From the Logbook...A New Kind of Stuck

Shortly after I awoke today (Saturday, my time) I was informed there was a patient that needed picked up about 20 minutes north of PalangkaRaya.  Being that I am on call this weekend, I liked the idea of having a quick "out and back" flight while still helping someone that truly needed it.  

I had never been to this village before and  I was told to go two villages upstream from Goha, a village I do know the location of. That sounds easier than it was because I landed in the wrong village first.  I knew it was the wrong village but I decided to stop for directions.  As I slowly taxied in the middle of the river looking for a place to dock, my airplane slowly came to a stop.  I had run aground on a sandbar left by gold miners. (see this post and this post for some other times when I got an airplane stuck)   I thought I was in a deep part of the river because some people were swimming in front of me...and then they stood up...and then I stopped.  So, I shut the engine off and had a nice chat with the community in the middle of the river.  They told me the community I was looking for was one village downstream and then helped me push the airplane back into the deep part of the river.  Shortly after taking off, I found the correct village and landed uneventfully.  I'm glad I wore my shorts today!

I was happily received in the village and ended up waiting about 30 minutes while they prepped the patient to be brought to the airplane.  These kids had just finished school for the day.  School is Monday thru Saturday in Indonesia.  Poor kids.

This is one of the women that was gathered around watching all the activity this morning.    She couldn't speak Indonesian...only a local language called Dayak. 

Another village woman seen just watching the sights.  Having an airplane land in your village can be exciting.

I left "Charlie Brown" for a little bit while I went to see if I could help out at the patient's house.  There wasn't much I could do but just chat with the villagers and wait for the patient to be brought to the airplane.

About 30 minutes after I arrived she was finally carried to the airplane.  Supposedly she hadn't been able to eat in days and was complaining of her head really hurting.  It really appeared she was in agony and I was grateful to be able to help her.  Twenty minutes after taking off we landed in PalangkaRaya and she was driven straight to the hospital.