Saturday Medical Evacuation

As you all know, I have been working towards transferring my USA commercial pilot license to Tanzania. The last thing I have left before submittal is to log six hours in a US registered aircraft. As it so happens, there is an organization which operates with US registered aircraft named FMS (Flying Medical Services). The plan is to log the hours during their medical evacuation flights.

This Saturday morning, I received a call. There had been an accident near Loliondo and two men had been severely injured. The first sustained broken ribs, a bad fracture just below the knee and a broken foot while the second had broken his arm along with other injuries. They needed a transfer to Arusha as the injuries were beyond the hospital's capabilities.

Upon arriving in Loliondo, we de-fueled the left wing in order to leave some fuel reserves at the airport. We had plenty of help.

The man was in a lot of pain and received a synthetic morphine shot to ease the pain. Besides taking off from a rough, dirt airstrip, the flight back to Arusha was not going to be smooth.

It was a pretty tight fit to put a tall man on a stretcher into the Cessna 206.

As we get further past the rainy season much of Tanzania is getting very dry. As such, there is a fair amount of dust making the visibility quite minimal. It will only get worse until the rains come again. You can just barely make out a mountain top a few miles away at our flight level. Well, maybe not.

Looking straight down you can see something. 

Again, about 5 miles out is another mountain. This one is easier to make out as the visibility was improving. Look just below the layer of clouds on the left and you should be able to make out a boundary where the sky darkens. That is the mountain.

And, after 2.5 hours of flight (seven hours of work) I was back home. Though pretty tired, the day was not over. Carmen and I still had my brother's wedding to attend in Idaho at midnight. Skype is a wonderful thing. 

Please be praying for 3.5 more hours of flight before the end of next week. This is the last thing I need before submitting for my license in Tanzania. It has been a long process and this is the last week I have left.