.00 per gallon.
Because we are a new customer in a foreign country, Capitol One VISA declined the charge (about $700) so I called them and also asked them to increase my credit limit, which they gladly did. A few minutes later, the charge was accepted and we were $700 poorer but really, really full of fuel.

I filed a flight plan for Huehuetenango, where the terminally ill grandmother was waiting for her flight BACK to Barillas. The place where I had earlier picked-up the medical missionary ladies.

Leg 3 to Huehuetenango Cancelled:
Before leaving Guate, Jennifer called Peggy Tuttle in Barillas and found out that the airstrip was now completely engulfed in clouds. There would be no landing in Barillas. I called the lady in Huehuetenango from my cell phone and gave her the bad news.

I did fly by the airstrip in Barillas on my way home just to see what it looked like. It looked like a cloud the size of a blimp had parked itself squarely on the airstrip. And only on the airstrip.

I continued past Barillas, over the ridge and coasted down 5000´ to sea-level where I made my landing in Mayalan ten minutes later.

Miller Time (almost):
It is now 3:00 pm. The plane is covered with mud (a result of landing in La Gloria and Mayalan). I need to off-load (siphon) about 50 gallons (that is 300 lbs) of the fuel that I purchased in Guatemala, and carry it from the plane to my little shed where I stockpile it in fuel drums for later this week.

After that, I will carry water from the rain barrel next to the same shed and wash the mud off the plane.

Then I will get the file out and reshape the tip (on both ends of the propeller) so that the nick will be smooth and both ends will be more or less equally distorted.

Just another day at GREAT COMMISSION AIR.

Bonus Features:
Video of Jennifer washing clothes by hand. Its really cute!



Video of me landing on the airstrip at Barillas:




Click here to view a video collage of video during my recent visit to Tanzania:




One final Note: I really need to tell you that GCA depends completely on your generous donations and your prayers. If you want to support this life-saving ministry, please consider donating: http://www.greatcommissionair.org/donate.php If you can not donate, we understand, but please pray for us and those we serve. Your prayers are more valuable to us than all the gold in the world.

Thank you and God Bless You!!!

Rob and Jennifer Rice
Great Commission Air