Wings Over Nicaragua Mission
Pilot information
Here is our runway Our runway is mixed grass and gravel. It is 3700 feet long, with a hill on one end about 150 feet tall. Temperatures here range into the low 90's at the hottest, but the runway is long enough to depart with a full load. The reason we like this place is the central location. We are 1 mile from the main road running from Puerto Cabezas to Waspam (about 100 miles apart via road). We can reach most of the upper and lower reaches of the Rio Coco within 30 minutes flight. We are able to take patients out of remote areas and deliver them to either Puerto Cabezas or Waspam.
Here is another picture of the
runwayThis runway was built in the 1960's by the American's, who ran a stump plant here in Tronquera that extracted turpentine and 5 other chemicals from the pine tree roots.
As you can see, it took quite a bit of work to clear it and pull out the stumps. The form of the land needed very little work, but it took a lot of work to get it ready to use after 30 years of neglect.
It took quite a few months of work to get the runway ready. At the time I was cutting trees and pulling out stumps in the hot tropical weather, I had no plane and no idea where a plane could come from. The Lord always provides in His time.
I flew the plane down for the first time to Nicaragua in March, 2008.
You can read the pilots version of the trip at:
Pilot Account of Ferry Trip
The everyday version is in Newsletters and click on Plane Ferry Trip
Pilot Account of Ferry Trip
The everyday version is in Newsletters and click on Plane Ferry Trip
