Comming soon

There are many questions left unanswered. Where is friend #2? Will the Dragon lady ever stop buying dragons? What happened to the 172 with the cowl cover? What will happen to the little Cardinal at the big airports, Does it have what it takes to join LAN Chile ?

All these questions and more will be answered in the future. Check back once in while and we will keep you updated on the adventures of the Lost Ducks.

Bye for now

John

Going Home

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Barb continues to make remarkable achievements, not only did she get us to land at the international airport but ground control parked her near the terminal where Lorne and I were met by met by a bus that usually transfers the big planes. Inside the terminal we received the VIP treatment where the transportation manager met the bus and escorted the two of us to our check in. I don’t think he believed we arrived by CFIGT, a tiny Cardinal and insisted we prove we had Police clearance to be in Chile, I don’t think little Cessna’s are usual terminal traffic!

While waiting for Air Canada to open Lorne watched Barb taxi out and attached is a picture proving she departed in a perfect take off pattern.

It’s been a hoot, we need to go home and plan the next trip. To top this one will take some effort!

Harold

Last leg pictures from Harold

Josh and Morgan toughing it out in Chile in December, Lyndon and Erin hiding out of the picture, were lining up to get the rest of Barb into the pool. The four kids are totally comfortable switching between English and Spanish.
Motorcycle enthusiasts enjoy the winding road (can’t quite see the road in this picture, but I am sure you can imagine it) between the Pacific Ocean and the cliffs along the Peruvian and Chilean coast. Bev Fee I expect your Harley will work OK for that trip.

Canadian hybrid canola being multiplied in Chile, note the Andean mountains in the background. The narrow strip in the middle are male plants, the wide strips are female. After flowering the male plants are mowed to prevent them forming seed.

Hybrid canola field showing i) flood irrigation channels, the fields are flooded 4 days a week, 600 liters/second ii) the honey bees along the edge for transferring the male pollen to the female plants.
While the Peruvian aviation authorities provided a unique flight planning experience testing even Barb’s patience and skills, they are not representative of Peruvian people or their rich cultural history. This picture is included to show the Peruvian people as they are, very positive pleasant people to be with. This is Katia and her accountant Price Water House accounting colleagues; no they are not a group of models.

Pilot’s will recognize this as a down wind take off, unusual but something the tower insisted we do. Good thing Lorne was flying and Barb’s 177 has a CS prop and more HP than our 172.
We rejoined in Pisco, south of Lima. Pisco experienced the earth quake last August with 5000 deaths and major property damage, unfortunately many are left living in tents.

4. Motorcycle enthusiasts enjoy the winding road (can’t quite see the road in this picture) between the Pacific Ocean and the cliffs along the Peruvian and Chilean coast. Bev Fee, I expect your Harley will work OK for that trip.

They made it!!

Hi all,

Well out Ducks made it to Chillan last night about 5 pm local time. I will be posting some more pictures and some stories later this week. Thanks to everyone for watching the trip.

Made it to Chile!!!!!

After two days of poor communication due to lack of access to computers, I finally had a note that our ducks have made it to Chile this afternoon. They arrived in Arica at about 4 pm and will head to Antofagasta tonight.

Best of luck on their last leg.

Hi Everyone

As we had no real idea of when we would be allowed to fly into Peruvian air space and one of my objectives was to visit Katia Hichinose in Lima, I caught a commercial flight to Lima last night. Katia Hichinose was a lions exchange student with us in ’97 and returned for a summer in ’02. This will allow me to spend time with our Peruvian daughter and meet Barb and Lorne in Pisco south of Lima.

The result being less time on the ground for CFIGT and if we drop the planned stop in Lima we should make Chile with fewer airport stops. One does gain an appreciation for the FBO turn around times we are accustomed to.

Harold

1. Katia Hichinose leaving for work as a financial controller for a Houston based petro chemical company

One of many similar views of the Andean mountains

Archeological dig dating to the pre Inca period, ~ 1300 AD or during the Ichmay cultural period, one block from the Hichinose house in suburban Lima.

Leaving Cali Colombia, through a mountain pass

flowers in front of Guayaquil airport

Taken outside of the Guayaquil airport, just to remind those of us from Sask. there are flowers in December.

I think we all fell asleep crossing the Equator, so no pictures of 0 degrees latitude ( Note- we are not all sleeping at the same time!!!!!)

Lorne working up an appetite waiting at the Guayaquil airport

Katia and her mother, after chemotherapy Senora Hichinose has the same hair style as Harold

Ecuador Day 2 %$###@(*&^^%*$* -

Hi All,

Dec.14 - We´ve got a beautiful day for flying but are waiting "patiently" for permission to fly into Peru. I am now on a first name basis with Liliana in Lima as yesterday we called every hour to check on the status of our request, only to be told to call back 40, 50, 60 minutes later. First they asked for further information on my medical, hours later it was for Lorne and Harold. Finally they pointed out that the call letters on my insurance policy were for the plane CFEGT not CFIGT. So a call to Halifax this morning appears to have this straightened out. (The Halifax office was the first one open in Canada this morning).

The only good thing that came about yesterday was when we decided to ship Harold on ahead by commercial airline to visit with his "daughter" Katia in Lima. We got word that he arrived safely and we are happy that at least he can use this down time to visit. our hopes are to meet in Pisco, Peru tomorrow.

Interestingly enough when we arrived at the hotel yesterday evening it had no power, so our $56 rooms were reduced to $46 including breakfast, taxes, internet, supper and free drinks. Would have been great had we been in the mood to celebrate. Rather we opted for a walk along the Malicon, the boardwalk along the river. It was very nice and we were treated to the sounds of a live naval brass band. The 100+ musicians played Spanish songs and a few Spanish Christmas carols which made me very homesick. However we should be in the air soon.

Pictures

1.My boys in Panana

2. Brahmas in Colombia

3. Colombian village in the mountains

4. Ecuador naval band

5. Lorne at the Malicon

6. Ecuador terminal

Sitting ducks

Well it looks like another day was spent in the airport waiting for flight permission from Peru. I have a feeling our ducks are a little frustrated right now. Every time they call Peru to find out if their permission is approved they seem to have to fill out and fax new forms. The last I heard they had been at the airport since early this morning waiting for confirmation.

The ducks have also split up for the time being, Harold has gone ahead by commercial carrier to visit friends, they will meet back up in Lima when Barb and Lorne finally get permission.

I sure hope they have Bacardi 8 in Ecuador, otherwise the co-pilot could be getting cranky.

We wish them better luck tomorrow!!!

Fun computer stuff

Hi all,

For those of you that want to do some more techy stuff to enjoy flying with the lost ducks, here is a fun idea. First you need google earth on your computer - you can download that for free. If you have an older version you can up date it for free as well. After you have this, take the lost ducks coordinates from the tracker page and enter them in Google earth.
Now you can see what the landscape is like and have access to many pictures of the various landmarks along the way. For those of you who are a bit more childlike like I am, you can enter the flight simulator mode(Ctrl-Alt-A) of Google earth and see if you fly as well as the Lost Lucks.

John

December 12, 2007

Hello fellow flyers and friends,

I haven't had to make any comments about the trip so far,but everything is just moving along great, that is if you are a turtle!! Barb is doing a great job of getting us through the incredible amount of paper work and running around. We getup early get to the airport and after a couple of hours of being chased around and letting the dogs sniff through the plane and luggage it's off to the next fuel stop and that is it for the day usually.

We are seeing some incredible country (through the holes in the clouds). We are in Guayaquil Ecuador tonight had a great tour of the city and a huge smorg supper (another great job by Barb). Looking forward to Peru tomorrow if they give us permission at 9A.M. Take care everyone we are thinking of you at home looking after things. PS. We crossed the Equator today!!

Lorne

December 10 & 11th

Passed a very nice day in Panama yesterday, Lorne took us for a tour to the Miraflores locks on the Panama Canal and we watched many boats go through. Then spent an hour at the airport trying to complete some paperwork to speed things up for an early morning departure to get in lots of sunlight hours and a minimum of cloud build up. Still took us 1.5 hours this morning to get all paperwork complete but finally took off for Colombia, which is where we are right now, in Cali, Colombia. If the bureaucracy was bad in Panama it was incredible here. Had hoped to enter Ecuador today, but got held up by the Colombian officials who sent us to no fewer than 10 offices, many of them repeats, three times through security and we still do not have all the paperwork done to fly out in the morning!! Oh well, we have yet to hit Peru which is supposedly worse.

Flying has been good, both plane and co-pilots behaving well!

Pictures:

1. Panama canal, Miraflores locks

2. Colombia search of plane

December 9th, 2007

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday was a wowee kind of day. We were at the airport in Ilopango, El Salvador at 7 Am waiting for the mechanic to check our alternator. Met up with several Guatemalan pilots that spoke fantastic English waiting for starter parts. They suggested that we might have better luck in Guatemala City for parts, etc. They even offered to spend the day with us if we followed them home. But luck was with us as Juan the mechanic found a broken wire and sent us on our way before 9am.

As we travelled along the coast we tried to pick out a few airstrips for our next landing. Saw a couple with promise, along marinas or the water. Met with another Juan, owner of the marina and airstrip in attached photo. Definitely need to return.

Stopped in Liberia, Costa Rica for ice cream, (Ok and fuel), where it cost $173 Colones to land ($0.36 USD) since they had no change we told them to use the change from the dollar to buy a coffee. However for our $0.36 investment we got to fill out migration forms, go through security and spend about an hour running around getting airborne.

Crossing Honduras and Nicaragua was a non event except that I took alot of ribbing from my copilots as the Nicaraguan controller asked for my email address. This was evened out a little as the customs official (female) in Panama took a shine to Harold. Lorne and I think she was a little disappointed that we were here for less than 48hrs. Wowee covered 5 countries in one day.

Pictures:

Yeah, it´s only a broken alternator wire!

Juan´s marina and runway

Potential runways for the next visit 1

Potential runways for the next visit 2

By coincidence as we departed Puebla for Tuxtla, Barb’s route traveled over one of Antonio Bustillo’s pig barns. Below us is the one he refers to as The Canadian Site, which has about 10,000 head of Canadian pigs.

Harold

December 10th

For those of you that have been wondering why the tracker is showing the ducks as being in the middle of the ocean off the coast of Panama since last night.............don't worry. Someone (I was not told who) accidentally unplugged the tracker as they were on their way to the airport. They arrived in Panama safe and sound (although they have a story that they said they would not share willingly). I talked to Barb this morning and it sounds like they wanted to wait until tomorrow at dawn before leaving as the weather is very hot.

Robin I also wanted to let you and all the other Saskatchewanites know that the forecast for tomorrow is 28 C and the wine has just gone on sale for Christmas at 40% off.

Bye for now, I hope to have more stuff from our happy ducks soon.

Hola Amigos,
Surprise!!! we are in San Salvador, El Salvador. Left Tuxla, Mexico at around 10. Headed to Tapachula to clear customs, Harold connected with a pilot of a float helicopter so what do you think Marjie, this might be the new Seawind??

Just a note to all pilot friends, its a good idea to update your GPS before a trip! as although the mountains don't move the airports do! We had a little discrepancy between GPS's as Lorne's new GPS showed Tuxla at 343 miles from Puebla and mine showed 321 miles out. Last years map showed the airport abandoned but did not show the new one 22 miles out. So just a note to be careful.

Latest news is we are in El Salvador because our high voltage indicator light was shining a Christmasy type of red. So we need to get our alternator checked out and have a meeting with a mechanic at 7am tomorrow. Sorry John, it appears that I am buying a new plane part by part.

So far the people here have been exceptionally friendly, many speak English and the official currency here is US dollars. We found a great bread and breakfast and are heading out for supper with a member of the El Salvador flight club. We were offered a ride to the hotel with an 83 year old pilot of a 303 Cessna. Said he always flies with a co-pilot just in case he forgets something. Lorne and Harold suggested that she be a nice young co-pilot, but he admitted that he had forgotten what to do and needed to read a book to remember. He also told us of his coconut groves on three islands just off the coast, that were confiscated by the government years ago. Interesting gentleman.

Pictures:

Here is the fiesta we went to last night.

Lorne flew today and here is the El Salvador landscape.

Bye for now

Special Thanks

The lost Ducks really appreciate Peter Parkinson and the technical people at Guardian Mobility in Ottawa for their efforts to provide us the instructions of “how to fix the fuse” our old tracker and at the same time provide a new unit already programmed and ready to use. Through their efforts we had a replacement unit in Mexico City in less than 24 hours – took a bit longer to get it to Puebla but that’s life.

A second acknowledgment is for Perry Casson, Medstead/Regina who provided us with the tracker in the first place and exchanged many emails and phone calls helping to get it working and fills in the comments and spaces we left blank, as in from Kerrville to Puebla.

Harold, Lorne and Barb

We are not sure Barb wants to send these last two pictures (as am I); they show Barb making sure she gets the tanks full and as you know how happy she is with success!

The first is of a helicopter that goes commercial tuna fishing, an R 22. I’m wondering if this is an alternative to the planned Seawind.

The second one is what happens when one makes an unscheduled stop for fuel (& as it turns out, maybe an alternator) in El Salvador, very friendly people but thank goodness we have a Spanish speaker with us!

How long will we be here? Tomorrow is Sunday.

Harold

Dec. 7, 2007

Hi Everyone,
We are currently in Tuxla, Chiapas, MX. The lost ducks, flying in formation, left Puebla this afternoon, after a smooth 3 hour flight we arrived in Tuxla. We thought we could clear customs here and head for Guatemala first thing in the morning but we should have known that it was not that simple. It turns out that they only have customs officials signs here but not the real people. So looks like we have one more stop in MX before we clear out.

It´s very warm here about 25C. Went out to a restaurant to where there ended up being a show of traditional music and dancing. It was a nice end to the day. Our tracker is back on track. So you can watch our progress. Can you believe it?, Lorne not only fixed the tracker with his handy jack-knife, he also picked out a new car for Frankie. Frankie please send a cheque, because between the car and Ed's plane Lorne is really short of cash.

The pilot crowd will recognize the emblem of the P51 Mustang on Lorne’s T shirt, Lorne and his son Mike flew P51’s in aerobatic formation flying. The photo itself may not be clear enough to identify the plane until attention is drawn to it.

Take care, we miss you all.

Barb, Harold and Lorne

Barb finally gets to puebla

After a few interesting days, Barb has finally made it to Puebla. It seems that yesterday while she was on her way there from Morelia, besides having some bad weather, her artificial horizon decided to take a holiday, so she diverted to Toluca to have it repaired. Meanwhile, Lorne, Harold and Antonio Bustillo tried fixing the tracking device they have been having problems with. It sounds like they had some success as now they show up on the map as being in Mexico, although the flight path looks pretty straight considering the fun they had on the way. Tomorrow the new tracking device will arrive, so they have a spare; and if the weather is good they should be on their way south. If you notice in picture #1 that one of the Canadian planes still has a winter cowl cover on - Harold really must be missing Marje - even his plane is cold at night!!

Harold and Lorne have finally arrived at Puebla. En route they decided to stop and pick up Ed Wiens' new Mooney in Kerrville Texas (Ed, you are supposed to send a cheque right away as the boys are short of cash).

H & L have ordered parts for the tracking system, but are not really sure when they will arrive.

Picture #2 Harold and Lorne with BMH in Puebla, Barb is not there yet as she ran into some bad weather on the way from Morelia, Mx. Sooner or later they should get together!!

Picture #3 Coming into Puebla

Picture #4 Puebla airfield - at last!!! Destination #1 Puebla Mexico field elevation 7352 Lat 19 9 29.32 long 98 22 17.21