Wilderness First Aid and Survival

Here is the 4th year class and instructors upon the completion of their Advanced Wilderness First Aid course.  They all did a marvelous job learning skills none of us ever want to use.

We had a week of intensive study punctuated by hands on scenarios.

Yup, nothing inside, just as I suspected

Wound cleaning practice with the help of some pigs

He is not going anywhere

Practicing extracting injured people from an aircraft

Shelter building

To build a fire 

Orienteering

Off to the rescue

Working on the evacuation

Almost to the extraction point

 

While we had a lot of fun in the woods, it was a lot of work and a scary reminder of how dangerous our work is.  I wish I could show more pictures but much of the final scenario we keep secret for the next classes.  

Silly Kids

Visit to MAF

At the MAF headquarters in Nampa, there is a display of what remains of Nate Saint's Piper PA-14.  During our visit, the students had the opportunity to see this piece of mission aviation history and reflect on the sacrifices of the 5 men killed on the beach in 1956.  There are several books and movies about the story:

Jungle Pilot

End of the Spear

Beyond the Gates of Splendor

Saving Lives

Now that everyone is CPR and AED certified we head out into the wilderness for next weeks advanced first aid and survival training.  This training equips the students with the necessary skills to survive after a crash or take care of people in very remote places often improvising medical care.

Mission Aviation Fellowship

While the weather transitions into spring, we took the opportunity to make a road trip to MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) headquarters in Nampa Idaho.  The folks at Mcdonalds had a hard time understanding how 22 Pilots could be making a road trip...  Nevertheless, we had a good time meeting MAF missionaries and exposing the students to one of the potential mission aviation organizations they could serve with.  Up next,Wilderness First Aid and survival training for that undesirable off airport "landing"...

A&P Program

Down the airport a few hangars, we are almost finished with renovating an old WWII hangar to be used for our maintenance training facility.  It has come a very long ways from where it started and will house the training for years 2 and 3 of the students Airframe and Powerplant training. I will try and get some before pictures when it is finished for comparison.

Moon

Just amazing to see somtimes

Sick

It is no fun to be sick

Number 3 on the way

Hopefully she will sleep just as well...

Back to the Crank

We are starting off on a new semester.  All of my students completed their Private Pilot license and all on the first attempt.  In this new semester, we will transition to flying faster more complex aircraft like what is being used in mission work overseas.  We will be getting into mountainous terrain and develop more precise control of the aircraft.

Meanwhile at work

At the moment I have a few more days before Christmas to prepare for the next semester by flying the higher performance aircraft and writing lectures for the upcoming classes.

I have also become the resident logo guy as we look to refresh our image

 Occasionally, I get to see my favorite visitors

 Then it is back to the skies for lessons surrounded by some fantastic scenery

Quick recap of November into December

During the month, I did as much flying as possible with countless more hours on the ground reviewing procedures and prepping students for their big tests.  The time spent away from work was equally exciting spent with the family doing Pumpkin Chunkin,

  building gingerbread houses,

  swimming lessons

making snowmen,

 snow angels

 cookies,

and playing in the snow together. 

November went fast

Between getting the students finished with Private Pilot and Thanksgiving, November was a real blur.

Students

Sometimes they challenge me

But I win in the end

and yes, it is still that stressful

Weather

Knobs and buttons

Clouds

Rain

The view from my terrestrial office