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- Jan 25, 2013
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It was going to be another Katrina, but we fixed it, with a lot of Pipers, Barons, Bonanzas, and 182s (and a couple of DC3s).
http://www.wwl.com/articles/pilots-...-harvey-victims-looking-more-help-new-orleans
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2017/september/21/operation-airdrop
I showed up to help these guys on day two. I walked in to find a CFI/cargo pilot friend of mine, a Firefighter/EMS friend of mine (who flies for grins on the weekends), a controller from Love Field friend of theirs, and a guy from the Columbia sportswear company running a volunteer airline with a white board and a magic marker.
I about flipped my lid when I saw them erase a flight after it was verified that the pilot had landed....
NO NO, DO NOT ERASE!
So the first hurdle was getting them a quick database within about 30 minutes before anyone else landed so that we could have an accurate accounting of the number of flights, the number of airplanes, and the amount of cargo hauled.
Disregarding the ones that were lost to the nefarious whiteboard eraser...
283 people volunteered to fly their aircraft to Texas or Florida after the storms, and about 2/3 of those showed up and flew supplies. Over 75% of the people who signed up responded to email, text, or phone call. Most of the ones who didn't show between the 66% and 75% apologized for not being able to make it due to scheduling conflicts or weather, despite not owing anyone anything at all
The total reported mechanical failure loss was less than the pre-buy loss I am looking at in selling my Commander this week (one Cirrus alternator overhaul, two hours of welding on a DC3 exhaust manifold)
Despite the call for people to show up for the weekend after Hurricane Irma, NO ONE who was incapable due to equipment, ratings, or personal limits flew through the storms north of Florida. Our turnout in Florida was very low due to the weather, people obviously check it like they are supposed to.
From knowing these GA aircraft due to being a GA pilot myself, no one lied about their load hauling ability to try and be the hero, the payload capability reported by people signing up to fly was if anything, conservative rather than excessive. The average payload flown in Texas was 463 pounds
There were zero, zip, notta, none pilot-error related incidents to my knowledge. ALL flights that did not end as planned were due to a mechanical issue. And by all, I mean a grand total of three. The third not mentioned above was a particularly well-beaten rental C310 flown by a retired Lt. Colonel and current CFII. Technically it could still be construed as two flights, because the DC3 aborted takeoff on the ground roll with the leaky exhaust, it never left the ground until the manifold was welded back up and checked.
No pilot asked me for money, either above or under the table. A very small amount even asked if we were a 501 charity and could get a tax writeoff. Spending their own money to do this was not a concern expressed by the overwhelming majority of those who volunteered. The closest thing to that commonly asked was whether the FBOs would discount fuel below retail
I suspect that I know more about those 283 pilots than the FAA does because I actually talked to them all
. The safety of the typical GA pilot I think is a much rosier picture than many would have us believe, from my data on them.
End result in Texas: A little under 200 aircraft flew 250,000 pounds of emergency cargo to flooded cities in four days. We got the government and the army past their week one hump, so that they could take over in week two. And they knew it, too. During that week we had the coast guard calling us rather than calling FEMA if they needed something right away. There are lots of examples of our time from request, to source, to transport, to delivery being less than four hours.
Now we have political attention and the corporate world is starting to call so we have to figure out how to put all of these pieces together and keep it going.
All of this was done with no money. When people without airplanes to fly insisted on donating money after the word started to travel about what we were doing, all of it was spent on supplies that were given away for free. The first aviation related company to step up and help was FlightAware, when we told them what we were doing they gave us a corporate level account on the spot and helped us set up tracking via their API, so thanks goes to them firstly. On the government side, Houston Center and the Houston FSDO got us a call sign to use to get through the emergency TFRs very quickly, so they deserve some thanks as well. After the ball got rolling others started to pitch in (Target and Walmart on the retail side, in particular).
As of yesterday, word is out that Major League Baseball is pitching in the money to pay the cost to fly a DC8 between Florida and Puerto Rico. That originated with us talking to the Texas Rangers management back home in Dallas.
tl;dr: general aviation is useful after all?
http://www.wwl.com/articles/pilots-...-harvey-victims-looking-more-help-new-orleans
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2017/september/21/operation-airdrop
I showed up to help these guys on day two. I walked in to find a CFI/cargo pilot friend of mine, a Firefighter/EMS friend of mine (who flies for grins on the weekends), a controller from Love Field friend of theirs, and a guy from the Columbia sportswear company running a volunteer airline with a white board and a magic marker.
I about flipped my lid when I saw them erase a flight after it was verified that the pilot had landed....
NO NO, DO NOT ERASE!
So the first hurdle was getting them a quick database within about 30 minutes before anyone else landed so that we could have an accurate accounting of the number of flights, the number of airplanes, and the amount of cargo hauled.
Disregarding the ones that were lost to the nefarious whiteboard eraser...
283 people volunteered to fly their aircraft to Texas or Florida after the storms, and about 2/3 of those showed up and flew supplies. Over 75% of the people who signed up responded to email, text, or phone call. Most of the ones who didn't show between the 66% and 75% apologized for not being able to make it due to scheduling conflicts or weather, despite not owing anyone anything at all
The total reported mechanical failure loss was less than the pre-buy loss I am looking at in selling my Commander this week (one Cirrus alternator overhaul, two hours of welding on a DC3 exhaust manifold)
Despite the call for people to show up for the weekend after Hurricane Irma, NO ONE who was incapable due to equipment, ratings, or personal limits flew through the storms north of Florida. Our turnout in Florida was very low due to the weather, people obviously check it like they are supposed to.
From knowing these GA aircraft due to being a GA pilot myself, no one lied about their load hauling ability to try and be the hero, the payload capability reported by people signing up to fly was if anything, conservative rather than excessive. The average payload flown in Texas was 463 pounds
There were zero, zip, notta, none pilot-error related incidents to my knowledge. ALL flights that did not end as planned were due to a mechanical issue. And by all, I mean a grand total of three. The third not mentioned above was a particularly well-beaten rental C310 flown by a retired Lt. Colonel and current CFII. Technically it could still be construed as two flights, because the DC3 aborted takeoff on the ground roll with the leaky exhaust, it never left the ground until the manifold was welded back up and checked.
No pilot asked me for money, either above or under the table. A very small amount even asked if we were a 501 charity and could get a tax writeoff. Spending their own money to do this was not a concern expressed by the overwhelming majority of those who volunteered. The closest thing to that commonly asked was whether the FBOs would discount fuel below retail
I suspect that I know more about those 283 pilots than the FAA does because I actually talked to them all
. The safety of the typical GA pilot I think is a much rosier picture than many would have us believe, from my data on them.End result in Texas: A little under 200 aircraft flew 250,000 pounds of emergency cargo to flooded cities in four days. We got the government and the army past their week one hump, so that they could take over in week two. And they knew it, too. During that week we had the coast guard calling us rather than calling FEMA if they needed something right away. There are lots of examples of our time from request, to source, to transport, to delivery being less than four hours.
Now we have political attention and the corporate world is starting to call so we have to figure out how to put all of these pieces together and keep it going.
All of this was done with no money. When people without airplanes to fly insisted on donating money after the word started to travel about what we were doing, all of it was spent on supplies that were given away for free. The first aviation related company to step up and help was FlightAware, when we told them what we were doing they gave us a corporate level account on the spot and helped us set up tracking via their API, so thanks goes to them firstly. On the government side, Houston Center and the Houston FSDO got us a call sign to use to get through the emergency TFRs very quickly, so they deserve some thanks as well. After the ball got rolling others started to pitch in (Target and Walmart on the retail side, in particular).
As of yesterday, word is out that Major League Baseball is pitching in the money to pay the cost to fly a DC8 between Florida and Puerto Rico. That originated with us talking to the Texas Rangers management back home in Dallas.
tl;dr: general aviation is useful after all?
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