From the logbook...Crazy man

Imagine, we had to wait for the weather to improve yesterday before we could launch on our flights. Finally, just after lunch I took off and set a course for what would be my first of 5 stops. There wasn't a whole lot that was unusual about my flight yesterday. The weather was really good in the afternoon, which was great. I could basically "point and shoot," no instrument clearances, no sector specific altitudes, nothing. At last, the weather had broke good enough that you could see for miles across the vast carpet of green Amazon jungle.

Although most of my flight was pretty "normal," I did have a passenger unlike any I had ever had. A few people came by the hangar wanting to know if they could send "grandpa" back to his home village. The man appeared very old, and I assumed they wanted him to be in the homeland as he awaited his death. This isn't what made him an unusual passenger. The fact that he was losing his mind is what made him unique. Despite his old age, there were three young men with him to help control him. I told them I wasn't going to fly him home, he was "to crazy and uncontrollable." They said, " no problem capi, we will just tie up his hands and his feet and then tie them together." I thought to myself that that sounds kind of like the chickens I haul out, except I put them in the belly pod, and don't have to worry about them. After I saw that we could safely tie him up, AND another passenger volunteered to sit next to him and help, I finally consented to hauling him home. As we wheeled him out to the airplane on the stretcher, it became apparent to me how badly this guy stunk. When we lifted him off the stretcher to put him into the airplane, I also realized what else senile people are capable of. He had urinated all over himself and the stretcher, and soon thereafter in his airplane seat.

For being old and senile, the man was VERY strong. It took three of us to fold him into his seat, and I put his seat belt on VERY tight. Because of the technical nature of the airstrip where he was going, I had to drop some weight at another airstrip first before going to Kaiptach. That said, the next hour before I was able to lose some weight at the village of Mashient by dropping off two ladies and their cargo, and then fly to Kaiptach seemed very long. The smell of the poor old man perpetrated the cabin the whole flight. Did I also mention that he was hollering at the top of his lungs the whole time?! I know the two ladies that were sitting in front of him were glad to get off first in Mashient.

After finally getting the poor old guy out of the airplane in Kaiptach, again with the help of three young guys, I went about cleaning up more bodily fluids and we were soon airborne for the remainder of my flight. Because of our late start to the flying day, I made my last landing of the day in Shell shortly before the sun was going behind the Andes. A trip to the bathroom to wash my hands, and then getting my paperwork done, I was soon home to enjoy the last weekend of 2007 with my family.