Leg 13: MTCA
Pilot: Bryan K.
I stayed in Haiti for an extra six days. The dedication and passion of Père Yves convinced me to help out, and the United Nations and Canadian International Development Agency were quite happy to have an extra pilot around.
I mostly flew volunteers and officials around in an old and beat-up Twin Otter. Turned out to be quite fun, since I hadn’t flown the Twotter in a long time. All the work it involves made me appreciate the comfort and ease of my C441 even more!!
On Saturday (December 11th, 2004), the commanding officer of the 430th Tactical Helicopter Squadron (Canadian Forces) invited me to board one of their CH-146 Griffon for a humanitarian flight to… Nouvel Espoir! The flight was a blast, and I became quite emotional when I saw Père Yes waiting for us near our landing site.
He quickly explained that Léo had pulled out a miracle landing in his Maule to get them close to the village when they flew in a few days before. The dirt strip they usually used for landing being covered with dead trees and branches, he spotted a clear enough spot on the road that climbed to the village and made “great” use of the tundra wheels installed on his bird. The old priest admitted he closed his eyes for the last 100’.
***
Père Yves explained that most of the people had survived the floods and the desolation that followed. Nouvel Espoir was created as a special project more than 10 years ago, and the dedication of the people still showed. They had managed to salvage all they could, and had been able to rebuild some decent housing. The main project of Nouvel Espoir was a primitive, but highly functional and productive, system of greenhouses. Must of it had been rebuild, and that’s how the habitants had survived and had been able to eat.
Our Griffon was carrying various goods and medicine, and Père Yves was grateful for that. He told me the biggest problem was that many people from outside the community had moved in for food, protection and shelter. The population had now more than tripled since Hurricane Juan.
I stayed there for a few hours, simply amazed by the determination of the people. They were all poor and mostly illiterate, but seemed happy. The priest explained to me that most of them, or their parents, had left the slums of Port-au-Prince a decade ago to help create Nouvel Espoir with him. “And since then, they never went back. Nouvel Espoir did give them a hope and a dignity they had lost in the slums. Here, they have the sentiment they are achieving something. This is what Haiti needs: infrastructures, skills, knowledge. It’s not just a question of throwing money for charity or writing a cheque.”
As the big Griffon lifted off, with the entire community waving goodbye in the huge cloud of dust, I had the feeling I had played a part (although small) in making Nouvel Espoir live on.
***
It was now time to leave. After some recommendations from Andrew, I had paid some trusted locals to keep an eye on my Conquest. Back for another supply run, my new friend Léo had also helped me with some minor maintenance that was needed following my landing on the grass runway last week.
My destination was now the tourist destination of Punta Cana, where many fellow Quebecers go for some sun & fun every winter! And by checking out the weather conditions back home over the past few days, I figured many will be flying here in the next weeks and months.
As for me, I was right on my initial planning schedule. When I left home last month, my plan was to spend Christmas in St-Thomas. That means only 2 more stops on the Six Pack route. So I might only spend the night in Punta Cana, and head for TIST tomorrow, after a quick stop in Puerto Rico. But we’ll see about that once I get there!
This would be a nice 350 nm flight, crossing most of the southern part of the Dominican Republic.
My main concern while doing my flight plan was preparing the takeoff. My Conquest is borderline for STOL, and the runway at Les Cayes is short, bumpy and on grass. With an outside air temperature already close to 30 degrees Celcius at 8:30am, I would need ALL the runway I could find. So I could not loose too much time.
Port-au-Prince Control finally called to okay my flight plan at 9:00am. I quickly proceeded to pre-start checks, with the help of Léo, and was ready to roll ten minutes later. I lined up for runway 8 and advised on the traffic channel my take-off intentions. While pushing has hard as I could on the brakes, I pushed the throttles all the way up and pulled on the yoke to perform a “short/wet” T/O technique
- “Come on big guy, you can do it”, I yelled as the plane roughly hurried down the runway.
With the end of the runway getting closer and closer, the nose started to lift gently, and I rapidly climbed to 7000’, on my way to my cruising altitude of 15 000’.
- “Wow, that was close”, Andrew told me on the traffic channel.
- “You bet! For a few seconds, I was sure I would not make it.”
- “Safe flying my friend and feel free to visit Haiti anytime.”
Weather was perfect while climbing out and, just like when I landed a week ago, I was amazed by all the mountains in this area of Haiti.
After reaching my cruising altitude, I settled in and started monitoring the GPS and the EGT gauges. ATC chatter was minimal, and I quickly began to do some sightseeing. It also hit me this was my first daytime flight alone since leaving Tampa for Miami! A nice break after what can only be qualified as a “tumultuous” few weeks.
Cruising at 15 000’, I was surprised by the savage deforestation of the Haiti mountains. Like many, I had heard that this increasing problem was one of the causes of the massive floods that followed Hurricane Juan. With such a lack of trees, the water just rushed down the mountains to flood valleys and villages. But from this altitude, the magnitude of the devastation was shocking.
While rapidly approaching Port-au-Prince, I flew across the “Canal du Sud” and the “Ile de Gonaves”
Flying over the harbour of Port-au-Prince, I listened to the busy chatter of military and humanitarian flights participating in MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti). I could perceive some extra nervousness on the different frequencies, with tensions still quite high in the region. Some more violence had erupted over the last few days, and the international community was becoming more and more resolved on trying to finally find some permanent solutions.
I then entered the airspace of the Dominican Republic, and was transferred to Santo Domingo Control. Crossing the “Bahia de Neiba” and the “Bahia de Ocoa” and admiring the scenery, I had a special thought for all my friends back home who were shovelling snow again. And to think I still had many flying time to go in the Islands before getting back into a rougher climate!
I don’t know if it was the stress of the events since Tampa that was finally coming out, or simply the idea of all the snow already on the ground back home, but I just started laughing out loud. For one of the first time since leaving KHPN, I really felt like being far from home and that my ATW was really under way.
I then flew close to Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. I was all business from then on, getting my Conquest ready for the approach to Punta Cana. I knew it would be another visual one, and that the cloud base over MDPC was at 2000’ so I would have to be at my best!
At 58 nm from my destination, Santo Domingo Control instructed me to descent to 5000’ while starting vectoring me for a visual approach to runway 9. During my descent, I flew next to MDLR (Casa de Campo International Airport).
Turbulence was moderate while I crossed the low cloud cover, and I got a visual on the Punta Cana hotels (and the airport) rapidly.
I noticed I was approaching a bit high, but after the thrills of Les Cayes, I knew I had a lot of runway to work with!!
There was not a big crowd, and traffic was minimal, so no one witnessed my landing which was a “bit” hard! I exited the runway in a hurry and started taxing towards the GA parking area. I guess I was a bit anxious to park, because I busted the taxing speed limit and was quickly remind about that by the controller!!
At 11:33 local time, I turned off the engines after a nice 1 hour and 22 minutes flight and proceeded to secure my plane for the night. I hitched a ride to town, where I figured I would enjoy the sights and the nightlife before taking off again tomorrow afternoon for Puerto Rico and St-Thomas.
To be continued….