Thursday, October 15, 2015

Tuesday's Medevac

Here's Tuesday's flight:

Blast-off from Yaounde

Great weather enroute on this leg (1.3 hours)-
You can see Mount Cameroon rising in the distance.

The pickup happened at an airport next to this large Del Monte
Banana plantation- "TIKO" airport
With the patient loaded in the Cessna 207, the clinic workers got out
their cell phones to snap a couple shots with the aircraft.
Next leg was to the mountainous and beautiful NW region of Cameroon.
Our takeoff was at sea level, we cruised at 11,000 feet, and landed at 7,000 feet.
The airport (Mbingo) sits in a "bowl" of mountains.  This is on the "crosswind"
portion of the traffic pattern.  Yes- those are water falls up in the mountains.

In this valley sits the Mbingo Baptist Hospital- where nationals and internationals
come for great medical care.

We landed, taxied to the top of the sloped runway (12% upslope) then
spun it around to prep for takeoff.  This is looking NW'erly out of the end of
the horseshoe/bowl of the valley.
Dennis refuels some Jet A into the Cessna 207 (turbine engine modification) while
a thunderstorm cell passes down the valley.  We already offloaded the patient to
the ambulance- the second time in a week that ambulance
drivers watched me do their job.  Hmm...
Interesting sign at the end of the fenced in airstrip (on the inside).  Apparently they don't want
pilots jumping the fence and getting loose among the community!
(by the way- in NW Cameroon there is an English speaking region)

On the way back to Yaounde, we buzzed by the national soccer stadium where
the "indomitable Lions" play their games.

5 comments:

  1. Not flying out of Libreville anymore Steve?

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  2. Hey Tobey, We're on a one year assignment in Cameroon, just north of Gabon. I still give oversight to that program as well. Our aircraft in Gabon is on track for close to 200 hours of service there, again, this year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fun to see your photos.
    Carolyn in Omaha

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