From the logbook

I have been at it again flying a lot. I haven't written much because I have been too tired. I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday, and the first day of March. Today I flew with our instructor pilot Chad to begin my instrument checkout. We have this process to enable our pilots to fly when the weather might be bad. What it enables us to do is safely fly within clouds and be able to navigate to our destination safely and also land the airplane. I have legally had this capability for years in the USA, and from the day I received my license in Ecuador as well. MAF had put a "restriction" on my instrument flying until I flew "X" amount of hours, while learning the weather patterns, terrain, communications in Spanish, etc. I am grateful for this "restriction," because at times the workload has been high enough. Now, I do feel ready to take the next training challenge and begin the checkout to fly in instrument conditions. This process doesn't take as long as the airstrip checkout, of which I am probably %80 done. The remaining %20 of our over 200 airstrips will take some time due to varying factors like location, use, and of course...more experience.

Of my flights today, I pulled many missionaries working in the jungle out so they could attend a conference. Along with these missionaries, I did some more airstrip checkout with Chad, and flew out some critically ill patients totaling 3.5 hours of flight time and 10 landings. The rain and challenges of flying are beginning to return after 4 weeks of dry weather. Good thing I am beginning my instrument checkout!