From the logbook...

As stated earlier, today was my first weekend on call. We try to have someone available almost everyday of the year. We fly weekends mostly in case medical emergencies come up. I wasn't at the hangar long this morning before we had an emergency. In a town called Tena (TEN) there was a car accident and one of those involved needed more advanced care, only available in the capital city of Quito. Tena is only about a 20 minute flight north from Shell. I am not approved on the various Quito routes that we have, so my boss Dan came with me to help begin the checkout process of the Quito flying.

En-route to Tena, we barely made it VFR (out of the clouds). When we pulled up to the awaiting ambulance, there were also about 50 other people there waiting with it. I don't know who this person was that was all banged up, but he knew a lot of people. After about 10 minutes on the ground, we loaded up the patient, a doctor, and a family member at set off for Quito.

The flight to Quito would take us back south towards Shell, and then towards the west into the Andes mountains, and then north into Quito. We quickly encountered the same bad weather leaving Tena as we encountered flying to Tena. This time we just went IFR (into the clouds) and continued our climb to Quito. We finally broke out of the clouds at around 12500 ft, after leaving Tena at 1700 ft. The rest of our flight into Quito was VFR and very stunning. Every time I see the Andes from the air, they are just so impressive. All the little farms and villages are absolutely gorgeous.

We were shortly joining the Boeing's and Airbuses in Quito and made a quick landing and taxied to our hangar. The airport ambulance was already waiting to assist with getting the patient to the hospital. They were quickly on their way, and then Dan and I proceeded to get things ready for our return flight home.

As we were getting ready, we heard the buzzer at our hangar gate. It was the police. They were wondering if the patient had showed up yet. We told them yes, he is on his way to the hospital. They were glad to hear this, and unbeknown to us, he was also a criminal of some sort, and the police were going to keep him in supervision.

The return flight to Shell was very pleasant, and we were able to stay VFR the whole time. About 50 minutes after leaving Quito we landed in Shell, whereupon I found out I had another emergency flight waiting for me, this time out in the jungle. Here is a shot of our hangar in Quito. It is very small, and cannot even house an airplane. Three people work there during the week keeping things going for us in the capital city. The airport medical staff are helping us unload the patient in the photo.
What's a Quito flight without a good picture of some big iron. If I have my airplanes right, I think this is the UPS plane that comes in every day, and makes stops all throughout South America before heading back to the States to sort out all the packages. The B-757 has always been one of my favorite aircraft. I'll guarantee you that those pilots didn't work as hard as we did today. Sometimes I wish I could just fly one of those big boys, flip on the autopilot, let the plane do all the work, land on a long runway, and then have a ground crew to do all my grunt work when I land. Ah, that would get boring I suppose, and I would get a beer belly from not sweating anymore.

My second flight entailed hauling a planeload of cargo to Makuma (MAK) and then I hopped over a hill 6 miles away and landed in Kusutka (KSK) to pick up the awaiting patient. The patient was a 1 year old girl leaving with her mom. I don't know what was wrong with the little girl medically, but the doctors form said she had severe diarrhea among other things. Diarrhea is one of the top killers in the world, especially of little people. We take it for granted, and just let time run it's course, or take a swig of Pepto. It is amazing some of the little things that make life so hard for those in the jungle. It served as a good reminder of why we are here.