How Things Are Going

We have been in the Philippines a few months now. Missionary work is
going fine, but I still have not found any place to rent a plane here
in Laoag. I will probably have to plan a trip down to Clark or
something like that.

General aviation does exist in this country. Several of the more
wealthy individuals and some politicians maintain private airfields on
their estates and they fly both helicopters and small planes. In a
country with a land area about the size of Arizona spread across 7000
islands, flying is often the only practical way to travel. Still, I
have not seen a small plane since I arrived here. The skies are empty.

I already have a list of places I want to photograph from the air: the
rice terraces, some volcanic mountains and lakes, Cape Bojeador and its
lighthouse, and some offshore reefs.

This is the rainy season, so ceilings are frequently low with mountain
obscuration, but there are still plenty of sunny days. Temperature and
humidity are very high. Combined with the salt air, I would guess that
corrosion is a constant problem. I will have to find out how tropical
pilots take care of their aircraft.

I will continue to check back once in awhile just to see what everybody
is up to. If I can't fly the least I can do is read about it -- a poor
second, but better than nothing.

Christopher Campbell
World Famous Flight Instructor

We have been in the Philippines a few months now. Missionary work is
going fine, but I still have not found any place to rent a plane here
in Laoag. I will probably have to plan a trip down to Clark or
something like that.

Good to hear from you, CJ. Glad to hear it's working out well, and I hope
you guys can get some air under your wings, soon...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Congrats on making a dream come true.
The world needs more dreamers because those who succeed give hope to those
who fail and inspiration to those who dare to dream.
Jim

cjcampbell wrote:

We have been in the Philippines a few months now. Missionary work is
going fine, but I still have not found any place to rent a plane here
in Laoag.

The situation in many third world countries is that there are only very
rich and very poor people, and nothing in between. The very rich ones
would never rent anything, they buy what they want. And the poor ones
just can't afford anyting.

Stefan

Chris, there's a guy named Alvin from the Phillipines that regularly
visits the Cherokee chat group. But then, he may be a thousand miles
from you - not sure where he's located.

A flying club, perhaps? Many third world countries have quite nice
ones.

Here's what I found on Google: http://www.flyersphilippines.com/

Unfortunately, it's on a different island. There is a club at Angeles
City (former
Clark Air Base), but it appears to be ultralights only:

http://www.angelescityflyingclub.com/.

I remember staying at a place on the beach near San Fernando La Union
that had
an abandoned runway behind it (still in good shape, but that was about
15 years
ago). It was used by joggers and by local kids for bike riding. What a
waste.

Good Luck

David Johnson

There are a lot of those around. Old WW II fields. You can even find
the remnants of some old planes out in the jungle. The locals know
where they are.

Some of those 'abandoned' runways are not really abandoned, but receive
minimal maintenance.