Angel Flights

mattaxelrod

mattaxelrod

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Mar 11, 2005
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Fanwood, NJ
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Matt
Hi,

Did some searching on the forums and didn't find the specific info I was looking for.

I'm considering applying to become a pilot with Angel Flight East. According to their site, I need access to a plane with at least 4 seats.

Here's what I was wondering:

1. I have a Cherokee with 4 seats, but it ain't comfortable back there and I couldn't lift off with full fuel anyway. Deal breaker?
2. Sometimes a no-go decision is made as I'm literally untying the plane. If I accept a flight, what kind of pressure exists to complete the flight?

Any other useful tidbits that I should know? I believe they email out a mission to all possible pilots and then someone accepts that flight--yes?

Thanks!
Matt
 
mattaxelrod said:
Hi,

Did some searching on the forums and didn't find the specific info I was looking for.

I'm considering applying to become a pilot with Angel Flight East. According to their site, I need access to a plane with at least 4 seats.

Here's what I was wondering:

1. I have a Cherokee with 4 seats, but it ain't comfortable back there and I couldn't lift off with full fuel anyway. Deal breaker?
2. Sometimes a no-go decision is made as I'm literally untying the plane. If I accept a flight, what kind of pressure exists to complete the flight?

Any other useful tidbits that I should know? I believe they email out a mission to all possible pilots and then someone accepts that flight--yes?

Thanks!
Matt
Click to expand...

The 4 seat requirement is not to put 4 people in the aircraft but to ensure that you can take 1-2 people and baggage, altho AFWest puts a 50# limit on baggage. I've yet to take an AFW where the pax only had 50# of bags. I don't even look at requests have have 3 pax flying. It's just not practical.

There is NO pressure to complete the flight. I repeat NO PRESSURE! The #1 Rule for all AF is safety. For AFW, it's explained to the pax that 1) safety is #1 and 2) in case the flight is cancelled, they are expected to have alternate travel plans.

If the pax is pressuring you to complete the flight and you would not be flying if you were alone, get out of the aircraft and call the AF coordinator or your wing leader. Explain to the pax that's it's just not safe, you're not flying a 737.

Another tidbit - also make sure you can get home! I had a flight where the trip with the pax was fine, but as I did the turn-around to come home, the weather got funky (fog, light rain), so I spent a few hours sleeping on the couch at the FBO until it cleared up. If I had been IFR rated at the time, no problems, but I wasn't. AFWest does not require Instrument rating, some of the other AF do. Out here, unless you're on the Pacific coast, IMC all too often means Cumulo Granite.
 
1. If you have a mission you can successfully complete without going outside the plane's operational cpabilities, byu all means, accept it. The passneger will not likely complain. If it is someone who is too large to fit comfortably in the plane, or if the weight of the passenger and any accompanying luggage or people are too great, don't. The mission notices will include any limitations, but AF will generally not accept anyone who is not at least reasonably ambulatory.

2. You and you alone are PIC; if you are at the end of the runway, clearance issued and oil warmed, and decide that the flight is inadvisable, taxi to the ramp, no questions asked, no harm and no foul. The only pressure is for missions to be safe, and a mission canceled when it should, in the pilot's sole discretion, be canceled, is a mission successfully accomplished.
 
If you're in NJ, you'll end up probably joining Angel Flight East, based at Wings (KLOM). They're a good organization. You will need an instrument rating. It seems like a lot of people do Angel Flights in 172s and Cherokees. What happens is you'll get sent a spreadsheet with available missions and that includes number of children, adults, etc. If you find one that you want to do, you accept it (or some leg of it). Pretty straightforward, really.
 
call Angel Flight and ask. The folks here in Massachusetts are very happy to talk about the mission, etc. I would expect the folks in NJ would be the same.
 
Matt, See my PM. Your plane and your ratings are more than sufficient to fly missions for Angel Flight East which is one of the groups that We supported with the FlyBQ.
 
Yeah, you only need to opt for the missions you can handle. If you have something that can lift more than 4, or handle worse-than-average wx, you might get a few more last minute phone calls :)smile:) but your plane is more than acceptable for the average AF mission.

Great experience. I highly recommend it. Nothing feels better than getting these folks where they need to go. They are (almost) always so thankful and all I can say is, it was nothing. For me, I get to fly. Helping people and doing what I love to do most? Priceless.
 
Angel flights are a great thing to do. Carefully review what the mission is and make sure you have the capacity to handle the passengers and luggage. Typically when a small child is involved the luggage is over the top. I have filled my 182 up on several occasions for babies and had plenty of space when I carried 2 or 3 adults.
Know your limitations and those of your plane and don't be afraid to cancel a mission.
Also, be aware that sometimes people lie about their weights. If you feel doubtful about how much someone weighs you can nicely and privately explain the issue with safety of the flight to get an honest answer. I had one passenger list a weight of 210 pounds that was off by over 100 pounds. Fortunately I could still do the mission, but other airplanes might not have been able to.
 
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You just don't volunteer for a mission with more weight/pax than you can handle.

And there's no rule that says you have to have full fuel- May be logical to stop for gas half-way, so long as you have plenty for the required reserve.

You'll get good advice and guidance from AF-East. They're good people.

Usually passengers are both grateful for the ride and extremely considerate. One time, though, my nicely-dressed passengers showed up at the airport ready for their charity flight with about 100 pounds of baggage- for a three-day stay. Their late-model SUV was stuffed with matching gym bags, hanging bags, wheelie-bags, you name it. I laughed at the amassed cargo, and said, "You see how small this airplane is? We simply cannot take that much stuff, legally or safely. Remember the 30# limit AF-Ga mentioned? They meant it, and so do I. I'm going to need about ten minutes to preflight this bird, and I want you to spend that ten minutes paring that load down drastically. You see what we're taking? (I pointed to one carry-on duffel.)That's what I want you to have when you're done. One small carry-on each. Or you can run over to (nearby commercial airport) and see when their next flight that direction is. They whined, sighed, murmured to each other, rolled their eyes. I pointed to my watch and said, "Make that nine minutes. This is not negotiable." :nono: They got busy. But on the return trip they had cut a cartoon out of the paper making fun of my unreasonable demands. It was the only time I've ever had to speak so sternly to a passenger, but it WAS my airplane, after all, and they weren't even going to buy me lunch. Funny- never got a thank you note from those people...:D
That was one funny story, but the number of heart-warming examples of courageous people fighting impossible health battles with no money and little support is much larger. It's a real privilege to fly those folk.
 
The most that I have carried is three pax. Three pax for me has always been two adults and a child. Normally it us only one or two people. It wasn't an issue because I was operating the flights in a 421, 414 or 340. However, if I had to do the flight in a 172 or Cherokee I would have gone with less than full tanks and maybe had to have made a fuel stop.

I have to agree with a previous poster. I am yet to see baggage per person weighing less than 50 each.
 
I did one last weekend. Initially, it was only going to be one woman, so Leslie was going to be my copilot and we were going to go to Lambert's for lunch with the passenger. Then she decided that she wanted to have her sister come with. We ran the numbers, and there was no way to do it until we'd burned off about 3.5 hours of fuel, so Leslie and I went for lunch first. Still allowed us to get both of them in the plane. They only had about 50 lbs of luggage between the two of them, but that's because one of them was only staying overnight.
 
It's easy to say, "Put this, this, and that back in your car. We can only take this much," when you're on the outbound leg. When folks show up with more than you can comfortably haul on the homeward-bound leg, it IS possible to box their excess stuff up and send it home by package delivery service. What is NOT possible is to hope that your airplane will perform adequately when overloaded. Especially on a hot, muggy day. I did have to back out of a flight a while back because my husband decided to go along on the trip, and the pax admitted to weighing 200# plus... each. That plus the optimistic baggage estimate made each leg only an hour long. Not happening.
 
LearDriver said:
I have to agree with a previous poster. I am yet to see baggage per person weighing less than 50 each.
Click to expand...

I have yet to see anybody show up with more than a small duffel. We must pack lighter in the south (warm weather?? Same-day returns??).

I haven't seen anybody answer the question about how missions are distributed. At Angel Flight SC (Grace Flight) we have missions displayed at www.AvailableMissions.org; you can browse these at any time to see available missions and sign up for one. Each night (6pm) I get one email with missions near my home. On RARE occasions (usually going into a 3-day weekend or holiday season) we'll get a mass email describing the missions with the most immediate need to be filled, and asking us to at least email back if we CAN'T take one of the missions, so they can shorten the list of phone calls to make later.

Agree with everybody who has flown the missions--fantastic opportunity. And, if you find somebody who is rude or otherwise uncooperative, you can just choose not to fly that person in the future.
 
The day prior there is contact beteen the volunteer pilot and the party to be transported. My spiel includes: (1) Weight is critical in a small aircraft. (2) Lifeline Pilots lists your stated weights as Xy VX and YZ. That leaves 100 pounds for bags and gear. (3) Everthing, including you, will be weighed before bording. If there is an overweight, something will be left behind in the interests of safety.

It's amazing how the accompanying # of adults sometimes reduces to one!
 
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