Angel Flight today

[Steven Barnes]

Whew. Did my second Angel Flight today. 4.4 hours round trip. Flew from KSPI
(Springfield, IL) down to KEVV (Evansville, IN) to pick up pax. Took her
back up to KPIA (Peoria, IL). Got about 30 miles from PIA & was staring at a
wall of grey. Got vectored around that mess for a visual approach in some
rain.
Once on the ground I saw the line of green with quite a bit of yellow that
we circled around. Blech. 15 minutes later, we (co-pilot & I) flew back to
SPI in bright blue sunshine. Looked back over our left shoulder at a nice
white anvil receding in the distance.

2nd leg pilot had his work cut out for him. He had to take her up to
Rochester, MN. Hope they made it ok.

--



PP-ASEL, instrument

[Dan Luke]

Good job.

I find that having satellite weather on board makes Angel Flights a lot
less stressful. You may want to investigate WxWorx or some other
solution to help you miss the rough stuff.

Yesterday I flew the second leg of an AF from Houston to Fairhope, AL.
The first leg was flown by a C-414 who handed me 3 pax and 50 lbs.
(hah!) of luggage that, according to the mission sheet, totaled 530 lbs.
Expecting this load, I had fueled up to only 30 gal. of fuel departing
Baton Rouge. Density altitude was 2,100', so I used the longer runway
for the max. gross takeoff. Takeoff acceleration was noticebly
sluggish, but ROC was ok--500 FPM.

The patient sat in the right front seat so I let her fly the airplane
most of the way to Fairhope. She was thrilled. She has now added
flying lessons to her list of things to get done. It really gives your
heart a tug to see how some of these folks want to pack as much life as
possible into the short time they may have left.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

[StellaStarr]

Dan Luke wrote:
> Good job.
>
> I find that having satellite weather on board makes Angel Flights a lot
> less stressful.
>
> The patient sat in the right front seat so I let her fly the airplane
> most of the way to Fairhope.

Bless you, dear.
And glad you made P'Ville again this year. Hope all worked out after
your trip back home.

Blue skies!

[Dan Luke]

"StellaStarr" wrote:
> Bless you, dear.
> And glad you made P'Ville again this year. Hope all worked out after
> your trip back home.

Fine, thanks. Hated to leave early; by all accounts it was one of the
best ever.

> Blue skies!

You too, Stella. See you next year.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

[jmk]

I flew an Angel Flight a few years back, with a burned child and
mother. The child (probably around 13) had been BADLY BADLY burned.
No nose, no ears, no fingers except for parts of both thumbs, no legs.
Real mess.

I let him sit right seat and we departed for Shriners. Soon he was ALL
questions? What's that for? What does this do? Well, you said the
rudders turned the plane, so why do you need that steering wheel thing?
After a bit I set the autopilot on heading, showed him the altimeter
and said "keep it there." He couldn't grip the yoke, but he could
capture it between his wrists. Frankly, I think he did a better job of
holding altitude than I do!

Strange thing... By the end of the flight, he no longer was this
horribly burned child, but just another kid totally fascinated with a
new discovery.

A flight I won't forget...

[Dan Luke]

"jmk" wrote:
> Strange thing... By the end of the flight, he no longer was this
> horribly burned child, but just another kid totally fascinated with a
> new discovery.
>
> A flight I won't forget...


Wow, I guess not!

Angel Flight will teach you some things about what's really important in
life.

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM