Gettin' Out of Puerto Armuelles

Our last day in Puerto Armuelles was a quick one. We had to check the data from the previous day and fly a quick little 30 minute mission to acquire a few photos. That was all completed pretty quick and by noon the banana workers had cleared the roads so Lucero could make his way back to Panama City with all our gear. We had to bring a little bit of equipment in the helicopter so lean mean me was the lucky one who got to fly to the airport to pick up Mike. I am lighter and the take off out of the refinery was a little confined. This is the flight where I took the footage for The Ultimate Aerial Survey Part 4. So we land at the Puerto Armuelles airport and mike jumps in the back and we are off. Since we were so heavy he had to fly real low down the runway to get enough speed to climb. Some local idiot decided to ride his bike down the runway at the same time and refused to move. We all gave him the "international wave" and we were out of Puerto Armuelles and still alive!

See in Panama they don't have 100 LL gas everywhere so its pretty common for aircraft to use 93 octane premium gas. This causes the engine to burn a little hotter and in return the cylinder head temp reads a little spicey. Not really cool and Thomas was getting a little concerned so we had to land back at the heliport we landed at a few days prior. Pilots do not take any chances when flying. At this point your kinda worried but your not freaking out b/c the pilot isn't suicidal and was in no rush to get back to the City. As we're approaching the heliport the wind was really picking up and there was a nice fire 30 ft from where we landed. Its common to see fires but this was a house fire. So here we are sitting in this 100+ degree helicopter wondering if we are even going to make it back and there is a HUGE fire brewing right next to us. Little intense/awkward.



So Thomas calls his chief mechanic and they both decide its ok to fly back just do it a lower power setting meaning a lower air speed. That's cool, I just wanted to get back and relax in Panama City. So to get out of the heliport with such high winds in the wrong direction I had to be lifted over a few farm fields and dropped off. So here I am surrounded by cows and heat for 10 minutes waiting on Thomas to go pick up Mike so we could take off, it was funny. So the helicopter didn't forget me and I jumped back in and Thomas had enough room to take off. Back in the air, the temp gauge was looking a little better and our minds went to ease as we traveled along.

The first hour was uneventful



Thomas wanted to stop off at a friends place before we landed in Panama City. His friend (i forgot his name) is originally from Canada and had been living in Panama for about a year. He worked in the oil & gas industry and was bought out so I know he had some mula. He lived on a small airstrip about an hour from Panama City. His house was attached to his hanger. We arrive and he comes out to greet us and his lovely wife had tea on a tray, how lovely. He had a pretty sweet plane in his hanger that I guess was really fast. So we set down and chatted it up with his wife and daughter while they went to get gas. They were really interesting people. They had spent two years in Ireland and then decided to move to Panama and were loving it. His wife and him actually lived in Houston for 4 months and they said was "That was an eye opener". Hmmmm... I don't think they are Astros fans! There daughter was about my age and was going along with their parent's experience and loving it as well. Its always fun to meet random people like that on the road.

I just wish I could remember their names!



So we lifted off from there and headed for the beach b/c Thomas wanted to show us some pretty scenes from the ocean. We flew near the Presidents home and there was a huge helicopter sitting outside. The last hour was really nice as we blasted across the beach full throttle to Panama City. As the sunset we arrived back to Panama City and it was a good feeling although it would of been nice to spend a for more days in Puerto Armuelles which would produce a few more good stories.