Volunteer Owner-Pilots Needed For Helene Relief

Roger that, Dan. Reports I’m getting from friends trapped up there confirm this. Even my favorite one-way private grass strip on the top of a mountain near the Blue Ridge Parkway, reports that it’s still pretty soggy, making roll-out dicey, and take-off more so. Furthermore, most of the secondary roads are blocked by tree-falls, land-slides, and bridge wash-outs, so flying to an airstrip is the least of the challenges of getting aid to the area. This is really a job for choppers, but mine doesn’t have the endurance to make the round-trip, or the cargo capacity to be worthwhile.

If you’ve never participated in a disaster relief operation in mountainous terrain, this is probably not the best one to start with.