From the Logbook...Do you see what I see?!

It was an interesting day of flying for me here in Oaxaca, Mexico. I took off soon after I got to the airport this morning only to turn around 7 miles later because I received bad weather reports from the Sierra. After waiting a few hours, the clouds had lifted enough to make the valleys and passes operable and off I went.


This time I was successful in reaching my destinations. Can you see the airstrip that serves the community of El Carrisal in the photo above? If it doesn't jump out at you, look just about in the middle of the picture and there she is! That was my first landing.


Just before my second flight something happened at the airport that we as pilots read about all too often. The picture above isn't that great because it was bumpy and I was trying to get ready to land, talk to the control tower (in Spanish), and focus a camera at the same time. (It doesn't really work) That said, I didn't want to be joining my buddy in the corn field down below so I counted my "losses" and made a greaser of a landing instead.

That is a Cessna 152 being hauled out of the dirt after it lost power on takeoff and crashed. Thankfully everyone walked away. Most times crashes like this result in fire and there is nothing to see afterwards. But, there wasn't any gas in the tanks to fuel the fire, thus the flight school instructor (who doesn't have an instructor's license) and his student just about bought the farm today...literally. Rule #1- Always know your fuel situation!!!