From the logbook...Teachers and Fires

There was a lot of flying going on today. I am still in the observation stage for a few more flights, so that means I am still in the right seat. My first flight was picking up teachers and a doctor from the Sierra. Our flight profiles here are very similar to that of Ecuador, meaning that we fly about 30 minutes out from Oaxaca, fly a few very short legs to all the nearby airstrips, and then return home.

My second flight was hauling around a few guys from the Mexican Forest Service. In the past we have done a lot of flying for them, and it looks like that will continue. They called us this morning wondering if we could take them to verify a forest fire report.

Here we are circling the fire. It was a small one, and it was mostly just burning the underbrush. While flying in the area, the smell of the smoke in the cockpit reminded me of an old mountain cabin with a wood stove. We have had some recent afternoon thundershowers, which is probably what started this fire yesterday due to it's lightning.

A lot of the views from the cockpit remind me of flights over Northern Arizona or western New Mexico. The only difference is the amount of communities. There seems to be a numerous amount of pueblos in these very isolated mountains, which is one of the reasons we are here. If the mountainside isn't populated with little towns, it is usually covered with Ponderosa Pine. The mountains here are very beautiful.