Back in Hilo

It's been nice to be back in Hilo, even for a short time.

Yesterday, shortly after posting here, I laid down to take a nap. I no sooner started to fall asleep when I got a phone call that we had a patient. So up and dressed I got, and down to the airport I went. I was able to get a few pics of some old agricultural planes that are rotting away next to our aircraft shanty. At first I thought they might be Grumman AgCat's with a Super Cat mod, but they are apparently Emair MA-1B's, a plane developed by the Hawiian Murray company I believe in response to the need to tend to the sugar cane crops more efficiently.

There's three of them, or at least parts of three of them.

All it needs is a GPS and you're good to go...

The only way I found the manufacturer was on a data plate that looked like it was inscribed by a drunk three year old (DON'T JUDGE ME!).

I was a little surprised when I looked at the engine data plate; they use the same engine (although a different derivative) that powered the B17, although the latter needed four of them. I'd love to take one (they're free for the taking!) to make a cutaway-coffee-table with. But I'm not spending a fortune in shipping, truck rental, and tool rental to get it removed and home. Neither do I have the time or resources to actually finish the job. I'd also take a prop for decoration, but can't for the same reasons.

A Wright Cyclone 9 data plate.

Nerd/technical talk alert! This is a Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9, specifically an R-1820-202A (rated to twelve hundred horse I believe ). The B17 used four of the R-1820-97, also rated at twelve hundred horse, though I'm not sure of any further limitations. Also of interesting note; the horsepower rating in the cockpit states they are only rated to nine-hundred horses for five minutes, then six hundred continuously. I'm not sure if the airframe couldn't take the full power or what, since this particular engine model (the -202A) is rated to twelve-hundred horse.

The flight over was pretty normal, till I felt the trim wheel move. Many Kingair captains will fly with their right knee against the trim wheel, this way we can feel when it's moving, in which direction, and for how long. This can come in handy for a few reasons, one of those reason being that we can figure out when something is going on in the back with a patient.

About fifteen minutes out of HNL, I felt the trim wheel rolling forward, as well as the plane moving a little from people walking around and creating a CG change. So I look back, and sure enough, our patient apparently decided this flight was going to be suddenly, and exponentially more interesting as they were coding (aka crashing). What I felt in the trim and CG change was my med crew jumping to their feet to mainline some pharmaceutical into the patient and set things right. I delcared critical, got a direct clearance to the airport and started the descent. And then...it was mostly over and done with, patient stabilized, crew sitting down, just some trash being picked up and patients chart noted.

After landing we got word of a second flight, to Barking Sands. I got a little excited at this one, as it meant I would A) land at one of the few airports I haven't been to out here yet , and B) get to land at my first military airfield.

When we got there, I really wanted to take pictures, but though it might be best not too, just because. This is probably one of the coolest approaches I have done yet; the end of the runway is so close to the water, you almost expect waves to break over the threshold at high tide. Also, something hilarious, I guess the fire department either had nothing to do, or it's just SOP to come to the runway whenever a plane lands, and in either case to then follow the plane like a lost puppy. I was a little worried at first, thinking maybe they knew something we didn't (like maybe we'd spontaneously combust or something), but the Air Force ramp rat seemed to act as if it were normal.

We got back just before I was out of duty time, so we hung out for about thirty minutes waiting for the next pilot to take us all home.

Once back, it was time to go over and see Lilly the gremlin dog before I crashed for the night. At first she barked and growled at me and then, so suddenly it was hilarious, she started whining and trying to jump up and lick my face as she realized who I was.

I'm scheduled to head back to Lihue in the morning. I'm hoping to hit K-hop one last time before I go, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make that happen, as my flight leaves Hilo at six-twenty-three am, so I'd have to be at Ken's no later than about five am. That's gonna be a tough one to pull off. Oh well, at least I got to grab some loco moco with kalua pork this morning.