Runway Inspections

Dear Family,
Today I flew to every runway on this side of the country. I didn't land on every one, but flew over every one.
I left this AM and went to Port and picked up the inspector lady. We left Port about 8:30 AM and flew to Lapan, 25 minutes. The runway was wet, but she approved it. We then left in low ceilings and light rain and flew 8 minutes to Kukalia, which was right on the edge of a major storm. The runway was completely covered in water, several inches of standing water, I was disappointed we couldn't land. Then I climbed above the rain and flew an hour to San Carlos, our main runway we often use for medical evacuations. That runway was muddy, and the village has done nothing to fix it, in spite of a meeting I had with the leaders 3 weeks ago, and the 3 days notice I gave them of the inspector coming. When I landed there 3 weeks ago it covered the plane in mud, and put 3 small nicks in my prop, so I wasn't excited to do that again. I knew for sure the inspector wouldn't approve such a runway, so I just left without landing. That runway is now closed for a couple months. On top of that, I have to pay the inspector another $35 for another inspection! I think I will ask the village to pay that. In January the runway will likely be better and I'll go check it again from the air, that will be the dry season. Anyway, that was disappointing.
I then flew to Tronquera where the inspector approved our runway.  Marilyn had a wonderful lunch ready, and then we went on back to Port. I hardly flew IFR, but there were scattered storms around. Marilyn was able to keep track of them on the Internet and while watching my SPOT track tell me the way around them, quite convenient!
I bought another 20 gallons of gas in Waspam and loaded it into the airplane. I ran into a guy who needed to go to Waspam, he is friend, and so I took him to Waspam and then the 8 minutes back to Tronquera, landing right at sundown.
The little plane ran wonderfully today. The weather was marginal, but the Lord blessed and I was able to make it to every place safely and on schedule.
On the way back from Port, Lapan called with a lady in labor with twins. It was too late to go get her before dark, but I will go there first thing in the morning.
I have already uploaded pictures under Mission Pictures to Picasa. It sure is nice to have Internet, you guys get things in real time!!
Later,
Clint

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Wings Over Nicaragua
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Web: www.wingsovernicaragua.org
Email: hanley@softhome.net