GA ops into remote places - Curt Lewis video

The Guts and Skill That Make Jungle Pilots Such Fantastic Fliers

It is not easy to land on a machete-cleared strip in the middle of nowhere, but someone's got to do it.

For folks in the far reaches of the Democratic Republic of Congo or Papua, Indonesia, even the most basic interaction with the outside world can be a huge challenge. But where mountains, jungles, and rivers make roads difficult or impossible and entire villages are left isolated, the Mission Aviation Fellowship is devoted to bringing aid by plane, and the pilots who fly them are some of the gutsiest you can find.

Flying small, single-engine planes through remote mountain ranges and valleys and then landing them on extremely short and makeshift airstrips takes a certain kind of disposition and a very specialized skill set, as Chief Training Pilot Brian Shepson explains in this illuminating video by Smarter Every Day (skip to 1:25 to cut to the chase):

Shepson's bits of piloting wisdom include fascinating tidbits like why you should always fly all the way to one side of a valley, and how you can brake as hard as you want on dirt even though you can't on asphalt. And you can tell-from his record and his demeanor-that's just a tiny taste of what this guy knows.

So yes, high-tech fighter pilots are definitely awesome, but don't discount these little prop-powered suckers either, especially when they have such great and ballsy pilots behind the stick.

Source: Smarter Every Day