Most of our missions have been hauling food and water to these towns and outlying communities that have been cut off by road access for weeks. Once we receive the lat/long from FEMA, it’s always a crapshoot if we can get in there or not as she’s a big chopper that needs some room to land and obviously these places have been completely destroyed by the hurricane….so road clearing, tree cutting, and building us the perfect helipad has NOT been priority #1 which is completely understandable. So our tasking then becomes finding an area that is accessible for us to get in safely and sometimes that is a bit tricky with the load we have in the back, power lines that are strung across an area…that should not be there…but Maria decided differently….trees down or barely hanging there, loose tin from roofs, etc! Puerto Rico loves baseball….and so do I, so those baseball diamonds are easy to spot a mile away and are the perfect places to land….but most of the spots we need to get to aren’t in the town….so we have had to get creative. Also many times we will show up to our lat/long and they have it ready to go for us and quickly realize our chopper is way to big to fit in that tiny spot….so we circle for awhile trying to get as close as possible to the location needed. One of our most “creative” LZ’s (landing zones) was a riverbank and after talking to the home owner….not only was she so grateful as they have had nothing for weeks for delivery as their main access road was completely destroyed by a landslide during the hurricane, but what used to be a beautiful sandy beach in front of her home was now nothing more than a rocky, muddy riverbed. Most of these people have lost everything…yet they are so grateful and happy for a case of water and an box of MRE’s (meals ready to eat) which sadly the instructions are written in English not Spanish so they don’t even know how to prepare some of it….interesting that I can get something from Amazon in a box with 15 different languages on it….but we can’t figure out how to put multiple languages inside of the packaging of disaster packages….anyway….stay in my lane I guess!

Some days we don’t get as many missions as we would like as the need here is great but the chain of command usually out ranks the need if you catch my drift… so the “hurry up and wait” mode usually kicks in mid morning which allows for some great aviation watching at the Isla Grande Airport here in Puerto Rico! Usually our days consist of hauling water, food, supplies, dialysis patients to and from the airport, folks around the island surveying the damage, and other passengers to and from other islands…but sometimes we get to do what we do best and do some external loads with the old girl! On this day we hauled generators and supplies out to a remote location, which you get to see in the video. The bottom pictures are of a Gulfstream that cut the corner too early on the taxiway and caused a bit of a ruckus not only at the airport but I’d imagine with their company as they caused some damage to their landing gear getting pulled out of the dirt! At least it gave us all a new focus for a few hours. Enjoy!

It’s been 36 days since Irma hit Puerto Rico and 30 days since Maria destroyed this island and even though 95% of the island is still without power…you would never know it from the smiles and love of the Puerto Rican people.  The hotel that we are currently staying at has power, but immediately once you leave the premises and head to the airport to where the helicopter is parked, there are no traffic lights, it’s a free for all out there….but everyone just makes it work….pieces of debris still lay all over, metal tin peeled back from roofs, chain-linked fences laying down alongside the road which completely blocks one side of the road not allowing an entire lane to be used at all….but everyone just makes it work and you look up and you see new growth on the palms…new growth on the trees that had been ripped down to absolutely nothing….flowers once again making a presence and you realize that slowly but surely, little by little…things are starting to come back to life!

Sometimes you can say there are perks to the job…well, most days riding along in the chopper I would have to say it’s a “perk” but this was a definite one today! Unfortunately it was not under the best circumstances as we are here delivering food, water, and supplies…but our drop site happened to be at the Arecibo Observatory which was an amazing site from the air and an even more fascinating site once we landed.  The folks were so grateful to receive the supplies and once we had a chance to unload, we were able to take around 10 minutes or so and check out the Radio Telescope Observatory by a Engineer from the site.  From its construction in the 1960s until 2011, the Observatory was managed by Cornell University.  You may have seen James Bond at this location in the movie GoldenEye!

Yesterday we took passengers over to St. Thomas for FEMA and they needed around 4 hours on the ground. This was our first trip over to the Island since the hurricane and from a distance, the southwest corner of the Island looked pretty good compared to what we had been seeing on a daily basis from our food and water hauling missions in Puerto Rico. From 500 feet, they had vegetation and trees still standing, so we didn’t think they got hit nearly as bad until we were able to take an open air truck taxi to the northeast corner of the island and see a huge difference. As I mentioned earlier, the passengers needed around 4 hours, so instead of just hanging out at the chopper, we took advantage of being there and took the taxi (which took us around the entire Island for $2 bucks a person and it took around 1.5 hours with many, many stops) and we were able to see it all! Aaron and I have been here so many times on a cruise ship stop…..but obviously this place looks entirely different not having a single shop open for business or around 300 vendors set up waiting for cruise ship passengers. It was also so sad to see such destruction, but according to the locals, they fared way better than Puerto Rico due to their tougher building codes and regulations….so I’d imagine they will be up and running much sooner….and those cruise ships will be back before you know it bringing back lots of business! St. Thomas will be beautiful once again…..

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Many moons ago I started a blog when Aaron and I were down in Cabo living for 5 months as I found it easier for those to follow along with our journey and see what we were up to as sometimes my communication skills weren’t always up to par and I didn’t touch base with those we care about as often as I should. Since our time in Afghanistan, we have pretty much been keeping it on the DL (Davis~Lighter Down Low) so to speak as we got our Real Estate Licenses once we got back stateside and Aaron gave that a go for a few months….but quickly got back in the chopper scene. We both are currently still part of TK Luxury Group, http://www.TKLuxurygroup.com, should you be needing anything in the Phoenix Valley Real Estate area, we have you covered! I have taken a 2 week time out to come and join Aaron with the Hurricane Relief Efforts as he is down here with 3 helicopters providing food, water, medical supplies, hauling people, etc. under FEMA. This island has absolutely been decimated. I can’t begin to explain to you how badly this island looks from the air. I am so grateful that I have been given this chance to come down in person and help out in anyway possible. To be able to go to these outlying communities that have had NOTHING for 3 weeks or so since Hurricane Maria and deliver the first pallet of water or food is something that is indescribable. Helicopters are just cool to begin with (yes I am biased) but to be able to “do great things” with them…..well that’s just the icing on the cake….and for that…I am truly humbled.