Jan 3

I got to do a little flying in the last few weeks, but not much. I got to do the first flight in "Alas 10" after the engine was changed out. That entailed going up with Fred Schmidt, my instructor and I handled the controls while he wrote down all the numbers for about an hour.

I then flew some strictly training flights with Fred. We flew up some valleys to practice "Terrain Flying". That essentially means flying safely when manuevering in valleys and other mountanous territory.

Today, Fred and I flew into a community called Kapawi to take some health department workers who specialize in Malaria prevention and treatement. Learn more about Kapawi by clicking on this link. See a Google Map of the area by clicking on this link. You can barely make out the airstrip if you zoom in. We then flew to a community called Numbaimi to pick up a passenger returning to Shell. Our next stop was to pick up another snake bite patient in Kuankua. The lady had been bitten earlier in the morning and was convulsing and mostly unconsious when we arrived. Fortunately, we were able to radio ahead for an ambulance was waiting to take her to the hospital.

The Ecuadorian government pays for all the type of flights that I did today and it is really neat to see, despite all its shortfalls, how they take care of the people living in the jungle by providing for these types of flights.