Supporting Missions

Having seen recently two missionary couples that we support, I want throw out a brief blurb for them.  Especially since they have made room to visit my home and I didn’t manage to get time off for either visit!  Both couples are a part of Wycliffe Bible Translators, an incredible organization dedicated to translating the Bible into every language in the world.  There are currently 6000+ known languages and only about 2200 have a writing system as well, so in addition the challenge of translation, there is often a parallel challenge of developing a system of writing and then teaching individuals how to read.  Wycliffe has a goal of translating all languages by 2025 - they have a neat layout of the vision and language statistics at: www.vision2025.org.

Bobby de Vos and his wife Naomi will soon be traveling to somewhere in Asia as tourists.  Per their request, I’ll have to leave it up to your imagination to decide what they do since changing religions or influencing the change of religion seems to be frowned upon where they will be staying for the next several years.  I will note, however, while both are language specialists, Bobby works with languages that only computers can interpret.

Roy and Becky Eyre are US based and will likely continue to be so for the near future.  Roy has been tasked with developing young leaders within Wycliffe to help motivate and guide the organization toward it’s impossible goals.  See more about this at thebackrowleader.com.  In addition to being a mother of 3 and supportive wife, Becky is also highly active in assisting with administration of Wycliffe.

If you ever considered missions but decided you did not have the back ground for it, I’d like to point out that Bobby graduated from Georgia Tech in the field of Computer Science and Becky is also a Georgia Tech with a Chemical Engineering major.

If you have never considered missions, please consider supporting these two couples as they strive to translate the Bible into every language so that everyone in the world can read it in their native language.

Gone Fishing

Every spring I make my way to the North Georgia hills for a few days of camping and trout fishing with my father-in-law and men from his church.  It’s a nice get away from the real world – there is no power, no running water and absolutely no cell phone coverage.  And the scenery is awesome!  I’ve always loved camping, regardless of the weather. 

 There’s just something about making a cocoon in a sleeping bag on a cold night or listening to the steady beat of rain against the canvas of the tent that takes an otherwise miserable environment and makes it enjoyable.  Of course, when returning to civilization, the creature comforts are that much more appreciated.

Now, the fishing part of the trip is something I attempt – usually with little success.  Through the years, I have snagged more rocks, sticks, trees, weeds, etc than fish and lost many, many lures to said rocks, sticks, trees, weeds, etc.  If fishing were a survival skill that my family depended on to survive, we’d starve.  While I admittedly don’t have some of the necessary equipment like waders that would enhance my chances, my problem more likely stems from the only practicing once a year.  Fortunately, I enjoy nature and solitude and so catching lots of fish is not a top priority.

I arrived early Wednesday morning and was just getting started casting spinners near the bridge (see above) when two guys from our camp who had also arrived early approached.   John and Chris had been told by a park ranger that a helicopter had dropped several loads of stock up the creek the day before.  So we made our way there and each found a good spot to settle in.  Per custom, my first catch of the day was most likely a rock – it was at least 6 pounds based on the tested rating of my fishing line when it snapped trying to reel it in.  After several unsuccessful casts, I finally managed to reel in a trout sized piece of bark -  a good catch, but not what I was after.  It honestly didn’t take too much longer before I caught my first fish, a few minutes after John and Chris caught their first fish.

Just a few minutes later, my line became completely tangled and I was forced to hike back to my vehicle to get the new line that I had the foresight to acquire before the trip but had neglected to carry with me.  Just a half mile hike back to the bridge where my truck was and another half mile hike back to the spot.  When I returned, both guys had caught another four fish apiece and exclaimed how quickly the fish started biting as soon as I left.  Typical.  As noon rolled around, I found myself with two more fish – not a bad start to the morning at all, although as usual, I was lagging behind my peers.

Afternoon rolled around and as the rest of the crew arrived and we set up camp, the stock truck passed our campsite making its way up the gravel road to drop off fresh stock at the bridge.  I wasted no time heading that way considering these new fish might just be dumb enough to bite at my lures.  When I arrived, there was already a couple already staking out one side of the creek there, so I crossed to the other side and began the futile effort of casting my lures.  

As I continued to come up empty, the woman across from me is sitting up on a rock below the bridge that is about four feet out of the water and I watch as she seems to catch a fish with every other cast.  With a very full figure (I’m being as nice as I can there), a yappy lap dog, cigarette hanging off her lips, and a beer at her side, she’d toss her corn in, hook her fish and pull it over to shore where her guy would net the fish, unhook it and put more corn on the hook.  In less than 30 minutes, they caught the maximum 8 fish each and waved me over, suggesting that I try their spot.  I figured if they could do so well while drinking beer, smoking and letting their little rat dog yip, I could too!

So I cross back over and begin fishing the same spot and come up with nothing.  By this time, other members of our camp start wandering in and my father-in-law wades in across the creek in the same spot I was in earlier.  On his second cast and he catches a fish.  I look up-stream in time to see that Rodney was also reeling one in.  Fairly disgusted, I decided to stick it out where I was at and was soon rewarded with a catch of four fish in quick succession.

I had been there for about an hour after my last catch with no more luck when a new group of guys (likely locals) showed up.  One set up in my old spot across the creek and another setup a few feet down stream from me.  The guy down stream cast once and reeled one in.  A couple of casts later, he had another one.  In less than 15 minutes he nailed four fish while casting right beside me!  Of course, the guy across the creek got one too.  I ended the day with a catch of 7.  Not quite the limit, but more than I had caught on any prior trip total.

If you think the above is exaggeration it’s not, although the following is slightly - Chris was fly fishing not far from me and was not interested in keeping them so each fish was catch-and-release for him.  On one particular fish, he reeled it in, pulled out of the water and had it at eye level when it slapped him with it’s tail and jumped right off the hook!  Ok, so it only splashed him a little, but according to Chris, it was close enough that he was actually giving it a quick kiss before letting it go.

Thursday morning I set out early and was rewarded with 3 quick catches at the bridge before 8AM rolled around.  Didn’t get another bite that morning but figured I had just gotten lucky that morning.  At lunch, I discovered my luck wasn’t so good after all – most of the group was either near or at their limit of 8 fish already!  I did find a good spot that afternoon though and managed to catch my limit as well.  I could have been done much earlier but I had several jump hook just as I pulled them out of the water.  Still behind the curve compared to the rest of the group, but much improved for me! 

Friday was not nearly so successful with only 4 fish caught, but with a three day catch of 20 fish, I had more than equaled my previous three year total.  I also spend several hours hiking up and down stream.  Fortunately, everyone in the family likes fish and we don’t require the fish for survival!

Maintenance Gone Wild

At the end of March it was discovered that a required inspection was not done on 60 of our 156 jets, requiring that all of them be grounded until the inspection was complete.  Several months back, GE issued a directive that the engines on this aircraft had to have a bore scope inspection every 4000 hours of use in addition to other routine inspections.  Apparently, someone in MX management forgot to schedule this!  It took about a day and a half to clear up the mess and get all 60 inspected and back to scheduled flying.  I’m happy to report, all of the inspections found healthy engine interiors.

While this is can’t be considered a non-issue, it’s not as scary as it might sound at first.  As I’ve said before, airline airplanes are inspected frequently and incredibly well maintained.  In addition, for every critical system that we have, we have a fully functioning backup and sometimes a backup for the backup.  Also, anyone who works on vehicles will tell you that any vehicle (car, train, boat, plane) benefits from regular use and airline airplanes certainly get used!  So, despite my rant today, airline airplanes are incredibly safe!

Because of the fiasco at the beginning of the month, MX has really struggled this month to catch up.  Every day I have flown this month we have had at least one flight with a problem that required additional MX attention.  Usually, the problem involved a noncritical system that we could defer fixing and rely on the back-up, but at least once each week, the problem has caused a delay of an hour or more because the system was required to be fully functional (See Sunchips).

This afternoon’s flight was a perfect example of the cascading problems for the month.  We were assigned an airplane that had just been towed over from the main MX hanger.  Talking to another flight crew earlier in the day, we learned that they attempted to depart Atlanta earlier in the day, only to have a sensor declare that the gear did not retract fully.  So they returned immediately and we found out from MX that in the rush to complete a routine inspection the night before, a sensor wire had been knocked loose.

Well, as we went through the long list of items to be tested when receiving and airplane from MX, we discovered one fire detection loop on the one of the engines was not reading correctly.  No problem, we have two.  Deferred.  As we continue, the flight attendant lets us know that an arm rest for seat 10C was broken.  No problem, remove and deferred.  She also discovered that the toilet paper holder was bent.  As ridiculous as that issue sounds, we cannot fly the airplane unless every single part is either working correctly or appropriately deferred in the MX log.  So, again, deferred.

Having delayed boarding by about 30 minutes to defer these items, we finally begin the boarding process.  With all 50 passengers aboard, we took a couple of extra minutes to do the paperwork by hand because our standard electronic system is deferred and finally try to close the exterior door.  After pulling the door into place, the flight attendant attempts several times to pull the level that engages the locking mechanisms into place.  Its a fairly loud process and I’m sure it did not boost the confidence of our 50 passengers to hear the repeated bangs.  

She finally gave up and the captain sent me back to give it a go.  I did my best not to make eye contact with the obviously concerned passengers up front while I pulled the door and then attempted to engage the locking level myself.  I make no claims in the strength department but after two attempts where I was sure I would either break or bend the lever without engaging the locks, I gave up as well.

We then called line MX and waited another 15 minutes with a full plane while they made their way to us.  They spent yet another 15 minutes raising and lowering the door while attempting several times to engage the locks, again with a plane full of passengers.  By fiddling with the door MX was able to achieve a 50% success ratio engaging the locks before declaring that the airplane would have to be taken back to the hanger and the door taken off to be re-rigged (whatever that entails).  So we kicked off a plane full of passengers and sat around for another 30 minutes while operations found another aircraft for us.

Having been called at 4:30AM that morning for the day’s assignment, I was rapidly approaching the point where if I were to attempt the round trip, I would pass the maximum allowed duty limit of 16 hours.  Although operations had a little trouble digesting that tidbit when I explained it to them, by the time we got a new airplane, the paperwork for the flight did not include my name.  And, so I went home (and not even early).

I’m guessing things will improve as MX catches up and no longer feels the need to rush through everything, so I’m just ranting for the sake of ranting here.  At least the passengers made it to their destination though!

Rabbit Surprise

Ok, this has absolutely nothing to do with flying. Oh, well.

With spring comes pretty flowers, growing grass and bunnies that breed, well, like bunnies. Being the proud (if not willing) owner of two homes, I have two large lawns to care for, although one seems to get neglected a bit more since we moved out. So I took the mower over this morning to cut the lawn for only the second time since November. This is the only advantage I see to winter - the grass doesn’t grow! Well, the yard was more jungle than anything else, so I pulled the mower deck up to high and set to work.

Mowing a full acre of grass takes a minute or two and I had progressed to the fenced in back yard where my youngest (Tori) could simply disappear into the jungle. I was literally down to two more passes when I hit an unexpected bump and looked back to see that I had passed over and uncovered a rabbit’s nest smack in the middle of the yard! Other than to say it wasn’t as gruesome as it could have been, I won’t go into detail about the mama. I located and disposed of her before the kids ran up to find out why I had stopped. While I am sad about that part, I also have to wonder about the wisdom of building your nest in the middle of a lawn that had been mowed not two weeks prior!

Well, thankfully, the mama had dug in a bit to make her nest so the mower deck passed harmlessly over the nest itself and we found inside three baby bunnies. They were nestled inside a mix of dried grass with shed fur mixed in and they huddled together with their eyes closed, though one did open an eye to check out the action. For some reason we still had a terrarium in the garage, so we transfered the orphaned bunnies to it and Rebecca happily gave up her jacket to bundle them up and keep them warm.

At this point, the girls are thinking ‘Yea! New pets!’ while, after seeing the mother, I was alternating between food supply and release. I paid for my evil thoughts - as I set the terrarium into the truck, a sliver of glass sliced my hand, just below the palm. Did you know that your hand has lots of blood vessels just below the skin surface and will bleed profusely if cut just so? I did verify with my sister-in-law (paramedic) that it would not require stitches and stopped the bleeding before going on. Guess I need another tetanus shot though.

I followed up with lots of reading that was punctuated frequently that I should not assume the baby rabbits were abandoned or orphaned. Regrettably, I was safe with that assumption. I also discovered that wild rabbits do not make good pets (whew!). While they can adjust to one or two care takers, kids were a little too scary for them and they do not deal well with other pets, like, say two cats and two dogs. Our best bet now is to feed them formula cocktail until they can eat greens and then release them back to the wild. Believe it or not, young rabbits are ready to be on their own at 4-5 weeks old!

So, it’s off to the store for supplies and hopefully we can safely send these little guys on their way. Although, as one author pointed out, our chances of success are not terribly good and, if every baby rabbit survived, we’d be over run with rabbits! A bit grim, but I’ll do my best to give them a fighting chance, even if I’m the one who reduced their chances in the first place!

As an aside, I found a way to relate this to flying. Ok, I’m stretching here but it amused me. One article I read suggested carrying one of the babies around at work in a shirt pocket. He says it provides comfort and warmth along with the ability to feed more often. Can you see it? You board the plane, glance at the pilot and see two little brown ears sticking out of his bulging pocket. Flying bunnies anyone?

Shake, Rattle and Hurl

We had a hurler last night and it reminded me of my first airline trip as a pilot.  It started on a pretty day in April when I was in the aircraft for the first time with passengers.  Let me clarify – the first time I set foot on one of our airplanes was to fly a revenue flight full of passengers.  Don’t worry, we get lots of training prior to this and then fly with a specialized captain for several weeks, but that’s an entirely different story.

With one round trip under my belt and the promise of a nice overnight, we were second in line for takeoff when the flight attendant call button went off.  DING DONG.  The captain switches to the intercom to talk to her and after a moment, he looks over to me and says ‘We’ve got a passenger in the lavatory throwing up.”  About that time, ATC (air traffic control) calls ‘Acey xxxx, position and hold, runway 27 right.’  The captain immediately called them back with ‘Unable, we have a passenger up.’  ATC asked us to let them know when we were ready and we went back to talking with the flight attendant.

Our poor flight attendant relates to us how the girl in 15c got sick in her seat, again on the way to the lav and again in the lav.  It was a warm evening and the plane was nearly full so if we took off.  If we took off, the passengers would have to suffer through the mess, since we did not have the proper tools or chemicals to clean the vomit up.  Believing it to be motion sickness, the captain put the decision to a vote and the passengers unanimously decided to continue on to our destination.  It was only an hour flight and returning to the gate would have added at least another hour if not canceling the flight altogether!  Brave souls, they were!

So, we let ATC know we were ready, they stop bypassing us (at least five took off while we were settling the issue) and we were cleared for take off!  We were about halfway to our destination when we heard the familiar Ding Dong again.  Our flight attendant was calling to let us know the girl was back in the lav again, presumably finishing what she had started earlier.  A little concerned that we had made a poor choice by continuing our flight, the captain asked the flight attendant to keep us updated.  The update came shortly when the flight attendant let us know that our girl was back in her seat but looked a little gray and pasty.

Although the girl was insisting she was fine, the captain decided it would be prudent to have paramedics meet us when we landed, just in case it was something more serious than motion sickness.  We landed without further incident and after parking, we came to realize our passengers must have been very serious about wanting to go home.  When we opened the cockpit door, a very rank odor quickly poured in.  As I said before, brave passengers!  The paramedics boarded quickly and escorted our girl off.  She was pale, but otherwise walked off unassisted.

After all the other passengers departed, we left the foul smelling airplane in the trusty hands of the overnight cleaning crew.  I won’t describe the carnage in the back because it was awful.  Brave passengers.  Walking through the terminal, we saw our girl sitting with the paramedics waiting for her boyfriend to come pick her up.  She smiled weakly and waved a quiet thank you.  We had a very nice overnight, but that wouldn’t be a fun ending to the story!

The next morning the captain received a call from one of our chief pilots and the first question asked was, “Why did you knowingly carry a drunken passenger last night?”  For understanding, Federal Aviation Regulations specifically prohibit us from knowingly transporting drunken passengers.  Apparently, someone in our operations decided that we had to have known (I mean, com’ on, it was obvious, right?) and filed their report with that specific phrasing.  After a brief moment of silence due to shock, the captain disavowed knowledge of any drunken passengers.  Semi-satisfied (you can never please the chief pilots), the chief pilot then filled the captain in on what occurred after we left the airport.

Apparently, the police in the small town where we landed were otherwise unoccupied and decided to come see what their paramedic buddies were up to at the airport.  As they arrived, our girl’s boyfriend shows up to pick her up.  Drunk.  That’s right, he was .20 BAC drunk and drove to the airport to pick her up.  He earned a free ride to the county sponsored hotel (the one with bars).

Inspired, the policemen reasoned that they should probably check out our girl as well.  Guess what?  She was drunk too!  Not motion sick or plagued with an infectious disease, just plain drunk!  Her BAC was only .10, but that was with a couple of hours to metabolize and purge.  Apparently, it was party night both in Atlanta and the small city we flew into.  Our ‘poor girl’ got to spend the night, separately, in the same nice accommodations as her thoughtful boyfriend!  Justice would have been to make her clean the airplane, but what do I know?

Personally, I have learned to distrust the motion sickness excuse, but we did bounce a lot yesterday.

Accidents Happen

The downside to having a flying job is that I’m gone a lot.  This means if something goes wrong and Kimberly needs help with the kids or face-to-face adult interaction, she has to reach out to friends and family to get it.  It’s easy to take for granted the individuals around us who are so willing to help,  but I can’t stress enough how important having a good network of relatives, church and friends is when a pilot leaves their spouse and kids for days at a time.

Earlier this week, Kimberly was involved in an accident while on her way to pick up the kids after work.  I was on the last round trip flight of a four day trip and, after landing and deplaning the passengers, I noticed that I had a voice mail.  Normally, I don’t even turn my phone on for turns between legs but I had left it on earlier.  Though we were early and had extra time, I completely forgot about the message until we had taxied out and were holding short of the runway waiting for take-off.  When the tower advised us of a 15-minute departure delay going into Atlanta, I remembered the message and pulled out the phone to check.

Kimberly’s voice mail was short - she said something to the effect of ‘I don’t want you to worry, but I was in a wreck on the way home.  I’m OK, the front corner of the car is crunched and Pastor Lee has gotten me and the kids.  Call me when you get back.”  Knowing that I was in the air, she intentionally did not call for at least an hour so that her voice would not sound so stressed. (Inserted per editorial demand.)  I must have said something aloud or made a face because the captain asked if everything was alright.  I told him my wife was in an accident and asked if he minded if I called her quickly.  I did make the call quick - made sure she wasn’t hurt and told her I’d hurry home.  She commented that she was fine, but sore and requested (with a laugh) that I not beat her tonight.  I figured she must be OK if the sense of humor was there.  And, no, I am most certainly not a wife beater!   Not much more I could do from Akron, OH.  When I got into Atlanta and was on the bus to our parking lot, I called her back and she filled me in on what had happened.

At the four way stop she had just turned south from, there was a long line vehicles waiting their turn to continue northbound.  A couple of hundred yards down the road, a guy was t

rying to turn left out of a driveway to go southbound.  A construction worker thought it was all clear and waved the guy out.  With a ditch on one side and a line of cars on the other, Kimberly had little choice but to slam on the brakes, swerve and impact the guy who pulled out in front of her.  The car spun a bit and the rear tires ended up just off of the road, but by maneuvering, she had avoided a more direct impact as well as hitting anything on the side of the road.

Most people would call 911 first, but Kimberly heard that someone else was doing it and immediately called the daycare.  The daycare we use is relatively small and there are usually only three workers there at a time, including the manager.  When Kimberly called, Ms. Sandy quickly offered to bring the kids to her or come get her and take them all home.  Figuring Ms. Sandy already had her hands full, Kimberly declined but simply asked that Ms. Sandy keep the kids a little past normal until she could come get them.  No problem there!

Kimberly then called our pastor, who also happens to be our cross-street neighbor, and he willingly came to get our car seats so that he could pick up the kids.  While Kimberly spoke with the sheriff, the firemen, and the paramedics, Pastor Lee picked up the kids and then came back to pick up Kimberly.  When he got back with the kids, our oldest, Rebecca, exclaimed, ‘I want to see the car!’  Considering the clean-up in progress, the active highway and Kimberly’s shaky nerves, our poor child’s request was denied.  At home, Kimberly called our insurance company and, although the other driver was at fault, they set up a rental car for us and made arrangements to begin repairs and coordinate all of this with the other driver’s insurance company.

Originally, Kimberly was hosting a Mercy Ministry committee meeting that night, but it was quickly moved across the street to our pastor’s home.  After Kimberly got off the phone 

with the insurance company, she wandered over to join them.  They asked how she was, expressed sympathies and then someone commented that she should have called one of the elders, Terry.  When Kimberly commented that Terry didn’t live as close as Pastor Lee, they pointed out he could have been there in a matter of minutes!  Terry said, ‘Yeah, I came to that intersection, saw the blue lights and went another way.’  He received a bit of good natured ribbing related to the progression of the Good Samaritan story.

I managed to make it home by 10:30PM, entirely too late to be useful to anyone!  Kimberly was still up and I would have offered a hug, but she had commented multiple times about how sore she was.  She settled for being held gently as I went to sleep that night still sore, but OK. She laid awake for awhile, occasionally scaring me awake with new comments.

The next night Kimberly showed me a copied page with the card below (from the officer at the accident) on it along with a hand written note to call “Jessica” to make a report.  She had a somewhat sheepish look and said, ‘Wonder if any of my coworkers noticed this sitting on my desk all day long.’  She had to spell it out for me but if you look really closely, you’ll see her concern!

Again, I’ll say, it’s easy to take for granted those around us who are so willing to help.

The message was wife edited for factual content, re-edited for additional comments and approved.