DGrant Gibson

Where would you find one of the most perilous air routes in the world? Colombian pilots fly through extreme storms and hot days in 2nd world war Douglas DC-3’s over dense forests to deliver food and goods to villagers isolated from the rest of the world…

Gear up in the wells point is Villavicencio, a city in the foothills of the Andean Cordillera. There destination? Any one of the number of native Indian villages scattered throughout the jungle, cut off from civilisation.

The sound of the plane’s arrival in the villages is a major event. Landing here only once or twice a month, its cargo comprising vegetables, beds, dogs, chicken, TV sets.

But the greatest danger is not storms, mechanical faults or extreme heat, it’s the amazon jungle below. Known as a green hell. A green hell twice the size of Texas. With no space to land in event of an emergency. A thick green vegetation canopy that can hide any indication of an airplane it swallows, with a graveyard of several dozen planes that have vanished into the dense jungle. Runways do not have the luxury of pavement or control towers. Air operations are done the old-fashioned way as it was back in the early days of aviation – on intuition, judgement and experience mixed with a large dash of courage and little room for mistakes.

I have flown the DC-3 and Super DC-3 in adverse environments- diamond mines, isolated arctic communities, Alaska fish hauls into Vancouver, fuel hauls, mushroom flights(which we called the MushRush), mail runs, passenger schedules, etc. I was very fortunate at the age of 13 to 16 years old to fly hundreds of hours as a helper on CF-HBX owned and operated by Hudson Bay Oil and Gas out of Edmonton, Alberta. The captains, Bill Granley and Don Hamilton, were two great pilots who let me sit in the captains seat to learn to fly while the plane was in level flight, even though I could not even see out of the front cockpit window! HBX was always polished to a clear shine and maintained to high specs at all times. It was a rare experience that would last an eventual airline rated pilot, yes me, for a lifetime!

Go view this 25 minute video to get a glimpse of this amazing aircraft and the flight crews that fly them! And remember close to 10,000 DC-3’s were built during the 2nd world war, with very few flying today.

To watch visit Aljazeera HERE to enjoy and appreciate the courage and bravery of these pilots.
Until the next WebLog, GG