From the logbook...various

I had one of my biggest flight days yesterday. I had 5.5 hours of flight time and 10 landings. Here is what my "itinerary" looked like...

Flight #1 Shell - Maruramu (MSR) - Shell
Flight #2 Shell - Cusuimi (CUS) - Shell
Flight #3 Shell - Sarayacu (SAR) - Bufeo (BUF) - Montalvo (MNT) - Bufeo - Montalvo - Shell

In order to get it all done, I had to leave earlier than usual. This was just as the sun was coming up as I was getting ready to preflight.

My first stop of MSR had me picking up a government medical team. The early morning light always makes for good pictures. I'm not sure if this little guy was running from his vaccinations or from me!

Second, I flew south near the border of Peru. In CUS I picked up a team of Americans that were doing some work in the community. Because of the size of the team (12 people) and the size of the airstrip (1200 feet with steep approaches) I was only able to get 3 people and some baggage. Another airplane landed just after I did, and we were able to get half of the team out of CUS yesterday. The rest will come out today.

On my third flight, I had an unexpected stop. Originally SAR was not planned when I left the hangar in the morning. Well, things ALWAYS change with the flight plan, and this was my role in it. The large cargo under the orange tarp is a casket with a body in it. I flew this casket and the man's daughter back to their home in SAR. I was hard to see the daughter in such pain, especially since you cannot get away from it in a small airplane. I did my best to comfort her, and 25 minutes after taking off we were in SAR.

From there I went to BUF to get out another government medical team. I had to do "saltos" or jumps from BUF to MNT. Because of the limited size of BUF, and the amount of people and cargo I had to get out of BUF, I had to ferry everything to the larger MNT where I could take off with everything in one attempt, safely.

I have the day off today since I am on call this weekend. Can't say what we are going to do. Sounds like Becca and Brooklyn are getting sick, so we might be homebound. The President of Ecuador is coming to Shell today to visit the mission hospital. I might go ever there later this morning and "play paparazzi." I also got some videos almost ready to post of my flying, maybe later today they will be posted.