The mission description from Angel Flight was:
This is an adult cancer patient who will undergo another round of chemotherapy. Other details are withheld at the request of the referrer.
SUBSEQUENT TRIP REQUEST: (19th & 20th Angel Flights)
This is the same passenger that I flew two weeks earlier on Mission 725
I got up at 6:20, this time without any child-assisted alarms, and did the flight planning. As it was going to be another scorcher here in Brisbane (forecast
temperature of 36°C at Archerfield), I called Earth Angel Karon Sheavils before leaving home, to let her know,
that should she be able to drop the passenger off earlier, that would be fine by me. Sure enough, as I was completing my pre-flight at 7:15, Karon and passenger
turned up.
This allowed us to get airborne by 7:25, well ahead of our scheduled departure of 8:00.
It was a clear day, and already 27°C at this time of the day. We quickly climbed through the de-activated Amberly airspace to our cruising altitude of 5000'. Here is was nice and smooth as we enjoyed the bucolic and now verdant scenery slide below the wings as we travelled along at 155kts.
We passed Tarong power station as we started our descent into Kingaroy. An ultra-light aircraft was already in the circuit, giving us the current wind direction, and thus allowing us to track for a straight in final on runway 34.
We landed at 8:08, well ahead of the original estimate of 9:00. Thanks to mobile phones and text messages, the patient's mother and children had been summonsed for our earlier arrival and were (just) waiting for us.
Having wished the passenger a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, I quickly turned around, getting airborne at 8:21, and coasting back through the Amberly
air space to Archerfield, where the tower had opened for business by now.
I was back on the ground just before 9:00 and ready to partake in a hearty breakfast.
With the completion of this mission I have clocked up more than 100 hours of flying for Angel Flight, and have been fortunate enough to make life a little easier for some 55 passengers (comprising 35 individuals some of them three or four times) who have it a lot tougher than I have ever had. Flying the missions end-to-end would have carried me more than half way around the globe.
Has it been worth it? Yes! Would I do it all over again? You betcha!
I am already looking forward to next year.